Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Noticings

omg my convo analysis prof always uses that. noticings. "lets have a look at the noticings" XD they also use 'have a think' alot alot... i snicker inside everytime they say that.

another thing that was quite curious were arcades. there were big arcades in sydney, and a small one here in canberra. i was like ooooOoOo an arcade! but i didnt really see any flashy games or loud arcade-y sounds. rather, here, they are just an open air mall, sorta. dang it!! they even have big letters at the entrace: ARCADE. suckered me in....XD

oh yea, and since im in an ex-british land, they say cheers alot. i'm not really sure what it means but you can use it in alot of situations. i looked it up http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:-wZEh6x8xEwJ:www.english-test.net/newsletter/well-hello-96.html+when+can+you+use+expression+cheers&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk and i guess that helped. but seriously, wen i come back to the states, i should just say cheers every other sentence hahaha.

actually, ive never heard anyone say g'day. ppl say 'how ya goin' alot more. so much for that so called overused aussie expression.

last one:
sms=texting. isnt that more syllables? lol i think its just US that says texting. if you say 'sms me' or something. us americans'll go huh??

i almost get run over cause i still dont know which way to look first when i cross the road and if you look wrong, and start to cross and a car is coming, you'll most likely be hit cause drivers arent lawfully bidden to yield to pesky pedestrians. so much for being courteous on the road. i jaywalk so much and i take it for granted that they'll slow down for me. but NOOOO they don't!! ive got to be more careful aiya...

okies, imma put up pics later. sean went on another bio fieldtrip to the beach, darn him. he even saw the stars at night, the milky way and everything!!*cries*

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Essay....x.x

i just finished my 1,000 word essay that is due tomorrow morning and i just started this morning ha! actually its like barely 900 words cause they give you 10% leeway- min of 900, max of 1100 words. but omg writing essays here in australia is really hard! its such a high level of expectation. i spent all day doing this essay which would have been so easy to do back home. the deathkill here is they ask for referencing. usually i just write and blab haha, then again, linguistics dont really make you write essays much. good thing this wasnt like an english essay where you need a thesis. this "essay" was just answering a question that was answered in lecture, if you were paying attention so i was like shoot! how will i make my answer long enough for the essay?!
they use harvard style referencing which is not what im used to. they also dont indent paragraphs- you start skip a line to start the new paragraph there so it seems like your essay is really long but its not. and since they dont set the essay by how long it is, you cant do all those tricks with font and page setting like you can in the states. dang it!! but anyway, i hate referencing. it takes so much time and i had to figure out how to use the journals online. its not very good, unlike the ones cal provides. but yea...im beat. x.x time for nap.
mmm i found my new favorite drink: irish cream and coca cola mixed. SOOo good... its like root beer float, with a kick! =D

other news: oh yea, its my birthday. but no one here knows that. ppl back home know because its on fb but no one uses fb here.

wow. it is POURING outside as i type. i just got back from civic too. good thing i came back in time.

sean is on his botany fieldtrip. it sounds like he's having a good time, walking thru forest, seeing kangyroos, chilling with his classmates drinking lol. but he's there with his class to collect plant specimans. right.

what will i do? go see a movie haha. after all it is the weekends and anu film group has movies 4 days of the week =]

i think ill go drink my booze and listen to the rain. its so refreshing =D

Monday, March 9, 2009

ANU tips

those fucking bastards. libraries are just out to shit you. i got fined $80 cause apparently my books got recalled by someone and that means the old due date no longer applies. who the fuck does that? i mean, u check out a book, you get it for 3 weeks. you're happily reading them, havent finished and then a little fuck comes along and snatches it away from you just cause they can.

now the question is, should i write a pissy letter of appeal to those bastards? or should i play nice and bomb the place? no? alright, ill pay the fucking $80.

moral of story: check your snail mail everyday cause thats how satan rolls. (they alert you to recalls by the default way: mail.) fuck them.

at yu-xuan: there, you got more cursing out of me

at everyone else: yea, im mad.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Weekend Classes

This weekend was the first weekend of a 2 weekend course. we got lecture from 9a to 4p with an hour lunch break in the middle. we have hours and hours of lecture... ugh. but it only lasts a total of 4 days, since we do both saturday and sunday. oh yea and the course is called lanugage in asia, where they consolidate the undergrad and grad together into this one course. actually, its more like 4 classes put together cause the you(undergrad or grad) also have the option of doing the essay assignments in an asian language and that counts as a different course number. but its the same class. im being confusing. anyway, the lectures are really interesting. so far we talked about javanese, east-timor, singapore english, chinese writing, tagalog and its only half way over! other than that, im exhausted at the end of the day. its pretty tough, this intensive class. we also have lots of essay writing and omg im so scared at all the researching and writing that is expected of you here at this uni and generally in australia! i mean, i kno i kno, they warned us. at least i dont have to do it in another languge which would have happend if i went to a different country. tomorrow is canberra day so everyone gets a 3 day weekend! (cept i had class...) next weekend, sean is going on a fieldtrip for one of his bio classes. he's got his mosquito repellent, his tagging labels, and he's even got a hat! yay haha. actually, he'll be going on 3 different fieldtrips for each of his bio classes. that's pretty cool!! i wish i could go...! linguists. boooo. always into their data sets and never going anywhere! lol thats not true tho i wish we had fieldtrips too

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Missing out.

