WARNING TO ALL INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS:
VEGEMITE IS NOT NUTELLA!
I tried it the other day. It's awful, I mean it's got an "acquired" taste. It looks innocent at first sight, but it gets worse once you get it in your mouth. An explosion of vinegar landing in your mouth, that's what it is. Sorry to Chopsticks and all you other Vegemite fans out there!
Over the breakfast table: "Do you want a Milo?"
Again, cultural references take a while to understand. To all Swedes out there, it's Aussie O'boy. To anyone else, it's just chocolate milk, and in contrast to vegemite, it actually tastes good.
I find moving to another country is a lot about getting out of your comfort zone. In a weird sense, I'm more open-minded when I'm abroad. Try everything once kind of thing. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact I'm still a foreigner, a stupid tourist. But this entitles me to question things, such as: Why isn't there a Next Stop Voice on the trams? Why do your speed bump signs look like the sunset? And why, above all, do you drive on the wrong side of the road?
Then I calm down, keep telling myself I'm in the midst of Kangarooland: dangerous spiders, snakes and sharks everywhere. Total paranoia. Every little movement creates a shiver. Many of my friends back home are somewhat worried about this.
Don't be. I'm currently surviving O Week...
One bag. 20 kilos.
It's hard to believe I stood there only a week ago, at the Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Most of you have never been there, it's sort of the end station for the northern hemisphere. It's cold, it's "far out" and home to ABBA, IKEA and Nobel. And then there's me, a small dot in the world. That's what it felt like anyway. Still does. Only now I'm at the other end, writing a blog about uni life I know nothing about.
Anyways, maybe this little dot can give you a hand. That's what small dots do. Because each dot has a point. If you want your dot to have a name, it's Olle (Ol-le or just Ollie). Yes, it's Swedish. Yes, it's not international. I come from an end station, remember? But now we've met, at least virtually. The end stations aren't too far out after all.
So, one bag. 20 kilos.
I like to travel light.
Ah the dreaded introduction. How tiresome. But I guess it’s also fitting given that’s it’s Oweek and this must be my 1008299208612631546741871367812th introduction so far – so I guess I must be getting good at it.
My name is Level 12 (seriously, my parents were so cruel) and I am (surprise surprise) a first year/ fresher/ Jaffy/ what have you. Course wise I’m doing Arts, but considering that ‘Arts’ can mean anything from Ancient Studies to Swedish I’ll be a little clearer. I’m hoping to major in French and I’m your textbook Arts student, loving anything pretentious - Creative Writing, music, Homer to Hollywood, Theatre Studies, etc.
But such talk is… well, incredibly boring - particularly after this week. I mean you ask everyone what they’re doing and let’s face it: unless they’re doing the same thing as you - you don’t really care.
Don’t give me that look, it’s so true.
I can’t tell you how many life plans I’ve heard this week about such-and-such’s plan to help people/heal puppies/ cure cancer/ earn ridiculous amounts of money… (although, I would respect the last one because no one EVER admits that but I’m sure it must have crossed their minds, I mean at least ONCE, surely).
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have a goal, you just have to make sure it’s YOUR goal, not what your parents or school or even sometimes yourself is trying to force you into doing. You need to do what you want and I learnt that the hard way, the hard way being enrolled in a nursing course, hating it and dropping out and then having to go through the whole VTAC debacle a SECOND time which was, believe me, a nightmare. But, nightmare over and I’m enjoying the prospect of getting back into it having worked full time most of last year.
What else…
Oh Yes! I also live on campus too in one of the older colleges which I’m going to name ‘Canterbury’ merely because the time may come when I wish to maybe talk about it and two reasons not to name it come to mind:
- It’s where I live and I’m not a fan of broadcasting said fact (my room’s tiny enough as it is without visitors).
- Being a person prone to the occasional tantrum (I’ll admit it, I’m not ashamed) I may wish to go on a rant at some point and I don’t want the Dean on my back (crusty old Dean! *shakes fist*).
So I’m out of home, but I do have a little bit of an advantage in that I know most of the awful, awful human beings from the SSS (Science Students Society – join it, but avoid the corruptive forces of evil that dwell within it) and doing all of the Uni things just isn’t as freaky when you’ve been through it once, even if it was just prelim stuff.
As I’ll probably do a secondary ‘Oweek reflections’ (or insert ‘other obvious title’, depending on my mood) post after this I’ll TRY to keep this about me for now. And I think there are some facts that will probably help us get to know each other and they’re things I wish I could have used to introduce myself and break the ice other than “I do Arts” and “Yeah, it IS getting hot!”
- I have a tendency towards the sarcastic and the dramatic - my mother would tell you “that’s the lowest form of humor”, and maybe that’s why I love it so. Regardless, if you read something and it makes absolutely no sense, read it again with a sarcastic voice – might help.
