Concluding My First Semester of 2007

I was gonna blog about this for a very long time... wanted to say so much and thank so much people. Now that the exam is over, its the best time to blog abt it.

To be honest, i wasnt expecting much when i was bound for Perth again. I had such a good time holidaying in Spore. I mean, the e3 dogs were great! Going out with them to Bangkok, having yearly gatherings at my house, and going to MOS as my farewell back, god i love them. When the time came to go back to perth, i was really upset. I didnt wanna come back at all. Truthfully, honestly, 2006 sucked. I wasnt happy at all the whole year. Uni sucked. Granted though, being in MCW and meeting all the wonderful people which turned out to be some of the greatest friends that i have all time was the highlight of 2006. But yeah, the feeling was undescribable. Was crying heaps. Sometimes alone in my room, sometimes when my housemates.

I remembered boarding the plane back to Perth with Suyen and Jon. Almost cried when I got seperated with them. Wasnt really myself when i was in the airport. Became all quiet and different. Wasnt looking forward about going back. I had a few plans in mind to keep myself really occupied. One, I was going to go work more this year. Get a longer hour part-time job. Was gonna travel and of cos, maintain my baby (Its still a secret what my baby is. But if you know, shhhhhh...dont say it or mention it anywhere in my blog). Just that my baby drinks a lot of water. Yeah, and that costs money. Two, I was gonna be part of ISS and i guess that takes up time as well. Since i'm committed to it, might as well do a good job on it! Somemore i know most of the people already, so its cool! And I like all of them! Three, I am gonna put in more effort in knowing God. Join a bible study group. Know the bible more, and thus God's word more. Yeah, that was my initial plan.

Who knows? Part of the plan was realised, but what was more amazing was what wasnt planned happened. ANd you know what? It was better than what I expected. Let me elaborate.

Jon & I

Suyen, My Lezzie Partner & I

I came back to Perth and got straight into orientation. Spent a lot of days with Suyen, my lezzie. Enjoyed every minute of it! From suyen's speech to bringing new international students from the maths lab to GP3 for their enrolment. I always enjoyed hanging out with my lezzie partner. Always there to protect me, esp this year! (hehe... I wont go into the details. ONly she and I know it. And thank you lezzie!) And also being with jon. Spent a lot of time with jon and suyen before uni started. Lunch, dinners, beaches, everything. Love them. Great fun!


Uni then started. Well, life before uni was not too bad. To top it all off, uni was better. Both during lecture/tutorial times and lunch times. I'll talk about lectures first.

Noelle & I =)

Well, i didnt know anyone in my CFP lecture. It was okie, cos i skipped most of it anyway. I listened to all the i lectures (I had to... if not i cant do my tute!) I knew some people doing FATP, like Jason, Yujhyn, Shireene, Anny, Christine, and got to know some of their friends. However, didnt go much towards the end of the semester. Actually half. It was 9 am in the morning. Hehe.. The highlight of all, however was Psychology. Its so much fun and interesting becos of this one girl. Noelle Loh. Psychology is interesting, and Noelle makes the hard part much better! Got to know her last year during MCW. And this year, we're both doing the same psychology units! This is one hellva smart babe. We sit together during lectures, have the same labs together. After our labs, we would go out for lunch together. Through this process, we became really good friends. We could click really well. We talk about shows, (we both love korean shows) and everything under the sun. We discussed our assignments together, and helped each other out. Although Noelle's an ABC, i dont feel she's one! She can speak and write chinese, and boy, her english is fantastic! Its like she's 80 up on the scale and i'm 30. Without her, I dont know how I'll manage to pull through doing psych. She's a good company, lights up my lects and labs, to a friend that i hang out with and talk to. EVen pouring out my heart to her. And yeah, the dreadful exams that we have to sit through. We'll call each other everyday and support each other. When we put down the phone, we'll always say "Jiayou!" until the point where she says "Jiashui bah! Oil is too expensive now! LOL

ISS Peeps

Okies, back to other parts of uni. This is gonna be a long post, so bear with me. ISS. Yes, ISS. The major, integral part of my life. AS the social secretary, I've had to organise one-day social trips for international students. And i've got my first assignment. Swan valley trip for the second week of uni! I've gotta settle transport, print flyers, set up stall for sign-ups! And i was doing most of it by myself. It was super hectic. But the trip turned up great. Okies. Back to ISS. AS i've mentioned, I've got to know most of them last year. But I've got to know them at a whole new upper level this year. Gotta work with the director (my lezzie partner), the treasurer (April), My deputy (bernice), my sports secretary (Law), the secretary (angel), my assistant social sec (Cheery), MCW director (ANny), the assistant liason officer (Shireene), the liason officer (Kaysen) and many more. On the second week of uni, Suyen told us that we had to do stall and office duty, which meant an ISS stall will be set up at the guild from 12 to 2 pm everyday from 12 to 2pm. We were all rostered for it. I was down monday and tuesday from 12 to 2. I tell ya, doing stall duty totally lighted up my uni life. I spent many lunch hours getting to know the ISS peeps better. WAs doing stall duty with Kaysen and Liying. Got to know them much better. Did stall duty with Shireene, Angel, April and Anny on tues. Love chatting with them. Spent so many hours chatting, joking, having lunch together. We would get lunch from the ref (which would either be chicken rice or laksa for most of us, hehe). That totally increased my belonging to ISS. And made new awesome friends! Not forgetting all the ISS social trips and events and conferences with the ISS people and the Curtin International students services. It was great getting to know Ming, Manish and Kevin. Awesome and fun ppl to talk to. I gotta admit, i spent most of my time with ISS. Weekdays would be spent with them in stall/office, then weekends social trips, or conferences or meetings (trust me, ISS calendar is always packed when suyen takes the reigns!) ANd so, most of my time gone. Its awesome. Gotta work with different people, and I know how its like to be part of a committee of a club and see how things get done. Most of all, getting to know them. Then came a few more ordinary committee members which Suyen recruited during mid sem. Liying, Lisan, Lionel, Hun Hao, Saiffudin, Anul, Cheerong, TK, to name a few. Got to know some better, and yeah, had fun joking around with them.



