Hi Friends!
Just a quick, short post for now, i've been meaning to blog about this since a few weeks ago, but decided to wait a few weeks because i keep learning new things about..... OZZIE SLANG (and phrases/words that they like to use but are not technically considered slangs)!
(weekly updates and pictures on culinary adventures will come soon!!!)
1) 'Heaps'
Eg: I had heaps fun yesterday; we have heaps of homework; that is heaps good!
Apparently it is a South Australian thing, because Nina, from Darwin, hates it!
Holly, from Adelaide, confirmed that it is a South Australian thing, and when i said i must learn it to assimilate, they all laughed lol. Even the commonwealth bank of Australia uses it in their advertisements: 'There are heaps good deals when you are a student'.
2) 'Shotgun'
Meaning: reserve, chope (in sg)
Eg: I shotgun to play Wii next.
I first heard it when Nina shotgun me to take the middle seat of Julian's car when we took a first ride in it. Didn't know what it meant until the next day when Kei Shia, who is actually Singaporean but has lived in Aus all her life, and i were talking about slangs and she mentioned it.
3) 'Whereabouts'
Eg: 'So whereabouts are you from?'
Always found this weird, because it is sufficient to just say 'so where are you from?'. But everybody is using it! Sometimes it is simply shortened to 'Whereabouts?', a one- word sentence, used to ask which country are you from, which state in Aus you stayed in, where in Adelaide are you living now ect.
4) 'I reckon'
Eg: 'I reckon we are going to be late for class';
'Do you think so?', 'Yeah, i reckon.'
It is used everywhere and in so many contexts to replace 'I feel', 'I think', 'I guess'. It is quite catchy to use actually and i have started to use it too! I reckon you guys will catch me saying it when we next meet! hahaha
5) 'Skux' (This is not exactly Ozzie Slang, it's from New Zealand, but NZlanders are considered interstaters even though they are from a different country, so it counts!)
Eg: That's skux.
Positive connotation, meaning something is really good. Don't go around using this in Aus though, i think it is strictly a NZ thing, the Aussie will not understand it.
Alright, i reckon you guys enjoyed my latest post, which is simply Skux and heaps interesting! Stay tuned tata.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Hi friends!
Fridge problem: I had a huge problem last week dealing with rotten fruits/ vegetables in my fridge. It seemed as though i was throwing away everything in my fridge because it had gone mouldy/ turned black/ giving out a putrid smell ect. Threw away half a watermelon, a few corns, whole bunch of lettuce, some blackened carrots, half a cabbage...
At first i thought that the fridge was too cold, because my grandmother taught me that vege will go bad if it is too cold(?), also the weather was freezing cold then so i didn't realise anything wrong with the fridge. Then a few days later when the weather got warmer i thought that the fridge was not cold enough because it seemed as though it was near room temperature. I told my landlords and when they came to check it with a thermometer, it turned out that the fridge had totally broken down already! Lol. Anyway, being very efficient people, the very next day they replaced it with a brand new fridge and now i have a new fridge! Thank you Joy and Andrew!
Monday: Decided not to go for Chem Tutorial on Monday but to go for the one on Tuesday morning instead because otherwise i would have 4 hours of breaks before my next lesson. Also, if i go for the tuesday tutorial, my 2 hour non-lunch break would be shortened to 1 hour only. Ultimately, my mondays will start at 4pm (instead of 11am and 4 hours break) and my tuesday will be more packed but less time will be wasted on breaks.
Anyway, it was a good call to sleep in on monday till a bit later because i read from the discussion board on FLO (Flinders Learning Online which uses Blackboard as its server, seems like every school uses Blackboard (VJ, SMU)) that the tutor didnt turn up. The afternoon lecture was semi-cancelled too because the lecturer went to the wrong lecture theatre and arrived 30 minutes late, which by then everyone (save 20 out of the 200) had left.
Its been 3 weeks of school already and i havent had a lesson on Monday yet!!! Week 1- Chem tutorial cancelled, Bio pre-lecture cancelled (for people who didnt study bio in Year 12 ie me). Week 2- Adelaide Cup Public Holiday. Week 3- Chem tutor didnt turn up (plus i swapped my timetable), Bio pre-lecturer went to wrong venue. Lol, but i do end lesson on friday fairly late, at 5pm and had had lessons on friday for every of the 3 weeks, so i guess that balances things out.
Tuesday: Julian bought a new car and he took Nina, Emily, Paul and I on a spin to the city. Apparently in NZ the usual speed to drive is 150-180km/h and Julian was very used to such speeds so i was a bit apprehensive about taking his car. But because it was a brand new car, he was very cautious about driving and so it was all slow and safe.
