Dancing Business

Last Sunday I performed in the’Bruce hall talent show’. I entered the competition along with five other fellow ‘brucie’ as a hip-hop dance group called ‘Bru Cru’. It’s the first time I performed in to such music and learning the routine was something completely out of my comfort zone which made it all the more entertaining to do. There were four guys and three girls, my alter ego as ‘G-Pop’ - very gangster! We also made a video where we all recorded dancing and introducing ourselves, my opening statement way: “There aint no stopping the g stop popping G-Pop”. It was played to a good number of the student residents here - it was hilarious!!

The past few weeks have been very much involved learning some dancing. The week before I began this hip-hop project I went to Latin-American club for some salsa. I learnt how to salsa. I started off pretty bad then worked myself into a true performing artist, teaching all my female partners the moves  I was the man. So, now that I’ve learnt the basic moves maybe I can use them in them in the future, an incredibly valuable asset I think!

Last wek I also entered a business plan competition. It seems like it will consume some of my time but these are the things I should be getting involved with. Not only do I gain experience in business, I see new things, hear new ideas and meet inspirational people! Plus there’s a 45k prize (bit of an incentive!)

Sydney!

Last weekend I went to Sydney with eleven other friends. Ten of us shared one room, the room wasn’t that big, but it’s surprising how many students you can squeeze into a small space - especially with the use of bunk-beds! We took the coach down, it only took a few hours. It didn’t take us long to drop our stuff off at Base (the hostel we stayed at) before quickly running away deep into the city. We were staying a twenty-five minute walk from the Opera House - somewhere near Darling Habour.

Lina’ bunk... First arrivals all grabbed the bottom bunks!
Carlos was sleeping in the bunk next to mine, who happens to have a snoring problem. But not one that is slightly irritating, he should come with a warning - seriously.. My reaction at four in the morning was “dude are you f****** joking” as I couldn’t imagine the level of snoring to be real!

Our first stop was the Opera House, which exudes amazing architecture, yet we all thought it was smaller than we had imagined. Still it’s a great feeling standing between the House and Habour Bridge. We swiftly moved onto the Botanic Gardens, which is pretty much next-door to the House. The sun was shining and we were all in a gloriously joyful mood. We sat somewhere in the middle of the gardens and opened a beer we brought over from the night before; one guy gave them to us. Well, after opening mine I saw some stuff floating around, it wasn’t the best sight - so we decided to nourish the gardens with our over fermented drink.

From left: Nikolas, Sheel, Me, Lina, Trisha, Carlos, Azim

We sat and enjoyed the weather, something not presently available to us in Canberra. We then agreed that it was time to enjoy a proper beer somewhere. After walking down George St. which is one of the main streets going through the city centre, we saw a nice placed called the George (I think) and we all got a bottle of Peroni, minus Azim who was actually fasting during this period as it’s Ramadan right now. We felt tremendous compassion for him, we also teased him subtly: “beer Azim... want some of this cupcake?...” etc. childish, but expected I suppose.

 From the left: Azim, Sheel, Nicolas and Carlos

Left: Trisha; Right: Lina

Soon, the second group arrived and the group of twelve were complete. We chilled in our room for some time before heading out. Sheel, a canadian from McGill University had the urge to go to Hard Rock Cafe, something I don’t quite understand (especially when in Sydney); however, I, we were open to all. Plus, it was in Darling Harbour and it gave us the opportunity to check out the much talked-about area. It was immensely romantic, yet almost tacky due to the blatant aura of tourism lurking around. The Cafe idea failed as it was so busy, so instead we went into a nearby food court where I had a nice curry. We also merged groups with another lot from BnG (another hall in ANU), mainly because of the cross-cultural romance between one of our columbian girls - Paola - and a dutch guy - Frayek - (something like that anyway). From there we ended up in a German pub in The Rocks area. Now, it took a while to get there, as anyone who has travelled in a large group knows that there is no time for complete democracy in deciding where to go; someone needs to make a decision and then stick to it!! Just a bit of advice for anyone planning to do this anytime soon: be, or at least find a dictator of the group - it helps! We finished up in some club, dancing and laughing was on the cards...

The bar next door to the hostel (very convenient!)
From left: Juan, Trish, Andie (from US), Lina, Sheel, Azim, Jesus

Waking up after a few hours sleep wasn’t the best experienced, but we were all full of energy, because, “guys we’re in Sydney” - this was one of the quotes of the trip. We went on another tour of the city, doing all the tourist stuff. Five of us, Jeff (whom you should all know by now), Trisha, the crazy but funny Singaporean chick, Sheel and Jesus, pronounced as an “h” he’s a Spaniard from Madrid, also crazy! The  star of the concert was Randy Newman, the composer of Pixar soundtracks. Unexpected performance, he talked a lot and made many jokes that I didn’t quite get, perhaps I should have had some of the wine at the bar before hand - may have helped? It was different, a coalition of stand-up and classical-music concert in one performance. The interior of the hall was mind-blowing, we all entered in completely awe-striken!!

Inside the Opera House - exclusive!

Class begins

Another week has gone by and lectures have begun. This week I attended the much anticipated lectures in philosophy and politics; they all seem fun and interesting, in their own way. Monday, I had my first ever film screening of my entire philosophy degree. Each week we view a film, this week it happened to be 'The Matrix’. We then have a lecture and a tutorial each week, where we critically analyse the film from a philosophical slant.

