When I first arrived in the USA, to do my degree, there were only 9 of us. Siapa eh? Rohaimi, Aziz Mahmud, Benzin, Bahardin, Fauzi Mansor, Myself, Maheran, Hawa and Supiah. We were the first undergrads batch sponsored by M'sian Govt. All of us fresh from high school arrived after Miami was hit by Hurricane David if I am not mistaken. When we arrived at the airport, it was already nighttime, if I remember correctly, after 9pm. I called the university contact number given by the Ministry staff who sent us off at KL. To no avail, there was no answer. All of us having traveled from KL Subang, then to London Gatwick/Heathrow, and then to New York (forgot which airport) and then another connecting flight to Miami, all in all over 30 hours travelling. All lepak (flat out). Dah lah tu dalam flight from London to Miami tak makan apa pun, tired and hungry. Back to Miami airport, finally an old lady helped us and advised us to stay at one Holiday Inn hotel, and she called a cab to bring us to the hotel. The cab brought us to this hotel, and at last we managed to take our shower, rest and got some sleep. The next morning when we woke up, we suddenly realized that the Holiday Inn is in Coral Gables, just across I95 was the University of Miami. We contacted the International Office and finally we arrived at the office, and the next thing we know was we got our dormitory placement, our class schedule (we came one week late after classes has started but arrangements was done for subject registration, etc) and the next thing I know I was already in classes the next morning with Engineering Drawing, Prof. Mariem (forgot the name). I was put in Eaton Hall together with Fauzi. I took 5 subjects - chem, calculus 1, drawing, static, intro to basic programming i think. That was in Fall Semester 1979 -.... pheew that is long time ago. almost 30 years ago.
I think university life in USA - first, we got to do so many things, we have this Malaysian Students Association, in which I was President for one year,and the next year the Vice President (a senior Syed Sheikh Al Habshi ex-ITM became President). We organized dinners, gathering for new students, raya, we put up a 'Malaysian food sale - satay also available' and 'sepak takraw display' during the International week. The Malaysian volleyball team in which I also played entered the university tournament but we managed to enter only secong round.
America is such a big country, and traveling is fun and easy. The highway is free, that's why they call it freeway. We managed to travel from Miami to Los Angeles by car and went up to San Francisco, and through the Midwest till Illinois, and back to Miami. It took us, I don't know, I forgot, 12 days all in all. It was exciting , and you know, every signboard that we can find such "welcome to Mexico" or "University of ...' we will stop to take a picture. It was great. I will continue when time permits.
Showing posts with label life experiences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life experiences. Show all posts
Monday, May 25, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Japan
After finishing my degree from Miami USA, I came back to Malaysia. Many of the people I met will always tell me "Best lah Miami". Well, it is a holiday destination but if you are thinkingabout the beach it is actually quite far (at least to us students at that time) about 30 miles from our campus. We only get to go to the beach after examinations. I am not going to talk about Miami, but my experience in visiting and living in Japan.
The return flight to Malaysia from Miami, Los Angeles took us to Narita airport near Tokyo. That was in May 1983. Our group had to stopover in Tokyo, and it was such an experience. First, I find the people don't speak English, they are very polite people. I remembered bila nak makan kat restaurant kat situ kena draw ikan.. nak draw benda lain takut nanti entah apa dia bagi makan. So the best bet is to eat fish. The next day bus was arranged to bring us to Airport. One more thing I remembered was that the airport was heavily guarded by army all around the perimeter of the airport. I know that it was a new airport built on rice field and the farmers were protesting to the opening of this new airport. Anyway, the fear is there when you are on foreign land. Next day reach KL , home sweet home. But, I fell in love with Japan from that short stopover. I told myself may be if I have chance I will go to Japan or stay there.
In between May and Spetember 1983, I was contemplating of either going to Japan under the Malaysian National Car Project training at Mitsubishi Motors Corporation with the order to report to Kementerian Pelajaran for appointment as Polytechnic Lecturer, the sponsor for my studies. I told myself that I want to practice first as engineer. So, I broke the contract and 'kena saman dengan KP'. In the meantime, I was also applying for Penolong Pensyarah at UTM, I was interviewed by Tan Sri Ainuddin Wahid. I got the job but I did not get KP release. Or the release came a bit too late, in fact one week after I left for Osaka, Japan. My mom called me and asked me to come back. I didn't want to since I was already in Japan starting to learn Japanese and enjoying the new language and the new country. It was early October 1983. I decided to continue with Japan and Proton, which is my first employer. Pergi Jepun kena sign contract 5 tahun ooh. I still remember, asking Kakak Rozlina who was taking care of us P2 trainees (13 of us) to go to Japan. Nak sign ke contract .. finally sign jugak. So Japan here I come.
