I reach for a tissue to blow my nose.
No, I'm not sad and blubbering about anything silly. (Not this time anyway.) I'm just sick. I may look like a horrible ugly mess sitting here on my bed coughing and spluttering, but inside I am the happiest person alive. And it's probably just as well I'm tied down with being sick or I may just float off on a little cloud of happy and never come back...
First week last year, I recall, involved a lot of facing things alone. But as I walk towards my first lecture I catch sight of my friend whom is also heading towards the same lecture. I run to catch up and we walk to class together and talk about our summers*. We're still talking when we sit down in the lecture hall. We sneak in a few last comments as the lecturer gives us that "I'm waiting to begin" glare.
First week last year, I recall, involved a lot of sitting around on a random bench eating your lunch alone. But this year I'm sitting on the cold floor of the old arts quad, watching the rain drizzle on people outside. Within half an hour I am surrounded by friends, everyone laughing and talking all at once. Friends of friends wander by and say "hi" and I tempt them with a slice of the cake I made for my friend's brithday. My lunch got cold while I was waiting for my friends to turn up, but I could hardly care.
First week last year, I recall, involved signing up for a lot of things and then getting stressed out about it and just wanting to go home at the end of the day. This year, I have so far joined no clubs, been to one salsa class, voted on the book-club reading list, waited in a hour-long line for one free grilled burger, went to one exhibition opening on the other side of the city, went to my sister's school production late at night, skipped two lectures and one music lesson, sat on the side of my chior rehearsal with a blood nose, bought tickets to my first ever uni party**, broke one pair of glasses and said "no" to helping out at a welcome day I had signed up for two months ago. And the amazing thing is, despite all the work I have to catch up on now, my sickness stopping me from doing several things and my severe succeptance to guilt about saying "no" to anything, I don't feel piled under with stress at all. (I am, however, piled under with tissues.)
First week last year, I recall, involved my getting very tired because of all the time I spent wondering around the campus lost. Now? I feel that sense of comfort and safety usually associated with coming home when I set foot into the uni first thing in the morning***. The food court is my dinning room, the union members lounge is my kitchen, the rowden white is my bed room and the south lawn is the lounge room. And seeing all the familiar friendly faces around makes me feel like it's all one big happy family with people to look out for me.
I reach out for another tissue.
No, really, I couldn't be happier.
-- --
*or disappointing lack of summery weather
**Start of Uni Party aka SoUP. And yes, it has taken me till second year to actually go to a uni party, due to to complications relating to courage, parents and friends.But! All my friends who have not been to many parties either are coming too! I'm so excited!
*** or afternoon...
O-Week! I'm certainly certain that I had even more fun during O-Week as a host than I did as a fresher.
I dressed as a pirate! And we sure plundered the free stuff on concrete lawn. I did enjoy the shared enthusiasm for free stuff... =D
Fun was had, by me at the very least. Several attempts were made to steal my tricorn hat, but I saw 'em coming.
Unfortunately, I was terribly, terribly late for the second meet-up, so I haven't a clue if anyone actually showed up. Stupid metro. :( Although I did stress to my group that I wouldn't feel sad if they didn't show up - not cause I didn't want to see them, just cause I know all about the importance of sleeping in....
I got to meet the charming and witty fellow-blogger Jinghan! That was a highlight for me, having blogged, ranted and raved in a narcissistic and needless manner for over the last year together! Granted, given our silly hats, we were both quite easy to spot. =D
Dear First-Years:
My, you're enthusiastic. With your maps out, a worried expression, constant rushing around, and your unexplainable desire to buy all the textbooks. But that's okay! It makes you easy to spot! Except for that latter descriptive, that's slightly harder to notice.
There is an excellent guide to University - full of very helpful hints that I wish I had access to - in Farrago. You'll see copies around, don't be shy. Take one! They're free! It has other entertaining articles too - but do take note of what that guide suggests.
And - if you're finding the University to be generally very busy on the whole, don't worry. It slows down, it just seems that the first few weeks are noticeably busy. All the slackers will stop coming to classes, and you, oh-worthy-and-studious-student-thing, will remain.
Buy a Union membership. Go to the Rowden White library. Embrace it, it is your saviour.
