blackrose_influenza

So the big event has arrived. The parade of the A (H1N1) virus, right here at our beloved INTEC. When you're an aspiring virotoxicologist (the study of toxic effect of viruses in humans - I made that up but I would like to make a thesis on that) you tend to view this with amazement. Wah, so the deadly virus, close companion to Ebola, beloved sister of Spanish Flu, is now so close to me. How interesting.

(I am not that crazy/obsessed to let myself be infected with it, anyway)

Thanks to that infamous virus, all UiTM branches were forced to be closed, sending us students for a quarantine at home. This very abrupt news broke out yesterday, barely after I've finished making plans for my going back home next forthnight. And it was very abrupt that I had immense difficulty on believing it, due to the informal method used to relay the message (Zetty my housemate: Tim, kite kne balik ah! INTEC kne kuarantin! Me [just awake from my beauty nap]: Tipu ah [continues sleeping]).

I didn't mind going home, really. I've been planning to do so anyway. But how the hell am I going to buy a Shah Alam-JB bus ticket within such a short time?????

So I planned to buy the ticket this morning, along with Linda. Failed to analyse the severity of the whole situation of people rushing to go home, we went to Ole-Ole and had some karaoke sessions (wanna go bowling but the place was damn packed). Only at 11.30 am did we manage to leave Section 18 for the bus station. And as expected, tickets were sold out everywhere.

Dang.

So, panic-stricken, I searched for any ticket counter selling tickets to JB. Dragging along my berat-cam-anak-gajah (heavy-as-a-baby-elephant) bag, I began my quest for the valuable Willy Wonka ticket. Asked the people behind the counter, "Tiket bas ke JB hari ni ade lagi x?"

Counter 1: "Hari ni sampai Isnin habis la dik"

Counter 2: Ditto

Counter 3: Ditto ditto

Counter 4: "Ade, tp kol 9 malam dik"

Counter 5:"Ade, kol 3 petang. Nak tak?" (Yes of course la kak! Thank God!)

Alrighty, so I got da 3pm ticket, and it was barely 12 noon. No big deal? Maybe, if I'm taking the bus from Terminal 1 (I could like, go window shopping or something). But what the heck am I going to do at Shah Alam bus station, a place where the only window shopping you could get involves staring at shelves of Twisties, refrigerators of soft drinks, an avian cage with doves and a little yellow ayam serama chick (comeyyyyy), myriads of counters selling tickets to Kelantan, and various lauk kampung for lunch?

Ah hell. It's better than not getting any tickets at all anyway. Shou
ld not grumble and always thank God for His mercy and blessings. Humhum.

So yeah, back to the question. How am I supposed to spend the excruciating 3 hours before the arrival of the bus? I am sooooo not going to sit there and let myself collapse from heat stroke. Then suddenly, Subconscious provided me a solution. Hey, it's the bus station. And INTEC's just across the road. Why don't you go and have some fun in the deserted INTEC library and get yourself some hypothermia-inducing air-conditioner, Maya? Subconscious, you're ingenious!

And so that leads to this situation:

(it's H1N1 season so it's only appropriate for me to read something related to virotoxicology - um, I mean, viruses...)

I really love that library. It has all kinds of books you could think of. It even has toxicology books ohmigod! And the air-cond is damned cold! And I get to check my Facebook with my faithful laptop there! I was right, Subconscious, you are ingenious! Even though I had to suffer some mild awkward moments going there with the rattling sounds of my luggage trailing with me, it was worth the effort. And finally after I decided that I'd had enough of the books, the WiFi and the hypothermial air-cond, I returned to the bus station and wait for a few more minutes for the arrival of the JB bus...

JB, my beloved homeland, here I come!

Oh wait. Forgot something. Where is my mask????