A Christmas Never to be Forgotten

My housemates and I finally decided to have a mini dinner together for Christmas Eve. We invited friends and each brings a dish. I wanted to try to make General Tso's Chicken since this is my parent's most popular dish at their restaurant and basically at all American Chinese restaurants. I called my mom to ask about the recipe but she recommended that I don't do it because if we don't have a deep frying machine, the chicken will not come out crunchy. She gave me the recipe to make sweet and sour pork ribs. Christmas Eve came. After work, I went to buy the pork ribs and all the needed ingredients. When I got back to the apartment, all my housemates were trying to prep their food! I was expected 3 friends + 1 to show up for the dinner. Cindy was expected 2 friends + 2. Satie was expected 1 friend. Josh's friends already had plans before we were certain that we're going to have a dinner party. :< So we really had something going for the night...

I started prepping my stuff by marinating the ribs. I decided to start heating up a pot of oil. It was taking a bit long to wait for it to bubble, so I decided to put the lid on..... Worse idea ever. I didn't know I was not supposed to put the lid on because it cuts out the oxygen. I waited for a while and opened the lid. There was a big puff of smoke and then immediately the oil caught on fire. O_O I freaked out and expected it to go away like how I used to satay food and the food catches on fire because of the butter but it usually just for a second. But no... The fire just kept getting bigger. I immediately turned off the stove and moved the pot to the stove top that I wasn't cooking on. But the flame was continuing to get bigger. I was flipping out and all my housemates were panicking too haha... Satie was sleeping and didn't even smell the smoke zzz... Cindy went to wake her up and she started panicking which didn't help with the situation. Someone started suggesting to pour water over the fire... That would make it worse since it's burning oil. It would have made it even worse I'd assume. I finally thought of Cast Away when Tom Hanks couldn't start the fire lol... We needed to cut out the oxygen to the fire so it would stop burning bigger and bigger. Josh went over to grab a blanket that came with the apartment, wet it and tried to cover up the pot on the floor, but it wasn't covering properly and the fire was coming out around the blanket. I finally grabbed the blanket, folded it neatly, and dropped it on top of the pot. It cut out the fire, but we couldn't open the apartment door because if we set off the hallway fire alarm, we'd get charged for AU$2000... Luckily, our apartment fire alarm was broken, I guess. We turned on the fan, exhaust, opened the windows, and went into the girl's room and waited until the smoke clears out. Man, what an experience... We ended up cancelling the dinner and told everyone that we're not doing it anymore. :( We ended up cleaning up the house and making a small dinner just for us. This time, my pork was pan fried instead of deep fried. I'm never doing deep frying again. > >;

So never put a lid on the pan if you're boiling oil for deep frying!

The Life of No Worries

I think I'm at the state of relaxation now haha... I have Sunday and today Monday off. Saturday was 42 degree Celsius (107 Fahrenheit). I got off early because our manager didn't want us to work too much in such a hot weather. The moment I walked out it felt like I was baking with an oven -- the moment when you just open the oven door and a burst of heat smack you in the face. Even being in the sun for more than 7 seconds felt like your skin was burning. Damn Australia and their broken ozone layer. 

That night, Adriana and I decided to cook dinner together and we made Yakisoba! We bought beef at Coles, but we didn't noticed that we forgot to put the beef into the bag before we left the self checkout until we were looking for the beef to cook... We ended up using bacon! Haha... We talked into the night until like 2 AM. We really enjoy talking with each other into the night; it's weird. She said she felt closer to me than Nick which she lived with for a year before I replaced him. She's like Unkei in a way; someone who I really enjoy talking to for a long time.

Sunday, Adriana and I went to South Melbourne Market. Omg, this place IS better than Queen Victoria Market. It has so many different things; hand crafted jewelries and potteries, food, fruits, food stand, groceries, REALLY GOOD OYSTERS, etc. Man, Melbourne can only get better... This city has such a rich culture of everything. I finally understand why Lilly loves this city. It's not something that can be described or felt if you only stay here for a week. You just have to be here and live here for a while to experience it. I wonder if there's a place like this in America... We had Turkish pancake for lunch and I bought some groceries before heading back to the apartment. We got back to our apartment around 5 and I just decided to take a nap on the couch for 2 hours. I never felt that great before. I felt like I'm living the life of no worries. If I had internet in the apartment, I wouldn't have just laid on the couch for 2 hours taking a nap and just relaxing. But since I don't have internet, I wasn't glued to my computer. I had nothing to worry about, nothing to stress out about, nothing to ponder over, and I was just spacing out and enjoying the free time that I have. I don't think I have experience that ever. We plan on getting internet once the new girl moves in though haha... It's just really inconvenient without internet. But these two weeks without internet at the apartment is great. I just relax and chat with my housemates into the night.

If anything, Australia has been a good life changing moment for me. I hope things continue to go well for me. After Christmas, Australia has Boxing Day which is exactly the same as our Black Friday after Thanksgivings. I have some things on my list to get including new shoes, new socks, a vacuum for the apartment, and maybe a blender because we want to make smoothies! Cindy, the Hong Kong girl, is going to move into the apartment tomorrow. She didn't seem to excited meeting us on the day we met up to do a tenant transfer, but I hope she turns out to be awesome! She seems like a really nice person based on first impression! Haha... Good stuff.

Second Job and Onward~

(So this was supposed to be posted on 16 December, but I don't have wifi in my apartment and I was too lazy to use my computer...)

So I decided to get a second job for a time period… Since I was working from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM, I thought maybe I can get another job for the afternoon into the evening. I got an email respond back from Fukuryu Ramen restaurant saying thank you for my interest in working there and they gave me an interview. The interview was pretty good and I guess I don’t have the pressure of NEEDING to get the job, so I was more relaxed for the interview and was not nervous at all~ I first agreed to taking the job. The manager wanted to find someone that can work from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM, but can work around it for me since I work in the morning. I would have to go in for a trial (which is like a try this job to see if I can actually perform the task) and the manager wanted me in for the whole day unpaid… 10 hours of unpaid work just to see if I can handle working there. At first, I agreed to it without thinking. I told my housemates about it and they were kind of concerned. They said I am already doing labour work at my hostel. It’s going to be hard working all day of labour work. Also, I can speak perfect English, so I shouldn’t settle with kitchen job. They convinced me. =_=; I emailed the manager the night before my trial saying I’ve found an opportunity that better suit my interest and that I won’t be going in for a trial. I guess my housemates are right. They’re just looking out for me and want me to make better decisions for myself. I was just thinking about earning more money to cover my past three month’s expense.

I haven’t thought about getting a second job since. There were a lot of things that I thought about when I agreed to work at the restaurant. I will be working almost 7 days a week. I will work at YHA from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM for 5 days a week. Those days, I will start work at Fukuryu Ramen from 5:00 PM to possibly 11:00 PM. On days that I won’t have to work at my hostel, I would be working from 9:30 AM to possibly 11:00 PM (as the manager wanted me to work full day). That means I have no time to relax or do anything fun for the time that I’m in Melbourne. I kept thinking… I’m in Australia. I shouldn’t be spending all my time working my ass off. I came here to meet new people. I’m here to try new things. Being a cook that’s more of an assembly line than actually cooking isn’t going to make my life here any better or experiencing anything new.

So now, I don’t plan on getting another job. Josh and Nina (housemates) have been going to a bible study care group and I joined them last weekend. The people there were super nice! Especially Kay and her husband Nat. I really wanted to get to know them better. But if I get the ramen job, I wouldn’t have time to hang out with them anymore. The care group meets on Friday night for dinner, bible study, and sing together. On Saturday, they have church as they are a Seventh-Day Adventist Church group. I have no idea what that is and why it’s different, but as long as it’s not Jehovah’s Witness lololol… Aside from that, I’ve been looking into a Toastmasters club to join around here. Even though the people are so good at it, I think it’s still a good environment for me to get better at speaking in public. The more you do, the better you get at it, right? I really think the opportunity in Lenovo really helped me. I also started going to a ukulele/guitar lesson thing with Josh at the University of Melbourne last last Wednesday. Maybe I’ll pick up ukulele! :) I want to make my time here fulfilling and special; not just work my ass off for a couple bucks more. I want to make this journey as memorable as I can and make the most out of it; fill it with wonderful stories and experience.

Yesterday, YHA had a Christmas party at the Crown Casino. I decided to go instead of being a loser like all other company parties that I’ve skipped (Radius, but because we had a snowstorm on the day of the party and it was all the way in Boston). The party was great! I’ve met a lot of employees from Melbourne Central YHA as it was a combined YHA party. I’ve also met a lot of their housekeepers of which one of them was from Taishan named Ann! She was so excited to meet me and know that my mom is from the same city of China. On top of that, I’ve found out working as a housekeeper at Melbourne Central is so much more chilled! They have 4 floors, each floor has male and female bathroom, each bathroom has 2 toilets and 2 showers. They work from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM and usually have around 6 people working. We have 3 floors, each floor has male and female bathroom, each bathroom has 7 toilets and 5 showers. We work from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM and usually have around 3 to 4 people working with a maximum of 6 during busy days. My god. They say Metro is a dirty hostel, but that’s really because we never have enough time or people to actually make sure that everything is clean… I don’t get why we’re so tight on schedule and have so less people working thinking that we can keep this hostel tidy, but for the amount of work we do, it’s hard work compare to Melbourne Central YHA. The other day, I soloed the bathrooms and my god I was so sore the next day. What a bitch hostel to work for. Ann was talking to her manager asking to get me transferred over to Melbourne Central YHA lolol… I don’t think I want to leave though. Even though we have it tough, I have some of the chilliest colleagues.