Attend your practicals - and you if you can't due to illness, you need to get a Doctor's Certificate on the day you were ill. (is that common knowledge? I didn't know that. Not even the day after is any good...)
Buy a myki. Let's face it, they'll probably keep the system. And you need to save money! For important things, like nice paper to write on. Mmm.
Join the University Stalkerspace on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=125119954190647
It isn't used as much as it used to be, unfortunately, but it is still often entertaining. And please, do post! It's fun! And if you are stalking that hot thang in your tutorial, you may as well put it out there for all the world to know. It's (probably) less weird!
I can't think of anything to add to this. But keep up your enthusiasm! And if you're not liking a certain subject, change it before the census date, so you don't have to pay fees! Don't forget to check the LMS!
Hope you have a great year.
Love from the pirate.
.....pain, that is. Remind me again why I enrolled in university? I'm clearly masochistic. Or maybe university is just less pain than working full-time? Hmm....
It's officially the end of the first week of second year uni, and I've just walked out of what will no doubt be the hardest subject I've ever done. It's Intro to Maths and it's going to kill me. I would be excited that it's almost the weekend, except for the fact that I'm working Saturday and Sunday and the remaining free time will be taken up doing homework. Fun weekend ahead for me! I've already informed my work (Borders, phew I still have a job!) I won't be working as much. I'm not sure how they took it but I'm sure they expected it.
As I type this, I'm sitting in the ERC listening to Kanye West (a true genius, btw) and thinking about all of the work I could get done before the weekend. My procrastinating has gotten off to a good start!.....My time spent studying, not so much. I figure it's Friday and we all need a break. Whether or not I actually deserve one is another question entirely, and one that I refuse to answer. I don't want to use up my procrastinating time with self-refelction, after all.
So after I spent the past year working full-time and doing not much else, how does it feel to be back at uni? It's definitely a reality check. I find myself having to think how to spell even the simplest words, and my handwriting has sunk to the level of a 5 year old's. I've also returned to my dependence on coffee. If I look like a 60 year old when I'm 30; it would've been worth it.
Other than the horrible weather, terrible classes and 24 hour news ban I placed on myself (Apple, iPad, blah blah) today's been a good day. I figure I've done exactly 1 hour of hard work so I'm going to go shopping. To buy what? I have no idea. With what money? I have no idea but I will find a way. Maybe I can become their new cleaner.
So I'll finish my blog with a good, not narcissistic (*ahem* Jean Twenge) cause. Myself and a few other UoM students have started a UoM Oxfam Chapter. It's still in its early stages (we're recognised by Oxfam but not UoM just yet) but we're having our first meeting this Tuesday. Here's a link to our Facebook page so come down and say hello, steal our (free) food and get to know myself and the other lovely people that make up this group. Event details are on the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-University-Oxfam-Group/151144901606832?ref=ts
I hope your weekend is as good as you hope, and I'll be back very soon with more complaining about reality, and how terrible it is.
So O-Week was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. Even though I'm a second year student, I reckon I had just the same amount of fun during this O-Week as I did during last year's. Why, I hear you ask? Well, I'm glad you did!
I was an orientation host! Yes yes I was. Although I was slightly upset that I couldn't be a Media and Communications host (due to the course being phased out) and had to simply be an Arts host instead, I got over it pretty quickly, as I soon realised how much fun I was going to have.
The day before my hosting duties were due to begin, I frantically bought packet after packet of assorted lollies in an attempt to win over my lovely host students when the time arose. Turns out I didn't really have to worry, as they were all lovely anyway.
We played a few games and talked and played more games while I showed them around uni. What I found really weird was the power I had over them. I have NEVER spoken to a group of twenty or so people - let alone people my age - and have them dead silent, listening to me. It was surreal. But awesome. One of my friends lost her entire host group in Union House, so she joined my group as co-host.
So that was Tuesday. On Wednesday it was host catch-up day, and to my utter amazement, most of my group showed up! I must have been an alright host after all. Then came Thursday and Friday, the clubs and societies days! My duties included sitting at the CHAS (Cosmic Hitchhikers Appreciation Society) table, doing stuff for FOUL (Friends of Unnatual Llamas), helping FIG (Food Interest Group) fill goodie bags, and joining all my other favourite clubs from last year, including CAKE (Consistently Amazing Kitchen Endeavours), the Chocolate Club, and the Italian Club.
