Whenever you move to a new place, you'll definitely miss your hometown at the beginning. Ironically, I missed Melbourne more than PJ during my first few weeks in Perth. Lol. Maybe because it's already a few years now I've been living overseas, so having PJ-sick is not really a big deal by now. Ah... Melbourne... the 86 tram, the 250 bus, Dunne street, Swanston Street.... all of you will be missed.
Some people asked me, do I like Melbourne or Perth more? At this stage, I can only say that my heart is still in Melbourne because I'm still missing the people there. However, I know that after a while I will definitely like Perth more because the surroundings here are way more beautiful, the modern suburbs, the beach, the palm trees, the extremely friendly people, and the weather. Yes, the weather. It is more normal, very much like in Malaysia. As you know how much I dislike summer, but I really enjoy the sunshine here, exclude the above 40 degrees days of course. With a sky that's clear and blue all the time, it just makes me happy. I don't mind going out into the sun and walk along the beach everyday (I must be sot liao...). But don't worry, I won't do that too often. I'm starting to care about my skin now and I don't wanna look old too fast!
On the first day of my PhD, I got a small welcome gift from my new friend, Telleasha, which is my office roommate/colleague/lab partner.
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.
One thing I find about Perth is that because it's less populated here, therefore, it's more culturally diverse. In just a short period of time, I've met many people of different nationalities whereas I met mostly local Australians or China people in Melbourne.
Even in my lab group, there are more overseas people than Australians. And here's an interesting fact about me: all three of my supervisors are not Australians. Lol. Peter (who's the professor I've been contacting since last year) is an English; Charlotte is a Kiwi; and Una is Irish. So everyone of us will have our own accents. Haha. At least I'm not the odd one out.
However, because Peter is from England who speaks perfect english, I become more conscious of my english now, because it is still very rojak! Feels like I'm one of the students in the show "Mind your language". Also, he was a lecturer at UPM for two years, so he has a fair bit of knowledge in our culture and can even make jokes according to our styles. One of the reminders he gave me was "you can't get hawker food at 10pm in Perth". Lol.
Guess I'm going to have a tough time bringing myself to show him my writing and seeing how he's gonna correct my English. Pengsan... x.x
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