Living In Adelaide

Its been a week since i came to adelaide. For those of you who might not know about me leaving malaysia, allow me to give you a summary of the unexpected event that happened. I always knew that i was going to come to adelaide to study, but after i came back from my langkawi trip the following events were unexpected. First off i got my offer letter late, so i had to rush to get my medical and settle the payment. Then i realised i had to be in adelaide before the 23rd, i was already going to miss my 2 week orientation programme. The hardest part was getting a flight ticket to adelaide. There was a moment when i thought, i wasnt going to come as all the flights were full. However, i was lucky enough to get a ticket for the 18th of July (business class)..*lol*..So im sure you can imagine how hectic that 2 weeks was for me. Finally when my visa and medical came through within 3 days (which is suprising), i thought " wow finally i can take a deep breath", guess i was wrong. I can never forget the phone call i got from my mum that friday, 13th July (its really a unlucky date) saying that my flight has been brought forward to the 16th. GOSH!!! i was really sad. the rest of the story was well you could say history...........

Here i am, at ADELAIDE doing the bachelor of science programme. Some people might get confused as you might know that i plan on studying dentistry. I have applied for dentistry for 2008 february intake. I have to sit for a PQA exam (3th aug) and pass the test and then go for an interview. Seriously its really nerve-wrecking. Studying dentistry is my aim and my goal. bachelor of science is basicly just a backup course for me. So pray for me people, cause i really want this bad!!!!!.. hope everything goes well *fingers-crossed*....

Adelaide is a small town, something like Klang. The difference is, its much more beautiful and has a lot of trees, clean air etc etc. (im not dissing klg okay). Its pretty quiet and peaceful, easy going place. There is night life here and its good as well. Im staying at Lincoln College, it is a residential college situated about 2.5 km from university. Its about a 15 min walk to uni. Its a fairly big place which accomodates about 200 something people. Most of the residents are malaysians and singaporeans. They're nice people and have really helped me settle in and all. My floormates are nice as well.Every day there's soemthing new going on for newbies such as myself to meet people.

I have to admit that i still feel homesick.I always wanted to further my studies in australia, specifically melbourne. Now im in adelaide, my plans have changed. Coming to this place on my own and finding my way around was scary. Luckily for me i had help, it made things easier. Leaving my comfort zone and coming here definately was not an easy task. I guess thats what every student or person goes through when they go to a new place. You basicly have to start from scratch.... meeting new people and getting accustomed to the place *hmm*. Only time can make a difference here. Besides missing my mum and family, i really miss my friends. The people here are not so friendly, you have to approach and show them that your putting effort into it. Starting in the 2nd semester doesnt make things better, cause everyone already have their own "clique".Despite that, i made a new friend. She's russian and goes by the name Valentina. She's in all my classes and well she's just friendly.

Nothing can compare to my besties back home. Im counting the days people till i come back home. Miss you people a whole lot *sobs*. I appreciate the things people did for before i came to adelaide. Your friendship means a lot to me and im glad that i found something that is to be treasured.

This post is specially dedicated to the following people :

1) prax,ashley,rovin,dal,lisa, tina, raeyna, raey's dad, adrian and arvin for being there for me at my place
2) Vee, keith, kevindra *haha*, raven and sohan- for coming to the airport
3) hammy for the beautiful lilies ( i love lillies)
4) roshan for an unforgetable saturday *hugs* & the chocolates
5) sanjay-for everything.
6) stephie doo and dalini - really sweet card

Penang-Langkawi 2007!!!

Call it a short trip or a vacation, but this was my first ever trip with my friends anywhere actually. Im glad that i went for this much awaited trip to langkawi with my SAM ex-classmates. We actually planned this trip end of 2006, but due to unforseen circumstances, the trip was postphoned. Finally on 27th june 2007, 5 of us packed our bags and headed to langkawi, however we made a short stop over at penang to meet pei wen. I was equally suprised as everyone else who knew i went to langkawi when my mum gave me permission to go. *lol*..but of course i didnt question it (im crazy if i did), i was filled with excitement.

27th june 2007, 9.30am :

Prakash and dalini sent me to the airport. They are soooo sweet, i mean which friend would actually get up early and follow me to LCCT terminal and ive got the best BIL who is actually willing to send me there. *hugs*. I met my friends there and we flew to penang with air asia.

Prem & Premi

(from left) Vee lyn, Eugene, Keith

The flight was about 40 mins, Pei wen and her sis met us at the airport. The good thing about the flight was that it was really fast then again maybe having my friends made it all the better. Penang looks pretty much the same, there are so many cars on the road and traffic is bad. I really thought i was not going to survive to see the next day, that's how scary the people in Penang drive. Then again pei wen driving was pretty freaky as well.Poor vee lyn thought she was going to die at a point *haha*. In the midst of the whole scary moment, we still had time to camwhore *laughs*

Vee darling & Premi

Pei Wen, Vee, Premi, Keith ( you can barely see prem and eugene)

By the time we checked into the apartment/ hotel we were all so exhausted and hungry at the same time. Besides we were at the food haven, how can we waste precious time. Pei wen then took us to this small mamak shop for indian mee. It was the best ever indian mee i have ever eaten *yummy yummy*. It was just so delicious. After that it was desert time, and we were all craving for ais kacang.. *hehe*.

