18 February 2006
* Friday *
Today is Saturday. So I thought this would be a good time to write about what happened on Friday since it's still fresh in my mind.
Caitlin and I had planned to go shopping today but I didn't feel very well when I woke up in the morning so I called her and told her that. I stayed in bed for a while and then went on the computer when I felt a bit better, talking to people. At about 1:40pm steph sent me a message telling me that she would be in Belconnen shops at 2. So I rush around madly trying to find socks and shoes and do my hair and look respectable. This takes me 10minutes =D. Then I walk to the shops which takes another 10minutes.
Just a side note. If it's a hot day and you're planning on walking a fair way please don't wear black, and even if it is really really hot try to cover up or at least put sunscreen on.
I somehow manage to find the movies and beat Steph there =P. I met two of her friends, hugh and um... argh the only name I remember is Hugh... sorry. Anyway it was Hugh and another guy. They went into intensity and steph and I decided to walk back to my uni so I could show it to her. So we trecked back in the heat. I showed her my extremely messy room, the common room and the green room etc. Then I walked her up to the University, past all the ressies and showed her the Hub. Lalalala. So then we walked back down to my room, she grabbed a drink and I had a chat to a guy who had just moved in, he seemed nice enough but I didn't get his name. Argh.
We knocked on Damien's door and I introduced them (Steph and Damien) then I walked Steph back up to the Belconnen shops. We wandered around a bit since we couldn't find her friends again. Steph bought some coffee and nutella and stickytape and scissors and I bought some rolls (Cost me $1.79). Then we raced up to find her friends and they all ran away.
I walked back to the Uni in the swealtering heat, only just making it to my room before collapsing onto my bed. At this point I realised that I had forgotten to eat all day. Splendid.
Caitlin had left a message on my phone telling me that she was going shopping so I quickly replied telling her not to walk in this heat if she could avoid it. She called back about an hr after I got back to my room and was like "omg I wish I got your message before I left". So anyway she asked if I wanted to come over for dinner and I hastily agreed since I hadn't eaten and didn't particularly want to wash up.
I still had to eat something before dinner so I had two plain rolls.
At 7:30 I walked up to Caitlin's place, saying Hi to Elijah playing soccer outside on the way. I got to the door of the block and was like... uh... it's locked... how do I get in? So I called Caitlin's number on my mobile and told her I was standing outside so she let me in. I had brought my 'funky' lettuce and three tomatoes and a knife and fork coz she only had one set. We sat around for a while until the food was ready and then prepared the salad. We had heaps of food. She had wanted to use up the rest of her rolls because they were going to go off soon so we ate them. She had bought these chicken pieces things (which i've had at home before) and we put them on the bread with the salad. We each had two rolls but only made it through one. She had pepsi so we had a can each because I can't open my bottle of coke =(. Um... so we chatted for ages. I met most of the people in her house, Elijah I knew, Nick I met, the american girl (Laura?) came in, and returning ressies passed through.
At 11pm I decided that I should really go home, I didn't want to stay out that late seeing as though it's a bit of a walk back to my room in the dark, cold, cold, night. I made it home alive tho, I had my fork ready to fork people trying to steal my bag, and I didn't bring my purse anyway as a precaution.
Back in Arscott there were a group of people sitting round a table playing poker. I said hi to them. Casey was there and he didn't even look at me twice. Well I don't really know coz I only looked at him once, but he wasn't looking at me at the time so meh. I walked back up to my room and checked my messages. There was a message from Damien saying that he was going out to babysit his Nephew tonight and wouldn't be back till later but he'd probably see my later coz apparently Arscott would be drinking. I sent him a message back saying that I didnt know if he was home or not but to call me back coz I was bored. I didn't get a reply straight away so I pretty much went to bed. At some point I rolled over and saw that the light on my phone was on so I checked my messages and there was one from Damien at 1:30am saying that he'd just got back and was going to hang in the courtyard. I was too tired to go out there so I just went to bed.
17 February 2006
* "Is she hot" *
Boys are retarded. Sorry, this post is a little different to the other ones i've been posting recently. I'm devoting this post to the idiocity of boys. Jasha has inspired this post, oh yes Jashy boy, i'm naming you!
I was telling Jasha how I had just been to dinner at Caitlin's and I said she was really nice and then he does the boy comment "IS SHE HOT?"
Oh My God, boys are such dumbarses. It's the most annoying question in the history of the world. For a guy to ask a girl if another girl is hot, omg I understand how horny male teenagers are but do you really need to know if your friends' friend who lives in another state is attractive or not? How exactly does it change the conversation to any extent?
There are only a number of boys I know who ask this question, Jasha does, Chris does I think, I think stephen has asked it at some point. So only a select few but it is the most idiotic and stupid question ever. I am seriously gonna think bad things about the next person who asks me it.
