yummy food time

ok so today i went out with auntiie cat for lunch =) we ate sushi and then we walked around and went to eat at din tai fung

ahh 小笼包!!

the ones that have crab meat in it?

also drank some hot soy milk =) haven't had a cup in such a long time
and then there was dessert dumplings with red bean paste inside
but it wasn't that great =\ cause there's not really any sauce
but yea, yum~

Kmart

ok - seriously, the kmarts here still have the old logo but everything is sooo much cheaper than everywhere else

i believe we went to eastwood today...but i'm not sure lol

and duuddee - check out their shoe section!

they have BOOTS! like boots that look relatively stylish - i would never buy them cause the quality is like crap (i think the quality is like that of those cheap boutiques in hk...or maybe like forever 21 too)

dude - look at these cool shoes for $15
high heeled oxford shoes$10 heelsisn't it awesome?

granted, i'll prob never buy any of those shoes cause they're pretty crap quality but would you ever expect to see these kind of shoes at a Kmart? or like a walmart or target? i don't think so

we went shopping mostly because there was a formal today and some dudes needed dress pants - whole shopping trip turned out to be pretty funny cause the dude sizes here are sooo huge

to roughly quote my texas friend - they shouldn't even call it the kid section, it's more like the man-child section
lol seriously the sizes here are HUGE..well the guys' sizes are - i didn't really check out girls' sizes

but anyways - after we went shopping we went back to IH to get ready for the foundation dinner - which was ok

and of course, it rained all day haha

city exploration time!

wow two posts in one day? i know what you're thinking - are you like freakin bored, victoria?

well kinda - there's not much to do since classes just started

so i went to my lecture today for China: Imagined and Perceived - the prof is from the US (he got his PhD at UC Berkeley) and he's kinda awkward but he can speak Chinese with a good accent which is pretty interesting (he's white)
and the class seems really interesting - we can actually watch films in class since it'll be 3 hours long

so after class (which was only 1 hr) i went to the city

and i guess today is my lucky day or something =) cause a lot of good things happened haha

1st (i don't know if i'd call this good - maybe just dumb luck lol): i took the 395 bus and apparently there's this huuugee line of people waiting for it but i just went to the front of the bus stop to check to see if it was the 395 bus stop and when it came i just got on and cut like a whole bunch of people who didn't even get to get on the bus..lol..

oh wellll - i'll just wait next time haha

i got off at central station because that was the closest to Paddy's Market (went there first) and bought my sister this pocket watch

front

opened

back

it kinda snaps closed weirdly but it was the prettiest one

then i wandered around into Chinatown - remember this?

those little emperor's puffs that all these people were waiting in line for? well there was nobody waiting in line so i bought some haha 4 for $1

and this is how they look like - they have some custard inside

and then i wandered over to Galleries Victoria - Kinokuniya Bookstore is somewhere on the 3rd floor

and then i randomly wandered over to The Strand while trying to find my way to ZARA again
it's so nice inside!chocolate store!
they have all these cute food/candy stores inside
and nice cafes
it's just really pretty inside - i think i like it better than QVB

also saw this other chocolate shop at the other entrance - freakin expensive!that box on the left costs $115

yay finally wandered around and found ZARA again where i returned the purse i bought

2nd lucky thing: i feel like this has happened to me before haha so the purse cost $60 (or more accurately 59.95) i gave the guy 5 cents to even it out to $60 - and then he says "ok here's $70" and i'm like huh? but of course i take it =P
and i double-checked and yes, the purse cost $60 but he gave me $70 for some reason lol so i made $10 today =)

after that i took the bus back to the dorm! and so ends victoria's exploration time!

3rd: it's now raining cats and dogs but it didn't rain at all while i was in the city haha yay!

and now i'm like super tired lol

random note: i'm looking at my stats and all these random people from other countries have viewed my blog...it's kinda freaky

random post

thought i'd make a random post

it's supposed to rain these next few days - i think it rained really hard all night too

vanessa: the wind is strong today =)

this is my beautiful schedule of classes from tuesday to thursday haha


the only time i have to hike up to upper campus is to get to central lecture block 7 and matthews building, which is nice

edit: my sister doesn't want people to stalk and kill me so i replaced my schedule lol


note 1: the first week of classes is only lectures - so today i just have 1 hour of lecture haha but tomorrow it's 4 hours
hopefully it'll end early =\

note 2: they make it really easy for you to pass classes here lol it's 50% to get a passing grade and 85-100 gets you an A but apparently that's really hard to get - we'll see
everyone i've talked to was like you should just enjoy yourself and have fun since you get to pass/fail your classses

random note: everyone is crazy about master chef here - i think i've always forgotten to mention it in a post but yea, everyone's talkin about it and watchin it

Straylian Words and Sayings

ok so i thought i'd include this quick fun post on straylian words/sayings because they gave us this sheet of paper during orientation with all of these words and stuff on it

g'day - hello (people do actually say this! i heard it! lol)
no worries - not a problem
heaps - many
barbie - bbq
thongs - flip flops
sheila - female
bloke - male
i reckon - i think
goon - box of wine
esky - portable fridge to keep things cold (...i'm guessing they mean a cooler haha)
dunny - toilet
ranga - red headed person
budgie smugglers - tight swimming shorts or speedos (lol)
larrikin - harmless prankster who enjoys having a laugh

i'm drier than a dead dingo's donger - i'm thirsty (lol i like this one)
no wucking forries - no problem
bloody oath - i agree
a bondi cigar - a poo floting in the water at the beach (lol)
banana bender - a person from queensland
fair dinkum - to be genuine
i'm flat out like a lizard drinking - i'm busy
bob's your uncle - it's all good (i really wonder how you use this one haha)