I have also enrolled on my first ever politics course, called ‘Money, Power and War’. Interesting title, very attractive! However, when I share with you a small detail concerning opinions of the lecturer one’s expectations may swiftly change. Rick Kuhn, my lecturer for this module, is a self-stated "revolutionary socialist/marxist”, causing him to be tremendously bias in all aspects of our investigations of these fundamental political elements. It’s interesting, having such an opinionated lecturer, for he admits his biases and even (implicitly) condones playing to his subjectivity in the course. I’m currently reading 'Zombie Capitalism’ (it’s exactly what one might expect from the title) for my first ever book review - looking forward to writing it!

What is also very interesting, is the difference between course syllabi in Nottingham and the ANU. At Notts everything felt very much analytical and toward the logical side of study; however, at ANU things seem more arty and there is a lot more literature to focus on, especially French post-modern writers, such as Sartre and Derrida just to name a couple.

Today I woke up early along with Jeffrey or just “Jeff" as we all call him, he’s a committed future olympic athlete in the field of archery; Lina, who is one of the four columbians at ANU (that we know of anyway); and Trisha, a Singaporean whom we all like to have around to keep us laughing. We woke to go on a one-hour trip to Tuggeranong to see some kangaroos/wallabies and shoot some arrows at the archery range Jeff always goes to. We all loved it and are considering making it a weekly or at least fortnightly activity. We ran back to make the AFL game against Burgman (another college/hall); we started well and finished pretty good too, but somewhere in the middle we lost our drive and Burgman made up a significant lead. It was a quick week, next weekend a group of ten of us will be going to Sydney - it should be fantastic!

Week One: Battle Wounds

It’s Sunday evening and my body’s aching after an interesting game of aussie rules or just “footy” as the locals like to refer to it. Some people explained it to me as something quite similar to rugby, but there isn’t much that I can say that is all that familiar in my mind. After being tackled several times, quite strongly I might add, I quickly acquired some battle wounds on my arm and knees. It’s a great team sport and the hype is immense, drinking bottles of Jack Daniels and beer during each quarter-break really seems to motivate the “ex ressies” (ex residents) against the “ressies” (current residents). I was on the ex ressies’ side and playing right back I soon became without anything to do as our team ruined the opponents. What an experience!

This was probably the highlight of my week, but I cannot say that I didn’t enjoy many other things throughout. On Thursday night, we all gathered in one of the SRs' (senior residents') larger rooms in the Packard Wing (mainly older students). Playing drinking games and just generally getting to know one another was the objective of the night. However, after a few hours of banter and games, it quickly led to over-excitement and loud noise, soon I found myself in one of the popular bars in town, Mooseheads. We tested the structure of our alcohol capacity with a few shots, before moving onto the main club for the night, Mesch. Here I saw many people I’ve been bumping into throughout the many introductory sessions planned this week. We partied hard and I think I may have been baptised with the name ‘good drunk’ since that night. We ended the night in a gay bar called “Cube”, it was an interesting experience, though I cannot say I remember all that much.

After spending most of the next day recovering from the activities of the night before, Friday was a pretty lazy day. Then, it was Saturday, again, I woke up late and started the day off with lunch. Food service times are between 7:30-9am, 12:30-2pm, 5:30-7pm everyday. The dinning-hall is a very social place, great for meeting new people and just talking about stuff with those you already know. On Saturday afternoon I found out that random adventures could also be arranged within this social food-hub. One of the locals happened to have a car and before we knew it, we were on our way to the National Gallery.

In the evening we had a “scribble party”, which consists of all the Bruce people writing stuff on each other. Earlier that day I bought a t-shirt from a female clothing shop for two dollars; it was the cheapest white shirt by eight dollars! A great way to end my first week, wearing a size 16 female shirt I was attracting all the attention.

Next week is the beginning of lectures and a carry-on of an intense party-week; looking forward to it!

The prelude

After experiencing the intense equatorial heat and humidity of Singapore for three days, I arrived in a dull and miserable Canberra, the capital territory of Australia. It may have the status of a big city, implying fast-pace exhilaration and extravagance, but it’s far from it. Seeing Sydney the day before expressed true class and modernity, not its capital counterpart.

Yes, I was anxious on my first encounter with the city and it made me anticipate my accommodation even more. As I traveled through the campus of ANU, the magnitude of the area quickly became apparent. The buildings were post-war made and gave off an air of a 'global establishment'; almost intimidating.

As I entered Bruce Hall, I was struck by wave-upon-wave of warmth; lacking in the weather, due to the winter season, it was balanced out by the closeness and friendliness of everyone in the hall. As I continued speaking to more of my hall-mates, the anxiety of what might or might not be, eased off my mind. What I felt was a unique contact with people, something totally opposite to what I would find in England and especially London. I defer my naiveté of facades and the many masks of men for a time when I am more familiar with friends. For now I say, “for God sake Europe, make an effort!"

However, facing problems with internet, I was agitated and became conscious of being out of my comfort zone, as I could not communicate with anyone. Something we all feel from time to time, but a feeling that we seldom confess. Our dependence on the www is truly analogous to a drug; unless we take or replace it with a suitable substitute, we are doomed to chaos. Fortunately, after hanging out more with my new friends and finding a solution to my problems, I could enjoy again the new places and people. The only thing left is getting used to being right next to the entrance to my block; shouldn’t take long!