The Tasmanian Life
8th April 2005, Friday 9:39 pm local time
Had lamb with couscous for lunch today. "What the hell is couscous?" I thought asthe cafeteria lady scooped a large spoonful of those granule-like, flaxen things onto my plate.Apparently they're actually grains of wheat left after flour has been bolted (I had to look upthe dictionary for 'couscous'!) Dinner was fish n chips, as usual, and again, vanilla ice-cream,the norm of friday nights. After spending a couple months here, there's a real evident pattern emerging...
Tuesdays- "Fast Food Day": the day whereby lunch usually includes either hot dogs or burgers
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays- "Hot Breakfast Day". Usually includes: bacon,sausages, sunny side-up eggs, tomatoes with cheese, baked beans. Occassionally there are pancakes n hash browns...
Fridays- "Fish 'n' Chips Day": That's for dinner. After that it's vanilla ice-cream. The flavour never changes. Ever.
Sundays- "Review of the week": very much a fancy name for "all the leftovers from the whole week"...Yep, that's pretty much what they serve us for lunch..See how they "recycle" their dishes?
Not that I actually waste my time memorising the menu, but after awhile, everyone sorta just getsbrainwashed automatically that they can actually recite the menu by heart...So, ppl who're planning tocome to Tasmania, and who're planning on taking up residence in SJFC or Christ College, you know whatto expect...
Something interesting happened last night (OK, this morning...). Around 12.30 a.m. I opened the door of myroom just to find the hallway littered with paper towels and Boags bags. When I actually entered thebathroom, the first thing I noticed about the bathroom was the mirrors- they were actually sprayed withshaving cream (either by some drunken pigs or neanderthals, no doubt)...It was just so freaking filthy!Prior to that I actually endured hours of blaring music from a guy who lived two doors away. The music wasso loud that it was actually causing vibrations in my room (not to mention, his choice of music wasn'texactly the best, either)... Aside from that, there were a couple of people running and screaming past myroom...that was absolutely infuriating!
Oh, well.. At least volumetric analysis this week was satisfying... For the first experiment, I actuallyhad to do it three times; thank goodness for the 2nd one (which I recently handed in the results) I wasactually given the OK sign on the first time (*phew*). Uncannily, I actually accidentally cut my fingerwhile I was opening a sealed ampoule- the finger that I cut was the exact same one as my friend's (shecut hers doing the same thing, too)...weird.
Human Biology quiz results are finally out! It was quite tormenting, waiting for the results, especiallysince I didn't do so well for the 1st quiz...Thankfully, there was some improvement, and hopefully, I'llbe able to maintain -or even better, improve- those results! *_*
My current Human Biology lecturer reminds me of Colonel Sanders (you know, the KFC guy)...so I nicknamed him'KFC'... Probably not the best code name for a lecturer, but nevertheless, a couple of friends actually agreedwith me...
What else is interesting? Oh, yeah. This week's formal dinner on Wednesday night. They had performances, as usual.They managed to get this guy to juggle, and he was actually pretty good; the second performance, however... Oh, boy..that's quite a different story. He was actually performing some kung-fu act, or at least he was supposed to, butit turned out quite differently from what everyone expected. Of course, real-life martial arts are quite differentfrom the ones you see in Hollywood films, but... I don't know; halfway through his 'act', practically everyone wassniggering or laughing themselves to death. It could be the fact that his clothes were mismatched for the occassion-after all, we're all used to seeing kung-fu exponents in their uniforms and all, not formal clothes. Or it couldbe the fact that his movements were a little unusual to most. I don't know. Whatever it was, the poor guy was literallylaughed off the stage. I feel kinda bad for contributing to the laughter sounds, but it was 'induced', I swear. I didn'teven smile, that is, until a guy at the same table suddenly burst out laughing. The next thing I knew, I was smiling.After that, I was drinking gallons of orange juice to keep me from giggling. Then when I couldn't take it I had to turnaway. Hell. Poor guy.
