This is my first attempt at anything resembling a normal blog post! Wow.
So my day today is a worthy topic, I feel. Today was a Wednesday. Wednesdays are fun.
I had a 2-hour Creative Writing tute at 9am, which was somewhat relaxing. I'm in the habit of bringing tea in with me and sipping it throughout. Tea + poetry = a mild morning. We even looked at a poem which I knew, and I got to read it, in characteristic Received Pronunciation. Apparently my accent added a dramatic weight to the piece (My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning). I also knew everything about the poem - so I conclude that English classes in school were useful.
After CW I had a "social" Linguistics tutorial, held on a patch of grass somewhere. I got the opportunity to proclaim my dismay at the general lack of food and talking in our regular tutorials, which prompted someone to mention that they worked in Subway and had the ability to garner a certain quantity of cookies for us to consume. Yay. We also indulged in group juggling, with much merriment resulting. The fact that we were all giggling at little juggling balls being thrown around assures me that we aren't all that grown up just yet.
We then got to construct human syntax trees, an astoundingly complex feat. Although I was at the top and didn't have to do much except represent the sentence "the cat slept".
After that excitement I was supposed to attend a lecture for the Interdisciplinary Foundation subject "From Homer to Hollywood"; however, instead I went and devoured a veggie pie at the food Co-Op. I have a new favourite lunch!
After that, at 1pm, was Yoga, which was intensely painful and tiring. I almost fell asleep during the rest at the end. Then home to a chilled Cascade Stout (the best beer I have tasted in this country) and a feeble blog attempt. I never seem to be able to write as much as other people! :(
I've also been slacking off lately in the field of academia. I miss most of my lectures and hardly ever do the readings (does anyone else do this? is it ok?). Although for Homer to Hollywood I have to read about 300 more pages of War and Peace by tomorrow. I actually really enjoy it, but I severely doubt I can read at that speed.
WOW I just threw a pistachio shell at my bin (which is a good 8 metres away) from a weird angle and it went straight in! I thought I might mention that.
Anyway... does anyone have any tips on how I can write more in my blog posts? They always seem woefully frail.
Hi, im Sarah, a late edition to this blog. I'll get the boring stuff out of the way quick, i promise! Ive lived all my life in the eastern burbs of melbourne, and as a result, have to commute for 1.5hrs on the joyous experience that is the melbourne public transport system, (as was the case on wednesday)! I: am doing science, including bio, chem, calc1 and managing people and organisations (just for something different); and currently plan on going on to do some form of med/genetic research, although that seems to change according to my current mood - most recently i decided i was going to do postgrad law, following my science degree, after finding out lawyers get paid $660 for less than an hours work. Although im not as well travelled as some of my fellow bloggers (im sooo jealous), i did partake in a school student exchange to Japan, and have since become obsessed in anything and everything Japanese, especially food. Other interests include cycling (my friends think im a cycling freak), topgear (best show since westwing), T2 tea, crazily eclectic music (from classic orchestra, to broadway, rock and indy music no-one knows the band name of but everyone loves), swimming 2 mornings a week (although that's not so much an interest, as filling in time, meh), and antique wood furniture.
Taking a leaf out of my management tute questions, here is list of things ive learnt so far:... the coffee place outside ec+comm copland makes fantastic white hot chocolate; the rowdy (rowden white) library is a must for any union member; and ladies, never ever ever use the toilets on ground level of redmond barry, they're quite grotty, and only to be used in an emergency (ie you're about to wet yourself).
I thought i'd struggle to write this much, obviously not...
Well that it from me for now, im falling aspleep.
My easter holidays weren't the usual 'binge eat on chocolate then make up excuses for not studying' type. Oh no. As my beloved church has a different calendar, I have to wait for the chocolate eggs as I exhausted my own supply to make sure that certain relatives couldn't steal them from me again. I got the usual easter holiday work hours and more. I had plenty of time left for studying, but with lots of family events both happy and sad, that time was greatly reduced. The rest was a mix of sleeping in and everyone else being in holiday mode. I for one can't refuse spending time with adorable younger cousins/pets, no matter how important an assignment. So there it went. My holiday gone.
