Lifes questions.

I don't know about any of you out there, but I have never written a blog before. The occasional facebook/ twitter status update, but never a passage of length that has some importance or significance.

I know that I haven't properly introduced myself. So I will fill in some details.

I was born in England and came to Australia when I was 4 years old. My mother's side is from Hong Kong and father's side from England.
My parents followed my mothers grandparents and one of my mother's sister to Melbourne. I do still have some memories from then, which include being separated from a best friend and other friends, family and close neighbourhood friends.

To this day I have many 'what if' questions.... like what would my life be like if I was still over there, or the biggest question, what am I? Am I Australian, British Australian, or perhaps mixed? Even this question, does where I come from truly matter to my happiness and to who I am?

Many overseas students may be asking themselves similar questions as visa holders or as permanent residents, and the only answer that I could give is that you don't need to have these questions answered in your 20's, but to know that you do your best every day helps to learn who you are as a person.

Cold mornings are hard.

Getting out of bed gets harder and harder during the winter months, and going to morning classes on time is sometimes even harder. With winter comes colds, the flu and coughs, so make sure that you look after your health by exercising, eating good foods, and not being too stressed. Wear layers to class, that way you can simply take them off when it gets too warm.

Many students decide to take on part time or casual work to gain spending money, rent money or to save for next tuition payment. Sometimes it is smooth sailing and sometimes it is the hardest thing in the world, but any way that you look at it, being a student juggling as many as four different courses, paying rent for a place to live, buying food, completing assignments, preparing for exams, working and socialising can be hard.

Finding a balance between all these can be hard and frustrating. When I get frustrated I loose concentration and fall behind in my coursework as well as skipping classes, which means I usually leave my assignments and exam prep to the very last minute.

Just remember Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the last minute....

Enrolment is a very hectic process for everyone. Not only is it the most expensive thing students will spend their money on, but also deciding what courses to take and whether or not to go into the same classes as your friends.I have learnt that being in the same class as friends that I met at uni has both positive and negative effects.Usually just before enrolment, program advice is offered. This would have been very helpful when I was starting my programs.I first started in 2002 in Bachelor of Information Technology then changed when I couldn't wrap my head around C++ programming, so I changed to Bachelor of Internet Communications and after a semester or two the program was stopped and I was offered into the Bachelor of Electronic Commerce program. Somewhere between the three I had chosen the wrong subjects in the wrong order and only over the past couple of years have had to delay graduating and wait for subjects to be available.Even though I am nervous and excited, I just want to finish and graduate.

Hi everyone and welcome to Semester 2, 2010

My name is Amanda and at the end/ start of every semester I hold my breath for the longest time when the release of grades comes out. This morning (July 2nd) was no exception. For almost 3 minutes, (probably longer as I still have dial up Internet in my house) I was in panic mode as i braced for a fail grade from last semesters course, but at 10am I was relieved as I found out I gained a credit.

As I write this, many of you will be enrolling, adding and dropping classes, and so will I. After completing the majority of my Bachelor of Electronic Commerce degree, I am 2 courses shy of graduating.

Stay tuned as over the next 12 weeks I will be blogging on myself, the university and events in Melbourne. I welcome and comments and discussions and even random drop ins to say hi.

Best wishes for week 1.
Amanda