In any case, most activity was done on the weekends.. weekdays were mostly running around in school.. blah blah.. all that normal nonsence, so im not really gonna bother.. heh heh.
1st week (20-26 february 2006)
21-23rd Tuesday-Thursday: Running around campuses for O week
2 newbies vasanth and regina ran between campuses enrolling for units, as well as joined various societies..
The units i'll be taking this semester are
1) True North - Culture Region Identity (comm unit)
2) New Media (comm unit)
3) Introduction to Visual Culture - Back to the Future (visual culture unit)
4) Youth, Culture and Social Change (sociology unit)
me being predictable and all, joined MonashPhils - Monash Wind Symphony..
wahahahahaaa!!!!
i.love.band!
i also joined Singapore Association of Monash (SAM)
24th Friday: International Big Day Out to Melbourne Zoo
Here where i met Fiona (who is now very important cos i crash at her place once a week after band practice *shoutout to fiona!!! wooooot!!*) and a few other international students, all stay on campus..
the 2 other singaporeans i've met, fiona and rhauda
melbourne zoo is/was under construction.. there wasn't much to view really.. and once you've been to Singapore Zoological Gardens, nothing compares.. seriously.. heh heh.
yes yes. i've been guilty of promoting singaporeans the whole time i've been here..
hot dogs and chips
strangely, there was a sculpture of Peter Pan, and i was curious enough to have a picture with it. hee.
right after this shot was taken, the stoopid pelican turned and almost bit me.. -.-
the whole lot!
All hail Map Reader of the Day Regina!!! WOOOOOOT!!! heh heh. =)
in the evening, we were taken to Caufield campus for dinner, drinks and dancing..
Fiona and I befriended 3 Italian guys on a sememster exchange programme with Monash.. CUTE.. Marcos, Alessandro and Mirko. unfortunately they left before any pictures could be taken.. blah.
25th Saturday: Dinner with Vasanth and his host family
I was invited to Vasanth's place for laksa dinner..
LOCAL FOOD ON MY 1ST WEEKEND IN AUSTRALIA CAAAAAN..
The family, Gavin, Charmaine, Ted and Charlotte and baby.. die.. i forgot baby's name.. uhm.. baby girl? ahhhh... anyways they're all singaporean-australian PR.. got quite a few tips as to where to shop and all that..
coincidences of coincidences.. Charmaine also graduated from CHIJ St Joseph's Convent, my alma mater; she was also in the military band.. the best part.. her cousin, shirley william was my geography teacher in sec 2. talk about small world eh..
Vasanth's cousin Rena was also there.. Crashed at vasanth's for the night..
26th Sunday: Lunch with Uncle Sam and Aunty Zona, meetup with family
took the train down to Richmond with vasanth and rena (they headed off to Flinders Strees).
Richmond's a little Vietnam. When the vietnamese came to australia, Richmond was where they congregated and expanded.. hee. Then the families grew and grew, and they took up another town - Springvale.
Richmond and Springvale are the 2 little vietnams. you can get EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING (if not more) you can find in Singapore..
Yeah.. so i had lunch with aunty and uncle.. They were my parents' uni friends.. from over 20years ago..
had a traditional viet lunch, then they brought me around Melbourne city, showed me what's where (not that i can remember all at one shot..)
then i was brought back to their place at bundoora, where i met their girls (they actually visited Singapore last november)
chatted for quite a bit, then went home..
2nd week (27 february - 5 march 2006)
27th Monday: Clayton with Vasanth and Rena
went to Clayton with Vasanth and Rena to figure out his timetable and such.. there were some problems with his enrolment.
28th Tuesday: Clayton with Vasanth.. again, shopping at Chadstone
Vasanth dragged me to his 1st class.. i ended up being late and didn't go to class.. hee.
did my 1st round of Book shopping.
After, we headed to this shopping centre at Chadstone with Fiona.
omfg. the place is HUGE. it's like a million times bigger than Suntec. shop until die. literally..
