Today is basically quite an insipid day, with the exception of visiting Aili in the late afternoon. Went to C238, which was the lab where we do our CHEM 3310 experiments to get Cathy's IR spectrum and TLC drawing in the morning. Took a few photos of the lab for remembrance purposes. Must remember to snap pictures with Cathy and Kelly before I leave Newcastle as well.
Michael's horrible handwriting continues to infuriate me, though it is not going to change things. Just hope that I can understand the lecture and tutorial contents on Kinetics and Catalysis when I start serious revision next Monday. Speaking of Green Engineering, there is still one more assignment to complete! I hope I can do a better job out of it. There are only a couple of long questions for the final exam of this module. However, I highly doubt that they would be that easy to tackle.
After a long break, I finally stir fried udon again, this time with coconut curry sauce. But the taste wasn't as nice as expected, it is hard to mix and match sauces with udon because of the latter's sour taste. Thick yellow noodles will be a better alternative. Ate a coffee ice-cream from Weight Watchers as a dessert. The bottom part of the ice-cream always seems to be frozen, and I feel a biting chill in my gums whenever I bite into it. Guess I am too impatient to wait for the ice-cream to melt completely.
Went to pay a visit to Aili in the late afternoon. It has been a few weeks since I last saw her. Although she was ill with flu, we still managed to have an enriching chit chatting session which lasted more than an hour. In Taylors University College, the Biomedical Science, Nutrition and Dietetics and Biotechnology majors attend similar lectures for their freshmen year. That explains why all my Malaysian friends and acquaintances seem to know one another. They really make up one big,united Taylor's College family ! Aili showed me her family photograph, and I noticed one interesting trait. All of her family members possess the same eyebrow shape. Gave her a chocolate orange fudge which I had purchased from Salamanca Market as a souvenir, hopefully, it will suit her taste buds. I realise that I interact with people better on a 1-to-1 basis, rather than in a big group. Must hone my public relation skills and be able to talk at ease in the presence of a group of friends.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
When It Happens in Vegas
Skipped CHEM 3210 in the morning and only went for the tutorial for the later part of the morning, because I devoted some time to search for the melting points of the compounds synthesized in CHEM 3310. However, it was to little success, like previous attempts. For the first time, I used the Sci Finder in the computers to search for the melting points. But like the handbook and Internet, it has a comprehensive list of information, except for the compounds that I am looking for. I never had such a tedious time searching for melting points before. Indeed, it poses a big challenge for me now.
Today's last CHEM 3310 wet lab practical session was the most relaxing one ever. Adam rendered me a lot of helping in recrystallizing my amide product. I yelped for joy in my heart when I finally saw the cream coloured crystal like flakes appearing in my conical flask. Although my yield was very poor, I had enough product to do my IR and melting points. Adam was urging us to hand in our lab reports by the end of Week 13, because up till now, he has only received 4 lab reports in total. Well, that was because most of us have yet to finish a lab report completely, especially the parts where we have to intepret the spectral data and quote the melting points from literature.
Cathy and I went to the canteen in Student Hub to organize our lab reports before heading to the Auchmuty library to continue searching for literature melting points. Bought a M & M chocolate cookie from Pinkies. It is actually the provision shop where I used to purchase my pre paid phone cards from. If not for Cathy, I would be still be in the dark of its name. Despite being a white skinned Australian, she is not racist at all, contrary to popular belief. She is really helpful and very pleasant to interact with. We stayed in the library until when her friend, Shannon, came at 7 pm. Despite spending a couple of hours at the computer terminal, we managed to find the literature melting point of only 1 of our products. However, I did get to fill up bits of my lab report, albeit not a lot, but it is better than nothing right?
After a fortnight of not watching movies, party of 4 and I went to catch the comedy " When It Happens in Vegas'' at 8.30 pm. The main stars are Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. Both of them have attractive appearances and have good on-screen chemistry, despite Cameron being older than Ashton. Joy ( Cameron ) and Jack ( Ashton ), used to hate each others' guts after being forced to get married to each other due to debauchery. But they end up falling in love with one another. The ending is predictable, but the part of the plot on how their hatred blossoms into love could be further developed. If you wish to relax after a stressful day's work, go watch this movie!
Went to Woolsworth after that, where I got myself some fruits, sugar sachets, mushrooms and a few miscellaneous groceries. My friends as usual, bought a lot of snacks, such as big bottles of fruit juices, instant noodles and biscuits. Mummy was so right, overseas undergraduates have a tendency to cultivate unhealthy eating habits. Stress is probably one of the factors behind it as well. I experience it too, whenever I feel stressed or upset, my cravings for unhealthy food are exceptionally strong. In order prevent myself from unpredictable snacking, I choose not to buy anymore chips or huge tubs of ice-cream now. It is much easier to exercise self control when you buy small cups of ice-cream and yoghurt instead.
