Assignments

I managed to get all of my work done by Friday in order to head down to Surfer’s Paradise for the night with a few friends from school. I had two papers that were due, so I was a bit worried that I wasn’t going to be able to get them done… but I locked myself up in the library and managed to pump them both out. It’s difficult because Australia is such a fun place… that it’s hard to find that work hard/play hard balance. I think I’ve got it though! I’ve been doing all of my readings and participating lots in class… Maybe I’m realizing that after this semester, I only have one more year of Uni. Crazy… I guess I’m really growing up!

I have a funny story about my first assignment that I handed in this semester at UQ. It was a paper for my geography class (which is eye-opening by the way) that was discussing how the population affects the environment. Turns out we’re all in for it. It’s weird to think that by 2050 there’s a predicted 9 billion people supposed to be living on planet Earth. Where will they all go? What will they all eat? These are the questions I had to answer. Colossal thoughts, really. Anyways, the funny part about me handing in the paper is that for some reason my Microsoft Word is un-zoomed, like the font is really small. So, when I type, I always set the font to about size 18. Well, turns out I also printed it in size 18… and handed it in in size 18. She must think I’m losing my vision. You know how really large font automatically looks childish? Yah, great start to the academic year! I was wondering why 1000 words took up like 10 pages…. I guess I never put two and two together. I’ll be sure to check that next time.

My other two papers that were due were for my political science class and my Australian pop culture class. The political science one was interesting… because it was a “reflection” piece. Considering I’ve never really taken a political science course, I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to be reflecting on. The criteria asked a few questions: what role have your emotions played in learning? How have you classmates influenced your learning environment? It was tough to come up with an answer for that… I was thinking it was maybe a trick question… but turns out it was as simple as that. Didn’t take me long. I pretty much just wrote a blog entry… but for my class. Hmm. Interested to get that one back.

My paper for my Australian pop culture class was a stretch… because I had to relate an Aussie movie that we watched in class, called “Lantana,” and relate it to the theme of the week – “the bush”. The problem was… that the movie was set in suburban Sydney, so all of the apparent references to the bush… were metaphorical. Fun fact: Aussies differentiate between “hiking” and “bushwalking,” with the latter being the more superior “leisure activity” of the two. Bush walking is pretty much when people go out into the nature and appreciate it, camp there, get it touch with the environment, etc. Hiking is seen as inferior to this, something tourists do, etc. The term bushwalking is funny though, I think. My paper ended up being a whole lot of metaphorical madness… I really stretched it a few times. Also, very interested in getting that back.

That’s a school update for y’all/mom.