My humble home and new found friends

As promised, I will show you my house and some of my friends who are living with me at The Village. This is the view I get every morning when i open my front door to go to school. ----->

Firstly, the house. I am currently living in townhouse number 50 at Grote Street. It's a 4 storey town house and the doors are equipped with this neat system which only allows residents with their student pass to enter. The green light will flash after you swipe your card which indicates that the door is unlocked and you may then enter.





I am currently living on the ground floor in room 2. These are taken in my bedroom and in my shared bathroom on level one.

















Level 1- Elisa (room 1) and ME (room 2)
Level 2- Carrie (room 4) and someone who's still not here (room 3)
Level 3 is where you'll find the kitchen and the living room and there's a TV! ( Grey's Anatomy is showing on every sunday at 8:30 p.m. YAY!)
Level 4- One room whose occupant is not here yet.




These are taken from my balcony on a nice sunny yellow banana day and some shots of the 3rd level of my house.






These are some shots of the kitchen and living room. This area is basically shared amonst the 3 of us but usually only Elisa and I will hang anrd here to chat after lunch or dinner.

Following are some photos taken with friends I've met here.

From left, that is Vanes, Izumi and Roshi --->

And then there's Caroline, Natalie, Me and Mr Kangaroo!

And the one on the left is Peng Chen while the one on the right is Elisa

A cup of hot coffee warms the body but a bunch of great friends warms the heart. I am lucky to have BOTH coffee and friends:)

WHAT! NO HOR FAN?!?!?!

I realised that its impossible for me to CUT my sentences short and yet make sense. Guess im not CUT out for summary. Sorry mei, I gotta write longer stuff. You can just look at the pictures I uploaded ya.

Anws, I have just received my birthday gift from Xinyi!!!!! Thank you girl:) Its a thread-less tee and she got the exact same one! I was actually starting to think if I am weird cos I dun really miss home, at least not so much till the tears come but when I read the post card she've sent, I realised I missed her a lot and I felt like giving her a tight hug.

It feels weird cos I actually need a reminder to miss someone. I miss home now. I miss my annoying sister, I miss my naggy family, I miss my crazy friends, I miss my hor fan! I want to eat hor fan la! I am so crazy to the point that I actually confide to my flatmate about my bizzare craving and she said " erm im so sorry dear but can u eat something less chanlenging to cook? i cant cook hor fan. plus they dun sell the noodles for hor fan at supermarkets" Oh man! How am I to survive this without good Asian food?!

I just received my Maths lecture notes today (cost me $3) and I was basically spending my time trying to figure out what exactly is being written on the very first page of my notes. Gee! I didnt know Maths was this weird over here. Thing is, it looks familar but yet different. Its like you see a friend in your grandmother's clothes. Guess I gotta head down to the library to read the textbooks there tomorrow.

I will be blogging about my house and some of the friends I've made here in my next blog. So stay tuned for more adelaide life at sunniyellowbanana.blogspot.com
Cya mate!


-leeling will cry herself to sleep tonight burying herself in algebra and calculus while dreaming of a plate of steaming hot hor fan.

Cut Short Please

I have received a feedback saying that my blog is too wordly. So I'll cut everything short.

Tried running for the 1st time today and in the cold wind, you just can't perspire! Its only when I reached home that I started sweating and feeling hot.

Orientation for my courses will commence next week. Expect to see more of the local students. Thing is, everyone is so different here. They want to stand out in thier own way so you don't see everyone wearing the same type of shoes or carrying the same type of bags. I prefer it this way.

okie its too long already.

bye:)

A trip to Victor Harbor and Urimbirra Wildlife

I woke up at an unbelievable hour today. I woke up at 7:12 am (approx 4:48 am Singapore time) and its not as if I slept early the night before. And it was freezing! So why in the world was I up so early on a Friday morning, standing in the cold, waiting for something to happen? Well, its all in the name of Victor Harbor!

The beginning of the day was filled with rushing to the meeting place, forgetting my stuff, rushed back to my room, and rushing out again. So lets not bore everyone and jump straight into the main issue.

