Yesterday after getting in late to my Reason lecture we had a twenty minute talk on how to use the library directory etc. and I though there's no harm in me turning on my laptop until the actual lecture starts, right? Wrong. I spent the entire lecture gossiping with an old friend on Facebook about boys and uni and when we're getting home for Easter break. Then after nearly forgetting to even go to my Criminology lecture I spent it chatting to a different friend about John Green's appearance on Craig Ferguson which was happening at the time. Needless to say, I didn't take in a single thing from either lecture and now have to thoroughly study the lecture slides and probably listen on LMS. It doesn't help really help that the information from the Crim lecture is exactly what I need for my assessment next week. Which I should be doing right now.
I'm really slipping back into this student thing, ey?
There is much to celebrate when one has successfully reviewed a lecture on the LMS for Mind, Brain and Behaviour 1 before the actual lecture has occurred! Maybe this sounds a little sad, or a little nerdy, I'm not sure. All I do know is, when you've spent a couple of hours with your non-matching coloured yellow, orange and blue highlighters, rewriting information about brain neurons and action potentials and the Basal Ganglia until you can actually understand more than half the lecture notes and diagrams, you do feel strangely euphoric. Drained as hell, yeah, but euphoric all the same! (Or maybe 'relieved' would be a better adjective!). It's a bit like that meme that used to go around: getting something right in Math Methods and feeling like Jesus! I totally get that! (Except for the Math Methods bit, ahem!). But sometimes when you suddenly just get something it is pretty awesome, and I have (on rare occasion, I can assure you) had a little fist-pumping moment in the library, especially over exam time last year where suddenly all the stars align and the world seems to make sense again.
As I'm in a rush for this post, sadly, here is a brief synopsis for you of my Psych-life at the moment in an arty photo journal kind of way:
1. Revise/review lecture notes (note the tea on the left for motivation)
2. Eat celebratory double chocolate cupcake for first half hour's worth of efforts
3. Screenshot complicated looking slide, such as this one, and send it to your non-pschying friend/show it to your mum with a sad emoticon/sad face for additional sympathy.
4. Draw a very terrible looking brain and label all its parts as a refresher to your memory. I'm too embarrased to include a photo of my drawing here!! But yeah, I'm sure you can imagine...
5. Eat grapes, and as you hold the vine in your hand, you ponder how grape vines remind you of dendrites! ... which evidently makes you realise you've been studying neurons way too much lately!
6. So, feeling sorry for yourself, you ditch the grapes for chocolate coated coffee beans to try and make you stay awake better during your Sunday night cramming session/the sleepy quiet of the library
7. Finally finish your notes. And voila. The relief, exhaustion, euphoria hits! And you collapse on the couch and make another cup of tea.
...and then, it suddenly hits you that you have to write a 40 line poem for your Creative Writing assignment, and you know you're terrible at poetry, and you think the world might just end... so you start the process again; tea, chocolate cupcake, coffee beans... Somehow, this time the grapes don't really look like the terminal buttons hanging off the end of dendrites; you try to describe them in a Shakespearian manner but nothing really comes to mind...
Okay, so maybe this is all a tad melodramatic!! But perhaps you will be able to relate a little! Hopefully it made you smile... I'm finding these few first weeks kind of tough, to be honest. But a little humour goes a long way in making it all feel so much better. :) Another lecture calls so must be off!
xxxxx
Sometimes events and situations nd budding friendships don't turn out how you want them to. You lay in bed at night fantasizing about all these new friends you're making and all the fun you'll have together. Then you end up walking through the city in the wee hours of the morning in tears. Again. And then you get homesick for those friends you could just party with with no reservations an have a blast and you could talk to your parents, or your siblings or anyone. Even just to tell Daddy your rent is due soon. And you wonder who, of all the people you've met recently, want to hang onto you and who you want to hang on to. Because we all know you don't want all of them.
But then you realise, you're capable o going a week without a mobile and you've got those acquaintances in multiple tutes and lectures who you'll grow closer to - it's only second week after all - it's only two to three weeks til you go home and another week after that that you'll be spending ALL WEEKEND at Supanova, possibly with an old friend and it's probably for the best you didn't have a big night because you can't really afford it at the moment. And you listen to your favourites playlist and get all warm and fuzzy, like when some of your friends watched your favourite movie with you at 3am because you were upset and you number one is hours away and still manages to comfort you.
