The world is quickly opening but yet again, I have been finding it hard to make aussie friends. I have simply not have had any chance to! The international student population here's overwhelming. According to Monash stats, 31% of the 55,000 students are from overseas. Well, not too worried as I made fast friends with a translator from Mexico and a biomedical engineer with Anhui, a part of China I knew little about.
The Mexican shared with me much about how the aussie accents just were impossible to catch. Her experience with the British and the Americans gave her little preparations for the extensive heyysss and neusss here. It was so bad she lost her way because she couldn't quite get the bus drivers local lexicon/slangs. She wasn't all the most impressed with the lovely people running the school either, they somehow got Mexico and Argentina mixed up and sent all her pre-flight to Melbourne documents to Argentina. Amazing.
The Chinese chap actually commented my Chinese was good! Now that's a feat, but also a measure of how often I've been speaking Mandarin here and its results. We waxed lyrical about the myths and legends of ancient China and I've found someone to confirm which Hong Kong kungfu/martial arts flicks are actually based on facts. He painted a vivid picture of Huang Shan, "Yellow Mountain"reputed the best of the five legendary peaks of China. What compelled me were the strength of his descriptors in Chinese. Man I wish I could speak like him. I'll get back to you guys when I figure out exactly how I could translate all that to English.
Also, had nasi lemak for lunch with my buddy from Sichuan, China at my housemate's restaurant ** See above - Malaysia Garden Restaurant (where the waitresses have to wear kebayas). Relations here just take on brand new meanings, as every friendship made is as important as relations back home.
All in all, a wonderful day.
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