10 July 2004
Woke up at 4.40am.. left home at 5.20am.. my sister was crying non-stop, not because she was sad to see I was leaving but she was freaking irritated to be roused from her sleep that early in the morning. Therefore, an exasperated dad just left her at home since she was dragging our time.. kevin did not follow since he had some crappy lesson in the morning.
As I got into Auntie Molly's jeep, that was when I realised the gravity of the situation I'm going through right now.
I'm not going on a holiday... leaving for 8 months on a 4 years journey. Look at the number of suitcases stacked behind the jeep! How could it be that I'm going on a holiday??
Caught in a massive jam across the Causeway.. luckily we set off early enough. The Singapore custom officer didn't even bother to look through the luggage cos he probably fainted at the sight of the luggage if he was to really check.
Reached airport at 6.50am - there were so many people at the airport.
Went to check-in blah blah.. and found that the luggage was 6.9kg above the combined weight limit of my dad's and my luggage. That means, I brought 56.9kg worth of clothes, barang-barang, paper and rubbish. =P Luckily, the officer was kind enough not to charge me anything for the excess weight.
Met mabz at the viewing gallery at Terminal 1...
haha that was when i saw the exact row of seats where we used to sit together and watch planes fly two years ago... and u remembered it too. *lol*
didn't open the package u gave me there and then... yet.
went back to the departure gates at about 8.10am.
and my mum was crying like as if someone died... oh well. i could feel my eyes well up too.. but i managed to hold back my tears. somehow.
opened mabz's package before putting the hand luggage through security check.. and I saw a white “forever friends” teddy bear and a DIY album consisting of all your favourite quotes =)
and yeah, the furry white thing managed to cross security check…
the Qantas flight (QF 72) from Singapore to Perth took about 4hr 30min.. the air stewardess not pretty one.. all so old. I read mabz’s album and jw’s card on the plane.. while listening to an Australian classics channel. Hey jw you bought the exact SAME card as Valerie k… haha what a coincidence. =)
The first thing I felt when I touched down on Perth? This place really looks so Hawaii.. u get that beach-paradise feel.. then I took the free bus service provided by UWA to Grand Central Backpackers along Wellington Street (in downtown Perth)… was talking to a guy called Davin on the bus… he’s 21 years old, completed NS and was from sajc (!!!)… I think he’s doing economics over at UWA. Dad had to take a bus from the airport because if he took the UWA bus, he’d have to pay 30 bucks. And the public bus cost only (well, not really only) 13 bucks.
Checked-in at Grand Central (where we’ll be staying for 3 or 4 night while I desperately hunt for good and reasonable price accommodation)… no TV in the room, and gasp. There’s no heater in here!
Which leads me to say… do u know how bloody cold is it over here… it’s like about 15 C in the day, and I think it hits about 8 C in the night. That won’t be a problem if I had a heater here, but… there isn’t any in the backpackers’!
Perth train/bus central station just behind Grand Central… my dad and I took a bus to UWA yesterday evening… bus 102 - it’s about 3km away from downtown Perth.
And when I reached UWA, my first reaction was -
My god, it looks so Hogwarts! (yeah I’m talking about Harry Potter’s school) =X
Firstly, the architecture of UWA looks so European… it’s quaint but very well-maintained.. next to the Swan River (the river that runs through downtown Perth)… did I mention that there are swans in the small little pools around UWA also?
Walked around UWA for about 30 minutes before the cold drew me and my dad back to Grand Central.
Ok you won’t believe this but my dinner was pathetic. At some Chinese eating outlet. I had beef stew and rice.
The sky became dark at 5.30pm and yeah. It’s really slow and laidback. Perth gives a whole new dimension to the word slack. It’s like you can see hordes of people JUST sitting at the bus stations doing nothing in particular for very long periods of time.
Slept at 8pm (!!!) after dozing off on the West Australian (that’s a newspaper) weekend edition.
P/s: everyone here has a tendency to refer to you as “mate” and oh dear, I’m forever going “yeah that’s cool”… I hope I won’t become my trademark phrase in Australia.
