Day 2 to day 8

Alright, been busy the past few days (tutorials, labs, I have freaking 26 hours per week) and as usual, Newcastle's connection sucks..Well, let's continue with my last post. Haha...Thanks KS for the less words, more photos suggestion. But as I mention before, I hate to upload photos cause blogger keeps on adding additional spaces when I upload a photo, takes long time to adjust back for normal viewing..Alright, cut the crap, I'll continue.

Day 2 in Evatt House (9 July)

First day of the Orientation Week, too bad it's not what I expected, maybe it's 2nd semester for them, NTU don't event have any orientation event during Jan. Haha. Well, after my first night in my room (which is very warm and cosy thanks to the heater), woke up late in the morning for the pancake breakfast with Rheegan, it was suppose to be a block breakfast but the others were not in, so it's only me and Rheegan do the cooking. Haha. Well, seriously wonder how McDonald's can have such nice looking pancake...

My first and last attempt...lol

With Rheegan

At night was the first event of the Orientation, Mystery Dinner...Well, thought it was something like Fright Nite...But end up just a special pizza dinner at Newcastle city. Pizza made Aussie style, wood-fired...Our table have about 10 types of different pizza (6 people sharing) which it's very different from what we have in Pizza Hut. (Imagine pizza with yogurt...)

Photos of some the pizzas, others digested..lol

After that was the usual drinking session at the bar nearby, didn't join cause im don't really alcohol...

Day 3 in Evatt House (10 July)

Well, today is the official university orientation day, woke up early for the usual briefing and stuffs. After the free lunch (BBQed sausages with bread again, Aussie people are very proud with their BBQ skill...lol), went for the free Newcastle city tour...Newcastle is the largest coal export harbour in the world, and recently became famous thanks to the poor "Pasha Bulker" trapped for more than 3 weeks due to the recent storm and flood..

It was welcome dinner at night but didn't take any photos, the food was good...

Day 4 in Evatt (11 July)

It was a fine day for a game of......Lawn bowls..more info about the game, feel free to visit...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn_bowls

It's kinda famous among the old people in Aussie, I think most of the retired uncles will spend most of the afternoon having a few games of lawn bowls with their friends...It's not like the ten-pin bowling I used to play, the balls used are asymmetry, so i cannot just aim and throw at the center pin like in ten-pin. So it was kind of tricky for the first few attempts to throw the ball at a certain angle and force because the ball will curve when it's rolling.

It was another clubbing session at night, didn't join either...lol

Day 5 in Evatt (12 July)

The event of the day was ice-skating. Only took some photos before it starts because was trying to keep my balance after that as it's the 2nd time i skate...lol..As usual, some bruises on butt and knees...lol..

Cooked asian style dinner for our block's block dinner...I admit I still need more practices....

Day 6 in Evatt (13 July)

It was another drinking night at Shorty Pub...OMG, Aussie people do have iron liver...But this is different from the just alcohol and mingling session, we had karaoke that night too, so I just joined the fun.No no no...It's not like K box or Redbox, it's public singing..lol...And sang a few songs with my blockmates..

Sindre, Aimee and Amanda..

Me and Kiri (Housemate)

Day 7 in Evatt (14 July)

Slacked and watched Prison Break...

Day 8 in Evatt (15 July)

It's returner night for Evatt where all the residents came back to Evatt after their 3 weeks holiday. Well, you got it right...Aussie don't party without alcohol...And there were band performance by Evatt's band: Red November Riot!!! They played well...

Well, used Safari to blog this time, amazingly it doesn't give me additional spaces when I upload photos...Yay...More photos coming up, stay tune...

To be continued...

Day 4 in Sydney till Day 1 in Evatt House

Well, finally get to log into blogger, hope that the server is more stable now. Well, I still can't get use to Newcastle's sluggish network speed. Anyway, school started on monday and it has been a week since my last post. Hmm...Guess that this will be a very long post, one week worth of info, please bear with me. Let's continue with day 4 of my Sydney trip...


Day 4 in Sydney

Shijun went to Melbourne with his friends for a one week holiday and since I have no place to stay in Sydney, his dad let me stayed for few more days before I move to Newcastle. Today it's just another normal day, reluctantly wake up from the warm bed cause I planned to go to University of Newcastle to check up all my enrolments and miscellenous stuffs I need to settle. Shijun's dad fetched me to Pennant Hill's station early in the morning (about 7am i think) after he fetched Shijun to his friend's house. Bought a return ticket which cost A$30 (without concession of cause) to Warabrook. Well, after 2 years of MRT experience, I thought that the train service is somehow similar to what we have in Singapore (which is we can travel in the same train to the destination if the departure and the destination is in the same line, eg NEL, EWL etc) but I was wrong. Due to the big continent Australia has, in order to have efficient train service, trains are travelling in designated route and time (which I realised after I made a mistake of staying in a train which I thought will travel directly to Warabrook). Well, the designated route and time is a very good system cause with the timetable, people can arrange their travel route and time well in order to reduce the waiting time. Well, here are some photos taken during the trip.

No pictures of the school though cause was busy with the student ID, course enrolments, hostel stuffs and trying to not get lost. The campus has bigger area than NTU but the buildings are much more shorter, the maximum they have is 3 STOREYS!! (Australia has big continent, they have no worries bout land issues).

Day 5 in Sydney

Stayed at home and slacked the whole day, didn't have mood to blog so din post day 4's blog...lol..Shijun's dad discussed with me about the migration thingy. (which I have no idea why he started it) but no worries, he just gave me some information, I have no intention of migrating to Aussie cause I still love Malaysia and Singapore. Hehe...

Day 6 in Sydney

Went out to city area with Shijun's family (his dad, mum and brother, Shishan went for some animation appreciation thingy, didn't join us) cause Shijun's dad was looking for some building (I forgot the name) and wants to familiarize with the way to get there. Went to this jap restaurant for lunch, had Tori Karrage (Deep fried chicken, NTU's still the best, and cheaper, it costs A$7.90 here and it's the cheapest on the menu other than some seaweed Udons). The place is freaking small but it's right smack in the middle of one of Sydney's busiest crossroads. So, you have to queue in order to get into the place which only fits 12 customers at a time (I counted) and 5 staffs working in a super crammed environment (salute).

The signboard

The interior

After that, we went to this flea market like place which only opens on saturdays and sundays, something like our pasar malam (but it's much more expensive than the normal pasar malam in Malaysia) You can find foods, clothes, accessories, etc in here. Guess what, they even have live band performance.

Some African artworks

Some handmade accessories

Some paintings

Some handmade bags

Masks

And lots of people

Day 7 in Sydney and Day 1 in Evatt House

Woke up early today cause need to pack everything and move to Newcastle before 4pm for key collection of hostel (Remember the train timetable? In order to reach Newcastle on time, I need to leave Shijun's place at about 8am cause the train frequency is lower during the weekends and longer waiting time is needed for the train to arrive). Reached Uni at about 2pm and moved into D block of Evatt House. In Evatt house, male and female residents are mixed together in a five, six or ten bedroom units. D block is a ten bedroom unit and has a common living room and kitchen. Because most of my housemates are still having their school holidays, I only get to meet Aimee, Rheegan and Maree today, will talk about them and the activities I had in Evatt in the next blog. Till then... (To write a one week blog in one night is damn tiring, especially when the appearance of extra spaces to your entry when you upload a picture)

My room

My heater, I can't live without it..

To be continued...