We checked out Nina's room in St Annes College and its big and spacious. Loved the common area near the entrance where there are comfy sofas and shiny wooden flooring. I simply love lounging on big sofas in big spaces now, haven been too cooped up in my small narrow flat where i have only hard wooden chairs and a small cushioned armchair.
Wednesday: Went grocery shopping at Marions. Bought apples, bread, yoghurt, celery, carrots ect and had to heave the heavy bag all the way uphill. Tiring!
On Thursday, Julian drove Nina, Tim, Patrick and I to Yum Sing, a chinese takeaway restaurant, during our 1 hour break to have lunch. Food was good and affordable and in huge portions.
Went over to Paul's place on friday night to watch Glee on my pirated discs bought from Malaysia. The disc kept jumping and the subtitles were bad, luckily Cindy had the first few episodes on her Ipod so we enjoyed 3 good quality episodes of Glee. I love the soundtracks and i think Quinn is really pretty! I also like the headmaster Figgins? He is like unbiased and rational and makes the drama more believable.
Saturday afternoon Paul came over to my place for some bio help. As i didnt take bio either (we both took physics) i wasnt of much help. Luckily Emily took bio and psychology during year 12 and offered to help. Paul and i went to visit Emily on Sunday at Uni Hall for some bio coaching. Her room is small but cosy. Emily has so many pairs of shoes! Like 20? Quite overwhelming in a small hostel room (not the smell, just the idea of it lol). She plans to have a wall feature of shoes, and i think it would be a super awesome idea.
Saturday Night: DVD night at Grace/ Kathy/ Gabby's house watching SKINS with the 3 girls, Emily, Ram, Paul, Julian and I.
I've never heard of Skins before! Have you all??? Either i live under a rock, or it is just not hugely popular enough, but everyone else here has seen Skins before!!! I think its a good show, quite addictive the more the story line builds up, though i could do with some subtitles hahaha.
We all trekked to Pizza Hut in the middle of the night to get pizzas half way through. Tried piggybacking on the way back and all the other girls can piggyback Paul except for me! I collapsed the 2 times i tried it, and i am not the smallest not the skinniest of the bunch, omg what is wrong with me!?
Anyway, we werent stranded at their house this time round because Julian drove us there. Ram drove us home because he 'took one for the team' and didnt drink. Actually, i didnt drink too, but neither can i drive, lol, anyway thanks Ram!
Culinary Adventures:
My very first bento box! Rice, mixed vege and fish fingers. Looks colourful and appealing but quite tasteless. Also, it was cold because i prepared it the night before and stored it in the fridge and there was no microwave oven in the refectory where i ate it. Nonetheless, i enjoyed it, because it was a refreshing change from eating sandwiches for lunch.
Late lunch on a Saturday: Mixed vege, frozen sliced beans, bacon, an egg and baked bread. Originally i wanted to microwave the veges and bake the bread and bacon in the oven. But the bacon kept breaking into tiny bits as it was still frozen and i couldnt put tiny shreds of bacon into the oven as i didnt have aluminium foil. In the end, i had to fry the bacon and since i already had the heat going in the pan, i dumped the vege in and fried it as well.
The bread you see above caused me ALOT of trouble. For dinner i tried to microwave/defrost bread because i kept it in the freezer. I put it into a microwave safe box and left it in the microwave for 2.5 minutes. When i opened the microwave door, smoke just poured out, as if 10 cigarettes have been left in the microwave. The microwave safe box was oozing with black tar-like-liquid and the box was deformed. The whole oven was splattered with the same black liquid.
It was SO smelly! I was so worried the sprinkler was going to go off or the landlords would come over to see if i was smoking in the house, lol. I tried to salvage the box by soaking it in water/ expanding it using hot water but it was too deformed and smelly i threw it away in the end. Spent close to an hour wiping the oven with tissue paper because i didnt want to dirty my dishcloths with carcinogenic toxins. Left all the windows open and turned on the stove hood-fan, as well as the ventilator in the toilet but the whole house still smelt like a smoker's breathe. There was no wind that day too so the smell just lingered for a day... EW!
On hindsight, i think the bread was too dry when i put it into the microwave. Microwaves work by vibrating water molecules in food right? So i guess there was no water for it to heat up and hence it burnt my bread and produced burnt tar which forced itself out of the box and splattered everywhere. Valuable lesson learnt, though i dont think i am going to use the microwave for a long long time while the horrid smell is still fresh in my mind.
What a long entry! Thanks for reading through everything and tata!
Fridge problem: I had a huge problem last week dealing with rotten fruits/ vegetables in my fridge. It seemed as though i was throwing away everything in my fridge because it had gone mouldy/ turned black/ giving out a putrid smell ect. Threw away half a watermelon, a few corns, whole bunch of lettuce, some blackened carrots, half a cabbage...
