8:19 am
Tuesday, February 17
Whooopy doooopys! I’m going to stay in the university hall soon! I’m going to be Jasmine’s roommate and the poor girl got to share her double bed room with me and my Minnie mouse! Wee (:
Turns out that the housing office people made a mistake with my email address and had we not gone to the office yesterday, we would not have known it! They just let my emails bounce back again and again and don’t bother contacting me or whatsoever. Had we not gone to the office yesterday (Jas and Adrian had to make payment for their rooms), I would have missed the deadline and my offer would be taken away! Phew!
Now that we’ve got our accommodation settled, we can start to think about other stuff like sightseeing, planning our trip to the rest of Aussie and our studies as well. First things first, I’ve to overcome walking across the
long bridge that links the uni hall to the main campus as it is freaking high up and below it is miles and miles of barren outback.
We washed our laundry on Sunday and it was fun! Haha…although the washing machine was terrifying scary and the dryer took ages, we managed to live though it and our clothes smell lovely now (ENDORSED BY ADRIAN WHO CANT STOP SMELLING HIS MANLY INTIMATES)! Wee (: Oh, and before I forgot, ADRIAN IS THE OLD MAID!!! OLD MAID!!! OLD MAID!!!
Since we have such a long stay here, there’s totally no urgency for us to do anything and we practically take our time and slack whenever we can. Australians knock off work early and by about 6pm, the entire city is dead. YES. Dead with a CAPITAL D. All the shops are closed, all the offices are closed and all the malls are closed. EVERYTHING!!! What do we do each night? Sit in the room and watch tv…so boring right? BUT THERE’S REALLY NOTHING ELSE TO DO!! THE ONLY NIGHLIFE IS GOING TO PUBS AND GET DRUNK BUT WE ARE NOT DRINKERS!!! We’re slowly getting used to the idea of sleeping by 12am each night.
On the bright side, Australian reality shows are darn nice! They have a lot of wonderful shows on their television and their late night talk shows are superbly funny and Mature Rated. LOL. I miss my Korean dramas though, and internet isn’t as good and efficient as back home, so streaming the videos is going to cost me!
We’ll be going to a strawberry farm and a chocolate factory if all goes well today! We love the summer here loads…today’s temperature forecast is 21-34 degree Celsius and we hope it is going to be cooler than predicted! The weather has been fabulous so far, it’s s*n*y but not hot at all. We only perspire once in a while. GOODY!
TAKECAREALLOFYOUPEOPLETHATITREASUREANDLOVE!!!
9:36 am
Sunday, February 15
Happy valentines’ day to everyone! It may be a little late, but I hope everyone had a great day yesterday. I enjoyed myself greatly yesterday, though it wasn’t the ‘lovely’ kind of happiness but the ‘in awe’ kind of happiness when I witnessed for myself the best beach I’ve ever seen in my life.
I went to Glenelg Beach and it was so totally awesome! The beach was so blue and the winds were so breezy I fell totally in love in it. No tankers in the horizon like in Sentosa. No dirty beaches like that you see at ECP. No bugs infested beaches like that in WCP. Just stretches and stretches of fine sandy beach and beautiful clear blue sea that goes into the horizon. If you look (really a lot a lot) further, maybe you might be able to spot Antarctica. Although the sky is cloudless and the sun is extremely strong, it still feels so comfortable and cool.
We spent the entire day there walking around the 250+ shops in the area and had yummy sushi for lunch. It was quite delicious in fact! The type of sushi rolls they sell are about 10cm long and they’re quite fantastic! For dinner, we had fish and chips and fresh oysters at The Oyster Bar, which won best fish and chips in Adelaide 2005 and 2007. NICE! It was my first time eating raw oysters, but they were really fresh (according to Jasmine, since it’s my first time eating it, I cant tell how a stale oyster would taste like!)
One discovery that we’ve made so far is that all the Asian cuisine that we’ve found so far, including Japanese, Korean, etc, are all made people from CHINA!!!! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!! An insult to us is that whenever people ask where we’re from, the first country that they guess is always…………………..China. SHUCKS. And then when we say Singapore, they go “oh! It was a nice place!” (We wonder in disbelief if they’ve really been there)
We spend the time sitting on the nice green grass watching people stroll by with their dogs and children on the leash. YES! We saw almost more than 50 breeds of dogs yesterday at the beach and Australians love big dogs! We also saw two children on leashes. NO kidding! The children carry this cute little backpack that resembles an animal, such as a monkey. The monkey bag would have a really long tail that has a loop at the end. The parent would put his or her hand through the loop to ‘walk’ the child! Interesting isn’t it?
