So, how to start? My name's Georgina, don't call me Georgia and we'll get along just fine. I've just finished my second week of arts at Melbourne and forgive me if I'm a little bit more excited than Michael about uni. I walk around uni in a constant state of disbelief and euphoria that yay! I'm actually here. No more teachers lecturing classes about 'When you get into the real world...' (I'm sorry, where am I know?), no more chemistry ever! no more maths, no more being checked up on every 5 seconds or having to ask someone if I can go to the toilet. I can now choose how my life is going to work and at the moment it's going pretty darn swimmingly.
Picking subjects was a bit hard but now I've got it all worked out and an awesome timetable to boot (my earliest start is 11 and I have fridays off).
I'm studying: spanish (as a diploma along with my degree),
USA Today (awesome so far),
Australia Now (Really great too, the lecturer's enthusiastic, knows his stuff and is a kind of interesting, different guy. I do find it a little strange that I'm the only aussie in my tute that's filled with Americans and Canadians, including the tutor, but everyone's really great)
and Modern Lit.
I freaked out in my first modern lit lecture and anyone else reading this that take the subject will understand why. It was all about modernity and modernism and stuff that I thought didn't even relate to literature. So I changed into Shakespeare's Theatre, went to one lecture and then changed back into modern lit. Now that we've started the books it's much better and I can now understand what's going on.
So, a little about me. I just turned 18 on Wednesday and went out with a bunch of friends last night for the first time, so forgive me if my writing's not up to scratch - I'm still a bit tired. Now you know how when you look forward to something and think it's going to be great and then it happens and it's a big let down, or you go to a movie that everyone says is the best ever and you think it's only mediocre? Well, that's what normally happens with my birthdays but this year was different. I had an awesome day! My first lecture didn't start untill 2, but I went in earlier and went to the gym, I had this really hard workout and my legs are still killing me, so I came out all tired in a good way. Then I had my first legal drink with a bunch of friends at the uni bar. My lecture and tute were great and then I got home, had thai take-away with mum and then a few relos around for cake (ice cream, in my opinion the best cake ever, though I did have some toblerone cake last night and then for breakfast this morning that would run a close second). Went out to Room last night for another friends birthday, but I still managed to get most of my drinks from other people. So yay! It was awesome, I love birthdays.
What else? I've joined the gym at melbourne uni (it's great, I love it), the cycling club, the labor club and the political interest society, which is so so so good, but makes me feel really stupid as everyone else there seems to know everything there is to know about politics and can whip out facts and figures from before I was even born. My favourite place on uni so far is South Lawn and the Rowden White Library both of which I can be found at between classes reading a book.
I love reading! The last good book I read was 'On The Jellicoe Road' by Melina Marchetta. I love anything by Matthew Reilly, Janet Evanovich, Paullina Simons and Harry Potter and Hamlet and Wuthering Heights and a million more. I hate hate hate Great Expectations and have now sworn off Charles Dickens, depressing books (ie. 'A Fine Balance' or 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest') and am now trying to avoid them which is not working out so well as I'm currently halfway through 'The Book Theif', a novel set in Nazi Germany and narrrated by Death.
The last good movie I saw was Blood Diamond and I love Coach Carter, Remember The Titans, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, A Night At The Roxbury and anything Monty Python.
I have one older brother, my parents are divorced and I live at home with my mum (T's moved out of home and is in a share house near melbourne uni). My room's beyond messy and I'm starting to feel guilty about it because all last year I used year 12 as an excuse to live in a dump, but after 3 months of holidays I don't think I can justify it any longer.
Umm, I think that's about it! I have blonde hair (at the moment) and am thinking of dyeing it brown. What do you think? Congrats if you made it all the way through, I promise I won't be this long and boring next time!
Oh! the bookstore I work at is closing down and so I have to get another job so any ideas? I have my RSA and a Certificate II in Retail Operations, and I hate working with food. And also, I can't find a good bag to use at uni, my temporary one isn't big or strong enough - so suggestions welcome!
Adios for now (see how handy my spanish is already?!?)
Since this is my first real entry, I thought it might be an idea to recall the orientation experience briefly. (It does seem somewhat perverse for a first entry to be a retrospective, dear reader, but we’ll carry on nonetheless.)
