18 Feb 2010 (Day 2) A brand new day. I set my alarm as I have to attend the International Student Briefing and my consecutive briefings of the course I will be undergoing. Though the school is of walking distance to the campus; nevertheless, I lost my way. The building in which the briefing was held was just a very direct straight path ahead from my hostel. Yet, I couldn’t identify the building and the entrance. Thus, I ended turning up late by almost fifteen minutes. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one who was late. There were others who where even later than myself; turning up only towards the end of the international briefing. They went through basically what I’ve went through online back at SG. Just an observation point, I noticed that majority of the people in Melbourne at usually from China, Indonesia and Malaysia. Furthermore, the Chinese make up the majority of the foreigners here. Also, regardless of whichever background one come from, they all speak with the Australian accent in which there tone and sentences are so slanged. Hopefully, I don’t end up being like them. I still like the way I speak English in SG. I just hope that I don’t stutter and be able to convey out my points and ideas to them clearly. Next was the course briefing, this time round, the Australian students came in and joined us for the briefing. Basically, the briefing was to let us know which modules are required to fulfill in order to get into a particular major chosen. From what I have heard, the bioengineering systems major require lots of Mathematics and Physics modules to fulfill. Ended the briefing and I have made an appointment with the Student Advisor for my course to discuss which level of Calculus I am suppose to enroll into. Again, I stuttered when I requested for an appointment. FYI, my appointment is on the Monday, 22nd Feb at 2PM. Do come visit my school campus. It is a really old school and the buildings are mostly from the Victorian Era. As you walk along the hall to find the theatre for the briefing, there will be long aisles and passageways like those seen in movies of the olden times. Came out of the theatre and was thinking where should I go enroll for my course modules when I do not have any access to any internet connection. Saw a China girl studying the same course as me having the same plight. Chatted up with her and got one of the lecturers from the briefing to guide us to a computer lab. The lecturer was from Hong Kong. She guided us to the computer lab and told us that the user ID and password is written on the whiteboard. Just another observation, in the lecture theatre, they have 2 boards but it’s not used with markers but chalks instead. I am back to primary school. At the computer lab, we filled up all the enrolment papers online. Can you picture it? The school buildings are like those in the Victorian Era and the computer lab is filled with Apple iMac. The fusion between the Renaissance and the Futuristic is impeccable. As we filled up the enrollment papers, the China girl had a problem with her enrollment procedures. Is it a coincidence? As I helped her to solve the problem, I saw that her birthday falls on the same day as mine; the only difference is that I am two years older than her. By the time I complete with the enrollment process, it was already 2PM. The items that I have planned in my agenda were all skipped. Even the free lunch that was provided. Damn. We then went back to the Wilson Hall where we had to get the student diary and card, but was not able to as the enrolled modules are not authorized yet. In the same venue, there were booths by banks—Commonwealth and NAB. Without consideration for the NAB bank, I opened an account with Commonwealth; since it was mentioned that all transaction fees are waived as student privileges. I opened a savings and debit account. After all these procedures, it was fifteen minutes past 3PM. Another item on the agenda missed. There is only one item left in my agenda to attend at 4.30PM—Japanese. FYI, for my course, it is required that in each semester, on top of the modules that I will be studying, I have to take an extra breadth subject, similar to the GEMS module in SP. So, in the meantime, we rested on a bench and I started planning the agenda for the orientation in the coming week (P.S. Yiwen, the diary for each week planning is too small for each day. My agenda for one day practically covers half the page). By 4.30PM, I, myself went to listen to the Japanese course briefing. Obviously, the lecturer-in-charge of this course is a Jap. He talked a lot about the stereotype impressions others have of Japanese and the purpose of this Japanese course is to break these stereotype impressions. The first thought that came to my mind was “What is he trying to imply?!” In a nutshell, I have to take a short Japanese test to evaluate the level of Japanese I should take. At 5PM, it’s the end of the lecture. I am heading back to my hostel. As mentioned earlier, in Melbourne, most of the places close at 5PM. It’s back to climbing the many flights of stairs. I guess I can cancel out my jogging regimen that I had planned, when I already have to exercise myself every day, and twice too. Back to the room and opened all the windows. It’s stuffy with the windows all closed. Overall, today is pretty cool, probably around 20 degrees Celsius? It’s time for dinner and to start typing the entry in Words so that I can upload all of them at once when I have my internet connection set-up. Dinner was Japanese curry rice, as mentioned earlier, my co-tenant is Japanese. She cooked a big pot of curry and is eaten for over three days. Tomorrow, the third day, it’s going to be curry udon. Cheerios!
