It's a chilly and fair morning. Just finished my breakfast and waiting for my green apple to become softer from its rock-like state, for I had taken it out from the fridge a hour ago. I fell into quite a deep slumber yesterday night, although I had to wake up a few times to put on my gloves and grey winter jacket, for the night was chilling to the bone, probably due to the incessant rain which lasted for more than 12 hours! The rain was also intermittent, alternating between drizzles and showers.
Had my first IRHR 1001 ( Managing the Organization ) tutorial yesterday. There is a fairly good mix of cultures in my tutorial class. There are 2 Asians, one being a Korean girl. There is also a Swedish girl and a Kenyan boy. And of course, a Singaporean girl who is yours truly :P. My tutor is Tony, a Pakistanian middle-aged man who has lived in England and Australia before. He believes in widening in horizons and knowledge as much as possible. Thus, he has gained vast exposures by working in many different industries before, such as the finance,public relations,teaching,retail business and customer service sectors. He also travels widely as he wants to experience all the various cultures in the world. Today's tutorial session was interactive yet simple. We were asked to write our names on a card, so as to facilitate the awarding of participation points during subsequent tutorial lessons. Also, we could also get to know the names of one another in the class and each other's interests. Tony is also friendly, he spared no effort to interact with each and everyone of us during the tutorial. I told him that I like to watch Hongkong dramas, and he replied that he has watched all of Jackie Chan's and Bruce Lee's shows with enthusiasm. The tutorial session finished off with a essay intepretation worksheet. Tony is such an easygoing and understanding tutor. He mentioned that he would encourage us to participate during tutorial sessions and will try his best to include everyone in the debates and discussions. I feel greatly relieved knowing such a tutor, who sees students as his equal and not suboordinates.
It was already raining cats and dogs when I stepped out towards the exit of the Maths Building. And I couldn't proceed from there because I did not bring along my umbrella! I had no choice but to wait inside the building, pray that the rain would stop soon, for my CHEM 3210 lab session was at 1pm at the Science Building, which is an unsheltered distance away from where I was at. Despite the heavy shower, I saw some students scrambling to the nearest shelter without their umbrellas. By 12.45pm, the shower still persisted. So I used my lab coat as an umbrella to shield me from the rain and walked briskly to my next destination.
I was only 2 minutes late for lab, but the lecturer, Bob was already inside explaining the procedures to my lab mates. To add to further stress, I forgot to bring my scrunchie to tie my hair, I had to use a temporary rubber band which came from the snapped off portion of my handphone strap. But the rubber band was barely useful and in the end I just tucked my long tresses into the back of my labcoat. Lab session was even more terrible and stressful than that of CHEM 3310. It was even harder to locate the chemicals and apparatus, there was heavier human traffic and the spaces were so narrow, resulting in barely enough space to manoeuvre around. To add to further distress, I had to do one of the hardest experiments, according to Bob. The pressure was so immense that I burst into tears uncontrollably, lo and behold for everyone in the lab to see. How embarrassing! Luckily, 2 male labmates, Paul and Robert, and Bob tried to console me by saying that it is very normal for lab sessions to be stressful, and not to panick as the experimental outcome will not be as bad as I think. Bob even rendered a lot of assistance for the rest of the lab session. Ultimately, I managed to get the desired yellow metal complex, which meant that the experience was successful. I was touched beyond words. Perhaps it's the Australian culture to practice good customer service attitudes, for they want to make every cent of their salary worth. I also befriended my lab partner, a girl called Renee who lives a 10 minute drive distance away from UoN and grew up in the South Coast at Sydney and a boy called Heath. On two final notes, I really pray that subsequent CHEM 3210 and 3310 lab sessions will be much more smooth sailing and that I am proud to say that I have made at least 10 friends, since I arrived from Singapore 16 days ago. :)
Only ate lunch at 4+ pm, for I stayed in CHEM 3210 lab for a longer time than CHEM 3310.Had a banana,several green grapes and 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream which really helped to relax my tensed up nerves due to so many unexpected events happening in a day. Went out for a dinner gathering at Red Roosters with the usual party of 4 ( the Aarons, Hongjun and Huifang). Saw Weifan,Bowie,Jeannie and Oi Yin who were almost finishing their dinner. Felt cheated because I only got 1 chicken strip instead of 3, because 1 chicken strip costs $1.80! But in actual fact, I do not know whether it was a blur mistake on my part for not analyzing the menu carefully or the staff's mistake. Red Rooster is a fast food chain, possibly similar to a combination between Kenny Roger and Burger King.
Everyone was chatting, cracking jokes and laughing as usual, for a vast majority of us were long time friends from Taylor's College in Malaysia and being in UoN's Nutrition and Dietetics course. I felt bored at several instances, for I did not quite appreciate the contents of their conversations and their different genre of jokes.I guess I should make a better attempt to immerse myself in their conversations in future. All of us stayed in there until almost 10pm, for the rain showed no signs of stopping. Eventually, we gave up and decided to go home, for it was impossible to continue indefinitely. I took away a piece of observation from the dinner gathering- It is very common for strangers to make small talks to anyone, just like how an Australian man struck a conversation with me outside Woolworths last Saturday.
I had a very late dinner last night of lasagne and fried vegetables with chicken ( I am not sick of eating the same food often, at least for now ), at close to 11pm. But I am used to having late dinners anyway, the earliest being 8pm. Had my usual chat routine with Mummy, showered, and prepared to enter dreamland at around 1am. I also washed my clothes, but was too exhausted to hang them out last night. The cool weather is a good catalyst for falling into deep slumbers :P
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Cherlyn's 22nd Bday @ Blue Water Pizza
The entry is a little back dated, all thanks to the snail-paced internet connections here. I know that is no use venting my frustrations over it, but it really gets me quite worked up whenever I really have the need to use the Internet, to check my emails and Blackboard, which are quite important.
I realised that the Australians are very liberal in their dressing and fashion. The girls are not shy to wear low cut tops or super short mini skirts. And there are students who have piercings all over their face as well. Just wonder how could they tolerate the excruciating pain of being pierced all over. There is a fairly good mix of races in UoN. I see American-African, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese students. However, the vast majority of the students are Caucasians. A lot of UoN students drive to school daily, because transportation is not convenient and the buses stop operating early, say around 10-11pm. And professors look upon us, the students, as their equal instead of considering themselves superior to us. We can address them by their names, the same way we call our friends.
After CHEM 3310, I proceeded to the Science Building to look for the CHEM 3210 lab schedule. Bumped into Adam and he asked me whether I was lost. After telling him my purpose for coming to the Science Building, he offered to ask Robert, my CHEM 3210 lecturer to post up the schedule on the lab's noticeboard soon. How intiative of him! His fast speech during the lecture on Carbonyls is reminiscent of Prof Loh's CBC 113 lectures back in NTU.
Geoff handed out the tutorial on Material Balances and Units test paper during Green Engineering yesterday. Managed to do well for the Units test; scored the maximum mark which I predicted that I would get. However, Geoff expected us to get full marks because the questions were from the tutorial and the solutions were all provided. Nevertheless, I am really satisfied and hope to continue to keep up the good work. Unfortunately, I could no do a single question of the Material Balances tutorial, to add to further damage, the Material Balances Quiz is on Monday! I certainly do not want to do too badly for this quiz as I wish to accumulate as much marks as possible for the easier assessment items, so that I can have an easier time at the end of the semester.
Read through the 31 pages of my management textbook when I reached home. I started out with enthusiasm, but it slowly morphed into boredom and drowsiness as the reading progressed. Initially, I read the content very slowly, but got impatient and just simply skimmed through the last final pages. I do not know whether is it pure disinterest or prejudice towards business modules. But no matter what, it is imperative to clear this Business PE!
The highlight of the day was Cherlyn's 22nd birthday celebration at Blue Water Pizza.I couldn't help but grin that I have finally got to know someone who is older than me, albeit only by a month. The Blue Water Restaurant faces the sea where yachts and boats are present. Most of the people who came for the birthday celebration were dressed very elegantly, some even sexily. They also donned on makeup such as lipstick, blusher,eyeshadow and mascara. Needless to say, the birthday girl looked stunning that evening, in a nice dress,eyeshadow and contact lens.I felt a little odd, for I was dressed really casually in just a t-shirt and a pair a jeans. As a result, I felt a tad regretful for leaving all my pretty clothes at home and not bringing any along at all. However, Bowie suggested that I could buy some clothes during the summer sale season, which is now :)
There were at least 20 people present, all are Malaysians and almost all of them are Nutrition and Dietetics majors in UoN. Made 3 new friends there, Aili, Melissa and Eva. They are very friendly girls and really went all out to make me feel at ease by chatting and even joking with me. Melissa and Eva are staying on campus at the International House, while Aili stays quite near to Faulker Crescent. I took photos of Aili and Melissa together before dinner. Aili is a pretty girl who looks like an Eurasian, though she mentioned that no one ever thought that she is a Chinese at first sight. Melissa is a fair,chubby girl with big eyes who can hold her wine pretty well. Eva is soft spoken girl who wore really nice earrings. Exchanged numbers and msn addresses with Aili. Really hope to have her as a long term friend, for she is so amicable :)
Dinner was pretty ok, though the food took a long time to come, long waiting times for food to come seem like a culture in Newcastle! Shared calamaris,french fries,seafood pasta and 2 pizzas with Aarons,Hongjun and Huifang.Felt totally at home with the 3 girls and my friends, all the initial feelings of awkwardness and boredom had vaporized to thin air. After dinner, it was time to cut the cake. They sang birthday songs in 3 languages for Cherlyn : Cantonese, Chinese and English. Cherlyn took photos with everyone at the table. We all also got her a present and wrote our best wishes in a birthday card for her. This birthday card was personally made by Hongjun, and I must admit, he has a knack for art!
The rest of the night was spent posing for the cameras and chatting. Took a group photo with my pink camera, but it was rather blur :( Snapped a photo with Bowie too, who also looked beautiful that night. And she commented that she looked matured in the photo :P I really liked the birthday cake, for it is a cheese cake with a biscuit crust ( my favourite kind of cake). Some of the people even climbed a spiral staircase which was several storeys high to get a bird eye's view of the harbour where the restaurant is located.
Unfortunately, Huifang had bad abdominal pains that had persisted since 2 days ago. Apparently, it was so painful that she could not walk normally and had to sit down every now and then. So, we decided 2 bring her to Mater Hospital, so as to exclude the possibility of the intense pains being caused by appenditicitis. Bowie had a ruptured appendix and she had experienced severe abdominal pains too. As a result, she had to undergo an emergency operation to prevent the infection from spreading. Thanks to Aili, we managed 2 find the hospital, which was luckily, still open. I really like Aili's personality, she is very honest and forthright, yet does not offend others with her words. Mater Hospital is small compared to the hospitals in Singapore. And they have a chart of the estimated waiting time according to the extent of emergency of the various illness or injuries. Huifang's case happens to fall under the 1 hour waiting time category, for non emergency cases.
Worried that Aili and I might be too tired, Aaron decided to send us home first before going back to the hospital to wait for Huifang to finish seeing the doctor. I certainly appreciate such considerate acts from guys :) Luckily, e cause behind Huifang's abdominal pains is not too serious. She is merely suffering from a bacteria infection. If it was appendicitis, there will be large costs incurred from the hospitalization and operation fees. Hope she will get well soon after buying medicine from a chemist :) By the way, the term "chemist'' is equivalent to the term "pharmacist'' in Singapore.
On a random note, it is common for mosquito bites to leave persistent scars in Australia. Melissa told me that mosquito bite scars on her arms have been present since a year ago and that she intends to go for suntanning to make herself darker, so as to camouflage the scars. I certainly hope that Berroca, a vitamin C supplement which I take everyday will accelerate the scars disappearing process!
I realised that the Australians are very liberal in their dressing and fashion. The girls are not shy to wear low cut tops or super short mini skirts. And there are students who have piercings all over their face as well. Just wonder how could they tolerate the excruciating pain of being pierced all over. There is a fairly good mix of races in UoN. I see American-African, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese students. However, the vast majority of the students are Caucasians. A lot of UoN students drive to school daily, because transportation is not convenient and the buses stop operating early, say around 10-11pm. And professors look upon us, the students, as their equal instead of considering themselves superior to us. We can address them by their names, the same way we call our friends.
After CHEM 3310, I proceeded to the Science Building to look for the CHEM 3210 lab schedule. Bumped into Adam and he asked me whether I was lost. After telling him my purpose for coming to the Science Building, he offered to ask Robert, my CHEM 3210 lecturer to post up the schedule on the lab's noticeboard soon. How intiative of him! His fast speech during the lecture on Carbonyls is reminiscent of Prof Loh's CBC 113 lectures back in NTU.
Geoff handed out the tutorial on Material Balances and Units test paper during Green Engineering yesterday. Managed to do well for the Units test; scored the maximum mark which I predicted that I would get. However, Geoff expected us to get full marks because the questions were from the tutorial and the solutions were all provided. Nevertheless, I am really satisfied and hope to continue to keep up the good work. Unfortunately, I could no do a single question of the Material Balances tutorial, to add to further damage, the Material Balances Quiz is on Monday! I certainly do not want to do too badly for this quiz as I wish to accumulate as much marks as possible for the easier assessment items, so that I can have an easier time at the end of the semester.
Read through the 31 pages of my management textbook when I reached home. I started out with enthusiasm, but it slowly morphed into boredom and drowsiness as the reading progressed. Initially, I read the content very slowly, but got impatient and just simply skimmed through the last final pages. I do not know whether is it pure disinterest or prejudice towards business modules. But no matter what, it is imperative to clear this Business PE!
