At World's End

...The year Mayans predicted the world will end. It was such a big buildup to D-day, 21st December but over a week later the Earth is still rotating as it should. Mankind survived; not that there was an apocalypse to survive in the first place.

Been so preoccupied this whole year especially this past semester that I haven’t gotten a chance to write as much as I wanted to. Testament in the huge gaps between one blog post to another and that I've only managed to write 9 posts this year comparing to the 41 that I wrote last year. Today being the last day 2012, thought I'd sit myself down and write my traditional end of semester/end of year post (past ones that I've written: 330 days into 2011, 105 days of summer, and 4 months after, life as a UNIVERSITY student).

For most parts, it has been an excellent year. 2012, thank you for being good to me.

Top 10 highlights? Top 10 highlights!

(Chronologically ordered)

1. Moving House – 15 January 2012 (Sat)

Because for the first time in 21 years, I now have my own room – a place I get to call my own, the little retreat that I get to go to at the end of each day and be by myself when I feel like shutting out the world. I love my room. 

Photoshop skills at its best

2. Parent’s Perth Visit – 3 to 25 February 2012

Because for the first time in a long, long time (longer than my memory can immediately recall), all 4 family members were together for an extended period of time. Had a great time while mom and dad were here. Got to visit many places and see many things. Reason for visit: sister’s graduation. Congratulations, sister for obtaining your Bachelor of Pharmacy and subsequently throughout 2012 obtaining your PR and passing all your exams to be a qualified, licensed Pharmacists – doing what you love most. 

Overlooking the Southern Ocean (or possibly the Indian Ocean) at Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, Yallingup – one of the many places family traveled to during the summer

3. Paintball – 14 April 2012 (Sat)

Because this has been something I wanted to do all my life and I finally got to experience shooting a pallet of paint at 91 m/s. Went with sister to Delta Paint Paintball, which is situated at the edge of civilization (it was a long drive) and though we were playing with inexperienced kids (hey, so was I but these kids clearly did not understand that it is not cool to shoot someone at close range) I had a good time. Nasty bruises at the end of the day (sister got the worst of it) but I always like them battle scars (or battle bruises in this case). Good party story as any.

Base camp at Delta Force Paintball, Muchea

4. CPEC’s 1st Engineering Graduate and Vacation Networking Evening – 15 May 2012 (Tue)

Because it was the first time that I (together with the rest of the committee) organized something this big and successfully did it. Like most event planning, we faced many, many difficulties when trying to pull this event together. Possibly the biggest hurdle was this being the first time our club organized such an event, we were "doing so blindly" without any point of reference to speak off. We had no guidelines and no company contacts to start with. Nevertheless, after weeks of planning (on top of having other university commitments…assignments to do to name one), on 15th May we pulled in 10 engineering companies and had an attendance of a little over 100 students at the event – success at its best! Being appointed masters of ceremony by the president was a nice icing. A night to remember.

Organizing committee at the end of the night

5. Poet’s Corner – 26 May 2012 (Sat)

Because my submission made it on the UWA digital sign on the corner of Mounts Bay Road and Hackett Drive, Perth. With a restriction of 21 characters per line for three lines, whipped this up:

Infinitely beyond

Past what is gone;

A lost man’s torment.

6. Malaysia Holiday – 1 to 24 July 2012

Because (and there really is no better way to say this) people visiting Malaysia from Australia eat like kings. No doubt Malaysia has some of the best foods around at (when compared to Australia) an astonishingly cheap price. And as always, getting to see mum and dad was really nice.

Sate for dinner at Sate Kajang Hj. Samuri, Selangor - one of my all time favourite dishes 

7. 3rd year, 2nd Semester of University – 30 July to 2 November 2012

Because despite this semester being the hardest, most time consuming semester I’ve had in 3 years, I am finally beginning to see the light at the end of this long, pitch black tunnel. It was a good knowledge gaining semester. Really like the four units that I took this semester (Special Topics in Mineral Processing, Mining Management, Process Synthesis and Design, and Unit Operations and Unit Processes) because these units showcase real world applications for Chemical Engineering. No idea what it meant to be a Chemical Engineer in my 3 years of university but now I do. I’m seeing a bright, bright light. Hats off to dad for being a great study buddy throughout semester.