11 July 04
Sunday. spent the night freezing under the blanket because it's so cold.
woke up at 8am... and we went to macdonald's along william street for breakfast. big breakfast here costs AUD 3.95 (w/o tea or coffee).
i was sitting at a table where i could see the toilet clearly. then i saw a guy enter the toilet... when he opened the door, i was like, omg. the whole toilet inside was scrawled with graffiti all over. Very big eye sore. But I’ve seen such stuff before in Germany and USA so.. no big deal for me.
Chee chung came over at 10.15am in his old and almost falling apart car.. but hey, a student having a car overseas is already a big achievement u know. He was with a girl (which I presume is his gf) and they fetched us to church service.
The church he brought me and it’d be the one I’ll be attending during my four years here is called Subiaco Church of Christ. It’s located in Subiaco (pronounce = SU-BI-AI-CO, local jargon = subi), WA (Western Australia) 6008 (that’s the postcode). Subiaco is a pretty chic and fashionable suburb of Perth. And the church was omg, huge! They have three church services on Sunday, one at 9am, one at 10.30am and the last one at 6.30pm. The sermon today was also very good. pastor was engaging and humourous.
Was introduced to quite a few ppl today - Jessica (whom i presume is chee chung's gf, from KL), Ruby (some girl who is from s'pore, used to be from s'pore poly), peter (a guy who's doing commerce at UWA, from kuching)... and quite a few more which i can't remember. went for lunch with them at this Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon which is located in Northbridge, WA 6003 - the Asian community abode and i heard, Perth's red-light district as well. Dad was so nice to offer to pay for the entire table of 10 (!!!) but yeah they preferred to go Dutch. I told my dad i preferred it that way too... so as to avoid other people from being obligated to me.
Later in the afternoon, chee chung brought us to the Subiaco Market where we bought quite a lot of fruits (very fresh!).. oh yah. one thing about perth is that it has a huge Asian community, most notably the Chinese. so if you're talking about chinese food, chinese friends, not much of a problem too. discrimination against asians, non-existent also.
Took a train to Fremantle; was hoping to try out the supposedly renowned fish and chips there, which i believe is much better than Fish & Co. Got to Fremantle, boarded the CAT (central area transit) - it's a free bus service. had a drunkard on board who was swearing and cursing at no one in particular (i've seen 3 or 4 of such people in Perth so far..) - police had to come on the bus and take him away... yeah. quite scary for me, and especially for my dad cos he's nv really been overseas for a looong time. Guess we'll probably make a trip to Fremantle again tmrw or Tuesday.
chee chung brought us to another chinese restaurant for dinner. It's at Northbridge. and we were talking about student exchange programmes. dad was commenting that "if possible, u can go back to NUS (!!??) or MU (Malayan University) for a semester for my student exchange..." Obviously, that got me a bit pissed cos I don't see why i should go back to my own homeground when i've paid that much tuition fees for Perth. then chee chung told me later i should try to give way to my folks... even if i don't quite agree with what he says. Yeah true. i really owe a lot to my dad. somehow, i feel that my dad and me are much closer because of this Australian journey. like, he made tea for me just now? guess where the cup came from? Answer: I didn't throw away the Macdonald's tea cup. And i took back an extra sachet of tea... *lol*
we then later went to King's Park and the night view of Perth (u can see Perth from the top of King's Park) is absolutely stunning. cc was saying that if i'm around on Australia Day (26 Jan), and yes i will be around 26/1/05, i can see the fireworks over the Swan River. really gorgeous, the view. exactly the place where you'd want to bring your gf and just talk rubbish.
and then, he dropped us back at Grand Central's. it's 11pm now.
i feel that chee chung is probably god's blessing to me loh. You have no idea how much he's helped me so far. and the best thing is that, he has a car.. i shudder to imagine that we'd probably have to take loads of public transport if he was car-less. and yeah. i feel i'm quite crazy too. going to perth w/o finding proper long-term accommodation. but my dad and chee chung will help me find one tmrw.. i pray that it'd be nice. nice housemates. reasonable. close to UWA. i guess i'll forever be that crazy... haha. went to tokyo alone, travelled alone and conveniently bunked in with a church friend i barely know. heh. there's probably no way i can pay cc back, but i know that if one day a junior asks me for help... i'd definitely have to go all the way out to help. it's called, paying it forward.
