university

full of fantastic fun

(get a flickr account and let me add you as family to see above photos)
it is week 12 here in unsw there are 3 weeks left of studying, and then 2 exams, and then tim and i are off to drive up the australian coast.

hesi is arriving tomorrow! and so i will finally drag her and tim to see various sights around sydney and in sydney.

last night smita, lesley ann, tim, roshan and moi went out to sushi to some local place. it was the first japanese experience for lesley ann and smita – i was promising lesley ann to take her to sushi for a while and this was it. they both seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, liking the small rolls and nigiri sushi the most. (they did have problems figuring out how to eat the larger rolls – i’m still unconvinced, are you supposed to eat it in parts or just stuff it in?)

i realized i haven’t been writing much about my so called “australian experience”. to be honest, looking back at the past 3 months since tim has left it doesn’t feel like there was much of an experience, at least towards the beginning. the last month and a half were better in terms of fun as i have gotten closer with my flatmates, and thus ended up going out and doing interesting things far more.

the brighter experiences up until this moment was the day of the “races”, which i still failed to blog about. let me make a short attempt at it here.

the races

racing seems to be a huge australian phenonenon. apparently, there is this melbourne cup when the entire country shuts down to watch that race. of course, there is a huge race track just north of the university. and on one particular weekend in april, there was a large race occuring there, or rather a number of important races, to which barker apartment number 9 (that is the apartment in which i live) decided to head out to see. it was actually me, lesley ann, kevin (all of us from 9) and a bunch of other people who they have met from their earlier residence here in sydney.

in case you are not aware of the general things that happen at races, here is the approximate list of interesting and notable moments:

everyone dresses up. the most traditional form of uniqueness to the races is the hat which should be elaborate and odd and fantastic. while being the poor students we couldn’t figure anything out, many girls have arrived in fantastic contraptions.

drinking before noon is mandatory. champagne is $3/glass (or something like that), and betting on your horse while holding a pretty sparkling glass is oh-so-classy!

and of course, the betting! we bet; we lost. alas. our horse knowledge is not successful. however, mike and james (LA’s friends) who have researched the chances the night before, have won something atune to $100.

after returning home, we have ate, relaxed, and went out dancing! and as the tale goes, we danced the night away, and it was good.

st patrick’s day
while it was not any different from many parties i’ve been to, it was awesome because:

i live with 2 irish people and st patrick is the national saint

everything was green. we bought green food coloring and it went everywhere. people wore green head to toe. milk was green. water in the toilet tank was green. beer was green. water was green. anything that could be coloured green, was. windows were green. the room was decorated with green lighting.

and of course, people drank :D

kevin’s party
one of the most notable things about kevin’s birthday party was that it was 4 days before tim’s arrival here. (and i think that sentence summarizes how i felt the entire 3 months he wasn’t here). of course the dinner, the drinking and the dancing was also notable – and a load of fun!

there were many other moments. i tried curry (made by smita) – she made some specially for me without the spicy part. and she used all authentic indian ingridients. tonight, she’s making curry again – and this time tim has a chance to try it too!

each monday night lesley ann and i (and lately smita too) watch desperate housewives while eating a shared dinner, and having dessert afterwards.

before i got really sick at the end of the vacation week (end of april), i went to the gym, loads, together with LA again. unfortunately it stopped because there were 2 bad weeks which i spent mostly entirely in bed. after a few doctor trips, everything is now confirmed as being fine, which makes me very, very, happy.

baking – bread, cookies, carrot cake, my mom’s apple pie.

i got everyone here hooked on “oladushki” – thin slices of apple dipped in batter made from my grandma’s recipe.

i guess food was a major part of this experience. i really love food and cooking now, and bubble over with excitement of trying new recipes. in the last 2 days i learned how to make a kick ass goatcheese salad (add small cubes of peeled apple), and fettucine carbonara.

and of course, today tim has been here for more than a week. while sharing a tiny room as opposed to a whole apartment is interesting, thankfully he doesn’t have much clothes (although now the whole closet is taken up, and not just half ;) ), and we’re compatible people.

i’m very happy. life is falling back in place again; the next 3 months look to be full of fantastic fun again (how’s that for alliteration). almost a month of study and party and fun in sydney; then almost a month of travelling around australia and 10 days in japan, and then a month back in toronto, together with my friends and family who i miss oh so much.

stuck

i’m stuck on my essay “are mental states and processes identical to brain’s states and processes” for like the 5th day. having a completely head numbing fly isn’t helping – i try to think, but its not working.