- Sometimes things I say WILL make absolutely no sense. Don’t worry; I’m the crazy one, not you.
- I am the obscure reference GOD, so expect to look up on wiki a lot.
- I am nocturnal and hence get bored quite a lot while my friends sleep, so as a result you may note odd post times for blogs. It’s just what I do.
- I love polls. Answer them! Answer them! The ones I post don’t require any info and no one knows who selected what, so just vote!
Alright. Enough. Now vote, VOTE MY PRETTIES! Eeeeeeeehehehehehe!
Oweek poll
It's quite ironic isn't it (for fellow bloggers anyway) that the last post here is titled "beware of scams"? Even more so probably if it were "beware of spams".
It's already O-week again next week. How time flies (I reckon I've said this a number of times already). Pretty soon, there will be new first years here in the blog. I'm looking forward to classes, to be honest, as I just found out that morethan 3 1/2 months of break is not really my cup of tea. It just drags on after December, and increasingly becomes boring once schools and other Unis start for the year. I'm not really looking foward to travelling to Uni, though. Having recently moved to a farther away suburb, it'll take me at least 10 or 15 minutes more each way by train. On the positive side, I could actually walk to and from the station (about 3 kilometres way), so it's possible to get rid of the bus interchange altogether. Just train and tram. Speaking of my suburb, it's actually one of the places affected by bushfires. I was burning with fever that day so I was quite ignorant of what was happening outside. It was only when I found out that my parents were listening intently on the news on the radio (they never do this) and that the sky was a fiery orange (well more like smoky gray, with orange) that I discovered what was happening. Fortunately, my family's newly-bought home was spared. If the wind was blowing towards us, who knows what would've happened.
Going back to Uni matters, I've just viewed my Uni timetable, and boy am I not happy. I've got two 9am starts, in one of which days I have a 6 hour break, such that the next class that follows is a 4pm tute. Hopefully I could change it. Would there be a better chance of changing it if I stayed up late until Alloc8 opens for editing? I seem to remember someone from this blog saying something about it being worth it. It's not a totally new thing anyway (my staying up late, that is), as I've already gotten the habit of going to bed in the wee hours of morning. So I might as well have a worthy cause for doing it.
For students (especially first years) out there who are patient enough to have read the above paragraphs, here are a few tips for Uni which you might find useful someday (some are for Environments students only):
- - (Envs) If you value your sanity, don't take up both Virtual Environments and Designing Environments in the same semester. Trust me on this. Also, don't leave doing Virtual Environments projects to the last minute. Again, it's for your own sanity.
- - (Envs) Wait until at least the first week of semester before buying all the stuff in the materials/equipment list for your studios. Some are not really that necessary. Also, your studio leaders will tell you what sort to buy (like glue, or a particular thickness of board). Sometimes, it's also wiser to buy the materials as you need them, rather than all at once.
- - (Envs) Do make sure that your Environments subjects meet the prerequisites for your intended major. E.g. You have to take Designing Environments if you want to take studio subjects in 2nd year, and Urban Environments if you want to take ANY 2nd year Urban Design subjects. Same with Constructing Environments, and some Engineering subjects. Take up maths in first year as breadth if you want to take any of the more specialised Engineering subjects later on as electives or as part of you major.
- - (Envs) Don't fill up every break or free day with casual or part-time work. You need time to meet up with group members out of class, and even go for a site visit, especially for Natural and Reshaping Environments. You'll discover soon enough how hard it is to coordinate everyone's schedule in a group, even if there's just three of you. Oh, and do go for site visits instead of googling everything. Tutors are not idiots, you know.
- - Be wary of skipping lectures and over-relying on Lectopia. Sometimes lectures are not recorded because of technological issues, copyright reasons or having a panel of specialists instead of lecturers. Or even because the lecturers want the students to actually go to lectures. If any of these happen, the lecture, once over, will be lost forever.
- - Wait until the first week of semester before buying books. Even if some books are listed as 'prescribed' under a subject, you don't necessarily have to buy these, as sometimes, only a few chapters are used. Make use of the copies available in the library. If you really have to buy them, consider buying second-hand.
- - If you are interested in joing clubs and societies, go approach the members' tents during O-week. Whilst some set up tables near the Union House during the first 2 weeks of semester, some don't, and it's a bit inconvenient (although possible) to hunt them down later on.
- - Join the clubs and societies' activities. It's a great way to meet other people and get a feel of a particular club. There are some activities that are open to both members and non-members, so you don't have to out the membership fee just yet.
- - Do get the mobile number and/or email address/MSN of people you meet. It's a big campus with thousands of people - it'll be hard to locate them by sheer chance alone, even if you are taking the same subject/s. Do contact them to catch up during the start of the semester; otherwise, you'll have useless numbers taking up precious memory in your phone.