* Thursday *
So uh yesterday... what happened yesterday... I woke up at 8:30 which I thought was strange since I had stayed out lateish the night before. I don't actually remember anything I did during the day, actually I was probably on the internet a lot chatting to people. There was a free dinner and Trivia Night in the UCU bar starting at 6 so Caitlin called and we arranged to walk up there together. We met at the hut, I was a little late and made it there before anybody from Arscott. Dinner was just some meat on bread, the usual. Caitlin and I snagged a table and a while went by before anybody actually joined us at it (it was a table for 6 and the place was pretty crowded). There was trivia night on at the bar after dinner, a group of people sat with us at the table and we played with them because it was supposed to be teams of 6. We were called the Chippies. The group was nice, they were older because all the older people had started to arrive. The only guy there wasn't from UC tho but he was nice. I think we did okay with the triva. Our scores (each round was out of 100) were like 70, 80, 90, 100, 90, 80 ish... i'm not too sure from there. But the rest of the table left before the scores were announced so Caitlin and I decided to go to.
Caitlin and I parted ways and I got back to my room at about 10:15. Karaoke was on after the Trivia but we didn't particularly want to stay for it. Damien called at like 10:45 and i was like "Thank god you're alive" coz I hadn't heard from him since wednesday morningish. He said that he's been at his sister's place (she lives in berra) and he was lucky he hadn't gone on the pub crawl because he was sick. Anyway he invited me down to his room to watch tv coz he got a tv so I went which was cool. He was trying to talk to his friend Jim on msn but it was being buggy and not working properly. Jim finally started replying and I spoke to him for a bit. Um... then we watched two episodes of "whose line is it anyway" which was cool. It's such a funny show, honestly it had me laughing so much I was coughing (coz crying is for silly billy's).
I got to bed at about 12:30am.
* Wednesday *
After getting to bed at around midnight I was woken up at 8:15am by my uncle calling to tell me that he tried to call my parents and eventually got onto them.
After that short call I went back to bed. So then at 9:15AM I was once again woken up by a phone call from my parents, saying hi and that they were alive and that uncle had called them earlier. Argh. I was most unpleasant and when they hung up I went back to bed until 10.
At about 10:30 Caitlin called me to ask if I was going to go up to the market day at the uni, it was all the clubs and stuff having stalls to try and get you to join and all that. So we arranged to meet and walk up together. We met at the hut and walked down. There were about 50ish stalls around... no, i'm exaggerating, make it about 30ish, stalls around. So we just wandered. We got pens with balloons attached to them from the Appliance rental stall. I got a commonwealth bank bag from the cba stall (NB: We have a commonwealth bank on campus, like a full one that you can go in and everything). We got a UC bag that Caitlin told me had a frisbe and condoms in it. We got heaps of panphlets from the bus stall which is excellent because we'll be able to find a way into the city centre with that. We got free snow cones at one of the church stalls. We signed up for the Poker Club and after we wrote our names down the girls says "thats $5" and we're both like... oh... you didn't tell us that before. But we both paid. I feel bad coz Caitlin didn't really want to join and I kind of pushed her into it.
So we walked back to dump the many many bags we had collected in Caitlin's room (cos it was closer) before we headed back for yet another free sausage sizzle. We met up with Caitlin's friend Elijah on the way back, so he walked around with us for a while. He didn't say much but he seemed alright. He lives in the same block as her. We got and ate sausaged and then Elijah got a snowcone and then we walked back, I wasn't feeling too well so I picked up my stuff from Caitlin's place and went back to my room to have a rest. Damien called me at about 2pm to ask if I wanted to go to the mall with him, I was still half asleep so I declined but I thought it was extremely thoughtful of him to ask.
Damien said he might be attending the pub crawl that night but since I didn't see him there I assume that he didn't actually go. Walking back with Caitlin to drop off our bags I ran into Shannon. The same Shannon that I haven't seen since she went to work on Sunday. Argh. I told her that I was going on the pub crawl and she said she would too. Caitlin and Shannon met for the first time.
The theme for the pub crawl was Mad Hatter. I wore my "Wilson" cap which was good coz if people asked my name I could just point. Shannon showed up at my door (coz this time we exchanged room numbers so we could find each other) at about 3:30. So I quickly got changed and we went down together. She didn't have a hat. We stood in the courtyard for a couple of minutes before she felt out of places and asked to borrow my hat. When we go back they told us that we had to have our ties. So we went back and got them. Then we got back to the courtyard and she realised that she had her donut king hat in her car so we went and go that and by the time we had everyone was getting ready to get onto the buses. I couldn't find Caitlin even though i'd promised to meet her around there. I paid my $5, got onto the bus and then saw her as we were driving away. She was with a group of girls so I didn't worry.
