Study, Study, Study...

Hello all,
It has been a while since my last blog entry (excluding the previous one about A-level results) and so I felt it was time to update you all on my antics in Australia. In the last blog I had just been drinking lots of beer, watching cricket, going to uni and had had my first ‘clubbing experience’ in Perth. Has anything different happened over the past two weeks? – Read on to find out!

I’ll begin from the day after the last update of my actual blog (12th August)...
This day was Beni’s 25th birthday, so after a day at uni we went out for dinner (Beni, Ina aunty, Dilip uncle and I). We went to an Italian restaurant where I had the best meal that I have had so far in Australia. For starters we got crustinis with pesto, cheese, olives and truffle oil drizzled on top of it, it tasted fantastic! For my main meal I ordered gnocchi with a tomato sauce, it was absolutely divine, the gnocchi just melted in your mouth! This was all washed down with a bottle of fine Italian white wine (I don’t just drink beer).

Ina aunty and I from Beni's B'day

Not a lot happened the next two days, apart from a meeting about the one thing I can’t stand about Geography, a field trip! Next week we’re going to some small town north of Perth for two days and we have to do a project of our choice on it, sounds like great fun!

On the Saturday (15th August), I was just at home during the day but in the evening I was heading out with Beni and her mates to celebrate her birthday. We had a few drinks at home whilst watching Madagascar – interesting combination, right? – And we then headed to the city. The first bar we went to was a bar called Hula Bula. It’s a Hawaiian themed bar with quirky decorations and amazing cocktails. It’s quite similar to Mahiki in London but nowhere near as expensive as Mahiki. The music was very interesting at this place the DJ played some random country tunes, some Bob Marley, a bit of Stevie Wonder and Kaushik masa’s favourite ‘in the summer time’ and in addition to this a bit of dubstep! We moved on to another bar called Luxe bar. It was quite a classy bar and I was easily the youngest person in the bar by at least 5years!

Several drinks later, we left Luxe and the plan was to head to a club but when it came to going clubbing, loads of Beni’s friends decided to drop out! However four of us continued with the plans and went this club called Eve which was an interesting experience to say the least. The club itself was actually quite cool and about the size of Watford Oceana. However the crowd ranged from 18year old chavs to 40year olds desperate to find someone to take home for the night! In addition to this rubbish crowd, the music was just the boring generic dance and RnB music that I can’t stand! Having said this I had a good time because of the people I was with! Our night ended at about 3.30am and I was in bed by 4!

The next day I surprisingly wasn’t hungover but Beni and I decided to spend the day in our pyjamas and I didn’t shower until 4pm that day, something that mum would never ever let me do! I spent that time reading and preparing myself for another 6hour day at uni!

On Tuesday (18th August) I didn’t have any lectures but I still went to uni for 9.30am and headed straight to the library. I was in the library until about 1 when I headed off to another DJ and production lesson. Instead of heading home after this lesson, I went back to the library for a few hours! In the evening I went to see a My Sister’s Keeper with Beni and one of her friends. It’s a very good film and I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it!

The next two days involved more time spent in the library! Six weeks into my first year at Nottingham I had not even considered visiting a library, I’ve been at UWA for 6weeks now and I think I have spent more time in the library than I did in a whole year at Nottingham! However, after library sessions I was rewarded with beer when I got home and some very exciting cricket courtesy of England!

Friday and Saturday were spent watching cricket and working. On Sunday (23rd August), had my first taste of Aussie rules footie. I went to Subiaco Oval which is the main stadium in Perth, to watch Freemantle Dockers (one of two local teams in Perth) vs. Essendon Bombers (a team from Victoria). Essendon are meant to be one of the best teams in the AFL and Freeo are at the bottom of the league with two games to go. However Freeo absolutely demolished Essendon, winning by 57points which I’m told is a big margin for victory. Freeo beating Essendon is kind of like Man United losing to Burnley... Oh wait that actually happened didn’t it?!