8. Appointed Vice President of CPEC – 21 August 2012 (Tue)

Because it is an honour given to me by my peers. Very few know how much The Chemical and Process Engineering Club of UWA truly means to me (I’ll get to that in another blog post when time permits) and being entrusted a top position is simply ace. Won by one vote and since then I can truly appreciate the difference a single person can do. May the club go to greater heights next year.

9. Alcoa of Australia Site Visit – 11 October 2012 (Thu)

Because this is the best site visit that I’ve ever been to. Visited Huntly Mine, Pinjarra Refinery, and the Alcoa Discovery Centre. Learned a lot from the site visit. An invaluable experience! On top of that, wrote an article on the site visit and got it published in The Western Australian Joint Chemical Engineering Committee's (JCEC) end of year edition newsletter. Sweet!

Screenshot of the published article

10. Professional Practicum/Vacation Work in a Gold Mine – for 12 weeks starting 3 December 2012 (Mon)

Because I now have something to look forward to at the end of my degree. The number one thing that I learned from this experience is that I like working out in the field. Being both outside and in the office is a good combination. I like that I get to "touch things". If I am fortunate enough to be employed in the mining industry after I graduate, then that will just be the bomb diggity. 

330 days into 2011

As tradition dictates, the end of final exams is closely followed by a blog post summing up the semester. However, that tradition was broken when the end of the first semester in July was followed up by.....nothing. So, this post will be different from the last 2 I've done so far (4 months after, life as a UNIVERSITY student  and 105 days of summer) as I'll be summing up my year (instead of just the semester) and not only on uni related stuffs.

Started university again after 105 days of summer holiday as a 2nd year student and true to the words of a final year friend, I did find my first semester of 2nd year to be somewhat hellish. Sat through some of the hardest units I've ever done in my 20 years and that definitely took a toll on me. Though for most part I survived it in the end, I didn't come out of it totally unscratched - something I am unlikely to forget anytime soon. I found second semester to be much more pleasant despite having twice the amount of workload (funny how things work out). The 3 months of second semester literally flew by and before I knew it, it was finals. Perhaps it was the 17 assignments (spanned across 4 units which included a group project) that kept me so busy I barely had any time for much else - like thinking about those little things in life that would have otherwise bothered me had I had too much time on my hands to think about them. Needless to say, I breathe in a great sigh of relief that uni's done for the year.

Although I didn't have the best of times for most of the first half of 2011, there were some good moments and there were some really great ones.

HIGHLIGHTS of 2011 (chronologically ordered):

January-February

Spent most of my summer right up till uni started again at the end of February with my (then) boyfriend. Those were great times.

Point Walter - one of the many beautiful places in Perth I got to visit during my 3 months summer break

31 January (Mon)

My 20th birthday. Navigated through my first maze at Abingdon Miniature Village, Mandurah (though the maze was in no way miniature), something I've always wanted to try and finally did! And playing supa golf (which is like miniature golf but played with bigger balls) at Oasis Resort, Swan Valley with my sister.

Halfway through the maze at Abingdon Miniature Village, Mandurah

Sister - about to tee of the supa golf ball at Oasis Resort, Swan Valley

10 February (Thu)

Adventure World, which was an extension of my birthday surprise.

21 February (Mon)

Driving UWA's golf buggy during orientation week for 1st years, when I volunteered as an O-Quest leader.

Transporting boxes across campus in the golf buggy

29 March (Tue)

Adrian's graduation (he graduated with an upper first class honours in pure mathematics).  

Adrian

28 April (Thu)

Met my mentor (under UWA's Career Mentor Link), Miriam (a Chemical Engineer with 13 years experience) for the first time today. She's one of the best people I've had the fortunate chance of meeting. 

16 July (Sat)

First bouncy castle and first toasted marshmallow at Susan's early birthday party. Yes, this could be perceived as somewhat slightly shocking that it's a first for a 20 year old when most would have had tried both sometime before they turn 10. Funnily or oddly enough, the opportunity never arose.