The first place we went to was a pub, Shannon and I quickly grabbed a table, and got drinks. I decided to start off with a coke coz it was only 4:15pm. Shannon got a pineapple cruiser black and an orange juice. About half an hour later Caitlin showed up and she came and sat with us. They seemed to get on well. We sat and they both got sausages but I was sick of sausages. John talked to us for a while. He went to school with Caitlin for a while so they knew each other.
At some point we were worried because we were sitting a bit too close to the dart board so we moved into the back room and sat there. It was really hot so we got a pitcher of water and some glasses. Um... after about 3 hours the buses came back to take us to the next bar. The three of us jumped on the first bus and sat in the second seat on the left. They told us to try to get three to a seat because there wasn't enough buses so the three of us squeezed in.
Everyone piled onto the bus and there were a number of drunk people having to stand, which was a bit scary. This is where we met Casey. Casey was standing close to the front of the bus which and he just started talking to us, well he started talking to me first. He looked at me and said "I haven't seen you around before, where are you living?". And since I was wearing my Arscott tie and he was also wearing his Arscott tie I just picked it up off my neck and kinda waved it around a bit. There was a pause while he tried to read the tie and then he's like "No way, I havent seen you around anywhere. Do you go to stuff? Like do you venture out of your room and hang out in the courtyard?" and i'm like "sometimes I do". He asked me my name and I pointed to my hat and he's like "wilson". And he said that next time I come down to the courtyard he'll make a big deal out of it and yell "wilson's here". He talked to Shannon and Caitlin for a bit until Shannon got a phone call and then he talked to Caitlin a bit more. When Shannon hung up the phone he pointed to each of us and tried remembering our names.
Pub number two was actually more of a bar. It was pretty small and it really didn't hold everyone who was coming. So us three girls snagged a table quickly before the other busload of people arrived. Shannon and I went to the bar and she bought Caitlin and herself a Pineapple cruiser each and I decided to get a raspberry. Casey was on my right at the bar. When I got to the bar he pointed at me and said "Wilson" and I said "yup" and he said "I remembered that coz you're cute" and I was like laughing. And then he paused and then said "wait, I didn't say that alright" and i'm like "okay".
So then I ordered my drink and he said "nice choice" and I asked him to pass me a straw which he did and then the guy gave me my drink and I gave him the money and then Casey said to me "I would have said nice choice no matter what drink you ordered" and I laughed some more and went back to the table.
Sitting back down at the table with the girls Caitlin got out her camera to take a picture of Shannon and I just as Casey was walking past and he said "I have to be in this photo, please" and he knelt down behind us. Lol. Caitlin took the first picture and he looked at it and was like "please delete it, it's terrible" and so we took another one in which apparently his head looks transparent, but I didn't actually look at it, and then finally Caitlin took a third which he approved of and then he left.
So thats the "I got hit on in a bar, story" =D
So us girls sat in the bar for a while, until it got overly overly crowded. Like fire-hazard crowded. Once we finished our drinks Shannon had the bright idea of walking down the street to get ice cream. As soon as we got up our table was swiped from under us.
Oh I forgot to mention that John and John sat with us for a while, Shannon had to go outside to call her mum so red-head John took her seat and other John pulled up a chair round the back. When Shannon came back red-head John took other John's seat and other John went and sat with some people behind us. Oh and Caitlin got Shannon to finished her drink coz it wasn't making her feel good.
The ice cream place was just down the street. It was interesting. You start by picking the size (Shannon said to start with small) and the base flavour, Shannon picked vanilla but Caitlin and I both went for chocolate. Then you decide from a number of different things to put in it and they mix it all up for you. I got sprinkles, m&ms and maltesars. I shouldn't have got the chocolate. It cost about $5 and it was really nice but it was really really chocolatey. Caitlin didn't even come close to finishing hers, I made it past half way which I was proud of. Shannon finished hers. Once we were done we looked outside and it was pooring with rain. This guy (with a beer carton on his head so we knew he was on the pub crawl too) started banging on the window and used his phone to ask us "where are we" and Shannon wrote back saying where we were. I think they were calling a taxi. So we went to the doorway and stood there with some other people from the crawl for a while until we decided to make a run for it in the pelting down rain back to the bar. We got about half way before we saw some more funny hat people in the Turkish restaurant, or internet cafe, i'm actually not sure where we ended up. Anyway we stopped in there and they told us that the buses weren't coming back, we were expected to walk to the next bar. I was happy walking but the others weren't too keen. The guy running the net cafe/turkish restaurant had called three taxis for the people in there and everyone was sprinting for them when they arrived.
