all in 1

Every night when I switch off the lights and lie on the bed, I see stars on my ceiling...the previous residents in this room must have pasted those 'glowing-in-the-dark' stars on the ceiling and they are nice and shining! I have stars around me =)

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This world is really small. We went to Clayton town a few days ago and met Ivy the 5th year medical senior and her friends, Sarah the 2nd year Science student whom we got to know during Chinese New Year Eve dinner at Yu Wan's family friend's house..and also Janet whom I know through Chien.

Back to Siew Ting at IMU, she told me that she's roommates with Chean Ying's friend, and she met my KB friend Li Xian there too! Really is such a small world, right..Cool!

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During on of our small group discussions in the Transition Camp, we were asked to describe something which we had on ourselves eg valuables. A few talked about their necklace and rings but what I particularly remembered was what Wei De said. He talked about the friendship ring he wore on his finger which had 3 names craved on it. He wore it all the time I think. What amazed me was that I didn't realise/know boys did that kind of things to value friendship too! I thought that only girls will do that..haha~

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Another ride which looked scary to me at Luna Park..We called it 360 degrees..

First the wheel is horizontal..

Then it started spinning and moved upwards..spinning really fast..

And finally it got into a vertical position, still spinning!

Kinda scary.

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Found this sign near Penguin Parade at Phillip Island.




We thought that it's kinda funny but when later we got up the bus, we saw a little penguin walking beside the road!! No wonder it's important to check under the car for any penguins..hehe


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The soft toys in my room! I brought them from Malaysia, except for that kangaroo which I bought in Clayton =D

summary of 2 days

Had my first lecture yesterday. It was fun and funny! The second lecture was presented by another lecturer who talked about emergency stuff...he showed us some pictures which contained images of people with accidents (meaning blood + geli stuff)...till there's a student who fainted near the end of the lecture.

Today we had a lecture for two hours in the morning then two tutorials. That lecture was an introduction to medicine and frankly speaking it was quite boring. Many of us fell asleep till the time when the lecturer said 'OK it's time to get down to business' and we started to sit upstraight and listen to her lecturing about masturbation and homosexuality. But I still dozed off for some few minutes...couldn't help it...

Tutorials are fun but they placed some pressure on me. You can fall asleep during lectures (coz it's conducted in big lecture theatre with everyone present) but you certainly can't fall alseep in tutorials (coz we're divided into groups and each group has a room). And your tutor will pay attention to every person in the class. Just like today during the second tutorial we were asked to do roleplay of medical interview in front of our class of 16 students. I was so scared that the tutor would choose me coz I'm not very good at it yet and I tend to be nervous in front of unfamiliar people. And those locals were doing so great like there's no flaws in the roleplay at all!! And they were speaking with confidence (alright coz English is their native language)..my, I certainly have a lot of things to learn..

Anyway I feel very lucky that Justina will be together with me in almost every class, at least there's someone I know who's same class with me...a great relief..and a few locals from my group P in Transition Camp, too..hehe..

Oh ya, Aussies really speak fast. Can't catch what they're speaking sometimes. Maybe their speed is the same as my speed of speaking Mandarin. A guy from China commented that I speak Mandarin fast, even faster than him! (note: his friends always said that he speaks fast, but I'm faster..haha)

Did I mention that we celebrated Yeu Sheng's birthday? It's really a big surprise for her, we gave her a penguin soft toy from Phillip Island (first present from Australia!) and a cake. It's then we only knew that candles are not provided free together when you buy a cake...unlike in Malaysia....We even got to know a local who's Yeu Sheng's neighbour and he's doing Chinese! Hehe~

a mixture of experience

Okay I'm going to make this post as brief as possible...hope it won't be too long..hehe..

Last Thursday a few friends from Melbourne namely Amelene, Esther, Joanne, Sree and Jing Kai came to Clayton to visit us at Monash. That day was quite a busy day for us as we had to pass up our Working With Children check forms and Police check forms, and during the whole process we had to go around the Campus Centre, moving here and there (from pharmacy to bank to post office to Student Services Centre) and when we finally finished everything, we were really exhausted. Those people from Melbourne had already arrived by then and were waiting for us to bring them around our Halls of Residence. Luckily Yu Wan entertained them earlier by bringing them to the Clubs and Societies Carnival where there's a lot of free food to eat..haha~

