Life in Perth: Part 1

Coming from Kuching, a small town in Malaysia, I consider myself lucky having the opportunity to travel and study overseas. I went, I saw, but sadly, I never conquered Perth.

Veni, Vedi... err.. "no" Vinci??

Since my dear friend Jason gave me a good advice along with his birthday greetings on how I should reflect my years of existence, I shall reflect on my life in Perth. What better way there is to celebrate Christmas, my Birthday (26th Dec) and to end the year all at once than to look back and relive those irreplaceable times spent and lost?

Perth City view from the South Highway

I have been studying in Perth for one and a half year now, 3 semesters to be exact, and I find myself somehow attached to the life there. Knowing there are plentiful to share about my life there, I shall break my posts down to several separate but continuous parts. In this first part, I shall focus solely on my first semester in Perth, which was in the duration of June 2004 - November 2004.

Lets kick off with the bad experience. On my arrival, I was stood up by a regretfully unwilling and inconsiderate personfriend from hometown who promised to greet me and my course mates that went along with me to Perth, but he purposefully slept his way through and meet us three hours later. I had to deal with the lonesomeness and alienated by the strange new environment, with miserable 5 degrees of cold morning winter temperature. I would have screwed him left right front back I was so enthusiastic and excited to meet him, coming all this way from Kuching meeting an old hometown friend, but inopportunely it was the exact opposite in his mind. Obviously, not everything went well when I settled in, but in the end, no major disaster happened. Thankfully.

Winthrop Hall, University of Western Australia, Perth

Academically I thought I was doing well, but again, I was proven wrong. Somehow I find it rather difficult to adapt to the expectations and educational systems in The University of Whores and AssholesUniverity of Western Australia (UWA). Those bloodsucking jerks and evil morons UWA teaching staff (lecturers + tutors) were unreasonably stingy in their marking and more than often marked us down, demoralizing and discouraging us to work harder. No matter how much hard effort we put into our assignment and projects, all we get in return would be crappy marks. I knew from then on that life in UWA would be tough, and getting through the finals would be like doom for real. maybe if I had treated the lecturer to the luxurious restaurant and slid AUD20000 under the table… my life would be easier It was seriously a miracle for me to survive the first semester, and there are still times I wonder how I did.

Perth City View and Swan River, from King's Park

Socially, my life sucked. I was surrounded by many types of people in Perth.

1. People that I liked and wanted to hang out with, but they did not seem to be interested in me and did not want to hang out with me.

2. People that I did not want to get anywhere near 100 miles radius, but they were always within one arms reach.

3. People that I truly cared about and treasured, but they saw me as just another ordinary person with nothing special.. and just.. sadly plain

4. People whom I hated so much and would just KILL them if only killing is legal in Australia.

5. People that saw me as a normal friend, and I saw them as normal friends too.

6. People that are super-KIASU. (hokkien slang)

7. People that I considered truest of friends, yet I was constantly LEFT BEHIND.

Half a year, and I do not have a close Ang-Mo friend. Yeah, we do mix around and hang out, but nothing more than casual. That’s mainly due to the fact that I already have a steady going group of friends, mostly from my hometown studying and living together in Perth. Everything went fine until… those morons starting to show their true ugly horrible colors me and some innocent friends were LEFT BEHIND. Yeah, being left behing sucks big time. Being left behind is so depressing, especially by the person whom you thought you are close friends with. I would not claim this as entirely a bad experience. We learn about people more from each experience we shared with them. The only regret I have now was not being able to see through all those depression and LEAVE them all BEHIND in return. I guess my balls were no where as huge as Kenny Sia’s Giant Coconut Balls to do just that. I treasure friendship more than anything. But sadly, many people do not agree with that value in me. Its painful losing friends. It hurts like hell, still.

King's Park

Mathilda bay and the white boats

Despite all that, I like Perth. I love Perth. I would give anything just to go back there now. Life is slow and peaceful there. There is no traffic jam. The air, water, streets and the grasses are impossibly clean. Heck, the public toilets in Perth are much sparklingly shinier and squeakily cleaner than my house toilet there. The standard of life is just incredibly comfortable and relaxed. Water is deep blue, sky is mostly clear, and the grass is green. Weather is unbelievably pleasant, dry and cool throughout spring and autumn. Sceneries in Perth are nothing less than breathtaking. Life in Perth is just simply wonderful. Just walk along King’s Park, or check out the hot babes in bikini watch sunset at Cottesloe Beach, and do some illegal fishingcanoeing in Mathilda Bay… Nature may not be at its best, but it simply is worth living for. Unfortunately due to limited budget and time constraint, I did not manage to go to many places in Perth in my first semester there. The following are the places I have visited: Fremantle, Subiaco, Harbor Town, Cottesloe Beach, Carousel, Garden City, Perth City and Northbridge, Perth Showground (Perth Royal Show), South Perth, Mathilda Bay, King’s Park, and Claremont.

Cottesloe Beach, WA

Carousel Shopping Mall

I love the food there as well. Simply love Gelato… the ice cream. Gosh… they have all sorts of flavors, freshly produced from real ingredients, the ice creams in Gelato or Gelare are heavenly tempting.

Heavenly ice-cream.... syiok nya !!!

I simply adore the pizza there… nothing beats Broadway pizza !!! The toppings are fuller, the cheese is thicker, the crusts are fresher and tastier. Obviously one main important ingredient is PORK, with bacon and ham in pizza, gosh.. its just scrumptiousThe pizzas in Perth, Broadway Pizza particularly, are just irreplaceable. Ask Chun Chow, he would convince you thoroughly !!! We agreed that Pizza Hut, Malaysia SUCKS !!!

Broadway Pizza !!!! Yumm...

Frequent dining place for me in Perth would be Northbridge, the China Town. However, the food there is mostly overpriced. Decent asian dishes can be found easily, but nothing spectacularly worth noting.



China Town, Northbridge !!!

All in all, my life over the first semester in Perth was fun, fulfilling, sad, depressing, and meaningful all at the same time. I made some friends, I lost some friends. I have seen new places, and explored beyond the borders of my home country. I have breathed different life, and tasted sweetness and bitterness in it together. I have new food cravings. More importantly, I survived academically, though miraculously. Sadly, I was LEFT BEHIND.

Interestingly, I have fallen in love with Perth.

Side note:
This shall be the ending of the first part of Life in Perth. I will not slot in the next continuous postings immediately, but instead I will come back and resume the part two some other time. I hope this entry gives you readers (those who know me, as well as general readers) some clues about my life and experience. If there are further questions, please feel free to email me personally at hamish7ian@hotmail.com or just kindly drop a comment.