Quick update

11Mar10

Two weeks into uni I’m having a really good time – and that is despite not (yet) attending a faculty party, pub crawl or ‘booze cruise.’ Yes, for the first time in about two years I was  content to sit at home on a Saturday night and study; to wit, read my fat-ass Contracts textbooks.

This semester my Law subjects are Contracts A and Introduction to Legal Reasoning, and my Arts subjects are Introduction to Contemporary History and Introduction to Sociology. The history one is compulsory for International Studies, but it has been pretty interesting so far, and very educational as it obviously goes into a lot more depth and detail than high school history, and allows for very critical analysis. Most of my lecturers are at least interesting and at most funny, energetic and engaging; even Contracts becomes fun when it’s being taught by a witty, self-deprecating, and friendly speaker. The cases aren’t so bad either, once you start getting the hang of what to look for and the style judges write in.

It has been pretty cool to meet people from so many different places and in so many different faculties.. E.g. one of the other girls in my Peer Mentor group is doing Biomed/Law, which I found kind of intimidating (being the dumb one in the group as I’m an Arts bum). But the mentor I have met is really nice and helpful. I met Melody the other day in ILR, and I went with her to the Family Law Assistance Program for one of our assignments. It’s pretty confronting to sit in on an interview between one of their clients and one of the student lawyers. But it was certainly a fascinating insight into the way law is applied, the intricacies of the legal system, why people get involved in law and the way different people can contribute. I know I’m a nerd, you don’t have to tell me.

Onto other matters: Our house is pretty much set up; Dad gave us some extra furniture the other day so our currently messy (but normally quite neat) lounge looks a little something like this. The superfast internet has also been set up and it’s usually pretty superfast.

Dad also brought the missing screws so we managed to finally piece together the bed, which makes the bedroom look much nicer. The cat has taken up residence on the new armchair, depositing sufficient fur that no one else can ever sit on it again. Our only guest so far since I came back from Japan (more on that later) has been Andrew (apologies for my emo post, Andrew is now at Monash – woot – and only Dani has been stolen by Canberra.. RAWR). I made curry and coconut, cashew and sultana rice which was ridiculously delicious. We’ve been eating more curry than the average Indian family living in rural India, but I like all the herbs and spices. And you can use whatever’s in the fridge, which is helpful.

Japan was good, did a lot of shopping and spent some quality time with my grandparents. Also went to Himeji-jo and Nara and fed deer, who also tried to eat me; my black jacket (bought on the second day in Japan out of necessity in the 2°C temperatures. Lots of fun Will post photos when my Ojichama sends them, but for now, this is someone else’s photo of the deer, and below that the Todaiji, which houses the Daibutsu.

Also got a new phone as I dropped mine a while ago. It still worked (when it felt like it) but I lost the back cover and was holding the battery in with sticky tape, which seemed less than safe. Tofu suggested the Nokia Xpress Music 5800 so this is my new shiny toy, complete with Internet, GPS etc. Haven’t had time to upload songs etc, let alone all my contacts, but it’s nice. It has qwerty but I tend to prefer alphanumeric because I can do that without looking, thus not letting the person I’m meant to be listening know that I am in fact texting entirely irrelevant things.

In other news, I have a job interview on Saturday at a nearby hotel so hopefully that goes well.

Filed under: Australia, Employment, Food, Japan, Life, Travel, University, Work   |  1 Comment