All the world's a stage! - Tay's Artsy Adventure

[paigek3]

What’s USU?

[EEEEEEP]

What’s USU?

University of Sydney Union =)

They manage clubs, events and other things on campus

[Potatohater]

University of Sydney Union =)

They manage clubs, events and other things on campus

Damn you beat me too it! But yah, what E6P said 

[Potatohater]

11/03/18 - The first week and potential friends?

Ok so I was planning on reducing the frequency of posts here so you're not always bombarded with my initial impressions of uni, but that back fired cause I wrote A LOT. You have been warned #soznotsoz

Wow! I've been at uni for a week now, by which I mean 3 actual days on campus, since my Friday's are only pracs and I had no pracs in week 1 (Got to run off to Taronga zoo instead!) So here's how the week went...

Monday

Open me!

I overestimated how long it takes me to get to uni, now that I have a defined deadline to be there and the train only runs every half hour. This resulted in me being an hour early, and despite all the aimless wandering around on campus it wasn't all that bad since I ran into my engineering friend as she rushed off to her chem class, and coincidentally saw 2 other acquaintances. The reason I note this is because I'm sure this won't be a common phenomenon, particularly in the early stages when there are so many people I don't know.
Note to self: Don't catch the 9:50 train for a 12pm lecture. Maybe try the 10:50 one?

Then there was the lecture. There were several people I considered approaching but chickened out everytime and sat in an empty row by myself, pulled out my book and
"Hello"
A short Lebanese girl in glasses sat next to me and we started talking. Yay! Could she turn into a friend?
The lecture was just the usual introductory stuff of coming to lectures, doing the readings and how to use Canvas. Afterwards though, there was a department BBQ, and the new friend and I kinda got lost trying to find it as we were just talking and following random people. The wrong people it turns out. Once we found the BBQ she left, so I grabbed a sausage, listened to the talks and went home too. I met 1 person, and that's enough of an achievment for me right now.

Once I got home I attempted to start my OLE modules, but was so disheartened by where to start. It was in that moment I remebered somthing I was told at orientation.
"The system let's you do things not allowed by the course."
I'd brushed it off at the time, but now, now I was gonna double check that. Was it really right to be doing 8cp of OLE units? Turns out no. I was 6 cp short for the year. I moved an OLE over to sem 2 and After a brief consultation with the handbook added an elective of.....

Creative Writing!

Perfect! I refreshed my timetable and ARGH! My Thursday isn't free anymore which at the time was so upsetting and frustrating because I'd had my hopes up for a 3 day uni week every week. I did all that I could do, moved my seminar to a better slot and accepted the fate of a Thursday lecture. In hindsight though, I don't think the Thursday class will actually be that bad, may actually be a blessing in disguise, an incentive to come and play Quidditch...
So now my 1st sem units are Performance, Geography, 3 OLE's and Creative writing

Wednesday

Open me!

Today was my 1st geography lecture and I was kinda falling asleep during the most important part - the infomation on which our 1st assignment is based. Afterall, it was a 2 hour lecture and I was stuck in my seat the whole time, watching lecturers talk... But yes, 1st geo class and BAM! Assignment due in a few weeks so I should get working on that...
We then had a geoscience meet and greet BBQ. I noticed a girl who looked as awkward as I felt and thought about approaching her, but she beat me to it, so we talked for at least 15 - 30 mins, interrupted by the awkward silence of just smiling at each other and the lecturer who came over for a bit but left soon afterwards, probs because we were pretty quiet. I am kicking myself though that all I know is her 1st name, and have no way of contacting her so RIP to ever finding her again in the lecture theatre (especially cause it's in the Seymour centre)
I then accidentally bumped into a friend of vetinary aspirations and hung with her until...
I auditioned for "SLOT 3"
This is especially signifficant cause not only is it my first commitment to SUDS (Sydney University Dramatic Society) but also
I hate auditions
But I know it is unfortunatley neseccary to land roles in productions so you gotta do what you gotta do. And as my friend pointed out, I'd regret it if I didn't.
This, however, was not an ordinary audition. It was much more casual and fun, phew! That being said I did still leave with my head spinning and an incredibly vauge recollection of how I went. For this audition process we just played games and then did 2 rounds of workshopped readings in either pairs or singles. The 1st round I was in a duo, the 2nd I did a monolougue, and I did it last. Hence, the nerves and spinning head. I ended up getting in, cause everyone gets in, now it's just a matter of what part they've given me, which I'll find out whenever rehearsal starts I guess.

Thursday

Open me!

