The work begins

Hello. Hope you all are still windy and dandy. This post is kinda long, so bare with me okie? 😉

Well, this is my 3^rd post, and I wrote this right after I completed my 2^nd. Tgh ada mood ni, So better capitalize on it. Don’t want. To. Procrastinate. Anymore. Arggh. Yeah I know Ray, Procrastination is the way to go. ‘Procrastinators are the leaders of tomorrow’, somebody’s shirt writes. Yeah you, I’m talking about ur shirt. Think you can get away with it huh? 😛

Okay, serious matters now. Results were out, a bit of celebration here and there, done. Now the serious work steps in. A lot of things need to be settled. Confirmation of Enrolment (CoE), Visa, accommodation, driving license, updating MyKad, books, pre departure camps, clothing, bags, cooking lessons, medical checkups, persediaan kerohanian, family, friends, school and it just keeps going on and on. But hey, no need to be worried about homie. Chill. One step at a time. Yeah. The adventures of studying overseas, leceh but try to enjoy it lads x)

tribute to achan acap n redo! celebration nite BB

Well, the first thing I did was, I renewed my driving license, from P to competent for a full 5 years, RM30 bucks per year plus RM10 fee, at my local driving centre. Seniors told me there is no need for an international license (IL), as you can just translate your Malaysian license at JPJ and it will be accepted in Aussie. Lagipun IL sgt mahal, RM150 per year. And the IL’s look is quite hideous I must say. Like an old 1970’s brown-coloured file. Not so glamorous as the name or price might bring about.  And on the 5^th Jan, I renewed my MyKad at Kajang’s JPN, for a price of RM10. It was completed on the 16^th, and I will pick it up in a few days time.

my competent Malaysian driving license! 😀

7 Jan 2010- I was needed to refill my UWS offer form and send it back to placement via hand, as the final unconditional offers were finally released. It was a happy moment, and I remember waking up to Yuhin’s message in the morning which truly made my day: “Weh wan, aku dpt uws”. Yeahh. Now I’m not alone. To be exact, there will be 13 of us going to UWS. I also spent some time at SSU and hantam left for dead with Yuhin after that. Boy, I will miss moments like this. Hangin out at cc’s playing games till the morning.

my UWS unconditional offer and form

Honestly, I was excited with the idea of being the only one from my batch studying in UWS. I don’t know why, but I look at it as an exciting adventure. You, alone against the whole world. Sounds very horribly inviting isn’t it? However, the last few days changed my mind. Settling documents together, having company to go places to finish things up and experiencing bits of funny moments in between are just delightful. Truly, it is a blessing in disguise.

The next day, Friday 8 Jan 2010, was Taylor’s Award ceremony.

So in the meantime, while waiting for our CoE’s to be mailed in, placement advised us to settle our accommodation. We had two choices, either staying on campus or not. After much discussion, we chose to settle on campus. It’s because we didn’t have seniors in UWS to help us find houses there and the on campus rate is actually quite affordable. 5 mins walk to the medic faculty, facilities and bills included, security, free buses, free internet, what more can we ask. Initially, we all wanted the townhouse standard single room for $149 p/w, but instead we got the brand new apartment premium single room for $169 p/w. We, the 8 boys are currently trying our best to be placed in the same unit, ie, 4 per unit. So there will be 2 units of us. You get the picture. And its not cheap though. I’ve already paid $110 for applying, and need another $900 for deposit. (100 for social and club fees, 800 deposit). Insyaallah by next Monday akan settle, as the deadline is 20 JAN 2010, wed. The weekly rent will be settled fortnightly via direct debit system. I will need to setup an Australian bank account once I’m there, and UWS will automatically deduct 2 weeks worth of rent every fortnight from my account. The only issue now is that our orientation starts on the 19^th of Feb, and according to our contract, we can only move in on the 22^nd. Probably in a few days time we should get a resolution to this. Sunday Jan 17^th, I settled my accommodation acceptance documents and paid $900 online.

Probably this is out of topic for quite a bit, but we 13 people discuss things and make decisions about accommodation, payment and stuff via the facebook inbox/messaging system. Sgt menarik kan, haha 😛

Our CoE didn’t take long to reach us though. On Wednesday, 13 Jan, it arrived via email. Only now we could proceed with our electronic visa application and medical checkup. So on the next day, Thursday 14 Jan, armed with lotsa cash and my dad’s credit card, Yuhin and I went to placement to settle our e-visa app. I was a bit disappointed though, because now there’s no need to go to the Australian embassy. I thought of going there just to check it out, y’know. Its not like everyday you can go to these places. But just an advice, better get your passports ready before you apply for visa. After that, placement gave us a file containing all our documents, offers, passport n stuff. Terima kasih kak Ananthy 😛

Then we planned to perform our medic checkup at Lifecare PJ, but here’s the catch. We must perform the checkup at hospitals/institutions approved by both the Australian and MARA panels. And to make things more interesting, we didn’t have the MARA medical checkup form. So with the help of Yuhin’s dad, we went to Mara’s office off Jalan Raja Laut, KL. And they actually have policies where, visitors must adhere to certain dress codes, where slippers and non collar shirts are not allowed. And guess what, I was wearing my funky bright coloured slippers and Yuhin was wearing a round neck tee. So Yay! We both were probihited from entry. Hahaha. In the end, Yuhin took out a small pair of shoes from his car. We moved to the side of the walkaway and I dengan selambanya tukar kasut dpn org ramai, Haha. The shoe was very small, n I had to huff n puff to squeeze in. In the end, I went up the office alone, n manage to get the forms. And the officer told us that we could do our medical checkup anywhere, “kerana tak cukup masa” katanya. So we just did our checkup at Lifecare oneshot, for both the visa app and Mara. It cost us about RM400 plus each, but the money can be claimed and quite worthy if u ask me, as there were no lines, no waiting and everything was modern, new and comfortable.

u aint gonna get into Mara's office with these dirty slippers honey 😛

I was told by the doc that my urine and blood was ok, so my visa app should have no problem. I should get my visa within 2,3 working days. Whereas for MARA, I will have to return back to Lifecare next week to retrieve my blood sample results.

Well I think this post is already indulgently long enough isn’t it? I’ll stop here, and more stories to come.

Next up: Shopping with the sis, and other preparations 😛

Stay tuned and thank you.