Student Bloggers
Almost Done
Date
May 26, 2015
Things are getting intense here; we had our farewell ceremony, we're now in the last two weeks of classes before exams, and I'm still trying to accomplish my two main goals for this trip. There's a thing coming up next week for a one-day surf class (goal 1), and also, some of my friends have been trying to set a thing up so that I can try eating kangaroo (goal 2). Sure, since getting back some grades, I've definitely been trying really hard to do well on assignments (which is difficult), but I'm here for adventure and that should be taken into account. The thing that's been explained to me about grading here is that: in America you start at 100 points and they take away for mistakes, in Australia you start at 0 and get points for doing what the assignment asks. So the failing mark is much lower, but the highest marks are also really difficult to achieve. So far it's been terrifying, I'd never seen the number "64" on my grade-sheet before, but I checked and a 'C' is not so terrible for a single assignment; I can bring my grades up. It's a little hard to keep track of everything going on right now. I have 3 assignments due the same week and trying to balance a 100, 200, and 300 level class is proving to be difficult. I'm not the best at organizing, but I brought with me these cute little 'to-do' lists that let me plan everything out. My room is a mess, my desk is a disaster, but at least I have a plan to get this small part of a single assignment done! I repeat: it is intense. My roommate barely leaves the room because she's studying so much. I spent my entire Sunday in one of the common rooms, spread out all over the floor, working on my scale model of an art installation. Nine hours. In one day. Since, I've spent a lot of time on other assignments; yesterday, I spent 6 more hours on that same model, and today I spent 4 hours shopping for supplies and testing techniques for building a box for another assignment. 'Hectic' is another good word for this. A lot of running back and forth between the residence, Uni, and the mall for supplies and whatnot. Its also making it hard to post updates. Staying up late, waking up early, running around, making sure to eat, still attending all my classes; it's getting to be a bit much. If I'm counting down- it's until the end of exams, not my plane home.