Today I was only timetabled in for a 1 hour lecture, but I was there for longer than that. I arrived 1.5 hours early, but this time it was on purpose. I met up with "vet friend" and we got a free sausage on eastern avenue and a $2 one from the quidditch club, where we met up with "engo friend" and another friend doing science.
I then went to my ENGL1014 lecture, like a good girl, unlike "science friend" who skipped her physics lecture. Although I was getting sleepy in this lecture too, I am so glad I added this unit as it sounds very demanding but also very interesting and beneficial to my writing.
Afterwards I went to my first quidditch training session wit "engo friend" and "science friend" which was quite fun up until the point I had to leave to go to work, about 45 or so mins from the end. I reckon this will be a good incentive to come to Thursday lectures, I might even ask the mum of my student if we can push her lessons back half an hour or so just so I can stay for the whole session.

Overall thoughts

Overall uni still feels quite surreal, especially cause it's such an odd routine and I havnt been too inundated with work yet, just a writing task, a few readings and a geo assignment so far, which is pretty manageable. It's weird though, how there are so many people on campus so you're never alone, but it can get pretty lonley. I do like being alone sometimes, but at others I do crave seeing a familiar face and having a bit of a chat, even if they are people I know from highschool and never really talked to at the time. That being said, I'm not exactly going out of my way to meet new people too much just yet, since starting out as the little fish in the big pond all over again has naturally put me in the awkward and shy mode that most people meet me as, but find that it's only temporary if they hang around me enough. At the moment I'm quite happy that I've met a few new people from outside my highschool - people I met at Mardi Gras, Quidditch, SUDS, and of course, my lectures. Hopefully I'll meet people in my pracs next week too!

In the meantime, the improvisation of life continues 

[paigek3]

What’s OLE?

[Natasha.97]

What’s OLE?

They're "Open Learning Environment" units, which can be either completely online or have a few contact hours in addition to the online work

[Potatohater]

Which, to add to Jess' answer, for me are all online. I'm doing HTML + CSS, JavaScript and project management for 2 cp each

[Potatohater]

 18/03/18 - Week 2 shinanigans

Wow, I've been so caught up in the last week I havn't even touched my bullet journal since Wednesday morning!
* A bullet journal is what I use instead of the more traditional diaries/planners. You can look them up on YouTube, although mine is certainly not as fancy as the ones that dominate the platform *
So here we go!

Monday

Click me!

Had a performance lecture followed by a 2 hour break in which I texted 2 pre uni friends and hung out with which ever texted back 1st, so I ended up having lunch with someone I originally met at year 10 drama camp. Then was my 1st performance workshop. Before it started a girl with short blonde hair approached me. I'd seen her in my performance and creative lectures and at SUDS, and had a feeling I'd know her from before. She also had this feeling about me. Turns out we both met briefly at the party of a mutural friend, and so we started talking. She has 50% of the same classes as me - PRFM1601 and ENGL1014 so I reckon I'm gonna try and make friends with her properly, just gotta keep meeting with her in class from now on I reckon.

The workshop was rather interesting. !st we did one of those classic ice breakers where we talk to the person next to you and then introduce that person to the class. I got to talk to a guy with the deathly Hallows tattooed to his foot. The majority of the lesson was playing a game and the game was this;
The tutor would ask us to use the space in order to answer questions about ourselves. The was a corner for abstaining due to uncomfort and a corner for not knowing the answer, the rest of the space was fair game. He asked basic questions at first such as height order, age order, how far we travel to uni (I was the second furthest away haha) and degree etc. Then they started getting more personal, touching on socio-economic status, Religeon and politics, with questions such as "how expensive are the clothes you are wearing?", who we voted for in the last election (not many were actually of voting age at the time so I was only 1 of 4 participants for this round) what our mother and father's income was, what religion we were etc. This made a few people uncomfortable, but I was perfectly fine with exposing it all. I am who I am and I'm not ashamed of that.
We then did a debrief for the last hour, discussing the purpose of the task and how it linked back to Brecht, as he is the main practitioner we are studying this semester, as well as general housekeeping things for how to function in this unit. Overall it was really fun and I really look forward to my future workshops.

Wednesday

Click me!

Today started off miserable and raining. I only had a 2 hour lecture so I almost decided not to go. It was very tempting to just watch it from home but in the end I was just like "ARGGH the train is in 20 mins make a descision Taylor!" And so I went just in case. It was cool that I ended up talking to the person next to me in the lecture and I thought we were getting along, but I only know his 1st name and with the amount of students taking GEOS1001 I figured I probably won't find him again, or often. I then hung out with my commerce friend while she was on her break just to make the trek into uni more worth while.

