vet orientation 2012

They told us to "hit the ground running" from day one of uni. But what "hit the ground" most to me was rediscovering the meaning and value of friendship during orientation. A new class full of 120 strangers but now friends. People from all over the world - Japan, Singapore, Melbourne, Canada, Macau, Sydney, Hong Kong, America - you name it. These people are/will definitely be friends for life and there really is no better feeling than to belong and have fun together. 

(thanks for the picture Derniese) Enjoying lunch at Bon Beach Cafe - my smoked salmon foccacia was YUMMY 

Steve the Crocodile marks the beginning of a zoo beach. We should be art students. 

Not-To-Scale Whale is also happy to be beached (lol)

just the girls :) 

Charles and i representing our oweek polos at Melbourne Zoo :) This was before the wildlife vet gave a talk on how to artificially inseminate elephants (result: the baby elephant people went crazy over 2 years ago at melb zoo) 

the lazy meerkat. FLOP 

Doing the scavenger hunt in Amazing Race style - road blocks and all. 

HAHA can you see the two butterflies making out xDDDD we all took turns taking pictures with them LOL

obese frogs. LOL 

LOLL... i'm pretty sure there's a photo of everyone with this butterfly too haha 

Looking extremely attractive in the wind. 

Uni starts tomorrow and my mum just gave me a glass of champagne since dad and his friends didn't want anymore....hehe. I guess it's cheers to being a "first year" again and hopefully an extremely rewarding year despite its challenges. 

And now i need to pack my backpack....... 

Edit: was late to first day of uni and tripped over twice and scraped my knee pretty bad. the weather was insane with too much rain and it was unbelievably humid. and we learned about teeth. 

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In a really foul mood. Great. 

early or late

- Make new friends

- Learn how to Dutch Braid my hair

- Do a fishtail plait 

- Dye my hair lighter (dark chocolate auburn) or keep the perm. I don't want to overkill my hair

- Go out more but with different people

- Fix my stupid msn LOL
- Start reading again. (Right now it's "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" - Muriel Barbery and i can't put it down)
- Stud my denim shorts

- Become so good at driving to Werribee that i can drive in my sleep.

- Learn something new everyday
- Make those detachable collars

- Get a new job
- Wear more red, baby pink, tan, white and teal. Less blue, black, grey and did i mention blue? 

- Swim at least once a fortnight
- Wear more of my wardrobe and admit that mustard is an okay colour. Sometimes. But will still avoid orange. 

- Continue to walk for 1 hour everyday
- Dip dye my denim shorts/shirts

- Learn a new chinese word/phrase everyday. Yesterday i learned how to say "profitable" in canto (jan). 

- Save money  

I think i'm ready to grow up this year. I don't know - with a new uni course and turning 20 soon, I think this little tadpole is ready to become a real frog now. 

Food? You're my Valentine :D

Hello :D I am back with an epic post so i hope you enjoy the photos just as much as we enjoyed our Valentine's day! I think yesterday was like any normal date but we were definitely more adventurous with our choice of food. And it took us 5 hours to buy two things which meant that we didn't have any time left to try out some Argentinian and Malaysian ice cream on Lygon Street!!!!!!! boo 

 First up was lunch at Heirloom - a French and Japanese inspired restaurant on Bourke Street (next to elaine's dinner thing actually LOL). Lunch was surprisingly reasonable ($14-25/head) but expect to pay around $35 minimum for dinner (Valentine's Day 5 course degustation was $95/head. Imagine the bigger courses... LOL) 

Okay, so this is the Teriyaki Salmon with Potato Mash and Mushrooms and it also came with rice, salad, miso soup and seaweed salad.

 I think the highlight of this salmon dish was the sauce. I found the potato mash by itself too bland but it was amazing with the sauce :D 

Yay sushi! You can never have enough sushi hehehehe and this was part of my main. They also ordered sushi for our staff meeting tonight which was a big surprise since they usually order pizza... :D 

Now this is the Prawn and Parsnip Karkiage Udon Noodle Set :D Not bad but i think i've eaten too much udon lately... getting sick of it. 

We also ordered Chrysanthemum Tea and Lemon Squash. 

My feet really killed throughout the day... I NEVER KNEW WOODEN CLOGS WERE THAT UNCOMFORTABLE. My toes got blisters and the base of my feet got weird lumps... So this picture was after we spent about 5 hours shopping for just two things LOL (yes we decided to shop for each other's presents on the day xD) and it felt so good to kick my shoes off heheheeh

If you have the opportunity to splurge on something new then try the Spanish Tapas bar MoVida Next Door opposite Federation Square. I was EXTREMELY excited to finally eat here after reading so many reviews about it and i will definitely be coming back when my wallet is happy again (aka special occasion...). I've never had Spanish food before so this was the best time to literally try anything we thought sounded/looked good. 

