After a long silence…(Georgie)

A quick update before I avoid any more study and fail a subject I have just started.

I have no contact hours this semester and I’m actually overloading. Yes, I am an Arts student. So this should have been a relaxed semester but it turns out to be my busiest so far.

I started two new jobs. One at a cafe, only a 15 minute walk from home. The pay isn’t as great as retail or admin, but it’s really easy to get to, the girls I work with are great, there’s lots of nice customers and I still get super and holiday pay. So all in all, not too bad.

The other is at Melbourne Uni ringing up alumni and asking them for money for scholarships and financial aid. It’s only a five week job and it finishes this week. This is great news, not only because I’m a bit busy, but also because it is a little soul destroying and hard to get to for only three hour shifts. I have had some good conversations though.

SALP is going well, and I am glad I’ve done it. We had a high ropes course the other day at Doncaster Aquarena. I freaked out about the heights, but it was fun and challenging. It is a lot of work though. Lots of service hours, which can be really fun, but it’s just a matter of fitting them in.

Our group is running the Neighbourhood Day, which will be on March 21stnext year. This involves lots of meeting and lots of talking about what we want to do, but it can be difficult to actually get things done and booked and organised.

Oaktree is good, but I’ll be glad to be finished the Generate Program and have a bit more free time. I’m hoping I can do it next year, but I don’t know if I’ll have enough time or if it would be good to get to know another organisation. I reckon voluntary tutoring would be good as well.

I’ve finished with the history subject ‘Searching for the American Dream’, essays are handed it and I don’t have to think about it until I get marks back. I finally landed an internship, so in three weeks I am heading up to Canberra to work (for free) at the Embassy of Ireland. I think it’ll be great, but I’m just stressing about getting accomodation. Eek! I hope I find somewhere soon.

And now I’m just planning what I’m going to do over summer. Originally I’d just planned to work a lot and hang out at home, but fluke of flukes, I got accepted into a scholarship program in Germany for 2 weeks before Christmas, which is fairly exciting! It’s mostly paid for, but I’m hoping that I will be able to vist my old house mate in Italy and a couple of other friends in France and Norway and the UK, which will all cost money. So we’ll have to see how that goes.

So I think the lesson of this semester is: don’t take on too much! I am going to cut down on extra curriculars next year so I can really put all my effort into one or two programs rather than stretching myself too thin.

I hope everyone is enjoying holidays. Relax and watch some DVDs!

Cheers,

Georgie