Switching from that one subject that I didn't like was a good decision I made, coz now I have NO assignments. Just a couple of tests and then the exams. I prefer that coz then u don't have to keep developing your report over a couple of weeks with the deadline in mind. A test - prepare the night before, and u r done!
My timetable is totally congested, more congested than my sem 1 timetable. The worst is on wednesdays with four classes in a row and then one after lunch. I can't believe we even have classes during lunchtime! What the..?
Nothing special happening right now...
Till next time
First clinical placement at 1pm today! At the Northern *woah what a mission*
More later!
Firstly; my excuse for never having written before = email black hole (like where all my socks go... but online) AND laziness.
SO, now I am starting. And second up will be my introduction:
My name is Anouska. I'm a first year doing straight arts at Melbourne :)
My subjects are Psychology (which I'm hoping to major in), Philosophy, Criminology and French. I live with my parents, week on week off as they're divorced. Also with my brother. BUT I am hoping to move out next year. I enjoy dancing with no music, conspiracy theories, drooling from laughter, photos that capture moments exactly, being able to stay in bed when it's raining, lazy days in the sun and water, feeling intelligent, themed parties and much much more.
Now, a little about last semester:
WELL, my o-week was horrible. On about Wednesday-Thursday I made friends but beforehand it was terrible and scary and I cried and thought I would never have friends. But; after Arts camp (best thing ever) and semester mingling I ended up with THE most amazing group of friends and a lovely more than friend. The semester consisted of many themed parties (for no reason), socialising, general rowdiness OH and some uni. I somehow managed to pass all my subjects (despite having one day where I sat in the middle of the brick path near South Lawn with my laptop and churned out a philosophy essay that was very late AND not generally not studying until the day before exams).
I had a marvellous holiday consisting of a 3 and a half week solo Eurotrip where I went to Paris, Amsterdam, Milan and London. Many hilarious things happened, great people were met, but best of all were the lessons I learnt, confidence I gained and decisions I made.
This week (first week) I made those decisions actions by joining M-ASS, buying a ticket to the M-ASS trots thing, (anyone going to that?), buying books early and taking notes in all lectures... and doing this :) OH! and I started to fill out the form to join the Student Union.
Today my friendship group and I also caught word that some people consider us the "big, cool, arts group" and are INTIMIDATED by us. That got us ridiculously excited because we're neither very cool NOR intimidating so we're being silly pretending it's true.
ANOUSKA'S ADVICE: (Ill try to have this every entry):
Okay so if you are sitting on South Lawn and nature calls AND you are a female I have 'quelques conseils' (some advice) on where to go. We have all experienced horrific times in public bathrooms so today I am here to help.
Top 2:
1. This is the CLEANEST and always empty. Go to the "Electrical & Electronic Engineering" building entrance which are the slidey doors on the lawn level. Walk down the hallway to the end. I've found that teachers look at you oddly but pretend you're meant to the there. Then again, once I was wearing glasses made of pipecleaners... ANYWAY- turn left at the end, go down the stairs, turn left, go through the doors, right and down the hallway. Voila. Absolutely pristine bathrooms. You'd be surprised as to how much this can brighten your day.
2.This one provides me with amusement SOMETIMES. Level 1 of the Old Arts Building. Walk into the bathroom, go to the cubicles on the LEFT hand side, then the cubicle to the far left. This is more difficult as sometimes it may be occupied and if you wait for it you may be considered a freak. Also it DOES get cleaned by cleaners/fairies/? which wrecks the fun BUT I've found people are persistant. With what you ask? With graffitti. And we're not talking your usual philosophical readings, love proclamations or jabs at art students... we're talking PICTURES! Cute little guys with balloons or kites or bicycles etc etc etc. They change every two weeks or so. Definitely worth checking out.
Okay well that's all for this time, sorry it was so long!
Anouska
Xx
Semester 2 is heftier in terms of workloads and academic requirements, I reckon. But it's to be expected.
What I absolutely LOVE about this semester is the absence of Powerpoint presentations in Chemistry and Physics (hope Maths will soon follow suit). Instead it's the old whiteboard style where the lecturers actually show you how things work in logical order, add and subtract content when required. I don't know what you think (OK, to be fair, Powerpoint presentations are convenient) but they fail to be a viable, engaging method for tertiary lectures, in subjects which involve maths, at least.
