Yea! A present!!

Past few days had been pretty good. Since the start of school, i got things planned out for me. At least i won't be staying home doing nothing. A couple of things happened the past 3 days.

On Tuesday, the smoke alarm was activated and the entire building of students had to evacuate. I didn't know what to do and just walked out with my t-shirt and shorts. Nothing seem to be burning and i see others wearing their jackets out, they even got their mobile and wallets out. All i got was my house keys! Then there was cold winds blowing at us. Soon the fire brigade came, they checked the system and told us it was a false alarm. I was almost a popsicle... So that was that and i went on to finish up my reading. And it happened again! At 4.20am in the morning! This time im smarter, i took my stuff, wore a jacket, even brought my blanket out. And like the previous time, it was another false alarm. Disturbed my sleep totally...

Today i went to this shopping mall that my friends recommended, they say its so big you will have to take 2 days to fully explore it. So i did some research on it, found out the directions to the place and start my journey to the place today. It was huge...


This is taken around 400m away from the mall. The entire building IS the mall.

The building is made of 2 supermarkets, 2 major retailers and over 100 different stores with like 4 food courts. Vivocity to me now looks so small... Haha... I didnt't buy much there, just went to venture and look around. Didn't manage to completely walk the entire place. But i realise something, unlike Singapore, every corner you will see a Mcdonalds. Over here, they are hard to find. Even the shopping centre doesn't have one. And in the city, its like only 2-3 outlets.


Then another surprise came to me... My uncle sent me a welcome gift.

Now i get to venture around even better! Muahahaha!! Thanks!

First Day of School!!!

It was my first day of school here in Melbourne. I got my timetable today and i get to plan it! Yay! So i crammed all my lesson dates into Mon-Wed, leaving thur, fri, sat and sun free. FREE!!! I repeat myself again, thur to sun free!! Haha...

Lectures are like back to poly life. Lecturer, lecture hall, hundreds of students. But the difference is that the students here are younger. I mean almost five years younger than me. There are those other working adults back to studyin but im like the older person among the younger crowd. i realise something too. I see my old self inside them. Paying for school fees but still wanna sleep through lectures. Coming in late and just stroll in to class. Well, things are different now. I've thrown away these bad habits and now felt like some good boy studying hard. Haha...

Lastly, i just wanna share the new experience i had today. In the Uni, there is this open lecture theatre. The only wall that is opaque is the projection wall. The other three sides are all glass. I mean i can see outside clearly. One thing it helps is that you won't fall asleep easily as you can look out to see the amazing view. Its something so new that i feel like going back there again. I will try to get a photo of the place as soon as possible.

1 Week has passed...

I have finally survived the 1st 7 days of my life here in Melbourne. Not a very foreign land but still all alone. It does feel lonely sometimes, but the worst part is during sleep time. Its the time duration where you are awake and falling asleep. That is the time where 'miss' and 'lonliness' starts to creeps in. Then eventually, i will drift off to sleep and start all over again the next day.

As i have shifted to a new place, i took a few pictures of the area. Oh refresh or reload the page if the pictures are skewed. No photoshop due to somebody...


Open the door and this is what you see


My bed


Opposite view of my room, cupboard with mirror and far right is the kitchen


Lastly, full length windows with a HUGE balcony space.

So now i cook my own dinner while having a comfortable personal space i call home for now. But the thing i need now is a bed, as you can see they only provide a mattress. Its sinking in the centre which causes my tailbone to hurt sometimes due to it hitting the supporter poles. Well, im getting a new one if possible. Hopefully by next week im sleeping on a nice spring mattress bed.

Hey Ho From Melbourne

Wow... So much things to blog, guess i gotta do a quick one with photos to explain the rest.

After passing through the security, i did not want to look back. I just wanted to walk to my gate and get up on my plane as quick as i could. But looking at the scene around me, i got a feeling my friends would wanna do the same too. They wanna wave crazily to me while i wave back and see them for one last look. So i turned around, saw them waving their most sincere goodbyes at me. With each wave, a blessing from them to me. And i feel blessed to have friends like them.



Upon arrival at the airport, i contacted my airport pick up and soon was driven to my motel. Nothing spectacular... Below is the photo, you can see its somewhat 2-3times the size of my home toilet. The bed was lousy, the TV was sucky and there was only 1 power socket. Guess they didn't want me to use too much electricity.



