The Falafel Story

Before I went to Melbourne, Gloria was telling me about the "falafel". I had no idea what it was.
Gloria: Carissa, it's so good! You have to try it when you're there! It's healthy food. You can choose vegetables and anything you want, and then they'll wrap it up in some kind of bread for you.
Me: Is it sold in Malaysia?
Gloria: Yeah... but the ones over there are so much nicer!!

So, in Melbourne, I was telling Ming and Jen that I wanted to try the "falafel".
Jen: Huh?? What's that?
So I repeated what Gloria told me.
Jen: Er, isn't that also called a wrap?
Me: No. It's a falafel. I think it's different from wraps.

We didn't find my "falafel". But throughout my stay there, I'd been eating a lot of wraps. Chicken wraps, tuna wraps, etc. Then one day, as I was coming out of Melbourne Uni, I saw a shop across the road with a large signboard saying: KEBAB & FALAFEL

So, I quickly walked to the front of the shop and peered through the window. This was it! The only shop that seemed to have FALAFEL! But then I glanced at the menu and saw a picture of a wrap beside the word "Falafel". And yes, it turned out that falafel is just a fancy name for "wrap". They're the same thing! O.o So much for my ridiculous Falafel hunt.

PS: I googled the pictures for "falafel" and "wrap".

Falafel

Wrap

LOL.

Melbourne in 3 Weeks!

The timing was perfect. I booked a two-way ticket to Melbourne for only Rm576! Including the meals, baggages and other stuff, the total amount was RM796. Still, it was really cheap :)



I was really excited to be flying off on my own to a foreign land that I'd never visited before. But I despised the long 8-hour ride on the plane. Air Asia isn't exactly known for its comfort; it's always known for being affordable. So who am I to complain about the narrow aisles and lack of space? I sat beside an elderly Vietnamese couple who have been based in Melbourne for over 20 years, and they could speak English pretty well. They were really nice. Right before we landed in Melbourne, they kept feeding me food from their bag. I don't know how they brought the food in, because Air Asia has this "NO OUTSIDE FOOD/DRINKS" policy on their plane.

The pretty view from my window :)

The food that they served on the plane was bad. I wasn't planning to eat throughout the 8-hour journey, but unfortunately my tummy was grumbling by dinnertime, so I had to buy something. I bought a Penne Pasta Bolognaise for RM12... and it looked like this.

It tasted like dried plastic and bland tomato. Eww.

We reached Melbourne at 11.30pm (Melbourne's time), which meant 9.30pm Malaysian time. The city at night was a glistening pool of gold and silver lights. It was breathtakingly awesome. Too bad I wasn't able to capture the real view from the plane, because the colors turned out different.

The couple beside me knew that it was my first time in Melbourne, so they told me to be prepared because it was going to be very cold. I wasn't worried about the cold. I was wearing a black sweater and jeans and a scarf. How cold could it get anyway, right?

Well when I stepped out of the airport, I thought I was stepping into a freezer.
The wind was blowing from every direction. And it wasn't the ordinary breeze that blows in Malaysia. The post-winter wind in Melbourne was ghastly. I started shivering within seconds.
Even the scarf and sweater weren't enough to keep me warm.

Jen, Evan and Ming came to pick me up from the airport. Evan drove me back to their place. And did I mention that Ming has such an adorable little dog?!

Little Snoopie!
Teddy-dog.

Snoopie's a real darling. Everyone in the family admires him. Sometimes I called him Baby Snoopie. Technically, he's actually older than I am. In doggy years, he's almost 30!
But he has that youthful look, so it doesn't show. =p

Melbourne's a really beautiful place. The suburbs are peaceful and cosy. I just loved the weather there (despite the crazy cold). I liked the bright blue skies and lush green grass. It seemed like a totally different land compared to Malaysia. Malaysian skies are hardly this blue.


Maybe it's due to the fact that Malaysia has more clouds; that explains the gray-white sky in KL.

Throughout the 3 weeks that I was there, I think I was in the city at least twice a week.

View from Julia's apartment. That's only 1/4 of the city.

The city is huge. The whole outlook of it is similiar to Manhattan's, minus the crazy traffic and overcrowded streets. Life in Melbourne moves at a slower pace.



I did a lot of walking when I was there.




That's the public library. It's right outside Melbourne Central. And the white birds perched on the grass are seagulls, apparently. -.- I had a hard time telling the birds apart.

Australian pigeons are like, double the size of Malaysian pigeons. I'd never seen such fat pigeons in my life. And I thought all pigeons were supposed to be tiny. LOL.

The first time I reached the train station there, I saw the fat gray birds on the platform and I bluntly went, "Why are there ducks at the train station?"

***I so wished I hadn't said that***

Ming and Jen teased me about that throughout my stay there. Lol.

In Melbourne, I think I spent most of my outings in the city. There were days when I actually did something different, like visiting the beach and the Melbourne Zoo. And then there were days when I checked out a couple of famous universities there.

Time just flew by while I was in Melbourne. 3 weeks felt like 3 days. Literally.

I'll update with more pictures and adventures the next time, because that's not all I have to say about Melbourne. There's plenty more :D

And whoever said Melbourne was boring... well, I guess it depends on what you choose to do when you're there. Haha. Life can get boring anywhere, even in NEW YORK CITY (ranked the most happening city in the world) if you stick to a routines and well-sketched out schedules. I guess that's life. After living in a place for over a week or so, things start to settle in and the excitement fades away. But it's a gradual process. And it happens... to everyone.

