I know its damn late over here and I should be going to sleep because I need to wake up early for church tomorrow, but I just have to tell you guys this.

There was a campus-wide blackout just now that lasted almost an hour! Damn funny. I was using Ranielle when suddenly everything went off. I was wondering why Ranielle was still on, then i realised that she was running on battery (haha okay sorry that as redundant). So I saw in the darkness for 5 minutes to see if the lights would come back on, and when nothing happened, I groped around for my torch and went outside. Saw my two neighbours and wondered where the hell everyone else was. So weird, it was only the three of us walking around outside. We saw no one else except one of our RAs (residential assistant). Crossed over to the South Wing and found more friends. Then we all sat along a corridor and waited for the power to come back on. Time passed and still nothing happened. . . So we waited and waited. When the lights finally came back on, everyone went back to their rooms. I looked at the clock and realised it was about 50minutes after the lights died. Amazing.

I think the funniest thing was that my neighbour from India was complaining and complaining about how backwards Australia is in terms of their technology. She kept saying stuff like, "I used to think that Australia would be better, but I come here and ohmygod India is so much more advanced! That's it, God is telling me to go to America." (Yeah, she's got a scholarship to go to the US to further her studies next year ._.) Hahaha damn funny la even the Singaporeans weren't complaining as much as her! Totally amusing.

Okay I need to sleep now or I'm going to make Aunty Mary and Uncle CT wait for me in the morning again. Ta!

Ahh today was such a perfect day. Started off waking up at 10am because school only started at 11, and I skipped brekkie in the process. No big loss anyway, since today was cold breakfast haha. After mentor class we had break and so Kico, Eva, Kaman (the HK girls), Sheryl, Thao and I went to the main campus to get some stuff. Then Sheryl ad Thao walked back to the International College for their advanced math class while the HK girls and I went to the Biological Sciences building for our bio prac.

After bio prac we braved the rain and went back to the International College to sign up for our free Guild membership, and then ended up sitting at a table in the canteen talking and crapping away. The girls are so damn funny, seriously. Haha and I learnt some cantonese words haha! Like kai. Means crazy, according to the girls. Laughed so much with them I wanted to die. Lol.

While sitting at the table after some time I happened to look out the window and saw this streak of colour in the sky. Took me awhile to realise that it was a rainbow! So I got up and rushed out the building to get a better view of it. Somehow the girls weren't that interested so I was by myself.

And lo and behold, I was greeted by a sight of a full, perfect rainbow. It was seriously splashed right across the sky in a myriad of colours, and I was just standing there staring at it in awe. The next best thing was, the colour of the rainbow just kept getting more and more vivid! Like seriously, it was so vivid that I could count the 7 colours easily! Never in my life have I seen a perfect rainbow, and not only that, a rainbow with such vibrant colours. Its like, the epitome of all rainbows. Then I noticed another rainbow behind the first one! But it wasn't as bright as the first one. The rainbow was so apt too! Because my physics teacher was telling us how rainbows are formed (total internal reflection off water droplets) and that if a second one were to appear, it wouldn't be as bright. Haha that lesson came alive. (: After awhile Sheryl, Thao, Kico and Eva came out and we took some pictures using the lousy 2 megapixel camera on my phone. Of all days for me to decide not to bring my Canon. SO WASTED RIGHT. ): But yeah, we had fun fooling around under the rainbow. (:

Standing there looking at the rainbow, I couldn't help but feel so honoured that I was able to share that special moment with God. Seeing a rainbow always reminds me of the promise that He made to Noah that never again will He flood the whole earth, and I always feel at ease haha. I also kept marveling at the sheer beauty of the rainbow.. The perfect arch across the sky with the vivd spectrum of colours splashed on the canvas of blue. (so poetic right! kekeke) Well yeah, its really a very humbling experience, especially when the rainbow is full-force right out there in your face. Its really different from the rainbows I've seen so far, this one was THE best. When people started streaming out and noticing the rainbow, it was actually a very nice feeling too, seeing everyone admire God handiwork. I felt so proud of God. (:


This is just one corner of the rainbow


Can't really see the rainbow, but look carefully and you'll see how perfect the arch was! Sorry camera not wide enough to capture the full thing.


With Sheryl and Thao, and Eva and Kico (:

G'day mates (:

Life has been pretty boring so far, nothing exciting has happened to me. I don't know it that's a good thing or a bad thing, though. School is still boring the crap out of me, especially during Math and English. Can't be helped, I guess. Just gotta bear with it. The syllabus for bio and chem are slowly moving into things that I learnt in JC, so I've been paying attention during class and making sure that I don't nod off to sleep.

