(of transition)
I finally feel as though we're coming into the last leg of the transitional phase into university (well the main one anyway). I think at this point most people have found their feet and made their friends and I know I sure have. I like this idea of having somewhat transitioned, I feel as though I can really label myself a university student and really feel like I am apart of the Melbourne University student cohort. Undoubtedly, the whole of first year will be our "transition" into university life but I feel as if I have begun falling into a routine and in a way, that I am finally starting to "get" university.
These are the things I have learnt that have finally made me feel like a real university student:
- missing and attempting to listen to a two hour lecture online is basically impossible
- who has what breaks and when
- the prime days and times for BBQs or as it is also known as, free lunch
- what is expected of you in terms of workload and attendance
- how to better utilise time to balance social, work and study
I feel as if I can say that I know university. I know how it works and where all the buildings are, I know where I can find my favourite food and where to go to avoid protestors. As the famous quote goes "The world is your oyster" and I feel at this very moment that university is my oyster.
As I mentioned in my last post, I was off for an exciting weekend with my fellow Asians for Aa (Australasian Association) Camp! There are no real words I can use to explain this camp but man, what a camp it was! I met a whole bunch of new people who I still keep in contact with now. And I absolutely love the feeling of walking around Uni and seeing a familiar face here and there! Shout out to Purple team, you were my highlight of camp. What a honour it was to drink alongside you. To our leader Alay, not sure if you'll ever read this but biggest kudos to you.
As the saying goes "What happens on camp, stays on camp" but Aa camp is the exception. I don't want to say too much here, but if you do want to know, get in contact with me. I have enough funny stories to last hours on end.
These last two weeks have just been assignment packed, and that is basically all I have been doing besides my usual socialising. I did however get the amazing chance to participate in the CSS Dodgeball Competition today, but alas study awaits so that can be mentioned in the next blog post! Tomorrow I've got some classes in the morning, a lovely catch up lunch with KHo and then off to work!
Anyway until the next time,
Jess
P.s - I'll be off on VSA (Vietnamese Student Association) Camp this weekend, so next blog post will contain my thoughts on that!
Sometimes the uni campus seems pretty small, like when you run into about 10 people you know in the space of a couple of hours. It's as if you can't walk into Baillieu, cross the South Lawn or even go into the toleit (yes, the toleit... I ran into a girl from my primary school in there last week! ) without seeing a familiar face. This can be great at times, although when you're rushing to a tutorial you're already late for, not so great. Then, it can seem really really scarily big. Take for example, my Monday afternoon where I have to run across campus in the space of 5 minutes. Royal Parade to Swanston Street, weaving through the swarms of people can be quite a journey!
But most of the times the uni campus is quite familiar, yet always with hidden "nooks and crannies" to be found. Today, I went for coffee with my friend Sylvia and we sipped on our drinks in the System Garden, which is located near the Zoology building near Royal Parade. It's a gorgeous botanical graden, which was established in 1856 (according to the Uni website). It's really serene and leafy, the perfect place to escape the business of the main campus.
Here are some other cool places/things I have discovered on campus thus far:
Redmond Barry, 10th floor and beyond : If you're a Psych student, no doubt you've been at least to the 10th floor of Redmond Barry. For those of you who haven't or are asking "Redmond who?", it's the really tall building (12 floors high) near Tin Alley, often confused for the Richard Berry building and home to Psychology subjects. The view from the 10th floor is amazing! On one side, you've got a spectacular full view of the Atheltics track, the Colleges (some of which look like Hogwarts from this angle), on the other, a great view of the city buildings from a distance.
College Crescent: I had never done this walk until today. It takes you right around the Athletics track, and around the back of the different residential colleges. I'd never been that far north on the uni before so was nice to explore it today!
The Baillieu Library toilets: So toilets are toilets, nothing that special, but the one's in the Baillieu are oh so magnificent! The toleit doors have a print on them of vintage books so that when the toleit doors are closed, it looks like a vintage book shelf. Very clever and artistic in my opinion, and I was quite amazed when I first walked in!
What amazing places on campus have you found that you didn't know existed? I'd love to hear other people's experiences and look forward to discovering more of the hidden parts of Melbourne uni!
Adeshola
LIKE HELLO!
