Matfoo’s Weblog

It is still quite inconvenient for both Flora and I to blog and upload pictures for we are not very settled down yet. I won’t write much in this blog for I’ll let you read it in Flora’s blog about our 1st week in Melbourne. So, this post will be mostly pictures. Not that much but just some.

My department in University of Melbourne

My first temporary accommodation in Point Cook

Melbourne’s Night View

At Williamstown

Melbourne City Center – Flinders Train Station. This is where I also stop to make tram change to the university.

That’s all for now. Will definitely upload more once we settled into our permanent accommodation.

I visited The University of Melbourne, the place I would be studying for this coming 3-4 years on Friday (23 Nov 07) noon to get myself familiarized with the university before enrollment and to meet up my supervisor on Monday (26 Nov 07). As mentioned before, the university is beautiful with lots of green here and there. I think there’s a reason is located in Parkville for there’s a big park in front of the university. Since I am staying temporary in Hawthorn, traveling to the university is rather simple. Tram route 75 will take me to the city center where I need to change another tram at Federation Square, where any tram that stop at the Federation Square can take me to the university. But I must say, the public transportation ticket is quite pricey. Although it cost AUD 6.30 per day for you to take as many ride as you can ride on, I must say is quite pricey.

My meeting with my supervisor was really smooth sailing. I got to know a little bit of interesting research that I can do and at least that can give me sort of path ahead for my final PhD thesis. I must say that I am really really want to praise God and all glory be unto Him for providing me with such a fantastic supervisor. He knows the welfare of a student studying in foreign land and he just assured me that he can be accessed at any time to give his helping hand to me. Praise the Lord.

Then, I proceed to the bank in the university to open a bank account. The staff again were helpful and friendly but the staff that handled me somehow forgot her glasses and took almost an hour to open the bank account for us. She is very friendly and helpful but…….straining her eyes to see the computer and our documentation does quite a bit of delay. Regardless, praise the Lord that my bank account is settled.

Next, what happened to me today was something bizarre, I would say. Arriving outside the orientation week is something one should try to avoid in the future. But again, I was really grateful that the God has led me all the way. He cleared every red tape one by one for me. Maybe is my mistake or maybe is the university mistake that I didn’t receive clear instruction on how to enroll, who am I suppose to meet, where am I suppose to go etc. To make things worse, some of the department that I went to didn’t even how to handle me! Praise God that I signed up for a postgraduate mentor program. My mentor, from Penang currently doing her PhD as well brought me here and there to settle all the procedure that I needed to go through for enrollment. It took us almost 2 hours to do all these. From Student Admin. to School of Graduate Studies to Scholarship Office to International Student Centre, to my Faculty of Engineering, back and forth, and I finally to get myself enrolled (at least for the first part as I need to go through one more electronic enrollment). All the department officers are very helpful but I do think that in the future, some communication among all of them needed to be clearer. Imagine when I heard that there’s no arrangement of induction program and orientation program for me! To cut the whole story short, I manage to get myself enrolled and I don’t need anymore orientation as my journey being thrown here and there made me learn most of the places and roads around my university.

So, tomorrow (27 Now 07), I still need to make a trip down to the university for my electronic enrollment and settled my forms for scholarship. Apparently, the efficiency of the scholarship department is amazing. I was told as long as I am able to get the faculty officer to settle my scholarship form by Wednesday (28 Nov 07), I can get my scholarship money on Friday (30 Nov 07), how cool is that. Really praise the Lord. The university really really take cares of the welfare of the students.

I really thank God for what happened today. Thank you Lord for providing me with such a good supervisor. Thank you Lord for providing me with such a good postgraduate mentor. Thank you Lord for enabling me to be enrolled today. So, I had officially started my course and is time to work hard. The Lord be my guide and source of wisdom. All glory be unto Him.

Is my 3rd day in Melbourne. Kevin Rudd won the Australian General Election beating John Howard to be the new Prime Minister of Australia. Praise the Lord, I am really grateful that I can still access to internet at least to do some blogging. So, here’s what I thought about Melbourne.

1. There are lots of flies.

2. The city is a mixture of old and new architecture which for me still trying to adapt and adjust to those kind of view.

