Slack?

who says it's more slack studying in aussie? look at my horrible timetable!!! (thank God i managed to find a slot for bio pract. previously, my timetable was 2 practs on friday!) it's only for 3 modules lor... my theology module is a self study thing. cos i can't make it to the Adelaide Divinity College on wed mornings. classes will clash. i really wonder how i'll do for that mod. haha. so exciting to study theology in school. there'll be heaps of readings! shucks. haha. but that's the way to learn!

Modules i'm taking this semester:
Core:
BIOL1102 - Molecular Basis of Life
CHEM1101 - Chemistry 1A

Electives:
PSYCH1104 - Aspects of Psychology A
THEO1101 - Interpreting the Old Testament (External course)

My Timetable - 03-Mar-2008 to 20-Jun-2008
		Monday		Tuesday		Wednesday		Thursday		Friday
09:00				BIOL1102 Lecture 1 of 3 (1) IST.STH3		BIOL1102 Practical (21) BIOL.112		BIOL1102 Lecture 3 of 3 (1) IST.STH3		CHEM1101 Practical (6) PHYS.121
10:00		BIOL1102 Workshop (1) SLTH.STH1						BIOL1102 Supervised Study (13) PHYS.1300
11:00		CHEM1101 Tutorial (1) SLTH.STH1		PSYC1104 Tutorial (1) SSN.114
12:00				CHEM1101 Lecture (1) IST.STH3		CHEM1101 Lecture (1) IST.STH3		CHEM1101 Lecture (1) IST.STH3
13:00						BIOL1102 Lecture 2 of 3 (2) IST.STH3
14:00		PSYC1104 Lecture Group 1 of 2 (1) SSN.NTH3				PSYC1104 Lecture Group 2 of 2 (1) SSN.NTH3
15:00										BIOL1102 Workshop (1) SLTH.STH1

Mailing Address

got my mailing address! ask me if you want my aussie number ya? haha. it's cheaper for me to call you than you call me though. :)

Ho Hui Li Melissa
Unit 7, Room 5
Flinders Housing
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide
SA 5001

What Happens When Women Walk in Faith

That's the new book by Lysa Terkeurst that i'm reading for my QT every night now. Thank God i brought this along with me. I've been feeling uneasy about what's going to happen in the future, but the anxiety really decreased as i spent time reading this + the word.

At chapter 2 now, and just wanna type out some quotes so that i'll remember better.

"To honour God completely, you need enough faith to leave with him. Leave the attitude, leave the stubborn pride, leave the right to be right, leave the control, and biggest of all, leave the unbelief."

"Determine to proceed forward with God." (eg. Noah, Jeremiah, Ruth, Abraham, Jesus's disciples etc)

Hebrews 11:13-16
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Isaiah 43:18-21
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honour me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

I miss home. But i'm gonna look ahead and see what God has in store for me! Ultimately, i'm his and i want to try living by faith. I know he will provide for me, even though i don't yet see how everything will work out in the future. One step at a time...

Hebrews 10:35-37
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, i will not be pleased with him.

*you remember about about 10% when you read, 27% when you listen, 35% when you write, more when you teach, and so much more when you actually practise it.*

Conviction and comprehension goes hand in hand before compliance isn't it?

AUSSIE!

I'M IN AUSSIE!!!

I was so frustrated with my internet. I'm really "anti-IT" (description given by my brother), i think. Everyone's internet could work except mine. 6 people came to my room to help me, including new friends and hostel IT personnels for like a week, and none managed to do it! Surprisingly, when June (Canoeing Aw Yong! She's your cousin! Such a small world after all.) came over, she knew exactly what the problem was straight away and made it right. GRINS. Thank God. I'm not cut off from the world now.

I miss everyone... Warmest thanks to everyone who sent me off. It really made a difference!!! I didn't cry! Cos i was just really glad to be sent off by many, and be prayed for. Much more peace ya? Ha. Though i didn't cry at the airport... (Ee Foo! I did you proud, didn't i? Ha.) I cried on my 2nd day here already. And another time just now, when I said my goodbyes to my parents as they went back to the hotel. They're flying back tmr! As what everyone says, i'll get used to it... Sigh. Too pampered back in S'pore. Too much in my comfort zone. Let's see what i'm really made of here!

