Showing posts with label Murdoch Blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Murdoch Blogger. Show all posts

Getting into University

I have a degree. It’s still in the envelope they sent it in, tucked away in one of my many ‘important document’ drawers and there it shall stay until my living arrangements become more permanent. 

The reason I say I have a degree is because this was not always the case. Once, not too long ago, I was in the same position as some of you are in. The grades I’d received were not nearly as good as the ones I had wanted and my future looked quite bleak. I didn’t think I would get in to any University and that I would be stuck working in some job I would hate for the rest of my life. 

That’s when my Dad dropped another piece of his, not always but sometimes, excellent advice. Talk to someone at the University. I scoffed at this because I felt that the people at the University probably heard hundreds of cases like mine and were probably used to turning them down. This is just one more example of me being wrong and being happy to admit it.

After some persuasion I sent an email to Murdoch and within a day (bear in mind I was in Zimbabwe at the time) I had a response. The email was very kind in tone and it outlined all my options about the various courses that were open to me, including a few that I had thought I wouldn’t be able to get into. Within 48 hours of receiving my results I had made my application to Murdoch, something I would not have thought possible when I had initially opened the results letter.

So the three important lessons that I learnt were: 1. Your results are never quite as bad as you initially think they are 2. Sometimes your Dad will know what he is talking about and 3. People at Universities (particularly Murdoch) are people. People that will happily help you if you ask. 

If you’ve just got your results and are feeling like all the opportunities have gone up in smoke, simply ask for help. In three or four years time you could have a fancy envelope with a degree in it showing up to your house too. 

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On being a Graduate


I decided to take an unannounced break from blogging as the end of semester and end of exams really took it out of me and I needed some time to recuperate. Never fear though, I have returned to give you your weekly bathroom reading. 

I received my final University results and to the surprise of everyone, especially myself, I had managed to pass everything. For those of you following my exciting story that means I have met the prerequisites for leveling up from undergraduate to, the far more prestigious, Graduate. Upon reaching this new stage in life a number of options become available and I would like to spend this post discussing them.

Immunity from Prosecution

I’m not a lawyer, or even remotely qualified, but I’m pretty sure the number of words in your degree title is the number of days per year you are allowed to act with full immunity from the law. So as I have a Bachelor of Arts in Security, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies with a Minor in Journalism and a Minor in International Studies, I get about twenty days a year where I can do as I please. Obviously though this only starts next year as they still need time to put my details into the system.

Instant Knowledge

This one is great. Basically anytime you are involved in a conversation/argument/debate/shouting at strangers in the street you are entitled to say, “Well from what I learnt at University before I graduated.....” and then you fill in the blank with whatever statement you think will win you the argument/conversation/debate/respect of strangers in the street. The best part is that no matter what you say it immediately becomes true because you are a Graduate. It is inadvisable to twist reality too much. 

Graduate Surcharge

From now on, whenever you perform any service whatsoever you can apply the “graduate surcharge”. This, again, entails adding up the number of words in your degree title but this time for a percentage. Mine, for example, is twenty percent and I can now add an extra twenty percent charge onto any service I render. The graduate surcharge, unfortunately, cannot be added onto any dealings with family members as they will likely just scoff and remind you that they used to change your nappies. 

Though these are all wishful thinking I have enjoyed being a graduate so far. I’m sure, when the realisation that I will have to get a real job and stop publishing rubbish on the internet sinks in, I’ll eventually start to have a predictable panic attack. When I do I promise to document it for you and write it up for this blog. 

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How I do it (Part Two)


I do realise the irony of having a blog post about my time management skills go up two days late. Please accept my sincere apologies and enjoy this rather late offering.

Midyear enrollments are fast approaching and Murdoch have asked me to do a post on one of the most common concerns people have when considering enrolling, namely that they won't have enough time to study. In this post I will address some of the issues I’ve faced, trying to balance working at a part-time job and studying full-time.

If you’re an international student you are entitled to work 20 hours a week during the semester and that automatically affects how you balance work and study. Honestly, it can be hard to make enough to live by with the work limit but if you violate the rule you can lose your visa. I have, on occasion, come close to going over so my first tip is make sure you and your employer keep a close eye on how many hours you have done each week. Below are a couple of tips that I’ve found useful for keeping my academic reputation up while making some money.

1. Flexibility 


When you take a job make sure it has flexible hours. Having fixed shifts isn’t a bad idea but when you are really struggling with an assignment, being able to swap shifts around can be a lifesaver. This also comes in handy during the exam period.

2. Savings
    Save up some of your paycheck every week. I’ve suffered quite badly when I take time off to study and suddenly I don’t have any money coming in. This is a serious problem when rent is due and you don’t have enough to afford groceries as well. Nothing impairs your ability to study like not eating.

    3. Avoid the trap

    Once you start earning money, life suddenly becomes a lot easier. The more shifts you work the more money you make, until you realise how exhausted you are from working and decide to skip class in favour of sleep. It’s an easy cycle to get into, one that I know quite well.
    Finally just remember that balance isn’t something you’re born with, you have to learn it. It sounds clichéd but practice really does make perfect. If you are really worried about if you’ll have enough time to study then perhaps you need to look at alternative options, such as part-time or external studying. All of which can be found on the Murdoch website.

