PF's journal

[PhoenixxFire]

Well that title felt weird to write

I actually recorded this this morning, but then I got distracted, ran out of time, and had to go to class. Sorry about my dodgy video editing skillz

Things I've done since then:
- MATH :'( (chemistry math, but still)
- Handed in my paperwork + got a key for the window ;D
- Went shopping! (somewhat)
 - I got a fitted sheet, coathangers, pillow, and the wrong sized pillow case :-[

I couldn't carry anything else, I was going to make 2 trips (shop is 5-10min away by bike) but they closed at 6 :o

Still haven't met anyone on my floor, although someone doing the bridging course with me is a couple of floors below me. Also haven't been shopping properly or put food in our fridges or cupboards :-\

At least I have coathangers so I can put some of the stuff all over the floor away!

I'm really enjoying being out of home so far - having said that, obviously still early days. I've got to get a job, which is going to be somewhat hard - particularly given I don't know my uni timetable yet and I'll be out all day every day next week, fairly busy over the following weekend, and O-week is the week after that. I'm going to lose all my savings real fast if I don't get myself organised though.

[hums_student]

Yessss PF! Excited to read this journal! Loving the vlog-style post! Good luck with everything

[strawberries]

yay love this!! let me know if you need any tips for canberra/anu

also goodluck x

[smamsmo22]

Glad to see you're setting in! I'm excited to read your entries this year

A few questions, just because I'm curious
How are you finding Canberra life? I visited last year and found it a little too spread out and quiet for my liking, but this is coming from someone who has lived in somewhat inner Melbourne all their life!!
How does your accomodation work? Clearly you're in residence with other students, but do you cook or is it catered/provided? Are there dining halls, shared cooking spaces, etc? Are you staying in your own apartment/room? I hope you're liking the accomodation!!
What are you most excited for in regards to your studies/course?

[PhoenixxFire]

Glad to see you're setting in! I'm excited to read your entries this year

A few questions, just because I'm curious
How are you finding Canberra life? I visited last year and found it a little too spread out and quiet for my liking, but this is coming from someone who has lived in somewhat inner Melbourne all their life!!

I love it! I've lived in inner Melbourne all my life too - it's actually one of the reasons I decided to come here. I came up for the open day a couple of years ago and really loved how peaceful it is compared to Melbourne. It's so easy to ride around everywhere, the streets are relatively quiet, and there's a lot more nature around than in Melbourne city. I don't enjoy being around crowds anyway - having said that the shops seem to be quite busy all the time, probably due to the lack of opening hours

How does your accomodation work? Clearly you're in residence with other students, but do you cook or is it catered/provided? Are there dining halls, shared cooking spaces, etc? Are you staying in your own apartment/room? I hope you're liking the accomodation!!

I'm in a self catered hall - there's some that are catered but I'd rather make my own food. First floor is reception and a cafe/bar, second floor is kitchens, laundry, study areas, then the building splits into two towers - north and south. North tower has 7 dorm floors (so 9 floors total), south tower has 5 dorm floors (7 floors total).

On each floor there's about 40 rooms (I think, that's what I got told, I haven't actually checked). So we all have our own room, bathrooms are shared on each floor - there's bathrooms at either end with 4 toilets & 4 showers (I think). There's also a kitchenette which has some couches and chairs as well as a sink, microwave, toaster, and kettle.

The kitchens downstairs have ovens and stoves, etc. There's also big fridges & freezers, and we each have a cupboard with our room number on it to store our stuff in. There's also tables & chairs and seats along next to the window for eating at.

I've been told there's TV rooms somewhere but I haven't really explored level 1 & 2 much - it's also still a bit of a construction site.

What are you most excited for in regards to your studies/course?

I don't really know, this isn't very specific, but I think I'm just looking forward to learning interesting things again - feels like it's been a while since I've done that.

[K888]

Yay PF! You seem to be coping well with things so far Living out of home for the first time is a bit of an adjustment but it's awesome. Unfortunately student life is sometimes living off sandwiches lol. I defs recommend putting yourself out there and trying to get to know people. It'll make the place feel a bit more like home and it's really nice to have some familiar faces to say hi to!

Also, re: sharing fridges. I've not shared with a whole floor but I have shared with 6 people and basically just label your stuff (given there's a larger amount of people) and I like to keep my stuff together and stacked nicely to save space (plus this way it's easier to keep track of what's yours so you know whether someone is stealing your food)

[PhoenixxFire]

Uni is exhausting.

