This site will be relocating to winza.net and all the entries before today will be under "Old Site" in the links section. Thanks to my brother for setting up movable type and my new domain name: winza.net.

Yesterday, our homestay (and friend) left for Hong Kong (for good). She wasn't noisy here, but at least she was there when I needed someone to talk to (things that I don't want to discuss with my parents) - I miss her already. Now, the human occupants of the house went from five down to three. And in five years time - who knows? Maybe from three to two (depending where I will work after grad). The house is getting empty...

Last Monday, I went to the hairdressers to have a haircut. The funny thing was at the window of the hairdresseers, it had the big 20 figure for ladies. So I only took $20 with me to the hairdressers. When I got there, I realised I need to make sure that it is $20 (because most places charge at least $25). The hairdresser told me that a ladies cut would need at least $25, but she let me pay $20 for the haircut. How funny - I got a $5 discount because I only have $20 in my wallet...

On Friday, I went to a Korean restaurant in Victoria Street (it used to be China Bar), Richmond for dinner. We had a Korean - style barbecque and traditional Korean kimchi dishes. The kimchi stuff was too spicy, but the gyoza (although Japanese) and the Korean pancakes were great. The barbeqcue stuff was nice too, but it wasn't salty enough. Overall, it was quite good.

I haven't been taking much photos lately, since I have been bombarded with assignments and homework by lecturers and tutors (its already the end of 3rd week of uni and I need a break!!!). But hopefuly, I will upload some more photos in the following weeks because next weekend, I will be off to a field camp at Kanyapella, near Echuca and the weekend after the next, I will go to another field camp at Cape Liptrap. I will definitely take my Canon A70 along to take landscape shots.

Another week of 2004 has gone by. I haven't really had an interesting week. For most of this week, I went to lectures, went to pracs and then went back home, and then did some more homework/study. So, my social life went a bit "down" last week as I spent most of the time at uni if not, studying. I have tried to change my tutorial time on Wednesday, but it failed, and now I have to endure a big 4-hour gap on Wednesdays.

On the other hand, my weekend was less boring. The weekend started on Friday night with a farewell barbecque for the homestay student. The food was great: there were sushi, potato salads, green vegetables, chicken wings, sausages, onions and beef. The annoying thing was the cat, who kept nagging us for food.

Today, I went to the RMIT library to get some books and after that I headed off to Federation Square to meet some friends. We went to Arintji cafe and bar for lunch because it offered a 10% discount for the Australian Opera Subscribers (my friends were subscribers). The interior was nice and modern and you could see a view of the Yarra at the window table. For food, I ordered a Korean-western style dish with beef, kimchi, spinach with seseame seeds sprinkled at the top. I didn't really liked the dish much because there wasn't enough food for $14.90. The only food that I enjoyed there was fries - thin, crispy and not greasy - a big bowl for around $4.50. I think Arintji was a little bit too expensive for the average student.

The one child policy in China was implemented in the 1970s to curb the population problem. Now, the Chinese population in China is dominated by men, according to The Age and this will inevitably lead to crimes such as human trafficking of women and girls according to The Age.
Luckily, Hong Kong was under the British rule during 1997 and is now under the "one country, two systems" policy of China, otherwise there would be more guys than girls in HK which would mean less career opportunities for women in HK.

Sunday, 6th March, 2004 / 23:29
Orkut and Life on the net

A few days ago, my brother invited me to join the orkut network, a social networking site. In Orkut, people can join up for free, create photo albums, sign up and create communities - all for free!. I signed up to a couple of communities that I am interested in. Orkut is the best social networking site.

Most of my time this week was spent offline - mainly due to academic commitments. It has been a week already since I started second year at uni and I am already overwhelmed by all the stuff I have to do for this semester. This semester I will have four field trips (2 for geology, 1 for soil geography and another one for climate geography). Although most of the stuff taught at lectures this week seem to be the same as the stuff from last year, the readings were a more difficult and for most subjects, there is new terminology to be learnt - sigh. Luckily, I have friends who are taking the same units as me for three of my subjects and so I don't feel as lonely.

There were a few noticeable changes inside the campus since October, 2003 such as renovated lecture rooms in the science block, a noodle bar at the campus centre and a renovated cafe under the science library. The renovated cafe was what I liked the best - the older tables and the dull, yellow interior was replaced by a modern interior design, with sofas and chairs at one end of the cafe while tiny stools were placed at the other end (the pricing of items reflected that).

I haven't met many new people at uni - I have spoken to people I don't normally talk to at lectures and labs but as usual, I have been hanging around the same group of Chinese friends for most of this week. The only new person that I spoken to was a Japanese guy from Tokyo - an exchange student from Japan staying in Melbourne for two semesters. I kinda feel sorry for him as he has only been here for three weeks and he doesn't really understand the lectures. With sympathy, I think my friends and I will try to befriend him.

Outside uni life:
Moomba and Grand Prix:: Each year around this time of the year (early March), there are two large events in Melbourne: the Moomba and the Grand Prix. I don't really go to any of them because I am not interested in the Grand Prix (but I don't hate it) and I hate being pushed by the crowds at Moomba - nothing is special there (only thrill rides and game stalls). But this weekend, I might go to Moomba to take some photos of thrill rides and to see how it is different from the Mooba festival I went to a few years ago.

Hazard Perception Test + Procrastination: I was hoping to have another go at the Hazard perception test at Camberwell today, but I couldn't be bothered and I ended up at the Matheson library looking for books instead. Now, I want to go and take the test on Monday, but its labour day on Monday, which means all vicroad offices will be closed. I hope my environmental policy and management tutorial will be changed to 11am instead of 2pm so I can have another shot at it next Wednesday.

Went back to uni today and it was expected that all my first lectures were introductions to the subjects I selected for the semester. As I walked into one of the buildings for an earth science lecture, I've noticed the building (at least the interior) was renovated during the holidays - The lecture theatres of the 60s and the 70s were gone for good and it was more modern and colourful. So, the feeling of getting back to uni was good - I got to meet most of my friends.

Something else happened when I got home. I received a strange letter from Monash saying that my academic performance made me eligible for the Golden Key International Honours Society. It also says in the letter that if I applied for this membership, I would get "career assistance" and other international recognition for $93. I don't know if I really wanted to join but it seems a useful way to get a job in the future.