How are you all going? Sorry for not writing lately, I’ve been very busy with assessment and the like, and haven’t had time to write. But I can now :)
Much like Jess and Adeshola, I have been inundated with lots of assignments, tests and study. It’s crazy to think that we’ve already been at uni for over a month! It’s been stressful, but enjoyable all the same. I still hear people who are saying how easy uni is but this is probably because they are: attending too many barbecues/doing minimal work/sleeping in lectures/impersonating Captain Feathersword (circle one).
In the last week and a half, I have noticed that because of doing the speed greeting with ‘Vladmir’ making a concerted effort to talk to as many people as possible, I am starting to see people all over the place, which is fantastic. What isn’t so fantastic is the fact that my name recalling ability is very poor, but it’s improving. For example, this week at a study group session, I remembered the name of the person I was talking to halfway through the conversation as opposed to not at all. Funnily enough, the trigger word was some random chemistry term like ‘Geometric isomerism’. I have absolutely no idea how that made me remember the name, but there you go. I guess that everyone needs to develop a sort of chemistry in one way or another.
I’ve been having some problems with attempting to talk in different languages at the moment. At work on the weekend, I managed to grievously insult a customer in Chinese. I was trying to say ‘You’re welcome’, but apparently, she thought that I was trying to make advances on her by saying something about her trousers. Not so doubleplusgood.
Here are some things that I have discovered and experienced recently that may be of use(lessness):
Be careful, I’m armed
Managed to sleep on my arm for the entire night a couple of weeks ago. The result of this was that when I woke up at 5am, I could not feel my limb. At all. Not even wriggle my fingers. Slightly concerned and in a sleep induced stupor, I began using my left arm to throw my numb right one about. Still nothing. Half asleep and envisaging the joys of potential amputation, I decided to take things to the next level by standing up and swinging my arm around as hard as I could… into the wall. After befouling the air with a few choice swear words and waking up the entire house and most likely the neighbours, I began to cradle my throbbing arm which had suddenly decided to recover feeling. To give you an idea of the pain, think of the worst accident you’ve ever had in your life. Now multiply that pain by about ten thousand. It hurt about fifteen jillion times more than that.
Picnic for none
Once upon a time in a magical land of fairies and fire breathing dragons there lived a young man named Ben. Like many of the townsfolk, our hero used to brave the crowded trams and trains to uni, avoid the student reps by getting out his phone and having huge d&m seshs with himself and get the Redmond Barry and Richard Berry buildings mixed up.
One fine mid autumn’s day, he chanced upon a French picnic on the South lawn, with food and drink aplenty. Most pleased by the conviviality that he had indeed caught sight of, he and his comrades made their way to a nice patch of grass and began to talk. Now Ben, being the thoroughly kind and good looking lad that he is, had happened to bring along some snacks in order to ameliorate the already perfect picnic. There were crisps, biscuits and other sweets that would make even the most assertive reader begin to drool onto their keyboard and sigh plaintively. Just like the baby sparrow which warbles and stretches its wings as it alights in its hollow, Ben exuberantly withdrew the bag and waved it around with a flourish, lest his companions not see it. Yet ill-starred Ben hadn’t managed to notice that he had opened the bag upside down in mid-air, resulting in nearby uni students being hit (and in some cases, nigh mortally wounded) by teddy bear biscuit shrapnel. After the peals of laughter and hearty guffaws had subsided, Ben took his exit stage left and began to ponder as to whether it would be viable to create his own reality tv show.
Masculine textbooks
When I got all my stationery for uni at the start of the year, I basically just rocked up to Big W and found all the most economically priced things that I could, not really paying attention to much else. One of these books happens to have multi-coloured circles over it, which I thought was very normal. But I was kindly informed by my friend in French this week that it looks a bit girlish, which to be fair, it does, but I’ve just been hoping nobody would notice. Mildly amused by this sentiment, I inquired as to how I can make it more manly, because short of spilling my lunch on it/crumpling it up, I don’t know what I’m meant to do :P. I did try drawing one of those anime characters with massive guns but I’m afraid that looked thoroughly childish. I am awaiting the response mon ami! Unless anyone has any ideas?