The most fun part of these days was recruiting members and making badges for CHAS. I designed some of them, and they looked awesome once completed. Join CHAS and buy some! They're referential to a lot of British comedy programs and are awesome.
Aaaand I guess the last thing I have to say is that my lovely boyfriend Jonathan started uni this year. He is doing Commerce for some bizarre reason, but he's settled in to uni quite well and I'm very glad to have him here.
Tune in next week (or later this week) for my review of first week!
Cristina.
P.S. I once again feel bad for this wall of text, so I'll give you another funny picture:
Side note from the author: I met Shannon my fellow blogger for the first time in real life on Tuesday! She is as awesome(ly crazy like me) in person as she is online. I also discovered that people actually read my ramblings, which still surprises and pleases me. ^^
-- --
This morning I walked out of the house with a sheet of 12 strepsils* and $20.75 in my possession. And this evening I came back a changed man.
... Okay, I just wanted to say that because it seemed literarily dramatic, but both "changed" and "man" are a lie so if I were to be totally honest with you I would have to say that I came back a poorer woman. This is how it went:
Just before I leave the house I discover that my phone is out of batteries and for a busy day I will certainly need to be within contact. I rush back into the house dive under the desk, rip my phone charger from the power board and stuff it into my bag before heading out of the house a second time. I decide that I will meet my first years and while they are congregating I will ask my friend to duck into union house and charge my phone for 10minutes which will allow my phone to last at least until lunchtime. As I rush towards the train station the soothing effects of the ginger and lemon grass tea and honey on the sore throat I contracted two days ago is wearing off, but I'm determined nothing will stop me. 11 strepsils remaining.
As I wait for my train I decide to practice the choir piece the Student Union Voices choir I was part of last year will be singing to try and recruit more members during the clubs and societies fair. Singing and sore throat aren't the best of companions but strepsils will make it all better right? 10 strepsils remaining.
I walk briskly to union house hoping that I'm not too embarrassingly late for my 10am second meet up with the orientation host group. It's 9:59 and ideally I would have been there at 9:55 so that they would know where to meet up and so my loud overly-enthusiastic voice would prevent the possibility of any awkward silences. But as I trot over to Pronto Pizza, I see that they've already found each other and are making light conversation while waiting for me. Couldn't have turned out better if I had planned it, though my throat is a bit sore from rushing over from the tram stop. 9 strepsils remaining.
I'm really happy so see that I didn't scare the first-years on the first day of orientation by making them play Toilet Tiggy**, and there are enough of them at the second meeting to play more silly games. We sit down on south lawn and play "I have never..." It was really great to see all the first-years open up and participate. We discovered that in the group there were 2 people who played the violin, 1 who had been punched in the face by a girl, 4 who have fallen off trampolines and 1 who had skinny dipped before. Running around and laughing took its toll but it was totally worth it to see the tense atmosphere that hadn't quite dispersed on the first day of orientation melt away. 8 strepsils remaining.
My first-years wonder off to various introductory lectures they must attend. Boy, orientation week is so much less stressful without those lectures to attend, I can just chill out on south lawn under a tree and confuse first-years with brain teasers all day instead. The lawn is nice but I decide to take my depleted group of first-years to the clubs and societies fair. A noisy and crowded place filled with cupcakes and baskets of lollies and "expensive" membership fees. I think I spent $40 on joining something like 15 clubs last year. I feel so much more informed this year and know exactly which ones I am capable of keeping a commitment to. I make my way out of the sea of people and reach for another strepsil. 7 strepsils remaining.
With 35minutes before I need to go to my chior rehearsal, I somehow manage to do all of the following: buy my Probability lecture notes, meet up with three friends, check in with some of my first-years, wait 15minutes in a line to pick up a book voucher for my o-week work and still make it to chior rehearsal only 5minutes late. $7.75 and 6 strepsils remaining.
Only the Student Union Voices choir would spend only 30minutes rehearsing, ducking out to a random area fill with strangers minding their own business, sing our rendition of lady Gaga's Poker face and a Hungarian folk song before scooting back to the safety of the rehearsal room. But let me tell you: it is the most fun choir ever. We even had one girl who said to us "hey! I totally did not know we had a chior, I'm totally going to join." (Small) victory! But my throat is also pining for another strepsil. 5 strepsils remaining.