At first i thought that the fridge was too cold, because my grandmother taught me that vege will go bad if it is too cold(?), also the weather was freezing cold then so i didn't realise anything wrong with the fridge. Then a few days later when the weather got warmer i thought that the fridge was not cold enough because it seemed as though it was near room temperature. I told my landlords and when they came to check it with a thermometer, it turned out that the fridge had totally broken down already! Lol. Anyway, being very efficient people, the very next day they replaced it with a brand new fridge and now i have a new fridge! Thank you Joy and Andrew!
Monday: Decided not to go for Chem Tutorial on Monday but to go for the one on Tuesday morning instead because otherwise i would have 4 hours of breaks before my next lesson. Also, if i go for the tuesday tutorial, my 2 hour non-lunch break would be shortened to 1 hour only. Ultimately, my mondays will start at 4pm (instead of 11am and 4 hours break) and my tuesday will be more packed but less time will be wasted on breaks.
Anyway, it was a good call to sleep in on monday till a bit later because i read from the discussion board on FLO (Flinders Learning Online which uses Blackboard as its server, seems like every school uses Blackboard (VJ, SMU)) that the tutor didnt turn up. The afternoon lecture was semi-cancelled too because the lecturer went to the wrong lecture theatre and arrived 30 minutes late, which by then everyone (save 20 out of the 200) had left.
Its been 3 weeks of school already and i havent had a lesson on Monday yet!!! Week 1- Chem tutorial cancelled, Bio pre-lecture cancelled (for people who didnt study bio in Year 12 ie me). Week 2- Adelaide Cup Public Holiday. Week 3- Chem tutor didnt turn up (plus i swapped my timetable), Bio pre-lecturer went to wrong venue. Lol, but i do end lesson on friday fairly late, at 5pm and had had lessons on friday for every of the 3 weeks, so i guess that balances things out.
Tuesday: Julian bought a new car and he took Nina, Emily, Paul and I on a spin to the city. Apparently in NZ the usual speed to drive is 150-180km/h and Julian was very used to such speeds so i was a bit apprehensive about taking his car. But because it was a brand new car, he was very cautious about driving and so it was all slow and safe.
We checked out Nina's room in St Annes College and its big and spacious. Loved the common area near the entrance where there are comfy sofas and shiny wooden flooring. I simply love lounging on big sofas in big spaces now, haven been too cooped up in my small narrow flat where i have only hard wooden chairs and a small cushioned armchair.
Wednesday: Went grocery shopping at Marions. Bought apples, bread, yoghurt, celery, carrots ect and had to heave the heavy bag all the way uphill. Tiring!
On Thursday, Julian drove Nina, Tim, Patrick and I to Yum Sing, a chinese takeaway restaurant, during our 1 hour break to have lunch. Food was good and affordable and in huge portions.
Went over to Paul's place on friday night to watch Glee on my pirated discs bought from Malaysia. The disc kept jumping and the subtitles were bad, luckily Cindy had the first few episodes on her Ipod so we enjoyed 3 good quality episodes of Glee. I love the soundtracks and i think Quinn is really pretty! I also like the headmaster Figgins? He is like unbiased and rational and makes the drama more believable.
Saturday afternoon Paul came over to my place for some bio help. As i didnt take bio either (we both took physics) i wasnt of much help. Luckily Emily took bio and psychology during year 12 and offered to help. Paul and i went to visit Emily on Sunday at Uni Hall for some bio coaching. Her room is small but cosy. Emily has so many pairs of shoes! Like 20? Quite overwhelming in a small hostel room (not the smell, just the idea of it lol). She plans to have a wall feature of shoes, and i think it would be a super awesome idea.
Saturday Night: DVD night at Grace/ Kathy/ Gabby's house watching SKINS with the 3 girls, Emily, Ram, Paul, Julian and I.
I've never heard of Skins before! Have you all??? Either i live under a rock, or it is just not hugely popular enough, but everyone else here has seen Skins before!!! I think its a good show, quite addictive the more the story line builds up, though i could do with some subtitles hahaha.
We all trekked to Pizza Hut in the middle of the night to get pizzas half way through. Tried piggybacking on the way back and all the other girls can piggyback Paul except for me! I collapsed the 2 times i tried it, and i am not the smallest not the skinniest of the bunch, omg what is wrong with me!?
Anyway, we werent stranded at their house this time round because Julian drove us there. Ram drove us home because he 'took one for the team' and didnt drink. Actually, i didnt drink too, but neither can i drive, lol, anyway thanks Ram!