Aside from work, Nina is leaving. :( She’s going to Tasmania for a potential job offer. I wish her the best of luck! I’m going to miss her because she’s like the most energetic housemate in our apartment. She brings a lot of energy to the place and super friendly. She finally found another housemate to take over her spot; Cindy from Hong Kong. She didn’t seemed too excited when she met us during the tenant transfer, but I hope she’ll turn out to be just as good of a housemate. I’m loving it living in this apartment. It’s small, but it’s warm and cozy. Yes, I don’t meet as many people as I do at hostels, but it’s great to have a place where I can rest and chill away from crowds of people. I get my own bed rather than a bunk bed! Adriana and I are like besties too! Not really, but we can talk into the night as if we’ve known each other for a really long time. That’s when I start getting annoying AF haha… I feel myself annoying her and she tells me that I’m annoying, but she’s really patient and doesn’t really mind it. I should really tone it down… Josh is like my activity buddy haha… We do a lot of things together on our free time; just like how he showed me the guitar/ukulele lesson, the care group, and we’ll be going to the Camberwell flea market this Sunday! I can honestly say I love my housemates. :) I hope all goes well with us! +the new girl.

Time to get some sleep zzz… I haven’t been getting enough sleep because we always talk into the night and I got kind of drunk last night at the Christmas party. I invited Sungwook to our house Christmas party on Christmas Eve/Day, but I don’t know if he’ll make it. He’s a nice guy but a bit shy, so I want to expose him to more things. He said he has been in Melbourne for like 2 years now? Doesn’t really have that many friends and usually just goes back to his apartment after work with his PhD stuff. I hope we can be friends instead of just me being a participant. Welp, good night!

Finally Settled Down in my New Apartment!

Whew… So I’m 4 days into moving into my apartment. Boy has it been awesome! My roommates are all super awesome and friendly! There’s Nina from Taiwan, Adriana the Japanese from Brazil, and Josh from South Korea. The apartment is not has small as I first thought it was when I first came for an inspection. The space is just right. It’s actually like the size of my parent’s room at home, but it’s enough for me. It gives me a warmer family feel where everyone is squeezed into a small area. It gives me the feel of being in Hong Kong too; with the small area and the constant vent buzzing sound coming from outside. Chris was afraid that I’ll not like it because it’s so small and the people were going to be bad that I’ll be running back to the hostel crying. But in the end, the roommates made me feel welcome and really get me into fitting in with them. I already feel a great bond with them. ^_^

Yesterday, I completed a three part study with Sungwook and we kind of just became friends haha… He’s doing his PhD and I was one of his participants. We have so much to talk about and he seem like one of those shy guys. He told me he lives alone and doesn’t really have that many friends. I told him that maybe we can keep in contact after our study is done and maybe we can hang out when he has free time away from his study! Hahaha… I think he’s a cool guy. He’s Korean, lived in Singapore for 8 years for his study, and came to Australia to study for his PhD. I hope we’ll become closer friends than just me being a participant. :P

I was going to go to Ikea yesterday, but Chris lend his myki card to a friend, so he couldn’t take the
tram with me to Ikea and asked me to wait for him until today. So today, we went to an audio store in South Melbourne because my in-ear headphones has been bugging me and I wanted an over-ear headphones. I should have brought my Razer Kraken, but it was not travel size and it’s USB only. =_=; I’ve been reading on reviews and thinking about buying something below $200. People praised the Oppo PM-3 but it’s $400… So I decided on the Audio Technica ATH-m50x. We went to Soundcorp and I ended up buying the ATH-m50x for AU$187 ahahah… I can’t believe I bought it so casually. I usually put a lot of thoughts into buying expensive things. I guess that’s what Australia did to me. I should just buy what I like because money is earned to be spent. I got a job here, so spending some money on things that I like is okay. Chris on the other hand though, he was so passionate about the audio machines and equipment. He keeps having no confidence in himself of getting a job with audio and lighting, but I think if he put a little bit more effort into it, he’d get some awesome gig. If I was in this field and see how passionate he is with these things, I’d hire him right away. It’s what he loves to do, so do what he loves. I even helped him ask if Soundcorp had any position opened but unfortunately they don’t. I bought the m50x right away trying out a few other in the same price range. The headphone fit on me perfectliy unlike the other ones that I’ve tried (they were either too big and heavy or the cup was too small that it was squeezing my ears down and uncomfortable). I know I won’t regret buying this. :)

Went to Ikea right after and bought myself a quilt/blanket and a pillow. The pillow that came with the bed was all yellow and nasty….. I don’t know how many people have used it. There was no blanket. I think I’m going to sneak some bed sheets from the hostel after working. I also bought a cactus! Giving myself another chance at it since I’ve killed the last 2 that I’ve had. I even decorated it with seashells and made a little sign that says “Smile Everyday!” :) The apartment need a little green to lighten up the place. My roommates was so happy that I bought the cactus and reorganized the living room and it actually made sense (I moved a single seat sofa away from the corner and put a desk there so someone can actually sit on the sofa instead of being in the corner where no one can sit on it comfortably).

Tonight, we had a dumpling night. We all contributed into making it, but it was all Nina’s idea and she even invited a few of her friends over to do a farewell party before Nina leaves within the next week. I believe she got a potential job at Hobart Tasmania. Happy for her, but I’ll miss her even if I only know her for a maybe two weeks. She’s super active all the time and very enthusiastic! I think it’s a good thing because she lightens up the room. Josh is a bit quiet but really into doing a lot of activities. I went to a guitar lesson with him, but once again I’m a super fail at string instruments ahah… Adriana or we call her Sachi is really nice too and talkative once she’s engaged! She’s like me. If a person doesn’t really talk to me, I wouldn’t have much to say. But when we spark up a conversation, we can go on and on.

I’m so happy. ^^ It’s different from the hostel and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to meet anyone once I leave the hostel, but I’m glad that I met these roommates and they already feel like a family to me after 3 days. I think this 5 months is going to super awesome. I’m going to participate with Josh at more activities like going to church so I can keep meeting new people like I used to do at the hostel. I’m going to make my time in Australia the best one and the most memorable one! I definitely made the best decision in my life coming to Australia instead of staying at Radius and living my boring miserable life. I do miss my friends, family, and Dexter though… But they will be around if I do decide to go home.

I have work tomorrow, so time for me to take a shower and get some rest~ Until next time, <3

Work and Searching for House Share Week

So I started work on Tuesday and turns out that part time means that I won't have work every day! D: They will only assign me to work when they need me. Though luckily, it's busy season because it's Australia's summer and people are going on vacations + a lot of sports events in Melbourne, so I can stack my hours. I do 5 hours a day and I've been working everyday since I started~ I don't have work over the weekend though.

How's work? Work's alright. I think it's better than sitting in a cubicle all day but it's not an ideal job... Housekeeping at the hostel. I basically change bed sheets, clean up rooms, and clean the bathrooms in the morning. It's not something that I hate doing, but it's not something that I would like to do long term! Lol... I told the manager Dooshyant that I would commit to 6 months, but I'll probably do 5 months and then head off to Queensland to look for farm work! If I do 6 months, I won't have enough time to work at a farm and extend my visa! I think I mentioned that in 2016, Australia wants to develop north Australia, so they're permitting 462 visa holders to extend their visa if they work up in Queensland and North Territory. I think I'll get myself qualified for that and use it before I turn 31. Don't know what will happen in the future and I don't plan on planning that far into the future, so we'll see~

So work's alright, but I never knew searching for house share was so stressful x_x I guess it's because I've never had to deal with looking for apartments back at home that it can be quite overwhelming at first. I want to stay closer to the city, but damn is it expensive AF... AU$250 per week to share a room with like 4 other people in a room or even a living room... It's ridiculous. So many people want to stay near the city that people can setup their living room with curtains and call it a room... I went to one place today to inspect the place because I thought $135 per week was pretty cheap. Apparently, I'll be living in a corner of the living room blocked out with curtains and with 2 other people... I was thinking that if it was just me living in the living room, that'd be okay with me, but with 2 other people and paying AU$540 a month for that... Some people recommend that I should just look for places in the suburbs. It's a lot cheaper and you might get your own room. But the thing is, taking the public transportation into the city makes up the cost anyways... Melbourne public transportation allows you to travel up to AU$7.50 something before it stops charging for the rest of the day for any additional travels. That comes out to be AU$52.50 per week additional for taking the tram to and from the city. It's not any cheaper then if I were to pay $125 per week + $52.50 to live an hour away from the city. I found another one that is really cheap in the city, share the room with one other guy, and share the place with 3 other people (total of 4) for $115 per week + bills, but when I went to inspect, the guy's phone wasn't working and he said he doesn't have a computer so he can't check his email all the time. It's frustrating none the less and being kicked out on Sunday isn't helping. :( I guess I'll try to find a good hostel to stay at until I get something. Hopefully things will turn out for the best. I shouldn't stress out too much about things that I can't control, mirite?

