Okay, so it's been another month... Laziness prevailed yet again! I apologise :3
So... I'm currently sitting in my room at the Uni where I'm living!!! :D It's a pretty neat room considering... I mean, comparing to rooms my parents had to deal with when they were involved in the RAAF; this is luxury! :P
Since the last time I blogged, not much had happened in the two weeks succeeding it; but the last two weeks have been jam packed! I shall begin from Tuesday the 21st of February, which is the day before I moved out.
Tuesday 21st:
I used the day to pack everything into two suitcases, and three bags... With plenty of loose stuff unable to fit as well! But they were things like a bar fridge, fan, etc... At around 4pm, I headed over to [Riot!]'s to return a couple of his books and spend the last hour or so with him before Mum arrived to take me, and the rest of the family, out to dinner. This was both a celebration of Mum's birthday, and me going away. From memory, I believe I spent the rest of the night in my room; savouring the last few hours I had left with my Queen size bed! :P
Wednesday 22nd:
MOVE IN DAY!!!
6am wake up, with the next hour and a half spent getting myself decent; as well as packing last minute things into the car along with the rest of it all. Waved off the siblings, and headed off to the Uni around 7:30am.
We arrived at around 8:40am (20 minutes early) and headed up to the building where we told to go for receiving the room key and directions to the rooms. We headed up the stairs and were greeted by people dressed in either red, blue, green or purple. The colourful, friendly people directed us to a room where they took my photo (for database purposes) and gave me my key. Returning outside, they asked what house I was staying in; to which I replied with Pitt. The people in green gave a cheer, and one of them came forward to take my parents and I to Pitt Hall.
When we arrived, my parents and I had three hours until Lunch to do whatever. So we threw everything onto the tiny standard single bed, and organised a few of the things into semi-piles. We then walked around the entire campus, finding the main places of interest. We sussed out the new gym and pool facilities (that I get for free!) which were pretty schmancy; followed by the Post Office where I got a PO box for people to send me mail in. Other places such as the library and the bookshop were also checked out! :P
On returning back to my room, I met a girl who was moving into the room across the hall from me. We introduced ourselves as my Dad and her Mum were having the "I've seen you before?" discussion. Turns out they knew each other from work! 'Tis a small world...
Anyways, so we made good friends and when it hit 12:30pm we headed over to the Dining Hall for the free lunch held for parents and new residents. After more introductions, and the usual chit-chat; the head of the Halls of Residence made a speech that I can't remember what it was about... It was most likely general information mostly targeted at parents, but relevant to residents as well. It was then where my parents and I said our final goodbyes, as we residents had an information session separate to the one the parents had to go to.
The new residents gathered in what I now know as the Main Lecture Theatre; where we had a welcome speech from members of the Res Club and Res Staff. For those who don't know the difference between them; the Res Club are in charge of the organisation of all social activities for Halls throughout the year, wheareas the Res Staff are a handful of students from each Hall who are in charge of mentoring us newbies, as well as helping out with minor issues such as security, loss of keys, snakes, that sort of thing... Yes! There are plenty of critters wondering about here. And there has already been a snake spotted by my hall, but thankfully it's over by the third Pitt block; not the second which I am in. :3
They ended the speech with the Res Club and Res Staff performing a dance for us. Little did I know at the time, that that was to be our "Fresher Dance". We are referred to as freshers, and every single time the song Set It Off by Timomatic comes on; everyone has to stop whatever they are doing and do the dance. No exceptions! And yes, this dance involves thrusting movements, doing tiger claws and saying "RAH!", Elvis moves, Mick Jagger moves, plus more... When doing it with other people though, it's actually quite fun. :3
Once we had learned our Fresher dance and played a couple of introductory games; we headed down to the oval to play Watermelon Touch. <- Awesome game!!!
Okay, so as it sounds; it is a normal game of Touch Football... Only using a watermelon instead of the normal ball. I didn't play the game of touch myself (as I barely would have been able to lift those massive things...); but that didn't stop me from participating in the watermelon fling between Halls.
See, as the watermelons are so heavy; within the first couple of seconds it's been dropped, making it break into smaller pieces. The biggest piece is used to continue play with; as residents that aren't playing (if they want too) run onto the field and grab any pieces left over. They then take them back to the area where they were seated, and the attack of the watermelon begins! I personally managed to land a couple of pieces on heads so I was quite proud of myself; as well as not getting overly sticky myself! ;D
Once every Hall had versed each other (pretty sure no one scored...); we headed back to our rooms for a quick shower before meeting back in the common room. It was then that we were presented with garbage bags for a Garbage Bag Formal dinner. Me, lacking in creativity, opted for a simple black dress with a purple tie and anklet; as well as a green belt. Other people had done some pretty awesome stuff with their garbage bags that made me feel quite "plain jane" next to them! :P
Dinner was good, and was interrupted with the MTV videos each Hall presented last year as the cultural part of the competition for House Cup. They explained to us that the same will be required of us this year so we should start brainstorming ideas; this was then followed with the Fresher dance which I struggled with due to the limiting movement of the garbage bags.
