Even though my parents are in town, they went to the sunshine coast today, which is just as well because I had lots of classes. I probably could've skipped my tutorial, but it's good that I went and they see me there. Our class let us out early, but his lecture was sort-of about our next paper topic, so that was helpful... Then my favorite class - the American, which was fun as always. I always come out of that class in a good mood! It's amazing. I can definitely see why he gets the best ratings out of any professor at the University. Makes sense, that he teaches about service!
I came home and skyped with my boyfriend which was much needed because I've been missing him a lot lately. And then I edited my paper for a while, then took a break to drink wine with Jillian. Lina came home and she'd had a really bad day, so we talked to her about that. Then, I went back to finish editing my paper. Before I knew it, it was 11:30 and I hadn't even eaten dinner! I have to wake up for the Industry breakfast at 5:30am tomorrow, so I guess I need to go to sleep!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
April 18
I woke up at 7am, determined to work a few hours on my report before heading off to my TSA meeting. My parents called and said they made it to their hotel in Brisbane. It was already raining, poor things. I only worked a few hours and then had to get ready and make breakfast before going to campus for my meeting. I got there early and was able to print off feedback forms from the events last week so I could report on them at the meeting. After the meeting I stopped by Lisa's office because she had a gift for me for presenting in her class last week, so I headed over to the Tourism Building in the POURING rain and picked up her little gift. It was a certificate thanking me and a School of Tourism notepad and pen! Whooo. Fancy!! Then I trudged to the post office to buy a stamp, by this time SOAKED and then back on the bus and home! Took a nap when I got home and then worked for a couple hours on my assignment. It's WAY over the word limit and I don't know how I can cut it down anymore. UGH. Maybe I'll just suck it up and submit it with too many words.
Then we all headed to dinner to meet my parents!! They paid for our nice dinner at Peasant. I think the food was a little too spicy and alternative for them, but oh well.. I tried to pick a place with good food and last time I went it wasn't too spicy. =( Oh well. It was filling so I guess that's all that matters. Back home, I had a good long chat with Jillian about how hard life is sometimes. I'm not sure I have any answers, but hopefully at least some of my words gave her some comfort or something new to think about... I'm no expert on life, that's for sure. We're all just stumbling through as best we can, right?
Then we all headed to dinner to meet my parents!! They paid for our nice dinner at Peasant. I think the food was a little too spicy and alternative for them, but oh well.. I tried to pick a place with good food and last time I went it wasn't too spicy. =( Oh well. It was filling so I guess that's all that matters. Back home, I had a good long chat with Jillian about how hard life is sometimes. I'm not sure I have any answers, but hopefully at least some of my words gave her some comfort or something new to think about... I'm no expert on life, that's for sure. We're all just stumbling through as best we can, right?
April 17
On Sunday, I did a little laundry in the morning and then Jillian and I went to the store. We didn't have ANY food and since the bus never comes in convenient times, we ate breakfast at a little bookshop. Talked to an interesting older gentleman for a bit, then went to the grocery store, but didn't really buy much. Both of us are leaving at the end of the week, so we didn't want to buy all new stuff..
Came home and finished up laundry, but it looked like it was going to rain, so my clothes didn't really dry very well. Luckily it didn't and by dusk they were mostly dry. I worked on my paper for the afternoon and evening and made some good progress, but was hoping to finish it and again my hand cramped up, so I had to stop around 2am.
Came home and finished up laundry, but it looked like it was going to rain, so my clothes didn't really dry very well. Luckily it didn't and by dusk they were mostly dry. I worked on my paper for the afternoon and evening and made some good progress, but was hoping to finish it and again my hand cramped up, so I had to stop around 2am.
April 16
On Saturday, I slept in and then exercised for an hour. I did a bunch of crunches and sit-ups and girl ups and push ups and ran in place... I quit after about 45 minutes, I was exhausted. It's so sad how far you slip when you haven't exercised in a while. I used to be able to do 50 sit-ups in 2 minutes, but I don't even think I could do half that. UGH!! Anyway, then a hot shower and I felt overheated, made myself some breakfast and after my body felt re-nourished, I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my paper. I was hoping to finish by Monday so that I could be done and spend time with my parents, but after a while my hand started to cramp up and I couldn't do much of anything, so I had to quit for the night and go to sleep.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
April 15
I was hoping to work on my paper nonstop this weekend, but instead I had a TSA event to go to in the morning. I got woken up by Lina and Jillian talking, so I was a bit grumpy. But after eating cereal, I headed off to Kangaroo Point to the Riverlife Adventure Center. It's a place that holds events and has other adventure things like kayaking, rock climbing, bikes, etc. The girl showed us around the facilities in a 2 hour tour and then answered a bunch of questions about the operations of the site. Very in depth! And the facility was nice - I could def. see some actual classy events there. I was bored and tired, though. Then everyone went kayaking, but I didn't want to because I didn't want to get wet, so they went and I hung back. I got a little hungry, so I bought an ice cream bar to eat. They spent about an hour and 15 minutes out, then came back soaking, just as I thought. I had them all fill out feedback forms and then there was some cake because it was Hiro's birthday. So, I felt obligated to eat a piece of cheesecake and then felt like a fatass since I had cheesecake AND an ice cream bar. We finished around 1:30pm and then I hurried to catch a bus back home, but unfortunately it wasn't before my 2pm skype date with my boyfriend. UGH! He was nice about it, but I felt bad because I didn't even want to go to this event and now I was late again.. Anyway, after my lovely skype date, I tried to take a nap, but was woken up AGAIN by Lina and Jillian talking! Boy was I grumpy for the 2nd time today!! But I got up, ate a snack and started working on my paper. They went to a bar/event which sounded like fun, but I knew I had to stay and work. So, I got some peace and quiet and knocked out another 20% of my paper. I'm going to be way above my word count and it's taking a lot longer to write than expected because I need a bit more research on some sections. Oh well. Hopefully I can finish it up in the next couple days...