Sunday was spent doing the work due today, then a massive panic attack as I realized how much other stuff was due this week. That resulted in me waking up before the sun extremely sleep deprived. I managed to stay awake today but it was a wonder that I got anything done. I am glad that I got the homework done that was due tomorrow and now to help prevent me thinking about anything remotely resembling study I will partake in part two of my comedy cure for sleeplessness.
Part one was the Monday Night SBS comedy double, aka South Park followed by Drawn Together. Then I discovered that Boston Legal is on at 10:30 so I'm watching that too. Maybe I'll stay awake for 3rd Rock too...
Goodnight and I hope that everyone has recovered from Easter.
I love holidays. I love the fact that you can sleep in, and think that you’re ‘catching up on sleep’ even though you end up staying awake ‘till 3am the next night flicking through pictures on a random’s facebook page.
I love it how at the start of the break you have good intentions to study and suddenly find yourself at the end of the week having completed 21 quizzes on some dodgy quiz page (what colour crayon are you?… I’m blue) and still haven’t quite find the time to clean the bathroom or open the chemistry book.
Having said that, this week has been quite eventful, here are the top news stories;
- Olympic torch was lit in Greece
- Holi in India
- Mammoth motorway accident in Austria
- Wedding rumors for Brad & Ange
- Jamila market in Sadr city (Iraq) was destroyed
- French president had a cup of tea with the queen
- Earth Hour
- Nicola lost her camera
Ok, so perhaps not the last one, though its nice that society has their priorities straight. :|
I think that it’s good that Melbourne jumped on the shiny green bandwagon to herald earth hour. From the bedroom window I can see the city, so my brother and I waited to see all the lights on the Rialto switch off while sitting in pitch black ourselves. I was thinking of posting some photo’s up from earth hour, but realised you’d be just staring at black squares. Haha…
…well, I think that it's funny.
Philosophising about uni life again, it really does seem like a journey of a thousand miles, and like Lao-Tzu said, ‘…(it) must begin with a single step.’ Ok. So I start, I take one step [towards the chemistry book] and I will enjoy the journey. “To get through the hardest journey we need only take one step at a time, but we must keep stepping.” Chinese proverb – you gotta love the Chinese! (Who also happen to be real good at Chemistry, so they know what they’re talking about).
In summing up, so what if the first few weeks of uni sucked? Start over, make this the first step of a thousand miles, and enjoy the journey!
Ciao.
Long time no post... I've just spent a whole week being sick - this having the effect of me having missed out on all my lectures (except for 2) plus a couple of tutorials plus the first meet-up/AGM on my faculty club plus some other events that were supposed to boost my almost non-existent social life. I tried to be perspective about the whole being sick thing, consoling myself that unlike Year 12, if I act responsibly through doing my readings, going over lecture notes and contacting my tutors, I would not be missing much. There's the added benefit of having no attendance checks in lectures and even in some tutorials too. However, since I am a die-hard pessimist, I still managed to see the bleak side of everything and by the end of week 3, I am reduced to a pathetic heap worrying that I am going to flunk uni AND have no social life AND be a drifter for the whole course of my uni life. Woe is me. (Gee, am I borderline manic-depressive or what?)
Anyways, being sick for a few days has really helped me appreciate my living at home. Putting aside the fact that it takes me more than an hour to get to uni, at least there would be people who would be taking care of me when I am too sick to even bother combing my hair --- I don't have to worry about meals, how I can get myself to my medical appointments (I have an, er, aversion to clinics, GPs, dentistry, pathologists or anything/anyone that has something to do with medicine; so if it were left solely up to me, I probably won't go to a doctor unless I am already dying or something), the medicines I have to take and how on earth I go about lowering my body temperature (I've broken my all-time high temperature record just last week). Plus, I was excused from the chores that I usually have to do. However, it can get pretty boring, not to mention demeaning to not be able to do anything by myself. So, by Wednesday morning, I dragged myself out of the house (more like, Snuck out of the house; I was the only one awake) at 7am to attend my 9am lecture. At the end of that day, I was left to ponder whether it was worth it because I was still unwell (probably a bit contagious too; sorry to the people in the Architecture vicinity), I spaced out during my 2 morning lectures AND pretty much bombed my first test in my breadth subject (that is to say, I got an H2B...uhm, that's a low score, right? Or are my standards just a bit high/unrealistic?).