Culinary Adventures:
My very first bento box! Rice, mixed vege and fish fingers. Looks colourful and appealing but quite tasteless. Also, it was cold because i prepared it the night before and stored it in the fridge and there was no microwave oven in the refectory where i ate it. Nonetheless, i enjoyed it, because it was a refreshing change from eating sandwiches for lunch.
Late lunch on a Saturday: Mixed vege, frozen sliced beans, bacon, an egg and baked bread. Originally i wanted to microwave the veges and bake the bread and bacon in the oven. But the bacon kept breaking into tiny bits as it was still frozen and i couldnt put tiny shreds of bacon into the oven as i didnt have aluminium foil. In the end, i had to fry the bacon and since i already had the heat going in the pan, i dumped the vege in and fried it as well.
The bread you see above caused me ALOT of trouble. For dinner i tried to microwave/defrost bread because i kept it in the freezer. I put it into a microwave safe box and left it in the microwave for 2.5 minutes. When i opened the microwave door, smoke just poured out, as if 10 cigarettes have been left in the microwave. The microwave safe box was oozing with black tar-like-liquid and the box was deformed. The whole oven was splattered with the same black liquid.
It was SO smelly! I was so worried the sprinkler was going to go off or the landlords would come over to see if i was smoking in the house, lol. I tried to salvage the box by soaking it in water/ expanding it using hot water but it was too deformed and smelly i threw it away in the end. Spent close to an hour wiping the oven with tissue paper because i didnt want to dirty my dishcloths with carcinogenic toxins. Left all the windows open and turned on the stove hood-fan, as well as the ventilator in the toilet but the whole house still smelt like a smoker's breathe. There was no wind that day too so the smell just lingered for a day... EW!
On hindsight, i think the bread was too dry when i put it into the microwave. Microwaves work by vibrating water molecules in food right? So i guess there was no water for it to heat up and hence it burnt my bread and produced burnt tar which forced itself out of the box and splattered everywhere. Valuable lesson learnt, though i dont think i am going to use the microwave for a long long time while the horrid smell is still fresh in my mind.
What a long entry! Thanks for reading through everything and tata!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Time flies! Its the end of week 2 already, 4 more weeks and it'll be a 2 week holiday. The semester is broken into 2 parts- 6 weeks of school/2 weeks holiday/8 weeks of school/ exams/ 3 week holiday--> end of semester 1.
Kathy, Grace, Paul, Julian and i went to watch movies at Marions last night. Kathy and Grace watched Alice in Wonderland, while Paul, Julian and i watched The Hurt Locker. The girls had already booked their tickets online and i couldnt guarantee that i could get seats next to them, so i watched THL with the guys instead.
It was a great movie, though i only really enjoyed it a quarter of the way into the film. I think i got a semi heatstroke during the afternoon, which was really hot, and was already laboring under a headache, plus the camera kept shaking (like when the person was running, the whole screen would bounce up and down, turn left/ right ect). Felt so uncomfortable and felt like vomiting... Fortunately, i got better soon and really enjoyed the rest of the film. Got many shocks when the bombs went off, but thats all im saying, no spoilers.
Got home at 2am last night. After the movie at around 11 plus, we walked to Kathy and Grace's house which is a reallllly long walk from Marions. Their house is great! Really big and clean and bright. I loved their backyard. Got back so late because the taxi we called took forever to come. We sat and talked in their garage but eventually the 3 of us left and waited on the streets for the taxi as it was getting really late and felt bad for imposing on Kathy and Grace especially who was sick.
Kathy, Grace and Paul are from Melbourne while Julian is from New Zealand so none of us are from Adelaide, all had to move interstate/ overseas to study in Flinders. Had fun talking about how we found our respective houses/ driving in NZ and driving in Oz. Im the only one who cannot drive, but oh well im fine with bussing or getting driven around.
Paul, Julian and i live near the Flinders Medical Centre, when the taxi call operator asked if we had an emergency, Julian said yes, and the plan was for me to feign an emergency lol. An ambulance drove by us when we were waiting for a cab and we were just mortified! Luckily a random taxi came after that (not the one we called) and we went home.
Another incident plus the heatstroke incident above kind of gave me a wake-up call that i must really take care of myself! On wednesday, during bio lecture, a girl sitting next to me fainted suddenly and totally collapsed on my shoulder! I noticed that she cleared her table first, took a drink of water, then she was clutching her forehead. Next thing i knew, her head was on my shoulder and she was unconscious. The lecturer called for security and a mature-aged student sitting behind me rushed down and helped. She woke up soon and was escorted out of the LT. I think i kind of panicked when she collapsed on my shoulder but her friend sitting beside her said i handled it really well. All i did was to tell her to breath and relax, but i hoped i helped in some way.