April 14
My boyfriend comes in exactly 1 month. I'm excited..
Today we had a midterm for my Research Methods class and it was at 2pm instead of the regular noon class. So I got to sleep in extra late, make breakfast and then lounge around, do some last minute studying before the test. We were put into a different room and they checked our student IDs before we entered. They placed us in every other seat so that we couldn't cheat. I happened to be the first one sat in the very front corner. Oh well. The test was only 10 multiple choice and 10 short answer, but it still took a while. I knew most of the short answer, except for 2 which I drew a complete blank on. Unfortunately those two were worth a combined total of 10 points. Overall, I think I probably got a 40/60 total. OUCH! Hopefully he grades on a curve. I saw a lot of other people struggling too and after class, talked to people. Some got the questions I didn't, others didn't know either. Oh well. I wasn't expecting to ace it, and it's only worth 30%, so I'll do better on the other two assignments.
After, I went to go pick up survey results for TSA and then met with my group for an assignment where we just discussed basics of the assignment guidelines and what direction we wanted to take. Then I headed home. I didn't get to talk to my boyfriend because it was already late, so I just worked on my paper for a while and got about 20% of it written. I hope I can finish it before Monday when my parents come!
Today we had a midterm for my Research Methods class and it was at 2pm instead of the regular noon class. So I got to sleep in extra late, make breakfast and then lounge around, do some last minute studying before the test. We were put into a different room and they checked our student IDs before we entered. They placed us in every other seat so that we couldn't cheat. I happened to be the first one sat in the very front corner. Oh well. The test was only 10 multiple choice and 10 short answer, but it still took a while. I knew most of the short answer, except for 2 which I drew a complete blank on. Unfortunately those two were worth a combined total of 10 points. Overall, I think I probably got a 40/60 total. OUCH! Hopefully he grades on a curve. I saw a lot of other people struggling too and after class, talked to people. Some got the questions I didn't, others didn't know either. Oh well. I wasn't expecting to ace it, and it's only worth 30%, so I'll do better on the other two assignments.
After, I went to go pick up survey results for TSA and then met with my group for an assignment where we just discussed basics of the assignment guidelines and what direction we wanted to take. Then I headed home. I didn't get to talk to my boyfriend because it was already late, so I just worked on my paper for a while and got about 20% of it written. I hope I can finish it before Monday when my parents come!
April 13
On Wednesday, I went to class, which was boring as always. She promised us that she would only talk about Financial Structure of Events for the first hour, but then ended up talking about Sponsorships (her fav. topic) for another 40 minutes! Ugh. Then I went home and talked to my boyfriend. I had to pull myself away from my computer to study for my midterm tomorrow and I researched a bit for my vacation and also researched for questions for the industry breakfast next week.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
April 12
Woke up extremely early to get ready for my big day! I went to my tutorial where we had a presentation and got out early, so we turned in our group paper (after signing a new cover sheet without our ex-group member's name). Then we sat at the rooftop cafe and relaxed for about 15 minutes before class. At 10am, I headed over to Lisa's undergraduate class on Sustainable Tourism and gave a quick 10 minute presentation about Volunteer Tourism. Surprisingly, it went well and the students actually had a few questions for me - YAY! Then I rushed over to my real class, 15 minutes late and sat down to learn about different cultures and how you should take that into account when managing events. As usual, he let us off early, so I went back over to Lisa's 2nd class and waited for the class to change. I did round 2 of the presentation, this time a bit clunkier and less questions from the audience. Oh well! Hopefully the students got a little something out of it! Then, I rushed across the street, back to my Hospitality course. Whew! I walked in to see my group's project up on the big screen and then he flipped to my notes page with my sloppy handwriting, and photos from our group meeting! ACK! What did I miss?? He was saying that this was exactly what he had hoped for in the assignment and it was perfect. Then he wanted to pull up the comments he gave us (and our grade)! I thought, omg, I'm going to get to see my grade for the first time with everyone else!? But it was a 7 - perfect score (45/50)!!!! This was the first 7 I've gotten in my masters program, so definitely reason to celebrate! I was so proud of our group (and my awesome presentation skills! haha).
It was a pretty good day after that, I was just basking in the glory of presenting in Lisa's class and then getting such a high mark! I bussed home and talked to my boyfriend for a while, tried to fix my cell phone and then researched questions for an industry breakfast that I got invited to next Wednesday. It's the new Minister of Tourism's introduction and they want some students to ask questions that she will answer. Whatever, it seems like a good opportunity to schmooze, so I have to develop a question!
Then instead of studying for a midterm that I have on Thursday, I ended up reading a report on Generation Y in the workforce. I love Gen Y topics, but I was surprised not to see anything about how philanthropic my generation is. So, I ended up forming a long email to my professor that sort-of challenged his report a bit! What nerve I have! Jeez. Good thing he likes me. I'm ridiculous and probably out of control with my argumentativeness sometimes. Sigh! Now if I could only harness this awesome critical power for my analysis papers, then I'd be amazing... But no. haha. Ah well. For now, I will just attack randomly. =(
It was a pretty good day after that, I was just basking in the glory of presenting in Lisa's class and then getting such a high mark! I bussed home and talked to my boyfriend for a while, tried to fix my cell phone and then researched questions for an industry breakfast that I got invited to next Wednesday. It's the new Minister of Tourism's introduction and they want some students to ask questions that she will answer. Whatever, it seems like a good opportunity to schmooze, so I have to develop a question!
