March On, Little Soldier of Sanity

It’s Easter + mid semester break over here at La Trobe and for the past few days the campus has been a ghost town. It got me super paranoid when I had to walk back from the tram the other night, because dark shadowy trees make me think a possum or worse, a zombie ghost possum is gonna jump out in the night, onto my face. And should that have happened, the Easter holidays would have caused my blood curdling, possum-enticing screams to go unheard, and I would’ve died from a fast-growing mutant strain of rabies. Alone.

This did not happen. But it could have.

Before the break started however, and the campus was still populated with non-marsupials*, the Malaysian Students Association had their general meeting, to elect the new committee. I went because (a) I had nothing to do, (b) I wanted a post (c) there was free food. Ok, (a) (b) and (c) switched around a lot, but those were my priorities. Also, I had a surprisingly good time at the high-tea they had earlier last week, and actually made friends (with whom I clicked! Ah, the elusive click!) so yeah, I was looking to relive the glory. Sadly, the two girls I made friends with didn’t come to the meeting, but I did clinch the post of PR committee member. Also, free pizza!

We had our first committee meeting today and I’m really excited about the job. It involves a monthly newsletter, making posters and I talked them into letting me set up a blog**! It also involves going to events (re: getting out of my room) and socializing so people know about the club, neither of which I’m that good at, but I’m sure I can fake it. Its a nice way to be involved and tie myself to a community, and I really want to do my best. So far all the committee members get along fine, so I hope politics don’t get in the way and event-planning doesn’t go the way of one giant bitch fest, as I’ve known clubs and societies to be *coughPRS***cough*.

BTW, that’s what La Tum Sah is. I’m planning to make the url of the club blog “ltumsa” for La Trobe Uni Malaysian Students Association. They laughed when I said it that way. Finally, a foothold for my wit! It’s been so neglected since I’ve been here. I’ve been too scared to release my awesomosity.

Anyway, I’ve also been to the city this week. I totally evaded the tram fare and miraculously hitched a free 45 minute tram ride from Bundoora to the city, but can you tell me who has 10 bucks in change for the tram fare****? No one, that’s who. Granted, I should’ve known the onboard ticket machine didn’t accept notes but that’s neither here nor there. I paid for the fare back, ok? Sure, after I hitched another (shorter) ride in the city but let’s stop diverting from the major issue here.

Getting back to the important stuff, I made the trip to see my friend Clarence, and he brought around other familiar faces like Caryn, Mel Foo and Jon. And a familiar name I haven’t met until that Monday, Ernest. I bought two dresses, learned all about EFTPOS (where you pay for stuff with your ATM card, and don’t have to make trips to withdraw your cash!! Oh Malaysia, you have so much to learn) and Clarence got me a really sweet My Little Ponies Easter egg/breakfast set. I am not hooked on Easter eggs. I don’t know why, but before this I didn’t realize they were colorfully wrapped orbs of chocolate. The word ‘eggs’ and never having had one probably threw me off. It was a nice trip, and I’m making two more excursions to the city by the end of my break to see two more friends. It’ll be good.

I also volunteered for a Student Theatre clean up after the Moat festival, which I helped do front-of-house for. I was the quiet newbie (the only one!) who got to sift through all their cool crap. Well, they know my face and name. I might not have been impressive, but they know I can help clean up, which must be crucial when sizing up new members.

And those are the biggies. The even more frivolous smallies will probably feature over at my Twitter, sadly neglected during my no-internet Easter break where I watched Clarence’s copy of Bring It On more than should be allowed.

* I have yet to see one marsupial since I got here. The closest has been pictures of a raccoon on Dooce. And I’m pretty sure that’s not even a marsupial!

** Ok, I didn’t talk them into it so much as talk them down from the idea of a website, which is too technological and fancy for me to put up.

*** I can’t remember if I talked about it on here, but PRS was the peer counselor club I was a part of for 5 years in high school, and it was more dramatic than Laguna Beach. For reals.

**** This may seem exorbitant (and it is, cause international students can’t get a concession fare, whatever that’s about) but this covers travel for a whole day, across two zones (I’m in the less metropolitan and more suburbial Zone 2) and across the board for trams, buses and trains. Am I plugging the fairness of the tram fare due to guilt at fare evasion? Are those karma fare evasion ads working? Not after that creepy karma llama I get from the website I just linked. Yeesh.