Last week of exam

Today is the last day of exam (I think) and then the university would return to the quiet and peaceful environment that the postgraduate students are longing for. I don't know if I should be happy or sad about that because my student status would be terminated soon and I actually have nothing to do anymore. That might sound like a dream come true for some people, I used to think so too. But as I am in that situation now, it's pretty boring. I've been trying to keep myself busy with researching about New Zealand trip and doing things I thought I would do once I finish all my assignments. There are actually quite a bit to do but somehow I just lost the urge to do them. Anyway, the weather is great today and looks good for the weekend so I think I should start planning for a short getaway trip.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of the late spring atmoshere at UQ.

Blossoming tree


Jo and the colorful tree in front of the sandstone building (part of the Great Court)


Trying an artsy shot

The weather girl

Thanks to information from Brad and Tom, I could put up a new little cute feature on my blog, the weather girl. Now those oversea would get to see how it's like here in Australia. I'm very sorry if I make someone jealous with all the sunny days and warmth we've got here. =P Well, I have to admit that I'm actually jealous of people who get to see the autumn scenery and winter atmosphere in the northern hemisphere. Somehow, I can't really comprehend Christmas and New Year in summer weather. =P

Successful weekend and surprisingly good week!

Despite all my depression on the visa issues, the weekend turned out to be really productive and rewarding. First of all, I submitted my final assignment on Friday night and that marked the end of my study. Yes! Although it was done in a rush and I felt a bit sad that I could have done it better as it was for my favourite subject, I was glad I submitted it in before the weekend. Jo and I walked home at 1.30 am and fixed something to eat because we had not have dinner. We were very happy that that was going to be the last time that we had to stay up that late because of Am's work and her bad habit of doing things at the last minute. Thank you, Jo, for putting up with me.

Then, the real weekend began. We went car part hunting on Saturday. We called a couple of car wreckers to find out if they have the car model that we are after. Many didn't have it and that made us a bit worried. The last one we called happened to have the car but we would have to take the part out by ourselves. The price for the part was 4 times cheaper than getting the brand new part and this wrecker was not so far from our house, just about 20 minute drive, so we thought we gave it a go. It was interesting seeing almost a hundred of cars in a smash, rundown condition in this place. Yet, there seemed to be a lot of people who find treasures out of all these non-running cars and that included us. We got the part we want including a new headlight to replace the old one that has a fracture in it. We also got some treatment liquid for the engine and all that were for less than 60 dollars. What a bargain! Luckily, we got all the things quite easily as Jo had the tools we needed and he was very fast in taking things apart. It would have taken me at least twice as long to just get one screw out. So, we achieved a great deal that day.

Sunday, Jo started putting the new parts and other stuffs back together at about 11 am. It was quite demoralising to find more problems as we tried to fix things. It turned out that the thread in the hole for the screw that was supposed to be underneath the cam sprocket got detached from the surface of the hole and came lose. So there was nothing to hold the screw anymore and that's probably what caused the problem in the first place. So Jo had to find other way to fix this screw. He did so by using adhesive substance that hardens like a rock after 5 minutes of mixing the 2 parts of that stuff together. He also used that to secure the inner component of the new headlight as it was not firmly fixed to the frame. I was amazed how quickly Jo did all these things and actually finished them before dark.

Meanwhile, what did I do? Well, I managed to wash all the laundry including bed sheets and quilt covers, put on new bed sheets, vacuumed the house and did a little bit on tightening the screws for various parts. My jobs were not quite technical or physically demanding but somehow I felt extremely exhausted by the end of the day. Finally, just slightly before 6 pm, Jo started the car and.... it worked again! Yes! We drove around the suburb for a while to test whether the problem was fixed. At the beginning, the Subaru still made the sound that was not so positive for our repair result. Then it came and go and after about 20 minutes of driving, it was completely gone! The car sound became very soft and smooth and we could hardly hear anything from the engine. Jo reckoned it also drove better than before. So we did fix it! It was great to have our old Subaru back to life again. =D

