The Calming (Rick)

I’m just starting to feel things are calming down at Uni.

The workload at university is intense, but somehow, you seem to get used to it. In the second week I was able to catch up on some reading I missed out on. (Due to looking out for second hand text books) It must be noted that Maths A (Adv) uses a different Calculus book, unlike a number of people were telling me (Who are doing the standard stream). I got my second hand text books off a fellow college member, and are in quite good condition. (Chances are I’ll spill something on them anyway!)

I’ve now had two college tutes for Introduction to Computer Programming, which have proved very valuable and have made it easier to understand what is happening in this subject. I’ve had to go over to Janet Clarke Hall as Medley is a very small college, and thus there are very few tutes held at Medley Hall. My tutor helped to explain some of the concepts learnt in the lectures, and what was to come but also added some other aspects that were not relevant to the course, but made me feel like I had a good understanding of things.

I had a chance to go home after three weeks in Melbourne. It was nice to see my mum, brother, dad and my duck again. There was naturally a heap to talk about. I spent a bit of time finding things that I had forgotten, but fortunately I’d remembered all the really important things the first time anyway.

When I got back we played our second game of cricket, this time against St. Mary’s College. This is nothing like our last game at all. Before long our opponents had well over 100, and they totalled their score at about 150. Our fight was dismal. Straight away our three best players went out for ducks. In the end, our total score was less than twenty. Unfortunately this meant that at Medley there was more drinking than usual for a Sunday. Also, this meant that our principal was not happy that the games room was thus left in such a mess. (As it meant that a student on duty to have to clean it all up.)

Also on the topic of sport I managed to get in touch with the lacrosse club. So far been to two Lacrosse training sessions, but missed the earlier ones, and am behind a number of people. They are scheduled for an hour and a half (but always go for longer) and also involved some rather intense training, much more than I ever did for basketball! At first I could hardly catch the ball in the nets, but now my rate of success is at least fairly decent. Throws still need some work though.

At uni, catching up with old friends is fun. As my only close friend at the university is doing arts, I don’t get to see much of her unless it is arranged. This day we met up on a Thursday afternoon, and saw the music playing, but left earlier. I took her round to see Medley Hall where I was staying, and we had lunch there. I gave a complete tour of Medley Hall and it was nice to be able to just catch up and talk about what had been going on in general. I’m still yet to find a time when it suits us both so I can see inside where she is living.

One guy I have met so far is ironically doing all the same subjects this semester and next semester. I find it surprising just because I’m doing Science, Philosophy and History next semester, in contrast to Maths B (Adv), Applied Maths (Adv) and Physics B (Adv). As we are involved with the same lectures and many of the same tutes and labs, we will quite often walk from each place to the next together.

Tutes, both in college and university tutes have been great for meeting new people. Even if you don’t know them that well you can talk after a lecture or just say hi outside of it. Usually discussions are focused around the class or of previous experience of it.

A few weeks ago I went to a ‘Groove Dance’ breaking class. I found it at times difficult to follow and hard to remember all the dance moves in order at the speed we were going. (I kept mixing things up later on.) I happened to be wearing a blue t-shirt that had printed “Melbourne Uni Experience 2004”. Another guy saw me with this on saying that they’d also been to that, also as I’d been to ‘The Melbourne Rural Uni Experience’, which I stayed overnight, (his was a one day thing) that what we’d been to was something different.

When going to a Scientific Programming and Simulation lecture on Wednesday week, a guy I didn’t know said hi ‘Rick Trunkard’. (Obviously this wasn’t my name, and was just due to him forgetting.) He told me that he saw me in the ‘Groove Dance’ class, then one day in a Scientific Programming and Simulation lab class saw my programs on a computer (because we like to put our names on programs we write), and thought that they were quite smartly done. (of course I’d had a while to write them, although he would still have been thinking about them). Then finally he saw an advertisement for this blog at the university, checked it out and ironically saw me, my name, my subjects, and my photo. It all fell into place and was a little surprised by the irony. Now I’m friends with Yang. (at a distant level still)

That’s it for today.
Next time – Hear all about Ash Grunwald, housewarmings, clubs, big rallys, and being kept awake by those who like to party long and hard!