I write to you, kind people of this blogsphere, with 'Man vs Wild' going on on SBS behind me. My family are hooked on it, sitting on the couch beside me, eyes wide, hoping Bear Grylls will successfully cross the blizzard of snow. "How's he going to do it, Simone?!" Dad asks me in what I hope is mock enthusiasm. I tell him that while Mr Grylls is temporary isolated (ahem, apart from his camera man and crew!), he is going to eventually reach civilisation, and is just about to tell us that a few tourists got lost down here last month/week/year/insert-date-here, as he seems to do in nearly every adventure goes on, and Dad laughs. Anyhow - I must warn you, having gotten up at a mighty 6am this morning, the earliest in months, I'm half asleep by now (9pm!). These 8am psychology are going to be the end of me! So basically - I hope this post makes some sense amidst my lack of sleep and the epic Bear Grylls sliding down some snow behind me.
The last time I felt so overwhelmed with something I was studying was in Literature last year for year 12. We were reading the intro, Act I of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and I was reading out the lines of the king (very excitedly - Shakespeare's words are so pretty). Finishing the scene, my teacher prompted a class discussion about what the opening of the play was telling us. My friend was giving a deep interpretation to her view of what good ol' Will was trying to tell us, or warn us, when I - cringe here - thought aloud and said stupidly, 'oh! They were on a boat?!'. My classmates tittered good naturally; my kind teacher said nothing but looked over, clearly worried. 'The boat is sinking because of a storm!' a girl had informed me. 'As if you didn't get that!' another cried. I remember my cheeks flushing deep red and wanting to sink into the chair. Honestly, I had been too involved in the beautiful language of the play to listen to what the characters were actually saying! I'd quickly flicked back to the beginning of the scene while my classmates were continuing the discussion to try and read over it again, when I was suddenly hit by the realisation that even when I tried to understand what the characters were saying, mostly I had no idea at all. As we read on, I still didn't get what was going on until my teacher and classmates began the next discussion. I know this might sound ridiculous, but going to Lit made me so nervous that I stopped particiapting in the class for fear that my points were silly, that I understood it all wrong. My palms would sweat and stomach swell. All I could think was - I can't do this! I can't understand this! Let alone write an essay about it!
Long story short: after a few tears, sleepless nights, and a bit of a chat with my lovely Lit teacher, I was determined that I would do The Tempest on the Lit exam, and that if I could write a whole essay on it, no matter how bad it was, I would be so proud! And so I sat with that little book of the play in front of one of those websites that translates Shakesperian into Plain English until I understood every line and written out side notes of interpretations for the whole play. When my teacher told me I needed to look at some deeper ideas than the ones I was writing about, I found books at the state library of some more serious analysis' of the play and copied the key ideas down. After what felt like an extraordinary amount of effort for one text, I can now say I wrote on The Tempest for my exam. Lit wasn't my best subject for VCE - but it was the one that taught me the most about how much you can work to understand something and be successful with it, reach your goal.
So now, back to the point after some serious blabbering (in which Bear Grylls has eaten a rabbit heart and has made it back to civilisation via a helicopter!), I now have to follow this same process of working hard to actually understand something with Psychology at the moment. My last lecture appeared to be in another language: the talk of those blessed with a Science Brain! Has anyone else had these issues?! So alas, my amazing Sunday night was spent combing through the details of the first lecture, slide by slide. A very slow process, but definitely going to be worth the effort. I hope I get it in the end!
PS. If you ever get lost at Melbourne Uni, as I do many a time, just think, a few tourists got lost down here in Bear Grylls voice, have a giggle, and be thankful you are not about to drink your own pee.
