My humble abode

It's been 16 days since I arrived in Sydney, and I know I haven't posted up any pictures of my room, so this post will focus on my humble abode (at least for the rest of this year), and hopefully the pictures provide a visual explanation where a written one might fail.

Let me just clarify straight up that the room I'm currently in isn't the room I'd originally requested for. To cut a potentially long story short, they ran out of the catered rooms and the only room left was a non-catered one-bedroom unit (which is the one I'm currently in). I'm glad I had the foresight to take pictures before I unpacked most of my stuff (I literally took out my camera and started snapping pictures the minute I closed the door), as now it's all mess(ier) than when I first arrived.

I like my bedroom. It's small, but cosy and comfortable. I've got a wardrobe where I can hang some of my clothes (it's a small wardrobe, so I can't hang up all my clothes), and there are some drawers where I've put some of my cosmetics and my foldable clothes and stuff. There are a couple of bedside tables with lamps on them on either side of my bed, and I have a ceiling fan (no air-conditioning for the whole year, gasp!), which is alright I suppose seeing how it can get quite cool at night. I leave my fan on at the lowest speed because it gets scarily noisy when it's on the medium or high settings. I've also got a window in my bedroom, and here's the interesting part - it also serves as a fire exit, so I suppose I don't have to worry if a fire happens and all. Just a matter of sliding the window up and climbing out.

I also have a little area tucked behind a wall that serves as my kitchen (my room's a non-catered room, which means I'm supposed to cook for myself, but I'm paying a little extra to have my lunch and dinner in the dining hall). I'm not sure if you can see it clearly from the picture, but I have sink (hot and cold water), an electric stove (4 burners and an oven), a microwave oven, a bread toaster, an electric kettle, and best of all, a fridge! I was so happy when I arrived and realised there was a fridge, because I like cold drinks and this way I get to keep any leftovers (if I decide to cook, which I'll have to during winter break when the dining hall is closed or something). They've also kindly provided me with several pots, pans, plates, bowls, knives, cooking and eating utensils, and even an egg-beater! And oh, I haven't figured out how to use the oven or toaster or microwave oven yet, so don't ask me to whip you up a meal with those.

What's really funny (or scary, depending on how you see it) is the number of warning/caution signs they have in the kitchen area. It's like, rather insulting (you'll know what I mean if you check out the following pictures), especially as it's as if they're implying I'm such a bad cook I'm gonna end up burning my food or something. There's even a fire extinguisher (an actual one, y'know, the big red canister?) for just-in-case moments (gee, thanks for believing in my cooking skills)!

My bathroom's nothing special, it's just a typical 5 feet by 5 feet room with a sink (with hot and cold water), a toilet, a shower (with hot and cold water), and a cabinet with a mirror, behind which there's storage space for the typical bottles and tubes and cases of stuff that's supposed to keep you clean and fresh.

My living room aka seating area is pretty comfy too. The whole room (excluding the kitchen and bathroom) is fully carpeted, and I even have a little rug in the centre of the living room, which also has a nice big blue couch with 3 arm pillows, a coffee table (where I can rest my feet!), a working table and 2 chairs, an upright fan (which I never turn on because it's so noisy!), a telephone table thingy (with accompanying telephone), and best of all, a television set!!!! Cheered me up no end, heehee! It's one of those thin, swivelly types, so I can turn the telly left and right to suit where I'm sitting (either on the couch or at my table).

There are several windows around, and some of the other residents have pretty interesting views of the city and the park and all, especially those on the higher levels of the building. Me, however, well, I guess you can say I've got it great: my room looks out at the parking lot, where there's a beautiful trash area with pretty bins, and if you're lucky enough you get to see giant white birds (the ibis, I think) swarming around fighting for food from the bin. And the best part is when the garbage truck comes around like real early in the morning, and you can hear the beeping of the trucks and stuff.

So yup, there you have it, a 'short' summary of my room and its fine (and not-so-fine) points. But you know what, I actually like my room very very very very much. It's got everything I want, and I'm comfortable here. I don't think my pictures do much justice to this little room of mine, but I hope you can at least picture it and have a rough idea of what my humble abode looks like... Cheers!

The past week!

Can you believe another fire alarm went off this morning at 10 a.m.? I was asleep (who wakes up early on a lazy Saturday afternoon?) and so it was a shocking wake-up call. Anyway, we were let into the building after 10 minutes.

That aside, these past few days have been quite interesting. Wednesday was the start of O-Week here, and apparently it's very big, with lotsa events going on all over the USyd campus. I woke up real early, at about 7 something, and by 8.30 a.m. a whole bunch of us newbies were at St. Andrew's College for the breakfast (for all new students). However, there was a misunderstanding and we missed the breakfast (we were told it was at 8.30 a.m. when it was actually 7.30 a.m.) so we were all quite hungry by the time the welcome speeches in their hall was over.

