Hello Canberra #2

ANU at the first glance

Getting up the next morning and we could say "Good morning Canberra!"
How cool was that?!!

Today is the first day of 'O' Week (orientation week), maka bergeraklah kami di pagi hari menuju ke ANU.

We stayed at Reid, thus we need to walk merentasi City dan terus ke ANU in Acton.

Dalam 25 minit berjalan kaki... sampailah ke ANU.

Melilau mata aku melihat keadaan sekeliling, maklumlah baru pertama kali ke negara orang, semuanya terasa asing, terasa janggal...

We've lots of mission today..

First thing is enrollment!

On the way to Melville Hall, jumpa Kak Nadia - selama ni hanya berbalas email dan mendengar nama, akhirnya bersua muka!

Kak Nadia buat pHD dekat ANU ni, same course as me! Biotechnology!

So, before we enroll Kak Nadia bagi la suggestions and advice about what elective subject should me and Umai choose - subject senang score, no essay, no participant in discussion

Based on Kak Nadia suggestions, I'm taking BIOL1009 - Diversity of Life and STAT1003 - Statistical Techniques as elective subjects (setakat ini, insyaAllah tak ada perubahan) alongside BIOL1003 - Evolution, Ecology & Genetics and CHEM1101 - Chemistry 1 as core subjects.

Then taking picture for my student ID!

Commonwealth Bank

Then we all bukak akaun dekat Commonwealth bank, there's a branch around ANU... dekat area Union Courts.

So, tak perlu pergi jauh-jauh~

Oh My Vodafone!

Selesai akaun bank, tibalah masa yang ditunggu-tunggu.

Smart phone!

Dekat sini, most students akan ambil Data Plan. Which means kita bayar a certain amount every month and we'll get a phone either for free or plus a little amount every month - depends on plan and phone model.

For my case....

I took a A$55 per month plan which is A$50 for plan plus A$5 for the smart phone - Samsung Galaxy S3

The plan have A$500 value, 500 MB data. And I choose to have unlimited Voda to Voda calls.

my S3!!

screen protector + casing for A$10

call for Voda to Voda is FREE and unlimited! so...pakailah Voda wahai bakal-bakal Australian sekalian! 

(jangan mengada nak pakai Optus! - bak kata seorang kakak ni~) haha XD

habis semua, jalanlah balik~

shot wajib ambik!

Angin bayu di Commonwealth Park

In the evening, we all pergi jalan-jalan dekat Commonwealth Park.

It's so windy that evening and it felt really cold~~

Kat sini jelah nak rasa golek-golek atas rumput...

Jadi? apa lagi? moh le kita!!

rumput dia tak tajam, memang rasa best jelah baring-baring bagai~

Kakak-kakak tu belanja we all pizzas from I Love New York, pizza dia sangat besar tau!

memang puas makan even seorang satu slice je pun~

One thing we're amazed here...

memandangkan sekarang ni masih summer, so siang lebih panjang...

gambar kat atas ni..actually dah pukul 8pm tau! tapi langit masih cerah~

Menurut Kak Fatima, when it's spring...there'll flower exhibition dekat park ni. Masa tu jelah Commonwealth Park ni penuh dengan orang dan jadi tourist spot.

Tak sabar nak tunggu spring kot!! >.<

Bila masuk maghrib, we all pergi ke satu-satunya masjid yang ada dekat Canberra ni.

Maaf tak ingat dekat area mana...but that place ada banyak bangunan-bangunan High Commision for many countries, including Malaysia~

Alhamdulillah...walaupun masjid tu takdelah besar mana..tapi sangat bersih dan selesa~

we all solat maghrib dulu~

TBC

Hello Canberra #1

Assalamualaikum....
Salam dari Canberra!!
Ecececehhhh.....

First timer's plane ride

My flight from KLIA depart on 10.50pm so dalam 8.30pm dah berada di airport untuk check-in baggage dan sebagainya...

Aku mengalami beberapa babak sedih sebenarnya pada hari bersejarah tu... 

on the way to KLIA, jalan sesak and traffic flow memang sangat slow- there's an accident in front of the Hindu temple dekat jalan berliku-liku tu (the only route from Pekan Sepang to KLIA I guess?)

tapi alhamdulillah sempat sampai ke KLIA dengan selamatnya

(be early for your flight! we never know what'll happen on that very day)

and another one, my baggage overload!

allowed baggage only 20kg, tapi aku punya sampai 35kg apa hal??!!

