For starters, I thought I'd write about MASA 2013 which was recently held in Sydney. Previously known as NCG, the Malaysian Summit of Australia brought together Malaysian students studying in Australia over several components: games, conference, careers, student leaders agenda, and excellence awards. Flying to Sydney was pretty exciting as the only time I'd ever been in the area was when I spent a few hours in transit, waiting for my flight to Singapore. Actually being in Sydney, as it turned out, was an entirely different experience altogether. Once I'd touched down and picked up my bag from the carousel, I searched for the airport train to take me to Central station in the heart of the CBD. However, I ended up going down the wrong escalator (which apparently led to a different exit - one that didn't involve the airport train), which is hardly surprising considering my horrible sense of direction. I darted up the escalator and made it to the ticket counter where I then purchased an insanely pricey ($18 or so) ticket to Central station and Epping station, the latter being where Dilini was going to pick me up.
Sitting in the train, I felt a wave of jakunness wash over me. I felt a little like a country bumpkin, where life in the big city was slightly daunting and everything was new and unavailable in Tassie. I thought to myself, "Oh my God, I'm in a train, I haven't been in a train since I was in Europe, this is so awesome AHHHHHHH!!" Once I'd reached Epping station, I waited for a couple of minutes before Dilini showed up, every bit as bubbly and beautiful as I'd remembered her from the last time we saw each other (2011! whoaaaaaa). She drove us back to her huge (like "Hey MTV, welcome to ma crib" huge) house in Pennant Hills. Her mum and her sister were warm and welcoming, and I reveled in the amount of space the house had. No seriously, when all you have is a small room in college, being in a house is like taking a deep breath of fresh air. We headed out in the evening and had dinner at Blackbird Cafe at Cockle Bay Wharf. We walked around for a little bit, ducked into Scary Canary but found nothing to drink/do there, so we darted off to Grandma's Bar, which was as hipster as it sounds. It was a dimly lit, tiny area in the basement of a bunch of shop lots. Drinks were fairly pricey (I now appreciate cheap-ish drinks at O Bar) and the one thing that had me stymied was the minimum EFTPOS charge - $20. Seriously. That didn't even cover 2 beers! It was (I only use this word when I reeeeeally mean it) redonkulous. We spent a few hours there with Dragan and Theeran, then Jon came by. Jon, Dilini and I took one of the super late trains back to Epping, and when we got back to her place, we were famished. Cue mi goreng and the glory that is roti prata. We stayed up until 3am or so, just eating and talking and giggling, which resulted in us getting up slightly later than originally planned, so we cancelled plans to eat at Red Spoon and instead decided to make waffles for brunch. Dilini's mum very kindly cooked at least half a dozen roti prata, which we happily devoured while making the waffle batter.
The waffles were to die for, and I didn't think whipped cream would go well with them but mannnnnn, I was wrong. The passionfruit pulp was delicious as well!
Dilini dropped Jon and I off at the train station just after 12pm, where we took the train back to Town Hall (for Jon) and Central (for me). I checked into the Railway Square YHA and was pleasantly surprised by the room and facilities. I was sharing the room with two other girls, Rach and Yuka.
Clean room = happy Rae.
I rested for a while before Jon and I met up again and took the train to the University of Sydney, where the opening ceremony for MASA was being held in the University of Sydney Union International Student Lounge. As usual, Malaysian timing kicked in and the event started over an hour later than the expected time.
There was a minor food crisis as there wasn't enough rice, so the volunteers and committee members had to whip up more as the event progressed. The table of Tasmanians also got shushed for being too loud, which was slightly silly because we were just being supportive and enthusiastic. Oh well. Anyway, after the opening ceremony ended, a bunch of us decided to go back to the city and have some fun. Our first stop was Scubar, which is a backpackers bar. In all honesty, it was a really fun bar. The crowd there was half as sleazy as the crowd you'd normally get in O Bar, and drinks were cheap (for once!).
Tassie peeps!
We got our drink on.
We made our way to another bar called El Loco but it wasn't nearly as lively as Scubar, so we went back and had a few more drinks and went nuts on the dance floor. Caleb abused the term "YOLO" that night as he screamed it to the world, brazenly running across roads even though the green light for pedestrians was still red. Although it was hilarious at the time, in hindsight, I'm glad nothing happened. All of us made it home to our respective hostels, thankfully. Some of us stayed at the YHA, while others stayed at 790 On George and The George Hotel.
The next day (or rather, later on that day), I got up and took a walk in the CBD on my own. As much as I love and appreciate company, I like to explore new places by myself from time to time.
Queen Victoria Building. The architecture was stunning!