1st Mar Wednesday: 1st day of class - Berwick + 1st band practice
my 1st day of class was kinda torturous.. this was the 1st time in my entire life of education where i made ZERO friends on my 1st day of school.
in my tutorial, i spoke nothing for an hour. yes, i was completely silent. SILENTO. i was the only international student there, and they kept talking about australian events, australian media. da da da.. everything in australian context. and i knew nothing..
omg. i could've died. -.-
the saving grace for the day was that i was allowed to stay over at Fiona's, as well as band practice.
band practice ROCKED!!! i never knew how much i missed it.. ahhhhhh.. comfort zone.
i.love.band. =)
2nd Mar Thursday: 2nd day of class - Clayton
i like clayton days.. =) clayton days are gooood.
did my 2nd round of book shopping. bloody hell.. spent $150 in total on books.. so friggin expensive.. -.-
vasanth, my very important companion since arriving in melbourne, got word from home and learnt he had to return back.. so after class, we ran around building to building discontinuing units and transferrence back to TMC.. everything was done in 2hours. monash is so efficient compared to tmc..
sad day for both of us.. sigh..
Just as everything was falling into place...
3rd Mar Friday: Dinner outing with Vasanth and Fiona
Fiona brought us to around Melbourne Central for dinner and a wonderful evening.. Photo time!!!
we met at Flinders then headed to Lygon Street, which is the Little Italy of Melbourne.
you'd think we'd feast on italian food.. haha
we had THAI at this little joint, Poppy's. Nice green curry..
tram back to Flinders
yarra river
melbourne arts centre
melbourne has these super high tech public toilets in the middle of nowhere.. damn cool.. like a space toilet.. haha
scenic views after, we headed to Crown casino.
fiona played $20 and kinda lost all on jackpot (aussies call it pokie)..
i happened to have a dollar coin. decided to take a chance.. i just pushed some button, and i won $12. heh heh.
winnings are great eh!!
headed home, decided to crash at fiona's again cos it was late..
saw this on the way back..
3rd week (6-12 March 2006): weekend to Great Ocean Road with Uncle Hoong and his Sister
nothing really eventful till saturday..
the most exciting was probably cooking Curry with Fiona on Wednesdaya and Nasi Lemak on Friday for my housemates.. hee.
yesterday (11 march saturday), my Uncle Hoong and his Sister came for a visit.. He was at Sydney for business meetings and decided to pop down to Melbourne..
took a one hour train ride from Berwick to Flinders, and a transfer on the tram. i don't know what went wrong, but i couldn't blood find Carlton Crest Hotel, even with the simplified map..
Thank goodness i had a nice lady, Vicky who was heading the same way, to help me.
We ended up trekking through the other side of Albert Park, the golf course. Talk about taking the road less travelled..
After about an hour of walking, we finally found the hotel.
Started the car ride at 12.38pm, heading to Geelong (pronounced Jerh-long, not ghee-long), and Great Ocean Road.
see the cows in the background..
after almost 5hours of an extremely long, winding drive, we finally reached the 12 Apostles at 6pm..
omfg. takes your breath away..
Then we headed down the Gibson Steps
looks like a tonne of footsteps from here..
see if you can make anything outta this apostle..
anything? =)
then there are heaps of these signs around
so we had to leave quick before the sun set..
saw this at the carpark..
36000 litres of milk. and the guy has to make 2 trips each day..
headed back to melbourne.. had pizza dinner at a little town, Colac, in a restaurant La Porchetta. good stuff! =)
got back close to 0030hrs showered and slept..
In the morning, this morning that is, we checked out, and headed to St Kilda's Beach. Unfortunately my stoopid camera batteries went flat.. so no more pictures.. bah.
but again, it was a sight. Must go if you ever come to melbourne..
Bacon and Eggs brekkie, and then Uncle Hoong and Aunty had to catch ta flight back to Singapore via Sydney.
Great fun the this weekend!! Seriously had fun.
i applaud you who have made it this far down this hideously long post.. hee. hope you enjoyed reading about my last 3 weeks!! you had better.. i took a whole evening doing it.. -.-"
I love melbourne!! =)
