University Again

by Maryam

(If ur offended after reading this; thats ok with me.)

Seventh semster has started and is well into it's second week. Predictibly it felt perfectly horrible to have to come back, ruined my last weekend cz i wz bz mournin da end o hols.

Mondays have a tendency to be especially nasty, and when its the first monday after a 3 month long break it feels perticulaly bad. Following tradition me n zaf endured thru one of the worst first days back ever.

Awais picked me up in the morn, (late as usual) as i dint hav the heart nor the stomach to actually go on the route the very first day. It was raining nd since i hv a very specific aversion to rain (im a sun person inside out) it did nothing to improve my mood. Wz welcomed by the unwelcome sight of a crowd o ppl gathered in the dppt lobby (evrybdy pretending to figure out thr time tables from the notice board bt actually chkin out evrybdy elz, new hairstyles, new clothes etc etc). I felt too miserable to do nefin beside smiling n waving half heartedly at some of the familiar faces. Soon ran into a harassed zaf who furthur dampened my spirits by telling me we wr in diff sections nd wd hav none o r lecs togethr. Blow!!

First lec wz computer networks. Dragged my self into da class n plopped down wd ZZ. Thank gosh a friendly somebody wz in da same class. Noman n Awais cald me frm behind n lo n behold, Micheal's new haircut....!!! :D (that lifted my spirits...!!! u rock, mike! ) The lec itself wz boring. (i wish smbdy wd ban da use of slides by the teachers... thy r such a drag..i like a moving teacher.. rem dr. irfan?? nd it dint hurt he wz cute too ;-) ) I half slept,half doodled away the hour, nd thankfully the teacher let us off early.

Wasn't spozzd to take da DSP lab tht day, bt staying wd guys ( my mantra: guys r dumb) jams my brains too. So i stupidly followed them to da lab wdout first chkin wd my timetable. Thr a couple o odr *innocent* gals lyk me also sat, oblivious to the fact tht we wr not sppozed to be thr at al- it wz da odr half of the class's lab. Neway it turned out to be ok, the lab i mean. were let off early again n predictibly da young geeky guy calling himself r teacher told us he'd workd on da lab for barely a month nd he hoped to learn along wd us. (now y dz tht remind me o a certain charming somebdy *wink wink*......)

Wr free 4 an hour before OS now. Us frnds got togthr for a catch-up, da guys tellin me i lukd evn more ill tempered thn i normally do n id better do sffin abtit else it myt permanently disfigure my face. OS ws a disaster. i like C, n i noe it too, n i don need a teacher who mumbles or grumbles (take ur pick) to lead me thru C lyk a novice. Three fourth of the class walked out within da first 15 mins bt the teacher, God bless him, dint flinch. He bored us all for the whole o the two hours n i cd barely keep my eyes open at the end of it.

All in all, a bad, bad first day.

People had been harpin on abt da DSP prof, the seniors sayin he ws one o da best thr wr, swearin by his brilliance bt personally i think tht genius by no means equates to gud teaching skills. The students in his first lec the next day, practically sat in awe of the great one. Oh, not that he's a bad teacher at all. we'v jst had one double lec so, frankly, cant say mch.

Microwave engg is dead boring too.What a surprize. I cdnt keep track of the lec at all, gud for u if u did. Microwave and Networks lab wr both one hour, intro affairs. the teachers dn seem tht bad either. They r both polite nd dn luk lyk thier main aim in lyf is to not give you an A. Fingers crossed.

Being in da same sec as the guys from C is both amusing n annoying. First it came as a shock

tht ppl wr actually answerin questions. For three years, D hd been the laziest imaginable crowd. We wd brazenly stare, glass eyed while the teachers wd try all tricks in da book to shake us all out of

our unholy trance. Answering questions was a taboo, especially if u actually knew the correct answer. So mostly the trend was, u let the teacher get into a hysterical state of frustration before some of the girls wd pluck the courage to answer. The art we perfected as a group, however, was to steer class discussions as far away from the actual topic as possible.We thrived on irrelevance.

Crash nd boom. Enter the nerds o C who ask questions they very well know the answer to, just to a) humliate the rest of the class or/and b) show off thier knowledge.

Ha, screw you, we don' care..!!

Zaf changed her subjects so tht thankfully, shez ended up in the same section as me nd im happily bk to enjoyin her sullen, attitude ridden company in class. I like ZZ a lot too, bt i cant tell her my cheap jokes. I hated being alone during free lecs (oh, i love da guys i hang out wd bt guys dn chk out guys - n wn thy do i do not wanna c it..!! - so i guess i missed the usual ogling that happens in the radius of 3~4 meters of wrever my pretty frnd is :-) ) So, goody good, shez back where I belong!

Her fanclub has been religiously following her around as she scurries from one section to another, n changes her subjects evry odr day. The poor kids r apparently terrible at makin up thr own minds abt wt exactly thy wana study so thy either ask her abt her latest/current/future prefrences or make thr own guesses abt wt she myt choose on good faith. (Note to the fanclub nd doz wd disturbingly similar ideas: listen guys, guess wt, she still aint goin out wd u. Trust me. ) I hav told her of havin a bit of fun by tellin them something else and doin something else and then to sit back n enjoy the show bt she has finally leant to distrust, and hence keep away from, my cheap shots. (That makes her boring, tho. Nebdy els interestd?? ) Still, gud to hav da love-struck lot bk in class. Id say, they r really not as dumb as they luk. Nobody could be.

Am missin waqas n adnan, who'v moved to da odr sec. :-( Don gt to c a lot o em nemor. Miss the

fun.

Woah woah. i hadnt meant to write so much. guess, will get bk after eid nw. ciao, n happy uet!!

p.s. Lukin 4 a copy of A Case of Exploding Mangoes by M. Hanif. The hardcopy is still expensiv n paperbacks havent come yet. Neone who could lend me..?? You cd borrow ds excellent Mossad non fiction im reading dz days (By Way Of Deception by C. Hoy and V. Ostrovsky), in turn.