Chapter Seventeen: Another Op’nin, Another Show ♬♪♫ (~jinghan)
♫ Another op’nin, another show
In Southbank, Parkville, or Baltimo’
A chance for strange folks to say hello!
Another op’nin of another show. ♫*
The University of Melbourne Open Day (which henceforth will be called “Open Day”) has always been a big event on my calendar since before I had even graduated primary school. (My dad has worked at melbourne uni for a while. Don’t worry I don’t take his classes.) Though admittedly it was many years before open day came to be more than just a chance to collect those magical (free!!) helium balloons. Some might even say I was destined to come to Melbourne Uni since the very first time I had the ribbon of a levitating balloon tied around my wrist (complete with University of Melbourne emblem of course).
In year ten and eleven, Open Day was a excuse to hang out with friends, keeping an eye out for free stuff while pretending to care about our futures. While year twelve there was all that but more actual thinking about futures.
In first year, I was emailed with “do you want to volunteer for open day?” and I was on it! Not only that but I landed a chance to give small group tours of the campus and I loved it. “Here is the swimming pool, and here is the “secret” system gardens…” No matter that I had only been attending for just over a half year, this was already my place. In second year I was practically in two places at once, helping out with the science stalls, while running down to gate four at one hour intervals to sing songs such as the Sesame Street Theme with the Union Voices choir.
So, you can imagine my disappointment when I missed the chance to volunteer for this year’s Melbourne Uni Open Day. “Please please please, let me help out!” I emailed Ron, but there were technical glitches and I guess Open Day is when he is flat out doing everything with his team in transition and orientation.
But don’t worry Ron! No small obstacle could keep me from doing something at Open Day. I ended up finding myself involved in a secret nerdy underground Open Day event I had neve known about.
Welcome to the School Maths Olympics (SMO**):
See that person in the grey hoodie with the nerdy badge that says “4 eyes > 2 eyes ∴ me > you” among the massive panel of judges at the front there? That’s me!
Each year the Melbourne University Mathematics and Statistics Society (MUMS) put on a school maths olympics in which about 140 students from high schools around melbourne come to complete for “gold”. (By gold I really mean “pizza”.)
Sounds nerdy?
Totally! (I say that proudly.) And it was lots and lots of fun. There were red cards (for running down stairs), villainous teachers to be beaten, blood (I cut myself on a staple…), viciously devious questions, a constant supply of sugar and a highly competitive atmosphere.
And if I hadn’t of missed the volunteer deadline I wouldn’t have had the chance to see what happens in the deep dark depths of the maths building on Open Days. The chinese have a saying: “hit crookedly but still get straight result.”
I have to say that the people coming in for the “Bachelor of Science: Mathematics and Statistics Information Session” in the next hour had this bewildered look on their face as they tried to work out what information session had just happened as they pushed their way past a convoy of people carrying tables and picking up bits of paper that had avalanched all over the floor.
♫ Another job that you hope will last
Will make your future forget your past
Antoher pain where the ulcers grow
Another op’nin of another show. ♫
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*stolen from “Another Opening Another Show” by Cole Porter ** not to be confused with MSO – the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which is similarly spectacular but of a different calibre.