i guess these two days, i learnt a lot of impt lessons. definitely i've learnt to be much more humble. cos i have to ask people for directions, for help, for this and that. learn to take more initiative? yeah that's sth i'm trying to come to terms with too. trying to make new friends w/o coming across as too brash or eager. it feels like, to quote my dad, "starting a new life." Initially, i thought he was talking nonsense, not that i have no life, but more of, hey, i'm sure it's not so bad as to say "starting from scratch".
but it's really true. it really feels like i'm trying to start my life anew. back to the drawing board. of cos i'm bringing along all my best friends who made me who I am from chapter one..
i know it doesn't seem to go with the flow of this entry, but hey. i bought a new blanket today. and it'd keep me warm because it's 75% duck feathers and 25% of i-dunno-what. and to my horror, the plugs are not the same as in Malaysia. it's not the current voltage that is different (it's still 240V here), but the plug. yeah the plug is different. so i've got to buy a i-dunno-what from i-dunno-where to fix my problem. as i can see, my laptop only has 49minutes left before it dies.
tmrw. what is happening? probably all the admin stuff loh. heard they don't have ragging here. so is that good or bad?
i pray that by tmrw, i'd have confirmed my long-term accommodation.
so that's it for today.
if only u were in my shoes now. it's really really different. i'm really pushed to the limit here, to be independent. guess this is really gonna change my life. but dun worry, i'll be very much the same old me as you know it. to u, i'm still cheow. please call me cheow when i return home. i'm just telling ppl my name is will here for convenience sake. =)
12 July 04
Orientation first day. Chee chung drove us to UWA at about 8.30am.. and orientation began at about 9.30am. started off with the Vice-chancellor Alan Robson giving a speech.. and all those important-looking people from the international office.
They separated us into different orientation groups and the group names were named after native Australian animals… guess what group I was placed into? Kangaroo. lol. There were emus, tree frogs… hai. But hey, kangaroo is a pretty nice name.
My group consisted of Arts people and yeah expectedly, the majority were Singaporeans and Malaysians. Got to know a few new people… can’t really remember the names. But yeah. At least I’m talking to people… got to try to break out of that lonely state asap. Just keep talking! Then I won’t feel awkward.
Then we had those normal ice-breakers. Murderer, introduce yourself.. what’s new? Haha.
They led us to Trinity College (that’s a UWA hostel) for lunch. And the food was yah, so so. The usual stuff… fries. Hamburgers.
In the afternoon, we were supposed to open our bank accounts. H/ever, most of the s’poreans in my OG already had opened theirs. So they asked me along to go down to Perth downtown to open my bank account… don’t need to open at the university. As in, it’s the same.
Yeah I followed them. But later I told them I rather go back to UWA and open the bank account, cos I thought the four different major banks would give a lecture on what they would have to offer. And since I’m not sure which bank suits me best, I’d better go and have a listen…
Haha. Then I went back alone to UWA. Couldn’t find the place where the representatives of the four banks were.. luckily I bumped into Jessica (refer to 10 July blog) and I asked her how to get there. And to my dismay, it wasn’t a lecture by the four banks. The four banks (namely, Challenge Bank, ANZ, BankWest and Commonwealth) just set up booths and u go and sign up with them. How boring. I bet I’d probably have more fun and interaction if I went out with the rest to Perth downtown.
Signed up with Challenge Bank because having a typical s’porean mentality, I saw the longest queue belonging to Challenge (the rest had nobody in the queue) – that’s because only Challenge has a full-fledged bank in the campus. And chee chung told me later I should have opened a bank account with other banks.. because the Challenge ATM on campus forever has long queues. Oh whatever. As long as my money is safe.
Had the faculty talks today too. The Sub-dean was talking to us.. and the way she talks, wah, what a strong accent she has. But I could catch her la.. like the way she went, “INK-LISH”… (English).. haha.
Enrolment is on Wednesday.. that’s when we choose our units. I’ll write about what units I’m gonna do for this semester tomorrow.
