Aug 29-31 - Grease is the word...

Ok... I'll take the bait. I'll tell you about my classes since nothing has been going on for the past few days.

First, Media Production Development: We're working on something called the Melbourne Media Map. It outlines all the available media outlets in the city. The category I chose and am working on (worth 15% of grade) is Festivals and Events. I'll write a short outline of three fests/events to add to the list. I'll be doing Motorola Australia Fashion Week (coming up in about 3 weeks); The Age Melbourne Writers' Festival andA Taste of Slow. Then, in addition to the MMM, I'll do an issues paper. Not sure what I'll be doing that on yet. I have to choose one of the MMM categories to explain media issues to lay readers. It's also worth 15%.
We just got assigned our project groups. Since I totally mucked up my own pitch... I'm working on someone else's idea (my first choice group, however). It's called "Life in Camp" and it's about the Australian detention centers for refugees/asylum seekers/illegal immigrants. It's all over the news down here. The girl who proposed it had a friend who went missing and finally she and some friends put two and two together and turned out he had been told by his attorney to turn himself in to the immigration officials. So she went to his camp and found the center totally disturbing. Media is not allowed in, so other than letters and after-stories on the news that's all there is out there for public knowledge. Now, of course, this whole project is theoretical. We will do the research, creative treatment, marketing plan, and budget proposal as if we were taking this to shop around for a funder. This whole project will be turned in at the end of term (Oct 28) and is worth 50% of the grade. There is also a progress report that we will present worth 20%. My progress report is on Sept 19 and I'll be discussing the research we have been doing. I have two books here now and a list of websites the other girl has sent me. We have 3 people in our group, so hopefully we will work well together.

Next is Research of Media Audiences: I like this lecturer - she's got Buffy as her screensaver. My tutor is kinda wacky and appears to have ADD, but he's good too. So yes, that means there are two different people teaching. I just completed my first paper for this class on a research issue -an annotated bibliography of a media subject (HARRY POTTER) ending in a question. My research question is: What percent of the Harry Potter book audience is made up of adults? This essay is worth 40% of our grade. CRIKEY! Our next essay is due on November 7 and is worth 50% of the grade. I dont know what the topic of this is yet. I think it will be a continuation of the research question. The final 10% of the grade will be in the form of a test during the last tutorial.
So if you didnt get the point of the class from the title itself - it's truly about researching media audiences, the methods of research (interviews, focus groups, observation, surveys), and ethical issues... etc.

My final class is Writing for Video - Non-fiction. Again, it is what it says it is and I spend 3 hours on Friday morning in this class. Our first assignment will be to take an analytical look at a documentary film and make a "statement of the essence of the argument being proposed by the documentary." It's 40% of the grade and due Oct 10. This assignment has me a little nervous, but not as much as the final assignment. It will be a draft of an outline for a 10min tv documentary. Basically, what I am learning to do in my Media Production class is what I will be doing here, but it's all me and it's due the same day as my Research final paper. It's also worth 60%. YIPES! Scary.

So that's what's going on in my classes. It's also why you may get shorter entries or no entries when a due date is upcoming.

Aug 25 - Independent Woman, Part I

Nothing has been happening lately - as you can tell by my lack of writing. I go to class, I come back, I eat, I sleep, I go to class, I hang out with people at the house, I read, I go to the grocery store, I go to class. That's not a real sentence, but you get the point: nothing exciting happening.

So tonight is bar night here at LTU. I usually skip out on this because I have class early on Friday mornings. Tonight, Premi, Mark, and I were going to cook dinner and then a big group of us were going to the bar. I was excited about it. Then Premi's cousin called and asked Premi to step in on something and Premi couldnt say no... so he's left. So we cancelled dinner. A few other people are going out to have dinner before bar night. And then, the usual suspects are kinda wandering around and hanging out in the tv room looking bored. I asked if anyone was up for anything... Let's go do something! Let's go have dinner! Let's go out and just be out somewhere. Anywhere. And there really weren't any takers. Kinda like one of those... um, we could, but where-type responses. And then the momentum just died. That's when I moped and can back to my room to write and winge (gripe).

I tried to get a concession card today that would cut my met card price in half... no go. As an international, regardless that I pay full fees, unless you are an exchange student (NOT to be confused with study abroad), no internationals can get a concession card here in VIC. Soooo... everytime I want to go to town - a day pass costs me $5.90 and a 2 hr card costs $3.10. Sure, it's not like I go often - but the price is part of the problem. To go to the city... it's expensive to travel. Sure, I'm not paying gas prices and parking rates, but still... it takes an hour and it costs the better part of $6.

So that's part of the bigger picture - refer to title. I miss my independence. I miss being able to get in my car and go when I want to go... need to go... or just feel like going. I miss that even if I felt like getting out, but had no one to go with - I could get in my car and at least drive to Target and just walk around or go see a movie because it was within walking distance or head down to the Plaza and window shop. Everything is far away when you have to walk or rely on the tram. And going out... even for dinner... well, it's a production! Coordinating the group. Buy a tram card. Wait for the tram. Ride the tram 30-40 min to get to a good cafe area. Then wait for the tram coming back... etc. If and when I get a job here, I am going to have to factor in 1-1.5 hours for transportation. I realize that people live in cities with bad rushhour traffic, but geeeeeez. I feel trapped!

Ok... enough being poopy. I have to go rummage up my own dinner now. By myself.

Aug 19-21 You Say It's Your Birthday...

The weekend has gone by so quickly that I dont remember where it went, or how I used it. Friday, I had class with a guest speaker. He is a TV show producer who talked mostly about his stint as the Exec Prod for "Outback House". It's pretty much the same idea as the "Frontier House" show that we had in the states. He was fun to listen to and the show was good to watch, but there sure was a lot of I, I, I.... ego. Since it was raining, my idea of going back to Fitzroy to do more traipsing up and down the streets of cafes and shops was pretty much wrecked. Instead, I went with Premi and his cousin to the Northland mall to help him find his cousin some work shirts. They bought some clothes and things... I bought groceries. I love how there are two grocery stores at the mall.

When we returned, the Sri Lankan gals were already cooking up some eats and the kitchens were full of people making big meals. So we all cracked open some wine and turned on the music, played cards, and finally ate. I ate with my hands - Lankan style that evening. We had dahl (lentils) and a curried chicken (very spicy) and more wine - except for the 2-3 times Premi got up to refill my water glass. Everyone was proud I ate with my hands. I felt like a dork. There are some little etiquette rules as to where to put your resting hand, no sticking your fingers out, and no talking (usually when eating with your family). I had trouble keeping my fingers together like they do and still managing to get the food in my mouth... or it could have been the half bottle of wine I had already taken down on an empty stomach. Tough to call. More games and a movie later, it was bedtime.