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    How I do it (Part One)


    Midyear enrollments are fast approaching and Murdoch have asked me to do a post on one of the most common concerns people have when considering enrolling, namely that they won't have enough time to study. This post is more going to deal with balancing studying and having a social life and I will do another tomorrow dealing with work and University and how the two sometimes negatively interact.


    When you're doing a full-time degree there is no getting away from the fact that it does take up a significant portion of your average week. On the surface it may seem like you only have to be on campus for your contact hours, whatever those may be, but you also need to account for the time you will spend doing important activities such as tutorial readings, assignment preparation and the extra time actually writing an assignment can take. When you factor in any time you might have to spend working a part or full-time job and a few hours to spend with friends or family it starts to seem incredibly daunting.

    For my first few months at University I found creating a balance between the social life of living in the Village and the demands of my degree very difficult. I would either spend entire nights locked away in the library, researching for assignments or I would go to the other extreme and put all thoughts of studying out my head while I went out drinking with friends. Neither extreme was particularly healthy but I did find my balance and from that I came up with a few little rules to govern my behaviour and help me better manage my time.

    1. Have a set starting and stopping point

    I struggled at first because I would over-study and then be exhausted the next day for class. I would go up to the library around nine at night and not leave until two in the morning. Being tired meant that I was never really studying as much or as effectively as I could and so I never took in as much information as I should have. I did find that if I set myself a set time to start and stop studying that I would be much more productive in that burst, rather than being unfocused for a longer period of time. 

    2. Keep a calendar

    Buy a calendar. Write down the due dates for every single assignment and exam you are going to have for the semester. If someone invites you out, simply check the calendar. If there's a big assignment or exam due soon then you should probably be writing it or studying for it instead of drinking heavily. Combining the two is not recommended. 

    3. Have a study space

    If you share a house with friends, or live in the village, the chances are you are probably limited in your study space. While studying in a common space, such as your kitchen or living room, may work for a little while sooner or later someone will disturb your study flow. I personally like to use the library to study as you are surrounded by like-minded people and during the day there is a whole section devoted to quiet study.

    4. Put the books down and go outside

    Locking yourself away and studying for long periods of time is fine, provided you also get out of the house and do something completely unrelated to studying. I would often stop studying for an exam and simply go for a fifteen or twenty minute walk. It's amazing how much easier it is to study if you take such breaks. Likewise, after a big assignment is finished, take a day off and go to the cinema with friends, or go clubbing (I'm told that's what kids these days do). Dwelling on what you might have done differently in an exam or assignment is the most wasteful avenue of thought and time. 

    5. Relax

    University is not life and death, though it can sometimes seem like it is. If you don't think, for any myriad of reasons, that you'll make the deadline for an assignment then talk to your tutor. Nine times out of ten they will give you an extension. Though, you should never get into the habit of asking for them. Failing a unit or an assignment is also not the end of it all. There are always allowances to be made and ways of making the failed units up.

    I will be putting up the second post on this topic sometime tomorrow. Until then why not tell me what your suggestions for balancing University and your social life are?

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    The Power of the Zambezi

    Some of my fondest memories are going on family trips to Lake Kariba. Often we would spend a weekend, fishing and game spotting, and simply getting away from the city. Sometimes we would even spend entire weeks up there aboard big house boats and travel far across the lake for many days. I remember it as always being very relaxing to be so close to nature and be able to observe the animals completely at ease. The poem below was one we found in my dad's desk and that is now pinned to the cork board in my room.

    The Power of the Zambezi, by J. Edward Woodward

    Through the continent of Africa
    The mighty Zambezi flows
    Over waterfall, through deep ravine
    And where dense forest grows.

    But such might and power
    And so much frantic haste
    Through so many generations
    Has mostly gone to waste.

    So the heads of two great nations,
    Engaged with such accord
    To Dam this surging monster
    And the first skip of concrete poured

    Then fifty thousand Batonka people
    Had to move from their homes
    And the treasure of the wildlife
    No more this Vale could roam

    As skip by skip the Dam wall rose
    Inch by inch did the water.
    Animals and Human kind
    Would find their lives would alter

    But Nyaminyami the River god
    Was not pleased by this obstruction
    And twice in rage almost brought
    Mens efforts to destruction

    But in spite of many hardships,
    The Dam was at last complete
    And now folks from around the world
    Come to admire, this engineering feat

    So now a mighty lake appears
    Where once there was 'a stream'
    Filled with many kinds of fish
    from Tigerfish to Bream

    But this is not the climax
    Of this colossal river fight.
    For several million people now,
    Are getting power and light.

    So be at peace Nyaminyami
    You have not lost your power
    For now millions pay you homage
    Each day and every hour

    Any many climb the twisting road
    Up to the lookout steeple.
    To look across that massive lake and see
    Matchstick boats and matchstick people.

    And so great Lake Kariba
    They built a church near you
    Not only in memory of the dead
    But to inspire the living too.

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    "Then what?"

    When I was four years old I pretty much had the world sussed out. I knew where wind came from, I knew that girls were icky and I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was going to be a police officer, or a fireman, or an astronaut or some combination thereof. Now, at twenty-two, I've discovered that most of what I held to be true was not as cut and dry as I had thought.

    Sadly, time waits for no man and before I knew it I was only a semester away from graduation. The point is driven home whenever I talk to people and they ask about University. Usually the conversation goes something like this;

    “So you’re still at University?”
    “Yeah, well I’ve only got one semester to go.”
    “Oh great! Then what?”

