the godroach speaks or "up and moved to canada"

so yesterday was actually a really good day. or a really good night, more specifically.

we had this intensive learn to teach thingy, which started at 7.30am and was run by this trio of psychs who used phrases like 'what i'm hearing is. . . ' and made us share our feelings with the group according to a template based on an acronym. like that. and gave us each a video of ourselves teaching. that went for a long time. but i learnt that i can teach fine and i met most of the other new grad students and the 'profs' came round and said hi, and a couple of them seem nice. then we went off and had drinkies which was good fun, then a bunch of random grad students invited saf and i out for dinner with them.

it was the first time i'd left the mountain since i came and it did feel rather freeing. i'm going down the mountain again today. so we had tea at a nice thai restaurant and then drank red wine in this teenytiny apartment (everybody pays massive amounts of money for tiny apartments in very tall buildings) and i didn't get home til late. a social evening! so exciting! people make such a difference! it was lovely to be able to muck around a bit, and listen to department gossip from people who actually know, and they were a very friendly and welcoming bunch who i think i have a bit in common with. i'm going to karaoke with them tonight and maybe a lesson planning session on monday, which is the public holiday. consensus is that the grad students have a very supportive, familial feel and each cohort (ie. those who start at the same time) become quite close. but that campus is pretty horrible and isolated and res depressing. apparently they use the AQ (the main building i'm in) as a way of explaining foucault's panopticon.

today i'm going down commercial drive to get stuff for res, buy a proper coffee maker and some food and window shop. then karaoke. tomorrow i might use the parental's gift somehow. thankyou.

i've worked out skype and my name is greentextagirl.

i've picked up a sort of accent. i find people say 'huh?' and 'pardon?' a lot less if i use their inflections, especially in noisy settings. not entirely happy about this, but it's useful.