Terpaksalah hantar balik one of my bag (nasib baik isi dalam tu cuma makanan)

So..moral of the story people? timbanglah baggage you all tu dulu...and make sure tak lebih even 1kg pun! (for safety sake)

yang ada direct flight tu untunglah~~ apply for GRADS card and you'll have 30kg baggage allowance!

Saying goodbye to my family is surely the toughest thing for the whole process

Bila mama dah start babak air mata, adakah ku mampu kekalkan muka 'iron lady'ku?

Tentulah tak....... anak mana yang tak sedih berpisah dengan ibunya jauh beribu batu kan~~

insyi, me and umai

Agak beruntung aku dapat pergi bertiga dengan diorang ni... takdelah sesat ke, gelabah, risau dan lain-lain

It's my first time on plane man! do you expect me to know everything?!

Umai got everything under control...hehehe :D

Tepat pukul 11.00pm, our flight depart from KLIA

"Selamat tinggal Malaysia, jumpa lagi..."

I'm sure we're saying that line in our hearts while the plane go further and further...

meals on the plane - pasta with grilled fish

I like the puding roti the most! ^_^

a few shots before we landed

Hello Sydney

Our flight landed at Sydney tepat pukul 9.30am waktu Sydney (that'll be 6.30am waktu Malaysia

Lepas kastam without any problems, alhamdulillah..elehh..bukan bawak apa pun kan~~

(sedih tinggal makanan kat Malaysia T^T)

Then we went straight to Terminal 3 (got another plane to catch!)

Sesat2 sikit... tapi bila bertanya, dapatlah menuju ke jalan yang benar - malu bertanya sesat jalan tau~~

we're 1 hour early for our plane~

better early than late~

Qantas plane to Canberra

sangat comel kan??

flight comel with stewards yang KACAK! haha XD

cakap "kacak" kuat-kuat depan dia coz dia bukan faham pun~~

hehehehe~

Oh by the way...nama dia Steven! Umai yang bagi tau~ hehe

Umai changed her seat with me, dia taknak duduk sebelah pakcik Australian ni..

So, akulah yang duduk sebelah uncle tu..

Flight to Canberra is a bit bumpy...memang pengalaman yang agak tak bagus untuk first timers macam aku nihh =_=

Nasib baik uncle australian tu baik sangat~~

Bila flight tu macam bergoyang and dia nampak aku macam tak kena je..

he asked "Are you okay?"

"Its okay the flight is always a bit bumpy"

then dia story-story pasal Canberra...

tempat-tempat menarik kat Canberra - he asked me to visit some

cuaca kat Canberra - dia cerita kalau winter sejuk sangat! malam-malam can reach until 0 degree! OMO!

Uncle tu pernah pergi Malaysia tau! Tapi sekejap jelah... he just transit there before catching other flight to London.

Masa tu tahun 1995, airport KLIA tu baru bukak rasanya...

He said he stayed in a hotel near the airport, and dia ingat masa tu kecoh-kecoh pasal Anwar Ibrahim!

Memang isu tu aku tak tahu nak ulas sebab aku pun still kecik lagi time tu kan~

Then, dia puji la layanan kat hotel yang baik and airport KLIA yang cantik tu...

memang best la borak-borak dengan uncle tuhh~

Hello Canberra

50 minutes flight and here we are in Canberra!

Turun je flight aku rasa macam nak muntah.

Macam serik je nak naik flight pergi Canberra ni.. naik train jelah lain kali... =_=

Getting off our flight terus jumpa our seniors~

Kak Fatima and the gang~

Kak Fatima sorang je orang Canberra, yang lain-lain tu come from Sydney and New Castle (visit Kak Fatima and sambut kitorang!)

Sangat baik kakak-kakak ni.... Kak Mariam, Kak Afifah, Kak Izzati, Kak Atikah

Sampai je rumah Kak Fatima, kitorang makan nasi lauk kari ayam~ sedap >.<

(met Rafeeqa & Mira - JPA scholars yang sampai a day earlier than us~)

Orang baru turun flight kan~~ mestilah perut lapar... mata mengantuk (atas flight tidur berapa jam je...)

So..kitorang tidur dulu yehh~~

TBC

Minggu terakhir di Malaysia.....mungkin?

Everything is not confirm yet,
tapi pihak penaja dah telefon and inform that maybe they'll book the flight this Saturday.

Yes, Sabtu ini, 9 Februari 2013.

Memang tak menyangka secepat itu,
yelah... pre-departure briefing baru nak dibuat Jumaat ni
Tak sangka terus fly the next day...

