Week 4

My ability to type coherently has been a little off today, so if I write a sentence that makes no sense at all…..forgive me. This past week classes started, finally! We only had lectures—no tutorials yet—so it was an easy week. I was really glad that classes started again, which is terribly dorky, but. Whatever. I’m vaguely dorky. I think I get it from Dad.

I’m taking four classes:

Australian Lit, 1920-1960: The professor for this course is…mellow without being quiet, does that make sense? If he wasn’t a professor, I might call him lazy, but that would be…disrespectful. I’ll be interested to get into the lit tutorial, because I’m not used to having to write as fast as possible for an hour about what the professor thinks about an author’s work without thinking for myself. I have a feeling that the tutorials will help, because they’re smaller and are supposedly student-led and discussion based, so we’ll see. There are a lot of interesting gender issues in Australian literature—powerful women are often described as men and that’s when women even show up: the literature is supposedly rooted in the male. I’ve read a novel, some poetry, and a few short stories so far, and it looks like there’s a lot there. Which is good fun.

Ceramics, Handbuilding: I’m really excited about this course. There are about 15 students, and I ended up at a table with 4 other Americans. I decided to be the quiet, focused girl in the corner…maybe I’ll be louder this weeks, but who knows. I kind of like just working with the clay and not dealing with other people. We’re working on masks right now—I’m making a medusa, of sorts.

Paths to Enlightenment: This is a religion course, mostly focused on eastern religion and the aboriginal tradition, though the opening lectures were kind of all over the place! And he mentioned the U.S. a LOT. It was kind of…irritating. He’s amusing, usually, and an atheist, so it’s makes it a generally more open environment, except for those U.S. comments. The comments themselves don’t really bother me, because I can brush them off whatever I don’t believe is true… but I’d be pretty willing to guess there are a least 3 students in the 150 person class that don’t filter it like that. For them, the U.S. is run by evangelicals, is full of followers of the American religion, is at a point where either the empire is going to crumble, or liberal democracy is. Yeah. Eastern religion and aboriginal traditions are surprisingly related to current US politics and politicians…

Reality, Ethics, and Beauty: This philosophy course is taught in the three sections by three different professors. So far, the reality professor is taking Aquinas’s proofs for God and showing us why they’re unsound arguments. He’s interesting, in a philosopher of reality who obviously works out a lot sort of way—the only child of older parents, which makes sense when you see how he interacts with his peers. I can tell philosophy is going to stretch my brain a bit, which is good.

((I’m currently watching Super Size Me and my question is…would this be shown on a non-cable station in the U.S.?))

Let’s see, as far as fun things go… Monday was Marisa’s 21^st, so we went to a nice dinner and then hung out before going out—first time I’ve ever gone out on the first school night of the semester! Then, Tuesday night we went to trivia again, which I think is going to be the routine which suits me just fine, because I love it when I know random tidbits. For example, do you know which French designer popularized the little black dress? I did—Coco Chanel! (Thanks Emily!) I saw Amanda for a little while one afternoon and went out with John Baty Thursday evening (they’re both Australian friends from camp).

((Have you SEEN Super Size Me?! I might never eat again!))

Saturday was a beach day and I didn’t get burned, but the sun wiped me out! Today I read and read and read some more, and did laundry. I’ve been thinking that… my Sydney experience is really different from my London one, which is changing the way I’m writing. I guess if I went back to writing every day, I would find things to say, but basically, I don’t want to do that! I like the fact that my life here has a lot of routine…that I walk all over the place, and cook for myself, that there’s a basil plant on my balcony sill that I get to water every day. I just don’t….have daily things to write about in any highly entertaining way!

I’m giving up on this entry. It’s bedtime, anyways!

Week 3

What have I done this week? A lot of nothing.

Monday, I got a bunch of the girls together-- Marti, Rita, Christina (who might spell her name Kristina, but I'm not sure), Marisa, Becca, Carrie, and even Rachel my roommate showed up eventually-- for fajitas and Oscar night, which was a good time, though it went pretty long! I liked Jennifer Lopez's dress the best. And that's all I have to say about that.

Tuesday, I don't know what I did all day. Maybe laundry? It's possible. I know that Tuesday night we went to 5 dollar dinner night across the street and stayed for trivia night, which was fun. It had an Oscar theme, which served us well, because we at least knew some things about that... it started as a team of four of us-- Jason, Rita, Marti and I as Jason and the Rockettes-- but eventually Marisa and Ch/Kristina showed up. They all ended up heading on to bars #2 and #3, but I ducked out early. I got to write some emails before getting a good nights sleep...which was good enough for me!

Wednesday we attempted to go to the beach. Well, that's a silly way to say it. Rita, Marisa, Ch/Kristina, Jason, Marti, and I went to Bondi Beach. Basically, the minute we got there...it started getting overcast. I got in the water, ignoring the distant rumbling, but then I turned around to face the city right as a bolt stuck. So, my hair was already wet, and I had to get out. We lingered a little while avoiding the inevitable...and then went to get smoothies, hoping it would blow over. It didn't. We headed back to Unilodge, had separate dinners, and then watched Pirates of the Caribbean 1 that night.

Thursday night I didn't have to make dinner because there was a free barbecue on the roof. Yay! We met a few people up there-- Christian from Germany, who seems very nice but smiles too much (is that a fair criticism? it seems like maybe not) and Elise, who's from Canberra which is the capitol of Australia. She's a first year who took a year between 12th year and uni (to use the Aussie lingo). She's a nice girl; hopefully we'll see her around again. She came out with us that night-- we went to see Emily, my friend from Wellesley, who's house was having a party on the roof. There was a little blow up pool full of water and everything! Marti, Elise, and I skipped out before the others, but it seemed like people had fun, which is good, and Marisa and Rita liked Emily a lot. Also good.

Friday, I was, well, not in a good mood. My feelings got hurt, blah blah blah, and I was trying to be a big girl about it. So, I made ravioli. Lots of ravioli. With Red and Green Pepper (they call it capsicum here) and Goat Cheese filling. Grocery shopping took an hour, then cooking took from 4:00 pm to 10:30. Yeah. Lots of ravioli. I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding during the final step-- layering the pasta with filling between, sealing, and cutting the squares-- and then the end of Love Actually, where I almost managed not to tear up. I mean, have you seen the end of Love Actually? With all these real scenes of people at the airport?

Saturday, I woke up in much better spirits. I checked my email, talked to Molly for a minute, and then Rita IMed me to say they were leaving in 10 minutes for the beach, if I wanted to go. And I managed to do it! Getting ready in 10 minutes isn't exactly ideal, but hey. It's the beach. Who's complaining. I brought along a book for some light beach reading: Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. I'm not through it yet-- I'm only in chapter 2-- but I'm enjoying it. Smart woman, Virginia Woolf. Saturday night, Carrie and I walked over to Oxford Street (not the one in London) to meet Rita, Marisa, and Marti at the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. There were SO MANY people there! It was nearly impossible for me to see, which I appreciated almost as much as if I had been able to watch it all: it showed how supportive Sydney is of its gay and lesbian population. There were all sorts of people who marched: male, female, christian, jewish, young, old. Happy. I ended up staying in while Rita and Marisa went out...again...noticing a trend?

Sunday: My last day of winter break. My last class was December 14. I mailed in my final papers on January 4 or 5. I AM SO READY TO GO TO CLASS IN THE MORNING. I know I'm going to have work hanging over my head for the next 4 months, but at least it's something to do! It's been storming for the past few hours but it looks like it's passing now. Time to go to sleep!