It wasn’t much of an “orientation”, more like a time for all the clubs to advertise themselves. I met quite a few of my friends there though. Look at Mia and the snake from the wildlife club’s stall!

Of course, there was also the talks. The talk about friends and
contacts was the best. The presenter asked the audience “who’s a cat
person” and then “who’s a dog person”, and of course I didn’t put up my
hand for either of them. Not that I can expect him to ask “who’s a
mouse person”, but I called that out anyway, and then he asked who’s
indifferent or likes both, so I had to go for that. After that, of
course there were people who didn’t put their hands up for anything. We
then had to talk to someone in the same category. I went to the session
with two friends, and between us we met two new friends who joined us
for the rest of the day.

It was good that I met someone from the friends and contacts session. I got my timetable, and it has a clash in it that I can’t get out of. Luckily, one of my new friends is also in that class, and he even has a clash in the other session for that class, so we can swap notes. It’s also an interesting coincidence that one of those two people does engineering, and the other one does arts, and I’m doing engineering/arts.

Now, I just need to figure out how to go from one class to another quickly enough not to be seriously late, especially for Mondays.

I had to go to sort out my enrolment at USyd, so I went there by train. The first place that I needed to go to was in the southern part of the campus, and even that took me long enough to find, even with a map. It must’ve been really obvious that I was lost, because someone actually offered to help me and I didn’t even ask. That wasn’t the worst. After I’ve sorted one thing out, there were other things that I need to go to the other side of the campus to do, and then when I got there I was told that it wasn’t the right place, so I had to go back to a place I passed on the way, and then after that I had to go back to the place that sent me away again. Just sorting out a few things ended up taking me almost 4 hours. I finally got my student card, but they had to take a photo of me to go on it, and I was all red from walking around. Then again, at least I looked as if I was looking at the camera. The person in charge of the card actually complimented me on my hairstyle. She also said that I have an interesting combination of subjects (no wonder I couldn’t get my timetable – I bet all the classes are scheduled not expecting anyone to do what I intend to do.)

By the time I’ve sorted everything out, I was actually on the side of the campus that’s closer to home, so I decided to walk to the train station on this side, but just at the exit of the campus there was this Chinese man who asked me for help. He lost his bike and he didn’t speak enough English to ask the guards for help, so I helped him and that took up a lot of time. At the end we couldn’t find his bike, and asking the lost property people to check through the objects they found requires filling in a form, so he gave up. He drove me to the nearest train station though, so may be it was a good thing, because he said it’s actually half an hour’s walk away.

I’ve just got home a while ago and I’m so exhausted that I don’t want to go to the gym today. (Now that’s saying something – normally I go to the gym even if I’ve been out.)

Well, both places are home anyway, but I’m back to Sydney now. Yay! I won’t go into another “now-home-feels-so-foreign” thing this year. I’m just glad to be here.

Now, if I could fall asleep before the sun rises tomorrow morning… I had enough trouble falling asleep even in Hong Kong, and now I’m jet-lagged. Sydney is 3 hours ahead of Hong Kong, so if I was up until 3 in Hong Kong that’s 6 in Sydney.

Now, as always, I’ll have plenty to do now that I’m back here. The first thing I need to do is try to sleep and get back to normal sleeping times. I’ll have a lot to do tomorrow. According to a letter from the University of Sydney confirming what I’ve enrolled in, my proxy gave them the wrong details. I should’ve came back and did it myself. I don’t know how it could’ve gone wrong.

Oh well, there’ll be time for all the other plans that I’ve had since before I went to Hong Kong… I should’ve taken some of it with me, but then even without taking those things, I already had so much luggage that it’s ridiculous. My dad and I came back with 4 suitcases (all with wheels) between us, and 3 of them were mainly my stuff, and then I had to carry the tablet in its original packaging as well.

Well, I’m glad I didn’t leave on the 15th. I was sick that day. (I’m alright now.) 要坐飛機會好慘.

最緊要係留低真係有得再團多次年. (我有種預感一定會有人話”咁都得?”)

乜都執好晒, 連網上訂嘅嘢都到齊晒, 本來準備好聽朝一早走, 點知而家又要十九號先走得。不過都好, 本來我聽日走就提早今日團年. 而家我聽日唔走今日都照食,但係年三十晚一樣有得食。

Even then, I still want to go back to Sydney. I miss the gym and all the stuff that I couldn’t take with me.

Here’s a chance to put in a song reference: Allo allo maman, je veux rentrer &agrave la maison, Allo allo papa, je veux rentrer &agrave la maison,Allo allo, allo allo…

and another one: Laissez moi rentrer à la maison, oui laissez moi partir…

OK, that’s kind of stretching it. It’s not like I’m not allowed to go, just that I have to stay here for a few more days.

It’s the typical “I haven’t posted for so long” post.

It looks like that I’m back to my “Lemon Tree” days. “I’m wasting my time, I’ve got nothing to do [...] Nothing ever happens, and I wonder…”

Speaking of songs, the songs from Ilona Mitrecey’s latest album are very catchy. I’m actually listening to one of those songs right now, but I can’t put that in the “Currently…” section because Amazon doesn’t have that album. In fact, one of the reasons why I never put any music in that section is because the music that I listen to never seems to be there. Then again, the name of the album and the title song is actually related to the book that I’m reading. The book “Out of Thin Air” is about how the fluctuations in the oxygen levels in the atmosphere stimulated the evolution of animals (because animals with more efficient respiration have evolutionary advantage in a low-oxygen environment), and Ilona’s album is called “Laissez-nous Respirer” (“Let us Breathe”). The title song is about how pollution is making people ill (especially air pollution, hence the title), and it is a plea for us to stop polluting the Earth and save the animals, which makes it kind of relevant to the book. Wow, another “everything is related to everything else” situation.

I also want to point out that track 4 of that album contains a misplaced apostrophe in its title. That song is titled “Kid’s of the Universe” [sic], where the word “kids” is a plural which should not have an apostrophe. This reminds me of the bus stop sign at Burwood that also had a misplaced apostrophe. I even took a photo of that. Somehow, I never posted the photo here even though I originally took it just because I wanted to put it here.

Really, it’s not really “nothing ever happens” like Lemon Tree for me. I finally bought the tablet that I’ve always wanted. It’s a Wacom ituos3 9″ x 12″. Now I just need to figure out how to take it back to Sydney. I can never travel light. I had to bring my books with me, and then beads for making presents, not to mention clothes and all that. I should start packing now.