Great Night

Last weekend, I went back down to Melbourne for a couple days, mainly for Monisha's birthday. I have been looking forward to this weekend ever since I booked the tickets back in May. For the first half of the week I was too excited to concentrate on on uni. I had a good chunk of time in Melbourne, leaving Thursday morning and going back on Sunday. Everyday I had something planned so I could make the most out of the weekend.
When I finally got to Melbourne, I was a little frustrated because the flight was delayed. Once I got home, I only had about 45 mins to get ready, have lunch and pack things because I was spending the night in Bendigo. Another surprise, not a good one, I got a fine for running a red light which I still firmly insist I didn't, I sure do speed but why would I run a red light, that's just irresponsible. It was very nostalgic getting the vline to Bendigo, I miss the vline trips, I'd rather the train ride to a plane ride any day. I got picked up at the station by all of my pharm friends, it's so much better when there's cars, public transport can get tiring. It was awesome to get a chance to hang out with them because I didn't get to see them in the mid year break. We met up with Yen and Hannah, and we all went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. I'm a big fan of roti, and in hindsight i should of just ordered that, the yellow chicken curry I ordered was good too, but the serving was a little too big. I convinced my pharm friend to come to go karting and laser tagging, which was an event held by BOHDS (which was the Latrobe Dentistry student organisation). We all felt a little awkward at first, mainly because we didn't belong to bohds, but we were with Yen and Hannah (who are). The entry price was really cheap, only $10 for non-bohds members, we came a little late but still managed to squeeze in three laser tag games. It was really fun and while we started off hiding out in the corner during the game, eventually we put ourselves out there. I think I've improved my aim but I still suck, just not as much as my first time. There were some arcade games, but we were too stingy to pay for them so we tried to pull the tickets out of the machine. Because we were able to have the complex to ourselves, there were some freedom in how we acted, like climbing over the games to reach the balls or pressing every button to somehow magically hope that it would let us play for free. At the end, everyone who came to the event all came in for a photo, originally we were reluctant to join, but the people told us to come in the photo. Yen led us to the back of the group, and we found it hilarious because no one could see us, then the people let us in to the front. It felt so funny because we were sort of crashing their event and pretended we were dentistry students (okay I guess I am). After the event, I parted with my pharm friends as I was sleeping over at Yen's place. Oh it felt so weird to be back in my old house, although I didn't get a chance to see my old room or the rest of the house because I didn't really feel like meeting the other housemates. I felt incredibly happy being in Bendigo, and realized I missed the people and the environment more than I thought. Yen and I watched the latest episode of Bachelor Pad, don't judge it's my guilty pleasure. I left really early in the morning and I'm so grateful for Yen finally having her license and a car!
Friday morning was dedicated to spending time at Monash, it was funny how everyone kept asking me "Don't you have uni?", that's the beauty of lectopia (which i still actually haven't caught up in). It was nice to spend some time with Van, they had finished the day at 12 and because I didn't have much planned I took the train with her home. I found out she's been driving to the station alone on her learners! I don't know how she is not paranoid about getting caught, she also doesn't put any plates up either, just like she's on her full licence. When I got back into the city, I was looking for a present for one of my uni friends, I found some fox or cat earrings which i thought looked pretty cool. However I ended buying nothing because I couldn't make up my mind. Ugh it is so hard to buy presents. I was waiting around until Susan finished her prac, I bumped into Rebecca and we caught up for a bit before she had to run off to catch a movie. There was a band playing in a newly opened store that I can't recall the name of, they sounded pretty good but i was watching them from outside and too scared to go into the actual store. I think the band was The Jungle Giants, anywho they are an Australian band and didn't sound half bad. When it got a bit late, I decided to go home because I was tired from all the walking around, Susan had finished her prac late and needed to go somewhere afterwards. Oh boy, being in my own bed felt really good after so long.

Saturday was Monisha's birthday and I will write a separate post for that, because I have lots of photos.

Love Squealer.

Afro Circus

My apologies for the lack of updating, I just haven't found the time to sit down for ages and write a post. While it's still early in the semester, I am still trying to revert back to the uni schedule, as I am currently in holiday mode and taking a lot of naps. It would be unlikely that I will find time to write about the rest of my holidays, so I'm just going to keep moving forward.

This semester has started on a much better note, I now have similiar timetables to my dent friends which makes life a little less lonely. The feelings of homesickness have somewhat subsided however I still do miss myself around my Melbourne friends, but that will have to take some time to happen in the GC. In the first week, I am proud to say that I attended all of my classes, okay so pracs haven't started yet, but it is a lot better than how I was last semester. This streak also continued through the second week (the one lecture I skipped doesn't count because it was optional as the lecturer already finished the week's material).

