Guided explorations!

So a couple of days back while I was sick, I decided that it might be a good idea for me to go jogging... you know, for health reasons! Sounded like a good idea to keep in shape and to get my heart running. I asked around and discovered Centennial Park, which is a park right next to the race track, which is about 10 minutes jogging distance from campus. Surprise! I didn't get too lost! :3

I may or may not have gotten on those swings later... 9__9 Jk, I actually never got a chance to play around because there were kids and couples everywhere taking up space. :(

 

There were so many ducks hiding under the shade of the bridge.

And then it's party time in IH again! This time it's a beer pong tournament... I lost both rounds. :( You're out once you've lost twice. Here's what happened to me. My partner, Silvia, and I played a couple who knew nothing about the game. Fair enough, I explained. We were killing them at first, then all of a sudden we were at two cups for us and one more for them. They shot and made it. So rebuttal. I turn to my partner who goes first, and I say "No pressure! It's all good." She makes it, obviously. So now the pressure is on me.... I shoot... and miss. :( 

The second time the same scenario came up. Two left for us, one for them. They make it. This time I shoot first. I MAKE IT. (*little dance time*) Partner shoots and misses. D: Oh well!  

So this Saturday I went to the city with a friend to do some shopping and exploring. I finally got to see Chinatown! It was pretty darn Canto there, which is nice after hearing so much Mandarin everywhere. It was actually quite clean compared to the other China towns that I have been to. 

The best part was seeing these little shops set up under a building. Reminds me of the markets near the Asian subways! This isn't a great picture, but I hope you get the idea. I saw these SUPER cute kangaroo and koala keychains, but.. was discouraged to get one. :( Kind of regret it nowww. I enjoyed the rows and rows of Lakers and Heat jerseys, caps, and sweaters though. :D

Um, I forget what this is. :)

We later came across this SUPER cool park which reminded me of Golden Gate Park. :D I needed to climb this thingy! Here's me posing coolly while freaking out about how high I am. Don't be fooled by the level angle that this picture was taken in, the guy who took it is kind of tall. .__. I got down safely though! Not before POSSIBLY swearing in front of all the kids around me. :)

Um... birds. :) In Darling Harbor.

I walked on water to get to the middle! Just kidding, there are two strips of spirals that don't have that much water on it. Otherwise, the water on this structure swirls around very beautifully. :D

Pay your respects to the Queen! Here's a statue of her outside the Victoria mall? o_O It's very gorgeous inside, but it basically sells super high class stuff.

Looking for a specific shop at the mall? Check out this video of us using a touch-screen stand to help us find our way!

After spending an eternity shopping, we came back outside to see the beautiful city night lights. Here's a pic of me in front of the official Chinatown entrance. My camera refuses to turn on flash recently, so... :/

Ajisen (?) ramen! It's that famous global ramen brand... I ordered tan tan noodles, mild! The noodle that night made me WAY too happy... XD Enjoyed this meal with Ayumi Hamasaki's concert playing at the nearby TV.

An interesting alleyway that had beautiful cloudy artwork on its walls. Wanted to explore it, but then realized how shady it still was.

All of a sudden we're catching a late night showing of Ted, so I finally give into my coffee craving! You know, so I can survive the night. :D Got my classic, peppermint white mocha. Sweet as hell though. :/ Btw I may look a bit strange because it was pouring outside, and we basically got caught in the rain a whole bunch of times. D:

We have time to kill before Ted! Off to the harbor again to see the bridge and opera house in all its glory! This is an absurdly horrible picture, but trust me, it was dazzling. Plus the misty drizzle was making things look even more sparkly. :D Ran through the rain again!

Overall, was SUCH a great night! Came back to eat packaged ramen and look over my new goodies! Here's me the next day wearing my new Zara sweater and white flat shoes! I look the same as usual, you say? My style is never gonna change.. :/ PLAIN GIRL FOR LIFE.

Mostly food...