As if by magic more of my friends (some of which I haven't seen for a while) appear and we all waddle our way to Brunswick street where, I have been told, there is a very nice pizza place. It's a bit of a trek, and I am a bit dubious when I see the rather scruffy paint-peeled building that is our destination. But upon going inside I discover that despite the drabby exterior there is a wealth of exotic couches, cheap yummy pizzas and even a small separate room upstairs that is quickly taken over by our merry party. I quickly forget about the trek it took to get here, though my throat wants soothing. $27.75 in my pocket after a trip to the magic money machine also known as the ATM. 4 strepsils remaining.
What I thought was a small intimate gathering of friends, turns out to be quite a party of close to 20 people. The only person I don't know in the room is a friend of a friend whom she met during her summer semester. He has one lazy eye, is carrying a cane and doesn't seem to talk much at first. Somehow, probably not too accidentally, I end up sitting next to him, discover that he is an environments student and completely blind and have a brilliantly animated conversation that lasts through most of the gathering. Probably could have preserved my voice a little but it was totally worth it for the new friend. $21.75 and 3 strepsils remaining.
After everyone else with other commitments have left a group of us head all the way to the other side of the city to Crown casino to watch Gnomeo and Juliet. Upon arriving at the ticket office we discover that our carefully planned arrangement has been upturned by the cancellation of the 5:10pm screening. After fruitless searching of session times at other cinemas we decide we'll hold out until the next screening at 7pm. We head down to the food court and I settle myself on the end of the table with a jacket for a pillow and my o-week tee-shirt over my head to block the light and give my throat a break from all the talking and just listen to all the voices around me while I doze in my private dark. It's quite relaxing I could get used to this, I think. Is this what it's like to have a conversation as a blind person? 2 strepsils remaining.
If you love gnomes, cheesy romance and humorous Shakespeare references then you would agree with me that it was a beautiful heart-warming film. (Well all those painful hours in English class trying to work out why iambic pentameter isn't better than pain-English had to pay off eventually right?) And I was really glad that I had stayed to watch it despite the fact that I could have gone home and rested my ailing throat and ensured a speedier recovery. $5.75c in small change and 1 strepsil remaining.
My phone has run out of batteries so I call my parents on my generous friend's phone just to give them a heads up that I'm heading home now. Usually I find myself catching a train home by myself at this point of my day, but one of the guys catches my train with me and be debate about the film. (Apparently some boys do not understand the appeal of gnomes and cheesy romance... how weird.) Later I discover that he could have just as easily got home by catching the train that left 5 minutes earlier to the one that we were on together. I was glad for the company. I finally arrive back home some 12 hours after I first left in the morning. Zero strepsils remaining.
This morning I left the home with a sheet of 12 strepsils and $20.75 in my possession and I came back a poorer woman...
... but if you ignore the 12 strepsils and $35 I spent, I feel pretty rich right now.
-- --
*throat lozenges for my sore throat
** thinks scarecrow tiggy but with people posed as toilets that need to be sat on and flushed. And just for extra fun everyone is "it". Add some chaos, anarchy and crazy fun and you get the general gist.
Well it seems to be that every time I come back to this blog I feel like I'm sneaking back into the house at 2am or finally replying to a friend's email sent 3 months ago. You can interpret that as either a failure of discipline or an overbearing guilt complex (I'd go with this), but really it's a setup to the rest of the post.
I've finally moved out of home, on what many people may consider to be ill advised or foolhardy- that is with a tutoring job that will either pay rent or groceries but not both. I'm not completely silly in this regard that I won't be able to pay rent each week (I have savings).... rather the problem is money will slowly go downhill.
There are still the positives thought: independence, living with a friend/roommate, being extra independent, the peace and quiet, and.... self reliance (I like being independent). The thing is (as with everything) I'm living a on a game of chance, that is to say, I'm hoping to have a job (that I enjoy) before my money runs out. Whether or not that happens is something that I'll have to wait upon.
If I had more tutoring my life would be set, since the pay and hours are pretty much self set (you're your own boss). The problem that stops me from doing it more than I already am is that most high school students go to school during the week, which is a real pain.