So now during Easter break, I was supposed to be relaxing and doing a bit of studying BUT because of last week's misfortune, I am now supposed to do a lot of studying and probably a bit of relaxing. Life sucks.
The only positive thing from the past week is that, thanks to DIAC, I would now be making my transition from international student to local student. However, since the Uni Admin would be probably closed until tomorrow(?), I can't do anything yet. So, as of now, while I am typing this post, I am what you might call an "illegal student" (but really, that's no fault of my own; even the International Admissions is also closed for Easter).
That's it for now.
PS sorry if my post if reeking of pessismism. i just can't help myself.
I was going to write a long post about how lectures are not actually worth going to and such matters but I realised that it would probably have gotten me banished from the blog. So instead I present my typical day. I can't really think of much else to write about. Oh well... 8am: wake up. Listen to Liszt's Dante Sonata to expel groggy demons. Drink Earl Grey tea for its stimulating effect.8:45am: saunter to campus. Listen to Audiobooks on the way there.9:01am: arrive in lecture theatre. Say "hi" to someone random and sit next to them. Realise I can't be bothered talking to them.9:37am: Fall asleep.9:37:05am: Wake up. 9:55am: Leave lecture theatre. 10:02am: Go to Rowden White Library. Read Tin Tin comics whilst sitting on a beanbag. Assure that psychotic uniformed guy that, yes, I am a member of the Student Union.12:30pm: Go home. Sleep.5:00pm: Wake up in a puddle of sweat, pining for pints of water. Curse Melbourne to eternal hellfire. Realise that Melbourne heat is probably already on par with Inferno. Sigh. 9:30pm: Wonder where the hell the day went. Eat lentils. And that's it. Byebye.
Right now I'm listening to 'Breaking Free' from High School Musical... perhaps I shouldn't have admitted that. Moving on…
A happy Easter to all of you! This holiday, my dear friends, is one of the most exciting for me, with perhaps the exception of Christmas. How could you not like Easter? There is a reason for Easter... yea, all the hot cross buns, eggs, bunnies - and not forgetting the chocolate - have meaning behind them (perhaps not the chocolate). I have my own ideas, but have you ever thought; hmm... what is Easter really about?
This week has been an interesting one. I haven't quite got the hang of this work-social balance. For instance... I’ve done no Chem, no Bio, 2 questions in Physics and I'm 2 weeks behind in Management... and we've only just finished the 3rd week! However, was supposed to go to a BBQ on Mon, had soccer training on Tues (it won over debating. oh the irony!) Foam party on Wed and an ibud (international/local student buddy thingy) dinner + Dance class + Went out after on Thurs, and since then there has only been 1hr since I've not been with friends! Well, safe to say I've got the social side down pat!
Alongside the gazillion things one has to do... job hunting, learning how to drive (...must...get...P's...before...July...), buying a car, [a house, a yacht, a pair of shoes, an island,] it’s a wonder how people do manage to fit it all in!
I'm still finding it tough to make friends at uni, fitting in all the work and finding a job that fits with my hours is proving close to the impossible. Its all quite overwhelming! You meet people in the lectures and tutes, but its like everyone disperses and disappears into thin air.
It can only get better from now on though! But despite all that, life's great, sure a little more studying would be beneficial, perhaps a little less socialising, to change the subject - the weather has been amazing. Contrary to popular belief. This ‘non teaching period’ (how diplomatically worded!) I shall be catching up with friends, checking out the Melbourne Comedy Festival and perhaps actually getting some study done! What are you all doing?
Oh yea, and I’d love to hear any questions/comments about Easter…
Ciao!
P.S Just a thought, but I'm pretty sure one could live off sausages and beer at uni. Not that we'd would want to.
This is meant to be autumn? Or am I just, for some bizarre reason, hallucinating and thinking this is summer? That was my thought on Monday afternoon as I trudged along like a dehydrated penguin towards the trams. Yet just when I had resignedly accepted the fact that I have to suffer in the boiling heat for the rest of eternity, today was strangely cool in comparison. What on earth is going on with the Melbourne weather? When will it make up its mind about which season we are in? I guess the moral of this rant (if indeed there was one to begin with) is to always check the weather forecast, which by the way, also has a habit of getting changed at the last minute.
