I suppose that it was a momentous moment when I left my family at the turnstile to immigration. Even though I did not know it, it was a start to a phase where I am gradually learning to live on my own.

At Monday 9.40pm the Boeing 777 code MH149 left KLIA.

Destination: Melbourne, Australia

After 8 hours and several turbulence during the flight we reached Melbourne at 9am Melbourne time, where I would spend the most of the next 3 years studying. After passing through Australian Immigration I went to collect my huge 28.8kg bag from the baggage carousel. It was rather funny, with me chasing my bag around the carousel trying to heave it out. Finally I succeeded after 5 minutes, by forcefully chucking it out of the carousel.

I had booked UniMelb's arrival services weeks ago and they met me and several other students and brought us to our destinations by bus. My destination was their first stop and so it was that I reached International House at 241 Royal Parade where I would be living in this year.

I was assigned to Scheps, a round building at the end of the grounds. Rumor has it that a student had suicided there 18 years ago. brrrr. There are many buildings in IH, such as Scheps, New Building, Clunies, Hilda Stevenson, Greycourt and Waldham. At Scheps, my room has a sink and thick fat walls. According to some of the seniors, Scheps' rooms are small, but they have sinks and thick walls to mute sounds. "Big is not better," said Christopher, third year UMelb med student. He described his previous room at Greycourt (it stinks and maggots fall from the ceiling. yucks).

The other students at IH are generally friendly. There's Charlie, the so-called short-term memory loss guy; Ted and Han the IT experts; Ruvi and Hash the Catan players; Jubi the postgrad student from India; Oliver and Shunsuke the exchange students from China and Japan and many more. Today Charlie and Lushien taught me ping pong!!

After unpacking my things on Tuesday I made my first foray into the world outside IH. I took the tram to Barkly Square, a place where we can do some shopping. Guess what was the first thing I bought since I arrived? A FAN!!! It's tiny but cheap (so what if I am a cheapo hmph!) and it gives some much-needed ventilation to my small room.

The International Students Orientation was on Thursday. After it was various talks on the different subjects we could take as breath subjects. I had earlier made a list of talks I wanted to attend, but it didnt work out. I went for the Accounting talk at 1pm in the Commerce building, and 1/2 hour later I was rushing to the Geography building 0.25km away to attend the 1.30pm Informatics talk. UMelb is a big place with many buildings and small shops scattered around.

So now I'm trying to make up my mind on what subjects to take. While the subjects I need to take as part of my accounting major is mostly set, I still need to pick 4 or 5 breath subjects from other faculties to complement my degree. And that's where the cause of my headache is. Should I take Japanese, or Math? Or maybe do Renaissance Dance? Perhaps I should take Psychology? It's very confusing @@. I am already taking Law as part of my breath to gain my accounting accredition.

Tomorrow the orientation at IH starts. It will last for a week and coincide with the orientation at UMelb. It will be alot of fun ;P

PS: Wait for the photos to come. I am pretty lazy right now.