Sister and me on the bouncy castle *bounce bounce*

Toasted marshmallows

21 July (Thu)

First laser tag game at Darkzone, Willeton, which was a lot of fun. Hey, Barney was right after all! (HIMYM reference)

14 August (Sun)

Making chocolate fudge for the chemical and process engineering display at UWA's Open Day with my fellow CPEC (The Chemical and Process Engineering Club of UWA) committee members. Why make chocolate fudge at a chemical and process engineering display you ask? It's meant to demonstrate a batch reaction in a chemical process though the visitors were much more interested in the chocolate fudge (as I expected they would've been).

Various stages of making the chocolate fudge

L-R: Jon, Pruthvi, Ping, Raawi

31 August (Wed)

CPEC quiz night.

At Basement on Broadway

L-R: Janet, me, Siearra, Nisha, Jason, Chai Leen, Naava, Divya, Toan

14 October (Fri)

Visit to Boddington Gold Mine with my MINE1160 Introduction to Chemical and Resource Engineering class. MINE1160 was hands down the best, most interesting unit I've taken in 4 semesters. There's something about mining the Earth's natural resources that I find very fascinating.

At the south pit of Biddington Gold Mine

21 October (Fri)

Curves' Girl's Night In event in conjunction with breast cancer awareness month. Got my first tarot card reading that night (Tarot cards) - an extremely interesting experience.

Outside Curves

23 November (Wed)

The end of 2nd semester final exams, which officially marks the end of 2nd year and the halfway point of my degree.

13 November (Mon): The night before my first final exam, GENG2140 Modelling and Computer Analysis for Engineers

How my study desk looks like most nights during the semester - not a pretty sight

How my study desk looks like after exams - table cleared and walls stripped bare

.....

330 days of 2011 summed up in one blog post. Though interesting doesn't quite start to describe my year, it certainly is a good start. Now that exams are done and dusted, I have 95 days (93 after today) of summer holiday spanned out in front of me. Unlike last year, I honestly don't know how this summer will play out but I'll look forward to it nevertheless. If nothing else, time to recuperate from uni is always a great thing.

105 days of summer

I surprised myself that I didn't straight away jumped to write up a new blog post the moment final exams finished (like I thought I would) but it actually took me a few days to properly think of how to sum up an awesome semester! :)

And so, I have finally completed finals week of  first year, second semester (last paper on Saturday, 13th November) which also marks the end of the line of being a first year student! Truly an awesome moment on the day of the last exam when you know that the end of that paper (Organic Chemistry in my case) marks that you'll officially be a second year student and hence as sister so aptly put it, no longer a newbie. An amazing feeling that I got through the whole year and I'm still in one piece! Looking back now, I could say how I can't believe that time really does flies when I remember so clearly the first day I entered university way back in February. 

An interesting year definitely, first semester being nothing short of a whirlwind but thankfully second semester was much more manageable. Perhaps the saying "experience is the teacher of all things" (Julius Caesar) really does hold true! Knowing better what to expect from a day in a life of a university student, I was more prepared going into second semester and hence a better semester all around. Getting more involved in "uni life" (clubs, university events, etc) helps as well since only through them do you truly get the opportunity to meet with other students (the older ones especially) that are doing the same course as you are (handy when you've got a million things to ask :) OR even students who are not in the same course OR staff members OR just some random person (like during the UWA Open Day, got to meet with heaps of prospective students and members of the public). 

Top 10 highlights throughout semester 2:
(...is now contemplating if I should put them in order of "rank" or in order of dates. Hmm...rank it is! :)

1. Engineers Without Borders 2010 Challenge for the unit GENG1003: Introduction to Professional Engineering
[the whole semester]

I remember meeting someone in a lecture early last semester (a second year student who failed his first year math and had to repeat the unit) that told me about GENG1003 and implied that I should be dreading it (as everyone apparently does) because by the end of it you have to come up with a 20,000 words report. Being an absolute "newbie" then, that really threw me off (honestly scared me a bit), not knowing how 'dreadful' it might turn out to be plus it's a group work; which threw me off even more! Can't say there's been a point in my life that I've had a great experience working in a group. There's ALWAYS going to be just this one person that slacks off.