But yeah, that's what I've been doing all week, work and looking for house shares. Before, I was thinking of getting an evening job, but I don't know now... After working as a housekeeper in the morning, I feel so exhausted afterward that I just want to lay back and take a long nap zzz... Maybe I'll give it a little more thoughts and once I settle down, just keep looking for jobs and not worry if I don't get an evening job. Good good? Good!

League of Legends International Wild Card All-Star @ Melbourne

Ahahah... Riot came to Australia for the first time and they came to Melbourne! They had the International Wild Card All-Star tournament at the Melbourne Margaret Court Arena. I found that out like a few days before it was happening and I booked a ticket for it with Chris. I thought it'd be excited, but it was meh... It wasn't as I expected from you know... Watching the finals. People would cheer and clap every time something awesome happens in game. But people didn't really care at this tournament. :| Tough crowd. Also, the teams were meh. It wasn't that exciting to watch. Some of the players made some huge mistakes that I thought I could have done better than them. But what do I know, I'm just a Gold player lol... It was an experience regardless. We got a goodie bag that had a scarf, Academy Ahri skin code, a Lulu cupcake stress ball, a Thresh Lucian lanyard, thundersticks, and a string bag.

What I'm excited is that I start work tomorrow! What I'm not excited is that I need to find a room to move out @_@; I've been looking on Gumtree and various websites, but it's either extremely expensive to stay in the city or it's crappy and run down place. I've tried contacting a few people inquiring about checking out the place, but they either ignore me or they're seeking for females only... That or bills are not included in the rent price which I do not want to take a risk on because I can save, but I can't guarantee that roommates will save. What if the bills come out to be an insanely large amount of $$$? I also don't want to take a risk on high bond because what if they decide to blame me on damage that I did not do and keep my money when I decide to move out? I didn't know looking for a houseshare was so difficult haha... I'm still deciding whether I want to continue to stay at hostels because I don't want to isolate myself in a houseshare. I'm in Australia to meet new people! But hostels are so expensive compare to houseshare (Houseshare cost about $200 a week cheapest while hostels on average cost about $245 being the cheapest). I still have a week to decide so it's all good. Last night was my last night of cleaning the lounge. I still have about 2 weeks worth of credits for free accommodation, so that will go into paying for this week's stay. I hope things will continue to look bright for me! It's afternoon right now so I'm going to continue to look for a place to move. Once I get that sorted out, I'll settle down and start looking for a 2nd job! Good good good.

Job! I got a job!

Jobbbbb! :D

My current hostel Melbourne Metro YHA was looking for a part time housekeeper. They posted a sign on the lounge door but I didn't really noticed it until people at the hostel was talking about it. I checked it out and email the manager of this branch indicating that I am currently working at the hostel vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen, and the lounge and that I was interested in getting the job as a housekeeper. I didn't have much hope for it because I know a lot of people at the hostel was also applying for the position too; people are craving for a job and income lol...

To my surprise, the reception reached out to me for an interview. I didn't even know what's it for because they went to my room and put a post-it on my door saying see reception because I was not in my room. I went to reception and they told me it was an interview with Dooshyant for the housekeeping job and I can see him in like 10 minutes. Luckily, I was wearing my dress shirt getting ready to go out to pass out resumes. The interview was okay, but I felt like I could have done better. I was like, whatever, nothing to be worked up about because it's just a housekeeping job and I don't mind if I don't get it. In a way, it feels like a downgrade from my job at home because I used to work in an office as a systems support specialist. Here I am going to be a housekeeper cleaning after other people's mess. :< But that's okay, it's a legit profession and a source of income so anything is good. It's something new for a change and I love cleaning so it'll be a nice experience for me.

Today, I was just walking around and the reception caught me walking around the hostel and they told me that Dooshyant is looking for me to let him know if I've decided to take the job. I was like O_O hwot? I was waiting for an acceptance email... But that works too! Haha... Basically, Dooshyant accepted me when he gave me the interview. It was just up to me if I can commit 6 months to the job because they want someone who will commit due to training being intensive and costly in a way. I went to office straight away and let him know that I'm willing to commit to the 6 months and he let me know that I will start on Tuesday! But I gotta move out of the hostel because they don't want to mingling my personal life with work life so I have a week to look for a house share. What's awesome about this position is that it's part time from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM, so I can totally get another job for the evening shift. I'm not sure if there's any coffee shops that opens in the evening, but I also want to try being a waiter too. I can get a job maybe for 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM so I can earn a little bit more cash $$$. 10 hours a day shouldn't be too much and I've taken a long enough vacation by now... 3 months of no income @_@ Gotta make it up! Now that I think about it... I didn't ask how much I will be earning from the housekeeping job. x( The application asked how much I want as a salary so I put down AU$20/hr. Dooshyant said it was around the ballpark but didn't disclose how much is the salary. So I guess it's alright. They can't rip me off because YHA is a big organization and they need to keep their reputation. ;)

Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions!

Oh god, this concert though... Caused me so much problems!

I originally wanted to go to Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions concert when they came to Boston, but I didn't go because I was busy packing and planning my trip to Australia. When I was in Adelaide, I saw a poster advertising this concert, so I looked online and they were going to Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney! I thought this might be a good chance to finally meet Anita, so I booked two tickets to the one in Sydney. The one in Melbourne was going to be held in the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Center building vs. the one in Sydney was going to be held in the Sydney Opera House. Which one do you think was cooler? Of course Sydney! I told Anita about it and she was like, she'll try to get that day off. But eventually, her manager put her in for that day for work so she couldn't go.

What now? I'm stuck with two tickets and no one to go with. I didn't want the ticket to go to waste, so I started seeing if anyone wanted to go. Chris and San didn't want to be spending that AU$140 just to take the train to go see something that they weren't interested. So I started going online to find people on Reddit. I even made an account on OkCupid just to ask people! LOLOL... I think people thought I was a creep trying to fish them into going to an orchestra with me but people still replied me thanking my generosity but they were either busy or not interested.

I took Friday and Saturday night off from cleaning the hostel lounge. I booked train tickets to leave Melbourne on Friday night and reach Sydney on Saturday morning. The whole time up until 2 hours before the orchestra, I was just trying to find someone. I finally picked up the tickets at the Sydney Opera House. I can't believe I'm going to a concert at the Opera House! I was excited as well as disappointed that I might be watching this orchestra alone... I asked about the refund policy and the guy at the reception said Sydney Opera House is pretty strict about refunding and there's no refund. But often times, people are willing to buy tickets near the front door if they didn't get a chance to get some. I didn't know how to approach people... People started going in for merchandise and I tried to ask people that were standing around if they needed an extra ticket. I thought maybe if I go in a get a t-shirt, people will be more aware that I am going to this concert and try to ask if I have an extra ticket for sale. I wanted a t-shirt anyways, but it didn't help haha... I tried selling the ticket until 7:50 PM when most people has already went inside the concert hall. I went back to the reception and told him that I couldn't find anyone to buy the ticket. I gave him the ticket and told him that if anyone comes and needed a ticket, just give it to them. I had a feeling that SOMEONE might come and wanted a ticket. I didn't care for it anymore and just wanted to try to enjoy the orchestra as much as possible with just myself QQ...

The concert started and I didn't regret a single thing spending so much money just to go to Sydney and watch this concert. The orchestra was sooo good and every time they played a song that I knew from the video game, it sent chills down my whole body... They played only the video game music plus the first season extended version them song at the very end. But I'll get to that later. I was so immersed into the orchestra that I forgot I was there alone... But then about 7 minutes into the concert, this Asian girl walks in and sits next to me. We made eye contact and waved at each other. After the song ended, she asked if I was the guy that left his ticket at the reception to give away! Turns out she knows nothing about Pokemon other than Pikachu and she was just there to experience being a concert hall at the Sydney Opera House. She ended up enjoying the orchestra! Or so I think because she didn't fall asleep to it haha... We ended up connecting and decided to go grab dinner after the concert ended at 10:30 PM. By that time, majority of the restaurants were closed already. I Yelped and found this Japanese restaurant and bar place with two dollar signs so I was like okay, lets go there! The food was good, but it was definitely not two dollar signs! Our bill came out to be $165.... T_T;; We ended up splitting, but that's one hell of an expensive meal! Even my first anniversary dinner with my ex was not that expensive... We spent the rest of the night exploring Sydney harbour area and taking night photos until like 1 AM when I said I need to head back because I need to get up by 6 AM to catch my train back to Melbourne.

The whole way walking back to my hostel, I couldn't stop thinking about how much I've spent on this one weekend! Lol... That and this girl seems pretty cool. Her name's Serena and we got each other on WeChat. She's from Beijing and only here for two weeks on a vacation before going back home for her job.  I just took it as another great opportunity to practice my Mandarin because her English wasn't that great either! She said she wanted to study in America when she was younger, but her parents didn't allow it and she just kind of gave up on that idea. I wish our Asian culture wasn't THAT into respecting our elderly's sayings. We need to be more independent and do what we want to do. It might not always be the best decision, but we learn from mistakes, right? Originally, my mom didn't really like the idea of me leaving everything behind to go to a country where I don't know anything about, but I would have still be living a sad and boring life at home if I were to listen to her and stayed. I'm so happy I made this decision for myself and do what I want to do for myself. Everyone should do what they want to do. Parents' advice is good, but the ultimate decision is yours to make on your own. No regrets!

