Adelaide "downpour"
Friday, March 21, 2008 x 10:02 AM
Yesterday, we went to the University bridge at Torrens River to do our GISc prac. We all had to wear yellow high visibility jackets. I said to Louise, "I feel like a road cleaner in this." The prac was really fun. There were five of us in a group, 3 guys and 2 girls. We had to measure the width and length of the bridge without using a measuring tape. What we did was get the mean distance that we individually cover with one pace and then counted the number of paces it took us to walk across the bridge. We got an average distance from all five statistics. Then when it came to measuring the width, there was some discrepancies. I then said, "I think it kind of looks like it's my height." I went and lay across the bridge and my conclusion was it was slightly over my height. After telling the rest of my team that, the other girl (Anita) asked, "How high are you?" One of the guys said, "Don't you mean how 'tall' are you?" -_-
Our team leader (I think his name is Matt) is funny. He did really HUGE paces when we were all doing normal steps. And in the middle of the prac, he complained that he was hungry and wondered if we could go over to the cafe in Adelaide Uni to get some food. "We can include the distance of the cafe from the bridge." was what he said to try to make us go there. At that time, we saw some ducks waddling past and I told him, "There's your dinner." And you know what he did? He walked over to the ducks and asked them, "Excuse me guys, just wanted to ask you something..." I couldn't hear what he said afterwards but it must have been something ridiculous anyway.
In the middle of the prac, it started raining. I mean, drizzling. The raindrops were so tiny it was barely noticeable. My skin didn't even get wet at all. I asked my group if this was what the rain was normally like in Australia and my team leader (the guy who's possibly called Matt) said, "This is considered a downpour in Australia!" I laughed at what he said but I'm not sure whether he was serious about that or not. Well, Anita said it was only drizzling... so I think he was just kidding?
But that was my first experience of rain since I came here. The last two times, I totally missed it coz I couldn't even see the rain! -_-
We did sneak off to the cafe in Adelaide Uni but it was closed! The guys found some vending machines and Anita was like, "I hope one of them sells food..." and the last vending machine stocked snacks like chips and chocolate bars. She went crazy and screamed "FOOD!" and the guys had to hush her down. So she and Matt were trying to figure out if they had enough coins between them. I volunteered my very heavy coin purse, "I have this huge bag of coins if anyone wants them." Matt asked if I had a 5 cent coin. Someone said, "She'll want that back." Which was kind of funny too so I laughed. No one else did though. I wonder if I was just in a really good mood and found everything funny or Australians just have different senses of humor. -_-
Anyway, we finished the prac at 4.45pm and headed back for the comp room to return our jackets. I chatted with Michael on the way back. I asked him about his family name, which was Stojanovich. I asked him how to pronounce it and whether anyone had ever pronounced it wrongly. He told me of one incredibly memorable event when a substitute teacher called him "Stankovich" in front of the whole class when he was in high school. LOL (Oh yeah, Nic, if you're reading this... Michael is the guy whom you said was good looking. The guy in the right hand corner of that pic, remember?) He's 193cm tall, no wonder I feel like a dwarf beside him! Hahaha...
I chatted with Shi Yin on MSN last night. She asked me to send her some pictures. I did and she said it looks as if I was having lots of fun in Australia and it made her kind of want to go to some other country to study too. I paused at that point and did a bit of reflection. It then occurred to me that in spite of my earlier apprehensions about my classmates, I was actually having fun. I was too quiet in the beginning and I regret that now. There are so many wonderful things that happened to me in Australia, meeting some really good friends and getting involved in all these activities... KP even complimented me (Such a lovely compliment! I was so hyper and hua chi after reading his email.)! Although Porcupine Guy Gill definitely ruined my hopes for me in a certain aspect (Argh! Gill! I hate you! ><) , I definitely love the choice I made.