About an hour after dinner, a Bright, Tight & Sparkly themed party was held at the club on campus. I didn't have anything overly bright, tight, or sparkly... But I did have my bright orange 'Fresher vest', which did the job. ~Every Fresher received a bright orange safety-like vest which says O-Week, Hit it Head On! on the back; and we had to wear it all week up until 3pm Sunday.~
Seeing as it was the first day and I didn't know anybody, I only ended up staying for an hour before I headed back to my room; going to bed at around 10:30pm. As early as that was, I struggled falling asleep due to the new bed; and it turned out that I needed as much sleep as I could get! ~You'll understand in the next paragraph~
Thursday 23rd:
Now... There are speakers in every single room within the Halls. All connected with the same PA system. So, here I was happily asleep, dreaming about whatever... When at 4:30am a horn was being blown over the speaker in my room; as well as the rest of Pitt.
*BRRRRTTTT* My impression of the sound of a horn...
"Good morning Pitt! It's time to go do some aerobics! Get dressed, put some shoes on, and let's go!"
*BRRRRRTTT* *Sounds of other Pitt staff running from door to door, banging on them*
"Come on [Miss Invisible], wake up!!!" *Bang bang*
"Come on Pitt, let's go let's go let's go!"
Shocked, I practically fell out of bed and scrambled to get clothes and shoes on so I could stop all the noise from happening. ~Sensitive hearing at 4:30 in the morning was not a good mix!~
It continued for another five to ten minutes while other people were clearly having trouble getting out of bed; but thankfully I got out pretty quickly and escaped to the common room where I was greeted by faces that probably looked similar to mine...
Once everyone had congregated, the way-to-energetic Res Staff led us to a grassy area where we waited for the other three Halls to grudgingly meet up with us. Once everyone was there, a gym junkie from my Hall led us through about 30-40 push-ups, burpees, sit-ups and starfish jumps; in blocks of ten so we don't die too much... The grass was nice and wet due to it raining throughout the night, so the push-ups and sit-ups were a pleasure to do... After making us do that, they made us do the Fresher dance; before letting us go with grins on their faces, saying that they're cooking a breakfast for us at 7am.
Considering it was about 5am at this point, I didn't much see the point in going to sleep for an hour and a half, only to never want to get up again. So, instead, I kept myself entertained on the computer; before heading down to a breakfast of sausages, bacon and eggs.
A couple of hours later I was heading off to seminars and checking out the Market Day that was being held. Casually walking past a stall and doubling back in horrific shock as you realise that it's a sexual health awareness stall with objects on display that scarred my vision and thoughts for a while... Let's just say, Uni is very much different to high school!
At around 2pm, I headed back to my room and ignored the speakers as our Pitt rep told everyone that a pool party was being held; and instead went to sleep. Waking up nice and refreshed for dinner, then heading back to my room to prepare for an early night. A Casino Royale themed party was held, but after the previous night; I didn't bother.
Friday 24th:
Had a nice lovely sleep in before heading out with my new found friend [Snoopy] (the girl who I met on the first day) to arrange business such as attending a couple more seminars, buying anything we didn't previously have in the bookstore, etc. At around 5pm, the speakers informed us that there was to be a Hall Crawl starting at 5:30pm.
Now [Snoopy] told me, at the time, that she heard it might be similar to what's known as a "Pub Crawl". Such events normally consist of drinking at one pub, then going to another one, and another one, and another one; pretty much resulting in a lot of people being drunk off their faces incredibly quickly. So, terrified, I went down to the common room just to see whether it was that or not; otherwise I would have retreated back to my room faster than you can say "Uni!".
Thankfully, it had nothing to do with alcohol at all... There were different activities being held at each Hall, and groups were to travel between them; spending 45 minutes at each one.
The first one I went to was Riddell. Inside, in their (*Cough*Puny*Cough*) common room, they had the TV show Scrubs playing; but I opted to go to one of the outside activities. One was a game of Poison Ball, the other (which I spectated) was a couple of tarps on the ground covered with soap and water; in the form of a 'Slip and Slide'. I was incredibly tempted to do it, but I was running low on clothes as it was, and didn't want to deal with a disgusting Fresher vest for the rest of the week (we had to wear them regardless. Even during the pool party the previous day, Freshers had to wear them in the pool).
After Riddell, we travelled to Thynne. Here they were holding a game of Signs for those who didn't want to brave spectating, or participating in the other two activities. One was a tin of spaghetti which had red frogs in there. Participants having to find them with their mouth only. The second consisted of jugs of blue milk, and the participants competing in a Boat Race. I missed the first one, which from what I heard had nasty after effects in some people, but I watched the second one; where nothing interesting happened except this one girl threw half of her leftover milk at this guy who was making sexist comments. It was the best thing ever guys.
Next stop was back to Pitt and only inside games were being played there. In one room was Wink Murder and Bang!, then at half time we swapped to play Knights, Mounts and Cavaliers. I won the game of Bang!, so I had the pleasure to be the detective of Wink Murder where there was three murderers. =.= Let's just say, I failed miserably! Then with K, M & C; I got out after the first couple of rounds, but what I found hilarious was that I got out the round before the Res Staff started to make things interesting and call out sex positions instead of the usual three options... The look on the Freshers' faces was classic and most of them were incredibly hesitant. The game ended pretty quickly after that, and we proceeded to watch a dance off between two Res Staff members, followed by them playing Set It Off and us having to do the FD. <- Acronyms for the win!
