The really 'chim' (deep) philosophy behind the city of Canberra

THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE

The first hall we arrived at after going through the entrance was this made-of european-materials place. Apparently it is meant to recognise Australia collonial past (under British).

However, as we walked further we stepped into the parts of the building made of Australian authentic materials. It represents a transition from collonial past till the present independent nation. When Kai Xun told us this it's 4.45pm and the parliament was set to close at 5.00 pm. So it was kinda funny because Kai Xun sounded like a professional tour guide talking really fast and all of us were just awed by his sheer knowledge. LOL.

The great wall tapestry. Yeah, from memory (i read the explanation on the sign board) this was produced by three great artists. The forest like image serves as a reminder of .....something like Australia has vast areas of land and the parliament is a place to improve the land's welfare....something like that.

This is the hall for the House Representative. The seats are in green colour. The corresponding Senator hall (which we didn't have time to go) is filled with red seats.

Can you see a Kangaroo and an Emu???

Both animals couldn't move backward. Australia hopes to move forward forever, so to say.

This patch of grass is on top of the Parliament House. The architect who designed the Parliament House really put in alot of thoughts into it. The grass allows the ordinary people to 'step' on their leaders when the parliament meeting is going on.

The people are the King, not the leaders.

And by the way the pathways connecting other places to the Parliament House are just slopes (no stairs). Again the idea is that ordinary Australians are on the same level as their leaders. They can just walk to them. (deep philosophy huh???)

This is the old Parliament House who has already been converted into a gallery.

I remember the weather was so cold (close to -2 degree celcius) that all of us were shivering in cold. For this reason we didn't actually stay long here.

We passed the National Science and Technology Centre but didn't get to visit due to time constraint. Hm...I will certainly pay a visit here next time I go Canberra. We missed out the War Memorial and this one.

Tee Shern Ren -- The reincarnation of Albert Einstein.

FLORIADE -- THE AUSTRALIAN CELEBRATION FOR SPRING.

Jason and me.





























From left: Ru Xing, Pang Paing, Shi Shing and me















From left: Li Cheng, me and Sze Rhui












Tulips and me













We left Canberra at 3.00pm on 23 September 2007.

Thanks guys, I had lots of fun during the 45 hours we spent together. Yeah, we arrived at 6.00pm on Friday and left at 3.00pm on Sunday. Precisely 45 hours.


Special thanks to our couple of the trip: Kai Xun and Su Yin for organising our trip, Jason for being such a funny joker and co-tour guide.

My Spring trip to the city of CANBERRA

My Friday 21st September started with taking some pictures of the cherry blossom trees in front of my house. They were bold during winter but see how pretty they are in spring.

Our journey from Sydney started at 3.00pm and we reached the peaceful city of Canberra around 6.30pm. Waiting at the station were Jason, Jared, Darryl, Leonard etc.

It was nice to see all of them after so long

We had dinner at this famous restaurant (according to them). I personally didn't find the food too fascinating but it was the joy of eating together with my fellow taylorians and two Inti-college people that made the bill worthwhile.

We visited the Ursula hall. Li Cheng and Pang Ping were crashing here. This is the com lab with all APPLE PCs. Apparently the hall imposes some form of quota on every resident on internet usage.

Jared reminded us to bring our passports because he wanted to bring us to 'A FEW BARS'

And yes, he honoured his promise.

We went BAR CRAWLING - moving from one bar to another - in a big group. The ang moh looked like us as if we were some nerds, or perhaps a bunch of teens who had just turned 18 and were eager to try out things unreachable by underaged.

We played drinking game and I lost twice (Sze Rhui, and Su Yin also lost twice; Kai Xun lost thrice; Jared wanted to lose but luck wasn't at his side :)

I drank 2 x half glass = one huge glass of beer and got a bit high and dizzy. But later we went bar dancing to kill the sleeping worm. Haha, and I ended up very energetic.

THE SECOND DAY................

We woke up and got ready for the day trip. But surprisingly the usually sleepy us woke up really really early.Thanks to the bright sunlight of Canberra that shone on my face.

We went to Australia National University.

And this is the ANU equivalent of Macquarie Uni's The Grand Walk

On top of the Telstra tower.

The bird-eye view of Canberra from Telstra tower.

There are flowers all over Canberra during spring. These are just puny little flowers which are step-resistant.

