Just spoke to Dad on Skype, he is flying off to Russia on April 10th for work! Mighty exciting as that is a place neither of our family has visited before. Slightly worried because of news of Moscow bombings and what not... but feeling excited for him all the same.

Spoke to Granny last Saturday on the phone. Granny, or Mrs J Jeffery, was my father's landlady when he studied in Adelaide 30 years ago and they lived together at St Mary's for a year and a half back then. Granny is now 97 years old and still fit and active!

Dad and i visited her a month and a half back when we first reached Oz. She now stays at a nursing home which imo is like the senior citizens parallel of a uni hostel, full of activities and life. Although she is now partially blind, she is still fit as a fiddle and bursting with life! She was very concerned about me living alone and gave lots of valuable advise like to rather go thirsty than drink something offered by someone dubious and not to eat something just because it is cheap. Wise words indeed!

2 weeks ago she spoke to another of her boarders about getting my phone number so she could chat with me in case i needed someone to talk to. So sweet of her! The boarder emailed my dad, who emailed me her number and i called her. We chatted for 1/2 hour about what i did in school, where i went, what i ate and what food i have in my fridge ect. Granny also told me about her life, like the shopping centres excursions they went on, and how she wants a pair of tartan pants, preferably with vertical stripes of red and background colour of grey (i think).I dont have any pictures of her in my camera, but we took heaps and they are all in Dad's cam. Will post them up with i get them.

Last week:
Monday: The 25 of us in Bach Clinical Science/ BMBS had lunch with Prof Paul Worley, the dean of the medical school. He made all of us share where we were from and what we wanted to do in the future. Many people, like half the class?, wanted to be surgeons! Initially i wanted to say that i was interested in being a neurosurgeon because of how much Marcello inspired me to find out more about the mysterious workings of the human brain, but then Tim beat me to it, and i didn't want to sound so repetitive so i said i was interested in cancer and might be an oncologist. Is oncology even a specialist subject? Because it might just be under the big surgery umbrella... i have no idea! Hope i didn't sound stupid to all the Drs there, lol.

Dr Worley told us that we should enjoy ourselves to the fullest during these 2 years before we really embark on the MBBS part of the course. He got his medical degree from Adelaide Uni, which is 6 years Med all the way straight from high school. He said that when he was in his final years and patients asked him about life and death issues, he didn't have the capacity to answer because he felt he hadn't even experienced 'life' yet.

He also told us that we are very privileged to be part of important/intimate moments in people's lives when they are sick/recovering/pregnant/dying ect. Made me feel really excited and worried about the years to come. I am not naturally an empathetic person (i guess?) and i also have to break the cultural barrier when dealing with patients. Hope i will rise to the challenge in time!

Wednesday:
Went shopping at Marions with Lucy and Parvita! It was a grocery trip that i really needed as i was so low on food i was eating cereals for dinner:S Bought heaps of stuff and thankfully Lucy drove me home:) I really miss getting driven around!!!

Thursday:Kathy's 18th Birthday! The whole bunch of us went to her house to surprise her. Gabby took Kathy out and Grace was at home to supervise us all/ get ready. Cindy, Paul, Julian and i hid behind the sofas, Ram hid behind the kitchen top, Tim hid in the kitchen closet (hahaha!!!) and Shaz, Patrick, Warren, Andy, Shawn hid in the laundry room. It was all so funny and exciting because we had so many false alarms and every time we thought we heard them coming there would be a mad scramble to hide. The reveal moment was perfect though so all worth it. Played Wii Tennis and Mario Kart and reached home at 12.30am.

Had bio practical in the afternoon on Thursday and for every bio prac, a prac report has to be written and handed in the next day 24 hours later. Hence my prac which was from 2-5pm, was due on Friday 5pm. I have a chem prac from 9-12noon and a Health Science workshop from 3-5pm every friday, so essentially i only had 12-3pm on Friday to write my report since Thursday night was spent at Kathy's. Almost ran out of time to complete it, lesson learnt, never underestimate time!

I wrote a draft of one of the 3 questions to be answered when i reached home on Thursday, and delayed till 1pm on Friday before i finally started work after Chem Prac. Finally completed it at like 2.40pm with 20 minutes to spare before Health Science Workshop started at 3pm. The place to hand in the report was in the Biological Sciences building up the hill on the other side of the lake in the main campus while my workshop was held all the way at the bottom of the hill in a separate Stuart campus.