The last Hall for the night was Shelton. Inside was a mini obstacle course where Pitt and Shelton versed each other with teams of four. Outside was a doughnut eating contest (they were hanging on strings, and couldn't use hands), and an International Guess-The-Food competition-like thing. I participated in the obstacle course, watched the last doughnut eating contest where one guy looked like he was eating the string as well as the doughnut... And I made it in time to watch the last Food one which only allowed International people in that round as they served up Vegemite. The blindfolded contestants were throwing around ideas, but it was my Texas neighbour who exclaimed "It's bloody Vegemite!" as soon as the spoon touched his lips; throwing it away from him almost immediately.
After the last contest, everyone was brought inside to receive a paddle pop ice-cream. Then, of course, they played Set It Off... At this point, most people had opened up and were beginning to eat their ice-creams, like myself... But! When the song comes on we have to dance! So we did! Just holding our ice-cream in one hand and whenever moves allowed our hands were not being used in a dance move, most people were licking their ice-creams to ensure it didn't melt. It was quite difficult, and I was thankful when it was over; but it was still hilarious!
By the time the Hall Crawl had finished, it was 8:30pm. So, laughing and discussing the night's events, we made our way back to our respective Halls and rooms; where most people then got ready for the Hats, Boots n' Boxers party. Again, I did not wish to attend. A part of the reason could be that I do not possess a hat, or boxers... But the same reason as the previous night still applied.
Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th:
I combined the weekend because not much happened until Sunday night. So didn't see the point in having separate ones... Hehe.
ANYWAYS! Saturday was spent just chilling in my room mostly... With [Snoopy] popping in here and there to provide me with random stories, or information about her much loved sport; NRL. *Shudder* I listen to her, for the sake of being a good friend. But my insides are dying every time she mentions it! :P
And Sunday was spent pretty much the same way. Just using up the internet before it was refreshed for the start of semester. Though Sunday was the day that all returning residents were moving in. This also marked the day where the division would occur between returning residents and Freshers. Some Freshers interact with the RRs here and there, but we mostly stick to ourselves now; as we all know each other really well from the first week of activities.
The Dining Hall was packed that night, and it wasn't made any easier when they played Set It Off, to which the Freshers groaned. Half the Dining Hall was dancing, and the other half was watching on in amusement; as they would have had to do the same thing last year. Only a different dance to a different song.
After dinner, everyone was getting changed into white shirts and grabbing markers for the much awaited Scribble Party. By this time, I had found myself a group of new buddies to hang out with; so I attended this one with enthusiasm. [Snoopy] was the first to attack my shirt by drawing a big Snoopy on the back (hence why her nickname is now Snoopy (and not just in the blog world)). I didn't get as much written as other people did, but looking at the content of some of the things written; I'm glad the worst I got was "Tits from Pitt", "I'm a Pitt Bitch", and "Open for All". Yes... Uni is a charming place.
The Res Staff had sworn themselves to an alcohol-free week at the start of O-Week, but the Scribble Party meant the end of that oath. Therefore, most of the Res Staff, and returning residents were pre-drinking before we had even reached the club. Which made for a very interesting atmosphere. After a 45 minute wait to get into the club (people got there early so they could guarantee a spot in there; as there was to be a lock-out that night), we got in there and I had a good night!
I tried a Vodka Cruiser for the first time, and I took an hour to drink it; much to the annoyance of one of my friends who quite likes to drink! But, it's my choice. And I have no idea how quickly I can consume alcohol without becoming tipsy or drunk; and I didn't want to risk it with classes starting the next day. We didn't dance, but we all hung around chatting and laughing along with random people who would come and chat for a bit, before heading off again. The only concerning factor was that people were buying pitchers of alcohol (as in small jugs), and drinking straight from them. All I could think was "Oooh! You are going to have a nice headache in the morning...". As it was, my Texas neighbour told me the next day that he spent $120 in that one night. Thankfully he saved up a fair amount of cash before coming up here!
We ended up leaving around 10pm, as that was the time when things were looking like they were going to go downhill; and we all headed to our respective rooms. I didn't plan on staying up much longer; so I set my alarm, got dressed, and pretty much just crashed on the bed! :3
Monday 27th:
FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!
Okay, so I am studying four subjects this semester.
Animal Biology; Plant Biology; Basic Maths; and Animal Welfare, Behaviour and Handling.
My timetable is pretty awesome in that four days out of five, the average time I finish for the day is 1pm. Only on Wednesday do I finish at 4pm; but I also get to sleep in that day so SCORE! Anyways. On Monday's agenda I had my first Animal Bio lecture, followed by my first Maths lecture.
The first hour of AB (starting at 9am) was introductory, then the next hour was spent on the lecturer going over topics I did in Year 11 and 12; making it rather difficult to stay focused. The Maths lecture was only an hour long, consisted of only an introduction, and finished at 12pm.
I spent the rest of the day organising slides to be printed the next day. Which is probably the worst day out of my timetable.
Tuesday 28th:
An 8am start with two hours of AB came first. It was more revision, but every now and again something would crop up that I never learnt in high school.
