Harrison's Room

A collage of Harrison’s room and hall, these photos are basically just to give you a rough idea of what it will be like to live here in my room if I am to miraculously keep it clean all year. Enjoy!

-HL

HL #1 22/02/14

Hi reader, blog master Harrison here.

Eliza and I have set up this blog to keep in touch with friends and family interstate and even internationally about the life that we currently and/or hope to lead.

Basic Essential Information

For those of you unaware, I will be attending Monash University in Clayton, Melbourne. Undergoing a 3 year bachelor of Biotechnology hopefully to complete a 2 year post graduate course specialising in a field of Prosthesis. As for Eliza she will be studying Nutrition and Dietetics which is a 4 year course. We are both staying on campus (hopefully just for the first year) at the residential halls. Fortunately we are both in the same Hall (Farrer) the hall is split into two buildings; Lords and Commons. I will be residing on the ground floor of commons (like the pleb I am) and Eliza is located around the corner on the first floor of Lords. Probably most importantly our hall mascot is a ferret.

The Story So Far…

After a fairly eventful and fun final week in Perth Monday the 17th of February finally rolled around and off to Melbourne I was. It wasn’t until the 18th that I was able to begin the moving in process, which consisted of dumping suitcases into a depressingly small room and then venturing out to some shops to buy essentials. Managing to get the majority of living requirements in one day I spent my first night in the glorified cell known as my pod. The next day I was able to acquire lawfully the last of the my new possessions. The next couple days consisted of unpacking and settling into my room, chance encounters in the hall with other new and old residents and some questionable meals. The 20th was the first attempt at some orientation, getting involved in an amazing race around the Monash campus, we were split into 10 groups of 6-7 freshers and and a second or third year resident of Farrer hall. The activities at each of the stations were fairly simple however a good way to make some new friends as we dawdled around, familiarising ourselves with the university.Yesterday we attended a compulsory hall dinner (not that compulsory was required I think everyone was keen for free food) where we were randomly put onto tables to enjoy a lovely dinner with fellow ferrets and after introduced to the annually changing Farrer dance choreographed by the older residents to a song I think I was supposed to recognise. A few more forced social gatherings with students in similar positions has led us to here, slowly finding our niche and adapting to the Melbourne climate. It has been a very eye opening experience so far and hopefully will be an amazing year

Evil Plan:

1. Save Money.
2. Find Job.
3. Join Clubs.
4. Ski Trip.
5. Locate Apartment.

-HL

EK #3 25/02/14

Hey hey 

I got up real early (like 8am - that’s five your time okay) to go to a compulsory introduction for my course. I walked about 2km to get there as their offices are off campus, but it was well worth it cause I got to meet people who are actuALLY INTERESTED IN THE SAME THING AS ME which is basically something unheard of in Farrer (“what’s a dietetic?”). We learnt a bit about the course structure - the bachelor of nutrition and dietetics (me) and the bachelor of nutrition science have a common first two years so it’ll be really science based and full on. We only have two units each semester which are each worth twelve credit points, unlike most courses that do four six point units. We also met the lecturers and the other staff, as well as all the other students. There’s only ninety of us over the two courses, so hopefully I’ll get to know everyone pretty quickly.

Harrison and I made use of the kitchen on his floor and made pasta for dinner tonight, which was real good :) His kitchen is basically twice the size of mine and isn’t full of dirty dishes and bad smells. I don’t think he appreciates that as much as I do but yeah. I’m pretty lucky to have access to it :) 

We’ll hopefully head into campus tomorrow to check out some of the o week stuff and join clubs and societies, so should be an exciting day!

Peace out

-EK

EK #2 24/02/14

GOOD MORNING FERRETS.

After a week’s worth of hype and lead up from the o week team, the day of the scavenger hunt was finally upon us. We were drawn out of bed just before nine by a (very) loud British accent screaming over the PA system that it would be the biggest day of the year, and promising pancakes if we made our way to the common room IMMEDIATELY. 

We donned our bright green Farrer shirts, grabbed a plate and headed down to the common room to meet up with our fellow ferrets and get a free feed. Once we had all had our fill of pancakes, we were given name tags with embarrassing nicknames on them (I was Jim, the story is long and unimportant) and sorted into groups. Each group was given a bandanna as a form of identification, and as ours was donned with bright pink and purple pandas, we became the Fat Pandas. 

Once we had named our egg and tied two team members together (both all day challenges that would earn extra points) we set off for the city. Sadly we missed the first bus but that didn’t stop us from completing some challenges on the way. By the time we made it to the city we had already swapped shirts with a stranger, sung farrerdise (think paradise but with Farrer) to a group of strangers, done a mexican wave with an entire train carriage and photographed a group of five strangers doing ferret ears.