Saturday morning I completely overslept. I woke up at 8 or 9 and then somehow must have fallen back to sleep. I fully planned to go to the market to get fruit for the potluck that evening. I managed to get up at 1:34pm doing the complete opening scene of 4 Weddings and a Funeral with Hugh Grant's character looking at the clock and saying: "F--, F--, F--, F--, F--ity F--!!" Not good. Since Johannes was taking Alene (Austria - and his ex) to the Bundoora shops, he gave me 5 minutes and we went. The potluck in the evening was for Alene's and Arajit's (India) birthday party. So I bought a lot of fruit and spent an hour or so cutting the fruit (kiwi, apple, paw paw (papaya), strawberry, and banana) and getting it sugared and lemoned and bagged for keeping until that evening.

The party that evening was in our rec room. It was a "P" party which meant you had to come dressed as something that started with a "p". We ended up with Prostitutes, Pimps, Party girls, Pirates, Presidents, Prime Minister, Punjabis, Princes/esses, and Perverts. I went as a Pussy cat - I had a tail made from a trashbag and little whiskers drawn on. It was a good time. I ended up DJing the last hour or so of the party and helped clean up. After my bottle of wine the previous night, I stuck to orange drink.

This morning I got up and Aidan and I went for brunch at a cafe just at the shops by me. I had eggs florentine, while he had the "Big Breakfast". Then we came back here and he got some stuff set up on my computer and we managed to figure out that Dell had made a mistake on a piece of my hardware, so I just finished a letter to their support people to see what options I have because I am quite furious!!!

In the meantime, as I have been writing, it has gone from a nice sunny day to cold and rainy and from light to dark outside. My evening will likely consist of playing on my computer, reading for class, watching a movie, cooking something small for dinner... and more or less just taking it easy. Tomorrow is just another weekend day to me, but I want to get myself back on a sleep schedule - so I want to get up at 9am and get going with my day. HA. HAHAHA. Yeah. Sure.

Aug 18 - Crocodile Dundee

A few days of routine-ness have gone by. I finally got back into the city today since it was my day off from class. Kim, Johannes (Austria) and I went to the Melbourne Museum (yes, that's tiny me on the right). I thought we were going to the Museum of Moving Image, but apparently Johannes didnt get that message, so when he signaled on the tram that we were getting off at the next stop, I was confused, but went with it. It was still something on my list. We spent about two hours going through the various exhibits. Sadly the human body exhibit was closed until next month, but the rest of the place was fun. Way too many bugs in there! Gave me the creepy crawleys!

From the museum we just walked back along the tram line and went in and out of shops and checked out bar listings and restaurant menus for future reference. We went in quite a few really funky places and I really liked the area. It's fairly close by tram. I may go back in a day or two and check it out a bit more on my own. Maybe I'll look for a job along there since it's not too far by tram and it's a pretty funky, young area. We'll see. Anyhow, I was able to find a Korean eatery and asked the lady inside for a card to come back and thanked her in Korean, which sent her saying a bunch of words that I didnt understand and I just said thank you again and I would come back soon. We also went into the $2 store and I was able to (for $10.50) buy a replacement nalgene water bottle, a water spritz bottle, a small screwdriver (so I could fix the dang window that they have refused to find time to fix for me), and an umbrella (who knows where mine is...and it was cute and cheap). We also stopped for a kebab (yum) and a beer (blech! Johannes liked it though as you can see him talking wildly with his hands) before catching the tram back. And... today was the first day that I have been on a tram when the ticket inspectors have gotten on and asked for our tickets to A: make sure we have one and B: to make sure we validated it. They are pretty strict. $150 fine for those who dont follow the ticket rules.

As soon as I got back I went straight to the Union to meet up with my surf group for a second attempt at seeing all the pictures. This time, they DID show up and we did see the pics, but it will be another couple of weeks until we get a CD of all the pics. They need someone a bit on the organized side to keep them in line! It's a fun committee, but a bit scatterbrained.

I had more stuff to do after the meeting, but decided that I'd already had too much fun... in fact, it's 10:30pm and people are leaving for bar night at the Uni bar, but I just need a night to be in bed early. Yes, early. That means, BY midnight!!

Aug 15 - Mr Roger's Neighborhood

When terror strikes near your home, you worry. When you are too far away to help, you spend a lot of time on the phone talking to your family. This is the case for Premitha. His family lives in the diplomatic area of Colombo as does the Foreign Minister who was assassinated over the weekend as he was going into his home. He was killed by two snipers who made a hole in a wall and fired six shots. He was hit in the head and heart. It's been upsetting for Sri Lanka. It's been upsetting to Premi. This piece of news would have never seemed important before, but because it's now been personalized by my friendship with Premi, I am sad for his country. Learn more about it.

In other news... Jai Hind to my Indian friends. Today is India's independence day.

And finally, if you thought my surfing was good - check this out!

Aug 14 - In da club...

G'day. I'm still recovering from a late night of dancing. But here I am to catch you up on the weekend's events.

When I last wrote, it was Friday afternoon. I took a long nap after class and took a shower and made myself pretty - just to hang out with the house peeps. A bunch of us watched a movie and had our dinners and just hung out. Then around 10:30 I joined the Sri Lankan gals on my floor (Sahani and Udeshika) who were having a party in our rec room. There were quite a few Lankans there and some other people from my floor like Mohammed (Canada), Juan and Lucian (the new floor boys from Argentina - I am practicing my Spanish skills), and Kim (NY). We went and played some pool and drank wine and danced. I even got Premi (Lanka) to dance with me and show us some traditional dance. It is very similar to latin dancing. Around 1 am, we returned and just hung out until we could last no longer.

Saturday, Premi, Prasanth (Lanka) and I went to the Bundoora market and shops. We bought things for the week and had lunch at a noodle place.

In the evening, Kim organized an outing to the Crown casino in the city for a club there called Heat. So Sahani, Premi, Mo, Krishna, Kim and I got ourselves pretty and headed on the tram to the club.

Once at Crown, we were racing to beat the clock to get there before 11 when they started charging a cover. The place is quite large and there were tons of people - so just finding our way through the crowds and up to the club was a bit overwhelming.

We got in with a minute or two to spare (considering we left at 9:45 to get the 9:51 tram to the city and then had to walk a fair distance, this was a daunting task). Immediately we found a room to enter (out of 2 or 3, I think) and put our coats down and danced until 2am.