Then instead of studying for a midterm that I have on Thursday, I ended up reading a report on Generation Y in the workforce. I love Gen Y topics, but I was surprised not to see anything about how philanthropic my generation is. So, I ended up forming a long email to my professor that sort-of challenged his report a bit! What nerve I have! Jeez. Good thing he likes me. I'm ridiculous and probably out of control with my argumentativeness sometimes. Sigh! Now if I could only harness this awesome critical power for my analysis papers, then I'd be amazing... But no. haha. Ah well. For now, I will just attack randomly. =(
Monday, April 11, 2011
April 11
Back to Mondays. Slept in, made breakfast, went to school for TSA Meeting, came home and skyped my boyfriend (highlight of my day!), then worked on papers and made dinner and worked on more papers! Ahhh. I'm running out of time before things are due.
My professor got back to me and said that they will make Kimi do an essay and presentation on his own and give to the professor directly. So, that is now off our hands, and we can turn in the assignment with just the three of us tomorrow! Yay.
My professor got back to me and said that they will make Kimi do an essay and presentation on his own and give to the professor directly. So, that is now off our hands, and we can turn in the assignment with just the three of us tomorrow! Yay.
April 10
Sunday. Did I leave the house?! I'm not sure. I believe I worked on my paper for the majority of the day. No word from the professors about Kimi, so I was a little unsure how to proceed. But we finished our paper, so it's ready to hand in.
April 9
Saturday! Slept in because I was up late, then talked to my boyfriend for a while. I tried to edit my group paper, which was only about 2,500 words, but it took me all day because I was distracted by my boyfriend. Oh well. Then in the early evening, Jillian and I decided to go to the grocery store. All of the grocery stores around here close so early!! 5 or 7pm on Saturday! What! I'm used to them being open til 10pm at the VERY earliest, but usually midnight or later... We got back and made some dinner and had a couple drinks, which probably wasn't the best idea because then I did NOT want to go back to studying!
Instead, I procrastinated and then stumbled across a video of my sister, which of course brought back all of the pain of missing her. It was like, Oh yea. You had almost forgotten, but it's still RIGHT THERE. Anyway, so after crying about that for a while, I decided to be productive and write about that. Got about 1,000 words written for that, so that's good. We'll see how far I get with that or if I ever feel like it will be complete. It's so hard to just get the background of it out. Oh and then, I read in some old writing from 2008 that I was frustrated about my boyfriend at the time. I was impatient, thinking that I didn't want to wait for us to be together 7-10 years before getting married and that he wouldn't be ready for at least another ~4 years. I looked at the date in the corner of my computer screen - 2011. It has almost been 4 years... Haha How silly of me to think that 4 years would be too long. These past few have flown by, and I'm still nowhere near marriage. I've learned so much. If only you knew then, what you know now... But I guess it wouldn't change much. And I wouldn't have learned as much without everything that happened. So, of course I got a little sad about that (Can't have one without the other; since it happened at the same time, I always go through the pain of both. They are intrinsically tangled).
Instead, I procrastinated and then stumbled across a video of my sister, which of course brought back all of the pain of missing her. It was like, Oh yea. You had almost forgotten, but it's still RIGHT THERE. Anyway, so after crying about that for a while, I decided to be productive and write about that. Got about 1,000 words written for that, so that's good. We'll see how far I get with that or if I ever feel like it will be complete. It's so hard to just get the background of it out. Oh and then, I read in some old writing from 2008 that I was frustrated about my boyfriend at the time. I was impatient, thinking that I didn't want to wait for us to be together 7-10 years before getting married and that he wouldn't be ready for at least another ~4 years. I looked at the date in the corner of my computer screen - 2011. It has almost been 4 years... Haha How silly of me to think that 4 years would be too long. These past few have flown by, and I'm still nowhere near marriage. I've learned so much. If only you knew then, what you know now... But I guess it wouldn't change much. And I wouldn't have learned as much without everything that happened. So, of course I got a little sad about that (Can't have one without the other; since it happened at the same time, I always go through the pain of both. They are intrinsically tangled).
April 8
Finally a day off. Our house is filthy from all of the construction going on, so I finally got a chance to clean. I tackled the bathroom and cleaned every surface! Whew. Exhausting. Then Jillian took on the kitchen and mopped the floors. I have a midterm coming up, so I studied for that for a while.
Got to sign up for my Venice class in July, exciting! But I was shocked to discover that it was 4 units instead of the standard 2! I thought it was only going to be SLIGHTLY different than the undergrad course, but this sounds a little intense! I hope not, especially since I don't need an extra 2 credits. I was looking forward to taking Entrepreneurship in my last semester. But, on the other hand, it might be nice to ONLY take my thesis in my last semester and then I'll have even MORE time off.. So, I'm not really sure what I'm hoping for, but I emailed the professor to ask what I can expect in terms of an increased workload or something.