We decided to grab some breakfast, so we walked down some streets and ended up at a quaint roadside cafe called Hoochie Mamma. I ordered an iced latte, and that set me back by $3.50 (that's 10 ringgit for a little cup of coffee!!!!) but I needed that little pick-me-up.

Then it was time for the official welcome at Great Hall, so we briskwalked all the way back to the Quadrangle. Imagine our horror when we arrived only to find the grand doors closed and a security officer standing guard outside. Apparently there were very limited seats, and the doors were closed 10 minutes before the event started because the seats were all taken. So we waited outside.

And then we thought we might as well go browse around the various booths and stalls set up by the University of Sydney Union (USU) for all their 210 clubs and societies. It's really a blast of sounds and colours, hitting you from all sides.

Many stalls were giving out goodie bags (they call them showbags here) and freebies, and I managed to grab a slushie from the Access Chillout Tent and a couple of cans of Coca-Cola Zero. For lunch, we trooped over to the Holme Building where the USU threw us newbies a fantastic lunch. Well, it was fantastic to me because they served bottles of carbonated drinks, and I grabbed 2 bottles of Coke (and my stash keeps on growing, yippee!) and chicken and lamb skewers, sausage and a hotdog bun, some potato salad, and Greek salad with feta cheese. Lunch was over too soon, and I headed back to browse through the remaining booths and stalls.

I went back to the USU stalls on Thursday again, and managed to collect more Coke! The afternoon passed quickly enough, and in the evening I attended the Faculty of Arts Postgraduate Welcome & Orientation dinner. Well, it wasn't really dinner, as they wasn't really much dinner-type food. We all just stood around little tables and chit-chatted with our future coursemates. They served red and white wine, but I stuck to the orange juice, and they had little canapes and pastries and stuff.

The following 2 pictures below were taken by my friends, and they're of me receiving the certificate (for the scholarship) from the dean (at least I think it was the dean, or someone important anyway).

We IH people left at about 6.45 p.m. because we wanted to make it in time for the Newtown tour (supposed to meet at 7 p.m., but was postponed to 8.30 p.m.). Newtown's made up of little shops, restaurants and pubs, and isn't very far from Chippendale, it's just a walk of about 15 minutes. A few of us stopped at the Max Brenner Chocolate Bar, this really famous place that serves food and drinks in a concept similar to Starbucks, Bing!, and all those other expensive coffee places, but this one specializes in chocolate! I thought it was worth a splurge (it's Max Brenner!) and ordered the Cookieshake, which was really quite expensive ($7.60!!!!), but it really tastes pretty good. Rather sweet and reminiscent of cookies and cream (which is why they call it what they call it I s'ppose).

I was very hungry by the time I got back home (dinner was just canapes, remember?) so I did my first cooking in Sydney. Maggi Mee never tasted so good, and every little crumb was just so precious! I cooked it for longer than usual, so that the noodles like soaked up more water and was more substantial (sad, I know), and I'm so glad I brought the Kari Letup flavour, because it's really spicy and I miss that burning sensation of chilli powder. I also mixed in some Vegemite into a mug of hot water (have I mentioned how many times I've scalded my hand?) and that was my yummy beverage. Very yummy.

I went back to the USU stalls yesterday afternoon, but didn't manage to bring back any Coke, as it was 3 in the afternoon and they were cleaning up and closing down. I dropped into the Co-op Bookshop, and boy, was I shocked to find out the number of books I'd need to have for my classes. Yesterday was a good day, food-wise: lunch was some farfalle and beef stew, and dinner was some creamy linguine with lamb. At about 7.30 p.m. Su-Wen and I walked to Broadway and dropped into Coles. They're a supermarket franchise here, very popular because they have lower prices, and this week they're having someting called dollar dazzlers, where you can buy some things for just a buck. I stocked up on my dried pasta, got like 4 packets at a dollar each, so that's $4 for food that will feed me during the winter break (June-July, where people go home and there's no food). I might go back soon and pick up more pasta, don't think you get much pasta for a buck these days, so should stock up while they're cheap. I was searching for their Bertolli pasta sauces ($3 for 2 bottles), but apparently so was everyone, and there were none left, not even a single bottle.

Which brings me to this morning's rude awakening by way of the much-despised fire alarm. After that catastrophe, I didn't think it was worth it to go back to sleep, so I waited around till lunch came around. After lunch a whole bunch of us IH residents went to Victoria Park to try to feed the ducks. I say 'try', because there were, like, only 2 ducks, so the event was unanimously deemed a failure.