Remember how i said i wanted to find a longer part-time job? I did find another one, but never for longer hours. I was introduced to this job at Subiaco Oval, where I worked at a retail bar selling alcohol. Subi Oval had matches every weekend for Footy matches (AUstralian football. THe rules are different from soccer btw. You can use both hands and legs to catch and kick/throw the ball). I only got to know max 4 hours a week. But that was a whole new total experience. I met great people at work. All my colleagues were Australians. Brownie, my supervisor, who was 18 and studies in uwa as well, Alex, And the 2 Choles. The 5 main ones behind Bar 118. I had to pour alcohol for customers, as well as the occasional cashier duties. Cashier and the bar were at seperate places. Heehee. Surprising, I could talk to them. And as time goes by, we could joke and bitch and talk to each other. I was pretty suprised myself. Brownie and I are always talking about this hot change guy that she likes, Choles and I are always talkint about uni, shows and what nots, and Alex and I, well random stuffs. I absolutely love them. And Brownie. WE even met up at uni and have lunch! And now we sms each other often. Although its just a short 4 hours, i enjoy every minute of it! My dream of working in an all aussie workplace and interacting with them have come true! Plus, we're situated right beside a stall selling food. And guess what? WE have free food after work! Chips, pies, suasage rolls! Yum yum!

As the subi oval job requires me to work some fridays, I've been inconsistent with going for bible study. However, I did manage to make it for some of my church's public meeting and the home bible study group. Got to know more people know. Like esther, Judy, My bible study leader, and a few more. ITs a small step but i am taking bigger but slower steps soon.

My housemates: 1 = Jasmine, 2=nicole, 3=Jason

Things have definitely changed at my household. Jasmine was doing honours last year and I remember how busy she was. She put in heaps of time and effort into her honours, plus a lot of time with Michael as well. Not much time left for housemates outings ( as i thought we would have in 2006. Hehe, bet jasmine and jason didnt know that). Now that Jasmine is working, and she's basically free after 5 each day and during weekends, our housemate outings have increased exponentially. And jason. He's doing Masters now. Still slack and free most of the time as usual. But amazed to say, Jason and I talk a lot more this year. I have no idea why, but it just happened. Maybe one year of staying together has opened the both of us up to each other more. We talk more, joke more, share more. I am still amazed till now, but yeah, i like the relationship that we both have as housemates now. So with housemate outings increased, housemate time together has also increased! Shopping, dinners, watching tv (well more for jason and jasmine), etc etc. Gotta be really grateful for them. With Jason taking care of me after RICE (oh that was horrible, thanks jas!) and Jasmine offering to cook for me during the dreadful exams. Shows how much they care. So besides ISS, i spend a lot of time with them too.




Jeremy & I: Taken on our birthdays (his bdae happens to be one day before mine... hee)

We have many housemates outings with the park road housemates as well. It consists of Suyen, Jon, and Jeremy. Here's a pic i've got of Jeremy above (u've seen suyen and jon's pic above when i mentioned them earlier on). Jeremy comes to our house everday to play dota with Jason. In a way, he makes the house livelier. SUyen and I hang out cos we're lezzie partners and becos we're in ISS. And Jon. We go to church together every sunday. Normally, we have the 2 households going out together for lunch, dinner, play etc. Nevertheless, we're close to each other. They're a big support to our household. Life with them is oh so always interesting! And yeah, either we go to their place or they come over to ours. I really appreciate the help that they've been giving me this semester and last year, and also the accompany! They make great company!

WIth all these great things happening, all i can say is that it has been an aweome semester! Totally unexpected. Didnt expect most of the things to happen. Most of them have been good. Been really happy and i guess it shows. And being happy has reverberations, i guess. People look at you in a totally different light and treat you differently as well. Its all good.

This concludes my first semester. And I am rewarding myself with a trip to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Tasmania with Liying, Yin Han and Yam for 18 days. I am pretty excited about it and I hope it'll be a good trip!

Like what Suyen says, one semester is different from the other semester. And she's right. Every semester surprises me. Crossing my finger's for the next one!

And to all my Singapore friends who are reading this, I've missed you. Even though I'm really happy here in Perth now, I think of you guys a lot. Esp the e3 dogs and my good friends (waner, mag, weitian, mexian, kaili, etc). I havent seen most of you guys online already!! What happened? Always wondering what you are doing at the time i was thinking about you. And there was one time where i had to resort to asking Alvin (which i seldom see online also) to help me to msg kaili and xian to ask them how they're doing and that I've missed them! ANd MAG!! the busy auditor! Where have you been for the past month?. I havent seen you online! And WEekian! The busy studying boy. U havent been online too! Only recently.. I hope you're still my faithful blog reader... hehehe...

All in all, its been a great semester. And for all those whom I've mentioned above, I cant thank you enough for making my semester an awesome one! Let's keep this up next semester shall we?