the biggest problem is that last semester, i had a philosophy and psych/phil class, where my essays whipped ass. i’m proud of those essays. they’re my cherished creations that state an interesting point eloquently, with arguments that i consider innovative.

this essay topic however seems to be at the same time too general and too limiting. it is too general as the prof seems to want us to answer the question, which pretty much reduces any kind of theorization on related matters to an impossibility, and it is too limiting as i can’t discuss anything except for the freaking mind-body identity.

i don’t want to write a boring essay, and each time i sit down to, my brain refuses to form coherent sentences.

however when i give in to the urge to write on whether “love is a brain process” which is kinda related to the question, i have stuff coming far more easily. kinda. but still more easily. (and i don’t know why love – maybe i need to find a different topic which would make it easier? i just really enjoy the question of love in particular as it relates to our emotions about other people, which is very tough to peg as a strictly internal process).

maybe someone sees a better question? the paper is due friday morning (so in exactly 36 hours). its so bloody annoying, because i know i could whip a great paper in like 3-4 hours, given how many ideas i have, BUT THEY ARE JUST THE WRONG IDEAS AND I CANT WRITE A BORING PAPER ON THE “RIGHT” IDEAS aaah! i want to write INTERESTING stuff!

p.s. for diny and others who wanted pretty visuals – go here. even though it doesn’t have much new stuff, its in progress of becoming the core of olya.org.

too lazy? spring break (fall break?)

i’m having a week break and am too lazy to blog.

i have one important thing to write about: going to the races.

instead i will tell you how i made some rosemary and thyme bread with hummus. and it was good.

and then we went dancing. and it was awesome.

(i promise i’ll write when i finish my philosophy paper. im 300/2000 there!)

assignment end, break begin

she-crab soup made from this recipe (its awesome)

today was definitely a good day. first off, last night after making triply sure that the assignment works (thank you, dad!), it was handed in with no problems, and i went out to have some drinks – for the first time evah! (the drinking out that is). that was fantabulous fun, and i came home and crashed to sleep.

the morning of thursday was excellent. first off, dad confirmed everything is fine. thus this huge, terrible weight of that unbearable assignment fell off my shoulders. the linguistics assignment was almost done, so i spent my morning cleaning it up. (i also made scrambled eggs. yum!)

the constant question of where to print if you’re not really in possession of a printer can drive a student to do odd things, especially if they have to hand in the assignment by 2pm and its 1:50. i tried printing at the library (which smelled like smoke, and later i found out that it was evacuated!), but ended up crashing their computers. so, on kinda vagueish instructions from LA and Kevin i found the place where all the american students get their sponsored labs – its a gleaming, white, clean room, with lots of big macs with flat screens and pretty mice and fast computers and fast printers. i printed and was outta there under 1 minute. yay!

next problem was finding the drop off box. i got confused between two buildings, both of which intials begin with MB, so i ended up being at the hand in place at 2:10 or so. but they still took it on time!

i also spoke the prof, and wished him a good holiday. yay!

random memories on the walk home, when the world suddenly became bright and assignment free:

a bearded, white, curly haired professor at his desk going “hmmm” in a serious tone to a young naive first year student cowering in front of him.

“but i did everything i could!” “well my grandad was in the navy you know!” (as part of one conversation, very loud argument)

a guy eating a watermelon (like 1/4 of it) on the run.

the feeling joy surrounding the campus despite the rain as this was the last day of classes before the break (actually i felt the joy but didn’t know that second bit).

upon arrival home i found out i have no classes tomorrow, and that elin will be going to the gym 2 hours later, so i snacked, chatted, relaxed, and then went to the gym for a hard core workout!

this was my 4th time. i biked for 20 mins @ lv 5, elliptical for 20 mins @ lv 5, and for the first time, ran all 20 mins at 7kph (before i was 14 mins run and 6 walk, and then 16 mins run and 4 walk). then elin showed me some weights training, so i did about 40 sit ups on the big ball, some leg excersizes with the ball, some back excersizes with the ball, weight training for back and arms and legs, and stretched. it was good!

came home, made the she crab soup, and that’s where the day ended, basically.

i wont count the evening because i washed all of the dishes in the kitchen again for the 2nd time (not a single. clean. cup. 2nd. time. in. the. day. i washed almost all of them before the gym.) (so before sleep i went in and did a major clean up – washed majority of dishes that were “anonymos” – like not from LA’s baking – and finally cleaned off counters. yay!), and watched wolf creek which was scary. but that’s okay. it doesn’t count.

i want to be a food photographer! so much fun!