At 10am, my first Plant Biology lecture began. Normally the timetable goes: 1hr PB lecture, 1hr PB tutorial, 1hr PB lecture. But because the lecturer had no tutorial prepared for the first week; we just did a 2hr lecture. First hour was spent as introduction; and the second hour was spent on Floral Morphology. Don't ask me what that means, because I have no clue. Nor did I barely understand what she was saying half the time.
"Learning Botany is like learning a new language!"; said the lecturer in the introduction. She was correct. There was classifications within classifications, with so many names for so many things... I swear almost every word had "ae" or "eu" or some other ridiculous ordering of vowels! I was sitting there going D': I'm gonna fail this course... Of course, [Snoopy] was sitting there like "Oooh! I get most of this!". She's studying plants so her interest is a big boost for her! :P Oh well, she can help me out... Hehe. So we finished at 12pm, instead of 1pm which we will be the rest of semester.
Wednesday 29th:
Only had a Math lecture today! Practicals aren't starting until Week 2, so my AB prac that runs from 1-4pm wasn't on. I had a nice lie-in and headed to my 10am Math lecture for two hours where all we were learning about was fractions, decimals, and the BOMDAS rule. Everyone had to get these things called Clickers so we can answer questions out lecturer puts up on a slide, and it does a poll as to what percentage selected which answer (multiple choice); and which answer is correct.
That had to be the most fun lecture of the week. Our Indian lecturer is attempting to learn all of our names (there's at least 250 of us), he teaches us "Indian ways" of working out different Maths topics, and he just tries to make the lectures fun! Which, considering it's Maths, is actually working so far! (Or is it only cause it's been fractions..?). Hehe. Tw hours later, I was walking out thoroughly entertained and relaxed as I had nothing to do for the rest of the day.
Thursday 1st:
9am brought on my first two hour Maths tutorial. We had to split into groups of five, pick a group leader, and work on a worksheet for the whole two hours. Week two brings on weekly assignments which we have to work on together, but as it was fractions, I don't think the lecturer saw the point in doing one for the first week! :3 I really like the group I'm in. We're a funny bunch, and one of our members is pretty sure he's already done this course at another Uni; so he was helping us out if we had issues, and was getting quite passionate about it! At first it was cute, then it got plain annoying hearing nothing but his voice after awhile. No offence to him or anything!
So after the two hours were up (the hours go by quite quickly actually... It's amazing), I had lunch then retreated back to my room as the PB practical wasn't on.
Friday 2nd:
Woke up incredibly tired, but excited for my first AW,B&H lecture starting at 8am. Normally this lecture goes for two hours; but today it only went for one. It was an introductory hour with manual sign on for the practical at the end. Man... The sign on was insane!
Okay, so normally this is done electronically, but there were issues that couldn't be sorted, blah blah blah; which resulted in the need for manual sign on. When our lecturer brought out the papers, the tension in the room was almost unbearable. All eyes were focused on those papers, and the desire to get the morning practical. (You see... Nobody wants to stay back on a Friday afternoon for a 2-5pm prac, when they can leave so much earlier with a 10am-1pm one!). As soon as he started moving to place the papers at different points of the room, all hell broke loose.
People (including myself as I was fourth row back) were jumping over the chairs for a direct way to the bottom; while others closer to the sides ran down the stairs either side. I got to one of them pretty quickly, but was still on the outside of a group of four-five girls bent over it, furiously writing. Annoyingly, they were also writing down the names of the girlfriends who were yelling out; but after a few minutes I finally managed to wedge my hand in to write the first two letters of my name upside down. When more room cleared, I slowly wrote my name upside down (rather neatly I must say so myself, heh) while other people were fighting for the last few spots (I got in with about four spaces left?). It wasn't until the crowds finally disappeared that I could finally write down my student number, and go find the group of people I was in the lecture with to ask what session they got. Everyone I know got a morning session, except for my Texas neighbour who chose to get an afternoon session as he didn't need it like some people did. (Some people had Math tutorials, or family reasons, etc.). He isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so it didn't matter to him so much.
Once again, because no practicals were on, I had the rest of the day off!
Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th:
[Snoopy] had gone back home for the weekend, so I was left relatively on my own this weekend just gone. I did have a few people I could have hung out with, but it was more difficult knowing what they were up too when they don't live right across the hall from me! :P
I spent the weekend in my room, plantsitting [Snoopy]'s Venus Fly Trap (which was kinda cool...) and writing this up! This blog has taken a total of three days (I wrote a bit on Friday) to write... Not non-stop! More because I could't hold my motivation and focus very long. Let's just say, this blog has been written in very small blocks over two whole days...
When I wasn't blogging, I was playing A LOT of Spider Solitaire. This game bores me after a while, yet I still play it..? Over and over again! Haha.
So it is now Sunday night! I am about to prepare myself for bed so I can plenty of rest for AB and Maths tomorrow, but I just need to finish this up first! :P
I have finally caught you guys up on the past two weeks... If I have bored you, deal with it! I'll write about something interesting eventually... ;D
So, I'm finding Uni pretty good so far. I mean... People are very different here. Alcohol and partying is considered a normal activity, and I haven't yet found someone who I can relate too... But, I'll get there I'm sure! I have a year after all! :P
Until then, I shall end my incredibly long post here! I shall try blog more often, but we'll see... Depends on my work load and/or my laziness! :3
~What's love? Nobody knows!~
So... I'm currently sitting in my room at the Uni where I'm living!!! :D It's a pretty neat room considering... I mean, comparing to rooms my parents had to deal with when they were involved in the RAAF; this is luxury! :P
Since the last time I blogged, not much had happened in the two weeks succeeding it; but the last two weeks have been jam packed! I shall begin from Tuesday the 21st of February, which is the day before I moved out.
