After Green Engineering tutorial, I took a path which I had never taken before to the Bar On The Hill for lunch. I was rather surprised that I could manage to find my way there successfully, despite the place not being marked on the campus map. Had asparagus pasta and a fried fish fillet for lunch, and it was rather disappointing. The asparagus pasta was a bit too salty and e fish fillet was tasteless. I even had a squeamish feeling in my stomach after finishing lunch :(
Walked to the Maths Bus stop to take 225 to Jesmond, with Hongjun and Huifang. The bus trip was short,only around 5 minutes. Each bus trip costs $1.50 for up to an hour you spend on the bus. It is a flat fare, so regardless of the time you spend travelling, the rate will still be the same. We do not use ezlink cards here, we just pay the driver the transportation fee by cash and he will give us a card to prove that we have an hour to spend on the bus.Interestingly, UoN does not have internal shuttle bus services, unlike NTU which has 3-4 shuttle bus routes. But they have public buses coming into the campus to bring students out to Jesmond and other parts of Newcastle.
Went to make a duplicate of the house key first, for I had lost the previous one at the Maths building last Thursday. Then, we went to the House of Asia on the 2nd floor of Jesmond, which is actually a provision shop selling ready to eat and fresh food that has Asian origins. Purchased several packets of instant noodles, frozen fishballs, frozen fishcakes and a packet of red beans from there. The store looks rather old but the variety of food on their shelves is quite wide. Spent almost $100 on grocery shopping at Woolsworth today, usually I spend $60 on previous trips. The trolley was almost filled with my food, most of them having a long shelf life and some frozen food too. After the fruitful shopping spree, I came to realise that having an abundant stockage of food at home gives me a therapeutic feeling!
We hired a cab to bring us home after Hongjun had bought 4 large pizzas from Pizza Hut. The taxi's starting fare is $3, and the price jumps by 10cents every alternate or few seconds. Seems propesterous huh? Indeed it is, for although the distance from Jesmond to Faulker Crescent is rather short, the taxi fare came up to $6.20! But luckily the fare was split among the 3 of us, so it was still okay.
The Aarons came over to share the 4 pizzas before heading for their basketball match later in the evening. Meanwhile, I was marinating my chicken with lemon sauce,sugar,salt and pepper to be microwaved for dinner later. In the evening, Aili dropped by at our house to pay me a visit. We chatted for almost an hour in my room. She had intended to pay me a visit before heading out to gym in school. After interacting with her, I am even more convinced that we share good chemistry. Felt really comfortable and happy talking with her, for we share quite a number of similar thinkings and personality traits. I will definitely make an effort to drop by her house next week too.
Had stir fried vegetables with egg, plus the microwaved lemon chicken for dinner. I had 2 slices of pizza earlier on at 5+ pm so my stomach was still quite full then. After seeing Wilson warm his lamb sausages, I felt disgusted to see the huge amounts of oil oozing out the sausages upon heat application. And Wilson did not even add a single drop of oil to them. But I do not fancy lamb anyway, so I would not get the chance to eat those utterly fattening and unhealthy sausages.
All right, I shall resume reading my management notes in preparation for the tutorial session tomorrow. And we would be doing group work for CHEM 3210 lab tomorrow, so things should be much easier. On a totally irrelevant note, where has my comb gone to??? =_____=
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
New friendships :)
After Bob had rendered tremendous help in the first CHEM 3210 lab session, my impression of him has sky rocketed from neutral to very good. He is a soft spoken elderly man and is very tolerant in class. He does not criticize people when they are late for his lectures or when a handphone accidentally rings in class. After all, university students are mostly adults who should be able to distinguish between correct and wrong, and what is beneficial or not to our study lives. He also prints the lecture notes and tutorial worksheets for us, which saves considerable amount of money and time. Ironically, I still do not look forward to his CHEM 3210 lab, because I absolutely dislike the crowdedness and uncertain situations in the lab. A significant amount of time is spent waiting for your turn to use the apparatus, waiting for the reflux reactions to complete, fixing up the apparatus and scouting around for the correct apparatus to use.