It’s hard for me to remember now what, exactly, I was expecting or hoping for from orientation, but I imagine it was along the usual lines of (academic) life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Failing that, égalité and fraternité would have run a close second.
I. Host Program and Faculty Welcomes
While it was nice to have a group and a purpose, I didn’t particularly enjoy the host program. I couldn’t (or wouldn’t, I suppose) relate to most of the people in the group, but I did meet a rather interesting young man from Malaysia — we later lost ourselves in the crowd at the student services carnival, and haven’t seen each other since. So it goes.
The opportunity for small-group questions with informal answers was good. There are official answers available to many common questions, but none of them reflect the savvy that an experienced student will have (e.g., the best way to use Alloc8; or finding out that manual tutorial sign-ups aren’t the stately process described in official literature, but a bloodthirsty struggle for the best times). After that, we played “bang” until it was time for the faculty welcome. I was shot by a girl wearing large shoes.
The faculty welcome made me regret coming in that day. Like the enrolment day welcome, it seemed to scream “Are you a moron? Do you lack basic inductive reasoning skills?! If so, Commerce at Melbourne is the right course for you!” Constant repetition of basic instructions — largely information that most students would have gleaned from the several hundred pamphlets mailed home, or a cursory glance at the faculty’s website — and a faint disregard for individualism left me cold. The only part I felt worthwhile was the introduction of the faculty’s Teaching and Learning Unit, although a little more information about their services would have been good.
The student services carnival was a good idea, and even though I didn’t stop at many of the booths, the signage gave a nice general overview of what services were available. After that, I went home.
Highlights: Watching a Socialist Alternative recruiter sneer dismissively at our group (with the large Commerce balloon) when his companion asked whether we were worth targeting. Also, I got a balloon that said Arts and a water bottle that says ROCK ENROL and a fridge magnet that says YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ARE DUE BACK SOON.
II. Academic Orientation
Much was made at the Commerce faculty’s welcome of their extensive academic orientation programme. Hogwash, unfortunately.
The microeconomics lecture I attended was a combination of administrivia (that was repeated, of course, in the first real lecture for the subject) and some examples of Real Live Economics in Action that were so ultra-simplified as to be deathly dull. When I fronted up for my sample tutorial at my assigned time, it turned out all the tutorials were full, and I should “come back later”. Somehow, that slipped my mind. Oops.
The school of Classics, on the other hand, had the right idea. An informal morning tea upstairs in the Old Quad (a gorgeous building, by the way) was a lovely way to meet students and staff alike. I met the lecturer for my Ancient Greek classes, a very sweet guy who I’ll call A.O., and a couple of students who are also in the class.
I’d missed Anthropology’s welcome because of the Economics lecture (yes, dear reader, a very silly choice), so I went straight to the French welcome after Classics. A little woman with a rather grating manner gave information about the different streams, and I left 35 minutes later with the distinct feeling that I should have just read the subject’s handbook entry and saved myself 30 minutes.
Highlights: I got a pink pen that says “School of Historical Studies”. Only, I can’t write with ballpoint pens anymore on account of an unfortunate tactile addiction.
III. Clubs and Societies I
I had my driving test on the morning of this day, so I didn’t arrive until the afternoon. After perusing the list of clubs in one of the various pamphlets I had, there was only one that I really wanted to join: the debating society. So I did. After that, I wandered through the tables looking for other interesting clubs to join.
A peculiarly large number of clubs seemed to have very specific memberships in mind, such as the “Turkish Students’ Club” or the “Singaporean Exchange Students Who Like Knitting And Were Born On A Monday Or Thursday Club”. I put my name down for the “Arts Collective” mailing list, and then I went home.
Highlights: I got a bottle of chilled water from the Baha`i Society which says “water • cleanse from within • let your soul glow • social dinners • unwind events • scenic camps”. I tried to reuse it later, but it made the water smell rancid.
IV. Clubs and Societies II
I didn’t really “get” why there were two days scheduled for clubs and societies, so if I hadn’t booked a library tour for this day, I probably wouldn’t have come in at all.
The library tour was okay. I already knew most of the stuff, but I did learn something about periodicals and microfilms. After the tour, the library lady gave us green evaluation forms for the tour that had smiley faces on them. I would have filled mine out but it was torn when I pulled it out of my backpack again.
