For The Past Few Days

I'm typing this in Microsoft word first and when you see this on my blog, (yes you are reading it now) it means that I've managed to get proper internet to post this on my blog.

DAY 1 (sunday)

And yes, all the hundred possible worrying scenarios did NOT happen, thank god. Everything went smoothly, from the flight, the customs, airport pick up and settling down temporarily in Currie Hall – well everything except one, Debbi and I couldn't use the internet provided here because the telephone cable head here is smaller than the one they use in msia. =/ I guess we'll try to see if we can get an adapter or whatever it’s called.

Unfortunately, there were no seniors to help us around as most are them are still not back from summer break. =( sigh, feel kinda lost around here.

But with some luck, we got to know this coincidentally also msian guy staying next door to Deb. His name is Ren and he's from UNSW but doing his internship here temporarily in Perth. He really helped us a lot, showing us around Currie Hall and showed us a place for dinner too as most of the shops are closed for summer break. It wasn't really near (well to someone lazy like me haha) and it's a Chinese restaurant! Guess what is my first dinner there? Char Kuew Teow! Which costed a freaking AUD10!! =( The portions are really huge and we couldn't finish so just tapau back to reheat later la haha.. Looks like Deb and I should have shared a plate instead.

Oh ya, I haven't talked abt my first impression of the place eh. Well, it looks like a really nice place so far and omg I love the abundant greenery here. Very beautiful!! The trees of different shapes and sizes, the exploding colour of the flowers, the different types of shrubs... The population here is pretty diverse too.

DAY 2 (monday)

Well we had to open a bank account and get a cellphone line so off to the city we went! We had no idea how to go or even get back, just that we are supposed to take the 102/107 bus... Did many silly mistakes, met some nice people and a nasty one as well bah!

The city is really nice. The streets are organized and well connected for pedestrians.. A lot of ppl walk around here… I walk till my legs sakit ade.. =/

The coins here are confusing and have interesting shapes. The 50 cent coin is a large hexagon! The 2 dollar coin here is much smaller than the 1 dollar coin! Weird.

Tried to call home with the calling card, heard they say it's much cheaper.. but weirdly Optus seems to be charging me a bomb for trying to access their Perth number. (you need to call a perth number before you key in the number you wanna call) sigh, so until I sort this out, won't be able to call much. My emotion was mainly ='( this when I found out the cost of that 10 min call.

DAY 3 (tuesday)

Mainly all we did today was registration. So many things to do and papers to read. I still haven't sort that out lol. My face looks very round in my student card – and hah! I tot I lost weight! :P I got my Smart Rider card too, so will be able to take the bus with the student concession price. Yays. International students have a 40% discount.

Erm what else did we do? Oh ya, we started looking for houses online. Wrote down a few possible options. Three of us will be sharing a house – Deb, Xin Nee and I.

DAY 4 (wednesday)

Finally, a free day! And we finally got our full internet access activated at the uni. Tell you what, the procedures are really complicated. o.O So will be able to access blogs and facebook whatsoever. But we are allocated a limited internet quota per day, 10MB. I guess that's ok for normal browsing. Felt so nice to be able to surf the net again. This is what happens when you get addicted to the net and it is your only source of communication to the outside world.

We also went to see 2 houses today. The first one in the morning wasn't really nice. While the second one in the evening was gorgeous. It was more expensive naturally but I think it is our dream house... They have walk-in closets here! wow! Now to find out how to apply for it..

DAY 5 (thursday)

Today was mainly orientation - and no, it wasn't like those dirty grimy orientation week we had in imu - though I half-wished it was! Serious! Anyway, this was the first time we saw the medical faculty which was isolated from the rest of the campus but nearer to one of the main teaching hospitals. It was a pretty nice place I guess.

Anyway, we had to do lots of high tech computer stuff and listened to a few pretty confusing explanations about the classes/units we will have in the year ahead. @.@ And omg, again a ton of stuff to read. I haven't started on any of that yet. haha.. will leave that for the weekend.

Classes officially start next tuesday (monday is Australia Day btw) and then it will be about 2 weeks of preparations sort of classes before official rotations kick off! My rotations are in the following order: Medicine Specialities (Geriatrics, MSK), Surgery, Psychiatry and lastly Medicine. Hmm am not sure whether I like this order yet but can't do anything abt it as we are not allowed to switch. Oh and most of us are alone in our group too, as in not with the other imu students. Hope I will be able to manage!!

DAY 6 (friday)

Which is today. Finally managed to send in our application for the lease of the house. It's an online application with ton of things to fill in.. omigosh it's so difficult and complicated to get things done around here. Even need points for identification eg. pictures of drivers license or passport. what!

And you know what, this doesn't even guarantee you will get the house!! NO! I think the main point of ppl who are interested are asked to send in their applications is that the house owner will get to pick who they want to lease their house to. Good for them of course, but very complicated for newbies like us. =/

Sigh I wonder why I never get to know abt the stuff that is done differently in australia... well gotta experience it myself then!

Oh ya, you must be wondering how come I can post this now. Deb and I finally just bought a cable thingy that lets us use the hostel internet. Finally!! after so many days...

I guess that's all for now. The day hasn't ended! We will be going to explore the city at night later... yeap the shops in the city are open till 9pm on fridays. I wonder what new things we will see!

Okay this is getting pretty long-winded so I will write more in the next post.. Till then, take care!

PS: For my friends who are concerned abt me, thank you so much. :) I haven't been coping well the past few days but things seem to be looking up! I hope the rest of the days will only be better!