People are SUPER friendly here. Really not used to it. They'll greet you as long as they see you, and give you a bright smile. Nice.

It's FREEZING. And it's only summer. Temperatures are like around 20+ degrees? But it's really windy, esp since Flinders is up on a hill. So i'm practically wearing my jacket everywhere. I froze on the first night, since the temp drops and i didn't bring my quilt over. Brrrr... But i managed to buy the cheapest electric blanket i could find! YAY. And it's so much more comfortable. Ha. Oh what will i do in winter~

The food in hostel is actually pretty good! They have like buffet style servings. Breakfast is lotsa cereals and bread with spreads, sometimes eggs and stuff. Lunch is packed sandwiches, but oh so healthy! With cheese, hams, veggies and sauces. Dinner so far is quite good too! I'm not really into their potatoes, and their rice is like very hard, but still, there was good cutlet, curry, pies, steaks and stuff for mains so far. :) And of cos, unlimited amounts of veggies, pasta and can take like 2 whole fruit too. I can still eat healthily!!! MUST NOT GROW FAT.

My main exercise so far is walking up and down slopes. Ha... Still haven't tried a running route yet. The gym costs like $300 a year. Shucks. And it's so cold here, i'm abit reluctant to run. But Moses Koh was telling me that some girl in Flinders runs 5km everyday! WOAH. I must have that kinda determination...

My room's pretty cosy. It's even bigger that the rooms at TTC that we stayed for YPM camp 2007. Pictures say a thousand words!

I'm lucky. I'm like sharing a house like place with 6 other gals! Only us 6 can access our place. A kitchen and 2 toilets and 2 showers and a living room. Few ppl got a 'unit' like mine. Most stay in the 'hall', where each has a individual room, then it leads out to the corridor where everyone can walk. Other units and those halls are shared by both guys and gals. But mine has all gals! So much more convenient. Ha. And they don't drink that much. Most of the guys here drink loads. Yucks. Ha. Not the guys. But the liquor... eeeee.

So far I've met quite interesting ppl. Ha. Not much Asians, but it was easy for the group of us just to talk and be comfy. I try not to stick only to Asians, so that I can check out other cultures. So i now know ppl from HK, Sarawak, Japan, China, S'pore (heh), States, Sri Lanka, Korea, and Aussies of cos. One pict I've got with some of us Asians!


Yeah.. Orientation Week (O'week) is happening whole of this week. They'll burn a CD for us at the end, and i'll update more then.

*Learnt new Jap word from Jap friend Yosuke: Ma-Ta-Ne, meaning 'see ya later'* :)

Updated!

Haha... Ok. I have not updated for like 2 months already! I deserve all the scoldings. Lol. My excuse is that i started to get very busy at work when we outsourced to India, and then when work stopped on 31 Dec, i started having so much fun slacking and doing all the stuff i needed to do! My reason.. is that i've been lazy to update and that it's just so much better to meet friends and family up in person rather than talk online. So much more personal. I won't be able to do this when i'm in Aussie... So i must make use of the time i have right now! So if the blog is more important when i'm overseas, not now!

Yups. I've been doing lotsa preparations for my trip. And that includes booking my tickets! It's SQ269: 19th Feb, Tues, 2350 at T3! So i guess i gotta check in at 2150. I hope i won't cry! Haha. At least my parents will go with me for a week! :) (thank you so much, you know who for you know what! this is the most fantastic thing ever...)

So what's up so far? I've been trying to cook, study (yes started studying some cool anatomy book!), shop for necessities, exercise ALOT, eat ALOT, go out with as many friends as possible, and do what i can for and with cell as much as possible now!

I am glad to announce that i have, with the help of others, successfully cooked curry chicken (extra spicy!!!), sweet and sour pork, and hokkaido milk bread!




YAY! I LOVVVVVVE the sweet and sour pork from Hwa Chong canteen. Some other canoeists and I almost ate CaiFan with sweet and sour pork everyday during JC days. haha. We used to joke that the CaiFan uncle put drugs in it cos it was just so good. So i met up with my leney and dongua to eat there and then ask the uncle to teach us how to make it. He still remembers me after so long!! Ha. And of cos, because i was his most ardent fan, he Agreed! It's a recipe passed down from his mum lo! so nice right? I feel like i have such a huge responsibility to pass it down to a selected tudi too. Ha. I managed to re-create it!!! Yes!

