The Blog

   College students have all the fun. ...

Being a student, living in a college, is a lot different from being a student, living at home. For one thing, your friends are always on hand. For another, they become your pseudo-family, as your real family is too far away to be of any use. Or maybe they're all just too wrapped up in their own lives to call. But it doesn't matter, because if I want someone to talk to, I just go knock on the next door over, or go to the common room which is full of people at all hours of the day (or night).

The place is fully-catered, which means that I'm social at least twice a day (I didn't sign up for lunch at college, which is good considering it's ten minutes walk from the computing labs which are right near the union). The food isn't bad, and it's refreshing to decide that I'm ready to eat and have the food there waiting, no cooking, no cleaning up afterwards. It's all convenient.

Which is not to say the food is any good, but it is convenient.

Actually, the food is better than average for mass-produced buffet-style meals. There's always an abundance of salads, and drinks (though the fizzy stuff has been dead for the last two days), and more often than not there's dessert left even if you're the last person to eat. The only thing I'd change would be the "we only serve food for one hour" rule, which is a complete pain -- especially considering that they usually start serving thirty minutes before that hour is scheduled to start. How many people really eat at 5.30pm?

The toilets here are usually really gross come bedtime, as they are only cleaned once a day, and shared between boys and girls. I know it's sexist of me to blame the boys for the mess, but it's actually tricky for girls to leave urine on the toilet seats and floor while believing that you're hitting the toilet proper. Unless you're drunk, but the bar here isn't open in the summer and no one that drunk could make it up the two flights of stairs. But I'm used to that from home and it is why I brought my slippers. I usually shower just after they clean them in the mornings, which is fantastic. Nothing says "hygiene" like the stink of bleach.

The uni bar is not that 'spensive either. I had a drink with Wendy after class today, which was exceedingly pleasant after all the heat today. It's been topping 36, with a humidity as low as it goes, and no breeze. There's no pool on campus, but the creek and Lake Burley-Griffith are looking more appealing by the minute. Wendy's mum is flying up from Adelaide for the weekend, I might consider crashing their party at the Novotel to use the pool there.

I wish I had some air-conditioning.

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