Saturday, July 23rd, 2011
Today I went on a field trip to the Healsville Sanctuary with about 50 other study abroad/exchange students. The sanctuary is pretty much a zoo that only houses animals that were rescued in the wild (hurt, abandoned, etc.). Therefore the sanctuary is home to many of the big name Australian animals! I used this trip to more or less satisfy my need to see some kangaroos and koalas. I couldn’t live with myself if I went all the way to Australia and never saw the wildlife (aside from the huge possums that seem to live all over in Melbourne). Hung out with two girls during the trip – Shae (S. Korea) and Susi (American) – it was pretty fun, and we got to see just about everything in the park including a bird show. The show was actually really interesting and gave us up close views of some amazing birds – the only problem I had with it was that it only consisted of about 8 different bird species, and I’m pretty sure that Australia has way more bird species than that. It was a fun trip, although it did get super cold near the end of the day, which really did not make being in an outdoor zoo any fun!
 |
| Lazy kangaroos - definitely had the right idea... |
 |
 |
| Scary emu... |
 |
| Adventurers Down Under anyone?!?! Frank the frill-necked lizard! |
 |
| It's a wallaby! |
Sunday, July 24th, 2011
Official Laundry Day! That’s right everyone I actually did my own laundry, all by myself, in a strange dormitory situation! On the positive side I didn’t have to pay to use the washer and dryer, yay! Also I did manage to get everything washed in two loads! I’m sure you are all brimming with pride now that you know that I can truly survive on my own! I also attended my hall’s (Farrer Hall) weekly event – snack and chat. Every Sunday night the hall provides a free snack in an effort to bring a bunch of the residents together to have a snack and chat. It’s actually fun, and a good way to meet people!
Monday, July 25th, 2011
First day of classes – now I know that no one that is reading this is jealous of the fact that I had lectures in the middle of July. It’s almost like summer classes, but it’s going to be for a whole semester! I had one lecture at 9AM for two hours all about statistics and probability in relation to civil engineering – super boring, pretty sure that the professor spent approximately an hour of that time showing us different types of graphs one could use to display data. Keep in mind that he was using the excel graph function for most of them so it was pretty self explanatory. Then I stopped by the Monash University International Student Services (MUISS) to grab a free breakfast. That’s right the breakfast started in the middle of my class (10AM) which really made me feel like I was up way too early for class. Although they have free breakfast for every weekday in the next two weeks, so I will be sure to take advantage of the free food! My second class of the day was ‘Australian Idol’ (peculiar name, not really sure what relation it has to the subject matter but I guess it sounds good). The course is pretty much a course on Australian culture, which is quite helpful considering I’ll be living in Australian culture for the next few months. The course also offers a nice collection of free field trips (including a tour of Sydney, a footy game, and various museum visits), and emphasizes getting out and experiencing Australian culture for ourselves. While this course might be a bit of work, I am really excited for it! My last course of the day is called “Ancient Civilizations.’ This course consists of a study of, you guessed it, ancient cultures including Greek, Macedonian, and some other cultures I can’t remember right now. Lecture was boring, just about Ancient Egypt and stuff. After class wrapped up around 4pm I went back to my hall and tried to figure out where I was supposed to go to pick up a key for the ‘bike share’ program. To explain; the bike share program is a cool program here on campus where there are a number of bikes owned by the university that can be unlocked by residents with keys and ridden around campus for free! Unfortunately I didn’t get a key yet but they are making more keys in the next week or so – hopefully I’ll get one then. Later there was a free dinner in my hall – International Meal Night. It was pretty good, although I would like to make the argument that the meal was more or less just Asian, which is fine, but not exactly my definition of international. I was looking for some nachos, or tacos, so I was sorely disappointed.
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Another school day – but only 2 hours of lecture on possibly the most boring subject ever, that does not require any knowledge of civil engineering! Transport and Traffic Engineering focusing specifically on different types of INTERSECTIONS! Imagine two fun filled hours of going over different types of intersections – stop controlled, signalized, unsignalized, roundabouts, and more! The only interesting few minutes came during a discussion on the recently invented ‘Magic Roundabouts’ that have been put in at some intersections in the UK. If you don’t know what they are do a little Google search and be amazed and confused! My practical was cancelled for statistics, so it was a pretty relaxing day. In the evening I went into the city with Ante (Norwegian) and Susi (American) to see a prescreening of a movie – ‘The Beaver.’ Unfortunately we were late, and did not really know where the theatre was located so instead we got some dinner at a healthy burger place called ‘Grill’d.’ It was pretty cool because on Tuesdays they have a student special – a free drink with any burger purchase! Yay for freebies! Afterwards we met up with some other foreigners at a delicious coffee/confectionary/all around awesome shop on Melbourne University’s campus (I must say their campus is cooler than the campus here at Monash, also it is actually in the middle of the city). It was nice to meet some more new people and socialize, although I skipped a ‘fun’ hall event to do so. Oh well there are supposed to be plenty of fun hall events during the semester. A nice relaxing day, I hope that I’ll always be able to find time to do fun things while I’m here.
