First Year Diaries
Loose Change = Printing Money … If You Have Any (Nae)
I really do feel like I spend the majority of my Uni Life at the ERC Level 3 Printing Station. It's my new hangout spot. Oh and that cafe outside there, and the Science Student Centre.
Oh have I mentioned I am an ARTS student. What can I say, you Science freaks have the best coffee and indoor seating. :P Nahh you Science kiddies are cool, I simply stare in awe at the Chemistry lecture that is before my Creative Writing Lecture, studying the profiles of the waves of students as they exit the theatre. You all look the same as me, and yet are freakishly smart. I. Am. In. Awe.
I am starting to feel the insignificance of being an "Arts student" in a University brimming with Biomed and Law students :O
Yet I do like my course, however I HATE THE IDF SUBJECT 'DEMOCRACY'! Is anyone sharing my hatred? :'(
I feel that I have not made a proper effort socially though, because I have made one friend, T, who is amazing, but that was all the way back in orientation.
And then I have my best friend since Year 8, Julz who is now friends with T.
But both of them have made like a million new friends each.
HOW?
When I say Hi and smile at people, they make small talk and then RUN AWAY.
*sigh.
Bloggers meeting? Any time soon? Or has there been one already?
So yeah I probably won't have time to blog again because of this time next week :|
Reasons:
Overwhelmed by Readings.
Struggling with my 16 hrs a week work in retail.
Snapping at people because of lack of sleep because of above.
You really want to meet me now don't you :P
Nahh I'm not that grumpy, just at M/N whilst reflecting on my crappy week
I'mma sleep, and think POSITIVELY about next week.
Good things will happen.
Zaijian! Not sure if the characters will work - 再见!
(Bye!)
Sugar high. (Candy)
Okay, so this is a tad embarrassing. Here I was, all reassuring in my last Blog Entry, making (now evidently empty) promises to keep the world posted on my uni experience. Hasn't it been about two weeks now? So much for my 'A-Week-in-the-Life' idea...
...Which I guess is the perfect topic for me to address at this moment - my time management issues, and how they have affected me thus far.
Well - as for most students, the past two weeks have been all about that mad rush to finish your assignments and hand them in all polished and perfect (Hmm). Here's a great tip for those of you who may not already be aware: DO NOT start working on your assignment the day it's due. I know you're a thrillseeker. I know that adrenaline rush makes your year. But I have a sneaking suspicion that such behaviour is NO GOOD for our bodies (and sanity) in the long run.
I will not delve any deeper into my own experiences here - but I'm sure you get the drift. Leaving an assignment (or four) until the day it is due is taking procrastination to a whole new level. It's very, very twisted. Don't do it.
So how about tute readings, I hear you ask? It's probably a good idea to read them, considering your tute discussions are based on their content (who knew?)... and at least you'll be able to comment on what you've read, so you can skip contributing opinions on the week's lectures, which were so damn irrelevant that you spent your time playing Judge-People's-Hairstyles-From-the-Back. But anyway.
Frankly, I'm not really sure where this Blog post is going, but I think it's important to now address the issue of food - which we can all hold our hands and sing songs of praise over. I was on the union website the other day, going into the venues' pages and frothing at the mouth (and most pages didn't even offer much info at all). In America they always talk about the Freshman Fifteen - the fifteen pounds you gain in your first year of college. I didn't think this would apply to me, but I can somehow see it slowly (or quickly) happening to me over the course of this year. Here I was thinking I was going to be losing weight with all the walking-all-over-campus bizzo, but it looks like such incidental exercise may not be able to burn off pizza and creamy mochas from Castro's.
Ah well. There is a gym on campus. Clearly for good reason.