I could potentially "live the dream," by completing a series of short stories, journal pieces, articles, opinion pieces, novels and/or epics by the end of two months (an approximate timer on my rent money, which is likely to shorten). In doing that, and also getting paid of course, all my problems would be solved, my dreams fulfilled and parents proud. The only potential bad side I can see is if it actually doesn't pay off, as reported in fishmonger circles.
In putting both options, the job hunting and the writing, up side by side logically, due to them having the same prospects (this statement may be a bit of stretch), I should equally be able to succeed at writing as I am at job hunting. Granted this hypothesis may have quite a few rose, pink and any other girlish shaded glasses on, in my current mood it stands as the single most correct piece of logic I have ever constructed.
**(That could be a tad telling about previous "logical" hypothesis, especially ones concerned with work)***
For now that will do for the "what if," "I could," and "If only," statements. I'll itterate more of O-week and general living scenarios later on, for I think I will make the most of my pre-semester week and have a nice nap.
- Dan/Me/Yoddeuss
Also a big welcome to all the new Back to Seconds bloggers (who were of course First Year bloggers as well)!
I wake up. My fuzzy thoughts, bleary eyes and heavy limbs suggest it's 7am. It's actually 9:30am. It's my first Monday of the year. (Every other day so far has been a Saturday and a Sunday and occasionally when the end-less weekend gets too tiring for me it becomes Friday.)
I head out the door. And walk past the newspaper sitting on the back veranda. But then I remind myself that it's a Monday and that if I don't start getting myself into a routine now the rest of the week is going to be a soggy mess, and a dampness will probably linger around in the first week of uni and before I've managed to wring my socks out I'll be smacked in the face with week 6 and a mid-semester test.
So I go back and pick up the news paper and even go so far as to unwrap it and put the plastic cling-wrap in the bin. (I also discard the business section and sport section.) The news paper is soggy at one end, I notice.
I come out of the cinema* with a new loyalty card tucked away in my wallet - no doubt the first of a pile of miscellaneous loyalty and membership cards that I will accrue during this orientation week.
Before I even realised where I was going, my stomach has led me to the curry-shop in the union-house food court and I am buying a medium rice and dahl for $5. As I sit and take in the comforting familiar fragrance of this simple meal, I decide that even if I get swindled into studying at uni for five years or more I will never get sick of rice and dahl for lunch.
I run by the uni-shop and pick up my Age subscription card. (Card #2. What did I tell you?)
I don't really have anything I need to do at uni other than this, but having not been here for three months I thought it would be a good idea to re-orientate myself before I start showing first-years how to get lost when I host my orientation group tomorrow. There's always some construction going on around the uni so you never know what has changed. I decided that I would walk out my tour rout just to check that everything measures up to what they are in my memory.
First stop is the Rowden White Library. It's 2pm when I get there. And 3pm before I head out again. Something about forgetting how tiring Mondays are. Or something about those comfy chairs. Or something about those seductive books propped up on the ledge. Or something about the calming restful atmosphere... Or all of the above.
Anyway, since I'm at uni I decide I will go to the Baillieu** Library to staple the thick stack of printed pages that is the entire printed contents from my first-year blog. (Being a bit of a journal-addict I decided I would print it, and then I decided I would read it to remind me of what it was like as a first year so that I can picture the inner-dialogue of my host-group, and then I decided it would be a good idea to find an industrial-library-grade stapler to stop it falling apart in my hands.) I take a wrong turn into the book shop because my mind is still working on this fan-dangled Monday thing. And then I almost walk into the construction barriers around what I thought was the entrance to the ground floor of the Library.
I take a step back. "Access to the Baillieu Library from the third floor of the Economics and Commerce Building ➙➙ " is written in charming University of Melbourne blue.
After many many more a➙➙ows, several flights of stairs, mysterious elevators journeys, a few wrong turns, climbing every mountain, fording every stream... &c. &c. I finally find my way to the text-book section that I wanted to show my first-years, with the feeling that the Baillieu Library is perhaps a lot bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and exists in at least four dimensions.
"Hi, do you have a stapler that can staple something like 26 pages?" I ask the librarian on the first floor.