Because of that (more than anything else), going into second semester though maybe not a kill-me-now-dread, I was rather weary of what I should expect from the unit. By the end of the semester however, this turn out to be my number 1 highlight!

Sure, a 20000 words report on "providing a reliable and sustainable source of clean drinking water for the Kooma Nation in Bendee Downs" (a nation I've never even heard of till early this semester) sounds like a lot of words (it is really) but having an AWESOME group certainly did help (though by law of the universe, of course there was one that did slack but everyone else being SO great still made it a terrific unit!).
There were 6 of us in a group and more than anyone, Joshua Knight and Leopold Silberstein, to me, made all the difference. It certainly wouldn't have been the same without them. Truly an AMAZING feeling when we finally handed in our finished report. The sense of accomplishment!!! Best thing about the unit, I must say, is that it doesn't have a final exam!! A definite perk!

Group members from L-R: Leo, Josh, Deshnee, me, Adam, and Kevin

2. Adrian Dudek's Mathematics Honours Seminar
[27 October 2010 (Wed)]

Met Adrian (a mathematics honours student, 21 years old) late last semester when he started tutoring a group of us for MATH1020. He’s actually a 'study group leader' under UniSkills (yet another great feature in UWA) and though group leaders guidelines told them that they weren't meant to "tutor" us and instead let the study group be...well a study group where students meet and discuss the unit and the leaders’ role was only to “supervise” us, he did end up tutoring and did an amazing job at it! During 2nd semester, got the same (thankfully) study group leader for another first year math unit, MATH1010 and I definitely would not have been able to do the unit half as well if it wasn't for him.

Anyway, he sent me an invite (thank you!:) to attend his final honours presentation on the thesis he's been working on the whole year and watching him that day was...REMARKABLE! I can't really put it into words and I can't think of a fair enough equivalent to do it justice (perhaps watching Beethoven conducting a symphony would give you an inkling of what it felt like for me to watch him present that day). It truly was, if not THE BEST presentation I've seen in my life (and I'm not exaggerating), it certainly was one of the best presentations EVER! Amazing, amazing speaking skills and his passion for mathematics just oozes out and hooks you in! Perhaps what made it so remarkable to me (more than anything else) is that one wouldn't expect mathematics to be that interesting (and perhaps talking to the wrong person might even bore you to tears) but during Adrian's talk, even to a 'layman' (like me) what he presented (families of expander graphs) made sense and was very understandable. On top of that, he presented with such an amazing aura! I really can't properly describe it to do the experience justice but it inspired me to get hyped about my final project design presentation for GENG1003 that I was going to have 2 days later.

Ah, congratulations on getting the award for ‘Best Honours Speaker’ (by the UWA’s Mathematics Department) a few days later! Why am I not surprised? :D

3. CPEC and SPE of UWA quiz night
[6 October 2010 (Wed)]

This was a fun night! Being on the committee added to the excitement of organizing the event and finally seeing everything come together in the end. Coincidentally, that night also marked my 2nd time this year though my first "proper outing'" to UWA's tavern (Lol. I know how much students love it there! The first time I went was just to have a look of what the infamous tavern actually looks like).

The night was a joint collaboration between the Chemical & Process Engineering Club and the Society of Petroleum Engineers of UWA. There were 8, 10 questions rounds (movies, music, celebrities, sports, chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, geography, trivia), pizzas, soft drinks and beer (an 18+ event) served, final turnout of 13 tables with 8 people per table (not including organizers), a table for AMEC reps and UWA lecturers each (big surprise lecturer's table came out 1st? I think not! They did gracefully give their prize to the 2nd place winners though! ).

All in all, a successful night! Though at that time I posted up on facebook as it being my "most memorable day of first year", by the end of the semester, this ranked number 3. Still top 3 though!

