Eh, you here oso ah?! (Chee Wye) [Oh, you're here too!]

The first thing on her list - getting a job - was done. Kiam siap parents won't even give me allowance she thought. They'd explained to her that she wouldn't need Pounds or Euros since wizarding folk had their own currency. Mei Xin had tried to reason with them and tell them that just because wizarding people had their own currency didn't mean she was restricted to their world. She could use muggle money too, for when she needed to buy muggle items. But they didn't budge. She bet that even if she wasn't magical and had gone overseas to study, they wouldn't have given her an allowance either. Maybe just enough to pay her rent. [Kiam siap: Hokkien for 'stingy'.]

She'd gone job hunting right after settling her things down in the dorm and managed to find one she was more than capable of doing and one that wouldn't clash with her double study schedule. Now Mei Xin was on a hunt for Chinese tea. She'd already gone to the tea shop in Hogsmeade village but that had proven to be nothing more than a couple hangout. The last thing she needed was to be reminded of her relatives' nagging to get a boyfriend.

Mei Xin switched directions and found herself in Diagon Alley. "Rosa Lee Teabag" caught her eye and she felt a smile growing on her lips. "Lee" was a Chinese surname. Sure must have tong yahn char wan she thought. [Translation: I'm sure this shop will have Chinese tea. "Tong yahn char": a Cantonese phrase literally translated to mean 'Chinese people tea'. "Wan": pronounced as 'one']

She quickened her steps and entered the shop but was surprised to find a sign that said the same shop was also in Hogsmeade Village. Aiyah! Must have missed it. UK street so weird wan. If I know got shop there sure won't walk all the way here wan she thought to herself.
[ "Aiyah": an exclamation sometimes used to show frustration or a missed opportunity. In a different context and tone of voice, it can mean 'oh my goodness', 'oh gosh' and the like. Translation: I must have missed the shop in Hogsmeade Village. UK streets are really weird. If I had known the same shop was in Hogsmeade, I wouldn't have walked back to Diagon Alley.]

Mei Xin quickly pushed aside the thought and set herself to the task of searching the shelves for her precious Chinese tea.

Having found that the kitchens at Hogwarts did an okay version of some of the foods he got back home - with the exception of spicy things, for apparently the western thought curries were meant to be sweet and tomato-saucy, which made for rather disgusting laksas - Chee Wye had been gorging himself on chicken rice for the past week, only to find that something was just... Missing.

It took him a short while to figure it out, and when he did, he almost kicked himself. In actual fact, what he did was jump up from his chair in the middle of the library, smack his hand to his forehead, and exclaim: "Eh, it's tea!" Much to the confusion of the students nearby (and annoyance of the head librarian, who issued him his third and final warning of the day. One more and he would be kicked out temporarily. [Translation: "Oh my gosh, it's tea!"]

But Chee Wye wasn't too caught up in that; he was more happy that he had figured out what he had been missing, and that was tea. Chinese tea, teh tarik, 3 layer tea, masala tea... Any kind of tea, really, that was from Malaysia. After all, how could one call themselves Malaysian, enjoy the food, and forget the drinks?

So that was how, one weekend, Chee Wye found himself walking down the streets of Diagon Alley, heading to a shop he had already visited in Hogsmeade. They had not had what he wanted in stock, for it was a smaller branch, but after clarifying and getting past the language barrier, they finally realised what kind of tea he was looking for and they pointed him in the direction of their main store, where they promised he could find said tea.

Stepping into the place, Chee Wye looked around in awe. He had never seen a shop so devoted to tea before in his life! This branch was at least twice as big as the one in Hogsmeade, and his jaw dropped a little. "Fuyoh," he muttered. "Seow lah. So much types." [Translation: Oh my goodness! This is crazy! There are so many types!"]

Walking around the aisles, he caught sight of someone familiar up ahead, and for the second time that day, he found himself in complete shock. It was another Malaysian, someone he knew from the wizarding school back home before it had been closed down. "Oh mak engkau," he cried. "Mei Xin, is that you?" He stepped closer. "Eh eh eh what is this?! Why you here also? Wahhh! Eh, long time no see leh. How are you?" [Translation: "Oh your mother! (direct translation; it's an exclamation of surprise in Malay) Mei Xin, is that you? Oh my gosh, what?! What are you doing here as well? Wow! I haven't seen you in a very long time. How are you?"]