Around 9pm, we go Kimi's revised work for the group essay and Jane told me that some of his references were fake! I looked at them and sure enough, they were false. One article did not argue the point he was citing, another referred to a different article than the one cited and lastly, he wrote about Australia, when the article is about New Zealand... These might be minor mistakes, but they're pretty sloppy and we were fed up with him. So, we decided to kick him out of our group. Once I made sure it was a unanimous decision, I emailed the professor and requested that he be removed from our group and not graded with us. So much drama!! Meanwhile, Jane informed Kimi of our decision and then rewrote his part. It only took a couple hours, she said! HAHA. We reduced his part to <10% of the final paper, only a couple hours worth of work, and Jane told him all of the points he needed to make and he STILL couldn't do it right. In fact, he was out having dinner with his new girlfriend when he should've been working on our paper. If it were me, I would've made sure my new part was immaculate, but instead he tried to cut corners with that too. So, our paper is much better without him and I'm now confident we aren't risking plagiarism!
Last, but not least, I realized somewhere in the night that I really do love my boyfriend. He had told me almost 3 weeks earlier, but I wasn't quite ready to say it back, yet... But tonight, I was ready. I waited for him to wake up so I could say it. It feels nice, hopefully this stage of our relationship will last long enough for us to really get to enjoy it in each others company.
Got to sign up for my Venice class in July, exciting! But I was shocked to discover that it was 4 units instead of the standard 2! I thought it was only going to be SLIGHTLY different than the undergrad course, but this sounds a little intense! I hope not, especially since I don't need an extra 2 credits. I was looking forward to taking Entrepreneurship in my last semester. But, on the other hand, it might be nice to ONLY take my thesis in my last semester and then I'll have even MORE time off.. So, I'm not really sure what I'm hoping for, but I emailed the professor to ask what I can expect in terms of an increased workload or something.
Around 9pm, we go Kimi's revised work for the group essay and Jane told me that some of his references were fake! I looked at them and sure enough, they were false. One article did not argue the point he was citing, another referred to a different article than the one cited and lastly, he wrote about Australia, when the article is about New Zealand... These might be minor mistakes, but they're pretty sloppy and we were fed up with him. So, we decided to kick him out of our group. Once I made sure it was a unanimous decision, I emailed the professor and requested that he be removed from our group and not graded with us. So much drama!! Meanwhile, Jane informed Kimi of our decision and then rewrote his part. It only took a couple hours, she said! HAHA. We reduced his part to <10% of the final paper, only a couple hours worth of work, and Jane told him all of the points he needed to make and he STILL couldn't do it right. In fact, he was out having dinner with his new girlfriend when he should've been working on our paper. If it were me, I would've made sure my new part was immaculate, but instead he tried to cut corners with that too. So, our paper is much better without him and I'm now confident we aren't risking plagiarism!
Last, but not least, I realized somewhere in the night that I really do love my boyfriend. He had told me almost 3 weeks earlier, but I wasn't quite ready to say it back, yet... But tonight, I was ready. I waited for him to wake up so I could say it. It feels nice, hopefully this stage of our relationship will last long enough for us to really get to enjoy it in each others company.
Friday, April 8, 2011
April 7
I stayed up late to talk to my boyfriend last night and because of all the stress, got only 5 hours of sleep. UGH. I went to campus early for my group meeting so that we could come to an agreement on how to handle this guy who had plagiarized. Technically since we didn't actually turn anything in yet, it's not quite against the plagiarism policies of the school (one could argue that it was a rough draft). Since there is less than a week before this is due, it's unlikely that he would find a different group. We wanted to give him a chance to confess and fix it, so we decided to confront him. We also agreed that if he didn't show up for the meeting, he would automatically be kicked out of our group. He showed up and we started questioning him on his part. He started sweating and his glasses started fogging up; he was clearly feeling interrogated (GOOD!). He admitted that he copied and pasted and then said that he thought we only had to do a presentation, not turn in a report. (Maybe if you pay more attention in class, you would know that there was a report!) Anyway, he agreed to fix it and we made him promise to fix it tonight. I lectured him on the repercussions of cheating, Manuel told him that if he doesn't follow-through, he's out of the group. We changed his part and Jane outlined exactly what he should write, so we'll see how he does. His part is now very easy, but I'm expecting his work to be crap and that we will have to re-write it anyway. I'm OK with this. I don't care anymore. Part of me is angry that he is getting away with this and will receive OUR grade for this paper. Part of me wants to inform the professor, but oh well. We also agreed as a group to sign a document that details what each of us is working on so that it can protect us in case anything goes wrong. I'm sure it won't, because we will make sure it's not plagiarized now, but we still want to protect our own asses just in case!
I found out that many cultural differences today:
1. Eastern Education requires no critical thinking and copy and pasting is acceptable.
2. This particular student is being pressured by parents to get a higher degree and he chose Event Management because he thought it would be easiest. He doesn't want to be here and therefore doesn't try at all.
3. Many of the Chinese girls in my class are here because their parents want them to get married, so they went to school to avoid getting married off right away. School buys them a few more years to be single. But when they graduate, they will probably be forced to marry.
4. Many of these traditional Chinese girls have never even kissed anyone! 23, 24 years old and they are supposed to get married, but haven't even kissed anyone!
These facts are scary to me! 1 and 2 definitely don't excuse that one student's behavior, but it does explain a bit of background. Number 1 especially doesn't explain it because he's already been at this school for 1 semester already so he should know the policies of this university.
