Many students from Singapore who go elsewhere to study go wild. After all, when you’re coming out from an arguably boring Red Dot to places with no parents, less censorship, more freedoms of expression – never understood why this is such a huge thing for some people, but maybe in a different post next time – you should have fun. As long as your grades are still in order, why not let loose a little?
Ironically, I didn’t have the same desires to let loose and have fun. I wonder if it was a case of being older than the average international student from Singapore. Or it was that I wasn’t rolling in money for the program. Or that I’m simply not the naturally adventurous sort.
Either way, I ordered my life in Perth largely to a pretty structured routine. I spent perhaps 95% of my time either at work in my research office on campus, or at home. I had spreadsheets to keep track of the groceries I needed for my meals, and did grocery shopping two to three times a week at one of three places (one was a mini-mart within walking distance, two were supermarkets 5-10 minutes drive away). Occasionally I caught movies, though not often as ticket prices cost about twice that in Singapore. I was teetotaler, so didn’t pub. I didn’t ‘hang out’ with my students, and only on occasion with the other researchers in the office.
Thankfully, the monotony of working-sleeping-back to working routine over the years was broken by visits. Family came by to visit in Nov 2003, and we drove down south to visit the vineyards at Margaret River. Ling came by to visit and stay on two occasions, and there were a few other friends from Singapore whom I caught up with too when they were in the vicinity.
I secured a studio apartment at Farnham Street from 2004 onwards. The picture here is my view out of the window. The house was huge compared to the townhouse from my first year; the ground floor had five bedrooms, and the entire second floor was my apartment. Floor area wise, it was about the size of a two room flat in Singapore. Heck; much of my apartment was bare: there was simply more space than I needed.
I had comparatively better housemates at my second home from 2004 onwards too. It helped that the house was simply much bigger, so we weren’t in each other’s hairs at all. Oh, I faced the problems of messed up kitchens still, but it was heaven compared to the loud music and persistent smoking from my Beveridge Street home. Interestingly, my housemates weren’t Chinese this time; I had a White South-African, an Indian Singaporean, and Nigerians and other Africans.
I had a bad coughing spell in 2003 though. That was just awful. I coughed (and coughed and coughed) for four months during that winter season. It got to the point where it was painful, as my diaphragm muscles had grown sore as a result of constant contraction and pushing against the chest bones. The bad coughing has returned twice in the last few years in Singapore, but it isn’t so bad now since I know better how to deal with it, and also there’s Ling to help take care of me.:)
Coming soon to the end of this series. The next part: writing the thesis.
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