I think, it’s so true. The basis of optimism is, sheer terror.
And I’m intimidated at times. U could say I’m terrified. But I’m determined to make this work.
Dad and chee chung found two places where I could stay…
Place 1 is:-
A room in a double-storey house in Nedlands (WA 6009 – The university is just 5 minutes walk away). There are two occupants currently – an Indonesian native who is doing his PhD in engineering at UWA and a British lady who is the main tenant. The Indonesian’s name is called Arthur and I’ve not seen the main tenant cos she is away at the moment. I like the room, nice and cozy. Carpeted. No bed and table yet, so I’ll have to buy on my own. But that’s ok. The house, on the whole, is very nice. Got washing machine, nice kitchen and nice TV. Rent: AUD 85 per week, not included gas, phone and utilities. The uncertain thing is that the main tenant would prefer a female tenant, but it’s not an essential condition. And Arthur said that i’m given the priority at the current moment. So I’m praying so hard that I get the place… I really love it. It’s so cozy. Apply for phone line and I can surf the net and talk to u guys.
Place 2 is:-
A room in a double-storey house in Crawley (WA 6009 – The university is about 10 minutes walk). There is a 25-year old guy living with his girlfriend and another guy staying there at the moment. Place is quite dirty (especially the toilet, which I believe is the litmus test to determine w/er a house is clean or o/wise).. reeks of cigarette smoke. Rental – AUD 100 per week, include all gas and power, utilities.
Eh anyway. It’s obvious which place I want to stay in right… =)
Pray for me k… pray that I’ll get to stay in Nedlands. I really hope I’ll get it. So love the place.
… it’s 8.20pm now and I got myself a adaptor already to fit inside the weird-looking plugs here in Australia (many thanks to cc who gave the adaptor to me).. so I’m just listening to mp3s now… no internet connection yet. Hope I get it soon =)
Anyway, orientation at UWA is a pretty (in fact, very) boring affair. Not at all like in jc where u throw water bombs and whatever have you not… but I guess, it has to be this way. Cos I see a lot of people who are nearly 30 years old who are just starting their degree, s’poreans included. And I’m sure that most of the mature-age students won’t really appreciate it if someone throws a mud bomb at them, right?
Which kind of happened in our OG. Like, I couldn’t click with those almost 25, 26 year old students from Germany / Italy.. they seem bent on visiting the library and we were like “aiyah.. let’s talk about junior college and the s’pore government”… but there’s one exception though, I can get along with this s’porean malay girl who is 29 years old.. she is a teacher at a secondary school and she took a study leave to pursue her degree. =)
13 July 2004
we checked out from grand central today, w/o even knowing whether if there was any confirmed accommodation for me.
It turned out that we were turned down from the house in Nedlands. No reason provided, but I guess either 1) he preferred mature students or 2) he didn’t like me. Yeah I was pretty frustrated cos I thought I would get that place… so we just kept on looking at the notice boards for housing advertisements and the housing service facility at the student guild.
Looked at so many houses… but finally narrowed it down to two.
And thank god that I’ve finally found this one… it’s a room in a single-storey house. It’s a very big house and if you visit me one day, I’m pretty sure you’ll fall in love with it. My housemates? The landlord is actually a 2nd year medicine student at UWA (his parents bought him the house to stay, lucky guy…) – name is Zhang Fan. Yeah I know (and u know) I’m pretty hesitant to stay with china people but this guy is different.. he stayed in Singapore all his life, studied there too. And the house is spotlessly clean; that’s the thing I like about it. And it’s only 3-minute walk to UWA. Cool. The other guy staying in the house is also a medicine student.. and he’s a Malaysian I think. Not too sure what his name is, but no worries. I’ve have lots of time to find that out.
I’m like really relieved that I finally found a roof over my head. The past few days haven’t been easy.
Dad is flying back to Singapore tmrw…that leaves me alone. And I bet cc is probably going to scream at me and torture me when he attempts to teach me how to cook + do other basic things like washing my clothes (??!) and having more common sense around here. How I know I’m gonna be tortured? My dad was telling me that cc told him when I wasn’t around that “he’ll blow his top at me if I’m not learning the skills fast enough… and that he’ll have to listen to me because I’m older…” Gee. That’s scary. I guess cc said that cos he saw the way I keep arguing (well, not really arguing… more of debating) with my dad. Basically, being a spoilt brat.