Thursday

Click me!

Today was just a 1hr Creative writing lecture and then Quidditch practice. During the lecture I hung out with the girl I met at performance which was nice, then went down to the park for quidditch. Training was so intense, I was tired within the 1st 10mins, and gosh I looked like an idiot in that 1st drill. They all think I drop the ball cause I have a broom between my legs, HA! NO! Ok, maybe that is a factor, but really I just lack hand eye coordination, which is gonna have to improve if I wanna get on one of the higher lever teams. At the end of the session we played a game and I was chaser, which was super fun, to the point I was exhausted from running and the person leading my team was like "Taylor are you good? You can sub out if you need" but I would say I'm fine and keep going, and he'd ask again, and I'd keep going, and then the 3rd time I inured he really wanted me to sub off rather than push myself too hard so I went off. Our team won, yay! But it sent us over time by 15 mins and consequently made me 30mins late for work, so I reckon I'll have to arrange for work to start at that time every week just in case this happens again.

Friday

Click me!

My first 9 am start. My first experience of USyd on a Friday. Man it is so much more quiet on Friday than throughout the week. I had my 1st Geo prac which was rather awkward and boring. Everyone seems so quiet and isolated, and apparently there was a reading I didn't know about so when we discussed in small groups my group cut me out of the discussion cause I hadn't read it. Honestly, I didn't realise it was there, I'm not lazy and trying to leach off your knowledge, I promise! Then we did a turn it in practice task which we had a suspiciously long amount of time to complete so I deliberately tried to take as long as possible cause I didn't want to be sitting there doing nothing for a whole hour. In the end I took 40 mins to do it, and she let us go once it was submitted. This gave me ample time to work out where I was going next - The Elliot Millier Studio for a free MADSOC Ballet Class!

The Ballet class was super fun and really challenging. I met a girl who I reckon I will try and befriend, because we were both standing outside talking about how we'd never done this before and were unsure weather to go in or not. Once we went in and more people came we introduced ourselves and how long we'd been dancing. Based off this info the teacher decided to teach to a "middle range' This started off pretty much at my level but then got more challenging as we progressed. Whilst it did get hard and I probably made a fool of myself at times I really liked it, and reckon it will push me a bit more than my dance school because I'm more near the bottom in ability here and have more experienced dancers to learn from. I will definitely be coming here as often as I can in the future.

Then was my 1st creative writing workshop. We 1st talked briefly about the unit and what was expected, did a quick 5 minute writing task and were then talked to the person next to us, which for me was an international student from China, and to me his perspectives on writing were really interesting because I'd never thought of some of his ideas before due to our different contexts. We then had a discussion of the week 1 readings based off the posts made to canvas (I think other uni's use Moodle? We use canvas - has all our lecture recordings, readings and stuff on there). I made a post to canvas but for some reason it wasn't there so I didn't end up having to tak about my interpretations, and I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing. After this really interesting discussion of the readings and writing, what I means to be a writer, how to get ideas and how people approach writing peices, we did a few writing excersises. The 1st was to describe playing an instrument. Then pick an animal. Then use the metaphor of the animal to describe playing the instrument. I ended up with an elephant to represent playing the clarinet, which was quite challenging. The 2nd excersise was to write about our 1st kiss, day at highschool or day at uni fro an outsider perspective. I chose to do my 1st kiss from the point of view of my then boyfriend. For next week we need to bring in one of our writings from the course so far as a 300 word peice for peer workshopping, and I reckon I will bring in this peice cause it is quite a funny story, I think at least.

That night I also went to the USyd Revue - USyd AF, and it was AWESOME AF! It was so good, I loved it so much and it was so super funny I came out and I couldn't stop laughing! It was a show I would happily watch over again if I could! I especially love how they parodied a song from "the Book of Mormon" and instead of "this book will change your life" it was "this place will change your life" and it was about uni from a 1st year perspective so I found it incredibly relatable. I also discovered my 2014 highschool captain goes here since she was in the revue. Man I look up to her as inspiration so much...
Speaking of USyd productions, I also went to a SUDS production of "Punk Rock" which was also amazing. It had you comfortable and laughing then made everything tense and uncomfortable and back again. It was performed in such an intimate space and I empathised with the characters so much I was on the verge of tears at many points, especially the climactic ending (omg that ending!) and really was one hell of an emotional roller coaster!

So yeah, I guess that wraps things up for this week. But before I go, I've been inspired by Blasonduo's journal to include some questions I've come up with this week, because I find them quite interesting to think about;
1. Why do some people get offended on behalf of others?
2. Can we teach and practice imagination?

