Pardon my absence here of late in the blog. I actually started a post a week and a half ago, but I never got to actually publishing the saved copy. You see, I was in the hospital for a week - which is really bad timing as there was just 3 weeks to go before swot vac (I was admitted to said institution by the end of week 9 of the uni calendar). So now, after just a couple of days of being in the 'outside world' again, I'm already busy with putting my uni stuff on track - which means contacting tutors/subject coordinators and classmates, applying for extensions/special consideration, finishing projects that were supposedly due last week, and worrying about stuff that I should be preparing for this week. I'm basically buying myself another ticket to the hospital again. *Sigh* One of my subject coordinators actually suggested that I apply for special consideration for the subject itself, rather than just for individual assessments. This way, my marks might be adjusted. I haven't really considered doing that before, but I might have to, considering that I have to go back to hospital a few times this next few days for more tests and to see more specialists.
Anyways, over the last week, I've discovered how considerate people could be. Once I realised that I'll be 'out-of-action' for a while, I was scared of contacting people to cancel/postpone a lot of things - 5 shifts at work (the store I work in is a bit understaffed, so I felt really guilty about cancelling), volunteer tutoring, my assessment deadlines, my driving lesson and the first year summit. The nurse in my ward actually even let me use the internet in the nurse desk so I could email my tutors (yep, I know, I'm so neurotic that I still think of uni even when there's an IV needle stuck in my arm). Many of the people I contacted were just so understanding - they were quite incredulous when I said I was calling/emailing them from the hospital and they insisted that I have better things to think about. It was quite touching really, especially because of the fact that I was expecting to be sacked from work, get blacklisted from volunteering in uni and outside, and basically fail at least 2 of my subjects. I've never really quite fully realised how much of a worry-freak I am until last week. Oh well. It's week 11 already tomorrow, and the start of re-enrolment to boot. I can't believe how fast time passes (sorry for the cliche). I just hope I'll remember to enjoy these last few weeks as a freshman in uni instead of endlessly worrying about trivial/mundane matters.
Keep dreaming large people :)
May be it is just me. I'm soo not stressed at the moment. Which is really unusual. Theoretically this should be a worry.
Help?
Hoping that the next few weeks will be as awesome as any other. How can it not be? Although I'm still waiting to blow something up in Chemistry prac. This is what I signed up for, no? Exams are looming & stressed I am not.
But I guess when there are verses in the Bible that say... "do not be anxious about anything - but in everything through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving - present your requests to God, and the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4v6
...then theoretically Christians should be the least stressed out of everyone! Something I still need to take on board and as I reflect on the past year (me = stress head) - it is a truth which has much to work on in my life! But I still think its cool :)
All the best with exams everyone. You can do it!
Last Saturday I went out and bought an Asus EeePC 1000H and quite frankly I wish I'd known of it sooner. It's making a lot of my work easier to do now that I don't have to share the main desktop computer with my brother. If you don't have a laptop, the model I have is definitely recommended because it's smaller than your average laptop but still packs a punch specs wise to manage your University work and playing music and movies.
Another thing I've been trying to develop lately is 'chunk reading'. Obviously that means observing large parts of text in 'chunks' in an attempt to read through things faster. It has sufficed well when I'm rushing pre-reading for lectures and tutorials, but does take a lot of practise to ensure that you don't miss out on most of the important details. However these days when you're learning about 4-5 new things everyday and attempting to fit in study and music practise, anything that lessens the time spent doing things always helps!
I also recently experimented with my sleeping patterns, and I can definitely confirm that for me, staying up late on 1am on weekday nights just because I have 11am starts on Tuesday-Thursdays will result in a cold by the weekend, in which now in this case has developed into a slight secondary infection. Needless to say, there are a lot of people coughing lately. Clearly I'm going to revert back to sleeping at 10:30-11pm because I don't have the time anymore to risk another week of trying a different sleep schedule.
And I still refuse to drink coffee!
This year has gone by surprisingly fast. Only 4 more weeks, swotvac, exam block and we're done. Amazing...