We then hiked it over to the Glebe Markets. The market has a very indie, hippie-happy feel, and if you like vintage-y stuff you'd love this place. It's really a very colourful place, with plenty of colourful wares (and colourful characters too). You can get most stuff for real cheap too (real cheap in Aussie dollars, don't think about it in ringgit and you'll be fine).

We went back for ice-cream on the rooftop, and then after dinner I headed over with a whole bunch of people to the Mardi Gras parade. I'm afraid I didn't get to see much, it was just too big a crowd, but I did hear plenty of hooting, whistling and clapping. At approximately 7.30 p.m. I got a little tired of it all and decided to go back, alone. Yes you read that right - me, a stranger in seedy Sydney, decided to find my own way back to IH (if you know my great sense of direction - or rather a great lack of it! - you'd know how dangerous and stupid a notion this is), but to cut a long story short, I asked lotsa people for directions to QVB, and then got onto the first bus I saw and asked the bus driver (1) if the bus was going to Broadway, and (2) if the bus took cash (it was, and it did). So I managed to make my way home. It took me approximately an hour and 40 minutes, but I did it, and I feel like it's such a great accomplishment heehee!

And I just watched some show called Dear Frankie and it starred Gerard Butler and I'm quite contented to just slouch here and do nothing. Cheers, y'all!

Fires and Fairs

If you hate being woken up in the middle of the night, then you would not have wanted to be in my shoes last night. It was 4 in the morning when I heard the worst sound ever: the fire alarm. If you've heard a fire alarm go off before, you would know it's not one of the most pleasant of experiences - your heart sinks into your stomach, and every cell in your brain screams at every nerve and muscle in your body to get up and run. So, still dazed from sleep, I pulled on a sweatshirt and walked out into the parking lot, barefeet and all. The other residents were already gathered there, and more came pouring out of the building, all wondering what was going on. We were allowed back into the building after about 10 minutes of standing around in the cold dark night. I was really happy and relieved that it wasn't a real emergency, and I went back to sleep.

So imagine how pissed off I was when the fire alarm went off again, about an hour later. The sound of the fire alarm was just plain unnerving, and it was announced over the PA system that we were to leave the building. At that point in time, it went through my mind that it must have been some prank or other, or the faulty alarm system (as had been announced previously), so I just stayed where I was and waited for the cacophony to subside. It finally did after about 5 minutes, and I went back to sleep.

I only woke up at 11 something, and at lunch (we had leftover pasta from last night's dinner, yummy!) I asked around and found out that it wasn't a prank. Apparently smoke had been detected, but the cause of it was still unknown. Another announcement over the PA system informed us that there had been some intruders (or something like that) that had vandalised the front of the building, and we were warned not to let anyone in with our keys (it's all automated, so if we hold the doors open, people behind us can follow us into the building). They also said there was a Mardi Gras fair of sorts going on in Victoria Park just opposite the IH building, and that there might be strangers walking around and stuff and to be careful and alert.

Scary stuff, I'm sure you'll agree.

Well, with that horrible experience behind us, some of decided to go to Broadway (again!), and after that we walked through Victoria Park to look at the stalls and stuff. Mardi Gras in Sydney is a gay and lesbian festival, so as we strolled around it was not unusual to see guys kissing guys, and girls holding hands with each other and stuff. Unusual back home, but not here in Sydney, nope. It was crowded and all, and decorated with so many colours and characters. There was this whole festive atmosphere, and apparently there was some dog show because there were many people holding leashes and walking really beautiful dogs around. I saw some German Shepherds, a couple of Pugs and Pitbulls, and even the occasional Chihuahua! Beautiful beautiful dogs!

Dinner today was roast beef and roasted vegetables and peas, and I also helped myself to some melon, shredded carrot and a slice of really nice cake (tasted faintly of coffee). After that I went to the computer lab (we have one with about 8 or 9 computers conveniently located in our building) and managed to log onto Facebook quite easily. I'm thinking I might have to use the computer lab from now on if I'm ever to upload anymore pictures on my blog. As I've mentioned previously, the connection is just too weak and/or unstable from my room, and it's just plain frustrating to have to wait for 2 hours just to upload a single picture (that's if it's even successful, mostly it's just a very successful waste of time). So that's it for today. Tomorrow I think I've got a free day, as my faculty only has events for the undergraduates. Tuesday will be my enrolment, and I'm kinda worried about that. So bye people, and cheers!

Manly Beach!

So today I decided to join some friends to go to Manly Beach. Yesterday we'd planned to go to the famous Bondi Beach, but we were told that Manly was much prettier than Bondi, so we (Ann, Axel, Nori, Su Wen, Tania and li'l ole me!) set off at approximately 10.15 a.m., and we took a bus to Circular Quay. We got a little distracted by the Sydney Opera House and whipped out our cameras, but we managed to tear ourselves away and got ourselves onto the ferry. We were able to get very good views of the Sydney Opera House from the ferry, and the cameras came out again.