Wonder what’s cooking for dinner tmrw. Or rather, what I’ll be trying to cook (or it could be lazy me wondering what I’m gonna buy for dinner – but cash is running out). It’s really cold in here (again).
Like, how we shifted our 6 suitcases of rubbish into this room and my dad was busily trying to unpack and telling me “your pencil case is here.. your towel is here… and your clock is there..” and I’m like wondering, “where should I hang valerie’s cross? Where should all these cards from so and so go…” silly me. Not knowing the things that really matter. Wait a minute, I do. My friends really matter to me. Never mind the fact that you are probably 4000km away from me.
I’m just doing lots of thinking these days. Not about what units am I gonna take – I’ve already decided on that a long time ago. I’m just thinking about the past (and present)… the things (and people) I’ve left behind (or momentarily said goodbye)… about the future; what is it gonna be like. I know it’s definitely gonna be tough – no illusions about that.
I’m gonna end today with two more ramblings.
1) I was looking thru the house listings and calling people up…. And I noticed, how come everyone’s name is called “Mob”? Like, they provide their telephone number and next to it, it writes “Mob”… I thought that “Mob” is a mass housing agent or sth… and I put that into good use by asking “hey, is mob there?” – Then I realized, “Mob” = “Mobile” (!!!!). very silly of me. Stop laughing if u are doing so right now. Like how in s’pore, we write “hp” (which means “handphone”) – Over here, it’s referred to as the “mobile”.
2) The phrase “catch ya later” / “see ya later” in Oz means goodbye. And not literally “I’ll catch up with you later.” No one here ever says “bye” when leaving each other / departing.
14 July 04
today is enrolment and we’ve got to sign up for our 4 units this semester:-
And the units I’ve chosen are:
1) Anthropology 102: Global Change, Local Responses: Anthropological and Sociological Perspectives
2) European Studies 102: After the Wall: Contemporary European Civil Society
3) History 152: Modern World History: From Imperialism to Globalization – Asia, Africa and the Pacific
4) Political Science 102: The Contemporary International System: An Introduction to World Politics
Hey. I’m happy that I’m getting the opportunity to do what I wanted k… despite being so far from home. I don’t deny that there are times, I sit and wonder, “if I had studied harder, I’d definitely be in NUS now…”
The textbooks are expensive u know… I’m trying to look for some ways which I can reduce the cost… but I love to read lo… and I always feel grumpy if I have to buy a second hand book or borrow one from the library. If I like a book, it has to be mine. Maybe I could get a friend to check if s’pore is cheaper? I heard even if u factor in the shipping costs, it’d still be cheaper over in s’pore.
My dad was supposed to fly off at 4.50pm today… and we arrived at 3pm, guess what happened? “We regret to tell you that the flight has been delayed to 10.30pm (!!!). Dear sir, the plane is still in Singapore as we are talking right now. Perhaps we could give you a meal voucher? Or two taxi vouchers to get you back downtown and back to the airport again?”
Wah. I never expected that to happen k… so cc sent us back to Subiaco, where we did more shopping… buy some bread and orange juice, cheese for me.
Guess what? We’ve got a new housemate today… that makes it 4 people staying in the house. The room the new guy took is ghastly small… luckily I came one step ahead of him.
Ooh and u know? I only have lectures and tutorials on Mondays to Thursdays. Friday there is nothing on at school for me. Yeah. Cos I was fixing my timetable on the Internet at the library and it generated the list for me… yup. So I’d prob be hanging around reading at the library (Reid library) on Fridays… or just maybe, travelling… or revising? Hmm. Better study hard.
I also bought my pre-paid card today. It’s from optus. Yes yes timothy must be supporting my strategic move to support a Singapore company haha. Well, most students on campus use optus prepaid cos if u call between optus and optus, it’s FREE! … haha the word free is so Singaporean, eh? Australia’s hp numbers are a whopping 10 digits… I’m still trying to remember it. And if u ever dare to venture calling me, please use a calling card. It’s much cheaper. In fact, it’s cheaper than calling to Malaysia. I kid u not.