    Then it all falls to pieces. The person stands there with their smile gradually becoming frozen and fixed while I stutter and mumble, increasingly desperate to say something that will satisfy them. Lately I've taken to making up complex lies that will get them off my back but if pressed I will confess to the truth, that I don't know what comes next.

    But if I've learnt anything so far it's that not knowing what comes next isn't the end of the world. Getting the piece of paper doesn't immediately guarantee you a job in your dream area but it's a start. Sometimes a start is enough, a vague direction instead of an explicit set of instructions. Now if only I could convince the people who keep asking me what I want to do with my life...

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    Why I can never walk home from Uni again

    I think it's safe to say that I have not led a particularly boring life. Most people my age have not had invasive medical procedures, been threatened by a dangerously insane Swede, performed actual feats of magic or gotten into fights with old ladies at the gym. In fairness most of these experiences are hardly things I've sought out and many is the time that I have really hated the situation that has fallen into my lap. True they are usually hilarious in hindsight and hopefully the event of which I am about to speak will become one of them.

    For those of you who know me well I don't really need to explain how I get to and from University on days that I have class. But for those of you who don't, strap in. It's going to be exciting. On days that I have class I dutifully load up my satchel, ensure that my fly is done up and then I walk. It's not a long walk, nor is it particularly difficult. There is a minor incline but once I had walked it a few times I feel I built up the stamina needed to get up it every day. The walk itself is not the subject of this little episode, rather it is the people I see.

    I like to listen to music, it makes a walk easy and sometimes I pretend I'm Rocky only without all the pointless running and getting into shape. Music also cuts down on the amount of thinking I'm able to do when I walk to Uni so that, when I finally get into class, my head isn't full of the usual crap like "I wonder what would happen if I had laser vision but I couldn't control it." Another feature of music is that it cuts down on the awkward interaction I would usually have to have with the people that are out watering their gardens or washing their cars. Normally I could simply nod, smile and maybe mutter a 'good morning' or a 'garden looks lovely' and then pretend that the song I was listening to had reached a particularly dramatic crescendo and I could therefore be excused wanting to draw out any subsequent dialogue.

    A few days ago I was making my way up to campus when I spotted an elderly lady walking out of her house and hacking vigorously away at some weeds. She looked up, spotted me and smiled. My earphones were in so I did my usual; nod, smile and then I made a perhaps fatal mistake. I waved. The old lady, perhaps mistaking this wave for some sort of secret handshake, started to gesture furiously at me. I was rather taken aback but as she continued to gesture I was able to work out that she was calling me over. Normal people would probably have a little alarm bell that would ring at this stage, warning them to simply pretend not to have seen her and continue along on their merry way. Sadly I don't.

    I paused my music, took out my headphones, looked both ways, and crossed the road to where the lady was still gesticulating furiously. Immediately she began to grill me as to what I was doing walking along this stretch of road, why I had a satchel and how frequently did I take this route. All of these I answered as honestly as I could, bearing in mind that I was beginning to run late for class. I'm not convinced that my responses actually meant anything to her as she waved them aside and began a five minute monologue about how frustrating her neighbours were and their efforts to utterly sabotage her garden. Like any person raised to be polite I made the appropriate, "Oh I never", sorts of declarations. The sort that indicate you sympathise with the person but that's really where it ends. This was to be mistake number two as she clearly took these to be oaths of loyalty and began showing me all the vandalism around her property and finally extracted a promise from me to keep an eye out for any vandals messing with her trees. Readily I agreed and then made my excuses to leave, thinking that would be the end of that. Unfortunately, as I learned today, it was not.

    While walking home from a productive few hours in the library I was spotted by the old lady and once again she furiously motioned at me to cross the road. With a sinking heart I did. When will I learn? It turns out the little old lady had sought legal advice from a friend who had told her she needed to catch the vandals in the act. She proceeded to drag me around her garden showing me hundreds of different cuts on her trees that, honestly, looked all alike and that she could have done herself along with a whole database of photographs of the various cuts. Then she told me all about her evil neighbours who were trying to drive her away and how they had poisoned her trees and were cutting them back. Halfheartedly, I asked why she didn't just report them to the local council and then her true madness was really revealed. While many believe in conspiracies as vast and varied as 9/11 being a hoax, Harold Holt being kidnapped by Soviets and Aliens secretly running the world, this little old lady had set her sights to a far more mediocre one. Namely that the local council was in league with her neighbour to get rid of her. I had unwittingly walked into the plot to an action-thriller except that instead of Bruce Willis and a pretty girl, I had an elderly lady who was probably a little bit senile. But oh how much worse it gets.

    During this conversation the old lady had clearly decided I was to be her agent in the black, her silent partner, the ace in the hole. She didn't just want to complain, she wanted to recruit me into her invisible war. So invisible, in fact, that she was the only combatant. She asked me if I knew of any surveillance cameras that she could purchase and I, due to not being google, told her honestly that I did not. Though if I thought that was to be the end of it I was mistaken. The little old lady pulled out a Filofax (who even uses those anymore?) and asked me for my mobile number, so she could contact me once I had researched surveillance cameras for her (something I never agreed to do). This is the point I am most ashamed of. This moment. For when she asked me for my mobile number I couldn't just say no.

