We're on our way! (Benjamin)
Why, hello again!
Well, there goes week one and we’re already well and truly on our way now. So just how is uni different to school? Well, in many ways. Firstly, the way the work is structured. Unlike school where you are guided along and told what to do, in uni, you are expected to be very independent about organising your study. No one’s on your back about it, so it is imperative to be self-motivated in order to do well. You are given a set amount of work to do in Tutorials (tutes) and have work for Practicals, but for Lectures and other things, you must be the one to read ahead, do the research, seek clarification and etcetera. I don’t mind it actually, because generally I am able to cope with distractions (unless there happens to be a very good book that I am resisting the urge to read or I am hungry.)
It was great meeting lots of new people and catching up with old friends. What wasn’t great was how easily it is to confuse people and forget names and only remember them halfway through the conversation. The result of this was introducing two of my friends to another friend. I had a bad case of Idioticus Majora that morning and had forgotten the name of one of my friends because I had been so engrossed by the content of our Bio lecture (is that normal?). I tried the good old ‘This is X’ and ‘wait- for-the-other-two-to-introduce-themselves’ technique to save myself from impending embarrassment (insert obvious comment about foreshadowing). After a long five second silence, I decided to grab at some straws and just take a random punt, hoping I got the name right. So I said ‘This is Sarah and Megan’. This resulted in much supressed mirth from the girls and an unintentional atmosphere of conviviality. Why? Oh, just because neither of them are called that. Sarah is her sister’s name and Megan is… well just completely wrong. I’m so sorry hahahaha! Thank goodness I don’t have any plans of working in advertising, where people say your name like every single sentence, e.g. ‘Well Ben, what we’re going to do, Ben, is to help you understand the logistics of this assignment, Ben.’ Did I mention that in Mandarin, ‘Ben’ means stupid? Wo hong Ben.
When I was on the train this week, I had the most unfortunate misfortune of standing about ten metres away from a couple who were full on making out in front of everyone (I learned later, that my friend was sitting right in front of them, so I shouldn’t be complaining!) Now, there’s nothing wrong with displaying your affection for the person you love in front of the public eye (as long as you’re keeping things PG), and I would know this from the times that I used to bring my Wags the Dog toy from The Wiggles to school. Primary school just in case any of you were getting worried. And I wasn’t making out with it. Okay? Okay.
Anyway, when you’re on the train, there seems to be this unwritten rule about hiding your emotions; either by ‘masking’ them (choices of Batman, The Flash and Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) or simply by just not showing them. Deviations from this social paradigm encourage much consternation and unease from commuters. There’s only so long you can appear to be enthralled by the patterns on the seat/the flecks of paint peeling of the Buzz Lightyear mask on the person next to you. Solution? Copper Sulphate. No, not really. The solution is to distract yourself with something much more intellectually stimulating. Like the chess game on your phone where you are still stuck against the Computer level 6 difficulty. Take it from me, when you do finally beat it, letting out a loud, victorious ‘HAH’ is not the best way of ‘blending in’ with your fellow emotionless, voiceless travellers. When taking the subsequent tram to uni during morning peak hour, where it’s nice and busy and filled to capacity so that there are ample opportunities to get up close and personal with the window (perhaps a good time to refine your kissing technique having just had a prac on it before?), it’s also just as quiet. Well, usually. In my comfortable position wedged between the door and a pole, I could hear the constant beeping of something. That’s when I looked down and noticed that the Myki machine right next to my pocket seemed to be having a bit of a temper tantrum. Apparently it had tried to do the ‘touch on/off’ thing about seven eight times in a row. Beware ye the person who stands near the Myki machine.
It rained a lot last week which meant it was wet. That meant coming prepared. I have since become rather wary of the umbrella, which is a device that provides mid morning uni entertainment for the people around you. Having walked through the Hogwartsesque corridors, I was holding one open above my head, however, owing to the strong wind, it had been turned inside out. So being the DIY guy that I am, I decided to take it down and fix it. This involves turning the brolly upside down, and holding it near eye level. In a happy coincidence, there happened to be a bit of water that had accumulated in the temporary ‘bucket’ of sorts. You can guess what happened next; I made like a salad and serenaded myself with half a gallon of icy cold hell, courtesy of my common sense and brilliant intellect. How do umbrellas even lettuce do that sort of thing?!
And that was the week that was. Tune in next time for another fun adventure!
Toodles!
Ben 🙂