Dismissal time from this week's CHEM 3310 lab was later than the previous week. I did parts the experimental procedures from Experiments 1-3. As usual, I carried out the experiments that same way Catherine did, for I feel more secure doing them with a friend. Exchanged numbers with Catherine before the lab session too. I have somemore things to comment on CHEM 3310 lab. We have to fix up the apparatus for Buchner filtrations ourselves, unlike in NTU, where the apparatus is already fixed for us and all we need to do is to turn on the vacumn pump. Some of the vacumn pumps were spoilt, so I had to undergo the trouble of looking high and low for a functional vacumn pump. Secondly, we use water to wash our dirty glassware, in NTU, we use acetone instead. Thirdly, there is only one lab technician present, so you have to wait for a longer time to get help you need. In NTU, there is a post graduate student cum teaching assistant assigned per group of students doing a common a experiment. Therefore, help is readily available. It seems that CBC really goes all out to make life easier for us. Unfortunately, when you step out into the workplace, people will be less tolerant towards our ignorance, compared to the teaching assistants and lecturers. So in a way, UoN lab provides us better training in preparation for the workforce. Logically, it is much better to clear your doubts during university life than in the workplace.
Dismissal time from this week's CHEM 3310 lab was later than the previous week. I did parts the experimental procedures from Experiments 1-3. As usual, I carried out the experiments that same way Catherine did, for I feel more secure doing them with a friend. Exchanged numbers with Catherine before the lab session too. I have somemore things to comment on CHEM 3310 lab. We have to fix up the apparatus for Buchner filtrations ourselves, unlike in NTU, where the apparatus is already fixed for us and all we need to do is to turn on the vacumn pump. Some of the vacumn pumps were spoilt, so I had to undergo the trouble of looking high and low for a functional vacumn pump. Secondly, we use water to wash our dirty glassware, in NTU, we use acetone instead. Thirdly, there is only one lab technician present, so you have to wait for a longer time to get help you need. In NTU, there is a post graduate student cum teaching assistant assigned per group of students doing a common a experiment. Therefore, help is readily available. It seems that CBC really goes all out to make life easier for us. Unfortunately, when you step out into the workplace, people will be less tolerant towards our ignorance, compared to the teaching assistants and lecturers. So in a way, UoN lab provides us better training in preparation for the workforce. Logically, it is much better to clear your doubts during university life than in the workplace.
After lab session, I had my maiden visit to the Student Lounge at the Shortland Building with Catherine and my new friend, Kelly, to discuss our CHEM 3310 assignment. The food at the Student Lounge is really expensive, though there is a broad range of pastries,desserts and liquors to choose from. One doughnut costs $4 and most of the food has prices more than $10. Kelly and Catherine bought a vegetable pie and a slice of cake for their lunch respectively. These two girls are really amicable and easy to chat with. Not surprisingly, we spent more time chit-chatting than working on the CHEM 3310 assignment, but it was fun nevertheless. All of us were stuck on bits and parts of the assignment and we may have a MSN conference session before Monday to discuss the solutions. The assignment is not easy indeed, though it's only worth 5%. I have two assignments due on Monday now, CHEM 3310 and IRHR 1001 essay. Good grief! Learnt a lot of things from my 2 new friends. Both of them drive for they live far away from school. In UoN, a lot of students have no choice but to drive to school since transportation is so inaccessible.
Catherine is the same age as me, and has 2 siblings who are 15 and 18 years older than her. Needless to say, she is a young aunt. She lives in the Central Coast, which is near the UoN Ourimbah campus. But she has no choice but the attend lessons at the Callaghan campus now, for Ourimbah campus does not offer the modules that she is required to take. UoN also offers engineering and business degrees in Singapore, at the PSB academy. Catherine is doing a double major, in Biology in Chemistry. Apparently, UoN allows students to mix and match any 2 majors to attain a double degree at the final year of their undergraduate lives. In Singapore universities, the double major courses are limited and are only reserved for the elite students.