Shannon called her boyfriend and begged him to come pick us up and drop us at the lighthouse and he arrived in like 10 minutes. He shouldn't have been driving coz he doesn't have any rego but i'm hoping he made it home safely. We got to the lighthouse at about 10:30ish and there was a line coz the outside part was closed coz of the rain so we waited there for like half an hour and then had to pay $2 for entry. I got another Red Bull Blue and so did Caitlin and Shannon got two. We couldn't find a table coz it was packed so we stood around. Caitlin got chatting to a guy near the pool table coz she was wearing a swedish hat and he asked her if she was from Sweden. We didn't stay for too long.
Shannon and I walked Caitlin back up to UV and then we went back down to Arscott together coz it was safer that way.
16 February 2006
* Tuesday *
Tuesday was more sporty stuff. It was the touch carnival. Met down in the courtyard at whatever time they asked us to meet. Chatted to Adam for a while. As we were about to head off Damien joined us and the three of us chatted. Half way up the walk John came over and walked with us. So it was total dejavu from yesterday. Anyway we got there, stood at the back in the shade because it was so damn sunny. Anyway, we watched most of the first game. Arscott scored 3 and the other team scored 1. I'm not sure if that's the final score because we kinda got a bit bored and wandered back down to the concorse to wait for the free bbq. We found a table that was mostly in the shade and took it over. Brad (aka, Bitch) joined us and the five of us chatted until our food was ready. Adam left to go find "O'doyle rules" and give his phone back and then another guy from Arscott house joined us (I don't know his name but he seemed nice enough). We got our sausages and had a long conversation about Zero Coke, because they were giving out 250mL cans of it (I knew better and grabbed the orange juice). Then we decided to meander back to our rooms and we each veered off in our different directions.
Caitlin didn't get to the touch carnival because it was her dad's last day in Canberra before he went home so she went to breakfast with him and some family friends. It had started once she got back and she just missed it.
So Tuesday night was free pasta night in the UCU bar. Caitlin called me a couple of house before and asked if I was going so we could go together. That was the plan but they started calling the horn for Arscott to meet in the courtyard 15 minutes beforehand and that means that Arscott planned to walk up together. So I called Caitlin and told her to meet me up there. I ended up in the line with a girl from my floor (whose name I really should know) and Adam. So we got our food and sat down at a table but they both went to get drinks and...
I'm sorry, this bit kinda annoyed me, actually it only slightly annoyed me when it happened but now its annoying me more and more as I think about it
... so Adam and this girl went to get drinks at the bar and I was sitting by myself for about 2 minutes. They came back (without drinks) and picked up their plates, and as they were about to walk away with their food she says "we found a better spot near the bar, you're welcome to join us". I'm fine with moving tables but it seemed like she only told me as an afterthought. Like they were almost just going to leave me there by myself. So anyway I moved and sat with them, and her big group of friends. I didn't talk to any of them, none of them talked to me. I waited till I saw Caitlin and then I got up and went and sat with her at another table. We chatted and ate.
NB: everybody seems to be 'chatting' a lot.
At about 6:55 a group of people started moving from their tables to the rows of chairs closer to the door. They were getting ready for the show type thingey that was going to start at 7:30. So Caitlin and I finished our food and managed to find two fairly good seats by the aisle.
I'd read the posters a number of times and I knew they said Hypnotist Bill something but it kinda didn't sink it that the guy on the stage was actually a Hypnotist. Strange the things I notice. He got a number of volunteers to sit on the stage and do some crazy shit for two hours. One of the girls had to bellydance everytime certain music came on. Four of the guys had to pretend they were Rocky when the rocky music came on. He also made brad and another guy think they were gay lovers and slowdance when some other music came on. That was kinda funny. He made them do it like 4 times and by the last time they were kinda jumping on top of each other a bit.
He also made the whole group do some things. Like he made them all think they were really cold, then really hot. Then he made all the girls think that they were in the best arse competition and all the guys thought all the girls were naked. He also got one guy to lose the number 6. So he was counting his fingers and everytime he got to his 6th one he paused for a while and then said 7. So he kept counting to 11. He made all the guys think they were pregnant and then he made them all give birth and all the girls were nurses. He also made one of the girls think the guy on her right slapped her arse everytime she heard a whipping noise. But she says "how did he slap my arse if i'm sitting down?" and then he made her go back to sleep. Um... what else did he do? When all the guys were pregnant he asked them who the other parents of their child was and they had to come up with crazy answers. One guy said God and another guy said LA who is another rezzie.
Oh, he made one guy stand in the middle of the stage with his feet stuck to the floor. And he told him that his penis was missing. He was so embarassed. And then the hypnosits told him that a guy in the audience had it and pointed to someone. So the guy on the stage is practically screaming "give it back" "mate i'm gonna bash you", and then the hypnotist was like "he's playing with it" and he got so riled up.
