Thin

Things are thin in Australia. The oxone layer is thin. Plastic bags are thin. Toilet paper is thin. People are thin. Clouds are thin. Toilet seats are thin. 

Toilet Bowls

Every time I see a toilet bowl having its lid closed, I fret. Opening it can have only 2 consequences. One, you are relieved to see a relatively clean toilet bowl for you to either stand peeing or sit shitting. Two, the contents in the toilet bowl send you have nausea for the whole day and nightmare during the night.

I have had 4 times here to have to face this situation. Out of these 4 times, I have had 3 of the second consequence I mentioned above. Why can't the previous user do a simple thing just to pull the flush? It doesn't take a lot of energy or effort. It takes less effort than trying to clean your ass! 

So what is wrong with these people?!?!

2nd Day in School

Had only 1 lesson at 9am this morning. Frontiers of Cell Biology. Looks pretty OK at the present moment. I reckon it will get tougher as time goes by. Will see how...

I am intrigued by the technology UniMelb has. Bose sound system in the theatre. Equal number of PCs and Macs in the computer centre. Turnitin system to check for plagiarism of submitted reports. Accurate forecast of weather in our login student portal. 

Been reading up lecture notes on upcoming lectures. I guess this is the main difference between a diploma and an university education. You have to be prepared before the lecture. Going to finish reading up my notes before I go take a shower and sleep. Tomorrow's lesson is at 9am. So have to wake up at 7.45am.

Good Night in advanced... Sweet dreams...

Post-First Day of Uni Life

Went for my first lecture in Advanced Techniques in Molecular Science in the morning at 10am at Medical-ESJ King Theatre at the Medical Building. Can see most people are in their own cliques, so it is difficult for me to break into their groups. I am not those proactive people who actively introduce themselves to everyone. Hence, I make no friends in school today.

Pre-First Day of University Life

Tomorrow will be the first day of my university life. I don't have any emotions right now. I don't know whether to feel excited, nervous, stressed or relieved. Maybe mixture of emotions is like colour mixing. You mix all the colours together and what you get is black. So maybe a mixture of various emotions is causing this emotionless feeling. 

Bought a new toy. Logitech Pure-Fi Express Plus. Got it at an unbelievable price! So much cheaper than in Singapore! I bought it for AUD$99 which would otherwise cost around S$150+. Cool~ But the thing is, when I bring it back to Singapore, I will have to buy an adaptor for the socket. Nonetheless, I am happy with my new gadget! Yeah~

Will update tomorrow on my first day in school. Stay tuned~

A Week In Melbourne

Time flies, and I hope it flies faster so I can be back. Not that I am home sick. But the weather here is insanely unpredictable. It can be cold like 18-19 degrees Celsius and the next moment, temperature soars up to about 30+ degree Celsius.

This week has been a roller coaster ride. First, my subjects. Initially, I couldn't get my subjects to fit in nicely into my time table and I get plenty of clashes. But after a clarification email from one of the subject coordinators of Advanced Techniques in Molecular Science, I can choose 1 out of the 3 practical sessions. This made my time table look so much easier to fit the rest of the subjects.

I just joined the Photography Club. The club is known as Fotoholics and has a few Singaporeans in it. (I wonder why do I meet Singaporeans so often here in Melbourne...) The club made a pretty cool (and cheap!) card for me. Will upload the picture of the card later tonight. 

Thought of joining other clubs, but I am afraid of the time commitment I need to set aside for such activities. I have very much wanted to join the snowboarding and the anime-watching club. But I thought the high cost of starting the snowboarding activity might set me back a couple of hundred bucks back. As for the anime-watching club, I'm better of watching free animes online than pay a membership fee... Everything in Melbourne is all about cost savings...

People here can sit almost anywhere and everywhere... Pavements, grass patches, benches, roof tops, hallways, corners etc... You name it, they can sit on it. Don't they realise there might be bird shits, bugs, ants and other nasty stuff on these places? Girls in short skirts or low cut tops can sit and expose almost anything you can imagine of... Insane...

There's going to be a party diner at Unilodge tonight, so I'll be expecting free food... Hope to snap some nice photos and post them online, maybe tonight or tomorrow...

*Updates*

Whenever Australians mention BBQ, please don't expect chicken wings, satay, fish and chicken fillets, fishballs, marshmallows or beer. What you are going to get are just hotdogs wrapped in bread. We went to the Science Student Society "free BBQ" and we had 2 of these. Then at the Unilodge BBQ, we had the same thing too!!! Four of these to be exact! So 2 x (hotdog+bread) for lunch and 4 x (hotdog+bread) for dinner. So I will be prepared if I am invited to BBQ here again in Melbourne.

Need to get a track suit so that I can jog at night. Will be going down to Docklands to get that cheap AUD$50 New Balance track suit. Need another pair of cotton track pants so I can sleep better in the cold night. My legs are freezing from the cold and think blanket. Hopefully I can find a good deal for a good blanket at Docklands tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Updates

Finally, my subjects are all done... What a relief... The past few days have been torturous due to the clashes in time table between the different subjects, especially the Advanced Techniques in Molecular Science. After the coordinator sent an email asking me to select one out of three days. After which, everything becomes so much easier... So my time table is all done...

Went for the orientation today. It is so much different from those of Singapore universities. No stupid games, no flag days and no donations. We just get into an orientation group and the group leader will bring us around to show us the different theatres and eateries around the campus. Pretty informative and useful for new students. 

The feeling of being in Melbourne is not as daunting as I have expected. The high percentage of Asians here pretty much resemble that of Singapore, maybe just a little bit more Caucasians. That is why I don't feel foreign at all. I don't know if this is a good thing or bad thing... Made a few friends here in Unilodge. A Guangzhou guy, an Indonesian guy, a Malaysian guy, a Taiwanese and a New Yorker. So from the percentage of my friends, you can see why I don't feel foreign. 

Tomorrow will be my second day of orientation. Tomorrow should be just talking about academic and enrollment stuff. Hopefully don't take up a lot of my time. Everything here is money, money and MORE MONEY!!! To use the gymnasium or swimming pool, you have to be a member of the sports society. Being a member for a semester costs AUD$210!!! FOR ONLY A SEMESTER!!! And to join the Student Union, you have to pay AUD$99 per year. Being a member of the Student Union will entitle you to weekly BBQs, discount food and coffee, usage of a recreation library and up and coming activities. Practical manuals have to be bought at AUD$20. So you can imagine how expensive things can get here... Per meal if you eat out will be about AUD$7-AUD$15. So cooking your own meals is definitely an invaluable skill. So I guess I won't be going to the gym or pool anymore. I'd just stick to the standard jogging, pushups, sit-ups and burpies. Maybe I might just join the Photography club or the Weekly Watchers of Wonderful Anime club. Yes, they have many interesting clubs and societies here... Learn from overseas universities, Singapore!!!