ticking clocks. rainy days. and dreaded fates.
for the first time since arriving in melbourne, i am able to describe the past week's weather in a single word.
FREEZING
depressing rains have re-commenced just in time for the dawning winter. so everyday, not only are we plagued with crazy winds... but falling rain and chilling temperateures all at the same time! thankfully i haven't left the house enough to suffer through them ;)
since mom and hafiz leaving on the 31st, i'd only ventured to vic market with aunty margie the following weekend to stock up on groceries. placating the devilish imp that visits me from time to time... i made her walk all the way from the apartment to south yarra station... then from melbourne central to vic market :D i have to hand it to her though... it may be a routine walk for me considering i make the trip atleast once a week on average... it felt like miles the first time i attempted it! but with the exception of a few huffs and puffs and questions as to whether we could take the tram back next time, we made it there and back without a hitch :D
then the lockdown period began. from 2 saturdays ago, i've spent my every waking hour at home! with my friends in melbourne uni having finally concluded their exam run, it was my turn at dear-old deakin to experience the pain of finals. once acting as self-appointed cheerleader for jacqueline sim and mark tan, as well as the occasional 'you can do it! you love this stuff! you can sleep next week!" for joel lee at rmit, it was now my turn to buckle down and make friends with solitude. to say that the past 2 weeks flew by would be a massive lie. for the first time EVER i'd experienced what it was like to study without support. true... i had auntie margie here to cater to my occasional need for chick flicks (though hers come speaking in korean ;p) and ensuring that i remember to eat on time... and i have mom and fiz cheering me on at home, i'd never studied independently before up until now.
a proudly-proclaimed back marker in sri aman, finding people to give me a hand in school (that's if i evern bothered to look for it) wasn't too daunting a task. i particularly remember anya giving me a 20-minute crash course on KH... 20 minutes before the pmr exam! and i aced it thanks to her! but yeah... that's what my schooling history has been like. always having brilliant people at arms length who's brains i can pick apart when mine runs out of battery ;) trinity was no different. with averages no less than perfect, my congregation of friends made up some of the smartest minds appointed by the college for their february intake. and though they strongly argue with me on that point... i know that THEY KNOW i'm right... as i always am ;) dun dun dun!
but yeah... it was easy going through school knowing that if a lecture passed you by and you pulled a jack sparrow on it, that there would be people you could turn to for help. this year it was an entirely different story. because now... i'm a 'mark' or a 'jacqueline' or an 'anya' for someone else. because now... with teachers who remain amazed that you want to know anything at all... and classmates who are just as lost or couldn't be bothered... whatever information i manage to grasp... isn't for me alone ;)
so yeah... i'd been devulging basic chemistry for the past week and a half. unfortunately it did nothing to relieve my nerves. in the morning i was greeted with the usual pre-exam tummy ache. the weather outside was so depressing i just wanted to curl up and die. but it was my first exam at deakin univeristy... and part of me wanted to know what they could throw at me ;) so i left 2 hours early, anticipating the worst from public transport, but for the first time since starting in february i'd arrived more than an hour early!
i walked the elevated hallway from the main campus grounds to the spot known as the 'central precint', a modernised structure built to support tutorial rooms, the ymca, cafes and of course the university gymnasium - my exam venue for the day. as i passed the glass structure and caught a glimpse of the makeshift exam hall, all i could think about was how much it looked like a cemetary! 650 white coloured chairs lined in perfect rows in a deserted auditorium... reminding me of the grounds where soldiers killed in war are laid to rest.
mana tak takut?!but all in all the paper was good. the questions weren't too earth shattering and the practise test they provided before hand proved to be extremely helpful. just one problem though...
it was raining outside with an atmospheric temperature of no more than ten degrees...
BUT THEY TURNED THE AIRCONDITIONING ON! yeah i get the concept of things getting a little stuffy when almost 700 people fill a room... but it was cold outside (and i don't mean the harry connick jr and leann womack version either... cause i know you were thinking that mom ;p). the people who know me will agree that i have kindergarten handwriting. my tutor nurul used to say it was like cirles run over with a steam roller ;p and i know it helps when teachers grade your paper and everything looks presentable... but when your fingers approach frostbite and you can barely feel them whilst balancing out chemical equations... i'd like to apologise before hand to judy gordon or doug mccann... i couldn't feel my freaking fingers so excuse me if i couldn't give a rodent's behind about how neat and circular my handwriting was!
by the time the paper ended it was already dark outside. my first night walking through deakin grounds. it was kind of monumental since only melbourne uni harboured that honour in the past. so with a cup of hot chocolate, me and lauren made our way to the tram stop and back home... concluding our first semester together at deakin uni (turn off the dodgy indicator jacq!) ;D
so now it's back to studying again. psychology beckons on friday, and with less days than i had during chem to study for it... i got a lot of work cut out for me :(
till the next time i see sunlight :D
