Down Under Adventure #1 – Hello Sydney-

Flight KL-Sydney took 8 hours. And we arrived in Sydney Airport at 9.15am (that’s 7.15am in Malaysia). Good night sleep? No comment. I had a so-so OK sleep the prior 4 hours and gone topsy-turvy for the next. At least I didn’t wake up moody for not having enough sleep because I was mentally prepared that I shouldn’t expect the on-flight-sleep to be so comfy.

“OH MY GOD! I’VE OFICIALLY LANDED IN SYDNEY NOW!” should be the first line I blurted by right. But no, it wasn’t. Instead I was like “Great, I just got off the plane, half sleepy face and need to stand in long queue for immigration check”

Done with all the procedure, we marched to the arrivals hall. There, a few medical students from University of Newcastle had already waited for us.

Newie friends from left: Hanif, Faka, Fariz

Newie friends from left: Ainun, Raden, Aqilah

us!

 For our 7 days stay in Australia, we’ll be in Newcastle for 2 days and Sydney for the rest.

Because the immigration border procedure took too long that it already reached lunch hour, so we decided to have our lunch and salah before heading to Newcastle.

Oporto for lunch

And it’s time to take a train to Newcastle! I’m not sure what time our tickets were, and I can’t remember how long the journey was. I was totally out of track of time because (1) still confuse with the 2 hours difference, (2) I was busy looking out of the window halfway to Newcastle, (3) and spent another half sleeping to compensate my not-so-good-sleep last night. Surprisingly it was more comfortable sleeping in the train.

Cute girls on train :)

 Arrived at Broadmeadow station somewhere past 5pm and it was getting dark. Yea winter. 

In Newcastle we were divided into groups according to houses we'll be staying in. I was staying in Castle. They named it Castle, it's a house indeed. I think all houses have names here. The house is nice! No, nice is too underrated. The house is awesome! Together with everything and everybody else in it! Despite the low temperature, we were welcomed warmly. Very!

First night in Newcastle we had some ice breaking with Malaysian's students. Lots of things were shared. And everybody was so sweet.

Until it was time for bed. First experience being in a sleeping bag. Wiggling comfortably ^^

For day 2nd, we had a lot of things awaited! Please anticipate.

Ps: sorry it took me long to continue ;)

Down Under Adventure #Prologue –Traveller’s Blues-

I always wished to be able to have a happy packing time. Surprisingly I never did. Packing always comes in the very last minute no matter how early I started. It made me grew up believeing I have packaphobia (which we all know it’s the way I say things to exaggerate).

Departed from hostel at 6pm and arrived at LCCT around maghrib. I’m pretty positive my mind wanders a lot, but of something I’m not sure what. It was a mixed feeling. Unlike other friends who can’t stop taking pictures and can’t stop talking; I don’t need to listen to what they were saying to know they were excited. Not to say I wasn’t, only I don’t own a nice camera to camwhore with and most of the time I have vacancy next to me.

The mixed feelings came even since I started packing. Do they have word to describe this feeling? Traveller’s blues I guess. What if I forgot to bring anything important? What do I do on the plane for 8 hours? Since I was one of the committees, will everything goes well as planned? What if anything goes wrong? How am I supposed to handle things in places I’ve never been to? What if anything went wrong with the plane? What if anything happened to me? Someone slipped drugs into my bag. Or my passport is stolen. Or I am kidnapped! Call me paranoid. Hell yeah I think a lot.`

We boarded the plane at 11.20pm, along with the mixed feelings. At least I have 8 hours to get into relax mode.

I prayed so the journey is blessed by Him.

What I was anticipating, the next morning I open my eyes I’ll be in Sydney!

In the name of Allah the most Gracious, most Compassionate.

“Say, [O Muhammad], "Travel through the land and observe how He began creation. Then Allah will produce the final creation. Indeed Allah , over all things, is competent." (29:20)

"Berjalanlah di (muka) bumi, Maka perhatikanlah bagaimana Allah menciptakan  (manusia) dari permulaannya, kemudian Allah menjadikannya sekali lagi (Allah membangkitkan manusia sesudah mati kelak di akhirat). Sesungguhnya Allah Maha  Kuasa atas segala sesuatu " (29:20)

Up next. Hello Sydney!

Down Under Adventure #Pre-prologue -Hard Work Pays-

Hard work pays

It’s been approximately 3 weeks since I landed in Malaysia from my Sydney trip. I was actually so close to not posting anything about it simply because I’m too lazy to, until I noticed quite a number of friends still wished to listen to my babbles and rattles. What a surprise. But please, don’t expect so much. Please anticipate, and I’ll try to write the best travelogues I could! I have yet to grasp what writing styles should I use (as to make things interesting) is one thing. Plus I’m in the middle of digging all the related folders on my lappy just to recall what have we done in Aussie; tentative, places, pics etc. Maybe the following entries would be more pictorials rather than wordy. After all just enjoy what’s left in my memory that I got to jot down.

USIM Internalization Program to Australia. It’s an annual faculty program for 3^rd year students. Don’t be too excited now, having it titled under our faculty program doesn’t make it free though. We still need to pay for the expenses. Our previous batches went to Egypt, Jordan and China but my batch on the other hand wanna plan for something more extravagant than that so that was when Australia came into the picture.

I’m second in line after the director; Hafiz (self credit heh) worked on the proposal, papers and planning over a year along with all the committees. The dilemma about it was the hardship to juggle things up including the studies. Apparently when you have to accommodate your timetable with you dean’s just to have meetings with him every now and then, calling up companies searching for potential sponsors. Among the regular faces that went to-and-fro the admin office (pengalaman kena marah dengan dekan because I didn’t do things properly T_T), well the good thing about it was I bet even the receptionist recognized me now.

We did anything we could to raise as much fund.

Car boot sale

Recycles! We're going green!

Weekly DimSum selling

Selling booth during occasions

Carwash services for lecturers and students

Futsal amal

And keep calling from company o company

Special tributes to everyone who contributed for the fund raising, all the sweats only Allah can pay that :’)

Alhamdulillah.

To keen juniors who’re curious how much we spent on this trip per head, it’s RM 4K, for 7 days; including hotel, transportation and foods. But since we were able to raise fund up till more than RM30K, so technically we each only need to pay 3000++.

*pesanan penaja: to all juniors, sila berusaha keras untuk cari sponsorship*

Up next. The prologue :)

Ps: Curi 2 gambar dari blog Cik Aiman. Hehe

Pss: Gambar lain rembat kat Mr.Google je.

Pss: Now that I've started the entry, I should make sure the sequels is coming right after! =="