It's autumn in Melbourne in the Southern Hemisphere in May. The golden leaves fall slowly from the trees like butterflies, scattered on both sides of the road. Probably because of the epidemic, the campus is surprisingly quiet. I gently stepped across the fallen leaves, accompanied by the sound of footsteps, leaving deep and shallow footprints.
Follow the road and cross the trails, and you will be at the racecourse. That, where I used to stop. I love the small raised hills there, so you can overlook the campus as well as the blue sky. At this time, all kinds of emotions are suddenly relieved. A restless heart calmed down.
Sit down slowly, gazing at the grassy racecourse, meditating. Once, thousands of horses galloped and the dust was flying here. The galloping horse hooves hit the ground; the glued scores hit people's hearts directly.
Now, all this is quiet. Only the breeze was left, and the warbler sound mildly. In the distance, a few pigeons are walking towards me. The pigeons here are never afraid of people. No matter when, they are so carefree and "cooing" happily. Their singing adds a touch of holiness and peace to this quiet campus.
Time slipped away quietly, and the warm sunshine slowly moved away with the breeze. As the sun sets, the sky seems to be smeared with a layer of orange paint. A beautiful and soft silk ribbon floats in the air.
Going down the hill and passing through the ancient corridor of wind and rain, I seem to have traveled to the time more than 100 years ago. The saints dressed in holy robes, holding the heavy Bible "New Testament", strolled by twos and threes. Several gray-haired professors gathered around the lawn, waving the parchment in their hands, and debating fiercely around a certain topic. A student glanced at the pocket watch in his hand, probably because he was about to be late, and ran in a hurry. But the long robe restricted his running speed. So, he rolled up a corner of his robe and ran again.
The old clock tower appeared before my eyes. The brownish-yellow appearance, combined with the scarred wall tiles, gave rise to a sense of dignity in history. I caressed the rough wall tiles, feeling the vicissitudes of history.
It's five o'clock. The bell rang. The ancient dull bell, accompanied by five heavy beatings, resounded over the campus. The frightened birds fluttered their wings one after another, flapping their wings in groups to fly in the blue sky.
The afterglow of the setting sun spreads on the South Lawn, putting a golden coat on this noisy grassland. That touch of golden, beautiful and moving. This situation and situation made me suddenly think of Master Hong Yi’s "Farewell" song:
Outside the farewell pavilion meanders an ancient road,
Into the horizon lush grass has sowed.
amidst the even breeze and fading flutes dance the willows,
while the setting sun drops below the sea of hills.
…………
I hummed softly. Unconsciously, my eyes have been moist. But I understand that I will keep walking, walking in that one person's University of Melbourne.
——Written in Melbourne during the COVID-19
(Note: all pictures are took by authors via phone)
12:31am, Singapore. Just finished watching a lecture (which I understood precious little of, whoops), and trying to convince myself that everything will miraculously solve itself out and all will be well (now I'm really wishing my life were like a Disney film). At the same time, I'm wondering how to (properly) begin this post, so here goes!
To whoever is reading this right now: Hello, I'm Charlene! Nice to meet you. A year ago I won't believe myself actually saying this, but I'm a freshman at the University of Melbourne, doing a Bachelor of Arts and majoring in Media and Communications. I have a year of advanced standing, which honestly scares me sometimes as I feel there's lesser time to catch up to the pace of learning.
I'm passionate about many things, but in particular I would say mental health issues as well as anything related to education. In my free time, I like scrolling through Tiktok, it keeps me occupied during this pandemic (honestly I'm so addicted to it, someone save me please). I particularly like the recipe videos!! Not gonna lie, for a noob like me, Tiktok recipes are the best way for me to feel as if I'm some professional chef. Take for example this sunflower potato which I discovered and couldn't get enough of (it's so good, I highly encourage everyone to try it out!! It's literally just slices of potato with an egg in the middle and cheese sprinkles on top, hence the name)
Here's the photo that no one asked for:
This was my first time making sunflower potatoes. Yes, the presentation definitely needed work, and it was slightlyyyy undercooked, but it's the effort that counts! :))
On a more serious note, I'm really happy to be one of the bloggers for the First Year Diaries. I hope I can play a part in making this community a safe, inclusive and positive one-- this pandemic is making us all feel crummy, and I think many students wish they were leading a normal campus life right now. I hope my posts can lend a bit of sunshine to anyone that reads it.