Smoked Eel with Creme Fraiche in a Potato Chip (REALLY GOOD) 


It opens at 5pm for dinner so when we got there at 7pm we were told to wait around 30minutes to be seated. However, they would slowly move you from the door to the bar for some drinks and then to your table. Since Farn and i had no clue how to read a Spanish drinks menu, we decided on The Kransky (tequila, pink grapefruit, lemon & basil) and a lemon lime bitter. Hurray for no booze buses on the way home :DDDD 

Garlic Prawns 

Anyway, the whole idea of tapas is to order a wide variety of small snacks and focus more on the conversation instead of just the one meal. Each snack cost about $7-22 and the whole point is to order as you go. But despite the actual menu being written in English, the daily specials on the board were in Spanish and therefore required a waitress to describe what each of them were. However, Farn and i got so lost in all the descriptions that we forgot what was what and ended up pointing at other people's food and going "What is that? Did you say there was ____? Okay we'll have that" HAHA.  

Quail Escabache with Lardo and Tostoda


I've never had quail like this before. Pickled and pink in the middle, this dish reminded me very much of a gourmet bruschetta. And i can't believe i actually ate a piece of "lardo".... salty yet so so............ fattening @.@

Bomba: Chorizo-filled Potato Bomb (REALLY GOOD) 


Hehehhee i liked this one too! Sigh we would have ordered everything on the menu if it wasn't so expensive. They give you complimentary bread with olive oil too. Our bill came to $95 in the end but it was definitely worth it. 

Eggplant Chips with really nice sauce (Katherine, you will like this) 


I really liked this sauce but i forgot what it's called. They had other snacks like mussels, calamari, steak tartare etc too :) 

Baked Citrus and Cinnamon Custard (YUM. TRY THE OTHER DESSERTS TOO) 


This custard was just like creme brulee! The size and sight of it was so impressive that the couple next to us gasped "OH MY GOD WE SHOULD'VE GOTTEN THAT INSTEAD" and ended up getting it too after we found out you were meant to crack the top of it with your spoon too :D 

There was a random slideshow of a couple on the screen and after it ended.... a man behind us got down on his knees and proposed to his girlfriend! And then the whole of fed square clapped nawwwwwwwww 


Okay that was an insanely long post and i promise that i love Farn as much as i love food lol xD Thinking about writing less foodie/happy/superficial (?) posts and more about what i really think about again. Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day :) 

penguin

Today i ate half a lamb chop, 2 bowls of Chinese pork, pear and pumpkin soup, 1 bowl of tofu soup, rice, 5 strawberries, 2 pieces of french artisan chocolate, 1 bowl of rice bubbles, 1 rice cracker, 2 slices of toast layered with avocado, cottage cheese and smoked salmon, 1 glass of milk, 2 glasses of water, 1 glass of chocolate soy milk, a piece of fish and a mix of vegetables. Hmmmmmmm LOL fat. 

happy bday elaine :) 

I have work tomorrow... ceebs. Farn and i made dan tart and fried rice the other day before going to Moonlight Cinema at Royal Botanical Gardens :) And it took me an hour to vacuum the whole house today... hehe my carpet feels so soft now wheeeeeeeeee :D

what i have noticed

Coconut: 0   Farn: 1

I can't remember what i've done this whole week but i finally watched Sherlock! Took my car to service and helped mum out at work. One of mum's patients showed me a picture of their 8 week old chihuahua in a macdonalds cup (in the cup holder of the car too LOL)! Too cuteeeeeee.. And I also had to pay $15 for parking one day (fuuuuuuuuuu) and... I had work today. It's too hot to do anything..... I think i had spare ribs one night? And I watched the sound of music last night.... Oh and i've been exercising nearly everyday. If you call brisk walking in the park with the dogs as exercise....  

A glimpse at my semester timetable. The vet faculty hasn't enrolled us in our subjects yet so they gave us an overview to look at. Thursday will be hell since it's 9-5pm at freakn Werribee but at least they kind of gave us a day off on Tuesday.... if i want to wag two classes that day... and most probably will.... hehe 

And i bought myself a pair of Steve Madden wedges :D Currently on sale from $160 to $47 and they come in patent black, nude and coral. 

Why is it so hot.