After that, I went back to the Union Lawn to look at the clubs again. The clubs were in different places today, which was good. I saw some that I hadn’t seen on the day before. I joined the Arts Students’ Society. From their promotional literature, it looks like a bunch of vapid drones who have interminable parties and drunken orgies, but I joined anyway. It’s important to support student organizations, especially since the introduction of VSU.
Highlights: The close proximity of The Liberal Club and Socialist Alternative. Hilarity, as you might have guessed, ensued.
After that, I went home. When I got home, I said to myself, “now I am oriented.” And that was the end of O Week.
Endowed by nature with perhaps the most glorious literary style seen since the memorable debut of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Paul Clifford in 1830, Michael is an eighteen-year-old student at the University of Melbourne. When he is not writing for this blog from his home in a hollow oak tree on the South Lawn, he spends his time at a vacation home in Ultima Thule, looking after his collections of shiny things and philological oddities.
Continue reading "About me (Michael)" →
Hi there. I'm Suzanne, and I'll be your official clarinet playing sort-of-from-Hong-Kong Music/Law student representative for the First Year Blog 2007!
Although perhaps 'representative' isn't the best word for it, given how it implies that I'm actually going to represent someone else. There are a grand total of four first year music/law students on campus, one of whom technically isn't even a first year because she transferred from music/arts. We form a grand total of 0.01% of the student population. There are only 20-ish clarinetists in a music faculty of 700. And while there is quite a significant presence of Hong Kong students, there are very few students who are sort-of-from-Hong-Kong. In other words, I have nobody to represent but myself.
Why, you ask, am I sort-of-from-Hong-Kong, and not just straight out 'from Hong Kong'? Well, I was born in Sydney, and am a naturalised Australian citizen, and therefore I'm officially a local student -- I pay local HECs fees, I applied here through VTAC, I don't go to international O-week activities, and nobody questions my ability to speak English or makes me take the English proficiency tests. On the other hand, culturally, I am firmly an international student -- I haven't set foot in this country in over 10 years, having moved to Hong Kong when I was nine, and having spent a significant amount of time living in Beijing and Sweden before then. The anthropologists call kids like me TCKs, or Third Culture Kids, a term which refers to the phenomenon where a child who has spent time living in many countries develops a cultural identity which is in one sense an amalgamation of, but in another sense completely separated from, the cultural identity of each of the countries they have lived in.
Despite the fact that I spent half my life (I'm 18 now) in Hong Kong, I do not speak a word of Cantonese, which is the dominant (but not the official) language spoken in Hong Kong. I went to an international school which taught in English, where I graduated with the International Baccalaureate Diploma, and my parents are from Beijing and therefore speak Mandarin. I'm bilingual in Mandarin and English, but my literacy in Mandarin is equivalent to that of a not-particularly-bright 10 year old, so English is really my first language even though I learned it after Mandarin.
I chose to study music/law because my ultimate goal in life is to make it in classical music as a professional clarinet player, eminent composer/ethnomusicologist (think Bartok or Kodaly), and/or conductor. Unfortunately, the chances of succeeding at my ultimate goal in life is smaller than the percentage of music/law students in the student body of the University of Melbourne. That's where the law degree comes in: my backup life goal is to work in forensic musicology (determining whether a piece of music is guilty of copyright infringement), arts administration, or music journalism, all of which are areas where a law degree might come in handy. I'm also incredibly ambitious and I enjoy a good intellectual challenge, which is another reason why I added the law component in.
I live in Janet Clarke Hall, one of the residential colleges on campus (it's the little one between Trinity and Ormond which nobody ever seems to know about), which I adore to bits. In my spare time, I play clarinet, compose, read, swim, sing in choirs, and bake cookies, although admittedly I haven't done any of that except the clarinet since I came here. I have odd music tastes -- if you'd like to discuss polytonality in Stravinsky's ballets, or the Masonic influences in the sacred music of Mozart, or the merits of the Indian raga system vs. traditional European equal temperament, or whether Ella Fitzgerald does a better interpretation of a jazz standard than Sarah Vaughn, I'm the person to see. If, however, you ask me anything about Britney Spears, or Led Zeppelin, or whoever it is on the radio nowadays, I will stare at you blankly for a while, try to figure out where I might have heard the name before, and then change the topic. I love Broadway musicals, cuddly toys, cold rainy weather, dessert, and the poetry of Sylvia Plath. Emily was my favourite Bronte sister, although I'm also fairly partial to Charlotte's work.