Hmm...this evening from around 4:30 to about 5 pm I bumped into a friend of mine. She asked me to sniff her fingers, andI was like, ok, sure. Yeah, it was pretty stupid of me. I took a whiff and I went, "What's that smell?", and she shrugged,casually mentioning, "Oh. Probably the smell of latex gloves or formaldehyde. I just finished a dissection section."I went, "Oh...Hell. AND YOU LET ME SMELL THAT DELIBERATELY???" Freaking gross. But I have to admit, that smelled just likethe smell in hospitals and clinics.
Chemistry quiz is next week. I'm supposed to be studying, but heck, it's a Friday night. I'll probably sleep in tomorrow,but again, heck, tomorrow'll be a Saturday morning. Talk about procrastination.
9th April 2005, Friday night
Pizza and ice-cream day! Zheng Sheng came up with the sudden idea of going down to the city just to grab a couple of ice-creamcones after dinner. A total of 7 of us went, if I'm not mistaken; we walked towards the wharf to this place called Muer's (apparentlythey've got the best ice-cream in town, but Haagen Das -is that how u spell it?- still tastes better)...After that we went for somepizza at La Bella (my fav pizza shop; i especially love their Hawaiian and Mozarella pizza) but they decided to order a Satay chickenpizza (eheh...not exactly what I had in mind, but it was not bad). It was quite an interesting night; we were appraoched by a group ofdrunkards when we sitting at a nearby bench.. One of them plucked a flower from a pot of flower just beside the seat and handed it to me,asking me to call "Sean" (the other drunkard) and hand him the flower. Funny...Sean giving another Sean a flower. Hmm... as if that wasn'tenough, the drunken "Sean" plucked a flower for Shin Yee, 2 for Bruce, 3 for Kevin, a whole bunch for Sue May...and, oh, boy.. he actuallypractically unrooted the whole pot of flowers, with the roots and soil and all, and then dumped it onto Mea's lap. You should've seen it;we were all gaping in surprise. Remind me to quote this as an example if I ever give a speech on the effects of inebriation.Nothing much interesting happened that night (except for some parts of our conversation which I think will be best left undiscussed *ahem*);we pretty much took the bus back after that, and yeah, get this- we sat on the bus for 20 minutes (the bus ride was only supposed to be 10 minutes, max)because we had to wait for the bus to make to huge round to stop at the university. Hmmm...quite a memorable night; the 2 scoops of ice cream and pizzawas heavenly (especially after what we had for dinner in college)...
15th April 2005, Friday evening 4:08 p.m. local time
This has been a super busy week. As part of the course, we (my classmates n I) are supposed to handle some certain assignments and practicals onscheduled days respectively. It so happened that I was assigned to all 3 practicals this week (Drug info practical, dispensing practical, n the communitypharmacy visit)...that's 8 additional hours (compared to the usual schedule), and on dispensing day I had 6 hours of labwork...talk about MURDER...and to top it off, I had to take both the human biology quiz and chemistry mid-semester today, which was particularly awful, since I had to do loads ofcramming (I'm gonna get a LONG, LONG, and good night's sleep tonight to make up for the physical torment throughout the week)...and I may as well admit,I skipped human bio tutorial because I was too tired and since there was only 1/2 hour left due to the chem test delay...An interesting thought would bewhether anyone did turn up for it...hmmm....
