Summer Part I

It has been a good 3 months since i left Philips Academy Andover Massachusetts . It is amazing how fast time passes by especially when we are having fun or shall i say having the time of our lives. I must admit, this is a good year for me,alhamdulillah. I have got a loving family, great friends and awesome summer buddies.I am used to being around with people i know and it is going to be a difficult transition for me. I have always been a reserved person especially to new people. It's not that i am snobbish,which i am often mistaken as but i am in reality afraid and quite timid.

That was why i decided to go for summer school. Oh how it was the Best Summer Ever! I wanted to experience boarding life to prepare for next year. The friends i met were more than great. They regarded me as their own siblings. I miss doing our laundry together,ordering chinese food and then eating it down at the quad, and yes i do miss 'finding a 17 th century coin 5 feet under' ;). Those memories cannot be re-lived but i am sure i will cherish it forever. It was a new and exciting experience. It was in a way,quite of a culture shock. I have been living in Malaysia all my life and all of a sudden im in the States. A more liberated country,it was a place of free expression. In Malaysia,it is impossible for me to dress up in mini skirts and tube tops. It dosent not neccesarily mean that i dress up like that there,but as a girl i feel more safe. I don't get the feeling that im constantly being watched.

For the fist time, i met people my age from a a wide range of backgounds with diverse cultures.

It was intimidating at first but i decided that im only going to live once and will make the best of it. I was actually 3 days late for the session. I remember that it took me 45 minutes to find my house, 'Bancroft'. When i did find it eventually,i realised that i did not have a key and so i waited and waited for someone to rescue me out of my dilema. That's when i saw an American Chinese girl entering the house. And from a far,i screamed out of my lungs,"Hi excuse me,please wait! Im new and i havent got a key!" while i dragged my two big black monsterous luggages into the house! To my delight,it was a four story house in which i had to carry by bags. I swear, it was the most heaviest bag i have attempted to carry. That is until a security guard so kindly carried it up for me!

Each room was identified with our names written on it. Then i found a room with an A4 sized paper,turned horizonally which said,"Nurul Alyaa Jamaludin". I held the door knob and realised it was unlocked. My room mate must have left it like that to ensure that i could enter. I looked at my room,it was reasobly with a single bed,a desk,a closet and a few shelves. As i started to unpack my bags. I heard a commotion. When i opened my door,i was suprised to see the faces of five thrilled gilrls. All of whom were roughly my age. They introduced themselves as, 'Chia,Sofia,Katherine,Guilia and Stephanie'. They were from Hong Kong,Italy,American,Germany and Taipei. They said that they heard of a 'new girl' and so rushed to find out who it was. It was a funny introduction with those hyper girls. After i unpacked they gave me a tour around the school. Showing my the 'Commons' which was the dining hall, The Gelb Scince Center, The Theare/Auditorim,the Gym, The Pool,The Arts building and finally the George Washington Hall which was where our mails were sent. We had our own personal mail box. Unfortunately i did not know how to open my mailbox. We had to twist the knob according to the instructions and until this day i am still unable to do it! My freinds would always have to help me! How embarassing!

That night i met my room-mate finally. Her name was Christine Alpasan and she was an American Chinese. We were really close althought we had different intersts and different group of friends. She was different form everyone else. She was ecentric and artistic not in a Picasso way but in an Andy Warhol way. Who said i didnt meet any boys? Okay,reality check. There were so many guys. Don't even get me started because i wont stop talking. The first guy i met was Alan. Alan Juliano. He was an American but had lived in Japan all his life. I love him so much. He is so fun to be around with and you can tell him everything and he would just listen. How cool is that!? I loved to hear him speak Japanese,especially with the thought of him being an American. He was just so funny! Once he even asked me if i could teach him to walk on fire! That was it,i laughed and could not stop! Then there was Michael, a Lebanese living in Paris. He cracked me up that guy. Okay,so he could not speak proper English but i loved the fact that he tried to express his feelings! "Sushi is so Beautiful." haha! And then finallu there was Victor Malek,another Lebanse but living in Monaco. Okay,he was just a an absolute darling. Except for the fact that it took him about a week to remember my name! He would always annoy us in the Library at night! And he would take my stick notes and put them on his face like a peacock!!

My first night there,alone. I felt home sick and i cried. I terribly missed my family. But i told myself to be strong, to keep my head up high and most importantly to be brave to give myself the chance to experience a chance of a lifetime.

This was just the Beginning.