Watching the sunset was most incredible. We were so totally enjoying it and the view was so incredible we wish time would stop for us to savour that moment. The ambience was fantastic. The seagulls were flying around us, dogs were running across the sandy beach (glad to be off the leash), children were playing Frisbee on the sand and couples were holding hands strolling along the beach. It would be great if you could be here with me, and I was imagining you beside me, and my head was lying on your shoulder, while we watch the beautiful sun set. That would be the most perfect moment.
We headed back to our new home, Ambassadors hotel for the night. It is a nice place and we have three single beds in our room and our own private bathroom and television. In Backpack Oz, we had a four bed dorm to ourselves and a shared bathroom just right outside the door. Each morning, we would head down to the kitchen where we would make our own cereal or toast and wash our dishes after that. We could watch the television downstairs and they have great activities planned on certain days. In Ambassadors, we have cereal and toast in the kitchen and the plates would be washed for us when we’re done. In fact, Ambassadors is a hotel, just a kinda old one but really cosy and comfy. The staff is extremely friendly and approachable and we love the place as much as we love Backpack Oz. At the same time, it’s in the middle of the city and it’s only $5 more expensive then Backpack Oz per night. We’re going to stay here till we can move in to our permanent accommodation (at least, I hope I can find one in time).
We’re ready to embark on our adventures and do see the photos on facebook! (:
7:40 pm
Friday, February 13
Today is the third day that we've spent in Australia! That's kinda fast in fact...we're slowly getting adjusted to the Aussie way of life...since we still have 5 months here in Adelaide, we decided to take our time and slowly visit all the places in Adelaide...no hurry!
We visited the Central Market yesterday...there were so many shops selling food, fruits, cheese, olives, bread and candies! If you want to see, you can go to my facebook and even see those photos that my friends uploaded. Cooked food are still kinda expensive and range from $8-10. Can't wait to start cooking for ourselves once we settle down. HAHA!
We took pictures of that public toilet too...turns out there's many of such toilets around the entire city...but they're definitely not the cleanest...
AND GUESS WHAT??!!
we found a stall selling Singaporean stuff in the CENTRAL MARKET AND CHINATOWN HAS *DRUMSROLL*
BUBBLE TEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
WOOT WOOT WOOT!
Haha...but of course they're more expensive here...one cup costs $2.80 and we've not tried them yet..so i wonder how the pearls taste here...
And there's Lee Kim Kee products, wei ta nai, Yeo's and even laksa paste! HOHOHO. we are saved! Just got to make a trip to Central Market for groceries each time that's all...
We had a first PROPER MEAL yesterday at Hungry Jack's, this BK like place fast food restaurant...their servings are kinda large so we ordered 'small'. HA! After that, we walked 4 streets back to our hostel and IT WAS FREAKING SHIVERING COLD!!!!!!!!!! LOL. we were walking back like wet chickens back as there weren't direct buses from where we were back to the hostel. Hees.
When we got back, we played card games till kinda late...punishment was sorta like 'sharing sessions' which gave us a 'chance' to know each other better. keke.
TODAY we went out to the Central Market (Chinatown) again...cause when we went yesterday at 3plus, most of the stalls were closed already. We went to the food court to get food. Jas and Adrian ordered dried Hor Fun while I ordered Combination Rice (which is wet hor fun ingredients with rice). MY MEAL WAS SO FREAKING SALTY I DIDNT EVEN EAT HALF OF IT. THE CHICKEN WAS AWFUL AND U COULD TASTE THAT IT WAS FROM FROZEN CHICKEN AND THEY ONLY STEAMED IT. EWW. their's was okay but it was extremely OILY. Conclusion of best food we had so far? HUNGRY JACK'S FAST FOOD!