I took this pic on my way down from the Black Mountain on which the Telstra tower is located.

Lake Berley Griffin of Camberra. Canberra being a planned city has got no water - front. For the sake of feng-shui the Aussie dug a man-made lake, named after the architect of Canberra Berley Griffin

Australian History lesson thus began.

The museum's strange symbol. It looked like a roler coaster rail from far.

In front of the new parliament house with my fellow Canberran ex-Taylorians.

By the way Shern Ren (in yellow jumper) why you looked so ............... interestingly away from the camera??

Here goes the story that Kai Xun told us:

to be continue.....

Bathroom repair -- I DON'T LIKE !!!!

I received a notice few days ago from MUV, telling me that I can't use my bathroom for 5 days due to a 'maintenance procedure'.

And this morning I was greeted by the repair person. He said he was about to make a lot of noice....










Look at the mess I'm in.

No wonder I can't use my bathroom....

Besides the noice, clearly the repair work has screwed up my room. There's dusk everywhere, on my clothes, my cabinet, and the laptop I'm using now.

Perhaps it's a good time to clean up my room after this.

I DON'T WANT ANYMORE REPAIRS!!!!!

Last day of first term!!!

I hope the change of template has made my blog look less dead

Today is the last day of term 1 of my second semester. To look at it in a better way, it's the start of our two-week holiday.

I'm going Camberra in about a week time. It's gonna be enjoyable and I'll get to meet some of my old Taylor's college friends. Really look forward to that.

However, thanks to all the assignments, a significant part of my hols will be spent on uni work. Sigh.... (like as usual)

Today's actually the birthday of Macquarie Uni (they call it "Conception Day"). Too bad I forgot to get myself a ticket yesterday so I don't get to enter their party. Doesn't matter anyway I don't think I'll enjoy all the noices and parties and unlimited beers.

Me like peace and silence and the friendly chat I had with two fellow actuarial students just now. It's always nice to get to know people.

Holiday is coming again!!!!!

But sadly we have math assignment to worry about. The due date has been postponed to the first Wednesday of our holiday due to some technical breakdown of the uni website.

Anyway, we are going Camberra which is something to look forward to.

Econs test is on Thursday so I need to study, study, study again.

Oh I'm having a mental block now.What shall I write???

By the way my Tesl housemate Harvin has got 2 more months in Australia. Recently I talked frequently with her about her plans for her future. Apparently she has a considerable savings here which can be converted into a large pool of Malaysian Ringgit, if she wants to. That day I was telling her about investing her money in term deposit, how to spread the risk etc.

That is the good thing about earning in Aussie dollar. You take back a small amount but after visitng the money changer the amount will triple out of a sudden. Hahaha

STUDY STUDY STUDY

MATH 133 test tomorrow...........

It's week 6 already....this implies that half a semester has gone. Time goes and passes it's a new month again. September 2007.

We are all being tied up with uni work. No one is silly enough nowadays to suggest a hang-out at the city (something that we did often early this year).

I've just taken up tutoring - not because of the money but rather to gain some experience to boost my chance of getting a high-pay tutoring position next year or so.

I've decided to stay put at MUV although they have increased the rent again next year (it sucks, but what to do). I prefer to stay on-campus to save time. Imagine those people staying few kilometres away from campus. I'm sure they spend at least 5 dollars everyday on transport. I'd rather stick to MUV.

(such a boring post, rite?)

Am strangled by assignments

The usual whining here. I have 5 assignments due next week and a test on Wednesday. Life is just 'great'.

I read some of my taiping friends' blog this afternoon, and was surprised to find them more mature after starting on their uni lives. Great to know. I feel that I miss them very much, especially those funny people like Jong Woei, Choy Yin , Lay Chin and many many more. Guess they are doing well in their respective path.

I went swimming this afternoonm, and had completed by usual training of 20 * 50m with all four strokes. My backcrawl has really improved since I started swimming every week.

Time to study for ACST101 test. I didn't go for Malaysian fest today as I feel that "the opportunity cost is just too high" - to use the economic way of explaining. Too much to sacrifice (assignments, test etc) and I'm 1000 times not willing to do so.

Another challenging week to come!

The importance of MATHS in life

As opposed to what I usually write here (which are mostly boring routines of an actuarial student), let me try to enlighten you why you should do your maths homework at school and pay attention to what your maths teacher is talking in class.

