The disappointing mountains

Blue Mountains is such a famous thing. Everyone talks about it, and it seems to be a must-go-tourist-spot, obviously for all tourists, and of course, including me.

I didn't have time for it since I came to Aussie, and we missed the chance to join the 2 days 1 night tour group with the Unimates. So we had to come out with our own plans and route.

Me, Steph and Tony went there on Saturday. Woke up damn early in the morning, got on the train around 8-ish, fell asleep in the train, and guess what, dannnngggggg, we missed the stop to get off. The next thing we knew when we woke up, was almost everyone got off the train, and there's no turning back. This is not HK, where you can just go to the opposite rail and wait for the train to get back. Here, you have to wait for some 40-50 minutes for the next train.

Haha. So we wondered around this small lil town, we have no freaking idea where we were at. Luckily, we managed to find a stop to catch a bus back to our original stop. Wasted another 2 dollars plus I guess. Haha... and definitely a lot of time.

Anyway, we made our way to the Blue Mountains. Bought tickets for the steep rail, cableway, skyway, and hop-on-and-off trolley ride. Went around the main area of the Blue Mountains (forgot what they call that...), expected to see some cool falls during the Skyway, but  what we saw was just not what we expected. It was mini, and it looked like water coming out from the shower. Anyway, then spent time on the Gordon Falls, expecting to see another grand falls (like what we saw on the advert photo), and once again, got disappointed=.= OMG, what happened? No one could explain. Anyway, we then went walking along the trails in the mountains, took some photos...and got lost not long after that. Lost as in people told us we have to walk another 4km to reach to the next stop. Panicked for awhile, but luckily, we met a really cool man with a 4WD who was so kind to bring us to a landmark with MORE PEOPLE. Saw a little bit of sunset on the other side.

And then, it was fish n chips + some other fried seafood for dinner. Train back after that. Fell asleep again. But those Cantonese and perhaps South East Asians were talking and laughing so loudly that we couldn't concentrate sleeping....

Anyway, we were so tired. But at least, now we know what Blue Mountains is like. The mountain is definitely not blue, no falls maybe only some showers, and lotsa trees all around. Nothing special aight? Haha....

Missing the gym

Happy 20th Birthday BodyStep!! =)

I attended Lesmills quarterly Ultimate Super Workshop in Sydney.

It was spectacular.

And I really enjoyed it.

It made me think of those days I used to work in FF Penang. Those days of being a full time receptionist, part time receptionist, regular stepper, and eventually a BodyStep instructor. (Well, although I am not yet fully certified=.=) I miss those days, where I spend so much time gossiping about everything (hey, that's every girls' favorite ok..), where I attend Step classes so regularly, where I worked so hard to be good in BodyStep, and made all the effort to be cleared to instruct as a BS instructor.

I would say that I did not quite get 'there' before I left FF, and the gym life in Penang. I knew that I could do better, but I just didn't have enough time. If only I were a guy, maybe I could be better (you know males are always more favored everywhere, seriously =.=). It took me a lot of effort to make the class an enjoyable one, one that people will feel so happy and satisfied after attending it. Well, or I should say I didn't really succeed in figuring out the best method. It was just so hard, to please everyone in the class.

Nevertheless, I will never forget how I love BodyStep. I still do love it, and I enjoyed doing the MasterClass with the DVD presenters in the quarterly. I wanna keep myself involved in this world of GX instructors, although I know it'll be hard to do that in Hong Kong. But teaching is just a lot of fun (though stressful at times).....maybe Brandon kinda inspired me, too. Haha.

By the way, I learned a lot from the quarterly. It has been awhile since I made myself jump up and down like that for more than 5 hours in a day. It was painful too...haha...the push ups, the load on my triceps (which are tremendously weak =[ ) I'm so goinna get so much pain after this workout. But it made me realize that, my passion for fitness is still there, and it has always been there. I enjoyed quite a lot of the master classes, love the songs for BodyAttack and BodyBalance. Well, if I had more time, and perhaps more opportunities in Hong Kong, I would go for training in BB and BodyVive.

Haha, will see how it goes then.

Well Alan, I do admire you at times. Have fun BA+BS+BJ-ing yeah~~ You are one great instructor XD, I knew it even before you started any trainings.

Bye, April.