The footie game its self was a very interesting and enjoying experience. It’s a sport I can see myself getting into quite easily. I’ll give you a quick break down of the rules. There are 15 people on each team and there are goal posts at either end of the pitch. The goals are made up of four vertical poles meaning three gaps to score in. If you score through the middle post its 6points and its one point if you score in the outer posts. You have to kick the ball (it’s like a rugby ball but more bouncy) through the posts. To get the ball from one end of the pitch to the other you can either throw it to your team members, run with it (but after 15metres of running you have to bounce the ball as you run), or you can kick it. If you kick the ball more than 15metres and one of your team mates catches it then they get to pass the ball without any of the opposition trying to block the pass. To get the ball off the opposition you have to intercept a pass. There is contact in this sport, if someone is running with the ball you are allowed to rugby tackle them and they have to release the ball before they get to the ground otherwise they get penalised for ‘holding’ and the ball goes to the other team. The match itself is pretty long; it’s made up of four quarters each 30mins so in total the match is two hours. If you want to know more about Aussie rules ask me about it but I would say it’s pretty much a mix between rugby and football!

The footie pitch

In terms of the atmosphere, I was a little disappointed. I go to quite a lot of football matches and have been to at least 10 of the current premier league stadiums in the country and have experienced different atmospheres. There is no separation between the home and away fans in an Aussie rules game but at the same time there’s no real chanting or singing. You’re allowed alcohol at pitch side so it ends up being just a few drunken Aussies shouting stupid things and making a fool of themselves, it’s very funny to laugh at!

I came home from a fun day out to homemade pizzas and to watch England win the Ashes, it was a great time to be an England cricket fan in Australia. So the next day, I went into uni wearing my England cricket shirt. Although it was very early on the train, so many people commented about it with people saying to me that ‘the English are cheats’, ‘the English didn’t deserve to win’ etc. I went to my first lecture of the day and a guy sat next to me wearing a Shane Warne t-shirt with a black arm-band because they had lost the Ashes, he looked at me and said “Great I had to sit next to a f*****g Pommie (what they call us British) didn’t I?”. The lecturer also made a comment about my shirt at the end of the lecture in front of everyone – I was proud to be British!

Since Monday, nothing exciting has happened. I have been to the library everyday this week because I have so much work to do. I’ve got two deadlines next week (i managed to finish them both today, thats why Im writing the blog) and a mid-semester exam! I shouldn’t complain really because at the end of the day that is why I’m in Australia, to study!

I also realised today that I’m just about half way through my studying at UWA and then its two months of travelling before I return home! This time really is flying by!

I hope all is well at home and I have decided that I’m going to try and avoid watching Spurs the whole time I’m here because it seems to be working well for us so far! (Note that I’m writing this before the game against Birmingham today).

I've been taking some pictures of the sunsets here and I just thought I would share my favourite one with you.

Miss you all,
Mihir

Second Chances

G’day all,

This blog isn’t about my adventures in Australia, so if you don’t really have time, don’t feel obliged to read this! The blog is more on some thoughts I have been having over the past few days and will be especially relevant to anyone who is receiving exam results (that includes parents and siblings) over the next week or so!

I woke up this morning and saw it was Wednesday 19th of August and it didn’t really mean much to me at the time, just the day after mum and dad’s wedding anniversary and another day of uni! However on my journey home I remembered that it is the eve of the dreaded A-level exam results (and a week until GCSE results come out). This made me think back to this time last year when my fate was just 24hours away...

In all honesty, I was an absolute mess this time last year. I had stressed myself out so much since just before Easter about these exams that it made me ill and consequently I fainted through one of my exams which was meant to be my best module (Development Economics). We quickly realised that my constant tiredness, weight-loss and not being able to eat properly in the build up to exams was due to stress and everyone told me “As soon as exams are over you will be fine”. I wish I could say that this was true, but it wasn’t. I went to Malia with my college friends and was unable to drink because apparently this stress was still getting the better of me! Anyway to cut a long and boring story short the night before exam results was quite possibly the longest night of my life.

