walkathon

yk and I did a lot of exploring today. The campus is freaking HUGE! It’s so easy to get lost (Sunway was probably just one building compared to Clayton’s 50+ buildings!)

The morning was frigging cold. Dropped by the office to settle my registration which was easy stuff. There were some Chinese girls, a Muslim girl and a… guy. Hahaha, I don’t know what race he is. Probably Indian.

Freaked abit cause I wasn’t sure of the meeting place where yk and I were supposed to meet (on top of which I was running out of credit.. it costs RM2 to send from a Maxis number in Aus to another Maxis number in Aus! @______@) Walked back to get my map, and maybe walk out to the main road. By pure chance I saw him walking past the main gate and ran up to him. We couldn’t contact Jon so we left for the main building where we would get some of the more important stuff.

Walked to the central building which is a good 10-minute walk in the morning sun which was quickly making us perspire, saw some people playing tennis. I’ll say it now, that map was a life-saver otherwise we’d be walking around for an hour, maybe even hours! Bought an Optus card, then off for a quick drink. After the drink we went to the ITS center where yk got the chance to go online and so we chatted abit to both Penny and Jordan who both were asking how we were and how this place is. yk wanted to set up his bank account and since I didn’t bring any documents we walked back to my place again. Walking at 12-ish midday is not a good idea at any time regardless of whether there is a wind blowing or not. Rested abit in my room before heading out again to the central building for lunch first! I say this cause we hadn’t had a proper meal since yesterday (I never had much faith for airline food unless it’s business class or first class… and I’ve never traveled in any class higher than the economy class. Except for that one flight back from Tokyo. There wasn’t enough seats in the economy class so we got upgraded, and boy does the food quality and style of serving differ!)

On the way to the central building:

Saw a Kancil lookalike. I swear!


It’s actually a Daihatsu.

We passed some ducks. Had to take pictures of them X3 Also discovered that someone is especially fearful of these feathered cuties as they might suddenly attack or something. X3



I suppose because it was only the first day I wasn’t exactly in the mood for having any sandwiches for lunch apart from the fact that it looks unappetizing and it doesn’t look filling. Had a rice dish with prawns which were quite okay, must be that I was hungry. yk had rice with teriyaki chicken which tastes abit like fish, i.e. It tasted strange, but still edible. Tried re-inserting my SIM card into the phone, and Optus tells me my new mobile number! Yayness! El was the first to call! X3X3X3 She says her Internet is hyper fast and she’s settling in fine which is great news from her~ Then Ben called. I wasn’t expecting this one… I didn’t think people apart from my parents or people already in Australia would call me. But he did! Said hi and told him we were fine and all the little things. After him dad called, and the first thing he asked me was “How much is this going to cost you?” To which I told him the truth; I didn’t know. It was great to hear from dad, and I think it was about the right time, his lunch time.

After lunch and a proper rest in a proper seat watching an obese pigeon hop around eating crumbs (or just waiting for one of the kitchen staff to catch it to cook) we headed to the bank, which was just a stone’s throw from our lunch place (ok so it depends on the size of the stone and if it can turn corners it’d need to turn one left corner). Creating the bank account was a quick process, and voila now I’m equipped with a working mobile and a bank account! X3 Yeaaay mission accomplished!

4pm. Yikes! I was supposed to meet Ms Wendy to ask how my transport arrangements are. Rushed down to Building 73 which was past the maze of trees and buildings (an official warning to Penny: really REALLY watch out for bombs, there are plenty of trees and so there are plenty of birds here!) Ms Wendy’s really nice, so our meeting was short but sweet and I got what I needed ^__^

Headed to the library. Whoahhh it’s huge. Explored every bit of it and ended up reading some newspapers. Then auntie ming called, and I’m going out with her and her daughter tomorrow. X3 I guess they’re nice people, but I’m curious to see how it goes.

If there’s one thing about the culture that isn’t apparent back home, it’s their views on politics and free speech. Here, free speech includes public discussons on media topics/political issues that they may agree/disagree upon, go on strike against McD’s for mercilessly killing millions of animals, go on strike against Nike for labor abuse as well as go for public demonstrations on S11 in the strangest places ever (Come on, a fire station!?) Back home, no one’s all that interested in politics or politicians cause they’re mostly have otak budak kecil and saja nak buat hal kecil-kecil menjadi hal besar-besar. Does that explain enough? If you want examples, just browse the paper. May not be today’s paper, but still.

Wasted more time going back to the central building and buying some water & chips (just in case I get hungry; don’t wanna repeat last night’s series of growling coming from my stomach) Then over to a Chinese eatery to take away dinner. Realizing that the dinner didn’t come with any cutlery we had to stop by my place so that I could get my cutleries and we went over to yk’s place for dinner.

The walk to yk’s was really, really, really, really long. The straight road lasts for at least 10 minutes and we realize we have been walking more than anything else. We joked about how muscular our legs were gonna get by the end of the year. Was super thankful we reached his house soon after complaining about how tired we were. Looked about yk’s place. This is what I got:



Dinner was edibly okay at first because we were ravenous. All that walking sure makes a person hungry real quick. But as the meal progressed we were finding it abit hard to swallow cause it was actually quite salty. You know how dishes can have taste but not be tasty? This would be a good example of it. By the time we finished dinner it was already 815pm and the sun was just beginning to set.

No, you’re not misreading anything. The sun DID set at about 830pm or so. Took a few pictures and tested the macro mode. The purple glow on the edges of the picture is noticeable, makes it look abit unnatural. Oh well, you can’t have everything. It’s still a pretty and useful little gadget.

I only started walking back at about 915pm (not yet that dark, maybe in Malaysian terms about 630pm or so…) and it was abit eerie. But again, it was much quicker this time because I picked up my pace. Got back and was relieved to see my room.

Washing up, I saw the girl I met in the hallway last night while I was dragging my bags up to my room. Her name’s Suri, and she’s from Thailand. Studying music for 3 years. Woow… She’s been here since Tuesday so she’s gotten the hang of things here and proceeded to give me a few pointers on where to go shopping and stuff like that which was really really useful! X3 Yeay finally I know someone even if it’s not very much. We just talked about how different things are here.

Like how shops here close after 5. (What nightlife?!)
And how late the sun sets. (Is it REALLY 830pm?!)
And the other people on the floor (erm I think she mentioned 2 other guys.. haven’t met anyone else but her so far)

And now here I am, in my room and it’s only so early at night. What a life.