choice is what moves us

i recently finished 2 books: one is “woman in the dunes”, by kobo abe, and second is “my sister’s keeper”, by jodi picoult.

moral of the story, in both, as coincidental as it was, is that people care about having their personal freedom of choice. while their actions might be the same at the end (staying or leaving, donating a kidney or not), the moral, the intent behind the action is far more important to them – but rarely to those who surround them.

its almost like art. it is the intent that makes a piece meaningful to the artist – even if the public never cares.

i’d highly recommend both books, even though they are completely different in style, they make an excellent match in story. woman in the dunes is rough, gritty, pressing on you from every angle, and drives its point hard:

“I have a one way ticket to the blues, woo woo”. If you’d like to sing – please, go ahead. In reality, the last thing that a man who has been given a one way ticket will do, is sing like that. The shoe lining of the people, who have a one way ticket, is really thing, and they scream if have stepped on the smallest pebble, and won’t move further. They would like to sing of a ticket to the blues that goes both ways. Only a man, holding a return ticket, can hum to himself a sort of sad song about a one way ticket. It is because he is afraid – afraid that he will lose it, or it will be stolen…

(rough translation to english from russian which was translated from japanese. some ommissions.)

i can’t think of an equally poignant quote from my sisters keeper, it felt far more gentle, if still very painful, just on a different level – here, everyone suffers, and most realize their suffering, but like abe’s characters they keep on digging themselves out.

i guess this comparison makes no sense if you haven’t read one, or even both of these books, but i really hope that one of you will pick it up. here is the russian version of woman in the dunes.

i’m going to go sleep, so that tomorrow i can dig sand of assignments again.

feeling good (or not)

the past few days have been riddled with mixed feelings. on one hand, i was wearing a very cute “feeling” shirt (it says “FEELING” on it, and the shirt is light, cute, baby blue), on the other, i was feeling sick and tired and very very unwell the entire of friday. i even skipped class, for the first time, as i couldn’t concentrate on something like an email, let alone a hard math class.

i have a big assignment due on ~~sunday~~ wednesday thanks to the extention, in AI. i can’t wait to be done with CS courses. no clue how i ended up being so far into the degree, but i’m glad i’m almost done. at least i did learn some useful things i’ll be able to apply in the facianating field of web management! haha.

i took pretty pictures today as first i made breakfast, and then lesley ann. my favourite one is the butter uptop there. i really really love it, even though its just butter.

i can’t wait to be done with the assignment.

also, i ate sushi take out today. it sucked, compared to toronto’s sushi that i love, but it was not as bad as bad sushi could be. appreciate your luck, people, i’d kill for a nice salmon piece right now. yuuummmm….

some statistics

ohmygod update

okay, shame on me about blogging so shamelessly about all the insects and things i’ve seen. about 5 minutes after i pressed “post”, a huntsman crawled out to the ceiling of my bedroom. most. paranoid. feeling. ever. it was a small one – only 7cms in diameter (about same size as a smoke alarm), but i hid under my blanket the entire time oleg was trying to get it. the part that i missed, thankfully, is that after oleg missed the huntsman (not thankfully), it jumped down onto the window sill. it even might’ve went on the bed. its too freaking fast. anyway, after i saw how it squeezed itself completely flat into the crack of the windowsill, i crawled out of bed and far away, until oleg flicked it outside.

lessons:
– no more windows open. ever.
– those things are fast.
– and they can be very small when they want to be. PARANOIA BZZZZZ.

good night! … i hope.

oh yeah. photographs from last 2 parties, and, well, the huntsman.
——————————————————-

weeks in sydney: 4
week of classes: 3rd
number of classes i’m taking: 4
number of exams i’ll have: 2
number of textbooks i need to buy: 2
number of textbooks bought: 1

enterntainment

number of times i went to the movies: 2
days off in the week i have: 1 (but almost 3 if i leave after 12pm on friday and skip the tutorial on tuesday)
cost of parking ticket on our first day in sydney: 175$

internet

cost of internet that i get from university: 4.4c/meg (that’s $50 for each gigabyte)

how much have i spent in the first 3 weeks despite not *downloading anything other than pages* (not even photographs): you don’t want to know. or rather my parents shouldn’t know :p

cost of wireless modem that we bought to get away from that: $70
cost of wireless router to connect to the modem to share the internet: $40
cost of monthly plan at 12gig, 512kbps download, 128kbps upload: $90
cost per person: $10 for lesley ann, $40 for me and $40 for oleg
do we actually get that speed? only for australian websites, and even then not always.
is it still worth it? hell yes.

