Sydney

Traveling to Sydney was quite frequent when I was in Australia. It's the nearest city from Newcastle and as there's nothing much in New, we will often go Sydney for a short getaway. It is a dreadful 3 hours train ride away though. The good thing is that the train is quite comfy to sleep in and food is allowed. I love the seats design where you can just push it in any orientation you desire. The scenery along the way also provide some form of entertainment, because you don't get such view in Singapore.

The thing about 3 hours train rides is that we've to set off really early to make our day trip worth which is quite impossible for some of my nocturnal friends. Some of the trips are cancelled due to oversleeping, but one fine day we finally made it to Sydney, with Bel, Adele, Sarah and I.



The locals are really hospitable, offering to take photos for us and even playfully hopping into this candid shot. I really miss the smiles on peoples' faces and the greetings from random strangers, cos back at home, what we get is mostly a foul face.


And on our very first trip, we got stranded bad as we took the wrong train. Look how sad and tired we were, haha. After much hassle, we made it back alive at 3am.


Another memorable trip to Sydney took place during our recess week. It was the best recess week ever just because it is a long 2 weeks break with almost no assignments to worry about! We went to Sydney's famous beach, Bondi. I wanted to see what's so great about it, but it turns out to be just another beach. But still way more awesome then any beaches in Sg! The weather was unfortunately chilly and windy so we couldn't really enjoy the beach the "beachy" way.


Got myself a new disciple! haha


Then we explored Hyde Park. We met this crazy old man who started shouting vulgarities at us for no apparent reason.



We ended the night with beautiful touristy places, Habour Bridge and the Opera House.

I spent my last few days of Aussie trip in Sydney too. It was kind of inflexible as I have to fly back from Sydney no matter what as the ticket is already bought. Otherwise I would have gone to more places and just flew home from there.

Darling Habour is quite a nice place to go to. It's quite a romantic place to bring a date.



Chrismas decos were not as plentiful as what we can see in Orchard road, but they kind of give a warm cosy Chrismasty feel like no other. I love the giant Santa hanging at the edge of the building, lol.


Sydney often has fireworks display even though there isn't any special occasions. I managed to catch one in my last few days there and it was quite spectacular. A great sight to conclude this wonderful journey.

Surfing

I'm glad I get to try this popular sport in Australia, surfing. Not only that, I get to learn it for free! I guess it's my lucky year, before I came to Australia, I won some 200 dollar voucher for furniture which I didn't had a chance to use, then I survived a deadly fall off the rock wall. Next, during my orientation week, I won the first price, which is a 2 day 2 night surf camp! Lucky me :)

We were brought to this private beach far far away which had no reception from the outside world. I think everyone else who signed up paid for this trip and were all in their cliques, so it was kinda hard to blend in with them. Nonetheless, it was awesome experience picking up something new!


This trip was during winter, when we haven't been out in the sun for darn long. It feels even better when we get to soak up the sun! Surfing really isn't an easy task! Especially during winter. The first day had no sun and it was freaking cold! While the second day was sunny, the waves were much stronger which makes it hard to get through the waves. For me, I find it really tough to walk my surf board to the wavy part of the sea, as the current is like 1000 times stronger than what we have in our wave pool. Then after all the effort to get there, we get washed back in a split second after catching the wave. If u get it right, u get to stand up on the board to enjoy a few moments of glory. If not u get hit down into the currents. I managed to stand for only a while with the help of the instructor's guidance.




Towards the end of the camp, I got lazy and decided to just chill on the beach and take some pics.

Some time later, I got a chance to surf again! Our hall organized a free surf session for us internationals. Unfortunately, we were late and didn't get to take the wet suits. The surfboards provided were rough and nasty which induce so much pain when it hit you! After a few tries, I decided to call it a day.

Newcastle

Today I shall write on the place I spent most of my time in when I was in Australia, a suburb called Newcastle. It is quite a boring place if you're thinking of exploring but it certainly is a nice and peaceful place to live in. There aren't many people around, so walking around means you can just take your time and enjoy the serene environment, not having to worry about "siaming" anyone. Furthermore, there are not many ugly tall buildings around to block the beautiful sky and at night the dim town will allow the starry starry night sky to show! How I miss these nature wonders!


Most of the "tourist" attractions in Newcastle seems to be made touristy by force as there aren't much amazing stuff to see.


Our first close encounter with a koala. They are such lazy and gentle creatures that spent most of their time sleeping and chewing leaves.



One of the places we frequently visit in Newcastle are the beaches. Like everywhere else in Australia, the beaches are really clean and are awesome places to chill and relax. Soaking up the sun is one of our favorite past times.