After that, we went to Rundle mall (the shops were all closed when we went yest too. TODAY IS LATE NIGHT SHOPPING TO 8pm! an improvement from 5/6pm!) I bought my shades to replace my broken one, Jas bought hairbands to replace her broken ones and Adrian got his flip flops cause he didnt had one to begin with!
We walked around quite alot and visited a lot of places. Went to the Torres River which is almost fully dried up! Poor swany and birds that cant find food...they came over to us making pitiful sounds...awww....
It's quite a nice place so far...going to bathe now! WEE.
9:53 pm
Wednesday, February 11
First day in Australia…We’re staying in Backpack Oz Hostel right now at Wakefield Street…somewhere in the middle of the city…Central Market is nearby and when we went past it today we saw many yummy food like Korean food, sushi, popiah and even laksa! There were much more food but the market is not usually open on Wednesdays so today not all the stalls are open…BUT we’re exploring it tomorrow!
Went to the school to try to confirm our spaces in the university hall but I guess we cant get much information from them. Pretty as they look, they’re not very helpful and kept trying to avoid giving us any definite answers. I would actually prefer if they tell us straight in the face whether or not they think we can get a space or not…save our trouble and agony…
Anyway, the school is pretty huge and I feel like I’m in the Mediterranean in the school! It’s high up on a hill and you can get the most awesome view from the school but the place is so dry and the plants all look dead. Most importantly, it’s freaking cold today!!! It was 19 degree Celsius during the early afternoon and I think it warmed up a little in the late afternoon. But each time the wind blew into our faces, the three of us would hug our sweaters tightly to our bodies and squeal…the wind is so horrifying it feels like the dementors sucking all the
happy thoughts warmth out of you! EEeek.
But I’m glad we accomplished so much today! Got our bank accounts and even our calling cards done. We now know how to travel on the metro and getting around is pretty easy after all! The most amazingly cute thing is that their button tt you press to indicate that you want to cross the road is exactly the same as that in Singapore! Lol. We made Adrian take a picture of it.
And in the middle of the road, there was a public toilet, encased in a metal container kind of thing. Will do more exploring on it tomorrow and we’ll definitely give it a try if it’s free!
So far, Australians are warm and kind people. We met quite a few kind souls who helped us greatly. Like the lady in the office who directed us to the library. The nice ladies in the bank who helped us open our accounts. The nice post office service staff who patiently taught us how to buy our SIM cards and to use it. And the nice Backpack Oz staff who made us feel at home! We were convinced by them to play pool and I’m glad we did. And SUPER HENRY was the star of the day with his rendition of Michael Jackson’s BEAT IT!!!! (:
There’s so much more for me to see and do, and we finally managed to find temporary accommodation after the 13th! Yayness! At least we won’t be stranded on Valentines’ Day. Hehe.
More exploring of the city centre to be done tomorrow, but we have this feeling we can finish touring the entire of Adelaide in these couple of weeks. What are we going to do then when school starts?
9:55 pm
Monday, February 9
this time tomorrow, I'll be getting ready to board my flight to Adelaide. Going to be away from this beautiful sunny island for 5 months!
It sounds terrifying, but I convince myself that 5 months is going to zoom past before I can say Adelaide. Even so, I'm going through an emotional roller coaster this very minute. It's hard to leave everything behind here and go alone. Though technically speaking, not
alone. I have new friends coming along this amazing adventure with me! Adrian and Jasmine! Two wonderful fabulous people that I believe fate has brought us together and we're going to make this a journey of our lifetime!
Even so, my heart secretly hopes that I can stay here a little longer...But I know I cant. There's so much that I can't let go, not after what happened last night, when Eddy dislocated his shoulder again. Even so, what we went through was so remarkably insane that it actually cemented our relationship further once again. It gave me courage and the strength to believe in this relationship and I promise I'll do everything in my power to keep it the way it is.
There's so much going on in my head. My parents giving me last minute advices how I could better protect myself. Them reminding me to pack some items into the luggage. Worrying about Eddy's shoulder. Worrying about not finding accommodation in Adelaide. Worried about bringing all that sum of money with me. YIKES! Thinking about how I wish I can continue to stay by your side as long as we can, though we know, we still have a lifetime ahead of us.
What worries me the most, is that I would screw everything up. Let's hope for the best everyone. And wish me bon voyage!