Criniti

My family and I had dinner at Criniti's, which is a South Italian cuisine restaurant. It was my second time there so maybe the amusement of eating a one metre pizza wasn't there so my tasting senses were working better this time round and made me realise that it didn't actually taste that good. Honestly, I would have preferred having Pizza Hut. The pizza was too chewy and the other dishes we ordered tasted a bit too bland to me.

For once, no one blinked to ruin the family picture!

Friends For Dummies

As we grow older, we find it much more difficult to make friends. When we are 5, friends are the people who share toys with you. When we are 10, friends are the people who don't have cooties. When we are 15, friends are the people who hates the same person as you. See how much more difficult it gets? Well, thank goodness there's me to help you out on the journey of friendship for those struggling to find friends in environments, such as uni, with the world's biggest pretentious people.

Friends For Dummies by Rebecca Tran.

1. Be confident with who you are. A good method is to practise saying your name in front of a mirror until you're confident that you won't forget it. Being the nervous person I am around unfamiliar people, I almost introduced myself as Tessa to a fellow lab group member. I honestly have no idea where that came from and I hope none of you will ever make that mistake after following my advice because it is downright embarrassing and the biggest brain fart you'll ever experience. If you want to go a step further, it's a good idea to remember what course you do and why you're doing it as well.
2. Equip yourself with knowledge (or lack of). One of my earliest uni friends I've made was by wondering around lost with the map of my uni opened on my phone. A girl asked me for directions and by coincidence, she was in the same tutorial as me. Through our shared fear of being lost in one of the creepiest buildings and getting in trouble for arriving late to our first class, we somehow became friends. By another great coincidence, we have a mutual love for fictional characters and tendency to leave assignments till the night before it was due. So either being lost or being a know it all will get you somewhere! You're either lost together or a know it all helping out a lostie.
3. Get to know the people from your group work. Rants of my friends' uni woes mostly comprises of bad experiences to do with group work. In your group, there will almost always be someone being a control freak and/or someone who does not contribute to anything and never turns up to meetings. Bonding with others over mutual hatred works a charm. Thank God I don't have group work yet. However, there might be those rare occasions that everyone in your group does what they're supposed to and you enjoy your time together so you might even spend time outside of uni together.
4. Electrocute them. There's nothing like beginning a friendship with a spark. Speaking from experience, it hurts but it's worth the pain. When put in those situations, it brings out their real personalities by how they deal with things. For example, I met two guys in my physics tutorial and it was so silent and awkward. One of the questions that we had to answer involved using a van de Graaff. Since I had long hair, I used it to try make my hair radiate out. One of them came too close to me and the electrons jumped and passed onto him causing us to experience an electric shock. I found that he is dramatic and likes to swear when things get tough and the other guy is still immature ("YOU GOT HIT BY A GIRL!") and would rather laugh than ask if we're okay. After that, it was less awkward.

Good luck and may you find that special someone to make cherished memories with!

Nitrogen

N2 Extreme Gelato opened recently so I went with Amy to try the ice creams that are made in front of you using liquid nitrogen. The whole store had a laboratory theme to it, which is pretty cool.

My second semester of uni has started and it's time to put my imaginary serious hat on. Remember how Pepito from Madeline once showed his entire hat collection that he has for almost every occasion? His infamous one is the bad hat. I need a stop blogging and write study notes hat.

Somewhat interesting things this so far:

• One of my lecturers introduced herself as Dale - Flashback to over a month ago when I emailed my unit coordinator with "Hi sir" and "Thank you, sir" only to realise three emails later that Dale is actually a woman. You can imagine my shock and how much I freaked out. She never replied to my apology (I sounded so desperate and made it a million times more awkward) so I'm hoping she'll never work out who this Rebecca is.
• Received my first ever parcel from buying online at Book Depository. Everything is so much more exciting when it's all wrapped up! I've been living like I'm from the 19th century.
• Random meet up with all the Usyd people in the group for froyo. The stories we all shared ended up with us dying (or crying) from laughter - Amy: "I have a know it all in my class." Vivienne: "Yeah, me too! I don't know anyone in class!" Also Vivienne was telling us about how you can unplug magnesium out of your head and the scientific thinkers of the group just.. yeah, we just exchanged looks.
• Vivienne being upgraded: "Everyone always gives me their rubbish so it's like I'm a rubbish bag! Now you're telling me to buy things so I'm like a shopping bag!"
• Saw quite a few train commuters reading 50 Shades of Grey. I failed to impress a lady with my superior book - I Am A Cat by Natsume Sōseki. She didn't even look up! HOW COULD YOU NOT? IT'S LIFE FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A CAT. A CAT.
• Nearly stacking it on the train. This happens a lot but I don't understand why Jellee is always the one there to witness it. I technically never fall, which makes me a genius in the art of not toppling over completely!
• Made an observation that sounded racist but I swear I'm not. I OFFICIALLY HAVE A BAD REPUTATION AMONGST THE FUTURE PHARMACISTS THAT WERE THERE AND IF I END UP MAJORING IN PHARMACOLOGY, NO ONE THERE WILL BUY DRUGS OFF ME. That ended up with Jellee, Jason and I laughing over things we shouldn't be laughing about. Anyone notice how good it feels to laugh when you have a blocked nose? Laughing overall, feels good.

