PALAM

I think my relatively young & kunun2 sweet (buweks) face may have lead the management of my workplace to think that I'm ok with whichever campus they want to place me in. 

That is the only logical explanation I could think of as to why my placement for teaching keeps on changing every year. 

1st semester  : Asasi Law (Main campus) - no room, no desk, no 

                         guidance, & VERY pregnant. Surau was where I 

                         merempat...

2nd semester : All mixed-up in 3 different faculties (Main campus &

                         Sek 17) - still no room & desk, & even worse since I 

                         had to drive back & forth between the main campus  

                         and the Sek. 17 campus on certain  days.

3rd semester : TEKA faculty (Puncak Perdana campus) - a lil further 

                         and the flight of stairs leading up to the 5th floor was 

                         excruciating, but the comfort of having my own room  

                         in an apartment-like classroom far outweighs all  

                         other drawbacks. 

4th semester : TEKA faculty (Puncak Perdana campus) - all happy &

                         even declared that I wanted to retire here.

5th semester : PUNCAK ALAM campus!!!!! My worst nightmare 

                        came true!!!!!!!!

Words can't even express how devastated I felt to be placed to an even further place to teach. For God's sake, I live in Sek 9, send my baby to the babysitter in Sek 7 and have to only then drive all the way to Puncak Alam!!! Altogether around 35kms one way, at least 70kms every day. I used to only refill petrol for my car once in 8 days. Now, once in 4 days!!! and yes, no mileage claim yer....

But when I knew that there are some people who live even further than me and still being placed in Puncak Alam, I just shut the fudge up.

This is just plain RUTHLESS. 

Let me just share with you here the pros n cons of teaching in Puncak Alam campus, or more famously known as PALAM among students.

What I love?

-The room : pretty ok, with a nice office mate to talk to and gossip with.

-The friends : Oh fyi, all this while, it was very rare for me to really meet my colleagues during working hours. I was never placed at the same teaching place as my close friends. Most of the time, I was alone, & only met my students during teaching hours. So the beauty of PALAM is it allows me to really socialise with my friends as our rooms are just next to one another. It's good to finally have friends to eat, tease & laugh with while working.

-The modern infrastructure : In the midst of nothingness, there is PALAM, with seemingly modern buildings and talking lifts. It's a lot better looking than any other places I have ever worked in.

-The clean toilets and rooms : The cleaners are efficient and nice. This is evident from the clean surroundings, rooms, and toilets. At least I don't have to go eiiii and aaaaarrrgh like I did in Puncak Perdana since I shared the toilets with students and only God knows what they ate...

-The students (boleyla...): The students are mostly attentive, studious, and motivated to learn new things from me.

What I hate?

-The journey : Urgh! I dreaded to go to work everyday because of this. To save a little fuel (if not it would be almost 50kms one way), I had to take the Meru route from Sek 7 Shah Alam to PALAM. But the journey is just crazzeeeeyyy!!! The drivers seem to have gotten their licenses from a different planet, especially KKs (clue: I can be racist sometimes). There are lotsa potholes -- almost every 50 metres, there are more lorries per square feet than any other places on earth, and once you reach the Meru area, it seems like you are suddenly flown back to the past in the 70s and every single thing changes into the Sephia mode. It sometimes feels as if I am driving in a third world country that doesn't seem to even have flushed toilets technology. And suddenly it dawns on me, heyyy this is still Selangor!!! and the place is even worse-looking than any other kampungs I've ever been! Third world facilities & third world minds on terribly congested roads. URGH!!!

-The super-slow lifts : Yes, the lifts have that irritating & scary voice of a woman telling me the level I am at and the documentary about PALAM and all, but they are slower than snails! It takes 10-15 seconds for the doors to open everytime the lifts reach a particular level. The lifts just drive me bonkers especially when I'm already late for class & there seems to be people coming in and out at every level. And now the nearest lift to my office is under maintenance pulakkkk! waaaa!

- Finding parking : It can be quite a challenge, especially if I arrive after 9 am. When I have just had it, you would see my car being parked a few centimetres away from the rubbish dump. grrr...

- Big class : For the first time, I have to teach in lecture halls since there are generally 60 students in a class. Gila kan? and I have to allocate 10 minutes before the class ends just for the students to salam and cium my hand before they go. I didn't ask for it, but it has become some kinda culture among UiTM students. I used to love this but not with 40+ female students!!! I feel like I'm half Justin Bieber and half Datuk Seri Najib for the honour given, and like a burning monkey whenever I really desperately need to go to the toilet or leave for something important. 

- Lack of facilities : Certain lecture halls may seem perfect with  lcd projector system, nice upholstery and whatnot, but some others are just painfully not-maintained well.  I have a class that is conducted in a stuffy lecture hall with no mic, dysfuctional lcd projector and an overall system failure that does not allow me to even unroll the projection screen back up. So yes, the projector can't be used and I need to make use of only one third of the whiteboard to teach all my 60 students at a time who don't even feel like being there. And sometimes there are perverted technicians who disrupt the class with annoying remarks through the lecture hall's PA system. Boleh lak berfungsi system and speaker tu tiba2!! Urgh!

-Inefficient maintenance : This is related to the previous point. I made a complaint about the lecture hall from Week 2 and it's already Week 6 now. Nothing is done yet to rectify the problem. 

-The students: Sometimes they can be irritating if all they care is scoring in the exams and MUET. There's more to life than just exams kids!!! This situation sometimes discourages me from conducting fun lessons coz a few of them may give a 'Duhhh' look as if we're wasting time... grrr...

The students call this "Tangga Kejayaan' - 300++ steps up to their hostels.

That's all that I could think of now.. I'll add more once I remember (I'm sure I'll update the list)... 

All in all, my friends keep me sane in PALAM... 

Ciao!