After that, i went to register in my school and also my life in Melbourne alone. Good thing i learnt all the life skills before coming over. Well, not all exactly. I guess i still have to consult a few people here and there. While finding my future accomodation, im stumble upon a sign saying there is a free concert in a park nearby. So i went over with my bag of chips and a bottle of coke. But i was overwhelmed by the attendence there. There are families all over! I would say roughly 1000 people are there watching the concert. All with their nice picnic floor mats, wine, assortment of cheeses and all kinds of food and fruits. Its pathetic comparing them with me.


Yea, there were lots of insects flying around that night. Too small to even be seen by the naked eye.

So today i went to the city to do some sightseeing. It was an adventure to see the city on foot. I gotta learn everything all over again. Like where to get the free busses and trams, where to find the cheapest food, etc. An adventure all over... And i set myself a target that i must bring back a pillow today, the motel's pillow is totally flat. So i went out and bought myself a nice comfy pillow. Yeah!



Well... Thats all for now. Hopefully i get a place to stay as soon as possible. I want to get out of this crummy place!

Korean Trip Experience

During the CNY period, i planned a Korean trip for my parents and my immediate family members. A total of 11 people, including me, went for this trip. Only my aunt has been on Korean soil, so most of the things i would consult her for advice. As for photos, i will post a link to the album. It's difficult to link photos to the days so just see it after reading this post or vice-versa.

Flight Day:
Flight was on 8am, so we had to check-in by 6am. Our flight was at Terminal 3, the new terminal. Its very nice and very spacious. Though it was only catering to Singapore Airlines flights the service is still slow and there is always a long queue to check-in. Everything was smooth and dandy and we are on our way to Incheon, Seoul.

Upon arrival at Seoul, you can really feel the winter chill. Its like 2-5 degrees in the day and below 0 in the night. So i guess you can say its really, really cold. We paid for airport transfer which is actually a bus loops around Seoul city. Amazing that our hotel is just outside the busstop. Check-in to hotel and we are all hungry as its dinner time. Dinner was settled in a korean bbq styled restaurant. Dad ordered too much as he was hungry. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and rested for the night.

Day 2:
Started with meeting my family members for breakfast. We had breakfast at starbucks. It was pretty cheap as breakfast for 2 included regular latte and cuppa, bagel, sausage crossaint and espresso shot cupcake. After breakfast we proceeded to Nandaemun market for a little shopping. As it was the first day of CNY, all shops were not opened. It was almost like a ghost town. We walked around except a few stalls are open. Finally, my mom crashed into one of the stalls selling Korean fare and bought a big bag of stuff. Meanwhile i visit the Nandaemun gate. It was rather impressive. Few centuries old structure still surviving till today. Took a few photos and seperated with my family.

Our group seperated into 3 parts, my parents, aunt and grand-aunt went to the casino. My uncles family and cousin went on another part of shopping trip. My brother and I went walking just about everywhere. While on the way i bought some strawberries. Imagine a lunchbox size portion of strawberries for only $7! What a steal... Bought 1 box and happily continued our way back to our hotel. Along the road picked up some roadside foodstalls. See photos for more explanation.

Day3:
As planned, my brother and I decided to climb one of the peak in Seoul. The mount is call namsam park. Situated just south of the CBD area and at 200m above sea level. An adventure junkie like me would never give this a miss. So we started our journey after breakfast at Coffeebean joint. Halfway through, my brother was panting and than he saw hope of going up the top without sweating a bead of sweat, cable car. I would say its more of a gondola. I cursed at him and told him i will pay for the ascent to the top but we will walk down. Up the cable car and up to the top. At the top, we went up to the Seoul Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world. It was a spectacular view from there. You can see the whole of Seoul city and the surrounding distant residential area. At the top, i realise something. The sight was almost the same as what i saw at Taipei 101 tower. The city has a river flowing through it and surrounded by natural obstacles of stone. I guess that is how a capital was chosen, abundant life with the river and natural defenses of mountains.

We came down from the tower and looked around the base of the tower. It was then i saw something unique. On the fence, there was thousands of locks on it. Im confused and wondering why the heck do Koreans put a padlocks on these fences for? Than i saw a mandarin speaking guide so i made my way there and listened on his explanation. The padlocks are locked here by couples, it meant to them eternal love. All locks will have 2 keys at least and if one day they are truly seperated, one of them will come here and unlock it. It is like a token of love. It also shows how romantic Koreans are. Hehe...

