It's Time to go Back Home

This is my last post from Adelaide as I will be going back to Malaysia next Wednesday!! Finally!!

But before going back home, I will be heading up to Gold Coast. Yay!! Will be visiting the beaches and enjoy the sunshine. Will be going to the theme parks as well. Surely an enjoying and memorable summer trip before going back to Malaysia.

I have been started to packing my luggage and my room is in a mess!! Always lazy to start packing and then end up have to do it last minute. This time felt heart heavy to leave here as I will not be coming back here again until my graduation next year. At first when reached here, felt homesick and then when the time to go back, don’t feel going back home already. Is it funny? I kinda miss this place, especially my room. But, have to face the reality; it’s time to move on and begin another chapter of life – working life…

Mid-Autumn 2011

I know it is too late to wish but Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all!! I just got back from Moon Lantern Festival in conjunction with OzAsia Festival 2011. Oh well, I had a different experience of this year’s Mooncake Festival.

To start off, i got a job (finally) in a Hong Kong grocery and had been working for 3 weeks already. Got paid $7 per hour and worked for 21 hours per week. So suddenly got rich and been treating my friends generously. After started working, now I will buy food or coffee whenever I want to without further consideration. Before working, I will ask myself to buy or not to? But now? Will just pamper myself whenever I want to.

My boss is a Taiwanese. He treated all of us dinner at a Chinese restaurant on Sunday. At that dinner he came to our table and asked us to drink red wine. According to my friend, Taiwanese like to drink alcohol. My lady boss kept asking us to drink that night and the rest of my girls’ colleagues bottoms-up a glass of red wine which made my have no choice but to drink as well. Apparently, that’s the way how they celebrated the festival, eating and drinking wine.

Felt homey during that night because the boss treated us like part of his family members especially students like me studying away from home. Miss my parents so much!! If I were at Malaysia, I would be spending my time with family and eating mooncakes.

What I festival without mooncakes? I bought black sesame snow skin mooncake for myself as I love snow skin mooncakes so much!! The mooncake was from Hong Kong and the taste was not too bad but still prefer Tai Tong’s. The traditional mooncake was given from my boss. Didn’t really like this one though.

This was how I celebrated this festival. Completely different from how I celebrated at Malaysia. Indeed memorable experience for my already dead boring life at Adelaide. Will be going back to Malaysia by end of this year and I can’t wait for it!!

Going to Melbourne and Tasmania

Exam finished 3 days ago and now is my holiday!!

Will be going to Melbourne and Tasmania tomorrow. Will stop at Melbourne for 5 days and will then fly to Tasmania on the sixth. We are hoping to see snow over there.. Yay!!

All together 13 of us will be going for this trip. Yes, we always have a large group when going for a tour.

The thing with so many people is that it’s very “ma fan” to take care everybody’s need. Some might want to go this tourist attraction and some might not want to. Then, some attractions need entrance fees but some of us might not want to pay.

Worst of all, some of my friends do not contribute anything in preparation for this trip. They say got exam and no time to meet up for discussion. My friends and I have to do everything. From booking accommodation to planning which tourist attraction to go. Others don’t even volunteer themselves to help us just because of the finals.

We have one friend who’s been to Melbourne before and we are expecting her to in charge of making the bookings but, because she is having exam today, we have to take responsible as well. For heaven sake, I had my finals last week too..

the breathtaking view of Dove Lake, Tasmania

The lesson is not to go holiday with large group.. but we are still excited for the trip!!

Preparing for the Exam

From past record, I tend to be more negative when examination is approaching. This time, the same as well. My mind and body filled with negativity thoughts.. oh yar, my exams in on 23 and 28 of June (next week!!).

Negativity thoughts to the extent of giving up.. past few weeks I was rushing to finish my assignment before the deadline. With so many things to do and not forgetting to start revision, I started to think of letting it go and fail.. Oh well, I was not alone. My housemates were thinking the same way as well.

I was fragile at that time. Wait, I was fragile from the time I came here. With lack of family support (physically), I am fragile and loss of confidence. But then again, if I fail those two papers, I would have to retake again and delay my graduation. Not only that, I have to pay again A$12k (equivalent to MYR36k++) to retake the paper!! That’s a waste of time and money. Most importantly I will disappoint my parents’ expectation on me. So, no! I can’t afford to fail!!