Debated between going late for the workshop or betting that the Workshop will end early (it usually ends 20 minutes early but i'll never know). Anyway, i left my house still debating what to do until a brainwave struck. I ran across the street to Paul's house and got him to hand in the reports for me instead. Life saver! I practically shoved the books (my lab partner, Patrick's book was with me too, because he finished it before Kathy's Party and passed it to me then, hence crucial that it was handed in on time) in his hands and ran off to class.

It's moments like this when i wished Mum and the car was with me, so i can be driven there and back in no time. I always like to work at the margin of time and it usually works great for me because i work better under pressure and i use to always count on mum to fetch me/ simply emailing reports/getting lucky and having extensions ect. Wake-up call to be less reliant and more time conscious!

Saturday and Sunday:
Stayed in on both days to do tutorials/ quizes/ read textbook ect. Felt nerdy but so fulfilling to get work done/ done in advance!

This week:
Monday:
Went Grocery Shopping at Marions Woolworths and met Bookie, my coursemate. Funny timing to meet because i was hugging 3 big leafy Bak Choys and he was looking very lost and pushing his shopping cart. We were both clutching shopping lists. He's from Melbourne and now lives with Josh another coursemate also from Melbourne.

Anyway, it feels reassuring that my coursemates are all in the same situation as me, leaving away from home, having to buy groceries ourselves and cooking/cleaning. Not as if everyone else has lots of time freed from not having to do housekeeping stuff. It is amazing how many people in this course are from interstate, Melbourne, Darwin, NZ ect, i am the only person from 'overseas', but since Adelaide is new to most people too, we are all the same. (i hope!)

Tuesday:
Went to play Badminton with Phyllis in the school hall, played for 2 hours and ended up with a huge blister on my index finger because i was holding the racquet the wrong way, as if i was holding a tt bat. But great fun, feels like tt training all over again which i kind of miss now.

In the morning, Grace gave me half a watermelon in school during chem tutorial!!!

Got such a huge shock, but it was really funny, shared it with Lucy, Rhea (Rhea is German and she taught me some phrases in German but i've forgotten all of it!), Parvita and Holly during one of the breaks.

The whole watermelon/me story started when i told the gang that fruits in Japan are really expensive and watermelons there cost hundreds of dollars. (It's true right? At least that was what i remembered during the IP trip, maybe not the normal watermelons but the black/box shaped ones?) Lol, anyway, i also brought half a watermelon to Paul's house during our very first gathering and i also happen to have a pair of watermelon slippers that they think is really awesome. Emily threw a whole watermelon off the flinders bridge together with the uni hall people just to see it splatter and she made sure i knew of the story. So anyway all these together made them think of me every time they see/eat watermelon. Grace/Kathy/Gabby had watermelon left over in their fridge so they brought it to school for me, really funny and sweet lol!

Yesterday (Thursday):
Li invited me over to Uni Hall to have dinner with her. It was french themed night and there was heaps of food, cirque de solei on the screens (spelling?) and french songs. We all sang Freres Jacques in canon and it was great fun! Had my portrait taken by a french 'artist'. So glad that i got a chance to visit Uni hall, it was so warm and communal. The dining hall was huge and had 10 long tables all packed with people. Whenever the hall master wanted to speak, the teachers(?) uni hall guardians would clink their glasses to ask for attention. It was french themed night because a kitchen staff was going to go to France for 5 weeks and it was a farewell for her. The buffet spread was awesome (though i suspect Marj's is better from what i hear;)), 5 main dishes to choose from, cheese and biscuits selection, ham selection and french fries and green peas for sides. The dessert table was good too, with apple crumbles, jellies, choc cakes and doughnuts. Thanks for the invite Li!

Today:
Good Friday (Public Holiday) Monday is Easter Monday, which is a public holiday too, so i have a 4 day break, followed by lessons on Tuesday to Friday, and then my 2 week Mid-Sem Break! Many people went home for Easter holidays, Kathy, Paul, Li ect. Li is taking a bus back to Mt Gambier, which is a 6 hours bus ride away.

Woke up at 7am naturally because that's my usual waking up time now.(Woohoo, so proud of myself!) Planned to boil some water/open the windows and then go back to sleep but started to do my chem tutorial and write out the reference list for Hlth Sci W5 group assignment till 1pm! I worked for 6 hours straight and when i was done it was barely half the day! Feels good to be up so early! In Sg, i was rarely awake before noon! Great achievement!