Can I just ask, is anyone else reeling over the fact that we are already into our SIXTH WEEK????!!!! I can't believe it - already halfway through first semester, sheesh. Such occasions always result in the renewal of my brain cells (like clockwork), and I have the insane urge to sit down and make brand new plans for every aspect of my life. I think the one thing I need to do this week is be a bit more realistic in terms of task planning. It's clear I'm not the most organised/responsible person around, yet I always rack up these huge To-do lists for the week that have no hope in hell of ever being completed. So this week, I'm only planning the bare essentials, and being proud of just getting them done. Feeling bogged down is so annoying, and honestly, seriously unnecessary - I'm aware of my laziness; this side of my personality has refused to fade for an insanely long time. So I think it's time I stopped fighting it and instead worked around it. At some point I'll work towards destroying my lazy streak, but all in good time. :)
Aaaaah, I have a bit more prep to do for Creative Writing and Lit...catch you all later. Hopefully sooner than usual. ;)
Help (Silvia)
I know the possibility of this working isn't very high, since I don't even know how many people in unimelb read this blog, but I am desperate. If anyone has found "Biology: an Australian Focus" in the Elisabeth Murdoch building on the 1st April, please comment and let me know.
~Silvia
26th March, 2011 – Assignments, Money, identity crisis', woe is me (Will)
Sooo sorry i havent been active on this blog for a while, the shame. But i have been Soooooooo full on and on and on! Assignments are starting to pile and a weekend feels now like two days where you have to work at home instead of a break haha. I have now so much i can easily forget about or overlook, like damn chemistry ILTs, that i proceded to kmart yesterday to buy a whiteboard to scratch notes of what i have to do onto :D. Finally my life is falling back into order since college life started, now i shall elaborate.
What is college life, well from what i can tell it is a hectic and full on experience, and extremely distracting!!! You may think oh wow i shall start that written assignment for biology so i can get it out of the way, so you sit down at your desk with the computer screen burning your eyes at 7PM. Then all of the sudden the phone rings, oh its Jules, yes sure i can bring my memory stick to your room and see what i think of your new fish. You are after all just up the staircase.
----> [ ] (Juleses room)
l
l
[ ] (my room)
Wow i am now at your door, oh hello, here is the memory stick, oh wow those fish are so pretty. What is that someone has knocked on the door, Oh hello Jenny, how are you, happy birthday by the way. Whats that jules you want to to take an artsy photo of me and jenny. Okay well there you go. What is that, i now have a message from laura, me and jennys best friend. Whats that you are having a suprise cake for jenny, ill run over to jennys room right now to join in on the suprise, wow these decorations are amazing laura. Jenny is now at the door. SUPRISE cake!!!!! yay, lets eat the cake with the newly joined sam and cary. Well that was delicious now lets procede to get intoxicated and dance until 2AM on a monday morning, oh i will now go back to my room to get some sleep. The screen on my computer is still staring blankly at me with not a single word typed on that biology written assignment. How depressing.
Now that is a single and fairly un productive night at college, we have had 3 in the morning maccas runs, and then 10 minutes after that a 3:10 in the morning maccas run because we made someone else want some. It is an exprience and a half, but in amongst the almost mayhem, it is really lovely getting to live, love and learn all these people that now feel like a huge family after 5 weeks of knowing each other. Its lovely.
But it can also be very difficult if you find it hard to embrace change, because it sooo much of a full on experience you a constantly bombarded with different scenarios and theories and ideas. It has been difficult for me because i never really had soo much going on around me and now it is so dramatic. My life is starting to turn into skins literally. Its terrible especially because there has always been one thing i have never known about me which is really tricky, i am not really sure who i am yet, i feel like a shell sometimes, never knowing whats on the inside. It really becomes difficult because you dont know how to act at college, your not sure who youd fit in with. It has even made me deppressed, but last nigh a great friend of mine here told me some wise words, she said: no one knows who they are, embrace change and morph it into something beautiful instead of horrific. That may sound really emo or whatever but living at college really plays with your head because your never sure who to be, but you want to be someone so everyone else knows who you are and what you can do.
Sorry for this sad and slightly boring entry but if someone is feeling overwhelmed, just dont worry, you can be or do what you want around new people because they have no idea what your doing, just like you.
