MUsIc By moOnLigHt...

hmm... today's blog title sounds quite romantic... today's friday but instead of swimming like what we do every friday... we went to the sydney olympic park to attend the sydney orchestra's Music By Moonlight... basically its juz find a spot on the open field, make urself comfortable and listen to the orchestra play live classical music... initially i didn't really felt like going, but i am glad that i went cos the weather was good and the atmosphere was really nice... although we didn't really manage to get a good spot, cos we went there quite late and there were a alot of people, i really enjoyed myself...
the music was good, not like those that make you sleepy... really upbeat type...lasted for almost two hours...

reminded me of that time last year, when my sister and I went for the Z-pop concert at the padang... also free and also have to sit on the grass... but that time we didn't bring any mats or food or drinks... so we were quite miserable actually... i hope one day i can save enough money and treat myself to a concert in the sydney opera house... that will be the ultimate experience! btw... that time we went on a tour and they brought us to the opera house... we could only see the outside... but the toilets were soooo cool... really clean... like those six-star hotels... and the sink doesn't look like a sink at all...i actually took photos of the sink... very "sanba" rite... like those pple who juz came down from the mountains...haha...i think next time if i had my own house... i will install either those kind of sinks or the transparent ones...like the ones in Fullerton Hotel...

ALtoGethEr...

Today went back to school for the orientation day for undergraduates... finally the school seemed lively for once since i've stepped into it... there were booths for all the clubs and societies... and... for your information, all the clubs and societies are religion-related... there wasn't any sports club whatsoever... we went to attend the talks... and after that, the individual school talks and i finally met all the pple who will be taking OT... let me give the statistics... 90% of the OT cohort are the local students and 10% are the asian/international students like me... and... 95% of the cohort are females and the rest, well, do the math urself...pathetic... dunno why OT is such a female-dominated career...

btw... the timetable that we have is quite slack... quite alot of breaks in between lessons... tuesday is bad cos I start at 8am... and that means i have to wake up at 6am... arghh... and i finish school, latest 3pm... not bad, i think...cos when winter comes in may... the sky will start to turn dark ard 4pm... can't wait for autumn to come... it's so hot here... and we dun take anatomy until the next semester...

and next mon... i have to reach school at 7.30am... cos i heard that the library will be looking for part-time librarians and the pay is really good... like $19/h... alot of pple will be queuing up and there are alot of pple on the waiting list... yup so i will be going there early to queue... haha... s'poreans trademark of kiasuism is showing... and guess what time lessons start on mon?? 10am! i have no idea what the heck am i going to do in school...

Last Day Of SPP...YAY!

Yay! yesterday was the last day of the study preparation program (SPP)... finally... for the next ten days, i decided to go learn the theory for driving and take the theory test... cos it's really inconvenient here without a car and we have to go through alot of tests before we are really qualified to drive...

went to school in the morning with my cuz and her friend... and then went for lunch in a korean cafe... i think this was my first time eating in a korean place... hmm... and there are many korean restaurants in the place that we went to... cos i was told that that place was occupied mostly by koreans...so alot of korean shops, cafes, etc... we had spicy fried rice and sweet and spicy chicken... the fried rice was good though... yummy... one thing that i found interesting was... they had metal chopsticks... i was told again that it is their tradition... it was good to experience another culture...

hmm... it was friday yesterday so we went to swim again... this time we went to the outdoor pool instead of the indoor one... the outdoor one was bigger but quite dirty though... after that, we went to this mexican restaurant in the city called HAD To Happen... this was my second time going to a mexican place to eat... the first time was back in s'pore when we went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday... the food was not bad... we had nachos and we ordered this dish called Lucifer's Plate... from the name, anyone can more or less guess that this dish is definitely not for those who can't take spicy food and a weak stomach... my cuz and I decided to be adventurous and try this dish... it was actually juz mexican sausages with nachos on top... ok... i am a person who can take like spicy stuff and this was way, way, beyond my threshold of spiciness... my cuz and I were like half drinking iced water and half tearing up... it was so SPICY! both of us had tears literally dripping... we drank 4 jugs of iced water! but it was a good experience... though it was quite expensive... we also ordered a tropical marguerita... my first time drinking such stuff... really nice though...the service and the ambience was great... but i am SO not eating that dish ever again...

1 week of M.I.A.