    From day one I have had manners ruthlessly drilled into me to the point where, if someone were to stab me with a knife, I would probably apologise for inadvertently taking their knife with me. People may know me as sarcastic and sometimes rude but in social situations like this one my manners are the only experience I have to fall back on so when this little old lady asked me for my number I did the only thing I could. I gave it to her. Admittedly I had the presence of mind to give her my old number so, with any luck, I'll never hear from her again but she still managed to get me to write down not only her name, but all three of her mobile numbers and a blind system which would allow us to communicate without her neighbours finding out. Because, as she pointed out, they might open her mailbox and take any letters I leave for her.

    Genuinely at this point I feel I have only two options, the first is to simply take part in this insane little war against her neighbours and the second is to fake my own death and then take a different route to University every day.

    The really sad part about this story is that every single word of it is true.

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    Interlude: The hot hot heat

    It has been incredibly hot in Perth these past few weeks. Hot and humid. You toss and turn every night, trying to find the coolest spot on your bed and then wake up covered in perspiration. The rare breeze brings a brief respite that is gone all too quickly and you soon forget the feeling of being cool.

    Air conditioners can slow the problem, turning your room into a cell that you don't dare step out of, but they shoot your electricity bill through the roof so you become afraid to turn it on. Scared to step outside for fear of melting and scared to stay indoors for fear that the heat madness will force you to turn on the A/C and live out your life in cool poverty.

    The weather people keep telling us that it's a record heatwave, as if this is some kind of comfort, and that it will break soon. I have long suspected them to be simple charlatans who really have no idea of what something as mercurial as the weather will do next. That, or the one's in Perth are just terrible at their jobs.

    This weekend will apparently bring us light showers that will perhaps tide us over until winter is ready to hold us in her tender embrace. The phrase, 'beat the heat', is blared out in so many different adverts that they seem to forget that you cannot. All you can do is endure until it goes away, much like toothache or the flu.

    I, for one, will be lying in a bathtub full of ice until the situation remedies itself. I recommend you do the same.

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    Completing your first University Assignment (Part two)

    Welcome back to the topic that is most likely to put you to sleep. Unfortunately assignments don’t go away, no matter how hard you wish. They also don’t disappear with any sort of animal sacrifice and then all you’re left with is the stain in your carpet and the cloying scent of incense. But I digress.


    This part of the series will hopefully illuminate a little more of the processes that you can choose to try when you’re writing your first assignment. You can also choose to completely ignore the advice given here and opt for the pressure cooker method.

    Research

    I used to find this the hardest part of being a University student as, before I came to Murdoch, the most research I had to do for essays was to glance through my textbook. I learnt the hard way when it came to writing my first assignment. Thankfully the University doesn’t just hand you off without any sort of support. The library has a stack of easy to access online materials and there is the Student Support centre where you can be shown how to access it all. Add Google Scholar to the mix and you should have little problem finding relevant data for any assignment.

    A big part of learning to do proper research is learning correct referencing styles. The University has handy referencing guides up and it never hurts to ask your tutor which style they prefer. If you don’t reference properly you can lose marks or even end up accused of plagiarism. So, try to avoid that.

    First Draft

    A legal studies professor once told me that I should simply write an introduction and then never read it again until I’d finished the essay. That way I could delete the introduction and write a much more appropriate one when I was done. The hardest part of writing is actually getting started and with a first draft you just need to keep plugging away until it’s done. It doesn’t have to be perfect, or even good, once it’s finished you can start the distilling process.

    This is an important part and if you use a first draft you usually end up with a higher quality essay. It also helps you see what areas of your argument need to be improved and what areas don’t work at all. Write it, leave it for a few hours and then read it with a fresh mind. Failing that get a friend to read it and ask them what they think. Be prepared for sometimes harsh criticism. 

    I’m in the middle of my own assignments at the moment so this post will be briefer than the last. In the final post of this series I’ll hopefully talk about final drafts and submission. I might also bore myself senseless with those tasks and end up talking about more animal sacrifice. Half the fun is in the anticipation!

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    The Stress Less Guide to Studying in Australia - Part Three

    Orientation Week

    This one is coming a little later than I would have liked but I promise there will be a full explanation. Later. As always please leave a comment or email me if you have any questions or feel that I've missed something.

    So now that you’re in Australia, you’ve moved into what will probably be your home for the next three years and have met other people who are about to start University. O-Week starts tomorrow (or maybe today at the rate I’m writing) and soon you’ll be so busy attending introductory lectures and orientation events that stressing about the semester to come will be the last thing on your mind. This will be the conclusive post of this trilogy so pay close attention.

    Put your address on MyInfo

    One of the conditions for holding a student visa in Australia is that you let your education provider, a fancy name for the University you attend, know where you live. This is also kind of useful for you as it means the University can send you important notices and the like. It’s really easy to simply go to MyInfo on the Murdoch portal and pop your address in. All you need to login in is your student number and password that you should already have. 

    Get your student I.D

    It’s a handy little card that entitles you to the various discounts that students are offered. It also allows you to gain access to certain buildings in the University grounds after hours depending on your unit choices. All you need is your student number and the library will sort you out with a picture and a card. It does not, however, allow you to get concession on public transport, that requires a separate smart-rider card and to have registered for the concession on MyInfo.

    Enroll in Units and Activities

    Part of being at University is attending lectures and classes. To that end it’s a really good idea to enroll in the units that your major requires. The sooner you enroll in units the sooner you can enroll in activities (the classes that go with every unit) and the sooner you do that the better the timetable you end up with. It’s only logical. 