The highlight of the day was Cherlyn's 22nd birthday celebration at Blue Water Pizza.I couldn't help but grin that I have finally got to know someone who is older than me, albeit only by a month. The Blue Water Restaurant faces the sea where yachts and boats are present. Most of the people who came for the birthday celebration were dressed very elegantly, some even sexily. They also donned on makeup such as lipstick, blusher,eyeshadow and mascara. Needless to say, the birthday girl looked stunning that evening, in a nice dress,eyeshadow and contact lens.I felt a little odd, for I was dressed really casually in just a t-shirt and a pair a jeans. As a result, I felt a tad regretful for leaving all my pretty clothes at home and not bringing any along at all. However, Bowie suggested that I could buy some clothes during the summer sale season, which is now :)
There were at least 20 people present, all are Malaysians and almost all of them are Nutrition and Dietetics majors in UoN. Made 3 new friends there, Aili, Melissa and Eva. They are very friendly girls and really went all out to make me feel at ease by chatting and even joking with me. Melissa and Eva are staying on campus at the International House, while Aili stays quite near to Faulker Crescent. I took photos of Aili and Melissa together before dinner. Aili is a pretty girl who looks like an Eurasian, though she mentioned that no one ever thought that she is a Chinese at first sight. Melissa is a fair,chubby girl with big eyes who can hold her wine pretty well. Eva is soft spoken girl who wore really nice earrings. Exchanged numbers and msn addresses with Aili. Really hope to have her as a long term friend, for she is so amicable :)
Dinner was pretty ok, though the food took a long time to come, long waiting times for food to come seem like a culture in Newcastle! Shared calamaris,french fries,seafood pasta and 2 pizzas with Aarons,Hongjun and Huifang.Felt totally at home with the 3 girls and my friends, all the initial feelings of awkwardness and boredom had vaporized to thin air. After dinner, it was time to cut the cake. They sang birthday songs in 3 languages for Cherlyn : Cantonese, Chinese and English. Cherlyn took photos with everyone at the table. We all also got her a present and wrote our best wishes in a birthday card for her. This birthday card was personally made by Hongjun, and I must admit, he has a knack for art!
The rest of the night was spent posing for the cameras and chatting. Took a group photo with my pink camera, but it was rather blur :( Snapped a photo with Bowie too, who also looked beautiful that night. And she commented that she looked matured in the photo :P I really liked the birthday cake, for it is a cheese cake with a biscuit crust ( my favourite kind of cake). Some of the people even climbed a spiral staircase which was several storeys high to get a bird eye's view of the harbour where the restaurant is located.
Unfortunately, Huifang had bad abdominal pains that had persisted since 2 days ago. Apparently, it was so painful that she could not walk normally and had to sit down every now and then. So, we decided 2 bring her to Mater Hospital, so as to exclude the possibility of the intense pains being caused by appenditicitis. Bowie had a ruptured appendix and she had experienced severe abdominal pains too. As a result, she had to undergo an emergency operation to prevent the infection from spreading. Thanks to Aili, we managed 2 find the hospital, which was luckily, still open. I really like Aili's personality, she is very honest and forthright, yet does not offend others with her words. Mater Hospital is small compared to the hospitals in Singapore. And they have a chart of the estimated waiting time according to the extent of emergency of the various illness or injuries. Huifang's case happens to fall under the 1 hour waiting time category, for non emergency cases.
Worried that Aili and I might be too tired, Aaron decided to send us home first before going back to the hospital to wait for Huifang to finish seeing the doctor. I certainly appreciate such considerate acts from guys :) Luckily, e cause behind Huifang's abdominal pains is not too serious. She is merely suffering from a bacteria infection. If it was appendicitis, there will be large costs incurred from the hospitalization and operation fees. Hope she will get well soon after buying medicine from a chemist :) By the way, the term "chemist'' is equivalent to the term "pharmacist'' in Singapore.
On a random note, it is common for mosquito bites to leave persistent scars in Australia. Melissa told me that mosquito bite scars on her arms have been present since a year ago and that she intends to go for suntanning to make herself darker, so as to camouflage the scars. I certainly hope that Berroca, a vitamin C supplement which I take everyday will accelerate the scars disappearing process!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Insomnia, laggy internet connections piss me off
I realised that I have been in Newcastle for a fortnight already. Glad to announce that I am more familiar with the school surroundings and have made more friends. However, the downside is that the deadlines of the many assignments are looming closer and closer with each passing day. But I have yet to start on any of them, really pray that my momentum to overcome the great inertia arrives soon.
Going to Adam’s CHEM 3310 lectures are strongly recommended, for most of the things he talks about cannot be found in the lecture notes. It can also help me jolt back some lost memories like the contents in CBC 113 and CBC 213, for I have forgot about almost all the content in these 2 modules. I made 3 new friends during CHEM 3310 lab yesterday. They are Jacob,James and Catherine. These 3 Australians are very helpful as they were more than willing to answer my questions and assist me in locating where the apparatus is. There are many differences between the chemistry lab in UoN and NTU. Firstly, you have to locate all the apparatus yourself, unlike in NTU where each and everyone of us gets a box containing all the necessary apparatus. Secondly, there is no fixed schedules for the completion of experiments, for Adam believes that more than 1 experiment takes place in a single laboratory lab. We can work our experiments at our own time and target, as long as we complete all the experiments by the end of the semester. Same goes for the lab reports. In NTU, there is a fixed schedule for every individual where experiments are concerned. Only one experiment can be done per week. I definitely prefer NTU’s method of assigning experiments, for it reduces confusion and disorganization significantly. Most of the machines in UoN operate in a different manner from NTU. We must record all our findings in a lab book and let the demonstrator in charge sign it. There are no postgraduate students walking around to help us with our experiments. Only Adam and a lab technician, Emily are present. Naturally, I felt very confused when I realised the stark difference in the management of lab sessions between UoN and NTU. So, whatever my friends did during the lab, I discreetly followed, to minimize any chances of screwing up the experimental parts. After all, they have been in UoN for two years already. Seems that going for lab also sparks off another phase of culture shock!
Since I arrived in Newcastle, I have cultivated a good habit to ensure that I eat fruits and vegetables everyday. As a result, I have no worries of getting constipation. And the food that I personally cook seems to taste better too, perhaps the reason behind this opinion is psychological. Went out with the Aarons, Hong Jun and Huifang to the House of Peking for dinner. We ordered beancurd with carrot, beef with vegetables, fish cakes with vegetables and chicken with vegetables, with white rice and Chinese tea to complement the dishes. The food was delicious as usual. The lady boss was polite as usual and recommended some desserts to us. However, we were too full after the dinner to ingest anymore desserts. However, I hope to try the deep fried ice-cream here someday. And yesterday evening was the first time I saw lightning streaks flash across the sky , n addition to experiencing rainfall in Newcastle. It can rain a few times in a day but the shower is usually short-lived. After the sumptuous dinner, we headed to Woolsworth. The Aarons bought 4 big bottles of soft drinks and some cleaning agents.
Could not fall into a deep slumber last night, for a whirlpool of thoughts was swirling in my mind. I was worried about not performing well for future assignments and being troubled over the fact that I had neither printed my important school documents nor completed most of the tasks on my checklist. Insomnia makes me feel restless, but yet I cannot do anything about it. But I did have weird dreams when I was in a semi sleeping mode, just before I woke up for school.
These days, Huifang has been interacting with me more than usual. Hope we can interact with each other even more in the future! The Australian mosquitos are incredibly strong, they can even fly into indoor areas like the library to bite unsuspecting victims like me and piercing through our clothes to suck our blood. Thankfully, dengue fever is almost non-existent here! It gets really annoying when you cannot access your Student mail and Blackboard from home to check for important notices. I wish Adam would minimize the number of errors in the things he puts up on Blackboard, it can make one feel very irritated and confused.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tired but happy :)
This entry was supposed to be up yesterday, but Blogger chose to play me out and "gobble'' up the entry which I had so painstakenly typed. Well, let me recount on the events that happened yesterday.
Saw the same flock of ducks on the way to school. I used to wonder how could they survive in a jungle with only lush greenery and no water around. I only realised that there is a pond in the vicinity of the regular path I always take home last night. And the caws of crows were incessant as usual, but I have yet to see any of these black birds around.
CHEM 3310 is starting to pick up speed at an exponentially fast rate. Felt demoralised when I could not solve a relatively simple question on free radical substitution. In addition, the organic chemistry assignment will be posted on Wednesday. The questions are actually from the lecture notes, but they are much more challenging than the basics and require higher order thinking skills. Unfortunately, I am not too proficient in application questions up till now. Hope I can brush up on this skill during my stay here. Adam sped thru the brief recap slides on carbonyls, leaving me breathless.I really think all my organic chemistry knowledge has been put away in storage :
Proceeded to Auchmuty library after chemistry lessons to surf the net and print my notes. Chatted with Zhaoyang online and he gave me many valuable advices of how to manage my culture shock woes and emotions over here. Thanks alot, buddy! Also, encountered a very friendly and cheery librarian who spared no effort to assist me on putting a management textbook on hold. Kudos to the good service! However, my book would only come in a few days, as they need time to ship the book from the Ourimbah Campus ( its 12 km away from Newcastle ) to Callaghan Campus. Callaghan campus is the place where most of the UoN students are found, with myself included.
Ate a mushroom quiche for lunch. It is very filling but also rather oily at the same time. Had my green engineering quiz on Units. It was rather challenging initially, but luckily I managed to save 30 marks during the last few minutes of the duration allowed. Felt rather relieved after the test, hope I can do well for it though it's only worth 5% of the total grade. We learnt about material balances today, but I have yet to revise the lecture notes. I should really do so because I can never absorb much on the spot during lectures, plus this is a very new topic to me.
Met Bowie on the way out of the Engineering building. She gave me a friendly smile and asked where I was going. I always appreciate such friendliness and caring traits from friends, especially from one who has both inner and outer beauty. :) Walked to the University Bookshop where I bought my compulsory management textbooks for only $97.10. The actual price was about $111.Also got myself a yellow UoN t-shirt which cost $24.95. No doubt it sounds pricey, but it is a once in a lifetime chance that I get to buy such a personalized t-shirt, so why not grab this golden opportunity?
Did not pay much attention during Management lecture, for I was tired from having to stay in school from 10am-8pm. Shaun Ryan seemed even more crude than during his first lecture. Ironically, he said that he is a big softie despite being a big-sized man. But as long as you obey his rules, which are not that difficult to follow, he will leave u alone. The biggest challenge of this module, is to participate actively and conquer the heaps of readings. By hook or by crook, I must accomplish these tasks satisfactorily.
Fried vegetables with eggs for dinner, in addition to a microwaved chicken and potato dish. The Aarons popped by unexpectedly and offered to bring Hj,Hf and me out for dinner. The guys often do things spontaneously, with no pre-plannings. As a result, I could not finish my vegetables on time. But nevertheless, I readily agreed to them join them for purely socializing purposes, despite being full already. Ideally, I hope they give me some time to prepare in future, say 10-20 minutes. Had a nice time interacting with the Aarons, especially Aaron Shak who spoke alot to me, something he never did before. Plus, we even laughed together. His sense of humour is such an obvious trademark, seems that laughter is the best medicine huh? Weiming did not speak very much but he responded quite well to my initiatives to engage in a conversation. Excellent! My relationship with them has progressed up to another rung on the friendship ladder :)
Orginally, we had intended to dine at the House of Peking. But it was closed by the time we reached ! Aw, that was a real dampener! In the end, the Aarons had to settle for take-aways from Hungry Jacks as their dinner. By then it was already 10pm. The Aarons sent me home and left after bidding me goodbye. As I opened the door to home, a very natural smile began to curve out on my face. It is definitely a very good feeling to interact so happily and naturally with new friends. My mood yesterday was a stark contrast to how I felt the few days before - grouchy,cynical and bitter.
Chatted with Mummy and Liyun on msn last night, played some Bejewelled, yakked with Edward on the phone before snoozing off at 1.20am. May the sun shine brighter and brighter in the following days to come :)
Saw the same flock of ducks on the way to school. I used to wonder how could they survive in a jungle with only lush greenery and no water around. I only realised that there is a pond in the vicinity of the regular path I always take home last night. And the caws of crows were incessant as usual, but I have yet to see any of these black birds around.
CHEM 3310 is starting to pick up speed at an exponentially fast rate. Felt demoralised when I could not solve a relatively simple question on free radical substitution. In addition, the organic chemistry assignment will be posted on Wednesday. The questions are actually from the lecture notes, but they are much more challenging than the basics and require higher order thinking skills. Unfortunately, I am not too proficient in application questions up till now. Hope I can brush up on this skill during my stay here. Adam sped thru the brief recap slides on carbonyls, leaving me breathless.I really think all my organic chemistry knowledge has been put away in storage :
Proceeded to Auchmuty library after chemistry lessons to surf the net and print my notes. Chatted with Zhaoyang online and he gave me many valuable advices of how to manage my culture shock woes and emotions over here. Thanks alot, buddy! Also, encountered a very friendly and cheery librarian who spared no effort to assist me on putting a management textbook on hold. Kudos to the good service! However, my book would only come in a few days, as they need time to ship the book from the Ourimbah Campus ( its 12 km away from Newcastle ) to Callaghan Campus. Callaghan campus is the place where most of the UoN students are found, with myself included.
Ate a mushroom quiche for lunch. It is very filling but also rather oily at the same time. Had my green engineering quiz on Units. It was rather challenging initially, but luckily I managed to save 30 marks during the last few minutes of the duration allowed. Felt rather relieved after the test, hope I can do well for it though it's only worth 5% of the total grade. We learnt about material balances today, but I have yet to revise the lecture notes. I should really do so because I can never absorb much on the spot during lectures, plus this is a very new topic to me.
Met Bowie on the way out of the Engineering building. She gave me a friendly smile and asked where I was going. I always appreciate such friendliness and caring traits from friends, especially from one who has both inner and outer beauty. :) Walked to the University Bookshop where I bought my compulsory management textbooks for only $97.10. The actual price was about $111.Also got myself a yellow UoN t-shirt which cost $24.95. No doubt it sounds pricey, but it is a once in a lifetime chance that I get to buy such a personalized t-shirt, so why not grab this golden opportunity?
Did not pay much attention during Management lecture, for I was tired from having to stay in school from 10am-8pm. Shaun Ryan seemed even more crude than during his first lecture. Ironically, he said that he is a big softie despite being a big-sized man. But as long as you obey his rules, which are not that difficult to follow, he will leave u alone. The biggest challenge of this module, is to participate actively and conquer the heaps of readings. By hook or by crook, I must accomplish these tasks satisfactorily.