If anyone was wondering what the heck is M.I.A... it's missing in action, and i have been that for the past week...Did anyone miss me? i hope so. anyway, i didn't write my blog bcos i was busy watching the first series of Meteor Garden... haha... at first, i was juz watching alone and my cuzzies were saying stuff like 'ohmigod why are you watching such a cheesy chinese show? and how gay-looking are the people in the show? blah, blah... so i was like, watever, you dun like to watch, well no one is forcing you to watch... ok... so the next day, which was saturday... both of us had nothing to do, we were debating on what movies shall we watch... and in the end, we ended up watching my Meteor Garden show rite, and guess what??? my so-called 'mature' cuz who hates all asian stuff, as she calls it, got addicted onto the show... she couldn't stop watching it! then there's one scene where it was so funny and she was laughing till so loud that both mu aunt and my grandma came and find out what was so funny that both of us were like laughing like goonies... before i know, both my aunt and my grandma ALSO got hooked onto the show!!! and then all of us juz sat there for the whole of sat and sun afternoons, watching the show... haha... whenever i think about this, i can't help but laugh at the scenario... cos like they dun have chinese shows on tv here, and my cuz dun really like to watch such stuff... and in the end, she's the one who's hogging the stupid tv watching the show...

I was so glad that i bought the part I and II of Meteor garden with me when i came here, so that at least when i am so bored, i can watch it... it's my fav show...haha... jerry yen is so cute! dunno what is he doing now though, cos before i left, he released his new album and nope, i didn't buy the album...

okay, enough of the show already... today i was slightly late for school, i arrived ard 9.20am and when i went to the classroom, horrors of all horrors... the teacher was the only one seating inside the empty classroom... so i went in and asked her where's everyone? and she said that i was the only one who came... shit... so we sat there for half an hour, staring at one another... trying to see if anyone else was coming...and in the end, she apologized to me and told me that i can go... it wasn't her fault really though that these pple didn't turn up so i told her that she didn't have to apologize to me... and then i went back home...so irritating... i am so not going to school tomorrow...oh and i finished my dreaded 1000 words essay on old age already, did the oral presentation also the day before... sometimes, some pple are juz so annoying... i really feel sorry for the teacher... so far, all the teachers and librarians that i've met are all nice pple, they are all ready to help whenever anyone needs help or some advice...

ENouGh OF ACadeMic Skills...Pls...

On Mon... guess what? we had 3 hours of academic skills on lectures... what to prepare before lectures, what to do during lectures, blah blah... how interesting... i really really wish that time will juz fast forward till 28 feb when school starts...
okay... i think i should really curb my habit of complaining... is it starting to become annoying?? i can't help it though... as the saying goes... you fu tong xiang, you nan tong dang...

and yesterday, we finally had like proper classes other than academic skills... we had intro to sociology... it was totally different from what i learnt in nyp... the lecturer talked abt democracy, modern society, history stuff like the renaissance, the french revolution, the enlightenment??! to me, everything sounded like gibberish... and the sociology manual was like filled with articles, pages and pages of them, not like karen yap's manuals where it's just like slides and we learnt abt microsociology and deviance, etc... so i juz sat there for 2 hours trying to pay attention to what the guy was saying and sometimes, the accent was juz totally un-understandable...

and i also met another girl from singapore who's also taking OT... it's good i guess...
yesterday was chinese new year eve, so we had like a reunion dinner at home... nice food... my aunty has good culinary skills...
so i am going to say a big HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to everyone! Gong Xi Fa Cai, Wan Shi Ru Yi... Shen Ti Jian Kang...Xue Ye Jin Bu...

Out ALL DAy...

Yesterday we went to Chinatown in the city to see the chinese new year celebrations... the whole street of chinatown was filled with small stalls selling chinese products... the street was packed even though it was only 10am in the morning... although the whole place was decorated in red, lanterns, etc... the whole place still lack the chinese new year atmosphere that singapore's chinatown have... my aunt told me that this was going to be as 'chinese' as it's gonna be... we went to eat yu zha gui and dim sum after... that small taiwanese stall at the corner was the only stall that sells yu zha gui... i've been told that if u want to eat them, u either go there or eat those ready-made ones that are sold at the chinese shops... i still prefer the ones back at home... i miss 'hum chim bang'... haha is that how u spell it? they dun have them in the stall... and... one piece of yu zha gui costs us $1.60! we also drank soya bean milk, which made me think of the delicious soya bean milk in NJC and NYP...

we walked there till in the afternoon, and yesterday was also my cuz's birthday... she brought us to this really posh chocoloate cafe in the city... the chocolate brand name was LINDT'S... there are only like 3 such cafes in the world by this brand... one is in america, the other i think is in Switzerland (where i is manufactured) and in Sydney... we tried the ice-cream, and the iced chocolate drink... yum yum... my cuz also bought a cake and we threw a mini birthday dinner for her at night...

this morning when i woke up, i was thinking that the 3 hours difference between here and s'pore really sucks big -time... cos like every day i have to sleep at 10.30 pm sydney time... and then in s'pore it is only like what, 7.30pm... and my friends only go on msn at 10 or 11pm and by then it's already like 1am for me... so it's hard for me to talk to them online... sigh... like i haven't talked to some of them since i left... i dunno how am i going to solve this thing... suggestions, anyone?