I hope to strive for relatability in my posts, because I mean--we're all in this together! I hope to be able to reach out to you guys effectively.
Dare I say, this also serves as a mini life diary for myself as well-- I can imagine my future self reading through these posts and laughing at how silly Freshman Charlene was back then. It serves as a way to document these memories down (the good, bad, and chaotic ones)
Feel free to leave a comment about yourselves too! Would love to get to know all of you :)
Hey there fellow readers, can't wait to meet you on this platform. Sharing with you what I have seen and thought in my college life is really exciting.
Just a quick introduction about me. My name is Yuxuan Guo(preferred name: Jack Guo). I am a current first-year bachelor of commerce student at the University of Melbourne. With curiosity and enthusiasm for western culture, I left my hometown of Nanjing to study in Melbourne.
A new world is slowly unfolding before my eyes. Excitement and anticipation occupy my heart. The University of Melbourne is a world-renowned institution, studying here has always been my ideal. Here, History and modernity meet, youth and dreams resonate.
Having experienced the baptism of China’s failure in the college entrance examination, the University of Melbourne’s openness to me touched me a lot. Cherish this hard-won learning opportunity, I feel deeply.
In the next few months, I will accompany you all through this particular epidemic period with beautiful words
With lyrical brush strokes, I would like to show the meticulous beauty in daily life. Besides, I will also tell you about the experience of studying commerce as an international student at the University of Melbourne. Lyricism and practicality are my writing style.
I will try my best to bring something novel to you.
Impressive, meaningful, and exciting.
That is all for my introduction.
Let us embark on this journey together and exchange ideas in words.
A lot's been going on at Uni, even though I don't attend the campus. Virtual is easier to manage because I don't have to travel. Never been the one to dress extra special to classes, but attending workshops in PJs is unbeatable.
I had a demo of my first presentation this evening and it wasn't very smooth. But I am working with some really cool people and they make things seem very easy, even the goofy bits are funny. The real one will be in two days and I better get my speech sorted and my diction perfect. Can't slur like a drunk when you have an audience. My cat never minds it, but then she is more interested in listening to the management lectures than me talking. I am pretty sure she wants to be a manager when she grows up. She even starts cozying up to the laptop when the prof's on zoom. Talk about sucking up to the professors 😒
I'll worry about her career ambitions later, I got to focus on the day after tomorrow! Reminds me of the movie, just hoping my big day doesn't turn out the same. It's about something I have a huge interest in... yeah, Money $$$ and I get to talk to people about my work in Finance and Investing. How cool is that! Now, just to remember not to forget my words 🤣
Yes, yes I know. It feels like years since I last updated. Past two months have been insane! So much has happened and I don't where to begin.
Just kidding. Things were pretty ordinary. I got caught up with procrastination and it took me a while to wake up from the daze.
My exams got over in November and I was occupied with my freelance work and other things. I've been planning to update for a while now. It took me two weeks to finally login.
I'm here to let y'all know about a little something called the Live Project. It's open to both Undergraduate and Postgraduate students at UniMelb. I believe there are two intakes every year. This project helps you learn to develop a business case and pitch your ideas to a client, lets you collaborate with students from different universities across Melbourne and assigns you under an industry professional for mentoring. Honestly, it's an amazing opportunity. So you're put into a group with 5 students from different universities. Then the team is assigned to a real-world client who is facing a challenge in their business. The team will assume the role of business consultants and come up with ideas to solve their challenge. You get three weeks to work on it. Stage 1- Planning; Stage 2 - Researching; Stage 3 - Final presentation.
The team I was a part of, had an amazing mentor who was willing to guide us at anytime of the day. The team was indeed a good one. But I dropped out after week 2.
Here's why. Group projects! *groans*
The team work requires everybody to work. But the team that I had worked with, although an enthusiastic bunch during face-to-face meetings, stonewalled the WhatsApp group after going home. Hence, the work fell into the hands of the few people who took the initiatives. I get it, we're on vacation and we have personal commitments but the whole point of a team work is to work together as a team. Sigh!