We needed to catch the NightRider bus back to the burbs, and we missed a couple buses that would take us to the stop (or so Kim and Mo thought), so we ended up waiting for a while(the pic of me is of us waiting outside the Crown), then found out we should walk (from the bus driver) to a different area. By the time we got to the area, we had enough time to grab a snack at Maccas and get on the bus. We finally made it to Grad House at 4:30am. By the time I showered the smoke off me and got in my jammies, it was 5am.

So that brings us to now. I had lunch and then sat with Premi, Sahani, and Prasanth while they ate a Sri Lankan lunch. Mostly it looks ok... but there was a questionable dried fish relish(?) that gave me memories of Korea. Premi ate something and told Prasanth I wouldnt like it because it's too salty. Prasanth was trying to say I was a fussy girl for not trying it. But Premi is right on, I am not a salt lover. So he saved me from that.

Tonight I am going with A to his sis's house for dinner. Originally it looked like we would cook Mexican, but now it's not looking like that's the case. So who knows. I think I will get to bed early tonight. I have to work all day tomorrow on a project due on Wednesday. Thank goodness I got an early start on it. I just need to get the focus narrowed and make sure I have all the components. We have to present it in our tutorial on Wednesday. I am NOT looking forward to it.

That's all for now...

Aug 12 - Champagne Supernova

Last night I attended the SARA Cocktail party with the surf girls. Turns out, it was pretty much all surf people there. There were maybe 30-40 of us and we had all gone on one of the trips or were somehow affiliated with SARA (the sports and rec centre). My group of gals had met at the Union building at 6 to see our surf pics, but in prep for the party, Jono had forgotten that he was supposed to do the video. So we went to Ditte's and Steffi's dorm at Menzies College. Those two and AK had already gotten dressed, so I changed in Steffi's room and we did our own showing of surf pics and other pics on D's and S's computers. Then we had a couple warm-up drinks and headed over to the party. Jono's expression when he saw us was complete surprise. First, because we looked good. Second, because he had completely forgotten the surf pics and was completely bewildered by our "you stood us up" greeting. Hehe. Oh well.

The cocktail party was fun. Our bartenders were Mel, Andrew (aka Puffy), and Jono - all S@LT committee peeps. They would pick a drink and line up the cups and just make them all and we'd go up and get one. It was a fairly smart arrangement so they wouldnt have to make individual drinks all night.

When the cocktail party ended we went over to the Eagle Bar (the Union bar) for Bar Night - basically student night with drink specials and a DJ. I usually skip out on Bar Night because I have a 9am class the next day, but I figured I would go since I was already out and on that side of campus. Once there, I bumped into a lot of my floormates and we all danced together. By the time we were back and I was heading to bed, it was going on 2:30am.

And yes, I am tired today. I got up for class after hitting snooze a record 8 times (it goes off on a 5 minute snooze) before putting on sweats and walking to class. My teacher had us watch a video...in the dark... it was so hard to stay awake. And now, I'm off for a shower and a nap. Then I'll get my room cleaned up from the mess I dumped on the floor when I got home last night. Don't know what's on for this evening. I may cook some dinner and see about renting a movie. I havent really been out in the city yet, and truthfully... I dont care. I'll get there. Right now, I just enjoy the company here.

Aug 10 - More Than This

Ok, so I dont really have an exciting update. Today was quite cold and I had a two classes today, so I walked to campus twice and when I came home at 5 this evening I could see my breath. At the grocery store tonight the checkout girl mentioned that it was snowing in some areas. WOW! How crazy is that? It's July!

I did learn a new trick today thanks to someone else's blog I read. I can now direct you to links where you can see the videos I have taken. I dont want to overwhelm you now, so I will just put one up when I dont really have anything exciting to talk about (which will start happening as my deadlines start approaching).

I did get to make some calls last night. Talked to Mommy and Papa. Left a message for Jennifer. Left a message for Megan. Talked to Julie at the office and got the current scoop. Those were just the numbers I had memorized, so I'm sorry you didn't get a call, but it's due to the fact that I didnt have my address book on me at the time. Besides, some of you have my number and haven't called! And even worse - you haven't written! WHAT THE HECK? (ahem, H! and LcKA!)

Oh well... we're all busy. And with that, I show you a tidbit of the first cricket game organized in the hallway on my floor. I am not in it because I had not been taught how yet but you can refer back to the story below where I mention the fact that when they did let me play I kept getting out because they hadn't explained the rules to me. But it's ok. A week later 6 boys and I played outside in the back garden and I won the second of the two games. hehehe!

Let me know if this works: Cricket Apparently it's only good for 7 days and a max of 25 downloads or something.

S@LT

Here is the group of gals who went on the Surf @ La Trobe (S@LT) trip to Marlo:

top left clockwise: Jen (Boston) Kate (Ark) Nathalie (Sweden) Melanie (Melbourne) Anna-Karin aka AK (Sweden) Steffi (Netherlands) Ditte (Denmark)

Then the token boy was Jono from Melbourne. He is also the president of the Sports and Recreation Association (SARA). I think he enjoyed being on the girls' weekend with us!

Aug 7 - Surfin' USA

We slept a bit later and got breakfast going at 9:45. Our lesson was at 11 again and this time it was with Mal’s brother Phil. Phil looked more like a typical surfer… tall, lean, blonde long hair… and he got us warmed up and back into the water. Today’s waves were a bit smaller so we didn’t get thrashed as badly, which was nice. I actually got up fully once and made it to the squatting position quite a few times, but the water was actually colder that day, so I got out after an hour. I went up to the car and changed and got warm, then brought my camera down and took some pics. We all got out Level 1 basic surfing certificates! YAY!! It says I have learned: reading surf conditions and IDing dangerous situations (aka – ask a local surfer); basic fitness for surfing; paddling; catching broken waves (basically like body boarding); wave zone negotiation (1 step forward – 2 steps back is more like it!); wiping out safely (dude, I rock at this); equipment for surfing (duh); sun smart behavior (wear sunscreen – my choice was Bullfrog 36); sports safe behavior; and environmental awareness. Cool.

After showering and lunch (I was SO hungry), we hit the road for a bit more sightseeing before leaving. We walked along this gorgeous trail on the West Cape to do some whale watching.



No whales spotted, but there were these amazing shells lining the way and I really wanted to take one, but I didn’t. It’s not allowed in the state parks. But they are perfect and beautiful.

We finally made it back to the school around 11 and I was dropped off at 11:30 and crashed pretty quickly. It was a really good weekend and the town could not have been nicer and the beaches any prettier.

Aug 6 - Wipeout!