    Buy your books

    This can be the most painful part of your University career, having to shell hundreds of dollars for University textbooks and readers. There really is very little I can say that will soften this blow. (Again email me or leave a comment if you have something to add) Check the Guild shop for second hand books and sites like the Book Depository and Amazon will sometimes have cheaper books. Good luck either way.

    Conclusion

    If you’ve read this far and feel that there is still something that is worrying you then I encourage you to send me an email about it. Otherwise, follow your timetable, always read your Unit Guide, always take notes in lectures and always start your assignments on time. Also, stress less.

    Good luck!

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    The Stress Less Guide to Studying in Australia - Part Two

    Pre departure - Still
    Now that you have all the paperwork sorted out its time to start giving some thought to what you need to take with you. Again this won’t be an exhaustive list but feel free to leave a comment or send me an email about any suggestions you have.

    I like to travel light. If I can’t carry both my suitcase and my hand-luggage at the same time then I usually like to repack them. It’s a rule that’s served me well in the past, though it does say a lot about my life when I can fit it into a backpack and small suitcase. Luggage allowance on the flight to Australia will vary from place to place and airline to airline but I usually have about twenty kilograms to work with. Keep that in mind when you come to packing.

    Clothes
    The agreed upon rule on this seems to be pack the minimal amount. You’ll want summer clothes if you’re arriving in February and warmer clothes for June and July. The clubs usually won’t let you in unless you have smart-casual clothes and close-toed shoes, so pack appropriately. Anything you don’t bring with you can probably be picked up reasonably cheaply in one of the many clothing stores. There’s even a warehouse outlet called Harbour Town in Perth but I’m cheap when it comes to what I wear so rarely go there.

    Toiletries
    I honestly didn’t give them much thought but I have been told by both my mother and sister that this is an important section. You should take fresh bottles of all your shampoos and conditioners. It gives you a bit of breathing space for a few weeks and can also be a bit comforting when you first arrive. You’ll probably be able to get the same products or something very similar in the supermarkets and pharmacies but it’s still nice to have the same product as what you’d use at home.

    Computers
    Laptops are fairly cheap these days and are really easy to transport. I knew a guy that flew his entire desktop computer over with a printer and it cost him a fortune. If you plan to live in the Village at Murdoch then you’ll most likely have internet access through the ethernet port in your room but you can also get wireless on campus and in lectures. I like to use my laptop to take notes and often end up checking Facebook at the same time. Presumably you’ll be more industrious than me. Printers are also fairly cheap and you can get them in Fremantle and Perth.

    Books
    Unless you are really dedicated you probably won’t have any of your unit textbooks when it comes to fly across. The books I’m talking about are the sort you read for pleasure rather than the much dryer academic texts, unless that’s your thing. I usually travel with four or five books because I read so quickly but it can add to my hand-luggage weight. I suggest taking one or two books that are special to you, I know someone who has a treasured copy of Atlas Shrugged, and keep those with you throughout your University career. If you plan to go the Village route most of the rooms have good bookshelves in them, though you will probably have to sacrifice space to the dry academic texts.

    Mementos
    The most important thing you can take is something special that reminds you of home. When my sister went off to University she took her favourite stuffed animal, I took a few photos and my guitar and I know a friend who took enough photo’s to fill a wall. These objects are important for two reasons, first because you’ll need something familiar in the first few months and second because they can be very comforting if you get sick so far away from home. 

    That, as far as I can see, is most of what you should think about packing. I’ve probably left something very vital out so please don’t try to use this as a checklist. If you decide to use this as a checklist please don’t blame me if you forget something. If you decide to blame me please don’t kill me. If you decide to kill me please at least have the decency to not dump my body down a mine shaft. I get nervous in dark, enclosed spaces.

    Stay tuned for part three where I will show you how to make a cat out of macaroni!

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    The Stress Less Guide to Studying in Australia - Part One

    Pre Departure

    You’re on the cusp of moving to Australia for University and at this point you might be panicking just a little bit. Fair enough. This series of posts will hopefully help to set your mind at ease. It’s hardly exhaustive so there might be some omissions, if you notice any glaring ones feel free to make the addition in the comments or send me an email!

    Coming up to Christmas there are three things you’ll have needed to sort out that are very important. The first is your electronic confirmation of enrollment or “eCoE”. This is simply a document from your chosen University confirming that you definitely have a place. Good to have. The second thing is your student visa. Put simply this allows you unlimited exits and entries into Australia for the length of your chosen degree. If you don’t have one of these in your passport you probably won’t get into the country. Likewise good to have. Finally, something to sort out, is Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC). Going off personal experience having OSHC was a condition of having my student visa so I presume it still is. 


    If you have any questions regarding any of this I recommend contacting your education provider. For future Murdoch students, all your contact options are here.

    Once you have those squared away it’s time to give some thought to where you are going to stay. Most Universities offer some kind of on-campus accommodation and the Murdoch University Village homepage can be found here. Just remember that there are other options available to you, such as those found here at Perth Student Accommodation (here) . I am not endorsing any of these choices, I personally lived for two years in on campus accommodation before I moved out. I liked living in the Village but, and I stress I heard this second hand, it has gotten quite expensive.

    If you’ve got all the documents sorted out and you know where you’re going to be living then you can breathe easy for a bit. There’s still a bit to do but most of the important stuff is out of the way. 

    To be continued in Part Two - Packing for a different life.

