A Celestial Insight: November 2010

I surprised myself that I didn't straight away jumped to write up a new blog post the moment final exams finished (like I thought I would) but it actually took me a few days to properly think of how to sum up an awesome semester! :)

And so, I have finally completed finals week of first year, second semester (last paper on Saturday, 13th November) which also marks the end of the line of being a first year student! Truly an awesome moment on the day of the last exam when you know that the end of that paper (Organic Chemistry in my case) marks that you'll officially be a second year student and hence as sister so aptly put it, no longer a newbie. An amazing feeling that I got through the whole year and I'm still in one piece! Looking back now, I could say how I can't believe that time really does flies when I remember so clearly the first day I entered university way back in February.

An interesting year definitely, first semester being nothing short of a whirlwind but thankfully second semester was much more manageable. Perhaps the saying "experience is the teacher of all things" (Julius Caesar) really does hold true! Knowing better what to expect from a day in a life of a university student, I was more prepared going into second semester and hence a better semester all around. Getting more involved in "uni life" (clubs, university events, etc) helps as well since only through them do you truly get the opportunity to meet with other students (the older ones especially) that are doing the same course as you are (handy when you've got a million things to ask :) OR even students who are not in the same course OR staff members OR just some random person (like during the UWA Open Day, got to meet with heaps of prospective students and members of the public).

Top 10 highlights throughout semester 2:
(...is now contemplating if I should put them in order of "rank" or in order of dates. Hmm...rank it is! :)

1. Engineers Without Borders 2010 Challenge for the unit GENG1003: Introduction to Professional Engineering
[the whole semester]

I remember meeting someone in a lecture early last semester (a second year student who failed his first year math and had to repeat the unit) that told me about GENG1003 and implied that I should be dreading it (as everyone apparently does) because by the end of it you have to come up with a 20,000 words report. Being an absolute "newbie" then, that really threw me off (honestly scared me a bit), not knowing how 'dreadful' it might turn out to be plus it's a group work; which threw me off even more! Can't say there's been a point in my life that I've had a great experience working in a group. There's ALWAYS going to be just this one person that slacks off.

Because of that (more than anything else), going into second semester though maybe not a kill-me-now-dread, I was rather weary of what I should expect from the unit. By the end of the semester however, this turn out to be my number 1 highlight!

Sure, a 20000 words report on "providing a reliable and sustainable source of clean drinking water for the Kooma Nation in Bendee Downs" (a nation I've never even heard of till early this semester) sounds like a lot of words (it is really) but having an AWESOME group certainly did help (though by law of the universe, of course there was one that did slack but everyone else being SO great still made it a terrific unit!).
There were 6 of us in a group and more than anyone, Joshua Knight and Leopold Silberstein, to me, made all the difference. It certainly wouldn't have been the same without them. Truly an AMAZING feeling when we finally handed in our finished report. The sense of accomplishment!!! Best thing about the unit, I must say, is that it doesn't have a final exam!! A definite perk!


Group members from L-R: Leo, Josh, Deshnee, me, Adam, and Kevin

2. Adrian Dudek's Mathematics Honours Seminar
[27 October 2010 (Wed)]

Met Adrian (a mathematics honours student, 21 years old) late last semester when he started tutoring a group of us for MATH1020. He’s actually a 'study group leader' under UniSkills (yet another great feature in UWA) and though group leaders guidelines told them that they weren't meant to "tutor" us and instead let the study group be...well a study group where students meet and discuss the unit and the leaders’ role was only to “supervise” us, he did end up tutoring and did an amazing job at it! During 2nd semester, got the same (thankfully) study group leader for another first year math unit, MATH1010 and I definitely would not have been able to do the unit half as well if it wasn't for him.

Anyway, he sent me an invite (thank you!:) to attend his final honours presentation on the thesis he's been working on the whole year and watching him that day was...REMARKABLE! I can't really put it into words and I can't think of a fair enough equivalent to do it justice (perhaps watching Beethoven conducting a symphony would give you an inkling of what it felt like for me to watch him present that day). It truly was, if not THE BEST presentation I've seen in my life (and I'm not exaggerating), it certainly was one of the best presentations EVER! Amazing, amazing speaking skills and his passion for mathematics just oozes out and hooks you in! Perhaps what made it so remarkable to me (more than anything else) is that one wouldn't expect mathematics to be that interesting (and perhaps talking to the wrong person might even bore you to tears) but during Adrian's talk, even to a 'layman' (like me) what he presented (families of expander graphs) made sense and was very understandable. On top of that, he presented with such an amazing aura! I really can't properly describe it to do the experience justice but it inspired me to get hyped about my final project design presentation for GENG1003 that I was going to have 2 days later.