My cabin was up at 8:45 and began organizing brekkie. We had toast and cereals and got ready. Our first lesson of the weekend was at 11 so we drove to Cape Conron (10 min away) and found our instructor Mal (Malcolm) waiting for us. We signed the releases and got handed a wetsuit to put on. We looked sexy! (HA) We each grabbed a board and headed to the beach. Unfortunately, I don’t currently have pics of the surfing b/c we were told to not take our cameras and the organizers took photos for us which we will get copies of on Thursday. The beach was beautiful. It was white, clean, soft sand. The waves were perfect.

We did some warm-up exercises and then did the basic lesson on the sand. Once we got the basics down, we walked on into the water. BRRRRRR! We lucked out because it was a sunny day, but the water was still a good 50-55 degrees! My poor feet and hands were icy! I had a couple really good runs on learning the arching of back and riding the waves in. I tried getting up a couple times and nearly made it. I also took on some of the larger waves and had some HUGE wipeouts. My instructor came and checked on me after one and just said – I am so glad you came up smiling. You totally just won the wipeout award! Hehe I pooped out a bit earlier than some of the girls, but I also took a pretty bad bashing after my 3rd or 4th decent wipeout – the kind where you do flips underwater and get carried a couple feet because your board drags on with the wave and it’s attached to your ankle!

When we were done, we all struggled to get out of our wetsuits and ached for warm showers, which we promptly got when we returned to camp. AK and I went into the men’s side for our shower so we wouldn’t have to wait and it was just Jono otherwise with us at the park. That was the nicest shower I’ve had in a while and both AK and I kept remarking that neither of us wanted to get out… we just wanted to stay there with the hot water flowing.

Lunch was also pretty good after we had worked up an appetite. We went into the city nearby called Orbost and found one place open called Wendy’s. I had a lasagna and some garlic bread. I was so hungry, but it filled me fast. After a hot
chocolate, we decided to try to get a little sightseeing in before we lost all the light. So we went in search of some caves, but decided it would be too dark and instead went down to a Cabbage Palm Patch that we got dyslexic and called and Cabbage Patch Palm instead. We parked the cars and walked down a path of ferns and trees along side a stream.


It was a really calming walk until people discovered they had leaches on them! I had one on my jeans and one on my shoe, but fortunately did not have them on me – unlike a couple others! That was a laugh. We all got to the clearing and began checking ourselves.

We made it back to the cars and drove out and started seeing roos left and right because they like to come out at dusk. We had to be on patrol so we wouldn’t hit any and a couple stupid ones DID try to cross in front of us!

By the time we made it back to the cabins, none of us were truly hungry for dinner, so we all crawled on one bed in the girls cabin and got the heat going, watched movies and kept warm… then the drinking games began. So by 9:30 we decided to head to the pub and walked over. We had a couple drinks and I listened to the king of Australian blues (he even sang “Kansas City”!) and then went out watched the girls play pool before snuggling up in a chair by the fire to chat and watch cricket. I was pretty much pooped, but we closed the place down at 1. Then it was off to bed for the next day!

Aug 5 - On the Road Again

I had class at 9 and turned in my writing task. I paid my rent, picked up my pics, had lunch with A, got a sleeping bag from him and he drove me back to grad house. We sat in the car and he debated on whether or not to go on the surf trip, and finally said no.

At 2pm he text me to ask if I would find out if he could still go. I called Mel and she said yes, but to make a decision fast because they were organizing the transport and there were only 4 people going plus the 3 organizers. So they might need to switch vehicles. I text A back to say yes and to hurry and make up his mind. He called a couple minutes later saying he cut out of his lecture and was heading home to pack and call Mel. At that point, I went and made a snack and played cards. I checked my phone about 30 min later and he had messaged that Mel said the transport situation would not work out to take an extra… so after all that, he wasn’t going!


I got to the meeting place at 5 with my backpack and A’s sleeping bag and met up with the other girls going. The other 3 were AK (Anna-Karen from Sweden), Stephi (Netherlands), Ditte (Denmark) and then… out of nowhere came Jen (Boston). So with that I called A to say that they goofed and we were switching vehicles because they had their numbers wrong, but A had already made other plans so decided to just stay put.


Our organizers were Mel (Melanie from Melb), Nat (Nathalie from Sweden) and Jono (Jonathan from Melb) and he was the token boy. We had two cars and off we went. It was a 5 hour trip and we finally made it to Marlo (eastern Victoria, pop 400, on the mouth of the Snowy River) around midnight. We went straight to the pub across from our cabins and danced to stretch our legs. We stayed at the Marlo Caravan Park. We had two cabins (and they were damn cold!) and so I stayed in the room with the organizers and the 4 girls were in the other cabin. Once we got the heat going and had figured out the bathroom situation (in a building just a short walk away – but a cold and scary (if you get freaked easy) walk!), we pretty much went to bed.

Aug 3/4 - Wonderwall

Wednesdays are tutorial days. Apparently I am the only person who bothered to do the reading in either class. I guess there is a stigma to media students that they don’t buy the books because they don’t bother doing the reading, so the bookstore here has stopped buying enough text books to cover all the students enrolled in a class because only half the class buys the book anyway? Hmmm… so now they do these supplemental packs which are fairly cheap and just take selected readings that they have copied and bound together. That’s it. Not hard and hardly a lot to read. Anyhow, I read and so was pretty much the only person who knew any answers to the questions asked during class. Yes, I did say that I read the readings. Coming from being an English major who barely read the novels for class to doing all my readings here… when it looks like I don’t have to… oh well! I want to do well. Not that the readings count – no quizzes or tests. Only projects/papers are graded.

Wednesday night, Kim and I went back to Father Flanny’s for the live music. The drummer grabbed me to play tambourine for the Oasis song "Wonderwall" so I got up on stage to play. This time we brought Krishna, Mark’s new roomie (Mark is no longer our RA, so had to move out of the nice room to a twin-share). Kim and I proceeded to drink Krishna under the table and we left just before 1 to go home.

Thursday was a work and reading day for my Friday class. I had a writing assignment, so I researched all day and finally got my topic and wrote it out that evening. I had a meeting at 6 for my surf trip to see pictures from the preceding week’s trip and to get info for the next day. Looks like our trip will be a small group – and possibly all girls – unless A decides to come, but I don’t think he will.

At 7:45 I got my internet connection for my room. HURRAH!

Aug 2 - Harajuku Girls

I had classes today. I like my lectures. I like one of them more than the other, but they are both good on Tuesdays. I signed up for the surf trip coming up this weekend during my break between lectures. A is considering going. We had lunch together and I just killed time reading in the library after he went to class. I have a nice 3 hour lull between lectures which allows me to either go back to the house, read, have lunch on campus, run an errand or two… however I choose to use it. I like how they are spaced out.