Back to Melbourne and back to looking for jobs again lol... Such is life. I had a call with Lucy today. I'm so glad that she's feeling a lot better now. I felt so hopeless when she's so upset about her life and I can't do a thing for her but encourage her to once again get out of the Asian mentality that we don't always have to listen and respect our parent's decisions. She needs to do what she wants to do because it's her life; not her parents. She asked me if I was stressed about the job situation. To be honest, I don't really feel as stressed as when I was college and wanting to get a job before getting out of college so I don't look like a failure. One thing that have changed me for sure by coming to Australia is that I'm more laid back and not stress about things that I cannot control. If employers don't want me, then I'll just have to keep trying. I can't go around complaining about how I really need a job. Although it's so depressing to look at my bank account ahahah... I think I've spent around $8000 by now in three months time. I'm so glad that Tran hooked me up with the work for accommodation job so I can at least save some money on living expenses. I don't feel like I'm trying hard enough to find a job, but that's okay... I'll just treat it as a vacation. If I don't get anything by mid December, I'll probably head to Sydney and spend Christmas and New Years there. We'll see...

Anyways, sleep time! Nightz0r~

Burning Bridges One Friend at a Time

上个星期真的黑仔了。。。

Everything has been pretty cool! I've been slacking on looking for a job since I get free accommodation, but I'm working on it.

Wednesday, I met these two new HK friends, San and Ceres. Melbourne was Ceres' last stop before she has to return home to HK. She has been here for 5 months working at Perth. We ended up agreeing to rent a car to travel the places outside of Melbourne. I ended up talking with Chris and he convinced me to rent a manual car and he will teach me to drive it because in Germany everyone drives manual... I thought it was a good idea because I wanted to do that at Tasmania too but I ended up getting an SUV so I couldn't get a manual one. This time though, I ended up booking a manual car on Thursday night. The plan was to go to different places for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with one of those day being the Great Ocean Road. 

Friday morning, I indicated that I will pick up the car at 9 AM, but we were being slow pokes and didn't leave the hostel until 11. We ended up missing the pick up time and all other cars were out of stock. We ended up going to museums instead. Well, just Ceres. I only slept for a few hours and San was tired, so we just kinda wandered around and ended up getting back to the hostel by 5. I made another booking for another car for Saturday and Sunday, again with Chris convincing me that I should book a manual and so I did. Saturday comes along, we headed out early to get the car, but Chris did not wake up and his phone was dead. I called him all morning and no reply. So I tried to do it myself -- driving the manual car out of the garage of where we pick up our car. I mean, how hard can it be? It ended up being just as hard as it should be. I step on the clutch and breaks, turned on the car, pull down the hand break, and start driving. I was afraid to be accelerating too fast in the garage, so I didn't gas enough before letting go of the clutch. I stalled it every single time I let go of the clutch. All the people that were working at the garage kept staring at me asking me if I know how to drive a manual... They told me to go upstairs and change the car because if I don't know how to drive manual, it's going to be dangerous driving in the city. Frustration overload over the fact that Chris is not waking up and I have already wasted two of Ceres' short stay in Melbourne. I gave up and ask for a different car, but they were out of stock once again. Chris didn't wake up until 11 AM and apologized over WhatsApp. We ended up taking the train to Puffing Billy where we took a steam train to a rural area and worked our way back. I guess San doesn't really like walking on regular basis. She was complaining about having to walk 30+ minutes whenever we mention that. I wanted to stay a bit longer and walk all the national park trails, but they wanted to leave, so I guess I'll follow them. THEN I made ANOTHER booking, this time for Sunday and Monday, AUTOMATIC. I didn't want to mess shit up again. Sunday came along and we ended up going to Great Ocean Road -- Ceres, San, Chris, a Taiwanese girl, and me. It was fun and beautiful, but I can tell that Ceres is really disappointed that I messed up her vacation. I promised her that I would drive her to the airport on Monday. We ended up getting back to the hostel at 12 AM, I ate dinner and it was 1:30 AM. After cleaning the lounge, I was dead tired and it was 4:00 AM. I've been awake since 7. I completely forgot about having to drive Ceres to the airport in the morning, so I totally forgot to set an alarm. She called 11 times and I missed them all. I didn't wake up until 11 AM, flipped out, and flipped out again that I might have gotten a parking ticket for waking up late.

Monday was not only that. I missed driving Ceres to the airport (but luckily, I didn't get a parking ticket). I tried calling her to see if I can reach her before she boards the airplane, but I couldn't reach her and my Skype credit ran out of credits... What? I thought if I buy a number from Skype, I can call over wifi for free... Apparently not. So now I have to spend another $25 to get more credit. I looked up the information to get to Sydney for the Pokemon Symphonic concert and turns out the cheapest to get there is by train for $140 round trip + $30 for a night of hostel. Anita ended up telling me that her manager assigned her to work that night so she can't go. Now I just spent AU$170 to get to Sydney and another $160 on two tickets with just myself going... When Chris woke up at 2, I needed to return the car because parking is such a hassle in the city. We went to pick up Chris' package that his mom sent and we headed towards the parking lot to return the car. After returning the car, I noticed that I forgot to return the garage entrance ticket so I told Chris to watch my groceries that we just bought and I'll be back quick. I started running back. The side walk was made of smooth marble like material. There was a guy coming out of the doors so I wanted to run around him for the garage. I ended up slipping on my flip flops and splat onto the ground. Fucked up my right knee and right elbow really bad. I got back up and walked towards the garage attendant and he told me that the ticket was useless and he didn't need it.... At this point, the only thing that's going through in my head was, "Can my day get any worse? I knew from the Skype and concert that it was going to be a dark day." Chris tried to comfort me, but I didn't want to speak. That's how I deal with my problems. I shallow it and deal with it myself. I don't like to express sad feeling to other people. I ended up spending the rest of the day cleaning up my wound and chilling in the hostel because I don't want to encounter any crap for the day.

But back to Ceres. She was a great person. I wished I didn't fucked up so hard. I didn't get her HK number, her WhatsApp, or her Facebook. I guess we just weren't meant to be. I felt so bad that I missed driving her to the airport. Lucy told me that it might mean that she's not as important to me as I thought she would be. Chris also tried to comfort me that it's not my fault. We don't expect these to happen, but it happens. I can't always think about other people's happiness because I can't make everyone happy. I need to think about myself sometimes because I went to sleep late and my body needed the rest. I guess they're right, but I seem to fuck up the most with the people that I thought are most important to me. It's just like how I always make Unkei upset even though she's one of the most important people in my life. I guess I don't know how to really care about those that I truly care about. I hope Ceres doesn't hold a bad impression of me if I ever see her again. :(

These two days were really hard for me to walk around because my knee is badddd... But I still managed to go to two psychological department studies and earned AU$50 out of the two, which is a good amount of pocket change to help lighten up the expenses. I ended up spending it all on food and getting a haircut lol...

Work's been great, but tiring because of the midnight to 2AM thing, especially having to wake up early to travel with the two HK friends. Ceres is gone but San is still here trying to get a job. I thought I'd like her and she gets really close when we take pictures. Like, our heads are touching and she'd put her arm on/around my shoulders. I read something that when a girl gets touchy, it means something! But I guess not. I found that our personalities are completely the opposite haha... I want someone like... Shen Chia-Yi or Onodera Kosaki <3 Oh well! Right now, I still need to find a date to go to the Pokemon Symphonic concert with me! I don't want my other ticket to go to waste. :'( 

Anyways, gotta get ready for work soon! Until next time, peace out~

Back to the old habits...

It has been over a week since I've blogged. @_@ Why? Because I'm back to my old habits. I've been consumed with playing League of Legends or Pocket MapleStory (mobile version). Either that or I'm briefly looking for jobs. I don't know... I'm having a bit of a trouble trying to get a job but I feel like I'm not putting enough effort into it. I've also been going to sleep really late lately. ;_; Oh geez. I need to change.

In other news though, I've met an awesome friend again! Her name's Tran and she's from New York! She has been helping me a lot in terms of earning money lol... She understands the struggles of getting a job because she has been here since February and she had a lot of trouble too. So she showed me how to earn money from going to studies at the University of Melbourne Psychology department! Ahah... Today was my first time doing it and I was paid AU$6 for looking through slides of x-rays and see if there's a fracture. It took about 30 minutes, so I guess it's like AU$12/hr. I doing another study this Thursday, but I forgot how much was the payout. Tran is also mega nice @_@ She agreed to house sit for one of her friend, so she let me cover her for her hostel lounge cleaning job for a month! In return, I get to stay at this hostel for free while I continue to work! For a month, that will save me about AU$750! Every bit counts! Plus, I get to stay in a 4 share room which is only filled with the volunteers. When Tran talked about it, it sounded like a VIP lounge or some sort because she said there's a couch in there with a table filled with food that the volunteers have collected when people don't take their food with them when they leave. When I got into the room, it was pretty cool! Nice view, free food, big space, etc. I don't get to relax at night anymore because I clean the lounge from 12AM-2AM. But that's okay; I chill in the morning anyways zzz... But Tran though. She left home to teach English in Korea for four year and then came over to Australia for Working Holiday for her last year of eligibility (31). After this, she's going to go to Japan to teach English! Can I travel like this too???

