I’m just starting to feel things are calming down at Uni.
The workload at university is intense, but somehow, you seem to get used to it. In the second week I was able to catch up on some reading I missed out on. (Due to looking out for second hand text books) It must be noted that Maths A (Adv) uses a different Calculus book, unlike a number of people were telling me (Who are doing the standard stream). I got my second hand text books off a fellow college member, and are in quite good condition. (Chances are I’ll spill something on them anyway!)
I’ve now had two college tutes for Introduction to Computer Programming, which have proved very valuable and have made it easier to understand what is happening in this subject. I’ve had to go over to Janet Clarke Hall as Medley is a very small college, and thus there are very few tutes held at Medley Hall. My tutor helped to explain some of the concepts learnt in the lectures, and what was to come but also added some other aspects that were not relevant to the course, but made me feel like I had a good understanding of things.
I had a chance to go home after three weeks in Melbourne. It was nice to see my mum, brother, dad and my duck again. There was naturally a heap to talk about. I spent a bit of time finding things that I had forgotten, but fortunately I’d remembered all the really important things the first time anyway.
When I got back we played our second game of cricket, this time against St. Mary’s College. This is nothing like our last game at all. Before long our opponents had well over 100, and they totalled their score at about 150. Our fight was dismal. Straight away our three best players went out for ducks. In the end, our total score was less than twenty. Unfortunately this meant that at Medley there was more drinking than usual for a Sunday. Also, this meant that our principal was not happy that the games room was thus left in such a mess. (As it meant that a student on duty to have to clean it all up.)
Also on the topic of sport I managed to get in touch with the lacrosse club. So far been to two Lacrosse training sessions, but missed the earlier ones, and am behind a number of people. They are scheduled for an hour and a half (but always go for longer) and also involved some rather intense training, much more than I ever did for basketball! At first I could hardly catch the ball in the nets, but now my rate of success is at least fairly decent. Throws still need some work though.
At uni, catching up with old friends is fun. As my only close friend at the university is doing arts, I don’t get to see much of her unless it is arranged. This day we met up on a Thursday afternoon, and saw the music playing, but left earlier. I took her round to see Medley Hall where I was staying, and we had lunch there. I gave a complete tour of Medley Hall and it was nice to be able to just catch up and talk about what had been going on in general. I’m still yet to find a time when it suits us both so I can see inside where she is living.
One guy I have met so far is ironically doing all the same subjects this semester and next semester. I find it surprising just because I’m doing Science, Philosophy and History next semester, in contrast to Maths B (Adv), Applied Maths (Adv) and Physics B (Adv). As we are involved with the same lectures and many of the same tutes and labs, we will quite often walk from each place to the next together.
Tutes, both in college and university tutes have been great for meeting new people. Even if you don’t know them that well you can talk after a lecture or just say hi outside of it. Usually discussions are focused around the class or of previous experience of it.
A few weeks ago I went to a ‘Groove Dance’ breaking class. I found it at times difficult to follow and hard to remember all the dance moves in order at the speed we were going. (I kept mixing things up later on.) I happened to be wearing a blue t-shirt that had printed “Melbourne Uni Experience 2004”. Another guy saw me with this on saying that they’d also been to that, also as I’d been to ‘The Melbourne Rural Uni Experience’, which I stayed overnight, (his was a one day thing) that what we’d been to was something different.
When going to a Scientific Programming and Simulation lecture on Wednesday week, a guy I didn’t know said hi ‘Rick Trunkard’. (Obviously this wasn’t my name, and was just due to him forgetting.) He told me that he saw me in the ‘Groove Dance’ class, then one day in a Scientific Programming and Simulation lab class saw my programs on a computer (because we like to put our names on programs we write), and thought that they were quite smartly done. (of course I’d had a while to write them, although he would still have been thinking about them). Then finally he saw an advertisement for this blog at the university, checked it out and ironically saw me, my name, my subjects, and my photo. It all fell into place and was a little surprised by the irony. Now I’m friends with Yang. (at a distant level still)
That’s it for today.
Next time – Hear all about Ash Grunwald, housewarmings, clubs, big rallys, and being kept awake by those who like to party long and hard!
I’m not sure whether to say a lot has happened the past week, or not too much. On Wednesday last week not too much happened, just a normal uni day (my longest out of the 5, 8am-4pm), followed by dinner at college which I remembered at the last minute was a hall night so I ran down the stairs putting my gown on as I went..
On Thursday I had my second animals in society lecture which was very interesting, our discussion session that day was also quite amusing in some ways. The topic was an ad for a car in which a cat is looking through the sunroof then it closes, and the cat’s head falls off. It’s always cool seeing things like this spark up a hugely animal-passionate debate. After this I went to one of the libraries to read over my maths stuff once more for an hour, then I went to the maths building to do my exam, which went for 3 hours and 15 minutes, or so.
When I got back to college, I found out on the intranet system thingy we have here what was for dinner that night, which turned me off eating so I skipped dinner that night. After everyone finished dinner we had our first corridor activities. My corridor lower yellow/green stuck everything and anything to our walls, and now it looks great. Maybe I’ll post some pictures up when my camera isn’t so dead.
That night was also really funny because at one point I had at least 20 people crowded into my room dancing to this funny song/video which someone bought up on my computer….come to think of it that Thursday night was one night where everyone seemed to get on and work together really well, it’s always like that here, but you could really notice it that night.
After everyone had slapped as much stuff as they could onto the walls, we all went back to our rooms. I lay in bed till a ridiculous time watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy…I’ve only just discovered the college network where you can watch other people’s movies, listen to their music, share photos etc. only halfway into the episode I had a knock at my door by this guy across from me telling me how he knew exactly what I was watching, which freaked me out for a second then I realised he was in the guy’s room who I was accessing the show from.
Anyway, on Friday I went to uni again at 8am till 3pm, then I rushed home and grabbed my stuff and caught a tram then a taxi to Spencer St. Station, to catch the skybus to the airport. I went to Sydney for the weekend and only got back yesterday. On the Friday night I went to one of my best friend’s 18th which was heaps of fun and it was great to finally catch up with all my friends, my parents and to see my puppy, Floyd! I didn’t end up getting to sleep until 6am the next day, because we went out to the city after the party at Misty’s house, then when I got back I spent hours catching up with my mum!