How was everyone's first week? I spoke to a few friends and they have all really liked the start of uni. The official start, the lectures and tutorials, the LMS lecture slides and Echo recordings. I am sure all of us are loving the social uni aspect: there have been thousands of BBQs and even free coffees/teas/low-fat-slim-milk-unalloyed-nonabusive short black coffees! One friend even reported scavenging 5 beers from a club event! That beerilliant for him stat reminded me of another stat - Melbourne Uni (South Lawn in particular) is a licensed venue. There you go: one difference between high school and uni - one place is a Coles Specials candy land for those who passed a SAC, the other an ethanol drenched lawn for anybody who cared to join a club/society.
But back to uni uni, or just uni for those who love this place for the friends and evenings in Carlton. How was your first lecture? Let's do an interview!
(Student walks in to Union House with a plastic cup from Kere Kere, sits down, takes off his satchel and lets out an exhausted sigh).
I: How was your lecture?
S: Crammed, very crammed. I instantly mental-noted my-self to get to lectures 15-20 minutes early to ensure I don't get there late.
I:Is getting to class late a problem?
S: Yes. There is usually the necessary but blood freezing few seconds where I have to stop at the entrance, look up at all those faces and search for a seat. That seat is usually somewhere in the middle of a row, which means people must twist their knees sideways to let me through. I feel annoying to be the reason why they hustle.
I: What about the lecture it-self?
S: It's great! Funny, reassuring, but nevertheless scary. Mention of assignments in Week 3 does that to you. My friend even had a maths lecture which had no "administrative talk" buffer - straight into "accelerated maths"! He said that after 4 months of neuron paralysis, it was a formidable task. But it was such a different beast, the lecture. The lecturer is there for you to know everything you need, but they aren't really there, too. I mean, you can come in late and not get the usual "Where is your late pass?". You can fall asleep on the desk and either be the butt of a hawk-eyed lecturer's joke, or sleep through unnoticed. You can even leave early and nothing would be made of it. It's like a virtual game where you're in control.
I: Tell us about the tutes?
S: I had a few but not all this week. The real deal starts on Monday! But the tute that I did have, it wasn't the hushed Silence-Which-Cannot-Be-Broken type. There are reported cases of 50 minutes spent listening to crickets and ravellers outside. Only a window sneaks a glimpse of Hope! My tutorial was great. People are quiet at the start, but you just have to be a bit vulnerable, a bit you, and initiate a convo like you would with old friends.
I: Oh yeah?
S: Hmm! It eases the tension and people feel comfortable enough to be them-selves if you are being YOUR-self.
I: A word on locations and getting around?
S: Lost On Campus App, Lost on Campus App! Even though sometimes it tells me I am lodged in a building when I am 20 metres outside, it lets me know where all the lecture theatres, buildings and rooms are! Indispensable! Plus it has all the food spots and even a title called "Secret Spots"! They are not so secret now. After a few days I even sort of knew where to go without bashing into polls while looking at the app. And that feels bloody good. A true universitalite.
I: Any updates on books?
S: Yes, I am doing the classic Talk But No Walk.
I: Elaborate?
S: For example, it's when I go on Youtube and justify it by saying I have the LMS page open, or when I make an appointment to a workshop on time-management but fail to attend because I'm too busy watching Youtube videos! Same with my textbooks. Especially since they are recommended but not required: less urgency and guilt to get proactive with it. But I will, I will. It's only the Psychology textbooks that demand the wallet to lose considerable weight. Plus to compensate, I have half of Baillieu Library stuffed in my room and I continue with the Talk but no Walk.
I: Elaborate?
S: There are 1000 pages per book, 1000 books in my room...
I read 3 pages overall. Return the library back to the library and incur a huge fine.
The fine in total would have been enough to pay my ORIGINAL textbooks in the first place!
And that's the classic Talk but no Walk.
He did it all casually not as though he was surprised to notice it was open.
I can officially say my first week of uni is complete.
For the most part I'm happy with my subjects. I'm super happy with Creative Writing: Ideas and Practice and An Ecological History of Humanity. I'm glad I chose Ecol Hist, because when else is an arts student gonna get a casual lecture on evolution? I've always been a bio-phobe (give me physics any day) so I kinda missed my opportunity to do any evolution, but I feel it's one of those topics it's good to have a general knowledge of. And I'm just proud of how unselfconscious I've been in tutes; I even read out my poem in my CW workshop.