I think I'm getting better at this talking with people thing now lol. I've sparked up a few conversation because I was cleaning the lounge/kitchen. But I still don't understand; if you don't start a conversation, most people won't do so either. The thing is though I feel like I want to meet people, but on the other hand, I get so annoyed when I'm constantly given attention. Like Chris for example! He's always there! He like LOVES me lolol... He's cool and I like hanging out with him but there are times when I find him annoying AF. I like to pick on him for smoking and getting him to quit completely. He picks on me that I always play League of Legends. We're pretty common in a way that we like video games, love computers, trying to get a job, and we can just go on about meaningless shit but we talk a lot.

I'm going to keep this short. I start cleaning a few minutes. I haven't called home last Sunday and I feel bad. @_@ I'm getting consumed by MapleStory and League of Legends... Ugh. I will definitely stop playing once League of Legends season ends tomorrow though. I've been trying to get Andy's account to Gold, but I'm losing like 5~6 times in a row it's horrible! I landed in Silver I but I kept falling and now in Silver 3... One more day! And I'm meeting up with another friend tomorrow. His account is curse I tell yah! I can't blame it on the ping even though my ping is ~280. I'm just bad at League of Legends in general. ;_;

Good night!

Melbourne Derby Day!

AU$50 black dress shoes. Wake up at 5AM. Walk for 1.5 hours. Raise money for 11 hours. I had a sincere smile on my face all day, try to be as approachable as I can, and greet anyone that makes eye contact with me. Some of them just looks like in disgust as if I'm going to steal their money.

I was really tired and upset yesterday because I had a long day and a lot of things happened all in one day, but nothing sleep didn't fix! It has been a weird week.

All week, I was applying to jobs at least 4~5 hours a day on Gumtree and Seek with no luck. x( Most of them don't respond. Some of them respond saying they have already found someone. Some of them say they have better matching candidates. I had one interview on Friday for a volunteer position with the YHA org to participate in a video shoot. In return, I get 10 days of free accommodations at any YHA around Australia. I was declined yesterday because they found someone better. I'm not good enough even for volunteer work. QQ; Oh well... Just got to keep trying on Monday. It's so demoralizing when you're applying for jobs and not getting any of them. It makes me feel like I'm not good for anything. >< Stay positive, Henry.

During this week and a half here at Melbourne Metro YHA, I've met three Germans! It's weird because all three of them saw me playing League of Legends and started talking to me, but two of them left already. The one that's left is Christopher. He's a pretty cool guy. Really good at making websites. We've been hanging out for quite a bit and I guess we get along pretty well haha... He seems like a genuine guy and likes hanging out with me so he can improve his English. On Friday after my interview for the YHA video shoot, I saw people walking around with PAX passes and I totally forgot that PAX was this weekend! I was like ohhhh, I wanna go! So I went back to the hostel to grab my camera and then I thought of Christopher that he likes game too. I messaged him asking if he wanted to go with me. He was super excited. He said he has never been to a gaming convention before. When we went, I can tell that he was really happy and excited about it. We stood around the lobby of Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre looking for people with Friday badges and see if they're going to come back (because we were there around 4PM). If they weren't coming back, we wanted to see if we can buy their passes. One kid just gave me one for free but Christopher was too shy to be asking people. I eventually found one that was willing to sell one and Christopher ended up paying $20 for it; which is okay because day pass is AU$60 and we only have 2 more hours before the convention closes for the day. He was really happy at the end. He thought he was going to spend a boring day at the hostel, but I made his day. It makes me happy to be able to make others happy. :)

Not only the Germans, but I've met a few other people that I didn't get to communicate with as much as I got to with these Germans. They keep me busy and not feeling lonely ahahah...

I've been playing League of Legends quite a bit recently though, especially on the US server... Because I wanted to get Andy's account to Gold before the season ends. I'm pretty sure I will stop playing as much once I get his account to Gold. But it's so hard because I'm playing on 280~400 ping and I'm only really excelling in playing Sona. Even at that, I don't win every game with Sona. I can't CS or team fight with this kind of ping... Season ends in a week and a half. @_@

Yesterday though... During Melbourne Knowledge Week, I met this other girl that was telling me about Melbourne Derby Day. So they have this horse racing thing and it's one of the biggest event in the year. She was telling me that I can volunteer and just go in for free, which makes a lot of sense! I should start volunteering at Anime Boston and PAX so I can get in for free! So she mentioned that I can volunteer for Starlight Children's Foundation. Apparently, they raise money to help sick children in hospitals and we raised money by selling Melbourne Cup pins.

To attend the Flemington Racecourse, you need to be wearing formal clothing, even volunteers. As a volunteer, we need to be specifically wearing black formal shoes and tailored pants. I have dress pants, but I didn't bring my dress shoes, so I was thinking about back out... I wanted a new pair of Converse too and now I have to buy another pair of shoes that I can't wear regularly. Anyways, in the end I ended up sticking to it and bought a pair of AU$50 formal shoes. @_@ It's the cheapest quality piece of shat ever, but it was okay in terms of comfort, so whatever. I can probably wear it to job interviews too I guess. The day and I was excited for it! I signed up for the afternoon shift which was 12:30PM to 5:30PM. They mentioned that they needed people for early riser where we sell pins to people that arrives early at 7AM. I decided to go for that anyways! When I do things, I get excited and wants to do everything lol... Big mistake! I woke up at 5AM, wash up, and started heading out at 5:30. It started POURING! I was like -_-; I'm not gonna make it! Luckily, I got to an underground walkway over the train track before it started pouring heavily. I waited there hoping that it might get better. It lasted probably around 10 minutes and luckily, it lighten it to the point that it's okay to start walking again without getting drenched. I made it to the racecourse at 6:50AM, so it was a little bit over an hour walk. Not that many volunteer showed it, but I got paired with this crazy lady. I don't even remember her name, but she was AGGRESSIVE AF. She mentioned that we should put some pins on our shirts so people can see how it looks like (there's two pins, one for $5 and one for $10). I took one of each pin and pin them on myself and wanted to donate $15 for the pins, but this lady (my partner in selling pins) didn't want me to pay for it... Awkward. I sneaked it into the bin anyways. So we headed out to sell pin and she said she was a saleswoman before. She'd get in front of other people's face, shove the pins into their face, and ask them if they want it. I was being a bit passive but still making sales. This lady think she's doing all the work and told me that I need to try harder! And that she's going to take all the credit because I'm not doing so well... Whatever, mate. Sales slowed down a bit and she couldn't stand it, so she made me go to the train station with her out in the pouring rain to make sales when people get off the train station... She was like, "COME ON! STOP TRYING TO KEEP THE PINS DRY AND SELL!" Words cannot express how rude and crazy she was; you gotta be there to witness it. She was getting into my nerves when she started tucking my shirt to get into the crowd and make sales to the point where I screamed out at her to Stop! I flipped out and she backed off for like a good 5 minutes before started doing it again. I had to deal with her from 7AM to 12:30PM before she finished her shift. She was trying to act friendly and all, but I started ignoring her and just doing my own sales. My second partner was passive af though lol... More passive than me. But he's a cool guy I guess. His name was Nick and he's still in Uni. We messed around the whole day watching the race, and just strolling around because most of the people that wants a pin already bought one and those that don't have a pin don't want one.

I don't know if it was a fun experience. It's nice to be part of Melbourne's biggest event of the year, but the things I have to deal with and standing from 5AM to getting back to my hostel by 6PM? It was tiring.... It was also Halloween night too, so I had Chris buy some Smirnoff Ice, made dinner, and spent the Halloween night drinking, eating, and watching The Conjuring. Good way to spend Halloween in Australia, right? :P I hope my Christmas is going to be better... I don't want to spend it alone again QQ I met this cute girl at the racecourse though that was also volunteering for Starlight! But I don't think it's gonna get anywhere LOLOL... I added her on Facebook and that was about it. We had a little back and forth conversation on Messenger, but nothing extraordinary. Don't need woman! I just need a date for the Pokemon Symphonics concert for the 21st just in case Anita can't take the day off from work. T_T; Plus she already has a boyfriend. :U I keep joking saying it's gonna be a nice date and she just brush it off haha.

Anyways, Happy November! Man, I need a job.

Barista Course and Beyond...

Don't you hate it when you're taking a poo and the hostel's bathroom lights has a timer to turn off after no movement for 3 minutes? You can't see my butt move, but it's moving! >:( Stop turning off the lights on me!

