Heath is here

The obligatory introduction. Well, foolishly, I waited until after my fellow first years had posted and I’m now convinced that I need to write a small essay in order to measure up to the standard that has been set. Well, maybe a long essay. In two separate posts. Nevertheless, I will attempt to make a worthwhile contribution.

So, O-week. Contrary to just about everyone I have spoken to, I didn’t seem to get the same thrill from meeting hundreds (thousands) of new people. That’s not to say I didn’t have fun, but it wasn’t the most amazing experience of my life. Sure I joined some clubs (mostly those promising free goodies) and I will concede that I think my expectations of those clubs are going to be exceeded in the first weeks. Nevertheless, the whole week reminded me of a giant circus where nobody had a clue what they were doing but were damned well going to have fun anyway. And it was fun. Just not as amazing as a lot of people thought it was. Still, besides O-week, there were plenty of other university related things that have occupied my thoughts over the last week and a half.

Firstly, the timetable system. I don’t mind Alloc8. It’s quite a nice system, given that it assigns me a timetable without any input. What I do mind is the amount of “overfull” classes that result from the university enrolling far too many students in the Bachelor of Biomedicine and not having the foresight to realise that the theatres originally rostered were certainly not going to be sufficient. So, they changed them. Several times. They’re still “subject to change” on the system, so I’m hoping when I turn up to my newly scheduled 8am lecture tomorrow it hasn’t moved again! Also, maybe some official “tute-swap” system would be beneficial so I don’t get 20 emails a day begging to swap lectures

But I’m happy (more so than I was) now. Uni is about to start. Things appear to be good.

Since I wrote this over the weekend, I’ve actually experienced my first day of classes. Everything from this point onwards has been written on Monday the 2nd, whereas the previous paragraphs were written on Friday-Saturday-Sunday. The theory that “first years don’t have 8am lectures” was (as already outlined) destroyed and I arrived to my morning Chemistry lecture to watch Architecture students get kicked out for not having read their timetables. Heheheh. 9 hours later (and after some delicious cookies in a meet-and-greet tute.) I made some very important discoveries.

1. Don’t choose clothes for the day based on the temperature at 6am when you wake up. Sweating my way through the day in heavy jeans and a hoodie wasn’t such a great idea. It got even worse during my practical class when I wore a lab coat over the top.
2. Make friends in your lectures. I’m going to lie and make up some numbers to prove that, statistically, you won’t attend every lecture. You know you won’t. I met a fellow blogger in my Creative Writing lecture and I plan to mooch off her when I can’t attend.
3. Make an effort to be amused by your lecturers. One of mine reminds me of Woody Allen (big plus, despite the entire adopted daughter-wife thing) and another is just plain funny.
4. Try to bring food from home. Not only are you going to save a small fortune, but you don’t need to wait in massive lines to buy it.
5. Get a decent bag. My normal side-slung bag was defeated by the massive weight I attempt to cram into this morning, leaving me to dump everything into a backpack and run for the bus.
6. There are some sweet vouchers in the Uni. diary. Get some spare copies so you can get multiple special offers and discounts.
7. South Lawn is good for sleeping.

Well, that’s all on my Uni. observations and I realise I haven’t actually introduced myself at all. Well, I’m doing the Bachelor of BioMedicine and I’m lucky enough to live relatively close to the university (at home, with parents). That means that not only can I get to uni easily, but I have a support network that I can use for a constant stream of snacks/household chores/washing/laundry/etc. Also, I’m going to the Coldplay concert tomorrow night so I’m kinda stoked about that. I’m also ridiculously pretentious (I chose my name based on Bronte’s sole novel), so it’s probably a good thing I’m not readily identifiable from this blog.

Heath