I'll update more on what happened last year and the beginning of this year, as for now, shift your attention to the next post, on my first week in Melbourne! :)
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
First Day in Melbourne University!
My first day was a Thrusday, the 18th and I woke up at 8am from a wonderful sleep induced by the awesome pub meal i had the last night (A huge beef steak, chicken parmigiana, calamari and lots of fries) and started getting ready to go to the university. I was planning to take the 8.35am train to the city which would give me enough time to catch a tram and reach the university on time at 9am, however, i found out that that particular train was cancelled and the next train would be 15 minutes later when i reach the station. Panic! Shock! I would be 15 minutes late on my first day!!! Then i decided to run back to the house and quickly get my dad to drive me there instead, since we still had my uncle's car. For a moment, i thought: 'PHEW! I could still reach there in time!' But the panic continued when we were out on the road and there were more (unusual) traffic jams, as if suddenly everybody in melbourne were heading towards the university! It was 10 minutes past 9 and i quickly rushed out of the car and ran towards the commerce faculty building…only to find out that they pushed the schedule back by half an hour and the first briefing won't start till 9.30am! O.o
I finally managed to catch my breath, lined up to collect my enrollment pack and entered the basement theatre for the international students' briefing. The basement theatre was so cool! It has a futuristic design with all the lights on the ceiling being like big keys on a keyboard and the overall feel is that the whole lecture theatre is a time warp machine (if you know what i mean, i'll try to get a photo of it soon). As i entered, i spotted Lin In, a JPA scholar and found that she was sitting with a few more familiar faces from Taylor's. It turned out to be Victor from A levels that i met some time back, Avinash, a Sime Darby scholar I met at the pre-departure briefing and Hafiz, another scholar not from Taylors. It was The briefing was so-so, informing me things that i already knew so we quickly left after that and i brought Victor and Nash around the university campus since they just arrived the day before. We walked out through the ICT building and headed towards the main university grounds. (A little background info: the new commerce faculty, is the latest building on the block and it's situated a block away from the main university grounds. It was completely built just a week ago and it's more impressive than Lakeside Campus and it has a facade with lots of spots hence the building is aptly called 'The Spot', i personally think it should be called Spotty, LOL!)
Back to my day, we were walking through the front entrance of the university (my first time actually) and we saw the huge garden and the old arts building with the clock tower in the distance and we all felt as if we were in Cambridge or Oxford, the truly AWESOME red brick and old school feeling of a university (it finally hit me that i am so lucky to be here, to study in this prestigious university and i can't wait for what is going to happen in the next three years! :D ) I continued bringing Victor and Nash around the university, showing them around and going to Wilson Hall where the welcome centre is, only to be turned down from collecting our student ID, diary and healthcare card because we have to enrol first. (Argh, i hate PROCEDURES!!!) We continued on to the phone shop and the bank to get a phone plan and open a bank account for themselves and after that, we met up with another friend from Victor's hometown of Ipoh, WaiYee (a Shell scholar, do you realize that almost all the Malaysians i meet in Melb U are SCHOLARS??!! It's so depressing that i am only on 'FAMA' scholarship! *Sighs*) and went for the engineering briefing in the old red brick engineering building. It was the same Malaysian professor who came to Taylor's during the Placement Day to talk about engineering in Melb U and he gave the same amusing talk about what we should expect in the engineering faculty and we all had a good laugh! Hahah! At the end of the talk, we were given a tour of the building, and all the labs and workspace were so modern and cool compared to the old facade of the building, it's really where old meets new! :) Next, our tummies were rumbling so we decided to grab a pizza at the Union House! It was AUD2.50 for a slice of pizza!!! (Can you imagine, it's RM7.50 for a thin crust slice of pizza??!! i still need to get used to ignoring the conversion rate! O.O) But we got a whole pizza for 10 bucks and shared, which was quite worth it! Yay! (A tip, always buy the whole pizza here in aus and share, it's much cheaper) :D
After a satisfying first lunch in the university, we headed back to the Spot to attend more talks on the commerce subjects like Accounting, Actuarial Science, Economics, Finance, Management & Marketing. We actually missed 90% of the Accounting talk cause we were not interested in boring accounting (no offense) and we were so awed with what the Actuarial Science lecturer had to say, but were discouraged when we were told of all the passion and mathematics that was required to pursue this super rewarding course! (I really hate mathematics but being an actuarial scientist is so cool and it's one of the most demanded high paying jobs) Next, judging by the fuzzy white-haired Econs lecturer, you can see that Economics is a really boring subject and it really dries the juice from life! This was followed by the best talk of the day, which is my favourite commerce field, Finance! The Finance guy was so witty and he kept on rubbishing the other commerce subjects and made the house roared with laughter! (A quote from him: "Many smart economists are always trying to find ways and regulations to save money, but they don't have money to begin with! You need very smart finance people like us to make the money today and run away with the cash!" LOL! )
Lastly, it was the Management & Marketing talk and it got me interested in probably taking up a elective in that to hone my management skills and gain entrepreneurial skills that would really be useful! After that, we met Kershia (Bank Negara scholar) and Yee Wen (JPA scholar) (MORE SCHOLARS! ARGH!) and went to register for an appointment for course advice the next day. After that, we all went down Swanston Street towards Big W and Woolworths (one of the supermarkets in Melbourne, the other two are Coles and Target) for groceries and home accessories shopping! :) I was leading them most of the day as they were quite new to Melbourne and i was already quite familiar with Melbourne and they called me the helpful 'GPS' throughout the day, ahahaha! XD
After the shopping, the rest went home, leaving me, wai yee and nash. So we continue walking down Swanston Street (this street is like the main street that i will be walking up and down for many times in the next three years cause it's starts at the university, goes through Melbourne Central, all the shopping areas, makan areas, Chinatown, hotels and ends up in Federation Square and Flinders Street station, which is a landmark that is always used to portray Melbourne), up Chinatown street and continue exploring the place looking for cheap eats. But in the end, we settle for this sandwich and wrap that served schnitzel (german for thin slices of meat covered in bread crumbs and fried), it wasn't that fantastic but it was still a nice meal after all (not taking into account the price, i have to stop eating out and eat at home everyday! no money!). Finally after a day of briefing, walking, talks, walking, shopping and more walking, we finally made our way home. We walked all the way back up Swanston Street (it's a very very long street), said goodbye to nash who is staying in a hotel with his parents halfway up Swanston and then i continued walking with Wai Yee back to her place, which is College Square, a nice accommodation right opposite the university. I went up to have a look, said hi to her roommate, Lauren and said goodbye and head back home. Phew, what a long and eventful day! That's it for my first day in Melbourne Uni! Stay tuned for more! :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)