Operation Relocation

That's me, I've moved out of the city. Actually I made the shift a week ago but I wanted to get a feel for the new place before talking about it, and also I've been busy with Uni work. I moved in with a Chinese couple, Jonny and Sara (who are probably reading this, hey guys!), and one other guy I don't know that well, called Yang. Jonny is in a few of my classes so I knew him before the move, I'd mentioned I was looking for a place nearer the Uni, turned out one of his flatmates was moving out, I went 'round for lunch that day and met Sara, and a week later moved my stuff.

I won't describe the look of the house, I've been waiting for some sunny weather so I can take some nice photos, but it's on two levels, all white inside and very new looking. Everything just works: the mosquito nets on the windows have no rips, the carpets are clean, sliders slide, cupboards close (etc.), nothing like the last place. The bathroom has a two large 'heating' bulbs either side of the light, and (as usual for Australia it seems) a quite epic shower. The kitchen is of excellent quality: gas hob, shiny oven, dishwasher with 'eco' settings and two fridges (Yayness!). My cooking is appreciated and encouraged (rather than grudgingly tolerated) so I've been making risottos, trifles, chocolate truffles and cooked breakfasts for Jonny and Sara, and they've been introducing me to Chinese cuisine. It turns out the farmer's market they go to on Sundays is even cheaper than Central Market is on Saturdays (I just picked up a >6kg box of Broccoli for 2$ this morning), and you can buy fish fresh from the docks there. The house also has a big garage where I can keep my bike out of the rain, and they have an electric piano in the living room with a full 88 force-sensitive weighted keys.

So overall a great improvement. It's supposed to be good weather this week, so I'll have the photos up on Picasa by next Saturday.

Dishonoring the system

Is it really week 6 of this semester already? Where did the time go? One minute I'm enjoying the start of my courses, happy that I'm not expected to know anything yet, and before I know it I'm being given assignments like there's no tomorrow (actually that's a bad analogy, if there were no tomorrow there'd be no reason to do the assignments).

Heading the offending classes list is Advanced Power Electronics, shortened to APE because it makes you feel like one, still discovering his opposable thumbs. A week ago we had a lecture which felt like being back at school: the lecturer picked some guy at random and asked him to solve some obscure problem on the board, and when he had difficulty he got severely chastised:

“you are supposed to be a master student, why do you not know this? How old are you?”

[waits for answer]

“Have you read the notes?”

[his handwritten notes, to date, are about an inch thick]

“Have you been coming to the lectures? What's your name?”

[looks up the poor guy on backdated attendance sheets in front of everyone]

etc.

After the lecturer gets bored with the guy he turns to the rest of us, and the lecture, really turns into a 'lecture'

“You cannot have a job if you are studying... it's more important than your family, your friends... I had nothing when I went to university... you dishonor the system.. you are like the terrorists... [seriously] ...everyone will be coming up to write on the board, and I will be marking your performance... every time you are absent from class I will take 2 marks from you...”

And so it went on, until the end of the lecture, quite scary. So I spend the rest of the day trying to understand his notes, not looking forward to my turn.

Just finished a Mechatronics presentation too, which went... well it could have been worse, we went over-time, into far too much detail, our slides came out in the wrong aspect ratio and they had some crazy peer-assessed marking scheme which was executed in a really awkward way. Suffice to say the presentation could have been better, and our course co-ordinator resigned shortly afterwards, so that's not a good sign.

Also I'm moving in with a friend from uni, details will come as I get them, but don't send any mail until I get the new address.