instead of our normal teacher

instead of our normal teacher for finance tonite, we had someone from the biz department (vs agse). she rocked. i think i actually understand cash flow statements. i mean, here i am, feeling sick, drinking a carton of OJ and yet i still understood about 96% of everything. normally i’m feeling fine & i feel like i caught 70%. wonder if i can sit in on more of her classes or something.

time for me to take some nyquil.

i’ve realized that just the

i’ve realized that just the required weekly reading is about 300 pages a week. that doesn’t include the extra readings we should be doing for papers/reports. or the research & writing of papers. or the time required to think about what the papers & research are. i started to fall behind last week with all the time i spent looking for a place to live but this week i pretty much caught up (xcept for finance) and got ahead in some areas.

a couple days ago my throat started to feel scratchy. i can tell my voice is fucked and today i started to feel a lot worse. drank a big 2 litre container of OJ during class tonite.

i’ve been feeling pretty emotional of late. last week it was stress over the living situation and school. i’m stressing about money a bit. this week i’ve been feeling lonely and not sure i’ve done the right thing with my life and missing my friends & home.

last week about 45 min before i was leaving for class, i re-read the notes & realized i was supposed to hand in a 2 page report along with the presentation i prepared. this was right at the same time the war broke out so i was a bit distracted. i scrambled like crazy, debated if i should even go to class but showed up 25 min late with my paper (which was pretty shitty). turns out the paper is due this week, it was just the presentation last week.

what else to say? i’m hopefully moving on friday. fingers crossed that things don’t get messed up again.

i am having such a

i am having such a hard time getting into doing homework. i should have spent a lot of time this wknd reading and i didn’t. the past couple nites i’ve been home & should have been reading but instead been looking for a job & a flat & chatting online. it’s now tuesday afternoon & i have a ton of reading to do before tomorrow morning. wish me luck.

bush’s speech giving saddam 48 hours to leave the country was broadcast on all 5 channels here. obviously it’s big news but i’m still amazed by how much coverage the usa gets all the time.

and why is an autobiography of james garner coming on tv now?????

in the past week i’ve

in the past week i’ve had about 5 people ask if i was canadian. interesting.

it’s early friday morning here.

it’s early friday morning here. kristy left for holiday this am so i’m crashing in her room which means i have a bed & a tv!!! about 1am the today show suddenly appeared. i forgot one of the channels here ran it live. that’s so very cool that i get to see nyc & katie, matt & al!!!

this afternoon i went to the immigration department to get my work visa. the school advised me to do the paperwork online then go into the office so i could get into the express lane and finish up the paperwork. last nite i did the paperwork online and then i sat at immigration for an hour & 40 minutes. it seems i hit the wrong yes/no button when i was going thru the application and said i shouldn’t have to pay the A$55 fee for the visa. when the guy told me that i figured that was it, that i’d have to start the process over or it would take extra time or something but it wasn’t an issue. he charged my credit card, asked a few questions and printed the new visa. cool! a few minutes ago i went on the aussie tax web site and applied for a tax number which i think is the last of my paperwork.

tonite was my first “opportunity evaluation” class. we spent almost the entire class introducing ourselves. because i’m interested in starting e-mint here and i want to meet people, and i just do this anyway, i’m interested in networking opportunities. i’ve mentioned this a few times & had a few conversations about how that’s not really done here so it was interesting (and great) that we did these in-depth introductions. the teacher also kept using the word “network” instead of networking. after class we had a short chat about the difference in thought & how it’s only the younger generation of aussies that understand the importance of networking. then i turned on him to ryze.