So I had my barista course on Saturday. I was expecting more, but what ever. We had maybe 2 hours of information learning and then 3 hours of unlimited coffee bean and milk to practice on. I poured out maybe 30~40 cups of espresso, cappuccino, latte, etc. The way we down those milk though... The instructor had a refrigerator filled with 2 litre bottles of milk and we down one for every 4~5 cappuccino maybe? I thought it was a huge waste, but I really wanted to practice more! It was really fun practicing and it's such a happy moment when you get that latte art showing up! Haha... I don't know how I'll get more practice time now but I think I got the basic down. We try to make espresso manually by timing when we stop the water and I got that down pretty fast. Too early will result in sour espresso, too late will result in bitter espresso. Then we went on to froth milk. That is a little bit difficult because we need to make sure we froth the milk enough and get the right temperature. I either have too less foam which won't work when making latte art. When there's too much foam, it mixes with the coffee? When the temperature is too hot, it will lose the silky sugary milk flavor. If it's too cold, it will just be milk and supposedly too sweet. See how fun it is?! I wanna practice moreee!! That day doe. When we were trying our manually made espresso, I had so many that I was literally twitching and hyper for almost the whole day haha.

So at the class, I met this guy Argi? I forgot his name, but best that I don't remember. He is of no importance to me now. He seemed like a nice guy. During break, we went out for lunch and had a good talk. He started his own business in making burgers. He has a wife and an adorable little son. Cool guy, it seems. He even offered me a ride back to Melbourne city after class because he said he was heading there anyways. I was like sweet, I'll save $5 on the train ride. Class is over, I hopped on into his car. He decided to drive me to a brothel... What? He said lets just check it out really quick, I promise. I was like -_- fine. So they showed us all the girls and he picked out one of the girl. What about you? Hahahha.... I'm good, none of them really suite me. He was like are you sure? Okayyy. I'll be out in a bit then. Alright. I'll wait outside! I went outside and made sure he was legit staying before I did anything else. Luckily, I took all my stuff out of his car because this is my chance to dash! I wrote a note saying I checked the internet and there was a train coming in 10 minutes, so I'm just going to take the train! Stuck it on his windshield and ran for my life! I thought he'd catch up to me before my train comes and tries to kill me or something! D: So I took off my dress shirt, put on my hat and shades and kept walking. Omg, I can't believe I took the candy from a stranger and hopped into his car. What a sicko. I wouldn't mind if he was single and just want to have some fun. That would be completely fine with me. But he has a family at home... Wtf? That's so unfair for the wife and the son that he's messing around outside. I need to be more caution about hopping into people's cars. :( Next time, it won't be just visiting a brothel! They might even sell me!!! T_T Just kidding, but still though... Luckily, he doesn't have any contact info or where I lived. I don't want that guy associating with me. Also, that guy has no taste! If you're going to pay $140 to have sex with some random girl, at least go to a place with better looking girls! LOLOL... As shallow as I may be, the girls weren't that great at all lel...

So anyways. Now that I have some basics in my belt, I think I'm going to stay around Melbourne and try to find a cafe to work in! I want make use of this $290 that I spent on a class and perfect my coffee making! Who knows, maybe I'll end up like the instructor. He used to not like coffee at all. He worked at a cafe while he was in uni and all he was taught was press this button, do this thing, bam, you're on your own. He was producing yucky coffee but back then people didn't demand high quality coffee. He started doing his own research on how to make it better. He eventually became really good and got invited to work for some top notch coffee business. They were like, "Forget completing your engineering degree. Come work for us!" He started competing and ended up winning competitions at coffee making and people were surprised because no newbies has ever won or even reach 3rd place at those big competition. After a couple of years, he stopped and started teaching. So myah... Maybe I'll come to like coffee hehe... But it's such an expensive hobby. Good quality beans are uber expensive as well as the espresso machines. Whatever.

I've been thinking. Should I return to the US after my year in Australia comes to an end. The chances of traveling like this is rare once I'll start working again. But I definitely have a feeling that once I go back home, I don't really want to work for something else again. I really want to do my own thing; start my own business. I was looking into Working Holiday at South Korea. I was going to start learning Korean on my own and by the time I finish another year at New Zealand, I'll have 2 years of Korean under my belt and ready to tackle the country! But then it's only available for people that have recently graduated from university. :( Same goes for Singapore and Ireland. Canada is only 6 months. That's really all the countries that US have working holiday with. So my only option is Australia and New Zealand. I'll work on it.

I've been playing League a lot lately. Catching up on my missed 2 months. x( I'll stop once I get Andy's account to Gold haha... Aside from playing, I do manage my time pretty wisely because I want to start looking for a job again. I don't want to go for too long without a job because my bank account is weeping right now. I found an ad on Gumtree that YHA is looking for people for photoshoot for new ads! Free 4 days trip to the Great Ocean Road and this other place, all cost covered! +10 days free stay at any YHA after that! So gooot! But it might delay my time to start working. I keep hearing good stories about the Great Ocean Road, but I really don't want to go because I'd have to rent my own car or go on a day trip with a tour group which would probably suck. This is a great opportunity to go for free and even get rewarded~ I'll work hard on getting this opportunity! :D

Anyways, I should get some sleep now. I feel bad sleeping in on weekdays because it feels like I'm wasting my time. I need to get my sleeping schedule back together! Feels like college all over again when I just wanted to stay up all night~ But myah. Good night!

Melbourne Knowledge Week cont.

Wow, it has already been a week! Melbourne Knowledge Week is almost over and I've been attending a lot of the free panels. I've went to so many panel, but they're all really exciting! So far, I haven't dozed off in any of them and they're all an hour to two hours! Lol... That means it's good stuff. Though one thing I noticed about myself is that I'm a pretty pessimistic person. There was a panel talking about an organization called B Lab that assist companies on being a "benefit corporation." Basically a company that is environmentally friendly, produce reusable products, green, etc. The whole time, I was thinking "well, I don't think these kind of companies are sustainable and in the end it's all about the money." I'm trying to change this way of thinking and be more open minded. It's all good though. I've met a few friends here and there.

One thing I still couldn't do is ask questions at the end of the panel. Why can't I be like Cathy and just speak up; ignore what people think! I don't think it's because of that. I think when I'm not confidently comfortable with a certain subject, I won't ask questions because I feel like I will make a fool of myself. I tend to do that and when I try to speak up, I trip all over my thoughts and it would come out sounding stupid. Why do I say that? Because There were two panels that I actually asked questions -- "Your Boring Life Gamified" and "The Future of Wearable Technology." I am really into those topics, so I won't feel uncomfortable asking questions because I understand the topic enough to not make a foolish question. There was this one panel about how University of Melbourne is trying really hard to change their way of teaching; teach to be open minded and creativity. Getting a diploma means setting yourself up for diplomacy. We need to get today's generation to be ready to solve all the issues that has been created in this world. I really wanted to ask a question, but I just couldn't get it out.

"I'm from Boston and in the US, we really embrace creativity and thinking outside of the box. That's why we have so many entrepreneurs that have created the most successful companies in the world e.g. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I have been told that in China, education do not explore the field of thinking outside of the box. When they face a problem, they do not understand how to take a different route because there's only one way to doing things. Not just China, but I'd think a few other countries might have such approach. What kind of impact would you think this will cause because clearly it's not affecting China in any way because they are currently one of the biggest economy in the world." I'm sure the answer would be because they have the population and the cheap labor lol...

Another question I wanted to ask in another panel was "Knowledge sharing is definitely the most valuable skills we can have in this society because it promotes growth. When I heard of Melbourne Knowledge Week, I spent the whole night looking through my brochure picking out all of the events that I would like to attend. And you know what ended up happening? I only picked out all of the free events. I didn't even bat an eye on the ones where I'd have to pay to attend. Would the desire of profit stump the growth for more knowledge in this world? I'm not sure about the education cost in Australia. But in a few more years, who knows if ordinary families can still afford a university study."

When I type it out, it sounds fluent and nice, but I'm sure I would have butchered it if I asked it at the panel. QQ; Oh well. It's not that important I guess lol. If I get an answer to those questions, it would just satisfy my curiosity and get other people's opinions. After all, they're all really big people in Australia that has done great things. But would it add to my knowledge? Who knows... I'm sure I'm slowly getting better at this asking question thing. Cathy is my role model! :)

That's really all really... Really. Also, toothpaste is my worse enemy. My first tube got stolen! Now my second tube has a hole in it!!! Wth?! I accidentally squished it too hard in my bag that it popped a hole. It leaked all over my toiletries and I thought it was because I left my bar of soap in the bag and it wasn't fully dried yet. When I started using my toothpaste, I notice a hole in it... -_-

In other news, I met two friends at my hostel because they saw me playing League of Legends ahah... It's great how games can bring people together too, em i rite? (: They're cool people from Germany, so it's cool!

Time to get some sleep! I don't have any early panels tomorrow, so it's all good. I can't wait for my barista course! I paid AU$300 for it, so it better be good! @_@; Until then, good night!

First Day of Melbourne Knowledge Week!

God damn it, I always do this to myself... Instead of just thinking I've learned something new, I'd feel like I haven't accomplished much in my life and feel shitty for the rest of the day.

