Reminiscing...

1st Semester

"I love Mondays. I didn't have any classes on Monday. Everyone I know would be slightly irritated on Sundays because they realised they have not finished the tutorial paper they were supposed to submit the coming week and they hated the idea of having to rush when copying the answers from other students. Me? Of course, i would finish up my tutorial questions to prepare for the week ahead. But there was no pressure. After all, I lazed in the bed till 12 noon on Mondays. And not having school on Mondays bought me extra time to finish my homework."

2nd Semester

"We had a fight, over a relatively small matter. I was mad and teared a little. A, my housemate, walked into my room and queried me on the somewhat swollen eyes. I told him what had happened earlier. He tried to cheer me up, saying I shouldn't be crying two hours before my birthday. A left my room promptly after.

I turned off the lights and intended to head to bed at 1am, so as to get enough sleep for the lecture early next morning. W, the other housemate, began to pound madly on my door, telling me that I shouldn't be sleeping so "early". After all, we were students and must lead the rightful lifestyle of going to bed only at 3am (despite a morning lecture at 8am) and wake up the next morning only to curse and swear about having to wake up early and finally deciding to keep ourselves warm under the blanket instead of setting off for school. So I opened the door and W, with some boys, invited themselves into my room and settled comfortably on my bed. We chatted for a long while. I didn't even realised that W had stepped out of the room. Suddenly, W came running in, "oh no! oh no! Our kitchen is on fire!"

I had the shock of my life. Fire? Does our rent insurance cover this? How much is the excess do we have to fork out? How did the fire start? The electric stove couldn't be the culprit. So what caused it?

As i ran into the hallway leading into the dining room, I saw some lights coming from the dining table. A few of the boys, including M, my former housemate, had gathered around the table. There was a cake on it, and the light came from the candles on the cake. Then the boys proceeded to sing me a birthday song =) Apparently, the boys were trying to cheer me up, seeing how upset I was after the arguement with then-bf earlier on. M, drove all the way to a bakery at Milton, at 1am, to try his luck on finding an egg tart, as he didn't think it was possible to find a cake at that time. Well, luck was on his side. And on mine too, to actually have the sweetest housemates ever."

3rd Semester

"On Mondays, I finished classes at 6pm. On my way home, I would walk past Macquarie Street and pass by 4-girls' apartment. They've picked up the habit of inviting my housemates and I over for dinner every Monday when I didn't have enough time to make dinner. I do the same for them on Fridays.

So on every Monday, I would pop over for dinner. Usually by the time I arrived, K, my housemate, would already be fishing for our catch at the river by the apartment. I would then help out in the cooking, and when all dishes are ready, I would go over to the balcony and shout for K to come up. He would then bring his catch up, and have it cleaned, so that I turn it into a edible dish for everyone."

"Everyone was busy, except the 4-girls. After all, they had offered to cook (just) rice, for the pot-luck party. Reason being, they deemed their cooking skills not good enough for anyone not living in their apartment. I contributed with my (or rather my mom's) famous Coke Chicken. After the dinner, I took out my cigarettes from my bag and headed outside to have my dessert-smoke. T, followed closely behind. We didn't know each other well then. We were smoking along the corridor, chatting about the repairs for his car which was sandwiched in between two other cars the day before. B, came out of the apartment to join in the chat. After a while, B decided to head back into the apartment cos it was getting too cold to be standing outside bare-footed when he suddenly remembered that he had not thanked me for the green bean soup that I had prepared for them the week earlier. He began to thank me profusely and complimented on how well done it was. As I turned back towards T, he shot me a look which sent some butterflies into my stomach. "Hmm .... green bean soup ...." Then he smiled. I will never forget that look."

*************************

I miss being a student.

I miss my friends.

I miss Australia.

The end.



By the way, T, in the last passage, eventually turned out to be the person I will be walking down the aisle with, in another six months. So it turned out well =)