The first weekend was a fun-filled weekend, where on Saturday was Brisbane City exploring day and on Sunday was Dreamworld!
The day started very early on Saturday, meeting at the bus stop to make our way to the city, and the first time that I have been on the brisbane train! I LOVE the FREE wi-fi on the trains! I hope melbourne really follows with the wi-fi option, one of the best decisions ever. The trains were a little different to Melbourne internally, maybe I'm used to the feel of the Melbourne ones. Once we reached the city, the station didn't feel like the 'city' at all. We got off at Southbank, which is comparable to to our Southbank. I think they had redone everything after the flooding and it looks amazing! There was this awesome walkway with pretty flowers hanging off it, and there were swimming facilities and a man-made beach which looked pretty cool. I guess the swimming wouldn't be that relevant to Melbourne due to the much colder weather. We explored the markets, acting like tourists and gushing over the little things, taking photos and crowding around the stalls. However I didn't buy anything. Lunch was at Max Brenner's, which I still am not the biggest fan of, but my dent friends seem to love? I had a hot chocolate and waffle. I have learnt (mostly) my lesson to not be greedy especially when it comes to sweet things. After lunch, we over the bridge to the city part where all the shopping was. The shopping was pretty decent however I only had explored a little part of the city, and most shops were closing. The city is quite confusing, for me anyways, I think they need to adopt the grid system like Melbourne, but luckily for technology and google maps on our phones. Half the group went to watch Batman, while the rest did more exploring of the city. I got really exciting spotting Asian groceries and discovering cheap food especially junk food. For dinner, we went to Korean restarant which served pretty nice, cheap and decent food, thank you urbanspoon for the reviews. Afterwards we quickly made to the station to catch the train. The buses don't run that late so we didn't want to miss the bus. On the train ride back, there were security men on board and that was awesome, made it feel a lot safe. My friends were cam-whoring on the train, funny to watch. Once we got of off the station in the GC, the bus didn't come for a super long time. To kill time, we took heaps of photos, and I like being the photographer. It felt weird because I only had my phone camera, because I left my dslr in Melbourne, and my digital camera didn't have the SD card. Finally the bus came, and luckily for my friend's sister who drove me home, otherwise I have to walk 25mins at 12.30 in the dark.

The next day was Dreamworld time! My friend and I decided to go for a yearly pass. I wanted to get the 10% discount for my friends who were buying the single entry pass. It took a while to process everything and get everyone through into the park. My first impressions of Dreamworld was pretty awesome, I loved the little themed shops and look of the whole place. To warm us up, we went on this ride which I called the mexican hat because it looked like one. Basically its a circle platform that spins around while it goes along a wavy path, it was very fun and a good level of thrill that I can handle. I definitely knew that I would not be able to go on all the big 7 rides, so I settled for The Claw, which looked like the most tame out of them all. Lining up for it was pretty terrifying, but I'm glad it didn't go upside down, that's a deal breaker for me. There were many times I wanted to back out but looking at the ride, it didn't seem that bad. I was very tense sitting down and getting ready for the ride. The parts that were thrilling when it was going back down, and you can feel the adrenaline rush. I hate that falling feeling in your heart, and usually when I experience scary rides, I closed my eyes, but this time I screamed/yelled which made it a lot better. I was so proud of myself for going the ride, and I actually wanted to go on it again! Throughout the day I went on most of the kiddy rides, and yes it did feel a little weird to be among very little children. Walking through the Madagascar part, I was singing the afro circus song a lot which none of the my friends seem to get or find funny. My favorite part of Dreamworld was my koala experience. It was expensive compared to the other zoos, but I have been looking forward to this for such a long time! My koala was named Frank and 19 months. He was the most gorgeous thing ever! He felt so soft and warm in my arms and a little heavy, and he smelt nice. I kept petting him. They told me he had been fed and he was just sleeping in my arms. So my photos had him with his eyes closed, which may have been preferable because koala's eyes are scary. I'm glad there wasn't a line or anything and I got to hold him for a long time, I'm not if it was actually a long time and that's how long other people got to hold a koala, but I'm glad they didn't rush us and were really nice. I feel incredibly happy afterwards and I'm looking forward to holding another one. Oh and an alpaca spat in my face, not the best experience, I just wanted a photo with it and pet it! Unfortunately we didn't have time to catch the lions, but it was okay because we had a yearly pass.

Sorry for the photos being out of order, it takes too much effort to move them around.


Love Squealer.