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    From the Horses Mouth

    On the 30 of October 2010 I received a phone call from my mother while I was at work. My father, Charles Jeffery Gurney, had suffered a fatal heart attack. A week later I stood under the hot sun in a garden in front of more than a hundred people and stumblingly read out a small speech I had written. These were the words I wanted to say, the words I needed to say. I’m going to put the speech, in its flawed entirety, below. I’m going through a tough time right now and it probably won’t get any easier any time soon but I promise you that I will make every effort to put up blog posts whenever I can. 



    Dad

    I can honestly say that I never believed that one day I would be standing here saying goodbye to my dad.

    Unsurprisingly it’s one of the hardest things I could never imagine. How can I really say anything that will capture even a fraction of the loss I feel right now and will probably feel for the rest of my life? So I think instead I’d like to just share with you a few things about my dad.

    In Form Two we were asked to write about one of our heroes. I remember sitting in the class room looking up at the whiteboard trying to decide if I would write about Nelson Mandela or Terry Pratchett when a little thought popped into the back of my head, “What about Dad?”. So that’s who I wrote about, because to me he was just as influential and just as heroic as those people. Three years later, in 2006, the old man proved me right when he flew all the way to the UK simply to surprise me for my Eighteenth Birthday. I wouldn’t have been any the wiser if he decided that it was too expensive or that he couldn’t take the time off but my Dad made the trip, because that’s who he was.

    Dad was a generous man who once explained to me that charitable giving was best done anonymously, because then you knew you did it for the right reasons and not for the recognition. Dad also had the mischief. He would look for the best ways to stir people up, whether it was dreaming up the Gnome Liberation Front to harass people at Cabs or convincing Auntie Karen, as he called her, that Zimbabwe didn’t have the moon. 

    So when it comes to saying goodbye the word gets caught in my throat. I’ve lost my father, my teacher and my friend. Today I mourn him. Tomorrow and every other day I will celebrate his life.

    I love you Dad.

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    Guest Post - Jennifer Louise Morgan

    My father passed away two weeks ago so the blog has gone on a bit of a hiatus. Luckily my friends have provided me with some guest posts in my time of need. 


    This next post comes from Jennifer Louise Morgan who had the pleasure of sharing a unit with me this semester. I teased her, annoyed her and generally made her wish she had never met me. Jen is an accomplished writer who has her own blog at Miss Jen and I really do encourage you to check it out. She also makes a superb Ramona Flowers.

    Remember to thank Jen in the comments or by sending her positive Karma!

    The real world says hello

    Finishing university can be described as both a wonderful and terrible thing. It is something that all students have to face at one point or another (there is a limit to HECS after all). The strange thing is I haven’t given it a lot of thought until now.

    For those of you who may not know me, I am Jono’s friend Jen. I have been asked to write a guest post for him while he is away (gaining his ultra secret super powers). There are many things I could tell you about myself, but I think the most relevant would be that I’m about to finish my degree.

    The awful realisation is dawning on me that I will actually have to find a real job- that buying Harry Potter paraphernalia and watching 30 Rock will no longer be a valid way to spend my evenings. The fact that I am about to walk into a world where I can no longer use student concession scares me to no end.

    Studying at Murdoch has been a fantastic, eye-opening experience for me. My degree has given me the room to learn, and explore all that I am genuinely interested in. I have met a diverse range of people, and made some good friends (Jono included).

    I am comforted by the fact that I am now taking away invaluable skills, ones which I hopefully will be able to put to good use (besides my mad ninja skillz, they didn’t need much development).
    If you hear about a local Perth girl in the next few months however, who has broken the record for eating the most chocolate, or claims she has successfully recreated all the spells in Harry Potter, you will know I have probably failed.

    But then again, if Murdoch has taught me anything, it is about finding new life experiences.
    Here’s hoping the real world is kind.

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    Breaking down the Barrier

    People often tell me that they’re surprised I’ve lived as long as I have. I’m not sure if this a reference to the amount of exercise I do (none), the number of people I seem to offend (lots) or simply a dig at my diet (questionable at best).

    The truth is I generally try to eat well. I’ll spend hours in my head planning out exquisite meals, full three course banquets that tick every nutritional box and should, in theory, make me a better person simply by eating them. I’ll settle, however, for a can of chicken soup and some toast made with bread that isn’t completely mouldy. 

    A big part of how well I eat comes from how much time I am willing to devote to my meals. While Jamie Oliver might be able to knock out a decent curry in thirty minutes and still have time to lecture people on the importance of eating well, I’m lucky if I’ve managed to find a clean fork after a half hour of rummaging. Finding clean crockery and cutlery is only a tiny amount of the time I use. I need to factor in time to allow things like potatoes to boil, to allow time for swearing when I realise I’ve forgotten to turn on the hob and boil the potatoes and finally time to allow for the amount of helpless weeping I’ll do when I scald my hand on boiling potato water. By the time I’ve cleared the potatoes off the floor, dried my tears and attended to my hand, my stomach is empty and I can hear the siren’s call of the tin opener. 

    Truth be told I am not really that bad a cook, though I have scalded my hand on hot potato water and developed a healthy respect for fire. I can make a variety of meals and I can make some of them quite well but still I find it hard to eat healthy. I’m certain much of it is laziness. I can make a pizza if I want one but I can also buy a frozen one for a fraction of the cost and that takes a fraction of the time. Factoring in the time washing up takes and you’re left choosing between something delicious that takes four or five hours and something that’s average and only takes twenty-five minutes. 

