26th Feb 2010 Today is a good day. The only bad thing is that the weather is too hot. Woke up and decided to skip on the 2nd host group meeting and went to do grocery shopping instead. FYI, in Melbourne, as mentioned by Jessica, she says to try to do whatever shopping during the weekdays as the prices of goods are twice as expensive on the weekends. So, I went to Aldi, apparently some things are cheaper here than at Woolsworth—their NTUC, and bought spiral pasta ($0.99), 3L fresh milk ($3.05), Traditional whole meal bread [750g] ($2.49), 1kg vanilla yoghurt ($3.79), whole meal crackers ($1.99), box of 32 pantyliners ($2.39), 14 pads ($2.49) and an eco-bag for $0.89. Came back around 1pm and put everything down and finished up the remaining milk in the fridge with cereal as lunch. Set my timer for 2pm as I need to make a trip to the bank to enquire about my debit card. Reached the bank and liaise with the customer service officer and he could not locate my card. When I applied, I requested to collect the card from the branch and somehow, the message was not properly relayed and it ended up being sent to my hostel. Luckily, my mail was in the hostel’s mailer corner. After I went to the bank, I went to the MDHS—Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences Centre to meet my student advisor on my credit standings. As I arrived there much earlier than the appointed time, I used the open access computers and view my time-table. Apparently, I have been given credit for the Chemistry and Calculus. So, I don’t have to study these two subjects. The newly enrolled Japanese is in and there is PRACTICAL for it. Huh?! Met up with the student advisor and she told me of the credits and I had to fill up a form to indicate that I have reduced load of study for this semester and as I have credits, in the 2nd semester, I have to take two breadth subjects. But, all in all, I have to study here for three years as I have not studied biology before. Is it possible for me to start direct in year 2? After meeting the student advisor, I dropped by the school bookshop and bought the necessary items for the biology practical package ($28) and the Unwired modem for internet ($39). Came back to the hostel and put everything down. It was almost 5pm and I had to make dinner. So, I took out the chicken bones and let it thaw. I then started cooking at 530pm. Planned to cook chicken rice for dinner, but I did not have any ginger or pandan leaves or sesame oil. So, I added garlic and added some lemon juice to the rice as substitutes. The chicken rice was tasteless. There was no hint of chicken rice at all. Failed project. Next, I made cream of broccoli. I boiled some water and added salt, pepper and oil. Added in the broccoli and let it simmer until the broccoli turns soft. Finally, I added some milk to give it a creamy colour and dashed Italian herbs into the soup and set it to high heat to boil and voila, it’s done. The broccoli soup was not bad. I still can taste the broccoli and the herbs. After dinner, I came back to my room and start to setup all my stuffs. Looked through my mail that I picked up from the mailer room which includes my debit card and the receipt of the rental bond I paid which can be claimed after my stay here. I then activated both my debit card and the internet. The internet plan I chose cost $19.95 per month that allow 5GB of data usage (1GB for peak hours and 4GB for off-peak hours). Why does Australia have this sort of policy to their internet? FYI, peak hours are from 4pm to 12am and off-peak hours are from 12am to 4pm. Times are all stated in Melbourne’s time. Also note, there will be daylight saving from April due to the coming winter and the time difference will be shorten by 1hr. Glanced through biology practical notes and saw…. I have to do a dissection of a RAT! Procedures: Collect a rat from the cage. Pin the rat and cut through the centre of it. Faint~ Not only rats. Apparently, there are frogs, rabbits, etc… Although I have seen live demonstrations of frog, rabbit and rat dissection in my secondary school, I have not done it by myself. My bro was saying that he too had to do dissection in JC. Pray hard that I don’t feel nauseated and better still; do not faint! Forgot to mention; yesterday by chance when I was watching TV, I saw an episode of the new season of Ghost Whisperer. Wow. The main actress now has got a son in the show. A five year old boy.