Putting my weather rant to one side, oh my goodness, it's the end of the third week already. I feel like we were all just forced to put our joggers on and have been running a non-stop marathon since day one. My daily schedule consists of waking up before the sun, rushing to catch the bus/tram on time (in the process, skipping breakfast), sitting through lectures which I just barely manage to comprehend, waiting for what seems like hours at a time for the next lecture and then going home to crash into bed - absolutely and totally exhausted. Repeat this 5 times a week and you would start wondering if there is more to uni life as well. I don't know, maybe I, like most med students (read: nerd), just don't have a social life. Which sort of leads to the question:
What are uni students suppose to do in their spare times?
University is totally different from high school, which is something I'm still trying to wrap my brain around. I might be doing the same course as 260 other people but before lectures, we are complete strangers. We only gather and share something in common during the lecture and afterwards, we become strangers again. Most college people go back to college during the breaks, others just seem to disappear into thin air and the rest practically lives in the library, which was probably what gave rise to the rumour that the Brownless Medical Library was dubbed Brownless because the med students all just live in there, not getting enough sun and hence brown-less (i.e. no tan). *sigh* That is such a dry joke. But seriously, in high school, because you are forced to be stuck in one area with a bunch of similar-minded students, your social life practically fell into your lap whereas in uni, you actually have to actively search for it, which is kind of hard when you are still trying to remember people's names, keep up with the lectures and survive from day to day (i.e. grocery shopping; cooking etc.).
But then again, university is sort of the time where people truly grow up and become independent. No more teachers prodding behind your back, asking for progress checks on the assignment or handing out revision sheets for the upcoming exam. Instead, it's all falls onto you. You have to be the one reading up the lecture notes and slides before the lecture. You have to be the one who goes to the library and look up the recommended readings for the assignments. You have to be the one who goes home and reviews your lecture notes. Nobody is going to ask you if you've done it. It's all about you, taking individual responsibilities for yourself (garh, I sound like a teacher/parent). So I guess for all those fellow procrastinators out there, we'll have to shape up. :)
Moving away from all this deep philosophical-like talk, this past month in Melbourne for me has had its ups and downs. I really enjoyed O week, meeting new people, attending those quite helpful (and some not so helpful) information sessios, getting freebies from sponsors and of course, that includes the food. I think I managed to get free meals every day (occassionally even getting free dinner), which is great because I can't cook :P. Us med students had a pretty full-packed compulsory schedule for the O week - a pity because I was really looking forward to the "Crash Course to Uni" on Thursday (For anybody who attended, can you please tell me how was it?). One thing I noticed during O week is that there was a lot of alcohol and innuendos, something that didn't bode well with me considering I'm still a minor. In the med scavenger hunt, one of the bonus activities was to see which group could drink a goon the quickest. Another bonus activity was to run once around the south lawn nude (less clothes = more points). But all in all, I had fun and looking back on it, I think that was about the most amount of socialising I've done this entire month because once uni started, everybody became more... serious, I guess.
The course is quite interesting. I've always enjoyed biology in high school so I'm enjoying the lectures. The first week was sort of a breeze because it was just a revision of year 11/12 biology and boy, was I in a surprise when second week rolled in and I was introduced to biochemistry. Okay, I did both bio and chem in high school but the combination of the two just completely befuddled me. So I guess, never underestimate the learning materials because they will always challenge you, which is good in a way. While I'm enjoying this course, my happiness is lowered from a possible 8 (out of 10) to 4 because of the early starts EVERY single day. I love sleep but have trouble falling asleep early, which means it is a nightmare trying to wake myself up at 6am 5 days a week. Usually, my sleepy mind assures myself that I can go without breakfast and have an extra 1/2hr, which I then deeply regret later on in the day when I'm wide awake. The only good thing about the early starts is that there is little chance of me being late because the trams are pretty empty.