Oh and i fell of a wall last night into someones front lawn last night, sober. Hint never walk backwards on a wall. It will end badly!!!
I condemn Gloria Jeans. (Silvia)
Ever since I hit uni, I have been eating like a bear about to enter hibernation. But being an unemployed uni student, money is a luxury and I usually end up with my head hanging in shame as train passengers look around for the source of the loud, grumbling noises. So when my mum handed me twenty bucks for lunch, I almost burst into tears.
After nodding off several times and having Bez poke me once, we emerged from the 8am biology lecture and staggered to Melbourne Central for breakfast. Bez bought a Mcmuffin and hotcakes from McDonalds and I decided to treat myself to an Arnott's Tim Tam from Gloria Jeans.
When I buy items, if at all, I usually head in a straight line for the cheapest option: maybe a bottle of water or a can of coke to accompany a bucket of steamed rice and curry chicken. But having twenty bucks handed to me on a silver platter, I splurged and spent $5.70 on the drink. For anyone else, it would have been acceptable and a nice little treat. But for me, because it was me, it was a complete disaster.
After heading back to Melbourne uni for Bez's lecture, I sat comfortably in the lush, purple seats but quickly found that the desk refused to fold out. Slightly annoyed, I set my drink on the floor and wrestled with the stubborn piece of wood. It squeaked and it protested like a feral rat in human hands but I finally forced it into submission and it flipped out.
Hoorah! I thought gleefully. A win for me!
Smiling smugly, I bent down to pick up my drink. It was a frozen drink and you know when you have cold drinks, water appears on the outside and makes it slippery? Well, the cup slipped from my fingers. It hit the ground and EXPLODED. Chocolate and Tim Tam crumbs splattered on me, on the surrounding seats and up in the air. Good thing there was no-one sitting around me. But I was surround by chocolate stains within a one metre radius.
I closed my eyes and willed that it was just a hallucination. I opened my eyes and... nope, there it was, a pile of brown on the ground. Sighing, I pulled out a packet of tissues and began the clean-up of shame. I had nearly spilled Bez's hot chocolate this morning- and it was because of a desk as well! Today was just not my day.
“Don’t worry about it,” Bez snickered. I could tell she was enjoying my humiliation just a bit too much. “We’ll leave early. Besides, that's what the cleaners are for.”
A great idea, but I felt too guilty. Besides, if we left early we might just draw more attention to ourselves and that was something I did not need.
I couldn't reach some of the spill and I was reluctant to get out of my seat and clean it up- in front of the lecture threatre of a hundred or so people, so I left it till the end.
“Hey,” Bez whispered, “you know how the lecturer paces as she talks? She keeps looking at you when she walks over here. I think she can see the spill.”
I nodded and slunk lower into my seat, trying to hide my eyes with the palm of my hand. The lecturer’s piercing gaze was chilling and it was impossible to miss her hawk-eyes flicker from the puddle of chocolate by my feet, up to my face and up to the roof as her lip curled in contempt.
I almost cried in relief when the hour was up and she dismissed the theatre.
“Okay, that’s it for today, have a good weekend,” the lecturer finished.
“Oh my god, did you see that?” Bez laughed, nudging me. “She totally glared at you when she said that!”
Actually, I was too busy looking at the resultant mess and wondering if I had enough tissues, though I did feel a shiver slither down my spine. So that was the reason!
"Uh, hey Bez? It might be easier to clean up now,” I said sheepishly. “The carpet’s soaked up all the liquid and only the cookie crumbs are left.”
Bez peered at it and cried, "Ew, that looks disgusting!"
I agreed with her- it looked like someone had vomited brown mush. Not a nice sight.
I got down on my hands and knees and began wiping up the leftovers, inhaling as I did so.
"Mmm," I said with my eyes closed. "It smells like chocolate now... uh-oh, the carpet's stained."