After the great achievement from the weekend, I was back to my unpleasant time of sorting out the visa issue. My passport and documents which were sent back to me since last Tuesday still haven't shown up. I had an appointment with immigration office in Brisbane on Monday afternoon and still had no document to bring along except a half-filled application (I have to leave my passport detail blank), a letter from uni that stating my expected graduation date, a notice from the bank about a fund transfer from my scholarship sponsor and a certified copy of a letter from the sponsor saying that I am obligned to return home to work. I was not so enthusiastic to go as I was so sure that they would probably tell me to come back again when I have all the document ready including a passport. But then an amazing thing happened. The lady who serviced me just looked at my very limited documents, told me to pay for the application fee (which I did it reluctantly since she did not tell me if I would get the visa in time to use it to apply for New Zealand tourist visa), did a few minutes of typing and told me that she would grant me a visa today. I was absolutely in shock. I didn't even have my passport detail although I know it could be in their computer system but I never expect her to help me find it. Well, she did and gave me everything I needed within just 15 minutes. That was the best thing that happened to me in about 2 months. (well, excluding my parents' visit in Australia). It is amazing how different people who are in the same job can be. I hope there are more efficient and reasonable people like this lady working for the immigration offices in every country. I couldn't stop thanking her but she just said she had everything she needed and that's just the way things worked. Sometimes life can be extremely and unbelievably easy. Well, that definitely made my week.

Then when I came home and found an empty letter box, my heart sank again. I didn't want to keep being paranoid and worried so I called the post office service to try my luck if they know whereabout my letter would be. And finally, the girl gave me the good news that the notice to collect my letter should be delivered today and all I have to do was wait till 5 pm and check the mail again. And when I did, it was there! The yellow paper slip that I have been waiting for and also the letter from the educational office in Canberra. So I could just resent all these things again after I get the tourist visa lable in my passport. What a great day! Now I can say goodbye to all the heavy feeling and worries and just patiently wait for the processing of New Zealand visa and hopefully everything will be ok.

So that's my long story of emotional adventure. Although I am pretty sure I have learned a lot of things by the end of this, I still prefer not to have too many of these lessons. It is quite stressful and that is the last thing I need now. Hope all will go well for everyone out there. And thank you for all those who patiently put up with my rants and emotional instability. I truely appreciate it. I'm fine now and will try to be stronger. =D

Another challenge in life

Good thing that I write this post when pretty much of my depressive feelings were gone or else this would have been one of the very dark and unpleasant readings.

The visa application to NZ did not go smoothly. I got a call from a visa officer demanding that I need a valid tourist visa to re-enter AUS before applying for NZ. Although I tried to explain that I planned to do that while travelling in NZ, she still didn't accept it. So my application would be sent back. Then I contacted the AUS immigration office and found out that I could not apply for a tourist visa until I get a confirmation letter of my study completion. That would only be released after Nov 29th. That will not leave me enough time to apply for both tourist visa to AUS and NZ. I spent the whole of yesterday trying to get a hold of someone at the NZ immigration office but it was unsuccessful. I spent the whole morning trying to think positively and focusing on the assignment that is due on Friday. Luckily, that attempt was quite successful as I spent most of today researching and writing the assignment. Still, I'm very scared of what would be the outcome if I really need to get the AUS visa before going to NZ. Everything was set for the trip, the flight was paid, accommodation was sorted and the plans and expectations were too much that I cannot bear the thought of not being able to fulfil them.

There are many things I want to rant about the system that make it so hard and unfair for some people to travel. But that would be a waste of my time and mental health. So now I am deciding whether to be happy to get the experience that some people might never have or just to be neutral and accept that life does suck really bad sometimes. Well, at least I get to test myself on how much I can handle obstacles and disappointments. The result is....low to moderate. I do need a good cry (or maybe a few times) before I can really convince myself to be strong. So yeah, another hick-up in my life. I actually learn from this incident that one of the most important functions of human mind is the ability to forget and put things behind. Yeah, yeah. It's not new. But man, it's tougher to do than to say it. So that's my lesson for today: 'forget the past, cherish the present and never bet too much on the future'.

