Philosophia

I realised I should update this space more often, before everyone forgets about me and stops checking this altogether. It’s not that nothing interesting has happened, it’s rather that too many interesting things have happened. Here is a sample:

• I had yum-cha on a dirty table
• I couldn’t find where the books were in a library
• I got into netball by dancing
• I ate ham and cheese croissants
• I bought burger erasers
• I have allies in Uno
• I have learnt Uno is all about alliances
• I realised that Uno without morals is like water without hydrogen
• I’m still bloated from Wednesday
• I smell nice
• I got a hair cut
• I feel like a boy from the back
• I may have made a new friend
• I nearly finished a crossword
• I’m not in my room
• I broke my nose
• I have to make a formal complaint against Kinder (or german children in general)
• I need to go shopping for kinder surprises
• I’m in a band called College Room Bondage - we’ve released four albums
• I actually had the beef for dinner
• I rewrote history
• I haven’t had a Golden Gaytime for 173 hours
• I rolled up the Sun
• I’m wearing boy pants
• I’m waiting in anticipation for something that is happening in six days
• I have a vicious streak
• I have white teeth under yellow light
• I have a smaller room than everyone else
• I adore Gregor
• I give joy in a tupperwear container
• I can’t spell words
• I fixed my nose, and made it Grecan
• I have a green ring, it’s not black
• I found a nice hot water bottle that likes science and dancing
• I got hit by a door, a bookshelf and Erin
• I got money from the government for being a good citizen
• I’m using that money to buy a blythe doll
• I stole things from the National Art Gallery
• I researched the wrong alternate universe
• I’m really cool
• I had a nice time in Sydney
• I had a better time in Glasgow
• I set fire to butter
• I have posters that hate me
• I couldn’t find the maths room, so I went home
• I cleaned my room for four hours
• I can’t dance
• I got crushed by an asian girl with pink glasses and boy hair
• I had no art history this week, which made me sad
• I got a message I need to send
• I never got to Oregon
• I have 6 new voicemail messages, which I still can’t access
• I had the breakfast of scholars
• I forgot to commit a crime
• I won a competition
• I started drinking a coffee
• I became a cheat
• I helped a man cross the road
• I found the Ring of Gyges
• I married Dionysos, and he turned me into a dolphin
• I can’t ride a bike
• I keep hanging on
• I forgot to stalk the Tropfest film director
• I forgot to stalk Adrian Deutsch’s family
• I fought a bear, and won

And this is only a sample.

Starting university is like starting high school all over again, with more hormones and more booze. I take great pleasure in going through the same 3 questions with everyone I meet on campus, which go as follows:

1. Hi what is your name?
2. So what are you studying?
3. And where are you from?

Apparently those three questions are enough to make acquaintances (I dare not use the word “friends” just yet) and can also ensure that you are able to determine what sort of person they are.

This leaves me with a number of insecurities.

Firstly, what should I say, as first impressions can soon solidify to life-long friendship? Secondly, if I make the wrong impression will I be stuck with the wrong people (boozehounds, misogynists, bad poets) for the rest of my life?

After numerous mishaps, and more than a dozen occasions of having to explain that just because I’m doing a Bachelor of Philosophy it doesn’t mean I HAVE to actually study philosophy, and confusing practically everyone, I have settled with just saying I’m doing Arts.

This way people will presume I am lazy, lack a direction in life, and am full of my own wit and importance. That is the best I can do for now.

The most hassling thing about going to university interstate (although some remind me that ACT is technically within NSW) is deciding what items to take with you. I admit, I’ve been used to a life of luxury, I have two rooms all to myself: one with a bed, the usual wardrobe things and one with the books and the computer and the TV. How that will all change.

I invite you all to look at what will be my home sweet home for the next 4 years:

I’m hoping that the furniture is included. In case you can’t make out the measurements, it’s 4.635 m by 2.705 m.

So I’ve started compiling a list of things to take with me, but it’s been hard sorting the essentials from the unnecessary-but-oh-so-necessary-to-my-material-happiness.

The list so far goes:

• Comic books. Too precious to say goodbye to.
• Art history books. Sort of necessary considering that’s what I will be studying
• My PS2 with a TV. That way, I can watch TV, play DVD’s, play video games, and don’t need to take my CD player(4-in-1 function, yeah!)
• Vivienne Westwood handbag. For street cred or something.
• Since I can’t take all the novels I have, I will just take the “essentials”, which are Franz Kafka, Salinger, Eugenides, Coetzee, and most of my classics. Otherwise I’ll group books by a categories and take them down on a rotational basis.
• I will have to do the same with clothes (summer and winter). Or maybe I’ll just count out exactly enough for 7 days a week.
• CD’s. Or if I’m really short on room, I’ll just transfer them all into digital files.
• My computer, although I’ll probably have no internet.
• Acoustic guitar, the electric seems too much of a hassle.
• Clean underwear.

I think I’ll start packing in February.