Fried vegetables with eggs for dinner, in addition to a microwaved chicken and potato dish. The Aarons popped by unexpectedly and offered to bring Hj,Hf and me out for dinner. The guys often do things spontaneously, with no pre-plannings. As a result, I could not finish my vegetables on time. But nevertheless, I readily agreed to them join them for purely socializing purposes, despite being full already. Ideally, I hope they give me some time to prepare in future, say 10-20 minutes. Had a nice time interacting with the Aarons, especially Aaron Shak who spoke alot to me, something he never did before. Plus, we even laughed together. His sense of humour is such an obvious trademark, seems that laughter is the best medicine huh? Weiming did not speak very much but he responded quite well to my initiatives to engage in a conversation. Excellent! My relationship with them has progressed up to another rung on the friendship ladder :)
Orginally, we had intended to dine at the House of Peking. But it was closed by the time we reached ! Aw, that was a real dampener! In the end, the Aarons had to settle for take-aways from Hungry Jacks as their dinner. By then it was already 10pm. The Aarons sent me home and left after bidding me goodbye. As I opened the door to home, a very natural smile began to curve out on my face. It is definitely a very good feeling to interact so happily and naturally with new friends. My mood yesterday was a stark contrast to how I felt the few days before - grouchy,cynical and bitter.
Chatted with Mummy and Liyun on msn last night, played some Bejewelled, yakked with Edward on the phone before snoozing off at 1.20am. May the sun shine brighter and brighter in the following days to come :)
Monday, February 25, 2008
Retail therapy
I realised that for the past few dinners, I have been eating lasagne. This is because I bought a big box of it,ie. 1.4kg and it expires on the 1st March.So, I need to finish it soon enough so that I do not have to throw away the expired leftovers. Should heed Mum's advice and buy a smaller packet in future. Fried vegetables for dinner twice in a row already, except that today, I added chicken to the vegetables. And the end product was satisfactory, so proud of myself :)
Ok,let's backtrack for what I did today. Finally ate the cereal which I had bought yonks ago from Jesmond. It is delicious but I do not quite like the rod shaped cereals inside. But overall, the breakfast was fine. Not forgetting a red apple to make it a more balanced meal. Nothing interesting happened until lunch time, except for playing Bejewelled. Lunch was instant noodles with fried egg.
At around 3pm, I took a the long tedious walk to Jesmond under the blazing hot sun. It was still a bit tiring for me, but hey, one needs some time to adapt to walking such a long distance with a lot of irregular gradients right? Went to Jesmond Fruit Barn first, according to Hongjun, the fruits there are very fresh. There was really a wide variety of fruits,meats,vegetables and health food over there. Bought some bananas,apples,grapes and mushrooms from there. The next destination was a stationery shop where I got a clear folder for my lab reports and 2 metal fasteners for my lab manuals. I wondered why they did not sell plastic ones instead, like the ones in Singapore.
Here comes the climax of retail therapy. I bought a pink billabong bag. The price was being slashed down significantly, from $49.95 to $29.95. That will be my new school bag from now on :) Yet another pink item to my collection. The last stop was Woolsworth, where I got another load of groceries again, this time, attempting to buy more vegetables and noodles to cook by myself, such as udon and pasta. Looks like I will not need to do shopping for at least a fortnight. Bumped into the Aarons at Jesmond, who were there to eat lunch. Just greeted them and the three of us went on our own separate ways.
After making my purchases at Woolsworth and waiting for the couple to finish their grocery shopping, an Australian man came struck a casual conversation with me. He told me that Singapore has a good mix of races and various cultures, just like Sydney. However, in his opinion, Newcastle is rather boring and the only thing to look forward to was the grand final of a football match at night. I was feeling a bit strange and doubtful about him talking to me spontaneously, but in the end I felt that it was fine. Maybe that was because he made compliments about Singapore. The conversation stopped when he went to buy beer. The couple came out shortly, and then we proceeded to take a cab home.
Dinner was spent in front of the tv,savoring the chicken that Hongjun bought and with a majority of my housemates, except for one. We were all watching the show, "Can you dance? Australia.'' The dances were all very exotic and erotic, but the agility and creativity the participants showed impressed me a little. This show reminds me of "The Dance Floor'' back in Singapore.
The rest of the night was spent chatting with Mummy and friends on MSN. Really glad to be in their presence spiritually, albeit not physically. On a final note, Hongjun invited me to his friend's birthday gathering this Wednesday, 6pm. I obliged almost immediately for I would not want to pass up on a chance of getting to know new people :)
Ok,let's backtrack for what I did today. Finally ate the cereal which I had bought yonks ago from Jesmond. It is delicious but I do not quite like the rod shaped cereals inside. But overall, the breakfast was fine. Not forgetting a red apple to make it a more balanced meal. Nothing interesting happened until lunch time, except for playing Bejewelled. Lunch was instant noodles with fried egg.
At around 3pm, I took a the long tedious walk to Jesmond under the blazing hot sun. It was still a bit tiring for me, but hey, one needs some time to adapt to walking such a long distance with a lot of irregular gradients right? Went to Jesmond Fruit Barn first, according to Hongjun, the fruits there are very fresh. There was really a wide variety of fruits,meats,vegetables and health food over there. Bought some bananas,apples,grapes and mushrooms from there. The next destination was a stationery shop where I got a clear folder for my lab reports and 2 metal fasteners for my lab manuals. I wondered why they did not sell plastic ones instead, like the ones in Singapore.
Here comes the climax of retail therapy. I bought a pink billabong bag. The price was being slashed down significantly, from $49.95 to $29.95. That will be my new school bag from now on :) Yet another pink item to my collection. The last stop was Woolsworth, where I got another load of groceries again, this time, attempting to buy more vegetables and noodles to cook by myself, such as udon and pasta. Looks like I will not need to do shopping for at least a fortnight. Bumped into the Aarons at Jesmond, who were there to eat lunch. Just greeted them and the three of us went on our own separate ways.
After making my purchases at Woolsworth and waiting for the couple to finish their grocery shopping, an Australian man came struck a casual conversation with me. He told me that Singapore has a good mix of races and various cultures, just like Sydney. However, in his opinion, Newcastle is rather boring and the only thing to look forward to was the grand final of a football match at night. I was feeling a bit strange and doubtful about him talking to me spontaneously, but in the end I felt that it was fine. Maybe that was because he made compliments about Singapore. The conversation stopped when he went to buy beer. The couple came out shortly, and then we proceeded to take a cab home.
Dinner was spent in front of the tv,savoring the chicken that Hongjun bought and with a majority of my housemates, except for one. We were all watching the show, "Can you dance? Australia.'' The dances were all very exotic and erotic, but the agility and creativity the participants showed impressed me a little. This show reminds me of "The Dance Floor'' back in Singapore.
The rest of the night was spent chatting with Mummy and friends on MSN. Really glad to be in their presence spiritually, albeit not physically. On a final note, Hongjun invited me to his friend's birthday gathering this Wednesday, 6pm. I obliged almost immediately for I would not want to pass up on a chance of getting to know new people :)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
A boring weekend
This is probably the first time I stayed at home all day since I arrived in Newcastle. Hongjun asked if I wanted to gym with Huifang and him, but I turned down their offer because I was in the midst of my "stoning'' mood,during which my mind is totally blank and I have almost infinite inertia to get to my feet from my comfortable lying position on the bed. Managed 2 complete my green engineering tutorial and that gave me a sense of satisfaction and confidence that I would be able to pass the quiz on Monday, albeit there was 1.5 question out of the 10 questions which I could not solve. Chatted alot with Mummy on MSN and Skype today, and as usual, our conversations were very engaging. Talked to dad too and he emphatized with my boring and uncomfortable situation in Australia. I would never have guessed that internet connections in Australia are a gazillion times worse than Singapore. Guess it is because of the large number of people on such a vast country. Songs take a long time to finish streaming, let alone movies or tv dramas.
Had instant chow mein,the left over corn and chicken campbell soup,chicken with gravy and an apple for lunch. Simple but hearty. Talked a little with Wilson in the afternoon when he was sunning his bedding and he was trying to chase Emerald,the cat away because she wanted to rest on his bedding. I named the cat Emerald because of her piercing green eyes. I just hope my eyes don't suffer any further from the way I concentrate on the screen when playing Bejewelled and the strong sun rays that penetrate through the transparent window panes in the kitchen whenever I do the dishes in the day. To add to further discomfort to my eyes, the metallic surfaces of the sink and tap reflect the sunlight very well into my eyes. As a result, I see a huge green floater for a while even after I leave the kitchen.
The Aarons came today, but I again, refused to go out with the group because I had eaten my lunch already. It was already past 5 and they still haven't had their lunch yet! *jaw drops. I felt a little guilty refusing them, for they might see me as a either a snob or a wet blanket for refusing 2 kind offers in a day. But too bad, they called on me when I was stoning or having just awoken from an afternoon nap. But seriously, I must try my very best not to reject chances to go out with them again, because these outings provide me with golden opportunities to interact and accelerate the processes of moulding invaluable friendships with them.
Just returned from a mini walk outside home to get some fresh air. The air was cool and refreshing and I took a few photos of the house,flowers in the vicinity and the sunset. I never enjoyed taking photos as much as I do now. And today, I just finished uploading a fresh set of photos onto my shutterfly. For those who want to view them, please email or leave me a MSN offline message. I will try to update on the photos weekly, provided that the internet is obedient :P
I foresee that my pink slippers will give me blisters between my big toe and second toe in time to come,because I am starting to feel the "frictional'' pain there already. Argh.
Those who work in the food and beverage industry in Australia enjoy really high wages, according to Bowie. They are paid $7-$20 an hour! When the wages are exchanged into Malaysian ringgit, the amount of money is huge! If only Singapore offers such attractive wages for the waitresses and waiters.
Had instant chow mein,the left over corn and chicken campbell soup,chicken with gravy and an apple for lunch. Simple but hearty. Talked a little with Wilson in the afternoon when he was sunning his bedding and he was trying to chase Emerald,the cat away because she wanted to rest on his bedding. I named the cat Emerald because of her piercing green eyes. I just hope my eyes don't suffer any further from the way I concentrate on the screen when playing Bejewelled and the strong sun rays that penetrate through the transparent window panes in the kitchen whenever I do the dishes in the day. To add to further discomfort to my eyes, the metallic surfaces of the sink and tap reflect the sunlight very well into my eyes. As a result, I see a huge green floater for a while even after I leave the kitchen.
The Aarons came today, but I again, refused to go out with the group because I had eaten my lunch already. It was already past 5 and they still haven't had their lunch yet! *jaw drops. I felt a little guilty refusing them, for they might see me as a either a snob or a wet blanket for refusing 2 kind offers in a day. But too bad, they called on me when I was stoning or having just awoken from an afternoon nap. But seriously, I must try my very best not to reject chances to go out with them again, because these outings provide me with golden opportunities to interact and accelerate the processes of moulding invaluable friendships with them.
Just returned from a mini walk outside home to get some fresh air. The air was cool and refreshing and I took a few photos of the house,flowers in the vicinity and the sunset. I never enjoyed taking photos as much as I do now. And today, I just finished uploading a fresh set of photos onto my shutterfly. For those who want to view them, please email or leave me a MSN offline message. I will try to update on the photos weekly, provided that the internet is obedient :P
I foresee that my pink slippers will give me blisters between my big toe and second toe in time to come,because I am starting to feel the "frictional'' pain there already. Argh.
Those who work in the food and beverage industry in Australia enjoy really high wages, according to Bowie. They are paid $7-$20 an hour! When the wages are exchanged into Malaysian ringgit, the amount of money is huge! If only Singapore offers such attractive wages for the waitresses and waiters.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Charleston Square!
Woke up at 10+ am today, for I slept at 2am+ the previous night. I realised that recently, the weather has become much warmer. I need not wear my windbreaker anymore and I can even wear shorts without feeling cold. Sounds so much like Singapore weather huh? And those unsightly red mosquito bites are still persisting on my arms and legs. How I wish they will fade off soon!
Ate an apple and croissant bread 4 breakfast. The apple is really sweet and easy to bite, plus it is packed with a myriad of vitamins to keep my health in perfect balance :) After breakfast, I played Bejewelled and surfed the net,before attempting my Units tutorial. It was very demoralizing doing the tutorial, because I could not do several questions. Let's hope I can figure out all my doubts by Sunday, for the test is on Monday!
Had to discard the macoroni which I left to soak overnight yesterday, for they disintegrated and looked like some disgusting soft mash when I attempted to boil it for lunch. Luckily, Huifang was around and assisted me in cooking a new round of macoroni. I made a scrambled egg and added soya sauce to it. After the marcoroni had softened, I boiled some campbell soup and added it to the macoroni. Overall, the lunch preparation was quite successful as all the food was palatable. Afterall, this is my maiden try on frying eggs! Better late than never!
Simon, the landlord came in the midst of our lunch preparation to settle the rent and house issues. I told him to change the rusty utensil tray while my friends asked for the beehive to be destroyed, get a mop and broom and fix the short circuit problems arising from the usage of the vacumn cleaner. Speaking of which, I tried to vacumn my room this morning but it was futile. The stupid vacumn cleaner just refused to operate! And the washing machine was acting against me as well. Instead of drying my clothes, I found them floating on the water! But thankfully in the end, thanks to Hongjun's help, I managed 2 dry my clothes successfully.
Went to Charleston Square in the afternoon with the Aarons,Hongjun and Huifang. Charleston Square, according to Hongjun, is the biggest shopping centre in Newcastle. But I did not find anything special about it, but multi carpark reminded me of IMM though. Met Bowie and Weifan there too. They had taken a half an hour bus ride from home to the shopping centre. Purchased a pink pair of roxy slippers which cost only $9.55 as there was a sale going on. The original price was more than $10. Then had afternoon tea at the food court. I ate KFC chicken nuggets, but it wasn't as nice as I hoped it would be. Weifan shared her fries with me though we only started talking today, how sweet! Learnt alot of things from Bowie too, such as what is Taylor's College in Kuala Lumpur and that she can work for 20 hours per week in accordance to her student visa.