Kelly is one year old than us and like Catherine, doing a double degree, but in Maths and Chemistry instead. It only takes 4 years to complete a double degree, with a normal workload of 40 units (ie. 4 modules) here. In Singapore, the normal workload is 5- 6 modules per semester. She is currently engaged, and will get married in 3 years time. Her sister-in-law is expecting a baby in July, so she will become an aunt soon! Kelly used to take the cityrail to Warabrook station, which is specially built for the UoN students before she got a car. She is currently working parttime in a pharmaceutical firm that manufactures medicines for animals. What an interesting job! We also exchanged information about Singapore and Australia, together with Catherine too. I really hope to visit Darling Harbour and Sydney Operahouse before I leave!
Catherine left first to meet her other friends. At around 6+ pm, Kelly and I left the student lounge together. Kelly went to the Computing Building for her 7pm lesson while I headed for home. Had my dinner of instant chow mein at 8+ pm before starting on the intensive research for business related academic journals for my IRHR 1001 essay. According to the outline, we must take information from at least 4 articles from academic journals. Right now, I have 5 of them printed out and shall read them and highlight the important points soon. Searching for relevant articles to the essay question is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack- extremely tedious. It took me at least 2.5 hours to do so. On a positive note, the bandwidth has finally been renewed and the Internet is no longer slow anymore. I can even stream songs normally now!
Will be going to Jesmond later via a public bus that stops at the Maths Building later this afternoon. Alas, I would be able to replenish my severely malnourished food stock. I feel excited upon thoughts of having abundant food in the fridge and cupboard ;) Fruits,vegetables,eggs,milk,ready to eat food, here I come! Oh yes, I need to duplicate the house key at Jesmond too, for I have lost the original key :(
I need to sign off now, for I want to read the business articles before green engineering class at 12pm.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Start of Week 3
Today is a mundane day, for nothing really special happened. Took a lot of notes as usual during CHEM 3310 lecture, for Adam is not one who teaches straight from the contents of his power point slides, which is good. He specializes in medicinal and organic chemistry research, and touches a bit on drug design too. What a multi faceted researcher!
Went to print notes in Auchmuty Library and got a little irritated with the machine that allows you to top up your student card with credits to photocopy. Not only it cannot accept notes, it only allows us to top up using one coin at a time. In the end, I only managed add $1.50 into my card. Initially, I faced difficulties in swiping my card in order for it to be scanned. When that problem was solved, another pops up. Sigh, I think there should be more topping up machines around.
Lunch was a delicious and hearty crabmeat sandwich, together with cheese,tomato and lettuce. Definitely a healthy meal. Bought an IDD card worth $20, 2 packets of biscuits to munch on in case I am hungry and 2 fruit salads. The fruit salad and biscuits are charged at exorbitantly prices. $1.90 per packet of biscuit and $4.50 per bowl of salad. But I had no choice since I barely have any food at home left. In addition, I can only go Jesmond on Thursday to refill my food supplies because of my late dismissal times from school. I foresee I would have to survive on instant noodles with fried eggs till then. Ice-cream,yogurts,cheese and fruit salad definitely will not fill my stomach.
Imagine my shock when I realised that the single question that I could not do in the Green Engineering Material Balances tutorial come out as a 40% question in the quiz just now. Nevertheless, I tried my best to write down as much logical steps as I could. Really hope that Geoff will give me some method marks for that question, so that I can score more than 60 marks.
Went to Auchmuty library again to read the recommended organic chemistry textbook for CHEM 3310, so that I could have an easier time attempting the assignment. Although the contents did not help very much, but at least it was better than nothing. I must promise myself that I would seriously start planning for my management essay from tomorrow onwards. Procrastination is an extremely bad habit.
Skipped IRHR 1001 lecture for the first time today, because I was feeling rather tired plus I had already printed out the readings that are relevant to this week's lecture already. Just finished my dinner of tuna dish, fruit salad and vanilla ice-cream. This is the first time that I have dinner so early because I was feeling quite peckish. I have a lot of things to do tonight such as read my CHEM 3310 lab manual,read my management readings and maybe do my CHEM 3210 tutorial.