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011
Got up at a decent hour and went to the Campus Centre (like the AMU or Unions at schools back home) to get some free breakfast again from MUISS. They had already put away all the food when I arrived at 10:30AM, but a nice volunteer got what they had left out for me to eat – bread with Nutella, cornflakes, and biscuits. It wasn’t too bad for another free meal! Then I attended my first Tutorial (discussion) section for my Ancient Civilizations course. It wasn’t too bad, just an overview of the course structure and assignments. After that finally bought the course notes for the class, and a notebook, because I am in school this semester, not just having fun touring Australia. I do have to pass all my courses – traveling is not an excuse. I also picked up a ‘culture card’ which is a nifty card provided by the Victorian Government that provides international students assistance and notifies them of events being held in the state. There is supposed to be a cool event this weekend that I plan on going to with a couple of friends. Right after I picked up the card, I was bombarded with messages from Hesmond and Ida to meet them at a free BBQ and Silent Disco that was being held on the lawn outside of the Student Centre. The food was delicious and free! Then we joined in the Silent Disco. For those of you who have never heard of a Silent Disco, it is a dance party in which there are multiple DJs who each play different things on a different station. Each person there gets headphones that they can use to tune into the different stations – there were only two at this event, but we have plans to go to a real silent disco with tons of DJs. It was pretty fun, and funny, to see so many people dancing without music, and knowing that they might not even be dancing to the same music! Had class after the Silent Disco, which was interesting, but not very easy to follow – the lecturer enjoys discussing historical events slightly out of order, which is super unhelpful. I know nothing about Ancient Civilizations – I hope I can pass this class and do all the traveling I want to do! Later that evening I helped Shae install VLC Player on her computer so she can stream the free public television offered by our Uni. The only problem was that her computer is in Korean, and almost impossible for me to figure out how to set it up – eventually we just had to change the computer settings to English – but we did succeed! After that I crashed her hall’s free dinner session (which I apparently wasn’t supposed to do, but I didn’t know where to go for my hall’s free dinner). It was pretty delicious pasta, so I’m not really complaining about the choice. Afterwards I went back to my hall to hang out with people that live on my floor. They are relatively social but usually only later at night. They ended up taking me to an Irish pub called Dooley’s. It was pretty fun to get to know them better, although it ended up being a late night of dancing (which I am terrible at!).
 |
| At Dooley's with some friends from my floor. |
Thursday, July 28th 2011
Had class once again at 10am, which isn’t too bad, although it was Traffic and Transport Engineering, so another painfully boring hour about flow, volume, time mean speed, space mean speed, etc. (for all you Civils out there). Followed that class up by hanging out with another girl from America who is in my class (her name is Erin and she goes to school in Michigan), and met another guy from America who is from California (all not really important). Then I had to go to my Tutorial (called ‘Tuts’ by some Australians) for the Australia Idol (pretty much Australian culture course). It was pretty simple, talked to someone in the class and then introduced them to the class, and found out that we do in fact have to give a 15 minute presentation sometime during the semester. Overall it was a short day of class because my Practical for Traffic and Transport Engineering was canceled (I’m not complaining). After my tutorial I found out there was a free barbeque right outside of the Student Centre – so of course I helped myself to some delicious food, and free drinks, and basked in the start of my weekend! Spent the majority of the afternoon talking to Corey on Skype, and relaxing. Later that evening my floor had a dinner – ‘Pizza and Glowsticks’ – so essentially we ate pizza in the dark and played with glowsticks, haha. I got a pepperoni pizza and it was actually pretty good – can’t complain, although they put a lot less sauce on their pizzas. Afterwards everyone got ready for Thursday evening – apparently it is a big social night at a pub a few blocks away. It was fun to go there and see all the other exchange students and meet some new people! And it was a fun start to my weekend!
Friday, July 29th 2011
NO CLASSSSS! After four years of University, I finally get a day off during the week – I only have to travel halfway across the world to do so! Woke up late, and met up with Hesmond and his roommate Calvin to work out in the gym (called Monash Sport). Took it easy on the recumbent bike, and did some reading for my Ancient Civilizations class. When I got back from the gym I found out that there was a hall dodgeball competition, that had a free barbeque for all participants and supports. With the promise of more free food I of course showed up and was coerced to actually play a couple of rounds for Farrer Hall. After I played a few rounds I got cold, and decided it was time to clean up and shower – too bad when I got back for the barbeque I was coerced into playing again (in completely incorrect attire). It was funny, made things more interesting, and my hall won the whole tournament anyway! Afterwards I just relaxed in my room – chatted with a few new friends on Facebook chat.
Saturday, July 30th 2011
Woke up early for a weekend, around 10am, to get ready to go into the city with some other exchange students for the ‘Melbourne Open House.’ This is a weekend in which cool buildings in Melbourne are open to the public for free tours. Unfortunately I was unaware that in order to see most of the buildings you needed to make reservations for tours, which we didn’t make, so we didn’t get to see too many cool buildings – only the Treasury.  |
| Melbourne Central Station - a building in a building, an interesting place. |
 |
| My frail attempt at some 'artistic' street photography. |
 |
| Gold bricks in the Treasury building and the corner of the buliding below. |
As a direct result of the impossibility of seeing too much cool stuff, Victoria (a sweet girl from Norway) and I went shopping at some of the cool shops in the city. It was a lot of fun, but I didn’t really find anything that I really loved, but she got a super cute jacket! Afterwards we got dinner and met up with Niklas (from Finland) and a new friend, Janis (from Germany). Victoria went home, and I stayed with the guys to meet up with some other people from Sweden who live in the city. We met them at one of their houses that is near Melbourne Uni which is actually pretty close to the city center. I hung out there for a little while and met four guys from Sweden, and a few girls from Australia. It was pretty fun just to relax and talk to people (and see how easy it is to be social with people from all over the world). Afterwards we split and met up with some Americans at a pub called ‘Elephant and Wheelbarrow’. It was an interesting place, but it did have a live band (although they only did covers).
That's all for last week - keep tuned for next week's update! Sorry this one is so late!
No comments:
Post a Comment