A typical day of a Science Student in Malaysia

Malaysians are never late for classes. Mauritians always are and I'm a Mauritian. Must be written in our DNA.

Yes, I hail from Mauritius, a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. Think of Mauritius as the exotic, sunny place with wonderful sandy beaches. Malaysia is not exactly as grandiose but it is summer all year round here, and it's even warmer! So, to keep in touch with the Aussie culture of Australia-based Monash University's Malaysian campus (that's where I'm spending my time instead of swimming in the lagoon back in Mauritius) and the islander's happy-go-lucky spirit in me, you might spot me walking around campus, lab coat folded on one shoulder, wearing a T-shirt and my typical Mauritian flower beach shorts.

The first lecture I'm late for this Wednesday is Immunology. The slides are filled with diagrammatic representations of different leukocytes and their specific receptors and a number of strange-named cytokines. After a mere fifteen minutes, in addition to my cacophonous stomach, my eyelids start closing. Next thing I know, I'm hurriedly drying that drooping saliva trail across my left cheek. Quick glance left and right and doesn't seem that anyone noticed my sleeping pause. So I'm back to trying to make some sense out of CD4+ and CD8+ and all the ensuing complications.

Next stop is Microbiology practical but my crying stomach gets the better of me. After a quick visit to the cafeteria and a "Nasi Goreng" (Malaysia's fried rice) costing me three ringgits (around one $1), I'm packed full and fifteen minutes late.

Run Khalil, run! My bag in my right hand and lab coat in the left, I finally reach, no, not the lab but the building. Microbiology labs are on the fifth floor and (of course) there are no lifts on the ground floor. Up the stairs I climb and I'm finally at destination, sweating and panting. I open the door and I immediately feel fifty pairs of eyeballs penetrating right through me.

"You're late," says our lab instructor who's been happily explaining the different anal swabs we'll have to culture today. "Euh... yeah, sorry about that. I have this problem... euh... acute sleeping disorder, you know." My Sri Lankan lab partner shakes his head with a concealed smile on his face while my serious and very intellectual Malaysian friends are pondering whether laughing at my joke may result in some mark deductions. The practical goes smoothly enough and I leave the lab three hours later with purple fingers. Blame Gram staining, not me.

My day at university is not over until eight at night. That's the cool thing about being an international student. We don't have anything much to do apart from studying, partying and dating. And really, all the serious partying (and dating?) is done past midnight here. During my two years in Malaysia, I must say that I'm seriously suspecting that "Acute sleeping disorder" has affected the whole Malaysian population. Till eight at night, a bunch of other international student friends (hailing from Maldives, Australia, Indonesia or even Ereitria, to name but a few) and I stay back in the library studying sporadically while keeping the talks about soccer, girls, more soccer and girls again, at a much more constant level.

Studying abroad in Malaysia is an incredible experience. The culture is very diverse, the people are very welcoming and the students are extremely hard-working. Studying science is amazingly fascinating, totally cool and really interesting. Add the two together and you get an incredible medley of global science in action.

-Khalil A. Cassimally

Image credits: Khalil Cassimally, Wikipedia.org, and CDC PHIL