How will next week go? Stay tuned to find out 

Tay edit: those classic Taylor typos & brain farts

[blasonduo]

So yeah, I guess that wraps things up for this week. But before I go, I've been inspired by Blasonduo's journal to include some questions I've come up with this week, because I find them quite interesting to think about;
1. Why do some people get offended on behalf of others?
2. Can we teach and practice imagination?

How will next week go? Stay tuned to find out 

What a jam-packed week! Glad to see such enthusiasm in your life, I hope it continues! I wish my weeks looked even remotely like that. 

Awesome! It's amazing to look out and ask questions about things we are curious about, maybe it could open a new world of amazement that was previously hidden! Where would wonder be without curiosity? Glad you're a part of that! ^_^

[Potatohater]

What a jam-packed week! Glad to see such enthusiasm in your life, I hope it continues! I wish my weeks looked even remotely like that. 

Awesome! It's amazing to look out and ask questions about things we are curious about, maybe it could open a new world of amazement that was previously hidden! Where would wonder be without curiosity? Glad you're a part of that! ^_^

Believe it or not, despite this enthusiasm, I actually had a whole lot more enthusiasm during the HSC so I'm hoping to increase my enthusiasm levels once I get a bit more comfortable with uni and get some motivation back in terms of actually doing my work. (Gosh, I think I said enthusiasm too much just then) Hopefully you find some fun in your weeks too one day!

As for curiosity, that reminds me of some other questions I've had: why are humans curious?
I'm trying to make more notes of these questions cause not only are they intriguing but maybe the answers will give me some nice creative writing ideas to explore, and they certainly do make life more interesting 

[Potatohater]

25/03/18 - Flying away from my problems and crashing into them again

So, its that time of the week again - Journal update time! And if you'd ask me what I'd be writing about on Friday, I would have said the usual, Monday - Friday rundown of the week. I would have talked of workshops, walking around a space and trying to jump simultaneously as a class, making maps using GIS, trying to make friends in lectures and writing stories of my first kiss from the POV of my ex. But this weekend I now have much more important material - QUIDDITCH!

Thursday & Friday
On these afternoons we had training as per usual. Normally I only go on Thursday, but this week I decided to go on both days. We learnt how to fall and how to tackle, and played practice games. In these practice games the snitch was released twice each game, and of these 4 releases I was seeking for 3 of them, and CAUGHT ALL 3 OF MY ATTEMPTS! No other seeker has beaten me yet - future Harry Potter in the making, or am I jumping the gun here? lets see...

We then went to a Thai restaurant for a team "Foodie Friday", which was cool, but I did leave relativity early so I could go home and sleep for...

Saturday
Yesterday was the first ever USyd USQL  (University of Sydney Quidditch League) tournament - an internal tournament consisting of 5 teams. I am on the Fisher Firenze team, and we played the 1st and 4th games. In both games I played chaser and seeker, catching the snitch AGAIN in the first, but we didn't win cause we were so far behind on goals. The 2nd game the snitch was so aggressive and hard to catch that I went on the field on 2 seperate occasions and even then the snitch wasn't caught - I'm pretty sure we subbed out the seeker 5 times that match, and in the end the other team got it (my winning streak is still intact if I'm in the sub box right?) I also played for the Verge Veelas for one of the games and was in the sub box for their other (they didn't use me though) because some of their actual players were sick.

Overall it was so much fun!!! Everyone is so super nice and supportive, the game is fun and the whole event allowed me to totally fly away from all my problems for the day.

Sunday
Today I woke up so incredibly sore and slightly bruised from quidditch but still on a high from it. However, I do have a GEOS1901 assignment due on Thursday that I've barley started writing. I got one sentence into  my argument, thought I needed to reference and tried to use endnote as the uni has suggested. I cant get it to work! so I try installing word and seeing if it works better with word rather than pages. Can't install word. At this point I was frustrated with the technical difficulties and overwhelmed by the assignment in general that I stormed off into my room to take a break and havn't gone back to it since... ARGH this is starting to creep up on me and stress me out. Yet I continue to procrastinate, looking through quidditch photos and going on ATAR notes...
I also had my creative writing prac moved to tomorrow because of good friday and havnt done my homework or readings because the homework is more challenging than I expected and the readings are long. I feel like at the moment I'm either stressed to the point of unproductivity, or cant care to the point of unproductivity. Where, oh where, has that productive motivated mindset of the HSC gone? I better find it soon though because I really don't plan on failing the semester.