After the afternoon snack, Aaron sent us home before going back to the Formula 1 Hotel. Invited Huifang to my room and we had a heart to heart talk for almost an hour. Realised that her advices are very matured, but I am sad to say that our personalities seem to clash rather drastically. One wrong move and that might jeopardize our friendship. Well, guess that the purpose of an exchange is to accept people for their differences. And of course, be receptive to new cultures and horizons.
Fried vegetables and ate the lasagne which I had thawed for 3 hours together. The vegetables are all right but the carrots were a tad too hard, or should I say crunchy. Shall cover the pot for a longer time in future. Huifang fried chicken udon for dinner, looks sumptuous ! Aim to learn to cook more dishes here so that when I go back home, I would be able to prepare a decent meal for my family members.
Lastly, chatted with Kris online. He assured me that UoN's modules are not very stressful and he has faith that I can pass my exams. Well,let's hope he is right. On an abrupt note, I am tired, wish to nod off to lala land now. Goodnight !
Ate an apple and croissant bread 4 breakfast. The apple is really sweet and easy to bite, plus it is packed with a myriad of vitamins to keep my health in perfect balance :) After breakfast, I played Bejewelled and surfed the net,before attempting my Units tutorial. It was very demoralizing doing the tutorial, because I could not do several questions. Let's hope I can figure out all my doubts by Sunday, for the test is on Monday!
Had to discard the macoroni which I left to soak overnight yesterday, for they disintegrated and looked like some disgusting soft mash when I attempted to boil it for lunch. Luckily, Huifang was around and assisted me in cooking a new round of macoroni. I made a scrambled egg and added soya sauce to it. After the marcoroni had softened, I boiled some campbell soup and added it to the macoroni. Overall, the lunch preparation was quite successful as all the food was palatable. Afterall, this is my maiden try on frying eggs! Better late than never!
Simon, the landlord came in the midst of our lunch preparation to settle the rent and house issues. I told him to change the rusty utensil tray while my friends asked for the beehive to be destroyed, get a mop and broom and fix the short circuit problems arising from the usage of the vacumn cleaner. Speaking of which, I tried to vacumn my room this morning but it was futile. The stupid vacumn cleaner just refused to operate! And the washing machine was acting against me as well. Instead of drying my clothes, I found them floating on the water! But thankfully in the end, thanks to Hongjun's help, I managed 2 dry my clothes successfully.
Went to Charleston Square in the afternoon with the Aarons,Hongjun and Huifang. Charleston Square, according to Hongjun, is the biggest shopping centre in Newcastle. But I did not find anything special about it, but multi carpark reminded me of IMM though. Met Bowie and Weifan there too. They had taken a half an hour bus ride from home to the shopping centre. Purchased a pink pair of roxy slippers which cost only $9.55 as there was a sale going on. The original price was more than $10. Then had afternoon tea at the food court. I ate KFC chicken nuggets, but it wasn't as nice as I hoped it would be. Weifan shared her fries with me though we only started talking today, how sweet! Learnt alot of things from Bowie too, such as what is Taylor's College in Kuala Lumpur and that she can work for 20 hours per week in accordance to her student visa.
After the afternoon snack, Aaron sent us home before going back to the Formula 1 Hotel. Invited Huifang to my room and we had a heart to heart talk for almost an hour. Realised that her advices are very matured, but I am sad to say that our personalities seem to clash rather drastically. One wrong move and that might jeopardize our friendship. Well, guess that the purpose of an exchange is to accept people for their differences. And of course, be receptive to new cultures and horizons.
Fried vegetables and ate the lasagne which I had thawed for 3 hours together. The vegetables are all right but the carrots were a tad too hard, or should I say crunchy. Shall cover the pot for a longer time in future. Huifang fried chicken udon for dinner, looks sumptuous ! Aim to learn to cook more dishes here so that when I go back home, I would be able to prepare a decent meal for my family members.
Lastly, chatted with Kris online. He assured me that UoN's modules are not very stressful and he has faith that I can pass my exams. Well,let's hope he is right. On an abrupt note, I am tired, wish to nod off to lala land now. Goodnight !
Rambo is not a movie for the faint hearted
After I came back from school, I slacked the afternoon away except for reading my management notes. The requirements are so demanding that it evokes feeling of nausea. But shall try my very best to have open mind towards this subject nevertheless.
Bowie and her friends popped over at around early evening to wash their clothes.Had a short chat with her before heading out to watch a movie at Granville. Had fast food- french fries and nuggets for dinner. The meal was quite pathetic, with only 4 nuggets. I prefer nuggets over fries. It was such a sinful meal,in order to lessen the guilt, I did not finish the french fries despite not being full yet. Watched a R18 movie called Rambo 4 with 9 of my friends, including Keegan. The movie is definitely the most bloody and gruesome I have ever watched in my life. A lot decapitations, cutting of limbs,stabbing,bodies being blown to pieces,massive amounts of blood being splashed about etc.I even felt my dinner,together with my stomach rising to my throat. The girls with me looked petrified too. But on the contrary, the guys' unblinking eyes were glued to the screen, their bodies showing no hint of flinching. Guess guys want to uphold their macho reputation huh? I just hope I don't get nightmares after watching this movie. Australian cinemas do not censor their movies,unfortunately.
After the horrifying visual treat, went to Woolsworth for more grocery shopping. Bought apples,instant noodles,vegetable salad and a ready-to-eat chicken dish. Took a photo of Weiming driving, and they mistook the camera flash for the flash from the speed camera, thus getting a slight shock. Right now, the Aarons have left for their new home in Wilkinson. The house has become significantly quiet now, without their loud guffaws and voices. They really have a good sense of humour, I must say. But I know they will come and visit us often :P
Bowie and her friends popped over at around early evening to wash their clothes.Had a short chat with her before heading out to watch a movie at Granville. Had fast food- french fries and nuggets for dinner. The meal was quite pathetic, with only 4 nuggets. I prefer nuggets over fries. It was such a sinful meal,in order to lessen the guilt, I did not finish the french fries despite not being full yet. Watched a R18 movie called Rambo 4 with 9 of my friends, including Keegan. The movie is definitely the most bloody and gruesome I have ever watched in my life. A lot decapitations, cutting of limbs,stabbing,bodies being blown to pieces,massive amounts of blood being splashed about etc.I even felt my dinner,together with my stomach rising to my throat. The girls with me looked petrified too. But on the contrary, the guys' unblinking eyes were glued to the screen, their bodies showing no hint of flinching. Guess guys want to uphold their macho reputation huh? I just hope I don't get nightmares after watching this movie. Australian cinemas do not censor their movies,unfortunately.
After the horrifying visual treat, went to Woolsworth for more grocery shopping. Bought apples,instant noodles,vegetable salad and a ready-to-eat chicken dish. Took a photo of Weiming driving, and they mistook the camera flash for the flash from the speed camera, thus getting a slight shock. Right now, the Aarons have left for their new home in Wilkinson. The house has become significantly quiet now, without their loud guffaws and voices. They really have a good sense of humour, I must say. But I know they will come and visit us often :P
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Demanding IRHR 1001
Hi, only had IRHR 1001 lecture today and the professor released us 1/2 hour early. The professor is strict and does not mince his words when he speaks. He asserted that he would confiscate phones that ring during his lecture and that he bars people from socializing in class and disrupting his lessons. If we flaunt his rules, we will be thrown out of the lecture hall. I feel indignant about his attitude, we are all grown ups, why treat us like primary school kids? And the course requirements are extremely demanding too. We have to participate actively in tutorials in order to pass,apply critical thinking and read heaps of things :( The worst thing is, that textbooks are required! Hopefully I can ask Eric to lend me his books, since he took this module before.
School woes seem to be looming towards me now. I have a Green Engineering quiz about Units on Monday and the tutorial is really challenging. I have to spend a lot of time converting units in several steps! Now I know that engineering is much more demanding than Science. Because there are tons and tons of calculations and memorizations to overcome. I hate memorizing things, though my memory can be good sometimes. For now, I just hope I can pass all my examinations in June so that I would not need to retake anything, and be spared from all the shame and agony for failing my modules.
On a happier note, I managed to walk home by the shortest route today and encountered Aaron's car while strolling towards home. Hongjun went out of the car and asked if I wanted to go to gym with them. I kindly turned down his offer because I wanted to have some private time to myself and I had not eaten lunch yet. But I told them I would join them next week for gym, it will be good to get some exercise. Had a hard time cutting the lasagne in the midst of an attempt to thaw it. In the end, I just used a spoon to scrape some of it from the top and microwaved it. In future, I shall take the frozen food out a few hours before cooking, so that it can thaw completely.
I think I am addicted to the game Bejewelled, ever since I installed the trial version in my computer. But the game gets disrupted after 5 minutes because the trial period has expired ! But not giving up, I always click onto the shortcut again and it gives me another 5 minutes extra each time I do so. Unfortunately, I have to restart my game every 5 minutes and my score decreases dramatically when I continue a unfinished game. Hongjun said I could install a program that will allow me to play the game smoothly without paying. Shall try to find it later.
Cooked campbell mushroom soup to complement the pizzas and garlic bread my friends ordered for dinner yesterday. The boys' stomachs are analagous to bottomless pits, they can finish almost a full pizza by their own. I was already feeling bloated after eating 3 slices and having a small piece of garlic bread. The pizzas here taste similar to those in Singapore, except that the crust is thinner.
Finally, I have gotten my Commonwealth bank card and I hereby declare that vanilla ice-cream with fruit salad is an ultimate treat to sweet tooths like me. On random notes, I never fail to hear crows cawing on the way to school and back. And the sound of crickets and people playing techno songs in the middle of the night.
School woes seem to be looming towards me now. I have a Green Engineering quiz about Units on Monday and the tutorial is really challenging. I have to spend a lot of time converting units in several steps! Now I know that engineering is much more demanding than Science. Because there are tons and tons of calculations and memorizations to overcome. I hate memorizing things, though my memory can be good sometimes. For now, I just hope I can pass all my examinations in June so that I would not need to retake anything, and be spared from all the shame and agony for failing my modules.
On a happier note, I managed to walk home by the shortest route today and encountered Aaron's car while strolling towards home. Hongjun went out of the car and asked if I wanted to go to gym with them. I kindly turned down his offer because I wanted to have some private time to myself and I had not eaten lunch yet. But I told them I would join them next week for gym, it will be good to get some exercise. Had a hard time cutting the lasagne in the midst of an attempt to thaw it. In the end, I just used a spoon to scrape some of it from the top and microwaved it. In future, I shall take the frozen food out a few hours before cooking, so that it can thaw completely.
I think I am addicted to the game Bejewelled, ever since I installed the trial version in my computer. But the game gets disrupted after 5 minutes because the trial period has expired ! But not giving up, I always click onto the shortcut again and it gives me another 5 minutes extra each time I do so. Unfortunately, I have to restart my game every 5 minutes and my score decreases dramatically when I continue a unfinished game. Hongjun said I could install a program that will allow me to play the game smoothly without paying. Shall try to find it later.
Cooked campbell mushroom soup to complement the pizzas and garlic bread my friends ordered for dinner yesterday. The boys' stomachs are analagous to bottomless pits, they can finish almost a full pizza by their own. I was already feeling bloated after eating 3 slices and having a small piece of garlic bread. The pizzas here taste similar to those in Singapore, except that the crust is thinner.
Finally, I have gotten my Commonwealth bank card and I hereby declare that vanilla ice-cream with fruit salad is an ultimate treat to sweet tooths like me. On random notes, I never fail to hear crows cawing on the way to school and back. And the sound of crickets and people playing techno songs in the middle of the night.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
2nd day of school, ducks and roses
Ah, finally I can blog here. I learnt from Dad that its completely normal for internet connections in Australia to be horrendously slow, how slow is slow? Well, my powerpoint lecture notes download at a speed at around 300+ bytes per second. Seems relevant to the fact that lifestyle is very laid back here. At this rate, it will take eternity to get my lecture notes. Thankfully, the internet connection speed at Auchmuty library is about the same speed as that in Lee Wee Nam library. The textbooks here are expensive ! Costs more than $100 ( Australian dollars ) per book. I just discovered that we can order our textbooks online and pay for it using credit card. Cool, isnt it? And UoN does not allow us to use Wikipedia to get information for formal essays and reports. Only scientific and internationally renowned websites are allowed. Sounds inflexible, because in NTU, Wikipedia is our source of dependence for knowledge. I think I should start bringing my thumbdrive to school to upload my photos and store information too.
On the way to school yesterday, I saw many beautiful roses in front of a house. They come in white,pink and red hues. Managed to snap a photo of them today. Roses are my favourite flowers. On the bridge leading to school, I saw a flock of ducks. They reminded me of the duck rice from the umbrella hawker centre a stone's throw away from Ivory Heights. Despite their cute appearances, Hongjun warned us that they are wild, and thus aggressive, and will attack strangers if we go too near to them. Feel more familiar with the route to the Chemistry building,to and fro from school now. I managed to walk home by myself yesterday, though I got a bit lost when i reached the Security building. Huifang pointed out several landmarks for me in order to get to school, like : not turning left when you see the roses, turn only when you see the two white trees, the pagoda on the opposite of the road that leads to the bridge to school, follow the bridge and you will see the security building etc. Guess that really helps alot!
Have already broke the ice with 2 of my other housemates. They are 1st and 3rd year medicine students from Hongkong and Indonesia. Their names are Alan ( the new boy who moved in ) and Wilson. Future doctors eh? Wilson even offered to share his chocolate chip ice-cream with me. But I feel that it would be better if I got my own ice-cream instead, it isn't so nice eating other's food unless I paid for them, although my housemates are far from calculating, more than willing to care and share. Cooked indo mee for lunch and dinner,which are deemed unhealthy by my mom. Don't worry, shall finish my vegetable salad that expires today. Huifang and Hongjun cooked rice together, like husband and wife. Hongjun does the cooking, Huifang does the washing of of their clothes. Love is in the air :P
Weiming ( Aaron Kong - shall call him that to avoid confusion between 2 Aarons ) let me play his Bejewelled game on his laptop It's similar to the one on MSN, but there are infinite number of levels and unlimited time. It's really fun to play but straining on the eyes and you have to scrutinize the screen for 3 similar jewels in order to progress, which isn't easy at times. I hope I can download games from school into my laptop soon, so that I will not be reduced to a nerd,poring through my notes day and night. Now, you see why the thumbdrive is so important?