Well folks,till I blog again, here's yours truly saying bye bye!
Went to print notes in Auchmuty Library and got a little irritated with the machine that allows you to top up your student card with credits to photocopy. Not only it cannot accept notes, it only allows us to top up using one coin at a time. In the end, I only managed add $1.50 into my card. Initially, I faced difficulties in swiping my card in order for it to be scanned. When that problem was solved, another pops up. Sigh, I think there should be more topping up machines around.
Lunch was a delicious and hearty crabmeat sandwich, together with cheese,tomato and lettuce. Definitely a healthy meal. Bought an IDD card worth $20, 2 packets of biscuits to munch on in case I am hungry and 2 fruit salads. The fruit salad and biscuits are charged at exorbitantly prices. $1.90 per packet of biscuit and $4.50 per bowl of salad. But I had no choice since I barely have any food at home left. In addition, I can only go Jesmond on Thursday to refill my food supplies because of my late dismissal times from school. I foresee I would have to survive on instant noodles with fried eggs till then. Ice-cream,yogurts,cheese and fruit salad definitely will not fill my stomach.
Imagine my shock when I realised that the single question that I could not do in the Green Engineering Material Balances tutorial come out as a 40% question in the quiz just now. Nevertheless, I tried my best to write down as much logical steps as I could. Really hope that Geoff will give me some method marks for that question, so that I can score more than 60 marks.
Went to Auchmuty library again to read the recommended organic chemistry textbook for CHEM 3310, so that I could have an easier time attempting the assignment. Although the contents did not help very much, but at least it was better than nothing. I must promise myself that I would seriously start planning for my management essay from tomorrow onwards. Procrastination is an extremely bad habit.
Skipped IRHR 1001 lecture for the first time today, because I was feeling rather tired plus I had already printed out the readings that are relevant to this week's lecture already. Just finished my dinner of tuna dish, fruit salad and vanilla ice-cream. This is the first time that I have dinner so early because I was feeling quite peckish. I have a lot of things to do tonight such as read my CHEM 3310 lab manual,read my management readings and maybe do my CHEM 3210 tutorial.
Well folks,till I blog again, here's yours truly saying bye bye!
Stay at home Sunday
Spent much of the day battling with my green engineering tutorial. Finally, I am proud to say that I have solved 5.5 out of the 7 questions in preparation for tomorrow's quiz. Although I spent more than an hour for a question, it was worth the time as I feel a sense of fulfilment when I see my final answers tallying with that of Geoff's.
Dinner was the remaining beef and cheese pie that the Aarons left behind when they shifted out to their new accomodation. It seemed like a light dinner but it would be great to go easy on my stomach once in a while, especially after yesterday's rich food at the picnic.
It is really high time I start on my IRHR 1001 1200 word assignment, for the deadline is next Monday. Thinking of writing such a long essay, in addition to intense searching for review journals makes me groan and moan. Nevertheless, I will look for some materials via the academic journals for my essay tomorrow. In addition, there is also a CHEM 3310 assignment that is worth 5% of the total grade to complete. Will probably need the textbooks in the library to source for the answers.
I feel the impact of culture shock to a lesser extent now, which is a good thing as the negative feelings can be kept in check. I got to learn many things which I will never get to learn back home, such as doing my own grocery shopping, cooking my own meals, accomodating to the noise level inside and outside the house, doing my own laundry, refilling my own water bottle etc. The biggest achievement for me would be overcoming the fear of oil sputtering and starting to fry food. Now, I intend to try making bombay toasts and making green,red and barley soup. Hope to accomplish these tasks before I leave Australia.
I no longer see Emerald around anymore :( The cold weather is probably forcing her to hide in somewhere warm now. Look forward to seeing her again. Right now, I cannot wait for the Easter holidays to come and most importantly, school term and exams to end!
