Right now I'm threading through some music I re-wrote on Sibelius because they didn't have the instrumental part in the library (grrrrr!). It's the 1st Mvt of Shostakovich's Sonata in D Minor, which I like because it invokes feelings of nostalgia. Granted, there's an angry part in the middle somewhere - but at least it makes sense to me, unlike some other pieces I'm struggling to understand at the moment.
My break has been rather uneventful so far: A meeting with the DLU to discuss arrangements for the following years, and since then I haven't set a foot in the University.
It can't be helped, though. I do live in Glen Waverley (Uni's a 1 hour trip from home) and I try to arrange at least two things together whilst I'm out so I don't have to drag myself out of the house on several days. This Thursday there's a little 'End of Year' party for the Uni Hosts, and I'm thinking of taking up taekwondo next year so I figure I'll check out the local club/dojo/sparring area whilst I'm out.
What's been filling up the rest of the time I've spent at home? WoW. Yes. World of Warcraft, the game that's broken up several marriages and has caused the existence of gaming addiction clinics/camps. Yes, I'm sadly part of that nerdy asian stereotype. I have to say it's fairly addictive, but somehow I can't play for more than 5 hours straight which is a bit of a good thing (and I'll be honest, one time I played Final Fantasy X on the PS2 for 8 hours straight from 2am-10am).
I'm glad my addiction to computer/internet games started inflicting on my school work 4 years ago. It was a great wake up call!
I sort of have this sour feeling towards End of Exam parties. Sure they're great but it seems they're more organised because people want a good reason to go out drinking. I can't stand crowds and noise all that well either.
But then I'm a bit of a conservative and a bit of a classy freak. I keep having this idealistic view of standing/sitting out on a balcony somewhere and enjoying a glass of red wine after having enjoyed a dinner of succulent roast lamb. It's not helping that I watched the latest of Carson Kressley's 'How to Look Good Naked' this week - 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' has made me into a bit of a meterosexual.
And now I'm craving for some juicy roast lamb. Just an hour ago I was having cravings for pizza. Did I mention that my appetite disappears during the holidays? I know, I know, it's not healthy to skip breakfast...
I was going to blog about my reflections on how I've done this year, but I've already done that on my personal blog. Feel free to read my other entries concerning entirely unrelated things.
A week-and-a-half through my holidays (yeah, yeah i know. it's getting obvious from my blog posts that I have this compulsion to always quantify stuff, especially time), I am slowly getting bored already. Uni takes up at least 60% of my time so once my classes ended, I am left with not much to do. One thing that I have sort of been busy with these last few days is packing. After more than 2 years of renting since my family arrived here in Australia, we are now finally moving to our very own house (is it my imagination, or are there really just quite a few 1st and 2nd year bloggers who are moving residence these last few weeks?) . Sure, the location of the said house is farther away from uni as compared to where I am now; but of course, that would mean that it could be quite a great escape from all the craziness of Uni once my classes start next year. One problem I have encountered is that since I don't drive/have no car/have no licence yet, it'll be hard for me to get to and from my current workplace - more than an hour each way, almost like going to and from Uni. So these last few days, I have been tossing and turning on whether I should get a new job or not. Truth be told, I kinda like my current job. But thing is, my manager would not really give me more shifts even though for once, I am willing to work a lot more. I have to consider the cost-benefit ratio here, so to speak, before I decide on anything. I have just been getting 2 4-hour shifts a week these last few weeks, and that really won't cut it considering the amount of effort it would take to travel to work. That being said, there's still this feeling of loyalty gnawing at me - my current employer is the only one who was willing to work with my crazy Uni schedule when no one else would, so I should at least return the favour and stay for the busy Christmas season. Sigh. Maybe I just developed such an attachment because it's my very first paid work ever. Such twisted sentimentality won't get me anywhere though.
Oh, and I will be going to a Uni society camp this weekend. It's for the choral society I have just joined. I missed out on a few rehearsals during October and early November, so it's highly recommended that I join the camp - apparently there'll be one month's worth of rehearsals to be held there. Come to think of it, this will be my very first camp for Uni. I have not joined any camp during O-week (partly because the information regarding the camp for my course was just apparently given to local students... I was still an international student way back then, and yeah, I am still a bit miffed regarding that incident.Well, not really.) even though I did join in some group/club/society activities then. Anyways, so I'll be leaving for the weekend from my current house and by the time camp is finished, the moving guys would have already done their job and I'll be stepping inside my new house for the first time. Hopefully I would have already decided something regarding my job situation by then.