Chatted with Clarissa and Mummy via Skype after a 2 hour nap. I want to get at least 8 hours of sleep a day, unlike the boys who stay up into the wee hours of the night to play games and wake up early the next day.They gave me alot of valuable advices of how to cope with exchange life, how to be more interactive with my housemates and schoolmates, not healthy to be so self conscious about being the oddball etc. I greatly appreciate that. I believe that life would get better, when I integrate better with people around me and get to know more new friends. Clarissa said that Weiming is a pretty boy, and he looked rather shocked when I told him that the person he resembles is a female. Weiming is not the least effeminate, just that his features are very refined and sharp. Not many Asians have such sharp features.
I believe when I return home ( wondering if to return in April, that is if I have nowhere else to go ), I will be a more confident and sociable person., after being pushed out my comfort zone and having to do all the housework and time management planning on my own. By the way, the grading system in UoN goes like this: High Distinction, Distinction, Credit, Pass and Fail. Will aim for a pass for all subjects, since letter grades will not be transferred back to NTU :) And, I hereby declare that I will have a 4 day week this semester, Fridays will be spent away from school.yeah! One bugging issue, should I do my IA next semester or the last semester? Still in a dilemma on whether to take Drug Design or not. If no, I will take "Are you Ok" as my last UE before I graduate.
Headed from green engineering tutorial where I met Chris again when he saw me doing my tutorial. Got his contact number and I have finally activated mi Australian sim card. The green engineering tutorial is so hard, although it sounds simple- converting units. Because I am not familar with the different units the engineering students use and the "cancel out'' method for conversion. Will have do read and finish practising the tutorial before the quiz on Monday. I certainly do not want to fail it. Some of the lecture venues still use chalk and blackboard. Met Aaron on the way home from school and he helped me carry the fruit salads which I had purchased from Shortland Building's grocery shop.
The fruit salad is delicious and a healthy snack, but I discarded the pineapples and strawberries. Weiming offered me his beef and cheese pie and Aaron helped me to warm it up. Wah, did not expect them to be so helpful. Shall try to be more sociable towards them in the future. To conclude on their personality, their actions speak MUCH louder than their words. Guess most guys are like that.
Went to Jesmond with Weiming and Aaron just now. Bought alot of ready to eat and easy to cook food. Cost me almost $50. Bought a huge box of chicken lasagne,yogurt, milk, a large tub of vanilla ice-cream to share with my roommates,marcoroni,butter croissants,campbell soup,and vegetables.Absolutely love dairy products,high in calcium too.
Now wondering what to eat for dinner tonight, thinking of finishing my salad and eating my ready-to-eat beef dish. Realised that I start to eat beef over here,I seldom eat red meat in Singapore. But since I am in Australia, why not just try different food? When I purchase my own food, I need to observe the expiry dates in order to plan when to eat them.
Wish to surf the web and catch some rest, tomorrow is great! only have 1 lesson from 1-3 pm :)
On the way to school yesterday, I saw many beautiful roses in front of a house. They come in white,pink and red hues. Managed to snap a photo of them today. Roses are my favourite flowers. On the bridge leading to school, I saw a flock of ducks. They reminded me of the duck rice from the umbrella hawker centre a stone's throw away from Ivory Heights. Despite their cute appearances, Hongjun warned us that they are wild, and thus aggressive, and will attack strangers if we go too near to them. Feel more familiar with the route to the Chemistry building,to and fro from school now. I managed to walk home by myself yesterday, though I got a bit lost when i reached the Security building. Huifang pointed out several landmarks for me in order to get to school, like : not turning left when you see the roses, turn only when you see the two white trees, the pagoda on the opposite of the road that leads to the bridge to school, follow the bridge and you will see the security building etc. Guess that really helps alot!
Have already broke the ice with 2 of my other housemates. They are 1st and 3rd year medicine students from Hongkong and Indonesia. Their names are Alan ( the new boy who moved in ) and Wilson. Future doctors eh? Wilson even offered to share his chocolate chip ice-cream with me. But I feel that it would be better if I got my own ice-cream instead, it isn't so nice eating other's food unless I paid for them, although my housemates are far from calculating, more than willing to care and share. Cooked indo mee for lunch and dinner,which are deemed unhealthy by my mom. Don't worry, shall finish my vegetable salad that expires today. Huifang and Hongjun cooked rice together, like husband and wife. Hongjun does the cooking, Huifang does the washing of of their clothes. Love is in the air :P
Weiming ( Aaron Kong - shall call him that to avoid confusion between 2 Aarons ) let me play his Bejewelled game on his laptop It's similar to the one on MSN, but there are infinite number of levels and unlimited time. It's really fun to play but straining on the eyes and you have to scrutinize the screen for 3 similar jewels in order to progress, which isn't easy at times. I hope I can download games from school into my laptop soon, so that I will not be reduced to a nerd,poring through my notes day and night. Now, you see why the thumbdrive is so important?
Chatted with Clarissa and Mummy via Skype after a 2 hour nap. I want to get at least 8 hours of sleep a day, unlike the boys who stay up into the wee hours of the night to play games and wake up early the next day.They gave me alot of valuable advices of how to cope with exchange life, how to be more interactive with my housemates and schoolmates, not healthy to be so self conscious about being the oddball etc. I greatly appreciate that. I believe that life would get better, when I integrate better with people around me and get to know more new friends. Clarissa said that Weiming is a pretty boy, and he looked rather shocked when I told him that the person he resembles is a female. Weiming is not the least effeminate, just that his features are very refined and sharp. Not many Asians have such sharp features.
I believe when I return home ( wondering if to return in April, that is if I have nowhere else to go ), I will be a more confident and sociable person., after being pushed out my comfort zone and having to do all the housework and time management planning on my own. By the way, the grading system in UoN goes like this: High Distinction, Distinction, Credit, Pass and Fail. Will aim for a pass for all subjects, since letter grades will not be transferred back to NTU :) And, I hereby declare that I will have a 4 day week this semester, Fridays will be spent away from school.yeah! One bugging issue, should I do my IA next semester or the last semester? Still in a dilemma on whether to take Drug Design or not. If no, I will take "Are you Ok" as my last UE before I graduate.
Headed from green engineering tutorial where I met Chris again when he saw me doing my tutorial. Got his contact number and I have finally activated mi Australian sim card. The green engineering tutorial is so hard, although it sounds simple- converting units. Because I am not familar with the different units the engineering students use and the "cancel out'' method for conversion. Will have do read and finish practising the tutorial before the quiz on Monday. I certainly do not want to fail it. Some of the lecture venues still use chalk and blackboard. Met Aaron on the way home from school and he helped me carry the fruit salads which I had purchased from Shortland Building's grocery shop.
The fruit salad is delicious and a healthy snack, but I discarded the pineapples and strawberries. Weiming offered me his beef and cheese pie and Aaron helped me to warm it up. Wah, did not expect them to be so helpful. Shall try to be more sociable towards them in the future. To conclude on their personality, their actions speak MUCH louder than their words. Guess most guys are like that.
Went to Jesmond with Weiming and Aaron just now. Bought alot of ready to eat and easy to cook food. Cost me almost $50. Bought a huge box of chicken lasagne,yogurt, milk, a large tub of vanilla ice-cream to share with my roommates,marcoroni,butter croissants,campbell soup,and vegetables.Absolutely love dairy products,high in calcium too.
Now wondering what to eat for dinner tonight, thinking of finishing my salad and eating my ready-to-eat beef dish. Realised that I start to eat beef over here,I seldom eat red meat in Singapore. But since I am in Australia, why not just try different food? When I purchase my own food, I need to observe the expiry dates in order to plan when to eat them.
Wish to surf the web and catch some rest, tomorrow is great! only have 1 lesson from 1-3 pm :)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Lookalikes! Typing in Auchmuty Library
Hey all. Some more things I observed during the first day of school yesterday. I am impressed with the printing system in Auchmuty Library. We will never lose our notes because in front of each set that we print, there will be a cover page stating our user ID. And if we do not manage 2 collect our notes immediately, the whole stack of them with the cover page will be placed conspicuously on the table. UoN's walls are made up of mostly bricks. There are many Caucasian students walking around, with very few Asian students. Lectures start punctually on the dot and release us around 10-15 minutes earlier. The blackboard system where we get our notes is similar to that of edventure. We do not need textbooks for CHEE 2931,CHEM 3210 and CHEM 3310.Hopefully.
Went out for dinner at the House of Peking again, with my housemates plus a whole lot of other Malaysians from UoN Biotechnology, Nutrition and Dietetics and Biomedical Science. Again, all of them seemed to know each other for years, from the easy way they talk with one another. Needless to say, I am the only Singaporean and the oldest AGAIN. I guess this cycle will keep repeating and repeating. And guess what, I met another 2 more lookalikes to people I know. Did not know that the DNA of Singaporeans and Malaysians can be so similar huh. William looks like Jonathan from the Gen X camp ( but their age gap is 6 years). Oi Yin reminds me of Jin Yue ( Serene's friend ) and a Singaporean boy who stays in Bowie's new house looks like a young Wang Desheng ( those who took MAS 181 will know ). Wah, isn't that fascinating? Chatted quite a bit with Eric, Hongjun's ex room mate. He's very friendly and easy to chat with. How I wish everyone was like him! Dinner consisted of Shandong chicken, lemon chicken, black bean chicken, prawns vegetables with mushroom together with plain rice. The dinner is marvellous yet cheap, only $10 per person.
Proceeded to Bowie's new house after that to look at the place and help her unpack her luggage. Her house is rather beautiful, with lovely wallpapers and comfortable big beds.But there is no dining room or living room. The house looks empty and clean. A friendly 1st year medicine student, Keegan, came out to entertain us. He is a Singaporean Chinese but speaks with an Australian accent. He has stayed in Sydney for 19 years of his life. I also felt quite comfortable interacting with him. His parents also stays in the house. But the downside to this house, is its location. It is very much further away from UoN's faculty buildings as compared to our house in Faulkner Crescent. But it is very near to the hostels in UoN.The 2 Aarons and Jason spent a considerable amount of time shifting all their belongings from the storage room to the new house. Hongjun helped Bowie install an anti virus system in her computer. Gleeful giggles and loud chatters filled the entire house. But sad to say, I was standing around in stony silence. I was starting to feel alienated, like an outcast. Went out into the open to get some fresh air and got several mosquito stings as a result. Luckily, by this morning, most of it had subsided, thanks to the tiger balm.
Reached home late and did not shower, for the fear of getting "feng shi''. Chatted a bit with Mummy and went off to sleep. Showed her the photo of Aaron Kong and she said that his eyes and spectacles resemble Clarissa,albeit the former having a bigger nose. The more I think of it, the more I feel like giggling. Even Clarissa does not look so similar to Charissa.I could sleep very well this time, the best so far, thanks to Bowie's blanket which she had very kindly lent me.
Back to school issue, I discovered a sheltered path from the Chemistry building to the Auchmuty Library, just by following the students. Shiok for the first week, as labs and tutorials only start in Week 2.Will continue later at night if the Internet connection is up and running. Wonder if it is still drizzling like half an hour ago. Going home now ! Bye !
Went out for dinner at the House of Peking again, with my housemates plus a whole lot of other Malaysians from UoN Biotechnology, Nutrition and Dietetics and Biomedical Science. Again, all of them seemed to know each other for years, from the easy way they talk with one another. Needless to say, I am the only Singaporean and the oldest AGAIN. I guess this cycle will keep repeating and repeating. And guess what, I met another 2 more lookalikes to people I know. Did not know that the DNA of Singaporeans and Malaysians can be so similar huh. William looks like Jonathan from the Gen X camp ( but their age gap is 6 years). Oi Yin reminds me of Jin Yue ( Serene's friend ) and a Singaporean boy who stays in Bowie's new house looks like a young Wang Desheng ( those who took MAS 181 will know ). Wah, isn't that fascinating? Chatted quite a bit with Eric, Hongjun's ex room mate. He's very friendly and easy to chat with. How I wish everyone was like him! Dinner consisted of Shandong chicken, lemon chicken, black bean chicken, prawns vegetables with mushroom together with plain rice. The dinner is marvellous yet cheap, only $10 per person.
Proceeded to Bowie's new house after that to look at the place and help her unpack her luggage. Her house is rather beautiful, with lovely wallpapers and comfortable big beds.But there is no dining room or living room. The house looks empty and clean. A friendly 1st year medicine student, Keegan, came out to entertain us. He is a Singaporean Chinese but speaks with an Australian accent. He has stayed in Sydney for 19 years of his life. I also felt quite comfortable interacting with him. His parents also stays in the house. But the downside to this house, is its location. It is very much further away from UoN's faculty buildings as compared to our house in Faulkner Crescent. But it is very near to the hostels in UoN.The 2 Aarons and Jason spent a considerable amount of time shifting all their belongings from the storage room to the new house. Hongjun helped Bowie install an anti virus system in her computer. Gleeful giggles and loud chatters filled the entire house. But sad to say, I was standing around in stony silence. I was starting to feel alienated, like an outcast. Went out into the open to get some fresh air and got several mosquito stings as a result. Luckily, by this morning, most of it had subsided, thanks to the tiger balm.
Reached home late and did not shower, for the fear of getting "feng shi''. Chatted a bit with Mummy and went off to sleep. Showed her the photo of Aaron Kong and she said that his eyes and spectacles resemble Clarissa,albeit the former having a bigger nose. The more I think of it, the more I feel like giggling. Even Clarissa does not look so similar to Charissa.I could sleep very well this time, the best so far, thanks to Bowie's blanket which she had very kindly lent me.
Back to school issue, I discovered a sheltered path from the Chemistry building to the Auchmuty Library, just by following the students. Shiok for the first week, as labs and tutorials only start in Week 2.Will continue later at night if the Internet connection is up and running. Wonder if it is still drizzling like half an hour ago. Going home now ! Bye !
