Sydney Life

To kick off the new semester, we all donned our quiffs and legwarmers, our tacky jewelry and meshy gloves, to attend the 80s party. This is my friend and I having a good old chat to closed doors of the new coffee shop outside manning:

University, as we are all so often told, is a time for both “experimentation and adventure”. The classic American teen movie, in all its undoubted wisdom, would have us all believe these terms are merely euphemisms for drug taking and promiscuity, however sometime around last October I decided to follow a different path and get my kicks by applying for the exchange program.

Just like Joni Mitchell said, you don't know what you've got til it's gone.
I'm due to finish my studies here in less than three months, and I have only just realised that my weekly visits to the Nicholson Museum will have to wind up, too.

In the beginning there was the Blog….

I must admit here in my first ever blog entry that I have, until now, been completely uninterested with the very notion of a ‘blog’. This goes beyond any reservations about the sheer unattractiveness of the word ‘blog’ (who came up with that anyway?) to the arrogance of assuming that if you write down some ponderings and post them in cyberspace, that someone will actually want to read them.

What is it with Sydney University and reality TV?

Sydney's Latest Contribution to Reality TV: Max from BB

If your school has decided to hold Trial HSC exams, chances are, they are coming up in just a few weeks.

So if you’re in Year 12, and facing the prospect of these dreaded exams (which are, I’ll let you know, much more difficult than the actual HSC exams…not that this fact makes the actual exams any less painful: an unpleasant Catch-22), then here are some wise words from a girl who has lived through it…

It’s 12:30, and I’m hungry. After a terribly bland morning at the office, I head down the road for some local cuisine. Meeting up with Popsy Doublegut, we argue over the venue. Having offered to pay for me, Popsy insists we head to the cheap and delicious Mukunghwa Korean restaurant on Glebe Point road, right near the University of Sydney. I hold out for a meal at Broadway’s fantastic upstairs Japanese, but after a look at the prices, Popsy’s gut does a double take. Mukunghwa it is.

I have just returned from a wonderful adventurous holiday touring in the Northern Territory where I learnt many new things.

I learnt that the forces of nature can break all the rules in the book……it rained in the desert in the dry season!

I learnt that many Australian young adults don’t like to explore their own country, but rather prefer going overseas. All the European backpackers were amazed that we hadn’t been to NT already. Never mind that it’s a 4 hour flight away!!

I learnt that it is possible to acquire a fantastic tan in winter without leaving the country, making people in Sydney remarkably jealous!

I learnt that I am a terrible didgeridoo player.

I also learnt that despite growing up and being educated in Australia, I am clueless when it comes to Aboriginal culture.

Right now, I am sitting at my computer, staring blankly at the screen. Waiting for inspiration. The first chapter of my thesis is due on Friday, and at the moment, it resembles a skeleton. The bones (the ideas, if you’ll indulge my metaphor) are there, but the meat (the actual work) is AWOL.

When you were a child and someone asked you "what do you want to do when you grow up", did you ever answer: "I want to change the world"?

I have. And one thing you quickly learn about social change is that sometimes the biggest changes happen because of the actions of a small few...

You meet a lot of new people at uni. A lot. There are so many opportunities to make friends and you may hear this from many of us bloggers. Simon’s post on it is interesting, though I have to say he may be denying himself some opportunities when he rejects outing invitations claiming he’s already scheduled to do work. Homework. On a Monday night. In Week 3. Scheduled.

Nevertheless, to help you begin to understand the vast number of people you meet, get to know, and see, on a regular basis or not, I’ve developed a hierarchy. Here goes...

If we believe clichés, then all good things must come to an end. What goes up, must come down. All journeys have their destinations.

But what if you took the journey, and missed the destination? What if you’re still up, waiting to fall? And what if your good thing has ended, without you being there to witness it?

On Wednesday, June 7, I had my last tutorial. Ever. (Maybe.)

That’s right. I’m back. It’s been a while, I know. Technology screwed me over for some time, and then the faceless terror of exams came hurtling into my humble life, leaving me with no eyes (they fell out after late night study sessions) and a dowager’s hump (all that craning over, searching for books in Fisher). So, what have I, as a blossoming young first year, learnt from the past semester at university? Too much, that is for sure.

Beer, water, hello, thankyou, I don’t understand, waiter!, the bill.

I've been in Beijing a week and I I think I’ve got all the essentials down....

Uni is not all fun, games and politics. There are sacrifices......and most of them revolve around money. Like attempting to pack your own lunches instead of buying from the cafeteria. Or walking from Central Station to campus instead of catching a 90 cent bus trip. Or downloading music for free off the net (hold on a second, I think people who work full time do this anyway!)

My biggest sacrifice throughout uni was my blessed Sundays, which all changed as of last week.

In my version of Genesis, Adam is a goofy, gangly teen boy with hopes of scoring a spot at prestigious Brown University.

Eve is an erudite, stylish blonde whose quirkiness oozes with genuine charisma.

And the snake? An equally stylish (though less original), cute-as-a-button rich young thing with a shrieking volume to match Daddy’s credit card limit – MAX.

What do you get when you combine over 300 queer students from more than 20 universities across Australia, house them in one backpacker’s hostel for a week and host over 50 workshops, lectures and seminars on topics ranging from homophobia, religion, sex, art, politics, racism, coming out, identity, health, social change and relationships? Don’t forget to add to that, a 6-day packed social calendar, including an underground performance night in a back-alley warehouse, an art exhibition, a literary journal launch, a burlesque night in an old sandstone church and 3 parties just for the sake of it!

We’re talking about the annual mega long-awaited Queer Collaborations (QC) Conference 2006.

Above: The QC logo utilising the pink triangle; a symbol of queer pride appropriated from Nazi Germany where homosexual people were branded with upside-down triangles and put in concentration camps.

Ok, so it’s exam time and I’m holding a bit of resentment towards the world, and feeling a teensy bit sour. Perfect time to compile a list of the things that really piss me off in life. (In order to remain positive, I’ve included some ways to combat them).

When I was fourteen, my best friend and I had a “letter book,” in which we would write each other little blurbs about what was going on in our lives at that time. It didn’t occur to us that we saw each other everyday at school and talked to each other everyday after school, thus making the letter book somewhat redundant. Nevertheless, we continued our correspondence, and each entry included a brief description of our loves, hates, crushes and happenings. As we were French students at the time, we called this section, “Moi A Ce Moment,” or “Me at the Moment.” So, here is my July edition: