Infinite Miracles

Also, there are lesser pedestrian crossings here. So you can just jaywalk whenever you're not anywhere close to a proper pedestrian crossing. I've basically lost my skills in jaywalking after living in Melbourne. Here, even an old lady or grandma is better at jaywalking than me. And not to mention how polite I am at crossing the road in Malaysia. Swt.

 And probably in some other countries, I can even lose to these swans at jaywalking.

One last thing, I didn't know it is necessary to wave to stop a bus here. Because in Melbourne, every bus will stop for you even if you're just sitting there doing nothing, and you only signal them when you're not getting that bus so they won't stop for you. However, in Perth, even if you're standing right beside the bus stop, they will still charge straight if you didn't wave or signal them, which was what happened to me. It happened in less than a second and I was like "what has happened...?" and staring blankly at the road. Blur case douuuu.... @@"

So that's the main culture shock I wanted to point out for now. Will post more if I come across anymore funny things. Now back to some serious writing....

Can't believe it's almost mid-April now, which also means I've survived 7 weeks of PhD life. As the saying goes: PhD = no life. Being surrounded by young energetic degree students is making me feel old. I may be a student by status, but I don't study nor have any study breaks or semester breaks or whatever breaks students get. Rather, I'd say I'm working everyday like any other employee and only have days off on public holidays.

It is still good for now as it's just the beginning. However, as I go further down the road, I can foresee myself easily working 24/7 without realising. This does not only apply to me, but to whoever is into research. When I was doing my Honours at the AgriBio building, they have this stupid alarm that goes off frequently, very very frequently. So everyone are required to get out of the lab or evacuate when the tone turns to an emergency calling. 3/10 times of that was for training purpose; and the rest were just false alarms. We can get immune to fire alarm and you'd need to literally drag us out if there really is a fire, all because our experiments are more important than our lives. Hahaha.

But I don't think there are any fire training at where I'm currently working. So I can happily stay in the lab and look at little giant ticks while blasting my music on my phone, and occasionally look out for quendas outside the window. At La Trobe, you'll see ducks. At Murdoch, you'll see quendas... like this. So cute!

I didn't expect to do demonstrating during my first semester as I should focus on getting used to my own project first. However, sometimes luck and opportunities just unexpectedly come knocking on your door, all thanks to Telleasha who recommended me to the coordinator right on my first day. I did hesitated a bit when she told me it's a second year subject as I wasn't prepared to teach second year students yet because they are not as blur as first year, but I still took on the challenge anyway as I know I'll bang myself if I let this chance slip away.

Considering that I am still new to everything, the subject, the lab environment and setups, the way this uni works... I was so so so nervous before and during the first prac class. I would have never imagined I'd be in charging a whole lab of 25 students, which is very different from La Trobe. Throughout my whole undergrad, there's only 12-15 students, at most, per demonstrator. If you were sitting at the front row, I'm pretty sure you can clearly see my hands were shaking like no tomorrow. Omg. But glad that the coordinator is very encouraging and said that I'm very brave to do this when I'm only 3 weeks into my PhD.

And the first person to run to after my first demonstrating? Yes, it's the new partner in crime, Telleasha. When I saw this note that she left me, I dashed straight down to the lab. I've listened to her first demonstrating experience the week before, so it's her turn to be the listener this time. Haha.

This is a random photo taken when I was exploring the city. I came across this lane called London Court. There are souvenir shops and some cafes and English sweet shops. You'll fee like you're in London for a second, or in Hogwarts lol. After that I looked it up on tripadvisor and found out that you can actually wait for the clock strikes and watch the knights on their horseback fighting each other. Guess I shall go back again.

After a short nap, I dragged myself to the nearest Coles and Kmart to get a few essential things before meeting up with my lab group for drinks in the evening. So there goes my first day in Perth, which was a month ago now. And this post shall continue....

Firstly... wait...

*blowing off the layers of dust on my blog*

OK! Firstly, after an incredibly long hiatus, welcome back to the world of blogging! Thousand apologies to some of my loyal readers who still clicked into this page once in a while and wondered if there are new updates to keep you entertained for a few minutes. But no worries now! Now that I'm in a new place and on a new journey, I'll try to blog more regularly this year haha. Plus, I need to get myself back into writing after a year of loitering.

