A PIECE OF MY LIFE'S HISTORY

Have you ever seen a book entitled "100 Places to See Before You Die"? And the first place that will be in my list will be CANADA, just anywhere in Canada will do. You may ask me, "Why Canada?" and hence, I am writing this posting from a room overlooking the city of Toronto, trying to share a piece of my life's history.

Upon completing my SPM examination (which is similar to GCE O-Level) and after telling myself that I would never ever learn Science anymore but I still had to go oversea to further my studies, did not leave me with a lot of options in hand. I applied for the TESL programme, was interviewed and successfully chosen to go to Canada a few months after the result was announced. As usual, a bunch of young and excited kids had to get our international passports, apply for Canadian visas and go through expensive medical check-ups in private clinics certified by the Canadian government. I was excited but the happiness did not last long. One day a letter arrived at home informing that the programme was CANCELLED and we would be all relocated to one of the local universities.And we were sent to Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM), the one university that was not in my list of university choices for the local application,

THAT is the saddest moment of my life - all the hope was shattered into small broken pieces. Nevertheless, after graduating, I was still grateful for being sent to UPM where I had learned and developed, and experienced an unforgettable six years of stress-free time of my life. I really had a good time, met new people and made many wonderful friends.

I knew I might be unfortunate but somehow, my ex-student was luckier when he was sent to Canada to do his engineering degree. Make hay while the sun shines and that should explain the reason why I am here now. So far everything goes well and I am having another great vacation. I have a few days left. I better hit the sack now so I could start early tomorrow. Good night, everybody.