In the evening after they went back to Melbourne, 10 of us went to join in the activity of Orientation Week for that night - a trip to St Kilda beach & Luna Park!! Luna Park is an amusement park located near to the beach, and it's soooooo cold there! Monash Residential Services booked the park for the night, and when the gates opened at 9pm everyone rushed in to play their favourites. I was reluctant to play the roller coaster at first, but somehow I tried it after much persuasion. I sat with Yun Ying at the first row and it turned out to be a terrible experience for me. The handle bar was tight but it was still a few centimetres away from me and I felt insecure. I grabbed it as tight as I could when the roller coaster went down the way, and there were a few times when I SLIPPED down my seat to the floor of the coach. It was scary, REALLY SCARY...as I felt that I would fly off if I didn't grap the handle bar tightly. From that moment onwards I made a decision that I would not ride any roller coaster in Australia anymore. I didn't go to any rides after that except for the Pirate Ship.

Anyway, that's one terrible experience I got since coming to Australia. Now I'm going to blog about the Transition Residential Camp at Phillip Island. It was VERY cold there!! Basically what we did was small group discussions most of the time and got to mix around with the local people. I got to play the giant swing!! It's fun and exciting and a new experience for me! Besides that, we went to see the Penguin Parade...the penguins were so cute! (not you, CK) Those penguins are the world's smallest penguins...(again, CK the penguin is the big one) but too bad that cameras and phones for photography were not allowed. So, sorry no pics guys..

We got our timetable and learning materials during the camp and I was glad that I would be in most of the classes with Justina. At least there's someone I know studying together with me in a class..haha..By the way, I got to know two Singaporean guys and a senior from INTEC, Ausmat 16...haha!!

pics pics pics

Let the pictures do the talking...

Found this on the fridge..suits Conney the leopard..haha..wonder how is she in Tasmania now..

This is the sky at 8pm...the sun was just about to set...so it's still bright. Can't believe it?

The Victoria State Library fallen to the ground?? =P

The best thing about orientation is that you can get a lot of freebies...such as these! And I got a few bags, water bottles, keychains, sweets...

This was taken in Chinatown...Melbourne!!

HapPy CNY~!!

On CNY eve we had reunion dinner at Yu Wan's family friend's house. They're a few nice people who help Chinese students from overseas by giving advice and information on how to move about in Melbourne. The people who were around there graduated from Monash University and knew much things about the uni. Two sisters from Hong Kong and a 2nd-year Science student from China were also there, together with three more people. The whole lot of us had a nice delicious dinner and made ourselves feel at home. They did understand that this is our first time celebrating Chinese New Year overseas and prepared a lot of food for us. We also played games and it's really fun with so many people around!! It certainly boosted up my mood for CNY when we got an angpow each! =P There were even desserts and fruits prepared for us...haha..

On the first day of CNY (which was yesterday) we went to church...it made me realise that I miss DUMC - the crowd of people, the songs that we sang, the cold air cond...and also the usual dinner after church which was economical rice, cheap and nice to eat. Anyway the church that we went yesterday morning was Hope Christian Church Melbourne which was actually at a school hall (from what I heard). As it's CNY we had a funny play presented by fellow church members and an ang pow which contained a verse each. After service two church members drove us to Caulfield train station as we had to go to Melbourne Central to the city. Pn Haslina from the Consulate of Malaysia would be at Restaurant Jom Makan at the city to meet us scholars from both Melbourne and Monash University. There were many students in the restaurant, more than a hundred I think. We met Amelene, Ling Sing, Zhi Han, Esther, Daphne, Joanne and a few other pharmacy students from the Parkville campus. We had our free lunch there and it's the first time I realised that canned beverages in Australia are all 375ml instead of the usual 325ml sold in Malaysia. So it's a little taller than the usual one.

Pn Haslina was a bit late. She arrived with a lady officer and some seniors from Melbourne University. After passing up our forms, she ended the session and we were free to go. The usual 12 of us, together with Ling Sing and Zhi Han went to Chinatown to have a look at the CNY celebration there. There were quite a few lion dance and several stalls selling all kinds of stuff. Now I really feel that it's CNY! We walked along the busy streets and reached a Giordano shop. There was a sale - T-shirts were priced at $10 each! Most of the us went inside and bought a T-shirt but I didn't, now kinda regret coz I didn't bring many short sleeved shirts and blouses with me...