Today's last CHEM 3310 wet lab practical session was the most relaxing one ever. Adam rendered me a lot of helping in recrystallizing my amide product. I yelped for joy in my heart when I finally saw the cream coloured crystal like flakes appearing in my conical flask. Although my yield was very poor, I had enough product to do my IR and melting points. Adam was urging us to hand in our lab reports by the end of Week 13, because up till now, he has only received 4 lab reports in total. Well, that was because most of us have yet to finish a lab report completely, especially the parts where we have to intepret the spectral data and quote the melting points from literature.
Cathy and I went to the canteen in Student Hub to organize our lab reports before heading to the Auchmuty library to continue searching for literature melting points. Bought a M & M chocolate cookie from Pinkies. It is actually the provision shop where I used to purchase my pre paid phone cards from. If not for Cathy, I would be still be in the dark of its name. Despite being a white skinned Australian, she is not racist at all, contrary to popular belief. She is really helpful and very pleasant to interact with. We stayed in the library until when her friend, Shannon, came at 7 pm. Despite spending a couple of hours at the computer terminal, we managed to find the literature melting point of only 1 of our products. However, I did get to fill up bits of my lab report, albeit not a lot, but it is better than nothing right?
After a fortnight of not watching movies, party of 4 and I went to catch the comedy " When It Happens in Vegas'' at 8.30 pm. The main stars are Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. Both of them have attractive appearances and have good on-screen chemistry, despite Cameron being older than Ashton. Joy ( Cameron ) and Jack ( Ashton ), used to hate each others' guts after being forced to get married to each other due to debauchery. But they end up falling in love with one another. The ending is predictable, but the part of the plot on how their hatred blossoms into love could be further developed. If you wish to relax after a stressful day's work, go watch this movie!
Went to Woolsworth after that, where I got myself some fruits, sugar sachets, mushrooms and a few miscellaneous groceries. My friends as usual, bought a lot of snacks, such as big bottles of fruit juices, instant noodles and biscuits. Mummy was so right, overseas undergraduates have a tendency to cultivate unhealthy eating habits. Stress is probably one of the factors behind it as well. I experience it too, whenever I feel stressed or upset, my cravings for unhealthy food are exceptionally strong. In order prevent myself from unpredictable snacking, I choose not to buy anymore chips or huge tubs of ice-cream now. It is much easier to exercise self control when you buy small cups of ice-cream and yoghurt instead.
CHEM 3310 3rd Assignment
Much to my consternation, Ian has posted up the 3rd CHEM 3310 assignment on Blackboard. I thought that were only 2 assessed assignments according to the course outline. Looks like Kelly isn't far from wrong at all, Adam is so disorganized ! The course outline doesn't reflect what is going on in reality at all. And if he didn't tell us, we wouldn't have known that this Tuesday was going to be our last lab session. This assignment is due on the 30th May, which is the end of Week 13. I reckon this assessment which involves literature searching will stir up moans and groans from most of the students.
On my way to school yesterday, I met Robert, my CHEM 3210 and 3310 coursemate, who had decided to go for lessons by foot instead of cycling, due to the shower in the early hours of the morning. He is a very friendly guy who like Jefri, has a strong interest for Chemistry. And he told me that I could go source for the melting points of my organic compounds in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics in the reference section of Auchmuty library. Up till now, I still do not know how to fully utilize the various sections in the library. It is never my habit to visit the library to look for hard copy references.
Ian's lessons were monotonous as usual, and the attendance was poor, probably because of the Monday blues my coursemates were facing. I left halfway through his lesson to search for the reference book. But it wasn't very helpful, for I could the melting point for only one of my compounds. The compounds that we synthesized have too bombastic and long looking names. Had a toasted tandori chicken wrap from the Bytes Cafe for lunch. It was crispy and delicious, but quite costly at $6.50. The wrap certainly tasted way better than the tandori chicken wrap I had at the Hub Cafe.
Met Kris and Zing before Green Engineering class, and I made another attempt to retrieve my thumbdrive, which was yet again unsuccessful. The administrator at the School of Electrical Engineering only found thumbdrives which were lost a couple of weeks ago. I came to a conclusion that it is not uncommon for undergrads to leave their thumbdrives behind in a moment of carelessness. Michael's lecture was delayed for 1/2 hour, because there was some technical fault with his laptop. Nevertheless,he was a tad nicer than usual and released us at 3.55 pm.
