Still in tourist mode

New semester will begin in a few days. Before that day come, i surely could take some trips around the city. A few days back i took a little trip around flinder street area.
At flinder street area we could see the Yarra river which is the river that goes through the city of Melbourne.
I took some pictures there (i went with mbak neni and mbak desi) and these are some of them.

On the bridge across the Yarra river


Tallest building in Melbourne ??


Federation Square: an art gallery


Hmm.. i wonder what this painting means. (Inside Fed Square)

Aussie's Slang

This week (26-29 Feb 2008) is the orientation week in Unimelb. There are lots of sessions that can be attented by students. Those sessions are not always about study supports, for example this session that i attended called "Understanding Australian Slang".

Interested by the topic, i came there, although i was late for about 10 minutes. It was pretty good actually. In the session, the lecturer thought us some of famous australian slangs.

Take a look at this one.

"I don't like this pub. Let's bugger off to the other pub across the road"

Bugger off means like move away.

Or this one..

"The other team are clearly being done. Do you still want to watch the game?"

Can you guess what it means ? Yes.. it means that the other team is heavily beaten.

There are some other weird words also, like "barbie". I wonder what it means.. Oh my, it means barberque.
Or this one, "rego". A shortenage of registration. Hahaha... very weird.

If you want to know more about Australian slang, you could browse this website http://www.aussieslang.com/

So. have a g'day mate !

Indonesianese Cuisine and Spices??

When i was still in Indonesia, i always thought that if i'm in Melbourne i should adapt myself with Western food. Well, i must say that what i was thinking is wrong.

On the next day after i arrived in Melbourne, Fabian and mbak Desi (thanks a lot you all.. :D) kindly guided me and mbak Neni in city of Melbourne. I went with Fabian I tried to take the tram (a kind of busway transportation - electricity powered) for the first time, i went to my campus to look around a bit and afterwards we went to the Konsulat Jendral RI in Melbourne to report ourselves.

It was around 2 o'clock and we started to get hungry. That morning i only ate 2 slices of bread with peanut butter that Fabian gave me. That moment i started to think "hmm.. what kind of food what am i going to eat?" when suddenly Fabian suggested us to eat in Nelayan Restaurant. "Wait a minute ? Nelayan ? That doesn't seem an English word at all". Ow, it happened to be an Indonesian restaurant in the middle of Melbourne.

Nelayan - Indonesian Restaurant

Most of people that ate there were Indonesian (if i am not mistaken), but there were also other Asians and perhaps Australians. The food was varied but i had a roti cane and rendang (hmm, usually we eat roti cane with curry right ?) that day for lunch.

Roti Cane and Rendang

Fabian and I

Mbak Neni on the left, Mbak Desi on the right

Wow, okay, so now i know that there are also Indonesian food in Melbourne. No big deal, there are lots of Indonesian here, so someone should have thought that opening an Indonesian resto should be profitable right?

But the next one made me surprised more. I was taken to a supermarket called "Mix" that supplies Asian's products and of course Indonesian. Hehehe, feels like home. Mix was okay but yesterday Fabian brought me to this even bigger supermarket called "Laguna" that also supplies Asian's products. "What !? What the hell is bumbu nasi goreng Indofood doing here? Bumbu gulai Bamboe ? Pepsodent ? A Clear shampoo with Samuel Rizal picture on it ?" And the best thing about them is they are not expensive. Well, around the same price with the local products if i am not mistaken (CMIIW). Hmm, now i know how Seif (my house mate) made those gulai.

So, for you who will study in Melbourne. You shouldn't be worried. Eventhough this is Melbourne, you should feel like home. Nevertheless, perhaps sometimes i will try the local product as well. "Ngapain juga jauh-jauh sampe sini tapi ga make produk lokal ? Betul tidak...?"

Cheers..

Journey to Melbourne - Part 2

Previously on my blog....

Hahaha.. sounds like tv series Heroes right ?

At 14.30 on 19th February 2008, my departed to Melbourne. The flight was okay. Got snacks, watched the tv. When i watched the tv, i realized that i was watching "Akhirnya datang juga" in Australian version, called "Thank God, you are here" (if i am not mistaken).

Finally at approximately 4 o'clock, mbak neni and i arrived in Melbourne airport. No troubles there. We were picked up by mbak desi, another MCIT awardess which have been in Melbourne for 6 months. We searched for her help because the university airport pickup didn't wait for us anymore.

i arrived in melbourne

We took a taxi together. The driver looked came from Middle East. When i saw him the first time, i though "wow, this guy looks like the vocalist of System of a Down (an armenian rock band)". In Melbourne, i temporary stays in mas leo's room in 35 Chambers Street Coburg. Leo is another MCIT awardess.