Owh May is coming. I'm getting so excited. Cz I'm going to Gold Coast, and I'll watch Mayday's concert. It'll be the last month having disastrous Mondays till Wednesdays non-stop classes. Life is all of a sudden....better.

Anyway, I had a really laid back week. Too much laying back I think this time. Owh, am I slowly turning into an Aussie?? Hell no...it was just a week I felt like doing nothing. Well, it makes sense right? You had a nice weekend, and there was this nice public holiday no school on Monday thingy, and then you are excited and you keep waiting everyday for the interview, and you got so frustrated and depressed when you lost your room key, but luckily an angel found it and you got it back.....stuff like that. Sounds tiring, didn't it?

We had this great and extremely filling Taiwanese dinner at this crepe shop. Yeah, it was good, a nice reward in fact. And we girls had some long chat together for about I guess 2-3 hours.

It was a nice way to end April, and I'm really looking forward to a great great month of May!! =)

Sudden Decision. Gold Coast

We went crazy all of a sudden at one day.

Tiger Airways was doing this great sale great promotion thing. Getting you to fly across Australia. It costs as low as AUD19 one way to fly from Sydney to Gold Coast (normal price around AUD60 I guess).

So my housemate was like asking me, do you wanna go to Gold Coast for a weekend?

And I couldn't believe myself eventually agreeing to it.

And so we made our decision in only about two days. 

Skip class? (Not me though) Quizzes or assignments or essays around the corner?

Who cares. 

We came here for exchange. For the better OZ experience.

So, Gold Coast here we come.

Even if it's only the three of us.

Flying is fun. Taking 1000 photos in 4 days will be fun. Taking more jumping photos would be fun. Spending lotsa tiring yet crazy time together is fun. Especially when we only have less than 10 weeks together in this weird slow country.

Cheers Shiney and Stephy.

We'll have tonnes of fun together.

Last 10 days. Randomness.

It's down to the last 10 days of April.

This dog is sooooo cute. I wished I could smile like him...Random~

Well, I can't believe time flew that fast.

A lot of things happened in the first three weeks. There was this 10 day holiday, and there were tonnes of exams, homework and essays due after the holidays.

My exchange life was pretty different from what I expected, and what perhaps other people expected as well. Exchange was supposed to be full of traveling around here and there, and activities everyday if not every week. That's what I heard before going on exchange, and people even told me that exchange was the best part of their lives. 

WOW.

Can I assume that it is because I kinda came to the wrong country?

Anyway, from the above, you can read that I am not having a SUPER GOOD exchange life. I thought that feeling will only last for the first 2 weeks or maybe a month...BUT, It has been really exhausting for the past week or so. My mood just wasn't right to do all those stuff, those stuff like midterms, textbooks, writings etc. I wanted to do well so badly in all courses over here, but that is just taking too much out of me.

Hmm, I KO-ed a midterm last Monday, another midterm last Saturday, sprained my ankle badly on the same day, stayed up wide awake on Sunday to complete my 10% database online quiz and 30% 2000-word law essay. What a good week huh. And another midterm is coming up this Friday. Luckily, this one doesn't require that much strenuous reading.

I am starting to wonder a LOT about life. The more I grow up, the more complicated it gets.

I wanna go to Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley and Port Stephens. I wanna have more good food of this country which might only be well known for Fish n Chips. I wanna take more nice photos. I wanna earn this currency which is currently doing very well, at least earn back the freaking expensive student visa application fee. I wanna get a good exchange transcript. But it doesn't seem to be possible to achieve all in the next 2 months right? 

Time is flying. And I kept repeating this. I kept telling people around me that we're ending this exchange so soon. It's true right? See....you do some essays, you take some exams, you cook at home everyday, you receive the drafted exam timetable, you take more rest after not resting to meet some datelines, then you get a shock as the finalized exam timetable is so different from the drafted one (ya, I really don't understand the purpose of having so many versions of tt-s), you go marketing every Sunday evening for cheap one dollar stuff, you top up your expensive prepaid sim card, you pay rental, and you pay rental again, you start studying, you start to think about disposing some big items that you got for this 4 months plus exchange, you start packing, you went in for the exam, you either came out smiling from the exam because you don't care or you really did very well, you add a few more friends on facebook, you keep checking facebook, you keep uploading photos on facebook, you start eating a lot of junk food because without them you can't concentrate studying, you finish all exams, and you start thinking: does this feel like a third home to me?

