Wednesday, February 28, 2007
ugh I think I ate my sandwich too quickly. ARGH I just deleted a whole bunch of stuff. Anyway, I'm drinking a cup of milo now to polish off the sandwich, or whatever that phrase is. I realised I have no detergent so I'll go to xin fang's room to wash my cup. hee. ooh I'm full now, but i feel like having another cup of milo :) anyway, it's now 815pm and I'm really exhausted :( Today has been a long day for me. :( I wanted to get up early to run, but the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak! This afternoon we had our first aid course.. 3 full hours of it! and more to come! after it was over, I was so exhausted mentally and so I went to play some tennis with xin fang, shuyu, jia yuan, hui chai and zhi xuan. I was playing in jeans! so I decided to go back to my room and change and walk back to the courts with kaiwen. Eugene came along too! So we went back to the tennis court, played for 3 minutes (literally) and got chased off because someone else had booked the courts. Then we went to the badminton courts and played badminton for about an hour, which was really fun and very good exercise!
I'm going to go to the gym for some classes too :) hee in between lessons or on weekends, i haven't decided yet. probably on weekends, but there's pilates, hip hop, and step! i want to do step! it's so fun!
ooh second cup of milo.. i have to stop drinking so much milo.
bah ok i need to go and get down to some work. Prepare for tomorrow! muahaha. and my msn is still down, which really stinks. :( but joon long is going to help me! woohoo :) stupid vista.
meh. this entry has been highly incoherent, so I shall stop here. :) going to do some work! hee.. so excitings..
8:14 PM
Monday, February 26, 2007
I realised that I haven't been updating! :( The last week was crazy for me. I have been here for 2 weeks and I do not really remember what I've been doing since Mom, Dad and Eunice left. o.0 Ok I guess I suck :) I do remember the night that they left, Xin Fang, Jennifer and I went down to the kitchen and cooked ourselves dinner and gave ourselves kidney failure in the process. We made veggies which were really nice and this pork thing which was extremely salty. HAHA we put in chicken cube and salt and seasoning and oyster sauce and chilli which was salty. :) we had to eat it with a lot of rice and none of us wanted to finish it, but eventually we did hee hee. so funny. :)
The rest of the week was just attending faculty orientations and trying to sneak into other hall functions for free food. HAHA. The lengths we go to for free food.. quite embarrassing really, but it's a survival skill I suppose.
I think I have learned a lot since I've come here. It's not just the academics, which incidentally just started today. It's also about really being independent and roughing it out. Now, I not only have to study, but also settle my own fees, manage my finances, fill out all kinds of crazy forms like the working with children form (stupid guy at the post office) and the police check form, cook my own meals, clean my room, do my own laundry.. the list is never ending.. OH YES! and settle the ant infestation in my room. damn ants. I have been killing at least 20 every day for the past couple of days. damn ants. It does feel quite good though, knowing that you've completed something and feeling like you've learned something from it, feeling independent. Even though I've only been here for 2 weeks, I already feel like I'm prepared, or preparing myself to live on my own. I mean, I am 20 already. In 10 years time, I could be living on my own already. and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. I also am very thankful to the friends I have made here :) They have been an absolutely wonderful help and I think without them, I would be lost. HAHA maybe my feeling of independence is actually delusional. :) but without their help, I think I would have been completely lost :)
On Friday, the medicine students went to Phillip Island Adventure Resort for our transition camp and it was AWESOME! :) I met my PCL group and they're really nice people! Geetha is in my group and there are 2 other Malaysians. There are 15 people in the group and it's nice and small :) There were some lectures during the camp, but there were 3 highlights of the camp for me :)
1. the Giant swing, which is basically 3 poles placed in a triangular manner. the pole forming the apex of the triangle was like a pulley system thing so you will be strapped to a couple of ropes between the 2 poles forming the base of the triangle and then the rest of your group on the ground would pull you up to the top of the pole (which is about 4-5 stories high) and then at the top, you have to pull a rope that would release you from the pulley rope. so you will be the one to initiate the release. and it was SO FUN! The first swing felt like free fall and the wind up there was so strong I could hear it whooshing past me :) you really DROP down and it was really exhilirating. :)