L-R: Prash, me, Hatim, Tom, Raawi, Andrew and Jonathan

Things I learned from quiz night:

1. Capital of Bulgaria is Sofia

2. Timbuktu is in Mali

3. Octopus has 3 hearts

4. Daniel Radcliffe's (famous for his lead role in Harry Potter) middle name is Jacob

5. The third president from the left on Mount Rushmore is Theodore Roosevelt

...among other things:)

4. Australian University Games, Sports Assistant (Touch) 
[27 September – 1 October 2010 (the study break week)]

I remember getting an email earlier that month asking for volunteers and it immediately sparked my interest. Applied for it and got a reply letter on 20 September (super excited then!) saying I’ve been successfully selected to be a ‘sport assistant volunteer’ for touch sports at Langley Park (honestly didn’t even know what ‘touch sports’ meant then…turns out it was touch football. Not having played too much outdoor sports, didn’t even quite know what touch football was even after I found out!).

Though volunteering for AUG meant I’d missed out on doing what I was supposed to be doing during the study week (STUDY!) since the events goes on from 9 am till 5 pm though volunteers have to be there by 8 to prep up the competition area (when I came home I’m usually too knackered to get any studying done), I’m glad that I did it. It was an interesting experience definitely!

UniGames day 1

Things I learned today:

1.      There's a University of Sunshine Coast in Queensland (it sounds like such a cheery place! Hard to imagine being mopey in a place called ‘Sunshine Coast’)

2.     'Player Under Protest' DOES NOT mean someone is throwing a tantrum somewhere as I originally imagined (I actually turned and looked around if that were students holding up picket signs protesting against something). It just means they don't have their accreditation on them at the time of registration.

3.    How to play touch football (having done nothing much besides watching the game for the past 9 hours, surely I must've picked something up!)

UniGames day 5
Highlight of the week (definitely! :D). During half time of the last game for gold men's division (UNSW vs Monah University), a guy ran across the field...wait for it...completely naked! Yep. In full view of e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. My first experience seeing a streaker at a live sporting event!

Touch football champion for women's AND men's division: UNSW (I think from here we can safely conclude that UNSW is good in touch)

The finals of men's division: UNSW vs Monah Univeristy

5. EWB UWA Chapter 2011 Committe Dinner 
[15 October 2010 (Fri)]

EWB UWA Chapter 2011 Committee

Another fun night out! It was especially great getting to meet with other EWB members and spend the night chilling, talking about our engineering units:D We had the dinner at Annalakshmi which is an Indian restaurant that’s charity based so you pay as much as you like for a meal. Seeing that they serve it buffet style and the food is good (!!!), I’d definitely put in a good word out for that place.

After dinner, went for bubbletea with Daniel, Ben, and Jason. It was great getting to walk around the city at night, sipping our bbt, and people watch. Plus it was a break from studying which is always such a joy!

6. UWA Open Day 
[15 August 2010 (Sun)]

Volunteered for both EWB booth and as a UWAYE (UWA Young Engineers) tour guide (gave tours around the engineering buildings that had all these amazing activities on based on their respective fields; Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, etc).

At EWB's booth with Sheena, Daniel, and Hatim

I think the one thing that struck me as this day being totally awesome was that for the first time in my life I was actually on “the other side”. Before this, it was always me that was attending all sorts of open days, deciding on which university I was going to but today I finally got to be the one that was doing the explaining (as opposed to being the one getting the explanations) to the prospective students and their parents all about UWA and giving some insights on life as an engineering student. Whoa!

UWA's Civil and Mechanical Engineering building

7. UniSkills End of Year Lunch 
[26 October 2010 (Tue)]

Loved today simply because it was the first time I got to have a proper chat with Adrian outside of our study group and it's so fascinating talking to him. I’ve never met anyone that I found so interesting to talk to! That made this the most memorable UniSkills event I went to this whole year-hands down!!! :)

8. Spring feast at UWA in conjunction with Multicultural Week 
[7 October 2010 (Thu)]

I liked it because it’s not every day that you get things going on in uni that resembles a joyous, festival like atmosphere (started at 6 pm and ended at 10 pm). There were loads of foods in a diverse range-Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Middle Eastern (among others). Everything looked so tempting that I ended up stuffing myself with food (oh! So full!!!) Also experienced my first human traffic in UWA! (literally couldn’t turn without accidentally hitting someone-it was that packed!).