In the afternoon, my dad requested to see the palace. Da Chang Jin made him want to look how magnificent the place is. So we got into a taxi and went to the palace. It was lucky enough for us to be there just nice to see the change of palace guards ceremony. Something interesting and special. Comparing that to our change of guards parade at the Istana, its like comparing shrimp and lobster. After touring the palace grounds, my mom decided to give a treat. She won quite abit during the the previous day at the casino. So we had the international buffet. The spread was amazing. I never had so much tuna belly sashimi in my life. Great buffet. Damage? $70/pax. Ouch! Still lots of leftovers for my mom in her winnings. So my parents contined the night to try their luck while i walked back to the hotel with my brother. On the way back, we saw snow! Yes. snow! Haha... After so many years of my life, its my first ever seeing snowflakes falling on to me. It was a wonderful experience.

Day 3:
It's now the 3rd day of CNY. Most of the shops are opened now. It was the last day in Korea. So i decided to tell my parents of my plan. Main objective is to go to their Coex tower to buy kimchi and visit Lotte World for once. In the morning, we went to a local shopping centre as my cousin wanted to buy a toy. Lotte Mart was the name of the store and the prices there are pretty reasonable. After checkout, there is this packing station. Empty cardboard boxes is stacked neatly by the side. You can take box, put whatever you want inside and carry it home. They even include free tape! That is what i call cash and carry. Haha... We carried everything in plastic bags and head back to the hotel.

We continued our journey to Coex Tower and Lotte World. At the Coex Tower, the shopping area is huge! It's comparable to Vivocity except its only one level. I kept trying to find the Kimchi museum but its hard to locate it. Hunger overwhelmed us and we finally head to Mcdonalds for lunch. I had shrimp burger while my brother tried their tomato and bacon big mac. Interestingly, they big mac had a cardboard ring around it. Making it hard to topple while still keeping the cut lettuce inside. We ate at the location so the server gave us plastic cups for our coke. Its nice to see them save the environment. After lunch, we continued our search for the museum. Finally submitted to asking the information counter. The lady showed me the way and when we are there, its closed. So sad... Then we proceeded to Lotte World. Finally got tickets to their famous themepark. Shan't say more, the pictures tell a thousand words.

Finally, we head back to our hotel late into the night. We went into this 24hr Korean Restaurant. Ate the BiBimBap as they are famous for it. After that, we went back to the hotel and packed our stuff for departure the next day.

Day 4:
We woke up and had our last breakfast in Seoul City. Heard of a chicken store that sells good baked chicken. So we had the set for brunch. Overall it tasted simple. Not as good as Cute Chicken in Clementi. Then we shopped for one last time and went back to the hotel. Packed our stuff and left Seoul City with so much still waiting to be discovered.

The photo album link:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v395/scopion/Korea%20Trip/

I will pay for damages...

Today i had quite a lineup for my day. I brought a friend to pick up her boyfriend from the airport early in the morning. It was a unique experience i must say, but to see the smiles and happiness is worth the time. Too bad i didn't bring along a camera...

During noon, i had dental appointment. Pulled out the old bands and installed a new set of bands. Seems i have to extend that removal of braces date further, but its a small sacrifice for greater study and the adventure of a lifetime. Lunch was settled in PS, had the Ayam Panggang in the foodcourt. Gonna miss local fare very soon.

After lunch i went a little shopping to justify the buying of new clothes during Chinese New Year. I bought a box of cherries from the supermart and in the midst dropped two boxes. A lady came up to me and demanded i pay for the two boxes as nobody will buy. I simply stayed calm and told her, i will pay for the damages. She stared at me with those poison tipped eyes and started picking out the spoiled cherries. A total of four. Than i said, you weigh them and i will pay for it. Then the supervisor came and intervened and said that its okie, i will not be charged for it. So remember kiddies, when you break something, you have the right to pay for the damages.

Lastly i went to see my usual physician. A little injury on my shoulder which is a huge pain in the past two weeks. So i had to get treatment for it. Accupunture to the rescue again! Yea! But its not miricle cure like the movies but im feeling better now.