Life In Tassie...so far

Sorry I took so long to update...hehe I wrote this quite some time back but unfortunately I only uploaded it recently onto my blog :D

16th Feb 2005, 9.26 pm (Tasmanian time), Wednesday night

Today’s like my 3rd night here…arrived at the residential college on the 14th…I was, like, telling my folks, “after this, I’ll probably be known as ‘THE ONLY KID ON THE BLOCK WHO CAME FULLY-ARMED, WITH BOTH PARENTS WALKING AT MY EITHER SIDE”
Brief summary of life so far at the residential college…
Walking downhill is fun. You get to feel the fresh mountain breeze blowing against your face, really cool and it tousles your hair about your face. But walking back up? That’s a different story…a nightmare, actually, realistically speaking, especially I’m not exactly the most accustomed to walking long distances. Oh, well…I’m already here; might as well get used to it.
Food is…well…edible, so to speak. But that’s about as kind as I’ll get. Hmm apparently their really strict about their cafeteria’s unspoken ‘rules’…and apparently if you don’t clear the remnants of your plates n all into the bins, put them in the designated area, and then dump the cutleries into the proper sink, the cafeteria people will get really pissed off…and that’s exactly what some other international students did…WHEW… Speaking of pissed, we (my friends in SJF college and I) have decided not to used the word ‘pissed’ to describe anger anymore…this is kinda like a long story…It actually started at the butt party (yes, butt party) yesterday night…
It started like this: Patrick had gotten himself totally wasted after he downed about 4 cans of Boags and 12 cups of ‘alcoholized punch’ (note: all this is actually a very conservative estimate; who knows? The bloke might’ve drank even more than that). Then suddenly Nikki said, “Patrick’s really pissed,”, and I was, like, “Huh? I thought he was drunk.” Okay, that was my mistake; the thought didn’t exactly cross my mind since there was this really loud music blaring around me and all. Confusion settled, but a similar thing happened today at the BBQ/F-Factor…There was a little commotion since someone decided to play softball near the BBQ pit, and when someone was yelling out, I turned to Nikki and said, “Is someone pissed?” and the rest is history. We now decided to stick to more common terms: it’s either ‘drunk’ or ‘angry’.
Oh, yeah…speaking of the butt party yesterday night…When I first saw that on my schedule, I thought, “Butt as in ‘cigarette butt’ or butt as in an ass?” I found out later that it was short for the ‘buttery’. They were serving free beer (Boags) and ‘alcoholized punch’ for everyone. The music was really loud; my ears were actually ringing after that and throughout the party everyone had to yell at each other to get lines across. Spotted a ping pong table and decided to have a go at it. We were all equally amateurish at it; it was more of ‘ground tennis’ instead of ‘table tennis’ since for most of the time we were stooping down the ground hunting for the ball…Wild shots; once I even misfired the ball and it accidentally hit someone’s butt (Eeepsss….sorry ‘bout that) They had this UV-ray thingie, so every white particle was glowing; so you can imagine what it’ll be like if someone wore white shorts (and someone really did, actually…) Did I mention that we played ping pong in candlelight? Okay, there was NO light at all…it was so dark and we could hardly see the ball at all…crazy, I know…hmmm…I was also taught a couple of handshakes and greetings, Aussie-style J…Hey, funny thing is…one moment I was sitting on the couch, talking, the next thing I know, when I look ahead, there were actually people on top of the bar, dancing. They also played this game…it went something like this: everyone was to take a card each, and the person with the lowest card number had to drink 2 cups of ‘alcoholized punch’…some people were really desperate to get that card; I know someone who took 2 cards just to ‘increase the odds a little’…
BBQ party was a combination between extra-BURNT food with F-Factor entertainment…Hmm I think they had apple/blackcurrant cordial drinks (it’s not bad, actually) with franks, burgers, and some muffins…my hot dog was horribly charred (YES, CHARRED)…I was asking about for a bin, and Joe told me just to toss it aside for it to decompose naturally or let it be picked up by some animal…so I tossed it away, imitating this Spanish waiter’s actions (it was in a drama a few of us watched together)…The F-factor (it stands for the Fisher-factor, I think, and it‘s supposed to be, like, the X-factor, which is in turn very much like American Idol)…ah…the first was a duet (more of a solo, since most of the time only one guy sang)…The second was somewhat more entertaining…They were kinda like dancing and singing to the tune ‘It’s Raining Men’…kinda like a parody of the original video clip. Some guy dressed up in a belly-bearing outfit with just his underwear and sandals….oh, geez…and then they started dancing and splashing water all over…In this weather? God, they must’ve been freezing. The only girl in that group (Tania, I think) complained that it was freezing cold. The belly-bearing guy just looked at her and said in frustration, “Oh, come on!”
I used to think that it was just plain bad luck that my room was on the top floor; now it’s kinda like a blessing in disguise…sure, there are bugs constantly swatting themselves against my window from the outside, it’s very much smaller than some rooms, and not to mention, I had to lug my suitcase all the way up (even with the help of others, and even with me and my dad taking turns up the stairs, it was still tiring) but I’ve seriously got the best view; the view at night is completely awesome; you can see the bridge and the rest of the town lit up- again, the only thing that’s stopping me from snapping shots is the bug-factor…as well as the stupid window panes- they keep reflecting the camera’s flash. On the 14th there were actually fireworks, and it was simply spectacular.
Have I mentioned the perfect weather and the great people around here? The only thing missing here is snow (it only snows on the higher grounds in the recent years, like on Mt. Wellington, etc), but someone pointed out to me that it wouldn’t exactly be fun trotting and ploughing your way through snow or trying to hike your way downhill through slippery, icy walks. Good point. I met some of my SJF college mates when I happened to be walking downstairs to the cafeteria with my mom; among them are Nikki @ Tom, who’s a real TV buff and music lover, and Patrick, who happens to be a neat freak, semi-hypochondriac with an appreciation of shapely legs, and a very obvious obsession with Tara Moss. Both have a very keen sense of humour and is exceptionally sociable... :D
I got to meet with quite a number of international students, like Asuka from Japan who’s interested in studying Zoology; Diana, an exchange student from U.S. who’s studying biotech; Kevin, who happens to be from Malaysia, who’s studying Electrical Engineering, ‘Bruce’ (as in, like, Bruce Lee, as dubbed by Nikki since she found his real name hard to pronounce), also from Malaysia…and many more. (You couldn't believe the relief I felt when I met Hooi Yin, who was from MY, too, who also happened to be studying Pharm. and was so fortunately living in the college beside SJFC :D)