Tuesday 21st:
I used the day to pack everything into two suitcases, and three bags... With plenty of loose stuff unable to fit as well! But they were things like a bar fridge, fan, etc... At around 4pm, I headed over to [Riot!]'s to return a couple of his books and spend the last hour or so with him before Mum arrived to take me, and the rest of the family, out to dinner. This was both a celebration of Mum's birthday, and me going away. From memory, I believe I spent the rest of the night in my room; savouring the last few hours I had left with my Queen size bed! :P
Wednesday 22nd:
MOVE IN DAY!!!
6am wake up, with the next hour and a half spent getting myself decent; as well as packing last minute things into the car along with the rest of it all. Waved off the siblings, and headed off to the Uni around 7:30am.
We arrived at around 8:40am (20 minutes early) and headed up to the building where we told to go for receiving the room key and directions to the rooms. We headed up the stairs and were greeted by people dressed in either red, blue, green or purple. The colourful, friendly people directed us to a room where they took my photo (for database purposes) and gave me my key. Returning outside, they asked what house I was staying in; to which I replied with Pitt. The people in green gave a cheer, and one of them came forward to take my parents and I to Pitt Hall.
When we arrived, my parents and I had three hours until Lunch to do whatever. So we threw everything onto the tiny standard single bed, and organised a few of the things into semi-piles. We then walked around the entire campus, finding the main places of interest. We sussed out the new gym and pool facilities (that I get for free!) which were pretty schmancy; followed by the Post Office where I got a PO box for people to send me mail in. Other places such as the library and the bookshop were also checked out! :P
On returning back to my room, I met a girl who was moving into the room across the hall from me. We introduced ourselves as my Dad and her Mum were having the "I've seen you before?" discussion. Turns out they knew each other from work! 'Tis a small world...
Anyways, so we made good friends and when it hit 12:30pm we headed over to the Dining Hall for the free lunch held for parents and new residents. After more introductions, and the usual chit-chat; the head of the Halls of Residence made a speech that I can't remember what it was about... It was most likely general information mostly targeted at parents, but relevant to residents as well. It was then where my parents and I said our final goodbyes, as we residents had an information session separate to the one the parents had to go to.
The new residents gathered in what I now know as the Main Lecture Theatre; where we had a welcome speech from members of the Res Club and Res Staff. For those who don't know the difference between them; the Res Club are in charge of the organisation of all social activities for Halls throughout the year, wheareas the Res Staff are a handful of students from each Hall who are in charge of mentoring us newbies, as well as helping out with minor issues such as security, loss of keys, snakes, that sort of thing... Yes! There are plenty of critters wondering about here. And there has already been a snake spotted by my hall, but thankfully it's over by the third Pitt block; not the second which I am in. :3
They ended the speech with the Res Club and Res Staff performing a dance for us. Little did I know at the time, that that was to be our "Fresher Dance". We are referred to as freshers, and every single time the song Set It Off by Timomatic comes on; everyone has to stop whatever they are doing and do the dance. No exceptions! And yes, this dance involves thrusting movements, doing tiger claws and saying "RAH!", Elvis moves, Mick Jagger moves, plus more... When doing it with other people though, it's actually quite fun. :3
Once we had learned our Fresher dance and played a couple of introductory games; we headed down to the oval to play Watermelon Touch. <- Awesome game!!!
Okay, so as it sounds; it is a normal game of Touch Football... Only using a watermelon instead of the normal ball. I didn't play the game of touch myself (as I barely would have been able to lift those massive things...); but that didn't stop me from participating in the watermelon fling between Halls.
See, as the watermelons are so heavy; within the first couple of seconds it's been dropped, making it break into smaller pieces. The biggest piece is used to continue play with; as residents that aren't playing (if they want too) run onto the field and grab any pieces left over. They then take them back to the area where they were seated, and the attack of the watermelon begins! I personally managed to land a couple of pieces on heads so I was quite proud of myself; as well as not getting overly sticky myself! ;D
Once every Hall had versed each other (pretty sure no one scored...); we headed back to our rooms for a quick shower before meeting back in the common room. It was then that we were presented with garbage bags for a Garbage Bag Formal dinner. Me, lacking in creativity, opted for a simple black dress with a purple tie and anklet; as well as a green belt. Other people had done some pretty awesome stuff with their garbage bags that made me feel quite "plain jane" next to them! :P
Dinner was good, and was interrupted with the MTV videos each Hall presented last year as the cultural part of the competition for House Cup. They explained to us that the same will be required of us this year so we should start brainstorming ideas; this was then followed with the Fresher dance which I struggled with due to the limiting movement of the garbage bags.
