Sorry people, I haven't been updating my blog often at all. Well, my internet was down from tues-fri. Don't know what was wrong but it suddenly "recovered" on friday night. whee!
By the way, tomorrow's Labour Day holiday! yippie! BUT I'M SICK!!! URRGGGHHHHH!!! What a delightfully, awesome-ly, perfectly SPLENDID way to spend a public holiday! I woke up early this morning, only to find my throat super dry and very sore! I wonder where I caught the bug from. My cell mate, Frances, also developed a sore throat this morning. Hm... I wonder if we both caught the bug from cell...
Anyways, I tell you about college life, my teachers, my friends etc
Let's start with my
PHYSICS class! I absolutely love my physics class! It's so fun! My teacher,
Frank, is really entertaining.
(yes, we're allowed to call our lecturers by their 1st names. It's expected that we do so. So it takes a little of getting used to) He's super random and loves to self-amuse. He really makes physics lots of fun! No, it's not because I'm nerdy or anything, but it's really fun 'cause he never fails to make us laugh. I tend to get high during afternoon physics classes on Thursdays, 'cause I'll be laughing lots and chatting lots too. And I also tend to talk quite fast lolx
My teacher, like my E & A Maths teacher in MGS, Mr. Ling, has many quotable quotes and anecdotes.
During our 1st physics lessons, someone's handphone rang in class. Frank didn't say a thing, but merely walked to the sink with a red pail. He filled it partially with water and said calmly,
"Class, we're going to learn about sound waves for the next few weeks. So how about we conduct an experiment? Let's try this: the next time anyone's mobile phone rings, we're gonna put the phone into this pail and try to test if we are able to hear it ringing whilst it's inside the pail. From this, we can test if sound waves can travel through water!" We were like,
"wHaT?" Then the poor boy just went,
"Sorry sir, I've switched it off already."Then he went on to do some "advanced" math. He said that 99% of us who take physics take it only 'cause it's a prerequisite for a university course. Very seldom do students take physics just 'cause they really like physics. But physics is good, 'cause we can go on to careers which pay well. So he estimated that we'll work for the next 20 years with an annual salary of AUD50,000. So in total, we will earn over AUD 1.2 million. We have 90 hours of physics lessons in a year. So for every hour that we're sitting in class, it's worth
AUD 13,333.33! Which job on earth pays that much?
So his point was that we do not skip classes, 'cause we would be "losing" money. BUT BUT BUT... he's ALWAYS late. Even during the first period in the morning, he's still a least a few minutes late! Since one minute is worth AUD 333.33, he should be paying us for those minutes that we lost!!!
Last Thursday, my principal suddenly walked in to our physics classroom and said this:
"You are all very lucky to have Frank as your teacher. I bumped into someone whom I THOUGHT was the best physics teacher in Western Australia but he said, 'You know, Frank Gianitti in Canning College IS Western Australia's BEST PHYSICS TEACHER!' So there you go class! Frank Gianitti - the best physics teacher in WA, is your teacher!" Then he walked out of the class. HAHA so random! So I have the best WA teacher teaching me physics, or so it seems! Coolness! By the way, Frank is the co-writer of my physics textbook! But he doesn't refer to it at all 'cause I think he leaves the reading up part to us to do it at our own time.
His quotable quotes include:
"Cleanliness is ALMOST equal to godliness." "Feeling is believing."This reminds me of Mr. Ling's "famous" saying:
"Solutions to questions are like mini-skirts. They must be short enough to be attractive BUT long enough to cover everything!"He said this during the 1st math lesson we had with him in Sec 3, I tink. BUT he just had to add this: "And by the way, I DO NOT approve of mini-skirts."_________________________________________________________Talking about math, I've got two math classes. Harry teaches me Applicable Mathematics while Chris teaches me Calculus. So far so good, especially calculus, 'cause I've learnt most of the stuff already, just that we're going more in-depth. At least I've got a good foundation (thanks to Mr. Ling! lol) so it's okay, FOR NOW. 'Cause there are some people in my class who have never down calculus before. But you see, the culture here is quite different. Back home, I don't really think that anyone will want to do calculus just to acquire knowledge. But there are mature-age students in my classes who study just for knowledge! No one is forcing them to learn Calculus or something, but yet they don't mind going back to school again. Kudos to them! Chris kinda reminds me of Mr. Ling too! Tall and lean. Quite good at teaching math, I think. BUT of course, NOT as neat as Mr. Ling! His graphs aren't half as neat as Mr. Ling's freehand graphs! Mr. Ling is THE neatest teacher ever, even on the whiteboard!
________________________________________________________I also do a complusory subject for foundation students called English Language and Australian Culture. Why of course, no one ever calls it by the full name. We just simply call it ELACS. ELACS is 9 hours a week! Other subjects are ONLY 4.5 hours a week! ELACS is split into Module A (history, Aboriginal culture etc) and Module B (geography). I don't particularly fancy ELACS. It's really more Australian culture, history, geography than English! I'd rather do English and write expository eassys! Then do a test which requires me to spend half an hour making notes from a passage, and thereafter, spend half an hour to write a summary of that passage based solely from the notes I made.I think it will be loads better if they spilt us into our ELACS clases, based on language abilities. 'Cause I really do think that the language abilities in each class is rather wide. Not excatly that best thing for the students or the teachers.