The first 6 weeks was spent on studying Nihon Go. Mainichi Nihon Go O Benkyo shimasu. Taihen Muzukahi saisho ni, Mainichi sanju no tango o oboimashita. shiken mo maininchi ga arimasu. sore wa taihen ne. Shikashi Ganbattemasu. Issyokenme yarimasu. Sore o Nihon no kangae-kata. (Translation - Enam minggu pertama belajar Nihon Go -bahasa Jepun. Tiap hari belajar bahasa Jepun. Susah betul mula-mula. Tiap hari 30 perkataan kena hafal, ujian pun tiap hari, itu yang sakit tu, Tetapi Cekal dan Usaha. Buat dengan sungguh-sungguh. Itu lah cara fikir Jepun)
After that we were sent to Mitsubishi Mizushima, terus ke dalam kilang kereta dan memang belajar buat kereta dari A sampai (hampir) Z. Macam orang gila, belajar buat kereta dalam bahasa Jepun dalam masa satu tahun. Inilah pet project Mahathir. Me and my friend Aris in Body Assembling / welding had to learn as fast as possible all the things so that when we go back we can transfer that knowledge to our Malaysian workers through training, education and operations.
Japan is such a wonderful country, except may be for some of its problems like suicide. Well, tell me if there is a country with no problems. I just admire the people. They have values which are 'very Islamic' yet they are not Muslims. We are Muslims but we have 'non Islamic values'. I think Hassan Al Banna saw this same phenomena in foreign country he visited or studied. Lessons learnt is to learn and pick up values from different cultures. Wallahu 'alam
The return flight to Malaysia from Miami, Los Angeles took us to Narita airport near Tokyo. That was in May 1983. Our group had to stopover in Tokyo, and it was such an experience. First, I find the people don't speak English, they are very polite people. I remembered bila nak makan kat restaurant kat situ kena draw ikan.. nak draw benda lain takut nanti entah apa dia bagi makan. So the best bet is to eat fish. The next day bus was arranged to bring us to Airport. One more thing I remembered was that the airport was heavily guarded by army all around the perimeter of the airport. I know that it was a new airport built on rice field and the farmers were protesting to the opening of this new airport. Anyway, the fear is there when you are on foreign land. Next day reach KL , home sweet home. But, I fell in love with Japan from that short stopover. I told myself may be if I have chance I will go to Japan or stay there.
In between May and Spetember 1983, I was contemplating of either going to Japan under the Malaysian National Car Project training at Mitsubishi Motors Corporation with the order to report to Kementerian Pelajaran for appointment as Polytechnic Lecturer, the sponsor for my studies. I told myself that I want to practice first as engineer. So, I broke the contract and 'kena saman dengan KP'. In the meantime, I was also applying for Penolong Pensyarah at UTM, I was interviewed by Tan Sri Ainuddin Wahid. I got the job but I did not get KP release. Or the release came a bit too late, in fact one week after I left for Osaka, Japan. My mom called me and asked me to come back. I didn't want to since I was already in Japan starting to learn Japanese and enjoying the new language and the new country. It was early October 1983. I decided to continue with Japan and Proton, which is my first employer. Pergi Jepun kena sign contract 5 tahun ooh. I still remember, asking Kakak Rozlina who was taking care of us P2 trainees (13 of us) to go to Japan. Nak sign ke contract .. finally sign jugak. So Japan here I come.
The first 6 weeks was spent on studying Nihon Go. Mainichi Nihon Go O Benkyo shimasu. Taihen Muzukahi saisho ni, Mainichi sanju no tango o oboimashita. shiken mo maininchi ga arimasu. sore wa taihen ne. Shikashi Ganbattemasu. Issyokenme yarimasu. Sore o Nihon no kangae-kata. (Translation - Enam minggu pertama belajar Nihon Go -bahasa Jepun. Tiap hari belajar bahasa Jepun. Susah betul mula-mula. Tiap hari 30 perkataan kena hafal, ujian pun tiap hari, itu yang sakit tu, Tetapi Cekal dan Usaha. Buat dengan sungguh-sungguh. Itu lah cara fikir Jepun)
After that we were sent to Mitsubishi Mizushima, terus ke dalam kilang kereta dan memang belajar buat kereta dari A sampai (hampir) Z. Macam orang gila, belajar buat kereta dalam bahasa Jepun dalam masa satu tahun. Inilah pet project Mahathir. Me and my friend Aris in Body Assembling / welding had to learn as fast as possible all the things so that when we go back we can transfer that knowledge to our Malaysian workers through training, education and operations.
Japan is such a wonderful country, except may be for some of its problems like suicide. Well, tell me if there is a country with no problems. I just admire the people. They have values which are 'very Islamic' yet they are not Muslims. We are Muslims but we have 'non Islamic values'. I think Hassan Al Banna saw this same phenomena in foreign country he visited or studied. Lessons learnt is to learn and pick up values from different cultures. Wallahu 'alam
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