Dinner was the remaining beef and cheese pie that the Aarons left behind when they shifted out to their new accomodation. It seemed like a light dinner but it would be great to go easy on my stomach once in a while, especially after yesterday's rich food at the picnic.
It is really high time I start on my IRHR 1001 1200 word assignment, for the deadline is next Monday. Thinking of writing such a long essay, in addition to intense searching for review journals makes me groan and moan. Nevertheless, I will look for some materials via the academic journals for my essay tomorrow. In addition, there is also a CHEM 3310 assignment that is worth 5% of the total grade to complete. Will probably need the textbooks in the library to source for the answers.
I feel the impact of culture shock to a lesser extent now, which is a good thing as the negative feelings can be kept in check. I got to learn many things which I will never get to learn back home, such as doing my own grocery shopping, cooking my own meals, accomodating to the noise level inside and outside the house, doing my own laundry, refilling my own water bottle etc. The biggest achievement for me would be overcoming the fear of oil sputtering and starting to fry food. Now, I intend to try making bombay toasts and making green,red and barley soup. Hope to accomplish these tasks before I leave Australia.
I no longer see Emerald around anymore :( The cold weather is probably forcing her to hide in somewhere warm now. Look forward to seeing her again. Right now, I cannot wait for the Easter holidays to come and most importantly, school term and exams to end!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Picnic @ Nobbys Beach
The highlight of yesterday was the picnic at Nobbys Beach located in Newcastle East. There were 8 of us present at the beach yesterday, namely Hongjun, Huifang, Weiming, Aaron, Oi Yin, Bowie, Wei Fan and of course, yours truly. All of us stayed there for about 4 hours, basking in the sun, savouring the food we prepared and immersing our feet into the cold, smooth sand. There was a strong sea breeze blowing at us as well, making the sand fly into our faces and onto the containers which we used to store the food we prepared. The breeze got colder and colder as the nightfall set in, sending our teeth chattering and chilling us to the bone. Okay,lets backtrack to the earlier part of yesterday.
After finishing all the remaining lasagne for my lunch, the Aarons, the couple and I headed to Bowie's house in Lorna street to prepare food for the picnic. Bowie, Wei Fan and Oi Yin were already in the midst of preparing the sushi, sandwiches and salad when we reached. Bowie said that the 3 food that they were preparing all starts with a "S'' to complement the 3 "S'' at the beach, which are the sun, the sand and the sea. How interesting! Before long, all of us were busy helping out in the preparation. I seemed to be doing all the cutting jobs yesterday! I cut the sausages that Wei Fan boiled and the grapes that were to be put in the salad, sliced the cheese for the sandwiches. The Aarons were making the sushi and they tasted great. The rice is so soft and light soya sauce goes perfectly with it. But Bowie thought otherwise and ate her sushi with Wasabi instead. I think that Wasabi is too hot for my liking. And salad with sausages and grapes, together with salad sauce, taste absolutely yummy!
After the preparation of the food, Aaron fetched all of us to Nobbys Beach, except for the couple who decided to go there by bus in order to spend some private and precious time together. The drive was about 20 minutes long. When we reached the beach, I was awestruck by the crashing white waves on the beautiful blue sea and the soft and cool sand. They were reminiscent of the sand and sea in Cottlesloe Beach in Perth. The sun was shining brightly and a strong breeze was blowing at us simultaneously. I whipped out my pink camera and started snapping at the sea,sand and a white house that stood on a grassy rock which was quite distance from where we were standing.
When all of us had arrived, we started taking pictures with one another and running to the sea to soak our legs in its water. The atmosphere was lively, with all the laughter and chatting. I took photos with all of the girls and even some my friends' shadows on the sand. Oi Yin was the star of the day, for she seemed to be the butt of the jokes and teasings from everyone in the group. But, I have heard from Hongjun that she is a really good cook! At about 6 pm, we started savoring the sweet fruits of our afternoon labour - the salad, sandwiches and sushi, complemented with soft drinks and fabulous tasting potato chips ( morrocan lemon with chicken and sweet,sour and spicy flavours). The sushis contained egg, crabmeat,cucumber,carrot,tuna and mayonnaise. Needless to say, they tasted awesome, and thus I ate several pieces of them. The sandwiches' contents were pineapple slices,cabbage,ham and cheese. That was the first time I ate sandwiches with pineapple with them. Overall, excellent culinary treats never fail to perk me up :) And they taste even better when u have had a share in the preparation of them.
