15.02.2009

On the first day that I arrived, I was really lost cause I was in Stairway 8 of Roberts Hall alone and the guys upstairs were really noisy. I was quite scared initially. Hoho. The first day was really rough I'll give you guys that. But I later met them in the kitchen and they turned out to be really really nice (albeit noisy). Then, people started moving in and it turns out that there are a lof of Malaysians and Singaporeans in my hall. O_O. Oh well...

Anyways, pictures, as promised! We'll start on the second day after I arrived.

Waiting at the bus stop near our halls. I forgot to set my alarm and I saw so many people outside my door one hour after appointed time. O_O. Those were the days before I got my Australian number. We just had to set time and place to meet cause roaming is damn expensive. I am NEVER going to be late for anything ever again I swear. L-R: Choo, Zen Xern, Kevin, me, Joshua and Jimmy. The guys are well equipped with maps. =P.

We went to Chadstone, which is the biggest shopping mall in Melbourne. It's probably only half the size of One Utama. *yawn*. After one hour or so, we left.

Waiting outside the mall. Kevin, Choo and I were debating about whether we should follow the bus from Monash to St. Kilda or take the train then tram down ourselves since we already have the daily ticket. In the end, we decided to be adventurous and went down ourselves. The boys had a lot of maps in their bag anyway. We couldn't possibly get lost!

I think I was taking out my jacket. It was sooo windy in Melbourne that day.

We separated from Cheryl and the rest at the train station. It was a 40 minute train ride from Clayto the city. When we got off at Flinder's Street, the first thing that we saw was...

St. Paul's church and the Melbourne City's tourist centre. We later dropped by to collect more maps. HAHAHA. I have a folder full of maps already I swear. Tram routes, train routes, bus routes. Name it and I can take it out from my folder. =P.

and Federation Square! I am going there again this Sunday. Melbourne City is quite small.

Then after asking around, we hopped on Tram no. 16 and headed down to St. Kilda. =).

It's a really gorgeous place. Even though the sun was so hot, the sea breeze there is so strong that you won't feel the sunrays on you AT ALL. That's how I got sunburnt. -_-.

Then we walked to the pier. If you put up your umbrella here, it may get blown inside out no kidding.

Do you see the city behind me? Gorgeous ain't it? =)

The guys that I travel quite a lot with. Since they are the only people who wants to explore the city too. LOL. Choo and Khoo.

The people sunbathing and reading on the beach. And yea you can actually see topless woman here. O_O.

Choo and I. It's really sunny ain't it?

Kev and I. We positively look like we're glowing. HAHAHA.

At the end of the pier.

Choo and I looking at the sea at the end of the pier. I think I can stay there all day. It was pretty nice and calm there... until two idiots jumped off the bridge. -___-.

Kev, why so serious!

You should smile like me! =D

We're taking photos like tourists, cause we ARE tourists now! Man these 2 weeks felt like an amazing holiday to me! Sucks that school is starting on Monday. =(.

After that, we headed back to City Centre to meet up with Soon Wen. He brought us to El Freddo to eat gelato. It was AWESOME.

The State Library.

Yup you actually see such things in Melbourne.

Another picture of the church before we leave since it's so magnificent.

When we got back, we missed the last bus to the stop behind our hall. -___-. So we had to take the train to another stop and catch another bus. That was pretty scary. O_o.

Man I have so many things to blog about but I really don't have time arrgh. I am so stoned every day I think people are finding me boring already. Whenever people ask me how I am, I just say sleepy. O_o. This is what you get when you play too much. HAHA.

Flying Off...on Friday the 13th

On the night of 12/02/09, I left for the airport. There were a lot of confusion when I told people that my flight was on the midnight of 13/02. They thought I was leaving later and hence that would explain phone calls and messages wishing me a safe trip when I have already arrived in Australia HAHA. Anyways I took AirAsia and when I arrived at the LCCT, the place was jam packed with people. Specifically, DJ students. Honestly it really felt like a mini DJ reunion to me! O_O.
HAHA WONG YEN MING! She was wearing this green shirt cause you see, she has this tradition of wearing this particular shirt on the first day of college or uni. Since I won't be around for her first day this year, she decided to wear it to the airport instead. Awwww... =)

L-R: Jon Mah, Peg-Gy, Laura, Benjamin (THIS JOKER IS A PR IN AUSTRALIA BUT HE CAME TO SEND US OFF HAHAHA my mum thought it was just the trick of the eye when she saw you!), me, Kev, Yen Ming, Geoffrey and Sarah.