They also had to pretend they were in an orchestra and play their favourite instruments. Some guy was up there playing the triangle. Lol. Ooh and he made them think that the person sitting next to them was the worse smelling person ever, like they reeked. So everyone was crawling around the stage away from each other saying how gross everyone else was. And then he made them think that the person next to them was the best smelling person ever. Which causes Brad and the guy that would later become his gay lover to start jumping all over each other.
For the break he got them to run around the audience doing different things. Some of them had dogs pulling them on leeshes, some of them were looking for leprechauns. Some were looking for water and when they drank water they got more and more drunk. Some guy even ended up passing out on the floor. Um... one guy was steve Irwin looking for a crocodile.
He also got one of the girls to think she was britney spears and dance and sing in the microphone while everybody else was her fan club.
One of the things I think it a little creepy about hypnosis is that this guy could make them do anything. He got the girls to think that shaking his hand was the most pleasurable thing in the world. Some of em were pretty much having orgasms there on stage which was a bit off. In the common room after I spoke to some guy (I think his name is ben) and he was really annoyed about it. He didn't think it was right for him to do that with them. one of the girls from the stage was hanging out in the common room after with me and she said that you knew what you were doing but just couldn't control it.
So I came back from the hypnosis thing, Damien and I dropped Caitlin off at her house and had a look at her room, on the way. I sat in the common room for a while watching rove but the girl from the stage came in to watch rove too but was talking on her mobile phone the entire time so I couldn't actually hear the tv. So i left. Had a shower and went to bed.
15 February 2006
* Monday *
Monday morning I took a walk up to the Hut because I had to do a couple of things, I got all the way up there and then realised that I needed to bring back my green form that said everything that was wrong with the room and all that. So I trecked back down. Passing New Ressies I ran into Damien and he was nice enough to walk back down to Arscott with me. He was also heading up to the hut. So we walked back down, I grabbed the form and then we walked back up. We got in the line behind Caitlin and another girl who lives on my floor but whos name I still don't know. So the four of us chatted while waiting in the monster line which was not moving. See there are two counters in the room, one is the cashire and the other is just an enquiry desk. To hand in my form and get my internet cable I had to go to the enquiry desk, to put money on my telephone and get a laundry card I had to go to the cashire. Damien only had to go to the enquiry desk so he headed back quickly and I promised to knock on his door later.
Once I had done all my stuff (and spend a good ole $45) I walked back home and dumped my crap in my room and knocked on Damien's door coz we had agreed to go to the mall together. We both needed coathangers and he also needed tacks for his noticeboard. So we walked down there, lucky he knew a better way than the way i'd been before. Anyway we found coathangers in the third shop we looked in, Coles. I also bought hair elastics. We got milkshakes at donut king and kebabs and ali baba. Kinda regretted getting the food in the end, doesn't really mix with milkshake. I only ate about half. Argh. So then we got tacks in a newsagent and I saw all these pens that I wanted to buy but I refrained from buying them. On the walk home we met two other guys who knew damien but didn't speak to me. We walked with them for a while until Damien realised that his coathangers had pulled a hole in his plastic bag and his tacks had fallen out. We retraced our steps and actually found them. Then we finished walking back home.
The obstacle course was on Monday. After I got back to my room I probably rested for a while until they called us all to meet in the courtyard and wear blue (Blue is Arscott's colour). We trecked up to the ovals (on the other side of the uni). I walked with Damien, Adam, and anothe guy... whose name I think is John. But don't quote me on that one. So we all sat on the grass in as much shade as we could find facing the field. 4 guys and 4 girls from each house were going to run the obstacle course. It involved a wheelbarrow race, crawling under a tarp, putting a number of balls in a basket, an egg and spoon race, and hopping with a ball between your legs. I think we either came second or third in the end. It was a good time.
After that was a free BBQ, I wasn't planning on eating anything because I'd already had lunch (note it was about 5:30 now) but since the line was so long I got in it anyway. Damien jumped in before us and we lost Adam coz he had a phone call but I stood with Caitlin (she lives in UV and is therefore the enemy but that doesn't matter). John stood with us for a while too but he ended up leaving because the line was so long. Anothe guy, who was friends with John, and whose name is also John, stood with us too. So he, Caitlin and I ended up sitting and eating together. Adam came and sat with us eventually. So John left early to go back to the ressies and then Caitlin, Adam and I walked back together. Caitlin turned off so I walked back to Arscott with Adam.
Caitlin gave me her phone number before she turned off so I called her that night and she called me back and we arranged for her to come over and watch Supernatural. Or that was the plan. I told Damien we'd knock on his door and say hi when she arrived too. She was gonna bring chocolate.