This evening I had plans to go out with Trisha, Brooke from BR set me up with her since they know each other and B used to live here in Melb. Trisha picked me up at 5:45 and we set off for Chapel Street. Chapel Street is a really famous street in Melbourne. It’s quite posh with great shopping, cafes, and people watching. We went to a Tokyo Tepenyaki place and had some yummy food. Then we had a coffee in a little place inside the Jam Factory – it’s a little mall with shops, cafes, and a movie theatre. We came back after that because she had work and I had class, so I was back around 9. Trisha was great. She was totally nice and I look forward to hanging out with her again. (Cheers Brooke!)

July 31 - La Bamba

Sunday was a reading for class day until it was time to grab the tram to A’s house in Preston. We were going to make Mexican food. When I got to A’s, we left for the grocery store and picked up tortillas, fajita mix, and fajita fixins. We stopped at the Bottle Shop (what they call liquor stores) to purchase grenadine for Tequila Sunrises.

We got back to A’s and I started slicing the peppers (or capsicum) and onions, then got the chicken going in the pan with the mix. Added the peppers/onions. We got the beans warm. We had cheese, guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, and tomatoes mixed with canned jalapenos (our own version of salsa or pico). The one thing that really threw me about the fajita mix here is that it is flavored. I mean, not fajita flavored, but “Smoky BBQ flavor”. WHAT THE HECK? Fajitas taste like fajitas. That IS the flavor, not bbq?! Ugh. So other than that slight setback, they tasted alright. I had three and it was hurting. A made it to 4 but was feeling pretty ill after.

We cleaned up and he went to make a call, so I sat down with his roomie’s and learned to play Canasta. Then we all watched a segment of Oz and it was pretty much bedtime.

July 30 - Sanctuary

I got up at 9 to get to the bus loop on campus for the IPO trip to Healesville Santuary. It’s a wildlife sanctuary about an hour away. On the way to the bus, Kim and I came across two kangas on campus. I took a picture of them just chilling out and watching us.

At the sanctuary, the IPO workers fixed us a nice BBQ lunch (very tasty) and Kim and I had a nice walk around.



We saw more kangaroos, wallabies (I got to pet one), wombat (pet him too), echidnas (have a cute video if ya wanna see it), koalas, a Tasmanian devil, dingoes, flying foxes (large bats), a kookaburra (who laughed for us, but I couldn’t get a clear pic of him thru the gate) tons of snakes and other reptiles, and many varieties of birds from pelicans and parrots to eagles and hawks at the Birds of Prey exhibit. We even saw a demonstration on boomerangs and they actually work. I took lots of pictures and even some videos (email me to see one). It was a really lovely day.

By the way, all snakes in Victoria are poisonous - but only a couple are real concerns (as in, can kill you). There are 3 of the 10 most poisonous spiders in the world here (and 7 total in Australia). There is the MOST poisonous creature in the world just off the coast... a box jellyfish? Anyhow, I'm pretty sure I got all those facts in the from the Reptile show, but I could have a number or two off.

In the evening, Premi (Sri Lanka) took me for dinner in Bundoora and then I got a Blockbuster card so I could rent movies and we came back to watch one. When we returned, Kim (NY by way of Ireland – Irish passport), Johannes (Austria) and Sandeep (India) were playing a version of Bullsh!t – the card game. So we joined in and played until around 1:30 in the morning before the wine and tiredness got to us.

July 29 - Clue

Early morning start for my 9am class. Again, I got on campus early and went to the building and class number, but it was dark! No one was there! So I ran over to the media office, but it was too early for it to be open, so I located the registrar and apparently there had been an update to the room (due to the number enrolled) and so I ran over to find it. I wasn’t too late, but I felt a little silly walking in when he was already talking. This lecture is for my Writing for Video Non-Fiction and is 3 hours every Friday. Today’s class went over the outline and projects and then we watched segments of documentaries which he then incorporated into his lecture. I like his style. This class is likely my hardest, but hopefully the most rewarding. He gave us a writing assignment to get us warmed up, but he forgot the handout with the details, so I have to locate it online soon. (I want my internet in my room dammmmmmit!) A girl who lives on my floor is also in that class, so we chatted about it and will likely use each other as sounding boards.

After class, I came back and read some for my other classes and took a nap. In the evening it was team trivia night. The short story is that our team of 6 won. So we were rewarded with 3 bottles of wine and 3 6-packs of VB (Victoria Bitter – beer). There was an after-party at the rec room, and I spent about 30 minutes there and I was done. Early morning tomorrow.

July 28 - The Explorers

With nothing better to do this morning, I slept in. I got up finally around 11 and got dressed so that I could show housemate Kim around campus and get her signed up for a trip that the IPO was doing. Another housemate, Mitun, joined us and we got free lunch on campus and walked around so Kim could get her bearings and then we three grabbed the 340 bus to the city. Basically we just wanted to walk around and see where things were. We didn’t do anything touristy. When we saw a store that interested us, we went in. We walked to the visitor’s center and I checked out some info for personal use, but also for my Project Development class because I think I saw something I could use for a project, but I needed to see what tourist information was available in print. When we exited a guy approached us and asked if any of us would give him our thoughts on the public transport system for his student documentary. Considering I’ll be doing something similar soon, I figured sure, why not? So I gave him my opinion on the transport system and we went on our merry way, eventually finding a place to eat and watch the city from a patio. Then we did more walking until we decided we had enough and grabbed the tram back. I took some pics of the city during the day so you can see them.

We had to visit a public toilet while we were in the city... this is what was on the stall door in front of me...



And this was behind me as I flushed. Do you find this disturbing? Apparently, it's Oz's way of keeping blood borne diseases like Hep C and HIV rates down among users. They figure, people are going to do drugs and we can't stop it, but we can stop the spread of disease. They also give out needles or sell them cheaply to stop people from sharing needles. Very odd... but I guess they see the positive in it.

July 27 - Lost

I had my first tutorial at 10am, so I left at 9:40 to get to campus. I ran into Aidan in the agora as he fixed his coffee and had a quick chat. About 5 ‘til I went in search of my classroom which was pretty upsetting. I went to the building and floor indicated and went to find room 122 and could not find it. I went to the floor map and it had rooms numbered up to 127, but no 122 on the map! I went up a floor. I went the building next door. I asked people I came across and no one knew. I came back and double-checked the map and then I saw someone else who looked puzzled and he was headed to 122 too. We went back outside and he saw two girls he knew and they pointed out a separate entrance where we could find the room. So about 5 after, the four of us walked in to room 122, the only room at this entrance, and a few minutes later the tutorial started. I think I will like this class and the project. In fact, I’ve already started writing notes on my pitch for the project. I have more and more ideas daily, but I think I’ll stick with the one I have in mind for now.