L-R: Peg-Gy, me, Yen Ming, Yen Vern, Sue Han, Yih Chien and Evelyn.

My mummy and I. ^_^.

Finally, time to go! Thanks for sending us off, guys! Haha I look so excited cause there were so many cameras snapping away at the side and I was half laughing and half yelling "STOP IT!". Btw, someone over here told me that I look like I am carrying a jet pack when I am carrying this bag. Got meh... =.=

It was a very long 8 hours to Australia.

We were so bored that we kept checking the map! There was even this function that enabled us to start chatrooms and not surprisingly, there was this chatroom named "Monash". We kinda gave up typing after a while though. It took us about 5 minutes on average just to type one line!

They served us food (you have to prebook for cheaper prices) at FREAKING 2 AM IN THE MORNING WTH!!! The Nasi Lemak was good though. Really miss that food now. We had indian curry for cultural food night the other night but I still miss Nasi Lemak!

I could hardly sleep on the plane cause you can't push down the chair -____- and there were a lot of turbulences so I managed to stay up for the sunrise. It was a looooooooooooong wait, but it was definitely worth it! =).

The beginning of it....

10 minutes later....

Oooooh, the sun's out! I wish I have a shirt of this colour!

Because we ALL did not sleep on the plane, during that 8 long hours, we did a lot of stupid stuff with Cheryl's headrest etc. But, to avoid embarassment (for me especially), those pictures will NEVER be released! They are only for private viewing. *nods head*. EH DON'T ANY OF YOU GUYS DARE TO POST IT UP!

Ahhh, we finally arrived! =). Safely I must add since I had to endure so many jokes about flying off on Friday the 13th before I left. -__-.

The next installment will be up soon! At least before school starts next week. =(. We were having so much fun here that sometimes you really forget that school's just around the corner. HOho.

Picture Time!

I am back in my room for one hour before I go out again so I'll just squeeze in a short update. Here, when we do not have any activities in the hostel, we'll go and play foosball, pool, table tennis or run over to our friend's house and play. =D. At this rate, I'll probably lose interest in studying completely. Heh.


Above is a picture of the sticker outside my door. Cool eh? I'll just run up and down my stairway and look at names so I'll have an idea of how my neighbours would be like. =P. The picture below shows my timetable for this week. We have a noticeboard in each room so I'll just stick whatever was given to me!

My room is directly in front of the stairway can you believe it! It can get pretty noisy at night!

A map to show where we came from. HAHA, try to see who clustered up that tiny spot on the map!

Kevin and I posing with our helmets. =P. Under this program, we get to cycle around Uni for free and helmets are provided for free too! We were also wearing this funky bee hairband that we got from Commonwealth Bank. In this picture, we were actually waiting in line for the barbeque. This is my third bbq for the week and I'll be attending another one in two days time I think.

Am I living the Australian life? (drink carbonated drinks everyday, eat meat everyday, have lollies or candies almost everyday?!)

You bet!

I am now a walking zombie...

Yesterday, we finally got the itinerary for our hostel's orientation and to our horror and excitement, there will be activities all day long until 12 am EVERY.SINGLE.DAY for this week. O_O. Kinda regret hopping to the city so often last week. Now we're just so sleep deprived, I am feeling kinda anti-social at the moment. I have totally lost count of the times I said: "Hi, I am Suh Ming from Malaysia". Then to repeat it again. One American guy found a really good way to remember my name though. Apparently. he said that since they sue people so much in the US, he just kinda used that to remember my name. As in my name would mean sue-ing Ming or something. O_o. I told him that I'll take it as a compliment! Lol.

I have had two Australian barbies (which is actually bbq) and I am loving the culture here! I actually had L-A-M-B sausage the other day! Like how freaking cool is that! Sports are HUGE in Australia so you really can't escape exercising at all. The exercise I have had since I arrived in Austalia is probably more than what I used to have in Malaysia for the entire year no kidding! For these 2 mornings after the Monash Dash and Monash Fun Day (which were held on the same day sigh), my muscles just ache so much that I have trouble getting up from the bed. All I want to do is just lay in bed all day =(. But I can't sleep early here because there is this guy living above my room who's just really popular with the other residents from Roberts Hall. The other night, people were running up and down the stairway WHICH IS JUST OUTSIDE MY DOOR, or throwing pebbles at his room cause he wouldn't pick up his phone. HAHAHA.