- - Make friends with people in your tutes. The impersonal atmosphere of letures is one thing, the close-knit group of the tutes is another. Not only will this make going to tutes more pleasant, it will also be beneficial later on during group works or when you are absent.
- - Do be prepared when coming to tutes. Otherwise, it's a waste of time. Go over the required readings, heck, even the recommended ones if you have time.
Well, that's all for now. Pardon the massive post. I hope this won't turn out like David's Nanjing post in the 2nd year blog. Quite a pity that such a very long and enlightening post can't be salvaged from the tentacles of evil spammers.
Hi, hope everybody is enjoying the last couple days of their holidays. I've definitely enjoyed mine but that's not really what I'm posting about today. It's kind of sad to think that my potentially last post on this blog will be about a scam that I'm trying to bring to everybody's attention.
For those in holidays who still regularly checks their student portal email accounts, you may have seen an email from "Carla Baker" who is offering you a job to make money by doing online surveys. While I'm always initially wary about this kind of stuff, I thought since it came through the uni network and the lady addressed me by my name, it was probably legit (there are a few legit websites around) and worth a shot. So I wrote back, asking for more info (giving them my personal email address because I rarely check my uni account), she directed me to this website <a href="http://www.ktyresearch.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ktyresearch.com</a> which upon registration, demands a $29.95 registration fee.
I immediately became suspicious and googled "KTY Research a scam". The company only no contact information except for an email address, which definitely should also have rang alarm bells. Turns out this company is a scam and has had numerous reports filed against them on the Better Business Bureau. In addition, our university is not alone because KTY specifically targets uni/college network, thinking students will trust them because it came from uni. I certainly fell for that. If Carla had sent it to my gmail account, I wouldn't have given the email a second look and would have filed it away as spam.
So if you have indeed received an email from Carla Baker, definitely do not sign up. It's a waste of your money. I've contacted the Student Administration and hopefully, they'll get back to me about it as well as address this issue directly. In the mean time, don't fall for the trap! If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
Cheers to all,
Yuan
(**This might be my last post for the blog for as of today, I can already scoot over to 'Back for Seconds'... but come to think of it, I did really look forward to making a post about tips for 1st year students so I might just save that for another post**)
I just realised recently that situation-permitting (I pass all my subjects, I don’t switch courses, I do at least 4 subjects per semester), this year would be my 2nd last year in Uni, just a year short of entering the ‘Real World’. Ok, I know that’s a fatalist way of looking at it but still, it’s quite strange to realise that something I have just started would be at an end too soon. This is the time when it is quite tempting to do something to delay the inevitable – go on exchange, shift to another course or even transfer to another Uni (yes, much as I love Melbourne Uni, I have half-entertained going to a Uni that is more design-inclined). Quite difficult to imagine that a few months ago (around December ’07), I was anxiously waiting for my ENTER score and hoping that it would not be anything below 85. Otherwise, I’ll die coz I can’t imagine going to any other Uni save for Melbourne. Quite petty thoughts really. It’s really amusing and funny how, after just finishing VCE, the ENTER score seems so important, even larger than life. And then even before the 1st semester in Uni draws to a close, poof! it becomes an unimportant number. At best, it can provide some bragging rights now and then; but not that often, as, judging from the Clearly-In ENTER for Melbourne Uni, most students are in the 80s and 90s range. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the Median ENTER for Melbourne Uni is about 94.5.
Having said that, it’s back to square one again once a student enters Uni. Depending on how you see it, it could be positive or negative. For one thing, it's a chance to remake yourself. After all, no one will really know what you were like before; unless of course, you have close friends that go to the same course and/or Uni. But even if that’s the case, there is no guarantee that you’ll still hang out with the same crowd. Looking back now, I can safely say that I am not drastically different to who I was a year before. I am probably less studious and less organised - this might be the effect of coming straight out from the stress of VCE onto the more relaxed atmosphere offered by uni. Anyways, I vowed that for this year, I'll try to get more involved in what Melbourne Uni has to offer and probably be more studious and organised along the way. For a start, I'm thinking of becoming a member of the Student Union (although I do wonder now if the $99/yr fee is worth it... any thoughts from current Student Union members?). And probably SALP (I have 5 days of uni for at least semester 1, among everything else... I should be really good at time management to do this). And a sport club if the practices don't clash with my schedule (I'm quite dubious though on the merits of this, as I am not really competitive sports-wise). And of course, I'll continue on with the choral society. And maybe even find a new hobby that does not involve books or computers. Ok then. Looks like I'm pretty set for this year.
Oh and before I say TTFN, congratulations to students who have gotten their offers already, especially to those who were brave enough to apply for Melbourne Uni's new gen degrees. Start getting used to dreaming large (or at least, being encouraged to do so)! I do wonder if by chance, there's someone out there reading this blog who has received an offer for the Bachelor of Environments?
