Sydney Life

First week back, done and dusted. Semester 2 is a little different from Semester 1 - for the most part, you know your way around and you know where to get a mean Italian hot chocolate on campus (see: Ralph's). Semester 2 doesn't, at first, seem have a lot of the perks Semester 1 has - summer, O-Week, the thrill of something new in a new year... However I have already found Semester 2 to be just as awesome, if not even MORE AWESOME than Semester 1. It is already JAM-PACKED with activities, however I think playing a game of chess against the Chess Society's Grandmaster Chess Player (while he was playing four other people at the same time) may have had something to do with my first week being so awesome.

THE GRANDMASTER (left) ponders his next move. OTHER PLAYERS (right) are concerned for their health. BEETLEJUICE (back) looks on in the distance, approvingly.

So yeah. Let me tell you about my week.

Monday - back to uni! I had a Government lecture... my first ever Government lecture. The unit is cross-listed with Gender Studies, so I can put it towards my Gender major. More on cross-listing at a later date. There is a guy in the lecture who says that Barack Obama's speechwriter is visiting campus and that he's talking later on. I go along later in the day to check out this Obama-speechwriter-guy... only to find out that it's not really anything to do with Obama or speechwriting for Obama! The lecture theatre is a little packed so I'm too self-conscious to walk out. Monday evening is the REVUES LAUNCH PARTY at Hermann's. Revues are a little like sketch comedy shows, and they are put on in Semester 2 by students from each of the faculties. The Revues Launch Party is great. I get to meet some of the Chaser guys, have a bit of a shimmy and retire for the evening.

Tuesday - English lecture today, it seems like it will be a good course. I stay on campus longer than I should because I want to catch up with friends. This is also the day I discover New Facebook and I find it a little hard to navigate.

Wednesday - Technically, I have a day off on Wednesday but that didn't keep me away from uni! It was RE O-DAY, which is like O-Week... but in a day! Tonnes of entertainment, clubs and societies, and an awesome vibe going on down at Manning house. I was in charge of the Arts Students Society Stall, so I got to meet some lovely exchange students as well as caught up with my homies, played chess on the main stage against the Chess Society's Grandmaster (I lost in like, 2 moves) and joined the History Students' Society and became a supporter of the Food Co-Op. In the evening I had a meeting, which was followed by the Re O-Day Wrap Party... Tim Burton themed, which meant doing plenty of "scissorhands" while bopping.

Thursday - My Anthropology day! One Anth lecture in the morning, pre-Honours seminar in the evening. I'm a little bit scared of the seminar structure at the moment - there are only about 13 of us in the class, and we have to read an ethnography (an anthropological text) a week. The assessment also involves a 4000 word essay. I've never done that before, hence the nervousness. In the evening, my special man friend was doing a poetry reading at the Oxford Arts Factory so I went along to support him, and it was great!

Friday - End of the week... I come into uni to watch a film for my English course. I head out with Asako to visit an awesome school in Wattle Grove to tell them about uni - if you're reading this, you guys made my day! That evening I go to a book launch to take some photos - my first ever "event photography" gig. Hopefully, my clients will be happy with my work.

Ahh, and that was the end of the uni week. AND ALSO - on Saturday night I went to see the Arts Revue at the Seymour Centre. It was fantastic, and really set the tone for the rest of revues season... which should be a blast. If you're interested in checking out any of the revues, a good place to start would be the Revues Website.