I'll probably have a proper update when I actually have time to sleep 9 hours a day. For today, I only slept like 6 hours? Cause we had some activity at 7.30am and so at 6.50am, you have people banging pots and pans outside your room as your wake up call. I was really grumpy and anti-social this morning.

I am supposed to nap now but the guy staying above my room is practising his guitar again. OMG HE FINALLY STOPPED OK BYE I WANNA SLEEP OR I'LL BITE PPL SOON I SWEAR.

Short Update

There are so many things to do here at the moment that the only way I can cope with keeping in touch with family and friends, orientation as well as touring is to sacrifice on my sleep. I am very blur due to sleepiness these few days but I guess I'll find a routine that suits me soon. =P.

Anyways, I have loads to blog about! Omg, I want to write everything down so that I can read about it in like 2-3 years time! =). Good things come to those who wait... I'll FINALLY BE UPLOADING PHOTOS TOMORROW, after I get them from Kevin and Cheryl that is. =P.

Short updates:
Turns out that I am in a partying stairway. The guy living above me has jamming sessions 24/7 (ok he stops after 12 I think) and people walk outside my room all the time to reach his room. They just asked me to the pub and so I asked dear old Kev to come along with me. On the phone however, that joker heard that I wanted to go to a PARK instead (I WAS wondering why did he agree to go to the pub with me so instantly. Its Kev after all =D). So long story short, I didn't follow them. Maybe next week eh? I have something called the "Monash Dash" tomorrow. Sounds promising.

It's Really Sunny In Australia!

HELLLLOOOOO!!! I have arrived safely and I am still very busy trying to settle down so I'll drop you guys an email later with my handphone number and address.

For short updates...

- I went to St. Kilda and the city yesterday. I had gelato. It was FREAKING expensive (after conversion) but it was damn awesome. Melbourne is a damn cute city. I like trams.

- I have half given up converting every price. I will go mad. REALLY.

- Once you guys are back or in Melbourne City, I'll need a proper guide to bring me around. When we arrived at Federation Square, one of my friends who has been to the city before actually told me that it's something square. Because he forgot the names and everything. Then the church near to it is something church. HAHA. HAHA. Damn fail. Then if you walk for another 10 minutes, you'll reach something river. I later find out that it's Yarra river. LOL.

- To get to the city, I need to take a 40 minute train ride (one way). But once we reached Clayton, we missed the last bus back. HAHAHA. Had to take the train back to another stop and take another bus. -_-. But it was definitely an adventure alright.

- I got my internet connection two days ago but I have been out like every single day for TWELVE freaking hours so I could only Skype with my family with the energy that I have left.

- It is so windy around here that your sunglasses might fly off your head. Especially at the beach side. Hoho. I have some serious suntan from yesterday because I didn't realise that the sunlight was so strong.

- I FREAKING GET CONCESSION RATE WOOHOO IS THIS AWESOME OR WHAT! OMG NOW I CAN TRAVEL AROUND SOOO OFTEN! =D =D =D. Sorry had to rub it in. Muahaha.

- And the internet here is great too. Even though I had a conference call (without video) with my family for one and a half hours, it was only TWO CENTS? And that was inclusive of facebook surfing, visiting my blog (sorry too exhausted to read other blogs yet) and checking hotmail! Lol.

- I am supposed to get my tax files number now but as usual I got too bored and updated my blog instead. MISSING EVERYONE LOADS! =(

Okay damn tired already haih I only sleep like 7 hours a day now. =(. But the people here are sooo nice and even though I am still quite homesick at times... it's getting better. =)

@_@

I am leaving tomorrow.

Wow.

I kinda feel like that now. Excited, yet kinda dazed. HAHAHAHA. (Picture taken from Sammi's blog )

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I was just looking through ALL of my pictures and I think this rule should be imposed : at each event, there shall only be one group shot. Now I am stuck with an average of 5 similar group photos for each event. I can't decide which to delete. =(.

Karaoke

I have been neglecting my blog for dramas (cause I'll be super deprived there) and now that I am done with it, I think I better blog as often as possible before I leave for Australia. Lalala.

The day before Chinese New Year's eve, I went for my first karaoke session. Ever. =D. I am seriously not joking when I said that. The group of friends that I usually hang out with*ahem* think that going for karaoke is damn "lala" so I was deprived of that simple pleasure bleh. After bugging my other group of friends for AGES however (believe me when I say AGES), they finally made my dream come true. *grins*.

However, for this much awaited occasion, I was late. HAHAHHA. Sorry!

So the rest amused themselves by camwhoring. L-R: Yih Chien and Sue Han.