Anyway, here's some pics of the quidditch yesterday - I've tried to pick ones that are either just me or have people's faces kinda obscured, just for the anonymity of other players, means you miss out on some killers but oh well. Oh yes, that's right - that means if you've never met me before, now you know what I look like haha

PHOTOS!

Credit: AJ

Until next week - Taylor 

[Potatohater]

08/04/18 - Pushing boundaries

Well mid sem break is about to end and it's time for another update weather you like it or not!

Week 4

Monday

Open me!

So today i skipped my 1st lecture.
It wasn't on purpose though, I promise!
Due to Good Friday my creative writing seminar was moved from Friday to Monday and into the Charles Perkins Center, which is at the furthest end of campus. Getting there was fine enough, and the session left me with enough time to get to the next lecture,m but due to my complete unfamiliarity with the area, the construction and the fact that "lost in campus" assumes you can fly and only gives you a straight line direction, I ended up walking in the total wrong direction. I noticed this and turned back, only to find the new road was walking up, thinking it to be Manning road, was not in fact Manning road, and I ended up walking past all the campus accommodation and around the perimeter of the uni. By the time I got to Fisher Library it was already so late and the lecture was another 5 or so mins from there so I decided to meet up with a friend and do some of my assignment instead of walking in awkwardly half way through. 1st uni lecture skipped. A lecture I will never intentionally miss in the future because he never stands behind the mic and so the sound quality of the recording is so poor. The rest of the day was just doing my GEOS1901 assignment whilst on break and going to my performance workshop.

Wednesday

Open me!

Today I intentionally skipped my lecture because my GEOS1901 lectures are soooooo boring, and also I had an assignment to write, so I pretty much just used Tuesday and Wednesday to do my assignment. Catching up on this lecture wont be hard as the recording quality is good, its just gonna take some will power to stop procrastinating it. So far I've only watched 20 mins and am bored outta my brain.

Thursday

YOU WILL WANNA OPEN ME

Yes. The reason why I didn't make this update sooner - I was trying to make a vlog. Didn't go as hoped but that's alright.

Weekends and Quidditch Shinannigans

Some juicy quidditch stories in here

On Friday we had quidditch training in the afternoon as normal, and no surprise I caught the snitch twice this training.
On Saturday I saw a SUDS performance of the AIiens. Not the greatest show ever but not the worst either, makes me realise that you don't have to be awesome to direct or write for the SUDS stage

Sunday, now sunday is a story in its self
On this afternoon we had bowling, laser tag and kareoke with the quidditch club which was super fun! The night really got interesting on the way home though when my team captain convinced me to catch the train with a group of people and swap trains rather than catching my actual one alone from the start. Because I was now with that group, when one guy suggested having Pancakes on the Rocks I was there and ready to join in. So there we were, in The Rocks, eating at Pancakes on the Rocks at 1am. Afterwards, we walked to circular quay to catch my 2:16 bus, only to find on tripview that it had left 43 mins prior and the next one was in another 65. So I called my parents, asked if it was fine to stay over at the apartment of someone in the group for the night and come home in the morning. They said it was fine. The next morning I arrived at 10 am and found that it really wasn't fine. I was lectured for a solid 40 mins, and set up a whole lot of tension that landed me in trouble yet again on Tuesday night after trivia (with the quidditch club of course) despite the fact I left at 11pm that night.

Thursday following consisted of quidditch training. I didn't catch the snitch for once, even though the snitch ended up having so many handicaps on him that it should have been easy. I guess it still was - easy enough for the other seeker to catch it before me. She is also a good seeker so its not too bad but yet it's still so annoying because I touched it at least 3 times and had it slip from my fingers.
After training I had my first rehearsal for slot 3 - a production made up of little monologues and skits  in which I'm in a small section called "A hole in the floor" written and directed by a NIDA student. That was fun but I couldn't help the itch to get back to my quidditch friends, who were all at the pub when rehearsal started, but had left when I got back. There were still 3 of them hanging out at the uni village though so I met up with them afterwards and played Mario Kart until I had to rush off home. Turns out I really didn't need to rush though because there were incredibly long delays on my train line due to an earlier fatality and signalling issues at 3 different stations.

So yah, I think that's the overall gist of the past 2 weeks in terms of Uni stuff - stay tuned to found out about when uni really hits me in the face in the next part of semester. I'm still waiting for it to happen... any day now...

[dcesaona]

Omggggggg there's quidditch playing at Sydney Uni? That's too good

[Potatohater]

Omggggggg there's quidditch playing at Sydney Uni? That's too good

Hell yeah there is!
BEST. THING. EVER. (At uni)

[PhoenixxFire]

The video says its unavailable Do you have it set on private or is it just my computer?