I came back and my housemate Manjit and Sandeep were watching Grease, so I watched and sang along. Neither of them had ever seen it! Manjit and I went to the Northland shops after it was over so she could get a going away present for someone and I could do grocery shopping. When I got back, Aidan had asked if I wanted to meet on campus, so I walked over and met up with him, Travis (his housemate), and Murat (his Turkish friend and consistent companion to Thailand). Aidan showed me the building and room where he does a lot of project work in case I ever need to find him. We hung out for just under an hour until his project meeting began.

I went back and made a stovetop version of Mexican chicken – most of the chicken ended up burned on the bottom of the pan, but it tasted ok. I also made guacamole. The tortilla chips here are just so-so. There are no Rotel tomatoes, so I had to use diced tomatoes and add Old El Paso salsa. The sour cream here is also a thicker consistency, but it’s ok. Tortillas are small – they only have the 5-6 inch variety. I bought some for later use. Anyhow, dinner was more or less successful.

Since a couple of us didn’t have class the next day, we grabbed the tram to Father O’Flanagan’s. Surprisingly, it was a quiet night there and so we had the bar to ourselves along with about 10-12 others. We had drinks and enjoyed the live music. By the end of the night, I decided I wanted to dance and stood up and all of a sudden, everyone in the room decided it was a good idea to dance. We even got the band to play another song so we wouldn’t have to stop. It was fun. Unfortunately, we had to taxi back at the end of the night, but it wasn’t too bad split among the 4 of us who went.

July 26 - Video Killed the Radio Star

I started off my day of classes with Media Project Development at 11am. It’s a one hour lecture; today’s was on getting a job in the Media industry sponsored by the career services office and two media professionals. It was a pretty good lecture. I signed up for the tutorial space I wanted – Wednesdays at 10am.

I met Premi, a housemate, for lunch on campus and then headed back to the house to kill time ‘til the next class. At 3 pm I headed to Research of Media Audiences. I am glad I left about 30 minutes early since I could not find the lecture hall. I knew I had seen signs for it before, but couldn’t find it. I walked down to the IPO to check the map and figured out where I had gone wrong. To kill more time, I ran to the bakery to grab a chocolate something and ran into a friend from orientation. We talked until time for class. This lecture is 2 hours, but we were only there about an hour ½ or so. I signed up for my 1st-3rd choice tutorials and have not yet heard which I will be getting. We are supposed to be emailed with the results.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet. House people hung out and had dinner and I’m learning to make Indian food. Yum.

July 25 - School of Rock

Today was the first day of school, but no school for me! I slept in and called Jenn when I woke up. I could hear Evan making noise and then Lauren laughing… oh the precious voices! I miss them.

I really did absolutely nothing today. I had breakfast. I watched “Ready, Steady, Cook!” and talked with housemates who were coming and going. I heard the campus was packed and back in full swing! I took a nap. I ate some dinner. I watched “School of Rock” and did more of nothing (except catch up on my journal). I am ready for classes tomorrow.

July 24 - Maheguru

I woke up at 9 and went and woke up Garvinder and Raj to take me to Temple. We got on the tram at near 10am and took it to Parliament where we grabbed a train to Blackburn, then walked to the temple. We actually arrived at noon. I took off my shoes, but a scarf on my head, and walked down the line of offering. I put my money in the box and bowed like the guys told me and then walked back down and sat across the aisle from Garvinder (Raj went out and stood in back). They had a power point translating. There was the writing Hindi, English translation, and phonetic pronunciation of what was being sung/chanted. The music was really cool to listen to and the message was interesting to read. After about 10-15 minutes of sitting, “Groovy” took me out and we stood by Raj. After the prayer is over, we sat down and ate. It was, of course, good stuff. Then, we headed back out and got our shoes on and started our trek back. We made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way back and by the time we arrived back it was going on 5pm!

I was unpacking my things and cleaning up from the weekend when Steve from down the hall knocked on my door and handed me a bag “from reception.” I couldn’t get my head around it, but he said “reception” had sent it with him to give to me. I looked inside the bag and there was this cute box and inside the box was the koala and a body butter from body shop – the two things I had admired from a couple days before. My friend JM had gone back and gotten them from me. I’m not sure if it was an apology for putting us on the diverted bus or the fact that he wants a date (the boy is 20 years old!!), but either way, I was very surprised and pleased. 

Later in the evening I watched a movie called “Black”, which was a Bollywood production (without the singing and dancing), and based on the story of Helen Keller. It was really good. Really good. Go find it in your foreign film area if you can.

July 23 - Grapevine

We got a new housemate in the morning, Kim from NY, so I went and chatted with her and her roomie Manjit for a bit. She needed supplies and I wanted to head to Preston Market, so it ended up that a lot of people wanted to go from our floor, so a group was organized to teach us the way to get there by tram. Eight of us went and we split up inside and went on our merry ways purchasing necessities. Aidan called me while I was there and met up with us and he and I walked around for a bit and he asked if I wanted a coffee, so I said goodbye to the group and he and I went and sat down for a coffee and a chat, then he drove me home.

When I got back, the outside cricket game was already in play, so Aidan and I went out and checked out the scene. Turns out my new RA was one of his students that he tutored. Cricket got moved to the big field and Aidan decided to head home to do some stuff and I would see him later for dinner. I went out to the big field, but it was too windy for cricket so we played soccer instead. All was great and fine until I got smacked by Nasrin (the downstairs RA who is all of 100lbs) and her knee landed right across the bridge of my foot. That took me out of the rest of the game. I tried to keep playing, but it hurt pretty bad, so I decided that was my cue to head inside to get ready for dinner with Aidan’s fam.

He came and got me around 6 and we headed back to his place to get his mom’s dogs and headed to his older sister Tiffany’s house. At the house I met Tiffany and her partner Simon, Aidan’s younger sis Lucy, and his mom was there too. We went to a restaurant called Red Vine and had a great dinner (I had snapper with mashed potato and crab over chorizo) and we had some great wines. Simon, Tiff’s boyfriend, is from Adelaide and had some good thoughts on wines, so I asked him about getting a list of “must-try” wines. Dinner was fun and Aidan’s sisters are great. Both are just totally cool and gorgeous. Tiffany works in fashion somehow – it was not quite explained to me, but I would totally go shopping with her. Lucy is still a student at Uni of Melbourne in Commerce and Engineering double major! Not sure if she’s crazy or smart. She’s a complete doll and strikingly pretty (or so I think). They all have a good relationship with each other or so it seems. It was a really nice time.

