Greetings from the Well. The Well as in the Sydney University Village bar. In Australia they don't have 24 hour study lounges (the LBC) or coffee places (PJs) which are my favorite places ever to study. Heck, the library doesn't even stay open past 10pm! So where's a girl to go when she needs to pull an all nighter!? My answer to this question is the Well. I have 24 hr access to it and hopefully everyone will be gone by 11 or so. It is Tuesday and perhaps you've already gathered that I won't be going to Scruffy's tonight. Sadness abounds.
Monday was crap, it was rainy and I concentrated on metaphysics really hard all afternoon in the Law library after running errands that morning in a drizzle. I did get to talk to my beloved family on skype though, which was awesome! I went to the gym after class as I always do and ran a bit to get some cardio in before ab & bum class. My joints hurt really bad after running for 20 (probs due to the Blue Mtns hiking) and Amber couldn't make class so my bummedness multiplied and I did abs then left without even going to class. I went home and cooked pasta and went to bed. I think it dawned on me why I can't get rid of my gut even though I watch my caloric intake and workout all the time: I eat WAY too many carbs and I do too much resistance training and not enough cardio. I will be focusing on cardio and trying not to eat carbs at every single meal. I have three weeks until spring break.
(I will now switch to stream of consciousness writing style mid-post; sorry if this offends but I'm talking about today now) Today I wake up and realize I'm being really pathetic and need to perk up despite the fact that school owns my life and is trying to wreck my happiness. I pop open my planner to write something down and then I see it written in the Monday box: professional development workshop- 6:30pm JFR bldg. AHHG CRAPS! I FORGOT to go to my mandatory professional development workshop last night! I have a tut in an hour that I haven't read for and my school work pile is hitting the ceiling. I am tempted to hit the panic button but don't. I read some Jesus over breakfast to calm down and them skim my history papers to equip myself with the general idea and head to class. This is a freshman course and I'm American so they always ask me what I think anyway- zing! easy participation points. It goes off without a hitch so I'm pleased and head to the Law library slightly overwhelmed by all I have to do, but manage to not hit the panic button somehow. Little by little I will get this done.
I start by apologizing super hard to my internship coordinator about missing the workshop and tell her I would be very happy to do anything she wants to make up for it. Then I quickly concoct a reflective journal that was due the day before and email it in along with my apology. (Luckily I foresaw myself doing this and asked for an extension last week... even though she never answered that email. Oh well.) Next, I move onto some history assignment where I have to post to a discussion board on which we're supposed to be engaging with the American students that we teleconference with every week. Namely we're supposed to like sound smart and then ask each other questions. I'm in the awkward spot again. I don't need to ask Americans questions about America but I'm in school with the Australians... whatever. I just yack about how this guy Parkes sounds like he has a super manifest destiny complex and passionate nationalism that he's trying to bring to Australia. Australians just aren't huge nationalists far as I can see so I wondered what was the place and influence of Parkes and people like him on Aussie history. (This was taking place at the end of the 19th century just prior to Oz drafting its constitution.) Alright, moving on. The social work discussion board is up next; this week's topic: depression. I write about differing response styles between between the genders and this greatly contributing to the fact that depression rates are MUCH higher in the female population. I hypothesize that a balance between men's avoidant response style and women's ruminative tendencies could produce favorable results. Then I respond to someone else's post about over-medicating, self-esteem, rah rah. Obviously, I should get some lunch at this point. I have a veggie delight baked potato at Manning house and sit out on the patio by myself. I talk to my potato a little bit but then feel funny doing that because I'm eating it at the same time. You would never eat your pet rock or an imaginary friend or whatever inanimate object you choose to talk to when you're lonely and locked in a library all day. Oh, then would you look at the time, I have a lecture in half an hour which gives me no time to begin to continue working on my metaphysics presentation. Instead I chat with Peyton on skype and try to find him a plane ticket to Australia. He could totally come over Tulane's fall break, but I can't manage to find anything less than $1800, which is too high. And frustrating. I know I'm not looking in the right places, but I don't know where else to look. I'm so jealous of those people whose friends and/or family come visit them, its so special and all that garbage.
So I go sit through a couple of lectures about WWII's impact on Oz and implications of child sexual abuse. Oddly enough, I've managed to maintain a positive attitude throughout the day despite being locked in the bat cave (library) with only my books and a baked potato to keep me company. Then I bust it over to the gym for some spin class. I LOVE spin class. I push myself really hard and pretend I'm running over piles of articles about metaphysics and Australian history and little statues of Buddha. Oh the joy of breaking a good sweat while techno music is blaring and Caroline is yelling to pick it up to double time. I find myself enjoying the finer things in life such as the feel of the contours of the spin bike handles cradling my palm and the smell of fresh mulch by the footbridge on my walk home.
I get home with a little less than 15min to shower and dress myself before Bible study. I manage to do it and am only 5 min late. Amber and I meet with her friends and we drive over to Matt's house for connect group. There is a delicious fruit salad and tea awaiting me there along with lots of Jesus discussion, prayer, and all things I love. Even though I worked my bum off all day doing school work and haven't even gotten to work on my metaphysics presentation, God is keeping me sane through this whole ordeal. I stop by Hoochie's for a cup of coffee on the way home and strike up a conversation with the people working there. I still suck at ordering coffee and ask them for advice. The girl says something about me being American and says she'll be sad when this bunch (the one's in the village this semester) of Americans leave. Apparently the ones here last semester were total witchy jerks. I ask where they were from; she replies the northeast to which I roll my eyes and say "obviously."
Anyway, now I'm here chilling with my cup of joe, on my blog. I'm sure its obvious to you that I'm avoiding the task at hand. I'm a sucker for procrastination. I did so well all day powering through my work, I can't possibly keep that level of efficiency up forever. I mean I do have all night though. Ok, well I'm going to get started now. I hope that I didn't bore you to tears.
Oh and I just remembered this other thing that happened today. While I was in the library I got an email from my boss at work sent to all the interns saying something along the lines of, "Someone relabeled the COPS database. Who did this and what were you thinking!?" Omg, that was me. So then I write my second extremely apologetic email of the day and explain what happened. She emailed me back shortly and was like, "its ok, we'll work it out when you come in tomorrow." Oh holy night, tomorrow is going to be one exciting day in the office. Yeeps...
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