OSIP

Orientation

Queensland University of Technology 

Second day at Brisbane and Mr Nelson already arranged to meet us at 810am at our house to bring us out!

Not really. The morning was spent bringing us to our respective 'school' and introducing us to our supervisor.
He came to our house at 810am in the morning and drove us to the Kelvin Grove campus.

Ok, first let me give you a brief introduction.
There is a total of 2 QUT campus here in Brisbane - Kelvin Grove (20mins walk from our house) and Garden's Point.
The place where I will be 'working' at is Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), in Kelvin Grove.
On the other hand, Rina and Shalom would be 'working' at the Garden's Point campus.
And between these 2 campus, it is not near, not even walking distance. But, there's free shuttle bus back and forth.

Mr Nelson drove us to Kelvin Grove campus and from there, we took the free shuttle bus to Garden's Point campus.

This is the go-card we bought from the campus's bookshop. Its like Singapore's EZ-link card.

We did not use this to take the free shuttle bus. We'd be using our staff ID instead, which is processing.

Btw, I learnt that in Australia, everyone thank the bus driver before getting down the bus! So polite!

The Garden's Point campus is right beside the river and during the January flood, the campus was flooded to level 3.

On the bridge to walk across the river. The other side is called South Banks, the city area.

The view of QUT building from the river.

This, is where Rina and Shalom would be working in.

They met their supervisor and got an introduction of their project. Which sounds alien to me, all the IT jargon.

The school is full of historical sites! Like this used to be a museum or something I can't remember.

But their structure is so nice! Check out the pretty purple tree again. They're all over the place. Hearts.

Taking the shuttle bus back to Kelvin Grove campus when we saw their local police car.

Wah, like so chio and stylo-milo only (?) Lolol.

I think this is the casino or something. There's a bus interchange right at the bottom of the casino.

Back at Kelvin Grove campus and here's their local supermarket right smack in the middle.

Its right opposite IHBI building where I work! So apparently, Woolworth's just 20mins walk from our home.

But fret not, since I'll be coming here every Mon to Fri, I can help buy the groceries after work or during breaks!

A snap of their classy student centre.

Look at their shuttle bus, full of motivation for the QUT students. I saw one which says

"The bus stops. But students here don't."

I was supposed to meet my supervisor but since we're still early, Mr Nelson brought us around to look-see.

This is supposed to be the Design building.
Mr Nelson said it used to be a horse stable. And they still kept the structure.

Another building for the other faculty - Creative Industry.

Next we walked to the library. It was said to be newly renovated. 

We went in to settle some of our staff ID issue and the receptionist told us to walk up to have a look.

Lo and behold...

LOOK AT THE CEILING OF THE LIBRARY!!!

Look closer, it was made of story books arranged in the order of the colour spectrum! Beautiful.

After the library, it was almost time for me to meet my supervisor. I was a little nervous but excited.

But, I was told that my supervisor, Dr Peter Molenaar, is a very busy person. He is NEVER seen around the area as he is always in Prince Charles Hospital doing tissue samples etc. 

So, I was introduced to a lady instead, she is a member of the research team I'll be attached to.

She is a Malaysian and she is currently doing this research as a job.

She showed me around the building and brought me up to the lab where I'll be working in.

I was flabbergasted when I went into the lab. I was expecting the lab to be big and spacious, neat and tidy.

But when I went in, I thought "Is this an office?". 

There are rows and rows of benches and things were cluttered all over the place! But the place looks clean though.

Aftermath she brought me to the office and showed me my desk. 

Apparently, I am the only person in the office. Cos other's office were upstairs.

Which is kinda good cos its less stressful for me. Imagine sitting with all the other working adults. *pukes!*

To show you guys how the locals pay for their parking. Its like what we see on TV. 

They will park their car, go to this machine and pay, then put the receipt on their windscreen.

It was lunchtime, so Mr Nelson bought us to Nando's for lunch. Which was right round the corner.

He said he find it ridiculous when he see the queue for Nando's is so long in Singapore.

He said Nando's can be found everywhere in Australia. Its like the Macs in Singapore -.-"

But I've never tried it before :/

We had a piece of chicken each with different level of spiciness. I had mild and it's spicy enough.

Also, we had 2 large bowls of peri-peri fries. When I say large, its really LARGE!

While eating this irritating bird keep walking around our table waiting for our food.

In Australia, this bird is very commonly seen around. Its like the pigeons in Singapore.

Oh btw, Nelson also introduced us to a few students from Singapore who are currently studying in QUT.

They're from the Singapore Student Association (SSA). Mr Nelson treated all of us to Nando's.

Aftermath, we all took the shuttle bus back to Garden's Point campus, where the city is just 10mins walk away.

Faith, a student from SSA, brought us to the city to open a ANZ bank account as Mr Nelson had to rush off.

A bunch of people walking around in weird costumes so we took a photo with them.

Hungry Jacks, which is our Burger King.
It was said that Burger King could not be used here in Australia for God knows what reason.

Faith introduced us to this bubbletea shop in the city - Hazel Tea Shop.

The shaker thingey that shook so hard, the entire floor vibrates.

I bought Milk Tea with Coffee Jelly - AUD$5.

Its supposed to be $5.50 cos toppings cost $0.50. But Faith has their card so topping's free.

It taste really good. Comparable to Taiwan's standard. And the coffee jelly's good too.

3 of us with the Casino.

With Faith.

Faith has to go for her gym classes and we had to go back to meet Mr Nelson at our house at 630pm.

So we went back home on our own and we're so glad we managed to find our way back  :D

Did I mention? The way back to our house is suuuper hilly. We've to walk lots of ups and downs.

And they're all super steep ttm! Take a look for yourself. Seeing it alone makes you wna die.

When we got back, we rested a little and packed a little while waiting for Mr Nelson to arrive.

Once he's here, he brought us our to Sunny Banks where there's lots of Asian restaurant and supermarket.

First we went to the Yuan's Supermarket to get our desperate Asian stuff like luncheon meat. Lolol.

Other stuff includes spring onions, yellow noodles, wanton etc etc etc.

After our grocery shopping, we walked next door to a Taiwan restaurant and just settled our dinner there.

Check out their first item - Salt and Pepper TAN BU LARS?? I thought is Tempura??

My dinner! Taste yummy! :p

After dinner, Mr Nelson drove us back home and we have 2 surprise when we got home...

One spider on our couch.

Another giant spider on the wall in the living room. Which ran into my room in attempt to kill it.
In the end, we managed to kill it. Phew!

Start work tomorrow!

P/S; Photo credits to Faith, Rina and Shalom!