    So really, while the home-cooked meals can taste delicious and are much healthier, what it boils down to (get it?!) is that during exams and assignments I much prefer to eat the quick unhealthy food followed by a handful of multivitamins than take the long path. There is also the chance, however slight, that the multivitamins will react with the chemicals in the quick food and either kill me or grant me mutant powers. 

    Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go and run my poor scalded hand under the cold tap.

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    Jobs

    The world runs on money. If you have money then anything you need or want in the world can be bought or rented. If you don’t then go away and come back when you’ve found some money. Finding money can be accomplished by many varied activities; you can beg, borrow, steal or earn. As I have too much pride to beg, no rich friends to borrow from and my ability to steal is only matched by my ability to update a blog on time I am forced to seek out gainful employment.

    Work can be a deeply demoralising experience which is why its so odd that finding a job can be so difficult. If you’re at all like me then you probably have an updated resume that you can print off to give to prospective employers. So you print out a couple and then spend a day wandering around to stores you quite like, making sure to hand them out to people who will hopefully give you a job. Each time you will probably be politely told that they have no vacancies until the rejection begins to make your ears ring. 

    So you print off a few more and resolve to slightly lower your standards for a part-time job. After all, you’ll reason with yourself, working at a comic shop would be great but a book store is just as good. Sadly these places will also be overstaffed and you’ll return to your flat with a bag full of resumes and broken dreams. 

    Finally you’ll break down and start applying for the hospitality jobs that you’ve so desperately avoided. Usually these involve long hours, fairly low pay and dealing with some of the rudest people in the world. The likelihood of getting one of these jobs is much higher than it is of getting one of the jobs you want. Strangely enough though these jobs can also be the most rewarding. When you go out of your way to help someone or fix their order so its just right it can be a good feeling to be thanked by someone who really means it. 

    I guess the morale of the story is that you shouldn’t shy away from the hospitality jobs as they can be great. That and you should plot to kill employees anywhere you want to work ahead of applying for a job there.

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    The Proper Care and Maintenance of a Mouse Trap

    Sometimes, I like to take a break from saving the world to actually attend some lectures. However I've noticed that a lot of people tend to be breaking the unwritten guidelines of behaviour during these sacred times. So what follows are some of what I consider to be the more important ones.

    Snoring

    Falling asleep in a lecture is pretty common. Sometimes it's because you've been up studying all night and other times it's because a darkened room is very conducive to sleep. I have nothing but respect for the noble state of the sleeping scholar. Their gentle nods of the head, the hunched way they sit over their notebook and the startled look on their face when the lights come back on at the conclusion. However the snoring scholar is something I believe every lecture can do without.

    Eating

    It's five p.m. You've spent the whole day in the library desperately scribbling away to get your paper on 19th Regency era Romance Literature finished before your next class. You haven't had time to eat because you've barely had time to sleep. Finally you drop the assignment into the box and head to the final lecture of the day. You sit down, barely able to keep your eyelids open, and someone sits next to you. They pull out a sandwich they have obviously just purchased from the food court. Its smell is intoxicating. You believe that you could subsist entirely on the mere idea of this sandwich. You lean over and gently bash the owner of the sandwich unconscious and claim your reward. This is why I advise against eating delicious food during lectures.

    Keyboards

    I am actually guilty of this one myself. I like to take my laptop into lectures so my notes don't devolve into doodles of penguins and spaceships. I respect that some lecturers dislike seeing laptops open during lectures as they believe, sometimes quite rightly, that students will fritter their lecture time away by idly clicking 'refresh' on Facebook. I have no problem with this. My problem rests with the personality type known as the “aggressive” note-taker. This person will tap away at their keyboard as if every single key has committed a grave sin against them and must be punished. It would be an exaggeration to say that it can be hard to hear the lecturer but honestly it's still pretty intrusive.

    Talker

    Finally we come to the talker. This person hasn't seen their friend in forever and will engage in an energetic conversation with them about topics as diverse as politics, literature and whether or not one of them saw what was on the telly the previous night. Catching up with friends is an activity I wholeheartedly endorse. Catching up with friends when the lecturer is attempting to explain the finer points of a topic is a crime I would welcome the death penalty for.

    So there you have just a few simple rules that really do make me sound like an old man complaining about the kids on his lawn. I only have this to say in my defence; in at least one lecture in all my time at Murdoch I've been in breach of all four of these guidelines. And yes, the title is completely misleading and unrelated to the topic.

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    Help is on the way

    However you look at it Murdoch has some very unattractive courtyards. There are some beautiful areas, such as the Peace garden, but overall there is definitely something missing in the bigger places. With that in mind Murdoch contacted me and asked me to do a series of installations that would hopefully raise the profile of the institution. Given my fantastic work with the chalk drawings and the very inspirational believe banner it would seem like I was a logical choice for such a big endeavour, but I was quite busy so they decided to go in a different direction.

    Murdoch have asked the artist Kyle Hughes-Odgers, also known as Creepy, to do a series of seven installations for around campus that will be going up this week. Creepy is an internationally renowned street artist who is based locally here in Perth and does some fantastic work. I really don't know much about art but I do know what I like and Creepy's work falls neatly into the latter category. They are a blend of vibrant colours and contemporary themes that I think will click nicely with the student population. Below is a time-lapse video of the largest piece being done and it is really fascinating to watch.


    help is on the way from Chad Peacock on Vimeo.