In other news, as of last week, I am already the owner of an Adobe CS3.3 software (with free upgrade to CS4)! It cost me a few hundred (although significantly less than what is often marketed) but it was really worth it. It's just too bad that the software itself is going to be like a 30-day trial until I get the serial number for it. Apparently, since it's a student edition, I have to submit my student credentials to Adobe and then wait for them to send me the serial number within the next 7 working days. It has been more than one working day, and I am still waiting. I should probably go and search for jobs while I'm at it. :)
[Edit: Waiting's over. I've got the serial numbers! Huzzah!]
I am just wondering... whatever happened to our year 12 readers? Your exams are already finished, right?
ok, just HAD to mention this... PwC got back to me & I have an interview with them! (except its on a day where I'm in the Blue mountains, so I have to leave at 6am to get to a 4pm interview back in Melbourne!)
Edit (7/12): Got in!
It is done! Having just finished my last exam yesterday, this semester is officially over for me. I was able to sort of guess the topic for the 'essay' (for Beginner's level, 150 words' worth of writing is considered an essay) for German beforehand, so it was no great shock during the exam day itself. Not that it means I actually breezed through it - as always, I had problem with the vocab. Anyways, it helps that I actually had a group study a coulple of days before to sort of pit my knowledge with others'. It's the first time I've ever studied for exams with a group, so I was a bit doubtful of the merits of group study (an oxymoron, don't you think?). However, we actully ended up covering almost the entire semester in just a little more than 2 hours. Quite surprising really.
Anyways, moving on to other stuff... I have officially enrolled as of Tuesday this week. My subjects were just approved today though, since apparently, one of the studio subjects I have selected has a hidden prerequisite (as in, it's not shown in the handbook). Oh, and because people in 2nd year and above have to always get approval from the course adviser. Since I am already having second thoughts regarding majoring in Landscape Architecture, I decided to take up 2 architecture subjects plus 1 landscape architecture subject in first semester and 3 landscape architecture subjects in second semester. If I end up liking architecture, then I could easily change all my second semester subjects to archi, and the 1st sem LA subject would be credited as an elective. If I decided to stick to LA after all, then one of the sem 1 archi subjects will be credited as an elective whilst the other one would apparently count towards my major. Moreover, I'll have architecture out of my system. I can't believe I have come up with this brilliant solution without a course adviser *pats self on the back*.
Because the academic uni stuff is getting all wrapped up, I decided to find something else to get busy with. Like a persistent itch that needs to be scratched, I have had this nagging compulsion to sing once more in a choir. And that's where MUCS comes in. I have officially joined the Melbourne University Choral (NOT Chemistry) Society last night and I was just so stunned, to say the least. They have a concert coming up next month and lucky me, they are still recruiting new members up to next week. MUCS is a non-audition choir (yey for me!) but when it comes to performing..oh.wow. It was definitely on a much higher level than a secondary school choir. It's quite hard to believe that they let me (and just about anyone) join. I can barely read notes and I am not really that familiar with terms such as which bar or system to sing. Even though all of that is VERY overwhelming, it was quite fun. There was no dull moment, thanks to the, er, eccentric conductor. The music is quite beautiful and dynamic too. That much I can say, even if I am not that familiar with its technical merits not to mention, the composers and works themselves: Charles Gounod's Solemn Mass for St Cecilia (Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile); and Camille Saint-Saëns's Christmas Oratorio (Oratorio de Noël). Unlike in year 12, each voice part here is divided into two. So instead of singing just plain alto, I'll be belting out 1st alto. Love the sound of that term. It makes me feel less of a music ignoramus. Oh, and if you have any question regarding the concert itself, drop me a line or you could also visit the MUCS website itself (which is probably way better than asking me questions anyway) at http://www.mucs.aicsa.org.au/
Till next time, and keep on dreaming larger still :)
Everyone has a thing, a vice, a small source of comfort. Mine is chocolate... having already written a post, praising it in all its glories at the start of the exam period, I'm now writing this the day before my last exam.
This of course is the reason why I'm sweating over lecture notes, intermittantly dipping a desertspoon into a giant tub of nutella which I've almost single handedly consumed. Though I have pledged to detox myself of all the rubbish that I have poisened myself with over the past few weeks starting from Tuesday (What's with Tuesdays?). However, knowing quite well I'm telling myself this only to give myself an excuse of eating 'just one last 750g tub of nutella...'
