HELLO MONTREAL

When I say I haven't blogged in a million years, this time I mean it seeing as the blogspot layout is completely different from how I remember it to be...

So as most of you readers may be aware, I'm currently on exchange in Montreal at the moment :D I've been here for almost a month and it's ridiculously how fast time flies. I always thought my 5 months here would be fun, but slightly terrified of the idea that I'd never make friends therefore my time here would be SO SLOW.

In the span of a few weeks, I've stayed at a hostel and hung out with randoms for a week, moved out of the hostel and into a nice apartment with 2 roommates, taken a trip to NYC, experienced Frosh week, MADE FRIENDS and started class. In a way it feels like it's been a lot longer than a month since I packed so many activities into it, but at the same time I feel like I just left Melbourne yesterday. I'm still in touch with my closest friends pretty much every day but I still leave the house to do something every day as well!

So let's backtrack a little...

WEEK 1
Stayed in a 10 girl dorm at HI hostel, which was an interesting experience I'd rather not re-experience. 10 people to one tiny bathroom is awful, especially since the shower block is so tiny I can't rotate 180 degrees without bruising a random part of my body. I did meet some great people, mostly from the USA or Germany (or a mix of both) and spent a few days exploring Montreal with them by day and having a few drinks by night. Went to see: Botanical gardens, Old Montreal, Gay Village, a few markets, a few churches and general downtown area...touristry things. Whenever I got the chance, I emailed about 15 places enquiring about an apartment and I went to see a few before finally settling on the one I live at now! I learnt after a while not to take too long to decide, because there's always a million people who want the same room. So I took this one on the spot and I'm lucky I got it despite being unsure to begin with (couldn't decide if landlord was really nice or slightly creepy...I guess he's just nice but different culture comes across as weird).

WEEK 2
Memorable bit of this week was taking the Amtrak down to NYC to celebrate my birthday and see my cousins! Hung out with Darren and his friend Alex for a day and saw a broadway show with them :) Next day, had brunch with Linda and saw Cirque du Soleil with Annette & fam and just hung out/had a nice dinner. Last day, I shopped! Tried to get a new macbook to replace my old dying one but they rejected my card and had ridiculous tax anyway.
Settled into the new place! Moved my stuff in, did my laundry and groceries, explored the area and all other domestic things like that. Met up with some Melbournians and had dinner/drinks one night but to be honest they weren't really my type of people I guess. I registered for Frosh week and had no idea what to expect (mostly hopeful I would meet people and make friends with people I had things in common with)

WEEK 3
FROSH! Oh my god. Best 4 days so far ever! Basically it was like Aa camp or any faculty camp except it wasn't camp. Day 1 we were sorted into groups by running across the gym and being caught by random group leaders (GROUP 4!). We got to meet everyone in our group and chat over a bbq dinner which was nice, I befriended a girl living at New Rez so she invited me to see what residential life was like seeing as most people live on college. IT WAS LIKE A HOTEL! Front desk, room layout  and everything was exactly like any other hotel. I played my first game of beer pong and then went to my frosh leader's apartment for predrinks. Met some more people and went out to club 737, a nightclub on the 40th floor of a building and had incredible views of Montreal and danced the night away! Next day was pubcrawl which was probably my favourite event. Basically free beer/games - 8 bars in 2 hours! Befriended some of the girls in my group who were actually from Montreal, which I preferred a lot more over people from anywhere else. I feel like locals are more relaxed and don't bother conforming to social pressures so I liked hanging out with them a lot more. That night there was an event at a 6 storey pub/club and I went and sat down with some people from my group but I was completely bored. Everyone was sitting down and not really talking, so I got up and left and some weird guy was yelling at me being like LAME WHY ARE YOU LEAVING IT'S ONLY 11:30! I just wanted to be like shut up you first year kid, I'm too old for this and I'm not gonna stay here just because everyone else is! Day 3 was BEACH DAY! So much fun, but really...it wasn't even close to being a beach. The line was ridiculous to get a bus, I waited an hour! Some people waited for 3 hours but I pushed right to the front hehe. Spent most of the day with a girl called Cici (one of the locals) and her friends from CEGEP and got a sweet tan. The beach was more like a man made lake/river but it was still a different kind of fun to Australian beaches. They had mini slides, a dancefloor, a pool (who puts a pool at the beach...) trampoline, bars and food stands. We didn't want to struggle through a bus again so when we left we literally chased buses down to get one. That night was another fun one at a club near my house...I think I just really like dancing. I really loved our frosh leaders too, after a few nights they were basically my new friends (I was probably older than them anyway). Day 4 was a chill picnic on some island nearby, the girls from here are hardcore drinkers...I felt like my body hadn't been cleansed of alcohol for 4 days so I was really over it. In the evening was an all ages event (terrible) and I didn't really have the greatest ending to frosh but it was still fun! Disastrous cab home alone where my nose bled, thought I lost my keys and accidentally punched the fridge whilst I was desperately trying to grab a pitcher of water.