Oh, yeah; I've seen to have improved on my Aussie vocabulary; I've noticed how some of the terms we use back home is rarely used here; instead, they'vesubstituted them with their own terms:
(correct me if I'm wrong; this is just what I've been observing so far)
Common term (MY) Aussie Equivalent
Hi, Hello How's it going?, G'day
Thanks Ta
No problem No worries
It's alright, That's okay You're alright
?? (not quite sure, but it's almost Cheers
like a victorious"Yours Truly"
in emails)
Bye See Ya
Did I mention something about a spider? Earlier this week (on monday, i think), the first thing i saw when i woke up in the morning was a unfamiliar hump ofblack on the top corner of my wall. I went, "Oh...heck." The stupid spider was about 30-40 times the one you'd get back home (believe me, I'm not exaggerating)I had to use my chair as a ladder, climb up armed with a long ruler and a hard-covered file (a spoilt one, of course), and finally had to flatten it. It took altogether3 squashes before the spider was permanently dead (i think); the first squash was using the file; I thought it was dead, until I saw the legs moving in a disgustingtwitchy way from beneath the file. 2nd squash- I used my long ruler and held it in that position until I didn't see any more movement. I thought that the disgusting thingwas finally dead, but when I scooped it up with the file and was on my way to dispose of it, it moved again! Ugh! Anyway, this time I dumped it on the ground near thewaste bin and squashed it with the heel of my sandals (with paper in between, of course). No hard feelings, but I gave it a proper "burial" in the waster paper bin. May itrest in peace, and may his relatives not come back to exact revenge of some sort. I guess I'm considerably "luckier" than some of my friends, especially since they find wormsAND spiders in their rooms, but on the other hand, seeing a huge spider just as soon as you wake up isn't exactly the most pleasant idea. I'm still wondering how it got in.It's huge, so I doubt it crawled under the door. It's quite possible that it was hiding somewhere in my room during the day (maybe it snuck in when I left the door open) and wasstaying in some spot without me noticing- for the enire day or something. Scary thought. Imagine if it crawled on my face or something. Yuck. That was worse than the moth invasionI suffered a couple of weeks ago. It happened when I accidentally left my windows open at night, with my room's lights on (I was out at that time); when I came back, there were God-knows-how many of thoseugly things zooming all over my room, with tiny bugs and insects. That was quite an infestation, and needless to say, it was super troublesome to get rid of those beasts. Patrick helped me swat some, and I dealt with the rest after he left.
Had lamb with couscous for lunch today. "What the hell is couscous?" I thought asthe cafeteria lady scooped a large spoonful of those granule-like, flaxen things onto my plate.Apparently they're actually grains of wheat left after flour has been bolted (I had to look upthe dictionary for 'couscous'!) Dinner was fish n chips, as usual, and again, vanilla ice-cream,the norm of friday nights. After spending a couple months here, there's a real evident pattern emerging...
Tuesdays- "Fast Food Day": the day whereby lunch usually includes either hot dogs or burgers
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays- "Hot Breakfast Day". Usually includes: bacon,sausages, sunny side-up eggs, tomatoes with cheese, baked beans. Occassionally there are pancakes n hash browns...
Fridays- "Fish 'n' Chips Day": That's for dinner. After that it's vanilla ice-cream. The flavour never changes. Ever.
Sundays- "Review of the week": very much a fancy name for "all the leftovers from the whole week"...Yep, that's pretty much what they serve us for lunch..See how they "recycle" their dishes?
Not that I actually waste my time memorising the menu, but after awhile, everyone sorta just getsbrainwashed automatically that they can actually recite the menu by heart...So, ppl who're planning tocome to Tasmania, and who're planning on taking up residence in SJFC or Christ College, you know whatto expect...
Something interesting happened last night (OK, this morning...). Around 12.30 a.m. I opened the door of myroom just to find the hallway littered with paper towels and Boags bags. When I actually entered thebathroom, the first thing I noticed about the bathroom was the mirrors- they were actually sprayed withshaving cream (either by some drunken pigs or neanderthals, no doubt)...It was just so freaking filthy!Prior to that I actually endured hours of blaring music from a guy who lived two doors away. The music wasso loud that it was actually causing vibrations in my room (not to mention, his choice of music wasn'texactly the best, either)... Aside from that, there were a couple of people running and screaming past myroom...that was absolutely infuriating!