The curious case of the shoulder and the student
You know when you’re growing, you constantly bang into things, yeah? Sometimes this can also happen because you just like getting physical with nearby walls and vases or have a shoulder span as large as a Machamp. Being the massive unit that I am…Well, sort of…. Ok, well not really at all….Ahem. Being that I’m just you’re Average Joe with a different name, I have a similar problem (Seriously, who calls their kid ‘Average’?) My shoulder is bony. Therefore, when it comes to giving someone a hug/balancing the cat on my head, a problem arises. That problem is the tendency to shoulder people and the cat in the jaw, which certainly makes those sort of situations pretty high impact. Short of suggesting people to wear mouthguards, the only viable solution appears to be walking with my body slanted laterally at a forty five degree angle which wouldn’t exactly be aesthetically pleasing. If anyone else has any suggestions, I would gladly welcome them.
Umbrella adventures
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, umbrellas are useless contraptions. Mine is made even more useless by the fact that when it decided to rain earlier this week, one of the arms that hold up the fabric broke. Naturally, the wind was blowing so that it turned itself inside out, and I for all intents and purposes, momentarily acquired the semblance of a cartoon character as I desperately attempted to fix it up. Taking heart from what happened to Mary Poppins when it got a bit blustery, I decided to throw caution to the winds by just running quickly and used the umbrella as a walking stick to prevent me from slipping. It didn’t go down well, but I only just got completely saturated. But I tell you what, for once, I actually quite literally had ‘cold feet’ before entering my lecture.
Well that’s about all from me at the moment. Hope everything’s going okay with everybody. Hang in there, be happy and avoid the purple Fanta from Union House. Or just soft drinks in general, really. They do funny things to already over animated people.
Vis tecum sit!
Ben
Is it just me or is early Autumn one of the most amazing times of the year?
Seriously, despite being overwhelmed and increasingly stressed out by my two assignments due this Thursday, the weather is keeping me quite cheery. Perhaps its because Winter is looming upon us and I'm trying to cherish every last ray of sunlight that we are given. There really is something so special about being outside on a lovely warm day that's not too hot, just perfect! The South Lawn seems to be a favourite spot for most people on campus. Come the sunshine, people flock to it and by midday it's absolute packed, yet such a wonderful sight. I love walking past it and seeing groups of students, couples and even a few people by themselves reading a book underneath the shade of a tree.
So today, after my work shift I sat outside in the backyard on the lawn and read my "Identity" readings for the coming week while sipping on some leftover Apple cider from Arts Camp. It was highly enjoyable and I'd recommend it to students currently struggling with the motivation to pick up their course reader and actually stay on top of their readings. It's worth it though, as the worst thing is sitting in a lecture and having no idea what the lecturer is actually talking about. Admittedly, I have already fallen behind in my Psychology lectures and resorted to procrastinating instead of actually listening to the audio versions of the lectures I am behind it. Depsite common misconceptions, first Year Uni is actually pretty hard. Suddenly there are no regular homework checks, no one reminding you of the work that is to be done and a hell of a lot of parties to attend with new people to meet. Fair to say it's hard to find a good balance. As Jess so nicely put it, the honeymooned period is indeed over. Tomorrow we hit week 4, assignments will be due and the semester is soaring by!
I am finally going to attend an Academic Skills Unit workshop on Tuesday to hopefully inspire me to resort back to my some of my VCE ways where I was extremely organised and studious.
Ok, time to finish that Criminology assignment....
See you on the other side!
Adeshola
is over.
We all know the phase, those first two or so weeks of pure bliss where everything seems to be perfect. For Uni it was the days off, endless food choices, freedom of choosing to attend (or not to attend) lectures and not to mention the plethora social events that happened almost every day of the week.
However we've hit week three which has left us using our days off to work, asking Mum for lunch money due to insufficient funds, being continuously a week behind in all lectures and using all other free time to study. I cannot deny that this situation is the exact position that I find myself in right now. I'm working a ridiculous amount each week leaving little time to relax, I anxiously wait to be paid each week to support my ridiculous eating habits and as noted in the last post am still a week behind in all my lectures. Not to mention the various assignments being due in the coming weeks! I think I'm just about ready to drop out and hand in my CV at McDonald's.
