Copacetic

Etaoin shrdlu-----> Nonsense phrase. Boy do I have a lot to talk about. Posts are nice to have once in a while. Kinda like choc mint ice cream.

FYI, I'm in Australia now, those who don't know. Culture shocks aren't fun, I can tell you that. I have been warned time and time and time again by my parents and their nice enough brothers and sisters that Melbourne's weather is hectic, and unpredictable and blah blah blah. Well I can say that right now I am enjoying every moment of it.

Let's see, where do I start. Living alone is not as fun as I thought. I'm serious. There was this huge hype about being "free" at last when my uncles and aunties and cousins came up to me and pat me on the back and told me "Well you're finally gonna be free from your parents now," and I actually expected this to be the best time of my life. I can tell you that living alone can be scary and exciting at the same time. Let's say you have Saturday night free and everyone goes out clubbing and you just happen to tag along, you tend to think A LOT before you do something like buy drinks( coz you think of the money left for transport home) and you really, really have to jaga your stuff. Otherwise nobody's gonna look for it for you.

I've been raised with a conscience. I've only had one casualty so far. And a painful one it was. Learnt my lesson.

Now, the comparing part. Well I had O-Week last week, which was pretty much orientation la. Around where I'm living and stuff. Now from the students-that-never-been-overseas-alone-b4 point of view, life so far should be damn fun. There have been games and runs and non-stop playing and stuff like that la, but it sort of feels like a camp, you know. Everything's still out of place. Still uncomfortable. Practically speaking, O-Week was more of a test for me on whether I could take care of myself.

On a lighter note, I'm drinking quite a lot more than before. See the funny thing is that the Americans and the Aussies drink like ALMOST every night, but the Sri Lankans get high first and they start to talk all sorts of bullshit which is just funny to hear. I manage to sneak a few Heinekens from them, but that's abt it. Going out's fun, you tend to go in a big big group, and when you drink together, after a while everyone sucks at pool, then they start to suck at talking, and suddenly everyone's singing all the way home, and the next morning nobody knows what happened the other night. Awesome. Of course I remember =)

What I really really miss so far is company. Unless you have a buddy who has the exact same schedule and lives around you, you don't have a lot to do around International House, or a lot of people to talk to. It gets quite lonely after a while, and being the serba-aneh me, it's still hard to find ppl who would sit down and listen to what I've gotta say haha. Everyone's got their own story to tell, their own thing to do. Of course I do too, but I tend to be happier in pairs or trips rather than sole solitude. Music's been my only real companion so far, boy those long long evenings were so intoxicating with my new jazz music loaded.

Really miss my family too. I miss mom and dad debating over little little things like why emotions should never exist. I miss my brother annoying the shit out of me, no one here in IH has come close to what my Lu Ter does. I miss sleeping at night, hugging my V-shaped pillow, knowing that tomorrow I'll be drinking tea lazily and looking forward to soccer in the evening. I miss driving to whoever's place and meeting up with people, exchanging stories. I miss having eating competitions with my dad and my brother. Gosh I haven't felt this emo in a while. The most is that I miss being appreciated. Being listened to. There's no one at the moment satisfying my attention-freak like nature, and it's driving me nuts.

Of course I have had my own adventures. I have been walking around the city a lot, I even got lost a few times already. I've had my first laundry day on my own, as well as my own first running-around-the-city-shouting-stuff marathon. I've also had my first impromptu shootout at Federation Square (I was the DUDE IN DISTRESS) I've also had my day where I played ping pong, soccer, basketball and pool and running all in the same day. That was crazy.

So all in all so far, Melbourne's been an eye-opener. I'm so looking forward to the next few weeks. Pics next post. Until next time.