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 :)