Aidan and I had been invited to stay at Lucy’s for the night, but I had to get back for plans in the morning. As Aidan and I drove back, he had to go through a sobriety checkpoint. It’s a strange way of structuring it, but he went through the line and blew and was fine. So strange! Apparently they are a pretty common occurrence.

July 22 - (I come from a ) Land Down Under

Other than waking up sweating under the covers and swearing I could see my breath above the covers, I slept well. Aidan’s mom was already awake when I got up at 8:30 and I went in to wake up Aidan. We ended up talking and napping til 10:30 when his mom asked if he could take her back to the city. He got up and made us some breakfast (if it could be called that) and demanded I try a bite of vegemite toast. It was everything I heard it would be: salty!

A dropped me off and I considered going into the city myself, but a guy named JM (from Mexico) texted me to ask if I wanted to go to the Greensborough Mall with him. I had nothing better to do, so I accepted. I grabbed the tram and caught up with him. We jumped on the bus and got to the mall. Mostly we just walked around to see what was there. We stopped in at an “Australian Geographic” store where I found this great stuffed koala made of that really soft material. I considered getting it for Lauren, but figured I would wait til later to pick it up. We continued on and went in Target to see what was there. We went into some candle stores and The Body Shop (I wanted to test out some Body Butter since my skin is flaking off like crazy!) and asked him to pick a scent because my nose was still a bit stopped up. He wouldn’t decide, and I decided $25 was too much for it anyhow, so we moved on…

After taking the wrong bus (again) to get back, we finally got back after a 45 min detour. OK, to be fair, it wasn’t a “wrong” bus, just not an express bus. We went really far out into the suburbs, but we got to see some really great houses and a new area. Other than the fact that I was fading fast, it was an ok mistake. We stopped at the Bundoora shops on the way back and got take away at a noodle shop that was quite tasty.

I got back at 7:30 and just watched movies with my housemates til a cricket game was organized in the hallway. It was hysterical. I took a couple movies of it. (email me if you want to see.)

July 21 - Crash

I spent the early part of my morning enrolling for my courses. I am taking Media Project Development from 11-12 on Tuesdays, Research of Media Audiences from 3-5pm on Tuesdays, as well. Both of those classes have tutorials which I am aiming to get both on Wednesday. Then, I have one more class on Fridays from 9-12 on Writing for Video – Non-fiction. I met that professor since he had to sign off on my courses and he seemed cool. I look forward to that class the most, though it may be my hardest or most demanding. After the two-hour ordeal, I went back to the grad house to basically do nothing. I had planned to meet Rike in St. Kilda again, but she wasn’t planning to do anything til nearly 8 and I didn’t know how to get home or what I would do if I got stranded in St. Kilda for the night, so I decided not to go. In the meantime, Aidan called to ask if I wanted to come have dinner with him, his housemate Travis, and his mother. I said sure. The boys came and picked me up and they cooked us a roast with all the veggies and corn and green beans. We had a couple bottles of red wine and it was a lovely time. I dig the fact that the boys cooked, so Aidan’s mom and I just chilled out and watched tv and talked and helped when we could – but we were mostly told to get out of their way! It was pretty late after dinner and Aidan and I watched the end of a movie and a segment of Oz before he set up a bed for me and I crashed.

July 20 - Head Over Feet

As I had no plans for the day, it was mostly a lazy day. I had planned to meet my friend Rike in St. Kilda since that’s where she lives, but she was too hungover from the night before. I got a call around 1pm from A saying that he was back and he would call me later after he got settled and took a nap. He did call back around 8 and said he would head by after eating something. When he did show up the visit went well. We chatted for a bit, then went out into the main tv room and talked and put on a movie. Some floormates joined us and we all had a nice chat. I could tell he was tired and he left at midnight. I took the opportunity to call my papa to wish him a Happy Birthday! He had to step out of a root canal for it, but I did get to say hello!

July 19 - Locomotion

There were really no classes to take during the day on Tuesday since it was just repeat stuff for late arrivals. I went by the IPO to turn in a copy of my visa, COE and passport so they would have that on file for any necessary correspondence to the government (for visas and such). I ran into another girl that I had met during the course of the Welcome Week and she was headed to Northland shopping center so I said I’d go too. We got a bus, and after some fumbling around with schedules and maps, we realized we were headed in the wrong direction. We got off and walked a couple blocks to a different stop and got the correct bus.

Northland is a fairly close shopping center (if we hadn’t taken the detour). It has the Kmart (from July 13 section) and a couple grocery stores, tons of clothing shops – more or less it’s a regular mall with the addition of grocery stores. We did some shopping around at Kmart and had lunch and just looked around before deciding to head back. We jumped back on the bus and it wasn’t too far out from the shopping center that we had realized that we were on the same bus but again, going the wrong way. So we got off and waited for the correct bus, at which point our met cards expired and we had to buy a supplement to get back to campus.

I, again, decided a nap was in my best interest and headed back to grad house for a snooze since I knew it would be a late night with the ending of Welcome Week’s festivities planned for the evening.

I arrived a bit late to the Vice-Chancellor’s Welcome (so in fact did not see if he actually appeared himself), but I was there in time to play the games. I tied with 5 others on the Aussie Faces and Music game. We all went on stage and I was the only person who got the bonus face and won a free movie pass. Then the song came on and since I had won already, I couldn’t play, but I knew the song so I started jumping up and down and dancing. Finally, some girl figured it out and it was “Locomotion” by Kylie Minogue.

From the games we went to the Eagle Bar for drinks and dancing and had a blast. Because of my onstage antics, I had quite a few people come up and tell me I was a good dancer and have apparently a lack of stage fright. Big surprise. When the dancing started, Rike (my German friend) and a couple other gals and a couple guys were able to get the dance floor started and pretty soon everyone was dancing. I stayed there until nearly 12:30 when a floormate offered me a ride home so I took it to get home safely since I was on the opposite side of campus. Good times.

July 18 - Seek Ye First

Life is unfair. I woke up with a sore throat! So I skipped the library tour to catch a bit more sleep and a hot shower to clear my head of whatever was ailing it. I made it to the bookstore in time to get my timetable sorted for the classes I wanted to take. I got free lunch again – this time the International Student Assoc. put on a BBQ for us and I ate something that resembled a burger, but not quite sure. HA! Then my main class for the day was “Ask an Academic” and this really funny professor got up and told us what to expect from our professors and tutors and how to get by and handle our course loads and what happens if we get sick, etc. He was very informative and a total laugh.

Since I was still feeling poopy, I went ahead and came back to take a short nap so I could make the 5pm bus tour of St. Kilda since I had actually paid for it. The trip was good.