Anyway, the main point is that it could have been me as I have always been prone to fainting! Made myself a hearty lunch this morning of canned red salmon which i added chopped onions to, celery and wholemeal bread. I might also join the gym for yoga lessons just so to ensure i am always fit and healthy.
Also went jogging around uni on wednesday with Paul and Cindy. I find it really tiring to jog around our area, or maybe it was that day because it was really cold. Firstly, the place is so hilly and i am really bad at running uphill and scared of slipping and falling when running downhills. Also, it was so cold, every breath i took in was harsh cold air and i didnt really want to breath in so heavily but i cant because i am gasping for breath during the uphill jog. Anyway, it was a good jog, felt fit after that and we plan to do so every 3-4 days.
Went to play badminton with Phyllis (Joyce and Claudia's housemate) on Tuesday at the Alan Mitchell Sport Centre in School (old gym). Although half the hall is opened to the school on tuesdays for badminton, there were only Singaporeans who were playing there. I guess Ozzies dont like to play badminton? Had a great game of singles then doubles badminton and met many of the pple i met last saturday during the Sg Gathering. Had muscle ache for the next 2 days and couldnt write properly lol.
Last Monday was the Adelaide Cup public holiday. Its for horse racing and people will go and watch the races while being all dressed up, in dresses/gowns and big decorated hats. Went to watch a movie with Paul, Julian and Emily who lives in Uni hall. Mondays are cheap movie ticket days and we caught Shutter Island for $9. It is one of the best films i have ever seen! Totally scary at the start, Emily and i were squirming in our seats. Then the plot thickened, and we realised it wasnt a horror film but more of a thriller. Alright, no spoiler, Feisties you must watch it!!!
Went with Joyce and Claudia to Marions yesterday for some shopping. Bought covered white canvas shoes for $6 at K-Mart so i can wear them for practicals (my flats were not allowed as they didnt cover enough of my feet). Also duplicated house keys so mama can use them when she comes over in April. Yay, cant wait to pick her up at the airport and to show her around Adelaide.
I went printer shopping last Sunday. The nearest Office Works branch is the Marions branch but it is really inacessible by bus and according to Adelaide Metro, i need to walk 22 minutes to reach the shop. So i went to a further one at Keswick instead, only needed a 10 minutes walk from the nearest bus stop. Turns out that the 10 minutes walk is really far too, maybe they calculated the time using a tall Ozzie who walks really fast. I had to walk the whole length of Adelaide Showground (i found it by myself!!!), and cross 2 busy highways (there was a pedestrain underpass but as i was alone, i didnt want to go underground and ran across the roads instead).
Found the printer that i wanted, Brother HL2140, same one as M1 but i couldnt get back to the bus stop carrying a heavy printer, so i called a taxi to send me home instead. Taxi fare cost me $28A! I kind of expected that range of price but still felt really bad paying so much for a ride home.
Taxis in Oz are expensive and hard to find so most of the time people call for taxis. A ride from the FMC to Marions, which is like the distance from Parkway to Bedok, cost $12A.
There are 2 types of bus tickets, peak and off peak tickets. Off peak hours are monday to friday 9am to 3pm while any other time is a peak period. Each Off peak ride cost 76 cents while peak is $1.40. The ticket is valid for 2 hours so you can take any bus as long as you want or change to as many buses as you like for 2 hours for a flat rate. Buses are super punctual and some come every 15 minutes while others come every half hour or hour during the weekends. I think when mama comes, i will explore Adelaide with her on buses!
Culinary Adventures: (My camera is spoiling soon, the screen keeps on vibrating when i switch it on so the pictures are blurry.)
White cabbage and egg soup. The soup was quite tasteless but its healthy and easy to cook. I cooked a big pot worth of this and had it for 2 dinners in a row.
Tomato, onion and chicken breast meat and 2 eggs omelet with sesame bread for lunch on a weekend.
Bai Cai fried in onion and garlic with soy sauce for dinner, yummy!
Super Creation: Fried rice with bacon, egg, mixed vegetables, tomato, onion and garlic. Ultimate deliciousness, i wished i cooked more of it! So easy to cook too!
Most school days, i make tuna sandwich for lunch. One day i made a chocobanana sandwich, nutella spread and banana cubes on bread, found it quite delicious but my coursemates were like 'Ewww'. Is it really weird? I think its perfectly fine... haha
Sorry that is post is so long and pictures only come at the end! Also my apologies that it is so badly structured, and not in chronological order! I had to recall more than a week of events and i simply typed in whatever i could remember.
Alright tata! Missing everyone back in Sg!
Kathy, Grace, Paul, Julian and i went to watch movies at Marions last night. Kathy and Grace watched Alice in Wonderland, while Paul, Julian and i watched The Hurt Locker. The girls had already booked their tickets online and i couldnt guarantee that i could get seats next to them, so i watched THL with the guys instead.
