A week before Orientation

I usually have a physical diary where I write some of my posts in, but I do not have it with me now. Therefore, I decided to write it on this blog that I have not touched in over year. I will be attending the orientation at Monash College in a week's time.

Before my flight on 23 September, it felt surreal. It was a similar feeling I had before I enlisted for my National Service (which I finished a month ago). I always have this thought: "Is this really happening? It feels like a dream". Today is the ninth day of my stay here in Melbourne. My parents traveled along with me to help me to adapt into the culture here in Australia, as well as to help me prepare all the administrative stuff before my semester begins.

Over the course of the last week, I have visited the place that I will be staying with over the next 9 months. I am currently staying at a service apartment with my parents. Initially, I wanted to apply for an on-campus accommodation, but the school had a long waiting list. I only received an offer the week before my flight. By then, I have already searched for an alternative place to stay that was about 10 minutes away from the campus. It is a townhouse with six bedrooms, five of which are already occupied by other students.

We explored one of the shopping malls in Chadstone, to get familiarised with the various stores that are located inside as well as with the public transport. Public transport here is very different as compared to Singapore. There is a fixed timing for every bus, and the waiting time in between bus can be between 20-30 minutes. I used to think that this waiting time was atrociously long back home, but coming here really made me appreciate the 5 minute waiting time for buses in Singapore. Even trains here take roughly 20 minutes. The longest I have ever waited for the MRT train was four minutes, unless the train was full of course.

I have bought a number of furniture from Ikea that needs to be assembled at the townhouse. I have a couple other things, including my clothes that have not been moved to the house yet. I am going to have to do that over the next few days, and probably move in in the next two to three days. I have met the students already staying there and they seem to be nice people. I am a person who gets anxious easily, and tend to over think. So I would probably need some time to get used to the environment there.