While I know dates and calendars are rather arbitrary, I still think the end of the year is something to mark.

I mean, we made it through another one – hopefully in one piece – that’s something to celebrate.

I don’t know, it makes sense in my head xD

I think I’ve grown up a fair bit this year. I don’t think I’ve had a very balanced life – I have had the partying and the studying, but it’s very much a ‘party for first 2-3 weeks, then ignore the world and study again’. So if there’s any sort of ‘resolution’ I’m making for next year, it’ll be to try and have some balance. Try to enjoy every day, instead of feeling like I’m sacrificing a social life to reach some sort of goal.

Because we don’t know if we’ll make it. Heck, we don’t know if we’ll even be alive in 10 years to grab that specialisation.

Not gonna lie, the start of this year made me afraid to plan.

But… you have to plan. I can give up on my plans now. Say ‘to hell with it’, drop out and go travel to the places I want to see.

But I wouldn’t be happy with myself. I’d feel like I didn’t achieve anything. And I know I shouldn’t be this way, but I think I’m very much an achievement-based person. Don’t know if it’s intrinsic or because of my upbringing (nature vs. nurture), but it’s part of me that I don’t see changing anytime in the near future.

Should it change? Probably. But gradually.

Maybe it’ll make me less ‘successful’ – in terms of GPA/career and whatnot, ‘losing the edge’ or whatever. But I guess I need to work out what’s important in life.

Hurh. Another rambling rant.

Next year should be exciting! New house, new degree. Excitedddd.

Let’s see where 2012 takes us

Good to be back.. though tbh, I did feel incredibly sad when I got to Shanghai Pudong International Four days in Shanghai definitely wasn’t enough! Well more like three, because we daytripped to Hangzhou. Sadly my photos from Hangzhou are on Z’s computer, so they won’t be on Facebook/here for a while!

…and if you’re wondering why I’ve been camping on Facebook, it’s because I went for a run the day after I got back and sprained my ankle. Failwhale.

So been lying on my floor with my ankle propped up on my chair, trying to remember all the names of the places I’ve been.

Looks like I’m stuck being an obese little munchkin for a while yet! So much good food in China homggg.

Been catching up on music – here’s the latest one I’m obsessed with! Short version because seriously, noone wants to sit through 10mins of an MV, get to the bloody music already xD

I think I read somewhere it had a Tim Burton-esque feel to it; not sure about that, but the long version definitely has a very fantasy-esque vibe. Songwise, it reminds me of ‘Good Day’, which is awesome because that’s easily my favourite one by her. But as high-necked as her dress remains, I swear her skirt is getting shorter. It’s like they’re subtly trying to increase her sex appeal.. which might explain her legions of male fans xDD

Anyway. You’re not here for me to fangirl.

I kind of don’t want to do a huge recount of all the places I’ve been to – it tends to become rather tedious for both me and the reader.

And anyway, when you travel, do you just remember the places? I went on a whirlwind tour of London/Paris/NY/LA as a kid and I can barely list the landmarks we covered.

When I travel, I remember the little things. I remember the random acts of kindness, similarities I share with complete strangers. Communicating despite language barriers. A feeling of freedom. And yes, the many standards of cleanliness in public bathrooms xD

While I take a billion photos, I guess it’s not so much for the ‘I was there!’ factor. It’s more to jog my memory of the feeling of being there. If that makes sense. ^^’

It was such a hectic trip! I mean, here’s just 4 pictures from 1 day in Shanghai…

A kite over Shanghai Museum

Nightfall at Yuyuan Gardens - after Xintiandi and Tianzifang!

Along the Bund

Kicking back with the view from Shanghai World Financial Centre

The last pic’s off Z’s camera because mine died. But that wasn’t even half the day! So hectic!

For me, Shanghai was very much coloured by the fact that my housemate Z was showing me around. I crashed at his place.. and exiled him from his bedroom while he slept on the couch heh xD

But it was actually 4 days straight of living with him. I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much time alone with one guy! While I think my friends do have a pretty even gender balance and I’m quite certain I could easily do the same with one of you guys, it’s one thing to say it and another to actually do it.

Our friendship’s changed so much in the last 2 years. We were prac partners once but barely knew each other, then he moved to my college and we studied together in stuvac, then we lived in the same building this year and became so much closer (lots of late night d&ms yewww). We’ll be living in the same sharehouse next year, so keen!

I guess it feels like I’m actually making strong friendships. As sad as it is, it hasn’t been that common for me in uni. So far, a lot of my friendships seem to have an expiry date of graduation, because I plan to move back home.

