In the night garden

Yesterday was a good day. I really, really want to stress that. It wasn't just that I actually managed to make myself get up early and thus accomplished several important tasks an hour before I'd normally even be up on a day when I had no classes. It wasn't just that I met Jason as I was about to head back and so extended my trip into town with pleasant company and a trip to the Uni bookshop, which is a very lovely space. It wasn't even just that I found out that the front desk had decided to waive the late fee on my first fortnight's rent.

No, whilst all these events were charming and agreeable in their own right, the thing that made yesterday really extraordinary was the nighttime constitutional Jason, Elle and I decided to take. Allow me to set the scene: The O-week event for that evening was a rubik's cube party (essentially a technicolour school disco), but everyone wanted to arrive fashionably later than everyone else. So, the party having officially started at 7.30, by 8.30 there were four people sluggishly grooving to unseemly club anthems. Tiring of this, Jason and I elected to duck out and saunter around the park which encircles our fair domicile; as we were setting off, Elle chanced by and enquired with furrowed brow to where we were headed and we invited her along. She gratefully acquiesced and the three of us began our journey to a raucous melody of wit and playful jibes. Whilst ambling along the path that runs through Yarra bend road, we gradually began to run out of street lights and the conversation turned to the fantastically dark things that could happen out there, in the night. Of course, some of these were positively pedestrian, like being stabbed or taken hostage, the little things that could take place in Bonny Scotland, but, this being Australia, there were also the delightful possibilities of crocodiles and drop bears, funnel web spiders and paralysing ticks, and the entire promenade had a delightful flavour of danger. Then, a wondrous thing happened- we got lost (not so uncommon) and I was the one to navigate our way back, no kidding. In Australia, everything truly is upside down, as I genuinely seem to have a sense of direction here- no less than four times recently, I have steered whatever group I'm in down the correct path. My theory is that, like migratory birds, I have a piece of metal in my head, but instead of directing me North, as the birds' does, mine is attracted to the South Pole. Now that I am nearer the underside of the globe, this piece of metal is pulling its weight rather than just spinning uselessly about. Huzzah. On top of this, we saw a flying fox, which was beautifully large and opaque in the moonlight; a living shadow soaring amongst the trees. And then, we returned to the party, and though there weren't any more people, those who were there were now suitable inebriated to make the thing enjoyable and I really had fun jiving in our tiny little circle. I even got in a request (Cee Lo Green- I won't name the song, as my parents are reading), and some of the Bedlam classics were played, and it really felt like being back in Edinburgh, except less crowded. 

Lovely.

Postera Crescam Laude

I have given into temptation and bought one extra-large, navy blue hoody with the university of Melbourne logo proudly brandished across it. The pricetag was kinda scary- $100!- but my mother said she’d pay for me to get one, so I’m trying to see past that. I am painfully aware that in two years I will most likely purchase an Edinburgh equivalent and thus my collection will be complete.

Hoody aside- it’s too warm to wear it- I am very sorry for not having updated y’all (I know for a fact that both Spanish Daniel and my parents are reading this, and so it’s ‘y’all’ and not ‘you both’) since Saturday, but in my defence, I have new friends now and y’all seem kinda dull by comparison.

Yes, O-week, the exchange students’ freshers week, has begun and has bought with it the chance to talk to people without seeming precocious. So far, I’ve met Will, who I’m seeing as the Universe’s way of balancing out Esmond’s infidelity as he’s from McGill, Jason, a quiet home-schooled New Jersey-ite, Daryll, a Korean illustrator and fellow nerd, Clara, a contemplative Spanish biologist and Bastian, who’s Dutch and that’s all I really know about him. In terms of actual ozzies, there are Logan and Aspen- who I feel have to be mentioned together, so inseparable are they- Victoria, Elle and Ben. I don’t really know any of these people tremendously well, but they are at least people who I can count amongst my acquaintance and speak to of an evening. It seems the place to go in the evenings is the second floor rec room, there to be found are assorted nerdly activities like playing playstation 3, monopoly, minecraft, magic: the gathering or trying to solve the tetris cube.  It’s noisy but friendly, and I’m working up the courage to step in there on my own one of these days.

As to the events themselves, they’re rather self-conscious, but can be quite fun. There was a poorly-thought through scavenger hunt which wended too far from the building and that no one really completed follow by a barbeque which everyone without fail completed. There was the casino royale night, which boiled down to one in ten people in suits, playing poker, dissolving quite early but leading into another night in the second floor rec room. Then last night there was ‘christmas in July’, which frankly was just an industrially cooked roast dinner in the cafeteria with some Christmas decorations put up. I’d love to say that by leaving at 7.30 I was ducking out early, but I was one of the last to leave. I was really tired so I skipped the rec room and went to bed. There’s nothing on tonight, as far as I’m aware, but I’m hoping I’ll find some activity to latch onto, as I finished my book today and if I start another one tonight I’ll feel like a harlot.

One phenomenon I need to remark upon is that old people feel they can eavesdrop on one’s conversations and then give their revered opinion- it happened to Jason and me on the bus yesterday and Emma, Esmond and me a couple of weeks ago and I only mention it cos they’re discussing spiderman at the next table and I really want to weigh in, but I can’t cos I still have all my original teeth and they’ll (justly) think I’m rude and weird. Alas.

Is there anything else to say? Um. I’ve been passing my days by going into the uni campus and should really start venturing out to the rest of the city soon- I did go to a pawn shop and Aldi with my yarra friends yesterday, but that doesn’t feel adventurous and I can’t imagine why. Once I find someone to explore the city with, hopefully, I’ll have more to write about and I’m also looking into finding some way of taking photos. Watch this space.