I own 32 pairs of socks, 12 of which I brought to Melbourne. And that is all you need to know about me for now. Thank you, and goodnight.
EDIT: OK, before I go, anyone know why my course doesn't show up underneath my name, and how I change this?
EDIT2: Oh. Right. That way. Nevermind, I'm an idiot.
I think mine is gonna be the first post. Anyways, I'm 21, from Singapore and I'm studying Media and Communications here in Melbourne University. My first impression of the university was that it's huge. I got lost all the time. In fact, I sometimes still have to refer to my student diary to find my way around(there's a map in there). The buildings are pretty interesting though - You have the plain old square-ish ones, the Harry Potter-lookingones, those that look like great cathedrals and then one or two which look like giant bushes(cos of the creepers growing all over). The clubs and societies on campus are varied, to say the least: More Beer, Amnesty, Chocolate Lovers, PIRATES, African Drumming, Juggling, Hacky Sack, a handful of political societies(numbers of which seem to be increasing weekly), a film society and a wide range of sports and martial arts clubs. Sometimes though it can feel like an information overload. There's posters and flyers screaming out for your participation pasted everywhere, notice boards sneaking out from every corner and lots of information platforms on the uni website(LMS,Webraft,Airport etc).
My favourite places to go on campus are the ERC library(for its incredible DVD collection) because I just love watching films. A good place to study(for me anyway), is one of the higher floors of the Ballieu Library. It's really quiet there and it's pretty much just you and the bookshelves in the early evening.
Alrighty then, I've got to go now. I'm not doing the whole campus housing/sharehouse/share-apartment thing. I've gone farm-stay. It's really cheap except I hate how often I have to shave the sheep, brand the koalas and milk the dog every morning. It's also a bitch having to drive the tractor to and from uni. You should see the looks the tram drivers give me.
Well, my second year of University has started today and so I guess it's as good a day as any to finally kiss the First-Year Blog goodbye. We have actually moved on to quite literally greener pastures (visit the site, you'll see what I mean) at Back For Seconds, to be found at http://transition-blogs.unimelb.edu.au/seconds/ and hopefully to be linked back to this site. It's been fun writing some completely egotistical self-obsessed pieces about my life over 2006 and I hope everyone will keep visiting our Sloppy Seconds page this year for more of the same. In Dame Edna style, I'd like to finish off with a song, to regale the new first-years with tales of University.
Welcome here young JAFFY, and please make yourself at home
Uni is an open zoo, and it's all yours to roam
You'll meet lots of people, so try not to act the fool
Even though you know each other all from Private School
The Engineers stick to a man, and treat you like a brother
They spend their spare time chugging cans, and shagging with each other
Hugging with your fellow mate, and yelling themselves hoarse
Imagine what would happen if a girl was in their course
Please avoid the Liberal club, they're facists in disguise
People have turned racist just by looking at their eyes
And please avoid the socialists just like a second wife
Unless of course you do decide that posters are your life
The artsy-fartsy people, well now they have time to spare
Going, buying fairtrade, and then dreadlocking their hair
They "study" hard for three years, and then after that they're gone
But please don't try to miss them, they'll be back before too long
If the Uni bought a lion, then the scientists would stroke it
These enterprising chaps belive that if it grows, then smoke it
The international students are the opposite to these
Neglected by the locals, they fulfill each others' needs.
So welcome to Uni for the next three to four years
Please listen not just to your liver but also your ears
And my very own tip, for those who are in strife?
Try to enjoy your study. You're working all your life!
jez.
EDITORIAL RIGHT OF REPLY:
The editors note this to be Jeremy's vision
And encourage you to reach your own decision
On which clubs to join, which folks to befriend
And in whose company these years you''ll spend
Interested in being one of the First Year bloggers in 2007? Send us a short email with the following information and we'll be in touch to let you know if you've been selected:
1) Your name
2) Student number
3) Course
4) Give us a mini-blog (up to 100 words) about why you would be a great first year blogger!
5) Email this to transition-info@unimelb.edu.au
Please note that you must be a first year undergraduate student at the University of Melbourne to apply as a regular blogger. If you're from somewhere else and wish to contribute, we welcome your comments, so please register to do so.