I was discussing with my friend K Ho about this proposed theory of "the honeymoon phase" and we concluded that it is in all its entirety a real and almost sad result. How we all long for the Utopia that is the honeymoon phase, where all is within our reach and nothing seems impossible. I sit here now in the silent study area of the library, wondering where to begin tackling the four assignments I have to do in the coming weeks. I don't necessarily feel stressed but I imagine a haphazard mental breakdown isn't too far away.
Undeniably, I have found the transition between school and Uni somewhat difficult. I suppose after being force feed everything in school I became a little too excited at the freedom offered at Uni. It's all a learning curve and things can only get better from here!
On a somewhat lighter note I'll be off to Aa (Australasian Association) Camp this weekend! As per usual with me bags have not been packed, sustenances have not been purchased (by sustenances I mean alcohol and rice crackers) and the only thing I have done is organise costumes for the themed parties each night (I'll post pics when I return).
Word of advice to all who will listen/read, don't be me.
Until next time,
Jess x
Howdy!
Hope everyone had a great weekend and are in the swing of the new week. Hard to believe it's Week 3 now! Time has gone ridiculously quickly!! Although, perhaps that is because as an Arts Student my week is condensed into 3 days. So instead of having to push through 'hump day' Wednesday, that is my end of the week and then I say hello to a lovely four day weekend. Ahhhh gotta love the life of an Arts student, all 12 contact hours. Although that's not to say that we do no work. In fact, I'm overwhelmed with uni readings at the moment which is keeping me busy as well as assignments which are creeping up on me, with a couple due in next week.
Orientation is now well and truly over and I feel like I'm a 'real' Uni student now and not a Year 12 traipsing around an unfamiliar campus. Tomorrow we have a peer mentor program which is meant to give us time to ask a current student questions we may have about First Year. Looking forward to finding out what it's like and meeting some new first years. However, on a more exciting note, Washington is performing at Union House tomorrow which I am super excited for! And what's better? It's free! And who doesn't love free music accompanied with delicious FREE sausages and drinks!?
And in other news, me and my friend Ali finally got round to purchasing a locker today at Union house (located in the Basement) in hope of relieving some chronic back pain we have been suffering due to carrying around our laptops and heavy textbooks on our backs all day. I highly recommend getting onto it if you're feeling your back just can't quite hold the weight of all your books. They're a decent size too so it's a lot cheaper to share it with a friend. Only down side is, after being told the number of our locker we scurried down to the Basement of Union House all excited to see what it would look like and then scanned the locker numbers only to discover it is a bottom locker.... Feels like year seven all over again....
Sometimes we all wish that we had some sort of super power to facilitate the mundane things we do in everyday life; whether that is having very warm breath so you can dry your washing really quickly or just being able to annoy people easily (an innate ability of mine). Well, due to the lack of uni field trips to labs with genetically modified spiders, the absence of vats of nuclear waste on campus and the fact that my digital watch thingy which makes me transform into some alien badass has gone flat, attaining super powers is out of the question. So the question remains, how can you possibly have a good week without these awesome attributes? The answer is quite simple; by taking part in many important and deeply significant (excuse the pleonasm) life lessons through interacting with your daily environment in order to become a good student.
Channel your inner Muggle and become a psychic.
We all know that our father’s, sister’s, brother’s, uncle’s dalek twice removed was a wizard, yeah? So why not let it loose and show the world your talent by following these steps:
(This segment has best results when listening to Silverchair’s ‘Walking in a Straight Line’)
- At library walking down stairs, get taught how to palm read.
- Get shown which line signifies what e.g. Line of marriage.
- Observe brevity of Line of life. Think to self, 'I wonder why mine is so short?'
- Almost trip down staircase, using nearby friend as stair rail substitute.
- Conclusion: After the hands on experience, remember not to multitask/be psychic/look up what on Earth is your problem on Wikipedia.
Train to become a better person.
When on the train, it’s always funny when you descry a young man wearing a shirt that is obviously about five sizes too small for him owing to all the muscle popping out of it. Naturally, half of his buttons are undone, just in case any commuter hasn’t noticed him strolling down the catwalk aisle. It’s even funnier when he tries to pick up the girl in front of him by hanging his arm off a nearby hook, flexing it and kissing his muscle. All this while giving the girl ‘the stare’. You all know what that is, the typical ‘Puss-In-Bootsesque’ look, but the way this guy was pulling it, I was more concerned that he was having a brief spasmodic fit. Needless to say, he failed and I learned some more physics which can actually be applied to a real life situation; Force(getting slapped in the face)=Mass (an open palm)x Acceleration ( how insulted the woman was).