Monday, February 18, 2008
1st day in school
Woke at 9.20am instead of 9am and rushed like crazy to get ready for school. All thanks to my carelessness. Finished my last of the 2 oily and salty sausages and apple juice and brisked walked to school with Hongjun and Huifang. Feel envious about the fact that they can attend lessons together and I will have to figure out the route to my lessons all by myself, which is definitely not easy as each of the various schools are split into many small buildings. And the distances between the buildings are not that near, compared to NTU. Regretted bringing my laptop along,for it weighed so heavily on my shoulder and the Internet connection was remote.
Was a bit late for the 1st lesson, CHEM 3310, as I was not familiar with the school route yet. The lecture room was non air conditioned and there were less than 20 students in the class. The lecture was rather elementary and could be compared to CBC 113 which I took in first year. Nevertheless, I cannot guarantee that the entire course will be that easy, since this module is meant for the year 3s. Did not get my lecture notes; I had to jot down notes to prevent myself from falling asleep. Lecture lasted from 1000-1130, the professor released us earlier as he did not give us a break in between.
With the help of a map, I made my way to the Student Union building where I purchased a chicken Subway sandwich, 2 writing pads, a hole puncher and a pre-paid card. With so many things at hand and having to figure out the route to the library to print notes and to have lessons, I was sweating despite the cool windy weather. I proceeded to the Auchmuty library after eating my sandwich, where I met a few kind souls who told me where to top up my student card to photocopy notes and successfully zap it to top it up with money. After internet sms-ing my friends, I headed towards my next destination, the Engineering building which was a painful long journey away, for my shoulder was aching due to my heavy laptop. Not to mention a painful mosquito sting on the skin of my right knuckle.cries*
During Green Engineering class, an Indonesian 2nd year chemical engineering guy called Chris broke the ice with me. He was rather friendly and answered all my questions willingly. This is the module so far which I do not need to purchase a textbook for! That is great, for I do not wish to burn too large a hole in my pocket. The lesson was fine, rather fundamental compared to NTU's CBC 933. Tried to use my laptop to surf the net again, but it was in vain. There are many more Caucasians in UoN than Asians, and its interesting to note how their eye and hair colours can vary.
Decided to attend IRHR1001 lecture on Thursday instead of today in the evening as I did not wish to return home too late. I was tired from all the walking and lugging the heavy laptop around. Got lost while trying to walk out despite directions from a friendly UoN student. A negro guy walked past and asked whether I was lost in a cheeky manner. Luckily, it was broad daylight and it posed less danger in the rather deserted spot which I ended up on. Called home and Aaron agreed to come and fetch me. True to his words, his light blue car arrived shortly after. What an embarrassment. An "entourage'' of friends had to come and fetch this seemingly "big-shot'' lost sheep. Hongjun bought for me an Australian simcard but I have yet to activate it. Hope to get it done soon. Ate a lemon flavored yogurt when I reached home. Sweet and not sour at all, I like!
Bowie is moving out today! :( But luckily I have her handphone number and MSN now, so that in case I am bored and get lost in school again, I can contact her. Hope I can get the handphone numbers of the rest of my friends soon. Getting lost and feeling helpless and worn out is not a good feeling! Deep inside me, I wish I could laugh and joke freely with my new found friends. But I guess a stable friendship takes time to build up. Shall be patient.
Okay, I have finished what I wanted to say. Wish to chat with my loved ones tonight :) Ciaoz.
Was a bit late for the 1st lesson, CHEM 3310, as I was not familiar with the school route yet. The lecture room was non air conditioned and there were less than 20 students in the class. The lecture was rather elementary and could be compared to CBC 113 which I took in first year. Nevertheless, I cannot guarantee that the entire course will be that easy, since this module is meant for the year 3s. Did not get my lecture notes; I had to jot down notes to prevent myself from falling asleep. Lecture lasted from 1000-1130, the professor released us earlier as he did not give us a break in between.
With the help of a map, I made my way to the Student Union building where I purchased a chicken Subway sandwich, 2 writing pads, a hole puncher and a pre-paid card. With so many things at hand and having to figure out the route to the library to print notes and to have lessons, I was sweating despite the cool windy weather. I proceeded to the Auchmuty library after eating my sandwich, where I met a few kind souls who told me where to top up my student card to photocopy notes and successfully zap it to top it up with money. After internet sms-ing my friends, I headed towards my next destination, the Engineering building which was a painful long journey away, for my shoulder was aching due to my heavy laptop. Not to mention a painful mosquito sting on the skin of my right knuckle.cries*
During Green Engineering class, an Indonesian 2nd year chemical engineering guy called Chris broke the ice with me. He was rather friendly and answered all my questions willingly. This is the module so far which I do not need to purchase a textbook for! That is great, for I do not wish to burn too large a hole in my pocket. The lesson was fine, rather fundamental compared to NTU's CBC 933. Tried to use my laptop to surf the net again, but it was in vain. There are many more Caucasians in UoN than Asians, and its interesting to note how their eye and hair colours can vary.
Decided to attend IRHR1001 lecture on Thursday instead of today in the evening as I did not wish to return home too late. I was tired from all the walking and lugging the heavy laptop around. Got lost while trying to walk out despite directions from a friendly UoN student. A negro guy walked past and asked whether I was lost in a cheeky manner. Luckily, it was broad daylight and it posed less danger in the rather deserted spot which I ended up on. Called home and Aaron agreed to come and fetch me. True to his words, his light blue car arrived shortly after. What an embarrassment. An "entourage'' of friends had to come and fetch this seemingly "big-shot'' lost sheep. Hongjun bought for me an Australian simcard but I have yet to activate it. Hope to get it done soon. Ate a lemon flavored yogurt when I reached home. Sweet and not sour at all, I like!
Bowie is moving out today! :( But luckily I have her handphone number and MSN now, so that in case I am bored and get lost in school again, I can contact her. Hope I can get the handphone numbers of the rest of my friends soon. Getting lost and feeling helpless and worn out is not a good feeling! Deep inside me, I wish I could laugh and joke freely with my new found friends. But I guess a stable friendship takes time to build up. Shall be patient.
Okay, I have finished what I wanted to say. Wish to chat with my loved ones tonight :) Ciaoz.
Delayed post
Hi, sorry for the slight delay in updating my blog due to the extremely poor internet connection. Let's start off with Sunday. Went to Hungry Jacks for lunch, ate an Ocean catch,the burger was delicious but couldn't finish it. I realise that Huifang has a small appetite, therefore she often has to share meals with her boyfriend. But I also guess that's probably why she has such a slim physique. Went home after that,and found out that a new housemate, a 1st year Hongkong boy had shifted in with his parents, leaving the Aarons no choice but to sleep outside. His parents really dote on their son, making no effort to spring clean his room with a vacumn cleaner. Apparently, he lived in Sydney with his parents for 10 years. Have not had the chance to talk to him yet, he seems like a quiet and shy boy.
Realised that life can get excruciatingly boring without the Internet. Finally understand why do those international students study to pass their time in hostel. Had my afternoon nap to kill time. Finally learnt how to close the binds for more privacy. My friends do not lock the house door when they go out, because they are fully confident that the house would not be burgled. Seems like a stark difference in safety between Australia and Johor. Even Hongjun admitted to having been mugged a few times in Johor. But luckily he did not sustain any injuries or lose any valuable things, except for a few dollars. He also said that the thieves are so elusive that even the policemen cannot nab them.
For dinner, Aaron ( Shak ) drove us to Hog's breath for dinner. Had an appetiser dish first, which consisted of calamari, spring roll, beef slices and chicken with 2 different kinds of dips. Did something naughty in the restaurant which was to secretly take a photo of Aaron ( Kong ) by using a camera without flash. And the unsuspecting boy appeared completely oblivious to my mischievious antic. The reason for doing so was to show Mummy and Clarissa ( who resembles Aaron Kong ) who similar looks he to my cousin. Laughs* Well, had "Gone fishing'' main dish for dinner. The food all has very fanciful names. My meal, which was a smaller version of the original, consisted of brocollii,carrots,curly fries,fish with garlic sauce and lemon plus a sweet corn. I was bloated even before I could finish the dish. It cost $16.45, don't know whether to consider it cheap or expensive. Before leaving the restaurant, I took a photo with Huifang.
After the satisfying dinner, Aaron drove us to Strzelecki Scenic View which allowed us to have a bird's eye view of Newcastle. The breeze was cool and refreshing, despite the place being almost pitch black. However, a mini accident happened. Bumped onto Huifang and one of my spectacle legs got detached. Got panicky when I did not manage to fix the leg back. For those who don't know, I have high myopia and will be as blind as a bat without my spectacles. Thanks to my very helpful friends who led me to the car and switched on the light, I managed to fix the leg back. That was a close shave!
Throughout the car journey, Hongjun and the Aarons were crapping non stop. I can't name any of their lame jokes offhand but they are really hilarious and laugh at the slightest things which most people probably won't find funny ( in my opinion ). However, I had my visual treats from the car window, the beach, the sea waves crashing on the shore, white lights from the ships and the lighthouse. The views were panaromic! Reached home at around 11pm, where I bathed, talked with Mummy and Edward on the phone, set the alarm clock for school tomorrow and drifted into la-la land.
Realised that life can get excruciatingly boring without the Internet. Finally understand why do those international students study to pass their time in hostel. Had my afternoon nap to kill time. Finally learnt how to close the binds for more privacy. My friends do not lock the house door when they go out, because they are fully confident that the house would not be burgled. Seems like a stark difference in safety between Australia and Johor. Even Hongjun admitted to having been mugged a few times in Johor. But luckily he did not sustain any injuries or lose any valuable things, except for a few dollars. He also said that the thieves are so elusive that even the policemen cannot nab them.
For dinner, Aaron ( Shak ) drove us to Hog's breath for dinner. Had an appetiser dish first, which consisted of calamari, spring roll, beef slices and chicken with 2 different kinds of dips. Did something naughty in the restaurant which was to secretly take a photo of Aaron ( Kong ) by using a camera without flash. And the unsuspecting boy appeared completely oblivious to my mischievious antic. The reason for doing so was to show Mummy and Clarissa ( who resembles Aaron Kong ) who similar looks he to my cousin. Laughs* Well, had "Gone fishing'' main dish for dinner. The food all has very fanciful names. My meal, which was a smaller version of the original, consisted of brocollii,carrots,curly fries,fish with garlic sauce and lemon plus a sweet corn. I was bloated even before I could finish the dish. It cost $16.45, don't know whether to consider it cheap or expensive. Before leaving the restaurant, I took a photo with Huifang.
After the satisfying dinner, Aaron drove us to Strzelecki Scenic View which allowed us to have a bird's eye view of Newcastle. The breeze was cool and refreshing, despite the place being almost pitch black. However, a mini accident happened. Bumped onto Huifang and one of my spectacle legs got detached. Got panicky when I did not manage to fix the leg back. For those who don't know, I have high myopia and will be as blind as a bat without my spectacles. Thanks to my very helpful friends who led me to the car and switched on the light, I managed to fix the leg back. That was a close shave!
Throughout the car journey, Hongjun and the Aarons were crapping non stop. I can't name any of their lame jokes offhand but they are really hilarious and laugh at the slightest things which most people probably won't find funny ( in my opinion ). However, I had my visual treats from the car window, the beach, the sea waves crashing on the shore, white lights from the ships and the lighthouse. The views were panaromic! Reached home at around 11pm, where I bathed, talked with Mummy and Edward on the phone, set the alarm clock for school tomorrow and drifted into la-la land.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
4th day in UoN-accomodation scouting day
Last night, the landlord, a short balding man in his fifties came to visit us late at night to discuss about the lease of the accomodation. Apparently, there were some misunderstandings between Hongjun and the landlord, and the situation seemed rather tense in the conversations between them. The landlord wanted us to vacate the house as soon as possible, as there would be two more people moving in.But Hongjun and the 2 Aarons vehemently refused to do so, for relationship and friendship reasons. That sparked off a long session of "preaching'' and minor arguments between Hongjun and the landlord. The landlord was rather long-winded and kept repeating his points. I could see my friends starting to look visibly tired and annoyed. After more than 1 hour, no consensus was reached. The landlord left, with Hongjun promising him that he and the 2 Aarons will try to work things out amicably.
The next morning, we all hopped onto Aaron's car to scout around for suitable accomodation as the guys hoped to get all of us a common house which is nearer to UoN. We went to several real estate agents. But there were many difficulties encountered. Most of the houses near UoN have been taken up as the school term is just around the corner. It was such a dampener. After a futile search, we decided to have lunch at Kingsland Chinese restaurant at Nelson Road. The landlord of our current house is actually the boss of the restaurant! What an enterprising man. The weather was sunny but rather windy. Had a hearty sumptuous lunch of rice, chinese tea, black peppered chicken, beef, prawn omelette and a vegetable dish. Today, I finally felt that I was able to bond better with my malaysian friends. We could even crack and laugh at each others' jokes. The search for suitable accomodation resumed after the delicious and rather costly lunch. The restaurant is big and the ambience gives one an oriental feel.
Some random observations I made today. Australians like to park their car head in, contrary to Singaporeans. The amber light does not turn into red light within a few seconds. There is a longer "window'' period. There are quite a lot of roundabouts. Saw a huge flock of birds flying in close proximity to each other in the sky, really united huh.The weather is so dry, my lips crack and bleed the moment I do not apply lip balm. The whole morning and afternoon was basically spent scouting for accomodation. Went home to have a short rest, and then went back to Kingsland Restaurant again to meet the landlord for more discussion about the current house lease. Kudos to Aaron, who took so much trouble to chauffeur us around :)
Again, we spent a long time talking to the landlord. Oh yes,his name is Simon by the way. All the way from 6pm to 8pm! Alas, all the time spent negotiating with him paid off. Hongjun,Huifang and I signed a 6 month contract to remain in the present house. The 2 Aarons will stay until Thursday and shift to Formula 1 Hotel to stay until mid March, when the new house in Wilkinson has completed the renovations. Wilkinson street is nearer to UoN, compared to the present house in North Lambton. The Aarons had to be separated from us, so that they can secure a 1 year lease period in Wilkinson, after 6 months when Huifang and I leave for home, Hongjun will move over there to join them.