The first event was having an inside look of a classical musician group called Inventi Ensemble and how they rehearse for their performance on Thursday. I think I can say I thoroughly enjoy classical music, especially the more modern ones. I don't know if game music can be categorized in that but it sounds similar to game background music. It was a group of three musicians, a harp, flute, and a clarinet player. Everyone was amazed by the harp and so was I. It had 47 strings and 7 pedals to switch between sharp and flat. The player was introducing the harp and they were reciting their pieces going into how they try to play with each other without a conductor. It was quite interesting but I only got to stay for half the rehearsal before I had to head off to the next one.

The next one was where I started feeling shitty about myself lol... Smart City Leadership. There were 4 speakers of which had done big things to help the promotion and growth of the city of Melbourne. One of them was called Marita Cheng. She's 26 years old graduated from University of Melbourne and currently in the progress of creating robotic technologies to assist people with disabilities and of the general public as well. She has also started a program to go around the world holding workshops to educate and encourage more females to take interest in the engineering and science (STEM) field of study. She was also awarded Young Australian of the Year in 2012; an award given to young Australian that has created a big impact in promoting knowledge and growth towards the country. And here I am, 7 months younger than her, lost and don't know what I really want to do...

I don't want to live a normal life being a puppet in making another person's dream come true. At the end of a 9-5 cubicle day, I feel so underachieved. I want to make something out of myself instead of just bring home the money and call it a life. I definitely have the idea that I want to do something big, but I don't have the urge or courage to stop dream and start creating. I wonder how these people do it... Maybe I'm just lazy, but are these people productive at all times? I mean, Marita said she was just a normal teenager in Cairns doing normal teenage things. It didn't all come together until she got into University of Melbourne. What separates me from her is that she is ambitious and hardworking. I'm lazy and satisfied with just getting by zzz... I need to stop being this way and have more confident in myself. A lot of people I meet tells me that I'm an awesome person in many different ways and I need to just take those words and empower myself to believe that I am great and I will achieve great things. I just need to work harder and stop slacking off going on reddit or refreshing my Facebook every 10 minutes.

The talk was great and it sparked some thinking into me. It was mostly about sharing knowledge and how to keep Melbourne growing into one of the best cities in the world. I think they already are a great city and they'll keep thriving! I wanted to ask a question, but time ran out and I didn't get to do it. Oh well, there's more opportunities into the week for me to ask!

In other news, I booked a 5 hour barista course on making latte for AU$290. :( Such amount. Much poor. It'll be all worth it! It's taught by some awesome person that has competed in latte art and very well known apparently!

I'll work on it; my confidence and errthing. Anyways, I need to get up at 6 AM tomorrow morning for another workshop! Sleep solves all problem and it's a new day tomorrow will new opportunities! I need some sleep now! Peace out!

Back into Melbourne and 2 months into Travel!

I can't believe that I'm heading into the 2 month period into my travel in Australia. Lilly was right; at some point, my excitement will plateau and I'm ready to settle down. I've came back to Melbourne on the 15th from Tasmania and started doing some light search for jobs around Victoria and New South Wales. I'm ready to settle down, get a job, and earn some money before I some more traveling~ I feel like I've been spending a lot of money; mostly on accommodation, food, and travel. I haven't been buying anything, but apparently, my backpack gained weight when I was checking in my bags at the airport... What?

During my 2 months travel, I've seen a lot of things, experienced a lot of situations, and met a fairly good amount of people. Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed that I am moving day by day, places to places. If you look at my Google Fit stats, I've been walking 10,000 ~ 30,000 steps everyday. I try to do everything that is free in each place that I visit before I move on. There are places that are just unimaginably awesome; some were just meh. I don't know if I miss home, but I definitely miss Dexter, my parents, and my friends. There are times when I'd say, "Wow... This place is awesome! I bet [friend] would love to be here!" It's just things that cannot be expressed through pictures or words; things that has to be seen in person. Especially Tasmania! Just pure awesomeness -- The National Parks and the open field of farms and scenic views in every direction. Every time I see a dog, I'd be like OMG SO CUTEEE... I miss Dexter QQ lol... It's okay.

2 months. I don't know if I have really focused on understanding myself. But one thing for sure is that I don't like constant attention -- by that I mean traveling with friends that I meet on the trip haha... I'm a terrible person, but I hate having to think about other people when it comes to what I want to do. Things I might like, the other person might find it boring AF. When I travel alone, I like how I can stay at one place however long I want to as to traveling with someone else, they might want to move on. In Tasmania, we went to Mt. Wellington. I was really into getting the feel of being there and love the view, but one of the guy felt like we spent too much time up there. Whatev, ya knowww? What else... I'm getting back into my old habits. I ended up going out and buying a mouse so I can play League of Legends! Old habits are old habits. I've been watching the Worlds Championship and just craving to play. I've been playing on the Oceania server; maybe a total of 4 games? Wow am I bad at it after 3 months of hiatus. Or maybe I suck because I don't have my original keyboard and mouse. I don't think I will be playing a lot because I don't need it as an escape anymore. Maybe just a game or two every other night or something; something to relax to and just play casually when I feel like I need a break.

So I'm back to Melbourne now. I was planning on staying here for five more nights before heading back to Sydney (because the train only runs every Wednesday, so I need to stay 5 nights in Melbourne), but I decided to stay an additional week because the Melbourne Knowledge Week is happening 19 - 25 October. It's like a conference; a week of people, companies, universities hosting forums and talks regarding technology, innovation, future development, sharing ideas, etc. I found this event out before I left for Tasmania, but I couldn't decide if I really wanted to stay for this. I finally decided to stay for it anyways because it's a good way to meet people with the same interest and it's going to be very educational for me! I've literally signed up for almost every free ones! Now I have to out the time overlapping ones and decide which ones I want to go to! Haha... It's be a fun week. What's not fun is that I have to be jumping hostels. I booked 2 days at Melbourne Central YHA, 3 days at Home at the Mansion because I needed to stay five days before the train to Sydney, and 7 more days at Melbourne Metro YHA so I can stay for the Knowledge Week.

As for meeting new people, I don't know about being obligated to meet new people now haha... It's okay to just be myself and do my own thing. I do enjoy that some people are genuinely interested to talking with me. Whenever I hear Cantonese, I get so tempted to go over and be like ARE YOU FROM HONG KONG?! But then I feel like a creep, especially if they're girls, and I would just not do it and keep doing what I'm doing. It's all good though. It's not like I've created a bubble around myself. I do start up conversation with random people and others have started talking to me. As an introvert, it's a good amount of socializing for me. I don't need constant attention!

I'm sitting at the State Library of Victoria and they promised me high-speed internet, but it's 500kbps. God damn Australia. Your internet sucks! I guess it's good enough to sort out my week to come for Knowledge Week, do some hostel booking, check some emails, apply for jobs, etc. It's good that it's slow so I can't play League haha...

Welp, that's a quick update. I'm going to go get some groceries and start working on dinner because I'm sooo hungry right now! I don't know if I'm eating enough or not, but I lose weight without even trying. Maybe because I'm eating too healthy. I need to get myself some junk food. Tim Tam is like part of my life now. I've been buying every awesome flavors that I encounter! Until next time, peace out!

Birthday and them Shenanigans...

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to Henry... #loner5ever

Just kidding... I actually made a friend right before my birthday! His name was Roland from Singapore! He's mega smart -- a doctor in training. We were roommates for like 2 days before he actually introduced himself to me. Nothing really went past that. But I saw him eating dinner once and I decided to see if he wanted to go to the Melbourne Eureka Skywalk thingie with me where we go to the 88th floor of the tallest building in Melbourne and look over the skyline of Melbourne. He accepted my invitation and so we started being friends! The next day, we decided to go check out the Victoria Market and got some groceries for dinner. It was actually the day of my birthday, but I didn't want to make it a big deal. We decided to have an early dinner and go to St. Kilda Beach by sunset to see the penguins return to their nest for the night. On our way back, I suggested grabbing a drink; because it was my last night at Melbourne before I head off to Tasmania and kind of to secretly celebrate my birthday. We ended up going to Coles to try to get some drinks, but the one we went to didn't sell alcohol, so we ended up getting Ginger Beer... In Aussie, they call ginger ale -> ginger beer and they call beer -> ale; weird. He knew Bundaberg was a really good brand because he used to drink it in Singapore and they sell it for mad expensive compare to buying it in Aussie since it was brewed by Aussie. Low and behold, it taste so good compare to our crappy Canada Dry. We decided to drink that instead of alcohol. On our way back from Coles, he mentioned that he hasn't tried Mcdonald's in Australia yet. It was almost 11 PM and we decided to get McDonald's too (I finally saw a McDonald's with a sign called Macca's, Lilly!)! Too bad they messed up my sammich, but it was a great way to end my birthday regardless!

That concludes my first experience in Melbourne. Overall experience? I didn't like Melbourne Central YHA. The lounge is weirdly positioned making it hard to make friends because there's a bunch of single tables and people would never try to sit with you. Melbourne... I didn't know any of the hidden gems until my last day there when a staff at the hostel convinced me to join her short guided tour around Melbourne. That was when she showed us some of the hidden gems around Melbourne where tourist usually do not know about; like the best street for coffee and where to see really old building with little shops in them. Roland is super into sweets and he showed me some of the best chocolate stores (Chocolait and Cocoblack). He splurged on snacks to bring home because he wanted to spend all his AUD lol... Watching him go crazy over chocolate is funny. Melbourne is a nice place, but I don't know if it's somewhere I want to stay at.