3. No EPL, A1 GP, Super Series badminton on local Australian TV.

4. Things here are pretty expensive hence, my first few meals are on sandwich.

5. So far most Melbournians are friendly.

6. I have visited my university and it is beautiful. I will go again in 2 days time hence, I will blog on that in more details later.

7. The public transport system is good but the fare are quite pricey.

8. The hook turn is really interesting thing when comes to driving.

9. Surprisingly, custom at the airport was very very fast. My wife and I cleared the custom in less than 5 minutes. The sniff dog is really really cute though.

10. Looking for affordable accommodation is really a nightmare.

To summarize, I haven’t been WOWed by Melbourne yet. Maybe too much expectation of comments from friends who have visited this place made me felt that this is yet to be the wowing factor place for me. Regardless, I have to learn to like it in this coming 3-4 years time. But one thing I really thank God for His blessing with my friend and relative that provided me temporary accommodation till I found one. All glory be to Him.

Next, I will blog on my visit to the University of Melbourne, my meeting with my PhD supervisor, my orientation mentor and my meeting with my colleague from Malaysia. That’s all for now.

I’m in Melbourne now. After almost 11 hours on travel from KLIA (inclusive 3 hours transit in Singapore, Changi Airport), I finally reached Melbourne. I’m temporary sheltering in a friend’s house in Point Cook with wireless internet access and most probably tonight will be moving to Hawthorn (my wife’s cousin’s place) as for better public transportation.

So more to come soon….

I came across LiveWire’s blog on the measure of success. This blog reminds me of a Singapore movie I watched sometime ago called, “I’m Not Stupid” In that movie, the teacher advice the students to study hard to get good result and one day you will be successful person. One of the students replied back to the teacher by asking, “Teacher, you as teacher now teaching us, are you considered a successful person? If not, does that mean you didn’t obtain good result in the past?” A very good question being asked by that students. How to measure the success of one person?

During my recent trip back to my hometown, I managed to catch up with my classmates (from secondary school) and coursemates (from university). Looking back toward our days in school and compare it with what we all are doing now, one thing made me ponder back again about being successful. During the school days, teacher often measure success from the results of your exam. I must admit that during my first year in academic line, I did use exam result as student’s measurement of success. That perception changed over time and now I look at student’s success from another point of view. Exam result is definitely NOT in my list.

Catching up with friends from both secondary school and university has clearly shown to me that exam result is definitely NOT the main criteria of success. I do have friends who are always struggling in secondary school but today they own company(IES) and hire many smart people working under him. I do have friends who excel superbly in exams and even top scorers in school now struggling to make ends meet OR living a very very plain life. Who is the more successful one here?

I know this topic is not something new. But seems now I am entering this phase of life and encoutering this issue, I felt the urge to blog on this topic. Sadly society today still do not have a proper measure of success for a student. Hence, exam results are still used to measure a probability of success and failure of a student, whether in primary, secondary or tertiary education level. But at least I come to one sense, I would not be WOWed by the superb results one student get as I know that is not a 100% guarantee of success that student would be in the future. This is because I do have students who scored really well in their secondary schools but come to university, they struggle badly.

So, how can we measure the success of one student? What is the best way to justify it?

This is will be a very short post.

Currently I am at home, resting, sleeping, eating, saying hi and goodbye and a little bit of work in preparation for Melbourne. For more details, you can read my daily activities in my wife’s blog

Made an appointment with my research supervisor in University of Melbourne and he already highlighted on things that can be done. Felt excited and yet nervous. Lots of mixed feelings.

Glad that my host-friend in Melbourne provided me with some basic Internet access. Hence, will try to do some updates there till I settled down.

Previously I did mention about ten things about students that upset me. In this round, it will be things about students that encourage me.

1. The lecture you conducted actually deemed interesting by your student without you realising it (and student put this in the blog). Hhhmmm… I guess that’s my own benchmark for better lecture delivery.
   
   

2. You received some encouraging academic evaluations at the end of the course. These evaluations (both good and bad) will constantly remind me of my shortcomings to better myself in the future.