Among the 4 girls, I chatted with Wei Fan the most, surprisingly. Came to realise that she is a really sweet and kind girl. She gladly posed for photographs with me, shared her feelings of homesickness and selflessly lent me her jacket although the wind was freezing cold. I was touched beyond words although I felt really guilty for not bringing my jacket along, for as a result, she had to endure the chilly wind. The sunset fatthe beach was magnificent, as the sky slowly turned from light blue to dark blue with tinges of orange in the clouds, to indigo with lighter hues of blue. The last stage was the complete darkness coupled with the twinkling stars making their full appearances in the raven black sky.
During the period where the sun was setting, we were having a lot of fun burying Oi Yin, Weiming,Aaron and Hongjun in the sand. We either buried them until knee deep or waist deep. The most hilarious part of the burying game, was writing the chinese word "tong'' meaning basin for Oi Yin when she was being buried. This word is a pun of her surname "thong''. Around 8.30 pm, we left the freezing cold beach to finish the left over salad at a bench. While waiting for Aaron to pick us up from the beach, Bowie, Wei Fan, Oi Yin and me hid between 2 cars in an attempt to keep ourselves warm from the icy wind, as Bowie had very creatively suggested. It did help a little, though I thought that it would have been a tad embarrassing if the owners of the 2 cars came back and find us huddling there together!
Aaron dropped the 3 girls off before sending me home. The chilly wind made me sneeze continuously since the moment I stepped into the house. Luckily, my runny nose stopped when I woke up this morning. I did not accomplish much for up till today, for I did not solve any green engineering tutorial question and only read my management textbook in preparation for tomorrow's lecture. I have run out of stock for vegetables,meat,milk,fruits and bread, thus I could only settle for instant chow mein and a fried egg for lunch. Though the meal is not very nutritous, it was rather filling :) I hope go grocery shopping and stock up on lots of ready to eat food soon!
Speaking of groceries, the yogurts here come in several exotic flavours. Such as lemon meringue, cheese cake and apple pie. On a totally random note, the class sizes for CHEM 3210 and 3310 are very small compared to CBC 312 and CBC 313. There are only 15-30 students in a class, compared to more than 100 for the latter courses.
After finishing all the remaining lasagne for my lunch, the Aarons, the couple and I headed to Bowie's house in Lorna street to prepare food for the picnic. Bowie, Wei Fan and Oi Yin were already in the midst of preparing the sushi, sandwiches and salad when we reached. Bowie said that the 3 food that they were preparing all starts with a "S'' to complement the 3 "S'' at the beach, which are the sun, the sand and the sea. How interesting! Before long, all of us were busy helping out in the preparation. I seemed to be doing all the cutting jobs yesterday! I cut the sausages that Wei Fan boiled and the grapes that were to be put in the salad, sliced the cheese for the sandwiches. The Aarons were making the sushi and they tasted great. The rice is so soft and light soya sauce goes perfectly with it. But Bowie thought otherwise and ate her sushi with Wasabi instead. I think that Wasabi is too hot for my liking. And salad with sausages and grapes, together with salad sauce, taste absolutely yummy!
After the preparation of the food, Aaron fetched all of us to Nobbys Beach, except for the couple who decided to go there by bus in order to spend some private and precious time together. The drive was about 20 minutes long. When we reached the beach, I was awestruck by the crashing white waves on the beautiful blue sea and the soft and cool sand. They were reminiscent of the sand and sea in Cottlesloe Beach in Perth. The sun was shining brightly and a strong breeze was blowing at us simultaneously. I whipped out my pink camera and started snapping at the sea,sand and a white house that stood on a grassy rock which was quite distance from where we were standing.