Starting to like my classmates more and more! Especially the HK girls, they're really so darn cute. Kico's crazy, Kaman is hilarious and Eva is sweet. Gonna go for bio prac with them tomorrow! Thao the Viet girl is getting cuter by the day too, I swear. She's so cute.

FOCUS on Friday night was a nice experience, I must say. It was held in someone's house near school, and dinner was provided! As well as supper after everything. Met many lovely people too.. Because FOCUS is a Bible study group for international students, everyone was mostly Chinese etc. but yeah, they were all nice people. There were a few angmohs too though. Definitely going back this week. (:

Played badminton with my dorm friends on Saturday morning at the (very expensive and con money) Sports Centre right next to Glenn. Ended up partnering Sheng to spar doubles with these two Chinese fellows who happened to be in the court next to us. And I realised that I really miss playing badminton. Really rusty now, though, but still can hit decently and smash! I miss smashing. Haha I love my smashes. (: Okok sorry ego moment's over.

Then Sunday! Priscilla brought me to her church in the city. It's called Cross Culture and as the name suggests, there are quite a number of foreigners who attend it. A lovely aunty from the church and her hubby picked me from Glenn and drove to the church. So I save time and money traveling to and fro. Met Pris in church and went for service. I'm really glad to say that I enjoyed the service very much! And during worship I was very moved. I guess I can say that I found a church to attend during my time here. Lovely place. After service we went for dimsum with some other Singaporean aunties and uncles! I think the restaurant was somewhere in Chinatown.. And the food was not bad, really. Quite authentic and the food tasted normal. Pris then brought me to walk around the city.. Went to Office Works (like Popular) and I got a file that cost $5.40. Damn ex but bopian I needed a file for school quite urgently. And people, if you're planning to come overseas (or Australia for that matter) to study, please bring enough foolscap paper to last you. Because foolscap paper quality here sucks to the core. After that experience in Office Works I realised that I took Popular back home for granted. Sounds stupid, right? But I'm serious. Popular really rocks. It seriously has everything that you need as stationery. Office Works just has mainly office things. Sigh, one more thing to add to the list of things I miss from Singapore. ):

Pris introduced me to this Indonesian shop that sells Asian products, much like the one in Preston market. And naturally I went crazy seeing all the familiar brands and items.. And I couldn't manage to hold back and bought blueberry tea from Pokka (OMG RIGHT??), Tao Kae Noi seaweed, and.. Wang Wang!! OMG HAHA YAY. This Sunday I am so going to buy Pokka's ice lemon tea. The only brand of ice lemon tea they have here is Lipton and weirdly for some reason, it tastes like crap. Hence I've been drinking mostly fizzy drinks whenever I eat out, which is so not healthy. ):

School ended early today, at 1pm! So Pris, Sheryl and I decided to go to the Agora in the main campus to take away lunch and we ended up eating at the garden-courtyard thingy at Glenn. The weather was absolutely beautiful! The sun was shining and I even felt a little hot and wanted to take off my jacket. It was really fun. Then we walked Pris back to school because she still had lessons.

A few of my dorm friends baked Cookie Monster cupcakes on Monday and gave one to me. So sweet right?? I'm not even that close to them. And it was so cute I couldn't bring myself to eat it. It was not bad, really! Makes me itch to bake again. If only the stupid kitchenette on my floor had an oven and wasn't so grossly dirty. Ah well. Can't be too spoilt can I?

Omg it's currently 16 degrees outside, and I'm sitting here in my room in a racer back and FBTs with the window open and not feeling one bit cold.

I LOVE THIS WEATHER.

Gawd, I've been just too lazy to update.

Anyway, quick update about my life: I'm starting to love it here! Weather's been awesome this past week, not too cold like last week which was freezing. I even dared to venture out wearing two layers under my overcoat from the usual four layers. Don't laugh la, it was really quite cold! Or maybe my threshold for cold really sucks. :/ Though I'd like to think that I'm getting more used to the cold.