I planned to meet her half way between the ressies because she'd never been to arscott before and I had to let her in. I got up there and thought "wait, I didnt bring my phone, it's dark, and I don't want to be standing around here by myself amoung all the spooky trees". So I started walking back into Arscott to at least get my phone but I got to the doors and turned around and saw her. So I went back up to meet her. We went in and knocked on Damien's door (since he's on the bottom floor and i'm up one). And we ended up hanging out in his room will quarter past 12. We didn't watch supernatural, which I was okay with. We watched two episodes of "Whose line is it anywa" coz Damien has it on his computer, drank coke, ate chocolate, and then watched an episode of "The Green Room" another Drew Carey show that is really cool but i've never seen before. And we chatter for ages. So that was nice.
Now Caitlin wasn't that keen about walking back to UV in the dark by herself and I would've been happy to escort her except for the fact that I would then have to walk back down to Arscott by myself so just as we were washing our glasses a security guy walked past and we nicely asked him if he would mind walking her back. He said that was fine. In the safety lecture they had assured us that we should call security and they would have no problems walking us home and everything. So that was good.
I went upstairs and went to bed.
14 February 2006
* Sunday *
Good thing I decided to shower in the night because I we had to be leaving at 8:15 for breakfast. I set my alarm for 7 and my other alarm for 7:30. I turned both off and woke up a third time to a siren blasting and a girl yelling through a loudspeaker "arscott in the courtyard in 15 minutes". I jumped up, got dressed and then was almost early.
So we went up to breakfast. I walked by myself most of the way which wasn't great, chatted to some girls for a little bit but not really anything to worry about. Breakfast was in shifts and Arscott house was the last one which was nice because we got the most sleep. I got my food (tiny bit of scrambled eggs, piece of toast and plum jam + juice) and sat down at a table with Shannon and a guy and a girl. They were pretty much finished when I arrived. The girl left pretty quickly, I didn't actually talk to her. I kinda did the usual "hi, where are you from? what course are you doing?" thing with the guy. But I still don't know his name. He left and walked back to Arscott. Shannon and I sat for a while but quickly got bored so she asked the nice lady (who is in charge of something but I don't know what) where we had to be next and we made our own way their instead of waiting for the group. We sat outside the building and chatted to two other girls who were by themselves until everybody else arrived and we went into the lecture theatre.
I dont remember who did the lecture but it was about Safety on campus. They gave us a map of the "safe routes to walk at night" and said that you should feel free to ask security to escort you, especially if you think you're too drunk to walk by yourself. It got fairly boring in the end but they told us all about the services on campus, the fact that we have a free doctor service and councellor and all that stuff.
After that lecture they took us back to the Cafe and fed us morning tea, I was still full from breakfast but I had a muffin and a couple of pieces of fruit coz provided food = me no cook. Shannon didn't have anything because she wasn't hungry. She had to leave about half way through the meal tho coz she had to go to work. I didn't want to sit alone so I moved and sat with the same guy from breakfast. He was by himself too. I chatted to him a bit more, long pauses but I wasn't overly uncomfortable with them. A bit later on his brother came and sat with us. His brother is a second year, first year ressie, staying somewhere else. It was weird. The younger brother was rather, well more nerdy. The older brother had his bottom lip pierces and seemed kinda cooler. But they kinda talked computers a bit so they both had roots there. All in all pleasant conversation. So then we went up the stairs and waited for the groups to form. Then they took all the kids from Arscott and UV over to a grassy area and divided us into groups through birthday months (four groups: jan-mar, april-june, july-sept, oct-dec). A fifth group arrived and they sent a couple of people from my group over there (including me). So we sat in a circle and made small talk. Then they told us that there wasn't going to be any toilet paper until tuesday so they handed out rolls and told us to each take some.
After everyone had some toilet paper they said that we each had to go around the circle and say a number of facts about ourselves, the same number of squares we took. I think I told them my name, my nickname, that I had a cat called tom, the degree i'm doing, and the fact that I had bandaids on my feet. I know I took more squares than that but meh.
So after we went around the whole circle some of the other groups were playing games like Stuck in the Mud, Fruit Salad and Duck Duck goose. Our group ended up playing Stuck in the Mud for a couple of minutes and then runacross. I didn't play, I sat on the sideline with some other people. I think it was then, as we were standing around waiting to go to the next place, that I started talking to a girl called Caitlin. Just little conversation but we walked together to our next lecture, meeting Damien along the way. So the three of us chatted and sat together in the lecture theatre. Caitlin in the middle.
The councellor talked to us in the lecture for a while, talking about feeling lost and being far away from home and all that.
NB: This post has taken me days to write, which in itself is annoying because more things keep happening and now i'm struggling to remember what happened when. I'm now writing this on Wed the 15th of Feb at 2:52PM.
That night was the "punch party". I didn't actually attend because it was $10 and I really wasn't going to drink that much.
13 February 2006
* My Room! *
This is what my room looks like... or looked like when it was clean. Now it's messy.