2. Hanging out with the Singapore gang :) It's true that since we're overseas, we should mingle with the locals here, but I guess in the end, international students will still cluster together especially if you're from the same country. There was one day, during free time, we decided to go play captain's ball at this patch of wood chips. well, there was no grass, just wood chips. There were like 20 of us down there and it was so fun! It brought back memories of secondary school and JC days when we used to play games during PE. and that was my first serious work out since I got here. :) but I felt really good after that and it was so so much fun! ;)
3. The last night was awesome! we went to watch the penguin parade at the beach and they were SO CUTE. They came up in little groups from the sea (and kept on getting swept back in in the process) and slowly waddled to their burrows. I remember for one particular group, the group was way ahead and there was this one lone penguin trying to catch up from behind and it kept on falling over because it was trying to run stomach first and it kept on falling over hee hee so cute. :) When we got back to PIAR, most of us were exhausted but after my shower, kaiwen and sheryl came to look for me and we went to the dining hall and sat there for a while talking to perryn, hc, lynn, zhi xuan, amin and some other guys. then we decided to play cai quan. the penalty was that the people sitting on the left and right of the person who guessed the number correctly had to drink one cup of water each and whoever drank slower had to drink another cup. it became pretty chaotic actually.. there was water all over the place because people kept on grabbing the cup and sloshing water over the table. :) after that a lot of other people came, like jeffrey, eugene.. and it was so funny because we were all drinking like maniacs. I think I drank about 20 cups of water. >.< +++ and I got water poisoning after that. In a time span of 3 hours, I went to the toilet like 7 or 8 times. :) and we all discovered that kaiwen drinks damn fast.. we deduced that her wind pipe is her second oesophagus. ;) that night we slept at 3am and we were all damn high :)
here's to the singapore meddies :)
just before we left PIAR :)
just before we went to see the penguin parade :) only fawn was looking at my camera hee hee. ok i have a tutorial to do.. take care and God bless!
3:53 PM
Monday, February 19, 2007
Today is mama's death anniversary. I can't believe she has been gone for 2 years now.. I still remember what it was like on that day itself. It was the day after Play '05 and I was still really tired from the concert itself. Around 2pm mom called to say that mama had died, but that it was a peaceful death. But she's in a happy place now, and for that I am thankful :)
Now is the official start of my lonelier life in university. I just said bye to mom, dad and Eunice about half an hour ago and I haven't been able to stop crying since. It's amazing how time flies. We have already been here for more than a week! Anyway, we went to Chadstone this afternoon and it is a very nice mall! :) It is so huge, it reminds me of Montgomery Mall back in Maryland. We were walking around, and I was having a Krispy Kreme craving.. haven't had a Krispy Kreme in years! Since 2002. So Eunice and I were walking around trying to look for it, and we each bought the glazed original. yumm.. it tasted soo good! It was just like old times, but they were really expensive! $2.25 for one glazed original?! Mom was quite pissed, but she said that it was a good deterrent for me so that I would not eat it and gain my freshman 15. In LA it was what.. 90 cents for the glazed original? After that they came to my room and helped me fix up my printer, then I went back to the motel room with them. I didn't really feel like eating dinner.. just had 2.5 gyozas and a bite of a banana and a bite of a cinnamon roll Eunice bought. Eunice and I were just lazing around on the bed and it was just like old times. It was so fun because she was reading and I was playing her game boy and then all of a sudden she would poke me. -sigh- I miss her already. and mom and dad too. Seems like a long time since I last saw them.
Tomorrow is some international students orientation thing with MUIS or something like that. I don't really know anyone in hall yet because I haven't been going for anything. Apparently tonight there is some massive clubbing thing going on down at Southbank, but it's not really my thing. Besides, mom, dad and Eunice are leaving tomorrow so heck the club man. :)
Hm. I realised that I feel better after typing this stuff out. Blogs are good emotional outlets hee hee. :)
I miss my darlings. px, paula, hy, tm, xy, lr, nic (the mafia) shun, vivvy, oafie, woman, lorenda, rg peepur, lyn, tzes, las, vicky, rj peepur.. Every time I think about them, I feel happy and sad at the same time because I miss them so much! i have 3 photos placed at very strategic locations around my room. :) On my side table I have an rg batch photo :D taken during first 3 months at Lido. so yes, I see my darlings first thing in the morning when I wake up. Then above my study table, I have a photo of my parents and 208 society (yeah!) so I don't feel so bad when I look at these people who I love so much much. :)
I miss mom and dad and Eunice and Che and Yai and Ben. :( bahhhhh. but I will get through this. God will make a way and He will give me the strength to get through this. :) I am thankful for the opportunity to study overseas :D hee ok I'm going to call paulee now. Take care and God bless.