9. Carlos’ house 
[6 August 2010 (Fri)]

Today was actually the first time (don’t be shocked) that I got to try out playing Wii. I got super excited to play around with the controls (don’t laugh). He had Super Mario in his Wii at that time so that'll go down in my life's history as the first ever Wii game that I played (though only if you count *Game Over* after a minute as a "proper" play-you'll see why). Unless Mario on a daily basis feels suicidal, I don’t think the character appreciated it too much that I made him walk off the edge every single time (hey, in my defense the controls really does take some getting used to!). Carlos then decided Super Mario was “too advanced” for me that he degraded my game to the "basic starter pack". Hahaha!!! It was still very fun to play with. Played things like ice hockey and shooting down freebies. What I remember most about that night perhaps is haven't had laughed as hard as that night (I couldn't stopped!) in months...and all because of Wii :D

10. Being VERY sick the week before final exams 
[29 October – 7 November 2010]

Though this is definitely not exactly what I would call a “highlight” but it's something that I'll always remember-being sick on the week before first year finals. I was only very sick for the first 3 days (I thought I was going to die! Jeez…Dramatic much?!) and though it got better after that, I still had (and is still having it now) my cough right throughout exams *cough cough*.

I don’t know how it actually happened. The morning on the last day of uni before study week (Firday, 29 October) I was feeling perfectly fine (did my GENG1003 final project design presentation that evening with perfect poise and grace even! :D). Then, uni ended (everyone cheered), went back  home, and *BAM!* High fever, sore throat, whole body sore, terrible headache and all I could think was, “Oh no! I WANT TO STUDY!!!” Gah! Sucks getting sick so close to exams. 3 whole days “wasted” by being "bed-ridden" but I came through alright in the end. Lucky me:)

I should take this opportunity to thank:

1.  my sister - for taking such good care of me throughout the whole time I was sick, giving me all my medications (a definite perk of having a pharmacist in the house-saves a trip to the doctors!), making me soup, and above all else, being so patient with me when you had your exams to prepare for as well

2.   mum and dad - for showing genuine concern (calling, texting, asking how I was everyday) even though you’re 2000 miles away

3.  Adrian - also for showing genuine concern and offering to push back our last study group till I got better and subsequently after that giving me a lift home after the study group so that I wouldn't have to trudge in a 45 minutes bus ride back home:)

4.    everyone on fb that left me get well wishes! It was truly something to finally get out of bed, fire up fb, and see a million (well, not a million:D) notifications:)

A whole semester summed up in one blog post.

An awesome semester indeed! And after today I have 103 days of summer to look forward to and I must say, so far (between Saturday and today) it’s been an absolute blast!

This summer is going to be legen-wait for it-dary! LEGENDARY!

Exam ordeal

28 May (Fri), early morning: Last day of class. Can't believe I've made it this far. What comes next is nothing short of living my worst nightmare.

28 May (Fri), end of the day: Study week officially starts. Time to recap a semester worth of knowledge!

31 May (Mon): Followed sister to her uni, Curtin and docked myself at Robertson Library (was the first and last time I went there...don't get me wrong, the library was great. Just prefer to stay home.)