Bez rolled her eyes and flicked her hand me dismissively. "Just leave it for the cleaners! Besides, it was your first time, so you can get away with it."
I grimaced at my sticky fingers and picked up the cup, straw and spoon. "Yeah, let's go. I don't think I should crash your lectures for a while, your lecturer hates me now!"
Now I understand why they hate food and drink in theatres. It's because of the shoddy woodwork and small, cramped spaces that'll make you drop your sandwich or spill your chocolate. Lesson learned, never ever again!
~Silvia
Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fuuurrrr! (Silvia)
The following content has nothing to do with the Big Bang Theory. It was the first thing that came into my head. By the way, it's rated MA+ for mature audiences. No joke.
Wednesday physics is the highlight of my week. Having Jack and Bez there is psychotic and that's how I survive the monotony of physics. But there was only Jack Sparrow today and it only got interesting towards the end of class when our class rep surveyed us about the quality of the lectures.
“Who feels prepared for the upcoming test?” he reads off his pre-prepared paper. Hardly anyone raises their hands and titters sweep across the theatre.
“Okay,” our rep grins, “how many of you are doing physics because you have to?” As far as I could tell, everybody raised their hand.
“How many of you are doing physics as a breadth?” our rep asks. Two people raised their hands. The entire theatre turned toward them and gaped.
“WHY?!” everyone demanded simultaneously in disbelief before dissolving into laughter. Why would those two would subject themselves to the torture of physics? It's pure and utter nonsense. Force, acceleration, Newtons and so forth. Makes no sense now and never will.
Jack's history lecture was much more interesting. Yes, I crashed, I was having fun :P It was on Meso... uh, Memo... hang on, I’ll fetch the handout. Ah yes, it was Mesopotamian Gods. I had to ask Jack what the heck was Mesopotamian. He very patiently explained to me it was near Egypt. Well, I understood it was really far away. My geographical skills are sadly lacking.
The lecturer was surprisingly enthusiastic about history. He enunciated his words and made dramatic gestures with his arms, drawing circles around his head when he talked of tiaras and threw his hands in front of him to signify the Mesopotamian's magnificence.
To be honest, I was zoning out quite bad. The only things that registered in my pitifully small mind were 'Ziggurat' because it sounded funny and 'worshiped' because it was spelt wrong.
However, my attention was snapped up like a salmon by a bear when the lecturer spoke of the gods. It is honestly too funny for words, but I shall try my best.
Anu wears a crown on his head and it's either made of bull horns or a ding-a-ling. Yes, that god is probably wearing male genitalia on his head. Apparently it signifies virility and strength. As Jack delightfully remarked, Anu sure is “one horny guy”.
Enki has a penchant for beer. He is the god of semen and has a string of incestuous affairs. Enki enjoys a good “horizontal CHA CHA CHA”, as the lecturer hilariously put it while slamming his palm on the table with every syllable.
Pazuzu is a wind demon and has a canine face, four wings, bird's legs, animal front paws and a snake head penis. Endearing, yes? I would have described him more, but alas I cannot type as fast as I read.
Inanna is the goddess of fertility, sexual love and war. She has a cult which encourages sacred prostitution. Her holy city is Uruk, also known as 'the town of the sacred courtesans'.
Childish, I know, but it reminded me of a conversation I had with my friend Knickers in what else but physics?
“Hey,” Knickers whispered. “I'm going to the brothel.”
I blinked owlishly and wondered if I’d heard right. “What?” I clarified.
“The brothel!”
I shook my head wildly, as though it would clear out my ears. “What?!”
Knickers rolled her eyes and grabbed my pacer, scribbling on my lecture notes.
BROTHEL.
My eyes widened in horror and I stared at her, speechless.
Knickers looked at me, bewildered, and asked, “Don't you know what that is?”
“I know it's a whorehouse!” I yelped. She snorted and shook her head. “Are you a prostitute now?!” I wailed. I had known Knickers since I was six, she had always been independent and proud, smart and friendly. How could she have stooped so low?!
