Today is 23rd July. I have exactly one more week to go before the next semester starts. You might be asking," Why thinking of it now when I still have one more week to go?". The reason being my brain's been rotting throughout the month of July for lazying around with only drama and online and shopping and exercising on my everyday to-do-list. I gave myself a true rest from all the stress, hastle, and commitments of a university student (in particular, an actuarial student).
Well, it is time to start tuning back my life. I can't leave it till 30rd July because I know one day is certainly insufficient to bring a spoiled soul back to a set of structured lifestyle with innumerable lectures, tutorials and tests. I need time, and what I'm planning is a one-week effort to start my brain working. My conversation with Joy did help me to realise this -- in fact--I 've got to thank her for complaining to me about the formidable amount of texts waiting for her to read. It reminds me, again, that holiday is indeed coming to the end.
There are things to be done:
1. I've set aside $100 to spend on clothing, socks and printer catridge. (what the heck, you may ask)
My clothing so far are all brought from Malaysia (with a few exception). To add some new element to my life in second semester I guess I should put on some local fashion. Yup, the way I dress is still pretty much the old Malaysian way of a T-shirt plus jeans. My printer catridge finished long time before my last sem final exam, and me being busy with uni work didn't bother to get a new one. It's alright now coz I just bought it today, at last.
2. I'm thankful for the confidence boost from my performance so far, and I wish to continue to cope well.
Second sem will be tougher than the first, definitely. At first I was planning to try working in-semester, and was really trying to get a job. But after the release of my result I gave a serious thought about this.
Why am I in Australia?? A quick answer is to get an Actuarial degree. With the amount of workload in 2nd sem I've got to choose between academic excellence and working experience. I figure I can't have both. When such is the situation my choice will certainly be the former -- that's why I'm here for. However I shall see how the semester actually goes, and am not 100% sure if I will stay with this notion.
3. I hope to be a better friend to everyone I know here. Our Malaysian cohort here consists of people from different pre-U college and some seemed not so 'ngam' with us Taylorians at first impression. But as time goes I start to see the good part of each of them and I should really get to know them better. We are all smart people, however I do hope the inherent kiasuness would hinder the opportunity to nurture true friendship.
An early call for myself -- BE PREPARED!!
Tuesday 24 July 2007
Tuesday 17 July 2007
OMG i can't believe my result
How shall I describe how I feel now?? Happy or surprised? I guess it should be both. Happy because I get good results and will definitely hope to maintain it throughout my degree. Surprised because I can't believe that it is an HD even for MATH132 in which I know I did quite badly. Surprisingly it is 96 marks...How can that be? I left 2 questions unanswered!!!How can there be such a dramatic scalling? The two questions can easily cost be at least 15 marks. There is only one explanation for this -- Nobody or only very very few people could handle those two questions.
There is one thing here that I should bear in mind in the midst of all the excitement that fills my head now: I have set a standard for myself. Yes, this is me. I've always been setting standards for myself. In Sec School I set the standard to be a strong candidate for the prestigious JPA scholarship -- and through hard work, I did it. In SAM, I set the standard since the first day to be the top student of Taylor's College -- and through hard work, I did it. Now, I gave myself a great start by scoring 4 HD's for first sem, that's good, but not yet GREAT. What I need to do now is to maintain this standard throughout my degree. According to my seniors, HD 's in second, third and Honours years will be tougher than first year. I shall keep this in mind and not let this small success blurr myself from the real goal of securring a place in the Honours programme.
A good start in Australia gives me more confidence now. I can do it if I try!!!
I still remember screwing up my ACST151 first and second tests, but I put in the effort to correct my mistakes and did well for the finals.
Special thanks to:
Brian Chu, my ACST151 tutor/lecturer, for the guidance on insurance theories
Mr. Alex Blair, my ECON110 lecturer, for the encouragement and help with my LA progress
Mr. Craig MacMillan, ECON110 lecturer, for helping me during consultation with questions
Dr.Bon Clarke, my Math132 lecturer, for setting such tough assigment questions (and finals too)
Prof Xuan Duong, my Math132 lecturer, for being nice to us all.
There is one thing here that I should bear in mind in the midst of all the excitement that fills my head now: I have set a standard for myself. Yes, this is me. I've always been setting standards for myself. In Sec School I set the standard to be a strong candidate for the prestigious JPA scholarship -- and through hard work, I did it. In SAM, I set the standard since the first day to be the top student of Taylor's College -- and through hard work, I did it. Now, I gave myself a great start by scoring 4 HD's for first sem, that's good, but not yet GREAT. What I need to do now is to maintain this standard throughout my degree. According to my seniors, HD 's in second, third and Honours years will be tougher than first year. I shall keep this in mind and not let this small success blurr myself from the real goal of securring a place in the Honours programme.
A good start in Australia gives me more confidence now. I can do it if I try!!!
