Jordan, ‘10

Anyone know what happens the first ten days of March at the University of Melbourne?  Hum?  Anyone?  No takers?  Well I’ll tell you, dear readers, that the first week (+3 days) of march is actually reserved for an excruciating mix of 1) feeling like a fool that every other person and their cousin knows how to get around campus without a map, 2) being absolutely dumbfounded trying to sort out the detailed information “we don’t have to worry about” from the “necessary to know to be a good microbiologist” info my professors are spouting, and 3) tying my hand to my leg to keep it from bouncing up in lecture.  Because, clearly, questions are reserved for tutorials. 

If, like me, you find yourself scraping for information about the Australian subject (class) system in Uni, then I can tell you it’s been a lot of furrowing my brow, shrugging, and figuring that someday the answer will pop into my head. 

Here, you see, there aren’t set class times like at home (MWF 1-2; TR 8:15-9:20).  Instead certain classes, based on level of difficulty, meet more times than others.  For example, my Principles of Microbiology and Immunology class meets for 1 hour lectures, three days a week and there is a 1 hour “revision session” with questions on Friday.  My Experimental Microbiology (yes, different course) has a 1 hour lecture on Mondays and then has a 3 hour lab on Tuesdays.  My Australian Wildlife Biology course meets for 3 1 hour lectures on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and we have a 3 hour lab every other week.  Finally, my Victorian Crime Writing course (which is fabulous by the way) meets on Thursdays for 90 minutes and then has a tutorial session on Friday for an hour.  Don’t you envy my schedule?

In the lectures, the professor just spews information like a volcanic Goddess (all my teachers are female) for 60 minutes or 90 minutes or even 120 minutes, if it suits her.  Now I’ll admit, what they’re saying is fascinating (I now know a heck of a lot more about platypuses/platypi? than ever before), but questions pop up rarely if ever.  And lectures are put online before hand but because I did not haul a printer overseas (and don’t want to waste money or paper printing it all out), I get the added bonus of copying it all down before lecture.

And as your eyebrows raise like the unholy undead, please try not to roll your eyes as I emphasize that I LOVE MY CLASSES.  They’re fantastic and brilliant.  There is a lot of expectation here (especially more so than at Richmond where the professors are more than willing to help you out) for you to learn the material at your own pace and on your own time.  And so I do.

In other news, I’ve been to more bands here in the last month than I think I saw all last year–check out The Bedroom Philosopher and The Adventure Spirit on myspace if you like good music.  I think I’ve been to more festivals in the last month than the last five years put together.  I’ve climbed more trails than I have in a long while, too.  And I think I’ve fallen in love with this country over and over again since getting off the plane. 

Just to name a couple things I’ve done…I attended a Thai Culture Festival where (for some unknown reason) a group of country singers was playing. 

 

I went swimming at Brighton Beach with a friend.

 

I also visited the Dandenong mountain ranges here in Victoria over the weekend and I climbed the 1000 step memorial trail, which was created to commemorate the Papuan and Australian soldiers that died in WWI, I think.  And yes, there really were 1000 steps.  My hips still hurt.

Here is a forest shot of the Dandenongs

this is a picture of about twenty stairs…now multiply that by fifty.

Will write again soon,

Positively energized creative sponges,

Jordan 

Quote of the week:

“I went surfing and I just quit…it was too hard. I’m never going to surf again because I found an activity which is so much easier than surfing yet I enjoy it equally as much. Now all I do is go to the shore and fill a bucket with sea water, take it home…and f—king drink it. While beating myself over the head with a piece of wood, I take a razor and just cut the hell out of my legs and then I pour salt and coriander shavings over the lacerations and then my friends come in every 15 minutes and just punch me in the head and say “Get off our surf, weekender.” And I enjoy that just as much as surfing.” - Arj Barker

By the way, I loved surfing, hehe.