Went shopping at Jesmond again. All of us bought alot of groceries and daily necessities for stocking up. I bought Vitamin C tablets, salad,fruit juice,cheese,some ready to eat food,toothbrush,shampoo and bathing cream.We also bought a lighter and some seasonings for the food. Thank goodness there is a car,or else we have to lug all the heavy grocery bags back home.
Had dinner only at 9pm or so. Ate potato salad,shared a whole chicken with Hongjun and Huifang and drank a cup of apple juice. Crapped and chatted with both of them. Came to realise that they are actually quite friendly and humourous when you get to know them better. Hongjun and the Aarons used to play basketball together, and thus they will miss each other when the two Aarons move out. But they promised to visit us often,it will be quite convenient because of a car. The soy chicken is delicious, similar to the ready- to- eat chicken from Giant. On a totally unrelated note, I did my first laundry today though it was far less than a full load.
Skyped with mummy and now chatting with Edward through MSN with our web cameras on. So love the wonders of wireless technology and the electric kettle. Just pour water into the kettle,switch on and let it boil. Once the water is boiled, it turns off automatically. Water will be one my best friends in Newcastle, to combat the horrendously dry weather!
Okay, think that's all I have to share with you all for today. Oh yes,one last thing, laggy Internet connections really get on my nerves, for I am oh so dependent on the Internet for entertainment and posting of photos. Shall try to attempt to post them up now :P
The next morning, we all hopped onto Aaron's car to scout around for suitable accomodation as the guys hoped to get all of us a common house which is nearer to UoN. We went to several real estate agents. But there were many difficulties encountered. Most of the houses near UoN have been taken up as the school term is just around the corner. It was such a dampener. After a futile search, we decided to have lunch at Kingsland Chinese restaurant at Nelson Road. The landlord of our current house is actually the boss of the restaurant! What an enterprising man. The weather was sunny but rather windy. Had a hearty sumptuous lunch of rice, chinese tea, black peppered chicken, beef, prawn omelette and a vegetable dish. Today, I finally felt that I was able to bond better with my malaysian friends. We could even crack and laugh at each others' jokes. The search for suitable accomodation resumed after the delicious and rather costly lunch. The restaurant is big and the ambience gives one an oriental feel.
Some random observations I made today. Australians like to park their car head in, contrary to Singaporeans. The amber light does not turn into red light within a few seconds. There is a longer "window'' period. There are quite a lot of roundabouts. Saw a huge flock of birds flying in close proximity to each other in the sky, really united huh.The weather is so dry, my lips crack and bleed the moment I do not apply lip balm. The whole morning and afternoon was basically spent scouting for accomodation. Went home to have a short rest, and then went back to Kingsland Restaurant again to meet the landlord for more discussion about the current house lease. Kudos to Aaron, who took so much trouble to chauffeur us around :)
Again, we spent a long time talking to the landlord. Oh yes,his name is Simon by the way. All the way from 6pm to 8pm! Alas, all the time spent negotiating with him paid off. Hongjun,Huifang and I signed a 6 month contract to remain in the present house. The 2 Aarons will stay until Thursday and shift to Formula 1 Hotel to stay until mid March, when the new house in Wilkinson has completed the renovations. Wilkinson street is nearer to UoN, compared to the present house in North Lambton. The Aarons had to be separated from us, so that they can secure a 1 year lease period in Wilkinson, after 6 months when Huifang and I leave for home, Hongjun will move over there to join them.
Went shopping at Jesmond again. All of us bought alot of groceries and daily necessities for stocking up. I bought Vitamin C tablets, salad,fruit juice,cheese,some ready to eat food,toothbrush,shampoo and bathing cream.We also bought a lighter and some seasonings for the food. Thank goodness there is a car,or else we have to lug all the heavy grocery bags back home.
Had dinner only at 9pm or so. Ate potato salad,shared a whole chicken with Hongjun and Huifang and drank a cup of apple juice. Crapped and chatted with both of them. Came to realise that they are actually quite friendly and humourous when you get to know them better. Hongjun and the Aarons used to play basketball together, and thus they will miss each other when the two Aarons move out. But they promised to visit us often,it will be quite convenient because of a car. The soy chicken is delicious, similar to the ready- to- eat chicken from Giant. On a totally unrelated note, I did my first laundry today though it was far less than a full load.
Skyped with mummy and now chatting with Edward through MSN with our web cameras on. So love the wonders of wireless technology and the electric kettle. Just pour water into the kettle,switch on and let it boil. Once the water is boiled, it turns off automatically. Water will be one my best friends in Newcastle, to combat the horrendously dry weather!
Okay, think that's all I have to share with you all for today. Oh yes,one last thing, laggy Internet connections really get on my nerves, for I am oh so dependent on the Internet for entertainment and posting of photos. Shall try to attempt to post them up now :P
Friday, February 15, 2008
3rd Day in UoN
Good morning, just finished breakfast of a Trail fruit bar, 2 super salty sausages ( urgh, I still have 6 more to finish ) and milk. Went for grocery shopping at Woolsworth last night after watching the movie, Jumper at Grand Union Theatres with 4 of my other housemates. Jumper is a really action-packed movie, with a really hunky main star,Hayden Christensen. A genetic abnormality had allowed him to teleport from one place to another,regardless of the distances at will. However, there is an organization called the Paladins who has sworn to get rid of all Jumpers,ie. people who have the ability to teleport as they deem such species of humans too dangerous to exist.Being able to teleport has many benefits, such as wriggling out of trouble, being able to save a lot on transportation fees,eliminating any possible worries of getting into traffic accidents and of course, saving your loved one from the ruthless Paladins who swore to get rid of anyone who got near the Jumpers. This movie kept me entertained for a good 100 minutes (approximately). I would rate this movie 4/5 stars. If you wish to know more, go watch the movie! It is already open in Singapore, however, in Newcastle, it has been open since 17th January!
After the movie, it was grocery shopping in Jesmond. Most of the shops were closed, except for the Woolsworth Supermart and a few others. There were many kinds of cheese and sausages for sale. The supermarket is similar to that in Perth and Singapore. Purchased a box of sausages, potato salad, muesli bars from Uncle Toby and a packet of apple juice. All ready to eat food as I still feel lazy to cook. Noticed that customer service in Newcastle is very good. They always greet you with : "Hi, how's your day?'' and after you pay up, they say "Thank you,darling!''. Good service really brightens my day. These words were also used in Perth when I went there for an English immersion programme organized by the University of Western Australia ( UWA).
Chatted with my friends and Mummy at night. But the Skype is forever laggy and web cameras cause the internet to slow down significantly, despite being able to see each others' faces. Guess we cannot have our cake and eat it too. Surfed the net too and finally nodded off at 2.22am.
Its 7.55 pm now,just finished dinner of half a big bowl of extremely sour pasta and grapes, which Bowie bought for me when I was having my afternoon nap. Yikes, felt as if I was eating lemons for dinner.n Let's rewind the day back to the time after we set off to UoN to make my student concession pass and look for new accomodation with my housemates. Realised that the houses in the vicinity were either fully booked or not sufficient rooms for 5.
Ate a tomato and cheese croissant for lunch. Not bad but a little oily.There a was blood donation drive at UoN today. There were 2 very special prerequisites for donation: Must not have done a tattoo for the past 12 months and no living in UK for 6 months or more from 1980-1996. Wonder why? If anyone knows, please drop me a comment.Hongjun said that UoN resembles a large institution amidst a dense jungle. I couldn't agree more, there is an abundance of lush greenery everywhere, which is good, because the air will very fresh!
Went down to 2 housing agents to take a look by car. Took a few photos from the car. There are overhanging electric cables at virtually every street. Weather was sunny and breezy. Less warm than yesterday. We wanted to look for a house that is nearer to University, has enough rooms and fully furnished. Actually, I find our present house at North Lambton satisfactory. Except that there are no shops in the vicinity. But like UoN, there is ubiquitous lush greenery.
The sun sets around 7+pm, and the sky is not completely dark by 8pm. Kb told me that the day is long and the night is short during summer, vice versa for winter. The water tastes different from SG, but still portable. I shall try to drink plenty of water daily, as the air is very dry. My facial skin has become rather dry and red within a span of 3 days. So I need to moisturize my face every night. The sausages are huge and are connected to one another and I had to use a knife to separate them. The microwave is similar to those in Singapore. There are 2 taps for every sink, red for hot,blue for cool. Many sharp winding roads and people generally drive quite fast. Surroundings are clean too,except for some dried up brown leaves on the ground.
Hope to interact more with my house mates, haven't really had a decent conversation with the 2 Aarons, who are Hongjun's friends. Seems that we are relying on each other to break the ice. Perhaps, after some time, we might just start talking naturally :) That's all for now, update tomorrow. Take care everyone!
After the movie, it was grocery shopping in Jesmond. Most of the shops were closed, except for the Woolsworth Supermart and a few others. There were many kinds of cheese and sausages for sale. The supermarket is similar to that in Perth and Singapore. Purchased a box of sausages, potato salad, muesli bars from Uncle Toby and a packet of apple juice. All ready to eat food as I still feel lazy to cook. Noticed that customer service in Newcastle is very good. They always greet you with : "Hi, how's your day?'' and after you pay up, they say "Thank you,darling!''. Good service really brightens my day. These words were also used in Perth when I went there for an English immersion programme organized by the University of Western Australia ( UWA).
Chatted with my friends and Mummy at night. But the Skype is forever laggy and web cameras cause the internet to slow down significantly, despite being able to see each others' faces. Guess we cannot have our cake and eat it too. Surfed the net too and finally nodded off at 2.22am.
Its 7.55 pm now,just finished dinner of half a big bowl of extremely sour pasta and grapes, which Bowie bought for me when I was having my afternoon nap. Yikes, felt as if I was eating lemons for dinner.n Let's rewind the day back to the time after we set off to UoN to make my student concession pass and look for new accomodation with my housemates. Realised that the houses in the vicinity were either fully booked or not sufficient rooms for 5.
Ate a tomato and cheese croissant for lunch. Not bad but a little oily.There a was blood donation drive at UoN today. There were 2 very special prerequisites for donation: Must not have done a tattoo for the past 12 months and no living in UK for 6 months or more from 1980-1996. Wonder why? If anyone knows, please drop me a comment.Hongjun said that UoN resembles a large institution amidst a dense jungle. I couldn't agree more, there is an abundance of lush greenery everywhere, which is good, because the air will very fresh!
Went down to 2 housing agents to take a look by car. Took a few photos from the car. There are overhanging electric cables at virtually every street. Weather was sunny and breezy. Less warm than yesterday. We wanted to look for a house that is nearer to University, has enough rooms and fully furnished. Actually, I find our present house at North Lambton satisfactory. Except that there are no shops in the vicinity. But like UoN, there is ubiquitous lush greenery.
The sun sets around 7+pm, and the sky is not completely dark by 8pm. Kb told me that the day is long and the night is short during summer, vice versa for winter. The water tastes different from SG, but still portable. I shall try to drink plenty of water daily, as the air is very dry. My facial skin has become rather dry and red within a span of 3 days. So I need to moisturize my face every night. The sausages are huge and are connected to one another and I had to use a knife to separate them. The microwave is similar to those in Singapore. There are 2 taps for every sink, red for hot,blue for cool. Many sharp winding roads and people generally drive quite fast. Surroundings are clean too,except for some dried up brown leaves on the ground.
Hope to interact more with my house mates, haven't really had a decent conversation with the 2 Aarons, who are Hongjun's friends. Seems that we are relying on each other to break the ice. Perhaps, after some time, we might just start talking naturally :) That's all for now, update tomorrow. Take care everyone!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Valentine's Day
Hi everyone.Just woke up. Had a long satisfying sleep. Used my thick winter coat as a blanket which was pretty effective.My blog time has been fixed to +1100, DST of Australia until 6th April.So you all will know roughly what time i eat my meals,wake up,sleep etc. Slept for a while when I reached the house in North Lambton. I choose the room nearest the entrance because it had many spare hangers which are not really dirty. The house is quite big, 7 rooms and has a huge toilet where I can put all my things freely. However, its still nothing like home where the familiarity breeds.
After the nap, went to Jesmond Shopping Centre with Huifang and Hongjun for dinner and get some groceries. The evening was cool and nice but the dampeners were the super steep slopes that we had to cross. Legs itched badly after that,probably due to the lack of blood circulation. Went to House of Peking, a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Most shops and eateries close around 5pm, which is super early by Singaporean standards. What a relaxing pace of living! As Mum had quoted. Ate beansprouts horfun, shared a mapo doufu with them and drank oolong tea.Hongjun footed the bill. The food is not bad but came in huge portions and are rather expensive. Had to dapao some of the hor fun back home.
Proceeded to a supermarket next to buy mineral water,fruits,and some cereal. Luckily there were 3 of us and we hired a cab,making travelling very much easier. However,a relatively short cab ride ( within walking distance ) costs $6 ( will use in terms in AU dollars from now on ).
Reached home,chatted on skype with mummy,surfed the net and then proceeded to take a shower. Nearly got scalded by the hot water and got chilled to the bone in the bathroom. Seems like a paradox huh? So, I learnt that from now on whenever I enter the bathroom, I must switch on the tap for cold water first,before turning on the tap for hot water. It is better to shiver than to get scalded, I think.
Decided to register for subjects and open a bank draft today with Hongjun and Huifang. Hopefully all goes well and my legs won't itch again after climbing the steep slopes. Need time to build up my stamina. Hopefully after I come, I would be able to walk faster. (p.s. Qbb, isn't that what you wished for? )
Walked to school, it was less strenuous compared to walking to Jesmond yesterday. Got bitten by some pesky mosquitos despite wearing pants. Hongjun said that the mosquitos are most active in summer and the occurence of mozzie bites should go down in autumn. Went to open a bank account first, the people were pretty friendly and were all donned in a bee mascot, which was a head band with two bee antennae sticking out.They gave each of us a goodie bag which contained a really cute pen in which you could pull paper out of it and a packet of barbequed chicken flavoured indo mee. Deposited my money in the bank and proceeded to the Bar on the Hill.It is like a cafe cum bar. Saw some students playing at the pool tables. Bought 2 wraps with meat and vegetable fillings for a special price of $4. The weather was really chilly during my lunch.