Anyway, then we had Research Methods class which was very confusing. The professor doesn't explain things well and the material is so tough that it needs to be explained a lot better. It would be more helpful if our tutors went over the stuff in class a bit more to help explain it to us, but instead we have to do stupid practice assignments that are different! After my tutorial today, I expressed my concerns and suggestions to the tutor and said that we are all very panicked about the mid-term next week because no one understands the material! She said she would pass the message on to the professor, and she said not to stress too much about the midterm because it's easier than we think (I doubt this!). Anyway, then we were talking about English as a 2nd language and I briefly mentioned the trouble I was having earlier today. She said that I would be shocked to find out how many students pay other people to write their papers for them! She said that it's a big black market for buying papers and it's so hard for the University to prove because it is an original work, it's just not THAT student's original work!! She also mentioned that it's not fair how the University just wants money so they will let anyone in that can't speak English and then my program is dumbed down for them. I agreed that this is something I've been increasingly frustrated about at this school because it's not fair to me. Oh well. I'm trying hard and let's face it, I'm not getting perfect scores, so I can't complain that they don't grade hard enough, it's just that I wish it were consistent. Poor English skills should be punished. whatever. I guess I should just try my best. She also gave me a couple hints on the exam, so yippee!
Anyway, then I got home and fell asleep for a while, which is bad.. Ate a very late dinner and am resting before I have to work hard this weekend on the group assignment and studying for my midterm exam! Ahh
I found out that many cultural differences today:
1. Eastern Education requires no critical thinking and copy and pasting is acceptable.
2. This particular student is being pressured by parents to get a higher degree and he chose Event Management because he thought it would be easiest. He doesn't want to be here and therefore doesn't try at all.
3. Many of the Chinese girls in my class are here because their parents want them to get married, so they went to school to avoid getting married off right away. School buys them a few more years to be single. But when they graduate, they will probably be forced to marry.
4. Many of these traditional Chinese girls have never even kissed anyone! 23, 24 years old and they are supposed to get married, but haven't even kissed anyone!
These facts are scary to me! 1 and 2 definitely don't excuse that one student's behavior, but it does explain a bit of background. Number 1 especially doesn't explain it because he's already been at this school for 1 semester already so he should know the policies of this university.
Anyway, then we had Research Methods class which was very confusing. The professor doesn't explain things well and the material is so tough that it needs to be explained a lot better. It would be more helpful if our tutors went over the stuff in class a bit more to help explain it to us, but instead we have to do stupid practice assignments that are different! After my tutorial today, I expressed my concerns and suggestions to the tutor and said that we are all very panicked about the mid-term next week because no one understands the material! She said she would pass the message on to the professor, and she said not to stress too much about the midterm because it's easier than we think (I doubt this!). Anyway, then we were talking about English as a 2nd language and I briefly mentioned the trouble I was having earlier today. She said that I would be shocked to find out how many students pay other people to write their papers for them! She said that it's a big black market for buying papers and it's so hard for the University to prove because it is an original work, it's just not THAT student's original work!! She also mentioned that it's not fair how the University just wants money so they will let anyone in that can't speak English and then my program is dumbed down for them. I agreed that this is something I've been increasingly frustrated about at this school because it's not fair to me. Oh well. I'm trying hard and let's face it, I'm not getting perfect scores, so I can't complain that they don't grade hard enough, it's just that I wish it were consistent. Poor English skills should be punished. whatever. I guess I should just try my best. She also gave me a couple hints on the exam, so yippee!
Anyway, then I got home and fell asleep for a while, which is bad.. Ate a very late dinner and am resting before I have to work hard this weekend on the group assignment and studying for my midterm exam! Ahh
Thursday, April 7, 2011
April 6
I usually have group meetings on Wednesday mornings, but because we are done with our presentation, the group is over! YAY. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that class until the final exam in June! So, I got to sleep in a little bit. Then I went to my Business Events class which was veerrryy boring as usual. It ends at 2pm and then I have a tutorial for the same class at 4pm, but I didn't want to go. I hate waiting around on campus for 2 hours especially when the tutorial just discusses the assignments. I understand the assignments and I don't want to hear other people's stupid questions about them! Given, sometimes you do learn new things about what she is looking for on the reports, but I just didn't want to wait. My time is better spend actually working on the report!
So, I went home and (instead of working on the report), I talked to my boyfriend, then cooked dinner and studied for a while. I found out pretty late in the evening that for a group report that we are working on, one of our group members copied and pasted his entire section from the abstract of a journal article! Manuel googled it and it was straight copied and pasted. UGH. Jane and I were FURIOUS. How could someone do that in a group project!? How could someone do it at THIS level of education. This is a masters program, not high school for godssake! What if we hadn't found it!? Then we would ALL get a failing grade and be expelled! WTF. I stayed up discussing with Jane what to do. Should we kick him out, should we give him a chance to explain and fix it, should we turn him in to the professor, etc, etc? I'm just relieved that we caught it in time. It isn't due until Tuesday (less than a week), but at least we have some time to fix it!
So, I went home and (instead of working on the report), I talked to my boyfriend, then cooked dinner and studied for a while. I found out pretty late in the evening that for a group report that we are working on, one of our group members copied and pasted his entire section from the abstract of a journal article! Manuel googled it and it was straight copied and pasted. UGH. Jane and I were FURIOUS. How could someone do that in a group project!? How could someone do it at THIS level of education. This is a masters program, not high school for godssake! What if we hadn't found it!? Then we would ALL get a failing grade and be expelled! WTF. I stayed up discussing with Jane what to do. Should we kick him out, should we give him a chance to explain and fix it, should we turn him in to the professor, etc, etc? I'm just relieved that we caught it in time. It isn't due until Tuesday (less than a week), but at least we have some time to fix it!