On arrival at Flinders st Station we were going strong and took the opportunity to spell out something with our bodies (Farrer, of course), intentionally get a metro worker to say “train” ten times, ask a stranger for directions to Flinders st Station, and dance the cancan on the steps. We headed out the front to federation square, checking off “make a ring and propose to a stranger” on the way (she said yes)

Federation square was still set up for white night from the night before so we took this opportunity to get on the big screen and check off a few more points including a flash mob and finding a person over the age of eighty.

That’s my entire group doing the farrer gang sign

We then conga’d over the Princes bridge, hugged some palm trees, then headed back to melbourne central for lunch, as we had to take a photo of the clock at 1:25

We then ventured to the state library to do the farrer dance [to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-M1AtrxztU with a few changed lyrics] and actually managed to make it through the first chorus before we got kicked out. The opportunity was then taken to sunbathe on the the lawns.

The group then decided to find a department store to play marco polo and to dress up one of the boys, and to find him some nice girl’s clothes to try on. We completed various tasks along the way including playing dead fish and army crawling down burke street mall, buying starbucks with the strangest name possible, and getting a storeperson to do a cartwheel.

The deadline for the day was 6:30 and it was rapidly approaching so we started heading back to the meeting spot (for free pizza yay) once we had been through a department store. On the way back our one task was to find a fountain to a) fully submerge a teammember and b) reenact the into to friends. We decided that the one outside the arts centre would be perfectly fitting so half the team sacrificed their dignity and jumped in.

After filming our own friends intro, we were approached by a man who had been snorkelling in the fountain collecting coins. He offered us his money, shouted at us in a heavy irish accent and proceeded to follow us up to the park (flippers and all) until we had satisfactorily outrun him. It was scary.

The day was finally done and we could sit down and enjoy some pizza courtesy of the college head, which was much appreciated. The trip home was a tiring one, as we missed a bus so had to trek 45 minutes back to campus from the train station in the dark, but that’s all just part of the fun. The scav hunt was definitely the highlight of the last week, as the friends we made and the fun we had well outweighed the sore legs and blisters from a hard day of running around Melbourne. 

ANYWAY.

Today (monday) Harrison and I have been recovering, looking online at the surrounding suburbs for prospective apartments, with a little bit of luck. Hopefully we’ll be able to find something by the end of the year so we’ll have somewhere a little more spacious to live, but hey, we’ve got the rest of the year to search and save up the moneys. 

Host scheme night is tonight, basically a massive party held by the uni, but we’re not going due to not getting tickets in time, laziness and the fact that i’m not quite eighteen, so a quiet one in it is. 

Hope you’re all well :)

-EK

Eliza's Room

Eliza’s room!

We were basically just given a bed, desk, wardrobe and shelves, so anything other than that here is mine. These photos make the room look deceptively large, it is not. My room is on the first floor and faces the other Farrer building.  

-EK

EK #1 22/02/14

Hey all, Eliza here :)

Harrison and I figured that seeing as we are no longer able to physically see all of you on a regular basis, we would make a blog to keep you informed without us having to repeat ourselves in telling each of you individually the day to day events of our super exciting lives. I know that tumblr isn’t exactly the easiest site for everyone to use, but if you wanna follow us, make an account - this’ll also allow you to ask us questions on this site (it would be nice for us to see who’s following us)

Anyway. Here we are. Melbourne. As most of you would know, we’re studying at Monash University, in Clayton, and are staying in the halls of residence (at Farrer) this year. I’ve been here for a week, and have finally settled in. 

**story time with eliza**

For those who haven’t heard - On the day I was supposed to move in (last Saturday), Mum and I arrived early and brought all my things up to my room, then went off to do some shopping. When we got back to campus, we were told that I couldn’t go into the building as someone on the floor above me had tried to hang a washing line on the fire sprinkler in their room and burst a pipe, which basically flooded the whole building. We wouldn’t be able to get back into the building for the next couple of days, but they had allocated me a temporary room which happened to be on the fourth floor of the other Farrer building. Luckily for me, Mum was still in Melbourne so I could stay with her for another night, and didn’t have to sleep up there. The following day we moved all my things up the stairs into the temporary room before Mum had to leave for the airport. Just as she was leaving, and just after our last trip up, however, we were told that I would be able to move back into my room as mine hadn’t been damaged by the flood. This meant a couple (ten or so) trips back up the stairs, back down, and then up the stairs to my room to finally move everything in. I had to do most of it myself as Mum had left, but luckily the RA of my floor helped me move the last of my things in, and I was finally able to unpack. There were industrial fans and dehumidifiers throughout the floor for the next couple of days, but the damage wasn’t too bad (apart from the smell). 

After the flood fiasco I was able to properly unpack and settle in. I met the people on my floor, who are all really cool - they’re mostly from other countries or towns around Victoria and NSW, though sadly no Perth people. Over the last few days I’ve taken part in a few residential O week activities, and walked into campus a couple of times to explore. Campus O week is next week, then it’s into classes we go. I’ll post a brief room tour then keep the updates coming :)

-EK