The med student's much deserved 1 week off had come and gone (the other lucky students get 2, which is totally not fair). I spent it volunteering for SWOT (Student Welfare Outreach Team) and tutored VCE students from under-represented high schools around Melbourne. Boy, was it scary the night before trying to cram in the stuff that my brain had spent 1 year deleting. In my own defense, I have to say I don't exactly need to know differential calculus for my studies in medicine. Ignoring the fact that I had to wake up at 6 to get to school at 8, I had an overall good time. And yes, like Nicola said, there was the free food and t-shirt.
SWOT aside, I spent some time catching up on uni work. So I've now caught up. Unfortunately, I don't think I know the contents to the level required. Technically, I'm up-to-date but not really. I'm still a bit vague about the finer details. Hopefully, that'll change in these 4 weeks. So now, I'm trying to learn the stuff in a bit more detail by cramming books into my head. If only studying works by diffusion, then all I need to do is use my textbooks as pillows...
Four more weeks until the US election and I've watched with barely contained gleeful laughter whenever Sarah Palin makes a mistake. The VP debate was interesting but at the same time, predictable. Joe Biden was clearly the winner just as Sarah Palin was clearly reading off a script. At the present stage, I'm trying to remain optimistic and hopeful that US people have brains and will vote for the right candidate. If they don't.... well, let's not even think about it.
Tomorrow, I'm getting my HP2 assignment back and on Wednesday, I've got an OSCE exam, which is basically performing an abdominal exam on a patient. We get marked on it but it's only a threshold exam which means we need to pass it in order to finish the course but it doesn't actually count to our final mark. I've already practised it a couple of times on my mom, who interestingly went to the GP one day and when the GP began doing the abdominal exam on her, she said don't bother because her daughter has been doing it at home all the time. lol, gotta your parents ^_^. Hopefully everything goes according to plan and I should have nothing to worry about. *fingers crossed*
Till next time!
Yuan
ah ha. So that is why there were 3000 people in cosplay loitering around the university last week. It was manifest - a huge anime festival happening over the weekend. I just so happened to bump into a few dressed in sailor moon outfits on my way to the library before realising.
Much action has of course been happening on and off the campus for the past couple of weeks. I've been enjoying the freedom of, well, freedom. A friend from UK has come over for a week and a bit, before she moves onto Sydney, so much time has been spent with her. A couple of days, I have to admit, has been spent at uni relishing the empty study carrels and the south lawns to myself before semester returns.
Med students seem to be floating about more than usual, tutoring in the VCE Swot week that's currently happening. I'm not quite sure what is happening, except they do get rather cool t-shirts and free food.
This week was Uni Games - where uni students arrive in melbourne en masse for a week of competitive action. It makes me tired even thinking about it! I've a couple of friends competing against each other in the athletics, which makes it all the more interesting since they are training partners. But university rivals will be rivals. I wonder which uni came out top? (please say Melbourne.. say Melbourne.. )
This weekend I'll be attending protests for the 36week abortion bill that is to be voted on next week along with church, work and maybe even a fundraiser dinner. All ready and rearing to go for the onslaught (so I'm told) that is the next 4 weeks.
All the best VCE students. You'll be great :)
Ciao!
Ahh the Royal Melbourne Show... mass consumerism at its best (or worst). But who am I to talk? I did purchase one of those oh-so-disposable showbags on impulse. I had this idea that it won't seem like I went to the Show unless I buy a showbag.
Anyways, it was the very first time I've gone to this show. In fact, before last week, I didn't even know what the Royal Melbourne Show was! I had to stupidly ask someone what's actually on show on this event, resulting to the said person giving me a withering glance then remarking I must have had this sort of show in my own country. Apparently not.
Before going there, I was very much looking forward to going on all the rides not least of all, in the roller coaster. The reality was, I just managed to get into one because of two reasons: the queues were so long all day for the more 'challenging' rides, and I discovered that I had to buy a ticket for each one (it was $15/person for the overrated roller coaster) - which wasn't really worth it, I mean I could just spend all that money to buy an all-day pass to Luna Park for Pete's sake.