Mei Xin searched shelf after shelf until she found the one that held foreign teas. She scanned the containers and picked up the that held Chinese tea. Reading the words printed on the outside, she frowned. It wasn't the kind of tea she was hoping for. All these gwai lou dunno how to drink tea one. Use all the chapalang tea leaves with no good taste. Lie dat how? Neh mine lah! Drink only and tahan until graduate. [Translation: Westerners don't know how to drink good quality Chinese tea. They use all the bad quality tea leaves that don't taste good. What to do? Never mind (It's okay). I'll just drink it and bear with it until  I graduate. "Gwai lou (pronounced 'low'): a Cantonese description for Westerners literally meaning 'devil fellow'. "Chapalang": a term meaning 'odds and ends' or something of bad quality. "Lie dat how": Malaysian pronunciation of 'like that how', used to show despair and depending on the tone of voice can also show that a person is unsure of what to do. "Neh mine": Malaysina pronunciation of 'never mind'. "Tahan": a Malay word meaning 'to bear' or 'to withstand'.]

Mei Xin resigned herself to drinking this kind of tea and searched through her bag for her purse but was startled when she heard a voice speaking Malay. She looked up and nothing could  hold back her wide smile as she recognised the familiar face. They weren't in the same house back in their old school but since there were so few students, almost everyone knew everybody else. She remembered Chee Wye as a sociable, carefree and likable guy.

"Eh?! Chee Wye! So good to see you lah! Yes, yes, it's me. Who else?" she returned the greeting. [Translation: Oh?! Chee Wye! It's good to see you! Of course it's me! Who else would it be?] There was only one reason he would be here and that had to do with the whole redistribution thing after the Malaysian wizarding school was shut down. It was a pleasant surprise to know that someone from her country was here in this foreign land. She wouldn't be alone in discovering the quirks of a different culture and trying to understand their social ways. Sure, he was from a different state but that didn't matter. She had a fellow Malaysian she could relate with and talk to and that was all that mattered.

"I here same reason as you lor," she replied with a chuckled. "They send me here after they close the school. Me ar? Good good. Okay lah! You leh?" [Translation: I'm here for the same reason as you. The sent me here after the school shut down. Me? (a rhetorical question) I'm good. I'm okay. What about you?]

It was indeed, Mei Xin, and at the reply he received, he couldn't help but grin. It was so good to hear someone else speak and not have that hard to hear British accent, which was so difficult to decipher, no matter how many times he heard it. If he didn't pay attention when someone was speaking, he wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of what they were saying! But Mei Xin spoke him language; she spoke Malaysian.

He laughed at her reaction. "Sorry lor," he joked. "I also so surprise to see you, I dunno believe or not! After I dah gila imagine you there. Of course mesti double check lah."

Nodding at her explanation, he shrugged. "Eh, but they send people different place leh. All my friend-friend also go different place... But they say hor, my result also very high lor, so they send me here," he explained. Then, realising how it sounded, he quickly added, "Eh, not being perasan, k? Just saying fact only..."

Smiling at her, he said, "Good, good. Boleh tahan lah. Very different here lor, the system. In school, hor, memorise fact also cannot pass. Dunno what they want also."

[[OOC: I will post translations when I have the mental strength to think of translations. xD]]

Mei Xin grinned at his reply. She hadn't realised how much she'd missedhearing the Malaysian slang until now. Sure, she'd talked with her parents via cellphone but that was different since it was mostly a mix of Hokkien, Cantonese or other Chinese dialects. What she was having here with Chee Wye was true Malaysian talk - a mix of everything.

Always one to be caught up in contagious laughter - she could never hold back a grin or chuckled when she saw people laughing heartily even though she didn't know what they were laughing at - she broke into laughter herself when Chee Wye laughed.

"No lah, no lah," she replied after she managed to control her laughter, though a grin still lingered on her lips. "You not gila. If you gila I will tell you wan."[No, you're not crazy. I would tell you if you were crazy. "Gila" is a Malay word meaning crazy/mad.]

Mei Xin listened as Chee Wye spoke, a her grin blooming as he added his last statement. She didn't know him very well but from what she did know of him the last thing she would describe Chee Wye as was being perasan. "Same same! All my kakilang hor, they send other places and I thought right that I was the only one they send here you know," she responded.[Me too! They distributed all my friends to other schools and I thought I was the only one assigned to this school. "Kakilang": Hokkien literally translated into 'my own people']

She'd been very disappointed to learn that her closest friends were assigned to another school and she was the only one in her group of friends to be sent so far from home. She was glad to be further away from her oppressive parents but also sad to be so far from her friends. "And you where got perasan one? No la, you not perasan," she added.[You're not proud/a show off.]

She smiled at his answer to her question. "Ya lor," she nodded in agreement then continued. "But you lucky already, okay. You know ah, my parents want me to study for SPM also. As if school here not hard enough need to study extra some more." She shook her head. She loved studying, she really did but it became more of a chore when her parents forced it down her throat.[Yes, but you're lucky. Did you know that my parents want to me to study for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia? (an exam taken by 17 year olds similar to O-levels).]