Then,went to the Student Services Centre to register for my subjects and get my student ID. The young people in red were very helpful and friendly although initially, I was flustered over not being able to log into the system to register. Right now, I still have yet to register the Green Engineering tutorial slot as the addition period for this module has not been started. Lastly, we went to the Bowman building to get our OSHC insurance cards before brisk walking back home as Hongjun wanted to welcome his 2 room mates into the house.
Skyped with Diana for a while, but the system was quite laggy. Nevertheless, it was great to see her online. The weather became really hot during late afternoon. The sun was blazing mercilessly in the sky. Saw a fat cute cat outside my room with piercing greenish yellow eyes. It tried to enter my room but was blocked by the plastic mesh. Even showed the Diana the cat and she felt the same way about it too. I get all excited when I see cats, because I am a cat lover :P Even took two photos of it. Giggles*
Went to take a nap because I felt tired and here I am, having just awoke, typing this post, wondering if my friends are going out for dinner or self catering tonight.
After the nap, went to Jesmond Shopping Centre with Huifang and Hongjun for dinner and get some groceries. The evening was cool and nice but the dampeners were the super steep slopes that we had to cross. Legs itched badly after that,probably due to the lack of blood circulation. Went to House of Peking, a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Most shops and eateries close around 5pm, which is super early by Singaporean standards. What a relaxing pace of living! As Mum had quoted. Ate beansprouts horfun, shared a mapo doufu with them and drank oolong tea.Hongjun footed the bill. The food is not bad but came in huge portions and are rather expensive. Had to dapao some of the hor fun back home.
Proceeded to a supermarket next to buy mineral water,fruits,and some cereal. Luckily there were 3 of us and we hired a cab,making travelling very much easier. However,a relatively short cab ride ( within walking distance ) costs $6 ( will use in terms in AU dollars from now on ).
Reached home,chatted on skype with mummy,surfed the net and then proceeded to take a shower. Nearly got scalded by the hot water and got chilled to the bone in the bathroom. Seems like a paradox huh? So, I learnt that from now on whenever I enter the bathroom, I must switch on the tap for cold water first,before turning on the tap for hot water. It is better to shiver than to get scalded, I think.
Decided to register for subjects and open a bank draft today with Hongjun and Huifang. Hopefully all goes well and my legs won't itch again after climbing the steep slopes. Need time to build up my stamina. Hopefully after I come, I would be able to walk faster. (p.s. Qbb, isn't that what you wished for? )
Walked to school, it was less strenuous compared to walking to Jesmond yesterday. Got bitten by some pesky mosquitos despite wearing pants. Hongjun said that the mosquitos are most active in summer and the occurence of mozzie bites should go down in autumn. Went to open a bank account first, the people were pretty friendly and were all donned in a bee mascot, which was a head band with two bee antennae sticking out.They gave each of us a goodie bag which contained a really cute pen in which you could pull paper out of it and a packet of barbequed chicken flavoured indo mee. Deposited my money in the bank and proceeded to the Bar on the Hill.It is like a cafe cum bar. Saw some students playing at the pool tables. Bought 2 wraps with meat and vegetable fillings for a special price of $4. The weather was really chilly during my lunch.
Then,went to the Student Services Centre to register for my subjects and get my student ID. The young people in red were very helpful and friendly although initially, I was flustered over not being able to log into the system to register. Right now, I still have yet to register the Green Engineering tutorial slot as the addition period for this module has not been started. Lastly, we went to the Bowman building to get our OSHC insurance cards before brisk walking back home as Hongjun wanted to welcome his 2 room mates into the house.
Skyped with Diana for a while, but the system was quite laggy. Nevertheless, it was great to see her online. The weather became really hot during late afternoon. The sun was blazing mercilessly in the sky. Saw a fat cute cat outside my room with piercing greenish yellow eyes. It tried to enter my room but was blocked by the plastic mesh. Even showed the Diana the cat and she felt the same way about it too. I get all excited when I see cats, because I am a cat lover :P Even took two photos of it. Giggles*
Went to take a nap because I felt tired and here I am, having just awoke, typing this post, wondering if my friends are going out for dinner or self catering tonight.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Finally in Newcastle!
Last night, I took the 22:15 Sydney bound plane by Qantas,which stops over at Adelaide for transit. Parents,relatives,Edward,Li Yun and Li Dan came to see me off. Not forgetting Yiling who gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers on behalf of the lamers. So touched! Li Yun also gave me a box of chocolates. Its a pity that I can't bring the chocolates and flowers over there,as Australia is very strict about any possible foreign soil and food. Nevertheless, all the well wishes from my loved ones are greatly appreciated ! Thank you everybody. Though I may not be around physically, but at least the advanced wonders of wireless technology will bridge the physical distance between me and all those who care for me :) Like Skype, internet sms and MSN.
The screening of the hand held luggage was butter smooth this time around,compared to the HK trip where they had to dispose of my shampoo and body foam bottles which were more than the allowed 100ml in capacity. It was such a heartache back then. Now the heartache stems from leaving my beloved home,parents and family for such a long time. Tears welled up in my eyes before I left home for the airport and when I had to proceed towards the departure gate.
The plane departed at around 22:49 (Singapore time). I was having a headache from all the mixed feelings churning inside me. So afraid I would get giddy and feel faint. Luckily, that did not happen. The flight attendants were mostly caucasians and the flight stewardesses were rather pretty and friendly. Service was not too bad, there was a blanket and a pillow for sleeping last night. Plus supper at around 0000+ ( Singaporean time) which consisted of sweet potato puree,salmon with white wine,thai chicken salad ( i only ate the cabbage because the chicken was too salty),lychee dessert,butter bread,chocolate bar and fresh fruit juice. Stomach felt queasy after that, because I never ever had such a heavy meal at midnight before! Tried to nod off, but the plane kept encountering minor turbulences throughout the night, causing it to shake and ruining my efforts to try to sleep =_= Varying sleeping positions didn't really help either, whether it was resting my head against the pillow which I pressed on the wall or adjusting the seat as far back as it could.
Giving up, I decided to just close my eyes and rest, while occasionally looking at the flight details, such as the distance to Adelaide,time remaining to destination,the altitude and the speed of the plane. Qantas airplane reached a speed of 1000km/hr,woah, the SIA and CX planes that I sat never went that fast ! After some hours, I decided to gaze out of the window into the sky and I saw a myriad of stars! The dawn sky looked absolutely stunning, as I never saw so many stars in such close proximity together in Singapore.I checked the screen, the airplane had already entered Australia. Regretted not having a camera with me that time.
Then,sunrise approached. Managed to take a few photos of it. Shall let the photos do the talking in my shutterfly account :P Had breakfast at about 4+ am ( Singapore time ). Urgh, felt a bit disgusted. Just a mere few hours ago, I had been so full to the extent of wanting to vomit , and now breakfast again. Nice breakfast nevertheless.Raisin pastry,fresh fruits,orange juice,and tea.Finished almost all of it except the butter biscuit which I eventually threw away because it had crumbled to bits in my pocket.
Reached Adelaide at around 7.39 am ( which is actually 5.09 am SG time ). Lost my boarding pass but luckily the lady was nice enough to make another one for me. My hand luggage was checked again before boarding the same flight to Sydney, which left at around 9.15am.The plane was very empty when I boarded it the second time. Had a bottle of orange juice and its cap was really difficult to unscrew.Reached Sydney at around 11.30 am ( 8.30 am SG time). Clearance was smooth and proceeded to meet Huifang,Hongjun and their friend, Bowie at MacDonalds. We waited for around an hour for the happy cabby to bring us to our house in North Lambton. Bought a Krispy Kreme doughnut while waiting, costs AU $2.25 ! Not bad but a tad too sweet. Refilled water bottle too.
The happy cabby journey cost AU $55! Good grief, really expensive! But the only redeeming factor was that the journey was 3 hours long, so had some time to catch up on lost sleep. The bus driver was friendly bud I felt that he drove a bit too fast at the sharp bends. The scenery in Sydney is similar to Perth, not too much human traffic and lots of houses around. Chose a room nearest to the door in our house. There were 2 other guys staying there already, one of them even helped us fix our internets. Really nice. Or else I would not be able to skype or MSN. However, we may be shifting to another house. Hopefully not, though the house is not exactly very clean, but its decent. Has all the necessary facilities. So right now, I am typing this blog entry while charging my handphone and camera batteries. And in addition, enjoying the cloudy,windy and cooling weather.
Okay, I think I have blogged an entry that is long enough. Continue next time. Shall enjoy the remaining few days of freedom before school officially starts on 18th!
The screening of the hand held luggage was butter smooth this time around,compared to the HK trip where they had to dispose of my shampoo and body foam bottles which were more than the allowed 100ml in capacity. It was such a heartache back then. Now the heartache stems from leaving my beloved home,parents and family for such a long time. Tears welled up in my eyes before I left home for the airport and when I had to proceed towards the departure gate.
The plane departed at around 22:49 (Singapore time). I was having a headache from all the mixed feelings churning inside me. So afraid I would get giddy and feel faint. Luckily, that did not happen. The flight attendants were mostly caucasians and the flight stewardesses were rather pretty and friendly. Service was not too bad, there was a blanket and a pillow for sleeping last night. Plus supper at around 0000+ ( Singaporean time) which consisted of sweet potato puree,salmon with white wine,thai chicken salad ( i only ate the cabbage because the chicken was too salty),lychee dessert,butter bread,chocolate bar and fresh fruit juice. Stomach felt queasy after that, because I never ever had such a heavy meal at midnight before! Tried to nod off, but the plane kept encountering minor turbulences throughout the night, causing it to shake and ruining my efforts to try to sleep =_= Varying sleeping positions didn't really help either, whether it was resting my head against the pillow which I pressed on the wall or adjusting the seat as far back as it could.
Giving up, I decided to just close my eyes and rest, while occasionally looking at the flight details, such as the distance to Adelaide,time remaining to destination,the altitude and the speed of the plane. Qantas airplane reached a speed of 1000km/hr,woah, the SIA and CX planes that I sat never went that fast ! After some hours, I decided to gaze out of the window into the sky and I saw a myriad of stars! The dawn sky looked absolutely stunning, as I never saw so many stars in such close proximity together in Singapore.I checked the screen, the airplane had already entered Australia. Regretted not having a camera with me that time.
Then,sunrise approached. Managed to take a few photos of it. Shall let the photos do the talking in my shutterfly account :P Had breakfast at about 4+ am ( Singapore time ). Urgh, felt a bit disgusted. Just a mere few hours ago, I had been so full to the extent of wanting to vomit , and now breakfast again. Nice breakfast nevertheless.Raisin pastry,fresh fruits,orange juice,and tea.Finished almost all of it except the butter biscuit which I eventually threw away because it had crumbled to bits in my pocket.
Reached Adelaide at around 7.39 am ( which is actually 5.09 am SG time ). Lost my boarding pass but luckily the lady was nice enough to make another one for me. My hand luggage was checked again before boarding the same flight to Sydney, which left at around 9.15am.The plane was very empty when I boarded it the second time. Had a bottle of orange juice and its cap was really difficult to unscrew.Reached Sydney at around 11.30 am ( 8.30 am SG time). Clearance was smooth and proceeded to meet Huifang,Hongjun and their friend, Bowie at MacDonalds. We waited for around an hour for the happy cabby to bring us to our house in North Lambton. Bought a Krispy Kreme doughnut while waiting, costs AU $2.25 ! Not bad but a tad too sweet. Refilled water bottle too.
The happy cabby journey cost AU $55! Good grief, really expensive! But the only redeeming factor was that the journey was 3 hours long, so had some time to catch up on lost sleep. The bus driver was friendly bud I felt that he drove a bit too fast at the sharp bends. The scenery in Sydney is similar to Perth, not too much human traffic and lots of houses around. Chose a room nearest to the door in our house. There were 2 other guys staying there already, one of them even helped us fix our internets. Really nice. Or else I would not be able to skype or MSN. However, we may be shifting to another house. Hopefully not, though the house is not exactly very clean, but its decent. Has all the necessary facilities. So right now, I am typing this blog entry while charging my handphone and camera batteries. And in addition, enjoying the cloudy,windy and cooling weather.
Okay, I think I have blogged an entry that is long enough. Continue next time. Shall enjoy the remaining few days of freedom before school officially starts on 18th!
Monday, February 11, 2008
The eve of embarkment
Well, just one more day left before I leave for Sydney, and then subsequently take a cab/train to my offcampus accomodation which is in the vicinity of University of Newcastle,Callaghan.Have more or less finished packing,except for a few nitty gritty items which I can dump in last minute,such as my laptop and my handphone charger. I won't be posting any photos on blogger.But on shutterfly. Will share all the photos that I take over there when I come back in around late June-early July. Sad to say I won't be able to stay on for very long to travel around because of Industrial Attachment :( I foresee I won't be able to sleep well tonight, due to the overwhelming excitement. This trip will definitely push me out of my comfort zone, and be reborn as a fiercely independent and resourceful young woman. Ah well, that is just an exaggeration. Promise longer posts when I reach there :P
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Counting down to NSW
Another 1 more week to go before boarding a Qantas plane to Sydney.
Experiencing a mixture of emotions
Excitement,anxiety,exhilaration,a tinge of sadness.
The 5 months ahead of me will be a challenging,fascinating,"stretching your independence ability to the max'' period.
Will be updating about my exchange period in the University of Newcastle here, hopefully on a everyday basis :P
Experiencing a mixture of emotions
Excitement,anxiety,exhilaration,a tinge of sadness.
The 5 months ahead of me will be a challenging,fascinating,"stretching your independence ability to the max'' period.
Will be updating about my exchange period in the University of Newcastle here, hopefully on a everyday basis :P
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