Can't help but expecting an early flight...
We're the earliest starters in our batch pun...

Di samping sibuk dan kecoh dalam persiapan,
kekadang timbul rasa sayu di hati ni...
nak meninggalkan kampung halaman
tanah air
mama ayah
adik-adik
saudara-mara
rakan-rakan

baru mula terasa bahawasanya diri aku ini sememangnya hendak pergi ke tempat yang sangat jauh dari segala familiarity...

Apalah nasib aku dibumi orang...


p/s: today, shopping habis-habisan and enjoying movie (Hansel & Gretel) as our farewell gathering with Alan and Anis.

Singgah rumah Nabil to say my goodbye...

Makan ABC tepi pantai dengan Dayah and Muazz hari tu..

The last person will be kakak, I'm sure I'm gonna get emotional~

Program Semai Mesra 2013 (Day 2)

Oopss... aku terlupa nak tulis hari kedua punya...
ngeh ngeh ngeh

Survival Challenge: 'Who Will Survive?'

After solat Subuh berjemaah, we all lengkap berpakaian sukan for our next activity-Survival Challenge. Hah! part ni memang ada lari-lari sana sini sikit, tu yang aku dok termengah-mengah tu

Most of the activities yang we all must do in each check point ada kait-mengait dengan apa yang disampai dalam sesi semalam.

Kiranya this is more to the practical things.

Lari sambil diikat kaki 
- dua orang diikat kakinya dan bersama dua lagi pasangan di belakang kena lumba berjalan dengan group lain. Akhir sekali we all kena pilih botol-botol yang disediakan.

Protect the bottle
- dalam formasi ulat beluncas we all must protect our group member yang sedang memegang botol, and at the same time... try to snatch the other group's bottle. Amaran, game ini sedikit ganas.

Memorising hadith
- sama macam game passing information, the thing here is we're passing a hadith. Kalau orang last sekali dapat repeat dengan betul..then we all menang!

the hadith is about...hmm..maksud dia lebih kurang macam ni, kalau kita hidup atas muka bumi ni janganlah bersikap sombong dengan orang lain. Sebab lambat laun kita akan perlukan juga bantuan orang lain.

Lari masuk tunnel
- compete with other group, which group paling cepat dapat bahagikan kad bergambar about important things and less important things in which each of us kena berlari masuk tunnel.

Antaranya... itulah games yang we all main. tak silap aku... masa 'protect the bottle' tu team Simamora jatuh bergolek tu..
hehehe

The one yang paling aku ingat is ambil wudhuk dengan cara khuf and demonstrasi solat secara duduk (could be done when we're on plane)

Pendek kata...this is the activity yang buat aku takleh bangun lepas balik rumah tu...
wah wah wah..tu lah..koala sangat~ ~

Talkshow

This is more to forum style.
Ada ahli-ahli panel: two ladies - a geologist and a .... (maaf aku tak ingat)
and two gentlemen : a doctor and an engineer

Mostly the panels talk about their experience masa belajar dekat overseas, you know about communication problems, how to accept the differences in culture, godaan nafsu semua

Macam seorang kakak geologist tu cerita...
dia ikut satu trip to somewhere for studying purpose, and nak cerita she's the only muslim in that group.
And then when there's a party to celebrate kiranya kejayaan diorang mencapai purpose of that study trip

sorang-sorang mat saleh tu pegang segelas wine or other kind of liquor, mereka bercakap pasal jenis liquor mana yang lebih sedap. Then, terdetik kat hati kakak tu "Eh, apa yang sedap sangat tu? meh sini aku nak rasa sikit". Tapi Alhamdulillah kakak tu tak teguk setitik pun... Allah jaga dia ni kot...

The point is, that kind of thing mungkin jadi juga dekat kita kan? Mungkin terdetik rasa ingin tahu yang kuat tu...So, we must be strong and know our batas-batas diri. Sentiasa ingat which is haram and which is halal.

Sesi penutup

Tak perlu cerita banyak la...
majlis penutup seperti biasa...

menyanyi lagu "Semai Mesra"

Then, after sesi bergambar dan makan tengah hari..kami pun bersurai

Itu sahaja
Wasalam.

Ada yang nak Muslim Guide versi PDF? Silakan mendownloadnye ye~
[Download] Muslim Guide to Australia and New Zealand

p/s: this week is the last week I'm working..
ouhh..agak sedih sedikit.