I still remember screwing up my ACST151 first and second tests, but I put in the effort to correct my mistakes and did well for the finals.
Special thanks to:
Brian Chu, my ACST151 tutor/lecturer, for the guidance on insurance theories
Mr. Alex Blair, my ECON110 lecturer, for the encouragement and help with my LA progress
Mr. Craig MacMillan, ECON110 lecturer, for helping me during consultation with questions
Dr.Bon Clarke, my Math132 lecturer, for setting such tough assigment questions (and finals too)
Prof Xuan Duong, my Math132 lecturer, for being nice to us all.
Thursday 12 July 2007
Melbourne -- Phillip Island
As promised, I'm here to write more about my Melbourne trip. I've just come to realise that staying here - in Macquarie - for almost half a year makes me start to think of my Unit 31, room 4, as my home. I feel warm and safe here (often with heater on nowadays), no matter how bad the weather is outside. Even that time when there was this 'most severe storm in 30 years' few months ago, I was outdoor, with my groceries when the storm hit Marsfield. I remember the courtesy bus didn't stop for me at the international office. I dragged my drenched self, with all the heavy stuff, to cross the road to the next bus stop, and was fortunate to still catch it. I didn't feel safe, until I reached my house. After bathing and having dinner, I realised that I've got to learn to call this home.
Ok Ok, enough of all these crap.
THE PHILLIP ISLAND
This is the second day trip we went. This time we had a whole bus of Malaysian (with 98% JPA scholars). Desmond joked that if something bad were to happen to this bus, Malaysian government will never ever send scholars here again. All of us were like, choi choi choi touch wood.
Prior to entering the island area we had an experience with taking what they called 'ancient train'. The train itself wasn't too thrilling but it was my funny friends who made it great fun!
It is us!!
Look at the way people sit.
This is at an animal park.
Kangaroos are cute. We get to feed them with our hands. EW!!!! The saliva was disgusting but still, they are wonderful creatures.
Ducks. They are everywhere in Macquarie but I seldom bother them. It's only when I was pon holiday that they managed to catch my eyes.
The laziest thing in the world -Koala bear. They sleep 20 hours a day.
I wanted to upload more pictures but the connection just didn't want to co-operate with me. Sigh, got to stop here for this time.
Wednesday 11 July 2007
I like Melbourne, but I LOVE Sydney!!!
After 6 days of braving the gruelsome (but awesomely fantastic!!) trip to Melbourne, I am back again to the sunny Sydney which I learn to love so much. The super lack of sleep and unhealthy food had made everyone of us from Sydney fall sick, including myself. Most of my fellow Sydney ppl fell sick on the first few days, the virus was eventually passed on to me on the last day despite my effort to stay strong. I had a mild fever, severe sore throat and cough, and guess what? All these were almost completely healed after I stepped down at Sydney Airport, went back to my beloved Macquarie and had a long 13-hour sleep with heater on at 5.00am. I woke up 2 a.m in the morning, couldn't sleep coz my stomach was growling desperately as all I had for that day was a bun!! I was coughing and sneezing at Melbourne Avalon Airport and simply had no appetite at all. The bun was eaten with lots of effort on my part, with force. Haha....
Well, all I did was waking up to make myself some pasta. The fact that my appetite improved showed a remarked recovery after a long rest. After eating, I watched some drama to make myself tired again, and my effort paid off as I fell asleep again around 4.00am till 8.30am the next morning. In total, that was a 13.5 hour sleep!! Amazing ?? That tells how tiring the Melbourne trip was, and here is some bits and pieces that I could recall from pictures...
THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD
Me and James at the entrance
According to the itinerary, the GOR is one of the most famour coaster drive in the world. Well, I can't say it isn't, but I have something to add on. Important indeed for those who are comtemplating to travel there on a bus. The roads are extremely narrow and it forced our bus driver to push and release the brakes every few seconds. The result, we felt nauseous for the entire journey before lunchbreak. The lucky thing is that we have nothing to throw out coz there was NOTHING which we could vomit!! The super duper kiamsiap day tour company only provided us with two pathetically small chocolate cookies and a small cup of coffee for breakfast. By the time we felt dizzy, all these were completely digested in our poor stomach.
Hm....not very clear yea? This's the pic I took with a dizzy head along the GOR. The black dots are supposed to be, COWS. Hehe
Entrance to the twelve Apostles.
Front row: (From left) Shir Lynn, Shing
Back row: (From left) Chun, Li Cheng, Me, Ju Bee and Desmond
The 12 stones (to me they are just stones, but the tourism people call them a-p-o-s-t-l-e-s). Me and Li Cheng were like discussing on the bus, "Tourism is about making a big fuss of nothing". I'm sure these stones are plentiful in Malaysia too, just that I don't put the the efforts to repackage them into tourist attractions (such as giving them nice names).
Me and the stones.
Wosh....look at my hair!!!
The wind was damn strong.
