O-week flu has finally caught up with me. So much for thinking I was immune to Aussie colds haha. Here I am then on Saturday night, not going out.
Actually though, I don't mind :) I'm really really happy today! My first linguistics and eco history assignments are all done and handed in so I feel a bit relieved and I'm absolutely loving my classes! Things have settled down a bit and I'm starting to get the hang of managing my work which is good. Most of my friends have become even better friends and I just feel really happy. It's only really on the weekends when I leave my work until Sunday night that I start to stress outbut hey, it's Saturday atm so it's all good in the proverbial hood. Hmm now I just have to think about what to have for dinner... the sink is still full of plates and things which I need in order to actually eat my dinner so maybe I should deal with that first.
In keeping with my brilliant mood I'm going to sign off with some British goodbyes lol, I can't think of any typical Aussie ones...
Toodle pip, cheerio, Ta-ra, So long, Farewell (I'm beginning to sound like the von trap family) and see ya!
Lol, I'm weird.
Natty x x
Try this.
1) Hook up your Macbook to a sound system and set the volume to reasonably loud.
2) Use an alarm application (Aurora) and set it to wake you up at a reasonable time, say 8:45.
3) Make sure that iTunes will wake you up with Coldplay - Life in Technicolour.
4) Sleep.
What you get is an amazing way to wake up - Technicolour is a song that gradually builds up, so you get drawn back to reality from Slumberland in a non-shock, smooth transition. Then you add really pumpy songs after that, like Viva La Vida, or maybe songs that put you in your happy place like High School Musical songs. (Not that I do that.. *cough*) and you have the perfect combination of a slow wake up, and music that gets you out of bed.
FINALLY made it through this week, with a slew of assessment tasks (not really a slew as such but) and only 2 assignments left to submit by next week.
To top it off, I experienced "the best wake up" (previously mentioned) this very morning.
And to add the proverbial 'whipped cream and a cherry on the top', the eruption of sunlight bursting through my window, destroying my sense of sight as I opened the curtains - was quite the bomb - today's weather seems to be the best I've seen all week.
Good start to the weekend.
Today's agenda is a 21st, at a rollerskating place, with a Roller Disco theme.
Whip out the afro's, flares and KC & The Sunshine Band.
Hope the weekend is tres awesome for you!
ASH
G'day mate!
No movie represents Australian culture more than The Castle. That is, if you are to believe my Aussie friends. Which is what I did. Basically, the movie is about your average stereotypical family taken to the extreme à la Aussie style. This means:
Husband: "Oh, doll! It looks BEAUTIFUL! What is it?"
Wife: "Ice cream..."
However, the happy times are about to end. The airport needs to expand and the family is required to move. This goes beyond the understanding of father Darryl, who claims "the home is my castle". The multimillion dollar company tries to pay its way out, but for the Aussie family it's not about the money, it's about the memories. And for that, they are willing to put up a fight...
In short, it was a very entertaining film. A piece of advice though: watch it with some Aussie friends. It'll be both funnier for you and for them. What I bring with me is the BEAUTY of Aussie life, and the somewhat broader accent that comes with it.
See ya later alligator!
....metaphorically speaking of course. I'm not that much of a failure at Biol. I was in my calculus tute. when I created the concept of "arc i sin (x)". If you don't recognise any of that, it's pronounced "arky-sine" and it's guaranteed to cheer you up when you say its name out loud (I'm yet to find a mathematical use though).
Nevertheless, what's new in the world of university. (I refuse to put question marks on rhetorical questions) Not much unfortunately. Biology continues to be an absolute monster that hides under my bed at nights and leaps out screaming to terrify me. I didn't do it at high school. I don't know what a cell is or a zygote or a membrane or a phospholipid or what the hell the Krebs Cycle is and why it's also called the citric-acid-cyle. Massive amounts of frustration. My tutor's nice though :) even though she signed me up for a Biology meeting to give feedback to the course coordinator.
Since I saved this (everything above) a week ago, there are some nice new developments to discuss since. Mainly, I picked up a old, cheap (free actually) PSP and it's replacing the iPod I never bought. Very nice. But seriously. Uni is being a bitch. All the work I ignored at the start of the year because it was too boring / not interesting is now apparently very important for things we're being taught that are quite interesting. Such as Biology. Now I need to go learn the last 4 weeks so I can understand this (coming) week.