12 February 2006
* Saturday *
So at about 10 on saturday morning I got dressed and got my bag together and went for a walk up to the Uni. There were a couple of white tents set up for all the new ressies, there was a BBQ and heaps of people hanging around waiting to get into their rooms. I was feeling good about myself since I already had my room and knew where I was going. I walked up to the Uni (it's about 1km) and walked around the campus for a while, trying to learn where all the buildings are for my classes that start next week. The campus isn't big by any means but it's still hard to find things.
The walk, in all, took me about half an hour before I was back in my room bored again. Everyone was busy unpacking and I was already finished so I really had nothing to do. So I went for another walk. This time I wrote down the buildings where my classes could possibly be so I knew which ones I had to find. Building 14's a bitch. It's out of the way and I have all my classes on Thursdays in it. Shannon told me that all the lectures are streamed over the internet so you don't actually have to go to them. Which, would be really cool if I get the timetable I want because then I would have classes on mondays and tuesdays and then the rest of the week I could do absolutely anything I wanted to do. I could even go home if I really wanted.
I wish my parents were in the country, that way if I was really struggling and wanted to come home for a weekend in a couple of weeks then they would be able to pick me up, decreasing the stress of me having to catch a bus then a train then a bus then another bus and getting home at 1am in the dark with all my possessions strapped to my back.
Aaron brought a tv and put it in the common room, I haven't actually sat in there for any kind of period of time yet, that would mean I might have to talk to people that came in. Weird.
What was I up to? I keep getting distracted. So I went on a second walk and found building 14 and got SUNBURNT!!! IN CANBERRA!!! And I really hope I don't peel coz thats gonna make a great impression for my first week. Got back from my second walk, actually now I remember that my second walk was half an hour so my first walk was much longer I think, that would make more sense. So I got back to the room, kinda sat for a bit. I heard people mumbling about meeting somewhere at some time so I asked (yeah I ASKED a question!) some girl and she said we were meeting in the courtyard at 1pm. So I ate half a salad in my room, sat on my bed for a bit and then walked down to the courtyard at 1pm.
It's not much of a walk, the courtyard is in the middle of Arscott house and my room is in the middle building of the middle floor of Arscott house so I can see everything out my window... and hear everything... and be kept up by everything. Argh. Steph called me when I was standing around the courtyard not talking to anybody, just watching everybody talk to everybody else. Apparently everyone was supposed to have a yellow shirt that they got in their information packs that they got when they checked in but because I did everything yesterday I didn't get an information pack or a yellow shirt, or a nametag. So i'm standing there in my purple "I heart Rock Stars" shirt in a sea of yellow, trying to blend because I HATE being noticed.
They took us up to Building 14 for a lecture. It was on the way there that I spoke to the first person ever. His name was... uh... oh geez... I feel bad now... ooh Greg. Yup, his name was greg. We kinda ended up walking next to each other so he said hi and we introduced ourselves. He walked first into the auditorium so I sat next to him and the girl behind me sat next to me. She said "I don't wanna sit by myself" and I said "me neither, thats why I followed him *pointing at greg*". She was Shannon. Shannon's a 3rd year but this is her first year as a ressie coz her boyfriend joined the air force. She's nice and I've hung out with her a bit now. Probably my lifeline so far, the only person i've rolled my eyes at yet so that gives her snaps. The three of us chatted a bit, it was more me talking to each of them at a time. Arscott was dismissed from the auditorium first though so we said goodbye to Greg who is living in Intenational House until his room in University Village is ready. Shannon's living in Arscott too but she's the floor above me. She came with me when Shari went to get me a yellow shirt (which ended up being a large and more of a yellow dress) and we walked back to Arscott together. She doesn't seem to know anyone either and I can have actual conversations with her that don't consist of "so where are you from? what course are you doing? where are you staying? ... ..." We've actually got past that part.
We scattered when we got back to Arscott, everyone going to their room, some people hanging out in the courtyard. Oh wait, i'm mistaken. We got back to Arscott and Shari said to meet her back at quarter to (the hour is illuding me) and she'd walk everyone to the grog shop. I stayed in my room since grog aint really my thing, and I already knew where the shops were. After that, we met up at 5:30pm to walk up to a free dinner in the UCU bar. We had to wait for ages and since I didn't have a nametag (Shami said it didn't matter about getting one... then there was all this fuss of 'they might not let you in if you don't have one' ) I got separated from Shannon, I sat with uh... Peter and A____ and Jess and Beatrice and another girl and Michael and Adam and Greg (the same greg).
Peter was on my left and he was a bit funny, he asked me what music I like and i said "Hilary Duff" in a joking, testing kind of way. You know, would he throw me out on the street or is he actually a nice person. He passed. With flying colours I reckon. He said "Oh yeah I know her, she's alright". Kinda reminded me of Dayne.