The next night I went to a 21st which also resulted in another late night of partying and clubbing. I got 4 hours sleep then flew back to Melbourne, only to realise I should have booked a later flight back because I didn’t really get time to catch up with my parents as much as I wanted to, and I didn’t get to go into my old work at the pet shop and see everyone.
I think I sound really boring in this entry… I didn’t go to uni today because I’m so tired and when I got to Sydney I found out one of my friends I’ve known 11 years died in a freak accident from being impaled on a fence. It hit me hard when I found out, but I didn’t realise how hard it hit me until I got back to Melbourne. Last night my boyfriend came around here to see me, it cheered me up but by the end I was in tears. I’m so grateful for him though, we’ve been really close friends for over 2 years and together for just under 4 months and everyone tells me how much we fit together, which makes me so happy :D.
I found out the funeral is on Thursday in Sydney at the church which we always went to for school, but I don’t think I’ll go back, funerals really hit me hard.
So yeah, today I didn’t wake up till 1pm anyway. I’m spending the rest of today learning what I would have learnt today anyway, and I have tomorrow off which I’m going to keep going on my animals in society essay so that I can get it finished before my college ball, which is next Thursday, I can’t wait for that!
Tonight is an event for water polo, the AGM where the new exec. gets voted in, then we all go out, I’m not sure if I’ll go though, it seems like another huge night which would be 3 in 4 days and I think I need a break! Haha.
I hope everyone else is enjoying all the different aspects of their new uni life, I know I am!
Lara
Hello everyone, Sorry for the late entry. The past 2 weeks have been super busy. I have plenty to share on topics of my study and social life.
So let's begin with my favourite subject Legal method reasoning,
(law subject). My reflection on the past 3 weeks is wonderful. My lecturer, Ian is so great, he prepared for his class with dedication and passion. I am really enjoying listening to his funny and vibrant lectures. Do u know any lecturer who will stay behind an hour after the original 2 hour lecture to help students. well i am lucky to have one of them. ALso everyone is friendly. I am kind of settled in now. In class i still need to be more confident and respect myself more, i tend to not participate in discussion (it is good to share ideas and pratice speaking) because i hesitate on whether i can say my point clearly. Well, i am a fighter, it is improving already, so i just need to be keep focusing on the positive, and pretty soon, i will get on top of the nerves.
So far i haven't encountered any obstacle, The reading is ok, interesting in terms of the issues we discuss.
principles of public law
The content is less exciting, (though some people who love history, love this subject) but my lecturer Simonia is doing a great job to help us to acqure knowledge of the legal system. She is very dedicated too. So i am very lucky to have good law lecturers.
Again, the reading is ok. I am behind on the reading schedule even though i try very hard. Got to catch up on the weekend.
Maths 141
I picked it as my non law elective, thinking it is fun. Well it is kind of boring at the start, but once i understand the concept it is quite interesting. I just love the feeling of solving a problem smoothly. My tip for this subj is to ask lecturer for help outside class.
Philosophy (reasons, responsiblity and religion) i actually changed into this subject after i found logic really different from what i expected it to be. IT is too technical from real life application. So i am now in this new subj, It is ok, the content is very easy as the lecturer taught me. but the reading for the concept is really hard to understand, right now i just rely on asking lecturer for help outside class. I have to say it is stupid the way it is written, making it really confusing. I talked to a few classmates, and they said it is crap as well.
I think old philosophers tried to use verbosity to embellish their simple concepts. Lucky my lecturer Doug is willing ot help.
So study is going smoothly, even though it is really busy (reading takes so much time).
Law camp
Went to the camp last weekend. It was mostly playing on the beach during day time and at night sculling beer and dancing. I met lots of ppl.
Well now let me focus on my fav part, personal/social life.
I neglected this part for the past 2 weeks, feeling kind of empty in my head, the feeling of trying to rush to complete things while feeling unsatisfied and grumpy. Well maybe i lacked some sleep.
I'll talk about it next week, gtg, sorry. It is assignment time currently. Bye!
The Saturday before, we went to the beach at Anglesea. We played beach cricket. I was one of the first to jump in the water as I find it hard to watch the water at the beach and not go for a swim in fairly cold water. One of the guys in our group was throwing sand from a distance at the cricket game, but I was luckily well away. We had lunch at a local takeaway, but almost everyone got too many chips, and so there was a fair amount of waste. The moment I got back to the beach it started raining, and we had to quickly clean up the area and take our stuff. The box (with apples and bananas) that I was carrying broke from the moisture, (luckily close to the bus we took), and there was another mess for us to clean up. Later that night we played a word game in the ‘Games Room’.
Sunday wasn’t at all exciting. Mostly just sat around, finding out what text books I needed and just generally getting ready.
For my first week, being in a Science Degree I only had lectures for the first week.
My very first impressions (these will and have changed) of the subject lecturers were:
- 620-121 Maths A (Advanced) – Found him hard to hear, but obviously interested in the subject and liked his learning style
- 620-131 Scientific Programming and Simulation – He liked to ‘umm’, and ‘arr’ a lot, and was finding it harder to stay completely engaged.
- 433-151 Introduction to Programming (Advanced) – This lecturer was easy to listen to and seemed to understand her stuff quite well.
- 640-121 Physics A (Advanced) – What a brilliant lecturer. Engaging, and interesting, and usually starts the lecture off in a relaxed manner. (either a demonstration or discussing something like a NASA launch)
During that first week my lecturer for Scientific Programming and Simulation was not able to come to several lectures due to the birth his baby (starting on our second lecture on Wednesday). Our first session with the new lecturer was shocking. He wasn’t fully competent with what was happening, and kept missing things when demonstrating stuff on the computer. This made for quite a talkative and frustrated class. I most forgive him since he only found out that morning he had to do it. The Friday lecture he gave was heaps better, as he gave was much more structured and with a sense of moving on.
In Maths A (Advanced) there was one guy who, on several occasions, ran suddenly out of the room for some strange reason. The lecturer made a joke stating that ‘Maths is a scary subject.’
Several times during the week I went into the book store – it was packed with what I would guess would be 20 minute lines. It was hard to move around, and find what you wanted. Huge piles of books towered above you, and over the week quickly diminished. I couldn’t be bothered waiting to get my books at this stage, plus I was still establishing if I could find some second hand books.
