Australia, Saya Sudah Datang...

6^th Feb 2007 (Tues)

There, as the title suggests it, I reached Australia safely today. I landed in Melbourne at 8.45am (Australian Time) while Canberra at 12.23pm.

Three unexpected friends sent me off: Kelvin Goh, Lee King Peng, Nic Chan; so nice of them. Thank you all so much!!!

The sending of part was sad; more sad than I expected. I started crying automatically when I hugged my family members. It further justified my hypothesis that hugging makes people cry.

The flight to Canberra was so unstable towards the end that I felt like vomiting. Thank God I slept and didn’t eat the breakfast which was served during the first half of the flight. Well, not that I don’t want to but it was just that I was sleepy and decided to nap for a while before eating the fruitcake. The next time I opened my eyes, it was gone. Puff…Oh, talk about magic, I finally got to watch The Prestige but at the most unique place possible- in the plane. MAS is certainly not bad at offering their customers with some popular movies. Even Cicak Man was in the menu. The drawback was the sound system. I couldn’t catch half of the conversations. To make it worse, the subtitle for The Prestige was in Jawi (cannot change one, or erm, maybe I just dunno how =p ) I wasn’t as lost when I watched Cicak Man as it has English subtitles. But I didn’t catch the whole movie cause I dozed of towards the ending.

In the plane, I mistakenly took a beer as a zapple. Besides that fact that they look the same, it was also because I heard the air-stewardess on the other lane said it was apple juice. Well, since I accidentally took it, I tried finishing it but I just couldn’t. It tasted awful. I finally returned this drink to her and took an orange juice instead. (sigh)

The declaration process was not much of a problem. The person who checked my bag even complimented, “Looks good. You packed your bags pretty well.” But towards the end, he found my while coloured detergent and began suspecting that it was something illegal. Well, he didn’t exactly say that to me but the way he stared and examined the detergent implies that. That was practically the longest item being inspected by him. Thankfully, he didn’t confiscate it. Instead, he just taped it with a cellophane tape. The whole process took about 25minutes. Oh, to those who wants to declare, be ready to pack your luggage all over again. It you’re unlucky, the officer will simply dig your stuffs and it can get really messy. And try your best to answer as innocently and confidently as possible.

The people in Australia are extraordinarily friendly and I’m not stating this based on one single observation. Practically every Australians I talked to was super helpful and polite, ranging from the immigration worker to the seniors in ANU. I am sure that most of the foreigners who live in Australia for a significant period of time will automatically be shaped into that kinda person, which is not a bad thing at all.

Oh, I spent my first night in Australia in a bar. Yes, a bar.

It was like a lawatan sambil belajar andmost of the senior residents were going so they encouraged us to come along as they can also show us around on our way to the bar. A Malaysian senior, Chern, asked me to try Australian beer as I’ve already come all the way here. Moreover, beer is cheaper than coke, according to him. So I tried a $2 worth of beer. The glass was pretty big. Ironically, I managed to finish it as I chatted with more and more Australians. Not that I liked that taste. Australian beers are nothing better than Malaysia’s (from an amateur point of view) but I just didn’t wanna waste my $2. So there you go, my first experience of drinking a full glass of bear. At the end of the night, my face turned red. Erm, wait, that doesn’t sound serious. It must be capitalized: RED. I’ve never seen my face that red. Then I head started spinning (I tried my best to stay in the conversation), an experience which is not new to me. Well, not that I’ve got drunk before but it was the same way I felt during camps when I was very very tired and sleepy but was still forced to stand or walk. Yeah, I won’t consider myself as drunk as I didn’t talk rubbish =) or..did I?

Thankfully, I managed to return safely =) It was then that I realized my mistake of drinking beer at night. The room was already stuffy, add it with my exothermic condition after drinking, oh man..it was terribly hot..thank God after a while, it felt better and I managed to activate my Vodafone number before dozing off.

Inevitably, much to the disbelief of Sze Huey, I felt lonely and homesick because there was no one from INTEC staying in Ursula Hall. No doubt I’ve made new friends but it’s always nice to have someone you’re close to with you especially in a foreign area. I know I’ll have to get use to it. Perhaps it’ll get better when orientation starts.

But meanwhile, I MISS MY FAMILY!!!!