I know i'm gonna look back and say "it wasn't that bad" but I just have to remember that at this point in time it does feel this bad. Called Steph and she's having a blast, makes me feel worse. Oh and i'm also feeling very ugly right now.
It's a bit full on, like within two hours I got five messages on my phone (landline in the room) and three more before that.
So Adam and I walked back down to Arscott together where the group gathered in the "Green Room". It was kinda squishy but we gathered in many concentric circles (did i use concentric properly? I don't think i've had the need to use it before and it's almost midnight and i'm tired) and waited... and waited... and more people came and then there was more waiting...
Everybody was hanging out drinking, they called it "bonding time"... the returnee ressies went around and gave their names and nicknames and a bit about themselves. Then it was our turn. We went around the circles and had to say our name, preferred name, where we were from, and tell an embarassing story. Then, after the story the older ressies would think up a nickname for you, write it on a tie, and you have to wear the tie for 8 days. In fact I have mine on right now. The punishment for being seen without your tie is a spanking from the entire house of residents. Oh and after the nickname you have to skull your drink while everyone else sings a song. "... something something... bastard... something... he tried to get to heaven but he went the other way, he went down, down, down, down..." Until you finish.
My performance went something like this "Hi i'm Katharine but everybody calls me Wilson, they also call my brother wilson so that gets confusing at home... a funny story..." and then someone yells out "VOLLY!!!" (NB: I know Volly is actually spelt Volley but Volly was written on my tie so it seems I have to go with that). So I never got to tell the embarassing story that I made up 10minutes before. But it was good. Took us about an hr and a half to get through everyone. Then we were released for 20minutes for everybody to freshen up before moving on to the Lighthouse. The Lighthouse, for those of you uneducated people who do not know, is a bar off campus. It's actually the closest thing to the campus but technically it is off campus. Arscott house is the closest residence to it because we're the furthest from the actual university.
I sat with Shannon outside while we waited, Wang introduced himself to us and sat next to me. I call him Wang because that is his tie-name and I think his real name is Damien but I'm not actually completely sure.
So the three of us chatted for a while, another couple of people joined in on the multiple conversations, then we went out to the Lighthouse. Shannon had been there before so she knew the way but we walked in a big group so it was all good anyway. The lighthouse is about half a km away from arscott, in the opposite direction to the university so we're the closest residence to it, lucky us. We got there, lost Damien somewhere along the journey, I showed my ID and went in, Shannon was behind me and she didn't even get out her ID coz the guy at the door was the owner of the place and the owner of the place is a a friend of her brothers. So she got a hug and went inside.
It was really crowded. It's not a big place but it's a comfortable size. Shannon and I went to the bar and I wasn't going to get anything but then I changed my mind. I got another girl (don't know her name, really short n skinny, blonde) to buy my drink for me and her and the girl who was with her went and started dancing but I waited for Shannon and we went and sat down. Shannon had decided before hand that she would only have two drinks because she had to work the next day. So she sat down at the table with a drink in each hand. I had a Red Bull Blue. It was actually really nice but by the end it got a bit gross. I know that it had vodka in it but I don't know what else.
Shannon and I were sitting at a table watching the golf on tv and the silly people dancing. Damien walked past trailing behind a couple of other guys but he diverted his path and came and sat with us which I thought was really nice of him. He had a beer. I think it was his 5th for the night. So the three of us were sitting, with minimal chatting coz the music was so loud, and this guy kinda walked over to us from his table and kept telling us to dance. He had a half finished beer in his hand and put it on our table. He kept saying "go dance" and Shannon and Damien kept saying "I haven't had enough to drink". I didn't have to reply coz I was on the opposite side of the table to him and he wasn't really talking to me. None of us actually really knew what he was saying but we kept nodding. For a small period of time he was dancing standing next to the table. Apparently he told Damien to meet him at the club on wednesdays to go drinking.
I don't think i've been specific enough when I said "this guy" describing the man. Let me go into a bit more detail. He was a big guy, broad shoulders and on the large side. He was also about 40 in age so he was NOT from the University. Shannon finished both her drinks by the time I was three quarters of the way through mine so she was whispering to me "finish your drink so we can go". I did finish the whole thing! Wooo! First drink i've started and completely finished by myself. We waited a bit for Damien to skull his beer and then we headed off. The guy took about 5 minutes shaking Damien's hand and whispering in his ear before we made it out the door. So the three of us walked back to the Uni together, running into another guy along the way. The guy knew damien but I still don't know what his name is, he lives across and down one from Shannon. We found this out because the three of us went back to Shannon's room and hung out for a bit. I was suprised and elated to hear that both Hilary Duff and the Spice girls came on her ipod speakers when we were in the room. She showed us her new computer with massive monitor. The guy (whos name I did not know) went down to watch soccer somewhere. So after we left I showed Damien my digs and my cool alien lamp and then after he left I took a shower and went to bed.