The Tuesday of that week brought Paul Mac, and his fantastic band. His grooves are catching and fun, and puts on quite a performance. At the end he encouraged people to dance for the last two songs, and a large crowd quickly gathered, including myself. I enjoyed being part of the crowd of people having fun, jumping and dancing to Paul Mac. I also saw my host from Orientation week there.
I got to go to my grandmothers one night for dinner this week, as she lives in Melbourne. I quite enjoyed going there, and that it wasn’t ages away. I stayed there overnight and thus I had to wake up earlier than usual so I could have time to return to college to save myself bringing all my uni stuff with me.
Finally, on the Saturday, I slept in and missed breakfast – darn. I had my mum over and we went out that night to see some music. It was a benefit gig for a local musician called Andy Baylor who is currently suffering from cancer. There was some good music but it lacked the atmosphere of the benefit gig that we had gone to in December.
On Sunday, we went to the Queen Victoria Market. I found a nice outfit and mum got some cacti. Later our college played cricket against another one of the uni colleges. After what was a dismal innings for them with 27 runs, we didn’t have too much trouble overcoming them, although it did take a while. Myself and another guy name Phillip started off, neither of us being serious cricket players. Phillip went out almost straight away, while I lasted for quite an ironically large amount of time, seeing four other players go out while I stayed. When I was batting, I almost never hit the ball, and was lucky no balls were going for the stumps. Since I almost never hit the ball the other team found it both frustrating that they couldn’t get me out and amusing of how bad I was. (I don’t blame them). After I went out, we had a great batter go out who quickly put our score over 27 and thus we won. Unfortunately I’d forgotten to replenish my wallet with money from the market this morning, and so didn’t go to the pub after for drinks. (I was planning to go back to the hall to get some money and go back, but when I got to the hall I figured it wasn’t worth it. Didn’t think to ask to borrow.)
Anyway this Tuesday 21st of March brings Ash Grunwald to the stage at Union House. Definitely looking greatly forward to seeing this fantastic one man band. (I know he’s good because I’ve heard him before). Chances are I’ll be there. (I intend to be, and hope there’s no reason why I can’t!)
Days have been flying by with their usual eventful tendencies; rushing from one class to another, sharing a joke here and there with a friend and then worrying that you're behind on reading and nearly putting yourself to sleep by doing 3 hours of management study at once!
Currently I am in the computer lab and am about to attempt printing my first document ever using a university computer. I will no doubt end up making fool of myself as I have no clue how to do this.
I have already embarassed myself within the last 10 minutes by being somehow unable to open the door to the lab with my keycard. I suspect I simply didn't push hard enough on the door. I ended up creating a queue of 3 people behind me! (Of whom I tried to placate with my "Sorry I'm a first year" line)
Just previous to this I had yet another embarassment in my accounting tute where my accounting tutor exclaimed to me in front of the class (in a friendly impressed way) "YOU KNOW EVERYTHING!"
Little did he know that last night I was almost in tears because I couldn't understand my accounting tutorial homework. I have just been lucky in class so far because I have been able to answer most of the questions he has presented through my large degree of general knowledge.
So with that said I must make it clear that this doesn't mean I actually 'get' accounting yet. I didn't do it in year 12 and am struggling at the moment to get my head around everything. I don't want my tutor to think I find it easy and then feel foolish when asking for help.
Mind you, I am actually feeling better about the whole thing now. Last night I think I was just exhausted and unable to think logically. When he went through the homework in class today everything clicked like a lightbulb going off in my head and I UNDERSTOOD!
I hope however, I really do, that it won't be that I just THINK I understand only to face next week with the same dilemmas.
I have a plan though. I'm going to go through all of this week's accouting tute prep work again to ensure I DO know it, then I will do next week's tute prep work this weekend. If I don't understand that, then I will go to a pitstop tutorial next week before my Friday accounting tute.
Therefore problem will be solved.
As far as I understand, Accounting is not hard, it is simply something that requires a lot of practice.
All my other subjects are going well right now. Funnily enough, Quantitative Methods, which I thought I would hate...has become a subject I enjoy for it's pure logic and direct thought-streams. The lecturer (whom I only know as 'Vance') cracks the most lame/amusing jokes which I very much appreciate. He definitely has a bit of a personality and I think many of the students who orginally took him to be some boring maths guy, are warming to him and seeing value in taking QM1.
On the other hand Management, which I thought I would love, has become a subject I am currently finding a bit too 'wishy-washy' -full of theory and not many hard solid facts. With my ever-changing interests and opinions however, I'm sure this will all change soon enough!
Microeconomics is also a subject I am very much enjoying. There is such a sequential follow-on from Year 12 Economics and I love how we are slowly starting to examine concepts learnt in Year 12 with greater depth and analysis.
As for some non-subject related discussion.
I am currently upset that the mentor I was meant to have through the mentor program somehow gave out an incorrect contact email address....after 2 weeks of waiting for her to email me I contacted the person in charge of the program who proceeded to give me this girl's cellphone number. Last night I left a message and have had no reply yet.
I hope she does contact me back. I will be disappointed if she doesn't.
Socially wise- I am enjoying the company of all my new friends. It has been hard to find the time and energy to spend much time socialising though as all my study and uni work has been taking up so much time.
Wednesday I managed to escape off to the Political Interest Society meeting again which was nothing but pure escapist fun! I find it impossible to stay quiet there as there is just so much to talk about and so much I want to say. I love hearing all the other opinions of the other fascinating group members too! The format of discussion is so flexible which is great because when you have something you want to talk about, it's easy (even as a first year!) to grab hold of the talk and lead it into new territory. This week I encouraged a contemplation of the parallels between communism of the 1950s and terrorism of today. Is it all a media beat up I asked (thinking back to the concept of the domino theory)?
Talk of the American government and "Are they evil?" was most amusing and highly contentious! It's something I don't think anyone will ever come to a conclusive opinion on until the thousands of conspiracy theories cease to exist (which of course they never will!).
Anyhow,
I must get onto that printing...
So wish me luck.
I'll attempt to figure it out.
And if I don't know what to do...maybe I'll just ask someone.
Hehe. Problem solved! My friend is meeting me to show me how to do it!
