Sydney Life

That’s right girls and boys, it’s less than 24 hours until I become a genuine, bona fide, legitimate UNI STUDENT! It all begins on Monday. First of all, we have to enjoy (or endure, depending on your perspective) the incredible and amazing experience that is “Arty Starty”.

Sort of like a social boot camp for all arts kids, apparently you’re thrown together with kids of the same academic persuasion so you can, you know, make friends and do all the stuff us teenagers are supposed to do. Of course, the usual anxieties abound. Will I fit in? Will it all work out? Will I be a social butterfly, or the dag at parties who floats from group to group getting more and more embarrassed? But I guess, when it comes to the crunch, your best bet is just to throw yourself in. Take the day by the throat, as it were, and squeeze as much juice out of it as you can (squeezed throats don’t generally juice, but I thought the metaphor was appropriate in this case).

Then, after that, it’s O week! I know everyone else has already talked about it, but I need to put in my five cents as well. As far as I’ve been told, it’s all clubs, condoms, and karaoke. But that may simply be because I’ve swallowed everything the history buffs at the Nicholson Museum have told me. Which leads me nicely to my next point which is: during O week, check the whole place out, don’t just stop at the front lawns or Manning bar. As a volunteer grease monkey at the Nicholson Museum, I’ve got to know the nooks and crannies of the Quadrangle intimately. They are doors covered in ivy, passages that lead nowhere, gargoyles galore, and, just occasionally, some truly fascinating people.

If you have time, and I sincerely suggest you make time, don’t forget to check out the things that are a bit off the beaten track. So, go the Nicholson Museum (you’ll find it just inside the door way of the southern entrance to the Quad). It’s got a great bunch of oddities, from sex change mummies and statues of the great Augustus to a hieroglyphic inscription of Nefertiti and Akhenaton (Egyptian history buffs will know why that is just SO cool).

While you’re in the vicinity, why not check out the art gallery? A great place to ponder the meaning of art, beauty, ethics and reality (Philosophy 101), and escape the summer heat, and the staff are all so friendly. Then, wander on to the Macleay Museum. I know it’s a long walk up the stairs, but, it’s definitely worth it. It’s great, sort of an interesting mix of anthropology, indigenous art, and grotesquely deformed animals. I guess the best term to describe it is “stuff our colonial for fathers stole from natives”. And if, after all this walking (I know, I know, it’s so far and the weather is just so hot) you can shuffle your feet that far, do check out the Seymour Centre. It may be divisive, Sydney’s theatre going community may either love it or hate it, but I think it’s great. Good plays, fantastic actors, and food to make you die for. Well, perhaps not. But a good barbecue. Check it out. Maybe you’ll like it enough, you just might wanna stay.