First Year Diaries

Check In Time! #2

9:37pm, Singapore. It's recess week! Hopefully, that means more time to relax and catch my breath. Somehow, it took me really long to get down to writing this post. Maybe being frequently distracted by Youtube and Tiktok played a part, but another reason is due to me not knowing what to blog about. Ever since I submitted my research essay for one of my modules, I feel like I have lost interest in everything... help!! I have some class participation exercise for another module that I was supposed to complete last week, so I should be getting down to that.

Instead of the usual academic rant, I figured it would be more interesting to describe what I did yesterday with my family. I felt it serves as a nice reminder to everyone that amiss the chaos, there's always time to relax and have fun--and I'm glad I took the opportunity to plan this outing beforehand. (Context: In Singapore, we are allowed to go out of our homes and shop/dine/visit tourist spots now, but we must practise safe distancing and wear a mask always or risk being fined (ouch). )

As most readers may have deduced, I'm from Singapore. Admittedly, it's a rather small country;and I was always under the impression that there was nothing much to do apart from usual touristy spots and shopping districts (eg: like taking photos of the merlion). At the same time, on Sundays, my family is busy in the morning and I teach tuition then as well. So with only half a day left, I was skeptical at the amount of things we could do together.

But after researching, I realized just how wrong I was--and that yesterday was an extremely eventful day after all!

We first visited Sembawang Hot Spring, where it is Singapore's only hot spring park (at least, to my knowledge). I vaguely remember it being reported in the news that it underwent some form of renovation, but never really took the opportunity to check it out. Some visitors even brought eggs to cook using the hot spring water. Also I have a new-found admiration for people who could soak their feet in that boiling water for ages--because I clearly couldn't :( There was also a lot of greenery around as well, which was a good change of scenery as compared to me usually staring in front of a screen during term time.

(not visible in picture but it was steaming hot, there was steam piping out from the hot spring)

We then got adventurous and visited the far west of Singapore--Tuas! Literally if one were to go any further west, one would be in Malaysia already. You could literally see the checkpoint from there. So it somehow gave the illusion that we were on holiday (even though that's far from possible, thanks to Covid :( ) There was a broadwalk leading to a lighthouse nearby, and we decided to go check it out. I wish I had known about this quaint spot sooner, because it turns out that many knew about it already and were busily snapping photos (sidenote: acads have really got to my brain. While people were taking selfies, I couldn't help but think about my research essay on digital photography and personal photography....)

(if the sky looked more blue the photo would have been nicer! But overcast days are cooling too, I guess, especially when Singapore is hot all year round. Managed to snap this photo at a rare moment where no one was in front of me!)

We ended the evening off by eating at a Mexican cafe near my previous workplace. It brought back many pleasant memories, and the nice ambience was a great place to catch up and have a good conversation with my parents. It has been a while, especially with university life being so hectic.

I'm not sure how to end this post, especially with it taking a different turn than I expected. I just hope that over the course of recess week, besides catching up on studies, I hope to be able to spend more time with friends and family--and I hope everyone does as well! And really, cliche as it sounds, a big shoutout to my parents for tolerating my annoying self during term time. I know that I can be extremely cranky and trying at times, and I'm grateful to them for putting up with me (:

Hope everyone's doing good! Feel free to leave a comment below on how you guys have spent/intending to spend recess week!

 

🌞 Furniture oil and drip paintings 🌞

So, um, it's October now.  Time flies when you're having fun?

Nihilism aside, I have to be honest, quarantine hasn't been complete trash.  And you know I actually have had fun the past couple of days - furniture oil and drip paintings.  It's kind of funny, I don't feel very different or that much has changed at home.  Maybe we're just good at adjusting, although this lockdown has almost become the normal thing.

Speaking of adjusting, daylight savings!  Losing an hour of sleep is disgusting but it's always worth it for that extra suntime.  And, speaking of sun, today was an absolutely 🌞🌞🌞 day in Melbourne which always puts me in the best mood.

So yeah, today's post is about Positivity with a capital P.  My first go at this went completely off the rails so I've decided to reign it in.  Maybe I should think of something specific to write about rather than just sitting down and vomiting into the digital abyss.  Yep, good idea.  I've never written a blog before and if I'm being honest I've never read one either.  I know, shocking.  

I had a quick think about it, here are honestly a couple of really good things from Covid to keep in mind when feeling down:

  • every one is exercising so much more (if you don't believe me just visit a park at literally any time of the day)
  • I value time with others more now.  And I value my family more
  • more time to practice (doesn't mean I always do, but like, the thought counts. help)

Probably better not to mention the bad for now, save that for when assignments and recitals are due 😅

 

Tonight's listening:  'Because I'm Me' by The Avalanches / 'Here Comes the 🌞' by The Beatles (thanks to aishio for kicking off the spring vibes last week)

Feels like Christmas

Got the whole of next week off and some very pleasant surprises in this one. Does feel like a Christmas morning 🎁 session.