About an hour after dinner, a Bright, Tight & Sparkly themed party was held at the club on campus. I didn't have anything overly bright, tight, or sparkly... But I did have my bright orange 'Fresher vest', which did the job. ~Every Fresher received a bright orange safety-like vest which says O-Week, Hit it Head On! on the back; and we had to wear it all week up until 3pm Sunday.~
Seeing as it was the first day and I didn't know anybody, I only ended up staying for an hour before I headed back to my room; going to bed at around 10:30pm. As early as that was, I struggled falling asleep due to the new bed; and it turned out that I needed as much sleep as I could get! ~You'll understand in the next paragraph~
Thursday 23rd:
Now... There are speakers in every single room within the Halls. All connected with the same PA system. So, here I was happily asleep, dreaming about whatever... When at 4:30am a horn was being blown over the speaker in my room; as well as the rest of Pitt.
*BRRRRTTTT* My impression of the sound of a horn...
"Good morning Pitt! It's time to go do some aerobics! Get dressed, put some shoes on, and let's go!"
*BRRRRRTTT* *Sounds of other Pitt staff running from door to door, banging on them*
"Come on [Miss Invisible], wake up!!!" *Bang bang*
"Come on Pitt, let's go let's go let's go!"
Shocked, I practically fell out of bed and scrambled to get clothes and shoes on so I could stop all the noise from happening. ~Sensitive hearing at 4:30 in the morning was not a good mix!~
It continued for another five to ten minutes while other people were clearly having trouble getting out of bed; but thankfully I got out pretty quickly and escaped to the common room where I was greeted by faces that probably looked similar to mine...
Once everyone had congregated, the way-to-energetic Res Staff led us to a grassy area where we waited for the other three Halls to grudgingly meet up with us. Once everyone was there, a gym junkie from my Hall led us through about 30-40 push-ups, burpees, sit-ups and starfish jumps; in blocks of ten so we don't die too much... The grass was nice and wet due to it raining throughout the night, so the push-ups and sit-ups were a pleasure to do... After making us do that, they made us do the Fresher dance; before letting us go with grins on their faces, saying that they're cooking a breakfast for us at 7am.
Considering it was about 5am at this point, I didn't much see the point in going to sleep for an hour and a half, only to never want to get up again. So, instead, I kept myself entertained on the computer; before heading down to a breakfast of sausages, bacon and eggs.
A couple of hours later I was heading off to seminars and checking out the Market Day that was being held. Casually walking past a stall and doubling back in horrific shock as you realise that it's a sexual health awareness stall with objects on display that scarred my vision and thoughts for a while... Let's just say, Uni is very much different to high school!
At around 2pm, I headed back to my room and ignored the speakers as our Pitt rep told everyone that a pool party was being held; and instead went to sleep. Waking up nice and refreshed for dinner, then heading back to my room to prepare for an early night. A Casino Royale themed party was held, but after the previous night; I didn't bother.
Friday 24th:
Had a nice lovely sleep in before heading out with my new found friend [Snoopy] (the girl who I met on the first day) to arrange business such as attending a couple more seminars, buying anything we didn't previously have in the bookstore, etc. At around 5pm, the speakers informed us that there was to be a Hall Crawl starting at 5:30pm.
Now [Snoopy] told me, at the time, that she heard it might be similar to what's known as a "Pub Crawl". Such events normally consist of drinking at one pub, then going to another one, and another one, and another one; pretty much resulting in a lot of people being drunk off their faces incredibly quickly. So, terrified, I went down to the common room just to see whether it was that or not; otherwise I would have retreated back to my room faster than you can say "Uni!".
Thankfully, it had nothing to do with alcohol at all... There were different activities being held at each Hall, and groups were to travel between them; spending 45 minutes at each one.
The first one I went to was Riddell. Inside, in their (*Cough*Puny*Cough*) common room, they had the TV show Scrubs playing; but I opted to go to one of the outside activities. One was a game of Poison Ball, the other (which I spectated) was a couple of tarps on the ground covered with soap and water; in the form of a 'Slip and Slide'. I was incredibly tempted to do it, but I was running low on clothes as it was, and didn't want to deal with a disgusting Fresher vest for the rest of the week (we had to wear them regardless. Even during the pool party the previous day, Freshers had to wear them in the pool).
After Riddell, we travelled to Thynne. Here they were holding a game of Signs for those who didn't want to brave spectating, or participating in the other two activities. One was a tin of spaghetti which had red frogs in there. Participants having to find them with their mouth only. The second consisted of jugs of blue milk, and the participants competing in a Boat Race. I missed the first one, which from what I heard had nasty after effects in some people, but I watched the second one; where nothing interesting happened except this one girl threw half of her leftover milk at this guy who was making sexist comments. It was the best thing ever guys.
Next stop was back to Pitt and only inside games were being played there. In one room was Wink Murder and Bang!, then at half time we swapped to play Knights, Mounts and Cavaliers. I won the game of Bang!, so I had the pleasure to be the detective of Wink Murder where there was three murderers. =.= Let's just say, I failed miserably! Then with K, M & C; I got out after the first couple of rounds, but what I found hilarious was that I got out the round before the Res Staff started to make things interesting and call out sex positions instead of the usual three options... The look on the Freshers' faces was classic and most of them were incredibly hesitant. The game ended pretty quickly after that, and we proceeded to watch a dance off between two Res Staff members, followed by them playing Set It Off and us having to do the FD. <- Acronyms for the win!
