Keeping up with everything.

The title really sums up what I want to say here. Prior to this I never really understood why people wanted to leave the comfort zones and awesome food Malaysia could provide, regardless of the political situation it has, paticularly to the other ra ces (besides the obvious ones). Being in Australia really opened up my eyes and allowed me to raise a comparison between the environment here and back home. Life is more than Nasi Lemak and Beef Rendangs, really.

Malaysia can boast their first proclaimed “angkasawan”, but not many back home will know, thanks to media cencorship, that everyone else in the world labelled our first “angkasawan” as Flight/Space participant. As a Malaysian, I am EMBARASSED to have to know that we are spending RM 90million to send an idiot to space when we could do so much more with the money. This is obviously another move by UMNO to boost their inferior complex. Speaking of media cencorship, it is also another glaring difference I noticed here in Australia. here, the newspapers can critic the government however they want, and as the elections draw close, even opposition parties are allowed to critic the government in advertisements on TV.  In Malaysia this would spark up a major frenzy, at where people in said opposition party will get jailed/hauled in by the ISA/suddenly be involved in some gay sex scandal.

Ever since I’ve got here I’ve been very into reading political blogs such as jeffooi.com to keep up with the political situation back home. It is through these political blogs and being in Australia that I come to realize how corrupt, inefficient and useless our government is. It is no wonder why our tiny neighbour down south is considered a developed nation while many people around the world still think Malaysians live on trees.

Anyhoo moving away from anything political, coming here has also allowed me to find what I really enjoy doing. In Malaysia we either do Biotech,Biomed or Environmental Management. Here in Clayton you can choose to major from zoology to cell biology and to astronomy. Ever since I was under Dr Yeo I had thought that my passion was Biochemistry- but it is now I realize that my perception of Biochemistry wasn’t even all it is here. It is now I know what I’m really into is Molecular Genetics- and although this sounds like a whole lot of shit to you guys, (“Isn’t it all the same thing?”) I’m just happy to announce it because it shows how far I’ve come- I remember when I started degree I thought that all these definitions were a whole lot of horseshit as well- that microbio=biology=cell biology=molecular biology = biotech = biochem. Ah how wrong I was.

After going though some old stuff, I suddenly got rather emo.

Its all about thinking of old stuff, and I don’t really wanna discuss it cuz I have before and well, nothing fruitful came out of it.

Ah well. To bed.

Its amazing how time flies. Its already three months since I’ve landed here. And to think like three months ago I was all excited about coming and experiencing life in Australia- I would think about all the tiny details, like, what kind of phone operators do they have, or what TV channels do they have?

Everywhere, especialy on facebook I see like people posting pictures of them clubbing in Melbourne city or visiting Mt. Buller- but here, I thought I’ll give an inside view on the more intricate but overlooked details of Australian life-
TV channels
Theres like channel 10, channel 9 and channel 7-My TV is on channel 10 permanently cuz it has the most Simpsons and Futurama episodes- It also has the lastest season of House, Californiacation, Life and huge doses of Law and Order. Cable TV here is called Foxtel, and is run by Optus.

Transportation
Taxis here are expensive. More often then not, you will also see an indian sitting at the driver’s seat. So when we travel its either bus, train and well, to a lesser extend, the tram. Why? oh no paticular reason you know, its just that Clayton’s a bitch and it seems like the only suburb that has no damn tram lines. Its very systematic here, one ticket applies to all the modes of transport, eventhough they are managed by different companies. Trains are run by Connex, Trams by Yarra Trams and Buses…a whole load of companies.

Shopping
Shopping is rather different here as compared to Malaysia. When we say shopping in Malaysia, we have Midvalley, 1 utama and KLCC, etc etc- but when it comes to Melbourne, you don’t really get everything under 1 roof. Say if you want to meet friends for lunch or dinner, chances are that you would meet at where theres a HUGE clock in Melbourne Central, and you would proceed to individual restaurants.

Melbourne Central and QV (Queen Victoria) are the two places that remotely resemble a shopping mall in Malaysia. Melbourne Central sells rather upmarket stuff, though they have Krispy Kreme there- not too sure about QV, since I’ve only been there once, but I know theres Max Brenner there. In the suburbs, there are more of the shopping mall kinda places- the closest to Clayton is probably Chadstone, which would remind you the MOST of our shopping malls in Malaysia. You just have to do some substituting- Myers for Jusco, Coles for Giant and Hoyts for GSC.

Food
I’ve taken to vietnamese food ever since I’ve got here. Its one of the cheaper choices too, so its usually the cusine we go for. If we’re in the city I would go for either of the two shops on Swaston street, but if I’m in Clayton I’ll hop on a train to Springvale for a vietnamese dish. If you crave italian, there’s Lygon street which is basically little italy, and if you want chocolately stuff theres koko black in Chadstone or Max Brenner in QV. If you’re completely famished you could hop on a train to Camberwell, where you can eat at Sophia’s. Its a italian-ish restaurant that offers mind-bogglingly gianormous portions for ridiculously low prices, especially when you share the dishes with a bunch of friends.

Phone network providers
Theres quite a alot of network providers here- there’s Optus,Vodafone, 3, Telstra and Soul. People usually opt for Optus, 3 or Voda- I don’t see that many people with Telstra or Soul.

So there- a small guide to the details of Melbourne as I know it. Back to work.

Its amazing how time just rushes past when you don’t notice it. 2 more weeks and its SWOTVAC already. And while its good news for some people, its all bad news for me. I mean its the exams0.o Huge pressure mounting, and I really don’t feel like taking on that pressure.  Added to that, I share the joy of being able to return to KL like others. Which means while everyone else is happily having fun back in Malaysia, DRIVING their individual cars and eating home cooked food, I’ll be slaving away here looking for a summer job while not knowing anyone here. Ah the joys of life.

Its the midsem hols next week, and to tell the truth, I’m not that paticularly looking forward to it either. I mean, what am I suppose to do? Theres no Jeff to disturb, no shopping that can be done cuz I’m on such a freaking tight budget, no best friends around ( Sarah’s running off to Brisbane and Sydney. Lucky thing.) and well, no car to drive. It all goes downhill from there, trust me. Studies to be done, assignments and reports to complete, ah well. Looks like a week of hibernating for me. Except I hibernate off homework, not sleep. YAY.

Despite all these miseries, there were some positives I guess. I’m happy to say that I have made steps to like, mix around more and try to be more involved in uni activities- or well, international student association activities. Funny how now I’M the international student, when back home I was the local. And while we used to not give a shit about the international student elections and all( didn’t even know about it until Nima told me her lil story), I knew who was running for what here in Monash Clayton.

And not for the last time, I end another blog post hanging halfway in the air. I’ve lost my line of thought, thanks to the mindless drilling the construction workers are doing still in the MORNING.(what the HELL are they doing?)