Anyway, I'll update soon. Cheers.

...To be continued :)

So...

Dear blog, forgive me for I have neglected thou.

I had the time to blog but I guess I just wasn't "feeling it" so I postponed my blogging session until now. Well, I'm gonna post up some pictures about Melbourne soon, so bear with me :) The rest will be on Facebook.

I haven't been doing much except going out with friends, eating, watching movies and today, I made an effort to learn how to drive again. My parents are my driving instructors this time.

I will be applying for University of Melbourne on Monday. Gotta head back to high school first to collect the English 1119 cert, then go to college to finish the application process. I don't know about USA yet. I've been searching for universities for over a year and I still haven't felt the peace for any of them! It's so weird because I used to think that my ideal dream was to study in the USA. Ah well, dreams change don't they?

Earlier this week, I was out with June and Vivian and we tried archery. It was my first time, and I sucked. I thought I was aiming correctly, but when I released the string, the arrow went in the wrong direction :( It even flew to the board next door. Ewww. So uncool. But I'm not giving up on it. I think archery's quite fun. I just need to master the techniques and soon, I won't be shooting at other people's boards.

We went back to her place and drank Vodka with 7Up. I drank 3 glasses and I wanted to sleep. It was 4am already! None of us got drunk. I'm pretty sure I didn't.

And the other day I was out with Adrian, Joey and Charles to celebrate a little birthday dinner for Charles. The guy just turned 21 :)


Have a good weekend! I'll try to :)

Irreplaceable

Life's good.
I like it here, but that hasn't stopped me from missing my friends and family.

And I especially miss my two best friends. The girls who've been with me throughout high school and college. The wonderful duo who filled my life with joy and randomness.

I've been missing them soooo much since I came here.

Vivian, the one who has an amazing smile and has never failed to encourage me and support me throughout everything.

June, the sweet babe who always has my back, and like Vivian, has always been there for me whenever I needed her.

They're two girls whom I've shared the past 6 years of my life with. We've been through a lot as friends, and seen each other through the good times and the bad ones.

You both mean the world to me, and I'm grateful for our friendship :)
I love you loads.

With love,
Carrie.

Melbourne

Hello people! I've been MIA for a whole week. I got here on Monday night after an 8-hour flight. The flight was a little boring and the plane food basically sucked. Anyway, I reached Melbourne at 11pm (9pm Malaysian time) and was greeted by my wonderful boyfriend at the airport. We stepped out into the chilly Australian night... winter was coming to an end, but it was still like 10'C or something.

I've been living in Malaysia all my life. For 19 years, I've basked in hot sun and humidity. So when I came here, I couldn't adapt to the fresh new season. Winter's really cold here. It gets as low as 10'C sometimes. I was shivering all night! I didn't pack any winter clothes (didn't have any) because people told me that Melbourne wasn't going to be that cold. Yeah right. It's an icebox here.

I just need to get used to the weather.

I took lots of pictures. A LOT of pictures.
Time flies so fast when I'm here. I still remember how I used to wish for time to pass quickly when I was in Malaysia. And now that I'm here, I can't help hoping for time to pause every now and then. My boyfriend and his family live in Melbourne and for the past 7 months, we've been doing our best to sustain this long distance relationship. It wasn't easy, but we pulled through and I'm finally here with him :)

So far, I've been to the city, the beach, and some interesting restaurants. I've been eating a lot of yummy food! Oh, today I went to check out Monash University at Clayton. I met up Charis Wong! She took me to this cool ice cream shop in the suburbs where ice cream is served with toppings of your choice; you can pick M&Ms, Tim Tams, Cadbury chocolates, Maltesers, Gummy Bears and much more. Then they'll mash it into your ice cream and tada!!! - new flavor ;)

Tomorrow I'll be checking out RMIT and Melbourne Uni. I don't know if I'm gonna further my degree in Melbourne. I've always wanted to go to USA and I was pretty sure about it. Then I came here and somehow, being here has affected my decision. Melbourne is a nice place. The people are friendly, the weather is pretty nice, the clothes are awesome!, there are lots of varieties in food, and it's a peaceful place. Life here is much more relaxed compared to life in Kuala Lumpur. In KL, everything was fast-paced. Over here, people tend to take things slowly.
I think a lot of people would like it here.

The cost of living in Melbourne as an international student is pretty high. Things here aren't really dirt cheap, you know. =( When I came here, I kept converting the prices in my head and my boyfriend said, "You shouldn't convert because if you keep converting, you're not going to buy anything." He was right. When I stopped converting, I couldn't stop shopping. =p Haha but anyway I haven't done a lot of shopping yet.

The food's awesome.
I ate Krispy Kreme donuts for the first time!

I ate "Xiao Long Pao" for the first time too.

I tried the deliciously rich ice creams at Il Dolce Freddo, Lygon Street. I think all Melbourners know this place.

"Tomodachi" (crepes with ice cream) at Harajaku/Ichipan are simply addictive!

Vietnamese noodles at Footscray are probably the yummiest noodles ever :) I like them more than Pan Mee! Hehe.

Even the Indomie here is quite different from the normal one in Malaysia. They have Spring Onions here :P

Salted popcorn beats caramel popcorn anytime!!

And there's so much more. Will update in a few days =)
Winter ended yesterday. AMEN!

It's warmer than usual now, but sometimes it still gets pretty cold.


I'm having a good time here. :)

I miss you all back there !!!