School has been alright I guess. Pretty damn boring, though. All the things that are being taught are elementary things that I learnt millions of years ago. Take Essential Math for example. We've done decimal places, significant figures, rounding off, approximation and percentage. I was laughing at the sums. I learnt all that in Primary school, man! Then there's Chemistry. First few lessons were on the three states of matter and their properties. Omg, Secondary 1 work. We just did an experiment on paper chromatography this week. How intriguing. . . Academic Study Skills is English, and for the first lesson we learnt how to write paragraphs. My friends and I were dying from boredom. Physics is fine, not as bad because I've never taken it before as a pure science. So the things I'm learning are relatively new, but very basic and easy (so far). Hope it doesn't get much harder.. Biology was boring for awhile too, but I'm paying attention because I need to refresh my memory on the properties of water, carbohydrates, lipids and proteins.

Dorm food is so-so.. Not too bad, but not fantastic either. Most of the time it looks better than it tastes. Basically you get to choose from four main courses every night, then there's rice, soup, bread, veggies like carrots, potatoes and salad greens at the side for us to help ourselves. And there's dessert too, usually a cake of some sort. But it normally isn't worth the calories, so I stay away from it. Besides, the canteen people pile sooo much food on my plate I don't have space for anything else other than my dish. Sure way to fats-ville. ): Breakfast is slightly better.. Hot breakfast is served every alternate morning, and consists of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, oats and hashbrowns. Cold breakfast is available everyday, which is stuff like cereal, yoghurt, bread and fruits. And everyone eats so much at breakfast man! The first breakfast I had bacon, eggs and oats, and I could hardly finish it. My friend had that and two slices of bread and a bowl of oats. I gawked. So now I'm learning to eat more at breakfast (though I'm still not a breakfast person) and have progressed to hot breakfast and a slice of bread on hot breakfast days, and cereal and two slices of bread on cold breakfast days! Not bad lor, for my standards.

I really do thank God for sending me so many lovely friends in my dorm.. Only made one Aussie friend so far, though. The Australians in my dorm aren't all that friendly. Like when I moved in, nobody came to welcome me. Only my Malaysian neighbour and her group of friends popped by to say hi (those sweet things). But luckily I had a few contacts of Singaporeans who stay in my dorm as well, and they helped me settle in. So the people I hang out with at meal times and whenever we're free and bored are mostly Asians, with a few exceptions from Mexico, Mauritius, Bangladesh and Iran. School-wise.. I go to school with Sheryl, another Singaporean girl in my dorm and we're in the same class. My class has so many middle eastern people though! ): One Japanese (but I'm scared of him, damn), two Chinese, three Vietnamese, dunno-how-many Saudi Arabians, one from Kuwait, Oman, Emirates, Sri Lanka, three Hong Kong-ers, one from Turkey/Poland and I think that's all. Sheryl and I are the only Singaporeans. Becoming relatively close to two of the Vietnamese, one guy one girl. And the guy is very cute. (: (: Looks a splitting imagine of one SR canoeist in my year that Dan and I found cute too. Teehee! And the girl is very endearing too. (: The Hong Kong-ers are very friendly too, extremely funny as well. And because of them, I am determined to learn a decent amount of Cantonese before I return to Singapore for a visit. LEI HOU MA? :D

Mmm let's see what else is there to talk about.. The university campus is really nice! Right outside the main entrance of my dorm is a river, which has ducks and all sorts of birds swimming around in it. Occasionally you'll see a family of four swans (or geese) swimming or walking around. Then the birds here are crazy! There are wild cockatoos everywhere, these pink and grey pigeons, huge black ravens (ten times scarier than our crows in Singapore), some cute finch (or at least I think its a finch), parrot/lory-looking colourful birds, magpies, and a crested pigeon that has this tuff of black feathers that stick out from its head like a spike. Damn cute. Its like a bird park here man. Then I saw a possum in a tree yesterday, as well as a big KOOKABURRA sitting in a tree that was right smack in the middle of some buildings! Best of all, there's a wild life sanctuary in the university. Have yet to go there, but I heard its really nice. Apart from the river, there're two big ponds in my school as well, maybe there are more but I'm not sure. But yeah, that's good enough! And plenty of grass spots that are perfect to lounge on on a nice sunny day to study or zone out.