After a 1 and 1/2 hours drive, we were finally there! Its gorgeous! A photo shot will not do it justice so I won't upload the one I have but its BEAUTIFUL! Imgine, walking in the soft white sand while looking at the vast ocean coloured blue and green, enjoying the breeze in your hair while admiring the seagulls and basically soaking up the atmosphere. OK I am bad with describing scenes but you can never feel the same way as I did even if you look at a picture of Victor Harbor. Its really cool! And its really COLD! (Betcha can't tell that from a photo shot either)

The girls and I decided to go to the Granite Island which was about 15 mins walk down the bridge that links Granite Island to Victor Harbor. If you can see, there are actually tram lines on the bridge and the trams are actually drawn by horses! And they are HUGE! The horses I mean. And there is a picture of the giagantic horses. After a long and cold walk, we finally set foot on Granite Island. Its not all too great I must say and that's probably because we didnt spend too much time there as the rain was coming. So we decided to head back. Alright actually the rain came down quite heavily BEFORE we decided to return but ah wadeva. So we began our walk back to Victor harbor and it wasnt long before the walk became a run. We dashed across the 600m wooden causeway with the wind and rain as constant companions pushing us on, giving us a strong sense of motivation to keep going faster. It was actually drizzling but with wind speed of roughly 10000476538km/sec, it actually hurts like hell when the rain falls on our skin. Its like being slapped a million times. But we made it back to the mainland without much of a scar. Well, apart from the dripping wet coats and skinny jeans that were sticking to our skin and our salon styled va-va-VOOM hair (kindly sponsored by the wind and rain), everything else was good, including the exercise. (I really mean it!) Surprisingly, the sun was out and the rain went away shortly when we reached our destination. (Shit!) We blamed our bad luck, bought hot chocolate and boarded the bus to out next stop. URIMBIRRA WILDLIFE!

And then it happened again! Ame!!!! For those who don't know, ame means rain in Japanese. Speaking of which, I was sitting with Izumi my new friend from Japan on the 15 mins bus ride from Victor Harbor to the wildlife park. It was so funny trying to communicate with her (I had to do some charades cos my Jap is really bad). "Do you have a friend from Japan who came with you" became something like "nihon-jin no tomodachi, came here with you?" Ok too much sidetrack. Anyways, urimbirra wildlife was so cool! I enjoyed it even though it was raining at the start. We saw birds of different sizes coated with many different colours. And then we saw them! The koalas! OMG they are so lazy! They were all sleeping in the rain while people around them started fishing out the cameras and went on a photo-taking spree! And when one koala finally decides that he is hungry, the crowd went crazy and started taking shots with it. (I kind of went too actually and you cant image how long it took for this guy to turn and face the camera) After squeezing my way out of the kolas captive area, we went to visit the kangaroos! The first thing you'll see is poo. Lots of kangaroo poo and you cannot avoid it unless you have the ability to walk on air. But the kangaroos were hilarious! They are never satisfied! They kept on eating the feed and I wonder if they ever suffer from indigestion. We went on to the crocodile area where there are salt water and fresh water crocodiles on display something I don't fancy taking photos of. Along the way we also saw a wombat, some dingos, ducks, an emu, peacocks and water dragons.

All in all, we all went home with a pinch of kangaroo's feed and saliva, a scent of roo's poo and some rain we collected from all over and as the day draw to an end, we bid farewell to our friends with tired eyes.

10 major difference between Singapore and Adelaide

It has been almost 2 weeks since I've been here and yet I still wake up every morning feeling strange. The very first sense I get every morning is the feeling of lost, but a split second later, I remembered where I am. I am in Australia! The southern part of australia actually and to be exact, in the city of Adelaide. Which brings me to the topic of today....


THE TOP 10 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SINGAPORE AND ADELAIDE

(ok i might not be able to list 10 differences but there are quite a few I assure you and if you're thinking of coming here for whatever reason, I strongly recommend reading this post)

Number 1: The weather. Alright, technically it is summer in australia right now but temperatures can go as low as 8 degress at night so it will be wise to bring along a coat. The temperature fluctuates actually so it might be 38 degress today and 16 degress tomorrow. (temperatures taken at the same time of the day) So you might also want to consider bringing along your micro mini shorts and singlets to walk around at home or outside. (depending on individual preference)

Number 2: The climate. DRY DRY DRY DRY DRY. Its really dry over here in adelaide and you might get "fish scales" cos your skin is falling off. OK this might sound a bit disgusting but you get the picture. Which is why you should drink plenty of water and moisturise. This might sound a bit sissy but it is very important to moisturise yourself after you bathe and before going to bed. So, don't forget your Johnson's baby lotion or your Nivea cream on your next visit. (bring some for me too!) oh and your lip balm. Never leave home without it:)

Number 3: The sun. It is hard to ignore the sun when you can feel it constantly burning your skin as each second ticks by when you are walking innocently to school. The sun is very strong here and never leave your house without applying sun screen on expose skin with SPF of at least 30. A cap and sun glasses is a must-have and maybe I should add that sadly, Australia has the highest cases of skin cancer so, better be safe than sorry.

