Blog Title II [carolina]

Please enjoy my succinct list of O-Week related tips and tricks:

Tip #1: don’t loose the number of your host group leader because you will never ever find them and then be forced to join some other group that was kind of awkward and didn’t look like they believed you when you reassured them you were not carrying any dangerous weapons.

Tip #2: revolve your day around free food. ask your adoptive host leader to point out areas where free food will be available. stick to this plan despite how apathetically they may respond / how many ‘omg r u srs’ looks you receive from your adoptive host group peers. do not miss the pancakes, repeat, DO NOT MISS the PANCAKES.

Tip #3: ditch your group asap and check out all the free stuff available. take as much as you are able to carry. for example I had gotten 3 free hot chocolate vouchers, a stress ball, a ruler, another stress ball, 2 hotdogs, three beers, a can of coke, 4 almond biscotti, numerous blue mini cupcakes, a pretzel and 3 hand crafted badges. That’s the benchmark.

Tip #4: YES IT’S TRUE THERE IS BUBBLE CUP ON CAMPUS!

Tip #5: refer to the principles of tips #2 and #3 when deciding to join clubs. For example, the Italian club were giving out free crostoli and gave members a card for free coffee from Brunetti’s. They also had 2 individuals dressed as Mario and Luigi. On a side note: I think this is a really great advertising tool. If the Greek club had had someone dressed up as Steve from the Wog Boy or if the Arabic club were giving out free falafels, I’m sure membership would have increased tenfold.

So. There you go.

I would also like to include a small anecdote.

The highlight of my o-week was not actually planned by the university (or maybe it was?) . It involved running into my year 10 maths teacher.

Breif history of me and maths: mutual hate/hate relationship. I have not passed a math class since year 4. Hence, upon the arrival of ‘electives’ I was fair sure I’d be dropping maths then having a celebratory bonfire. However this was not to be* .

If you have ever seen any Blinky Bill cartoons, I refer you to the character of Miss Magpie. And if you haven’t, I refer you to the first few minutes of this video: here

Im not even joking. Anyway, she was new to the school and not really knowing what to expect. In the first lesson a mate of mine was playing with a lighter underneath the desk and proceeded to set their crotch on fire. (This is yet to be overtaken from 1st place on my ‘Funniest Things I Have Ever Seen’ list).
I guess it all just went down hill from there.
Yet despite hanging out with arsonists and consistently achieving 0% in every test** she really liked me. Like really, really liked me. I don’t know why. I suppose I am just incredibly likable. But it got to the point where people I didn’t even know where commenting on it so 😐 yeah.
Anyway like many a math teacher before her she quit her job and moved to a nice, safe school never to be heard of again. Untill now. She kept saying she might see me around Melbourne and how she has an interview with a lecturer.
Awesome!

Farewell;
Carolina .

* = I blame Year 9, the last of the years of compulsory mathematics and no viable escape from surds or equilateral triangles. I spent the bulk of my class time writing notes, something akin to “remember to disinfect toilet bowl” and throwing them into my teachers pocket, which proved to be vastly entertaining / incredibly popular activity with the majority of the class.
The teacher retired at the end of the year.
However, she got the ‘last laugh’ as it were, as she was the one in charge of timetabling. I found myself irrevocably stuck in a maths methods class the following year. Touché, Ms Stewart. Touché.

** = I got into the habit of drawing zoo animals on my test instead – I got 10/10 for my giraffe this one time. And also I got 100% for this project where we had to design our dream house and work out how much it would cost to paint and install air-conditioning and whatnot.