and that's it haha just thought i'd share

went to the city today to paddy's market and ZARA!! =)

inside paddy's market - there's a WHOLE bunch of stuff to buy in there - kinda like lady/flower street in HK

lol only in australia would they have someone in an ugg boot costume

the beautiful two story ZARA at Westfield

and so that was basically my day =) did i also mention that i watched HP7 pt 2 last night? :D

and i also got approved for my last course so YAY! tomorrow i can finish enrolling

busy busy busy

ok so i've been super duper busy for the past few days - i don't even remember when i made my last post but it probably wasn't that long ago? tuesday? or wedensday or something

but i feel like it's been FOREVER

ok so thursday was the aquarium and honestly, the exchange program is really disorganized and it's hard to meet new people since they didn't exactly force you into small groups to meet new people - you just sort of stuck together with the people you already knew

we got off the bus near town hall and they gave us an hour to walk around so we walked around the entire harbor after we ate lunch on the steps of town hall

anyways - all my pics from the aquarium are up on fb

i have a whole bunch of cool videos of animals though but too bad for you since i don't plan on uploading them =P

after the aquarium, we walked to The Rocks to The Argyle for happy hour but i didn't get anything

then we took the bus back to IH (international house) and ate dinner

then it was Pancakes on the Rocks! really good pancakes/crepes =) just in case you didn't see my picture on fb, i'm going to post my Devil's Delight pancake and crepes picture again
then yesterday was orientation again except it was cold and rainy - bleh

they told us 9:45 am but it started at like 10 something and it was FREEZING in the auditorium - crazy

and we sat there until 12:20ish and so we went back to IH to eat lunch and then it was back to the auditorium at 1:20 - then we sat there some more until 3

i went to the exchange office and successfully got into a new lecture time =) so it's not from 6-8 pm on tuesday now

and there was a free bbq! interesting since it's different than texas bbq - they had sausage and chicken that you could put in your bread - it was kinda weird cause the chicken looked like thai satay and then went to get insurance stuff done

then ate dinner and talked to peeps and took a shower and read and slept lol

there was a party yesterday night at Soho but i decided not to go cause i was really really tired lol

good news: my study abroad advisor sent an email to gigi (the lady who needs to approve of my economics course)...and i sent some emails to her too lol so she's basically getting bombarded by emails...BUT oh well at least i have a good chance of getting into the course now =)

and as promised, here's pics of my room

it's quite small and a little messy at the moment since they gave us SO MUCH papers/brochures/forms and stuff and i have no idea where to put themmy key! the little tofu was only like $1.75 cause it was on sale at that morning glory story =)there's masking tape cause the yarn started to fray lol

today i woke up - went to lunch and stayed and chatted with people and now i'm in my room with no plans except going to see hp tonight =) relax day yay

All settled in...ish

ok so i moved into my dorm (the International House) at UNSW and attended orientation yesterday

everyone's pretty nice so far - mostly everyone just introducing themselves and such but i think a lot more people are moving in soon

ok so first - last saturday!

we went to a cake shop called adrianos zumbo and they have these really interesting cakes - very uniquethey write your name on these whiteboards and then line up all the cakes you want on them and at the end of the counter they pack it up

mommy: auntie cat says you prob won't get to eat any of these haha

then we went to SWEETNESS and bought marshmallows and i got some gummy candy too
such a cute little shop no?

and then we went to a place literally called 香港茶餐厅 for some afternoon tea - then went back to auntie cat's place to eat dinner

and then then next day they dropped me off in my dorm

not much to say there except met some nice people, food is ok, and it's kinda cold around the dorm cause it's shady and stuff

ok well ENROLLING in classes is a pain in the ass cause you have to get approved for most courses (esp if you're taking upper level classes) so you have to go to each department's office, get the person to sign it (or give it to someone who can give it to them for you if they're not in the office), then go back to the international office so they can enroll you (cause you can't do it yourself online)
and it doesn't help that most classes are already full - so if you really want to get into a class that's full you have to go talk to the lecturer to see if they'll let you in
now the economics course that i need was nice and will let me in but the finance prof was all "full is full" and i'm like ugh considering the only lecture class open that i can take is from 6-8 pm
but i got enrolled in 2 classes - yay! and waiting approval for the others so i'll be going out again tomorrow morning running around campus (which isn't easy since it's basically one big hill and you have to climb literally like 50+ stairs)

so this took approx like 2 hours of my morning which i guess isn't that bad but i was running around from office to office and back and forth throughout the entire time

then in the afternoon i walked down Anzac Parade (street next to the uni) with a girl from france - it was interesting hearing how she thought the fact that the architecture of buildings were all different was interesting - and she was also amazed at the palm trees (she thought they were exotic) so it makes me appreciate our palm trees more haha
saw a morning glory store! look at all the blue bears! and they have a sticker photo booth inside haha so i told the french girl about them

these are the birds you see hanging around trash cans lol it's pretty interesting considering we only have fat pigeons

i also bought a stuffed bean curd cell phone strap just to put on my dorm key so it's not so easily misplaced haha i'll take a picture of it later along with my dorm
and so now i'm just gonna go take a quick shower in the cold and then curl up in bed to read haha..and sleep early cause i'm actually really tired from running around everywhere


random note: when you say thank you, people say "that's ok" and that's just weird to me cause we say "that's ok" when people say sorry lol
random note 2: girl on the first floor across from me needs to close her blinds cause she bes in her underwear (lacy underwear i might add) and i can see her =|