Solution: Spend a bit more time on the muscle inside your cranium. Mine’s a bit larger than usual, resulting in a big head (generic response: ‘Thanks, I grew it myself!’) And trust me; reciting sixty odd digits of pi is a much better party trick for maintaining your credibility than having the semblance of a Homo Habilis. I think…
Make sure you are getting sufficient sustenance at university.
Mix and match the five major food groups: Pizza Shapes, Coffee, Fat, Sugar and Other. Having done a bit of experimentation, Up and Go does indeed go well with sushi for lunch (classified underneath ‘Other’), even though you’re meant to have the drink for breakkie. So it was sort of a post-breakfast, pre-dinner desert.
By the way, if anyone knows how to drink tea without subsequently burning off about half their tastebuds, please let me know.
Make jokes frequently, ensure that they are funny.
If they’re not, people won’t laugh and your dreams of becoming a professional slapstick comedy performer will be in jeopardy. In this case, it is best to be able to disappear on the spot, which would strongly suggest getting your Masters in Disguise as breadth for your Defence Against The Dark Arts Degree.
So therefore, the decision in a physics prac to announce to the demonstrator that ‘Physics is phun with a ph’ is most certainly not the best way to make a lasting impression. Due to the absence of laughter, the desperate attempt to announce that the joke was too ‘basic’ resulted in the atmosphere becoming slightly acidic, which in the (logarithmic) scale of things, made me realise that it was a bit out of place in a class about Liner motion. Hopefully they accelerate everyone’s joke gettingness so that in the future, everyone is up to speed. /end puns
So basically, make the most of your uni life. Ask questions in class, have fun and try to keep your sybaritic bibacity in check :P
Here endeth the lesson.
Ben xo
P.S. Midget, I am curious of your nickname. Wherefore art thou Midget?
P.P.S. I hope that no one noticed how my introduction sort of doesn't relate to the body of this entry. Oh well.
Arts Camp 2012!
I'd heard so many people talk about Arts Camp and all the shenanigans people got up to, so when I was finally a first Year Arts student I was pretty keen to attend. After some serious Facebook stalking to find out the details, I was told to secure tickets (they only sell 100) for these extremely popular event, you had to be on the South Lawn somewhere between 6-6.30am! So after spending Wednesday of O-week making numerous phone calls to cover my work shifts, I was all ready to go to bed and get up sleeplessly early the next day.
So the alarm went off at 5.00am and surprisingly, I was not tired and quickly get dressed and make my way down to uni. For those of you who aren't usually at the uni at 6.00am it's really quite spooky in the dark, adding to the already eerie mood that the Old Arts building has. Sprinting up the stairs to the South Lawn (quite paranoid I was going to find 100 people already there) , I found a couple of groups waiting around and joined a group of girls as we began the 3 hour wait. Watching the sun come up and feeling the concrete beaneath us warm up kept us busy until finally the M-ASS committee arrived and we began to fill out forms and get excited for what was going to be an amazing weekend!
On Friday we met our fellow campers in the Old Quad and were placed into coloured teams. I was put in the one and only Black team (although we soon become known as 'The Champions' as that's how much we rocked this camp). After a good solid 20 minutes of ghosting targeted students (and a couple of professors!) around uni and sometimes even across the whole of the South lawn, we went on a booze run, stocking up on cheap goon. Then, it was on the bus with a short stop before we arrived at Camp Allambee, somewhere in Gippsland, although I don't think any of us were entirely sure of our bearings.
There are some distinct differences about uni camps versus school camps: Firstly, ALCOHOL (and wow this makes a huge difference!) and secondly, now single-sex dorms. So, we ran freely off to find our cabins. The girls in my cabin (yes, we ended up in a single sex dorm due to the guys kicking us out of theirs!) were all amazingly lovely and hilarious! First night was "Rubix Cube" night where everyone had to wear different coloured clothes and aim to be in one colour by the end of the night. Heading down to the shed at the bottom of the campsite, the party began with "boat races" of people sculling beer and then we danced the night away to the skills of Dj Ben (a fellow M-ASS member).