11:14 PM
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Here I am in my room listening to music and doing nothing in particular.. actually I'm roasting in here, :) but the sun has gone down! and my room is (not significantly) cooler. but the cool air is slowly coming in, so I'm grateful for that :) The weather here is crazy. In the morning, when I get out of bed, I freeze my butt off, but come afternoon, I start to roast. It's like a freeze, thaw, bake process. :) in retrospect, it's quite amusing, but it's causing me a lot of suffering, not to mention my poor family, who is suffering in the heat! and it just rained so the weather is slightly better now :)
Well, I have been here for about a week. It has been exactly 1 week since I started getting ready to go to the airport and I'm starting to feel really sad that my parents are leaving. :( they're in my room now! so I'll blog more later!
6:41 PM
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
ooh ok my first post in melbourne! :) well, the past 3 days have been a whirlwind of activity! well, not just the past 3 days.. the past week or so, with all the frantic packing and everything. and i'm skyping with vivvy now! and we're talking about what studying overseas feels like and all the gripes we're having about staying overseas and all that stuff. (even though I've only been here for 3 days hee) and I really felt a very strong pang of homesickness when I was talking to her, as in I really can feel what she's feeling now.
Sunday was extremely chaotic. I went to church in the morning (I miss svdp!!!) and said goodbye to all my friends and gave them some notes. Then after that my family, Paul and I went for lunch at Keong Saik Street. We hadn't been there in a while, so mom decided that it would be a good idea to go there for lunch as a farewell kind of thing for me. When I came home, some more frantic packing was done. Then I had to mail some letters, so I drove out, mailed the letters, passed another note, then went home to commence my packing. It was a really hot day, so I really was sweating like crazy when I was clearing up my room and everything. I wasn't really feeling anything in particular at that point in time because I in so much of a rush. I was also really annoyed because after my shower, it was so hot I started to sweat again. -.- Che, Ben and Yai came home around 6 and we loaded everything into the 2 cars and drove off. I saw Sengkang pass by, Lorong Halus.. then we went to terminal 2 and checked in at the First Class area. Not that we travelled by First class (I WISH!) but mom and dad are krisflyer members, so we got to check in there, and it was so cool because it was this room at the side of changi airport with many little reception tables and there were walls behind it hiding the belt that takes the luggage away. I had a grand total of 5 pieces of luggage and altogether it weight about 80-90kg I think. Which I thought was pretty powerful.. but I think most of the weight came from the heavy blanket and my books. :) then I went to meet my dear band people + Aaron. :) thank you so much, my dears, for going to see me off. It really was so sweet of you all.. -huggs- thanks to Ben Chen, Bing and Hong as well. -huggs also- it was so wonderful seeing you all for one last time before I came here. and I miss you all so so so much. Then I met the CSA people, thank you for the prayers. and of course my dear dear 208 society. zengo, oaf, lorenda. I miss everyone so much.. it's really quite painful when I write this, but it's because I love you all so much and miss you all so so much. Mom, Dad and Eunice went in first, so I had to go in myself and I think that that was the most difficult part of all - walking through those glass doors alone. Once I got past the desk and started walking towards the lounge, I just couldn't stop crying, because I couldn't help but think about all the people i had left downstairs on the other side of those doors. I couldn't even eat much, though there was a lot of food available. Soon we had to get to the plane. Dad was on the next flight, so he stayed in the lounge. Mom, Eunice and I did this wild pig scamper to gate E8, which was in some ulu corner of the terminal -.- and we got to the gate just in time. We were one of the last in line to board. haha. Eunice and I sat together while mom sat behind me.
