God's blessings

I once said to God that if I managed to get a specific job, that I would actually go to church for the whole year every Sunday without skipping a service at all(except of course if I can't help it).

Turns out it came true =) God hears our prayers.

Canoeing in Melbourne

Recently Amanda had her farewell in a park in Kew. I didn't realise there was the opportunity to canoe there, but once I did, was very excited at it!

It is actually my first time canoe-ing in my life, and it was a good experience. There were 3 people in each canoe and it was a tiring, but fun process similar to that of kayaking.

It was a great farewell for Amanda, and I hope that our paths will cross again someday! I would definitely be one of the investors in your sure to come cheesecake cafe in the near future.

Refreshing hols

Everyone loves holidays, for sure. Only a workaholic won't.

This Easter hols has been nothing short of fun. Especially the memorable Fotoholics camps. I absolutely love it!

The camp was an experience to remember, I managed to make new friends, enjoyed new sceneries and took some amazing shots with my compact camera.

Most importantly, I found out that road trips in Australia can actually be really enjoyable and fun. This road trip, to a certain extent, changed my mind about not working in Australia but I actually now want to work in Australia, at least for a bit before I decide again.

This country is beautiful in terms of the natural scenery and the people are too. For a newcomer, it just takes a bit of time to adjust oneself to the culture here in Australia.

I also managed to go on a day trip to Williamstown with Peiyee, Jolene and KK(a new friend). What an awesome experience it is too.

Now I have 6 more weeks before exam 'break' starts. I miss holidays already and am wishing that it was here again. Could there be enough time to plan another road trip before exam starts? I hope so!

For now, it is just an idea, and like any idea requires people and enough interest to support it. Next week also promises to be exciting with an interview on Monday, poker as usual and my good friend's graduation at Monash!

Easter break!

Time at university has just been hectic the last few weeks. I believe almost every student at university have been busy with assignments, mid-sems, study catch ups and last but not least job-hunting.

The same goes for myself. But at last, after 5 weeks of busy-ness, things have slowed down a bit and it is time for another Easter break holiday.

This Easter break to me will be about catching up with old friends, catching up on studies and completing some assignments that will be due very soon.

So far, it has been nothing short of fun and productivity. I have managed to almost complete my Research Methods in Finance assignment 1 as well as managed to go on a day-trip to Williamstown.

I think the Honours year is great for a number of reasons: Firstly, we are part of a small group of students and we can actually be good friends with each other. Secondly, the subjects are challenging and I guess I prefer challenging work, all else equal.

I am excited to actually begin my Research thesis which is going to be about Optimal Capital Structure in an Imperfectly Competitive Environment with Asymmetric Information. Quite a mouthful isn't it? I will understand what it feels like to be writing a thesis and conducting research!

I always believed that I am a good thinker and can direct my strengths towards the research area this year. I feel great just doing that. Hopefully the rest of this break goes on well!

Third and fourth week of uni

If anyone tells you that honours year is very busy, they are really right!

So far my blog has been somewhat neglected due to semester subjects, working on thesis, tutoring, applying for jobs and what not.

It's been somewhat of mixed feelings so far. I've had ups and downs, it's been new but so far it's been a challenging semester. I actually have to come up with a research topic real soon but so far have not had that much progress yet!

I have also been busy applying for jobs and looking at interviews. So far no luck yet but I have a feeling that this will be quite lengthy process actually!

I recently had the MUOSS Night Market event and it was really awesome being able to see a lot of my friends there as well as getting to try the different foods there. It's truly one event which I wouldn't miss!

Also catching up with friends have been more successful this year as I have actually made more effort to catch up with different friends as compared to last year. I find that it's really good to keep in touch with friends, as you never know how grateful you will be in the future to have a friend like them!

It's back to work for me now, but I have also been slacking off a little, hope I will be more hardworking in the time to come and appreciate my time wisely.

Second week of uni

This has indeed been yet another busy week for me. Honours year has just been demanding in a lot of aspects!

