Joy Walpole! Thank you for your incredible donation!! It's completely brightened up this study period :)

Day 102:

The Life of a Student: 


The works of Milton on her bedside table.
          A copy of Ancient Rome on the bathroom sill.
In her room - a piano, anchored solidly next to the bed.

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (First Movement).

Form of music? Pop-Opera - Il Divo to be exact.

A desk larger than the dinner table
littered with Spectroscopy notes, and biological musings.
Textbooks lay strewn
at the foot of the bed.

On the whiteboard - Vergil
...macte nova virtute... sic itur ad astra...




Study break update...reminiscing over Semester 1...













Edit:
Woooooow.... I've gone past DAY 100 without realising it! Talk about tempus fugit! Went to the  fantastic Bigger and Better Event run by I Am Challenge this afternoon! Keen to see what teams ended up getting for one dollar? Check out: www.facebook.com/iambiggerandbetter - they've gotten bikes, fishing rods, an incredibly unique photo frame and even a Louis Vitton handbag... 

Day 94

Was walking down Symonds St. on Friday evening against the tide of people heading home (I was heading back to IC4) when an approaching guy suddenly goes from being pan face to cracking this massive grin and greeting me on the way past!

'Hi Carmen!!'

That completely made my night. :)
Couldn't help but grin while studying Medsci.

Day 92

I found this really interesting. Definitely worth a read!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19876494

'An infant must know that it's loved because only then can it trust the risky business of coming to love others. This first love resources us as life unfolds, bringing confidence and courage, spontaneity and drive, a sense of safety and of being grounded....What good self-love achieves, Aristotle continued, is the capacity to get over yourself. Then you are liberated to see that there's a world around you. You are not king or queen. Instead, you know you are one of many, and those many are there to love and be with, to be known by and to get to know. You have time for others because you do not need to have all the time for yourself. You are a delight to be with, having taken in the first love of your parents and now being able to live it yourself.'

Day 82

Why is it that the most interesting experiences always occur on the bus?

Today, I was approach by an elderly Chinese couple while boarding, and after asking me if I were Chinese, the grandfather began to ask me for directions on how to reach ’XX Rd’ – in Mandarin. I managed to pick up on what he was asking about (it helped that he had a map with him) and began to give him in a reply in my shaky Mandarin, and you know what? They understood me!

So, I while I was conversing with them, liaising with the bus driver and fellow passengers about where the road might be, I couldn’t help but feel this huge send of incredulity that they could understand what I was saying. For those who know me, Mandarin isn’t my first language. While I take classes, I've always have that irking doubt about whether I would actually be understood.

So. Am feeling over the moon right now. I managed to speak (somewhat) effectively in Mandarin, and also help someone through having this skill! I feel so glad that I knew a bit of the language, and was able to help them. Getting the chance to talk to them and meet so many fascinating people in the process was  so amazing.

Like wearing the t-shirt, languages enables us to form a connection with other people. Communication leads to connection, and with connection comes understanding. Imagine if we could all speak the langauges of the the world. Like what my physics lecturer said, it would be 'way cool'. :)

Day 79!!

It's been a fantastic week!! The sun's shining and I'm now over a fifth of the way through the challenge!! The T-shirts have made life just so interesting on an everyday level.

A common question that has been asked of me is this: Why are you doing it? What is the purpose of it all? Without a background, this might seem to be a tad nonsensical, perhaps a bit wacky and if you read my introduction on the left, you'll see that I thought so too. Ultimately I think that we Challengers all have our individual reasons for joining. Certainly I've been growing as a person through this journey, and a funny thing that I've found myself coming to wish that everyone wore a T-shirt with their name on it.  Even more interesting is that I get a lot of responses from people saying that they were 'glad that they didn't have to worry about forgetting my name' if they saw me next time. It makes me wonder about the function of a name and associated role that it plays in a society - They're so important why?

The paradoxical thing about life is that we are individuals, and yet we're all interconnected (for you scientists out there: everything is made of atoms :)). We celebrate individuality, and we also celebrate unity.  As a person, it so difficult to realise that. So really, my reason for wearing the shirts is this: It's because I seek to connect with others. In wearing the t-shirt, I am showing that I'm human. Me without the frills - and if you know my name, perhaps we can be one step closer to forming a connection. :)

As for this week, a silently hilarious moment for me was going to a function with AIESEC and being given a 'name tag' to wear on top of my shirt. It was the strangest feeling, and a entertaining element of the event included seeing people trying to squint at the name on that tag before realising what was written on the shirt......

So that's all from me for now! Biomed is churning along now -  I've calculated that I probably save 2 hours a week from just cutting down on my dressing time. :)


Live.

Every moment :)

~ Carmen

Day 74: A Simple Reminder

A update on life: I wrote this a few hours back as a personal memo so its unedited. 

I had just bused home, I had gotten off at my stop. I was tired. It’s been a busy few days. Holding a biochemistry book in one arm, and slinging my bag onto my back, with eyes half closed I began to trudge home.

As I was waiting at the traffic light (it had just turned green), I had with closed eyes, thrown my head back and when I next opened them I saw the waxing moon above me. The sky was blue. It surprised me. Never had this image seemed so vivid.  I then realised that there was this breeze blowing around me and like a painting, there were these creamy clouds in the distance. There were trees – the vividest green I’ve seen after a long day in OGG. Bushes poked out of domiciles in the distance and marigolds lay in the council plot to my side. It seemed odd, and suddenly, for that single moment, I felt as if I were some visitor from another planet looking at my world with new eyes.

The waxing moon, the trees, that strange breeze. Never had the sky seemed to blue.

Blue.

The. Sky. Was. Blue.

I walked back down my street in a haze. I never often realise it, but heading west, I could see the sun setting behind the church. Suddenly, I realised that the cherry trees on my street had begun to bloom, and I saw a sparrow form a silhouette on an upper branch in the dying rays. Builders yarned among their machinery, and in the distance - behind quiet birdsong were the muted sounds of cars from the main road.

These are the sights of everyday life. Yet I have been so focused on school work, uni, assignments, tests that I have forgotten beauty of the everyday world that I live in. So used was I to being indoors that I had forgotten the vivid view of nature. To realise that every moment is filled with an overwhelming sense of organic beauty. This is the world.

(Incidentally, I was wearing a the blue I Am t shirt on the way home. Isn't it amazing how we have the ability to don on colours that reflect an element of the world around us?)