My housemate Harvin was isolated from the world of maths lesson and homework for many years. Why? She is from art-stream, so obviously she didn't have any idea about additional maths and what more to say SAM Specialist Mathematics.

Few hours ago she knocked on my door and asked me to help her calculate her pay for this week. She looked so so confused that I agreed to help with the maths of this.

She worked for 12 hours and 45 minutes for this week. Her pay is $16.50 per hour. How much should she be receiving? Easy question???

You might be asking, is this even a problem? Any primary school kid (especially those from chinese school who are trained everyday with lots and lots of maths practice) would come out with an answer in at most few minutes. Well, I can do it in less than 5 seconds with a calculator!!

Her boss calculated and argued that she should be getting 12.45 x 16.50 !!!!!
Such a joke rite?

But Harvin was unsured whether her boss was right because the maths seemed convincing to her. See how you may be exploited outside without maths knowledge.

I just told her: Look at your watch, 1 hour has got 60 minutes, not 100 minutes

And guess what, she was enlightened.

In an effort to survive 5 units

ACCG105
ACST 101
ECON 111
ACST 211
MATH133


OH MY GOD!!!!

These 5 subjects are gonna make my life like hell!!! Imagine going uni everyday from Monday to Friday with a very packed timetable. Plus, out of these 5 days 3 involve a 9.00am morning class, which means waking up as early as 7.30am is a necessity rather than an act of 'craziness' as in the case of last sem. My lecturers this sem are more serious (and therefore uninteresting) compared to the likes in ECON110, ACST 151, STAT171 last semester. They speak proper and gramatically flawless formal English during lectures, with all the slides that would make you feel inferior. Sigh....I hope I'll cope well.

By the way I was given a super casual research position by a local teacher who is a part time Macquarie Uni student. I'm allowed to work on articles at my own pace, meaning I can choose not to do them if I think there are better ways to spend my time. Hm....the best job in the world. But definitely I'll half my workload in September and stop it by October (to study for final exam in Novermber). I'm hoping that the first few good work has convinced him to keep me even if I choose to stop for some time before finals. Yeah, when I first spoke to him he said he'll pay me $60 for 6 articles, but after seeing my work he increased it to $70 per 6 articles.

I have so many assignments and tutes to work on this weekend. Oh, and I caught a little flu this morning; nevertheless I tried guggling with salt water and it worked and I'm feeling good right now. Lucky me.

Hello again!!

It's been a while since I posted my last entry. Had been really lazy to come here these few days thanks to my hectic uni life. Uni has gained back all the momentum it ought to have during semester, and that means lectures, tutes and all sorts of assignments, quizzes have all started. Life.....

I'll write more tomorrow. Today's tiring and my brain just isn't working now. Can't think of interesting stuff to write now (although there isn't actually much interesting stuff to write, but I assure you i will find some to crap about tomorrow). Just watch out!

New semester new experience new resolution

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!!

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.

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.

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.

BOREDOM and MOVIES

Haih..... It's really difficult to find job during holidays when every student is looking for job with very low wage expectation. Almost every outlet I went told me that I should continue trying because the chances of gettint one with so much competition is so slim. So far I have handed in so many application but only get two invitations for interview, both from fastfood outlets. Doesn't matter, I will keep trying until I get one. Hope it will come soon.



So, holiday's been about movies and internet, and a 6-day trip to Melbourne this coming Tuesday. I am eager to see Justina there, coz I'm wondering how this future doctor from my school is coping with her work and the prospect of getting free medical consultation in future, HAHA. I just called her today to waste some of my redundant phone credits, she seemed to be very excited to hear from me. This just proves how long we heven't been keeping in touch. Anyway we are gonna meet next week, something to look forward to in the midst of enormous boredom when I have no assignments to hand in and no studies to keep up.



Sigh....during semester I was looking forward to this winter break, and now I'm missing my busy days when commitments fill my day and ward off the boredom. Next semester will be busy and I need to give myself a good rest before starting a new chapter.



You might be wondering how I spend my time nowadays. Well, I go from shop to shop to ask for job vacancy.... buy groceries and snacks....download , borrow and watch movies.... and try some new cookings. I hereby present my most recent cullinary invention: FU YONG SIU PAU!!!!!





How does it taste???