WEEK 4
So this was recovery week and uni! I've had 2 days of uni so far and it's more or less like Melbourne :) with tiny lecture tables and hard plastic seats. Music was a bludge (was still forced to buy the exercise book) but a small class, Integrative neuro is basically about the 5 senses, Intro to neuro is about actual neurons/nerves (and it's hard), Pharmacology is self explanatory and seems really interesting, and Molecular biology of oncogenes is a combination of extremely hard and still interesting. So I guess I got a good combination of subjects...I was tempted to drop oncogenetics because it was too hard and I'm here to enjoy myself but I can't be bothered/it's still interesting/I need a challege

So that's a crash course in what I've been up to, I can't be bothered with pictures! It's either on facebook or instagram so if you're reading this it's likely you've seen them anyway :) Hopefully I'll actually blog again soon! Maybe in a month or so haha...until then!

xo

swotvac 2.0

I thought I was more on top of things this semester...but no. Exams start in one week from today, and I have an assignment due in 6 days, and 4 solid days of studying left.

Why?

Because for some weird reason I have more shifts than ever before at the fruitshop, and I worked 15 hours last weekend...I offered to cover HALF an 8 hour shift on thursday, but for some reason they suck shit at maths, and have halved it to equal a 6 hour shift. EXCUSE ME, THAT'S NOT HALF! And asif you even tell me there's nobody to "cover" for me when I'm the nice one who is covering in the first place! The best they could give me was a 5.5 hour shift. Like 30 minutes would really make a difference, soo stupid...

Things have started to pick up in terms of general busyness as well, I applied for Aa committee midsemester intake (not alcoholics anonymous) and they took me! It's a nice extra responsibility, and really interesting to see how things work behind the scenes when I've been attending the events all year. So many added complexities with understanding how things work, discussing things on their email system and fb group, selling tickets for the end of exams party, retreat coming up soon... and look, it's my face on their website! LOL *feels special*. I thought it might be really hard to fit in with everyone, cos the committee all know each other/have their own jokes and such, but everyone's been really kind and welcoming of me and the other 2 new members. Looking forward to a big year :D

In between end of exams and going to america, I have 10 days to re-enrol for 2012, apply for overseas exchange, pack my suitcase, make a list of things to buy, and celebrate some birthdays and going away parties...I swear there's more, but that's al I can think of right now. I need to calm down and get crackin into the books :(

xo

spring has sprung

Well not quite. It's still bloody freezing, thanks Melbourne. BUT it's gonna warm up this weekend! Time to attempt breaking out the shorts yet again...

Anyway. This year is absolutely flying by :| This thought hit me when I realised the class of 2011 year 12's are graduating in around 4 weeks...yet only a handful of blogposts ago I was bitching about high school life, celebrating my freedom etc etc. And now I'm 1/3 the way into my first university degree...WHAT. Lets see how long it takes before I'm blogging something like "it was only a few years ago when I was bitching about a 2,000 word psych assignment and now I'm writing a 20,000 word thesis..."

I've actually realised how different my life is right now compared to even a few months ago. I feel like things change too fast in uni :( and it's scary to think which friendships will last forever, and which are only semesterlong friendships? Starting from next year everyone will be branching off into their field of subjects, which probably leaves me alone all over again. I know I'll always have my high school friends though :D I occasionally get jealous of the ones doing biomed/med/pharm because at least they know their friendships will (at the very least) last the length of their course. Whereas once I'm off doing my own subjects I'll have to consciously make an effort to catch up with people to maintain these friendships, instead of just rocking up to a lecture and knowing they'll be there.

I FEEL LIKE I COULD WRITE ABOUT THIS QUICKLY AND HAVE A LOT TO SAY, WHY CAN'T I APPLY THIS SKILL TO MY DAMN 2,000 WORD PSYCH ESSAY HAHAHA

Back to work.

xo

no more bio!

So the essay question was something like "Describe the female menstrual cycle (uhh as opposed to the male menstrual cycle?) and the hormones associated with it"

...UM WHAT? not only could I not think of a sufficient essay response but that must've been pretty awkward for all the guys in the room to answer .___.