Enjoy your semester, everyone!
... and falling behind already. I have 77 pages of reading for Dispute Resolution for tomorrow, gave up after 50. The dozen or so cases assigned for Torts scares me, but thankfully it's [short] extracts and not the whole thing, so the total comes to about 20 pages, nice and light. No introductions in lectures anymore, straight into long discussions of theories of justice and aims and criticisms of tort law, which is actually kind of refreshing, because I find the intros and the study skills lectures awfully patronising in a course where everyone is obviously capable of looking after their own academic behinds. Big contrast to my first music history lecture, which, after a morning of law, was almost insultingly easy to digest, and there's only 12 pages of reading + part of a nice and pleasant opera to listen to for the next seminar. Very fast paced, but mostly facts and not critical analysis of 15 different judge's opinions, and mostly extra interesting detail rather than every minute detail being essential, and mostly in English rather than legal-ese, so a nice, engaging class which is not too taxing for a post-lunch lecture. I think I'll enjoy this subject :)
I'd write more, but I value my sleep and sanity. Ciao!
So here we all are, back for another semester. I feel okay at the moment, but yesterday I definitely had the beginning of semester blues. How can five weeks of holidays go so fast? It's a question I ask myself after every holiday, and I never manage to find an answer.
My holidays were excellent. I had five whole weeks off and yet it still seems like they went fast. I spent them doing exactly what I wanted to - sitting by the fire with either a book or my computer in my lap, which was great on those rainy, 8 degree days we had. I finished watching season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, finished The Dark Tower series, reread all the Harry Potter books, and rejoiced in my 10 GB a month download limit. I also turned 19, and my sister made me a cake in the shape of a Dalek from Doctor Who.
It tasted as good as it looks!
My results were good, which gave me a bit of a confidence boost for this semester. My subjects for semester 2 are Genetics and the Evolution of Life, which I'm looking forward to, as my two favourite topics in Biology are genetics and evolution. Chemistry B seems okay so far, basically just a continuation from first semester. Although considering that I pushed Chem far out of my mind after the exam, it's going to take a little getting used to. Sigh. I really loved Cinema Studies last semester, so I'm taking Introduction to Film Theory. It looks really good. The films we're studying are great, everything from Hitchcock to The Piano, from Carrie to Batman Begins. I'm really excited about it. Finally, I'm doing Contemporary Culture and Everyday Life. I'm thinking about doing a double major in Cinema Studies and Cultural Studies, as they complement each other and they're the sorts of things I'm really interested in. HPS didn't really engage me all that much - I'm glad I'm not doing it anymore.
I have a good feeling about this semester. It's sort of like a new beginning. I feel more settled into the whole university style of learning, and I feel good about the subjects I've chosen. I'm also pretty happy with my timetable - I finish at 11 on a Friday, so I can take the afternoon train home to Shepparton when I want to. Of course, by the end of the week I might be completely sick of all my subjects and studying, but I'm hoping to keep a positive attitude. The only thing I'm not so positive about this semester is college.
I moved back into college on Friday - a day early, for reasons I'll get to later. I didn't really want to come back - if I'm honest with myself, I don't really like college all that much. It's not Ormond in particular, I'm just not really a college person. I think it will have been a good thing to do for the first year, and I've made friends that I'll probably keep for a long time, but I'm looking forward to leaving. A bit prematurely, I know, but I can't really help it.
So if I didn't want to come back, why move back in a whole day early? Well, the last week of my life has been entirely planned around a certain book launch that you might have heard about once or twice on the news. Yep, I'm such a nerd that I came back to college a whole day early in order to have unpacked so to be able to do nothing on the weekend but read. My sister and I spent last week making costumes to wear on Saturday morning. We had our academic gowns from college, white shirts and black pants, red and gold ties (we were Gryffindors) and broomsticks. We got up at 6 on Saturday, got ready, and walked into the city to the Borders launch at Federation Square. On the way we got many strange looks, many smiles, a few car horns, and a bunch of photos with a group of Japanese tourists. The final countdown was the most magical moment of the entire year. I felt such a sense of unity knowing that all around the world, people were sharing the same feelings of anticipation. What I was actually thinking at the time was '"this would make a great Patronus memory!" Our photo was in the Sunday Herald Sun, and I think we were on the Channel 9 news, but I missed it (stupid college!). I'm not going to say anything about the book, to protect those who haven't finished yet, but I will say that I was so pleased with myself, as many of my theories were right. It still hasn't hit me that it's all over. I've been with Harry since I was 8 years old, and so now it feels a bit like the world is telling me that it's time to grow up, to become an adult.
