Traumatized.

I'm traumatized. In more ways than one.


Today was tree planting day.

It was at Trin-Warren Tamboore.

It's okay if you don't know where it is.

I didn't know either.

And I tried to walk there.

Well, I DID walk there.

It only took me about an hour and a half.

Have I ever told anybody how much I love my iPhone? It totally saved me, because of the satellite map or whatever it's called. The map they provided on the tree-planting brochure was more or less useless.

Jun and I were the only two people who weren't part of the group of about 20 Environment and Development students who were supposed to be there because that was their assignment.
So semangat, right?

Tree planting was... okay.

I should correct that. We didn't actually plant trees, we planted some kind of Australian indigenous plant. Which was grass. I'm sure the grass has a special name. I didn't bother finding out. So let's just call it grass.

Planting wasn't difficult. All we had to do was dig a hole big enough for the bunch of grass to fit in, and fill the hole back up with soil, then water it and wish it good luck. Seriously. We were supposed to wish the plants good luck after we planted them. I conveniently forgot to after planting my 5th one or so. Oh well. I hope they don't die. For good measure, I'll say it now. Good luck, plants! May you grow strong and healthy and have lots of babies!!

We headed back around 3.30 p.m. Ivan, Jun and I decided to take the train instead of walk all the way back. (Ivan and Jun walked there too-they took 1 hour and 45 minutes).

Now comes the traumatizing part. I didn't bring my wallet out. I had a tram ticket in my wallet. I didn't think I'd need it. I had money in my wallet. I didn't think I'd need it. I was going to plant trees, for heaven's sake! The trees weren't about to collect tax from me or anything. We walked to the train station. Ivan said he'd lend me money first, so I could buy a ticket. The train came. There was no time to buy a ticket. Jun didn't have time to validate her ticket. We jumped on the train. We were going to get off the train at Melbourne Central.

One stop before Melbourne Central, there was suddenly this voice that I swear, popped out of nowhere. Okay, fine, not nowhere, I just didn't notice the person until that said person talked. "Passengers, please get ready your tickets for inspection". Jun and I looked at each other. "Shit". We looked up and saw this lady wearing a clipping an official-looking badge to her white shirt.

To cut a long story short, she let us go. Thank goodness. Ivan managed to validate his ticket. So did Jae (another guy at the tree planting who joined us on the train). Jun and I were so totally panicking and everything. We wondered why they let us go. We heard they were really strict with this stuff. Which they are. They told us to immediately buy a ticket and validate it once we got off the tram. Which we did.

Scary. Ivan and Jae were laughing at my expression.

What?

It was scary.

Do you know how much the fine is?

For not having a ticket with you?

$ 162.

That's ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS. Convert that to Malaysian Ringgit? Multiply that by 3.08927.

I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to scare you.

I'm sure you can understand why I freaked out.

Ivan bought a $3.50 ticket for me once we got out, seeing as I didn't have my wallet with me. I'm going to pay him back when I see him in class on Tuesday. For the first time since coming here, I won't complain how expensive the tram tickets are.

Very traumatizing experience.

*shudder*



I've got drama (monologue) exam tomorrow morning. At 9.00 a.m.

I'm the first up.

Wish me luck.

We all try the best we can.