The war with Science vs Commerce (which degree should be happening) has not been decided yet, and keeping all options open, I have applied for; a transfer into Melbourne uni commerce, have not applied for the previously mentioned International Business course and will not be running away to north korea anytime soon in a $9000 trench coat or indeed eating my body weight in chocolate (getting there). Despite perpetual complaining about science in general on this blog, I really do like it. Which I guess is why I chose it in the first place. At least I'll have the holidays to mull it all over :)
These holidays I'll be heading off to Indonesia to learn how to scuba dive & celebrating Christmas with my family, where we're thinking about working in a soup kitchen to help provide Christmas dinner for the city's homeless. Perhaps I'll post over the holidays, perhaps not.
Now it is all done, it's sad - you know, realising that - wow - it has been one year (ok ok, only 24weeks) of uni life! *gasp* have I made friends? a few... have I enjoyed the year? yea, I have... will it get better next year? you bet!
To the stars ;)
Ciao!
So, Sara has been rather unnoticeably absent in this blog ever since she first started here. But it has been a busy year, which really isn't much of an excuse, but let's just pretend that it is and move on, shall we?
Today has been a jam-packed day, and it pretty much sums up everything that's on my mind with regards to uni right now. Firstly and most obviously, exams. I had my first of four today - Intro Macro. It's funny that last semester exams seemed like such a big deal, and going into the Royal Exhibition Building was just an "oh my gosh, freak out!" moment, but today was just really relaxed - went out for lunch with some mates on Lygon St before heading up to the REB together and just wandering, almost aimlessly, into the table strewn hall. Then and again, we were all pretty confident about this subject - let's see if we're that relaxed about Maths next week.
Before lunch and the exam, I had two other appointments at uni. The first of these was with one Craig Hodgson from the Maths Department. (On a random note, I can't believe it's taken me a year of studying Maths to realise how much of a maze the first and second floors of the Richard Berry building are; it took me about five minutes to find his office and wandering about through all the hallways that were being repainted made me feel rather woozy.) I'm planning on going to exchange next year as part of my BCom, to the University of Pennsylvania. Since I have to take a breadth subject over there, I need to get approval for the Maths subject I want to take, and Craig is the faculty adviser for Maths so he had to approve said subject. Anyway, I came out of this meeting with two things - one, the knowledge that UPenn Maths subjects are much harder find equivalents for with Melbourne Uni Maths subjects (when compared with UPenn and Melbourne Commerce subjects!) and two, a completely signed off study plan.
Which means that all that's left for me to do for my exchange application is getting an academic reference. I'm really getting excited about the prospect of going now that my application details are getting finalised (of course there still remains the tiny matter of getting accepted, but I'll deal with that hurdle when it gets here...)
My second appointment of the day was with a Commerce Course Adviser. I've been having some problems juggling my subjects and so haven't re-enroled yet (although unlike Gianina and some of my other friends I haven't gotten any notifications yet - clearly I'm missing out on university love). The thing I've learnt about these appointments with uni staff is that you really need to go in with a set of things you want to get done, questions you want answered, etc. Otherwise you kind of just sit there with lots of awkward pauses. Which is awkward, to say the least.
Luckily, having already been through a meeting earlier in the year that was littered with said awkward pauses, I came prepared with a list of things I wanted to ask. Mostly the complications arose due to me wanting to go on exchange next year and not being able to fit in all the requirements for the BCom in one semester. I ended up deciding to do one of the second year compulsory subjects in third year, although that'd not ideal since I'm not sure I really want to be one of those people who stand up in the first tutorial for a subject (y'know, those intro sessions the tutors always get you to do to kill time) and say "hi, I'm Sara, and I'm in third year, a year above all of you guys". But since it's the only way I can get to do the subjects I want to do, I guess that's how it'll be.
And so now that I have a course plan, I should probably go and re-enrol before the university starts sending me abusive notes. Ciao folks!