Moral of the story; read your textbook, it makes learning possible.
Get used to the university is a good piece of advice. You're going to be spending a lot of time here (undergraduate, postgraduate, honours, masters)
In stark contrast to the previous post, I'm actually feeling pretty good about stuff at the moment. Sure, I don't really have time to be writing a blog entry right now, but what the heck, 20% of my English mark is almost finished, 5% of my physics mark is looking pretty ok, and my other two subjects can go jump off a cliff for all I care.
All my freaking out about how I don't understand a thing in physics has payed off in that I have been studying like crazy, and can now look back at the lecture slides and see that I actually get quite a bit of it now. And I can look back and see just how naive I was back in the good ol' days of week 1, when I thought I would run screaming from the room if the lecturer defined displacement one more time. Now, after three (two? four? time is getting a little blurry) weeks of sitting through physics lectures in a sort of terrified daze of incomprehension, the thought going back to stuff I learned in year 10 doesn't seem quite so bad.
Now - back to Virginia Woolf.
I feel a bit like doing a slightly more in-depth look into one of my subjects for the Blog (because, be honest, you all care deeply about Criminology), but my energy levels are unpredictable and I may run out of steam.
I seem to always be doing something or remembering something I should be doing; not in the trendy ‘my amazing life is so amazing’ sense, more because I have to or I’ll regret it later. Tutes are important because [all those reasons they tell you], College sport is important because [all those other reasons], social life is important because without it I may just jump off my balcony and be crushed, not by gravity, but by all the things I have yet to do. Throw in chapel and appointments and sleep and food and family and…I’m just going to stop there.
The aforementioned appointment was quite interesting though. I am not looking to criticise the Disability Liaison Unit in any way – honestly, my liaison officer was very understanding and helpful. However! I came out feeling much worse than when I went in. I have quite specific and serve dyslexia (I’m totally okay with it, it’s just a part of life) and was looking to get some help with exams. During the consultation, however, I was asked to consider the affect this has on other areas of university: research, comprehension, note-taking, etc. To be honest, I tend to just do my best and clearly, as I managed to get into University, I did well enough. After taking about my ‘disability’ to such an extent, however…I look at the essays and reading I was planning to do this afternoon and think ‘am I capable of doing this? Is it too hard for me? Is my brain good enough?’. I’m not relishing the feeling. It’s made me feel…damaged (I guess), or faulty? Maybe I’ve just been in cruising along ignoring it for too long, but I definitely preferred cruising.
On a (slightly) more cheerful note! Research essays. Wow. I should have done History at school. I haven’t written an essay outside class since Year 9 and I think it’s showing. I hope my tutors are as good as everyone says, because I am going to need some help. (Quick help, though, because time is very much of the essence in my life right now).
That’s the meaty part out the way – I’ll save Graffiti to Terrorism: the Real Story for next time.
Happily, I have tickets for the Easter Thursday Footy, I am auditioning for a play with a dodgy German accent and there is someone kinda special for me. So that’s all good. The essays, however…
PS. What is with all the helicopters over Uni right now?
...Apparently, it's one which isn't predominantly black. Just... let's say a third black. Or half black. If it's three-quarters you may be pushing it. It seems ridiculous, but if you get a horse's color wrong on the identification papers, you could face getting into serious trouble. Like getting sued for half a million dollars, for example.
Thus, into the fourth week of uni, I'm finding that the scariest thing about being a vet is not the threat of injury from patients, or going insane from dealing with irresponsible pet owners. Rather, it's about being responsible for the lives of others, and then getting sued or fined or prosecuted for slipping up with mistakes. And, of course, facing up to patients dying due to your incompetence (maybe because you keep falling asleep in your physiology lectures!). It's not all about playing with snuffly puppies and fluffy little kittens and pausing every so often to go swimming in a giant pool of hundred dollar notes. This is a sobering, disquieting thought, which I guess I haven't really pondered before.
For this reason, I'm going to buck my procrastination habits and study doubly hard this week.
(Okay, so I watched an episode of House tonight, but it had a cat in it! That's totally legit. Mmm... House.)
I don't care about other people's medical afflictions; nor do I expect them to give a furry rodent's behind about mine. In my family, the attitude to serious illness is 'give it a rub and get over it'.