Dear Cal Students:

It is with great pleasure that we announce that His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama has
accepted an invitation from the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies and
the American Himalayan Foundation to present his talk Peace Through Compassion, on
Saturday, April 25 at 2:00 p.m. in The William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre. Doors
will open at 12 p.m.

Please visit the official website for more information about tickets and security at
http://www.berkeley.edu/dl/

Yours sincerely,

Robert J. Birgeneau
Chancellor

*cry cry cry* i can't make it! why does berkeley have cool events the semester im gone????

No worries

i like it here how ppl are so relaxed, laid back and happy. (and probably getting skin cancer) they just go to pubs, drink and talk....and talk and talk...>.< im not that sort of person unfortunately. it feels like slow torture if i have to put myself in that setting. im getting off course. so anyway, this is usually what happens:
A: Thank you!
B: No worries *smiles*
=D so far i havent heard anyone saying "you're welcome". actually, when people say thank you to me, im not even sure what im supposed to say. no one says you're welcome. should i say 'you're welcome'? or 'no worries'?

during eap orientation, kay warned us that we might find that something thats quite ordinary in the US, they might not have here and you'll be so perplexed as to why on earth could australia not have it? her thing was baby carrots. australia simply does not have baby carrots. they have the regular kind of long carrots youd have to peel and such. but no baby carrots. ive found my thing: there is no boba in canberra!! oh google map mocks me and says there boba places in sydney. which is 3 and a half hours away. but in my small pathetic town there is no pearl milk tea. as a result, i am dearly DEARLY misssing my boba....*cry cry* when i go to melbourne, im going straight to their chinatown and getting me some milk tea T.T

but there is one thing i am getting accustomed to. ppl here go to bed early and wake up early. makes a man healthy wealthy and wise. lol i couldnt resist putting that in. so, early as in around 10pm and early as in 7 or 8am. that's early for a berkeley college student! but its quite a refreshing change. you wake up early and the glaring afternoon sun hasnt shown its UV death rays completely and the air is nice and breezy. most of my classes are in the morning so by 2pm it feels like the day is almost over. ive done all that i needed, gone to my classes, even done some of my reading already. if this was berkeley, id probably have just eaten my first meal of the day and gotten up only a couple hours before. XD i guess because we wake up early, or actually we are forced to wake up early if you want a hot breakfast, we go to sleep early. late late for me here is midnight. i havent stayed up later than that, i usually try to be in bed by 10p. i guess the meal times here at bruce dictate my schedule. breakfast ends at 9am so i have to be up by then. lunch is at the normal noon-ish time. dinner ends at 6:30 so i have to have eaten by then and before you know it, its 9 or 10 and you go to sleep. well, theoretically, because my floor is the loudest in my wing so i cant exactly fall asleep by then. it would be wonderful if i could. i like getting my sleep. and lots of it.

that is why like any other college student, i sleep in on weekends. it doesnt matter which country im in haha

other news: im learning an aboriginal language! it sounds like they dont have teeth when you try to speak it (no fricatives that's why, very strange)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

ANU tips

If you want to get an australian bank account, use the commonwealth bank because a) theres a branch on campus right in union court and b) you can apply for an account before you're actually in australia. this beats standing in line during 0-week to set up an account because everyone else is trying to do the same thing. instead of standing in the LONG line that never moved to get a commonwealth account, i just went to the regular bank teller's window and it was alot faster. (i had applied online right before i left the US) also, its a good idea to wire money over as soon as you know the account number of the australian bank, before you leave but there are service fees on both sides - commonwealth and wells fargo charged me. the only down side is that i got the student type account and i have yet to figure out how to access my card in order to know the balance, and whether or not i get statements. (so far, i dont think so) its more convienent in the US cause you can just go online to look at a glance at your bank acccount but here, there's more obstacles in order to be able to do that. booooo!!
the only thing about the commonwealth bank is that since its right on campus, its pretty popular and so far, everytime i walk by, i see a long long line for the atm. >.< that is why i go on movie nights, which is at dusk, on my way to the movies cause there's fewer people by then and sean's with me.