Program Semai Mesra 2013 (Day 1)

Assalamualaikum.
Alhamdulillah, Sabtu & Ahad lepas selesai sudah aku follow program kegilaan ramai (kegilaan??) bakal-bakal flyers to Australia/New Zealand

Atas permintaan ramai, maka aku kongsikanlah pengalaman aku sepanjang program berlangsung.
("permintaan ramai" tu gimik jer...haha)

On the way to Kuala Kubu Bharu

Agak confuse juga nak cari Ampang Pecah Training Center ni (surf google map tak jumpa wo!)
Berpandukan arah yang ditunjukkan pakcik aku yang duduk area Rawang (kira dekat-dekat dengan KKB, so dia tahulah jalan-jalan dekat situ kan~) akhirnya berjumpa jugaklah tempatnya walaupun ada salah masuk jalan beberapa kali. Hehehe

Ampang Pecah Training Center, Kuala Kubu Bharu

Aku pernah ke sini untuk i-PRO Khas suatu masa dulu, memang menggamit memori lah~
Memori masuk hutan, solat dalam hutan, memori berakit, rakit hampir karam dalam tasik, memori Lin kena birthday prank! Hahaha. Lin pun cakap dia takkan pernah lupa memori tu.
Glad to meet again some of the Ausmatians! This should be a small scale reunion I guess *happy*happy*

Selesai mendaftar dapatlah a file (which contains some quiz & evaluation papers, muslim guide, chocolate) a T-shirt and some snacks.

Ice breaking

We played a few simple indoor games and make some performance.
(Dapat dengar suara merdu Lin nyanyi wo!! bakat terpendam!)

A ta'aruf session kan. Biasalah... just played around a bit to get to know each other.

First activity, we're divided into negeri asal masing-masing, then with group members, we need to think of a 3 minutes sketch to promote negeri masing-masing~

orang-orang selangor dok promote Selangor!

I'm in KLIA section! haha XD

'Tagging' game~ siang-siang lagi dah kalah dah~

Standing in The Eyes of the World

The speaker for this session is kak Amie Sofia.
Katanya dia ni personaliti TV Al-Hijrah & pemenang satu program realiti ni

Seorang graduan Universiti Al-Azhar. Sangat cantik orangnya~

She talks about how to be a unique person, someone who suit to be 'standing in the eyes of the world'

She speaks a lot about 'peribadi muslim'.

How to be a muslim yang betul-betul berkeperibadian muslim yakni memiliki 10 ciri-ciri:

1) Akidah yang sejahtera

2) Ibadah yang sahih

3) Akhlak yang mantap

4) Luas pengetahuan

5) Sihat tubuh badan

6) Mampu berdikari

7) Melawan nafsu

8) Sangat menjaga masa

9) Tersusun urusannya

10) Bermanfaat pada orang lain

Aku suka masa dia cerita pengalaman dia di Gaza,
She told us that dekat Gaza sana, dia jumpa satu pasukan pejuang Palestine yang diberi nama Briged Al-Qassam. Diorang semua pakai topeng macam ninja, tutup muka belaka.
Nevertheless, she felt Briged Al-Qassam tu sangat-sangatlah handsome.
How can you say that when you never saw their faces??

Then she told us.

Untuk jadi anggota Briged Al-Qassam they all must perform subuh prayer secara berjemaah, everyday, selama 6 bulan berturut-turut, tanpa ponteng walau sekali pun!
And they're all penghafaz-penghafaz Al-Quran.

MashaAllah. Handsome kan? Tiba-tiba aku pun rasa diorang tu handsome sangat-sangat!

And so banyak lagilah yang dia cerita, about how to be someone yang betul-betul stand out from the others.

Money Matters

Selesai pasal peribadi, let's talk about money~

The next speakers is a Jurutera Wang. Encik Mursyidi Mohd.

 

A Petronas engineer, graduated from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Checkout his website

Basically he gave advice about financial. How to manage our finance starting from now, supaya kita tak jadi one of those belia yang diisytihar muflis akibat bebanan loan rumah, kereta, kad kredit dan sebagainya.

He talks a lot about SAVING.

SAVE before you spend.

make sure your expenses DO NOT EXCEED your income

RECORD every penny that you spend for future reference

Mostly things that I've done all this time, but I'm not taking it more seriously.

Selalu sangat tergelincir dari landasan jugak.

Maybe I should strictly follow these rules from now on.