insects

section 1: bites

number of bites on my left arm: 16
number of bites on my left leg: 5
number of bites on my right leg: 0
number of bites on my right arm: 3
is it bed bugs? unlikely, couldn’t find any traces. looks like mosquito bites.

section 2: spiders

number of spiders seen: a lot
number of significant spiders seen: 1, a huntsman in our bathroom. (visualize: i’m walking in without contacts, put my contacts in, look up and see this reflection in the mirror.)

section 3: cockroaches

last night, on the way to the movies, how many times i jumped from my own shadow (thinking its a cockroach or some huge crawly animal): about 70
last night, on the way from the movies, how many times i jumped from my own shadow: 0
last night, on the way from the movies, cockroaches seen: 4
(biggest one was about 6cms long. right next to my foot.)
did i jump? yes.

food

amount of times i made bread from skratch: three!
carrot cake: once, and very very good
oladushki: twice, also very very good
ate honey mustard chips: endless. very VERY good
drinking: water, lots of awesome juice, green tea
coffee: once (at home)
cappuccino: 5 times. it is amazing here.

my room

things on the wall: only 3 4, all 3 are calendars (hesi’s, ansel adams, and UNSW’s). can’t find posters! aaargh. and sometimes a huntsman.
pillows: 2
lamps: 2
spiders: 0 (so far). funnily i typed that 5 minutes before a huntsman crawled in. make that 1.

OH MY GOD!! 3 done, 1 to go!

cooking tonight: spaghetti in tomato sauce with ground beef and parmesean
ingridients:
1/2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped (cut length wise into 3 and chop into tiny bits)
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cube of vegetable stock (homemade!)
1/2 cup of water
1/2 can tomato paste
pinch teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 splashes red wine
bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon herbes du provence

1/2 pound ground beef
spaghetti (for, err, 2 portions, dunno how really much)

heat onion, garlic until tranclucent in oil on medium low heat, add the stock and celery and the water, and heat for about 5 more minutes. add the tomato puree, herbs, bay leaf and heat (for as long as possible , up to an hour – i had only about 30 minutes). add wine about 10 minutes before done.

when the sauce is about ready (or you’re about starving), cook spaghetti (add another cube of vegetable stock to the water to make it the real good thing). brown the ground beef in olive oil, add it to the sauce, warm the whole thing for as long as it takes for spaghetti to cook, serve, eat.

yum.

i wish i had basil! argh.

drinking tonight: kindzamaruli red sweet wine

so, 3 exams are DONE DONE DONE!! datbases went SWEETLY, and psych was tough (3 hours of writing non stop, 2 essays, 5 terms in 3 booklets for 21 pages of writing).

the evening was spent watching csi and enjoying the food and wine. life is so good when you only have one exam ahead of you. and i can sleep in tomorrow. and then i study. but i don’t care, because i am free FREE FREE!

one down, 2 to go, one in an hour, but WHERE IS MY COFFEE

second cup closed right under my nose just now. at 5:30. and i came there at 5:36. i’m so pissed off, i was craving coffee for a while but decided to review one more term first. there goes the support of MY studiousness!

and there is no coffee nearby, like, anywhere. i guess i could go to hart house, but its a big circle away from the exam building.

first exam went FAMOUSLY. i left 40 minutes early. only didn’t know one question, and even wrote a recursive SQL query. (that’s pretty sweet)

now i’m barely studying for psych, and i’m so TIRED.

tired tired tired tired tired.

TIRED.

i want coffeeeeeee.

large shrimp

large shrimp

Originally uploaded by MatthewA.

i’m addicted to food porn.

study sucks. my progress:

~~1 Sept 13 Introduction~~
~~2 Sept 20 The ER model~~ , The relational model
~~3 Sept 27 Relational Algebra~~
~~4 Oct 4 Relational Calculus~~
~~5 Oct 11 SQL – 1~~
~~6 Oct 18 SQL – 2~~
~~7 Oct 25 SQL in an Application~~
~~8 Nov 1 Recursive Queries~~
~~9 Nov 8 Functional Dependencies~~
~~10 Nov 15 Normal Forms~~
~~11 Nov 22 From ER to Relational Model~~
~~12 Nov 29 XML, Xpath and XQuery~~

done @ 2:16am! taxi ordered for 8:30am, exam is @ 9-12. then, nap, snack until 2, and review until 7, write 3rd exam at that point. i’m feeling good! the autofail for this exam is 30%, so as long as i get above 30% (which i definitely can), i pass. at this point… thats all i care for.