This is uni life :-)
This is a summary of the events that occurred during the university O-Week.
Tuesday
On Tuesday morning I managed to just be there on time to see my host, having been delayed by the signing of a petition to call for our government to call off the war. (or something along those lines.) The tour group of which I was assigned was obviously arranged for people doing similar subjects, with our group in general having people who were doing the advanced streams of Maths A and Physics A. We were shown around the university and the tour was tailored to suit students doing science. (as to keep it short but informative.)
This year the logo for the orientation was a camel, and so they decided to include some camels for rides, which looked very out of place in the university. I happened to run into quite a few people that I knew, including some from my school, my college (quite a number of times), some from Melbourne, and even one girl I knew from the Northern Territory. (As I only distantly knew this girl, it was the first time I knew that she was in Melbourne)
We then attended a forty minute ‘Deans Welcome’ with what was not a conservative presenter. He was trying to talk about things that we would be thinking about rather than just telling us to spend heaps of time per week at home study, and to take the whole experience of university in, including a social life and participate in other activities. He was quite elaborate with what he talked about in the ‘social life’. (It’s a bit of a distant memory now)
After that I lined for a free BBQ. While I was there I got chatting to the people around me. BBQ lines are surprisingly a great way to meet people – you’re all standing there hungry, and everyone is doing the same thing, and isn’t going to be moving off everywhere. At the start some people I was speaking to gave up on the line, including a guy that was from Monash University who for some bizarre reason decided to check out The University of Melbourne’s orientation program. I don’t blame them for leaving the cue though.
I happened to run into a few people from my college as I was heading back there. I checked out my timetable, and found that I have 24 contact hours, and have a 9 o’clock start each morning, which I like for consistency. I practiced my double bass, then onto the piano at the hall. One of the other students here ‘caught’ me playing, and asked if I would like to play for the choir, and I accepted. There was a rehearsal later that afternoon.
That night I caught up with my mum over the phone, and then later was trivia night. As usual I was not a useful team member for the trivia in four teams that we will be in throughout the year. (I’m just waiting to be asked how to spell ‘borborygmus’ again!) Special rounds included the singing of words from a book to a well known song, similar to ‘Spicks and Specks’. The first group had an easy song, which was guessed quite easily and straight away. Ours, along with the other three teams’ songs proved much harder, also due to the fact our singers found it more difficult to sing and read words that were different from the original song. Later there was an eating competition to see who could eat all of a slice of butter, salmon, a whole onion, wasabi, a raw egg (already prepared in a glass) and one Weetbix. The raw egg was rather easy to take, as it went down quite easily. When eating the butter the onion proved to taste quite good. Unfortunately I ate the wasabi too fast and felt sick, and chucked up in about thirty seconds. I felt sick for quite a while after.
To end the night we watched the movie Pulp Fiction.
Wednesday
Today I had to be at Uni at 10am for a physics information session, as to know more about my chosen subject. We learnt what we needed including our books, what we would be doing, when we would be able to see some of the administrators and a bit of help of where to go.
I later realised that I’d left the timetable I had for the week at college, but luckily I was able to get the information off someone else’s. I went to attend the ‘Information Systems’ information session, but found when I got there it was not for Introduction to Programming. There was no other information session for that subject shown, and unfortunately it meant I missed out on the maths information session, which would’ve meant I could leave the uni sooner.
Later I went to attend the free physics BBQ. After standing in line for a while and talking to a few people, I realised I had lined up at the free BBQ for psychology students. I decided to stay in line anyway as I’d been waiting for a while. I then went to see where the physics BBQ was as I wanted to talk to some people doing physics! I started to chat to some guy there who was doing physics, and was much easier to start that conversation and keep it going. I then lined up for the maths and statistics societies BBQ, and once again chatted to people in the line.
Because I’d missed the maths lecture earlier, I had to attend the one later in the afternoon. This meant I had to wait around for a while. I was lucky enough to find some people from my college, and also with one of their friends. The people from my college had to be someone else, so I talked to the guy I’d just met for about fifteen minutes, and then went to the maths information session, which was similar to the physics version.
Later I went to a run to Northcote, in total making it about a 15km run. I was heading for a music/computer shop, namely Mannys. I’d spoken to a person yesterday who told me this place was in Northcote, and I got the number and street from the phone book. I stupidly didn’t check the suburb in the book, as I realised when I was in Northcote the shop was no where in sight. I asked in a tattoo shop if they knew where the place was, but didn’t have much of an idea, except they thought it might be in Fitzroy. (They had no access to a phone book.) After going back I realised that I had ran straight past the shop earlier. (And almost ran past it again!)
My unnecessarily long trip caused me to be late for the choir which I am playing the piano for. I had to practice this piece again later as to try to be ready for Sunday. I knew it was going to be pushing it.
Tonight was boys night. (And girls night for the girls) We stayed at the hall while the others went somewhere. (???) There was a lot of socialising earlier, but for me things went a bit wild and much of the later part of the night is just a blur. Apparently some people were helping me for several hours, although I only remembered about ten minutes of it. Later in the night when I was in my room I decided to go out for some fresh air. I then realised, feeling both tired and very tipsy, that I did not have my keys. After swearing and panicking for a while, I realised that I was lucky enough to have left my bedroom window open, and later thought that maybe I’d planned to go back in through my window?
Thursday
I woke up, seeing a yellow spew bucket on my floor. I read an e-mail on the computer saying there was a meeting for this blog thing at 9:30! I only contacted the appropriate at 9:23 to let them know I was coming. Here I also met Chris and Jim.
After that I went talking to Jim for a while, as the study skills thing I was wanting to go to wasn’t until 11 o’clock. We talked about what we were doing, and I was also informing Jim about some of the things that I thought would be of interest to him.
The study skills session was informative, but did seem to drag on and didn’t seem as useful as yesterdays sessions.
Later I went to see the clubs and societies. After quite a long talk to the people from the Socialist Alternative I eventually joined, and after such a long time I was off to another free BBQ. I was waiting in line for about 40 minutes, then the society running it had to go, and there was a mad rush as they quickly had to get rid of the last of there sausages. I was unfortunate in that they had no vege burgers – and I was starving! I made do with sauce on bread, but accidentally tipped the bottle too much, spilling tomato sauce all over my hands, legs and a bag I had. I went straight to the toilets in Union house as to rid me of the mess.