Ah, congratulations on getting the award for ‘Best Honours Speaker’ (by the UWA’s Mathematics Department) a few days later! Why am I not surprised? :D

3. CPEC and SPE of UWA quiz night
[6 October 2010 (Wed)]

This was a fun night! Being on the committee added to the excitement of organizing the event and finally seeing everything come together in the end. Coincidentally, that night also marked my 2nd time this year though my first "proper outing'" to UWA's tavern (Lol. I know how much students love it there! The first time I went was just to have a look of what the infamous tavern actually looks like).

The night was a joint collaboration between the Chemical & Process Engineering Club and the Society of Petroleum Engineers of UWA. There were 8, 10 questions rounds (movies, music, celebrities, sports, chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, geography, trivia), pizzas, soft drinks and beer (an 18+ event) served, final turnout of 13 tables with 8 people per table (not including organizers), a table for AMEC reps and UWA lecturers each (big surprise lecturer's table came out 1st? I think not! They did gracefully give their prize to the 2nd place winners though! ).

All in all, a successful night! Though at that time I posted up on facebook as it being my "most memorable day of first year", by the end of the semester, this ranked number 3. Still top 3 though!

L-R: Prash, me, Hatim, Tom, Raawi, Andrew and Jonathan

Things I learned from quiz night:

1. Capital of Bulgaria is Sofia

2. Timbuktu is in Mali

3. Octopus has 3 hearts

4. Daniel Radcliffe's (famous for his lead role in Harry Potter) middle name is Jacob

5. The third president from the left on Mount Rushmore is Theodore Roosevelt

...among other things:)

4. Australian University Games, Sports Assistant (Touch)
[27 September – 1 October 2010 (the study break week)]

I remember getting an email earlier that month asking for volunteers and it immediately sparked my interest. Applied for it and got a reply letter on 20 September (super excited then!) saying I’ve been successfully selected to be a ‘sport assistant volunteer’ for touch sports at Langley Park (honestly didn’t even know what ‘touch sports’ meant then…turns out it was touch football. Not having played too much outdoor sports, didn’t even quite know what touch football was even after I found out!).

Though volunteering for AUG meant I’d missed out on doing what I was supposed to be doing during the study week (STUDY!) since the events goes on from 9 am till 5 pm though volunteers have to be there by 8 to prep up the competition area (when I came home I’m usually too knackered to get any studying done), I’m glad that I did it. It was an interesting experience definitely!

UniGames day 1

Things I learned today:

1. There's a University of Sunshine Coast in Queensland (it sounds like such a cheery place! Hard to imagine being mopey in a place called ‘Sunshine Coast’)

2. 'Player Under Protest' DOES NOT mean someone is throwing a tantrum somewhere as I originally imagined (I actually turned and looked around if that were students holding up picket signs protesting against something). It just means they don't have their accreditation on them at the time of registration.

3. How to play touch football (having done nothing much besides watching the game for the past 9 hours, surely I must've picked something up!)

UniGames day 5
Highlight of the week (definitely! :D). During half time of the last game for gold men's division (UNSW vs Monah University), a guy ran across the field...wait for it...completely naked! Yep. In full view of e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. My first experience seeing a streaker at a live sporting event!

Touch football champion for women's AND men's division: UNSW (I think from here we can safely conclude that UNSW is good in touch)

The finals of men's division: UNSW vs Monah Univeristy

5. EWB UWA Chapter 2011 Committe Dinner
[15 October 2010 (Fri)]

EWB UWA Chapter 2011 Committee

Another fun night out! It was especially great getting to meet with other EWB members and spend the night chilling, talking about our engineering units:D We had the dinner at Annalakshmi which is an Indian restaurant that’s charity based so you pay as much as you like for a meal. Seeing that they serve it buffet style and the food is good (!!!), I’d definitely put in a good word out for that place.

After dinner, went for bubbletea with Daniel, Ben, and Jason. It was great getting to walk around the city at night, sipping our bbt, and people watch. Plus it was a break from studying which is always such a joy!