Dinner was Indo Mee and an red apple. Hongjun and Weiming had tidied up the kitchen area and it looks very much neater now. I guess they do not wish to invite any form of trouble, especially from the long-winded and money-minded Simon. I start to believe that the purpose of his fines was to line his pockets, because I have yet to hear of landlords who impose monetary penalties on the tenants for parties,sleepovers and disregarding the duty roster. And by right, we could argue against paying the fines, because it is not listed in the contract. Must learn not to be so submissive and stand up for my own rights now.
Fell asleep before 10 pm again, for I was mentally exhausted from extreme moodswings and the heavy workload burdens. Today, I am going to stay back in school with Cathy after CHEM 3310 lab to bring our lab reports closer to the point of completeness. Wish us luck!
On my way to school yesterday, I met Robert, my CHEM 3210 and 3310 coursemate, who had decided to go for lessons by foot instead of cycling, due to the shower in the early hours of the morning. He is a very friendly guy who like Jefri, has a strong interest for Chemistry. And he told me that I could go source for the melting points of my organic compounds in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics in the reference section of Auchmuty library. Up till now, I still do not know how to fully utilize the various sections in the library. It is never my habit to visit the library to look for hard copy references.
Ian's lessons were monotonous as usual, and the attendance was poor, probably because of the Monday blues my coursemates were facing. I left halfway through his lesson to search for the reference book. But it wasn't very helpful, for I could the melting point for only one of my compounds. The compounds that we synthesized have too bombastic and long looking names. Had a toasted tandori chicken wrap from the Bytes Cafe for lunch. It was crispy and delicious, but quite costly at $6.50. The wrap certainly tasted way better than the tandori chicken wrap I had at the Hub Cafe.
Met Kris and Zing before Green Engineering class, and I made another attempt to retrieve my thumbdrive, which was yet again unsuccessful. The administrator at the School of Electrical Engineering only found thumbdrives which were lost a couple of weeks ago. I came to a conclusion that it is not uncommon for undergrads to leave their thumbdrives behind in a moment of carelessness. Michael's lecture was delayed for 1/2 hour, because there was some technical fault with his laptop. Nevertheless,he was a tad nicer than usual and released us at 3.55 pm.
Dinner was Indo Mee and an red apple. Hongjun and Weiming had tidied up the kitchen area and it looks very much neater now. I guess they do not wish to invite any form of trouble, especially from the long-winded and money-minded Simon. I start to believe that the purpose of his fines was to line his pockets, because I have yet to hear of landlords who impose monetary penalties on the tenants for parties,sleepovers and disregarding the duty roster. And by right, we could argue against paying the fines, because it is not listed in the contract. Must learn not to be so submissive and stand up for my own rights now.
Fell asleep before 10 pm again, for I was mentally exhausted from extreme moodswings and the heavy workload burdens. Today, I am going to stay back in school with Cathy after CHEM 3310 lab to bring our lab reports closer to the point of completeness. Wish us luck!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Fettucine and potato mash
Today is the 3rd day that I spend with Rachel, after she came over for a sleepover yesterday. This time, we switched our sleeping positions, she slept near the edge while I slept near the wall. We chatted for quite a while before dozing off, and our conversations as usual, range from jokes to narrating about each others' lives, past and present. I believe all these bed time chats will strengthen our friendship bond as time goes by. Each conversation allows us to understand each other more, and I really love such in depth chats, with little or no stress.
Lunch was fettucine with campbell soup and potato mash with butter and cheese. The mention of these names is enough to send me salivating, almost literally. Rachel can be a qualified food critic, since she is so discerning about the various aspects of food, such as the texture and aesthetic appeal. It is a great blessing to have a friend who is more than willing to cook for you. Never in my wildest dreams have I imagined that I would meet such a special friend, after 21 years of living on this Earth. However, I am not one who will ditch my old friends for the new, and vice versa. All my friends will always have an irreplaceable position in my heart and memory.
I can't help but feel sad whenever she has to leave every Sunday. Whenever we are together, I just wish that time could come to a standstill, because the feeling of parting is sometimes too great for me to bear. Loneliness overwhelms me whenever we have to bid farewell to each other. No more laughters and girl chit chat sessions, at least for one week. One week seems like a year instead. Feelings of anticipation and longingness have never been so acute before. And I start shifting the blame to the workload that UoN burdens us with. Sounds very irrational and immature, but I really need an outlet to voice my thoughts out, and the best place to do so is my precious blogspot. Saturday Saturday, please come quick!
After she left, I enjoyed a close to 4 hour afternoon nap, after chatting with Deanies on MSN. My uni clique is going for Jolene's house next Tuesday for a steamboat gathering. How I wish I could be there too. And the atmosphere will definitely be exuberant, since Jefri will be going along too. He never fails to brighten up our gloomy and stressed study days with his optimism and constant encouragements. I still remember his peculiar hobby of mixing food together, for example, a chocolate bar with soya bean dessert. This reminds me of the deliciously sweet chocolate tau huey at Chomp Chomp. I made a special trip there after being influenced by one of the Singapore Idol finalists, Jasmine Tye. It is her favourite dessert and I have to admit, she has good taste!