Maybe not. 

Well, I'm goinna try to have more fun this coming week okay? I promise?

At the same time, I'll ensure that I really work hard for what I am studying.

Good luck and chill!

Owh ya, I wanna tell you guys about Easter Show! Will do that soon ya...=)

Whooosh. Half of April is gone.

Well, I'm still hanging in here. A lot of things happening and a lot of things to do lately. I wanna blog. But I just heaps (The Australian word, it means lots!) of things coming up non-stop that makes blogging something that has to be on the waiting list.

So, a quick quick quick update.

I started Easter Holidays the day after April Fool. I had one day rest on the first day of hols, and started all the fun the day after. I went to the Hoopla Festival on 3rd April, left Sydney for Melbourne on 4th April and stayed there till early Thursday morning, came back home like a deadly tired person on 8th April, went to Easter Show on 9th April, and became a good student on the last 2 days of my hols, just because I have a midterm on the day school resumes, which is 12th of April.

Why is my break sooooooo short la?

A photo I took during my Melbourne trip. I love this a lot. Randomness....haha.

Okay, I'll tell you guys more in detailed. Erm, when I finish these 2 crazy weeks of exams and essays and assignments.....

Cheers!

The Malaysians Meet-up

When you're at a foreign country, it's always glad to meet with people from your own country~

I remember myself getting really excited to know the Malaysians when I first reached Hong Kong, and we are like a small lil community. It's always comfortable hanging around with people who will make you feel like home.

When I came to Australia about 6 week ago, I was excited about meeting Malaysians too. (As I heard that there are a lot of Malaysians around here) Perhaps, I got too excited. During Orientation Week of my uni, I went to a booth called SUAMS (Sydney University Association of Malaysian Students), and when they asked if I were a Malaysian, I "excitedly" answered "Yeah, yeah!". But all I got back was just some "Owh kay, would you like to join our association then? We have a lot of Malaysians here......" And from that kinda reaction, I just realized that, well, it's really not something unusual to see people from your own country. And when it's not something unusual, it won't be exciting anymore. A little disappointing at first, but I got used to it not long after. Now I realized that Hong Kong is so much less diversified compared to AUS. They have tonnes of Europeans, Americans, Africans and Asians (including Japanese....I'm saying this because there are ZERO Japanese in HK) in one uni (excluding faculty and staff). We have? 40 Malaysians, growing to 50 or 60 maybe, 30 Europeans, no Americans, 10 Africans....err. Well you get the picture. Perhaps it's because my university is still too young, and HK does not use English as their first language, hence not much people will opt HK for tertiary education.

Nevertheless, I managed to contact some friends from Penang, who are doing full time in Sydney. The funny thing as we only heard of each other during high school (diff high school somemore =.=), and we never get to know each other. This time, we got introduced by another friend whom I'm not any close to either. Haha.

I was glad to be invited to his place for dinner. It feels.......sooooo much more like HOME. Cause they cooked CURRY CHICKEN! =) And we can speak Hokkien, and most important of all, Malaysian Chinese!! Hahaha... I had a great time in their beautiful unit, and thanks for the hospitality. Thanks Sheng Yu!

I still do hope that I could meet Malaysians who are excited to meet other Malaysians though. Haha ~~

Emergencies Everyday

Something REALLY extraordinary here!!

You will hear emergency sirens all around the place every single day, especially during night time. This means accidents or perhaps fire happen here everyday. Well, no wonder people think that this is not a safe city, or a safe country. But to be honest, I don't really know what kinda accidents are those. But the sirens just made me feel so uncomfortable. Police cars, fire brigade, and ambulances. It's just so weird to see them around everyday. =.= Haha.

And today, it happened in my uni. The fire alarm rang in the building after I finished my tutorial class. Luckily it was AFTER the tutorial class because I seriously hate interruptions. But I just walked out slowly as though nothing is going on as I thought it was just another false alarm, or perhaps fire emergency practice? Apparently, most people vacated from the building. And the THREE fire brigades came =.= But, I still don't see any fire or smoke or any scenario that seems to need help from them. Oh, this is weird. 