Happy to say that I'm settling down relatively well so far.. Getting used to the rhythm of things and all. But I still miss Singapore a lot, especially the food. Family and friends as well. Thank God for Skype, though. Been Skyping with my parents and some friends almost every night, and its really good enough for the time being. At least I can see them and they can see me. Although we can't physically touch each other, its better than nothing, really. Wonder when the real home-sickness will kick in, though. Been told it takes about three months I think? Then it hits you. Omgg I don't want. ):

Lazy to put up pictures, but they're on Facebook anyway. Badminton this Saturday with dorm mates, finally! Can't wait. :D :D Then I think Sheryl and I are going to Northland to do some grocery shopping, hopefully! Yay! (:

Happy June Holidays everyone! Enjoy the remaining week or so. (: (:

HEY EVERYONE (: Guess what, I'm typing this from my dorm! Moved in yesterday, and so far its alright I guess.. Contrary to what I said in an earlier post, my dorm room is pretty darn big! Bigger than that picture that my dad had showed me. So I'm quite happy with my room. And its on the ground floor, so I don't have to climb the stairs HAHA. Actually I really do kinda like my room! Haha its quite cosy. (:

Okay its my first day of school tomorrow, omg! Pray for me!! But I want to thank God for sending me friends in the dorm already. And one of them is a fellow foundation student who wants to take a Health Science undergraduate course after we're done. OMG I'm so blessed! Praise be to God ahaha goshh.

Stupid weather I HATE YOU.

Thank God for heaters. Amen.

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY TO DANIELLE ONG XIN HONG!! I'm sorry I can't be there to celebrate it with you, but I really really wish I could! Miss you like hell baby, hope you enjoyed your special day! (:

Greetings from Melbourne! Yeap, Rachie Tan made it here safe and sound. I do apologise for not updating soon enough, the hotels here charge crazy prices for internet connection. Which saw my parents and I trooping down to the McDonald’s to exploit the free wifi. Thank God for Macs haha. Kept getting kicked out at 11pm every night though, because their Macs here aren’t all 24/7.

But anyway! Where shall I start, I have so many things to say! Okay maybe I’ll start at the point before I left. Saturday. I could hardly close my luggage, thank goodness for my parents’ luggage if not I wouldn’t have been able to bring all my clothes. Threw some things out because we were over the maximum weight limit. So much for trying to pack light.. :/ Piled into my relatives’ cars and we all took off (pretty behind schedule) for the airport. Went to the food court at the basement for dinner.

Ended up not being able to have anything to eat because some of my friends had reached and were at the food court too. So I went from table to table entertaining them. Felt like a wedding lah! Haha damn stupid. But it was nice, seeing my friends again. Oh yes, the best thing was that my phone was dying! So I kept rejecting calls if not my phone would completely die. Sorry if yours was one of them! And even better, I realised that I had forgotten to pack my charger! Wonderful haha. Luckily my dad and I use the same type of phone charger so I was saved. When everyone proceeded to migrate up to the departure level, I stayed back to accompany the guys. Stupid Lew ate so damn slow and talked too damn much he wasted so much time. Wanted to kill him. Haha and Ben came! Freaking idiot haven’t seen him in ages. (:

By the time stupid Lew had finished his dinner and we went upstairs, mygawd a whole horde of people were waiting for me. It was like some huge mass of people! There were too many that I kept running from group to group saying hi and trying to talk. But I couldn’t really spend much time with everyone, because there was hardly any time left before I had to leave. So again, I’m really sorry if you went to the airport but I hardly spoke to you. I didn’t mean it, really! ): Worst of all, I only managed to take photos with a few of my friends. Managed to take with my family, though, they were easier to assemble lol. Then, it was time for me to move on to the departure gate. Everyone walked in one big mass and it was like the great exodus out of Egypt HAHAHA. Strangers kept staring. Dunno-who said I was like some celebrity LOL! Damn embarrassed. Said hurried goodbyes to everyone, hugged here and there and went through the glass doors!

Incredibly, I didn’t cry. I think it was because I was too flustered with all the people around me. Which I am thankful for, because it distracted me from being sad. Wasn’t used to all the attention though.

But anyway this is a big shoutout to everyone who sacrificed their precious time to go down to Changi that night to see me off. Family, Puay, Alvin, Stella, Jing Fang, Rai, Tiff, Mel Tay, Ben, Anthony, Lew, Dudley, Jason, Jerome, Keith, Kenny, Edmond, Heng Tiong, Emeline, Justyn, Faith, Ying Hock, Ian, Kaye, Shawn, Lynette, Steph, Seon, Swee Leng, Felicia, Huiling, Max, Peiqi, Geor and Sarah Ho. And not forgetting my lovelies who missed seeing me at the very last minute: SABRINA KWANG, Wendy and Christabel. Haha they made an epic dash to the gate only to see me (quote Sab) “give a big wave and disappear like some star like that”. HAHAHA damn drama I remember seeing Sab jumping up and down in front of the guards waving my present and shouting at me. I think that’s all who went that night, yeah. And special thanks to Jason Long who specially popped by my place the night before to wish me bon voyage and to give me a present because he had duty the next day. Ahhhh he’s too nice. Haha everyone’s too nice! And thanks for the presents everyone!