April 5
I tried to sleep in because I stayed up late. I even convinced myself that I deserved to sleep through my 9am tutorial... But then I decided at the last minute to get up, so I rushed out the door and off to class. I'm the only one that speaks up in my tutorial. So after I answer a couple questions, then I go silent because I think, I've answered enough, other people can answer these! My 2nd class started out with a photo of Michael Phelps, which was distracting to say the least. That professor always seems to go off tangent and never discusses things that are really important. Oh well..
My third class of the day is my big presentation day! The professor talked for an hour (ironically about anxiety of waiting) and then my friend Jane did the first presentation. She did very well! Then a 2nd person who I didn't listen to at all because I was too nervous for my own! Then I was up and I had Karey click the power-point slides so I didn't have to worry about it. I didn't look at the clock, but I did keep looking at the slides whenever I got nervous. My heart was pounding soo hard and I was hoping that I wasn't blushing. I spoke clearly and about 2/3 through, I saw my group mate and she was nodding and smiling (like "Yes, she's doing so well!"), that's when I stumbled a bit because I was like, oh god, I'm doing well, don't mess up! I didn't make it clear that it was ending, so when it was over, I kinda just started to walk away and then everyone clapped because it was over. But overall I did great. Then we had another hour of lecture. After class the professor told me that I did really great and I tried to deflect by saying "Oh, I spoke too fast!" And he said, "No, no, it wasn't because you speak English well. It was because you hit all of the main points from the article!" Again, I tried to be modest and say "Well, our article seemed like it was pretty easy to grasp the key concepts." But he said, "Well you'd be surprised. Some other groups had easy articles and didn't get the main points!" So, that's excellent news! I just hope the other part of the group work will be good as well so that we get a good grade!!!
On the bus home, I was feeling pretty good, but suddenly with my hands on my lap, I felt the ridges of my zipper and realized with great shock that my fly was down... OH MY GOD! How long has it been open?!!? I went to the bathroom just before my presentation, so that means - it was down for my entire speech in front of 100 students!! How embarrassing! Luckily my shirt was a bit long, so I think it may have barely covered it. JEEZ! Oh well, you have to laugh!! Guess you can't take life too seriously. haha!
When I got home, I skyped with my boyfriend then worked on assignments until late.
My third class of the day is my big presentation day! The professor talked for an hour (ironically about anxiety of waiting) and then my friend Jane did the first presentation. She did very well! Then a 2nd person who I didn't listen to at all because I was too nervous for my own! Then I was up and I had Karey click the power-point slides so I didn't have to worry about it. I didn't look at the clock, but I did keep looking at the slides whenever I got nervous. My heart was pounding soo hard and I was hoping that I wasn't blushing. I spoke clearly and about 2/3 through, I saw my group mate and she was nodding and smiling (like "Yes, she's doing so well!"), that's when I stumbled a bit because I was like, oh god, I'm doing well, don't mess up! I didn't make it clear that it was ending, so when it was over, I kinda just started to walk away and then everyone clapped because it was over. But overall I did great. Then we had another hour of lecture. After class the professor told me that I did really great and I tried to deflect by saying "Oh, I spoke too fast!" And he said, "No, no, it wasn't because you speak English well. It was because you hit all of the main points from the article!" Again, I tried to be modest and say "Well, our article seemed like it was pretty easy to grasp the key concepts." But he said, "Well you'd be surprised. Some other groups had easy articles and didn't get the main points!" So, that's excellent news! I just hope the other part of the group work will be good as well so that we get a good grade!!!
On the bus home, I was feeling pretty good, but suddenly with my hands on my lap, I felt the ridges of my zipper and realized with great shock that my fly was down... OH MY GOD! How long has it been open?!!? I went to the bathroom just before my presentation, so that means - it was down for my entire speech in front of 100 students!! How embarrassing! Luckily my shirt was a bit long, so I think it may have barely covered it. JEEZ! Oh well, you have to laugh!! Guess you can't take life too seriously. haha!
When I got home, I skyped with my boyfriend then worked on assignments until late.
Monday, April 4, 2011
April 4
Woke up from a stressful dream that I was going to work after my bereavement and was stressed and didn't want to be there, my boss was already judging me and I was wondering why I was back to work so soon, with them expecting all the same things of me - can't they see I'm not OK?! Anyway, then Lina stressed me out a little because she wanted to ask for a week's worth of rent off. I want a week's worth off too, but she has more justification, so whatever. Feeling tired and like I didn't get enough sleep, I headed to campus for an hour for my TSA meeting. Then back home, the power went off and at the same time, my gmail was hacked into! Luckily gmail is good and catches things fast, so it was fixed. I skyped with my boyfriend, did some school work and then finished the rest of the movie I was watching before bed! Whee.
April 3
Sunday is boring and always when I lose track of the days. Since I have 4 day weekends, I always think, god, what day is it!? Saturday!? Sunday? Do I have to do stuff tomorrow? I spent the day working on a group project and practicing my speech for Tuesday's presentation. Then I worked on another preseation and that's kind of it... Finished my day by watching half of a movie. Big nothing.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
April 2
Woke up around 10am. Apparently Michael came home around 8:30am with some female company. Must take some pretty strong wooing for her to be OK sleeping in a swag on the floor of his office!! I'm just glad I didn't wake up to any strange morning noises...
Worked on school stuff for the day, then walked to Rosalie with Jillian to pick up some wine and lunch. Worked for another couple hours on our papers and then had a wine and cheese night with Lina so that we could catch up with her since it feels like we haven't seen her in a long time. It was nice to see her if only for a couple hours.