Especially all the social stuff that I'm supposed to be doing at the moment. I think I'm going to try and at least go to a couple of the events each day, but honestly I kinda cbf.

I'd rather be off hiking in the mountains I can see from my window than attempting to make friends. (There's a walk up black mountain tomorrow though so yay).

I went to commencement this morning - very boring, do not recommend (free stuff though). There's a free showing of spider man: into the spiderverse at the new Kambri cinema tonight so I'm going to go see that - apparently it's good. Problem being there's probably going to be a heap of people who want to go and there's *only* 300 seats.

It feels like there's a heap of stuff I should be doing right now, but also nothing, if that makes any sense (it doesn't). I still haven't really organised my room (although it's better than it was) and I need to actually figure out what sort of things I'm going to cook and make a shopping list or something. My shopping is very haphazard at the moment. I have some potatoes that I've been intending to cut up to make into chips for a couple of days now but I still haven't done it.

Also still have to do the online questions for the chemistry course - we were sort of supposed to do some each night but I didn't

I don't think I'm going to go to any of the parties that are on in O week. I kind of want to go to them, but I also know how much I hate crowds of people and loud music. There's some smaller parties happening here this week - there's a rainbow bar night tonight, but I guess I won't be going to that either if I'm at the movie (although it'll probably still be going on when we get back).

tl;dr
-I'm exhausted
-Making friends is hard
-Parties suck (I say, having never been to any big ones)

Sorry for the shitty update, there's so much else I could write about, but I kind of want to sleep instead (but I should probably go eat something, or have coffee, or both).

[K888]

PF, you sound exactly like first year me lol.
If parties aren't your thing, then there's no obligation to go! Find other things to do. Have dinner with a few people on your floor, go to the trivia nights or smaller scale stuff. Some of it might seem lame but you only have to go once, then you'll know some more people and you won't have to go again haha.

Seriously though, don't sweat the friend stuff. It's normal for it to take a while to make friends and adjusting to uni is hard. Don't be too hard on yourself

Re: cooking and being organised, to do lists are great. Don't try and tackle everything at once - start something, finish it and then you'll be in a good mood because youve achieved something.
If you have a decent sized pot, it's so easy to cook in batches. Stir fry and spag bol/other pasta dishes are my go to and I'm in my 3rd year of living out of home. There's so many variations that you can do so you can keep the food interesting. I love only having to cook once a week.

Also. Get yourself a rice cooker!!! You won't regret it. Just chuck rice and water in, press the button and soon you'll have amazing rice. It's so much less fiddly than doing rice any other way 😍

[PhoenixxFire]

Hey,
I actually thought about doing a video update, but then it got dark and the background isn't as pretty when it's dark, so next time

Fire alarms suck.
We've had 4. I wasn't here for one of them. The ones I was here for were midnight, 8am, and 3am. It's not a pleasant way to wake up (good memes though). We also have a drill at some point this week. Apparently it'll be in the early hours of the morning to ensure we're all here Might also have an evacuation of the wider area of the uni campus where we are (which means we get to go for a walk).

We started classes on Monday. Science communication is seeming like a really interesting course, despite the writing involved. I'm really looking forward to it. Kind of want to minor in it or something, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to fit it in if I want to go on exchange as well (although I could just do 6 units (1 course) overseas over summer). I can't continue it next semester at least because my timetable is full of compulsory courses + prerequisites.

Bio and Chem are as expected. The first lecture for both of them was just admin stuff. The second bio lecture was a lot of 1/2 bio - apparently that's going to continue for a bit. Chemistry's going to be a lot harder, I'm going to have to actually go to the optional lectorials and tutorials.

EMSC1006 (The blue planet - a compulsory introductory earth science course) is very disappointing so far. I've only had one lecture for it but the lecturer was incredibly boring. Hopefully it gets better :/

I've applied for a couple of jobs, haven't heard anything from them yet. The online status on them just says "application received" might try applying for some more. I don't particularly want to be working for $15/hour so I'm trying to avoid having to get a job in retail/fast food.

I think I'm going to go for a walk up mt. Ainslie tomorrow night - the sun will set over black mountain so the view will be really pretty, assuming the weather is nice. Problem being it's about an hour and a half walk and I don't know how doable it'll be to walk that after dark. Maybe there's busses around there somewhere, I haven't been on Canberra public transport yet.