I’m really sad to leave you all. ):

I love book that the girls gave me.. That book of retarded photos. Tine and Turtle's CD cover touched me so much too! And my cousin Sarah’s album of old (and embarrassing) photos! Made me cry, omg. Geor’s notebook (since when were you so cool, huh, Panda??) got me crying too, along with Leng’s stupid letter. Haha I looked like a freak sobbing away to myself on the plane. Luckily I had the window seat. Some were too big so Brian took them home, but those I could carry I brought with me.

Okay enough on that. Now, let’s talk about MELBOURNE! My home city for the next four years. Melbourne city didn’t really make an impact on me mainly because my dad made me do all the navigation and stuff by myself so I was too stressed to soak in the sights. But first impression: COLD. Its winter here, and although its not snowing, its really kinda cold. I immediately thought of Yangshuo and felt sad. ): Haha. The people are really friendly and courteous.. And when they say Melbourne has a lot of Asians, Melbourne HAS a lot of Asians. They’re everywhere! First few days were spent walking around, setting up my bank account, getting a local number, exploring. And walking in Melbourne is seriously addictive. Plus, you don’t sweat! I haven’t perspired once since I came here. Whoohoo, goodbye hot humid weather! :D Food servings are humongous. I can hardly finish half a helping. Prices are not bad, depends on where you go. And food quality’s quite good. But I’m so gonna put on weight, ugh. ):

First few days were spent in the city centre exploring the place and doing some admin stuff for me. I love the hotel we were at, its heating was awesome and the shower was fantastic warm. Haha and I'm proud to say that I'm more confident of navigating with a map now, all thanks to my dad forcing me to do the navigation. And after many many days of trying to understand how Melbourne's Metcard (equivalent of Singapore's EZ-link card) works on trams, I finally understood! Thanks to Mingwei who had to bear with my stupid questions haha. Pity I wasn't able to meet up with him before he went back to Singapore though. ): But yeah, so I took the tram and trains in the city! Quite fun,but I prefer taking trams.

Found a really cool climbing gym near that hotel called Hard Rock. Though it only has high walls it looks really awesome! Made me itch to go climb again. But I can't because firstly, I didn't bring my climbing gear with me (luggage was too heavy) and secondly, I wanna climb with Puay, Brian and Alvin again. ): ): I hope there's a climbing gym near my school, though. With bouldering facilities too. Or even better! I hope my school has one in the premises. :D

Met up with quite a few people over here too.. Namely my long-lost primary school best friend Cammie! She left Singapore when she was just nine, and the last time I saw her was at least six years ago. Caught up with her family too, and I only have God to thank because they're such a blessing to me! Wonderful Christian family and all. They're terribly hospitable too, especially Aunty Mary. Ah pity my school's quite far from their place. But better than nothing I guess!

Moved out of the city yesterday to a motel right next to my university, but the motel really sucks in comparison to Ibis hotel in the city. Beggars can't be choosers, though. At least we found a place. And thank God for the heated blankets because the bathroom is absolutely freezing.

Finally saw La Trobe for the first time yesterday! My parents and I went on an impromptu exploration that started off with my dorm, then my school. Then today the person in-charge of accommodation was kind enough to bring us around the dorm and part of the uni properly. I really like the university! And its got a river/creek right outside my dorm (omg like Yangshuo, right?!) that has swans and ducks swimming in it! My school's outside the main campus of the university, though, but the 15 minute walk is lovely nonetheless. The international college looks kinda cui, though, but the university is nice. Haven't been able to see my dorm room yet, only until I move in on Sunday. But something tells me I'll take some time to get used to dorm-life. Keep picturing stuff in the show Greek haha! See la Lew, all your fault.

Ahhh I love Aussies they're all so nice. A guy just struck up a conversation with my mum while waiting for his daughter who was in the toilet. He happened to see our New Zealand pictures on her screensaver and couldn't stop gushing about how nice they were. Haha. Then when his daughter came out and they walked off, he told her about how "that lady has really nice pictures of horses and dolphins..." Ahhh so cute. <3

Look out for pictures, soon! If I can be bothered. Haha.