A New Place, A New Story

VICTORIA, the place to be.

As good as it sounds, Melbourne is actually quite a wonderful place to live in. However, I must say that a bad first impression will always stay in the back of your mind no matter how different and good they turned out to be later on. There's a quote in Malay (suprisingly, I still remember it!!), "kerana nila setitik, rosak susu sebelanga". It simply means that one lousy person thing is enough to ruin the all the good impression that you have for it for years. You'd realize that they're not as good as you thought them to be after all. I'm not pointing at anyone anything in particular. It's just something that I don't agree with and have come to notice since my arrival.

Everything aside, Nelson and I are now pretty well settled in here in Hawthorn. Everything is well taken care off. Apartment is small and cosy (and expensive!) though the ventilation s*cks. The whole place smells whenever we cook. Transport isn't a problem (for me), train station is just 5 minutes walk away, there's a tram station right in front of our doorstep and my office is just a 15 minutes walk (good daily exercise for me!). This is where we're staying:

Classes are starting, I've been attending office for almost 2 months now. Everything else is pretty much routine. For me, weekdays will be to attend office from 9 to 5 (though I'm always late), Saturday is the day for us to hit the market and get our food for the entire week (we manage to squeeze everything in our tiny bar fridge somehow!) and Sundays, well, I should say Sunday is the day for us both to do some studying (there's pretty much catching up to do for me!!) otherwise it'll just be another lazy relaxing Sunday.

It takes quite a while to get used to the weather. It wasn't freezing cold, but it was cold. We've got through the coldest time of the winter. It's getting towards end of winter and early spring now. But the wind is strong. Almost got blown away today. Risked my life getting something to my colleague, and I got a coffee treat :D But overall, I think we're climatizing pretty well. No heavy rain here like back home (I miss the rain drops sound!!), it just drizzles most of the time. And saying that the weather changes as fast as the share market would be an understatement.

Work (or study) is pretty much the same everyday. Challenging and I learn new things everyday. That's life! For now, it's just reading and reading, and guess what? More reading. It's a fairly reasonable procedure. Better get all the knowledge you need before getting your hands dirty. So, I'm earning extra pounds by eating and sitting in the office all day long (well, I've got 30 minutes exercise everyday!). Supervisors are great and understanding, colleagues are friendly and helpful, everyone around is so knowledgeable. What more can I ask for in a new place? The only thing is that I'm the only girl left in the group now that Cécile and Nathalie (French interns) have left (miss you girls already!!). I've just migrated to Cécile's desk, at least there would be more privacy now and I don't feel the wind blowing at me everytime someone opens the door.

Didn't get to travel around much yet. Haven't even finish exploring the city. Settling in and catching up in studies are our top priorities now. We'll be here for 3 years anyway, so there's still plenty of time. The first week here is the only time when we get to explore and even went to Great Ocean Road trip (will post some pictures later) - thanks to Andrew :) It was a long, scenic drive. What's so special bout this place, you may ask (those of you who haven't heard of it before). Let's not spoil the suprise. Wait for my next post. For now, it's time to sleep. It's 1 a.m. and tomorrow is Friday. It means I have to work!