All of a sudden, I am craving for all the Singaporean food which I sorely lack in the last 3 months. Hokkien mee, carrot cake, kway chap, chicken rice,duck noodles, chicken satay, cheese prata, ban mian.... And of course, not forgetting Mum's cooking. And I promised Mummy that I will prepare a belated Mother's Day meal for her. Believe that I will have more confidence in accomplishing this task now, after cooking rather actively since the day I arrived in Newcastle. Gave my stomach a rest for dinner, by just eating a Weight Watchers peach and mango yoghurt with a banana. Bananas can't be kept for too long, otherwise it will turn into an repulsive looking brown colour. I need to buy more fruits, I only have a few those big,fat and juicy apples remaining.
Tomorrow marks another cycle of a brand new studying week and I hope that it will be a more smooth sailing, and most importantly a more productive one. On a happier ending note, I want to thank Rachel for forking out time to read through every single of one of my lengthy blog posts. =). It is comforting to know that there are people out there who are genuinely interested in wanting to understand you better.
Lunch was fettucine with campbell soup and potato mash with butter and cheese. The mention of these names is enough to send me salivating, almost literally. Rachel can be a qualified food critic, since she is so discerning about the various aspects of food, such as the texture and aesthetic appeal. It is a great blessing to have a friend who is more than willing to cook for you. Never in my wildest dreams have I imagined that I would meet such a special friend, after 21 years of living on this Earth. However, I am not one who will ditch my old friends for the new, and vice versa. All my friends will always have an irreplaceable position in my heart and memory.
I can't help but feel sad whenever she has to leave every Sunday. Whenever we are together, I just wish that time could come to a standstill, because the feeling of parting is sometimes too great for me to bear. Loneliness overwhelms me whenever we have to bid farewell to each other. No more laughters and girl chit chat sessions, at least for one week. One week seems like a year instead. Feelings of anticipation and longingness have never been so acute before. And I start shifting the blame to the workload that UoN burdens us with. Sounds very irrational and immature, but I really need an outlet to voice my thoughts out, and the best place to do so is my precious blogspot. Saturday Saturday, please come quick!
After she left, I enjoyed a close to 4 hour afternoon nap, after chatting with Deanies on MSN. My uni clique is going for Jolene's house next Tuesday for a steamboat gathering. How I wish I could be there too. And the atmosphere will definitely be exuberant, since Jefri will be going along too. He never fails to brighten up our gloomy and stressed study days with his optimism and constant encouragements. I still remember his peculiar hobby of mixing food together, for example, a chocolate bar with soya bean dessert. This reminds me of the deliciously sweet chocolate tau huey at Chomp Chomp. I made a special trip there after being influenced by one of the Singapore Idol finalists, Jasmine Tye. It is her favourite dessert and I have to admit, she has good taste!
All of a sudden, I am craving for all the Singaporean food which I sorely lack in the last 3 months. Hokkien mee, carrot cake, kway chap, chicken rice,duck noodles, chicken satay, cheese prata, ban mian.... And of course, not forgetting Mum's cooking. And I promised Mummy that I will prepare a belated Mother's Day meal for her. Believe that I will have more confidence in accomplishing this task now, after cooking rather actively since the day I arrived in Newcastle. Gave my stomach a rest for dinner, by just eating a Weight Watchers peach and mango yoghurt with a banana. Bananas can't be kept for too long, otherwise it will turn into an repulsive looking brown colour. I need to buy more fruits, I only have a few those big,fat and juicy apples remaining.
Tomorrow marks another cycle of a brand new studying week and I hope that it will be a more smooth sailing, and most importantly a more productive one. On a happier ending note, I want to thank Rachel for forking out time to read through every single of one of my lengthy blog posts. =). It is comforting to know that there are people out there who are genuinely interested in wanting to understand you better.
Wharf Road and Market Square
It was a fun-filled weekend with Rachel. We left her house at around 11.20 am, only to miss the 231 bus which stopped at Jesmond. In order to save time, we decided to take a leisurely stroll there instead. Rachel told me that the names of streets are named as such for a reason. For example, street names that end with the word "close'' usually means that this particular street leads to a dead end. Street names ending with the word "crescent'' probably means that the street has a long winding road. Street names ending with the word "parade'' may mean that the street consists of a long, straight road. Interesting facts for thought, aren't they?
