Studying in USA - Quality of Life

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.