The flight seriously was a complete nightmare. I wanted to DIE. The inflight entertainment was a disappointment. Even Zhi Xuan, who was on the next flight, same as dad, told me! :( I wanted to play super mario, but it wasn't the one that I wanted. bleh. So I read my book and soon I fell asleep.. but not for long! The guy sitting next to me was snoring so loudly. It wasn't long drawn-out snores that occured once in a while. They were punctuated, coming in spurts with an interval of 2 seconds. I was so irritated and so tempted to take my pillow and whack him. But I was too tired and tried to ignore it :) one valuable lesson I have learned is to never take another night flight. bah. when we got to melbourne airport, I was really excited! quite sad, but excited nonetheless. We waited at a coffee place for dad. When he came, I went to look for my airport reception, and found out, to my horror, that no one was holding a placard with my name on it! :( so I spoke to the guy and he drove me and this other girl to Clayton :) he dropped me off at the hall office and Kaihan came to meet me! Thank God for Kaihan, because he helped me carry my boxes HAHA. The really messed up part was when the lady at the office gave the wrong keys, so kh and I walked to my hall, only to discover we didn't have the right keys. -.- so we had to go back and get the correct keys. We dumped all my stuff into my room, although all my carry-on luggage was in his room (so that we could move the boxes more easily). Mom and Dad came after that and helped me unpack. when I first came in, I was thinking "oh no.. i'll be living here.." now, it's like, "ALL RIGHT!! I'll be living here!'' because my rom is so homey with photos and stuff toys and stuff :) really love it!
Food here is insanely overpriced though. I spent so much money on meals. So far, when Mom, Dad, Eunice and I go out, we'll buy 2 dishes and then we'll share and the portions are just nice for us! Things have been extremely chaotic, but one thing that I am EXTREMELY thankful for, is that I went to Melb Uni and met this sister who is the chaplain of the Catholic Overseas Students Down Under and she told me about the chaplain of the Catholic students here in Monash Uni and she gave me this pamphlet with all the mass times and everything! They even hold masses here in campus on sundays!! so I don't have to go out at all :) but I'll go to the city once in a while. :D I really like the city it's such a pretty place!! :) maybe I'll pop by St Francis Church one day :) but the sister was so nice! she said if I'm feeling really homesick I can pop by the chaplaincy to visit her. :)
Today was registration, but I think this entry is long enough, so I'll stop here for now. :) this place is really nice :) one more point: myroom has a really nice view of a park and there's a lake nearby with lots of ducks.. like mallards and geese. when I first saw the ducks I thought they were fake and were just decorations by the lake. then one of their heads moved :D and there's another park which is about 3.3km around. so i have a nice route to run :) ok i'll stop here. take care and God bless -huggs-
8:54 PM
Thursday, February 08, 2007
hellooo :) i'm feeling very tired now. this afternoon mom and I rushed down to funan because my laptop was being cranky. it's really amazing, I have had it for only 24 hours, and in this very short period of time, I managed to get a trojan horse on my computer. damn viruses. -curses- so I rushed down and thank goodness the Kelvin at Harvey Norman managed to do something about it for me :) gosh what a heart-attack inducing incident. After that I went to Esprit and bought a few more clothes to take to Australia with me. Mom wants me to repack my whole bag. bargh.
I'm listening to some songs Daniel passed to me for my birthday.. some that we used in yiss and it's making me feel so sad because I'll really miss church and the friends I have made there. "waves of mercy waves of grace. every where I look I see Your face. Your love has captured me. Oh, my God, this love, how can this be?" -sighs- 3 more days to my departure and I'm SO SCREWED with my packing.
Yesterday I had a really nice lunchie with peixi :) aww I'll miss them so much :( I bet when I"m there, I'll probably forget where I am and send them an sms :) -hugs- I love the mafia.
last night i went for mass with csa and after that they celebrated my birthday in can A. so sweet :) cheryl was like "let's take photos!" and we took a lot because she said people should come in one by one -.- thanks for buying the cake, greg :) it was a very very enjoyable dinner :) -hugs- then after that I went home with Ashley and I was feeling super sick because of a stupid migraine and I came home and slept immediately after my shower. :) and I woke up at 10. sheesh I'm such a bum..
hee paulee told me that he darlie and bing are going on a big date with lynette on vday. poor dear :) hee. ah I'll really miss everyone. I feel like crying now.
8:52 PM
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
my blogging frequency has decreased! (which means period has increased -laughs-) I can't remember whether I blogged about going back to RJ with hy to buy stationary. hm. but we did and I bumped into r.aufie! then I thought about physics and how much I hated physics. and on the subject of what I hate to do, I hate packing. But mom has this really amazing bag that you can suck the air out of. ok that wasn't a very brilliant statement, but it's a zip-lock bag with this funny black cap-like thing in the middle of the bag through which you can suck the air out of! so she intends to put my comforter, extra blankets and pretty much all my clothes into and suck all the air out of it and stuff it into my suitcase. to sum it up, using her strange secret packing skills that all mothers seem to have, she's going to fit 2 pieces of luggages' contents into one suitcase, so as to minimise all the space that my junk takes up. :) of course, I wasn't too happy when she told me this evening, "Iris, I think you're going to have to unpack everything and repack!" grr.