Moving on, the stuff at the Grand Pavilion was quite amazing. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as organic doughnuts! There were also a lot of ice cream stalls - enough to make me feel that I am on ice cream heaven. On the gourmet section, one man shared a recipe to me (which I can hardly remember) which uses balsamic vinegar, strawberries, caster sugar, and vanilla ice cream - something that will surely impress that special someone, or so he said. There were also a number of free tasting for beer, wine and cocktails going on. I went to one of them, and I wasn't even asked for an ID - which made me think, do I finally already look my age (big yeyy) or do I look *gasp* old for my age? Because people serving alcohol ask for ID from people who look under 25, right? Or is that just for ciggies/tobacco? It would be quite disconcerting if I do look old for my age, as up until last year, I could pass as a middle school student. I was even given a lollypop by a lollypop man a.k.a crossing supervisor when I was in Year 11 or 12. Imagine that.
Going back to the Melbourne Show topic, I also went to that Pavilion where they have the primped up show dogs. The ones I saw were medium to large size, and covered by a mass of (washed, combed, probably even blow-dried) fur. The arts and crafts Pavilion was a bit disappointing; there were only about a dozen stalls and everything else were either on makeshift display walls or in display cases. Somehow, there's just something surreal about looking at cookies and cakes behind a glass. Sweets that are for your eyes only... what's up with that? There was also a separate Pavilion for the Victorian Government, which I didn't even go near to.
Oh well, that's all I could report for now. Except maybe, that I started with normal shifts already at work and that I have mix feelings on that. That would probably be a whole new post altogether.
For all the Melb Uni students out there, especially those who have just one measly week off, enjoy the break while it lasts :)
Like schools, we have the next two weeks off. The first day to celebrate the wonderful moments of following two weeks were spent wandering around Ikea with my family kitting out one of the rooms at home which has so far acted like a 'whatever' room. Now we just have to figure out how to get a couch to the second story...
The 8th week (last week) has been a fair eventful one, attended the public lecture Obama vs McCain - who will win and does it matter? (mentioned in past blog) - which was fantastic. It was really good to kinda be updated as to what was happening - and why we should care.
Then there was Science ball. The feathers did come into play, but mainly from the couple of people who decided to rock up in a chicken suit. Happened to see a carrot as well, about 6 bottles of beer, a couple of elephants and what seemed like the whole cast from Aladdin. All went well.
So, anyone else has exciting plans for the next couple of weeks? Working a couple of shifts at coles.. a couple at Telstra dome and a couple with a vacation care program. and then I'm going to do nothing... yay!
Ciao!
Although the 2-week non-teaching period for Melb Uni won't be starting until this coming Monday, my 'break' has already started yesterday as I don't have classes during Fridays. Here's a rundown of my oh-so-fabulous day yesterday: woke up at about 9:30, eventually got up at 10 after unsuccessful attempts to go back to sleep, **fast forward to early afternoon**, did geek-y stuff in my laptop (i.e. reconfiguring the anti-virus, anti-spyware, other anti-stuff, then defragmenting my hard drive and back up drive), gone on to the Internet to find that all these precautions are so effective that my websurfing activities have been restricted by said overprotective anti-virus, watched 'The Secret Window' DVD instead, even watched the extra features (a.k.a. dvd-fillers-that-you-won't-watch-unless-you're-damn-bored-or-depressed-or-both) on said DVD, went to the nearest library to return my overdue loans(i.e. books that I've borrowed for research purposes but never actually got to reading, or opening, for that matter), then went to a family friend's house, and finally, did a reading marathon thereby successfully finishing half of a classic novel in just one sitting.
Activities involving any uni-related matters = 0
Surprisingly, I didn't feel like I wasted the whole day. Of course, that maybe because I have wasted almost every single Friday during uni teaching-periods that I've become immune to actually feeling guilty about spending my Fridays in such a fashion. Today wasn't any better either. But hey, it's the weekend after all.
