She'll Be Right: The Greatest Hits of the Last Seven Weeks Part 1

Yowsa! It's been awhile, eh? Thanks for staying tuned though. I'm going to try and get everyone up to speed here, in several installments. My only excuse (and I think it is a good one) is that school completely consumed me for the last eight weeks. Now that I am on summer break, I'll fill you in a little bit.

Mid October 2011 - Late October 2011

Big stressor number 1: My first major paper was due October 31st, so much of my time was spent working on that. I found that I am quite rusty with all of this paper writing. In addition, the style of writing here is slightly different than that of American academia. However, I kept telling myself that it's all a matter of practice. I am also fortunate enough to live with an amazing writer, which as a result, makes him an awesome critical proofreader.

Big stressor number 2: Stress about school and money started to kick in as well. Actually, the stress became intertwined with money in the form of tuition panic. In the corner of my mind, I kept thinking, is it justifiable to spend so much money on an education? Obviously, I think pursuit of higher education is often necessary and commendable, but your mind does a shift when you look at the total cost of tuition for a doctoral program. I made out pretty well in regard to the loan debt of my education for my bachelor's degrees and master's degree; but I can most definitely attest that the cost of attendance has gone up (while the American dollar has gone down) dramatically in ten years and I am feeling it now. However, I vowed to put these thoughts away, at least until the end of next semester.

Good neighborhood find of this time period:
The Raccoon Club- A local bar with clientele typically aged between 25-65. We are mature drinkers who like comfortable seats, good conversation and sensational beer... and gall-darn it, turn down that music!

Care packages of this time period:
Care package from my mom and dad arrives. It contains clothes, Pop-Tarts, People magazine and Tampax Lites!
Care package from lovely Colin of Scotland arrives, hand-delivered from lovely new friends, Liam and Johnny. Package contains: McVities Digestives, Walkers Salt and Vinegar Crisps, assorted Tunnocks and various other Scottish souvenirs. You bet St. Andrew's Cross is flying here at our house!

Big news event of this time period:
Queen Elizabeth visits Melbourne. I didn't get the chance to go down to Fed Square to see her since I had class, but her presence was known by the drone of helicopters everywhere. I did, however, see her tram (the Royal tram, done up with her picture and everything) roll down Swanston Street in Parkville, post-Royal ride to St Kilda.

Check out some photos from these two weeks-

These weird demon babies were around town for a month or so. I think one of the best things about living in a city (any city) is modern art that pops up around town, even if its only temporarily on display. These pictures are from Southbank, near the Arts Centre.