Sneezing + Blocked Nose + Voiceless = Great !

Someone said that I'm a weakling. This weakling here is in term of resistance against sickness. I guess it's true because the antibodies that reside in my body are not strong enough to resist the attacks from various sources. 

At this moment that I’m typing this, I’m not feeling well. I’m having blocked nose, sore throat, and at times sneeze. It might be caused by the seasonal change. You know, it was summer a few weeks ago, and now is fall season.  From hot to cold and windy. Besides, it’s raining sometimes. My body cannot stand the change. I know, I should have more vitamins in my diet. I’ll try…When I go to class; I could see that there are a few people who are also not feeling well. I can hear people coughing, and blowing their noses.  So, it’s normal during this time. It’s seasonal change.

However, I still hold the fact that I’m a weakling. I’ve been here in Rochester for about 3 weeks already. When I was still; in Malaysia 3 weeks ago, I had the same sickness; flu, sore throat, and sneezing.  But, it was worse back then that I had to wear masks at the airports and on the flights. My dad even bought me a very big pack of Strepsils (sore throat lozenges) which were very expensive as it was bought at the airport. I made my family worried because I was about to travel on a very long and far journey. I fall sick a few days before I fly. I think that was because I was sad to leave my beloved family for a few years. I even went to see a doctor one day before I fly so that I could get enough medications when I was on board.

When I already arrived in Rochester, my health condition remained the same. I wanted to greet the seniors who were very kind to pick all of us from the airport, but I just couldn’t do so because whenever I started to throw my voice out, I coughed.  So, I just kept quiet. I also had a slightly increased temperature from the normal body temperature on the first and second night I was here. Somehow, the fever went away when it was already day time.

Hopefully I’ll recover soon. I’m tired of wasting so many tissue papers. You know, the main sources of paper are depleting. My own storage of medications is also decreasing day by day, and I need to conserve them because they are not cheap in here!

Aidil Fitri/Eid ul Fitr (whatever spelling) in Rochester, NY

Obviously, the celebration of Aidil Fitri in Rochester is totally different from the one in Malaysia. There were a lot of traditional dishes and cookies, those typical Raya delicacies like nasi impit, rendang, kuah kacang, lodeh etc. I didn't cook all those. My friends cooked and I ate. Just ate, easy...hehe. However, the feeling is different. I wasn't that excited to celebrate Aidil Fitri here, unlike how excited I was when I celebrated Aidil Fitri for the past 18 years in Malaysia. Perhaps the exciteness didn't come due to the fact that I still had to attend classes during Hari Raya and the majority of the people here who didn't really know about such event called Aidil Fitri. Muslims are a minority in USA. When my housemates asked me why did I wear baju kurung on last Friday (first day of Aidil Fitri), I told them that I was celebrating Aidil Fitri, a special day for the Muslims to celebrate the winning of fasting for a month. Wearing baju kurung is just what we, Malays practiced in Malaysia on the first day of Aidil Fitri. The boys wore baju melayu, and the girls wore baju kurung.


It was raining on Friday morning. I had class at 8 a.m. It was very cold and windy. What's even worse was that I wore baju kurung. But for the sake of Aidil Fitri, I mean the spirit, I still wore baju kurung to class. Inside the bus, I realized that some people were looking at me. Perhaps they seldom get the opportunities to see girls wearing baju kurung to class. Well, this is not Malaysia where baju kurung is like a uniform to girls.


On the first day of Aidil Fitri, I cooked for my housemate, Wenxuan. She had been requesting me to cook for her since a few days before Aidil Fitri. But I always didn't have time to cook. I cooked roasted BBQ chicken and vegetable soup. In the evening, I went to Buffalo with my friends to celebrate Aidil Fitri with our friends in SUNY Buffalo.


On the second day of Aidil Fitri, MySA (Malaysian Students Association) RIT organized a Raya event for all the members. That's the time when I ate quite a lot of Malaysian dishes (potluck). We also had photo session. Whoa, Malaysians are actually a big community in RIT. Big as if bigger than some other universities in USA that have Malaysian students. 


So that's how I spent the two days of Aidil Fitri in Rochester. I would love to write more, but I need to stop. Should continue doing my organic chemistry homework which is due today at 11.59 p.m. !