When all of us had arrived, we started taking pictures with one another and running to the sea to soak our legs in its water. The atmosphere was lively, with all the laughter and chatting. I took photos with all of the girls and even some my friends' shadows on the sand. Oi Yin was the star of the day, for she seemed to be the butt of the jokes and teasings from everyone in the group. But, I have heard from Hongjun that she is a really good cook! At about 6 pm, we started savoring the sweet fruits of our afternoon labour - the salad, sandwiches and sushi, complemented with soft drinks and fabulous tasting potato chips ( morrocan lemon with chicken and sweet,sour and spicy flavours). The sushis contained egg, crabmeat,cucumber,carrot,tuna and mayonnaise. Needless to say, they tasted awesome, and thus I ate several pieces of them. The sandwiches' contents were pineapple slices,cabbage,ham and cheese. That was the first time I ate sandwiches with pineapple with them. Overall, excellent culinary treats never fail to perk me up :) And they taste even better when u have had a share in the preparation of them.
Among the 4 girls, I chatted with Wei Fan the most, surprisingly. Came to realise that she is a really sweet and kind girl. She gladly posed for photographs with me, shared her feelings of homesickness and selflessly lent me her jacket although the wind was freezing cold. I was touched beyond words although I felt really guilty for not bringing my jacket along, for as a result, she had to endure the chilly wind. The sunset fatthe beach was magnificent, as the sky slowly turned from light blue to dark blue with tinges of orange in the clouds, to indigo with lighter hues of blue. The last stage was the complete darkness coupled with the twinkling stars making their full appearances in the raven black sky.
During the period where the sun was setting, we were having a lot of fun burying Oi Yin, Weiming,Aaron and Hongjun in the sand. We either buried them until knee deep or waist deep. The most hilarious part of the burying game, was writing the chinese word "tong'' meaning basin for Oi Yin when she was being buried. This word is a pun of her surname "thong''. Around 8.30 pm, we left the freezing cold beach to finish the left over salad at a bench. While waiting for Aaron to pick us up from the beach, Bowie, Wei Fan, Oi Yin and me hid between 2 cars in an attempt to keep ourselves warm from the icy wind, as Bowie had very creatively suggested. It did help a little, though I thought that it would have been a tad embarrassing if the owners of the 2 cars came back and find us huddling there together!
Aaron dropped the 3 girls off before sending me home. The chilly wind made me sneeze continuously since the moment I stepped into the house. Luckily, my runny nose stopped when I woke up this morning. I did not accomplish much for up till today, for I did not solve any green engineering tutorial question and only read my management textbook in preparation for tomorrow's lecture. I have run out of stock for vegetables,meat,milk,fruits and bread, thus I could only settle for instant chow mein and a fried egg for lunch. Though the meal is not very nutritous, it was rather filling :) I hope go grocery shopping and stock up on lots of ready to eat food soon!
Speaking of groceries, the yogurts here come in several exotic flavours. Such as lemon meringue, cheese cake and apple pie. On a totally random note, the class sizes for CHEM 3210 and 3310 are very small compared to CBC 312 and CBC 313. There are only 15-30 students in a class, compared to more than 100 for the latter courses.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Meet the Spartans
After breakfast yesterday, I struggled hard to attempt the Green Engineering tutorial but it was a total failure. I could not do even a single question of the tutorial and the lecture notes did not seem to help either. They were too simple and Geoff did not go through all of the contents in the lecture notes. At this point of time, I foresee myself getting a big fat zero for the upcoming quiz on Monday, how depressing ! :(
It does not help that all of my friends seem so carefree, with no tests or assignments to trouble them. Or it could be possible that they are the kind of people who always do last minute studying. I have no idea, only they themselves know. I just cant wait for 12 more weeks of school to be over! Study life never fails to inflict an immense amount of stress on me.