Tmr: Going to the Westfield Beach with Lucy then watching DVDs at her place. Sunday: Joy and Andrew invited me to spend Easter with them and their grandchildren. There's going to be easter egg hunting! Sunday night, Easter BBQ at Grace/Gabby's, byo meat and drinks. I have never gone for an Ozzie BBQ before, its like part of the Ozzie culture! Going to buy meat tmr, no idea what to buy! Monday: Potluck with Sg girls at Keishia's place. I told them i will bring Teriyaki chicken just because i have the stir fry recipe base at home. Never tried it before, so they will be my guinea pigs.:S

Now: Having 3 way skype chat with Dad and M1! They are talking about trying the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk now. It's surely a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Culinary Adventure Time:

Instant noodles with green vege, onions and bacon. Fast meal. I usually cook instant noodles when i am lazy to cook rice. It is faster to wait for water to boil than for the rice to cook.

Lunch for last Sunday. Canned salmon with rice and Corn and Tomatoes in Tom Yam soup seasoning, tasty!

Nope, thats not my creation. Haha, maybe that'll be mine 6 years later when i graduate though. Ended class at 5pm and went to the refectory(sch canteen) where they were closing for the day and were selling everything cheaper. This box usually cost $7.50A, i got 2 such boxes for $7A! Ate it for dinner for Monday and Tuesday night. Super yummy and packed full of ingredients, pasta, cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, chickpeas, onions, beans.


Cooked a huge wok of fried rice, ended up eating it for 3 meals, dinner and 2 lunches. Sliced beans, tomatoes, onions, bacon, canned salmon, rice and egg. Tasted weird... I guess salmon and bacon don't go well together.


Green vege, tomatoes, onions, garlic and sausage.

Frozen pizza, and vege dish (see below)


Looks so professional that i couldn't not post this up. Green vege, tomatoes, onions, garlic in soy sauce and sugar sauce. Actually this is my usual veg, i just added tomatoes so it looks nicer in colour. I can cook this really fast now, the actualy cooking time is only 5 minutes, but preparation time takes much longer. I timed myself today and i actually took 15 minutes to wash the vege. Really worried about pesticide and soil and worms so i wash every stalk of vege individually.

No, not for dinner.

Had 'Hugo' over at Joy and Andrew's place for a day and a half. Hugo is a brown short-haired pointer and is 12 years old. He is really old and has some lumps in his legs. Hugo has a really weird bark, like a door-that-needs-oiling, squeaky bark. I sneeked this picture when Joy and Andrew were out. I can draw open my windows on one side of the wall to see the whole of the backyard and this is taken when i was inside my flat. Initially i though Joy and Andrew bought a new dog, and i was really excited about this new addition. I was mostly thinking how i would feel safer at night with a guard dog haha. Felt quite sad when Hugo left after a day:(

Alright, massive post with 2 weeks worth of my life. Mum is coming in 4 days time woohoo! Till next time, ciaoxxx.

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.

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!

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!

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!

Flinders Medical Centre main entrance. This is also where i take the Flinders Loop bus to school everyday. Takes 4 minutes to get from here to the main plaza. Buses from here also take 15 minutes to get to Marion, a huge vivo-city like shopping centre with Coles, Big W, Woolworths ect and ~45 minutes to Adelaide City, central market.

Quite frequently, i can hear and see helicopters flying towards and away from FMC to do air rescue. According to Joy, when it flies over where i live, the walls will rattle!

View of the main campus from the Biological Science building. As you can see, it is like studying inside a park, trees, bushes everywhere. There are many ducks and birds around too which are not afraid of people.
I was just sitting by the lakeside eating my packed sandwich lunch enjoying the view above when this bird jumped up from the fronds near the lake and approached me. It came so close i immediately grabbed my bag next to me, for fear it would start scavenging in my bag for food. It simply stood there and looked at me, and went away after a few minutes when i did not offer it any food.

Anchor Court, which is in between Physical and Biological Science Building. Must climb up a tiring flight of stairs to reach here. People like to just sit/lie on the grass here to bask in the sun/ eat lunch. Its like having a picnic everyday! =D


Fried Spinach and fish fingers with a bowl of rice. First attempt at something different. There were actually 3 fish fingers but i ate one to see if it was cooked. First fry garlic and onions then put in vege and pour water, soy sauce and sugar in. Close lid and wait until all the vege is soft and limp. Tasted good!
Joy and Andrew, my landlords, invited me over to their place for tea (dinner). I made a bowl of fruit salad and brought it over with me. Andrew kept saying it was delicious! Made of watermelon cubes, orange cubes and banana cubes mixed in passionfruit yogurt and topped with almonds and raisins.