Haha, but anyway, just to tell you more about life here.

Week 3 @USYD

Things are getting tensed up. I am currently settled down with 6 course, 36 credits, while normal people only takes 4 courses with 24 credits. I managed to arrange my timetable and am currently enjoying a 4 day long weekend. Yippee.. However, I do have 2 clashes in such a timetable, and I will listen to the recordings of those classes that clashes. One more thing, I don't really have any lunch time for schooling days from Mondays to Wednesdays. This means....STARVE! Yeah I'll only be having breakfast, and then dinner 9 hours later.

I have been interviewed by the Starbucks manager and he likes me and he said that he's goinna give me a reply by today or Monday (either to work at his store or other stores, but amazingly, in this huge NSW, there're only 9 Starbucks in total =.=). I have tried making sushi at a Korean-run Japanese Sushi place in Broadway Shopping Centre, one place across the street from where I stay. I would have to say that making sushi is definitely fun but.....making sushi at a korean place just doesn't sound right, owh ya, and the pay is freaking low.

Other than that, I just got accepted into the Internship Program for Study Abroad and Exchange students of the uni, which means that I MIGHT end up with 7 courses (because the internship is credit based), and that will kill me, and people thought that I am insane. It's an internship working with Sydney Observatory - a project on planning a holiday program for kids. Well, it definitely has nothing to do with my future career, but I supposed it will be a good experience for me, working with people that are extremely laid back? I haven't decided, as I'm kinda stuck with the number of courses I am allowed to be enrolled into. This is pretty much what happened throughout the week I guess?
One more thing, I have been really trying to study these few days, but I guess all my attempts weren't that successful. Oh gosh, can someone just gimme some suggestions on how to be more diligent? And how to extend my concentration span?
Being too busy during exchange definitely isn't good. I need some free time to hang out with people, to visit more places that I am supposed to, and to explore as much as I could. Hmm, how am I goinna achieve that?
I'll have a busy weekend again I think. Well, I guess this is what an exchange is supposed to be like.....there's never ending stuff waiting for you to do!!

In case you are wondering what the hell is the photo doing in the middle of my blog, this is one of my meals that I made here. It is a sort of instant food, and it took me around 105 minutes to prepare it. It only costs....I guess AUD1.50 the most? Haha, a great way for poor people to save money huh~~

People here

I am goinng briefly talk about the people here.

Well you've heard of them being laid back, and to me that's a huge issue!!!

Things normally get delayed for 1-2 weeks, such as....

1) My scholarship!! - I have submitted all relevant details by 22nd Feb, and finally I just got the money yesterday. It took them almost a month. And within that period, they keep telling things such as "I have already done this and that, and it should be there by XXX". Owh, it was pretty frustrating.

2) Internship! - I applied for the Study Abroad and Exchange credit-based internship 2 weeks after I came here as I was not sure whether I get to enrol into the courses that I really want to. I got a reply for a meeting with them in one sunny day, and when I emailed them regarding my free time to meet up, there was no reply until after the day was over, I then only got a reply from them the day after, after I EMAILED them AGAIN. Ok. They still met up with me anyway, and we discussed about the internships that I might be interested in. Then I was told that they will be keeping in touch with me soon. And so I waited and the add course period was over last Friday and I have yet to hear from then, and poop all of a sudden, this Monday, I was sent an email regarding the first training we are supposed to attend for this internship course. The whole thing was weird. I did attend the training which was extremely boring, and after the traning when I asked about the internship, their best answer they could give is just wait, because they haven't receive a reply from the employer yet. In my mind I was thinking, can't you inform me that you have already sent my application to the employer and we are awaiting for their decision soon after you have done so? I was about to forget about this whole internship thingy as I managed to enrol into the courses I wanted to and out of the blue, I am involved in it again. And so I waited for the employer's reply. The coordinator called me today, and told me the "good news" that I am accepted by the employer. But I'm in deep trouble. I am now enrolled into 7 courses, while I am supposed to be in at most 5 courses. She asked me to drop my other courses, which I really don't want to. And she told me she'll be sending the details of the internship to me immediately after we hang up on the phone, and I have not received any reply up till now. What a thing =.=