She took my pacer again.
BIOMED LIBRARY.
“Ooooh,” I breathed in relief. “Why the heck is it called that?!”
“Coz it's pink on the inside,” Knickers whisper-answered. A hyena giggle escaped my mouth. It was true, it was like a disco there. It was pink and silver, black and metallic. I heard a student designed it. Poor designer, having their art likened to prostitution.
That was what I learned this week. Mesopotamian gods are funny and the biomed library is also called the brothel. My parents must be so proud. I know I am ;)
~Silvia
A WEEK IN THE LIFE: Day One [Or, Othello for Dummies] (Candy)
Hope everyone had a Marvellously Merry Monday.
I personally had a pretty good start to Week Three - although I really do need to increase my concentration span.
It is seriously shocking, you have no idea.
Lectures aren't just an excuse to daydream. They are there for a purpose, and I should help them in their attempts to fulfil such a purpose. ;)
I had two lectures today: Creative Writing and Literature & Performance. And whilst they were interesting, I couldn't help but be distracted by my own thoughts. Random, useless thoughts, of course. The real challenge will be tomorrow, in the Democracy lecture. I WILL PAY ATTENTION. No matter how much ancient history bores me to tears. :|
In other news...
1. Giant poster sale in North Court today. I seriously hope they're still there tomorrow, because I need a new Beatles poster. I'm also hoping to find a poster of a Kombi van, or one of Los Angeles. Fingers crossed.
2. Free movie pass at the Student Union. I GOT A DOUBLE PASS TO WASTED ON THE YOUNG - YAY!!!!! This is one film I've seriously been wanting to watch, and now I get to go FOR FUR-EEE. Bloody awesome...aaah Student Union - I love you.
3. And the UMSU love continues, as I finally visited the most awesome place today: the Listening Lounge at the Rowden White Library. Can I just say, I did not expect it to look the way it did. For once reality exceeded my expectations. Not only is the catalogue of CDs/records GINORMOUS, but being able to tune into a channel, be it to listen to music or watch whatever DVD is playing on the plasma screen...well, it just blows my mind, really.
Today I listened to Regina Spektor's album, Begin to Hope, then watched an episode of Kath and Kim. My very first episode, actually. I'm not entirely sure how I've survived thus far without this show, honestly. I was trying so hard not to crack up laughing... I know what I'll be borrowing at some point this week.
Once again. Student Union - I LOVE YOU.
4. Food news - the cafe in the Alan Gilbert building makes a mean apple and berry smoothie - it was VERY nice. I'm not sure what the cafe's called...I think it's Boretti...
...just checked, it's Baretto. I was somewhat close. Anyway, try the smoothie. I know I'll be going back for the dairy versions.
...And I guess that's basically it. That was just a bit of a sum-up of my Marvellously Merry Monday. I have to say, the one thing I must get on top of is finding - nay, MAKING time to prep for tutes. Oh, and actually getting started on the assignments - particularly that essay due in 9 days. Aaaah.
EDIT: I just realised I gave this post an alternate title and forgot to explain it. See, this week in Lit & Performance we're studying Othello. And let's be honest here - I ain't finishing that play by my tute on Friday. So I've gone from browsing Spark Notes to Googling "Othello for Dummies". Not sure how this will work out for me. Wish me luck.
Places that are Nice (Amy)
Hello :)
I don't have a whole lot to say today, since I complained enough in my last post. But! I have developed a bit of a routine, and in it are a few places on campus that I think are nice. I shall share them with you now :)
Frank Tate Learning Centre:
Is located next to the Eastern Precinct Student Centre and the 1888 Building. It's a nice art deco building that's been recently refurbished, so it looks good inside too. There are a few different rooms for different kinds of study, including one room with heaps of computers for quick access. It's not a library, just a place to get some work done if you don't have anything better to do :) I don't think many first years know about it, so: now you do.