The weekend was really crazy.. Saturday, I went out with paulee in the morning to.. I can't remember where, then I went to tanah merah to go for the chalet, but ended up just taking the bus there, waiting in the bus for my dear batchmates, and then taking the train to pasir ris for shang wei's daughter's first birthday! she's so cute! the last time I saw her, she was so tiny, and I had just begun my internship at IMCB. :) it was so nice meeting up with cy and robyn again. :) it was just like old times.. talking non-stop and laughing about small things. AND *drum roll* d.eborah tan was there! amazing man.. I was so shocked to see her. She couldn't remember me.. but then I wasn't one of the most brilliant students to attract the attention of the staff in rg :) then after that I rushed to church for my last yiss :( it was really nice in the church and I felt at peace with myself and my everyone around me :D and it was so nice seeing everyone! -hugs everyone- :)
on sunday i went to paul's place and i was banging on the piano.. not making music. banging :( i suck at the piano. Then his parents came home and I was talking to them and it was really nice :) then after that Che brought me to town to go luggage shopping and I bought this really bright, loud orange suitcase. I LOVE IT! :) it's a little dirty because it was the display piece, but Che and I figured that it would get black anyway. :) Then paulee and I went to chomp chomp and had a massive dinner :) (freshman 15 starts in singapore) had chwee kueh, sambal stingray, chicken wings, sambal kangkong and a HUGE glass of sugar cane. :) good stuff -drools- and he was still hungry after that. pig.
yesterday i met a.mir for lunch! :) then we were talking about a lot of random things from jc. :) ahh i'll really miss everyone when i go! :( -hug hug- and i'm meeting px for lunch tomorrow! -cheers- the past few days have been super hectic! and I still have a lot of things to do BLEH.
11:40 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
I haven't blogged in a while.. I just wanted to give a big hug and kiss to all those who remembered my birthday. It really means a lot to me, and I am so thankful :) Love you all many many many -hugs- I am now an old woman :) with creaky bones. -hug hug-
A lot of things have happened in the past week, but I shall not write about all of it, because it will take too long. :) On Tuesday, I had my pre-departure programme at the Hilton. I was almost late, and arrived there panting and looking highly unglam. :( I met a lot of seniors and they're really really nice! -feels happy- Then on Wednesday, I went to NUS to have lunch with some of my dears :) Clarine and tm couldn't come :( So it was just hy, px, paula, arlin, inez and myself. :) but it was a nice lunch! woo chiao kept on talking about hana kimi and how handsome xiu yi is and paula hy and i were like.. uh.. no. :) then inez, arlin, hy and I went to the central lib to watch a video done by liu rui and nic :) and it was really really funny and Cambridge is sooo gorgeous. :) I wonder whether Clayton will be like that. hm. probably not. and I felt so happy but so sad because I miss the 2 of them so much. :( and xin looked so cute.. I wanted to give her a hug and then pinch her cheeks. :)
I was looking through some of the photos I took in rgssb and it just so happened that dynamica was playing at the moment I was looking through photos of sec 2 days and I felt so sad. It was not only a huge wave of nostalgia, but it was also the thought of not seeing my darlings for a long long time. Then I was looking through photos of JC and I thought about the Ireland trip and A Tempo and SYF and.. so many other things. It just made me feel more sad about leaving. This is supposed to be a highly exciting time, but I just can't help about all the people that I'm leaving behind. Then I thought about how appropriate some parts of the lyrics for breakaway were for my current situation:
Wanna feel the warm breeze, sleep under a palm tree, feel the rush of the ocean.
Get on board a fast train, travel on a jet plane far away and break away..
Ill spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly. I'll do what it takes till I touch the sky.
I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change and break away.
Out of the darkness and into the sun, but I won't forget all the ones that I love.
I'll take a risk take a chance, make a change and break away.
sigh. now I'm cleaning my room. well, not now but I was before I decided to come here to rant. Mom called earlier and she told me she just finished her checkup. The nurse told her not to worry because the ultrasound seemed ok. The results will be out in 2 weeks, so I'll already be in Australia. Hopefully it'll be ok. I really am quite worried. :( I pray things will be ok.. no cancer.
5:25 PM