Spring Break is Awesome-o!

Even though I am only halfway through my spring break, I have been overeating so much man.

Rum and Raisin Cheese Cake at Brunetti's with Sammi and Midge.

New York Cheese Cake at Brunetti's with Sammi and Midge.

Spanish Hot Chocolate with Samantha at San Churro.

Dutch Poffertjer at the Tulip Festival with Evelyn, Sulfya, Patrick, Colin, and a whole other bunch of people.

On the rare few days in spring that it was so sunny and warm.

I blend in don't I? =P

Short Updates

- Busy having good food. ^.^. Ok I don't usually put such emoticons but I am happy so sue me! That's capsicum with black pepper chicken above. Cheryl's such a good cook. It fed 10 people. We had assam fish and mash potatoes too. Crazy yummy man. . Heh.

- Had my first Salsa lesson last Sunday. It was so awesome! And the best part was, it was absolutely free!!!! There's more to Salsa than meets the eye. It's a flirting dance la basically. I never knew that k! Living in the hall rocks!

- Now that I get to travel around zone 2 for free on weekends, we keep running out to have lunch or dinner together. The other day, I even took the bus to the Hilltopper's place. It was one stop away. I don't think the driver was as amused as I was. =P.

- I love vollie-ing at Wholefoods. It just feels so nice talking to people, serving them muffins and playing with the cash register hehehehe. I never had a job in my life before so being able to do that now is just very fun for me ok! Plus since we're not paid (we're just given a meal ticket), they won't ever scold you at making any mistakes. However, this Monday, the cafe help, Ada kept telling all of the customers that were talking to her that I was amazing because I single handedly manned the cash register, serve cakes, write down coffee orders and make toasties for an hour. ^^. Feels good to be acknowledged. =).

Lately I can't really remember what else I have done, but all I can say is, life's pretty good even though I am not getting enough sleep.

Meh

So glad spring break's coming soon. Been very busy. Gah.

Second Malaysia

There are so many Malaysians in Melbourne that John told me that Melbourne is Malaysia away from Malaysia. Geddit?

100% Malaysians yo.

The DJ-ians that I still kept in touch with.

It was a particularly windy day at Melbourne!

The waiter shook Ben's hand and congratulated him on a job well done because he was the only guy among all of us girls. LOL.

Does John's statement make sense now?

Malaysia Boleh!

Sorry for the lack of photos. I doubt I'll put up my photos anymore unless they are really interesting i.e. me at a new place. For the rest of the birthday or random dinner photos etc, just check them on Facebook! There are TOO many photos so I can't be bothered.

Anyway, I have always wanted to blog about this but didn't really find the time and motivation to do it. Since I got here, I have came to realize that Australians actually have this misconception that Malaysians cannot speak English. When we tell they that we're from Malaysia, they get more confused because they thought that Malaysians should only be able to speak MALAY. In fact, they even asked us if we have been in Australia for years because we speak English pretty fluently! Sigh. Even the SINGAPOREANS tell me that some Malaysians have problem speaking English and even though I didn't voice it out, I was unhappy that people thought so lowly of our grasp of English. Has our education system fail us? Maybe. Interestingly enough, on average Sunway students do MUCH better in the exams. But then again, we're not like the Aussies. Most of them have to juggle a few jobs and they party like mad!

Today, when I was volunteering at the Malaysian exchange booth to encourage Aussies to go on exchange to Malaysia, some actually voiced out their concerns over the language barrier. I was just baffled. CLASSES ARE CONDUCTED IN ENGLISH LA DOI. But the good thing was, some of them were genuinely excited and would really want to go to Malaysia! That kind of made me miss home, having to talk so much about Malaysia and promoting the Sunway campus today.

Sigh I don't really know what I am talking about now. Just felt a bit mad that we Malaysians are so misunderstood. =(

Post Analysis of Week 7 and 8

Sooo many things has happened over the past few weeks that I can't really remember what happened. I am actually looking at my diary as I write this. Just a few random jots.

Week 7
Had a 23% in 45 minutes. Nearly died of stress seriously. If you don't know how to do half of your questions that's 10% down the drain. Since there was a test that week there were no reports to write. The Aussies are really considerate like that. Anything that clashes, they get an extension right away. Back home in Malaysia, nobody dares to complain. Even if they did, I don't think that will make any difference. Hmph!

Week 8
Another mid semester test to study for. This test is only 10% and it's MCQ BUT still need to cram la ok! 19 freaking lectures. We're no longer in high school man. Tembaking for MCQ papers in Uni is equivalent to you settling for a pass. We were so stressed about having to stay in to do work i.e., not go to the city etc, that we decided to head somewhere nearer for dinner instead (we get to travel in zone 2 for free on weekends for the month of September). Had LOADS of fun.

Since I was so depressed, Sue bought me Hello Panda. So thank you! =). The panda is staring at me as I type this.

Ok this is starting to sound like a freaking essay I'm gonna restart.

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Being overseas has made everyone a decent cook. At potluck parties, I am never deprived of good food like assam fish, curry chicken and bah kut teh (oh yeaaaaa, I had all of those stuff this week alone). The person who thought of putting these dishes into a packet deserves a pat on their back. I know it supposedly cannot compare to their "real" counterparts but hey! we're students studying overseas. Anything that remotely reminds us of home and comes in a packet will not be shunned. We also no longer need to go to bakeries! We have that wonderful thing you call a cake mix. Once it goes into the bowl and you discard the box, no one can really tell if it was made from scratch or came straight from the box anyway.

I am feeling very random lately so I shall write anything that pops to my mind.

What's with the face people give to you when you tell them you're from DJ eh? I never used to notice it because I just thought that they would notice the word DJ because Yen Ming and I are both from DJ. However, now that I am alone and I tell people the same thing, I get the same reaction. I either get a second look (long one I might add) at my face (zzz) or "wow, DJ!" (apparently our school's famous for producing smart students?). How did our school get so famous? Is it cause we brag too much ah? HAHA.

I am not getting enough sleep la haih. Sometimes I really think that I should be living in a different time zone. In lectures I feel sleepy like mad but once I do work past 1 am, I am damn awake. O_O. I look panda like now. Sigh.

So many things to look forward to this weekend, but I feel too tired to be excited. Sigh.