It was a great movie, though i only really enjoyed it a quarter of the way into the film. I think i got a semi heatstroke during the afternoon, which was really hot, and was already laboring under a headache, plus the camera kept shaking (like when the person was running, the whole screen would bounce up and down, turn left/ right ect). Felt so uncomfortable and felt like vomiting... Fortunately, i got better soon and really enjoyed the rest of the film. Got many shocks when the bombs went off, but thats all im saying, no spoilers.
Got home at 2am last night. After the movie at around 11 plus, we walked to Kathy and Grace's house which is a reallllly long walk from Marions. Their house is great! Really big and clean and bright. I loved their backyard. Got back so late because the taxi we called took forever to come. We sat and talked in their garage but eventually the 3 of us left and waited on the streets for the taxi as it was getting really late and felt bad for imposing on Kathy and Grace especially who was sick.
Kathy, Grace and Paul are from Melbourne while Julian is from New Zealand so none of us are from Adelaide, all had to move interstate/ overseas to study in Flinders. Had fun talking about how we found our respective houses/ driving in NZ and driving in Oz. Im the only one who cannot drive, but oh well im fine with bussing or getting driven around.
Paul, Julian and i live near the Flinders Medical Centre, when the taxi call operator asked if we had an emergency, Julian said yes, and the plan was for me to feign an emergency lol. An ambulance drove by us when we were waiting for a cab and we were just mortified! Luckily a random taxi came after that (not the one we called) and we went home.
Another incident plus the heatstroke incident above kind of gave me a wake-up call that i must really take care of myself! On wednesday, during bio lecture, a girl sitting next to me fainted suddenly and totally collapsed on my shoulder! I noticed that she cleared her table first, took a drink of water, then she was clutching her forehead. Next thing i knew, her head was on my shoulder and she was unconscious. The lecturer called for security and a mature-aged student sitting behind me rushed down and helped. She woke up soon and was escorted out of the LT. I think i kind of panicked when she collapsed on my shoulder but her friend sitting beside her said i handled it really well. All i did was to tell her to breath and relax, but i hoped i helped in some way.
Anyway, the main point is that it could have been me as I have always been prone to fainting! Made myself a hearty lunch this morning of canned red salmon which i added chopped onions to, celery and wholemeal bread. I might also join the gym for yoga lessons just so to ensure i am always fit and healthy.
Also went jogging around uni on wednesday with Paul and Cindy. I find it really tiring to jog around our area, or maybe it was that day because it was really cold. Firstly, the place is so hilly and i am really bad at running uphill and scared of slipping and falling when running downhills. Also, it was so cold, every breath i took in was harsh cold air and i didnt really want to breath in so heavily but i cant because i am gasping for breath during the uphill jog. Anyway, it was a good jog, felt fit after that and we plan to do so every 3-4 days.
Went to play badminton with Phyllis (Joyce and Claudia's housemate) on Tuesday at the Alan Mitchell Sport Centre in School (old gym). Although half the hall is opened to the school on tuesdays for badminton, there were only Singaporeans who were playing there. I guess Ozzies dont like to play badminton? Had a great game of singles then doubles badminton and met many of the pple i met last saturday during the Sg Gathering. Had muscle ache for the next 2 days and couldnt write properly lol.
Last Monday was the Adelaide Cup public holiday. Its for horse racing and people will go and watch the races while being all dressed up, in dresses/gowns and big decorated hats. Went to watch a movie with Paul, Julian and Emily who lives in Uni hall. Mondays are cheap movie ticket days and we caught Shutter Island for $9. It is one of the best films i have ever seen! Totally scary at the start, Emily and i were squirming in our seats. Then the plot thickened, and we realised it wasnt a horror film but more of a thriller. Alright, no spoiler, Feisties you must watch it!!!
Went with Joyce and Claudia to Marions yesterday for some shopping. Bought covered white canvas shoes for $6 at K-Mart so i can wear them for practicals (my flats were not allowed as they didnt cover enough of my feet). Also duplicated house keys so mama can use them when she comes over in April. Yay, cant wait to pick her up at the airport and to show her around Adelaide.
I went printer shopping last Sunday. The nearest Office Works branch is the Marions branch but it is really inacessible by bus and according to Adelaide Metro, i need to walk 22 minutes to reach the shop. So i went to a further one at Keswick instead, only needed a 10 minutes walk from the nearest bus stop. Turns out that the 10 minutes walk is really far too, maybe they calculated the time using a tall Ozzie who walks really fast. I had to walk the whole length of Adelaide Showground (i found it by myself!!!), and cross 2 busy highways (there was a pedestrain underpass but as i was alone, i didnt want to go underground and ran across the roads instead).