YES, starting off a post right with food once again! This is cake from 800 Degrees, the Taiwanese bakery (I think). I know we have one in LA and all too, so this isn't particularly special, but it was nice because it was a gift! :D The lighter one is a strawberry something, and the darker one is a... chocolate one. LOL I forgets. :)

I am sick. Yup, I'm actually in the recovery stage already because I haven't blogged in so long. In any case, a friend took me to a Canto restaurant and we got served soup! :) It was pretty good! (notbadface.jpg) Reminds me of home, kinda. :D

There were a ton of delicious things on the menu, but I decided on fish fillet porridge. It was good though!

Is this selling anywhere else? This is a Coke glass from McDonald's; you get this free if you order ... a large meal? LOL Don't worry I didn't order it, I was given it by a fatass friend. ^___^
 

 

Coffee here is expensive, as I have already mentioned. BUT! The other day I was walking along our Westwood-type village and saw this sign! FREE COFFEE?! Is there a catch?  So I went into find out, obviously.

NO CATCH!! Cappuccino, here! :) But it is through this cup of coffee that I discovered my sore throat... The sugar was quite agitating. :(

I also went to King's Cross to have Burgerlicious. It was aite. LOL

The UNSW Exchange program put on a BBQ for us at the beautiful Library Lawn. :) How thoughtful. I'm proud to say I started the queue. xD I was hungry... 9__9 The grill is pretty neat though, it's stationed here, and the sign says you can just use it whenever to BBQ, unless an official UNSW group has signed up for it and needs it.

Here's my hotdog on toast, and my shadow! And my ultra-pale wrist.

Time to go back to stressing out over upcoming assignments! T______T

Coogee to Maroubra Walk

BAM! Another entry starting with food. :) I went to eat Thai with a friend and ordered... what was it, chicken spicy thai fried rice? I never order fried rice in any other cuisine, but Thai fried rice is just so dangin' good! The dish was great, and as hard as I tried, I still couldn't finish it. Taking it home would cost me 50 cents, so... :( But don't blame me, the guy I was with couldn't finish it either! Big portions, mmm~ I'll be back. :) In CHan Thai.

Also recently I made the Coogee to Maroubra walk! Basically we walked from one beach to the other, following the coast line. It was beautiful! We started a bit late, so you can see the big shadows :X

Look at this couple just sittin' on a rock island gazing in the ocean with the sun spotlighting them... *__* Quite romantic... and a bit scary.

Came across so many modern looking houses that seem to be worth a lot. :X Some are up for rent though, that would be fun. :)

How about taking a dip while looking out into the beautiful ocean? Sounds gooooood.

The not-so-beachy coast line. Beautiful rocks though!

Me: POSE WITH ME!!
Philippa: Okayy! T___T 

Ended the night by missing our bus home TWICE and resorting to eating pizza near the bus stop. :3 But why eat there? We took it to go and went to the beach to enjoy the good food and the good music (from two boys singing and playing guitar). What a magical night.

Museum of Contemporary Art

BOOM. Milk tea - IN YO FACE. I recently got introduced to the good boba place in the area, and it's only a few minutes walk from my place! Uh oh, TROUBLE?! No, I don't think so because I ordered the "premium milk tea" and it was just aite. :( Maybe it's because we get BOMB ASS MILK TEA IN THE BAY, WADDAP.

...

Anyway, you're here for a blog post about the Museum of Contemporary Art, obviously. The event was organized by the Exchange Program, so we had to start off roaming the random markets on the streets. Yay for useless overpriced souvenirs! 

 

The town looked super cute though with the architecture around being quite old. 

Finally we were led to the self-guided MCA. Boy, there were some strange things in here... Here's an extremely large piece where each roll of string (?) was attached to something on the table. You can't really see the string here, but there are strings everywhere in that space.

The MCA is in downtown Sydney, so even if the museum was weird, I got to see the harbour, opera house, and bridge for the first time! Sadly, the weather was gray, so I'll have to be back here at Circular Quay some other time!

THEY'RE FALLING! Almost died. Just kidding, it was whole block of building behind them. Silly guys

Gray....