If you ask me to pay more attention, I did but I just can’t seem to concentrate. The subjects were very though! And the question style is different from inti. Here, the questions were more to critical thinking rather than direct-type of questions. Worst of all, my basic is not strong enough to answer the application-type of questions! Die la!! So, that means I may not answer the question correctly even though I manage to memorize all the notes.

I just started reading the notes on last Sunday and I have many, many more to come.. but now I feel more confident after reading a few chapters.

I don’t expect for high distinction, a pass is all I wanted. Hoping for the best to come...

Before and After

Continue from previous post..

Studying at oversea and staying far away from family is not easy especially when you are in down moment where you have no one to talk to or to cry on.. Not that I don’t have friends with me, but to let them hear my rantings? Not possible.

Despite staying over here for 2 months plus, I notice some changes in me.

Here are some before and after coming here:

Before: In Malaysia, 16⁰C was cold..

After: But here, 8⁰C is COLD!! 16⁰C is now considered cool. 30⁰C consider hot!! I can’t imagine when I get back to Malaysia

Before: In Malaysia, I don’t have to cook..

After: I have to cook at least 3 times a week for lunch and dinner for 5 persons including me. Not that I don’t like to cook (in fact, I like cooking), but thinking of what to cook every time for 5 people? Not easy.. Now I learn how my mother has to crack her head in order to cook different type of dishes every day for us. Mother is the best!

Before: In Malaysia, I don’t feel heartbreak when spending money..

After: Every cent counts!! My mind will automatically convert every dollar to Malaysian ringgit. Plus, today I saw the high exchange rate at a bank, RM3.50 to A$1!! Every time when dividing the bills, every cent was counted!! We can’t afford to belanja others.

Before: In Malaysia, if I want to a place, I would drive there..

After: Over here? No matter how the place is, I have to take the bus and walk to that destination!! The number of steps I walked here for 2 months are more than the number of steps in Malaysia for a year!!

Before: In Malaysia, no need to go pasar..

After: Forced to go to the Central Market every week to buy food. But market here is dry, unlike Malaysia’s wet pasar.

I supposed all these changes are good to me though sometimes very tiring to study at day then come back home to cook. Perhaps this trains me to become a full-fledge househusband!! Haha..

After one year, I would change into brand new Scotty!!

Scotty’s One Month-long at Adelaide

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..

Arriving At Adelaide

My uni

I have been here, Adelaide, for more than a week. I had no problem settling down here as my friend’s boyfriend, who stayed here for two years, had helped us in settling down. When we reached here on the first day, we were so tired after tiring flight from KL and luckily we had him to cook us dinner and bring us around the city. Luckily I stayed with a group of friends, I’m still not yet feel homesick. That’s the advantage side of staying with friends, we talk, we laugh and we cook. I’m very sure none of us will feel homesick instead, we felt homely..

Adelaide’s a laid-back city. It’s quiet, safe, and peaceful to live here. There was one time I walked alone on a dimly-lighted street and there were no people insight, I felt safe. Unlike in Malaysia, those dimly-lighted streets are the hotspot for snatch thieves.

The weather here is cool though sometimes it can be very cold for me. It was 17⁰C out there and I was putting on my sweater while the locals wore a singlet with a shorts!! But not long after that, I got used to the cold weather and started to throw away sweater shorts. Due to the cool weather, I did’t sweat a lot when standing under the scorching sunlight unlike in Malaysia.

And since coming here, my friends and I tend to be very polite to the ang moh. We’ll say “Thank you” if they had helped us even a little thing. Then, we’ll say “Sorry” if we blocked their way on a pathway. All these never happen in Malaysia. There was one time when I asked them: Why in Malaysia, we will never say “Don’t block others’ way” on a pathway? We, then, only realized we actually like to stand in middle of a pathway and blocking others’ way back in Malaysia..

As for ogling part, the Caucasians are HOT lor!! Every day you get to see men in office attire walking on the Rundle Mall. Since Australian very open one, but I have not seen two guys holding hand together walking down on the street lor.. And I was so excited to find out there is a bookstore near my place selling DNA magazine, which I searched high and low at the Rundle Mall. And it costs A$9.95, not cheap but will definitely start a fund to buy this magazine..

Current DNA's cover page

Classes will begin next week. And so the real challenge.. went to the briefing and kinda worried if I could cope up with the new teaching style.. hopefully everything will go smoothly..