Brownless Biomedical Library:
I hope I'm allowed to use it even though I don't do Biomed. It's been recently refurbished as well, and looks a bit like a strip club, which is fun. You can hire textbooks for Science subjects there as well, not just Biomed, and more people use it than Frank Tate, if you're feeling lonely (off to the strip club library for some company!).
Union Lawn:
Better than South Lawn because it has more trees (for shade!) and is closer to food. And a crazy black sculpture. And no annoying stream/pond/fountain being logistically inconvenient.
Soyeah if you want somewhere to be nerdy, try these places out :) This has made me realise I don't do fun things at uni. I should go to the pub or something.
Thanks for reading!
Proceed to Laugh. (Candy)
Okay, this particular Blog post does not contain any uni-related philosophical musings, nor will you find yourself suffocating from over-exposure to my whinging.
I basically just HAD to come on here and share this with you all.
This week, for Creative Writing, we have been assigned to read Chapter Five: How to Read a Poem, by Terry Eagleton. I have left out the name of the book this chapter is from, basically because it hasn't been made clear on the actual photocopy, and I can't be bothered searching for it.
BUT ANYHOO.
This Eagleton (just realised you can't tell whether it's a he or a she...) would have be one of the funniest writers. I found myself laughing at all these humorous comments (mostly analogies) that just seemed to pop up out of nowhere. So it is with immense pleasure that I reproduce them here for your own enjoyment. :)
"We do not have to get inside their brains to be reasonably sure of this, just as I do not have to get inside your brain to know that when I see you rolling at my feet with your hair on fire emitting strange noises, you are clearly not happy."
"Most of the time, however, we see words and elephants, not black marks and grey patches. Someone who keeps seeing grey patches where he ought to be seeing elephants should pay a visit either to his optician or his psychiatrist."
"Or we know that she does not intend 'let us put continents between us!' metaphorically because she is handing us our air ticket to Sydney as she speaks."
"Belonging to a culture means that not everything is up for grabs all of the time, as it might be for a cultureless being like God."
"There are times when the rigorous definition of a word is just what we need (it may come in handy, for example, when we are up in court on a treason charge)."
"It may be that Shakespeare's Cordelia reminds me of a cross-dressed version of my uncle Arthur; but I am aware that this is not the case for those readers who have not had the pleasure of meeting my uncle Arthur; and that Shakespeare, for all his prescience and preternatural insight, was unlikely to have had my uncle Arthur in mind when he wrote King Lear."
"The stray personal associations which drift in and out of our heads when we are reading Lear are of interest to our psychotherapist, not to the literary critic. Meaning is not a matter of having pictures in your head. You can enjoy Blake or Rilke with no pictures in your head at all."
"People do not tend to say this sort of thing ['I am aweary, aweary / I would be that I were dead!'] when they have just been bequeathed a fine old Tudor farmhouse along with several thousand acres of fertile land."
"Besides, poets, like goldfish, are incapable of dissembling."
"The fact that you really have been aducted by aliens on numerous occasions does not automically make your account of it convincing."
"They may be having a profound experience for some other reason (perhaps they are sipping vintage claret while they are reading, or thrusting red-hot needles into an effigy of Donald Trump)."
"...the speaker's act of self-acceptance has a transfigurative effect not just upon himself but on everyone else as well. He has managed to relieve not only his own guilt but that of the whole human race, an achievement previously regarded as confined to Jesus Christ."
"Robert Lowell's verses are very Lowellish, while nothing is more Plath-like than a Sylvia Plath poem. Swinburne, alas, never ceases to be Swinburnian."
I realise, in typing some of these quotes up, that some of you may find this entire post to be a 'Had to Be There' moment - as in, you had to be inside my brain, which yes, finds some things absolutely hilarious that any normal human being would not even flinch at.
But I just felt it was my duty to share this...I couldn't just keep it to myself, that wouldn't be fair to those of you who share my sense of humour. ;)
Hope you smiled...if not, it doesn't matter, because I sure did. :D
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