Oh, well.. At least volumetric analysis this week was satisfying... For the first experiment, I actuallyhad to do it three times; thank goodness for the 2nd one (which I recently handed in the results) I wasactually given the OK sign on the first time (*phew*). Uncannily, I actually accidentally cut my fingerwhile I was opening a sealed ampoule- the finger that I cut was the exact same one as my friend's (shecut hers doing the same thing, too)...weird.
Human Biology quiz results are finally out! It was quite tormenting, waiting for the results, especiallysince I didn't do so well for the 1st quiz...Thankfully, there was some improvement, and hopefully, I'llbe able to maintain -or even better, improve- those results! *_*
My current Human Biology lecturer reminds me of Colonel Sanders (you know, the KFC guy)...so I nicknamed him'KFC'... Probably not the best code name for a lecturer, but nevertheless, a couple of friends actually agreedwith me...
What else is interesting? Oh, yeah. This week's formal dinner on Wednesday night. They had performances, as usual.They managed to get this guy to juggle, and he was actually pretty good; the second performance, however... Oh, boy..that's quite a different story. He was actually performing some kung-fu act, or at least he was supposed to, butit turned out quite differently from what everyone expected. Of course, real-life martial arts are quite differentfrom the ones you see in Hollywood films, but... I don't know; halfway through his 'act', practically everyone wassniggering or laughing themselves to death. It could be the fact that his clothes were mismatched for the occassion-after all, we're all used to seeing kung-fu exponents in their uniforms and all, not formal clothes. Or it couldbe the fact that his movements were a little unusual to most. I don't know. Whatever it was, the poor guy was literallylaughed off the stage. I feel kinda bad for contributing to the laughter sounds, but it was 'induced', I swear. I didn'teven smile, that is, until a guy at the same table suddenly burst out laughing. The next thing I knew, I was smiling.After that, I was drinking gallons of orange juice to keep me from giggling. Then when I couldn't take it I had to turnaway. Hell. Poor guy.
Hmm...this evening from around 4:30 to about 5 pm I bumped into a friend of mine. She asked me to sniff her fingers, andI was like, ok, sure. Yeah, it was pretty stupid of me. I took a whiff and I went, "What's that smell?", and she shrugged,casually mentioning, "Oh. Probably the smell of latex gloves or formaldehyde. I just finished a dissection section."I went, "Oh...Hell. AND YOU LET ME SMELL THAT DELIBERATELY???" Freaking gross. But I have to admit, that smelled just likethe smell in hospitals and clinics.
Chemistry quiz is next week. I'm supposed to be studying, but heck, it's a Friday night. I'll probably sleep in tomorrow,but again, heck, tomorrow'll be a Saturday morning. Talk about procrastination.
9th April 2005, Friday night
Pizza and ice-cream day! Zheng Sheng came up with the sudden idea of going down to the city just to grab a couple of ice-creamcones after dinner. A total of 7 of us went, if I'm not mistaken; we walked towards the wharf to this place called Muer's (apparentlythey've got the best ice-cream in town, but Haagen Das -is that how u spell it?- still tastes better)...After that we went for somepizza at La Bella (my fav pizza shop; i especially love their Hawaiian and Mozarella pizza) but they decided to order a Satay chickenpizza (eheh...not exactly what I had in mind, but it was not bad). It was quite an interesting night; we were appraoched by a group ofdrunkards when we sitting at a nearby bench.. One of them plucked a flower from a pot of flower just beside the seat and handed it to me,asking me to call "Sean" (the other drunkard) and hand him the flower. Funny...Sean giving another Sean a flower. Hmm... as if that wasn'tenough, the drunken "Sean" plucked a flower for Shin Yee, 2 for Bruce, 3 for Kevin, a whole bunch for Sue May...and, oh, boy.. he actuallypractically unrooted the whole pot of flowers, with the roots and soil and all, and then dumped it onto Mea's lap. You should've seen it;we were all gaping in surprise. Remind me to quote this as an example if I ever give a speech on the effects of inebriation.Nothing much interesting happened that night (except for some parts of our conversation which I think will be best left undiscussed *ahem*);we pretty much took the bus back after that, and yeah, get this- we sat on the bus for 20 minutes (the bus ride was only supposed to be 10 minutes, max)because we had to wait for the bus to make to huge round to stop at the university. Hmmm...quite a memorable night; the 2 scoops of ice cream and pizzawas heavenly (especially after what we had for dinner in college)...