3) My courses! - This was quite some time ago, when I just arrived and start dealing with my enrolment. I was supposed to get someone to approve me for taking higher level courses. I was referred by my advisor to go to the Student Information Office of the School of Business and Economics. And so I went there and the lady asked me to see/email the ACCT UG coordinator in charge. I went to his office and he was not there. His colleagues doesn't even know when he will be coming back. And so I emailed him, and there wasn't any reply. And so I contacted the SIO again, and she said that I could refer to the professor teaching the course I wanted to enrol in. I emailed the professor and he said that I should be going back to SIO to start the application of approval process all over again. And meanwhile I still haven't got back any reply from the SIO guy. And so it dragged on and it frustrates me a lot. People in HKUST at least replies in 1 day the latest for such urgent matters. But people here, they just push you around, as they don't really care what other people is supposed to do, they just do what they are supposed to do.

I guess I have much more stories about them being extremely slow, not responsive and definitely inefficient. Most Asian people including some Americans have the same complaints too. I guess this is the culture shock that I am experiencing. Haha. In conclusion, this might not be a good place if I wanna live a rapid and efficient life. I will just be kek ki all the time...haha.

The nothing-much-to-do Sunday - White Valentines

We were supposed to go to the zoo today.

But, everyone was too tired. Tired of the not-supposed-to-be-tiring beach activities yesterday, and tired of schoolwork perhaps, tired of spending too much $$ in a weekend?

And so we decided to just sit back and relax at home, and finish whatever we have to to prepare for the next week.

I wasn't that obedient to stay at home though.

There were so many things happening outside and I really want to get myself out of my room and check them out. There was a food fest at Centennial Park, and a Wine Fest at Hyde Park. But all requires head charge to test the food or the wine. Well, I decided to go get some photos. I didn't go to Centennial Park though because it was a little far away, by foot.

It was just another weekend, shopping at Paddy's Market, wondering around the city to check if there're any other employment opportunities and photo taking. I did tell you that I'm desperate for a job right?

Owh ya, and it's White Valentines too, a day where guys are supposed to give back girls chocolate, if the girl gave the guy chocolate on 214 Valentines Day.

Well, honestly, I just found out that this day is originated by the Japanese, reflecting their unique culture of 「お返し」--giving back. http://www.tanutech.com/japan/valentine.html -- this explains a lil more if you're interested.

Updates in a glance

I think I HAVE grown fat~

I guess I have not been good in the past few months. It has been ages again since I updated my blog. I have promised to kinda tell stories about everything after I finish my final exams in HKUST, but it didn’t happen. And since then, I have been to Chongqing, Wuhan (just for a night), back to Hong Kong, done some winter courses, back to Malaysia, had my reunion “lunch”, boarded the cheap airflight to Changi Airport, and arrived in Brisbane for a few hours, and then Sydney Australia.

Well it has been a long long time.

(Haha, actually, I had this time because I don’t have internet access at the moment~~haha~)

This is the extremely beautiful campus of Sydney Uni

After being here for 8 days, I would say I really did not have a good start. Well firstly, coming from a HOT country, I would definitely not want to go to another place which is also HOT for the period I would be there. Yea, it has been sultry hot for the past week except for the first day I arrived where it rained cats and dogs. HOT-34 degree Celsius-sweat-sun burn….and what else. At some moments, I do feel stupid leaving Hong Kong with the weather at an average of 8-12 degree Celcius everyday? Haha.

I have yet to find anything that I would say is CHEAP here.

$$$EXPENSIVE$$$

This is so much like a No-Money-Don’t-Come-Continent. It’s not that I have not been here (Aus) before….but, you will just feel that our currency is so much undervalued after seeing the price of EVERYTHING over here. And yea, it definitely feels even worse when you know you’re goinna stay here for a semester. All meals on average AU$7-10 and bottled drinks (500ml) are at AU$2, well you should know that I am most sensitive about the prices of FOOD. Haha. Other than that, transportation cost kills you. To travel for like a less than 1km ride, it costs AU$1.60 by bus. For trains, most return day journey tickets cost about AU$4 for a 30 minutes ride. For raw food and fruits? Definitely expensive. AU$1.60 (I’m not sure whether it’s even 300gms) for a few pieces of vege, AU$4.50 for a kilo of red apples? Owh ya, the definitely not to be missed ONE…TELEPHONE COSTS!-it will cost you AU$0.20 per minute, but there is this CONNECTION FEE (they call it flagfall) of AU$0.25 once the line is connected. So imagine this, even if it goes to voice mail for 1 sec, you’ll still have to pay $0.45 for it!!!