Both of us shared a refreshing coconut ice blended shake at Gloria Jean's, for we were feeling thirsty after walking a longer distance under the blazing sun. After the cooling treat, we proceeded to take the bus 101 to Wharf Street, where Blue Water Pizza was located, for our lunch. The bus journey lasted for about half an hour. It was Rachel's first time dining there, and according to her, it was a gourmet restaurant, for the food was really costly. One small plate of calamari rings cost more than $11! We ordered 3 dishes, a wood fired pizza, garlic and cheese bread and the calamari rings. I was quite disappointed by the measly servings and the exorbitant prices. Nevertheless, we still had a nice chat over lunch. I still remembered that I went there during Cherlyn's 22nd birthday celebration more than a couple of months ago. As usual,there were many seagulls flying in the vicnity, for there was a harbour with a panaromic sea view.
Since our hunger pangs were not completely satisfied after lunch, we went to buy ice-cream. I tried an unique ice-cream flavour, called Triple swirl. I have never seen such a colourful scoop of ice-cream before, for it was pink,green,blue and yellow in colour. I could not figure out the exact flavour of the dessert, but its sweetness was heavenly. We took several photos on the mid position of the lighthouse-like tower which was just a stone's throw away from the restaurant. Our plan was to climb right to the top, which meant overcoming 180 steps before reaching an elevation of 40.3 m above ground level. Unfortunately, the second half of the spiral staircase leading to the summit was locked.
Next, we crossed a bridge and reached Market Square, which is an open air shopping centre. There were many items which were on sale, especially clothes. Ironically, I seemed more fascinated with the trees which had yellow and red leaves that surrounded the place. In addition, I wasn't in the mood to shop as I had forgotten to bring my wallet out with me the previous day. But, my moodiness was significantly lessened when Rachel brought me into a bookshop. She recommended several books to me, such as " Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus'' and books by Danielle Steel. To be honest, I haven't been reading actively for at least a decade. But self help and motivational books are still appealing to me. The books are expensive, so we could only afford to browse through instead of buying them.
The bookshop closes really early at 4 pm, so we had no choice but to head for home. This time, we took bus 108 back to my place. The setting sun illuminated the sky to a mystifying orange hue. I have never paid so much attention to the sunset back in Singapore. Rachel has an excellent sense of direction, for she has always managed to lead me to the exact bus stop which could bring us to our intended destinations. As for me, I am quite hopeless in directions, especially in a foreign country. Interacting with new friends make me realise that I actually a lot of life skills to master. But, I am really thankful for the golden opportunities to widen my general knowledge.
All these while, I have also been learning Malay and Cantonese words from Rachel. And, I have also taught her some Singlish words. This is literally like a cultural exchange. It makes me even feel more blessed to be the 1 out of the 2 chosen ones to go for an exchange program. The experiences that I have garnered, regardless of good or bad, serve as invaluable life lessons. Hopefully, I will become a more matured girl after my exchange stint has ended. Plus, having more self confidence and a higher level of emotional quotient.
As usual, Rachel cooked up a storm for dinner, after her 2 hour beauty sleep. This time, she whipped up hokkien mee with Chow Mein sauce, together with the usual dose of frozen condiments. The amount of food was quite big, but we managed to finish all of it nevertheless. The noodles were tantalizing to the tastebuds and leaves you craving for more. The two of us share a common interest, which is savouring delicious food. However, Rachel is more adventurous with experimenting with new recipes, while I am just too lazy and would prefer to rely on instant food instead of preparing the ingredients from scratch.
Although I have only known Rachel for less than 3 months, I feel as if I have known her for a few years, for we could talk to each other about anything under the sun, no matter whether they were serious issues or just cracking childish and hilarious jokes. Feel totally at ease in her presence, in comparison with the involuntarily feelings of apprehension and nervousness when I come into face to face with the party of 4. It sounds totally absurd but I cannot help it. Hopefully I will be able to manage my emotions better after Rachel's sincere advices of goodwill.
Both of us shared a refreshing coconut ice blended shake at Gloria Jean's, for we were feeling thirsty after walking a longer distance under the blazing sun. After the cooling treat, we proceeded to take the bus 101 to Wharf Street, where Blue Water Pizza was located, for our lunch. The bus journey lasted for about half an hour. It was Rachel's first time dining there, and according to her, it was a gourmet restaurant, for the food was really costly. One small plate of calamari rings cost more than $11! We ordered 3 dishes, a wood fired pizza, garlic and cheese bread and the calamari rings. I was quite disappointed by the measly servings and the exorbitant prices. Nevertheless, we still had a nice chat over lunch. I still remembered that I went there during Cherlyn's 22nd birthday celebration more than a couple of months ago. As usual,there were many seagulls flying in the vicnity, for there was a harbour with a panaromic sea view.