Enough of the unhappy things, the party of 4 and me decided to catch a movie entitled "Meet The Spartans'' at Grand Union Theatres at 9.20pm. Before heading to KFC for dinner, a drunk man came to approach us for a lighter in an uncivilised fashion. He did the same way to a group of girls passing by too. It would have been a frightening experience if I were alone, because drunkards can lose all sense of self inhibition and reasoning and they might do something horrid.I clumsily spilt the water in my pink bottle on the floor and had to ask Hongjun to buy a bottle of mineral water for me. I had a packet of Twistees as a snack. It tastes different from the Twistees back in Singapore; there was less of the chicken flavour in the crisps. Despite Weiming's slim physique, he could guzzle down almost 2 KFC meals at one sitting. And I also found out that the guys preferred meat of vegetables, while Huifang preferred vegetables due to influence from her family.
"Meet the Spartans'' is quite a mindless and silly comedy, without any proper plot. They put together many characters found in various movies and popular icons in Hollywood together in a make-believe fashion. However, the movie is based on a previous war film called "300''. Most of the actions are greatly exaggerated and there are elements of sexuality and obscenity too. Overall, I found the movie rather distasteful although I laughed at certain points. This is the 3rd movie I have watched so far since I reached Australia, a refreshing experience indeed ! I have never watched so many movies within such a short time frame before.
Chatted with Mummy on skype but the reception was not good as usual. I really pray that the bandwidth for the Internet gets renewed on the 5th March. On a totally unrelated note, the milk which I had purchased had turned into white globs of fat when I poured it into my cereal this morning. As a result, I had to throw my entire breakfast away and settle for a banana and a cup of fruit juice instead. Next time, I must finish up the milk within 4 days once the bottle is opened or purchase a smaller bottle instead.
Now, I shall make another attempt to do my Green Engineering tutorial. *heaves a heavy sigh*
It does not help that all of my friends seem so carefree, with no tests or assignments to trouble them. Or it could be possible that they are the kind of people who always do last minute studying. I have no idea, only they themselves know. I just cant wait for 12 more weeks of school to be over! Study life never fails to inflict an immense amount of stress on me.
Enough of the unhappy things, the party of 4 and me decided to catch a movie entitled "Meet The Spartans'' at Grand Union Theatres at 9.20pm. Before heading to KFC for dinner, a drunk man came to approach us for a lighter in an uncivilised fashion. He did the same way to a group of girls passing by too. It would have been a frightening experience if I were alone, because drunkards can lose all sense of self inhibition and reasoning and they might do something horrid.I clumsily spilt the water in my pink bottle on the floor and had to ask Hongjun to buy a bottle of mineral water for me. I had a packet of Twistees as a snack. It tastes different from the Twistees back in Singapore; there was less of the chicken flavour in the crisps. Despite Weiming's slim physique, he could guzzle down almost 2 KFC meals at one sitting. And I also found out that the guys preferred meat of vegetables, while Huifang preferred vegetables due to influence from her family.
"Meet the Spartans'' is quite a mindless and silly comedy, without any proper plot. They put together many characters found in various movies and popular icons in Hollywood together in a make-believe fashion. However, the movie is based on a previous war film called "300''. Most of the actions are greatly exaggerated and there are elements of sexuality and obscenity too. Overall, I found the movie rather distasteful although I laughed at certain points. This is the 3rd movie I have watched so far since I reached Australia, a refreshing experience indeed ! I have never watched so many movies within such a short time frame before.
Chatted with Mummy on skype but the reception was not good as usual. I really pray that the bandwidth for the Internet gets renewed on the 5th March. On a totally unrelated note, the milk which I had purchased had turned into white globs of fat when I poured it into my cereal this morning. As a result, I had to throw my entire breakfast away and settle for a banana and a cup of fruit juice instead. Next time, I must finish up the milk within 4 days once the bottle is opened or purchase a smaller bottle instead.
Now, I shall make another attempt to do my Green Engineering tutorial. *heaves a heavy sigh*
Friday, February 29, 2008
Incessant rain and chilly night
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
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
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