Manly Beach reminds me a little of the beaches back home, except the shoreline is a whole lot closer, and the beaches are a lot cleaner. The place was crowded with people! But you know me, I spent most of my time sheltering under my umbrella and slapping on sunscreen.

We had lunch at one of the open-air restaurants there (I'm not sure if you can call it a restaurant, it was basically a tiny shop with lotsa tables and chairs set up outside under giant umbrellas. We kinda expected the portions would be bigger than the typical Malaysian serving size we would get back home, so Su Wen and I decided to share a platter of fish and chips. The portions were big alright! It came with a side of rocket salad (kinda peppery), and the fish was rather fishy, but it was a great experience nonetheless. After that we stepped into Coles (they seem to have Coles everywhere!) and bought a 1 litre carton of orange juice for 3 bucks. That O.J. was a real life-saver, I was so dehydrated!

We met the others and decided to go off to a much deeper area of the beach. It was tucked away at the end of a not-so-short walk, and again, I sat under some trees while the others swam and snorkelled. There was a little iguana hanging around the area, and a yellowish spider hanging somewhere above my head, but I was too comfortable to move.

It was around 4 p.m. when we decided to make a move. So with reluctant legs (my feet were killing me!) we caught the ferry and bus back. We walked through Victoria Park and got back in time for dinner at IH. Tonight's dinner was to my liking: penne with some tomato-ey sauce, green beans and spinach.

I spent the rest of the evening in my room, just lounging out. Way too tired to go anywhere else this evening, although Flavia did call me to ask if I wanted to do something. Victoria Park is all set up with tents and booths, and apparently it's for the Mardi Gras festival (there's even going to be a parade!) which is taking place this next week, so that's something to look forward to this week (try doing a little research of your own in Google or something and you'll know what it's all about).

So that's it for today, people! It's been a great day, and I'm stoked to have been able to visit one of the prettiest beaches in the whole of Aussie-land (or so they say). I'm overjoyed at having seen both the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and it's definitely one of those experiences I'll remember for a very, very long time.

Cheers!

WednThursFrid

If you're wondering what "WednThursFrid" means, fret not, it's just a shortening and combining of the words Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which pretty much is what this entry is about: my last 3 days here.

Wednesday and Thursday were the first and second days of orientation for new students doing their full degree programmes, and it started with the welcome speeches at the Great Hall. And really, people, it's not called "great" for nothing. The view as we walked through the university was quite spectacular; the architecture of these ancient sandstone buildings is, for lack of a better phrase, breathtakingly beautiful.

The full degree orientation programme basically consists of one session after another of 'important' lectures deemed by the university to be useful information for new students. The first day we had morning tea at the Quadrangle, where the famous tree is, y'know, the one that turns purple and that's always grazing the front covers of the university catalogues and brochures. It was green though, with only one purple branch of leaves near the very top of the tree. I got me a plastic cup of cold orange juice and ended up sitting on the grass, chatting with my friends and enjoying the view.

Wednesday afternoon I managed to visit Victoria Park, which is usually very dangerous to walk through alone, but we went with a bunch of people who were playing football there, so I thought if I ever intended to step foot there, this was the moment - who would wanna mug a group of footballers right? The park's really a very nice place to lepak. The wind is nice and cool, and the trees are really quite different from the ones you get back home. There are lotsa people around too, and many of them walk their dogs here.

Thursday was pretty much the same informational sessions in the morning, but the afternoon was pretty interesting: we joined one of the guided tours around campus (haven't transferred the pictures from my camera, sorry!) and that took about a couple of hours. At about 9 p.m. that night there was a party at the Manning Bar for the international students, so I went with a few friends to that one. It's not something I'm used to, but it was pretty interesting.

This morning was spent at the Quadrangle and the Wentworth Building, and then it was back to IH. Dinner was interesting today: they posted up on the menu "nasi goreng", and fellow Malaysians, seriously I was happy, but I don't think the other international students liked it. For one, it was kinda soggy, and even I've gotta admit that our Malaysian flavours are rather hardcore for non-Malaysians not used to our tastebuds. After dinner I went to Broadway with Ann, Axel, Lorenzo, Nori and Tania. They bought sunglasses, and it was a good excuse for me to walk around town again. Tomorrow should be very interesting - they wanna go to Manly Beach, which is apparently considered a far more beautiful beach than Bondi, and the plan is to catch a bus and a ferry there. So it's gonna be an early night for me tonight, haven't been getting much sleep lately (the ibis birds attacking the trash can get rather loud), and I'm gonna need every drop of energy for tomorrow's grand outing! So cheers, y'all!

P.S. If I don't blog regularly, it's not because I don't want to, but because the Internet connection from my room is so horrible it's mindboggling! End of P.S.