A new journey begins

I have to skip my update for the trip to Korea first because I do not have much time as I've entered IPG last week. So, I'm up for a new journey that will take a duration of five and a half years. As of a week ago, I am officially a student at a learning institution called Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Gaya located not far from Kota Kinabalu. I am majoring in Teaching English as Second Languange or its acronym -TESL. My minor subject is yet to be known tomorrow.

Us freshies had our orientation for four days after we registered. The orientation is known as Minggu Pengenalan Pelajar Baharu (MPPB). The seniors conducted it for us and we had activities according to the schedule given. Among them were talks by the lecturers, group presentations, recreational activities, games, learned the official songs, sharings and discussions on various topics, and we had Malam Kebudayaan during the last night of orientation where my group performed Dikir Barat, a traditional Malay dance and singing originated from Terengganu. It was indeed a tough week yet another experience that I am very much grateful of.

During my stay at the hostel, I became closely knit with two beautiful people, one whom I've already known and she's also a friend's big sister, Nicole Michael and a new friend, Tara Nicole Robert. We were together most of the time (shower is an exception) - eat, giggle, gossip etc...and we even slept next to each other in a room of ten people. The three of us decided that after the orientation we will not be staying at the hostel since our respective houses is not that far from the campus.

Back to my stay there, I encountered new surroundings as I was in an all girls school for exactly eleven years and that was since my primary days. Now there are male students everywhere as well and in some way I still feel a bit funny because now being decent does matter unlike before, my friends and I and all the girls in the school, we do almost everything very loudly..well, the Convent girls do. Ha..ha... Aside from that, I met people of various backgrounds and walks of life and again, tolerance is very crucial. There are people's nature that we just must get used to regardless you like it, or not.

By far, I am enjoying it at the institute as the lecturers and seniors are all very helpful and approachable, and I am anticipating lots of fun activities that are going to come up. Tomorrow I will assemble together with all the batches and I am a bit nervous though, that is why I hate first times! and will also be attending my first tutorial and classes.

To sum them all up, I just feel honoured to be part of this institution and I couldn't care less what everyone else had to say with me being a teacher in the future, that this job is boring and unglamourous. I feel these opinions are very shallow and old. I am making this clear not because I am trying to act out of annoyance, but there are those opinions that passed through my ears which I am not very pleased with but time will tell. I very much believe that this place will bring out the best of my potentials and to my fellow TESLians and future educators, let's contemplate on this quote - "A teacher affects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops". God bless us all. Have a blessed Sunday!