Even when the weekly report is shared on the WhatsApp group asking the team to look for gaps or suggestions, all you can hear is crickets chirping. So, when the client gives you suggestions on the report, the feedback feels personal and the fact that some of these issues could've been solved if everybody had participated leaves you disappointed and extremely dissatisfied. Therefore, 2 weeks into the project, I quit. Granted, the project was 60% complete and I'm a person who sees a commitment till the end. But my patience was running out at an alarming rate and I quit. Do I regret? No. Maaaybe, a little. But the fact that everyone gets a certificate of completion because of the hard work done by a few in the group feels more unfair.
I don't mean to paint a grey picture of the Live Project here. It's an amazing opportunity, indeed. It offers you real-world experience, you get to make new friends and work with veterans. If you get a dedicated team, then you're lucky. If not, you better have a lot of blood, sweat and tears to spare. Okay, it's not that terrible. You know what I mean! The Live Project is certainly a good addition to your CV and helps you to grow your network. But if you get nightmares about group projects like I do, then just don't do it.
Now, I've celebrated Christmas during Winters all my life. Melbourne weather's burning passion for Christmas is heartwarming. Maybe a little too warm for my liking, to be honest. But that doesn't seem to stop the people from humming carols or being a little extra with Christmas lights and decorations. I guess it's all about the Christmas spirit here. You know what's funny? I never knew that something like a Summer Christmas even existed before I moved to Melbourne. Winter = Christmas, okay? But I'm curious to see how a Summer Christmas is going to turn out.
I wish y'all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
I have discovered that the best time to be in the library is on holidays – all I currently see is a barren wasteland of empty chairs and the occasional person hiding behind a laptop. This is completely the opposite to the SWOTVAC library experience were where hunting for chairs is the norm and there will be at least one annoying person trying to eat a muesli bar in the silent section.
The best places to study in SWOTVAC are usually empty classrooms in random buildings. On my wanderings I ride the elevator to an odd floor, walk up and down foreign faculty staircases and try and walk with confidence so no one tries to kick me out. This year I ended up in the Asia-Myer building and discovered they put out free tea and sandwiches for those who dared venture away from the traditional library! Unless they weren’t free and I took someone’s conference food. Oh well.
You may ask – why would you go to the library in the holidays? Simply put, I am avoiding doing chores in my sharehouse. And with the billion emails I am receiving it acts as a nice office away from home. Also good distraction finding random books on the 3rd floor of Baillieu, I would hit up the 300s if I were you.
Hello friends, it's been a while! Pretty much over two months - I do apologise. But I'm here to tell you guys something every up and coming first year should be made aware of.
Now, full disclaimer, I understand that university accommodation isn't within everyone's price range. Some of the uni colleges are approx. $30 000 a year, which comes out to be around $600 a week - big yikes. There are of course more affordable options - some are actually cheaper than living in a share house, what with Internet and utilities covered in the price, and should definitely be considered as a viable option.
To start with, you meet and make so many friends living in one of these complexes. So many people, in so many different courses!!! It's wild. Whether you go to a big or small university, it's easy to become lost in the crowd, and living on res or in student housing allows you to be an individual and make friends this way. The events most of them hold are a social hub, and everyone's in the same boat as you.
Second, affordability. Like I mentioned, everything's covered, and you usually don't have to buy a TV, fridge, or anything like that - it's all already there. Things are so stressful when you're moving away from home into a new environment, and having everything covered for you is a burden taken off your shoulders.
If you're thinking about living in Melbourne to study, most universities (uni melb for example) are located in the CBD, and so are the accommodations and apartment buildings. The last thing you want to worry about is navigating public transport and potential fines when you're on your way to the first lecture, and again it takes a very heavy burden off your already tense shoulders.
To put it simply, you make friends at accommodations that you won't make in giant lecture halls. It's easy to be lost in the crowd, and living somewhere where everyone else knows what you're going through?? Priceless.
303 Royal Parade is the apartment complex I'm currently at - have a look at it, or the many other options like University of Melbourne colleges, Atira, Student Housing company....just do it.
I live in Cheltenham and I have at least a painful 4 hours ride (to college and back) every day. Although I enjoy the view of lush green suburbs and striking street art covered walls through the journey, I'm growing numb to it. I mean, when you commute for a good 6 months like this, you are bound to get tired of it eventually.