P.S. Although I actually did win the bet on the Melbourne Cup horse. Too bad that we didn't play for money or else I would have been quite rich by now. Hehehe.

Monday Monday

I know I am supposed to be doing my assignment but I just can't ignore the urge of updating my blog which have been tickling me over the weekend. So it's gonna be short, hopefully.

I sent of my visitor visa application for New Zealand on Friday. That took a lot of heavy feelings out of my chest. I hope things go smoothly. It really sucks that the nation you are the citizen of is often not included in the visa-free list of a lot of countries. Saturday, Jo and I hunted for car parts to fix our Subaru. We got the new timing belt and exchanged the fan belt that the shop employee wrongly gave us. We still couldn't get the cam sprocket (I just learned that term from Jo). So it seems like we have to go to the wreckers next weekend. We went to Lew's house to preview their garage sale and got some books and cute stuffs. Lew made pasta bolognaise which was really tasty. Sunday was nice and leisurely. I went jogging for the first time in about 6 months and realised I seriously need to get back in shape by doing more exercise. So that will be one of the first thing I do after all these study works. Speaking of which, I would have to get back to it now. Hur.....

Submitting thesis!

Oh dear, yesterday was a full-on thrilling experience with submitting my thesis for me. I got up at 4 am and worked almost non-stop (occasional visits to the bathroom) until 6 pm. Dearest Jo was the great helping hand and supporter in making sure I drank and ate my meal. (I almost got in trouble when he knew that I barely ate anything during the whole day.) We went to uni at 10 pm to send the document to my supervisor via email. I still had issuea with Endnote and page number which took up a lot of time to fix. In the end I had to just leave certain things. Then the PDF file conversion took longer that it usually did and produced the file that is 1.5 time bigger in size than the original one. Oh my, I almost cried by the time I got the file to send off to my supervisor. And it was 2 minutes past midnight on the 2nd of November. So officially, I was late as the deadline was on the 1st. That also demoralised me a bit too. We reached home at about 12.30 am. Jo was sweet as he didn't complain at all about me taking so long to finish things off! I really appreciate that, man. So yeah, it's officially over, finally.

Well, I still can't slack though because there is one more assignment that I have to get done before the 10th of November. But it's gonna be much more relaxing this time. I like assignments that are open for creativity.

So today I went to the city and picked up my visa label which is going to expire soon but I still need it for applying for visa to New Zealand. Well, my journey started a bit late as the City Cat took forever to come. And by the time I walked to the building where the immigration office it, the fire alarm went off and everyone in the building were coming out. Great, I had to wait around without knowing how long it would be before I could get my stuuf. So I took a walk to the Riverside area hoping to find a nice cosy spot to rest while waiting. I ended up getting a nice bench overlooking the river to sit down and ate 3 sushi rolls I bought earlier. It was good except the strong wind that keep blowing hair into my mouth and eyes. Finally I walked through the City Botanic Garden and dropped by Hungry Jack for a 40 cent ice cream. It was very good. It didn't take long to get my visa label despite a large number of people waiting in the visa office. I went into the big building where my favourite store, Crazy Clark's, is, bought a can of chilled coke and sat down in front of Woolworths supermarket. The view of city people in working cloths of various styles is quite enjoyable so I sat there for about half an hour. I got some cute stuffs and a sunglass for good price so I was really happy. It's then time to go home, or rather, to university. It was a nice day amid this stressful period of assignment deadlines. Although I have been having a headache since morning, I still enjoy my day a lot. That's also largely contributed to the nice post filled with Halloween candy that was sent to me from my lovely host mom. I got it this morning and that really made my day a lot better than how it started. Thank you so much, Kathy.

Ok, now it's time to tackle that other assignment. Will update more soon.