Michael moved our stuff today, or at least just our beds. But he didn't tell us anything so we were a little confused whether he wanted us to move there or not. I couldn't figure out a way to bring it up to him so I figured if he wanted us to know he moved them, he should let us know... Instead he left at midnight, then called Jillian at 1am and said that he had a friend and she was really drunk so he was going to bring her back here. He wanted to know where I was going to be sleeping. Uhhhh.... why didn't he call me to ask me? And why didn't he just say, hey, I have a new lady friend and I want my bed, would you guys mind moving, sorry I know it's late. And why wouldn't you tell us all of this before you left instead of calling at 1am since clearly his intention was to bring her back. So, we rushed to get all of our stuff out of the upstairs before they got home and then were kept awake for a few hours while they talked and giggled, etc. Pretty crappy.
Worked on school stuff for the day, then walked to Rosalie with Jillian to pick up some wine and lunch. Worked for another couple hours on our papers and then had a wine and cheese night with Lina so that we could catch up with her since it feels like we haven't seen her in a long time. It was nice to see her if only for a couple hours.
Michael moved our stuff today, or at least just our beds. But he didn't tell us anything so we were a little confused whether he wanted us to move there or not. I couldn't figure out a way to bring it up to him so I figured if he wanted us to know he moved them, he should let us know... Instead he left at midnight, then called Jillian at 1am and said that he had a friend and she was really drunk so he was going to bring her back here. He wanted to know where I was going to be sleeping. Uhhhh.... why didn't he call me to ask me? And why didn't he just say, hey, I have a new lady friend and I want my bed, would you guys mind moving, sorry I know it's late. And why wouldn't you tell us all of this before you left instead of calling at 1am since clearly his intention was to bring her back. So, we rushed to get all of our stuff out of the upstairs before they got home and then were kept awake for a few hours while they talked and giggled, etc. Pretty crappy.
April 1
On Friday, I tried to sleep in, but the tilers downstairs woke me up. At least they are finishing the job. I skyped with my boyfriend, worked on assignments, and then went to the grocery store with Jillian!
Michael came home and had a birthday party to go to, but I was afraid he would come home drunk and stumble into his room (the room I've been staying in for the past week). Before leaving for the party, he mixed us a drink and then of course Jillian wanted to go out. So we headed over to Caxton St. around 11pm. Even though there was a game at SunCorp, it was already pretty cleared out by the time we got there. We went to the first bar and talked to some lewd guys for about 15 minutes before we were disgusted enough to leave, then went to the bathroom at another bar where a drunken girl flashed us her panties, twice. Not quite sure how to react to that. Then we walked up to Paddo's and hung out there with a couple of Kiwi's and Irish talking about politics and NZ natives and movies, etc. They were very nice. Headed home around 3am and by the looks of it, beat Michael to bed.
Michael came home and had a birthday party to go to, but I was afraid he would come home drunk and stumble into his room (the room I've been staying in for the past week). Before leaving for the party, he mixed us a drink and then of course Jillian wanted to go out. So we headed over to Caxton St. around 11pm. Even though there was a game at SunCorp, it was already pretty cleared out by the time we got there. We went to the first bar and talked to some lewd guys for about 15 minutes before we were disgusted enough to leave, then went to the bathroom at another bar where a drunken girl flashed us her panties, twice. Not quite sure how to react to that. Then we walked up to Paddo's and hung out there with a couple of Kiwi's and Irish talking about politics and NZ natives and movies, etc. They were very nice. Headed home around 3am and by the looks of it, beat Michael to bed.
March 31
After going to bed so late on Wednesday, it was a struggle to get up for my 10am group meeting. But I dragged myself out of bed and even made it to campus early enough to get some breakfast. My brain was mush through the meeting as I was distracted and tired, so I didn't have much value to add. My section isn't put together properly, so I'm going to have to re-write it this weekend.
Oh well, then off to our favorite class - Research Methods. The professor informed us that his teacher's pet student had brought her BABY to class and if any of us ever have any issues like this, we can email him and he will be as accommodating a possible. The baby didn't cry, but made lots of noises like it was going to start which distracted the students and even the professor who would look over and smile, frequently. Add to that the already boring lecture content, then it started raining so hard that we couldn't hear, plus it's always freezing in our classroom. THEN, to stop the baby from crying, the Tutor decided to jingle her keys at the baby. Please never bring your baby to class! The jingling of the keys was the most distracting to me. ugh Then an hour where I ate and talked to my boyfriend before my lab started. Did some lab bullshit, analyzing data for an hour and OFF of class! Whoo
I was supposed to meet Lina for Tapas downtown, but not until 6pm. Since I didn't have enough time to go all the way home before it, I hung out downtown and got measured for bridesmaids dresses. I tried to find the tailor I had looked up online, but couldn't, so I spotted a bridal store and headed there. The bridal store was closed, but across the hall from an alterations place, so I walked in and asked if they could do some measurements. They said no because they were on a deadline and asked if I could come back tomorrow. UGH. So I walked out and instead of going to the street level I ended up on another level with another bridal store. I asked them, but they said they couldn't do them either and recommended another tailor on the 3rd floor! So up to the 3rd floor I went and lo and behold it was the original one I was looking for! They were gracious about it and of course wanted to do them in case I ever had alterations business in the future! How nice. I now know that my official measurements are: 34.5, 26.5, 38.5, which makes me just slightly off from the "perfect" 36-26-36 body. I was not aware that my ass was that much bigger than my bust, but oh well. Luckily I sent my measurements to my cousin right away because the dress is going to take 10-13 weeks to deliver, which cuts it pretty close to the date I leave for Italy! Ack. Oh well.