   
   

3. Students actually remembered your advice. Advisor-advisee program is common in most of tertiary education institution. What encourages me here is the students do remember what you advised them (from another student’s blog).

   

4. Creativity. I am always encouraged by creative students especially on how they can channel their idea into good use and interesting outcome. My students actually did this from scratch. It is working and have their idea published in international conference. It’s a robotic snake.

   

5. Independent. This trait is slowly diminshing and hard to find. When I encounter one, it is such a huge encouragement. I was blessed with final year students that are independent, this enabled ideas to be exchanged easily and this benefited both parties.

6. Progress Updates. Recently I received an email from an advisee who expressed joy over grades improvement. Upon reading the emails, I was really encouraged and felt happy for the hard work the student put after a quite shaky start. The improvement is huge (you can’t see from the email to preserve confidentiality). And I sincerely prayed that this student will continue to improve and excel till graduation.

   

7. Friendship. Often there will be and tend to be a “gap” between me and students. I do really appreciate true friendship with some of the students. Some have even become my fellow colleagues.

8. Asking hard challenging questions. When students asked really hard and challenging question that even I myself do not know the answer, I’ll not deny my inadequacies. In fact, I like this kind of students as it also challenges me to do more research and readings.

9. Words of encouragement from students. I ever received emails from student that encouraged me. Life as academician do have ups and downs and when is down, this kind of email really can make a big impact on me.
   
10. Last but not least…..you received thank you emails/words from….the PARENTS of the student! I think for me that would be the most encouraging moment for me from students.

I have few more days left in Cyberjaya before leaving back to my hometown. This also means my house now is in total mess with boxes and luggages here and there. Accumulation of stuff in the time span of almost 9 years in Cyberjaya is really something.

For those who are from the Peninsular, sending stuff back to hometown would be easier as a super “stuffed” car with several trips can solve the problem. As for me, where I need to fly to get back to my hometown, a super stuffed plane is not an option or can’t be an option at all, as over weight charge will be unimaginable.

Hence, some improvising is needed. This is when the conventional post become really important. To date, I have posted 5 boxes of stuff back home (and counting). Cheapest post charge is by sea and it will take 1 month to reach the destination. 1kg (approx 2.2 lb) of stuff is about RM 1.20 (approx. USD 0.40). Sounds cheap and reasonable. Nonetheless, this also when the phobia comes.

The maximum weight limit Pos Malaysia set for this kind of postage is 20kg (approx. 45lb). You have to wrap the box with wrappers to cover the design of the box so that it won’t create confusion to the postmen. Hence, this is what I have been doing for the past few weeks. That’s phobia #1.

The phobia #2 is about packing stuff to bring to Melbourne. Things could be pricey in Melbourne hence, decision on what to pack and what not to pack is not as easy as it seems. Furthermore with limited baggage allowance, that puts another constrain on what can be packed into the luggage. NOTE: This is just PART of the stuff I’ll be bringing over.

Phobia #3 would be something to be anticipated AFTER the completion of my studies. But that one I wouldn’t even dare to think about it for now.

Dr. LKY spoke in my church yesterday on Treasures in Jars of Clay. One particular item he mentioned made me ponder real deep. He mentioned about every scars can tell a story of a person, whether is an honor scar (a bullet scars for soldiers who fought for his country) or dishonor scar (a fall from trees that cuts your leg because you are too naughty). Dr. LKY gave some of his childhood story that created some of the scars he had on his hands.

This got me pondering on the word scars. Then came my own definition that indirectly related to Dr. LKY’s sermon, i.e. SCARS might actually stand for Suffering Contains A Real Story. This acronym make sound so “lame” but what Dr. LKY said was very true. Scars are created through a certain degree of suffering, and each scars from the suffering does contain a real story behind it. Whether physical scars or emotional scars, all scars bearer endures certain suffering. And this part of mysterious and unknown stories from the scars sometimes may be an eye opener to us all.

Don’t undermine scars…

I came across this very interesting piece of prayer while in Cameron Highland. So, I took a picture of it. It actually mimic the “Lord’s Prayer” taught by our Lord Jesus Christ from the Bible. I will not comment much but let the picture do all the talking.

Have fun!