After that we walked again. There's a small stage set up by a Chinese school...all you need to do is just go up the stage and sing 'Tong Hua' by Guang Liang accompanied by the music and you'd get either a soft toy keychain or an alarm clock. At first we didn't want to and had headed to the Giordano shop earlier, but after much persuasion by Yu Wan, we agreed and 8 of us went on stage and sang. Chau Wang took a video of us singing. We didn't get any souvenirs (maybe there's nothing left) but we certainly had fun! First time performing on the streets of Melbourne =P

t a G G e D

Four movies I can watch over and over and over again:
(refer to previous post in Dec 2006)

Four places I've lived:
(refer to the same previous post I mentioned)

Four books I recommend to everyone:
1. Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
2. any Harry Potter book
3. Cat and Mouse by James Patterson
4. zao3 shang4 de4 gu4 shi4 (I'm lazy to type Chinese just for these few words here)

Four of my favourite dishes:
1. mom's peanut soup
2. fried kangkung
3. spagetti
4. roast chicken/duck

Four sites I visit daily:
1. my friend's blogs
2. friendster.com
3. yahoomail.com
4. gmail.com

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. KB - to celebrate CNY and visit friends
2. home - for the comfort and nice food
3. Genting - cold weather...
4. Roberts Hall kitchen - it's time for dinner!!!

Four bloggers I am tagging:
1. Ru Xing
2. Amanda
3. Siaw Tze
4. Yeam

Albert Park~

Yesterday we went to Albert Park for some Kick-start Monash thing activity. The bus took us from campus and we reached there at about 10.30am. It's really HOT and we have to stay undet the sun to play games such as soccer, touch rugby, tug-a-war, frisbie etc but it's really fun! Especially frisbie, it's not too violent and easy to play! There's a big lake in Albert Park and there were many ducks and black swans (I could't find a white one). We got a muffin and a bottle of fresh orange juice each (we paid for that you know!) and free cold water. We even played in a 'jumping castle' - jumping inside it as the castle is filled with air. We had much fun though it's hot and we're sweating. After that we sat under a big tree for shade while waiting for the bus to arrive to take us back to campus. As we sat down and chat there were many flies flying around! So annoying...I have been here for several days and I haven't seen a mosquito but I did see a lot of flies.

In the evening most of us went to join an activity organised by Caregroup - a group of Christian seniors. We had some games and a nice steamboat dinner. The seniors are nice and most of them are from Malaysia! *clap clap* After that they drove us back to our halls, Yu Wan, Chau Wang and me then went to Calvin's room to get our stuff bought from Big W which were sent by delivery. The three of us then calculated how much we should pay and settled our debts, phew! By that time it's already coming to midnight, so we retired to our rooms as the next day is orientation for our halls.

p/s: You can view pictures at Yu Wan's blog...she uploaded a few~

Greetings from melbourne

Well, should be from Clayton instead of Melbourne..haha! Today is my third day in Australia. Yesterday afternoon (after the registeration in campus in the morning), the 12 of us (Chean Ying, Yeu Sheng, Nooi Hoay, Calvin, Cheng Khoon, Ryan, Shea Chuen, Yun Ying, Yu Wan, Justina, Chau Wang and me) went to Clayton to buy some necessities and we were like rushing coz the shops close at 5pm (yeah I know that's kinda early). But those that we bought were not enough, and by the time we reached our rooms we're very very tired. It's about 20 minutes (or longer?) walk from our halls of residence to the bus stop, and another few minutes bus ride to Clayton. So it's like a torture when we got back with big plastic bags of things in our hands, having to walk another 20 minutes back to our halls and climb the stairs to our rooms.

Then today we went to Melbourne city to buy some other stuff such as fan (our rooms don't have fan! It's so hot and stuffy in the afternoon), cutlery, food and some stationery. Don't ask me about the price, to Australians it'll be super cheap but to us Malaysians, if you convert them back to RM it'll be like burning a hole in our pockets...

Oh, the weather here is quite different from Malaysia. Maybe because it's still summer here and the sky gets dark quite late. It's still very bright when it's already 8pm! You won't believe that it's 8pm when you see the sun set...haha~

Will write more later if I have time. There's so many things to do!

It's been a super long time since I last stepped in KLIA....will be going there on 12th...it'll be my 1st international flight!

I'll be going to KL tomorrow...oh should be today, at 3pm later...