The next day consisted of rain, rain and rain! We were woken up by the ridiculously energised M-ASS leaders who barged into our cabin to wake us up with renditions of songs from the night before. Then, after a breakfast in the dining hall we spent the day in our cabin avoiding the rain. Later in the afternoon, Black Team reunited to complete some "challenges" that earned us points. We rehearsed and performed a 5 minute Musical to perform to all campers, finished a goon sack in under 5 minutes, and watched two of our (extremely brave) team members roll down the steep hill in the pouring rain! Then, we got changed into our "uniforms" (ie. school girl, cop, nurse) and again spent the night dancing till we could dance no more in the shed (note: My calf muscles have only just recovered from the pain of dancing so much this night!).
Sunday morning we were awoken at 8.30am and groggily packed up and cleaned the campsite before hearing the much anticipated announcement of the winning team.... Which no surprise was my team, Black Team!!! Our prize was free tickets to the Week 3 party which I'm already looking forward to. Then, it was back on the bus and before we knew it, camp was over and we were pulling up at the Grattan Street bus top back at Uni.
Without a doubt, Arts Camp has been my favourite (and wildest!) University experience so far! To future students, I highly recommend attending a camp of your faculty or even one of a different faculty. Such an amazing experience and a great way to form friendships that extend beyond tutorials and lectures. As a result, my fellow Arts Campers are popping up all over Uni which really make such a big campus feel less scary! Thanks so much to the amazing Melbourne Arts Student Society for making us freshers feel so welcome and organising such a brilliant camp!
Adeshola
Apologises in advance that I'm a week behind (ironic how this correlates to my university studies) but never the less, better late than never!
My name is Jessica and I'm studying a Bachelor of Arts, hopefully majoring in International Studies and Politics and Linguistics and Applied Linguistics! I'm referred to commonly as Jess but will also respond to Midget. I enjoy ice cream, reading and ironically enough I enjoy watching Ben10 (Ben, shout out to you)!
I've battled the enrolment process, survived the Student Portal timetabling and got through O-Week having signed no petitions - University life here I come! Having only been at University for two weeks, one of those weeks being Orientation week, I find it hard to write anything mind numbingly deep. However, I will touch on two things that have been significant for me these last two weeks which will both relate to two very important tips!
Commerce Camp - the place where dreams come true
Undoubtedly my best experience at University thus far. A weekend away consisting of countless shenanigans, life long friendships and short term relationships. As a result of that camp, I have made a plethora of friends and have also turned my liver to steel (booyeah). I thank the Commerce Student Society for hosting and organising such a great camp and look forward to future events!
TIP: Join clubs, attend camps and get involved
Some of my best (week long) friendships have come from getting involved in the universities countless social opportunities. If you don't get involved, you are all missing out on a great chance! University is so much more than studying and you won't come to realise this sitting in the Library studying!
Classes - crap loads of information in one sitting
I have so far enjoyed most of my classes but my lingering flaws of laziness and inconsistency have once again failed me. Within the first week I've already changed in and out of three different classes! So like this blog post, I am already a week behind! Lectures involve a real sense of independence, in the way that it is up to you to listen and make notes. This compared to tutorials is very different, as tutorials (or tutes for short) are much more similar to the classroom type setting. Unfortunately for me I've come to realise, I am not a lecture person. I can't sit still for that long and listen. So, unlike everyone else I have to try extra hard to absorb all the information.
TIP: Don't be me
Make the right decisions about your classes and stick to them! To future students: attend all the subject information sessions before your subject selection to save the time of ending up a week behind by week two! If you are in the unfortunate situation of being like me and find that lectures are somewhat difficult to stay focused in don't stress! Just make a conscious effort to pay attention and also research the Academic Skills Team. I will be attending one of their workshops entitled "Arts: Making more Tutorials" and they have plenty more like them! So don't be lazy and get proactive!
As Dumbledore once said,
"You will find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it"
(if by Hogwarts we mean Melbourne then yeah, since they kind of look the same)
Alas fine readers that is all I have for now, hopefully you have enjoyed this post (and the pictures too!). First years, comment with any tips you have to give and I shall write to you all again soon!
Jessica
Why, hello again!
