Little pieces of Melbourne on my wall...

The thing about ECONOMICS is... that it's kinda like psychology.

It does kind of take over your decisions and becomes some sort of obsession after a while.

Why am I talking about economics?

I took part in an economics experiment today and it was fairly interesting. Somehow, I finally felt my brain moving. Don't ask me why it hasn't been moving for law.

So, in order to decide whether to participate in this I literally weighed out my opportunity cost. Well, evidently, the cost would be my time. It's 1 and half hours but they only pay for one hour which could amount to a value of anywhere between $15 and $30.

I concluded that since I had a 3 hour break before my next class, I shoudl take part in the experiment which would just probably be some non-labour- intensive kind of thing ya?

In the end, I came back with $16.

Why $16?! I also don't know >.<

They made us log on to a system in which we were given 20ECUs (a unit for money in the system) for each round and in each round we had to contribute a certain amount of money into a project etc and in the end they calculate our profit. Pretty nifty thing, I must say.

And that ladies and gentlemen is how I earned a lil bit of cash on my own without a work visa, a shift, an employer, let alone employment.

Ok.. shoot me for my lameness..

Another thing I shall so shamelessly gloat about is my poem being sent into my college's cacated newsletter. Kinda pitited the editor who was losing her voice and begging us to send something in.. ANYTHING! So, I thought I would just send in something for fun and really didn't expect it to be published. I sent in my poem "Little Angel" again, since it got published once... so... was lil more confident on that note. HEHEHE!

So, no big deal la... it's just a flimsy, photostated newsletter that most ppl don't really read anyways. However, one of the seniors, Yvonne, actually came up to me and "interviewed" me on what my poem was about. The questions she asked were absolutely awesome, I have never had my poem analysed like that before. I kinda had a sense of accomplishment. *tear*

Speaking of poems... I wrote a poem after watching the movie "Corpse Bride". STARRING JOHNNY DEPP!!!!! (yes... we must all love Johnny Depp.. hahah just kidding).

So here goes :

BUTTERFLY WINGS

I'll let the butterfly go
Free with its wings in the air
Go my dear
No words needed in the course for freedom
With wings spread..
They flutter
They fly
Spread your beating of love
The world needs your key
Let the butterfly wings set you free

Yes I do realise the lack of annotations but I wrote it in a hurry. So it makes no sense, may not flow smoothly and may be the most cacated thing you have ever read but tis mine.

What's all this talk about being Emo?

Emotional. Depressed. Stressed out.

Why don't we just call it the "beginning of the year syndrome", shall we?

I don't know about you but I have been hearing a lot of sob stories lately and it hasn't been getting any better. Ok. I lie. It's actually not THAT bad la. I just haven't come across a person who is AS happy AS they LOOK.

Example, I met someone who has the funniest stories to tell, can talk non-stop and has a great academic career ahead of him. Yet, if you were to listen a little closer and listen to those softly spoken words in between the lines, you can hear the sadness and the bitterness.

I guess, it comes to show that noone is totally problem free. Like, no matter how you think it is possible. No matter how much you say you're strong and that you can move on. You still, in the very end, have a little soreness left tingling behind.

Coming to International House kinda showed me that each and every single person should have felt essentially the same things before. Let us keep rare cases like being raped, kidnapped etc aside ya? I'm talking about relationships, family, friends and studies. Everyone has felt the same way.

You look up to a senior who is so bubbly, smart and athletic. You think that you wanna be like that, so strong and never letting things get you down. However, things will always get us down somehow. I guess it comes down to HOW LONG you take to GET OVER it. But, does anyone truly get over anything?

You say you have poor memory, you say you forget but it's always there, buried deep down in your mind. It's like a dusty old button, waiting to be pushed again. Just waiting. If its turn never comes, good on you then!

So, when do these buttons get thrown out and brunt in the furnace, forever not to be seen again!?

I believe they never go away.

I believe we as humans just keep going.

Creating more and more buttons along the way.

We're not emo creatures. We're strong and we move on.

And that's the way it has to be.

PS: sorry for this. I really just needed to type and I literally just typed whatever that came to mind. I sound like such a long-winded old fart. I do apologise.

tralalala~

Using the super cool law building library computer lab now.