I walked up and down George St, and at the last minute, Fay (my cousin from Auckland) told me that she was on George St as well with her friends. They were in Sydney for a Hillsong conference (I think). We quickly agreed to meet up at the World Square shopping centre, and man, I'm glad we were able to meet up! We (Fay, her friends, and I) had lunch at Din Tai Fung. The food was mediocre but the company was lovely.
Sister from another mister (literally).
We walked around after lunch for a while, but I had to leave and get ready for the careers fair and conference later that night. Although the careers fair had little to offer in terms of relevance to what I'm studying, the conference was eye-opening and entertaining. There were speakers from Talentcorp, Shell, Parti Gerakan Rakyat, and Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
The following day marked the commencement of MASA games. Although there were sports such as futsal, touch rugby, and tennis, the only game I took part in was ultimate frisbee, which was held at Moore Park.
It was a cloudless day and the sun was pretty unforgiving. Nevertheless, it was heaps of fun.
Tassie ultimate team! We didn't win any medals but the experience and friendships strengthened by the matches we played was priceless. We also had 100Plus, which seemed fitting - I mean, come on, it's the go-to sports beverage most, if not all Malaysians drink after playing sports.
Later that night, I met up with my big bro, Kelvin, and my sis-in-law, Vic, both of whom I haven't seen in over 4 years. We had dinner at a Bavarian joint on The Rocks, Lowenbrau. The food was nomgasmic (best chicken schnitzel and apple strudel I've ever had)! I wish I could ditch uni and attend their wedding in September. :(
With big brudda and SIL :)
Day 5 in Sydney kicked off with me finally exploring the bookshop near the YHA. Few things make me happier than the sight of cheap books. I bought Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov, a novel I've been meaning to read but never got around to buying a copy of. Caleb and I then met up and walked around the CBD and we eventually ended up having lunch in a food court in Chinatown (this is something Tassie needs).
Prawn udon for $10. Tasty and light!
Brown rice tea with pearls from Chatime. AHHHHHHH! I was so freaking happy after buying this. I have missed bubble tea. Not that there isn't good bubble tea in Hobart, I mean, MoMo is pretty good, but they don't have the flavours that Chatime and Gong Cha have.
Caleb and I took the bus to Moore Park where the boys were about to play rugby. I'd been looking forward to this all week as I knew the boys had been training really hard, despite having only a few subs.
Rugby boys, all smiley and happy before their first game against South Australia.
The boys ended up bagging the silver medal for the overall rugby event! So proud of them and they played really well. In the evening, a bunch of us went for the MASA closing ceremony which was held at Malaysia Hall. We got there 2 hours late (Malaysian timing, bleargh) but the ceremony was still ongoing and there was still plenty of food!
Haziem, Yuka, myself, Darshan, Najjib (who's moving to Canberra), Bryan, Adrian, Rach, Jo-Hann, Faiz, and Jon. We screamed 'Najjib!' so many times that night, I'm pretty sure Najjib himself was slightly embarrassed by our antics... Oops.
The gang wanted to head out to a bar or two after the closing ceremony, so we took the bus back to the city and made our way to Chinatown where we had supper first.
Behold, my bowl, no, sink of prawn congee. It was amazing. Just... Wow.
Adrian and I had flights to catch the following morning, so we split off from the rest of the group at 1-something in the morning. Thankfully, we both managed to wake up on time, check out, and meet up at Central station, where we took the train to the airport.
Adrian! As it turns out, he and Darshan went to high school with one of my cousins, Suan Yean. Small world much?
As I had over an hour to spare before boarding my flight, I walked around the airport and spent way too much time testing perfumes in the Victoria's Secret store. Once I boarded the plane, however, everyone in that flight spent an hour just stuck in our seats, waiting to take off. I heard people grumbling and cursing Jetstar from my seat, and it was entertaining for the most part, but then I started getting peeved as well because the air crew wasn't giving us regular updates on the flight status. Eventually, we left rainy Sydney and touched down in beautiful, sunny Hobart. It was strange, not being surrounded by skyscrapers anymore. Instead, there was Mount Wellington, covered in snow. I also found it a bit of a pity that I'd had to leave Sydney just as I was starting to get used to the hustle and bustle of the big city. But Sydney will always be there, and I'm keen on going back for a short stay at some point.
Now that I'm back in Hobart and uni's starting tomorrow (but I don't have class on Mondays so I technically start on Tuesday), I'm not feeling as pumped as I should. I should be excited about learning again, I should be excited about seeing my friends, but that feeling just isn't there yet. I can only give it time, I suppose.
I'll try to post something every week. But that's subject to assignments and whatnot, so, um... See how lah? :)
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