I went back to the clubs and societies and am considering joining CHAS (Cosmic Hitchhikers Appreciation Society) and the Jugglers (who also do unicycle riding amongst others). I did join Groove Dance, an Urban dance club that teaches you to dance in those styles. I am specifically looking at locking.
After that I went to a library that was not like any you’ve probably seen – the Rowden White Library. (In Union House). There I got on a computer and played Counter Strike: Source over the internet, and also with very low latency, as low as 5 for some servers. (that’s what you get on a local area network (ie. A home network)). I missed my mouse and headset I had at home though.
That night we had a beach party. We all got dressed in beach gear, and just had a fun night of dancing and socialising. Tonight I decided to stick to Fanta and water. Later we did the limbo, and hit a piñata. And what a piñata it was! We could not break it. We broke what it was hanging by twice, and only was broken by the frustration of someone who hit it when it had fallen. Later I was on the balcony of college and had some nice chats and learning more about the people I was living with.
Friday
I went to have breakfast at 9:30 – woops! Breakfast ended at 8:45! I made do with and apple and a plum. Today I had to wash some clothes, but I didn’t have anything to wash them with, so I got some washing liquid off someone else for a small price. When I went to hang my clothes up I realised there were almost no pegs on the roof (something else I’ve had to buy), so it took a few trips for me to get all my clothes up and dried.
I went to the uni today looking for the Lacrosse club, and they were just one of a few who had packed up early. Finding information on their website is almost impossible, as the stated e-mail does not work, and the website that links to it no longer exists.
After this I went to one of the Socialist Alternative meetings, where they discussed the ‘War on Racism’, and talked about America’s military plans to go to Iran. After we went to one of the pubs on campus for a drink, and spoke to one of their members for quite a while.
Later that evening a number of people went to ‘The Night Cat’ in Fitzroy. They had some great music. (although too loud to hear the band properly, if that makes any sense). When looking from behind the band, Jesse pointed out a guy dancing with long hair, and the energy he was putting in. I noticed he looked very familiar, and went over to investigate. He happened to be someone from my Hometown, and was there with a friend whose older brother was in the band.
That was a wild week. In many ways I’m glad things have calmed down a little.
Heyy people,
Firstly I’d just like to say sorry for being so late to start this thing. But I swear I have a valid excuse!!
You see as well as starting uni this year I also moved from Sydney and am now living in one of the residential colleges…maybe as I get more confident writing in this thing I might reveal which one :p.
So yes, I’m really enjoying uni….it seems so much more free…well it IS so much more free than what we’re all used to at school. And there’s rarely days where I dread going to uni cause of the 4390843096843096843098634096 different un-academic activities offered whilst not in humongous lectures, or tutes.
College is fantastic…. I don’t think I’ve even been homesick yet (is that bad? Do I sound like a teenage runaway??). The great thing about it on the academic side is all of the extra support you get, because I suppose all the staff here know that all of us at some time will struggle even a tiny bit, what with moving out of home as well as staying on top of uni work. At my college, and I’m pretty sure all the others too…we get extra tutes where there’s only like 5 or 6 of us so we can really ask away…and pretty much all the tutors live here too…so I find that makes learning from them easier, cause not only are they your tutors but they’re your housemates…your friends, too.
And if you thought I was just gonna drone on about the academic benefits of college- HA!
The one thing I’ve learnt from moving here is that everyone goes out throughout the week, and sleeps and studies on the weekend. No, seriously. Actually come to think of it, they sleep during the DAY on the weekend, and Saturday night is usually spent out as well. About a week ago on a Saturday night I could have sworn I saw a girl coming out of the bathrooms from throwing up before she’d even walked out of college to go out!
Anyway, without bending the rules and emphasising too much on alcohol (but really, people here are MACHINES!) *Ahem*…The non-alcohol side of the social life here is also great…if you want to do something, at least a few of the other 100+ students will want to do it with you, whether it be go for a random walk, or a stroll to Lygon St. for gelato, the movies, *cough*pubs & clubs*cough*, anything…it’s great and you feel so at home.
Wow, so much has happened the one month that I’ve been here that I could write on for ages… o-week was also a heap of fun, possibly because I was at two o-weeks at once, for both college and uni. Let me just say that if anything crazy happened to you during uni o-week…something ten times as crazy probably happened in any of the colleges. For example, my first full day of o-week:
I was woken at 7am by an o-week leader bashing on my door…that might sound fair to you.. but no. This person was dressed as a CAVE MAN. Haha! C-A-V-E-M-A-N-. “UHH OOGA WAKE UP *GRUNT* *SNORT* WAKE UP FRESHERS!!!” I got changed as quickly as I could into my fresher shirt, put on the headband and hat we were made to wear and somehow made it downstairs half asleep. We THEN proceeded to do the fresher dance. Now, this so-called “Fresher Dance” involves moves such as hip thrusts, the “raging bull”, congo lines, the choo-choo train, oh and how can I forget the “RIP THE PANTIES FRESHERS” move. Great fun, especially at 7 in the morning!!!
OH YEAH, after that because my colour team lost the challenge the afternoon before, we got the glory of being “ponded”- aka: one person holding each of your limbs and dunking you in a freezing cold pond while the rest of the college chants. Later on that day events included performing the fresher dance infront of the Melbourne general public in the middle of the city, lying on the ground in the middle of the city pretending to swim whilst being pelted with water bombs, oh and walking from bourke st mall to southbank tied by the wrists in a 77-person chain.
I could write about every day of o-week, but I think this entry would go way too long. It probably already is too long!My first week at uni was great, I’ve met even more people and all the lecturers seem pretty talented. The only thing I hate is waking up 3 times a week for 8am maths lectures. Maths. A whole new issue, which I’ll just quickly touch on. You see because I’m from NSW I did a different level of maths to what is required to do physics. I am trying to get into vet science, so physics is a prerequisite. Now these maths lectures I’m going to, the stuff we’re doing is stuff I did in year 9, and excuse me if I sound cocky saying this, but, I don’t want to spend an extra year at uni because of maths. So, what’s happening? Currently I’m missing my 9am maths tutes 3 times a week straight after the maths lectures, and going to physics lectures instead…because on Thursday I’ll be sitting a 3 hour maths exam which will determine whether my maths requirement will be waived or not. And I pray to god that it is, because physics is so much more interesting!!!
