After arriving in Melbourne, I had to help my sister to move things to her new place, which is only a few blocks away from the old place. My parents and I were staying at the new place for the last week while my sister and her fiance stayed at the old place until last saturday.
We went to china town on the first day of Chinese New Year. This would be the second time I celebrated CNY in Melbourne, away from my friends. There were more than six shops having lion dances in front of their shop. Everyone stopped to watch and take pictures, and actually caused traffic jams! The people flooded the entire china town and the streets near it until trams had to stop halfway because some people (mostly people from China) crossed the streets without bothering about the vehicles AT ALL! And the firecrackers...Man! We had to shout to each other when we talked. Imagine all the shops with chinese owners burned firecrackers at the same time. I could hear them 3 blocks away! After all the amazement and hassle, the streets were full of residues from the firecrackers...small strips of red paper and the smell of sulphur filled up the streets. But...even though I missed my friends and disappointed for not being able to hang out with them, it made it all worth while. It wasn't a bad CNY for me.
We went to a temple around our place afterwards. GODSSS!! I was practically scratching out my hair when I saw the temple/joss house. It was a 300-year-old mansion!!!!!!! And it was a beautiful mansion to top it off. It looked like the mansion in Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion, with the high iron gate and fences, tainted glass windows, spiral staircase and fireplaces. It was built exactly in 1800. Gah! What a waste! They even used the fireplace to burn those chinese papers (I don't know what the hell they are called. Chinese normally burned those papers in temples after putting on the josses and red candles).
And then, on 21 Feb, I went on a trip with my family and my sister's fiance to an 1870s mansion. It was absolutely beautiful! The only setback was it wasn't big enough (for me, that is) and I wasn't able stay in the mansion for a night...T.T I heard the land used to be 13,000 acres! But it was being cut down to over 1000 acres. Took lots of pictures of the building and the decorations, especially the carvings, windows and chandeliers. The chandeliers were gorgeous and the carvings in the whole mansion are pure gold! Jesus...
On 22 Feb, that was the first day of the orientation. The programs were boring but I met really interesting friends! That made my day...I met a postgraduate student from China, 2 first year students from China (too), an American girl who plays the flute (OMG! I absolutely admire her! I've always admire people who can play the flute. It gives out a really beautiful and elegant melody. If I have the time after learning both the violin and piano, I might consider learning it XD), and 2 first year students from Japan! I was so damn happy to get to meet Japanese! They're Yoshida Maki and Komoto Ryota (I think that's his name. Maki is a really cute girl! And Ryota looks like the chinese movie star "Chen Kun" -- handsome! XD Well he's not the only guy that I thought is handsome. There was also a guy I met during enrolment, with sunny blond hair and dreamy blue eyes. Huhhh~ He's like a prince charming walking straight out from a fairytale XD)
And for 23 Feb (that's today), I met a 2nd year student during my course briefing. Not really sure where he came from. All I know is that he's a chinese that only speak english and can't speak chinese at all and he's not from Malaysia, which I find it strange since he's english is kinda *ahem*. LOL~ He's really nice and friendly, though. And then I went for a library briefing which surprised me with the activities they had for us. We had a mini amazing race in the library! I was in a team with 3 Indonesian postgraduates and another chinese girl. And guess what...I was the team leader (unwillingly). We actually won the 1st prize and got ourselves a Monash thumbdrive, a Monash pen and *loud dramatic music* a small box of Guylian chocolate each!!!! It was the best library briefing I'd ever gone to (and I was dead tired afterwards).
Before I went home, I walked around the lemon scented lawn (yes, the lawn really smells like thousands of lemons) where the O-week carnival is, and signed up for the clubs. I signed up for the Malaysian union (duh~), Anime club (again, duh~ people who are close to me should expect that XD), Japanese club and the CHOIR!!!! I get to sing!! Oh, I've also signed up for a show choir (from another music club. Clayton has more than 4 clubs for music), something like the TV show "Glee". It isn't confirm yet as the club is waiting for as many people as possible to sign up in order to REALLY have the show choir. I actually planned to join the Kendo club, too. But the monthly fees is AUD50 and I have to buy the bamboo sword which cost another AUD35. What's more, they practice from 6-8pm. That's too late for me. If I go for the practice, I can only be home on 9 something. Will be dead tired and I still have classes the next day! And the money I have spend...I thought it's better for me to save the money and pay for my violin lessons instead (if I can get a teacher at all). I like kendo, but I think it will have to wait until I graduate (when I get a job and can pay for the fees with my own money).
Tonight, I would most probably have an amazing night. We are going to play mahjong!!!! Haha...I'm super excited and looking forward to it. =]