So, it all started with an assignment submission gone wrong and me not having any backup. Nail-biting suspense later, I was allowed to resubmit it! Like seriously, how cool is that!!! I was expecting a ✂️ of marks and judgemental 👩‍🏫, instead I was given another chance to redo it. Blown away, I am suddenly seeing the teaching staff in a new light 😍

Now, off to planning my week-off activities. Cooking, cleaning, reading? Can’t make up my mind. Maybe I’ll sleep it away with Cat practicing her management skills on me. She is very good at making me do things, like waking up middle of the night to fill up her half eaten bowl 😒

Restriction are eased, but still tc and stay safe.

-love
MoneyOverMen

Am I an adult?

It feels like a lifetime since I last wrote a blog post. Though, I'm sure the concept of time is slipping from us all as we stay indoors and relive each day like the last. Wake up near to the afternoon, complain about lectures, begrudgingly attend tutorials, and do the damn readings well into the night (or shall I say morning?)

Since the last blog post, I had to change laptops as my previous one failed me and sent me into a mental breakdown. This laptop (which I continue to say is a temporary fix) is no better and loves to mess up during zooms, allowing all my classmates to witness further meltdowns, or at least hear one of my many whispers of 'no not again.'

It's more than halfway through the second semester and I feel that the identity of a university student has only begun to sink in. I feel childish to ever refer back to my high school days, feeling that bringing it up means I've peaked in high school. It's strange when you feel like a child but are treated like an adult. Can you feel like an adult when you're still living with your parents?

I feel that first year of uni (or at least the first year out of high school) is a time of transition and discovery into what kind of person you want to be. For the first time you're doing something/ a course that you actually want to do, and you're gaining knowledge on things you actually want to know.

This transition into 'adulting', I guess you can say, hit me hard on the Friday morning tutorial for my Media Writing class.

I need to write a hard news story. In my Friday morning tutorial, my tutor told us to suddenly pitch a story to her and I, in my sleepy state, scrambled to find the best story possible, hoping that I wouldn't get critiqued too much for it. The opposite happened - she loved the idea. I should be ecstatic about that, but it hit me that I have to actually go and pester real and busy people to interview. I felt so adolescent and unqualified and the very real question of 'what if no one wants to be interviewed by a student? It won't get them exposure or anything.' After finishing a full Mango Tango smoothie, courtesy of Boost Juice, I braced myself for rejection and for endless pestering for at least one interview.

Somehow I didn't need to pester them as much as I thought and tomorrow I will be calling them. While I thought I was basically the master of Zoom meetings, that nagging feeling of being unqualified and childish is making me nervous again. Quarantine has reduced my social battery and I spent all of it when I emailed a number of people who gave me leads to a good interviewee.

It's like when you need to book a doctor's appointment. I don't want to do that, it's just too adult for me. I'm expected to be in charge of my life?

Back to sipping my (new) Mango Tango smoothie.

What about you? Do you feel like an adult yet? More importantly, do you have tips for me in pretending to be one?

Spring has sprung

Historically, I've associated September with sunshine, flowers and school holidays, though now, my conceptualisation has shifted to snow (!!!!), showers (from the sky, but also of the conventional kind) and NO BREAK OF ANY KIND. I'm really hanging out for mid-semester break, so that I can complete the 150 pages from W7 and -8 that I pushed aside to focus on my essays, all of which are due in the coming week, and also start working on my next two 2000-word stressors so as to reduce my stress levels in the future. It hurts, just a little.

 

I'm also in the exact same position as I was last year in Y12, and I'm having severe throwbacks to the month before VCE exams, and I'm only slightly triggered. But the good thing about that is that, like Year 12s, we also have four months of holidays awaiting us upon the conclusion of uni exams and assignment season in November, so that's pretty cool !! Made a little less cool by quarantine and summer's uncertainty and my 114 Learner hours and my inability to book my licence tests and also my unwillingness to even if I could, because I cannot be trusted behind a wheel all by my lonesome.

 

Stay warm (never thought I'd say that days before daylight savings and the beginner of OCTOBER, but 2020 likes curveballs) and safe !!

 

Song of the blog post (creds for the title): Spring has sprung by Skegss 🌨🌈

Not my first Rodeo

This week’s been a rollercoaster - emotionally, academically and of course, me being me, monetarily 🤣

Made some tough calls, quite literally 🤪 and had some setbacks but so far, no regrets. Not really my first time handling losses in life.

Withdrew from subjects that I found too tough, and that means Cat will now have to be homeschooled in management for this semester. She can get back to snuggling the laptop later. I am not letting something as stupid as Covid get in the way of my precious kitteh’s future 😤

It also means, I get to focus on the ones at hand, understand and comprehend them fully, make lesser mistakes and GET BETTER GRADES.

So putting my hard hat on and digging deeper.

-love,
MoneyOverMen

Quarantine vibes – Hello from Sydney!

This is my first post as one of the new first year diaries authors so big hello and virtual hug to you all!

My nickname is Schnetti, I am from Germany and live in Luxembourg - but most importantly - fell in love with Australia (and an Aussie bloke) back in 2018 during my working holiday year and decided to start studying my Bachelor of Commerce mid-year entry in Melbourne in March this year. Great timing COVID wise since I had just returned to Luxembourg in order to get everything ready to move to Australia when the borders closed.