Since our hunger pangs were not completely satisfied after lunch, we went to buy ice-cream. I tried an unique ice-cream flavour, called Triple swirl. I have never seen such a colourful scoop of ice-cream before, for it was pink,green,blue and yellow in colour. I could not figure out the exact flavour of the dessert, but its sweetness was heavenly. We took several photos on the mid position of the lighthouse-like tower which was just a stone's throw away from the restaurant. Our plan was to climb right to the top, which meant overcoming 180 steps before reaching an elevation of 40.3 m above ground level. Unfortunately, the second half of the spiral staircase leading to the summit was locked.
Next, we crossed a bridge and reached Market Square, which is an open air shopping centre. There were many items which were on sale, especially clothes. Ironically, I seemed more fascinated with the trees which had yellow and red leaves that surrounded the place. In addition, I wasn't in the mood to shop as I had forgotten to bring my wallet out with me the previous day. But, my moodiness was significantly lessened when Rachel brought me into a bookshop. She recommended several books to me, such as " Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus'' and books by Danielle Steel. To be honest, I haven't been reading actively for at least a decade. But self help and motivational books are still appealing to me. The books are expensive, so we could only afford to browse through instead of buying them.
The bookshop closes really early at 4 pm, so we had no choice but to head for home. This time, we took bus 108 back to my place. The setting sun illuminated the sky to a mystifying orange hue. I have never paid so much attention to the sunset back in Singapore. Rachel has an excellent sense of direction, for she has always managed to lead me to the exact bus stop which could bring us to our intended destinations. As for me, I am quite hopeless in directions, especially in a foreign country. Interacting with new friends make me realise that I actually a lot of life skills to master. But, I am really thankful for the golden opportunities to widen my general knowledge.
All these while, I have also been learning Malay and Cantonese words from Rachel. And, I have also taught her some Singlish words. This is literally like a cultural exchange. It makes me even feel more blessed to be the 1 out of the 2 chosen ones to go for an exchange program. The experiences that I have garnered, regardless of good or bad, serve as invaluable life lessons. Hopefully, I will become a more matured girl after my exchange stint has ended. Plus, having more self confidence and a higher level of emotional quotient.
As usual, Rachel cooked up a storm for dinner, after her 2 hour beauty sleep. This time, she whipped up hokkien mee with Chow Mein sauce, together with the usual dose of frozen condiments. The amount of food was quite big, but we managed to finish all of it nevertheless. The noodles were tantalizing to the tastebuds and leaves you craving for more. The two of us share a common interest, which is savouring delicious food. However, Rachel is more adventurous with experimenting with new recipes, while I am just too lazy and would prefer to rely on instant food instead of preparing the ingredients from scratch.
Although I have only known Rachel for less than 3 months, I feel as if I have known her for a few years, for we could talk to each other about anything under the sun, no matter whether they were serious issues or just cracking childish and hilarious jokes. Feel totally at ease in her presence, in comparison with the involuntarily feelings of apprehension and nervousness when I come into face to face with the party of 4. It sounds totally absurd but I cannot help it. Hopefully I will be able to manage my emotions better after Rachel's sincere advices of goodwill.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Stayover at Rachel's house =D
I am typing this post at Rachel's host homestay house right now. His name is Chris and he is an amicable and generous man. He has a really adorable 7 year old son, Jayden who is very outspoken for his age. Chris cooked spaghetti for Rachel and I and it was awesome. He added an exotic mix of ingredients to it, such as lemon juice and raspberry flavouring. Needless to say, I had a lion's share. It is my very first time staying over at a friend's place in Newcastle. And it is indeed an exhilarating experience. Everything that my eyes took in yesterday was just so breathtaking. My 5 senses were never stimulated to such a great extent before. The design of Chris's house is so intriguing, he actually built it from scratch and it took him a few months, which in my opinion, is very fast. The rooms are so elaborately designed and hues of the house never fail to exude a cosy and therapeutic aura to visitors. In a nutshell, it is a stark contrast to my fuddy duddy house in North Lambton. But the downfall of the house will be its location, Rachel and I had to undergo an ardous 40 minute walk from Faulkner Crescent. In addition to the distance, we had to overcome steep gradients which made me sweat, pant and itch.
But all the tiredness was definitely worth it, for I got to admire the lovely sunset and the picturesque scenery surrounding the house as well. I felt as if that I have stepped into another realm, instead of merely stepping into another part of Newcastle. Now, I disagree with the common saying that Newcastle is boring. There are numerous pristine bridges, beautiful parks, shopping haunts and food that tantalize your tastebuds. You just have to more adventurous and go all out to explore this tiny city, which only has a land area of less than 300 km square. Will be going to Blue Water Pizza for lunch and watch the blockbuster movie, Ironman at Glendale. This will be the first time I travel for long distances on my own, without depending on Aaron's car. And that is enough to get me all excited. Not to mention, the awesome company from Rachel. We had a heart to heart talk for several hours last night, and found out much more things about her, such her past experiences and life and her opinions about random issues. From the chats, I realised that we have quite a lot of experiences and personality traits in common. It is liberating to interact with someone whom you can connect with. Because that person would accept your personality wholeheartedly, instead of judging you by your actions. We also listened to many songs on youtube. Which brings me to another point, her Internet Connection speed is very much less problematic than mine. Songs stream at breakneck speed and it only takes a jiffy for webpages to finish loading.