But I have a bad feeling everyone mistook us as a couple. The fact I dragged him shopping probably didn’t help. Poor Z. I wish I was some super hot celebrity lookalike he would want to be seen in public with xD

Memorable moment – at Hangzhou, I was standing facing Z, who is quite a bit taller than me. A woman walks up behind us, sees Z (who is quite obviously Asian), and wants to ask for directions. So she taps me on the back.
Me: *turns around with obviously brown skin*
Woman: *starts in shock*

She freaked out! Oh dear.
Though as always, I am very flattered that I look Asian from the back. Now if only I could speak Shanghainese… xD

Though in all seriousness, I was quite taken aback at the racism in China. Actually, ‘racism’ probably isn’t the right word. While you do get the occasional hostile look, I think it’s out of curiosity rather than anything else.
What did surprise me though, is that it’s the adults who stare a lot more than the children.

While Western tourism is probably on the rise, I don’t think many people from the Indian subcontinent visit China. I have no stats, so you’ll have to rely on my crappy anecdotes.

I definitely didn’t see many dark skinned tourists, and my parents were a little surprised I wanted to go tbh – none of our family friends have ever gone (unless you count HK for conferences etc). I spose there isn’t much promotion of tourism between the two.

It’s rather surprising though. I mean, I’d think China and India probably have quite a bit in common.

Though just for the record, I AM NOT INDIAN. I may not have much ‘curry pride’, but it is really fucking annoying to be always introduced as Indian.

Usually I don’t care at all, but multiple weeks of being introduced as Indian is irritating. Usually it’s just easier to nod and smile if someone asks if I’m from India. But I was born in Bangladesh. I have relatives and family friends in India, but that is it.

More than anything, I want to be introduced as Australian. Why does it matter if I was born in Bangladesh? Or some other coutnry? I’ve spent more than 18 of my 19 years in Australia. Where I was born is just one word on my passport.

I don’t mind it when people mistake me for being Muslim, because usually it’s out of concern. Like in a restaurant in Beijing, where a woman made sure to point out that the gravy had pork.
(Weirdly enough, people rarely ask if I can eat beef.. xD)

But it’s when you guys introduce me as being Indian that I get annoyed. I wouldn’t introduce you as Chinese if you were Korean or Japanese, so please don’t call me Indian.

Call me a migrant Australian or something, if you need a label. Because that’s enough to cover my upbringing, cultural/family ties and the life I lead.

Though I spose it would often get lost in translation.

Wow, this post just reminds me how timeless Looking for Alibrandi is xD Anyway, I’m home again and my ankle is healing pretty well, guess I just won’t be rocking heels anytime soon! I really would like to see you guys – I’ll be leaving for uni on January 12th.

Our time is short so tarry not!

HONG KONG yayy! and Beijing was off the chain

My favourite part of travelling though… isn’t really the places. It’s more the people I’ve met and craziness of being completely lost.

People so far:
- rich men from Mongolia on my flight
- population out on a Saturday night in Beijing
- random English guy who thought our high school jersey was referring to a cricketer.. and then gave me his guidebook. All in the time it took for the speedy hotel lift to go down a level.

My favourite memory so far? Having no idea where we were going, and having the brainwave to go into a Mcdonalds to find a random white guy with the hope that they were an English speaking tourist. And actually doing this successfully, and getting directions on the back of a serviette… which got us to where we wanted to go.

Pretty sure I could use that one in a job interview for resourcefulness. :3

Many more tales of our travels! How have you been?

Building up those frequent flyer points

A little tired though – feels like I just flew home from uni tbh. Would’ve been nice to have a week off.. but I guess if I don’t go now, I won’t get a chance for a long time!

Exams were hectic somehow, even though I only had two. Fingers crossed I did enough to top Genetics; it’s a matter of pride because I should’ve topped the midsem..had I not been docked 2 marks for handwriting. grr.

Wrote out nine booklets for my third year micro exam; my fobby exam supervisor told me I was ‘JK Rowling’. xD But in Genetics, my examiner came over to me in the middle of the exam and told me not to look so worried.

I think I passed though.. meaning I am now a med kid! Uni starts January 16 next year, boo. Ah well, exciteddd. I didn’t get balloted to the alternate campus, yay! haha I never realised how much I loved my university til I had a 1 in 5 chance of leaving.

I used to love watching these bloom in springtime.. til someone told me 'jacarandas blooming means it's exams =_=

What else? I moved out of college!
Meaning no more partying. Well… actually.. I moved out to a sharehouse with 4 other collegefolk…

But seriously, it amuses me to no end when people come up to me here and say ‘wow, we hear you’re a party animal now’…because if you asked my uni friends, they would ask ‘are you sure you’re not thinkign of someone else?’

When I first heard this in semester break, I was kinda pissed off, not gonna lie. I mean, from what I’ve learned interstate, the term ‘party animal’ means you frequently get wasted, have shit marks and probably sleep around. None of which apply to me.

