Decision time (Gianina)

To SALP or not to SALP, that is the question…

I have about 2 days to really decide whether I want to do SALP or not, as the applications are due this Sunday. I originally aimed to get my application submitted by today, as we were advised during the information session to get it done by business hours so that we can contact someone from the program just in case we experience some technical difficulties. So here I am, with just a draft of my possible answers, and still having second thoughts about the student ambassador leadership program. I can see the benefits and all, but I’m just scared that I end up over-committing myself time-wise. I am already hard-pressed to make time for everything now as I am in Uni for five days (surprisingly, this has caused me to make full use of my lunch breaks for reading, research, revision, etc.) and at work during the weekends. Oh, and did I mention that it takes me at least an hour-and-a-half to get to Uni? And the new train line and bus routes(because I’ve moved to a further away suburb last December) that I am taking nowadays happen to have quite a bit of ‘malfunctioning’ such that it’s not at all unusual to take 2 hours for me to travel from my home to Uni and vice versa. Case in point: this week I’ve finished classes from Burney Campus a little after 5pm during the one day that I was there and it was already half past 7 by the time I got home! It’s a total nightmare… but hey, I could just move out of home and move closer to Uni if I have that big a problem with it- except that I’m not eligible for Youth Allowance, I find it hellish enough to work even 3-4 hours a week (so it’ll be worse if I have to pay for my own rent, among everything else), and it’s way too much to ask my parents to shoulder a portion of my potential moving-out-expenses when they are already the ones who are paying for my tuition fees (sure I am a bit of a freeloader, but even asking that of them is just so wrong). Scholarship-wise – I am not really financially-needy enough, brilliant enough or even leadership material so I really won’t qualify for, oh, the majority of scholarships out there. Add to that the fact that a lot of scholarships are targeted for just Australian citizens (well… fair enough, as this country happens to be named Australia after all). Anyways, pardon all my venting – it’s just the result of frustration for Melbourne’s public transport system. The free Pepsi max cans that were given out in Melbourne Central this morning were some sort of ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ (figuratively, and to some extent, literally even) and all, although those were from the Fashion Festival organisers rather than Connex (erm.. I reckon so at least, why else would the distributors be in that fishnet-stocking get-up?).

Oh well. I should really go and do something useful now – like start with my scaled model for architecture studio, or write something for Foundation of Archi’s visual report, or go over my plant list for my Burnley class (I’m supposed to familiarise myself with 120 plant species for this semester – my rusty memory will get severely tested to say the least), or start with my German ‘essay'(=150 words, basically negligible for an Arts student), or study for next week’s German vocab test or AT LEAST, make up my mind regarding SALP. Being a top-class procrastinator, I would probably do none of those, and instead, try to find a clip of Brahms’ Schicksalied in Youtube. That’s the piece that we just started rehearsing for MUCS, and I must say, I like it better than the Mozart one – most probably because the words for this piece are in German (!) , so I end up getting a much needed exercise for German pronunciation outside of class. That being said, we actually didn’t pronounce every single word in the correct High German way (or at least, in the way my tutors do in class), so I hope I won’t be confused later on on which is the correct way.

Well, that’s all for now. Oh, and my tute’s site visit to the cemetery this week was a bit of a let-down – almost entirely because of the fact that only about 2 or 3 of us were on time – so by the time that there were already a few students present, we didn’t have enough time anymore to go through every tomb on the list. Quite a pity really. Of course, we couldn’t really have done a proper tomb tour with just an hour of tute at our disposal. So I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

Anyways, have a good weekend to everyone 🙂 Be good and remember that the Easter break is just 3 weeks away, so keep soldiering on!

Edit: I decided to have a go at the SALP application tonight. Originally I was stuck at the number 1 question, as I am horribly unaware of what’s happening in the ‘community’, leadership-wise. Now I’m stuck with question number 6, as I am not really sure how a mediocre Environments student like me could possibly countribute anything significant as a student ambassador. Since my brain feels like overcooked mashed potato now, I’ll probably finish the said application tomorrow.