17th Feb 2005, Thursday, 3.10 pm local Tassie time

If I weren’t so tired, I’d be really pissed off. Why? I’ll tell you why; I spent the whole damn morning at an orientation session after hiking downhill; then I went to the TUU building to queue for the free lunch since it was too late to head back for lunch and since I still had some stuff to settle. Then I went to the international services to get my internet account password and etc, which in turn directed me to the student admin, which then directed me to another building. As you can see, it was pretty much a lengthy and WORTHLESS wild goose chase. When I finally got to the ID services, I stumbled upon another impossible queue, and when it was finally my turn, guess what? They said that I had to return another day to make the ID and collect my internet account stuff. I was like, “What? No, that can’t be; the people at the international services told me that everything was fine and that I could collect my stuff from you guys,” but apparently, they haven’t received nuts or something like that. Come back another day??? What the hell is that supposed to mean??? Come on!!! You mean all the stupid tormenting walk was for NOTHING??? When I get my strength back, I’m soooooo gonna killllll *_*

18th February 2005, Friday, 11.55 pm local Tassie time

Have I ever mentioned the conditions in which we’re supposed to take showers with? My floor’s ‘shower room’ consists of 2 somewhat 1.5 by 1.5 m cubicles that’re separated from the rest of the bathroom by nothing but a thin piece of plastic that they call ‘curtains’. There isn’t exactly any place which you can hang or put yourself in the little ‘torture cubicle of privacy’; the only place you can actually find space is on the little half-a-metre white bench at the side- that is, if you choose the cubicle that’s right beside it. Even when I always do, I still have to manage some acrobatic stretches to juggle my stuff, outstretching my arm while trying to keep the shower curtain closed. The other cubicle? Good luck; you’d have to either run out butt naked, or leave your stuff on the floor outside your cubicle, which I don’t think people would wanna do.
Fish ‘n’ chips for dinner tonight. It was ok; just needed more salt on the fries…should’ve placed some from the salt bottle myself, but the fries were kinda ‘dehydrated’, so it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
Sheesh…finally got my internet account, password, email account and etc settled at student admin today, and finally managed to get my student ID after Round 2 of braving the 45-minute queue. But I’ll have to see those admin people soon enough to settle my tuition fees, ask about this and that, blah blah blah, n etc…Okay, I look like some revolutionist or terrorist or criminal on my student ID; hey, so what was I supposed to do? I have to admit, I wasn’t too happy to see them again although I know it probably wasn‘t their fault, but I couldn’t help frowning when I sat there, and hence, the unsightly picture of me on my student ID (at least it‘s still better than my passport photo; I looked like some common thug on that one). Oh, yeah, you know how usernames are usually based on initials and surnames, right? Well, my uni decided to use my surname and my middle name initials, and hence, the product of a rather unsightly username: sitan. God, they make it sound like ‘satan’ or something. Imagine, if my initials were S.A., while my surname was ‘Tan’. In that case, it’d really be satan! And apparently those blokes that the admin have this really keen sense of humour, ‘coz guess what my password is? ‘Exorcise’. Geez. Well, anyway, that’s history. I pretty much can’t do anything about my username, but at least I’ve changed my password.
Today was Round 2 for the SJFC F-Factor event…I was supposed to perform but I hid behind this nice, huge pillar (confidentially, I wanted to go hide in my room). It would seem that most of the entertainment throughout the event came from a bunch of make-believe cross-dressers; the guys had faked tits strapped to them and one of them was wearing this cocktail gown; everyone went, like, Oh My God! Then there was April, who composed her own song; she sang while she was strumming the guitar. She was nervous, but she was really good, considering how she’d made up the lyrics in such a short period of time.

