My Sydney (Kingsford)

 My first time boarding a flight is to Sydney Australia. Never in my wildest dream to cross the oceans to live outside Malaysia for one and a half years. But it happened.. It really did happen. I was young then. Just graduated the year before and worked to fund my IELTS examinations and other preparations before flying off to the Wallabies Island. It was quite a terrifying thought as the furthest that I've been on my own was when I took the express bus to Perak to attend an interview.

I remembered the day before. We had a small feast at home. Organised and prepared by the villagers. I was considered the first who went abroad at that time and in a way became the pride of the village. It was overwhelming to see how high was people expectation towards myself. 

The day we left for Sydney I didn't know what to expect. Being a control freak I've checked out the university's website for more than 10 times. I even printed all the information that I thought may be useful (bus / train schedule, list of nearby hotels, halal food and all the other stuff just to get me prepared and to reduce my nervousness). We arrived early in the morning and were welcomed by volunteers from the international students departments. they were students like us and obviously came from around the globe. I remembered we were attended by a pretty 'Chinese' girl who actually came from Fiji. She was so friendly and talkative and she told us the tips and tricks to go. Although most of them were undergraduate students, most of them have been in the uni since foundation years so they are very familiar with Sydney and UNSW.

UNSW (University of New South Wales) main campus is located in a place called Kensington. The neighbouring area were Kingsford and Randwick. I used to stay in a small rental studio apartment in Kingsford for one semester before my housemate and I moved to Malaysia Hall Sydney in Randwick. Kingsford is a small neighbourhood next to UNSW east gate. There were a few Indonesian restaurants and a grocery shop where we spent our money buying asian food. Other than that there is a post office at the end of the road and further up there is an Oporto Chicken Restaurant that used to sell halal dishes. And our house were just five minutes walk from Uni. I remembered walking my lecturer to her car every time we finished our accounting class. We normally talked about a lot of things and how she was fascinated by we asian and our cultures.

On weekends you can go to a car-boot sale market at the end of our housing blocks in Forsyth Street. There you could find all sorts of things. Interesting old and antiques. If u are a collector, it's definitely a collector's heaven. But we were no collectors. Thus, we still go for we appreciate the walk and sometimes an ice cream or a slice of pizza or a piece of kebab.

Staying in Kingsford we used to sell nasi lemak and Malay food on weekends. Our motivation were tickets to Melbourne. And we managed to collect the money and we were off to Melbourne during one 'one week' holiday. In Melbourne we stayed at a friend's house. Her house is an old building located in the middle of the town. Right in front a Tram station. Entering the house I always felt like we were in one of the building in Harry Potter. The building is so unique and ancient it feels like you were in mediaeval time. Among the places that I remembered visiting were Melbourne Uni, Queen Victoria Market, the factory outlet district (can't remember the name of the road), and of course the Victoria State Library.

The house that we rented were a small studio apartment. During summer time we'll be racing with the flies to get into our house as there were too many of them. During winter time it was so cold that the whole wall becomes mouldy. I've had a bad cough perhaps due to the cold weather that caused the moulds on the walls. It was a challenging time as I were coughing for almost two months. It affected my studies for a bit. Luckily I passed all my exams for the semester although not with flying colours. Due to that we decided to apply to stay in Malaysia Hall for the following semester.

Although living in Kingsford were quite challenging. With us having to do things on our own, maintaining a house, while studying and venturing in our small business, live is good with the great neighbourhood. I remembered walking back from uni in the middle of the night without any fear because I know my house were just a minute away. And weekends were filled with trips to the beach or the nearby shopping mall or to Maroubra Market and Public Library.Sometimes we had pot luck with our friends. We either go to their places in the uni or they all come to our house. And the best part would be sharing new recipes from all over the world whenever we get together. 

Those were my earlier months in Sydney. Kingsford were my neighbourhood and Forsyth Street has become my usual route back and fourth to my uni night and day for six months.