I also had a biology prac today which involved….cutting up leaves and looking at them under microscopes, and the more exciting part, trying to illuminate firefly tails with concoctions of various solutions, only to have 95% of the class fail to do so hehe :D.
Oh speaking of pracs. Last week in the first chemistry prac my seat was next to the tap, right. And this guy would go to the sink and turn on the tap FULL BALL only to spray water all over me and my titration equipment. Now, the first time I didn’t mind, the second time he did it I was like hmm okay, another mistake, but you know how they say third time lucky? Well maybe he thought the water pressure had dropped for some reason, but by the time he’d sprayed my workspace 3 times I could have swam in the water that went everywhere, and it probably explains why I needed 4mL more solution than most other people to reach an equivalence point in my titrations haha! All in good fun, I guess.
What else have I been doing? Welllll… I went to my first water polo session last week, which was great. I thought it would be weird playing with different people to those I’ve mostly played with for the last 7 years, but it seems alright so far anyway. I ended up getting a lift home with a girl and 6 other American exchange students from America. Umm ahem…did I say 6? Well okay yeah, there was 8 of us in a 5 person car. Shh! Let’s just say it’s not pleasant having a compartment box handle up your arse all the way from Toorak rd to Royal Parade, but hey, I met new friends so meh! Next week is the AGM for water polo, I’m told it’s a night full of alcohol and to beware if you’re new….greeeeeeeeeat.
Another great thing about the clubs at Melbourne Uni- THE CHOCOLATE LOVERS’ SOCIETY. Okay. Never did I think that students pursuing careers in veterinary science, medicine, law etc would also hold bbqs in their lunch breaks which involve copious amounts of chocolate. Sure, there was plates of chocolates at this bbq, which might I add only us members who have paid their $5 fee and are the proud owners of club keyrings could go to, but there was also pancakes stuffed with chocolate, m&ms, sprinkles, if you wanted a bacon and egg sandwich, great, you could get that…but don’t forget the chocolate chip garnish! Best.Breakfast.Ever. Especially after the 11am bio 650-141 lecture which I had to sit right at the front next to someone who still dared to sleep, due to running in, err….late. :D.
One last thing I’d like to add is that the free bands and BBQ’S every Tuesday and Thursday are FREAKING AWESOME! When you want a break from the usual gigantic roll at college lunch, those veggie burgers really hit the spot. (no, I’m not vego but these are top stuff.) oh yeah, the music is great too. Haha. No really. The Trojan horns last Thursday were lots of fun. So was the band I saw a couple of hours ago today…I can’t quite put my finger on their name though.
I’d better finally wrap this up cause I’m either a)boring you to tears or b)saying stuff that’s not even relevant. This whole first year blog is a great idea and I’m glad to share my journey through my first year of university and living in Melbourne with all you lovely people that I don’t even know hahah…I’m sure I’ll get to know some of you…feel free to write to me…if anything I ever write catches your fancy.
Anyway, as the guy 2 doors down belts out the NUMA NUMA song by OZONE and my desk vibrates from its charming accoustics, I’d better get back to studying for that maths exam!
Ciao!
Many people choose to use the word "Yay" as an expression of their delight about the occurrence of a specific event, or in a sudden exclamation of glee or similiarly positive emotion. On the other hand, I use "Yay" to sarcastically denote my opposite feelings. I don't think that I have used the word "Yay" (in conjunction with an exasperated groan) more commonly than I have in the last week and a half - largely because my first round of assessments have been delivered and the pressure is well and truly on. While my lectures and tutorials are progressing excellently and I could not be happier about my subject choices, the fact remains that none of my subjects have examinations, so instead I will be slaving over two thousand word essays which require mountains of time-consuming research. And it's not just a case of "do your best" in a half-hearted way: I need good marks to make my flight to a combined Law degree. I really have to do my best in order to have a chance. To make things worse, living alone has revealed to me just how lacking my time management skills are. I'm lazy! A lazy writer who just wants to sleep (and, on rare occassion, write and study Law).
Assignments, assignments, assignments. They shall be the death of me. Now that I have a job and am actually earning enough money to pay the rent, I don't know if I'm going to have enough time to complete them to my satisfaction anyway! Hmmm. I bet you can feel my angst dripping off your computer monitor. Good things have been happening too, though, so I'm not totally self-absorbed in my inability to conform to academia. I'm playing Tennis on Thursday nights starting this week, have been going out to the City and Brunswick, and will hopefully be working on some pieces for Farrago soon too. There's much to do, and I have a feeling that this is all going to culminate in some delicate juggling act, which unless I perfect soon, a dozen daggers will fall from the air and impale me. That would almost certainly bring on a "Yay".
More later, y'all.
Just a quick update on things.
Firstly I want to let everyone know that my bio page is currently being formatted...so please excuse the fact I currently look completely out-of-proportion in my photo -I promise I don't really look like that! I am crossing my fingers that by next week everything will be edited to perfection! I've been told Dr Who once said that "Computers are very sophisticated idiots" - nothing more true in my opinion!
Today I attended the first proper Political Interest Society meeting (last week was the welcome back/introduction) and it was just as fantastic as I knew it would be! We talked about issues from Simon Crean's recent pre-selection challenge, to the issue of Iran and nuclear weapons, to whether or not public transport in Melbourne should be free. I heard some fascinating opinions and felt very comfortable in the presence of the other members to speak up with my point of view.
Tonight I am a bit frustrated though as I only just checked my uni email and found out that an email had been sent out THIS MORNING, to inform people who wanted to have mentors that the first meeting would be TODAY at 1pm! I was throughly disappointed to miss this as I had no idea it was going on. I thought I was enough of a geek to check my email once a day....now I'm thinking perhaps it needs to be checked morning AND night? I have emailed the organiser to explain how I didn't check my email until tonight and am crossing my fingers that I can still get a mentor. Otherwise I will be SO disappointed as I think the whole mentoring program is a great idea and was really looking forward to having an older student be a mentor to me.
