Sydney Life

“The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and the bees, I want money! That’s what I want!” Or so the song goes. Although it may not be strictly true, I certainly am strapped for cash.

My attempts to channel all my intellectual energies into a tutoring job worked for about 5 minutes.(Or, if we’re truthful, failed. Full stop. The end.) And so I really, truly, in every sense of the word, am a penniless, basket-weaving Arts student. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing! In fact, being an arts student has many advantages. Perhaps the most useful I’ve found over my past week is FLEXIBILITY.

Now, those of you who just LOVE the rigours of a 9-3 school day, with two lunch breaks, six periods (or maybe more) and oh-so-many far too early mornings, will find that comparatively, uni can be a real dream (especially if getting out of bed before 7:00 is for you, like it is for me, worse than having teeth pulled).

My rather impressive timetable means I only have to get to uni by 9am one day a week. Otherwise it’s a comfortable continuum of lectures at 10:00. Not only that, but unlike my comrades in Economics and Business, I have no more than 12 hours of uni a week (Ha! I may end up a poor, homeless philosopher, but YOU business students have to work four more hours than me!) And, if you don’t like your timetable, then you can change it quite easily. The folks down at the Student Centre were very friendly, and with only a few minutes wait, I managed to move my unusually scheduled philosophy tutorials from 7:15 at night to a much more comfortable 3:00 in the afternoon.

Now that I’ve gloated over my timetable, and you, gentle reader, are aware of the intricacies of my lectures, can I implore you to remember some sage advice: DO NOT, and I really mean this, BUY ANYTHING: Texts books, course readings, etc BEFORE YOU ATTEND AT LEAST ONE LECTURE IN A SUBJECT. Having heard this advice 100 times, I rather foolishly assumed that it would only refer to textbooks, and proceeded to buy course readers for a subject in which I now don’t intend to remain enrolled. Speaking of such issues, it is pretty easy to change your subjects. All you have to do is log on to your own personal uni account (for which I am greatly indebted to my wonderful centre of tertiary education) and click a few buttons. Before you know it you’ve moved out of ancient Egyptian algebra, and into Ptolemaic surds.

What else is there worthy to note about my first week of uni? Lectures are cool, lecturers are even cooler (although I’ve heard some less than ecstatic stories – lecturers speaking too fast, too slowly, too nastily, or just simply rubbing their hands until they almost fall off). Tutorials – I’ve had none, but I look forward to them. Above all I have to say this – student activities rock. Get involved and you get to make new friends, listen to interesting people, and just generally enjoy yourself. After all, when you’re a basket-weaving-hippie-Arts student, that’s what uni’s all about, isn’t it?