Independent living is awesome in the sense that you are the absolute boss. There is no parents knocking on your door asking you to stop playing pc games or watching TV. There is no fixed schedule for meals like that in college which means you can get up at 11am and still get yourself some breakfast. You can live life as you want it. Living expenses are mostly low, giving you a good excuse to buy lunch every day from Union House (Well, that is my excuse but it's mostly because I can't cook to save my life). But like all things in life, shared housing also has its shortcomings. For one, you have to keep a close track of where you food is and how much of it there is because there is always the chance that somebody might take your food (mostly by accident but occasionally, on purpose). Another problem is the difference in schedules. There are times where everybody is in the kitchen, wanting to use the appliances, which can cause a bit of a jam (but it's a great time to converse with one another). But there are also times where it's midnight, you have to get up early tomorrow but your housemates won't stop chatting on their mobile phones or worse, inviting friends over. I would mostly wake up in the morning, being all grumpy from the lack of sleep and stomp my way around the house to get back at them. Heehee, I'm evil, I know.
But it's Easter so I'm going to put aside any negative feelings and when I finish this blog, I'm going to go and give my housemates all easter eggs. And I'm planning on relaxing over the next week and just recuperate and get some decent hours of sleep. Sadly, I can't fully escape from study because I think I have an exam right after the Easter break. Now, exactly how much study am I going to manage to do this week? Hm... that is a very confronting question...
Happy Easter!
Till next time!
Responses:
Sebastian: It wasn't snowing when I left but true to its Scottish self, Glasgow gave me a wet, cold, rainy farewell. Looking back, it's surprising how much Glasgow has grown on me because I'm actually getting a little homesick even though I've only stayed there for 3 months. Thanks for the well wishes and keep me updated with your progress. Would love to know how everything's going when you eventually do get to go to Oxford. How do you go about that process anyway?
Cassie: Hi! Another procrastinator, excellent. How exactly do you go about getting work done? Lol, maybe we should meet up and discuss procrastination and Isobelle Carmody, which reminds me, have you read Juliet Marillier or Jennifer Fallon? They have a similar style/genre but more mature and they always finish their series before starting a new one - a big bonus.
Apart from my crappy Wednesday that I had last week, there are a couple more items that I have to add to that list:
2. having to endure another pointless "Arts Foundational Skills" lecture on a Friday, which is my day off. Basically I rocked up to this over-promote and over-hyped lecture by the tutor co-ordinators/lecturers, for only one hour to hear something that I could have read on the internet or in a pamplet. The lecturers/tutor co-ordinators described this lecture and the one on the previous Friday as being extremely vital to our academic studies and that if we didn't attend, we would be missing out on something sooooo important. Well, turns out, they were wrong! After the first one, I had a suspicion that the one I attended (on the 40 degree day, on public transport, i.e. tram, train and bus) last week would follow the same trend. The only reason I went was because of the emphasis that the lecturers placed on this program that was a complete was of my time and energy. On a completely different note, in the first AFS lecture, there was this guy who was promoting the Arts community blog on the LMS (which I ended up joining, but have not yet made a post), who sounded uncannily like Hamish Blake from "Hamish and Andy" fame. That was basically the only interesting aspect of that whole first lecture.
3. the inconsistent Melbourne weather + having to travel on public transport in the aforementioned weather. What is up with it (the weather, that is)? I (like many other non-college students) who have to endure the frustation of public transport on a day-to-day basis (or in my case, Tuesdays and Thurdays) will understand when I say: public transprt sucks, especially riding on a non air conditioned tram or having to wait forty minutes for a bus because I missed the first one. ( I was trying to avoid the heat, so I took the next bus that arrived at the station (that goes to the plaza that's near my house) instead of waiting for my usual bus that takes me almost directly to my home. But my plan went pear shaped as the old cliche goes, and I ended up having to wait 40 minutes anyway.) My plan for future train and bus travel is to get on a train that arrives a maximum of 5-10 minutes before the scheluded bus, which equals less waiting time :P.
Hi, I’m Jaclyn from Canada and I am currently studying science at the University of Melbourne. I live on the sunny side of a residential college called International House where I am particularly fond of the vegetarian menu and the large variety of trees in the courtyard. If I were to summarize myself I’d say I am completely unremarkable in every way but I try not to let get me down. Though I am quite dedicated to science and the natural world, I am a child of the 21st century and television, movies and the computer are among my favourite things though I also enjoy most forms of music, visual art and literature. I intend to write a longer entry detailing my favourite forms, my courses, my uni life and why exactly I think Melbourne is so beautiful and I do, but for now I’m just saying "hi."
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