I was at Rishi Mistry’s house on the eve of results and we sat down to watch a film but we were both so stressed that we decided it was probably best I went home so we stopped stressing each other out. I got home thinking I would just get into bed and wake up the next day and just deal with whatever happened then. However I got maybe half an hour of sleep that night and I remember one of my college mates Nim texting me all night to try and get our minds of it! So the next morning came and after receiving a few texts from mates who had checked their Ucas and had got into their unis. I went and checked mine and I remember my heart was beating as if I was about to take a penalty for England in the World Cup final! When Ucas finally loaded up, I saw that I had been accepted by the University of Nottingham! At that moment I didn’t really know whether to laugh or cry or just go back to bed!

I think my stress and worrying made everyone around me worry so much and in the end it was all for nothing! Looking back on it, I probably could have done even better but that’s just being greedy – I got the grades I needed and I was going to begin life as a Nottingham student!
As you read this you may wonder what the point of me writing all this is, for those of you that are close to me will know I don’t really show emotions at all but I think a lot and keep those thoughts to myself, but I feel it’s important – especially to those who are going to be the recipients of results in the next week – to read this.

As I’m sure all of you will know, it took me 3years to do my A-levels as opposed to two and it’s because I didn’t do so well in my first year. However, I was fortunate enough to be given a second chance (and an escape route from Habs) by my parents (and the rest of my family) and Brampton College. Although at the time I felt awful, it was probably the best thing that happened to me – I met some amazing people at Brampton, I escaped from the prison that is Haberdashers and most importantly I managed to get my grades to go to the uni of my choice! I know it took me a second stab at A-levels to get it right, but look where it has got me now, I’ve completed my first year at Nottingham and I’m now on an exchange program in Australia!

I guess what I’m trying to say is that to those of you getting your exam results, if things don’t go your way tomorrow (or next week), although it may feel like it at the time, it’s really not the end of the world! Good luck to all of you getting results in the coming week, I’m sure none of you will need it! Enjoy your first year at uni because what I’ve experienced of the second year so far, there is already a lot more work to be done!

There’s a philosophy that I live by and I think that you can apply it to any situation in life with; school, work, friends, family, business etc. You don’t have to agree with it because everyone is entitled to their own opinion!

‘Don’t judge someone by a mistake they have made in the past, give them a second chance and how they respond to the second chance is the way you should judge them.’ – It isn’t actually a quote (as far as I’m aware) but it’s the way I live life.

I know there will be loads of you that will say “in some situations you just can’t give people a second chance what they did/didn’t do was unforgivable etc.” Maybe not immediately in some cases but over time, everyone deserves a second chance!

Don’t worry guys and girls, i haven’t become all philosophical, travelling/being in another country for a period of time makes you think a lot about your own life and life in general (I’m sure Nihal will agree), and as I said before I don’t usually share my thoughts but I think this one was appropriate to share.

Anyway, I have to do some reading about the Maji Maji people (a Tanzanian tribe) and have a new Ipod to set up thanks to mum and Beej! The next blog entry shall be back to normal so for those of you who were bored by this entry, don’t delete my blog link off your favourites just yet!

Once again to those getting results in the coming weeks – Good luck! Please do let me know how they go and if any of you want to talk to me about results or starting at uni feel free to email me or facebook me!

Miss you all,
Mihir

A beer a day keeps the doctor away...

G’day all,

Welcome, to any new followers of my blog. If you are new to this, I advise you to set aside half an hour of your time and start from the beginning of my Blog (the Thailand entry at the bottom of the page) and work your way up to this entry. To my regular followers, it has been just over two weeks since the last entry and after some abuse on my facebook page from ‘Captain Kutch’ (Chetan for those who don’t know him) I felt it is time for another entry.

In my last blog, I had a big clash in my timetable which was annoying me, I was drinking lots of beer and I had just been to prison. Well, I’m glad to say that the clash has been sorted and I’ve settled into a routine, I’m still drinking lots of beer and I haven’t been back to prison! However, one thing I failed to mention at the end of the previous blog is that Beni (Dilip uncle and Ina auntie’s daughter) had just arrived home from a long holiday in Kenya!