This week tutes have finally started and I experienced what it feels like to be a corporate finance tutor. I understand now how it feels to be a corpfi tutor. Pretty tiring to teach but an awesome feeling in some ways.

This week has been full of job applications as well as preparing for my honours year. Honours is actually quite a busy year as you had to juggle 4 subjects at once as well as focus on finding a topic for my research essay due at the end of the year. Nonetheless, I want to make this an enjoyable year where I can have fun, find a job as well as do well in my honours year.

We celebrated ZeYing's birthday on Thursday this week where we had a small surprise for her. Most importantly, she was half surprised and it was a good time for all of us. We had a few laughs and enjoyed the potluck food that everyone brought for that night.

I had my first pool competition on Friday, where I was playing as part of the Melbourne Uni Pool Club Social League. It was quite fun, but I lost the match. I still enjoyed the experience and look forward to become a better pool player in the future.

Saturday was quite a busy day for me as well as I was out the whole day. I went to witness the Flash Mob Dance at Federation Square, caught up with Tim, Budiaman and Tu, then at night went to play Mahjong at ZeYing's house. I sleptover at Li Hong's place because the next day I had the Run for the Kids Marathon happening. Suffice to say, it was a great experience running just 5km and I am definitely going to join the 10km or 21km event in the Melbourne Marathon happening later this year.

As I look forward, I know that I have a lot to look forward to, and I can't wait to experience this year! To a good week ahead. Cheers.

First Week of Honours Year

It has been a very eventful first week back to uni! I can't believe that when I look back to Monday from today, it seemed like a very long time ago!

Every day of the week has been basically getting used to my new lifestyle and also catching up with different friends! It has been good to finally meet up with different people again and catching up with them all over.

Honours classes has been very different. Now instead of having 2 lectures and 1 tute, we have 3 lectures and no tutes at all. The new format is actually not that like-able and people tend to doze off by the 2nd hour. It is very hard to continually listen to someone speak continuously for 3 hours, try doing that anytime and you will definitely need to be very interested in the subject to stay awake!

It's back to tutor meetings and tutoring again. I just had my first intro micro class last Friday which has been pretty interesting. There was one class, where we played the 2 truths and 1 lie game, and one guy whom was from China and looked drenched wet because of the rain, said "I am from the triads, I hate speaking English and I am new in Melbourne". Everyone was OMG and was laughing away because it just seemed so far-fetched. It turns out that the lie was that he was new in Melbourne. Some people were gasping, that was the most interesting experience yet!

I find myself going back to the Honours Lab and the Lab on Level 1 of the Old Ecom building a lot lately. You can use free computers there and there is not a lot of people. It is always good to see friends there including Adhi, Fei and Chloe, where we can all catch up. This year at uni my friend Yen Min is not around, which makes uni very different! I used to share a work office with her in the Old Ecom building up on level 5, and used to seeing her everyday! How different it is now.

ZeYng, Agnes and Yvonne also had a surprise party for me on Thursday night which was very touching! It is good to have good friends like them where they actually took a lot of effort organising the surprise for me. They told me it was a housewarming party but ended up to be a surprise party for both Kien Loon and myself. And they gave me a muffin book to make muffins! How nice, I need to learn to make muffins now, which is so difficult!

Yesterday which was Saturday was the most interesting. I was supposed to meet up with Chan for lunch, go to MASCA bbq and go for moomba at night. At least that was the plan. But right after my lunch with Chan, as I was on the city circle tram going towards flagstaff gardens, it started hailing! Because of that, I didn't dare leave the city circle tram and was basically stuck on the tram for the whole day! Moomba got cancelled because of the hail today. I ended up going to ZeYing's house and we learnt to play Mahjong there, and at night we went to Old Town Kopitiam Mamak for dinner. What a different day it turned out to be!

All in all, I enjoyed my week thoroughly and immensely. I can't wait for the second week of uni, where a lot of different stuffs are coming up. Till later!