also, get your school supplies, ie notebooks especially, before 0-week or as soon as possible. well.. at least that applies if you want to get the cheapest notebooks (its expensive here!), which is at big w (i got the spirax brand, which is bad only if you use pencil cause it doesnt erase well on this paper) cause wen i went back in a week, the entire aisle of shelves were empty. O.O also, im having a hard time finding folders... another thing, i brought a binder from the US but my handouts don't fit inside! that's cause the folders are perfect for 8.5 by 11 paper but ppl use A4 paper here! agh! i wish someone told me this! the binder's useless, my handouts are hanging out cause the binder's too short for it! the school newsagency, which is like the asuc store i suppose, doesn't have very many kinds of school merchandise or even very many of the ones they do stock. im surprised at how little variety they have in ANU logo-ed T-shirts (they're pretty ugly and too simple and of course, very expensive) . they don't even have ANU logo-ed folders....i need a pretty folder...=( ok ok im asking for too much. this town is too small....! freaking 300,000 people!! last thing is you can get free diary (planner) at the ASUC undergrad association and free wall month planner and highlighters at the Co-op but the highlighters get taken quickly. so grab a huge fistful -you'll need alot as the pen's ink runs out fast-its cheap, but free! =D

Monday, March 2, 2009

Iono about smaller updates...

Cuz im lazy and i find new things everyday but i dont want to post stuff up everyday... so it'll just get crammed into bigger ones whenever i feel like updating..which is right now! =)

okies so i dont have class on mondays and fridays. w00t! but in this little town, it doesnt mean its good....there's NOTHING to do here! sean still has the regular 5 day week so we cant go anywhere for the weekend. two days isnt enough. but anyway, i went to the 3 block mall on monday, just trying to figure out how to navigate the maze that is the mall. yes, my sense of direction is terrible, ok? well, of course, i got lost... but its ok cause i got everything that i needed, although i was frustrated that target didn't sell band aids or earplugs (i figured out you have to go to the chemist for that, which is like a drugstore), big w doesnt sell fans and that i could have bought everything for cheaper at the discount store or aldi's. man, aldi's has some cheap sunscreen... they sold sunscreen by the liter. can you imagine that? its like a jug of laundry detergent, and it even has a pump! oh they have really cheap booze too. haha.
its been pretty dry here stuck in the middle of bush country. my heels are cracking. anyone know good moisturizers? that i can find in australia?
its jarring how much australians are so in tune with american culture. they have a store in the mall called valley girl XD, just like forever 21 or wet seal. and i cant tell what australian music is cause they play ne-yo and britney spears just like in the US. their cinemas play the same thing the US is playing, although they release it later i think.
its also jarring how close to asia you really are. sean said something like if you take the people that go to cal and make all the asians REAL fobs, thats ANU. there's alot of asians here, more than i expected. and its weird how indonesian and japanese are the foreign language of choice. those two are the most popular langauge courses. i have never even considered indonesian being taught. just today, my ling prof asked how many ppl have studied indonesian and 3 people out of 22 there raised their hand. how many at cal have studied indonesian? is there even an indonesian course at cal?? so strange how french or italian aren't the foreign language of choice here.

tips for travel:
-you need to have loose change when you first arrive at a new country. i only had $50s and $100s. not smart. the first thing i needed was to make a call, which was like $2 or something. i know you can just buy something there to get some loose change, but ugh, its pretty annoying. the smallest bill i had was $5 which is ok, but i ended up going up to a stranger and asking to use their mobile.
-dont lose your contacts lenses. which leads to the fact that i have lost my contacts. all $200 or so, and that's american dollars. i should have put them in my carry on. i have no idea where they are, probably lost somewhere during traveling or something. i dunno if i should buy new ones here, i brought the prescription from my optometrist but that means i have to shell out money. *sigh*
-i also lost my zune cable. wtf, its like only ipods exist here. i have not seen any other kind of mp3 players since ive come here. ipods are ruling the entire world. i went into dixon's, which is like a best buy and asked someone where are the zune accessories and he gave me a look and was like, what's a zune? oh my god..... so i tried to buy it off of ebay but. UGH! you can't use your paypal account to ship to another country! the only way is to cancel your paypal account, set up a new one, where you need an australian bank account.

*sigh*

more translations:

foot path=sidewalk
lippy=lipstick
barbie=BBQ
eskie=cooler
a burger with the lot= a burger with tons of stuff in it, iono how to eat it without dripping everywhere lol. it has the tomatoes, lettuce, cheese? i think? but also an omelette, radish and pineapple. sean doesnt like the radish but the pineapple in the burger is really goooood...