Attended 4 50 minutes long lectures today on Reading and Writing at Uni, Referencing and Plagiarism, Life at Uni and Critical Thinking. Only dozed off a bit during the sessions after lunch. There is a Writing Centre in school where you can bring your essays to and the staff there will help to proof read it/ made sure you answered the question/ tell you how you can improve on it ect for free. Sounds like asking your teachers to pre-grade your paper first, i am definitely going to try it!

Hi world! Welcome to my humble abode!

Today is my 6th day in Aus and 3rd day alone here. Im trying not to come online so much because i dont have alot of GB to spend. I mistakenly added a $100A vodafone recharge voucher worth 6GB to my oz handphone so now i have 650 free vodafone to vodafone minutes, $100 worth of flexible usage value, 500 free sms and 180 free talk time to spend before 21st April. So far i have been calling M1 (and M3) at least twice a day. Skyped with M1 and M3 when TP was still around!

Learnt alot about myself during these few days. I am quite particular about cleanliness. I came up with house rules and established a system for clothes/ stationery/ food ect. I suppose this is because i live alone and i have full control over how i want the place to look/ feel. I am also kind of a health junkie, been cooking alot of veg and boiling everything. Havent fried or used any oil/ salt yet in my cooking. I eat minimal meat except for a few sausages because meat is too messy to deal with. Swept and mopped the floor today and washed the toilet and kitchen too.

The weather here is swelteringly hot! It could actually penetrate through my jeans and burn my legs, feels like being in Antartic or something where the UV rays are deadly without the ozone protection lol.

As i only got internet connection, i physically wrote down a diary for the 1st 4 days. Read it if you like haha, but its really long as i just wanted to record down in detail what i did/ate/spent/felt ect during the first few days.
Warning: long essays ahead.I think sending people off is much harder than going off myself. Thats because i know that the person is going off for an adventure in a foreign country and i worry about the safety/health ect of the person. Going off myself is another thing as i am about to embark on a new journey and the excitement kind of outweighs the sadness of departing. I guess thats why i felt more sad when M1 and M3 left compared to going off myself.

I was also extremely sad when TP left for home, so that reinforces my point.


Thank you for everyone for coming to send me off! Thanks also for all the letter/photos/gifts! Fiesties, i have your pictures up on my fridge door. The fridge is now a happy corner, as it is full of happy memories and food. Thanks for the cookbook too, i havent actually tried the recipes yet and am just cooking based on my instincts now as i want to know how good a cook i am. So far, it doesnt seem like i am going to be the female version of jamie olliver.

First pot of rice, slightly too watery but fluffy and well cooked.

My first few meals were decent because they were really basic.

Lunch 1 above- microwaved mixed veg and over-boiled sausages.

Dinner 1- corn, tomato, celery and sausage soup with rice. delicious soup!

Dinner 2
(sushi given by kind singaporean family i met and who live nearby my place). same soup as dinner 1 but changed corn to carrot.

Dinner 3 (Today)
First try at porridge! Whole meal took an hour and a half to cook, because the rice took so long to soften, also the pot kept boiling over so i just turned the heat off then on then off and on again.


The pot ended up with a thick layer of burnt rice at the bottom. It is still in my sink, soaking in water because i just cant get all of it off. Taste wise was alright because the ingredients were mostly the same. For every meal I just play around with different combination of celery, corn, tomato, carrots and sausages for protein and boil them together in a pot.

After eating dinner i watched 2 episodes of Glee:) happily leaving my dishes and everything else in the kitchen tabletop. Big mistake, because when the show ended, to my horror i found a whole army of ants all over the kitchen!

Check out the ant trail leading all the way to the window sill. Ants in Oz are fatter and blacker than the Sg ones. They are also more efficient, once food is left out for ~30 minutes, they descend in hoards!

Experienced all kinds of wildlife today, earlier on in the day i found a huge spider in my shower area.
It had legs maybe 8 cm long and moved very quickly. My first instinct when i saw it was to grab my camera and snap a shot of it.