The area I’m staying in is called Nedlands. It’s only a 5 minute walk to school… yup.
Okie. So that’s it for today.. orientation ends 1130am tomorrow. So I’d probably hop down to the library and send e-mail and post all these blog entries. The thing about the library is that it doesn’t allow u to access popular websites like “hotmail.com” and “yahoo.com”, but surprisingly, I can access google mail there… yup. So I did make a right choice by getting a gmail account. =)
I’m alone now. I sent dad off at the airport 2 hours ago. And yeah I gave dad a big hug. I don’t remember hugging my dad at any point in my life so far. But I was really sad. Was trying to hold back tears on the (free) taxi ride back home. It’s like, I’m alone! And to think he was just sleeping with me yesterday in this room? Oh well. Time will fly I hope. And I’ll go back in Feb 05 with good results to show. =)
15 July 04
Last day of orientation. Tmrw is an optional tour to Fremantle, but I’m passing that. It appears that all four days of the orientation was spent attending talks and more talks… today, they had talks on internet connection, shopping in Perth… working with your student visa, travel opportunities in WA and beyond (conducted by STA Travel)… and they were like, who wants to go S’pore or KL for a holiday? Hah.
I’m pretty worried that I’ll be alone on Monday when semester starts… cos the Aussies would be back from their winter vacation and they already have six months of study, not me. Basically, for the next four years, I’ll being doing semester 2 work first from July to Feb, and then semester 1 work from Feb to July. It’s a 2-1-2-1-2-1 sequence for July intake, and a 1-2-1-2-1-2 sequence for Feb intake (which is the bulk of them). I guess it’s all right for arts, but what about math or engineering? That’d be pretty hard isn’t it. Furthermore, I bet they would have their own cliques / study groups… and I’m just worried I won’t blend in. shrugs. Hope I’ll be fine on Monday.
Trooped down to the Reid Library where I was sending e-mails to a few of u guys…and activated my UWA e-mail account. Went to the co-op shop to buy the course readers for history 152 and euro studies 102 – my god! The readings are worse and much more difficult than TJC. Duh of course cheow. What were u expecting? A “Telephone Ted” storybook to read? =X mabz.
Peter (a guy whom I met at Subiaco church last Sunday) called me up and asked me if I’d like to go over to his place for dinner… and then go for a seminar after that. I was like, okie, anyway I’ve got nth to do and I can get to know new people… yeah. It’s actually a Christian seminar.. and it’s about the basic principles in life… it was held in a school in South Perth (I’m staying in West Perth btw)… met a few people from Curtin.. yeah. Curtin is in south perth. The seminar was actually recorded.. but it was engaging still, though I thought it suspiciously sounded like a “how to make a million dollars in 10days” talk.
Dad & Mum was trying to call me during the talk.. but I rejected it cos I was in the seminar. And the thing about my folks is that they’ll keep calling and calling and calling and I’ll be rejecting and rejecting and rejecting the call. It has always been like that since I got a hp. Never mind the number of times I told them “if I reject the call, it means I’m busy and I’ll try to call u back asap.” Sigh. And this is so embarrassing – they went to call cc (who wasn’t with me at the seminar) and asked him to “sms/call/check on what will’s doing”… and somehow I think cc had the impression that I’m some son from hell who refuses to answer his parents’ phone call.
Came back at 10.30pm and was babbling away to the new housemate.. his name is called Leo. Hmm a master’s student at UWA in accounting… and he’s much older than me (duh). And he’s also new to Perth… a China guy. And I was yakking away about where to buy Chinese food (u can buy ‘em at Broadway)… and how life is like in Singapore.
Hey daryl. did u know Sister 2 Sister (remember that duo that came to the radio music awards 01, and sang “sister”? yeah their music kind of faded away quite fast in s’pore) is from Australia? So is Bachelor Girl (“Buses and Trains” fame) are from oz too… was listening to the radio just now in Andrew’s car (another guy whom I just met over here in church). Yup. That’s it. Nite.