6. UWA Open Day
[15 August 2010 (Sun)]

Volunteered for both EWB booth and as a UWAYE (UWA Young Engineers) tour guide (gave tours around the engineering buildings that had all these amazing activities on based on their respective fields; Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, etc).

At EWB's booth with Sheena, Daniel, and Hatim

I think the one thing that struck me as this day being totally awesome was that for the first time in my life I was actually on “the other side”. Before this, it was always me that was attending all sorts of open days, deciding on which university I was going to but today I finally got to be the one that was doing the explaining (as opposed to being the one getting the explanations) to the prospective students and their parents all about UWA and giving some insights on life as an engineering student. Whoa!

UWA's Civil and Mechanical Engineering building

7. UniSkills End of Year Lunch
[26 October 2010 (Tue)]

Loved today simply because it was the first time I got to have a proper chat with Adrian outside of our study group and it's so fascinating talking to him. I’ve never met anyone that I found so interesting to talk to! That made this the most memorable UniSkills event I went to this whole year-hands down!!! :)

8. Spring feast at UWA in conjunction with Multicultural Week
[7 October 2010 (Thu)]

I liked it because it’s not every day that you get things going on in uni that resembles a joyous, festival like atmosphere (started at 6 pm and ended at 10 pm). There were loads of foods in a diverse range-Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Middle Eastern (among others). Everything looked so tempting that I ended up stuffing myself with food (oh! So full!!!) Also experienced my first human traffic in UWA! (literally couldn’t turn without accidentally hitting someone-it was that packed!).

9. Carlos’ house
[6 August 2010 (Fri)]

Today was actually the first time (don’t be shocked) that I got to try out playing Wii. I got super excited to play around with the controls (don’t laugh). He had Super Mario in his Wii at that time so that'll go down in my life's history as the first ever Wii game that I played (though only if you count *Game Over* after a minute as a "proper" play-you'll see why). Unless Mario on a daily basis feels suicidal, I don’t think the character appreciated it too much that I made him walk off the edge every single time (hey, in my defense the controls really does take some getting used to!). Carlos then decided Super Mario was “too advanced” for me that he degraded my game to the "basic starter pack". Hahaha!!! It was still very fun to play with. Played things like ice hockey and shooting down freebies. What I remember most about that night perhaps is haven't had laughed as hard as that night (I couldn't stopped!) in months...and all because of Wii :D

10. Being VERY sick the week before final exams
[29 October – 7 November 2010]

Though this is definitely not exactly what I would call a “highlight” but it's something that I'll always remember-being sick on the week before first year finals. I was only very sick for the first 3 days (I thought I was going to die! Jeez…Dramatic much?!) and though it got better after that, I still had (and is still having it now) my cough right throughout exams *cough cough*.

I don’t know how it actually happened. The morning on the last day of uni before study week (Firday, 29 October) I was feeling perfectly fine (did my GENG1003 final project design presentation that evening with perfect poise and grace even! :D). Then, uni ended (everyone cheered), went back home, and *BAM!* High fever, sore throat, whole body sore, terrible headache and all I could think was, “Oh no! I WANT TO STUDY!!!” Gah! Sucks getting sick so close to exams. 3 whole days “wasted” by being "bed-ridden" but I came through alright in the end. Lucky me:)

I should take this opportunity to thank:

1. my sister - for taking such good care of me throughout the whole time I was sick, giving me all my medications (a definite perk of having a pharmacist in the house-saves a trip to the doctors!), making me soup, and above all else, being so patient with me when you had your exams to prepare for as well

2. mum and dad - for showing genuine concern (calling, texting, asking how I was everyday) even though you’re 2000 miles away

3. Adrian - also for showing genuine concern and offering to push back our last study group till I got better and subsequently after that giving me a lift home after the study group so that I wouldn't have to trudge in a 45 minutes bus ride back home:)

4. everyone on fb that left me get well wishes! It was truly something to finally get out of bed, fire up fb, and see a million (well, not a million:D) notifications:)

A whole semester summed up in one blog post.

An awesome semester indeed! And after today I have 103 days of summer to look forward to and I must say, so far (between Saturday and today) it’s been an absolute blast!

This summer is going to be legen-wait for it-dary! LEGENDARY!