Routines

Pretty much 3 quarters of ‘First Year’ has passed for me, and things are gradually becoming more stable. From locating lecture/tutorial spots to awkward hours on-campus and sleeping time, life in uni gradually becomes… normal, though some of it not in the way I want to.With an established timetable, I have a red-eye start on Mondays and Tuesdays (9AM lecture! 😔), shuffle through the more boring lessons, with enough excitement afforded by a breadth subject with the most engaging guest lecturers (there’s a lot of them) and some challenging mathsssssss. After each day, I go home, and provided it’s still cold out here in Melbourne, I generally stay home. Either I stay in the apartment for the rest of the afternoon, or in some cases have some dinner in the city. Weekends are spent pretty much indoors, barring the Sunday church service. Just like that, it is my routine week by week.

There’s obviously some things wrong here. I don’t go out much. I sound pretty boring just after several months of studying. Fortunately, I’ve been trying to spice it up by spending more time on campus and hesitating to immediately take the tram home after all lectures/tutes are over, one of which is exploring the Carlton area. Living quite a distance away from campus, exploring the area around the University probably should have been higher on my bucket list, as I was surprised at the places I went.

There’s Swanston and Bourke Street of course, but going up and down Lygon Street presents a whole host of new places, from shops to eateries to entertainment outlets. I’m particularly drawn to this independent theatre showing really good movies, most of which you just can’t see at Hoyts/Village. I recently ordered spoken-word material that is exclusively available only on vinyl, and I probably would have stressed out in locating rentable turntables, if I hadn’t realised that the Rowden White Library has multiple of those free to use in the library.

So what’s the lesson here? Routines are unavoidable when you’re living alone as a student, and even necessary to complement your timetable, however these things can leave you stuck in a rut. Challenge yourself to spice up your habit a bit. Take a detour to Lygon Street for lunch, head out a bit earlier on Wednesdays (the Victorian Farmer’s Market beside the Union House is very worth it), and particularly those who don’t live around the campus or in the CBD, stay around a little bit, because it’s only when you get yourself lost that you discover the most interesting stuff.

Also, Spring is upon us, and that should sweeten the deal. 😉

Apologies for the lack of posts the past month. I’ll definitely have another ramble next week. Probably food-related. Mmmmmm..

Eyre (Peso)