I decided today, while watching The Lucky One (Y'know, the Nicholas Sparks movie with Zefron. Oh, Zefron!), that English-related studies are really what I'm good for because I sat there thinking "man dramatic irony is one of my favourite techniques" and "could that pathetic fallacy get any more obvious?" People always say if you love something, don't analyse it, but I adore analysing texts I love. I actually used a number f my favourite books and movies in the HSC.
But I should probably get back to studying. This free uni wifi is very distracting!
FROM: An exhausted, eighteen year old Simone after her first official semester day at the University of Melbourne;
Monday, 4th March, 2013
The Living Room Couch
TO: Simone of (the more sophisticated) age of nineteen, at the end of her first year of her Bachelor of Arts
Approx time this should arrive to my future self: Friday, 22nd November, 2013
The Cool Bar You Now Always Go To (/The Living Room Couch, just in case not much as changed...)
Dear Simone,
Hi, there. Guess who it is! Your little self after her first day at Big School, university! I just thought that maybe it might be fun if I write you a short letter, or should I say, Blotter (see what I did there!! Hopefully you're still as punny and good at word-merging as you are right now in 8 months time! ...actually, let's hope you're not, because clearly, you're going to be a lot less nerdy and a lot cooler by the time you've finished Year 1. Right? Right!). That way, you can compare this very day and how it's going at the moment with how it's ended up in the end. I hope you're going well at the moment, having fun with all your not-so-new hipster lovely friends, hanging out with your spunky boyf ('spunky' and 'boyf' being another couple of words inherited from your mum that you no longer use, much to the relief of friends old and new!), having aced all your exams and assignments and what not (cough, cough), whilst still catching up with your highschool besties. But don't be too hard on yourself if you didn't, though, okay?! Just think back to me, your little (rather innocent) self, and realise what a giant step you took this year. I'll bet you'll have achieved more than you've realised!
My first day today went well - perhaps you'd like a quick recount of how it went, for old times sake? To start with, I was terribly nervous on that packed Swanston Street tram, I'll tell you (I know, it probably sounds pretty lame now to you!), with my very first lecture in this rather strange sounding place called 'The Spot' which isn't even on the main campus!! I made it there just in time as all the other Creative Writers entered the lecture theatre, and made the mistake of getting a seat with one of those things you lean on while you're writing that you probably know the name of by now, for left-handers, which meant my right arm was twisted in a kind of awkward position around... the lecturer spoke well, made a few jokes which seemed to break the uncomfortable silence in the room. Some people were scribbling down every word he said; others tapping away at their Macbooks. I wasn't sure how much of the 'introductory' kind of notes we really needed, how much to write down, but I guess that's one of the little things you'll have figured out by the time you're reading this. You'll be a lecture-pro, writing down all that stuff! I then restrained myself from running and fast-walked my way back through the campus for my next lecture, which seemed to be on the other side of the earth. 8 minutes or so is not long enough to get from The Spot to anywhere on time! (But you've probably worked out a few short cuts by now!). I then had an entire 3 hours break to get lunch, in which I sat in the shade of a lovely tree for a while and caught up with an O-week friend, and finally had an Arts Foundation lecture that went for an entire 20 minutes, with a good 10 minutes spent watching some (relevant) music videos on Youtube!
Are you still in contact/good friends with those from highschool? Or have you drifted away a bit? Do you have many new friends? What has been your favourite subject? Do you still love Ed Sheeran and Missy Higgins and Coldplay and Atonement?
My prediction is thus: you will remain close to your best friends, even as one will be in London come November and travelling the world and one at RMIT; you will have met a few lovely new people, in the Melbourne Uni clubs and things especially; your favourite subject will have been Creative Writing but you enjoyed Psychology more than you thought you would. You'll probably have a clearer picture for the future, and hopefully some exciting summer holiday plans. Maybe you'll have been to a few more cool concerts and night clubs, too. Oh - and you'll have probably met the other bloggers! Say hi to future Kiryll and Victoria for me!
Please write back,
Love,
Simone
Good evening! How is everybody resting after a week of absolute mayhem?!