Rachel's bed is really inviting, with respect to the warm brown hues of the pillows,blanket and the size. It is a queen sized bed which could accomodate 2 people, and still have space allowances for turning and tossing. She even has a personal toilet, which was very spacious and had an intriguing design, with black and white tiles. Chris is indeed a very hospitable host, to provide her with such a lovely bedroom. The price she pays per week might be quite a lot more expensive than mine, but the level of comfort she gets to enjoy definitely makes up for it. There is an infinitely big difference between a house used for rental purposes and for a home. It is such a pity that my camera batteries went flat, otherwise I could have snapped numerous photographs of Chris's magnificent home. I hereby declare that the fruit cum nuts and banana bars are absolutely awesome, for they are sweet but yet healthy.
All of a sudden, I crave for numerous materialistic things, such as the mouth watering calamari rings at Blue Water Pizza, a manicure cum pedicure, nice funky boots, cosmetic contact lenses a new hair colour and exploring the nooks and crannies of Newcastle. I guess deep down inside, I want to shed my boring, plain jean exterior. It is perfectly natural for a young woman to want to look pretty, isn't it? On a total unrelated note, I discovered that Rachel has the interesting ability to sleep through numerous loud handphone alarms. Her Dad will be coming to Newcastle on the 21st June, which means that I should try to spend as much quality time with her possible for the next upcoming weeks. However, that does not mean that I would not devote time to study for my examinations.
I got one wish before I depart for Singapore. Which is to go Nelson Bay, one of the most prominent tourist attractions in Newcastle. And maybe Anna Bay too, because there is a new sport which I can try, sandboarding ! Apparently, a majority of the Malaysian people I know have tried out that sport and they seemed to enjoy it, which is evidenced from the cheery expressions in the photographs they put up on their blogs. Reading others' blogs can be considered as one of my interests now, for it can aid you in broadening your horizons about new places, albeit in a subtle way.
But all the tiredness was definitely worth it, for I got to admire the lovely sunset and the picturesque scenery surrounding the house as well. I felt as if that I have stepped into another realm, instead of merely stepping into another part of Newcastle. Now, I disagree with the common saying that Newcastle is boring. There are numerous pristine bridges, beautiful parks, shopping haunts and food that tantalize your tastebuds. You just have to more adventurous and go all out to explore this tiny city, which only has a land area of less than 300 km square. Will be going to Blue Water Pizza for lunch and watch the blockbuster movie, Ironman at Glendale. This will be the first time I travel for long distances on my own, without depending on Aaron's car. And that is enough to get me all excited. Not to mention, the awesome company from Rachel. We had a heart to heart talk for several hours last night, and found out much more things about her, such her past experiences and life and her opinions about random issues. From the chats, I realised that we have quite a lot of experiences and personality traits in common. It is liberating to interact with someone whom you can connect with. Because that person would accept your personality wholeheartedly, instead of judging you by your actions. We also listened to many songs on youtube. Which brings me to another point, her Internet Connection speed is very much less problematic than mine. Songs stream at breakneck speed and it only takes a jiffy for webpages to finish loading.
Rachel's bed is really inviting, with respect to the warm brown hues of the pillows,blanket and the size. It is a queen sized bed which could accomodate 2 people, and still have space allowances for turning and tossing. She even has a personal toilet, which was very spacious and had an intriguing design, with black and white tiles. Chris is indeed a very hospitable host, to provide her with such a lovely bedroom. The price she pays per week might be quite a lot more expensive than mine, but the level of comfort she gets to enjoy definitely makes up for it. There is an infinitely big difference between a house used for rental purposes and for a home. It is such a pity that my camera batteries went flat, otherwise I could have snapped numerous photographs of Chris's magnificent home. I hereby declare that the fruit cum nuts and banana bars are absolutely awesome, for they are sweet but yet healthy.
All of a sudden, I crave for numerous materialistic things, such as the mouth watering calamari rings at Blue Water Pizza, a manicure cum pedicure, nice funky boots, cosmetic contact lenses a new hair colour and exploring the nooks and crannies of Newcastle. I guess deep down inside, I want to shed my boring, plain jean exterior. It is perfectly natural for a young woman to want to look pretty, isn't it? On a total unrelated note, I discovered that Rachel has the interesting ability to sleep through numerous loud handphone alarms. Her Dad will be coming to Newcastle on the 21st June, which means that I should try to spend as much quality time with her possible for the next upcoming weeks. However, that does not mean that I would not devote time to study for my examinations.