The milk bread was so good too. It's softer and sweeter then Cafe Cartel bread, but lacking the same crust. Should have left it in the oven for a longer time with a higher temp at the last few minutes.

I shall try making sushi next. Heh. I am crazy over JAP FOOD now! Ha. J la. Intro me to 'Shota no Sushi' on crunchyroll... It's a really GREAT show about this guy becoming a sushi chef. Oh my gosh. Just watching it makes me drool. The good thing about this show is that even though it's based on a comic book, and it's fiction, there's alot of factual information to learn from! Patrick! You should really catch it. Trust me. :) So yes. I was so glad to satisfy my cravings when Ee Foo brought some of us to eat a Jap buffet at 'i won't tell you unless you ask me in case everyone starts going there and it becomes too crowded' Ha. The sashimi was absolutely worth the buffet price. So Fresh! So Thick! Such Fatty Meat! Ha. If you're a sashimi lover, you should really try...

Then Serene brought me to her favourite Jap place too! Haha... So many funny stuff happened...
I was SO HIGH because we sat at the counter! Was super excited looking at the chef make the sushi for our raw fish sushi set and oh my... the sushi is nothing like what you see at Cold Storage lor. The fish is a gigantic slice covering the whole piece of rice and even touching the plate. Check out the pict!


Ha. After learning from 'Shota no Sushi' how to see if the sushi is properly moulded, i tried to 'test' the sushi too. Heh. So sad.. It failed. But.. it's ok. The high quality ingredients more than made up for it. Ha. Even though i tried to do it as discreetly as possible, i think the chef saw me... Ha. And maybe he felt abit apologetic, so he gave us another 'maguro' (tuna) sushi! It was really interesting talking to him. Humourous and friendly guy. :)
Then there was another chef who was preparing this lobster sashimi - the whole lobster put on ice and with decorations. It looked really pretty! So i took a picture using my hp. Ha.. He saw me doing that and started chuckling... Then as i continued eating my sushi, suddenly he placed a live lobster in a bowl and put it right in front of me!!! Ahhh! I was so shocked. Ha. Goodness me. These chefs are so funny...


As we continued eating, one waiter came up to me and asked me if i could do him a favour. Ha. I thought he wanted us to try some new dish or something, but turned out he wanted me to bake a cheesecake for his colleague for her birthday! WOW! (Cos the first time i came here in nov 07 was to celebrate Serene's bday. I baked her a oreo cheesecake, and asked to waitresses to help me keep it in the fridge first and serve it after we finish our food. They were so excited and told me to give them any leftovers if any, cos it smelled very good, so that they can try the cheesecake! Ha. We only manage to finish half in the end, so we gave it to them! Ha. Turned out that one of them still remember that it tastes good, and so really wanted to eat it again for her birthday on 30 jan) Haa.. I was so flattered, so i couldn't help agreeing to do it. Ha. :) (Anyone wants the recipe? It's really not that difficult. I got it from the 20 minute recipe column from Her World Magazine. So credit doesn't go to me! It's the good recipe i managed to lay my hands on!)
Ha... Then when we ate till we were too stuffed to continue, the manager (who was serving us all along) asked if we wanted dessert - black sesame ice cream. WAH! How did he know both me and Serene liked black sesame??? Ha. So scary. We had to decline even though we were so tempted cos we just couldn't eat anymore.. So sad. Ha. Then the 2 other waitresses (the ones who helped us with the cake the last time) came up to us and wanted to give us complimentary desserts! Ha. So sweeet... And then offered to give it to us next time we come again since we're so full. Awwww.... GRINS
Last exciting thing: The manager let us play a game after the bill. Pick one card from the 5 blank white cards in his hand. I wasn't very sure whether he was trying to perform some magic trick or something, but i just took the centre card. Reading the flip side, i found out that it was actually a restaurant voucher!!! BEST. We thought it might have been all the same cards, and he showed us the other 4. Ha... The other 4 were the same amounts, but mine was the voucher of the highest value! YAY!!!!
I am so going to go back; to deliver the cheesecake and eat again!!! The people there are like one happy family and they make us feel included too... It's great...

Wonder if the ppl in Aussie will be so nice too...?