It got so much harder for me to settle down here as compared to Hong Kong. Although there are probably the same amount of Asians and non-Asian students here, but I felt like I was the minority, and things are seriously out of my comfortable zone. You can definitely see a lot of stores operated by Chinese and there’s even a Chinatown near where I stay, but the atmosphere is definitely different.  Even a stick of HK curry fish balls costs you AU$3!! (That is HKD21—in Hong Kong, it’s around HKD per stick!) – whoops, I am back to “FOOD” again.

Well, overall, I don’t feel that I am settled down yet after so many days. It’s not that Aussies are not accommodating, but it’s the style people do things here and in Hong Kong is so different. I guess efficiency explains it all.

Am I experiencing a culture shock? Maybe. Haha….but I will definitely take this as a good experience of getting to know how can people actually survive in “such” a place….hmm.

More updates coming up.

After 18th Dec

At last. I finished a presentation, a homework, 2 final reports, and 5 final exams in 2 weeks.

It all ended at 1100hours, 18th December.

I would say that I was really relieved after that, and I can't wait to rush out from the university and get some fresh air, or just do something that will make me feel happy.

I guess I really had a lot of relaxing times after exams.

Snoopy exhibition. Shopping at Flower Market. Dinner with Shih Yi and family. Mahjong session with Malaysians. KPMG aptitude test. Self wondering around Quarry Bay and Shau Kei Wan. Choo Char dinner with Malaysians. Tong Shui for Chelly's belated birthday. Cooked weird claypot rice dinner. Had great pizza dinner and nice winter solstice with fellow Malaysians. Another mahjong session. Watched Avater 3D at Langham Place. Had Japanese food. Squeezed with the crowd at Wongkok Center. Cooked nice curry chicken and chap choi dinner.

Slept alot. Watched a lot of PPStream. Played some childish games @ Facebook. Surfed the net for nothing.

Worried about the future. Worried about the coming year. Worried about tomorrow.

Was I happy after the final exams? It is so hard to tell.

Yeah I could be.

And yeah I could be not.

Perhaps, it will be better if I just had a day off after the exams, or maybe two.

This is a pic a took 4 months ago at Midvalley. Aliens. Sometimes I wish I could be like one of them....

I was being too free. And I think I gave myself too much time for myself, to think about myself.

*This isn't really a good thing I guess =.=*

Anyway. I will tell you stories about each of those events, with photos, in separate entries.

Thanks for coming back.

Merry X'mas.

Sick notice

Well. I'm supposed to have a hell lot of things to post.

But................things went very wrong since last Wednesday.

I wasn't feeling too well after the yum cha session. I first thought there were just some "temporary" butterflies in my stomach. And I thought going to the toilet once, could perhaps solve the problem.

It ended up, toilet-ing, and no food-ing, for about 5-6 days O.O

This is the first ever most suffering diarrhea I'd ever had.

And so, there are a hell lot of things that I can't do.

I can't do my assignments, I can't think properly, I can't attend project meetings, I can't sit in front of the computer, I can't attend classes, I can't walk, eat nor sleep properly.

And I vomited....for like 4 times?

Scary experience.

Glad that I "think" I am feeling much better now.

Owh ya, one more thing. Doctors in HK aren't helpful.

That's why I never go to see a doctor.

Update soon!~

A past profile.

Since I decided to change my profile and my brief description, and I feel sorry to just delete away my old description, I'll just copy and paste it here.

Haha.

Libra @ Langham Place~~

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Just a lil explanation. I like purple. Not in particular. But I'll name it when I'm asked for my favorite color. I’d never seen snow. So I kinda look forward to experience snow~ Who knows when will I have the chance to witness it?:D Besides, my Chinese middle name~~Snow*** There was once when I came across this saying(in chinese) "Blue symbolizes kerinduan(okay, I don't think there's a translation in English), Purple symbolizes secret" How true could this saying be, I just kinda like it since then. So, I guess this is the spot where the purple side of the snowflakes drop? Okay, I know I'm crapping. Enjoy reading everyone^.^

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