I sure was tired after what had been a 5 day marathon of people, smiles, people, rain, tents, South Lawns, queues and more people!
My experience didn't have pub crawls and compressed bodies jumping in unison at central locations in the CBD. But it was great, sober fun that left me excited for March the Fourth (tomorrow!).
Hi, my name is Kiryll!
The phrase that gets the most rotation on iTunes album - "MelbUni Orientation Week". With that mantra, I have met heaps of people! I saw people at the "Academic Writing" lecture in Old Arts - said hey, had a chat and left knowing that there is a familiar face somewhere in the midst of Parkville Campus.
I also got lost during Host Program! Not to stress. It was the first day, 10 am, gloomy sulky weather. There was I. Alone, but determined, aloof with a yellow umbrella. I was on a search to find my blue garbed Host. But I failed. I would have walked off with tears that I would brush off as silly rain droplets. Alas, I was found by another Host, too kind to be true. With the pseudonym of J, J took me in to their group: where a few friendships were made!
Those same friends began to pop up everywhere from that day on. It was great to know that this once humongo unknown crowd of fresh students had a face I recognised!
I also tried to be less awkward around people and gave "Speed Meeting" a go! After a few bumpy exchanges, the hour turned into awesome conviviality. I read on this same FirstYearBlog that O-Week and the later weeks to come are the most welcoming times. Heaps more people are willing to go out of their way and let their guard down, to open up to strangers. What was cool, was that people felt comfortable with each other, as if they've known one another since Prep! My theory is that, once people have made friends, and a 'mate-group' forms, their willingness to be open with strangers will diminish in proportion to the growth of their mate-group's amity. I am not a sociologist, so this can be discarded as famous pseudo-science. :)
Did you guys hang out mostly with your friends from high-school or with new buddies? Or both? At one of the days I had my best friend 'favourite Venusian' visit the free pizza and movie night organised by the Union. We tried to talk to fellow people near us in the Queue of Doom. There was a speedy and casual hour wait for tasty free pizza!! Or is anything tasty that is free? In the end, that queue helped me realise that a lot of people come to Melbourne from other states or countries and, like Victoria, live in unilodges, shared housing or even the illustrious colleges!
So I realised that MelbUni is quite a colossus in the world and Australia, while here was I looking at the Moon and missing the whole universe of this institution. People my age went to great lengths to be here in Melbourne. It is a brave commitment and I salute you guys!
For the students living by them-selves, with roommates or in colleges, how is that life compared to the one you left behind? Does it heighten the uni experience: Freedom=Uni*Independence^2? The more independence one has (like one's own place!), the greater the freedom?
A quick word on clubs
Like Simone, I also joined six clubs. I joined Rats, Can't Say, La Di Da, Rooftop, The Social Bar, The Bar.
No, no. I did no such thing.
Like Simone, I joined six clubs slash societies and look forward to the meetings and gatherings! By the way, I found out anybody can look up all the clubs and societies that exist on the UMSU page and check out their respective facebook pages to see if one's timetable meets a club's scheduled weekly meeting or BBQ or just to see whether a club/society is what one is looking for.
You guys thought of creating and chairing your OWN club?! You can totally do it! You can make an official Pub Crawl Club, or a Fight Club Club, or a Tram Appreciation Society, or something that you are interested in and have not found in the UMSU societies' list!
P.S. I have purchased one textbook and a few subject readers so far. I think tomorrow I will opt for online options since the Oracle tells me there will be a human wall barricading me from entering the Co-Op bookstore!
Have an awesome nervous and jittery but great first day!
If you even have scheduled classes on tomorrow. If not, I salute you.
The joys me sharing a building with hundreds of strangers.
Really, living with strangers has been great so far. I've met so many lovely people from countries and universities I would never have had a chance to. I also had the opportunity to spend two glorious hours watching Nickelodeon yesterday.
Although, there's this one guy who always says 'hey Victoria' when he sees me here or at uni and for the life of me I don't know his name.