O week is over. i joined a few clubs, moutaineering (weekly outdoor adventure) and the skiing club (great social club)
Now about ur study, which is what ur journey is all about.
Try to enjoy it, as my law lecturer Ian said.
Also i should add, be confident (believe that you can learn this uni content as it is just knowledge) and go for your opportunity. There will be plenty of academic opportunities opened for you. (eg in law we have mooting, like a legal debate etc)
A few tips for 1st yr law subjects: there is no magic formula to study law, law is hard because it is complex and there is a lot to study in a short space of time.
But it is achievable because it is based on common sense.
Just do the basic. prestudy, focus in class, ask questions in class just as you would do in high school, and revise the classnotes after class. (according to LLSU, ie study center, it is best to revise straight away or at the very least, on the same day because u can remember and understand what you wrote for ur classnote more clearly)
Exams revision:
if you can, try to sum up a topic along the way, it is going to be hectic at the end of the semster. try to sum up a 200 pages+ reading materials.
do it in a study gr to make it more fun. ]
Dont be depress, u got the law camp to look foward to. Also there is exciting events hosted by the law society.
just enjoy it. have a balance.
I really had hardly anything to say during the holidays, apart from the fact I've starting playing World of Warcraft (WoW), and what a timewaster it is. I love exploring the lands and grouping up with others to complete quests. The horde gets in the way sometimes, but it's all part of the thrill. For those curious, I'm a Human Palladin called Brilly on the PvP server Thaurissan.
Apart from that, there wasn't much else. I could hardly find any jobs around my area back home, and those that I did apply for eventuated into nothing. Why did we have to have poultry at home? Meant I couldn't go for the egg collecting job. I must admit I do like our ducks though.
Oh, almost forgot. I did a science school at the University of Melbourne, namely 'The Siemens Science Experience'. I got into it via the Young Scientists of Australia (YSA) group, which I've been in for about two years now. For a first timer, I'd started late, with many doing there first school in year 11 or 12. (It for year 10 students.) I had heaps of fun staying in a hall in Sandringham, staying up late, a training weekend with only 3 hours of training, cards, silly jokes, and really getting to know others in the YSA club. The actual event for the year 10 students was for three days, so we caught the train to the uni and took the students to various activities to see. The group that I was hosting had quite successful recruitment, with four of them turning up to our ice-skating event a few weeks later.
Hello everybody! Sorry about that! I thought that we, much like Anna Nicole Smith, had shut down for a bit of a rest. Unfortunately the world does actually keep turning over December, January and February - which probably explains this cyclical day/night phenomenon which I've been continuing to experience - and when I logged back on the site this evening, I was confronted by a whole NEW set of posts to read! Worse than that, Rick's caught me on posting numbers and Sophie has left me for dead. I'll have to think of some inconsequential crap to write over the next few weeks. Naturally it's the quality that counts, unless of course I actually win in which case quantity is all-important.
It's funny how things tend to go full circle again. Just today I was walking through Carlton to a Chocolate Lover's Comm. meeting, and I bumped into an entire crew of O-week JAFFYs busy giving themselves food poisoning at the Intersection Cafe. I was tempted to give them my o-week advice - "Remember what she/he's like before you have six beers" - but instead I merely gave them a wry smile and moved on. After all, they were from Whitley, and so to tell them to think twice about each other would be to waste the opportunity to give them the greatest advice that they could possibly recieve from a friendly second-year; do NOT wear your college rugby top to Uni more than one day a week. And - oh yes - read the blog. Especially those who want to pursue a career in publishing.
I am now working five day weeks - oh, the shock! the horror! - at a small cafe in the city, just in a little laneway called Block Place, by the name of Brown Sugar. The job's cool and the people are great. It's nice to get back on the floor and serving coffees again. The story that I now automatically greet friends and relatives and even utter during intimate moments, "Hello Sir, how are you? Would you like to see a lunch menu?" is a completely false rumour. About the only downside to work is seeing less of Kim, with whom I am completely infatuated. You know, I used to think, that back in single days, that when you were going out with someone, you'd stop missing them. Trust me, kids. That's not the case.
We'll see you on the Second-Year Site (to be linked soon)!,
jez.
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