Sydney Trip

The Sydney pictures are so waaay long overdue, but here they are anyway.



(L -> R) James, Me, Alvin, Christina and Trina at a dim sum restaurant

Cam-whoring by Sydney Harbour

Guy's room. I took the upper level single bed and filmed the threesome below was blissfully ignorant of the covert activities going on under the cover of darkness below.

Roast chicken duck and pork!

Yea!!

Spicy Korean Toufu

Western Dinner by Sydney Harbour

Krispy Kremes

The famed Sydney Harbour

The Posers by Sydney Harbour... :)

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Orientation Week

The Orientation Week that never was. At least, that was how the week went by for me personally. Orientation week stretched from the 18th till the 24th of February. I did jump into some activities, not without some reservations and less-than-applaudable enthusiasm. Instead, I opted to spend the week with a bunch of people who consisted mostly of Singaporeans. I tell you, they are damn kiasu people ah! Just joking la... If anything, my brief stint in INTEC (my college) back in 2007 affirmed my belief that Malaysians have no claim to a higher moral plane when it comes to kiasuism.

Australian Flag at Parliament

Ursula residents (or known affectionately as Ursies) posing at Parliament

First Years' Dinner

Coffee Crawl
(L->R) John, Zoe, Me, Kailin

I went up a hill next to the campus called Black Mountain with my friends. The route uphill was rather steep at several points but it was healthy fun nevertheless.

Base of Black Mountain
(L->R) Me, Melvin, Natalie, Trina, Christina, Alvin, James

At the summit of Black Mountain in Telstra Tower

Trip completed! Dead tired but no regrets.

Military-themed party(?)
(L->R) Alvin, Me, James, Melvin

So that's how Orientation Week passed. I enjoyed every moment of it even though many of our activities were spontaneously devised to substitute the official Ursula Hall (my residential college) O-week programme. While I do not suppose that the official programme was inadequate, but rather I would not have felt comfortable participating in typical orientation week activities. I guess deep inside I still am the same boring and mildly anti-social individual. Haha...

I also passed time by going down town into the city of Canberra to shop, watching movies and playing computer games via LAN. I'm thankful for the great bunch of friends I met here in Ursula Hall. Think about it, having friends is possibly the best ward against homesickness and a whole range of other problems. All in all, orientation week proved to be a great week! Next, onto the lectures... sigh.

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Canberra

It has been over a fortnight since I arrived here in Canberra. I arrived here on the 13th of February. It was a journey brimming of apprehension and hope. There was apprehension as I was leaving home for a foreign land the very first time in my life. Leaving the security of family and friends and to a certain extent, my homeland proved to be a combo that was tough to swallow. Swallow I did, but not without shedding any tears. Yet there was hope of new doors opening; a clean slate promising to erase the screw ups of yesterday. The end of one chapter marks the beginning of the next. So turns a page...

Welcome to Canberra, Australia

The scenery here in Canberra is breathtaking. The Australian flora and fauna gave me a surreal sensation when I arrived initially, being so used to the standard green shades of tropical plants.

Black swans

So that's all for a day! I'll be blogging more about how I spent my orientation week (which really wasn't that productive, taking into account that I skipped about 90% of the activities).

Canberra is a new dawn in life. I may be naive for believing that things will change for the better, but hope is a fair enough reason to keep me going.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

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