I got one wish before I depart for Singapore. Which is to go Nelson Bay, one of the most prominent tourist attractions in Newcastle. And maybe Anna Bay too, because there is a new sport which I can try, sandboarding ! Apparently, a majority of the Malaysian people I know have tried out that sport and they seemed to enjoy it, which is evidenced from the cheery expressions in the photographs they put up on their blogs. Reading others' blogs can be considered as one of my interests now, for it can aid you in broadening your horizons about new places, albeit in a subtle way.
Friday, May 9, 2008
An unlucky week
My body clock is really screwed up. I slept at 9+ pm and here I am, wide and awake at an odd hour at 4.30 am. Lying on the bed and using my laptop really makes me tired. Not to mention that I had the most horrible week ever in my life, since Monday. Tried to go and retrieve my missing thumbdrive yesterday, but was all in vain. Someone had unplucked it from the computer terminal and probably kept it to him/herself.
I did not expect the loss my this small and important device to have such a big impact on my mood. I was so upset that I did not have the heart to eat a proper dinner, ie. I ate a bag of barbequed rings and a banana, and start on my work proper. Retyping CHEM 3210 Project 6 is inevitable now, since I saved the file in the thumbdrive. Called Mummy on the phone to vent my frustrations. Feel that the distance between the party of 4 and I are getting further and further apart each day, since Sunday, because we barely meet face to face in the house. It is so awkward behaving in such a stranger-like manner to friends whom you used to go out with.
My hunger pangs also become more intense when I am low spirits. For lunch yesterday, I ate one sweet cookie from Gloria Jeans and a ham,cheese and tomato croissant from the Hub Cafe. The sweet cookie was really costly at $1.95, but I felt that satisfying my stomach takes priority of the price at that moment of time. Went to the Engineering building and that's where I met Zhaowei. It was then the big blow of losing my thumbdrive came crashing down on me. All hopes were dashed when the lady at the Chemical Engineering administration office said that no one had come to return a lost thumbdrive.
There are just 3 more CHEM 3210 lab sessions to go. Finally, Renee and I have handed up 1 out of 7 lab reports. Aim to hand up Experiment 6 by next week. The other 5 experiments are still unfinished. The lab equipments for CHEM 3310 is more sophisticated than that of CHEM 3210. All the IR machines in CHEM 3210 lab are very primitive looking. On a totally unrelated note, there are 3 more tutorial sessions to go for IRHR 1001 as well. I must remember to go for the last lecture on Week 13, for it is the day where Shaun will give tips about the examination.
Look forward to Rachel's visit after her lesson and cooking green bean soup later. From there, we will take a bus to her house. Expecting an eventful weekend again, which will probably neutralize the negative effects of the past bad days.
I did not expect the loss my this small and important device to have such a big impact on my mood. I was so upset that I did not have the heart to eat a proper dinner, ie. I ate a bag of barbequed rings and a banana, and start on my work proper. Retyping CHEM 3210 Project 6 is inevitable now, since I saved the file in the thumbdrive. Called Mummy on the phone to vent my frustrations. Feel that the distance between the party of 4 and I are getting further and further apart each day, since Sunday, because we barely meet face to face in the house. It is so awkward behaving in such a stranger-like manner to friends whom you used to go out with.
My hunger pangs also become more intense when I am low spirits. For lunch yesterday, I ate one sweet cookie from Gloria Jeans and a ham,cheese and tomato croissant from the Hub Cafe. The sweet cookie was really costly at $1.95, but I felt that satisfying my stomach takes priority of the price at that moment of time. Went to the Engineering building and that's where I met Zhaowei. It was then the big blow of losing my thumbdrive came crashing down on me. All hopes were dashed when the lady at the Chemical Engineering administration office said that no one had come to return a lost thumbdrive.
There are just 3 more CHEM 3210 lab sessions to go. Finally, Renee and I have handed up 1 out of 7 lab reports. Aim to hand up Experiment 6 by next week. The other 5 experiments are still unfinished. The lab equipments for CHEM 3310 is more sophisticated than that of CHEM 3210. All the IR machines in CHEM 3210 lab are very primitive looking. On a totally unrelated note, there are 3 more tutorial sessions to go for IRHR 1001 as well. I must remember to go for the last lecture on Week 13, for it is the day where Shaun will give tips about the examination.
Look forward to Rachel's visit after her lesson and cooking green bean soup later. From there, we will take a bus to her house. Expecting an eventful weekend again, which will probably neutralize the negative effects of the past bad days.
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