It was a hard decision to make, whether to kill it or now, but i decided not to in the end, it being the first huge spider i encountered. I captured it and threw it out of the house on a grass patch.

The campus is really huge, it has 4 main parts- Flinders Medical Centre, Sturt Campus, North Ridge and South Ridge. This is the lake which is central to North and South Ridge. The campus is sprawling over a hill so it is really tiring to get from place to place, i used to think i could walk from home to lectures, but now i think i will take the free loop bus. Luckily, i live very close to FMC and there is a busstop right in front of it. Not too impressed with the architecture of the buildings in campus, just really standard modern buildings, no old fashioned red-bricked feel to it.

Friends wise, im slowly building up my friends network. Just in case i forget their names. Amy- 1st yr nursing student, met at bus stop. Joyce & Claudia- Sg sisters staying at 35 Malcom, met during campus tour. Hashi- tour guide for North ridge tour. Shaz- course mate, stays near Marion. Other course mates i met during our course orientation- Tim 1 and 2, Li, Kathy, Abbie, Thu, Holly, Bookie?, Paul, Grace. Paul lives opposite me 4 Milton St. The 25 other people doing my course were all really friendly and funny people, the lecturers and course coordinators looked and sounded like they were the supportive type so thats good too.

I think in some way my wish came through. I came to Flinders without knowing anyone at all and went to orientation alone too. (Orientation in Flinders is not like Sg where we have groups and arranged activities and all, its just booths around and tours/ information lectures which start hourly so you just wander around and go for these activities, because of this i was so worried about being alone throughout). At the end of my first tour though, i got to know Joyce and Claudia, Sg sisters who were here with their parents. They taught me how to buy bus tickets and how to get to the nearby shopping mall Marions, so i had company during day 1. Their parents were very kind to me too, offering to carry my stuff, buying dinner for me ect.

Alright, that was a long post! Will blog more next time!

Oh! My contact details:

Address:
3A Milton Street
Bedford Park
SA 5042
Australia

I have my very own mail box which looks quite cute, send me something and i will be delighted!

Skype: ting.margaret

Hp: 0449058925

Hi World!

Hi world!

This blog was set up to record and document my journey into 2 new beginnings of my life:

1) staying overseas by myself and

2) studying medicine*

I do not want this new part of my life to fly by me without me remembering much of the experience and hence i hope to faithfully blog at least once a week to capture the moments for future remembrance.

My journey into Oz (I feel tempted to type 'Aus' all the time, but 'Oz' is the Australian slang while 'Aus' is just a shortform. I figured i will use the more authentic form.) will start on 18th February 2010 when i arrive in Adelaide airport with my father.

I am still in Singapore and it is 8.49am now, i normally do not wake up so early in the morning, but today is an exception. I just finished registering in all my classes for Sem 1 and Sem 2. Extra places in the classes just opened up at 10am Oz time (7.30 Sg time).

Here is how my timetable looks like:

Although it does not seem very packed, my main concern is rushing from class to class and being late for them as the Flinders campus is huge. You will also notice that i have ambitiously registered for many 9am classes. This is a show of my resolution to keep to a healthy lifestyle while i am in Oz. I will sleep early and wake up early and eat healthily too.

*More about my course. I will be studying Bachelor of Clinical Science/ Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. It is a year 12 Pathway to Medicine and on top of it being launched for the first time in 2010, only 25 domestic places are offered each year. This is one of the reasons why i decided to study this course, as it does seem like a very precious spot.

It is a 6 years course and i will be studying Clinical Science during my first 2 years. If i pass all my modules and get a GPA of >5, i will gain automatic admission to the MBBS component, joining the rest of the graduate entry students.

Like in IP, i will be in the pioneer batch again! I see many similarities to IP like being in a small cohort, being part of the pioneers, having to join in the bigger, mainstream cohort after 2 years. And just like how i skipped the O levels, i will skip taking the GMSAT and getting interviewed by the medicine admission panel.

Thanks to my Jiu Jiu's friends, i managed to secure a bed sitter for myself which is very near to the FMC. I am excited to see it and excited about staying in a fully furnished flat by myself. It seems like there is a TV and even a DVD player in the flat, so i feel quite worried now that i will spend too much time watching TV and neglect my studies or neglect to make friends outside. But i suppose it should not pose too big a problem as i have similarly survived well in Singapore with TV and various distractions. Self-disciplince Marg!

Alright, signing off now to continue my sleep. Bye!