I was sitting there wondering where on earth people had gotten their information from. Granted, there are some lovely photos of me on facebook from when I discovered I could legally drink. One time when I was 18 – I mean, how would I know my tolerance if I didn’t exceed it? xD

But since then, I’ve been the good sober girl. Heck, I didn’t have a drop for more than a year. In semester 1, I was the ‘girl who lived at the library’. Just clarifying… when I said I’m ‘out late on a Friday’ or make jokes about ‘wild Friday nights’, it meant I was studying.

I actually don't know how I coped before this had 24/7 hours..

So where did this reputation come from? Because I was studying 16 hours a day all of semester 1.

So that brings us to the last semester, where I moved from 5 courses to 3 and went out every second week. Did I get wasted? No. I was the girl who went and left early to bring the drunk people home. I’d go to a dinner with friends and 5-6 people would come up to me and ask ‘holy shit, you came? why aren’t you in the library?’

So party animal? I think not. Unless you mean I enjoy going out with friends. In that case – maybe, yes? But I went every second week this semester, pretty much only to asian clubs, and didn’t go out the month before exams. So that’d be a total of what… 4-5 times this semester? Party animal, really?

So where are people getting this information?

And then I realised.. it must actually be just from me. I mean, my friends and I have a ‘no photo upload’ pact. I’m usually the only one who uploads stuff. So the only evidence that I even go out… is off my Facebook and this blog.

Epic lol.

haha I’m sorry if I’ve given the impression that all I do is party. As much as it might sound like I party hard, I study harder. After a night out, I’d get three hours sleep, wake up and go to the library. Because I’m cool like that.

Heck, my friend texted me in exams and I replied ‘sorry, I don’t talk to people in exam week’.

So I’ve decided to take it as a compliment that people think I’m some party animal. My uni friends’ impressions of me have gone from shy girl to crazy-18-year-old to supernerd to studyhardpartyhard.

Which one’s really me? I was talking to Jason about this last week, and you know, there’s not really one form that’s my ‘true self’ or whatever. It’s just different parts of my personality each time. I’m shy around people I don’t know, I trust myself enough to drink with people I’m close to, and I also know when to stop and put exams first. I do more harm to my health by eating dinner out of the library vending machine than I’ve ever done with alcohol.

Caffeine will always be my drug of choice.

haha all of you should probably thank Jason, or this blog would have been a rant on douchebag guys and messy college relationships. But I’m all ranted out. Well, mostly xD

I don't mean my life's like the happy ending of Austen novels. I mean the crappy middle where you want to punch the main character and hurl the book out the window.

So instead I’ll recount a story from swotvac in the library, for a change.

So. 6pm in the library, I’d just gone outside to talk on the phone. Waiting for the elevator to go back up to Level 4, the no talking zone.

Guy hovering nearby: Hi, I’m sorry if this is really random, but are you familiar with the acronym ‘A.E’?
Me: uhhh…I don’t think so?
Guy: oh okay. *walks away*

*I wait for the elevator*
*a minute later*

Guy: *returning* I don’t mean to be creepy. It stands for ‘anonymous encounter’. Does that mean anything to you?
Me: *assuming he’s asking if I speak English and know what the words mean* ummm… I guess?
Guy: *waits expectantly*
Me: *blinks*
Guy: *mumbles* You probably would’ve passed anyway… I was just on my study break… just winging it…you looked like you might’ve knew…
*elevator arrives*
Guy: Have a nice day.
Me: You too?

And so later, I Google it and the only things that come up are related to anonymous sex.

Apparently wearing cargo pants and a tank top makes me look like a hooker. Or worse than a hooker, since at least hookers get paid!

Does not understand. It had been around 30 degrees for 3 weeks straight and the library is full of girls in short shorts. On the other hand, I’m pretty covered up and haven’t brushed my hair because I literally roll out of bed, change clothes and rush to get a library desk.

I could understand that it might be appropriate to ask that in a club.. but in a library in stuvac? Really?

They should have creep detectors in libraries. The last time I’d been approached in a library was also when I was studying the mycology unit of microbiology, so apparently my ‘desperate to pass the exam’ look comes off as just really desperate.

Maybe I should be flattered. But he looked an awful lot like the picture of the IV caffeine guy. But older. And fatter.

Thankfully a lot of my friends were in the library that day. Ran into M*r*ya, who offered to give him an anonymous encounter with her fist xD Didn’t want to make a scene or anything. Just thought it was a good idea to let other people know who he was so they could tell if he followed me home or anything creepy.

Though I doubt he would, he was a lot more polite than the average creep.

But here’s some tips, guys:
- If you have to say ‘I’m sorry if this is creepy’… it’s sort of defeating the purpose.
- you know your line doesn’t work if she has to go home to Google it.

…and that’s how my Friday nights go down.

Should be home December 18, if nothing goes wrong! Hope to see you then