4 June (Fri): Feeling sick in the stomach. It's already Friday and I honestly don't know how I'm doing.

6 June 2010 (Sun): Was quietly (but a bit frantically) studying for tomorrow's paper when I hear my sister gave a shriek. She was on the way to the loo and something set her off. Ran over and saw the 'situation'. My first encounter with a cockroach since I came here! Didn't think there were any of those little buggers running around on this side of the world. Anyway, the sight sent me and my sister into absolute chaos (she needed to go pee and the cockroach is just scuttling around the bathroom-eee!).
Me: Quick! Spray it!
Sister: But we don't have any insect spray!
Me: O! O! What about (perhaps the non too intelligent side of me was suggesting this) the Glen spray? (Glen is a...shall we say air freshener?)Sister: Glen spray? Will that work (in a very skeptical and dubious voice)?
Me: I don't know! Since we don't have any other spray...
And guess what we did? We sprayed it with Glen (which did absolutely nothing but oh well...) and sis covered it under a container where it stayed for the next 4 days or so till it was nothing but a lifeless skeleton, life sucked out of it. Makes it sound terrible really AND I wasn't too pleased with the prospect of 'committing murder' the night before my exam but as sister pointed out, cockroaches are after all house pest. May you rest in peace, tiny, scuttling house pest.7 June (Mon): Sister drove me to uni (it's a public holiday but UWA is after all famously known for and I quote one of my lecturers, "As you might already notice by now, the university doesn't have much respect for public holidays" may it be Labor Day, the carried forward from a Sunday Anzac Day holiday, or Foundation Day-which falls today. Luckily we got the Easter holiday. Other times we trudged our way to uni while everyone else slumber on at home. That sucks a tiny bit (who am I kidding?! A lot bit!) mostly because public transport doesn't run as often on a public holiday). Sat for my first paper, GENG1001: Introduction To Engineering Mechanics (9 am-12.10 pm, Winthrop Hall).
After my exam, went to the Mathematics building to pick up my MATH1020 second calculus test paper. There was already another guy there looking for his paper. There were no order in which the papers were arranged and trying to find your paper among the other 600 students' is no easy task. In my frustration of trying to find my paper, I saw that all the stacks there were for MATH2010. Then I got very confused. Suddenly I couldn't even remember what was my unit called. Was it MATH2010? I'm pretty sure that it's MATH1020. Or is it? So I stood there trying to remember my unit (hey, I did just finish a 3 hours 10 minutes exam paper and had I been thinking clearly I should know all first year units starts with the digit 1, 2 being for second year generally) and finally remembered that my unit's counterpart (the one that it's always being compared to) is MATH1010 so I knew mine has to be 1020. Just to be sure I asked the guy whether MATH1020 and MATH2010 were the same thing and he said don't think so. All I could see were the 2010 papers! Where then is my test paper?!! After rifling through some stacks (I could see that this MATH2010 test papers had the EXACT same question as my test) the guy suddenly turned to me and said...and I didn't hear him at first, made him repeat it again, still didn't caught what he said which made me reply, "Yeah. But I'm taking MATH1020 and everything here is 2010!" And so he said (again), 2010 is our year! OH! That's right!!! How very, very silly of me. Found my paper (miraculously) not long after, thanked the guy, whose name is John btw, and headed back home.

8 June (Tue): 2nd paper, PHYS1101: Advanced Physics A (2-4.10 pm, Winthrop Hall).

9 June (Wed): 3rd paper, MATH1020: Calculus, Statistics and Probability (2-4.10 pm, Physical and Recreation Centre). This exam venue caused a bit of a confusion for me, having never been here for an exam I cannot even remotely imagine where in a recreation centre would they have a place big enough to sit around 400 students. Turns out they converted the basketball court (they carpeted it as well) into an examination hall. Impressive!

10,11 June (Thu, Fri): Final revision for my last paper, a paper which has never been one of my strongest point.

12 June (Sat): [Can't believe I have a paper on a Saturday!] Final paper, GENG1002: Introduction to Electrical and Electronic Engineering (9 am-12.10 pm, Winthrop Hall).

And so it ended. End of exams, end of the semester, end of another ordeal.

Winthrop Hall (Had 3 out of my 4 exam papers here)

Students walking out of the exam hall after our final paper

Final glance at UWA before heading back. A 42 days winter break straight ahead. Boy, that was a long 4 months!

4 months after, life as a UNIVERSITY student

“Most people fear the unknown when they should fear the known. To live in the known is to live in the prison of the past and therefore in the imagination. The known is an illusion. The real reality is the unknown, so why not live in what is actually real?

When we step into the unknown we are free of the past. When we step into the unknown we are free of every limitation because fresh choices are available in every moment of our existence.” 
~ Deepak Chopra

This must be the longest stretch since I last said a peep in my blog. But then again the last 4 months have been nothing short of a never ending whirlwind (but more about that in a bit).

