the day before...

It is the day before uni starts. The Sunday before my first university class. The weekend before I start the real life of a uni student. I am terrified. But not as much as I was last week.

I go through different moods and opinions about the course. Friday I was petrified that I would hate the course. Saturday I was concerned that I would be competent. Today I am terribly nervous, but I think that the course will be good.

Tomorrow I have two lectures - Maths and Imaging Theory & Practice. Nothing too scary. Maths is really just what I did in Maths Methods during VCE. And the other lecture is just theory stuff. I will be ok. I hope.

I suppose the thing I worry about most is that it isn't going to work. I am going to be late for classes, or not understand fundamentals, or not have enough experience, or not have the right equipment, or not have enough time... The things that pretty much everyone worries about. So I suppose if I cross my fingers and hope everything might just fall into place...

away from home...

I am about to finish my first week away from home. It is Friday and today I am heading back to my family for the weekend, but this week has certainly been interesting!

O Week was excellent - so much fun. I met nearly all of the people in my class (there are only 20 of us so it isn't that hard). I am absolutely and completed freaked out about Monday when classes start, but hopefully I will manage. I am worried that maybe I won't like the course, but I will just have to wait an see, I suppose. I kept getting lost on campus - the place is huge and different buildings connect so if you walk down one corridor you actually find yourself in a different building, which is fun. The library is two floors, and because it has just undergone major renovations, even some of the library staff don't know where everything is!

Ah, and my home away from home? It is interesting. On each floor there are 20 rooms - my floor is just about full and there are about 5 girls. I am the only girl in my hallway. Everyone is nice, which is good. I still haven't worked out the whole "cooking for myself, alone" bit. I keep my food stuffs in my room, and I haven't got that much space, so this week has either been two minute noodles, microwave dinners or eating out - that has to change. I have to sort out which is the cheapest, easiest and tasiest (or which is fits a bit of each...) then just live that way.

I am a bit nervous about today. I have to go shopping for heaps of photography equipment, which means a fair bit of $$$ will be spent. I always get a bit edgy when I have to do that - I just hope I buy the correct things! Or at least keeps receipts until I am positive I got the right things.

Well, now I am off to work out the tram system - I think I will be riding the tram at least 4 times today, then two trains, before I get home. The joys of public transport...

box jungle...

My room has a jungle of boxes. I move on Saturday and I started packing yesterday, so my room is half packed with open boxes all over the place. I can just get to my desk, and I have to climb over boxes to get around my room. I have even ended up sticking a box of rubbish outside my door just because it doesn't fit in the room. Currently I have three boxes on the go - one to go with me, one to stay and one of rubbish. The one to go with me is just about full, then I can get it out of the room.

And the list I wrote this morning with things that I need to do or buy is huge. I didn't think until this morning about how I will need saucepans and sharp knives and kitchen utensils. And I need to buy some groceries. Argh, there is so much to do!

I should probably go and do it all...

the moving ritual...

So, two weeks from today is my moving day.

I move in two weeks.

In two weeks, I will be living away from home.

And I have started the process. I have started cleaning out my cupboards. I have got boxes to pack my room away in. I have discovered that I have way too much stuff, and I will have to leave a lot of it with my parents. I have started developing my budget, and realising how expensive it will be to be a Photography student living away from home. I have started looking for a job in Melbourne. I have bought my own cutlery, and plates, etc. I now own two yellow tea towels of my own. I have 'Melbourne bed linen' - for Melbourne.

But I have yet to come up with a way to refer to the place I will be living. I tried calling it 'my apartment' but it is really just one room so 'apartment' seemed too much for it. I tried 'my room' but that wasn't really that different from from referring to my bedroom at home. The most recent one was 'my place', but that doesn't seem to be quite right either. I don't know... Maybe if I just try not to refer to it at all. But that won't work. I suppose I will keep working on a way to talk about it. I'm sure I will come up with something...

But even if I don't come up with a name for it, it is still where I will be living, at least for the next sixth months... On my own, for the first time in my life.

My mum told me how once she moved out of home for uni she never stayed at home again. After uni she got a house with her boyfriend of the time (who was to become my father), got married, got a family home and went from there. Maybe that will happen to me... Actually, my newest idea is that once I finish uni I will come back home for sixth months or so and work and save money, then try and work overseas for a while. I think that would be really exciting! A few of my friends are taking a Gap year and travelling, but I think I would like to do it once I have my skill - after uni. It would be an adventure that my mum has told me she has regreted all her life - she didn't travel and now she wishes she did, and I don't want to pass up that chance, even if I force the chance to come about!

So moving in two weeks, maybe travelling in three years... Adventures abound!!