Later went roaming the shopping area with my gal friend and came across Sports Girl, a store I've seen everywhere here in Australia. Check out the sale prices! Note, these are the clearance jackets at the back of the store. Le sigh...

More about IH and life at the uni

 Life in IH is quite interesting. Think of the close-knit relationships you have with your dorm floor and make that a whole dorm. IH is small enough to get to know almost everyone, but big enough to never seen someone sometimes. 


What's also great about it is it's facilities. Not only do we have a dining hall that feeds us 3 meals a week, we also have a reading room, computer room, mini gym, TV room, and a recreation room. In the rec room, we've got two ping pong tables, a newly broken air hockey table (acts as a table or chair now xD), a pool table, two Foosball tables, and a piano. Plus there's the huge window sill where people sit and use the free school internet, "uniwide".

After hearing some people play beautiful pieces on the piano, I want to make it one of my goals to get back into playing. I can boast years of lessons, but at the end of the day, I don't even have a fully memorized piece to show off. Maybe that should be my goal instead. :3 In any case, I've been learning the piano version of Linkin Park's "From The Inside". It's quite beautiful, and it's essentially memorizing chords and then the melody. If you're lucky, I'll play it for y'all. ;)

Otherwise, IH is also great for meeting people, staying in touch, and keeping updated about what is going on that night. Just recently, I went to a house party nearby with a small gang but later the house was filled with a lot of IH people, so I felt comfortable enough. The hosts were exchange students also, all from France. It was one anglo-looking girl, one dark-skinned Asian girl, and one pale skinny guy. It was BYO, so we each carried something in. 


At one point at the party, I'd just come out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. I was then greeted by a guy and girl.


Him: Hey, you live here, right?
Me: ... No, that would be the only other Asian girl at this party. -_____-


This keeps happening to me. Either something like this, or something like "From California?? I never would have guessed." This happened to me at my first dance class when a fellow student introduced himself to me. Really? I speak with an American accent and I dance like a black girl. 


Anyway, back on topic. I have people to walk back with. : ) Yay.


Recently it was Foundation Day, the university's birthday. What does that really mean? The whole campus gets wasted. Just kidding... sort of. It starts in the daytime with a ton of booths on campus selling stuff and giving things away for free. That's where I got the two free tickets to see Step Up Miami and ice cream. It ends at night with a party at the UniBar/Roundhouse. The Unibar area is your typical bar with pool tables and couches, and the inner building is the dance floor. DJ was horrible though, the music is too trancy and beatless. Oh well, I went with a group and we had fun regardless. :)

International house also likes to encourage the sharing of cultural knowledge, so they have these things called "Study Break" where the people from each country sign up to present with food and such. Recently we had Sri Lankan study break, where they made this stir fry noodles thing and this pink pearly whipped-creamy drink. So awesome! :D ;D :D I wonder what I will do to present the US... o_O 

Although the dining hall here is consistent... the food can suck a lot of the time. Their only coffee option is a powder, so I have to make myself some milk tea...

And here it is. For those who have been asking me about whether or not I have tasted Vegemite.. I FINALLY HAVE! Made by my dear friend Philippa again : ) Butter on bottom, vegemite on top! It was... interesting...

We also had Opening Night, where IH invites consulates from all around the world to attend this dinner. Can't really figure out what the rest of the night is about, but here are pics.

Food was STILL cooked by the IH staff, so it wasn't brilliant. Got served chicken satay, where everyone wanted salmon. I asked the waiter to trade, and got angry stares from around the table. But no worries, I think the chicken was actually better. -___-

UNSW has an annual poster sale, and guess what I booouuughhttt. :3 KITTIESS! It hangs over my bed. ^^ I also got a Friends poster, which I won't post but it's awesome, mark my words. :)

In other irrelevant news, I discovered that in some restaurants, takeaway boxes cost $0.50. :( So you either have to force it down or leave it...

Also, in beer pong, it's not girls blow, guys finger the ball out of the cups. Everybody blows...

TILL NEXT TIME!