First Look

Azmir Rabian is a masters student under Allison and he showed me around within the University. He is a nice guy, of Malaysian origin, friendly, and was patient with my questions ( I generally have too many, probably to the dismay of most people). We went to a cafe within the campus and there he ordered Cappuchino while I, unsure of which flavour to try, did the mistake of ordering something I didn’t know of (Machiato if I remember correctly). It came in a small glass and it simply tasted horrible.

Met Allison at 11.00 after her lecture was over. She seemed to think pretty high of me and was expecting me to be knowing everything. I was supposed to work with Azmir and she spoke in a way as if I would show him the way to do things rather than the other way round. I cleared the misconception to Azmir later though. She invited the two of us to lunch. I was pretty much confused what to take among the options. But this time the choices made were better.

After a few futile attempts to connect to the internet using my id, I made a complaint while Azmir allowed me access the internet using his account. Azmir smokes pretty frequently – about 10 a day. He has a girlfriend, and asked me if I had one. I told him of the sorry figures of the IITs.

I required three things pretty urgently: an adapter-converter for my lappy and mobiles; a mobile connection; and an internet connection. I got the first one, but the effort that I had to put in, drained me of my energy completely. Azmir told me of two supermarkets. Got there alone, but after searching for an hour or so came to the conclusion that they didn’t have the Indian type. Surely they could do with more staff to help customers out. Finding a thing can be pretty difficult at least for new people. After some more futile attempts, I targeted Indians to ask about where I would get the stuff. One directed me to a shop called Dick something, a kilometer further down the street and the person at Dick something directed me to Maya (when I reached there I realized it was Myer) where I ultimately got it in a obscure corner.

I had to talk to a lot of people today. Mostly I understood at first attempt, but not always. I was pretty much anxious and sort of over-attentive during any conversation which kept me from being casual. However by now, I was pronouncing ‘could’ as ‘cudge’. On my way back to my apartment, I tried to take a shortcut using some guessworks; it turned out to be a longcut. But it was nice when at the end of the day an old lady asked me the way to Swanston Street and got the right directions from me. I was not even one day old in Melbourne.