Let's see from my last post to today, what's new?

For starters, after a lifelong dream and mission, I finally landed myself in Australia, enrolled in University of Western Australia (Bachelor of Engineering), and (somehow miraculously) survived till the end of the first semester (officially finished my last exam paper yesterday at 12.10 noon).

Departed and reached the land of down under on the 16th of February. Still remember telling my parents I couldn't believe everything has come to a full circle. I remembered the time when I first went for the interview that got me this scholarship that has made it possible for me to do my A-Levels and to continue my final stretch of tertiary education overseas. I remembered my first day in college and the journey I went through during my A-Levels. I remembered the day I finally finish my A-Levels, got my results and knew that I've made it through.
Remembered all that has happened and wondering of all that will be.

In 3 days time, it will be exactly 4 months since I've been here. 4 months since I've first enrolled myself in uni. 4 months since I first knew what being in uni really felt like.

Is uni everything I've ever thought and dreamed off? My simple, surprising answer (or maybe not so surprising) is no. I've always, always thought that being in uni meant that you've finally have everything figured out. You go to university knowing everything that you need to know and cruise your way along with the wisdom and knowledge of a university student (doesn't the word alone, 'UNIVERSITY' seems like a big word?!). I thought being a uni student would mean, go to class and immediately know stuffs. I thought uni life meant getting to go to parties every other night or every other Friday night at least, joining (or not) sororities, seeing the 'Greek' life (or does this kind of thing only exist in America?), making a bunch of friends, acting a little bit crazy or being all intellectual. I thought, like in the movies, going to uni would be filled with all sorts of adventure and never ending possibilities.
But of course, now I know better. I finally made it (after 19 years of my life) to university and though perhaps knowing better, it shouldn't come to much of a shock that I don't have everything figured out (and it really does comes to a even bigger surprise to me that so doesn't everyone else). I still don't know everything that I need to know, still trying to find my footing and trying to make my way around without stumbling (but let me tell you it's been a rocky, hilly road). Learning in uni (though I really thought differently) is not much different than learning anywhere else at any other stage (A-Level, high school, etc). The only difference would be university level is far more advanced and also in uni they don't baby you in any way, meaning there's no one there to tell you to finish your assignments, no one to grill you to got to lectures, no one to spoon feed you all the answers, no one for you to run to when you don't know anything (don't want to be asking a 'stupid' question to a professor, would I? ...'PROFESSOR'...another big word!). Also, interestingly enough it used to be "Get an A, get an A!" Now all I hear around me is, "Well, as long as I pass". Another hard fact about uni: you could be that student that scored 90% all the way through your course, getting high distinctions in all your assignments, tests, and exams and graduate after 4 years or you could be that student that scored 50% all the way through your course, just making sure you pass and still graduate after 4 years (but of course the scholarship body prevents me from being the latter).

What an amazing insight I now have on the mysterious realm. Being here for 4 months has finally shown me the world that has always been shrouded in mystery, only seeing how it's like in movies, reading about it in books, or hearing about it from people around me.

Have I enjoyed the past 4 months? Though enjoy would not be the word I'd use, at least now I know what it's like. Could have I done anything differently? Perhaps. My first semester here was the worst 4 months I've ever been through. Not having anyone to ask my endless string of questions and feeling all alone is not a nice feeling. Not knowing a lot of things and feeling utterly lost is the worst form of torture there could be for a student. Even worse than that is the feeling of uncertainty and confusion before an exam. That never should have had to happen. Perhaps things could have gone differently though I can't really see how. But would have I done anything differently? I don't think so. You really can't say that you would knowing this is the path you've chosen and there's nothing you could do to change it. I am however better prepared for my second semester. Knowing what to expect and what it is like, I should have a better picture.

“Whatever you have experienced in your life is carved in stone. But today- at this very moment you have the power to make the shift from where you are to where you want to be. You are never stuck…you always have a choice. You just have to give yourself permission to grow, to love, to thrive.” ~David J.L.