"Uh... no... but they will have one up on the third floor where the main borrowing desk is now located."
"Huff... puff... hi... do you have a stapler that can staple something like 26 pages?" I ask the librarian on the third floor.
"Yes... But... Oh dear... it seems to be jammed, let me try and fix it but if I can't the print shop in the basement will have one that works."
"Oh... okay... that's... uh... a long way away... huff... puff..."
But fear not dear reader, Jinghan made it out of the Baillieu... eventually. I'm glad I did all that today because it was bad enough with one Jinghan wandering like a lost soul in a library with only one exit in the far-end of the third floor. I'd hate to imagine what would happen if I let a group of new and clueless first-years lose in there.
"So when will the construction on the ground floor be done?" I ask the print assistant in the basement.
"Probably towards the end of first semester."
Oh boy, it's going to be an interesting semester. I'm looking forward to the expressions on the faces of the new first-years when I take them on a hike around the uni and into the deep dark hidden depths of the library. I can just imagine it:
"Watch out, don't walk there."
"Why?"
"Drop bears."
-- --
*Tangled is a absolutely brilliant film. Go see it.
**I also admit here, that every time I've had to mention said library in my blogs this year and last I've had to look it up on Google to find the right spelling.
I'm sitting in my room surrounded by stuff. Okay, perhaps that was a bit of a messy and in-descriptive start to this blog entry, but it seems to reflect what the prelude to semester one has been like for me.
Let me clarify myself: I'm sitting in my room, and had the intention of cleaning it, but only got up to the dismantling everything from it's original position part. How it all happened all started with me going to my boyfriend's place in Adelaide, having a petty disagreement about the stylistic decisions regarding my wardrobe, being rather jealous of his new apartment that he gets all to himself for a semester, being inspired by the tidy feeling of populating a new and previously empty place and deciding that I would come home and completely clean out my room and wardrobe.
Its 7:45pm when my plane arrived back in Melbourne. The plane should have been here at 7:20pm. It is pouring with rain as we drive home. My parents are debating funeral plans. I am feeling oddly distant from my boyfriend despite having just spent all day and everyday of seven days with him... or perhaps it's because of that. I get home and I start pulling things from my shelves and piling them on the floor, hoping that my love of rearranging my room will kick in soon. It doesn't.
I'm left with is a sense of horrible selfishness and fear and stress. The funeral is in two days, and I haven't helped my parents much, I haven't even written my speech, and my beautiful harp that was going to save me from having to talk too much has broken two strings and who knows how many more will break unexpectedly. It all descends into emotional mayhem when I get online and find that I can't even talk to any of my friends to clear my mind and emotions because they are all out to dinner with each other. I feel left out, even though I'm pretty sure I was the one who declined the invitation.
I sit in my room surrounded by stuff. Orientation week is imminent but I feel more disorientated than ever.
I find myself sending out messages to everyone and anyone I had ever talked to in the past when I've been going through something rough. People I've barely talked to for a year. "Hey, how are you? I'm feeling kinda crap at the moment, do you have time to talk?" But somehow it's the friend I've only known for a year and have never talked to about crazy emotional matters that makes me sit down write my speech and finally return to a sense of calm and control.
Despite the stress that endured right until the very minute before the service, everything goes okay, and it's a beautiful ceremony. I come home to my messy room, feeling like all that sadness, fear and stress is behind me. Now that one thing is done maybe I can finish cleaning my room as well.
I decide to start with my filing cabnet. In a folder labelled "temporary files*" I find a sheet of paper with words scrawled on it in grey-lead.
Building Strong Relationships
Show a genuine interest in others
- inquire about them and their interests
- people don't care how much you know they care how much you care
- empathy: seek first to understand and then to be understood
Make others feel important
- appreciate other's work, recognise their efforts by being specific
- praise their performance (in public)
Exercise Diplomacy
- never ever ever criticise, condemn or complain
- focus on their strengths and not their limitations
- practice "good bad good"
Complete with corny underlines and catch phrases, it's notes I took in a leadership seminar last year that I could never bring myself to throw out. Despite the corniness of the way it was written out, I couldn't help feeling a sense of truth. In a way they were all things I already knew, but it was a comforting reminder of what life is really about: people. Holidays had made me somewhat out of touch with various friends, it was time to find myself again by finding other people.