I found out that a first year girl from my uni got a silver medal for canoeing in the Olympics. It just made me wonder, what have I achieved in life? I didn't think for long because there honestly isn't much I can reflect on my life. Not to brag or anything but this one time I had 7 hours of sleep altogether in 5 days. GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS.

Paradise

Back to my mundane suburban life. I'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the mountains. How can I not if I was surrounded by views like this and engulfed in clouds every morning?

It was just so breathtaking. To spend it away from civilisation with the best group of friends I could ask for in the most amazing three storey wooden house that the three little pigs could only ever dream of is literally a winter paradise. A massive bookcase, our own fireplace, a collection of soothing jazz CDs, shelves of classic board games, a fully equipped kitchen and couches and couches to lounge on made it that much better. I wouldn't have minded if we stayed indoors the entire four days we were there.

Our first day involved being native tourists (dat oxymoron) at the Three Sisters and the Giant Stairway, which we've renamed to the Stairways of Hell. I had multiple near death experiences by stacking it countless times and it was like a scene out of a horror movie when everyone disappeared one by one on the Stairways of Hell till there were only three of us left. It felt so accomplishing to escape Hell and I felt invincible. Guess who's going to survive the apocalypse on 21st December?

That night we stayed up talking, playing trivia and drinking tea like classy old ladies. When we heard unexplained banging sounds outside our room, the four of us decided to cautiously investigate. A reminder that we were in the middle of nowhere. There was a sudden bang again then Desiree, Jellee and Vivienne all screamed and collapsed into each other. I WILL NEVER FORGET THAT IMAGE OF THEM BEING SCARED WITLESS. It turned out that the source of the noise was the fake electric fireplace.

On the second day, we went to the Jenolan Caves. The narrow and winding roads on the mountain made the car ride there the scariest thing ever. ("LIGHT BEAM THE FUCKING SHIT OUT OF THIS PLACE.") I loved the history and stories our tour guide told us of the caves. It was truly an enlightening experience and it feels like you've entered a secret world away from the outside world.

The secret behind a nice group photo is to huddle together like penguins.

Just like leaving the cinemas, I had to blink several times once we wove our way out to adjust to the light only to realise it's still daytime and I'm back in the real world where time continues ticking again.

Our third day involved a lazy day in watching Rugrats and Friends while snacking non stop throughout the day. We also roasted (and set fire on) marshmallows and sausages by the fireplace then invented our own card games. Pretty much a perfect day in. JUST LOOK AT HOW PERFECT OUR SURROUNDINGS WERE ON TOP OF THE WORLD.

On our fourth and final day, we took some last minute "natural" posing photos before reluctantly handing over the key to the owner and architecture of the house. I cannot commend the guy enough on how perfect the house is. Although one suggestion to make it more perfect is to replace the painting of the man in the bathroom because IT LOOKS LIKE HE IS PERVERTEDLY WATCHING YOU SHOWER.

We shopped at quaint and dainty vintage stores at Katoomba then had lunch at an Irish café. The music they played made me almost expect a leprechaun to jump out of the tips jar and start dancing.

Our last stop was to a Japanese bath house. It was a really relaxing experience. The outdoor hot spring was heated to 40°C so when you get out and stand in the cool crisp air, you wouldn't feel the need to wrap yourself in a towel to stop the cold. Is this what it feels like to be a werewolf? There was also a sauna room that I couldn't walk further than one step in without feeling like I was being choked. There was so much steam to the point where you couldn't see anything more than half a metre in front of you. How on earth did everyone else withstand it?

I'll continue wallowing in my withdrawal symptoms now. This getaway to Blue Mountains is definitely a trip I won't ever forget.

Teneo

I was so excited last night knowing that one semester of uni was about to be over. I started making terrible jokes about freedom and America and I don’t know what. I’m just so happy it’s finally over. It was one of the worst weeks ever. I contracted influenza a day before my first exam causing me to physically be unable to walk without wanting to throw up from muscle and joint pains. My fever got worse and that led to a chain of bad luck events, which would take forever to list all my other symptoms. Overall, I was left in a bad mood all week.

All I got out of this semester is which area of uni has good and bad wifi connection. Priorities.

I got ID-ed for the first time ever when I had end of exams dinner with half the group. I probably got more excited than I should have over it though.

REPPIN' GEN Y WHERE PHOTOS OF FOOD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PEOPLE.