Ok.. it's not really all THAT cool. It's like "The Web" back in Taylor's College except that all you can hear in this library is the fast typing of all the law students (maybe got some aliens here... but who cares ya? facilities are for sharing).

I just ate lunch all alone under the tree in front of the law building. See, I told you Yong, we really do get lonelier as we move up the age ladder. I kinda thank goodness that I chose to stay in International House and thank my parents for forking out the expensive fees to let me stay there 'cause seriously, it's a lonely world out here in the university.

I could do a lot more than blog right now if it wasn't for my next tutorial starting in half and hour. Some more I don't have any work to do so far. Just lots and lots of reading about some facts that are pretty crap at the moment.

It's odd when one pictures the whole course of their life. We start off in primary school (yes I skipped nursery and all that) with a WHOOLLEE HUGGEEE bunch of friends all playing around care-free on the playgrounds during break, then we move on to secondary where the cliques are cearly defined and the BUNCH of friends get a little smaller or a little bit more but we are never as care-free.

Come college and our circle of friends diminish again. We still keep the same friends as Subang Jaya is such a small place and we all go to the same insititutes anyways >< but we are even LESS care-free. Thoughts about the future, about what we are truly interested in all come in to play. Are we gonna be happy with the choices we make? or for some, will I make my parents happy by just going along with what they say?

Then, university. If you get in, congratulations! If you're happy, that's a double bonus. However, the circle cuts down to 1. Unless you very smart influence all your friends to do the same thing as you and go to the same place as you but you may not neccesarily get the same classes together. It's all very lonely.

Mind you, I'm not exactly having a case of homesickness and I'm not being emo about having to eat lunch alone. I just wanted to say what I wanted to say.

(oh boy, I am sssoo gonna fail that 100 word essay they got us to write to see whether we had enough skills to express ourselves. Clearly, being so rusty for 3 months, my ability to express myself has deteriorated severely. How la?!?!)

Despite not feeling homesick, I do miss the people back home but I am definitely loving the weather right now. To trade weather for the people I love. I would defintiely choose....

Everyone I love.

Everyone I hold in my heart,

And everyone who cares.

Well, today was my first day at University and it was pretty ok considering I only had a 2 hour tutorial for "Legal Methods and Reasoning". The lecturer was really nice, Martin Vranken, and I think he's Irish as he had a little of an accent which is way cool.

Anyways, Uni life seems a little different. Everything seems a little more fast paced. I was kinda thanking the heavens I had taken Legal studies before I decided to take Law 'causes the lecturer was going on and on with long sentences that make sense to listen to but REALLY hard to jot down as notes.

For example:

The lecturer says : "Negligence is the failure to comply with the duty of care and in failing to comply with or breaching this duty of care has caused harm to another individual"

This is what I remembered the last time I took Legal studies: "Negligence is the breaching of duty of care that causes harm to another."

Ok ok... it doesn't seem like much difference on the computer screen but I was frantically trying to shorten what he just said for the sake of my note-taking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another note, I really miss the mamak stalls back in M'sia. Maybe it's 'cause I'm a newbie or because I haven't really visited the Asian places, the prices at the late night hang outs in Melbourne city are rather steep.

Ok, so I have only been to Lygon street (pai seh) but $7.50 for a PIECE of cake!! Slightly better than Secret Recipe at home but STILL it amounts to 20 over ringgit yo! FOR... A ... SLICE of cake, thank you very much!

However, I heard the govt back in M'sia wants to ban fast food ads and claims mamak stalls are unhygenic? Well, I say mamak stalls really should be kept alive 'cause they are like one of the ultimate places for young ppl to hang out at INSTEAD of a club/pub which seems to be what many of the young ppl do here. I THINK.

I have never heard talk about alcohol so many times in one week till I got here ><. I heard tons of TALK about it but I have never even finished one glass let alone one bottle since I got here. Oh wait. ok maybe ONE glass of really horrible tasting cheap red wine but that was for all the singles to drown their lonliness away on V'day.

I feel like I have rambled on too much. So, I really really do hope y'all or whoever (more likely noone) who bothers reading check out my photos so that you keep updated about me and I can keep updated about you if you would just send me some photos or even post them on multiply!

Even without photos, I do keep track of those blogs on my side bar. So please do keep writing! If you pop by HERE,please just drop some random comment too! hehehe!