I'm glad to know that those who have flew to Australia have settled down, read from their blogs that everything is fine. I started my usual habit again - collecting phone numbers! Amelene used to ask me, 'Why you like to collect people's contact/phone number?' Well for me it's convenience and a good way to keep in touch... So as I saw that my friends put their numbers in MSN's personal message I quickly saved them in my phone, and confirmed with Ling Weng for the area code..hehe...well there's a girl out there who didn't sms me to tell me about her new number...haih..disappointed!!

Anyway, good bye to my friends in KB, we did have fun; take care always, as I'll be back end of this year. =)

Will miss you guys!

p/s: Ting, don't worry about not getting anymore sms from me...coz I won't forget you! And Christine, I'll give you my number as soon as I get one...coz I know you sure ask for it, right right?? =P

5th February...

I woke up at 7.20am this morning and called Cheah Yen. The Curtin pharmacy gang is flying to Perth today. Before I spoke 'Hello' into the phone, she was 'yerrrrrrrrrr....' (the usual Cheah Yen manja-ness) and said she's flying soon...I wished her a safe journey and good luck. After that, I called Siaw Tze using my dad's phone, and said a 'jie...' She didn't know who I was. She kept 'huh? huh?' and I kept 'jie, you dunno who I am ah?' only after a while did she realise that it's me as she was wondering how come her brother's voice sounded so different..haha! I talked with her a while, then she passed her phone to Ling Weng, Michelle, and then back to her. I gave each of them my best wishes and reminded them to let me know their Australian number once they got theirs. I also sent a message to Yie Min wishing him luck. All the best ya you guys at Perth!

At 3.15pm my mom drove me to the airport to send Chien off to KL, she's going to Adelaide direct from KL. Song Yee, Wei Ven and Kam Hong were there too. Wei Ven said that we went to make Chien cry, but then it turned out that we were joking and talking about William stuff (you know I know la, Chien's favourite)....when it was time to go into the departure hall, she hugged each one of us and her family members, and we bid goodbye.

Bon Voyage Chien~ take care always, and don't cry while watching that movie ya! =P We'll meet somehow in Australia...

Chui Shen said, 3rd BBQ in 2 weeks.

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I went to take back my laptop which I sent to reformat and I was so surprised and happy to find that the uncle installed many new things for me! He installed the Windows Vista theme for my Windows XP and some latest programs, making the laptop look brand new!! =D

After that I came back home and started to prepare for my farewell party which was supposed to start at 7pm. Angelene came an hour earlier to help me. It had been several months since I last met her, and my, she is still the same Angelene I knew - same SS!! While we were preparing, other friends arrived. It was nice to have so many people around, meeting old friends and ex schoolmates. After my mom finished cooking fried meehoon (Tze Xian always asks me for this), we started BBQ-ing while chit-chatting at the same time.

Clockwise from top: Fang, Wei Ven, me, Chui Shen, Ai Wei, Li Xian in the middle

From top (left to right): Wei Yong, Fang, Sook Wen, Hui Xuan, Yun Siew, Jen Yun, me

The ASEAN scholars (not me okay =P) : Poh Xuan and Yen Nee

They 4 boys who came to my party: Yong Jing, Bing Zhao, Song Yee, Chiat Chuen (only 4, coz most of the guys not around in KB...)

Me and Chien. She just flew to Adelaide this afternoon...gonna miss her lots. Her William jokes..

Group picture!

Everyone did have fun, I took a short video; and this party would be a nice memory to be remembered in our minds. =)

Oh ya, thanks for the gifts people! They are all so lovely =D

AUSMAT graduation video~

AUSMAT graduation video is uploaded on YouTube! Thanks to Yeam, it's a nice and touching one =)

Hope you don't mind me putting the addresses here: (both videos are the same)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jloHgK4M7s4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04BAmtdbp90

i want to see penguins...

I received an email from the university with some information for MBBS first-year students... I was glad to know that there will be a Transition Residential Weekend at Phillip Island! Whee... a trip before classes commence! Haha~ There's going to be a penguin parade but places must be booked in advance. Well, I do hope that I can book a place in time and see those cute little penguins walking ashore! (Which, reminded me of someone...haha =P)

For most people now the biggest problem is the luggage limit. Only 20kg! My luggage itself is already 5kg, with 15kg left for my clothes and stuff! And only 5kg is allowed for hand luggage...sigh, I guess I'll have to ask my dad to post my books to me coz my books are almost 10kg...sad case...

Another thing. Due to the Transition Residential Weekend (I think it's some sort of a camp), I'll have to bring a sleeping bag, pillow case and a mat, which means extra weight for my luggage...someone help me please...