So I began paying attention to the passengers in the train. Okay, quick question. Am I the only one who doesn't like making eye contacts with people? I walk, sit and stand looking down or scroll through my phone. Perhaps it's a blaring sign of being an introvert but if I ever accidentally lock eyes with someone, my heart races (the kind of feeling when you're about to fall from stairs) and end up feeling extremely uncomfortable. I could definitely do with less anxiety in life if I had Harry's invisibility cloak, you know?
But for the most part, the passengers are engrossed in conversations, face deep on their phones, or nose buried in their books. Hardly comes off as a surprise these days actually. That doesn't mean I want strangers to talk to strike conversations with me. Because although I'm in my mid-twenties I believe that I attract danger like a magnet and who knows I might be talking to a potential psychopath and the next thing you know I might end up dead in some "dark alley". Heeeey, it's not my fault I'm wired to think that way because I'm sure half of us at least joke about this among our friends. And honestly, when you're a woman you think of all possibilities that could potentially get you into danger and imagine how you can escape from it. The imaginative martial arts skill or high-pitched screaming may not come in handy in real life though. Lets say, I've been in a similar situation - I froze and my body refused to move. The practical side of my brain, stored with immense possibilities of "What to do when you're in danger" such as contacting my emergency numbers, screaming for help, materializing cool martial arts moves all dissolved from my brain and failed to manifest into any sort of action. But I ran for my life.
I don't run. I hate running. But when the situation called for it, I surprised myself. The fighter in me took a back seat and I fled the scene faster than I could've ever imagined. Because I've never thought about running in situations like these. I used to conjure up situation where I fought back; but the reality hit differently.
After that horrifying experience, I retracted to a life within the four walls of my room. A way of life that women are still fighting to break free from. And then there's me.This habit turned out to be a blessing for my parents because I didn't go out unless it was necessary. It's not as sad as it sounds.....pffft. I've definitely overcome my fears but I guess during the healing process, I got too comfortable within my solitary confinement.
Well, that escalated quickly. My initial plan was to whine about strenuous commuting but uh... I may have gotten a little too carried away with this midnight rambling about my sorry life.
It's 11 p.m. and I'm trying to hold back from complaining about how day light savings have left me with one less hour to sleep. Isn't that how it works? I still can't get my head around the scientific explanation of this phenomenon so I'm expertly measuring time according to my sleep patterns.
Hunched upon my bed (terrible posture) at 10:41 p.m. in the night, I realized what I want to write about.
Stress.
I'd like to think that I'm good at managing stress. But others refuse to agree.
It's debatable, okay?
Life is an amalgamation of various sources of stress. I can't explain how, but everything triggers stress in me. Uneven eyebrows? Stress. Bad grades? Stress. Periods? Stress. Missed call from mom? Stress. Dirty laundry? Stress. You see, my life evolves around stress.
Hence everyone around me blames stress as the root of all my problems.
This is indeed a messed up cause and effect relationship and no number of self-help books or Instagram self-care pages can pacify me.
What do I do to help myself? Sleep. It's a really simple but an exceptionally effective way to deal with stress. Not very pragmatic though. Because what do I do if I'm stressed at work? Sleep? Yes. I've done that. I dozed off for a few minutes in an office bathroom stall. It worked. Never doing it again.
I watch funny movies, rant to a friend, binge eat, go shopping, walk, exercise and more to beat stress. But over time, I realized that I was seeking a way to escape the problem than face it. So everything I'd tried either became redundant or backfired at some point. We're young and wild and we make mistakes. Perhaps, a little too many.
ANYWAYS, I would like to believe that I'm learning how to deal with stress. First off, you gotta identify when stress strikes. More often, I mistake anxiety or anger for stress. They're indeed results of stress but I often dismiss it for some temporary technical issue in my body. What I fail to notice is, when I don't face the source of my stress, I act out, effectively hurting someone in the process. And this is a cycle. I refuse to acknowledge the issue, brush it off and move on. And obviously, when something stressful transpires again, it snowballs into something more dreadful and my functions come to a halt.
I'm learning to face the problem. I identify the issue and map out the pros and cons. Like, what worked and what didn't. Consider this as a SWOT analysis. Don't get me wrong I don't find solutions immediately. But what I find is clarity of the situation. And I've observed that sometimes, the problem solves on its own and at other times, I figure out a solution in a few days time. It's important to know that not all problems require your interference or active problem solving skills. When you stumble upon a problem and if it fails to resolve even after utilizing every ounce of your capability, all you need to do is, let it be.