I think I'll probably update this at some point soonish with a bit more detail about general stuff rather than day-to-day stuff, but I just haven't really had the energy for it Someone remind me if I forget though

Also. Get yourself a rice cooker!!! You won't regret it. Just chuck rice and water in, press the button and soon you'll have amazing rice. It's so much less fiddly than doing rice any other way 😍

I got a rice cooker today! I even bought rice. Probably going to cook some tomorrow whilst I'm eating brekkie and chuck it in the fridge to use later. Don't actually have any veggies or sauce or anything yet, but I'll have to go get some before dinner tomorrow.


Also, some of you might remember that I was complaining about the lack of pretty flat sheets last week. I have since bought a doona and I would now like to complain about the lack of pretty doona covers (based on my extensive searches of one Big W, there was only one I liked, and it only came in Q or K, my doona is a double )

[Bri MT]

If you do go hiking alone in the dark please check the mobile coverage maps & let someone know when you leave and when you should be back by.  I know you know how to be sensible outdoors but I'd hate for you to be hurt and have no help forthcoming <3

Scientific communication is a major element of GC so I'm interested to learn more about how it's taught in your course.

I hope you find your other units more engaging soon ans that you're able to get some rest on nice bedding without fire alarm interruptions

[K888]

Loving the updates PF 😁 re: jobs - if you worked at Woolies in the past, would you just be able to transfer to a store nearby?

Most subjects will have aspects that are interesting and parts that are really boring lol. The first few weeks might be a bit slow because obviously not everyone is coming from the same knowledge base so they have to go over some things that are just a bit of a yawn. It'll improve soon!!

For doona covers, try the clearance section of spotlight and catch of the day (online)! Kmart also has some really nice stuff and I've found it pretty good quality. I bought a cheap fitted sheet from them and there hasn't been any pilling, yet I bought a more expensive one from Harris Scarfe or something and it's already got so much pilling and I don't know how! Kmart is the uni student temple.

[PhoenixxFire]

Scientific communication is a major element of GC so I'm interested to learn more about how it's taught in your course.

It's always been something I've found somewhat interesting but I never realised it was something I could study until I started looking through elective lists haha. I'll give you some more details after we've had some more classes!

re: jobs - if you worked at Woolies in the past, would you just be able to transfer to a store nearby?

Yeah I could have - I'd imagine it'd be hard now given anyone else moving to Canberra would have done the same thing. The process for transferring at woolies is basically just going to a store and telling the manager you're from another store. If they want more staff they'll give you a trial shift and maybe a job after that. I didn't do it initially because I was really busy for the first couple of weeks but also because the pay is shit and it got really boring, I'd rather do something else assuming I can find a different job. Obviously there are benefits to it too - like the staff discount I've been making the most of whilst I still have it

Most subjects will have aspects that are interesting and parts that are really boring lol. The first few weeks might be a bit slow because obviously not everyone is coming from the same knowledge base so they have to go over some things that are just a bit of a yawn. It'll improve soon!!

Yeah I was kinda expecting it, still sad though. I'm somewhat worried I'm going to be too complacent with bio given I've learnt it before, problem being I don't really know this stuff well enough to do a test on it atm so I'm going to have to make sure I'm still paying attention.

For doona covers, try the clearance section of spotlight and catch of the day (online)! Kmart also has some really nice stuff and I've found it pretty good quality. I bought a cheap fitted sheet from them and there hasn't been any pilling, yet I bought a more expensive one from Harris Scarfe or something and it's already got so much pilling and I don't know how! Kmart is the uni student temple.

I'll have to try there! There's a Big W and a Target at the closest shopping center, haven't really been exploring any further than that though (I think I'm going to spend tomorrow arvo exploring canberra a bit more, still barely been anywhere except uni and the shops).

[PhoenixxFire]

Hi!

I got somewhat distracted after recording this so it's a couple of hours late

Wow a video

Don't know why I was talking quietly and fast, makes it rather hard to understand

SciCom is still my favourite subject. We had a guest lecturer in yesterday and he threatened to guillotine a $50 note to make a point. It was a very entertaining class. He was explaining what made something a good story so he got a volunteer to carry an almost full glass of water around the room, if she spilt it he said he was going to cut the money up, luckily she didn't spill it so she got the money.

I wish my classes were harder. I'm sure I'm going to regret saying that later, but at the moment it's so easy its boring :( Even chemistry, we're just learning things that we already learnt in the bridging course at the moment. I'm seriously considering figuring out where some later year lectures are so I can figure out which I can crash (some lecture rooms are easier to hide in than others).

