Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Renewing my Malaysian status...

Soon I'll be handing in my thesis, and that's it...5 long years of studying just to obtain my diploma. 5 long years...now don't tell me that it's been "a blink of an eye" or tell me "time flies". It was a hell of a long time for me. But like I said...soon...soon I'll graduate and will be heading to Turkey for my vacation.

So, in preparation of going overseas, I went to the customs office to make a re-entry permit. For those who don't know what it is...Visa for any country is only valid for as long as you stay in that particular country. To leave and then to reenter, you'll need a permit of some sort.

Anyway, I went to the office early in the morning hoping to avoid the crowd. But guess what? There were some 48 people there too!! They must have known I was coming and was planning a surprise party for me. But since I arrived too early, they hadn't any time to prepare the usual cakes and balloons....so they canceled the party and everyone there went on to do their business. Sigh...took my number and I had an ugly "49" printed on my number slip. By the way, current number being attended was "24"...and the service time was at an average 10 minutes per number. Know what that mean? Yeah...that means I have to waste a lot of time sitting on my ass with all the other Indians, Thai, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Brazilians....

Cursing my luck, I went on to fill out my form....only to discover that the pens at the writing booth was dry!! SHIT!! Just my darn luck.....thinking of it, I shouldn't have written about me being tricked into a church by an over zealous ostentatious Christian name L. Or maybe someone got offended that day when I walked into a sermon wearing a traditional Chinese suit...

Starting to feel bored, I tried to be smart and walked straight to the service counter and started writing there. Well, seems that the person in charge didn't like me standing there and told me "I'll lend you my pen, just...stand over there and fill out your form. Don't do it here."....being shooed away like that, there was nothing I could do except sulk and walk away.

BUT....while I was filling out my form, I saw a number slip(left on the table) with a very delicious "28" printed on it!! Sweet Mother of Jesus!! I quickly filled out my form...just as I barely signed my name at the bottom of the form, the service counters called out the number!! Sweet sweet 28.....

So...I marched to the counter, holding in my right hand, the proud number 28. Man, I could feel the stare of all the other Indians, Thai, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Brazilians who were angry at me for jumping queue. HAH!! SUCKERS!!!

I know that I should be considerate about all the other Indians, Thai, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Brazilians who were all waiting for their turn but....Hey, I was there to renew my status of being a "Malaysian in Japan". I had to do something to prove that I was a Malaysian, right?!!

Hah....Malaysian rules in this kind of situation. Malaysia Boleh!!!