Then I walked to Peasant at the Barracks, which is a tapas place and met with Lina, Sarah, Travis, their new classmate Caroline, and Travis's roommate. The food was excellent and prepared pretty creatively. Probably the best food I've had thus far in Brisbane.. But with the Sangria, it was expensive! The rest went to watch a movie and Lina and I headed home. I thought we were going to meet them later for Salsa, but Lina and Jillian had an assignment to finish, so I didn't want to go alone. I watched a movie instead.
Oh well, then off to our favorite class - Research Methods. The professor informed us that his teacher's pet student had brought her BABY to class and if any of us ever have any issues like this, we can email him and he will be as accommodating a possible. The baby didn't cry, but made lots of noises like it was going to start which distracted the students and even the professor who would look over and smile, frequently. Add to that the already boring lecture content, then it started raining so hard that we couldn't hear, plus it's always freezing in our classroom. THEN, to stop the baby from crying, the Tutor decided to jingle her keys at the baby. Please never bring your baby to class! The jingling of the keys was the most distracting to me. ugh Then an hour where I ate and talked to my boyfriend before my lab started. Did some lab bullshit, analyzing data for an hour and OFF of class! Whoo
I was supposed to meet Lina for Tapas downtown, but not until 6pm. Since I didn't have enough time to go all the way home before it, I hung out downtown and got measured for bridesmaids dresses. I tried to find the tailor I had looked up online, but couldn't, so I spotted a bridal store and headed there. The bridal store was closed, but across the hall from an alterations place, so I walked in and asked if they could do some measurements. They said no because they were on a deadline and asked if I could come back tomorrow. UGH. So I walked out and instead of going to the street level I ended up on another level with another bridal store. I asked them, but they said they couldn't do them either and recommended another tailor on the 3rd floor! So up to the 3rd floor I went and lo and behold it was the original one I was looking for! They were gracious about it and of course wanted to do them in case I ever had alterations business in the future! How nice. I now know that my official measurements are: 34.5, 26.5, 38.5, which makes me just slightly off from the "perfect" 36-26-36 body. I was not aware that my ass was that much bigger than my bust, but oh well. Luckily I sent my measurements to my cousin right away because the dress is going to take 10-13 weeks to deliver, which cuts it pretty close to the date I leave for Italy! Ack. Oh well.
Then I walked to Peasant at the Barracks, which is a tapas place and met with Lina, Sarah, Travis, their new classmate Caroline, and Travis's roommate. The food was excellent and prepared pretty creatively. Probably the best food I've had thus far in Brisbane.. But with the Sangria, it was expensive! The rest went to watch a movie and Lina and I headed home. I thought we were going to meet them later for Salsa, but Lina and Jillian had an assignment to finish, so I didn't want to go alone. I watched a movie instead.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
March 30
Woke up early on Wednesday because I still didn't have a good night's sleep. And woke up to an email from my cousin asking if I would consider being one of her bridesmaids. I was shocked to even be asked, especially since I thought she had already asked all of the people she wanted, so at first I felt a bit like a 2nd round pick. I made Jillian tell me I was being silly so that I could feel better about saying yes. And later I realized this might be one of my only opportunities to do it because I don't have many close friends and I didn't get to be one for my sister.
Went to my group meeting and had to give my presentation to my group members. They thought it was good, but then when they made me do it a second time, I stumbled quite a bit. Oh well, gotta practice it hard-core this weekend.
Went to class, which was super boring as always, and it was raining! UGH. The professor said she was going to go over a case-study in our tutorial, so I decided to go home instead because it would be better use of my time to research more about my assignment. And it was. I worked hard on a bunch of stuff and then around 10pm, Andy invited me out to the bars with Christian. I haven't hung out with them outside of class very much, so I figured why not! I headed downtown (expensive taxi by yourself!!) and got to the backpacker's bar, which was pretty sleazy. I beat them, so I just ordered a drink and then they showed up not too long after. Christian says he's too old for these kinds of bars, and I agreed because before long, they announced a wet t-shirt contest. We made fun of people dancing and the music and I met some people on exchange from UCSC. Go Banana Slugs!! (But I also felt old because they hadn't graduated yet). The wet t-shirt contest happened at 1am and it was pretty sleazy, but surprisingly the girl with the biggest boobs who showed too much didn't win!! I left right after because it was late and I wanted to talk to my boyfriend who misunderstood and got mad. After clearing that up, I fell asleep around 3:30am.
Went to my group meeting and had to give my presentation to my group members. They thought it was good, but then when they made me do it a second time, I stumbled quite a bit. Oh well, gotta practice it hard-core this weekend.
Went to class, which was super boring as always, and it was raining! UGH. The professor said she was going to go over a case-study in our tutorial, so I decided to go home instead because it would be better use of my time to research more about my assignment. And it was. I worked hard on a bunch of stuff and then around 10pm, Andy invited me out to the bars with Christian. I haven't hung out with them outside of class very much, so I figured why not! I headed downtown (expensive taxi by yourself!!) and got to the backpacker's bar, which was pretty sleazy. I beat them, so I just ordered a drink and then they showed up not too long after. Christian says he's too old for these kinds of bars, and I agreed because before long, they announced a wet t-shirt contest. We made fun of people dancing and the music and I met some people on exchange from UCSC. Go Banana Slugs!! (But I also felt old because they hadn't graduated yet). The wet t-shirt contest happened at 1am and it was pretty sleazy, but surprisingly the girl with the biggest boobs who showed too much didn't win!! I left right after because it was late and I wanted to talk to my boyfriend who misunderstood and got mad. After clearing that up, I fell asleep around 3:30am.
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