So the day after Beni returned home (26th July) she slept most of the day with jet lag and I went to the monthly Oshwal satsung meeting with Dilip uncle and Ina aunty. I went with the thought that I would meet lots of people my age there, however this wasn’t the case. All the youngsters are still in school and none are older than 17 and anyone over the age of 20 was at least 27 upwards. It was extremely boring and I somehow got myself roped into doing a 4km run for charity (although I haven’t heard anything since about it)! However, I will not be going back to one of these Satsungs in a hurry!

The following day was a Monday which meant the start of a week at uni. My clash was finally sorted so I could establish some sort of routine. However I was horrified by how packed my Mondays were (and still are), probably served me right for changing modules so many times! In Nottingham, I had 8hours of lectures in a week, at UWA I have 6hours of lectures just on the Monday!!! I know you medics, dentists and pharmacists are wondering what on earth I’m complaining about but 6hours in a day is a lot for me! The day was extremely long and as you can imagine I was exhausted by the end of it but the day finished on a really positive note with a really interesting and enjoyable lecture (yes they do exist) on African history.

The next few days weren’t very exciting, just the normal days at uni followed by dinner, a few beers and some mindless Aussie TV at night. However, my weekend began on a Thursday that week (and the following two weeks) because of no Geography tutorial, so on Thursday I went shopping with Beni and Ina aunty and managed to finally get some sunglasses for only $30! In the evening, I left the house to go to my mates’ flat warming party. It was hosted by two fellow exchange students who were from Holland and both called Alexandra. It was a good night, where I met a lot of new people and consisted of a lot of beer, a talk about the state of Africa, Kanye West’s musical genius/arrogance and a rap battle with some Americans (I’ll leave that bit to your imagination, those of you who know my ability to remember lyrics may have some sort of idea).

On the Friday (31st July), I didn’t really do a lot during the day but in the evening I went with Dilip uncle, Ina aunty and Beni to their family friend’s house for a barbeque. What I didn’t know is that these family friends where Punjabis and obviously love a drink! So as you can imagine, it was yet another evening filled with beer drinking! It was actually a really interesting evening, I met an old white man with a really strange accent so I asked where he was from and he made me guess for ages but it turned out he was born in Sri Lanka and moved to Australia 20years ago. I had a long conversation with him about the third world; reading really does enhance your knowledge! The actual barbeque was very disappointing with no veggie food, apart from a cold pasta salad, so I went hungry for the evening. However, i came home had a bowl of cereal and sat down to watch the cricket before heading off to bed.

The next three days weren’t very exciting, I was at home over the weekend just watching the cricket and a few films and then the dreaded 6 hours of lectures on Monday. As for the films I strongly recommend ‘Inside Man’ and ‘Man on Fire’ – both are Denzel Washington films, to be honest you can’t really go wrong with a Denzel film. I also watched Notorious, I’m advising you, don’t watch it and don’t waste your time with it!

After my marathon Monday, I was looking forward to my one lecture on Tuesday (despite the fact that it was 2hours and was at 9am!). The day turned out to be a very odd day! The lecture finished after an hour and instead of heading home i went to.... wait for it... the LIBRARY!!! It’s the third week of term, exams are nowhere near and still I went to the library, something I would never do in Nottingham! I spent a few hours there and was actually really productive! After my library session I felt it was time to relax so I went to the EMAS (Electronic music appreciation society) DJ and Production lesson. It was a bit of a waste of time because it was done as if it was a lecture and people actually took notes in it! However most of the stuff they were teaching, I already knew from watching Nihal on the decks! However at the end of this lecture we got to have a go on the decks and I’m proud to say that my mixing was on point (only with music I knew, as soon as they gave me trance to try I was awful!) The following day at uni was also a bit strange. In the morning i saw people playing football (soccer for any foreign followers) so I went and spoke to the guy who was running it and he told me that I couldn’t join in because it was actually a sport science module (what a doss of a module)! However, walking past them towards the end of their ‘lecture’ he asked if I wanted to join in for 15mins. With an hour between lectures I wasn’t going to say no! So I played football with these Aussies and they are truly awful at football! Anyone that has seen me play football knows that I’m nothing more than average but these Aussies thought I was amazing; I walked away with a cheeky grin, wishing I had hustled them or something!

