Registered. Phew.

So much has happened in this month long absence. With the beginning of Ramadan my internship came to an end. This was a good thing because the circadian rhythm had automatically set itself in reverse mode, due to the taraweeh sessions which would end late into the night. I didn’t get to float any of my origami, partly because I was afraid the turtle lurking in the waters might think of it as food and choke on it and partly because on my last day there were other things on my mind (like how much I would be paid :p)

Once at home, the next few days were spent in scouring over the fall timetable that had been released, running after seniors for advice on what courses to pick and with whom, and working very very hard to set up a schedule that wouldn’t turn out to be too much of a pain for the next semester. While the planning is stressing, the end result depends on what happens on the day of the registration.

Preparations for it began a day in advance. With not-so-high hopes in our own internet connection, I went knocking at the neighbor’s door for access to their wi-fi. They easily complied and I was relieved from having to go to campus the next day. That night I slept a good, sound sleep.

At 5.30 a.m., KESC did what it’s known for.

Hoping it would be back within the routine one and a half hours, I went back to bed. At around 7a.m., my mother woke me up to tell she was leaving and that I should stay up in case things didn’t go right at home. Things didn’t go right at home? I thought drowsily. Turned out the electricity hadn’t returned. Just then I got a text message from a friend who told me she was headed for the campus. I set the alarm for 8a.m. and decided to wait another hour at home (silly me, no?).

My eyes opened to the sound of the alarm and seeing there still was no electricity, I hurriedly got up to get ready to make it to the campus on time. The registration was to begin at 9 a.m. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it in a bus so I woke my father up to drive me there. We left home at around 8.40 a.m. I texted the friend at campus to save me a seat and at least sign in to my account to open the page through which we register. The replies from her end kept some hope alive but my heart still beat like crazy.

I jumped out of our car and ran to the computer lab. I was about five feet away from entering when I could hear cheering and shouts of joy from inside. Rushing in, I found my seat and saw an error message on the screen. The same message appeared on my friends screen next to me. Unsure of whether to hit refresh or not, I duplicated the tab to be able to hit the command again. But then my friend said, ‘Refresh kero! Refresh kero!’ (Hit refresh! Hit refresh!)

I did as she said (oh the blind trust we have in our friends!) and within a few seconds the screen indicated successful registration in all the courses I had selected.

From Facebook statuses (stati?), it was evident that most of the students in our batch had managed to get the courses they had wanted. It was relieving to see that a few friends, who had had bad experiences of this day in the prior semesters, had managed to get the courses of their choice this time. More relieving was the fact that the rest of the month would now pass in peace, without having to worry about another thing except the timely submission of the semester fee.