IT IS LOVELY BECAUSE I HAVEN'T BEEN EATING THIS FOR QUITE SOME TIME.



No exaggeration here, but I am so proud of myself!





My Germany housemate is leaving. Very soon we would have a new housemate and I hope she wouldn't be a Malaysian (if this is the case, it would mean a 100% Malaysian house which is no doubt boring and unexciting). Oh yeah, the new swimming pool is opened and me as a gym member can now go burn fat everyday (if I want to). Yea!!!



I hope McDonald's will take me in for the job. I badly need one to move on. In Australia, experience is an advantage in job application and I wouldn't be able to fight for one if I don't start to gain experience by getting my first job.



Wow, this is such a long post. After coming back from Melbourne I would have more photos to show. My fren Ho Sheng keeps saying that my blog is full of words. All words and no pictures makes a blog dull, he said. Okay, I don't fully agree with this but I shall try to add more colours to the paragraphs I wrote. However I can't do this with no pictures in my hand (well, no new pictures because everything I have has been posted before).



Till next time.

~Love~

Some thoughts after exams

I read my fren's blog on Math exam.... Yeah it seemed most people are finding the questions really hard. The same with me... I might not get the kind of marks that i used to have for math, but I had similar experience in VJC, where I only manage to get a borderline 'A' for math paper. I hope my marks will still be good despite rushing through the questions and struggling to think of a solution for that one differential equation that i was clueless about. Frankly speeking i know how to do most of the stuff but given that i did so fast (coz we don't have enough time to finish so many HARD questions in 3 hours) i don't know how many careless mistakes there will be. I am certainly going to lose marks for that differential equation question and also part of the reduction formulae question because i didn't have time to complete the expansion as I was struggling to figure out the questions that i don't know.

Anyway that was over. I hope God will really help those who tried to help themselves..... The only thing now is to pray hard that the final result for me will still be good on a relative scale with others.

Now, holiday is here and i plan to have some work experience. I shall spend this holiday getting around and know more about this country. Am going Melbourne in early July for a short visit to my frens' place. That's gonna be really really fun. Time to take a rest, recharge so that next sem will be better. Okay, i shall go online and start searching for job vacancy now.

I am not going to think about results yet. New experience other than books and exams for my winter break!!

Review of First Semester in Australia -- My letter to Mei Lien (my S'pore fren)

I thought it would be good to show what i wrote to Mei Lien here.....

Mei Lien,

By now i can summarise what 'actuarial studies' means with fair accuracy. It's about calculating probabilities of something happening using all sorts of complicated maths, with the help of stats analysis (which can also be very complicated). By the way i just finished my math exam and it was SO SO TOUGH. I know how to do the paper except one bloody differential equation question which i was clueless about, but the toughest part is to do that paper in 3 hours (that's like 9 LONG questions with the highest level of difficulty. I don't know how many careless mistakes will there be because i practically did them in a rush. Omg the lecturer said that it will be fairly easy before the exam, but it wasn't true at all.

Anyway, where was I? Yeah, this is the nature of Actuarial Studies. One word to describe it, it is REALLY TOUGH and it takes a lot of self-discipline and self-belief to get through the whole thing. The first thing i studied was how to calculate the probability of a gambler in casino losing all his wealth. And i can tell you, the probability is ofter 1 or close to it and we can prove to you that this is the case. SO NEVER GAMBLE!! You will definitely lose.

Later on we started on all the insurance stuff, how to calculate a suitable premium, by considering a hell lots of factors, how to calculate superannuation funds, how to calculate retirement and death benefits, how to calculate the probability of a person dying and needs to claim from his life-insurance policy etc.. we are basically pressing our calculator all the time and doing stuff that non-actuarial students will never understand.

My first semester exam, hm.... was really an experience. All papers are super hard. For maths i thought i can get good marks before the paper. But now i think HD is not very plausible (it is only possible if i did very very little careless mistake on the parts that i knew, and you can imagine how accurate the answer will be given the rushing way i answer them). I will be grateful if i get D for maths really, coz it is the toughest paper I had ever seen (the second toughest being the mid year math paper in VJC, in which i narrowly manage an 'A'). Other subjects are also hard, but i hope my result will turn out good considering all the hard preparation i put in.

Okay, hope to hear from you.