St. Kilda is a suburb nearly an hour from campus by mass transit and right on the bay. It’s very funky and young. I believe the US Consulate is somewhere in St. Kilda if I recall correctly from something I read. Anyhow, I look forward to making it back there when I have more time. It had great views across the bay looking back over to the city. We had dinner on Acland Street before heading back. We had a good tour of the city and the street closest to campus with some good pubs. I was feeling pretty miserable near the end of the tour though and was fortunate to have someone drive me back across campus to the grad house. It was straight to bed from there.

July 16/17 - This little piggy went to market...

A guy I met the evening before is an RA at one of the other colleges and therefore can check out the college car for 2 hours at a time. So he picked me up at noon and took me back to Preston Market and we got foods. Then he showed me where the Bundoora shops are (about 4-5 stops down the tram line) and we hit a grocery store there for some things not found at the market. It was nice to really have food this time to survive on.

The rest of my day was just lounging around with my housemates. No one really did anything or had the energy. We cooked dinner together and that was it… and Sunday was the same routine.

July 15 - City Slickers

Took it a bit easy waking up this morning. I didn’t have anything that I had to do until 11:30, so I made myself some brekkie, and took a leisurely stroll to the campus. I took a class on looking for work and living on a budget. They talked about how to get a work visa and where to find jobs. Then part two discussed where to find cheap deals and how to make sure you stay on your budget. It was a good class. After that it was another Chinese lunch, but it was free and I’m not going to complain! After lunch was a class on writing at the uni. It wasn’t all that helpful really. They discussed plagiarism and where to go get help if you are a non-native English speaker and need help with your grammar and vocab. I attended a quick post-graduate panel after that which was a complete waste of time, including the fact that the speaker was late and had nothing really to say. Her English was not all that good. I had already been by the Post-grad office and had a much more helpful and quick session with the guy who keeps the office running.

At 3:30 it was time to do the city tour and scavenger hunt. It was a good time. We took a tram and a train to get into the city just so we could see how the transportation systems worked. We got to the city and checked out the visitor’s center, local landmarks, walked over the river on a gorgeous footbridge with picturesque cityscapes on both sides. I hope my pictures turn out. After we completed the questions and picture hunt, we met up with everyone for dinner. Guess what? Chinese! And not just any Chinese, but Chinese fondue. It was pretty scary. Poor vegetarians on the journey were pretty stranded. I was able to figure out how to cook the beef and roll it in lettuce like bulgogi in Korea. Fortunately, that experience saved me from a sad stomach. I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat $15 worth, but whatever.

The whole group from there went to a place called Father Flanagan’s, which is on our tram stop and apparently a main hangout for the younger colleges since it offers some deal every night and the tram runs pretty frequently even at night from there. We had $2 happy hour for a while and a guy doing cover music who was good. We had a blast just having some drinks and dancing. After a stop at another close-by location, a group of us taxied back around 1:30am. I was pooped!

July 14 - Float On

I woke up a bit later today. I slept until my alarm went off at 8:30 and I rushed to get ready and head in for the campus tour at 9:30. Since I knew my way this time, I made it where I was going in just 10 minutes. The tour showed me a bit more of the campus where I had not yet made it. The campus is really interesting – not architecturally, but more the nature that surrounds it. I have counted more varieties of birds in the past two days! It’s crazy.

After the tour I had another class that was put on by the travel people on campus and they gave out some great information. I went ahead and signed up for the city tour they put on and a day trip this weekend. The day trip needs like 8-10 people for it to go, so I’ll receive a confirmation on it likely tomorrow.

I returned to the library for emailing and then grabbed lunch at one of the agora eateries. There is this cool area in the center of the campus called the “Agora” where there are tons of shops (Pharmacy, travel, salon, mobile phone, convenience, etc) and restaurants (all varieties). After eating I went to the International Programs Office (IPO) to get my medical insurance card and register with the school for my visa. Then it was off to driving lessons!

(Insert driving lesson) Interesting fact: 3L (or is it 4?) to a gallon… so gas costs about $6/gallon here!

I had a bit of time to kill so one of other drivers and I went back to the library to email and kill time until the bus for the Preston Market arrived. Preston Market is a covered market with everything imaginable. I didn’t really know what I needed and didn’t want to carry too much around, so I just made a couple small purchases – 6 mandarins for $1 (WAY cheap) and 200g of freshly made spinach and ricotta ravioli. I had it for dinner. It was very tasty!

It was more Bollywood tonight. In fact, we hadn’t finished the miniseries from the night before, so we finished it. I left to take a shower and when I came back, a new one was on and I got sucked in again. I didn’t finish this one and decided to go rent a movie from the video library in the East bldg. Mark took me over with him and he suggested an Aussie film called “The Castle”, but someone had commandeered the DVD player by the time I got back, so I watched a couple minutes of what they were watching and then gave up. My energy is waning earlier tonight. It’s only 9:30 now and I think I’ll be in bed within the next 30 minutes. It’s another busy day tomorrow.

July 13 - Nomaste

James and I joined some others in the East building for some tv and then began playing Scrabble. Now this should have been an easy feat. The first time we played it was just for fun since James is Italian and was only doing 3 or 4 letter words. The second time we played for points and he had a triple word that just damaged me in the end and he won by 20 points. I was shamed! So I decided it was time to head back to bed at 3am.

I woke up at 7:30 to the sound of what sounded like a distant fire alarm. Then sirens. Putting two and two together with what I have been told are seriously tempermental fire alarms, turns out the alarm was in the East building. I put on my shoes and a sweater and went outside to check the scene. No fire, just a false alarm to which someone will be receiving a $1,800 fine! Seriously! I took a picture of the trucks, but it didn’t turn out all that well.

I decided to go ahead and get dressed for the day and walk on in to campus allowing time to get lost. Fortunately, I did not get lost. I took a somewhat roundabout way to get to the building where I needed to go, but I made it nonetheless. Day one’s orientation consisted of an Indigenous Welcome, Essential information, Lunch (from Ping’s Moat Café), a skip of the Campus Capers to hit the library to email, a group photo (address on where to find it will come later), and the shopping bus to Kmart and Coles grocery.

After returning to campus with my purchases, I schlepped across campus and back up to the house. That was a rough walk with 5 bags and a pillow! I made it and made my room a tad more homey and was able to hang my clothes. With my groceries, I made myself a sandwich for dinner and watched my first Bollywood movie with a couple floormates. Then Mark made some great pasta and offered me a bowl. It was some good stuff! Some of the floor people hung out for a bit and then my poor little eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer. At 10:30 it was lights out.