i had my first real

i had my first real day of school today and of course it was filled with all sorts of strangeness. first off i realized it took me an hour to get to school which sucks (had to wait 10 min for a tram, then another 10 for the train, then another short delay on the train) so i need to figure out a better way or decide to live elsewhere (fyi, coming home tonite it took under an hour but not by much). my first class of the day is at 11:15 which i figured was late enough but is going to take some getting used to. it was organisational dynamics which should be my fav this semester but i still had a hard time keeping my mind from wandering. several times i had to jerk myself back into paying attention. being the first class we had to pair up & then introduce our partner. mine was james from beijing who told me he got a housekeeping job this wknd and then i found out he’s a financial journalist at home. shit. he also picked au because of the weather & price, among other things. so i introduce him & then it’s his turn. he sez that i also picked melb b/c of the price & weather and then he says also that beautiful clothes, which i like, are cheaper. huh??? where did that come from?? in fact while i was talking to him i realized i had a hole in my flip flop (aka thong in aussie speak). i had lunch with some guy off ryze who’s interested in open source software & communties. that was good. then i picked up some paperwork & tried to figure out what to do til my 18:00 class (finance). i was having a hard time following the finance stuff. some of us are complete newbies & others have a degree in accounting. shit! at the end we had to do these exercises about balance sheets which included math & general finance stuff. i managed to work thru them though so that was pretty good. i felt better about the class after i did ok. but it’s been a long day….

i’m sitting on the couch

i’m sitting on the couch in the kitchen (yeah the kitchen is big enough to have a wrap around couch… the room is bigger than some nyc studio flats) on the computer, making dinner & i can hear the tv in another flat and girls laughing. then suddenly i realize, they’re watching joe millionaire! the american one that just finished, not an aussie remake. it’s so funny to hear them dying laughing “where did they get these women!” “he’s such an idiot!”. i need to figure out what bldg they’re in!!! i need some sex & the city girls.

at orientation the other day

at orientation the other day they gave us a copy of the australian financial review newspaper. there’s an article in there (it’s in their archive but you have to pay for it) w the headline “bungled project plunges RMIT into financial crisis” and talks about how they fucked up a software project dealing w student records and billing. the fuck up is so big they’ve lost 8 staff members over it including their chancellor and they’re having cash problems because of the A$47 million they’ve tossed at this (still) failing project. so this is why i never heard back from them re: my application.

i’m having my first melbourne

i’m having my first melbourne annoyance issue. that’s pretty good that i went 2 whole weeks before this struck. i think it took about 4 hours in london. although actually it’s 2 annoyances… first off the screw in my sunglasses fell out so i need one of those U$2 repair kits u can buy at any cvs, duane reade, chemist. secondly, i realized every morning when i wake up i have a headache. this didn’t occur when i was on the retreat and it’s not alcohol related so i figured maybe i should get a humidfier.

the annoyance is what a pain it’s becoming to get these 2 simple items. after travelling to 4 drug stores w/o luck, someone said “try the optomistrist”. of course they were all closed by then. today i found a sunglass place that sold the kit in a really spiffy shiny case for A$20. they didn’t get my money. the really annoying thing here (besides not being able to use my sunglasses) is i know i have 2 of these repair kits but i cant find either of them… i think they’re both in the boxes i shipped over.

i went to this dept store called myer this afternoon. once i found the right department & asked the sales guy, he said they didn’t keep them in the store but he could special order it for me. um, ok, wonderful. but then he tells me they’re A$1k each. excuse me??? i’m looking for the small like $30 ones you buy at kmart & bed bath beyond, not a $1000 deluxe model for ur home. so then i go to target & they don’t have them. the sales guy suggests i check at myer. since those are the only 2 shops i know that mite carry them, i went to starbucks & had an iced americano. at least i can find that.

when i got home i checked online & there’s someting called an evaporative cooler listed on the appliance web sites but no humidifiers. wondering if i was asking for the wrong thing.

about 5p tonite i got

about 5p tonite i got back from a 4 day mba/mei orientation program. i had been really scared this was going to end up being one legged races all in the name of team work and i was (thankfully) horribly wrong. the entire program was devoted to how teams work and the issues that arise in multcultural teams. it was a great warm up for my brain (3 days of pretty much non stop thinking) and got me pretty excited about the OD stuff again.

tomorrow we have another day of orientation so i have to leave the flat by 730am. must go to bed now. more later. i cant believe my classes start on wednesday!