Thank God It's FRidaY...

Yesterday never go to school again... slack at home... was also trying to do my research on ageing for my essay paper and critical review... damn hard to find info though... today went to class and my teacher asked me, "andrea, i missed u yesterday in class... " i actually stared at her... she remembered my name... so fast ah... i didn't even reply, juz smiled at her... shit... wanted to skip on monday again, but i dun think i can...

i finally met a girl who is also in OT, i was like finding a seat on the bus when she spoke to me and asked me whether i was going for the enrolment today, yay, and she's also staying somewhere near me so we can take the train to school together when school opens on 28 feb... and also today, i registered for my OT group... there are 7 grps altogether... all the grps which finish early are all full so i chose grp 7... my favourite number... although the timetable for my grp is quite shitty...

today's academic skills class was on referencing... 3 whole hours of referencing! did i mention that i really can't wait for the semester to start??

Another Day In School...

Really cannot wait for the real semester to start... the SPP (study preparation programme) is killing me! although the teachers are really nice and patient, the things that they talk abt are so boring... the whole of this week is juz focusing on how to write proper essays... i still haven't started on my critical reviews and essay yet... back to reading journals again... i still can recall the time in nyp during our PBL... our grp read like 20 journal articles leh... read until my eyeballs fall out and my eyesight deteriorate...

I can't believe i am actually saying this but, i miss doing PBL... those pple in OT0402, pls dun kill me... the whole experience was tiring but fun...

Today, something really exciting & scary happened... we were getting down the bus from school at the train station when suddenly, i heard "THUMP! THUMP!", i looked ard and i didn't even noe what was happening when everyone started running towards the train station... i followed them running into the shelter... and then i realised what was happening... HAILSTORM!!! no kidding... ice cubes were falling from the sky and hitting on the ground everywhere... Reminded me of the scene in the movie, THE DAY After Tomorrow, haha... really dangerous though... i was really glad that at that time, i was near a shelter and not in the open... i still remember what happened to the JApanese man in the movie...
I was totally drenched! brr...brr... very cold... my cuz told me that later that this was the closest thing to snow that we get here in sydney... cool...

Aargh... Bad Day All Around!

The day started like any normal school day... we were fetched to the train station and it was really early for me, so i have to wait for like an hour at the station before catching a train to school...so i juz sat at the train station and slept...

Today, we had academic skills which was actually teaching us how to write proper essays and we were given 3 assignments... we have to write 2 critical reviews of 2 journal articles and a 1000 words essay on a sociology topic... sian ah!!! the whole entire day was juz teaching us how to write essays...

okay... after school... i went to the school busstop to catch a bus to the train station cos i absolutely dun want to walk to the train station... did i mention how far was it????! and then after waiting for half an hour, the stupid guard came out and told me that there was no bus coming into the school... i was like... SHIT!!! I have to WALK!!! so i walked out of the gate, luckily i saw two other pple from the orientation grp and we decided to walk together... it was soo hot today again!!

and then, we finally reached the station, took a train to another train station to change train, i have to go down to look at the screens to see which platform i was in rite... the screen said platform 3 and the train would arrive in 10 min... okay so i went to platform 3... i waited there for half an hour! and the damn train didn't come at all... i was so pissed that i went back down and checked the screens again... the stupid screen said platform 6, and they didn't even bother to announce over the speakers or something! and the train was like arriving in 1 min... SHIT! i ran like hell to catch the stupid train... aargh...
What a horrible day!!!

oh and did i mention that i am the only person taking OT in the orientation group? all the others were taking either diagnostic radiography or physiotherapy or speech pathology... Juz my luck...
There were alot of 'tong xiang's in the grp though... i think abt 8 of us... but they were all doing the bridging course in diagnostic radiography...
Sad to say... there were no nice-looking guys at all... in case anyone was wondering... haha