We love the houses around Newcastle too. Each of them have their own backyard of beautiful flowers. There is always plenty of room around when you walk on the streets so you don't feel all cluttered and caged up.




Haircut is pretty expensive in Australia. And one day, I felt brave and decided to visit a local hairdresser which cost 27AUD and it was disastrous. It was indeed true that Ang Mohs do not know how to cut Asian's hair. Throughout the whole haircut, she kept asking me questions of how she should cut and in the end what was left on my head was long fringe and short everywhere else with a distinctly odd difference.


After a month of bad hair days, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Bought this hair clipper at just 7AUD. I have always wanted to give my hair a good shave after army, as not having to bother about messy hair will make life so much easier. Moreover, summer is coming so hair will be a hassle. Then, with the help of my 3 Hong Kee friends, I'm botak again! :) Hehe

Campus Life

Most of the friends I made during exchange came from Edwards hall and are mostly international students. I find it easier to relate to them. Hall activities will usually be parties and booze, which kind of lacks variety. For me, occasionally having these are okay, but not everyday, which is why I find it hard to mingle with the locals. Also, it is their semester 2, so most of them already have their cliques. But still, I'm glad I've made some really good friends, and been to some interesting events which really allowed me to experience different cultures. Staying in hall also has its good and bad, sometimes it can get really rowdy at night when every room turns into a nightclub of their own with drunk people shouting across the hallway. Two events that I remembered most vividly are some random room blasting porn video sound at its max across the hallway with the sound of women moaning and also a drunk girl who thought the pantry's trashcan was her toilet bowl, whereby she just took off her undies and sat right into it!! But overall I am glad I'm staying on campus!




Here is one of our first parties during O week. At first we blended quite well with the locals, we even knocked at their doors and joined them in games and craziness. But as time goes by, we couldn't keep up with their partying ways.


Our first and last partying experience at a Newcastle nightclub. Didn't really like it as it was too bright and run down, with booze spills all over, non-cooling air conditioner, etc.


Back to school party when school just started, where we all tried very hard to act cute and look like little students.

There are also various events organized by the school or my hall which added colors to my campus life. One of them is the international food festival which I remembered trying kangaroo and alligator meat for the first time, while alligator meat was awesome (tasted like frog leg), kangaroo tasted really bitter and tough. Other events include: Ocktober Fest, Halloween Party, Free Surf lesson, Hunter Valley Wine/beer Tasting, Performance night, Inter-hall Art Exhibition, etc.



Mooncake Party with awesome mooncakes baked by Adele





A visit to Hunter Valley wineries/breweries with free booze. Aussie trip has really brought my alcohol tolerance to a whole new level, although it is still no where as compared to the locals.


Last but not least, our awesome halloween party at Jacky's room. My first time dressing up for Halloween! We often had drinking games at Jacky's room or Bel's place whereby many interesting things will happen when people get high and so on. At this particular party, we had a flasher in the room who keeps letting everyone see her undies by purposely opening up her legs all the time!! What a joke for the night!

Orientation

After a few days of touring Sydney and its surrounds, my parents left me at Newcastle where I begin my school orientation. It was quite disappointing as there wasn't any icebreaker activities, most of it were talks and intro to the school surroundings. But I was glad I met Bel and Adele, who are fellow Singaporeans and we quickly became really good friends. We all live nearby on campus and I would go to Bel's place for weekday lunches where we'll share cooking chores and groceries. Adele is my dinner buddy and we'll often meet to go dining hall together and she often bakes/ cooks delicious stuff for us and guides me for my keyboard module. Lucky me to have met them both.


I was provided with 16 meals a week in Edwards hall, but breakfast was kind of the same everyday with cereal, toast and yoghurt, weekend brunch will always be what was left over the entire week or cold sandwich, other then that, dinner was pretty decent. Mixed-gender toilet there was like new thing to me, was quite weird to go into a toilet and see a female.


My school is located in the suburbs, and on campus you can see lots of trees, birds: parrots, ducks, etc and I really enjoyed the peace. School was like a breeze because I only needed to pass, also I was having a 3 day work week, which gives me lots of free time to travel, gym and do my own things.

A new beginning

I am back and I have a hell lot to blog about. I have been really lazy. Let me rewind time back to July 2011 when I first arrived in Australia. I was still this insecure and uncertain kid, who needed my parents to come along with me. Worries of whether I'll be able to adapt, whether I'll meet nice people and so on flooded my mind back then and I didn't really enjoy the tour with my parents much. One thing is because of that, another is that the tour which was planned for us turned out quite boring.