Found the printer that i wanted, Brother HL2140, same one as M1 but i couldnt get back to the bus stop carrying a heavy printer, so i called a taxi to send me home instead. Taxi fare cost me $28A! I kind of expected that range of price but still felt really bad paying so much for a ride home.
Taxis in Oz are expensive and hard to find so most of the time people call for taxis. A ride from the FMC to Marions, which is like the distance from Parkway to Bedok, cost $12A.
There are 2 types of bus tickets, peak and off peak tickets. Off peak hours are monday to friday 9am to 3pm while any other time is a peak period. Each Off peak ride cost 76 cents while peak is $1.40. The ticket is valid for 2 hours so you can take any bus as long as you want or change to as many buses as you like for 2 hours for a flat rate. Buses are super punctual and some come every 15 minutes while others come every half hour or hour during the weekends. I think when mama comes, i will explore Adelaide with her on buses!
Culinary Adventures: (My camera is spoiling soon, the screen keeps on vibrating when i switch it on so the pictures are blurry.)
White cabbage and egg soup. The soup was quite tasteless but its healthy and easy to cook. I cooked a big pot worth of this and had it for 2 dinners in a row.
Tomato, onion and chicken breast meat and 2 eggs omelet with sesame bread for lunch on a weekend.
Bai Cai fried in onion and garlic with soy sauce for dinner, yummy!
Super Creation: Fried rice with bacon, egg, mixed vegetables, tomato, onion and garlic. Ultimate deliciousness, i wished i cooked more of it! So easy to cook too!
Most school days, i make tuna sandwich for lunch. One day i made a chocobanana sandwich, nutella spread and banana cubes on bread, found it quite delicious but my coursemates were like 'Ewww'. Is it really weird? I think its perfectly fine... haha
Sorry that is post is so long and pictures only come at the end! Also my apologies that it is so badly structured, and not in chronological order! I had to recall more than a week of events and i simply typed in whatever i could remember.
Alright tata! Missing everyone back in Sg!
Friday, March 5, 2010
It is finally raining here after 2 weeks of dryness! It was so dry outdoors that there was no green grass and the ants were coming into my shower to drink water. Alas, it started to rain when i was heaving back my heavy weekly groceries bought from Marions. Was cold and tired when climbing uphill but i survived:)
Week 1 of school is over. Tutorials and practicals start next week so lessons will be more interactive then, this week was still mainly lectures.
Out of my 4 topics, i find Med1105- Physiology: How your body works, most interesting. The lecturer is an old italian man who speaks in an italian accent. Classmates keep laughing about his long white beard lol!
I find that Australians are less religious than Singaporeans, or maybe it is just this part of the course. For the first Med lecture, Baba Brinkman, an up-and-coming rapper who performed during the Oz's Fringe festival, rapped about evolution and had the audience shouting 'Dead Wrong!' every time he said 'Creationism' and the crowd was so enthusiastic.
In my Bio textbook written with an Australian focus (the red book below), evolution is described as "a fact as firmly established as the idea of an atom or electron, or the sun being at the centre of our solar system" (Knox et al, 2010).
Haha just practicing in-text citation above, the uni is extremely strict about plagiarism, the penalty for plagiarism is immediately failure, and even poor paraphrasing/ sloppy referencing ie, no page number given, is considered plagiarizing, so feeling anxious about that.
My textbooks/ topic manuals and lab coat which is compulsory for bio practicals. All these cost me ~$300A, massive spending. The textbooks are the expensive ones, but thankfully can be used for next sem and years to come. I didnt buy the chemistry textbook because most of the content has been covered in A levels, and i hope i can still remember what i learnt and just depend on the ppt slides. Keeping my fingers crossed!
On Wednesday, went to Paul and Cindy's house for lunch/dinner together with Kathy, Grace and Gabby. My first group of Ozzie friends! All my course mates with the exception of Cindy, so will be meeting them often during lectures.
Thursday, went for O' night held in our school's coopers bar and the new refectory. Dress code: Naughty Bak2Skool. It was great fun! Many helium balloons around which made for great entertainment and even a pole dancing performance. It was all very tame and in good spirit, not very naughty, despite the dress code, lol!
Posing with Grace's Awesome glasses. Grace is on the right and Kathy in the middle. They, together with Gabby, cropped their high school uniform and wore it that night. They looked great! Though it was abit disconcerting to see so many people dancing away in their school uniforms, the guys especially in their blazers and ties.
The landlords Joy and Andrew have gone caravaning for a week so i am now left alone in the house. Though i am alone most of the time in my flat anyway, i do meet them often eg when i leave the house, when i dry my laundry ect. They instructed me to push the rubbish bins out on friday morning and to collect their mail everyday. With them away, i have the entire patio and back garden to myself though i havent used it yet. Feels scary at night when it is so quiet and dark outside and i know that Joy and Andrew are not around!