Number 4: The water. If you have been reading faithfully so far, you should have already know that I recommend drinking plenty of water here in australia. However, the water here taste quite different as compared to the water in Singapore. I am not sure what it contains exactly but I presume that there is more of everything in the water here (meaning more metal and non-metal ions and stuff) cos its slightly more salty and might have a tinge of sweet after taste to some. Now, its far from your typical soft drinks and its actually dislike by, least to say, most of the international students here. But a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice usually does the trick. The water here actually cannot be used to put fires out cos of the high content of ions in it. (and I don't mean H+ and OH- ions) This brings me to the next point on static.

Number 5: Static energy. OK this is NOT my area of specialty cos I did not take physics (not even the combined one) at 'O' levels so this account might not be accurate but I appreciate feedback. Feedback is always welcome over here:) Anyways, I strongly believe that everyone has a endless store of static energy in their bodies. This is due to the dry nature of this place as well as the huge amount of ions we take into our bodies when we drink water. (this is solely my own hypothesis so please do your own filtration as you read) I am not talking about the small, tiny sensation you feel when your arm accidentally (or purposely) touches your friend's (or girlfriend's/boyfirend's). The static over here is strong enough to numb your fingers for a second or two. I have yet to come up with a solution to this problem and I pray that it will go away soon. (please HELP ME if you know a way)

Number 6: Food!! It will not take you a long time to figure out that the australians LOVE to barbecue. And they LOVE hot dogs! So what happens on a normal day at BBQ is to have barbecued hot dogs. And of course you have your potato salad and bread and stuff but it is mainly hot dogs. They also love sunburst and froggy and their absolute favorite is Tim Tams. Every australian family is bound to have at least one of these at home as they are the more popular brands among the locals. Oh! and they don't have fish balls over here but if you really crave for your fishball noodle soup, you can always have them at chinatown which will cost you around $7-$8 a bowl. (It only cost me around $2.60 to cook dinner at home so I would rather go without my fishballs for a while) But even chinatown will not satisfy your cravings for pork floss and ba gua. So eat all you can before coming here.

Number 7: Shopping time. Generally the shops closes at 5 pm except for fridays when some shops open till 9 or 10. Some places do not operate on certain days of the week for instance, the Central Market does not operate on Sundays, Mondays as well as Wednesdays. So prices go down just before closing time on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Woolworths on Rundle Mall reduce their bread between 5 and 6 pm. So, its all about knowing where to get the best bargain for the things you need. (gosh! I sound like an aunty)

Number 8: The people. Australians are usually very friendly and it is absolutly very common to walk up to a stranger and comment on the weather or the slow traffic flow etc etc. I actually exclaimed to a complete stranger on the road about an aeroplane which was writing the word "PUFF" in the sky on valentine's day. The auntie told me it is a prefectly normal sight in Adelaide and walked briskly away. OK its not as bad as I said it. At least she didn't ignore me. Please do not assume that everyone is as friendly as the auntie I saw. There are some who are not as friendly and if you get in their way, they will not be shy to tell you off in your face. Of course that did not happen to me but I have heard of stories where things ended quite unpleasently so its still safe to keep your opinions to yourself.

Number 9: Night life. Basically there isnt much to do out here at night so people tend to go to bars and clubs. There usually will not be anyone roaming the streets so it is very unsafe to go out at night be it alone or in pairs. My guess is that since the shops closes early, there really isnt a reason to hang out too late at night unlike back in Singapore where the streets are still buzzling with people even till midnight! Ok maybe I am not the best person to be writing this since I usually stay at home between the hours of 6pm till 8 am the next day and I do not really know the details of the real night life here but I am here to discuss the difference between Singapore and Adelaide so bear with me ya.

Number 10: Last but not least the language. Australians like to over elongate their vowels. For instance, they say "yea" when they mean "yah" and "G'daeeee" when they mean " good day". And "Hi" usually becomes "How's it going?". It is important to note that they do not expect a response to that question. It is just a form of greeting which they commonly use here.

And there you have it, my top 10. So keep these in mind when you decide to drop by Adelaide in future. Till next time.