I get online and find myself talking to people that I haven't talked to for a long time. Reconnecting with old high school friends who have new and different lives. Finding it a comfort to listen to friend's worried rather than offloading mine onto them. Also, I find that the people who were each individual friends to me last year are now friends with each other. And it felt like coming home to a place that's safe and secure.
...even though my room is still a mess.
*they're never as "temporary" as I intend them to be. Actually some of this stuff has been in here for years...
Hello all - haven't posted in awhile for fear of drowning out the other voices, but seems like y'all back on board for another year!
Yup. Still here. This is my 4th :O year with ONLY TWO MORE SUBJECTS LEFT! Who's excited? I'm excited. Yet, again - time for application flurries (I'm aiming for 2012 at this stage!) and job hunting... the one I presently have will be finishing when classes commence.. oh - shout out to all the Orientation Hosts! I see there are a few bloggers who are hosts (and a few newbies who will be hosted) For the hosts - you may have had me interview you - or be at your training sessions helping run the thing with my colleagues. For the hostees - I was in the office next to you while you were being interviewed! hehe. (and read all your applications :p).
So. What's been happening? Well, been working on and off over the summer - (more on than off now that Orientation is so soon!) - last time I left you was New Years Eve I believe, in the event control of Etihad Stadium... intense!.. three days later I then started a subject online called 'Global Citizenship' with The University of British Columbia - which is going along swimmingly, the subject consists of lots of reading, blog writing and discussions, which is actually hard to co-ordinate when you find yourself 16hrs ahead. So I lie - three more subjects left - but this one finishes in April.
Urm. what else? - na, that's all I think. Love the first years - glad you're all so excited. So get out there! Do stuff! Live life! and if it doesn't work out exactly as planned... Who cares?! You know what's funny?...
First Year
- BSc (intended major: Astrophysics. est. graduation - 2011)
- Started blogging, worked at Coles as a checkout chick
- Avg. grade - 80
- Joined the Debating Society, SSS, Chocolate Lovers Society, Christian Union
- No alcohol
- No experience
- Level of Optimism: High
Going in to 4th Year
- Bsc -major; Molecular Biotechnology (specialising in Cell & Developmental Biology) and CertGIP. est. graduate - 2012
- Work with blogging people (to help put on O Week! fun fun)
- Avg. grade - 70ish
- Attended no Debating meetings, 2 SSS events, no Chocolate events, on-off involvement with CU.
- No alcohol [and I still had a great uni experience :p]
- PwC short internship, Exchange to McGill Uni, plenty of summer school, studied online at Tech de Monterrey, UBC, UQ, have a bf who's a rocket scientist. ohh yeaa.
- Level of Optimism: varies depending on how much caffeine is present in system
I got sent home from work today for being feverish and vomity and scaring the customers, so I'm sitting on our luxurious 10-dollar sofa and wondering what it means that in a couple of weeks I will be taking Parkville by storm on an almost daily basis.
I'm Cara, one of the 2010 first-year bloggers, now taking on the wild world of second-year pondering.
It hadn't occurred to me until yesterday that there will be a whole new batch of first-years (in my college-smelted mind, they will always be called Freshers) to stumble in a bewildered fashion around campus, to nervously introduce themselves to each other in lectures, to despair at enormous piles of readings. I'm glad not to have to go about the whole rigmarole of starting university again, to be honest, as much heady fun as it was.
A few of my friends have confessed to me that they are genuinely excited about going back to class at the end of the month. I'm... ambivalent. The classes I'm enrolled for look challenging and engaging, and I do feel like three months of no academic learning has made me miss it a little. But my summer her just been so glorious, so golden, that I simply don't want it to come to an end.
To prolong my feelings of freedom a little, I'm downsizing to a three-quarter load this semester. I've been told by so many people that second-year subjects are more intense from the get-go, and I want to able to work my hardest and achieve to the best of my ability, and I think stretching myself over four subjects wouldn't allow that so much. Also, last year living at college meant that I had few chores, no travel time, and constant access to resources, unlike this year, when I'll be editing essays while waiting at the laundromat, getting to know the 401 bus drivers, and so forth.
I wish everyone the best for uni in 2011 - it's going to be amazing.
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