The last Hall for the night was Shelton. Inside was a mini obstacle course where Pitt and Shelton versed each other with teams of four. Outside was a doughnut eating contest (they were hanging on strings, and couldn't use hands), and an International Guess-The-Food competition-like thing. I participated in the obstacle course, watched the last doughnut eating contest where one guy looked like he was eating the string as well as the doughnut... And I made it in time to watch the last Food one which only allowed International people in that round as they served up Vegemite. The blindfolded contestants were throwing around ideas, but it was my Texas neighbour who exclaimed "It's bloody Vegemite!" as soon as the spoon touched his lips; throwing it away from him almost immediately.
After the last contest, everyone was brought inside to receive a paddle pop ice-cream. Then, of course, they played Set It Off... At this point, most people had opened up and were beginning to eat their ice-creams, like myself... But! When the song comes on we have to dance! So we did! Just holding our ice-cream in one hand and whenever moves allowed our hands were not being used in a dance move, most people were licking their ice-creams to ensure it didn't melt. It was quite difficult, and I was thankful when it was over; but it was still hilarious!
By the time the Hall Crawl had finished, it was 8:30pm. So, laughing and discussing the night's events, we made our way back to our respective Halls and rooms; where most people then got ready for the Hats, Boots n' Boxers party. Again, I did not wish to attend. A part of the reason could be that I do not possess a hat, or boxers... But the same reason as the previous night still applied.
Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th:
I combined the weekend because not much happened until Sunday night. So didn't see the point in having separate ones... Hehe.
ANYWAYS! Saturday was spent just chilling in my room mostly... With [Snoopy] popping in here and there to provide me with random stories, or information about her much loved sport; NRL. *Shudder* I listen to her, for the sake of being a good friend. But my insides are dying every time she mentions it! :P
And Sunday was spent pretty much the same way. Just using up the internet before it was refreshed for the start of semester. Though Sunday was the day that all returning residents were moving in. This also marked the day where the division would occur between returning residents and Freshers. Some Freshers interact with the RRs here and there, but we mostly stick to ourselves now; as we all know each other really well from the first week of activities.
The Dining Hall was packed that night, and it wasn't made any easier when they played Set It Off, to which the Freshers groaned. Half the Dining Hall was dancing, and the other half was watching on in amusement; as they would have had to do the same thing last year. Only a different dance to a different song.
After dinner, everyone was getting changed into white shirts and grabbing markers for the much awaited Scribble Party. By this time, I had found myself a group of new buddies to hang out with; so I attended this one with enthusiasm. [Snoopy] was the first to attack my shirt by drawing a big Snoopy on the back (hence why her nickname is now Snoopy (and not just in the blog world)). I didn't get as much written as other people did, but looking at the content of some of the things written; I'm glad the worst I got was "Tits from Pitt", "I'm a Pitt Bitch", and "Open for All". Yes... Uni is a charming place.
The Res Staff had sworn themselves to an alcohol-free week at the start of O-Week, but the Scribble Party meant the end of that oath. Therefore, most of the Res Staff, and returning residents were pre-drinking before we had even reached the club. Which made for a very interesting atmosphere. After a 45 minute wait to get into the club (people got there early so they could guarantee a spot in there; as there was to be a lock-out that night), we got in there and I had a good night!
I tried a Vodka Cruiser for the first time, and I took an hour to drink it; much to the annoyance of one of my friends who quite likes to drink! But, it's my choice. And I have no idea how quickly I can consume alcohol without becoming tipsy or drunk; and I didn't want to risk it with classes starting the next day. We didn't dance, but we all hung around chatting and laughing along with random people who would come and chat for a bit, before heading off again. The only concerning factor was that people were buying pitchers of alcohol (as in small jugs), and drinking straight from them. All I could think was "Oooh! You are going to have a nice headache in the morning...". As it was, my Texas neighbour told me the next day that he spent $120 in that one night. Thankfully he saved up a fair amount of cash before coming up here!
We ended up leaving around 10pm, as that was the time when things were looking like they were going to go downhill; and we all headed to our respective rooms. I didn't plan on staying up much longer; so I set my alarm, got dressed, and pretty much just crashed on the bed! :3
Monday 27th:
FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!
Okay, so I am studying four subjects this semester.
Animal Biology; Plant Biology; Basic Maths; and Animal Welfare, Behaviour and Handling.
My timetable is pretty awesome in that four days out of five, the average time I finish for the day is 1pm. Only on Wednesday do I finish at 4pm; but I also get to sleep in that day so SCORE! Anyways. On Monday's agenda I had my first Animal Bio lecture, followed by my first Maths lecture.
The first hour of AB (starting at 9am) was introductory, then the next hour was spent on the lecturer going over topics I did in Year 11 and 12; making it rather difficult to stay focused. The Maths lecture was only an hour long, consisted of only an introduction, and finished at 12pm.
I spent the rest of the day organising slides to be printed the next day. Which is probably the worst day out of my timetable.
Tuesday 28th:
An 8am start with two hours of AB came first. It was more revision, but every now and again something would crop up that I never learnt in high school.