I'm bored at the moment, but also too stressed to find something to do with my time :( There's some stuff on at Fenner regularly - some of which I've been going to. There's games night every saturday but I went to the first one and then forgot about it the last couple of weeks  :'( Am thinking I'll message the person I went to it with the first week so that I don't forget again

We have Fenner tea nights on Wednesday nights (free food!) but I haven't been to any of them. I probably should go though - feels a bit awkward going down there by myself, but I'd probably know at least some other people there anyway. We also have floor tea nights on Monday (more free food!) but it's a bit annoying because that's also when queer chats is (also free food!) Hopefully that'll get moved to a different night at some point though and then I'll be able to go to both.

There's lots of free food at Fenner if you hadn't noticed we also have bread night on Wednesdays, we get all the old bread from bakers delight and it's a bit of a free-for-all to get the good stuff. I tend to just get some on Thursday morning though to avoid the crowds.

Still waiting on our fire drill. We had a silent alarm earlier. I didn't know that was a thing but apparently it was on manual not automatic? So the alarm got set off and all the fire doors closed but the siren didn't go off and so we didn't have to evacuate. I was very confused when I got up in the morning and the smoke door in the middle of the hallway was closed and the fire doors on the stairs were closed, was somewhat worried that I'd managed to sleep through an alarm

The rain is basically gone off the radar now btw. It never even got here, which is kind of a good thing, but I'm also annoyed because I was waiting for it to rain and it didn't.

[Joseph41]

"I actually have class now as well, but I'm not there."

Absolute classic.

[PhoenixxFire]

Heyyy
long time no see So long that I had to go back and re-read my last entry. Oops.

In a way a lot has happened, but also not much, if that makes any sense at all. Which makes it really hard to figure out how to start this. Or write the middle or the end of it for that matter. I'm also not entirely sure what I want to write on here, which makes it even trickier, so sorry in advance if this is/gets incredibly rambly (>implying the rest of my posts aren't rambly)

Some of you know I was on a field trip to the snowy mountains over the weekend. It was kinda fun. Saturday was much better than Sunday - even though it rained most of the time. We went for a walk to look at rocks on Saturday, on Sunday we drove around and stopped to look at a bunch of different rocks (and got kicked off private property by the farmer's neighbour...oops). But yeah driving around and then listening to people talk about rocks for hours (and repeat themselves several times) was not enjoyable.

I have an essay due for SciCom on Sunday night. From what I've heard most people have started it...I haven't even picked my topic. Really hope I don't end up leaving it to the last minute like I always do when I have to write something, but I probably will. I also have to write a report for emsc from the field trip, but that's not due for a while.

Chemistry is making my brain hurt. It's not too complicated, there's just a heap of stuff that I'm supposed to remember and it's not all fitting in my brain. Bio is boring. Except for the occasional comment, mostly relating to specific examples/scenarios, I haven't really learnt anything new. (I do need to re-memorise what happens in each stage of mitosis & meiosis though).

We still haven't had our fire alarm drill lol (although we have had more fire alarms). Apparently the SR's are getting boxes put into their rooms with access cards and that hasn't happened yet. Apparently fire alarms have to be scheduled a week in advance, so I have a week of peace at least. Apparently one of the other halls managed to set their fire alarm off during their fire drill because someone's toast burnt when they had to evacuate.....

We're officially allowed to stick things on our walls now, not that everyone wasn't doing that anyway. I reckon I should probably probably write up at least some of the naming rules for chemistry stuff. Or write them out over and over until they stick in my head or something.

Volunteering at the Warren has been fun - people seem to study in there but I don't know how. (Context because I'm not sure how much I've explained/where I've explained it: The Warren is Fenner's Cafe/Bar it's staffed by residents. Sells cheap coffee and other drinks. Donates profits to charity at the end of the year. Coffee is occasionally of dubious quality - especially if I'm the one making it) Good for socialising etc. And me being forced to socialise more is probably a good thing. Someone else put their name down because there's supposed to be 2 people on each shift but they never showed up/don't actually exist. Which is somewhat sad. Also apparently we're going to be making coffee for all the SR's when they have a meeting next Thursday. Pretty sure one of the Warren coordinators is going to help though so I don't have to make 20ish coffees myself

"I actually have class now as well, but I'm not there."

Absolute classic.

So classic that I haven't been to any of the lectures for that class since I'm almost up to date on the recordings though.