Down The Memory Lane

I was on Yahoo Messenger with a friend this morning and chatting with her brings back a lot of memories.

This friend of mine is currently doing her PhD at West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA. Not many people know about Morgantown as it is just a small university town in the east coast. But those who follow The US college football will note of its existence as West Virginia University is in the top three of the national ranking (Go Mountaineers!!)

There is this song, sung by John Denver "Almost heaven, West Virginia - Blue ridge mountains Shenandoah river - Life is old there, older than the trees - Younger than the mountains growing like a breeze".

Couldn't agree more. I spent three great years there and trust me when I say that the scenery is so beautiful and splendid especially during fall/autumn... when the leaves change colors...gold and crimson. It's so picturesque. I remember spending hours at the Arboretum near the coliseum ... sometimes taking a walk down the paths, sometimes reading book while having my daily dose of mountain dew and snickers (hahaha.. my main diet at that time), or sometimes just lazing around, doing nothing.

I learned a lot there. Formally, I got my degree. but informally, I learned a lot about life and living. That is something that I will always treasure.

I remember falling in love for the first time there and I also remember having my heart broken for the first time there too. Even though it happened so long ago, but it is still very clear in my mind. I can still picture myself crying my heart out in my room while listening to Whitney Houston's All At Once.. over and over and over.

I also remember partying at the discos after the semesters ended. Our favorite was the one at the Holiday Inn. Can't remember the name though. The first time I went to the disco, I had to borrow somebody else's ID as those below 21 are considered as under aged. I remember the guy who checked my ID looked at me up and down a few times before letting me go in. Then only I realized that the height stated in the ID was 5 feet while I'm much taller than that. No wonder he was skeptical.

This morning my friend mentioned that it started snowing a couple of weeks back and last week the snow was about one feet high. That reminds me of a time when I was stucked in the snow while climbing up a hill to the PRT station (something like LRT). Instead of taking the stairs, I took the shortcut.. ignoring the fact that it snowed quite heavily the night before. Luckily there were 2 guys who were kind enough to pull me out (at that time I was not as heavy as I am now... hehehehe).

Then there was this incident, also happened during winter. I was on my way to class, around 8am and the road was icy and slippery. Instead of my wearing my normal winter boots, I wore my high heels and my suit that morning as I had presentation to do. I think you can guess what happened. Yup, I slipped and fell. It was so embarrassing. Luckily it was still early in the morning and nobody was around except for one lady. She asked me if I was alright and instead of answering her, I asked whether my hair looked okay. Duh, how vain I was...hahahaha.

Well, those were the days...when life was a lot less complicated than now. All I had to worry was how to look good, academically and physically.

Sometimes I miss morgantown and WVU. I just wish that one day I am able to go there again. It would really be nice to be able to visit those places that always have a special place in my heart.

Reunion Dinner

AWESOME!!!!! That is what I can say about the much awaited, recently held reunion dinner for MRSM Kuantan Alumni, best known as KUATAGH, last Saturday (5th Jan 2008).

Once again, our batch recorded the largest number of participants who turned up for the event. There were supposed to be 102 confirmed participants from our batch but on that night a few didn't manage to come and at the end the last count was 94. Not bad at all! 94 out of 600 are from our batch.

I arrived at Sime Darby Convention Centre around 6.30pm with my BFF (gosh! have not used this term for a long long time. Thanks for reminding me, Nini). Good for us as those who came late had to park outside the building.

Eventhough we have left MRSM for quite a while.. it has been yearsssssss ago (more like.. once upon a time...), one thing that never change is once we are among friends, we sort of like transported back to the old days. Screams of excitements can be heard from all corners of the ballroom, particularly ours. There were also a lot of huggings and kissings.

No words can describe the joy of seeing some of the old friends whom I have not met for over 20 years. Some remain more or less like before (much to my envy), some have changed physically (including me), and some look even better than what they used to be (hmmm... I definitely envy them the most!!!).

It was great to get together with friends again. We had fun talking and reminiscing about the old days. Had fun teasing each other about old flames. We even had fun catching some of us in action... :)

Those are the people whom I grew up with. Had been with them during my adolescence years.. we used to share not just foodstuffs and things.. but it goes beyond that. We shared our laughs, our sorrows and our dreams together.

The reunion did not stop there. Around 30 of us proceeded to a mamak restaurant in Taman Tun after that for teh tarik and roti canai... and of course for more laughters and catching ups, which lasted until 3am. It's amazing to see that as we mature, we appreciate friends, especially old friends, even more.

To all my friends.. you guys are GREAT! AWESOME!