A Fun Day Out with My Housemates

 By Awliya

Last year during Semester 3, my housemates and I planned a fun outing together to IOI City Mall. We got ready right after Subuh because we planned to leave at 8 a.m. However, something unexpected suddenly happened when our Grab driver cancelled at the last minute because of an emergency. Luckily, the driver quickly helped us find a replacement driver, so we finally left from Universiti Selangor around 8:30 a.m. and headed to MRT Kajang Line at Sungai Buloh station.

We arrived at Sungai Buloh MRT Station around 9:30 a.m. After passing through the gate and heading to the platform, we waited around 10 minutes before the MRT finally arrived. Since our final stop was Putrajaya and the journey took around 1 hour and 15 minutes, some of my friends slept because we woke up very early, while I spent most of the journey playing on my phone.

Around 11 a.m., we finally arrived at Putrajaya Sentral. After taking the escalator down, we walked to the bus stop to take a bus heading to IOI Putrajaya. We left around 11:15 a.m. and reached the mall at approximately 11:30 a.m.

As soon as we arrived, we immediately went to Level 3 for our first stop, which was the photobooth section. We chose several props to wear and selected a photobooth room with our preferred background. After discussing for a while, we decided to choose the MRT-themed background because it matched our outing journey perfectly.

We started posing in different styles before the pictures were automatically snapped. After that, we selected our favourite photos and chose cute aesthetic frames to decorate the photobooth pictures. Honestly, the whole experience felt very fun and memorable because it matched the Gen Z outing vibe perfectly.

                

After finishing at the photobooth, everyone was already hungry, so we planned to eat at Thong Bowl. However, after searching for quite a while, we still could not find the restaurant. We later realized it was actually located outside the mall area, but since we rarely visit IOI City Mall and the mall itself is huge, we genuinely had no idea where it was.

Since we were too hungry to continue searching, we finally decided to eat at the AEON food section instead. I bought fried rice while some of my friends ordered noodles and light snacks.

After eating, I wanted to buy a new foundation, so we stopped by Dior to see whether there were any products I liked. After the sales assistant explained the ingredients and let me test several products, I finally decided to buy the glow foundation. Honestly, I felt both happy and slightly sad at the same time because I was using my own money, but I reminded myself that it was something I genuinely wanted and needed.

Not long after that, I noticed the Yves Saint Laurent boutique and initially planned to just do some window shopping. However, I ended up getting influenced by one of their lipsticks because the shade suited me so well. The sales assistant was also extremely patient and kind while swatching different shades on my hand, which honestly became one of the reasons why I decided to buy it. The customer service at both Dior and YSL was genuinely very good. Even at Dior, the sales assistant carefully explained the differences between matte and glow finishes before I made my decision.

After finishing our makeup shopping session, we decided to visit the famous karaoke spot at IOI called Maharaja Karaoke because of its luxurious palace-inspired aesthetic vibe. Surprisingly, even though many people were lining up, we did not need to wait very long. Once we mentioned that we wanted a room for four people, they immediately assigned us a room number.

Inside the karaoke room, we took turns singing songs one by one. For example, after my song ended, my friend’s song would play next, and we continued rotating like that throughout the session. Without realizing it, one hour passed very quickly. Since we were still having so much fun, we decided to extend the session for another hour.

Honestly, we sang very loudly and confidently even though our vocals were not perfect at all, but that was what made the experience even more fun because it was my first time doing karaoke together with my housemates. After two hours, the TV screen automatically turned off, signalling that our session had ended. Before leaving, we took mirror selfies outside the karaoke room as memories from the day.

After that, we went back downstairs to take the bus again, but unfortunately the bus left earlier than expected, meaning we would have needed to wait another hour for the next trip. Because of that, we decided to just split the Grab fare equally among the four of us.

While waiting for the Grab at the lobby area, we suddenly realized that Thong Bowl was actually located outside the mall. We felt slightly disappointed because one of the main reasons we came to IOI Putrajaya was to try Thong Bowl, but it was okay because maybe we could try it another time in the future.

After a few minutes, our Grab finally arrived and sent us back to Putrajaya Sentral. We took the MRT from Putrajaya back to Sungai Buloh, and by that time everyone was already very tired, so most of us just stayed quiet and rested during the journey.

We arrived at Sungai Buloh MRT station around 6:45 p.m. before taking another Grab back to UNISEL. Finally, we arrived back around 7:15 p.m.

Overall, this was honestly one of the best outings I have ever had with my housemates because most of the time we usually only spend time together inside the house. This trip felt extra special because we were able to spend quality time together outside, laugh together, sing karaoke, take pictures, and create memories before eventually graduating in the future.

I truly hope that even after we finish our studies one day, we will still have the chance to go out together again like this.