And to those who haven't gotten offers, well, there's more than one path to whatever it is that you wanto do. You just have to go find it. ;)
Congratulations to everyone who is offered a place at the University of Melbourne! If you've been reading this blog for a while - or even if you've only just discovered it - and think you'd like to be involved, then you should apply to be one of our new first year bloggers.
To apply, download the application form: Blog application 2009
The First Years you've come to know and love will soon be moving across to our other blog, 'Back For Seconds', so keep an eye on that one to follow their adventures beyond first year.
Hi to all! I hope you're have a great 2009, for the year has just begun - and I'm so full of excitement as to what it may bring.
I spent my New Year in Singapore, before heading to Manado, Indonesia (via KL) with my family and some family friends. There was the joy of a whole week of scuba diving in the beautiful islands - really, I'm speechless (wordless) as to how to describe the experience. However, I shall try my hardest. There were lionfish and stonefish, the elusive pegasus and the only electric clam in the area. I had the opportunity of getting close and personal with giant sea turtles and touching them underwater. When we resurfaced there were also dolphins at the surface... *sigh*. So now I have my licence, and was thinking of joining the scuba club at uni, although looking at rocks at Williamstown does not quite hold the same appeal.
Due to being away, I've a rush of paperwork for exchange to get completed, and navigating my way around the University of California's website is proving a little complicated for one so directionally challenged. Now its just earning the money to go on exchange. yes, money. Oh why are the good things in life expensive?!
Uni has come early for me, hence the fact that I'm writing so early on in the year. This year I'm taking a summer subject 'Australia in the Wine World' which has given me a thick reader to get through before the end of Feb - at this stage all I know is that Pinot Noir is a red grape. Hmm.. a little more to learn perhaps? Its really interesting - but at the moment I'm doing 3 jobs and now volunteering at ScienceWorks - yay! come visit :)
Edit (20/1): wow. wasn't expecting that one, I've just been offered a place in the Bachelor of Commerce for Melb Uni, 2009. There goes with keeping all options opened. However (and you all say hallelujah!) I've decided to stick with Science, mostly because the prospect of doing an extra 6mths of uni wasn't worth it - and the fact that I'll be older (and wiser) than most of my peers - it really wouldn't be fair. Thing is though, the database now has me enrolled for 2 degrees now - I don't suppose this is the cheat way of overloading, doing 8 subjects?! ow.
Ciao!
A late Happy New Year to all!
I've always wondered how some people are restless and end up changing their course several times until they finally find something that feels 'right' to them. Now I'm struck with that feeling.
Recently I've been toying with the possible idea of aiming to do Medicine and being a doctor. What type of doctor I honestly don't know, but the first year at Uni has really opened up my eyes and have amplified some of my desires.
About 5-6 years ago someone at high school was asking people what they felt their purpose in life was. I half heartedly answered 'To help others.' I find it funny that even now I would still probably answer that question in the same way, but now I can say it in a more confident manner.
It's frustrating because it feels like I'm losing sight of what I'm aiming to do in music - to promote music towards the hearing impaired, simply because I have not found a single hearing impaired musician other than myself in Victoria. Also, one of the things I've found both enjoying and annoying about playing music is that sometimes it's a completely different language which remains undefined until you put your own definition to it - I've spent several hours frustrating over several pieces because I've grasped the feeling but haven't been able to put a name to it, other times it's because I can't grasp the feeling at all. It feels almost like an endless goal, but the beauty of it is that there is simply no end to it. I can work forever and ever and there would probably still be some room for improvement.
However I feel I do have the attitude and the brains to handle being a doctor, I enjoy high stress environments and rarely do I actually bother to work hard unless it's for something I believe is worthwhile (after all, human lives are in your hands!).
Who knows. Maybe I've been watching too much Scrubs and playing too much on my Priest (obviously a support/healing character) on World of Warcraft. I'll stick it out for the rest of my music degree and see what happens :)
So results are released today (tomorrow for some) and I don't know if it's karmic forces or a simple stroke of luck but I've PASSED ALL MY SUBJECTS! I actually did as well as I expected on my Music Performance (74 - H2B) despite several misfortunes which I'll definitely remember to avoid next year - must get a H1 next year!
Drama aside, I was really worried that I'd failed either my music history or psychology subject - mainly because the terms of my Access Scholarship (it seems) is that one must pass all subjects studied in the course. Also considering how I've naturally done well back in high school - failing a subject still feels like a huge letdown.
A conversation on the tram with a fellow Uni Host went today:
F (after I tell him results are out today): "How did you go?"
Me: "Well, I passed all my subjects!"
F: "Good! Good!"
Me: "...you say that like it's NORMAL to fail subjects."
F: (Long explanation involving known personal/friend examples)
Wonder how the rest of the bloggers went. Also, good luck to those receiving their VCE Results next week!
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