15th April 2005, Friday evening 4:08 p.m. local time
This has been a super busy week. As part of the course, we (my classmates n I) are supposed to handle some certain assignments and practicals onscheduled days respectively. It so happened that I was assigned to all 3 practicals this week (Drug info practical, dispensing practical, n the communitypharmacy visit)...that's 8 additional hours (compared to the usual schedule), and on dispensing day I had 6 hours of labwork...talk about MURDER...and to top it off, I had to take both the human biology quiz and chemistry mid-semester today, which was particularly awful, since I had to do loads ofcramming (I'm gonna get a LONG, LONG, and good night's sleep tonight to make up for the physical torment throughout the week)...and I may as well admit,I skipped human bio tutorial because I was too tired and since there was only 1/2 hour left due to the chem test delay...An interesting thought would bewhether anyone did turn up for it...hmmm....
Oh, yeah; I've seen to have improved on my Aussie vocabulary; I've noticed how some of the terms we use back home is rarely used here; instead, they'vesubstituted them with their own terms:
(correct me if I'm wrong; this is just what I've been observing so far)
Common term (MY) Aussie Equivalent
Hi, Hello How's it going?, G'day
Thanks Ta
No problem No worries
It's alright, That's okay You're alright
?? (not quite sure, but it's almost Cheers
like a victorious"Yours Truly"
in emails)
Bye See Ya
Did I mention something about a spider? Earlier this week (on monday, i think), the first thing i saw when i woke up in the morning was a unfamiliar hump ofblack on the top corner of my wall. I went, "Oh...heck." The stupid spider was about 30-40 times the one you'd get back home (believe me, I'm not exaggerating)I had to use my chair as a ladder, climb up armed with a long ruler and a hard-covered file (a spoilt one, of course), and finally had to flatten it. It took altogether3 squashes before the spider was permanently dead (i think); the first squash was using the file; I thought it was dead, until I saw the legs moving in a disgustingtwitchy way from beneath the file. 2nd squash- I used my long ruler and held it in that position until I didn't see any more movement. I thought that the disgusting thingwas finally dead, but when I scooped it up with the file and was on my way to dispose of it, it moved again! Ugh! Anyway, this time I dumped it on the ground near thewaste bin and squashed it with the heel of my sandals (with paper in between, of course). No hard feelings, but I gave it a proper "burial" in the waster paper bin. May itrest in peace, and may his relatives not come back to exact revenge of some sort. I guess I'm considerably "luckier" than some of my friends, especially since they find wormsAND spiders in their rooms, but on the other hand, seeing a huge spider just as soon as you wake up isn't exactly the most pleasant idea. I'm still wondering how it got in.It's huge, so I doubt it crawled under the door. It's quite possible that it was hiding somewhere in my room during the day (maybe it snuck in when I left the door open) and wasstaying in some spot without me noticing- for the enire day or something. Scary thought. Imagine if it crawled on my face or something. Yuck. That was worse than the moth invasionI suffered a couple of weeks ago. It happened when I accidentally left my windows open at night, with my room's lights on (I was out at that time); when I came back, there were God-knows-how many of thoseugly things zooming all over my room, with tiny bugs and insects. That was quite an infestation, and needless to say, it was super troublesome to get rid of those beasts. Patrick helped me swat some, and I dealt with the rest after he left.
posted by Sean Im at 10:32 AM
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