After that, I enjoyed my freedom in Europe a little bit longer (Melbourne really seemed to be anything but fun), started (like everyone else) studying online and was really hoping for Aussie borders to reopen for semester 2. Hahah, I reckon we all know how that worked out.

What Were You Thinking?!? GIF - WhatWereYouThinking AlGore GIFs

However, since I have been in a relationship with an Aussie for over a year, I was able to obtain an exemption to travel to Australia (notably, after 17 rejected exemption applications) and am currently on day 6 of my quarantine in Sydney! Hooray (I guess?)!

That's the good part about the last 7 weeks. The bad part about them was that due to organising my move, the exemption applications and living in a different time zone (and I'm sure all the international students here can relate), I had to put in much more effort to keep up with uni than I have to now. And to be honest, I couldn't really be bothered doing that.

Thumbs Down Lame GIF - ThumbsDown Lame Dumb GIFs

Now, 7 weeks in, guess what - it's coming back and it's biting me in the ass.

So I was holding big pieces on quarantine to get sh*t done! See a summary below:

Here's the upside to quarantine - you've got loads of spare time.

Here's the downside - you rather spend it drinking and zoom calling your friends than doing uni stuff.

Disappointed Face Palm GIF - Disappointed FacePalm Seriously GIFs

Oh well, I'll stop whining and better get started on my readings. (Why are there so many of them??)

To be fair, I can't say I've not been doing anything in quarantine, but definitely less than I planned on doing. Maybe my motivation comes through tomorrow - lucky day 7?!

I hope you're all healthy and safe (wherever you currently are) and I'm really looking forward to sharing my first year experiences with you, as this year will - undeniably - be very different to any other year before.

Talk soon!

Schnetti

Good book recommendations???

Yes, yes, I know that there are already 8 books sitting next to my bed waiting to be read BUT *whispers* I want another one.

So I've been reading this big old book for a while, and this is not to say I didn't love it, but it took me a long time and I need to shake it up a little (cue tonight's listening).

It really got me thinking about those big questions.  Fundamentally, why do people do the things they do?  Is it all pre-determined?  I'm not talking in a religious, God-planned-it-all-even-you-scratching-your-nose thing, but when considered in retrospect, how much free will do we actually have?  This book was about war, written by someone who spent lots of time wondering how on earth these horrendous and useless things happen.  A person much smarter than me but has no more answers than I do.  People are complicated, who knew!  They always have and always will be.  Anyone who tells you otherwise obviously doesn't read enough.

Anyway

what is everyone reading?

 

Tonight's listening:  'On The Radio' Donna Summer  (Warning: do not listen if you don't like to dance)

Canvassing the weekend

After last week's mayhem, this one seems pretty quiet. New week, new assignments, new deadlines and new headaches. Rang out the old ones. That's all to say about it.

Surprise! Found out that I have shrunk a size in the lockdowns and all my clothes fit the hangers better than me. Not rushing to the stores mid lockdown, nothing's open anyways. At least the PJs fit 😁  Don't care if they are oversize.

Gearing up for the big weekend, where I play the lectures on re-runs. Who needs Netflix when you have the profs on! Binge watching the week's lectures is an experience in itself. More so when it's on twice the speed and looks like a 30's video in hi-def and color. I spend more time 🤣 like a 6 yr old than actually listening to what they are saying. Cat still prefers management, sometimes switches to technical though. Sitting on the keyboard never compiled any code for me, but she doesn't give up on it. Must be some technology I don't know.

While I figure that out, tc and stay safe.

-love,
MoneyOverMen

It’s the climb

I have more than 6,500 words to write over the next six weeks, and probably like 150,000 words to read to inform my writing, and I’ve written about 10, and read approximately 3,000 🥳 🥳 Love !!

 

The prospect of mid-semester break (which isn’t even mid-semester break, more like ¾-semester break, so pls, UniMelb, do stop teasing and triggering) is keeping me going. I’ll have an entire WEEK to make a dent in my currently non-existent reading list and hopefully write something half-decent and thus not have to rewrite 70% of my essay the night before submission, as has happened twice already this semester (but who’s counting? Not me). An easing of Victorian restrictions is on the cards, too!! Hopefully my cabin fever will be capable of dissipating soon, and I won’t spend all of my days thinking about my ESSAYS and buckwheat pasta and the next movie I’m going to watch (the last was The Young Offenders on Netflix ; wholesome in the most unwholesome way possible, recommend !!).

 

I really hope you’re looking after yourself!! Life’s a bit (ahh) hectic at the minute, and so if you’re struggling, consider reaching out to somebody! It can be difficult to voice what’s bothering you, and, as someone who doesn’t talk about their feelings oops, stumbling upon Headspace’s live chat was a fantastic way to wrap up last Friday night’s crying session (did have to wait for 2.5 hours to talk to someone virtually, which is awfully-telling about the difficulty of subsistence rn, but I did get some reading done because I was forced to face my laptop whilst waiting, so a win-win, truly). https://headspace.org.au/eheadspace/connect-with-a-clinician/ << if you need to talk :)))

Stay safe !!!

Song of the blog post: Knock you down, Keri Hilson  ☄️

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