As for everything else, I think everyone is feeling very stressed right now. All the people I speak to are feeling like they're not quite in control of what's going on, and tell me they're behind on reading, they haven't started the assignments yet, or describe to me a feeling of being "lost". (Definitely the most common term used). I'm glad in the sense that I know I'm not alone because I'm feeling so much of this too. I think in the next week or two though, everything will come together and make a lot more sense. New routines just take a while to get used to and this is a pretty big transition period in our lives.
I nearly freaked out yesterday to overhear a girl speaking on the train saying how she'd attended her first accounting tutorial the day before and only 4 people had done the required homework -which was being marked, and most of the class had received a score of ZERO. I suddenly realised she was talking about the Accounting subject I take and was shocked as I had no idea what homework she was talking about. As she kept speaking I soon realised she was referring to something our lecturer had mentioned very briefly in his first lecture. It was something that would have been very easy to miss and it had not been made at all very clear that this was due in the first tutorial.
I guess if you were a fully organised uni student you would have known, but for most of us it was such an easy thing to forget about or not realise was due in the first tutorial, particularly as every other first tutorial in other subjects had been an introduction with nothing expected to be due!
For a few minutes I was verging on a heart attack as I knew I had a tute that morning and didn't know which subject for. I couldn't imagine anything worse than receiving a big fat "zero" on my first tutorial for Accounting! Luckily fate saved me and I found out my Accounting tute wasn't until Friday so I had time to prepare what was due.
I felt so bad for the people in that girl's tute who received zero. I have however, heard conflicting reports that other people were let off the hook in their tutes and just told to hand the homework in next tutorial. I really hope that ended up happening for everyone because otherwise I think it is pretty harsh for those who didn't do it to get zero (though I do understand the question of fairness for those who DID do the required homework).
Not much else going on. I have decided at this point not to join AIESEC. As much as I think it sounds fantastic, I feel at this point I am struggling to balance uni, social activities and extra curricular activities. I feel it's pointless for me to join AIESEC unless I really know I can commit the hours needed to make it a worthwhile experience. I guess sometimes you just need to make tough decisions about what you can and can't do.
I'll end this now on one final thought.
Quantitative Methods 1 sounded like my worst nightmare...I considered renaming it 'advanced Math Methods' (taking into account Math Methods in yr 12 was my most hated subject). After 3 lectures....I am have to say that statistics are actually quite ok. High school maths is so abstract, but when you are actually applying things to real-life scenarios it's quite interesting.
Wow I feel like a bit nerdy saying that. Don't take it to mean I actually LIKE maths or anything....lol.
Sophie
The first week of classes has been full-on from day one. Sleep has become an invaluable product that is easily drained away with nights full of organisation for the next day and 7am morning starts. My first official week as a Commerce student has passed, I am now onto the second, and I must admit, with 3 assignments already, I am feeling slightly overwhelmed. Of course before I came here I had expectations or ideas of what it would be like. Now many of those expectations or ideas have been forced to change, or ignored altogether.
My first expectation of university was that they would ease us into the subjects. I thought we wouldn’t receive any assignments for about 2 weeks. However 'easing' new students into their first year at Melbourne consists of about 30 minutes in each subject explaining the outline of the course before having the lecturer direct you to the internet site containing the first assignment!
The actual work itself has also varied in what I thought it would be like. A SHORT essay at uni (within the commerce department at least) is considered to be about 800 words. In year 12, many of the 'normal' essays we wrote were 800-1000 words, so you can imagine what I'm now expecting a 'normal' essay at Melbourne Uni to consist of! At the same time though, I didn’t expect us to do things like multiple choice tests that contribute to our mark. (One in just a few weeks, to be completed online, contributes to 5% of a subject mark!).
Lectures are exactly like I expected, with at times maybe 500 people in one lecture theatre, scribbling notes on paper while attempting to listen to the lecturer at the same time. Finding the best way to take down the information in lectures is something one must discover for themselves and I am currently switching between printing out the lecturer’s slides or overheads before a lecture, and adding notes to them…or alternatively using just a pen and paper to take down what I believe to be the most important points (saving a tonne of paper and ink in the process!).
I didn't know what to expect of my actual lecturers but so far all of them have been nothing but top class; all obviously very intelligent and leaders within their respective fields. I already hold a deep respect for all of them. (*prays my lecturers are reading this and take it into consideration when marking my assignments!*)
Tutorials were something of which I had no idea of. It turns out that tutorials (also called ‘tutes’) are probably the one thing at uni that semi-resemble the ‘high school way of life’! It is a good feeling to have a format of learning you are familiar with! Usually a ‘tute’ consists of about 20 students and a Tutor who manages the class. Now the tutor can range from any age, but is always someone who has a deep understanding of the subject they are taking. During tutes the aim is to work in small groups to discuss practical exercise relating to the previous lecture for the subject. It is about participation and formulation of ideas through interactive discussion. Added to this is the fact you have to complete small assignments for your tutors, which they then mark and give back to you. These marks contribute to your final subject score. The best thing about tutes? The fact you get marks JUST FOR TURNING UP!! Imagine if high school was like that?! Part of your ENTER score from just arriving at school each day!
So enough about the academic side to uni, of course one of the most important aspects of attending university is the ability to experience a great social environment and amazing opportunities for extra-curricular activities. Personally it saddens me that so many more students these days seem to be attending university for a simple degree and nothing more.
I see this as a direct response to the Howard Government making it harder for those on low incomes to survive in our society. In particular with what seems to be regularly increasing HECS fees, the removal of worker’s rights and the toughening up of the welfare system….so many more students facing university on low incomes are now forced to ignore anything but necessary degree requirements in favour of what can be up to, or more, than 30 hours a week of part time work.
Universities are the intellectual underpinning for the economic, social and cultural development of our society. Through their teaching, research and community service, universities make a vibrant and energetic contribution to the current and future success of Australia. It is here where the youth of today have the best opportunity to develop and expand their horizons with the aim of contributing to not only their own lives, but the lives of others.
With that in mind, I know I am one of the lucky ones as I do not have to face the rigorous part time work schedules many students have to. Hence, I have taken it upon myself to throw myself into the extra-curricular environment of university. I have strong hopes and the goal of broadening my own perspectives, growing as an individual and making myself the best person I can be in order to be a future leader and great contributor to not only Australian society, but the global society we now live in.
