Graduation

Friday 17/4/09

After a long morning at Eddison's, I went to the hole known as Carlingford station to catch a train to Redfern for my cousin's graduation at USYD. It's always annoying having to change trains at Clyde but I guess I should be thankful that the trains even run on time.

My aunt insisted I dress nicely but when I was looking through my closet of hand-me-downs I soon realised nothing fit! I asked my brother if I could borrow a shirt but ALAS all his shirts were too big. Remember back in primary when we had to wear "paint shirts" for art and craft? I looked like that in his shirts. I ended up wearing my old work shirt, black pants + tie.

Arrived at Redfern --> short walk to USYD --> walk across campus to Great Hall. Bells were ringing, security was patrolling and there was a sea of black robes and caps with a river of colours from their assorted coloured stripes. (You get to wear a different colour stripe across your robe according to your degree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dress#Inter-Collegiate_colors)

Oh I should probably tell you a bit about my cousin. He's a bit annoying but a good guy... generally. He calls me LAMFACE and hates me for drooling over his cake at his birthday party when I was a baby. (Apparently as they were singing Happy Birthday to him, I leant over and drooled over his cake and made him quite unhappy. I can only imagine his horror - heh, it's on film somewhere).

He went to Trinity Grammar and is graduating from Bachelor of Science (Advanced) and is currently doing Medicine at Notre Dame at Broadway. Quite a smart cookie - congratulations to him for getting into Med straight after his first degree.


Back to the hall now if anyone's been to the Great Hall they'll know how small it is for a hall. It's width is comparable to the half the school hall and there's always a seating shortage. Argh! So I ended up standing for 2hrs and it was basically "[name]...clap clap clap...[name]...clap clap x50"

It was exactly like last time I was here (for my dad's Master) but I don't know why but being there made me feel good, even though I wasn't the one graduating. I think it was just the fact everyone in the hall was happy and shared a common bond for that 2hrs.

I was minding my own business, standing there and suddenly this bitch from behind goes

"You're not seriously gonna stand there are you?"
And of course I gave her a dirty and ignored her and continud to stand there. Screw her. What I really wanted to say was
"You know what I think I might, after that snide remark. Why don't you try suck up all that fatass and maybe you'll grow a few inches"

OK OK, that was just my imagination but yeh :P What was really striking about the procedure was this

"The graduates receiving B Science (Advanced) with first class honours second division...
The graduates receiving B Science (Advanced) with second class honours...

and then the guy went

"The graduates receiving B Science (Advanced) with *long pause* a pass"

Then some prof from the science faculty came and gave a speech about asexual reproduction in Komodo Dragons and Hammerhead Sharks and somehow that ended up relating about graduates being the future of the world. It was strange.

The academic party left and everyone partied - HARHAR.

Took some photos of my relatives before my cousin went off to take luvos with his graduate friends. Random fact did you know it costs $130 to buy the cap! The robe must be much more expensive because he only hired that. My aunt was bitching about where the heck my uncle was but gave up and we ended up getting refreshments.

A-HA! There he was stuffing his face already with 2 sandwiches in one hand and a drink in another. I cracked up, he was probably waiting the whole two hours for this moment. He ended up doing quite a few rounds around the table stuffing his face or as he was saying "I'm just taste testing so I can tell you what's good"

They ended up taking me out to dinner and I thoguht "Woow! Prett sweet deal, two hours of boringness = free meal" Not bad not bad!

And that was that.

Sunday 22/4/09
CHINESE SUPERSTITION!

Above our door we have this sign that says "Chut yup ping orn" which means "enter and exit in peace" It's a sign of good fortune and some shit like that...that's what I thought.

Halfway through dinner we heard this noise and it turned out the sign had fallen! Mum and I were like "OMG OMG! BAD LUCK WE'RE NOT GOING TO ENTER AND EXIT IN PEACE!! NOOOOO" I forgot about it cause I don't usually believe in these things and I forgot all about it until...

After dinner. I went to go upstairs and on the way you pass by the front door. I forgot all about the fallen sign, still on the ground, and slid on it and I came crashing down to the floor with a loud thud and groan.

Fucking superstitions.

Monday 20/4/09
I had to catch a bus today to tutoring cause I had a last minute time change. Now my bus stop is right after a traffic intersection. (Imagine a L and my bus stop is just to the right of the corner)

Red light at the intersection and yay I see my bus! But what's this?! It's on the outer lane and there's another bus next to it on the inner lane?!

Red-->Green-->both buses turn --> I try to flag down my bus on the outer lane and end up flagging down the inner bus --> #@$!$#@#@%R%#@! --> the bus I want overtakes the fake bus --> sigh


The end