I ended up applying to three jobs over the course of the week.... They all happen to be in New South Wales, but I didn't get any response. QQ; I gotta try harder once I get back from Tasmana.

7:30 PM, I took the ferry from Port Melbourne to Devonport, Tasmania with the two Chinese teachers. We reached there in the morning at 6:30 AM and picked up the SUV that we hired. It turned out to be a Ranault Koleos. I hate driving big cars, but I had to because we have 4 people and it'd be uncomfortable if we had to all squeeze in a small car. I ended up not getting a manual car either. But luckily, we got there early and picked up the car early. I was having a little bit of a hard time trying to keep in mind that I have to drive on the left side. When I turn left, I stay on the left. When I turn right, I have to hop over to the outer lane to stay on the left. Due to being there early, I got to drive without any car on the street. It doesn't really matter though because there's barely any people on Tasmania lol... I got used to driving on the other side pretty quick and it just feels natural to do so now after 3 days of driving. I have one work for Tasmania; Beautiful. Farm lands, mountains, ranges, natural beauty. Everywhere I drive, it's like being in a beautiful painting. It's just super scenic everywhere and completely different from being in all of Australia's big cities. One thing I don't like is how I need to drive like 300+ km in any direction to actually find civilization. There's also two more things that bothered me. People here follows the speed limit... Like legit, there's a sign that says reduce speed from 100 to 70 km due to construction on the highway. There's no visible construction but people still slow down. Rarely do people go over the speed limit, like, ALMOST NEVER RARELY. It makes me feel like a jerk speeding every where because I drive around 120 km LMAO... I'm such a horrible person, but 100 just feels too slow. Also, we're driving up and down the mountains. I was already doing 80 km around 98 degree hairpins one right after another and consecutively to a point where my wheels skid (kinda like Initial D!) on the turns, but the guy was still tailgating me and waving out his window telling me to get to the side so he can pass. Hwot? Of course, the stubborn me did not move to the side to let them pass. I just contested them, but I feel back for the two old ladies sitting in the back scared shitless because I was making 80/90 km turns lol... Fun times. I swear Initial D and all those Need for Speed racing games are all modeled after Tasmania. There's so many mountains and so many hairpins. This is like driving in heaven! Only bad thing is having to drive 3 to 5 hours just to get to places.

Seriously though, these two teachers nag more than my mom. I'm starting to get annoyed by them, but what can I do? I don't want to be mean. They genuine loves me, so I should genuinely love them back. After all, we're good friends lol... All old people are naggers, so it's okay in the end. They're good people and I like their company. Cradle Mountain was something. It's not as good as Huangshan in China, but it's beautiful regardless. I had a good time hiking in my Converse haha... Never wear Converse to hiking on rocky roads. My feet hurt so much from rocks poking onto my feet. Our first night was spent in Strahan, Tasmania. This town has a population of 500 people and everything closes at 6pm... We managed to find a restaurant that opens until 8:30 and the food was wicked expensive. The hostel we stayed at had separate building for shower. o_o Damn was it freezing cold to have to walk to and from the shower... It was nice though because the place was not polluted by city light, so I got to see stars in the sky at pitch dark night.

Today, we woke up at 5:30 PM and managed to leave the hostel by 6:30 to pick up my other friend from Hobart Airport by noon time. The drive was freakin 5 hours. =_= I was exhausted af when I picked him up. I was planning on going to Port Arthur right after I pick him up, but I seriously needed a break. We headed back to the hostel and settled down. The two teachers really wanted to buy honey because they heard there's a farmer's market, but it closes at 1 PM. They rushed out at 12:47 PM and I ended up waiting for them to come back... They didn't pick up their phone so I waited until 2 PM until they come back. I was frustrated because I didn't know how to get in contact with them. I was ready to drive off with my HK friend because I don't want to have to wait for people and ruin my trip. I'm glad that they came back by 2. I held off the Port Arthur trip because it was Sunday and I was worrying that things might close early so we ended up going to Mt. Wellington instead which turned out to be a pretty good plan as it was a nice day to be up there. Tomorrow, we will be heading to Port Arthur; which I heard is a great site to visit. Hopefully, this trip is going to be a blast before I head back to mainland and start looking for jobs! Because you know, job sucks, but I need money QQ;;

Time to get some rest and wake up tomorrow morning to move the car by 8:30 AM to avoid having to pay for street parking! Until next time, good night!

Sick and Lazy~

There's a fan in my room. The switch is right next to the switch for the light. People would come into the room and turn both switches on. People would leave the fan on overnight but it's broken so it doesn't rotate. Just so happens that the fan blows toward my bed. I got too lazy to get up and turn it off thinking it's alright. Two days later, I get a sore throat and I've been sick since. =_= I turn it off when everyone sleeps, but I've been feeling sick these past few days. Aside from that, I've been distracted from watching the League of Legends Worlds Championship. My hostel booking came with three days of "premium wifi" (which isn't so premium. Instead of 0.5Mbps, it's 3Mbps) so I activated it minutes before the first game started. I've been staying up until 1 or 2 am watching the games, so I've been sleeping in a lot until like 11 am because I'm not feeling well either. I feel like I've been wasting my time, but I guess that's what vacation is about; just relax and do what I want to do.

I've been in Melbourne for 6 days now. I've only made one friend on the first night and he ended up leaving the very next day! My birthday is coming up soon and I don't know about spending it alone! D: I need to find that trust worthy friend that will hold my hair up while I puke my brains out and carry me home knowing that they won't touch me inappropriately! Just kidding... But I would like to do something on my birthday. Or not and just spend it with a bunch of old people like any ordinary day. I don't like announcing my birthday, so it might just end up being a normal day.

Melbourne... I don't know. I'm not getting that feel/vibe that people are talking about. It's just another city. I went out for the first four/five days and went to museums and took pictures of night city lights. I think my vacation is plateauing; getting to that point where I kind of feel like every city is the same. It is probably because it's so expensive here; similar to Sydney, that I tend to try to find free things to do and avoid the paid things. I've only eaten out once on the first day when I arrived. It was highly rated on Yelp, but I thought it was average when I ordered a Japanese dish with roasted chicken and rice. It was cheap, so I guess I get what I pay for. Though I did go to the Australian Centre for Moving Image. It was a museum introducing the history of media, starting from simple drawing animation, black and white hollywood movies, 3D movies, 8-bit game graphics, 3D graphics, to what we have today with mobile technologies and how it transformed our entertainment. It's so surprising how not that long ago, we thought 3D Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII was super cool. Today, we are talking about virtual realities where we can see 3D live prospective images with a set of goggles. With the advancement of technology now a days, 2 years time could result in something even greater; something we couldn't even imagine of becoming a reality. I thought this museum was awesome and it can spark a lot of technological/science interest in little children. I wish we had one of these museum in Boston. Our museums seem to target towards simple things; the Aquarium, Museum of Science, Children Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Institute of Contemporary Arts, etc. I'm sure it's awesome to the young audience to go to Museum of Science, but I went there in my 20s and I'm not wow'd haha... I was wow'd by the Australian Centre for Moving Image. If anyone were to go to Melbourne, I would highly suggest it even though it's quite a small museum.

So I've been starting to look for jobs. I'm so hesitant at applying. I'll be going to Tasmania until the 15th. I have a Pokemon concert to attend on 21st of November. A lot of jobs want people to start immediately or have some certificate in certain fields in order to be hired. Farm work requires commitment of 5 months 7 days a week because they don't want people leaving in the middle of a harvesting season. A lot farm jobs actually do not provide accommodations or transportation and they're in the middle of no where where buses and trains don't go to. I guess that only applies to people WWOOFing because that's free labour for food and a roof. I'm going to try phoning the Australia National Harvest Labour Information Service to inquire about farm work and give them some criteria that I want to aim for such as being able to go from an accommodation to the field via bike.

This is so weird. @_@ People don't like just randomly start a conversation with other people... I tried to initiate some talk with random people in the hostel, but it just kind of dies in 2~3 back and forth. That and the lounge setup is completely anti-social comparing to other hostels that I've stayed in. There's no big tables where it lets people sit with other people. They're just small tables enough space for one person and then a long bench across the room. People tends to sit a table away from another person unless it's packed. I like to sit in the lounge because who knows what kind of people you will come across. But when people have to sit next to me and see me watching the League of Legends Worlds Championship, they would just look over and look at me funny like what is this kid watching. :| I'm hopeless. Meeting people and socializing is just not my thing... But then I shouldn't be saying that because I still have 10 and half more months to go! I will bound to meet some close friends within that period of time. You still have a long way to go, Henry! Add oil!

Oh geez, this entry was going to be a short one, but I ended up blabbling again. I should go to sleep now because I want to wake up early to take a train to Lilydale and bike to Warburton! There used to be a railway from Lilydale to Warburton, but it was closed down and it became a bike trail which have very scenic country side along the way~ The friend that I met on the first night told me about it and I've been wanting to go, but I got sick and felt out of place to be biking. I hope I'm not out of shape to be biking 80 kilometers a day! I love cycling, so it should be okay.

Until next time, good night! My "premium wifi" is expiring soon... zzz