    I think this is such a great idea, not only because Creepy has created some amazing pieces but because these will now become a part of the Murdoch University art collection and will inspire so many of our future artists that study there. It's also part of a much larger effort to refurbish one of our biggest courtyards, something that is long over-due, as well as a great opportunity to show-case how fantastic the Perth artists are. You can find out more about Creepy at his site here, or by heading to the Turner Gallery where his exhibition “You just have your eyes closed” will be running until the 13th of September. If you don't need to go to campus this week but live close enough I think it would be worth it to pop down and see them go up.

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    Murdoch Open Day 2010 - Review

    It can sometimes be hard to write this blog. As I've mentioned in previous posts and I have clearly outlined, or at least I hope I have, in the disclaimer Murdoch does officially endorse the blog and compensate me for certain posts. This doesn't mean that I am going to necessarily always be positive about them and Murdoch have stressed to me that they will not attempt to censor me. With that said I will now discuss my opinions on the Murdoch Open Day on August 22nd.

    When I was 17, all those years ago, I was given the day off College to attend the Sussex University Open Day. It was pretty cool being given a day off to wander around a campus for a couple of hours and I had made plans to meet some friends in Brighton afterwards. I hadn't given any thought to University at that stage so I was thoroughly unprepared for what to expect. I had no idea what major I wanted to pursue and next to no clue if I was even going to be living in England for University. As you can imagine this made the whole open day experience less than pointless as all I did was walk around with a group of friends and complain, if I remember correctly, about how boring the whole process was. In short I was immature, annoying and completely unprepared to even think about University.

    Murdoch's open day, compared to the rather subdued Sussex one, was more like attending a carnival or festival. There were tea-cup rides, face-painting, competitions and a fairly impressive band line-up. If anything it seemed like there was so much to see and do that the prospective students didn't really have a reason to engage with the lecturers which is the whole point of an Open Day. Luckily the people attending this event seemed to be a bit more mature than I was on my first Open Day and I saw a lot of lecturers being asked questions and a lot of information being given out. All in all Murdoch gets points for being very informative and that's really what these days are about.

    The razor in the candy-floss though is that all the attractions kind of distort what a typical day on campus is actually like. There aren't always tea-cup rides and petting zoos on campus, we seldom get bands performing live on Bush Court and you'll be lucky to get churros on any day other than the Open Day. I know the attractions are fun and only meant to be a diversion and I am not saying Murdoch put them on for any other reason, but if Sussex had a similar show I'd likely have tried harder to get a place there and perhaps regretted it as I would have missed out on my Australian experience.

    The reality of campus life is that most of the time you won't be able to simply lounge around on Bush Court and enjoy the sun. You have work to do, often a lot of work, and when you're out on Bush Court its likely that it will be to read something for an upcoming tutorial or to do a last-minute bit of studying. Sometimes the Guild will put on an anti-stress day and it can be fun to visit the petting zoo or get a free drumming lesson but like I have said, these days are few and far between.

    So in my own roundabout way I am telling you that you shouldn't base your decision solely off the Open Day. Universities will use them to put on their best face, and who can blame them? If you choose Murdoch simply because 'it had the best attractions' or 'was the most fun' then all I can do is caution you to re-think. If you came to the conclusion that Murdoch is the University for you through research and backed that up by attending the Open Day and talking to the relevant Unit and Degree Co-ordinators then I think you've got the point and are a very different person to me when I attended my first open day.

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    The Great Train Ride Part 6

    Day Four – Arrival

    Well we survived a trip that could have driven us insane. We travelled 65 hours, 4352 kilometres and roughly 20 muesli bars. We are actually very lucky that the trip is ending today. The carriage we were on has turned feral in the one night since it was cleaned with every drain in every bathroom becoming clogged and garbage beginning to spread all over the aisles.

    Also it seems someone had broken into the carriage last night and replaced my usual impeccably groomed self with a red-eyed maniac who stank of travel and cheap meals. My joints ached like they had been wrenched around all night, which they essentially had, and I couldn’t face myself in the mirror because of the unusual angle my neck was stuck at.

    Our last night aboard the train had been great fun as we’d met two students from Queensland who, thankfully, lowered themselves to playing our ridiculous ‘train’ games that we shamelessly stole from Callum. They also told us some fun stories about the people they’d travelled with in their carriage, some of them sounded as bad as the one’s we had met. We also got to watch the implosion of the UTS students who were having some huge row over politics or economics or possibly religion, we weren’t quite sure but a huge row was going on and those words were thrown around a lot. In their defence all of them really did show a lot of passion for the argument and that is quite important in life.

    Falling asleep was harder to do because of the excitement of arriving in Sydney and it was nearly two o’clock in the morning when I finally dozed off. Sadly the attendants saw fit to wake us up at 5:45 to announce the birthday of a 66 year old passenger. Even she looked slightly put out by the loud congratulations over the P.A system. We were then informed we had half an hour to grab breakfast before they would stop serving it. At around ten the train began to pull through the main suburbs of Sydney and we began to see what we had travelled for four days to get to.

    I can’t say I will miss the India Pacific but I can’t say I didn’t really enjoy the trip either. It takes a long time and is probably a fair bit more expensive than a plane and apparently the service has been greatly reduced. But I still don’t hesitate to recommend it to everyone as a great way to have a ‘new’ experience.

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    Perth, WA, Australia
    I live in Perth and this blog is about navigating that life in my own way.

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