Yup, I have been here for one month plus. I was unaware about it until one day my roommate told me about it. Time pass so fast. I could even remember the first day I arrived here. Was terribly tired on that day!!
The first two weeks was our honeymoon period. Very excited being in a whole new place and environment. Admiring the architectural of the old buildings which were completely different from Msia. Getting use to the new environment and lifestyle, and trying to blend in to the lifestyle. Here, the lifestyle was slow and relax; locals went jogging during lunchtime like almost every time I see them jogging as if they don’t need to work!! Went to the Glenelg Beach (no hunky Aussies in speedos). Went to Urimbira Wildlife Park to see kangaroos hopping around and koala bears (koala bears were way cuter than kangaroos). Eating lunchbox at Torrens River.
You see, most of the stuffs were enjoying as if we were here for holidays. We almost forgot we are here for studying!! Everything we did during this period was fun and enjoying. We cooked for each meals but not until when the classes started..
The second two weeks was the homesick/“reality kicks in” period. Homesick says it all. Started to miss my family. Started to appreciate their presence.. besides that, started to get bored with this place. You can’t find any shops or restaurants open at night. No entertainment. No mamak stalls. No people on street at night. Very quiet at night at the neighborhoods. The only entertainment for us all was drinking wine with cheese and chatting while the neighbors switch off their light and sleep?
This was the time the classes started. “Reality kicks in”. The first day class was disastrous. A big slap on my face to wake up me from my honeymoon period. In the lectures, I was dreaming and my mind was not concentrating on the lecturers. I barely heard anything from the lectures for their monotonous speech and strong accent. But luckily my uni had recorded the lecture and I view back anytime. In lab class, the place was so crowded to accommodate at least 50 students. Unlike in inti, we had 11 of us in one lab class and can literally play kejar-kejar in the lab!! But not over here. The were a lot of differences between here and inti. For example, in inti we need only to follow instructions from lecturer but here, you are hands-on and need not to follow the instructions from demonstrators. The tutorial class even worse; I need to compete with the spontaneous ang mos to answer questions as marks are given for answering and for speaking up!! The questions were mostly application-required type and I always not good in that department. All in all, the education system here is different from inti. I still need time to get use with new systems. That’s all about learning, rite? Hopefully it won’t need too long for that day to come..
Will stop here and continue on the next post..