Me, Chun, and the famous stones.
More stones here.....
There is this "romantic story" about one piece of stone.
The LOCK ARD GORDE.
I'm not good at remembering it but was smart enough to take a photo of the sign board. Let me put the story here:
“Captain Gibb set full sail to turn the Loch Ard away from danger, but wind and current carried the ship towards the cliffs. Sail were then lowered and anchors dropped but they dragged across the ocean floor.
In the final desperate attempt, the anchors were cut and sails again raised. The ship began to make headway; nearly clearing the cliffs, the bow struck a shallow reed and stuck fast.
Water flooded into the cabins. With each swell, the yardarms smashed against the cliff face bringing pieces of mast and rock crashing down. Waves swept across the deck, hampering attempts to launch the lifeboats.
Paralyzed with fear, the passengers clung to one another and, amidst their screams and cries, the ship slipped into the silent depths below”
It all sounds like a copycat of the titanic movie. The driver told us something about one couple who survived the wreck - the guy's name is George i think - and landed in some island...blablabla(can't remember).
TADA!!!
This is the place where this romantic story took place. (Honestly, this is just another piece of stone, isn't it?)
Sigh.....similar colour summore. Sometimes tourism is like that.
The London Bridge
Another product of the tourism industry.
Apparently the part in the middle of this huge piece of rock fell down due to natural erosion, thus forming an 'island'. Me and my friends and the island are smilling to you!!
Thats all for this blog. More to come on Melbourne trip, I am too tired to blog on everything now. One more posting on Phillip Island, and another one on the other places we went. And that's about it I guess.
Well, all I did was waking up to make myself some pasta. The fact that my appetite improved showed a remarked recovery after a long rest. After eating, I watched some drama to make myself tired again, and my effort paid off as I fell asleep again around 4.00am till 8.30am the next morning. In total, that was a 13.5 hour sleep!! Amazing ?? That tells how tiring the Melbourne trip was, and here is some bits and pieces that I could recall from pictures...
THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD
Me and James at the entrance
According to the itinerary, the GOR is one of the most famour coaster drive in the world. Well, I can't say it isn't, but I have something to add on. Important indeed for those who are comtemplating to travel there on a bus. The roads are extremely narrow and it forced our bus driver to push and release the brakes every few seconds. The result, we felt nauseous for the entire journey before lunchbreak. The lucky thing is that we have nothing to throw out coz there was NOTHING which we could vomit!! The super duper kiamsiap day tour company only provided us with two pathetically small chocolate cookies and a small cup of coffee for breakfast. By the time we felt dizzy, all these were completely digested in our poor stomach.
Hm....not very clear yea? This's the pic I took with a dizzy head along the GOR. The black dots are supposed to be, COWS. Hehe
Entrance to the twelve Apostles.
Front row: (From left) Shir Lynn, Shing
Back row: (From left) Chun, Li Cheng, Me, Ju Bee and Desmond
The 12 stones (to me they are just stones, but the tourism people call them a-p-o-s-t-l-e-s). Me and Li Cheng were like discussing on the bus, "Tourism is about making a big fuss of nothing". I'm sure these stones are plentiful in Malaysia too, just that I don't put the the efforts to repackage them into tourist attractions (such as giving them nice names).
Me and the stones.
Wosh....look at my hair!!!
The wind was damn strong.
Me, Chun, and the famous stones.
More stones here.....
There is this "romantic story" about one piece of stone.
The LOCK ARD GORDE.
I'm not good at remembering it but was smart enough to take a photo of the sign board. Let me put the story here:
“Captain Gibb set full sail to turn the Loch Ard away from danger, but wind and current carried the ship towards the cliffs. Sail were then lowered and anchors dropped but they dragged across the ocean floor.
In the final desperate attempt, the anchors were cut and sails again raised. The ship began to make headway; nearly clearing the cliffs, the bow struck a shallow reed and stuck fast.
Water flooded into the cabins. With each swell, the yardarms smashed against the cliff face bringing pieces of mast and rock crashing down. Waves swept across the deck, hampering attempts to launch the lifeboats.
Paralyzed with fear, the passengers clung to one another and, amidst their screams and cries, the ship slipped into the silent depths below”
It all sounds like a copycat of the titanic movie. The driver told us something about one couple who survived the wreck - the guy's name is George i think - and landed in some island...blablabla(can't remember).
TADA!!!
This is the place where this romantic story took place. (Honestly, this is just another piece of stone, isn't it?)
Sigh.....similar colour summore. Sometimes tourism is like that.
The London Bridge
Another product of the tourism industry.
Apparently the part in the middle of this huge piece of rock fell down due to natural erosion, thus forming an 'island'. Me and my friends and the island are smilling to you!!
Thats all for this blog. More to come on Melbourne trip, I am too tired to blog on everything now. One more posting on Phillip Island, and another one on the other places we went. And that's about it I guess.
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