(OOh, a helicopter just flew over my place and it was LOUD!)
Culinary Adventures:
Cooked this last night. Chinese cabbage(? dont know what the vege is called) with boiled chicken breast in chunks. I was getting lazy and simply ate out of the wok haha.
Cooked this a week ago i think. Soy sauce chicken with onions and garlic. Tasted great, looks great too!
Went for a Singaporean Club gathering today. Met many singaporeans who were all very friendly. Most of them stay either in the Uni Hall or Village. Many of them are studying Speech Pathology. Met a Yr 3 Speech Pathology girl, Melissa, who i thought looked familiar. Turned out she spent her first 3 months in VJ and was in the same big OG as me during 05 orientation. Met another girl, (forgot her name oops) who is Chow Yi Ling's (06v11) cousin. What a small world!
Alright, feeling hungry now and going to cook dinner. I always only start cooking when i feel hungry and end up eating a late dinner. Guess im too used to having dinner ready for me whenever i feel hungry:S
Tata!
Week 1 of school is over. Tutorials and practicals start next week so lessons will be more interactive then, this week was still mainly lectures.
Out of my 4 topics, i find Med1105- Physiology: How your body works, most interesting. The lecturer is an old italian man who speaks in an italian accent. Classmates keep laughing about his long white beard lol!
I find that Australians are less religious than Singaporeans, or maybe it is just this part of the course. For the first Med lecture, Baba Brinkman, an up-and-coming rapper who performed during the Oz's Fringe festival, rapped about evolution and had the audience shouting 'Dead Wrong!' every time he said 'Creationism' and the crowd was so enthusiastic.
In my Bio textbook written with an Australian focus (the red book below), evolution is described as "a fact as firmly established as the idea of an atom or electron, or the sun being at the centre of our solar system" (Knox et al, 2010).
Haha just practicing in-text citation above, the uni is extremely strict about plagiarism, the penalty for plagiarism is immediately failure, and even poor paraphrasing/ sloppy referencing ie, no page number given, is considered plagiarizing, so feeling anxious about that.
My textbooks/ topic manuals and lab coat which is compulsory for bio practicals. All these cost me ~$300A, massive spending. The textbooks are the expensive ones, but thankfully can be used for next sem and years to come. I didnt buy the chemistry textbook because most of the content has been covered in A levels, and i hope i can still remember what i learnt and just depend on the ppt slides. Keeping my fingers crossed!
On Wednesday, went to Paul and Cindy's house for lunch/dinner together with Kathy, Grace and Gabby. My first group of Ozzie friends! All my course mates with the exception of Cindy, so will be meeting them often during lectures.
Thursday, went for O' night held in our school's coopers bar and the new refectory. Dress code: Naughty Bak2Skool. It was great fun! Many helium balloons around which made for great entertainment and even a pole dancing performance. It was all very tame and in good spirit, not very naughty, despite the dress code, lol!
Posing with Grace's Awesome glasses. Grace is on the right and Kathy in the middle. They, together with Gabby, cropped their high school uniform and wore it that night. They looked great! Though it was abit disconcerting to see so many people dancing away in their school uniforms, the guys especially in their blazers and ties.
The landlords Joy and Andrew have gone caravaning for a week so i am now left alone in the house. Though i am alone most of the time in my flat anyway, i do meet them often eg when i leave the house, when i dry my laundry ect. They instructed me to push the rubbish bins out on friday morning and to collect their mail everyday. With them away, i have the entire patio and back garden to myself though i havent used it yet. Feels scary at night when it is so quiet and dark outside and i know that Joy and Andrew are not around!
(OOh, a helicopter just flew over my place and it was LOUD!)
Culinary Adventures:
Cooked this last night. Chinese cabbage(? dont know what the vege is called) with boiled chicken breast in chunks. I was getting lazy and simply ate out of the wok haha.
Cooked this a week ago i think. Soy sauce chicken with onions and garlic. Tasted great, looks great too!
Went for a Singaporean Club gathering today. Met many singaporeans who were all very friendly. Most of them stay either in the Uni Hall or Village. Many of them are studying Speech Pathology. Met a Yr 3 Speech Pathology girl, Melissa, who i thought looked familiar. Turned out she spent her first 3 months in VJ and was in the same big OG as me during 05 orientation. Met another girl, (forgot her name oops) who is Chow Yi Ling's (06v11) cousin. What a small world!
Alright, feeling hungry now and going to cook dinner. I always only start cooking when i feel hungry and end up eating a late dinner. Guess im too used to having dinner ready for me whenever i feel hungry:S
Tata!
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