At 10am, my first Plant Biology lecture began. Normally the timetable goes: 1hr PB lecture, 1hr PB tutorial, 1hr PB lecture. But because the lecturer had no tutorial prepared for the first week; we just did a 2hr lecture. First hour was spent as introduction; and the second hour was spent on Floral Morphology. Don't ask me what that means, because I have no clue. Nor did I barely understand what she was saying half the time.
"Learning Botany is like learning a new language!"; said the lecturer in the introduction. She was correct. There was classifications within classifications, with so many names for so many things... I swear almost every word had "ae" or "eu" or some other ridiculous ordering of vowels! I was sitting there going D': I'm gonna fail this course... Of course, [Snoopy] was sitting there like "Oooh! I get most of this!". She's studying plants so her interest is a big boost for her! :P Oh well, she can help me out... Hehe. So we finished at 12pm, instead of 1pm which we will be the rest of semester.
Wednesday 29th:
Only had a Math lecture today! Practicals aren't starting until Week 2, so my AB prac that runs from 1-4pm wasn't on. I had a nice lie-in and headed to my 10am Math lecture for two hours where all we were learning about was fractions, decimals, and the BOMDAS rule. Everyone had to get these things called Clickers so we can answer questions out lecturer puts up on a slide, and it does a poll as to what percentage selected which answer (multiple choice); and which answer is correct.
That had to be the most fun lecture of the week. Our Indian lecturer is attempting to learn all of our names (there's at least 250 of us), he teaches us "Indian ways" of working out different Maths topics, and he just tries to make the lectures fun! Which, considering it's Maths, is actually working so far! (Or is it only cause it's been fractions..?). Hehe. Tw hours later, I was walking out thoroughly entertained and relaxed as I had nothing to do for the rest of the day.
Thursday 1st:
9am brought on my first two hour Maths tutorial. We had to split into groups of five, pick a group leader, and work on a worksheet for the whole two hours. Week two brings on weekly assignments which we have to work on together, but as it was fractions, I don't think the lecturer saw the point in doing one for the first week! :3 I really like the group I'm in. We're a funny bunch, and one of our members is pretty sure he's already done this course at another Uni; so he was helping us out if we had issues, and was getting quite passionate about it! At first it was cute, then it got plain annoying hearing nothing but his voice after awhile. No offence to him or anything!
So after the two hours were up (the hours go by quite quickly actually... It's amazing), I had lunch then retreated back to my room as the PB practical wasn't on.
Friday 2nd:
Woke up incredibly tired, but excited for my first AW,B&H lecture starting at 8am. Normally this lecture goes for two hours; but today it only went for one. It was an introductory hour with manual sign on for the practical at the end. Man... The sign on was insane!
Okay, so normally this is done electronically, but there were issues that couldn't be sorted, blah blah blah; which resulted in the need for manual sign on. When our lecturer brought out the papers, the tension in the room was almost unbearable. All eyes were focused on those papers, and the desire to get the morning practical. (You see... Nobody wants to stay back on a Friday afternoon for a 2-5pm prac, when they can leave so much earlier with a 10am-1pm one!). As soon as he started moving to place the papers at different points of the room, all hell broke loose.
People (including myself as I was fourth row back) were jumping over the chairs for a direct way to the bottom; while others closer to the sides ran down the stairs either side. I got to one of them pretty quickly, but was still on the outside of a group of four-five girls bent over it, furiously writing. Annoyingly, they were also writing down the names of the girlfriends who were yelling out; but after a few minutes I finally managed to wedge my hand in to write the first two letters of my name upside down. When more room cleared, I slowly wrote my name upside down (rather neatly I must say so myself, heh) while other people were fighting for the last few spots (I got in with about four spaces left?). It wasn't until the crowds finally disappeared that I could finally write down my student number, and go find the group of people I was in the lecture with to ask what session they got. Everyone I know got a morning session, except for my Texas neighbour who chose to get an afternoon session as he didn't need it like some people did. (Some people had Math tutorials, or family reasons, etc.). He isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so it didn't matter to him so much.
Once again, because no practicals were on, I had the rest of the day off!
Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th:
[Snoopy] had gone back home for the weekend, so I was left relatively on my own this weekend just gone. I did have a few people I could have hung out with, but it was more difficult knowing what they were up too when they don't live right across the hall from me! :P
I spent the weekend in my room, plantsitting [Snoopy]'s Venus Fly Trap (which was kinda cool...) and writing this up! This blog has taken a total of three days (I wrote a bit on Friday) to write... Not non-stop! More because I could't hold my motivation and focus very long. Let's just say, this blog has been written in very small blocks over two whole days...
When I wasn't blogging, I was playing A LOT of Spider Solitaire. This game bores me after a while, yet I still play it..? Over and over again! Haha.
So it is now Sunday night! I am about to prepare myself for bed so I can plenty of rest for AB and Maths tomorrow, but I just need to finish this up first! :P
I have finally caught you guys up on the past two weeks... If I have bored you, deal with it! I'll write about something interesting eventually... ;D
So, I'm finding Uni pretty good so far. I mean... People are very different here. Alcohol and partying is considered a normal activity, and I haven't yet found someone who I can relate too... But, I'll get there I'm sure! I have a year after all! :P
Until then, I shall end my incredibly long post here! I shall try blog more often, but we'll see... Depends on my work load and/or my laziness! :3
~What's love? Nobody knows!~
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