Le camarade de nouveaux

1. So there was a Tanzanian chick who joined my French class about 2-3 weeks ago, and apparently she’s studying International Business at APIIT, and has already passed her A2. What fascinates me is her strong desire to learn French that she went completely out of her way just to come all the way to Mont Kiara from Bukit Jalil—relying solely on public transport (train) and then a taxi from the train station to get to our teacher’s place.

I thought it was unfortunate when during her first class, when my teacher asked if anyone could fetch her to the train station after the class, no one offered to lend a hand initially, until a Malay girl did. I honestly wanted to help her out of sheer admiration of her tenacity, but what eventually stopped me from being a good Samaritan was my horrible sense of direction, and the fact that I don’t know of any train stations nearby Mont Kiara.

And then on our recent class, there were only 3 students in all—which is pretty pathetic as we have like 9 students or so in total, and unfortunately my current classmates have a pretty poor track record of coming to class and coming on time, which eventually dragged us down as we had to often wait for the others to arrive before my teacher would start teaching something new. My frustration was shared by our teacher too, and some weeks ago he had talked about opening another class instead.

But I digress. So after our class, while going down the escalator and talking to her (apparently she leaves home at 6.30pm when our class starts at 8pm wtf, which is even longer than me), I contemplated once more to send Caroline (the Tanzanian girl) to the train station, but eventually didn’t as I didn’t want to go out of my way in an unfamiliar territory to locate a train station, but as I drove back on my own, I made myself to be more aware of my surroundings and realised that my route back home would pass by or be near two: the Asia Jaya LRT station, and the Subang Jaya KTM station, although I reckon Asia Jaya would make her trip back home shorter (but it’s significantly more dangerous as she’d have to cross a main road at night).

Next class’s target: give that incredibly determined girl a ride, if she so wished.

Perhaps I had just wanted to get to know my classmates better.

2. Shawn came my house last night at about.. 2.30am-ish, together with Ding, RB, and Sarah. Apparently the lot of them have been drinking at Uncle Chua’s house, and so my minor forays into Final Fantasy XIII (which I snagged last Sunday, and logged about 36 hours at the time of writing thanks to being free on my mid-term break wtf) was interrupted. Shawn had just returned from France about two days before, and he excitedly began to recount his 2-week trip in France with the aid of the pictures he took using my camera (which initially he said had a dent, but on closer inspection, it was barely even visible) while Ding played some games on my PS3 while RB and Sarah slept (who also vomited in my toilet I think wtf).

And Shawn presented me with a souvenir: the tacky “I <3 Paris" tee that cost him 10 euros, but I actually love these sorta tees—I already have a Melburnian one, and had wanted to buy a similar tee in Brunei but there wasn't a suitable size.

The rest went back at 4am+ leaving Shawn behind as he had still yet to finish narrating his visit to France (alongside breathtaking pictures of the beautiful white snow blanketing everything, and the Eiffel Tower lighting in deep yellow at night). Eventually he walked back home at about 4.30am.

3. I am now desperately behind my recounts of my Brunei and NZ trips. Le sigh. Even worse, without jotting down minute details of my Brunei trip when I was there, I think I’ve already forgotten most of them by now. Thankfully my memories in NZ are still preserved in an actual, physical journal I kept that I had struggled to be diligent in keeping, and I guess all that hard work pays off.

I can never replicate the 19-year-old me who has written startlingly detailed (and captivating, if I may add wtf) travelogues of my previous backpacking trips in South-East Asia. I think I just don’t have the luxury of time anymore as age and responsibilities catch up, or.. maybe I’ve just gotten bored of blogging.