(Seriously. My father once contracted a leg infection that caused his entire leg to turn black, and periodically complained of it being 'sore'. The rest of us ignored him for three weeks or so, after which time he sought medical attention, and was advised that the leg may have to be amputated. It wasn't, but the story remains a good one nonetheless.)
I digress. My point was that in the sphere of the First Year Blog, bodily health is largely irrelevant. That said, I will wholeheartedly embrace this opportunity to indulge in some hypochondria. Actually, it's not; I am popping positively herculean antibiotics, and I still look like Amy Winehouse (pre-assault charge). About ten days ago, my mother and I both got some odd virus which left us completely sapped of all energy. No problem; I managed to catch an excellent Dr. Phil episode featuring Octomum Nadya Suleman (weird), and didn't miss any tutes. Bonanza.
But then I developed this disgusting cough. I didn't want to skip class because of the 80% attendance requirement, so my question is this: where do you draw the line?
Obviously, it's fricking rude to splutter through a lecture or tutorial. Do it, and everyone will hate you. Even the guy in front of you who's been audibly scoring every girl that walks past him based on the appearance of her arse. Yes: should you cough or gurgle in a lecture, you will out-leper even him. Hard times.
Other than that...university is just like The Gilmore Girls, when Rory goes to Yale circa season 4. All our tutorials feature totally fascinating intellectual debates, and everyone just quotes Chomsky ad nauseum and hangs out in the library with our coffee and MacBooks. Sometimes there are parties in Florida, where we get wasted, but ultimately learn important life lessons about friendship and boys doin' the twist. And of course all of this is funded by our rich and aloof, yet well-meaning grandparents.
In reality, I'm strangely titillated by behavioural neuroscience. Completely unexpected. Granted, I'm a cynic, but I expected first year psychology to be all about De Bono and his stupid hats. On the contrary, I'm finding it stimulating and surprisingly applicable. Sweet!
French is très engaging--we're studying World War II---but I remain unreservedly intimidated by my fellow French fries. How to explain? Um, said classmates are evidently French. I mean, they kick frog arse. I'm like, "Bonjour, I have un beret." Yes!
Japanese, on the other hand, is a cakewalk. A silent cakewalk, however. The tutes are quieter than an Auslan class. It's terrifying.
Other discoveries of week four:
1. Melbourne Uni is pretty in some places (i.e. the Old Arts and Botany buildings; the Asia Centre; that underground carpark with the gargoyles), and not-so-pretty in others (note especially the East Berlin chic of Redmond Barry. Mmm, communist architecture!).
2. Donut King coffee is quite sufficient when your pockets have been bled dry by the hipper, tastier Castro's.
3. It doesn't matter how old they are, people still like to talk at unreasonable levels when conducting mobile phone conversations on public transport. Older people will claim it's just adolescents (Yeah, GOD, she's just so random, like, she had, like, eight thousand Cruisers and she was s-o-o-o-o-o-o wasted! So random!!!! LOLOLOLOL, etc. etc.), but this is erroneous. Everybody loves to discuss their colonoscopy / lesbian niece / promotion / ear hair. Age is no boundary.
I'm going to make a cup of tea, write a Japanese essay, and watch Weeds. What can I say. Life is wild.
why does every uni activity ie: Arts shindigs, have to take place on a Wed? do they not realise that so many people live in the 'burbs, and have trouble finding transport to these things! in saying that, who is going on the M-ASS river cruise? it sounds amazing (well, the dress code could prove difficult!) but guess what day its on - Wednseday! *swears*.
is anyone going to the melbourne university musical? that looks pretty funny, i think i'll have to suss it out :)
Hello people of the world,
Every Monday should start off with a media lecture. I cannot possibly think of a better start to the week.
We talked about gender (always "equally" intriguing) and watched Xena and Ally McBeal. That last show really dragged me back a couple of years - to the highlight of our Wednesday nights in front of the TV. I learned to appreciate tea while watching this show! Breakthrough! =) You can imagine my somewhat nostalgic feeling as I heard the tribute. This of course had the effect that people kept looking at me as if I was weird. Xena brought me back even further. I had just begun to get home by myself from school (with keys and everything!) and this show was always on. Wow, TV flashback on a Monday morning!
Am I the only one to remember these shows? Is this some sort of a sign that I am actually getting older?
Keep watching those shows!
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