Everyone feeling exhausted..it was the longest check in ever!!

The best indian mee i have ever eaten!!

I scream, You scream, We all scream for AIS KACANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After satisfying our tummy, we had to do shopping!!, cant help it were girls after all *lol*. Prem, eugene and keith decided to join us.. they were sitting at coffee bean obviously while pei wen and vee went bikini shopping while i just tagged along.Of course there was camwhoring time!!

We are wearing the same jeans ;)

After a very long and tiring day we went back to the apartment and had our baths. We then made our way to gurney drive. What's a visit to penang if we dont go to gurney drive to eat!.. as you might have expected, we ate until we couldnt eat no more. Once dinner was done, we took a drive to batu ferringhi to see blue sand and because i needed to get myself flip flops. I ended up getting my mum a present, one tree hill season 4 cd's and shorts.... Sadly we were not able to see the blue sand. It was a long day and we had to get up early to catch the ferry which was at 8.30am so we headed back to the apartment.

This is a cute picture of keith *aww*

We woke up at about 5 in the morning to avoid the traffic jam which is a major issue in penang. Pei wen wanted to take us for a good dim sum breakfast as well. Breakfast was at 6.30 am *yawns*

The ferry ride from Penang to langkawi was RM50, it is soooo expensive, what a rip off!!! and the journey was 2 1/2 hours. It was a really long and dreadful journey. Thankfully i slept through out the first 1 1/2 hour.. The best part of the journey was we stopped at Pulau Paya..and it is soooo beautiful!!!!

Pictures taken in the ferry

keith & I

The 3 seniorita's (hehe)

Group picture : Eugene, pei wen, vee lyn, premi, prem, keith... *love these ppl*

Welcome to Pulau Paya!!!!

FISHY!!!!!

-To Be Continued-

Talinn, Estonia

The final country the ship docked at was Estonia. The port of call Talinn which is also the capital of Estonia had the most beautiful port. The view of talinn from the ship was just simply breathtaking and wonderful. Talinn is situated on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. It is the republic's largest industrial and cultural center and an important baltic harbour.In my opinion Talinn is one of the prettiest cities in the Baltic. It is set on a hillock above the port, the old town which is a must see when at talinn is a medieval enclave with old buildings, towers, buildings dating back to the middle ages.

A picture of Talinn from the cruise ship.

Talinn is a small city which has a popultion of 400,000 inhabitants. Thus its not really neccessary to join tour groups. My family and i decided to discover talinn ourselves. The weather was just perfect. We took a shuttle bus into the old town and begin our visit by foot.

The entrance into the old town

Walking around was not really difficult, besides the people are always more than happy to help you out in giving directions. One thing i really enjoyed about visiting these different places is that no matter where you come from, people are just friendly and helpful. This is something that our country is lacking.

We arrived at Talinn on a sunday, hence there were many people in town. This made the atmosphere all the better and fun. The Town hall square is the center of Talinn's life. It is the main square with a wide range of restaurants and shops. This square dates back as far as the 11th century. People gather here to do their shopping and various events are held during the weekend.

At the town hall square

City hall

Family at St. Mary's Cathedral

The pictures above are pictures of Alexander Nevski Cathedral. It is located across the palace square. It is a russain orthodox building with onion domes, in the traditional styloe of moscow churches of the 17th century.

Thats me standing infront of the St. Nicholas Church. It was pretty hard to get a proper shot of the whole church. The St.nicholas church is dedicated to the Patron Saint of Seamen. Built in 1230, it was badly damaged by fire in the 15th century and was rebuilt.

The Talinn band entertaining people

Pictures of Cruise ship from the port

St.Petersburg, Russia- Day 2

Day 2 of St. Petersburg was very similar to the first day as we had to get up very early in the morning about 5.30 am, have breakfast and meet at the designated place by 7.15am. However i was really looking forward towards it because we were going on a tour to the summer palaces of Peterhof. The tour was approximately 8 hours, so we had to make sure that we had all the neccessary items for this long day. The sunny weather was a very good motivation for all of us and russia looked as beautiful as ever... not forgetting we had really pretty tour guides, sadly i dont have any pictures *hehe*.

Peterhof is situated on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. Also known as Petrodvorets, it was founded in 1710 as a summer residence for Peter the Great. Altered and extended over the years, it was almost completely rebuilt between 1747 and 1754. Inside the Grand Palace are many splendid displays of art, decorative objects and furniture. The palace over-looks a vista of spreading gardens and fountains.

Inside Peterhof :

Tour guide (left) & picture of catherine the great

The coronation chair

Nicholas the 1st (left) and daughter Alexandria (right)

Outiside Peterhof :

Mum standing outside Peter the Great cottage.

The most interesting fountain ive ever seen, its a TREE fountain

This is the house Nicholas the 2nd grew up

Funny looking clock. This clock tells the time of every state in russia *how cool!!!!*

Alexis the son of nicholas II. He was hemophilic.

The official palace of the russian prime minister.

In conclusion, russia was truly a magnificent place. Rich in culture and history it was truly the climax of the whole cruise. I had a very good time and looking forward going back to seeing more of russia.