But I guess, I'm not the only one who's doesn't exactly fancy ELACS classes. I mean, yea, the Aboriginal stuff is really quite interesting, though also rather sad as well, but it's tiring to spend 9 hours a week totally on Australian stuff. Knowing all the landforms, deserts etc in Australia isn't excatly going to help me in university, unless I do Australian studies or Geography or something, which I highly doubt I will. PLUS, no matter how well or bad I do for ELACS, it really isn't going to matter much. I just need to pass it to get into university. IT IS, sadly, NOT INCLUDED IN MY FINAL SCORE AT THE END OF THE YEAR. So when you think bout it, is it really worth it to spend 9 hours a week learning about Australia, when it will not contribute to my final mark? Oh wells, it's compulsory...
The only interesting parts are when Phing and Tao "bicker" and "fight" during class. Reminds me of last year, when Jam and I always "fought" and "argued" over nothing, especially during math lessons. And when the three guys, Boris, Kunal, Djungi
(I probably spelt their names wrongly.. sorry..) suan each other. Like whenever my teacher asks who would like to read a passage or answer a question, they'll always say, "Kunal!" And when Boris
(a dude from Germany. Phoebs, you reading this? wahhaha. But he stayed in NZ so has a NZ accent) questions the teacher. I think he must be really really really bored in class since he's english is superb and he knows pretty much everything we're learning now. So I have absolutely no idea why he's even in our class. But I guess there's no choice. Since TEE (Year 12) and it's grading system is very complex so might not be worth risking it by changing from foundation to TEE. By the way, he's in 4 out of my 6 classes! Oh man! But we don't ever talk. How I wish Aileen, May, Wei Ni or Esther is in 4 of my classes! Maybe it's not a good idea after all, considering that we'll probably talk quite a fair bit! haha
________________________________________________________The remaining class that I attend is
Chemistry. Though my teacher,
Owen, doesn't have fun stuff like Mr. Loh
(my Chemistry teacher at MGS and co-form teacher of my beloved 4A1!) does, he's okay. Although the whole quantum theory thingy was like "WOAH!" and I didn't quite get it at first, especially all the thingys about the sub-shells and p, s, d, f. But I get it now, or so I think. hahaha.
He's quite like Mr. Loh. A little
luo suo. wahahah
BUT I've got a slight problem with my name. On the 1st day of chemistry, Siew Wen
(we all call her Boo, 'cause her surname is Boo) sat on my left and this super tall Aussie, Steven sat on my right.
Let me digress for a little while. I really did think he had green eyes, so I told Jam who really has this HUGE thing for guys with green eyes. By the way, Me & May's Match-Making agency is still in business! hahaa. So I saw him at the library during my free period, and I asked him. He said they were blue. But it sure looks green to me, sometimes. So maybe under different lighting, they look different? He wants to be an air force pilot
(seeing this, Dra? wahaha). Anyways I reckon he's past 6 foot or something. So on both times that I've spoken to him, he happened to be sitting down and I was standing up. Even then, I think I was only a whee taller than him! Even when he was seated down, I still felt so so so short! Let me correct that, I felt so so so vertically challenged!
Now, allow me to get back on track... As I was saying, Siew Wen, Su Ern and Steven were seated on the same bench. But guess wat? Owen pronounces our names quite similar! In fact, he pronounces me n Boo's names almost exactly the same! We can hardly tell who he's calling, even till now! It doesn't help that I always sit beside Boo, since she's my brother! haha. That's another story altogether. So I can only tell who he's calling by who he's looking directly at. But once, he was facing the whiteboard and he called Siew Wen's name. I thought he meant me so I answered, then he said, "No, not you Su Ern, it's Siew Wen." But his Su Ern and Siew Wen sound identical! AIYO...
On another occasion, while calling the roll, he said Steven, so I thought he meant Su Ern, since I don't think he made the "t" and "v" in Steven very pronounced. Plus me and Steven's surname's both start with "L" so our names on the roll are pretty close together. So I really thought he was calling me and I raised my hand! THEN I realised that he meant Steven! Aiyo! So embarrassing!!!
_________________________________________________________Lunch is 45 mins. Most of us bring our own lunch boxes. There is a fridge and microwaves in the International Students Office (ISO). So my daily routine consists of going to the ISO, first thing in the morning, and dumping my lunch box (mostly leftover food from dinner the day before) before going for classes. Then during lunch, I'll head back to the ISO and reheat my food in the microwave. Then I'll go to the cateria and have lunch with the usual group (Aileen, May, Boo, Erlyna, occasionally esther & wei ni, and more recently, kevin and chris). Esther, Boo, Erlyna and I are in the same Calculus class and we have made a pact, "We shall grow fat together!" Haha. Coz we ate chips with gravy during our morning tea before Calculus class and ate chips AGAIN during lunch!That's all for now. Thanks for reading! This is my longest blog entry so far. Thanks for your patience! Will update about more random college stuff at another time. Tata