I kept a pretty low profile during 2014. It seemed like I have achieved nothing last year, but I did do a lot of stuff, just that nothing special or big or fantastic enough to shout about. However, there were a few happenings that made me a bit more excited about last year which I will highlight in this post.

I was awarded my Bachelor degree in May, so my family came over for a short trip. For some reason, I had difficulty keeping my eyes wide open on that day, so sleepy! That's why my eyes appear to be much tinier than usual in my convo photos. But most importantly, I didn't fall over on stage lol.

Just like any fresh grad, I spent much of my time job hunting during this gap year, which was not part of my original plan. Unfortunately, unexpected things happened, so I had to have this gap year.

For the first time, I flew back home twice within a year, of course for a very good reason. I attended my sis's big wedding day. I didn't expect my makeup to be that heavy until I'm not recognisable. Lol. Glad that I was able to act more lady-like for one day and didn't trip as I was wearing gowns and heels and half blind the entire day, not forgetting half deaf too. Lol.

Also, back for family photoshoot to replace the 15 years old family portrait that's hanging in our living room. Still casual shoot is better. Easier to pose.

After a very enjoyable short holiday, I came back and continue my boring routine again. In the midst of job hunting, I've been working part time on and off, jumping from one workplace to another trying to find one that I'm happy with. So finally, I settled down at Papparich Northland..... temporarily.

As you all know, I hardly speak Malaysian chinese here. The only time I speak chinese is when I have to talk to China people. So I end up picking up their accents too. I didn't even realise it until one of my colleagues told me. No wonder I had reverse culture shock when I first started at Papparich. Lol. A lot of times I wasn't able to get the table number that they told me, so I always had to repeat the number to confirm (of course with a proper pronunciation).

For example number 11:
Kitchen staff: "si ee!"
Me: "shhhi yiii??"

How formal is that? But having a Malaysian background, it didn't take long for me to revert to my own accent, though sometimes I still use different words which are more proper. I can't stop smiling whenever I heard someone shout out "walao eh!", because I seriously have not heard of this expression for a million years. Some of them are Taiwanese and they just enjoy practicing this Malaysian slang.

These are a few of the colleagues who I'm close with. Colleagues do play an important role at a workplace. Good and fun colleagues can make a bad day better, a nice day happier, and a dull day filled with laughter. Out of all the part time jobs I've worked so far, this will be the only job I miss heaps. T.T

Not long after my return to Melbourne, I received an extremely exciting news from Murdoch Uni in Perth, saying that I was offered a scholarship to do a PhD! And it was right on the same day as my dad's birthday lol! Why that sudden news? Let's rewind the tape back to Christmas period in 2013....

I was actively searching for a new supervisor and came across this professor (who is now my supervisor) advertising about PhD opportunity in the parasitology newsletter. What attracted me the most was definitely their specialisation in ticks. I started liking parasites when I was in uni, and ticks would have been my first choice if I was given more options for Honours.

I immediately expressed my interest and had been contacting this professor until the holiday season, leaving the conversation hanging for several weeks, but with a positive feeling. Then I went home for a break, but still never stopped sending out emails to other people though got back mostly negative respond. And then on one fine day, this professor finally came back from his holidays and requested to have a chat. Hence, I quickly booked my return flight and made my important phone call.

And then there was this lag period again as the application deadline was monthssss away. In the meantime, I continued with my search, emailing, and phone calling with few others across whole of Australia, but my mind was still thinking of this tick project. Also, I felt more optimistic with this particular professor after all the communications, in terms of the words he uses and the way he speaks. At the same time, I was hating my boss. So this gave me the extra motivation to contact the professor again, confidently stating that I want this and I want to proceed to the application ASAP and rescue me from this job! Lol!

So in June, I secretly made a quick trip to Perth (only my family knew). Everything went well all thanks to him and his group. Excellent hospitality. And then things happened to my job so I decided to quit and spent a month or so doing my application stuff. Finally quietly submitted it with my fingers crossed.  Now fast forward to another one fine day in November, coming back from a long day at Papparich and when I checked my inbox.....

So, that's the story. 所谓塞翁失马，焉知非福。 If I hadn't been rejected in 2013, I would not have been redirected to a better opportunity that interests me more. Both parties have waited for a year. If the project is meant for me, it'll be mine in the end.

So that's a wrap for my comeback post. Time to polish the blog a bit. But bedtime for now. Good night all!