[edit: make that 7(!) notifications, as of November the 19th]
One down, two to go. I have just finished my 2nd last project for the year, and *gasp* have submitted it a day early. I just have one other project to go plus an exam for next week then I'm done for the year. Like some other person here in the blog, I have been procrastinating a lot - I must have watched more than a dozen episodes of anime since last week. The number is probably closer to 3 dozen, now that I think of it. Miraculously, I was able to finish my 2000-word take home exam and do 2 shifts during the weekend following week 12. It got me thinking that maybe my time management skills have become more developed since I took on casual work. Speaking of work, I have been having trouble getting shifts these last few days. It's weird because when I still had classes at uni, everyone at work wanted to give me shifts. Now that I only have projects and exams to do, it's like I have to go beg for shifts.
Oh, and I haven't enrolled yet for next year. I made the mistake of telling my parents that the university already sent me 4 notifications (2 by email, 2 by snail mail) to enrol. Of course, that resulted to them interrogating me over dinner about what I really want to do yada yada yawn. The thing is, I was originally pretty keen on taking up Landscape Architecture as a major but now, I'm not too sure. Architecture still seems a bit tempting to take. I'm probably just a bit put off by the ecology and sustainability portions of LArch, that's why I am running towards Architecture. However, I still have these vague memories of when I went to uni overseas and had classes in common with Architecture students. There were countless times when I thought to myself that I was quite thankful I was an LArch student - it was just not possible for me to be as borderline obsessive-compulsive about details details details as those other students. And don't even get me started with Engineering students (I had a double-maths subject in common with them in the said overseas uni). That being said, I am also considering taking an Engineering subject for an elective next year. This is probably just my way of getting Physics and Maths out of my system, so I can focus on design for the next two years. I just hope that doing so would not tempt me altogether away from Design.
As a final note, it looks like someone from the blog is on the new edition of 'Voice'. Seems quite inspirational.
Procrastinating. Again.
I watched two movies on Fri and Sat and then spent the entire afternoon surfing the web doing those quizzes that one always finds most amusing when one should be doing something else. Sure, at the back of my head I know I should be studying - but I'D HAD ENOUGH. There is only so much a brain can handle in the space of a week.. unfortunately, mine gave out 2 days before the wave of exams. Funnily enough, despite lack of knowledge, I'm still not stressed. (or maybe I'm just in denial now).
Onto other things, about a month ago I applied for a program with PwC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers) which is open for students of any year to come an take a look at their inner workings, a 3 day 'get to know you' type thing. It is a bit disheartening that I haven't yet heard from them, even though they said they'd contact everyone (even ppl who didn't get in) and now just waiting out for a couple more weeks... interviews are supposed to be conducted this week and the next. Managed to get a couple of recommendations for my application, one from an executive director and another from a (lowly) consultant.. haha, who happens to be part of the recruitment process. As they say, its not what you know, but who you know! Luckily for me this isn't 'pending marks'. Oh goody.
Imagine yourself in your last few weeks of 1st year uni. You have just gotten yourself a relatively well-paying job, and your other commitments are going well. Then suddenly everything goes upside down because of one word: Cancer.
That's what happened to me just recently.
At the end of week 10, I was diagnosed with blood cancer after being seen by several (as in at least a dozen) specialists in hospital. It didn't really quite sink in - I had to undergo alternating stages of shock and denial. Even then, I still can't quite grasp what it would mean for me, my family and my whole life. Because there was a big chance that my treatment would include chemotherapy, my doctors wanted to make sure they had the correct diagnosis so seeked a second opinion from other specialists elsewhere.
I wrote this post (24 October - I just posted it today because I had another appointment at the doctor's this week... I wanted to make sure that they won't say that it was cancer after all boohoo, before posting) after getting the results from the latter, and I am happy to say that it was a false alarm. Sure, I don't get off unscathed but at least what I have is not malignant, and best of all it's not cancer. I and my family can now breathe easy. And I'm back to my normal worries of whether I am going to pass my subjects or not, and whether i'm going to be sacked from my job (I haven't worked for a couple of weeks now). Such worries as losing my hair, being susceptible to other cancers later in my life, and basically putting my whole life on hold seem worlds away now. And as my dad had just said, I don't have to worry about only having 4 years to live - I could still graduate from degree after all ;)
Needless to say, the events of two/three weeks ago have just been surreal, it's like somebody else entirely has experienced those. I'm not really sure if I learned a vauable life lesson during that whole ordeal; I guess I should have, huh?
Oh well, those projects can't get done by themselves, so I'll get off the computer now.
Till next time.
Thank goodness for chocolate.
ok, thats all.
source: ThinkGeek.com
Edit [hehe.. for all those science nerds... it's a ferrous wheel!! hehe..]
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