Way to coburg

The weather was sunny and hot, made me thought that Melbourne is as hot as Jakarta. But that thought should be revised if i saw the next day. I'll tell you later about this.
I arrived in Chambers Street around 5 o'clock. At last ! After 36 hours of travel (didn't take a bath also), i arrived safely. In the house, Fabian (a friend of mas leo and house mate) has been waiting for me and he told me everything that i need to know about the surroundings. Thx Fabian.

Journey to Melbourne - Part 1

On 18th February 2008 i departed from Jakarta, Indonesia to Melbourne, Australia.

I was with my two other fellow MCIS Awardess, mbak neni and mbak yuni. For those of you who don't know what MCIS is, i will tell you. MCIS stands for Ministry of Communication and Informatics. Yeah, i considered myself lucky to get a scholarship to Australia and moreover, it is from the goverment ! So, i think i have to study seriously right ? Hahaha..

Anyway, my flight was QF42 which was going to transit to Sydney, and mbak yuni supposed to get off there. I have to leave my family and my girlfriend Deasy but i didn't feel that sad. Hmm, maybe it's because i will only leaving for about 10 months. Yeah, my study will only take that long. Master of Software System Engineering in Unimelb only consists of 2 semester, so by the end of 2008 i should be finished.

The fligh took around 6 hours to get to Sydney. It was okay i think, actually i didn't feel it was that long cause i was asleep about 4 hours, while the first 2 hours i enjoyed the flight dinner and watched "The Heartbreaker Kid" which was starred by Ben Stiller. Oh, and i also happended to take care of mbak neni who got a bit sick. Hoho, that "Tolak Angin" actully worked on you, mbak neni.

At 8.30 (Sydney time) we arrived in Sydney airport. I felt so excited cause the last time i've ever gone abroad was when i was 11. I was a bit worried too because my baggage would be checked by the quarantine. Hope nothing is gonna get wrong.

this is me, mbak yuni, mbak neni, arrived in Sydney

In Sydney airport looked fine. We were checked in the immigration, claimed our baggages, and suddenly.... What a long queue just to pass through the quarantine area! I took a video about this queue, if you want to see. It was like this thousand of people try to get their bags checked, but there were not enough doors available.

It took us 2 hours just to queue there whereas mbak neni and i got a plane to catch to melbourne at 10. We started to queue at around 9.30, so as you can imagine, we were late. But we shouldn't be worried, because our flight was moved to 14.30. It meant that we had around 2 hours for fooling around in the airport. What i was worried about was the university airport pickup. I registred for the airport pickup before i left and they only know that i would arrive at 11 (Melbourne time). I couldn't contact them so the alternative was to catch a taxi when i got to Melbourne airport. Btw, we separated with mbak yuni after we passed through the quarantine area.

In the sydney airport, i tried to call my family and Deasy. By using my xl bebas, i took me 4000 rupiah just to send a sms and i could not make a phone call. So i tried to find alternatives. I found this thing called "calling card" which can be got through the money changer counters or through a calling card vending machines. I was confused in using it for the first time, but in the end, i figured it out. I was so glad that i could call my family and Deasy. I think i do miss them afterall.

Anyway, sydney airport was so big. It got three big terminals and to get to each terminal, they facilitate people with airport buses. After waiting for about 2 hours, we finally got to the plane.

Sydney Airport

Ok, i'll be off to Melbourne. Good bye Sdyney, looking forward to be here again when i'm travelling.

to be continued ....

Hello.. Allow me to introduce myself

Hello..

My name is Ridho Akhiro. You can call me ridho.

This is my first personal blog and hopefully i can post regularly. So, if you interested in reading my posts, i will be thankful.

About me:

I'm an Indonesian 25 years old male. I was born in Jakarta on 3th February 1983. My zodiac is Aquarius. I graduated from informatics engineering from ITB in 2006 and recently graduated from magister informatika from ITB also. Previously i worked in PT. LAPI Divusi in Bandung as a system analyst.

Btw, today is my second day in Melbourne, Australia. I'm here to take Master of Software System Engineering in University of Melbourne, which gonna take around a year only.

Well, perhaps most of my posts are going to be about my life in Melbourne but it doesn't mean i am not interested in posting other topics. So, enjoy :D