Every problem has a solution. Correct. But like I said, problems don't always require your constant supervision. And you'll only know that once you pin down whatever's troubling you. This is no easy feat. It certainly is time consuming and would take several attempts to buck up and face it. But I suppose, that's how you learn. There's no rush so you can take one step at a time.
So I thought, today for my blog, I'd talk about one of the greatest uni events I have discovered at Melbourne Uni. I'm going to go through a list of some of the most asked questions about Prosh and answer them to the best of my ability.
Q. What is Prosh?
A. The best way to describe Prosh is a week-long game where there are multiple teams, and each team completes a list of things to earn points for their team.
Q. What do you have to do?
A. There really isn't anything you have to do. A lot of the things people do during Prosh (such as getting intoxicated) don't actually get your team points (sometimes they do), they just add to the experience. Things on the lists that teams get can include donating blood, giving your mum flowers, collecting bottle caps, or more intense things like getting a tattoo, performing a dance number, constructing a giant pirate ship. Throughout the day there are also many mini-games that teams participate in. For example, if you were at uni today you might have seen a race along the moat at south lawn where people had to scull their cans of soft drink/cider/beer/juice.
Q. How long does it go for?
A. Prosh goes for one week and starts at 8:00am every morning and finishes at midnight every night. The beauty of Prosh is that if you don't want to do it, you don't have to. If the 24-hour 'long drive' event means you'll get car sick, maybe sit it out and waste your 24 hours on the 24-hour scavenger hunt.
Q. What team are you on?
A. I'm on the best team. UndeΨded (pronounced undecided), is the team run by the science students that accept anyone, even arts kids. The science team is quite large with 70+ members, but there are smaller teams with 10-20 members. Small teams compete separately to large teams in the tally of points at the end. There are also teams from other unis such as the RMITeam and the Uncultured Swines (Swinburne).
Q. How much does it cost?
A. Depends on what team you join. Personally, to be on the science team, we all paid $35 for the t-shirt and thats it. One of my friends on the Ormond team didn't have to pay at all to join her team. The whole Prosh week isn't actually affiliated with Melbourne Uni even though it is run on campus, so when you pay, you pay a team leader, not the actual faculty.
Q. Why should I do it?
A. It's a great way to make friends on campus, get away from the stress of your studies, grab some drinks with other people competing and it'll leave you with memories that you'll never forget.
Q. When do I sign up?
A. I'm not sure if it's too late to join a team for this year's Prosh as it has already begun but I 100% recommend signing up for next year. Create your own team or join one. There is no limit on what age you can join Prosh, so you'll never lose the chance to join in.
Okay, so hopefully that covered all the questions you had.
And with that, I hope you all have a great week watching the Proshers running around and having fun with your newfound knowledge of what they're actually doing.
I live in Cheltenham and I have at least a painful 4 hours ride (to college and back) every day. Although I enjoy the view of lush green suburbs and striking street art covered walls through the journey, I'm growing numb to it. I mean, when you commute for a good 6 months like this, you are bound to get tired of it eventually.
But for the most part, the passengers are engrossed in conversations, face deep on their phones, or nose buried in their books. Hardly comes off as a surprise these days actually. That doesn't mean I want strangers to talk to strike conversations with me. Because although I'm in my mid-twenties I believe that I attract danger like a magnet and who knows I might be talking to a potential psychopath and the next thing you know I might end up dead in some "dark alley". Heeeey, it's not my fault I'm wired to think that way because I'm sure half of us at least joke about this among our friends. And honestly, when you're a woman you think of all possibilities that could potentially get you into danger and imagine how you can escape from it. The imaginative martial arts skill or high-pitched screaming may not come in handy in real life though. Lets say, I've been in a similar situation - I froze and my body refused to move. The practical side of my brain, stored with immense possibilities of "What to do when you're in danger" such as contacting my emergency numbers, screaming for help, materializing cool martial arts moves all dissolved from my brain and failed to manifest into any sort of action. But I ran for my life.
What do I do to help myself? Sleep. It's a really simple but an exceptionally effective way to deal with stress. Not very pragmatic though. Because what do I do if I'm stressed at work? Sleep? Yes. I've done that. I dozed off for a few minutes in an office bathroom stall. It worked. Never doing it again.