PS: no im not desperate for comments, Im just really EAGER to know what everyone's up to now! :D

So sorry for the obvious decline in posts ever since I have been over here in Australia. It is just that Orientation week has been going on and it's CRAZY over here!

You know those fraternities we watch on TV? It's kinda like that over here, except that International House does draw its line. They don't really torture the freshers or threaten to do nasty things. It's more like making complete fools of ourselves and it's really fun.

We learnt a dance and as a whole group danced in front of the HMV music store. Imagine if you were a passer by across the street and saw a bunch of ppl bouncing up and down doing sill ass moves. We ran around the city chanting "IH is hot to go! H-O-T-T-O-G-O!" It is kinda catchy.

We even have this scavenger hunt thing where we get to do silly things and take pictures of it to earn points for our group. My group stole a supposedly hideous PINK hat from one of the seniors and put it on statues/important people/random manicans and took pictures of it with the sign that says "Joe's Hideous Pink hat".

Another crazy thing we did was to dress up in ugly clothes and party the night away!

Ok, this is beginning to sound like a recap of everything. So boring laaaa :P

I have to agree and say that life here in Melbourne is really much  more laid back than back in KL. Eventhough everyone is busy, they ALWAYS and I say ALWAYS have time to stand there and chat for at least a couple of minutes. They are such lovely people. :D

However, I must say that alcohol is a HUGE thing over here. Not such a great thing for an alcohol intolerant like me :(. I turned bright red as a tomatoe when we drank wine for Valentine's. Darn, why can't I take a drink like a man!? HMM?! hahaha!

So anyways, Im REALLY REALLY curious about what everyone else has been up to. It feels kinda odd when one doesn't see the people they are used to seeing everyday,... everyday.

Life's just like that I suppose. A new challenge at every stage and beautiful memories to mold you into the person you are!

More pictures @ my multiply account!

Yeah. So here I am in Australia. I arrived 2 days ago and had hell of a time getting my internet connection set up. They have pretty whacked up rules here. 200MB data quota per week and any extra will cost 5cents per MB.

As one of my new friends keeps saying "that's crap man..."

Even the thoughts in my head has some weird accent right now.

So anyways, in order to cut down on MB usage. I shall keep this short and sweet.

I found a really awesome book. It's good to accompany you to sleep and maybe even when you "pang sai" 'cause it reminds me of happy times and keeps me sane and smiling.

Yeah! The awesome Photobook the teddies made for me! Thanks for putting so much effort and making it such a special and beautiful gift! Now, Im cracking my head on how to top this present!

PS: I showed it off to all my new friends. HAHAHA! Boy, were they jealous ><

Love you and rock on!!

Oh and thanks to those who came to the airport.

Please view if you're curious. (berasa sangat perasan ler ><)

Photos of Departure + Photos of First Week in Australia

So, today is the day I will be going down under and leaving lovely Malaysia behind.

Thanks for the presents and the good wishes.

Thanks for the hard work behind that special farewell gift from a beautiful group of friends. Don't worry. I'm working on a special post for that one *wink*.

Thanks to those who crammed it into their schedules just to see me one last time.

You know I love being vague in this blog... so... let's just say big "THANK YOU"s all around.

To my family and to my friends.

And just some pictures to tell some people that I teared up at every hug *tearing again* I love y'all and I really hope that we still get to see each other as often as possible.

Deathnote 2 is out! Although the plot has been altered dramatically so as to finish the whole story in 2 movies, I'd say that the director did a great job at cramming the basic essence of the story in. At least all the importnat characters were in and all that.

Anyways, my favorite character in the movie has GOT TO BE L!!!!! I just absolutely love him. I love weirdo characters. Like, Edward Scissorhands. In fact, the actor that plays the part of L, Ken'Ichi Matsuyama, actually sounds kinda like Johnny Depp as they both love to play weird ass characters. :D

Anyhooz... Just wanna say that L ROCKS!

Yes.. I really do love L...

                         "who's that queer girl over there mocking me?! "

                                                     "Mushi mushi...."

You'll never understand how much I loved you
You'll never understand how much I cared
You brought me comfort, warmth, and dreams
You were my savior when noone was there.

Now memories only sting me with tears.

It's a pity you forget,
It's a pity you pretend,

My heart still bleeds,
There's no way I can defend.

I guess it's all for the best,
Just to sit and wait for the cut to mend.