Xin Yin

My life is temporarily loaned to EXAMS

What a life!!Have been studying like mad for the past few days because finals is REALLY next week!! No life at the moment other than munching snacks (to kill the boredom, am promising myself to go gym everyday after exams to burn away all those extra calories) and books and notes and calculator. That's the nature of an Actuarial degree, the concept of opportunity cost. We are forgoing our lovely time in uni in return for (possibly) a decent income after we graduate.

OMG, I am actually having a mental block on what to put in this weekly blog entry. All i can think of now is I have to cram all the stuff into my head and make it last until the last paper is collected. I am telling myself to be patient and time will pass fast and very soon it will be the long-awaited winter break which promises new experience and excitement.

Due to the away-on-loan blogging mood I have nothing much more exciting than what you have seen in my previous entries (for at least two or three weeks), unless you want to hear me complaining about the pilling notes to mug (S'pore slang for memorize, had since learned it after a short stay in that tiny island).

Just bear with me for another week, fellow readers.

Love,
Xin Yin

First Birthday away from home

Well, I typed a wonderful blog entry on my first birthday away from home but sadly it didn't get posted on because of the sucky connection. Now I couldn't remember what was said in that post but would hope that this one makes a good substitute.



4th June nearly always fall on school holiday, so it was always celebrated at home in Taiping. But this year's was different and was a whole new experience. I am away from all the comforts at home and am here in Marsfield, a suburb of the well-known metropolitan city, Sydney. It didn't start well in the sense that, well, I felt truly stressed-out since morning with uni work, and was unfortunate to catch a mild cold in the morning due to the weather which was freezing cold.



I went to gym after uni for a brief workout (I don't have time, but I am trying to control my weight, which has undoubtedly risen because I eat a whole lot more than I do during summer, which is one bad thing about winter--it makes you fat!!). The emergency alarm rang when I was panting on the treadmill. "Evacuate now! Evacuate the building!Evacuate now..." We left the building for 5 minutes, only to be told that it was just a mistake and there was no fire whatsoever in the building.

At 10.30, Shir Lynn knocked on my door and I immediately knew what was behind the door. I was quick enough to say thank you before they manage to wish me happy birthday, which is a whole new style of responding to a surprise. Coolest.....Yup, Joy baked a truly yummy lemon cheesecake. They bought me a genuine addidas sportswear (not from petaling street) and Martha gave me a lovely jumper. Haha, their wishes in the greeting card were both creative and thought provoking.

That pretty much described what happened on my first birthday away from Malaysia. The only shadow that overcovered the joy in myself is the looming final exam. Nevertheless, I had a good day!

A state of craziness

Woosh.....You guess how I spent my Saturday this week??? I went to gym in the morning, worked hard to prevent myself from gaining too much weight. Winter's officially started and the cold weather always make me hungry. I never feel this way back in Malaysia and would have got pissed off if I were to eat the way I eat now in Malaysia. But here, when the temperature is around 10 C and I just came back from uni, tired and shivering, eating is the first thing in my mind. That's why people tend to grow fatter in a four season country. I promise myself to go gym everyday after exam (now don't have much time coz exam is near) to get my weight back to normal. Feel so sick everytime when I stand on a weighing machine.

Yeah, and after coming back from gym, I vacuumed my lovely room, and thence started my marraton catching-up-with-lagging-uni-work, until now. I never work like this, even in SAM. But I guess this is really what EVERY actuarial student has to do to survive the course. Exam is near and the lectures are still going on, new topics are introduced to us at bullet-train speed and we are expected to learn 90% of it on our own, basically. Back in college and high school the last month, at least, before final exam was usually for revision and consultation, as the syllabi were done way way before finals, but it is a wholly different story in uni. We are two weeks from exam and the new materials are still coming in, faster than ever. If you ask me how I feel now, I would only say," THIS IS CRAZY!!!".

Nevertheless one good thing is that I start to think all the maths and insurance and probability and spreadsheet that shape the actuarial course are somewhat fun. Hope to build on from here. It's a matter of taking the suffering and laughing it off at the end, just like what Brian Chu (my ACST151 tutor) confessed: "All the compound interest stuff will appear in your dream because you encounter it EVERYDAY. And you can imagine how interesting my undergraduate life was, and I have just recently got back my life..." He's bright and yet he suffered, and I guess that's what Macquarie Uni Actuarial Studies is meant to be: it's about taking the bitter and interpreting it as sweet.