22nd February 2005, Tuesday, 8.35 pm local Tassie time

This is seriously the home of ‘BBQ and alcohol’. Lately it seems as though that’s the only item on the menu. Just this morning, I had a 3-hour break between my lectures, and the pharm seniors organized a BBQ and provided alcoholic beverages. It was like agonizingly hot and the sun was glaring today, and we were, like, chewing on BBQ-ed hot dogs and burgers; it was madness. Pure madness. That’s the 4th time since I’ve been here (I arrived in the residential college on the 14th). The first was a BBQ dinner in my residential college (remember the charred hot dog? Yeap, that‘s the one). The next was a BBQ lunch at the Union Building, provided for the international students. The third was a ‘champagne breakfast’ (as they’d like to call it), which was, as usual BBQ with champagne. They actually went around pounding on everyone’s doors (just like during a drill call in military camp or something); there were some really LOUD wake-up calls, followed by singing (I have absolutely no idea who they were, but a group of guys started singing door-to-door like a carolling group, belting out lyrics that went like, ‘Breakfast together…’, chanting it over and over again in a singsong tune). I did get up and prepared myself, but as soon as I saw that we were gonna have another BBQ on top of the hill (behind my residential college), I immediately turned around to seek shelter in my own room. That didn’t turn out pretty well; since most of us decided to skip the ’champagne breakfast’, we were limited to a breakfast of either cereal or toast; the hot stuff were reserved for Christ College residents, since SJFC committee told the staff that we were supposed to have breakfast on our own. Geez…
I’m currently listening to Linkin Park while waiting for my laundry. It takes about 38 minutes to wash the clothes and another 50 minutes to actually finish a spin in the dryer. I’ve finished my shower, managed to have a considerably lengthy chat with my folks back home, wandered the corridors of SJFC in boredom, and now I’m sitting in my room typing this- all this, while my clothes -as I can imagine- as still spinning endlessly in the dryer. Tomorrow will be SJFC’s first formal dinner for the year. Everyone will probably be walking around looking like carbon copies because of the dress code. Crap. Why can’t they have a ‘denim-style dinner’ or something like that? Who can actually eat in peace, wearing formal, stiff clothes?

25th February 2005, Friday, 11.26 pm local time

Lectures as usual this morning; suddenly for the 2nd period I had a Human Biology all the way in the Anatomy and Physiology Building; it was a 15 minute walk uphill from the Chemistry Lecture Theatre. Trust me; when the walk is uphill all the way, 15 minutes is a VERY, VERY, long time. Interestingly, we were told to write an essay on the spot for about 15-20 minutes from a list of topics. Mine was about the idea of medical insurers being given the go-ahead for genetic testing in identifying high-risk clients, etc, etc…a whole lotta crap I wrote…sigh…night time was more interesting, though. Everyone was bored because the internet server in the computer lab was still down, so Mariko came up with the idea of heading to the casino. And so we did. The walk was refreshing, though; the cool night time breeze, plus we got a really nicely lit-up view of the wharf. The Casino itself wasn’t that interesting; nothing more than a couple of tables of gamblers, followed by rows of brightly-lit machineries like those you could find in an arcade. And yeah, there was this free-of-charge Nescafe vending machine nearby, and each of us walked away with cups of either hot chocolate or coffee. The walk on the way back was more interesting; we kept bumping into, like, everyone we knew from SJFC. And yes, we had to bribe our way back; we chipped in to buy some pizza for Jannika’s brother who had so kindly agreed to drive us back.