Through a series of coincidental meetings in lines I met up with one of my Destination Melbourne buddies and have a potential lovely group of friends. With these guys I skipped the MASS Historical Tour for our own in the city and ditched the oweek party to get down at another club. I've also been promised I'll get to know all the cheap food places around. That's gonna come in handy.
I have attended the dry parts of oweek though.g only joined two clubs, MASS and the Russian Society. To be honest, I have no previous interest in Russia but they had a funny flyer and host a Eurovision night so I handed over the cash. I have to admit, when I found out the Chocolate Lovers Society cost ten bucks I took the free chocolate and ran.
Now, to top off the week I'm decided between drinking games downstairs and watching House in my room.
Edit: I also joined the Book Club I just keep forgetting. They had cool membership cards.
Somehow, it is already Friday - we have reached the end of a rainy, exciting, Orientation week! Last Friday, which only feels like yesterday, I wondered how I would be feeling by now. More nervous about the start of the semester, or less? But thankfully, it is safe to say that if anything, O-week has helped me find my way around the campus, sign up to some awesome sounding clubs and societies and meet lovely new people.
I think it's time for another list! Ladies and gentleman, I give you:
Simone's Fabulous List of Bests and Worsts of Everything at UniMelb's O-Week of 2013! (*Exhale! Sorry for the long title, folks).
BESTS:
+ The people I met. Through my Orientation group on Monday, a guy sitting next to me in a lecture, and meeting friends of a friend, I have met a few lovely new people. This was undoubtedly one of the things I was most nervous about before the week, so it's a major relief to have met a few more people. If there's one thing I've learned, apart from to always check whether your top is inside out or not before you leave the house, it's that you have to be really proactive in your friendship making. Saying hi to a random sitting next to you could prove seriously rewarding - and even if it doesn't, what do you have to lose!
+ The friendly, don't-be-shy,-come-say-hi! (I'm a poet and I didn't even know it! A very bad poet, at that...) attitude of those signing you up at the clubs and societies, and similarly of my Host on Monday. Not once did I, or seemingly my friends either, feel awkward approaching one of the little stalls to write down our names and ask a couple of questions about the club, even though we were all feeling a bit shy and apparently looking like lost first years (as told by a student who approached yesterday! We thought we looked pretty chilled but apparently not!). I've signed up to - wait for it - 6 different groups! God knows how I'm going to keep up with them all, but they all sounded pretty exciting. The plan is to attend the first meeting of all 6, then work out which I like best...
+ Freebies! Everybody loves freebies, no doubt about it. In particular, a drink bottle, a pencil case, and a whole array of discount cards and tokens and vouchers. There wasn't quite as much as I expected there to be in terms of Free Stuff, but still. Anything free is pretty good!
WORSTS:
- The weather! The sun only decided to poke her head out today, our final (and probably most un-eventful) O-week day, which kind of sucked, but there wasn't much to be done about it but ensure lunchtimes were spent in the very warm Union House.
- Being approached several times by the same groups shouting 'come join us! Come join us! We're the best group!'. The pressure is really on and you feel like you're going to make it incredibly awkward if you say no, thanks, I don't want to spend $10 on your group when I'm not entirely convinced yet it is my thing! (But maybe that's the point of their in-your-face encouragement, to sign up as many randoms as they you can to spam email...). A few of the Sports societies didn't seem to understand that I'm entirely uncoordinated, even when I told them I once kicked the ball behind my head instead of forwards, and nor did the Cheerleaders, who insisted I should join even though I struggled to do a forward-roll in the golden days of year 10 PE!
- I'm not sure if this counts as one or not, but: the amount of paper I realise everyone is going to have to recycle over this weekend! Seriously, though. Free stuff is great; free random pamphlets of things in 'show bags', not so great! (Though this point may just be a reflection of knowing that it takes 10L of water to make 1 piece of paper and I'm still feeling guilty from the thousands of litres I probably used last year with all the VCE printing...)
I will leave you with a picture of some of the stuff I did get that I'm looking forward to using/going through. Check out the colourful tabs, thanks Book Club!! Can't wait to use my new stationary next week!
If there anything you would like to add to my BEST/WORSTS List, feel free to comment - be intresting to hear how everyone else's week went!
Love, Simone
xxxx
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