Again. L-R: Sue Han and Evelyn.

Then I finally made my grand entrance and we proceeded to Neway.

ONCE, we got into the room, Evelyn got into action RIGHT AWAY. Look at her clicking away at the far left.

Still choosing.

Since the rest to layan me, obviously I got to sang first. =).

I take singing seriously, yo. Obviously, I sang "Wei Ni Xie Shi". Speaking of this song... sigh, whenever I hear this song I'll definitely remember my dear 38 gang members because you guys still remember that I liked this song and included it in the video. *sniff*.

I was struggling with the old form of chinese words (fan ti zi).

Evelyn was still choosing songs even after we were done with our first song.

Still selecting O_o. In the end, she selected a maximum of 46 songs and from then on, we had to wait until one song is over before we can select the next song. HAHA.

She finally got to sing once she reached the maximum amount of songs that can be selected at one time. If it wasn't for that maximum limit, I bet she'll still be clicking away. HAHAHA.

Btw, Evelyn is a SONG machine. She can sing well and she seems to know every chinese song on EARTH. I do believe that I only recognised like 30% of the songs she selected. LOL.

They took a 5 second break from the song to take a group photo. With so many songs to sing, there was absolutely no time to lose!

Even though I didn't know most of the songs, what I ended up doing was listen to the first half of the song then join in during the last half. =D. Brilliant eh? Helps that chinese songs are rather repetitive.

We even switched positions O_o.

I think it's plain to see that Eve and I love singing. =P.

Sue Han got bored and ate octopus instead.

AFTER FOUR CONSECUTIVE HOURS...

I finally got bored, but Eve still wasn't done. HAHAHA. In fact, when we uhm... stole the mic from her to take the picture below, she was still at the side singing her songs. HAHAHAHA. Eve you really make me laugh a lot!

Heh. Allow a girl to have syok sendiri moments after her eye surgery laa.

Sesat group.

Then I told Yih Chien to take a picture of me posing like that because I have ALWAYS wanted a picture like that. I guess you can say that day was the day that I was in cloud nines.

Sue Han tried to copy me and FAILED. Miserably. Heeheehee.

Remember this face. She is the song goddess, who might be your next family doctor. =P.

Anyways, BAD idea to sing "Womanizer". Believe me. I think in total, we managed to sing close to 80 songs? We are damn awesome I know. =D.

Oh me lord...

Where to start...

Sarah's 19th @ her house

Note to Kevin: Check the weather forecast before choosing the day to plan a suprise birthday party. HAHAHA. Otherwise, all of the guest would come for the party in umbrellas or half drenched in rain water.

As mentioned earlier, it was decided that this birthday celebration should be a surprise cause
#1. Sarah gets surprised easily.
#2. Sarah gets surprised easily.
#3. Sarah gets surprised easily.

Just like any other surprises, we had to wait. For a long time. So we decided to amuse ourselves...

...with alphabet nuggets! HAHAHA. Haven't seen those in quite a while eh?

Took us quite a while to find all of the correct letters, but it was worth it. If you noticed, the r is an inverted j. That's innovation for you. =P.

Sarah's cake. I swear, Kevin, Laura and Darren set the world record for lighting up candles! Once Harvey told us that you guys were reaching, we all got into position. THEN WHEN WE SAW HIS CAR OUTSIDE (I was the only one who knew Harvey personally and yet I didn't know what car he drove so that complicated things a lil), within THIRTY seconds, all of the candles were lit. Respect.

What is a party without a group picture!

I think I hang out too much with this group. They have seen all of my clothes. HAHA. And taking all of these group photos gave me a sense of dejavu. Didn't hit me until I got home and found these...

Sharon's farewell at Sarah's house '04. *sniff*. We all go a LOOOONG way back!

What happened to Tan Wenxue? Sigh.


Hey Sarah,

I can't really remember the exact first moment we met but I do remember that in form 1, Jovy used to sit between us and he used to be very scared of you so he'll share textbook with me instead. HAHA. Then in form 2, we went to your house to practise our drama on my birthday and you spent one month's worth of allowance buying me a birthday cake. *sniff*. The following year, you guys (you planned it right?!) came to my house to surprise me and even sang the birthday song so loud that I think half of my street could hear you guys. In form 4 and 5, even though we were no longer in the same class, whenever we sat together for lunch or anything, I could still confide in you just like old times (remember how everyone in the class used to write letters to each other to confide in each other?). So thank you for these 8 years of amazing friendship! =) And here's to the many years to come! *cheers*