So from this perspective, so far I have become a member of: Melbourne University Debating Association (MUDS), The Political Interest Society, The Womyn’s Club, Melbourne University Tennis Club (MUTC), Melbourne University Greens, The Commerce Students Society, The Financial Management Association Australia (FMAA)...and I have been dodging between which political party club to affiliate myself with! The Liberals have been MOST hospitable and I have appreciated it greatly. A particular shout-out of thanks to B.R of the Liberal Club for always being one of The Most Friendly People I Have Ever Met! So far the Liberals have tried to ply me with free alcohol, invites to play paintball, free lollies, and enough compliments/charm to fill a wheel-barrow! And someone tell me please...who can resist the cute little Ralph Lauren polo-shirt that by now has become mainstream fashion culture (I CAN!).
Now I admit that I am fully aware I do not have the time (or energy) to commit myself in full to all these clubs, however I feel I will go along to meetings/events and soon decide which clubs I feel most comfortable in and most willing to focus the majority of my time in. The others I will remain more of a peripheral member, attending meetings and events when I can.
So far I know I will definitely have an active membership of the tennis club as I am joining their Sunday afternoon social competition. I also went to a Political Interest Society meeting the other day and was immediately impressed by the intellectual quality of the other members! I can’t wait to debate and discuss political issues with them! Even in the introductory meeting a group of us started an interesting discussion (not on politics!) about the current VCE ENTER system, questioning its value and the positives and negatives of such high scores being required for degrees such as Law.
Another group I did consider joining was the Archon Leadership Program. I was very interested in the program after talking to one of the Directors by the name of J. After making the effort to attend their intoductory/information session I was very disappointed. I felt they lacked the ability to clearly set out what their program was about and how they planned to practically:
"unlock the secrets to ultimate success"
"develop quality character that will attract followers"
"maximise your personal productivity"
"positively influence those around you"
"build your resume".
*source: Their website
All in all they came across sounding like a positive thinking cult with a whole lot to say and not much to do about it. Their first meeting featured a Really Nice Aussie Guy who was the life coach of some random sports club on the peripherals of Melbourne (You can probably tell I’m not a big sports fan!). For at least half an hour he talked about how he rose from being nothing to something. I think it was meant to be inspiring. Or maybe I was just impatient at the time?
To me, and I must ascertain that this is my Personal Opinion Only...I felt attending was a waste of my time. Listening to motivational speakers may be somewhat motivating, but building leadership requires more than just hearing what other people have done with their lives. I wanted to hear the pragmatic vision of the club, what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it- and I wanted to hear this from the second I walked in the door.
I must admit I left the meeting half way through (to find like-minded people in the Political Interest Society meeting!), so I hope that the guy soon quit talking and the Directors soon started explaining something more practical....
Something tells me that didn’t happen however, as I approached one of the Directors before the start explaining I was very interested in being involved but I had to be at two places at once during the allocated time period, and was it ok if I left early? I would have thought he’d tell me anything important before I left. He didn’t.
Right now I am also considering joining AIESEC - a youth leadership program on campus. It sounds like a great opportunity to challenge yourself and benefit society. I was massively impressed with the information session I attended last Thursday. Everywhere Archon Leadership went wrong, they went right! I personally approached the President, Alex Lobov, to congratulate him on a fantastic effort after the presentation. I very much want to join, though right now I am wondering if I want to join something that is a minimum time commitment of 1-2 hours a week. I am just a bit unsure at this point if this could become a future problem with my expected workload. I think I will email them and ask if it is a big problem to reduce your level of commitment if need be.
Already I am understanding that time management skills at uni are a must. In some ways I wish that I had more time to come to terms with everything first, (it is all so much to take in and understand) but then I feel that perhaps this way is best as it is forcing me to immediately face the realities of uni life -that one must be independent, focussed and self-motivated. Anyone can get a degree, but getting a degree with top marks (one of my goals) is something that requires effort and dedication.
Despite feeling uncertain of where I stand in relation to the workload expectations and the abilities of other students in my subjects, I know if it gets too much help IS available to me.
During O-Week one of the things that surprised me the most was the amount of services available on campus for students to use (95% being completely FREE!). The difference is that if you are having problems, the onus is on YOU to find and access the help yourself. No one will magically appear and ask "Are you ok?" or "This is where you go to get help and this is who to ask for."
Getting help requires taking responsibility for yourself. To some students straight out of high school, this task may appear foreign and overwhelming, but I would ask those people to remember that most of them are by now 18, and holding the responsibility of voting, drinking and driving a car - is taking responsibility for your own learning too much to ask?
For added thought, if we look back 100 years ago, people of our age were more often than not out working or married with a child on the way. Looking after our own self seems a minimal responsibility compared to what our forefathers and foremothers had to do!
In the coming weeks I will do my best to provide online links to places at uni that can provide useful services, but at this point I will provide a link to the alphabetically ordered directory of everything on campus.
So far I have found this index most useful for finding specific things or simply just exploring what is available for us to access.
If worst come to worst, risk embarrassment and just ASK SOMEONE AT UNI!
The other day I couldn’t deal with the prospect of waiting around campus for 4 hours until a management tutorial. I had no idea who to approach to get this changed, as the Alloc8 program continued to tell me that every other suitable tute time was full. I went to the general faculty office, approached the most friendly looking woman at the desk (key point, someone with smiles lines is most likely going to be the best bet), asked politely and concisely "Excuse me but who would I go and speak to in order to change my management tutorial time?" This lady was very kind and directed me to the 5th floor of the Babel Building. On the 5th floor I approached the department desk to see a sign directing me to a certain room between the hours of about 10:30am and 12:30pm if I wanted to change my tute time! With 15 minutes to spare, I hurried down to the room, knocked at the door, explained what I wanted and within TWO MINUTES was in my ideal tutorial time!!!!
Now of course, it might not always be this easy (my friend D had trouble changing an economics tute time as sometimes classes are filled to the limit, and technically you are meant to be available from 9-5pm every week day for uni ), however he did eventually get it changed through persistent emails asking if anyone wanted to swap times with him.
My point is though, with a bit of forced confidence and not being afraid to ask, you can get what you need done quickly and efficiently, alleviating possible stress from a problem.
So with everything said so far,
I must finish this entry for now, saying a big GOOD LUCK to all my fellow first years, and a warm welcome to all my other readers!
Sophie
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