Sunday was the unofficial welcome party at the campus bar. To be completely honest, it started off quite lame probably because it began at 3pm but by around 6pm it started getting really enjoyable and quite fun. I realised that I was absolutely shit at pool but after a few warm up games I finally won one!! I went with someone I knew from high school and we made friends from all different faculties. 

Monday was the official start of O-Week. At 9am I had an Education lecture which went until 12.30pm. It was basically welcome to the faculty, here's how you study to become the best teacher you can be, listen to a few key note speakers, make friends. I was fine with all of it, up to the making friends part. We all know, I'm is socially awkward and incredibly introverted/shy around people I've never met before. This has never been more prevalent. I made friends, good friends, but I felt like I was coming across as the extremely shy, possibly socially awkward person. That's fine right?? Right. So after this we had a mini campus and library tour and then headed over to the main university campus. This is where ultimate nerd Emma emerged. I signed up for the Education society (there's a Back to School party in a few weeks where you wear you're school uniform and there's a $1000 bar tab... HOLLAAAA), Debating society (self-explanatory), Whovian society (if you don't understand, don't ask). I felt totally in my element. I was ready for whatever university life had to throw at me and considering the next week I was starting classes I was making the most of this social occasion. 

Tuesday. Fuck Tuesday. I walked into a Secondary Education lecture and felt completely thrown into the deep end. It was extremely intimidating. They were already talking to us about prac's and when we have our own classes and "day in the life of a teacher", just extremely overwhelming things. We then split into our major groups so the bunch of English major's went into a room where honestly, we just talked about books, reading, books, films, books. I was back in my element. We talked about the things we will study in first semester, writing 3 blogs posts for a TV & Film Text Analysis. There were a few of us who had studied English Extension in Year 12 so we discussed what books and theories we used throughout the course. We then went into our minors (Geography). Again, terrifying. Although I'm doing Geography as my minor I'm not as into it or knowledgable about the subject as I am with English so some of this information was quite daunting :-( Tuesday night a group of people I'd met the previous day at university and I went out to see a movie which was a really nice way to destress a little bit. But knowing that I had no more O-Week events was quite nice :-) Fun fact for you: Tuesday was the first day I ever caught public transport in my life. I haven't been purposely avoiding it during my life I just (luckily) have never had to rely on/use it before. It was actually a very good experience and I surprisingly didn't get lost on any of the buses. 

Wednesday has by far been my favourite day so far. It was a me day. Although I didn't spend the day completely by myself I did spend it with very close friends and didn't have to spend the day trying to maintain conversation with new people, which is something I find quite intimidating and a little scary. I woke up late and had the most blissful bath. I used the Sex Bomb bath bomb which turns the bath water pink and starting reading one of my new books. I then headed off to the cinema and watched a movie after lunch. The day concluded with the evening session of the theatre production Wicked. Oh my, it was absolutely incredible!! I have seen Wicked a few times in various places around the world but there was something about this particular performance that was completely captivating. Wednesday's Fun Fact: the city I live in is on the river and today I caught my first ferry around the city :-) 

My pink bath with my latest find at the book store - All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

WICKED!

WICKED!

I have the next few days off to relax and get back into the studying mindset for the beginning of official classes on Monday. Bring on an 8am lecture on the very first day! 

- Emma xo

Okay, so I've had these questions sitting here in my blog drafts for a few months and I have been putting off answering them until a time like this. A time where I want to blog, but I don't feel like I have good enough content to write about. So I guess, I'm taking the easy way out. I am, however, going to try and answer these questions with as much detail as possible instead of the quick responses that this tag is supposed to have. Be prepared that because of answering these in as much detail as possible it is kind of a long one, go make yourself a cup of tea and come back. 

Ah well, enjoy?? If you do it as well, send me the link :-)

XX

- Emma xo 

Or as I like to call it, Being a Hermit. There are few people that honestly enjoying spending time by alone. I am one of these people. As much as I love being around friends and family, I like to allow myself at least one day a month to just chill out, relax and be by myself. These days are so vital in keeping me sane; they remind me to focus on the smaller things in life, the things that make me happy, the things that I should cherish. As I said, these days are not important to some but to me it is the main reason I've kept my sanity. The time to myself (usually a weekend or even just one day) is spent lounging around in my pyjamas watching movies and episodes of Sherlock or reading a book and keeping my internet switched off. Time to myself means less stress which means limited panic attacks. Panic attacks suck. They do, however, remind me to slow down, chill out and relax. 

I want to share with you the few places I've been to where I have felt completely relaxed and humble. These places are ones that I could visit time and time again and never feel stressed despite the amount of people that may be around. I find it vital to have a place where you can just go to and relax. Normally, when I travel to a new country on the day I arrive I like to search around and find quite and relaxing spaces where I know I can come back to if I feel overwhelmed. 

The first is Fortesque Bay in Tasmania. I spent Christmas Day 2014 there and it was just marvellous. The atmosphere is so relaxing and comforting and I constantly felt at peace. It was incredible. 

 

The second, another in Tasmania, is the Royal Hobart Botanical Gardens. I've spent quite a few hours sitting under this one particular tree reading a book, listening to nature around me and watching the boats in the water. It's incredibly serene. In fact, I find most botanical gardens quite relaxing, very beautiful and a great place to go to chill out. 

And finally, Seattle. Anywhere in Seattle is beautiful. It reminds me more of Australia than America and I think that's what I really love about it. It's less commercialised. My favourite place in Seattle would have to be the Glass Museum next to EMP Music Museum. Essentially, it's nature made out of beautiful, coloured glass and is incredibly stunning. 

Blogging Update: For right now, I'm not really ready to come back to blogging everyday, however I will try my best to upload when possible. I guess I've just been spending this whole week either being a hermit or with close friends and I've really enjoyed it. 

Since nothing blog worthy has really happened over the past few days I thought instead, I would share a few of my favourite inspirational quotes from Pinterest (hence, PinSpiration) of late. 

Hope you enjoyed this very relaxed, underwhelming post :-)

- Emma xo