In hindsight I stressed too much about plants and plant hormones, and completely neglected humans/animals haha. OH WELL when are plants ever gonna be useful in my life anyway...unless I decide I wanna grow marajuana tomorrow.

xo

swotvac

Ohmygod I swear next semester I will:

• Show up to all lectures (pretty good at doing this now though)
• Not fall asleep during lectures
• Not abuse uni wireless and download phone apps
• Not play on said apps during lectures
• Print out notes for the week over the weekend
• Use these notes during lectures and actively listen
• Revise and reread lecture info afterwards...or at least on the train ride home

MASS REGRET FOR NOT DOING ALL OF THIS STUFF THIS SEMESTER :( I was happily like "oh all I need to do is pass!" until I was kindly reminded that first year counts towards my GPA if I wanna get into post-grad med. I think it's time to drop out and be homeless now.

xo

easter break

I don't actually feel like I need a holiday .____. but I'll take what I can get haha :P I guess uni freedom is like having a holiday all the time? I freak out over assignments and tests but in hindsight it's nothing like year 12. Bit of stress pulled off an 11/12 and 20/25 for midsems phew! And psych assignment was smooth sailing cos I got it done a day early :)

I'm still deciding whether I genuinely like uni or not though. Public transport is SHOCKING, i absolutely hate trains/trams, especially on rainy days. My train line flooded last Tuesday and it took me 1.5 hrs to get to uni...and I'm yet to catch a train that runs on time. I miss the old high school days etc :( Having a little girls night in/catchup with high school friendsies tomorrow which should be nice! Pizza, popcorn, movies and twister...what more do you need!

Happy Easter everyone :D

xo

neglect!

Gaaaah it's weird how my internet priorities have changed now .___. but at the same time I still waste heaps of time on my computer...how is this possible!

Anyway so we're already 1/4 of the way through 2011, how fast was that :( Midsemester tests are over, chem was aced and bio was horrible...on the flip side, our new bio lecturer kept me awake for the first time in 3 weeks! Yay! He's actually so awesome, pacing around the whole lecture theatre spontaneously quizzing people and talking in a permanently ":D!" voice. Plus, we've moved on from plants to animals so it's finally the biology I *want* to do. So hopefully I won't fail this unit now haha...

I think/like to think I've found the balance between social events and studying...couple of weeks ago was the Monash ASEAN lounge night which I actually had fun at and met lotssss of people :)

And the other night there was a night market at uni which was SO packed so all we did was hang around in the dark for a few hours...prior to that was some solid goss sesh over coffee with the girls!

I've figured you get bombarded with so many new people at uni every day (I'm literally meeting at least 1 new person per day) that it's really nice just to chill out with 1 or 2 people...or even have some alone time. I started my psych assignment, which involved having to watch the sunset...I thought I'd be really bored so I brought along some headphones, but it was nice to just sit there with my thoughts and watch people :D (is that creepy?)

HOWEVER! I am still very bored with life...I figured out last night that this could be because I don't play piano anymore? I feel like I have no goals and no distractions (in a bad way) since I have no music related performance/exam anxiety and things like that. So maybe I'll go to the piano later today - after I finish at least 500 words of this psych essay! MUST REACH THIS GOAL AND FEEL SATISFIED :(

xo

so bored :D

Soooooo my internet is fast now...we rang Optus and complained, the did some crap and then dad was like "can we upgrade plans?" SO NEXT MONTH I GET 500GB HAHA O__O but it's so bad that it's fast now, because I'm abusing youtube etc and I'm way over my days elapsed %...if I don't slow the heck down they'll charge for going over 20gb

I don't know what else to do to kill time, seeing as I still have minimal work to do (biology can go suck it ahaha). I need a hobby! No seriously, that dance thing I joined started holding auditions and closing rehearsals until their first performance is over, so now I have nothing to do on the weekend =/

Suggestions?

xo

faster week

Phewwww, Friday already!

Ok admittedly, I may have exaggerated the WAHHHHHHHHHHH-ness of last week...ahahha. Emotional pmsy factors aside, uni is fine :P people are friendlier this week, but it still doesn't make it easier keeping friends...I didn't get say hi to the few people I met last week in my tutes, cos we sat in different spots and did work :( Psych tute was the most fun of all tutes cos we were actually encouraged to talk about issues and ethics etc...so I have some friends in psych I guess. Met the sweetest girl in one of my lectures but I dunno the chances of seeing her again haha...also met a nice 2nd year in my breadth lecture, but she probably won't rock up often/2nd year so again, dunno the chances of seeing her again either =___=

Had my first bio prac as well....biology is the most confusing thing in the world! So thankful the guy next to me was equally as confused, we bonded over imagining where a nucleus would go and making up our own pond life ahaha. Also stained half my fingers rather than the slides...and the good thing is, assigned seating means I'll actually get to see/remember the people around me (already forgotten their names oops). Miffy was totally also on my table, it was kinda like a mini high school reunion :P

Anyway I need to read up on bio since nothing makes sense. Today was good though, it was like vce chem with proteins/dna etc yayy...plus I had a massive bento box for lunch and bubble tea. I can't believe how hungry I am these days omgosh

xo