Of course, that didn't stop me trying to apparate back to my room from my sister's room last night. :)
By madness I mean, the unlimited exchange of e-mails (majority of them with the subject of SWAPPING). That have come to some kind of ending, I hope. I was quite stunned to see the number '157' to denote the number of unread e-mails I got. And mind you, I didn't go through all of them. I couldn't be bothered, seriously. Another fascinating fact was that most of them were requesting to swap tutes and/or pracs without having any good idea HOW TO SWAP. Sadly, I get thrown into that group. By the way, how is it that we swap?
As for me, I am fortunate enough not to have any swaps done. (I had send a few e-mails before but in vain). The luck arrived when I got out of one lecture theatre and simply had to rush to the office to change that one subject. I'd rather not mention it but let's say it was completely (and I really mean, completely) unrelated to my course. By changing that subject, my timetable changed and I could modify it according to my wants. Now, I can give out a sigh of relief.
I was quite excited to begin this semester because we are officially starting food science. YAY!! We have this subject named 'Introduction to Food Science' and it was pretty good 'cept that my serious answer to one of the lecturer's questions was taken as a joke. The question was: How can food be used a punishment? I answered: Poison the food! And that led to the whole class laughing. The lecturer said that poison would kill the person. Um, yeh, but isn't killing a form of punishment? Like you go to prison, u get hanged. I wonder...Anyway, atleast I got the class to laugh, which I thought I could never do.
I hope eveyone's had a good start to the week. I believe everyone's settling in after all the madness...
Till next time
So I opened my email inbox, and there are 41 new messages, all from students wanting to swap tute times for law classes. I'm tempted to switch out of my 11-1 Mon/Wed Dispute Resolution class for a 4-6 or 9-11, because then I can take my Aural Studies tute at the right level, instead of moving up to the advanced or dropping down to the remedial in order to accommodate DR. On the other hand, that means that I'll have a timetable with big gaps on Monday instead of my neat 9-4, and I really do not want to stay in class until 6 because my attention span dies after about 2 pm.
But all in all, a good timetable. 9-4 Mon, Tue, Thur, two hours of class on Wednesday, and then Fridays off.
Unfortunately, my textbook list for this semester is going to be really expensive. I have 5 books to buy for one class, (music history -- I have to buy an encyclopaedia, a big bound collection of music scores in two volumes, and the two six CD sets to go with those scores). Fortunately, it's the standard Norton Anthology series, and I'm sure I'll be able to pick it up easily in a secondhand bookstore. If not, well, it's a set that'll last me 6 years worth of courses anyway, so no big deal.
Thank cheese for the LSS textbook exchange, where I can get relatively cheap law texts :D Use it, law kids, it's good for you.
So, I have completed writing a blog for 1 semester, which is a great achievement for me. It's quite hard to keep the interest in readers going, you see.
As I look back to my blogs, I wonder of the readers I have. Some who post comment, some who don't. My previous post (Semester 1 in a nutshell) was the best entry so far coz it not just allowed me and my readers to see how my uni experience overall has been but also I was quite astonished and moved by the comments.
After publishing each post, I would think, meh, who's gonna read my blog? It's all for me. But this time, I am certain that there are people out there who do read them. And so, to them, let me shout out THANKS!! I was contemplating if I need to continue on with this writing but I think I will coz I realized that there's someone out there who wishes to learn more about my uni life. And so, I shall..
Thanks again. The readers are the army behind the Main one; Me being the main one. Without you and your feedback, I'm nobody here.
Have a chocolate or a candy from my part, friends! Have fun next semster as well.
Till next time
So I just joined Facebook, anybody got any idea what it is? Or what it does?
Perhaps I should have had an idea of what it was before I signed up, but I got an e-mail and just said yes. Mmmm....
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