On Thursday (6th August) I had the day off again but I ended up doing work at home, I really don’t know what has come over me since being at UWA, I guess it’s a positive though. In the evening we went out for a very average Chinese meal. Dilip uncle, Ina aunty and Beni were not impressed so I don’t think we’ll be heading back there in a hurry!

On Friday, I had a long lie in and it was only a few hours after I got up that the drinking began. It was Beni’s friend’s birthday so she told me to come along with her, and I’m glad I did. We started drinking at 4.30pm and didn’t stop drinking until just after midnight. We went to a bar called Brass Monkey and then headed on to what is fast becoming my favourite place Little Creatures. I ventured away from my usual Creatures Pilsner to Creatures Pale Ale and it was a great decision! The beer was so good and I consumed a lot of it, I won’t say how much because it will mean a lecture from mum when i next speak to her! We also had dinner at Creatures; I was actually quite impressed with their pizzas! We headed off to another bar afterwards which was really bad and they played the same song 3times in the half an hour that we were there! We were meant to head to a club after this bar but the birthday boy decided to call it a night so we all headed home and I was in bed by 1.30, a bit too early!

I woke up surprisingly early on Saturday without a hangover (drinking almost a litre of water before bed helps). I went shopping to a different mall with Beni and Ina aunty without the intention of buying anything but again in true Mihir fashion I ended up buying clothes! However, it was money well spent I felt, I bought two shirts for just $70 all together, that’s less than £35 for two shirts! I was at home by myself in the evening so I watched a childhood classic film – Richie Rich and then I watched a shocking batting performance by England, we were apparently trying to save the 4th test, I’m afraid that 82-5 isn’t the way to go about saving a test match! Bring back Mark Ramprakash for the final test is my suggestion!

On Sunday I went with Dilip uncle and Ina aunty to Marina for a few afternoon drinks, there were two guys performing live music and I think Dilip uncle and Ina aunty were pleasantly surprised when they performed The Eagles – hotel California and I started singing along to it (yes, my music taste does extend beyond the likes of Jay-z, Skepta, Skream etc). Dilip uncle and Ina aunty headed home and I stayed there to meet Beni and some of her mates for a few more drinks. After these drinks we headed home for dinner and to watch us lose the 4th test despite some exciting batting from Stuart Broad and Graham Swann!

Yesterday (10th August) was another 6hour exhausting day at uni and today, I went to the library again!

Seeing as this blog post is quite a bit shorter than the previous entries, I’ll leave you with some thoughts that I have been pondering. Obviously being new to a country I have noticed a lot about culture of Aussies and others. It made me question in my head how accurate are the stereotypes that we have of other cultures and even races? Infact why do we stereotype at all, surely we should experience their culture before making a judgement at all! I’ll give you some very small summaries of some things I’ve noticed, and you can decide for yourselves whether or not you agree with them.

Aussies – Love a beer and love a barbi but don’t really like to party that much. Their fashion sense is very European (skinny jeans and bright coloured clothes etc) apart from boys wearing UGGS. A high percentage of Aussies you would consider to be ‘good looking’. They tend to be very friendly people. Not every Aussie is athletic and amazing at sport. Aussies will eat any meat going.

Americans – More friendly and open to people than I initially thought! They always want to party but cannot handle their alcohol at all! American girls can be annoying!

Asians (Chinese and Japanese) – The best dressed people around but stick in their own groups, don’t mix with others.

Europeans – Very friendly, seem to have a lot of respect for us British. They’re probably the most interesting people I’ve run into.

Freshies – Really friendly but know how to get on your nerves (I know they don’t do it on purpose)

British - ?

I hope all is well in England,
Miss you all,
Until next time, G’day and Goodbye!

Mihir