The magnificent Great Court ...

1 Mar 05 (Tuesday)

The Great Court in UQ!

Most people in UQ will gather in the Great Court during lunch hours. Some will munch on their sandwiches while others take a short nap, lying on the grasses. Unlike Singapore, the grasses here are pretty dry (but yet they look luscious) and hence it is pretty safe to lie down on the grasses. There is a great difference being in the shade and being out in the sand… Due to the thin ozone layer in Australia, one can feel the sun scorching on your skin when one is not standing in the shade… People here wear sunglasses to keep that strong glare of the sun away rather than having them as a fashion statement.

It was a pretty busy dae for me as I had a few lessons around the school. I have mistaken a 1pm lesson for a 12pm lesson and end up doing a lot of unnecessary walking… I guess the most interesting module I am doing now is MARS 2005: Australian Marine Environment. This course teaches one about the reefs, corals and organisms out there in the oceans. The lecturer, Dr Ian Tibbetts was also very entertaining and he really engaged students in his lectures. Majority of the students taking this course are from the US; I think it form about 80% of the class size. Last but not least, this course is only meant for international exchange students; hence, all of us who were in the class were totally new in UQ.

Even though there were field trips organized to the North Stradbroke Island (Moreton Bay Research Station) and to Heron Island (Heron Island Research Station), I have decided not to go for any of them… The reason being that the field trips costs quite a bit; they are AUD$ 175 and AUD $525 respectively. In addition, the trips are not compulsory; this mean that I can visit other islands and do a report on them or come up with a topic myself to write about… I am contemplating doing a report focusing on difference between the organisms found in Chek Jawa (I’ve got many photos of them when I went there with yt one yr back) and those found on Sunshine Coast (which Toni, the lodge owner is bringing us to this Sunday)

Throughout my stint in UQ, I will be missing classes for one module totally. Nope, I am not slacking; it is just that my lectures and tutorials for STAT2003: Statistics & Probability module clashes totally with the MARS2005: Australian Marine Environment. I chose to go for the latter one coz it is much more interesting and also Hong Ee is attending the former (I will just have to get the notes from him and study myself). =)

Went out at about 12am with Cindy to the public phone near 7’eleven to make a call back to Singapore… Brrr…. The temperature is definitely lower than normal air-conditioned temperature…