I'll just hope, for my sake, that things start to pick up come Monday. Otherwise... well, I don't even want to think about the 'otherwise' bit.
Hope everyone has a nice 'break' this next 2 weeks.
Right now I'm trying to stuff 3 strawberry flavoured cream wafer biscuits into my mouth at the same time. It is quite hard. *waits about 10 seconds* But do-able.
Not that you really needed to know that.
This week there was voting taking place for the student union. With all the elections and everything its got me musing a little about politics. I don't know much about politics. Actually. I don't know anything about politics. Not that its not interesting or anything, I think. So our Kevin is labour... right? or wrong.. or left or.. argh. Was quite excited to be able to vote when I turned 18. But as it turned out, I was somewhere in Taiwan (no internet), and didn't even realise that voting had taken place, let alone getting a new PM. Only when our leader (who happened to be Samoan) very excitedly told me that 'I can't believe Australia's PM can speak Chinese!' did it occur to me that a). We have a new PM and b). Probably wasn't John Howard.
In order to perhaps bolster a little political cred there is this public lecture happening next Thurs about Obama vs McCain - who will win, and does it matter? (i think thats what the title is) should be good. Praying that the Americans will choose wisely.
After a week of being 'bumped into'/followed by those running for current student elections - the whole process did seem quite fascinating. Maybe next year, eh? How many people actually voted? I had all good intentions of voting after class today, and then; opps - finishes at 2:30pm?!
Onto general things - one more week of uni until hols. I've a psych essay worth 40% due on tues. 2000 words. Have I started? yes! 1800 words to go... (and counting!) so if ya'll know anything about conformity - would love to hear your opinions :p and Science ball on Wed! whoot. Theme is 'carnivale' so.. costumes basically go; venitian carnival - mask, gloves, Marie Antoinette hair or brazillian carnival - bikini + feathers. or just feathers. or body paint. ew. Bit confused as to what kind of carnival they're after. Whatever.
ciao! (note to self: don't eat so many wafer biscuits at once)
Cardboard model again, albeit in relatively more sophisticated lighting and geometry.
Next week (and this weekend) is going to be a living hell. We're talking about major assessments all due next week. It doesn't help that mid-semesters for my breadth subject are usually done later than all other subjects; so that's on next week too.
I probably have to spend all of tomorrow for my 'design' subject coz I didn't do so well in the last assessment, and if I stuff up the one for next week, I am most probably doomed. Onto another topic, I've just discovered the joy of sitting down for coffee (actually... hot chocolate) in the Potter cafe this morning. It was quite windy and all (although nothing like that freak wind a few months back), but it was still a good place to just catch up with people and people-watch at the same time. Not being a coffee person, I didn't see any merit before in having coffee at uni. Especially not in the Potter, coz everytime I pass by that alleyway outside the cafe I get a whiff of secondhand smoke (why do I get the feeling that this is not the correct term to call that sort of smoke? hmmm) so if I actually stay there, I'll probably be able to inhale a lungful or two. However, since it was windy, smokers were nowhere to be found. Out of sight, out of mind. So it was just me, my hot chocolate, and my companions in coffee/hot choc bliss.
Still on the topic of hot beverage, I finally found that place that supposedly serves the best tea in uni. It's quite weird that it's just the first time today that I saw it, considering that I've been to that building many times already. It's in Alice Hoy, and it's called Urban Chai or something like that and I've accidentally discovered it thanks to the renovations going on at that courtyard near Sidney Myer Asia building. I might go and try their tea one of these days...when money or at least, loose change starts to fall from the sky. Or after I get my first elusive paycheck. Whichever comes first.
To conclude... did anybody else get harassed (okk.. definitely an exaggeration) by the student campaigners this week? I don't even know If I'm going to vote for any of them - up until the day they started wearing those ghastly coloured t-shirts and approaching random students, I didn't even know they existed. And so, it'll take a lot of convincing on their part to persuade me to actually acknowledge that they do exist, and exist for a good reason too.
edit: Er, actually, I'm not so sure now whether the cafe with lotsa secondhand smoke is the Potter or Castro.
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