He talks about ways to become RICH! (my favourite topic! *mata bersinar*)

He said that we should make a financial plan for ourselves from the day we start to received our study income (biasiswa sponsor tu) until we retired, and sampailah kita pergi menemui Ilahi. Semua tu kena rancang starting from now!

Masterchef Musafir

No, no. Unfortunately tak ada personaliti masterchef untuk slot ni. Haha.

Basically aktiviti riadah sahaja. We need to play some games.

Ada 6 check point, and we need to solve some task for each check point in order to gain ingredients.

my groupmates!

A very fun game, paling seronok masa game "ulat beluncas". Memang epik tengok team Simamora jatuh berhempap-hempap macam domino. Kesian~

Habis keenam-enam check point, my team (Group 1) dapat tomato slices, timun slices, bread, mayonaise, and boiled eggs (tak dapat black pepper coz we all kalah game straw. Huhuhuhu)

Obviously kena buat sandwich kan? 

So, buatlah sandwich according to creativity (we made 'car sandwiches'!)

ada rupa kereta tak?

Fiqh of Traveller

Malamnya disambung pula dengan talk about sedikit ilmu fiqh.

Minta maaf banyak-banyaklah aku tak ingat nama ustaz yang bagi ceramah tu.

Ustaz ni banyak ingatkan tentang niat. You know, we all yang nak belajar oversea ni kenalah ada niat yang betul, matlamat dan hala tuju, ilmu agama yang cukup.

"Kalau niat tak betul, baik jangan pergi sajalah" macam tulah ustaz tu cakap.

Then, ustaz ada sentuh jugak beberapa part pasal ibadah such as Jamak Tamam.

Jamak Tamam dimana kita menghimpunkan dua solat, dan dilakukan dalam satu waktu.

For example Zohor dihimpunkan dengan Asar dan dilakukan dalam waktu Zohor.

Bezanya Jamak Tamam dengan Jamak Qasar ialah Jamak Tamam tidak melibatkan perjalanan melebihi 2 marhalah dan kita tidak memendekkan rakaat (means we perform full rakaat for both solah)

This Jamak Tamam is strictly for when kita mempunyai kesuntukan waktu yang tak boleh dielakkan. For instance when we're a student nanti, sometimes waktu siang macam lebih pendek kan? then we have exams. Katalah waktu exam tu memakan seluruh waktu Asar, kita tak ada kesempatan nak solat Asar, habis exam je dah maghrib. Then, we should perform Jamak Tamam on waktu Zohor sebelumnya tu.

Dia ada terangkan juga about solat dalam plane and performing wudhu by khuf.

Khuf is when winter, sejuk sangat kan? Kita tak boleh nak buka stokin untuk ambil wudhu coz sejuk sangat (it's freezing man!)

So, we can just 'sapu' sahaja dengan tangan yang basah di atas kaki yang berstokin itu.

But this come with certain syarat

- mesti berwudhu secara sempurna dahulu, sebelum memakai stokin dan berniat khuf

- stokin mesti melebihi paras buku lali

- stokin mesti tebal

- kalau stokin dibuka secara sengaja, maka batal khuf

- jika musafir, khuf sah untuk 3 hari x 5 waktu solat

- jika bukan musafir, khuf sah untuk 1 hari x 5 waktu solat

And he talks more about other things as well. Wallahualam.

Sharing is Caring

I could say, my favourite slot?

Sebab by this session we felt much closer to the seniors and more info we could gain.

We're divided by places such as Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, Victoria, Melbourne, Perth, New Zealand and given seniors from respective venue. 

Sayangnya Canberra tak ada langsung senior yang turun padang, dahlah kitorang cuma ada tiga orang yang aim Australian National University (ANU) (aku, Umai dengan Insyirah bertiga je), 

memang rasa macam loner sangat lah~

Last-last kitorang kena gabung dengan Sydney punya group, since Sydney is the state nearest to Canberra.

Bolehlah daripada tak ada langsung kan~

Memang in this session senior cover banyak benda. From airport pick-up, rumah, food, furniture, sampailah beli kereta. Bak kata seorang abang tu, memang lenjan senior dengan questions and whatnots cukup-cukuplah.

Banyak sangat benda dapat tahu, daripada aku yang blur semacam je..jadi cerah mata memandang. Tapi sayang masa macam pendek sangat. Sekejap jer dah 11.30 pm. masa untuk 'kembara mimpi'lah~

to be continued....

picture credit: Fairuz Izyan & Google

p/s: esok mula my first job ever!

excited + nervous = taktau nak cakap pa dah!