Well, there goes week one and we’re already well and truly on our way now. So just how is uni different to school? Well, in many ways. Firstly, the way the work is structured. Unlike school where you are guided along and told what to do, in uni, you are expected to be very independent about organising your study. No one’s on your back about it, so it is imperative to be self-motivated in order to do well. You are given a set amount of work to do in Tutorials (tutes) and have work for Practicals, but for Lectures and other things, you must be the one to read ahead, do the research, seek clarification and etcetera. I don’t mind it actually, because generally I am able to cope with distractions (unless there happens to be a very good book that I am resisting the urge to read or I am hungry.)
It was great meeting lots of new people and catching up with old friends. What wasn’t great was how easily it is to confuse people and forget names and only remember them halfway through the conversation. The result of this was introducing two of my friends to another friend. I had a bad case of Idioticus Majora that morning and had forgotten the name of one of my friends because I had been so engrossed by the content of our Bio lecture (is that normal?). I tried the good old ‘This is X’ and ‘wait- for-the-other-two-to-introduce-themselves’ technique to save myself from impending embarrassment (insert obvious comment about foreshadowing). After a long five second silence, I decided to grab at some straws and just take a random punt, hoping I got the name right. So I said ‘This is Sarah and Megan’. This resulted in much supressed mirth from the girls and an unintentional atmosphere of conviviality. Why? Oh, just because neither of them are called that. Sarah is her sister’s name and Megan is… well just completely wrong. I’m so sorry hahahaha! Thank goodness I don’t have any plans of working in advertising, where people say your name like every single sentence, e.g. ‘Well Ben, what we’re going to do, Ben, is to help you understand the logistics of this assignment, Ben.’ Did I mention that in Mandarin, ‘Ben’ means stupid? Wo hong Ben.
When I was on the train this week, I had the most unfortunate misfortune of standing about ten metres away from a couple who were full on making out in front of everyone (I learned later, that my friend was sitting right in front of them, so I shouldn’t be complaining!) Now, there’s nothing wrong with displaying your affection for the person you love in front of the public eye (as long as you’re keeping things PG), and I would know this from the times that I used to bring my Wags the Dog toy from The Wiggles to school. Primary school just in case any of you were getting worried. And I wasn’t making out with it. Okay? Okay.
Anyway, when you’re on the train, there seems to be this unwritten rule about hiding your emotions; either by ‘masking’ them (choices of Batman, The Flash and Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) or simply by just not showing them. Deviations from this social paradigm encourage much consternation and unease from commuters. There’s only so long you can appear to be enthralled by the patterns on the seat/the flecks of paint peeling of the Buzz Lightyear mask on the person next to you. Solution? Copper Sulphate. No, not really. The solution is to distract yourself with something much more intellectually stimulating. Like the chess game on your phone where you are still stuck against the Computer level 6 difficulty. Take it from me, when you do finally beat it, letting out a loud, victorious ‘HAH’ is not the best way of ‘blending in’ with your fellow emotionless, voiceless travellers. When taking the subsequent tram to uni during morning peak hour, where it’s nice and busy and filled to capacity so that there are ample opportunities to get up close and personal with the window (perhaps a good time to refine your kissing technique having just had a prac on it before?), it’s also just as quiet. Well, usually. In my comfortable position wedged between the door and a pole, I could hear the constant beeping of something. That’s when I looked down and noticed that the Myki machine right next to my pocket seemed to be having a bit of a temper tantrum. Apparently it had tried to do the ‘touch on/off’ thing about seven eight times in a row. Beware ye the person who stands near the Myki machine.
It rained a lot last week which meant it was wet. That meant coming prepared. I have since become rather wary of the umbrella, which is a device that provides mid morning uni entertainment for the people around you. Having walked through the Hogwartsesque corridors, I was holding one open above my head, however, owing to the strong wind, it had been turned inside out. So being the DIY guy that I am, I decided to take it down and fix it. This involves turning the brolly upside down, and holding it near eye level. In a happy coincidence, there happened to be a bit of water that had accumulated in the temporary ‘bucket’ of sorts. You can guess what happened next; I made like a salad and serenaded myself with half a gallon of icy cold hell, courtesy of my common sense and brilliant intellect. How do umbrellas even lettuce do that sort of thing?!
And that was the week that was. Tune in next time for another fun adventure!
Toodles!
Ben :)
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