field studies

field studies

October 7, 2009, 10:51 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: charcoal, chemistry, chicken, exam, final, footy, friends, holiday, hsc, library, maths, nrl, parramatta, recount, rugby, school, study

So, what’s been happening in the life of Jeremy these past few days, since we last met? You probably aren’t interested, but I’ll tell you anyway (and my future self when I read this again in a few years time. Shout-out to future Jeremy! Yeah, I’m weird). I love parentheses.

DIGRESSING, the beginning of our school-free lives has been pretty interesting, albeit hard work. Let’s go day-by-day…

Thursday

The day after our last day of school. Surprisingly, even at this point it hadn’t hit that school was over and that we would not be seeing each other daily at school everyday. And I was right not to worry, as the rest of the blog will tell you. On this day, I did about 10 minutes worth of effective study. Very productive. This day was also the day I talked to Janet when she came back from her Ancient History study group and found out how much work she’d done. This was a major turning point for me. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been truly worried or panicky about exams, and it was a really good kick in the butt that told me to get going with HSC study. And so the next day eventuated…

Friday

I headed to Parramatta Library at the early hour of 9:30am; the library’s opening time. It was really quiet, so I found myself a nice single study table and got to work. This was a super-duper productive day. Got through a couple of Chemistry topics, breaking only for lunch (Udon at the upper food  court of Westfield) for an hour in the middle. In the later hours of my time there (3 or 4pm), Victor, who had previously been at Strathfield Library, came and sat with me until about 4:30. The day ended when I left the library at around 5:30pm. This day made me realise how much I love libraries. I get no work done at home, but while at the library I am pretty much working the entire time I’m sitting down. So I decided to visit a library every day for the rest of the holidays.

Saturday

I drove (loving my P-freedom) Janet and myself to Castle Hill Library, since it was a bit of a change from Parramatta. It was a bit less productive than the day before, but I still got a decent amount of work done (Chemistry and 4U Maths). Had lunch at Towers.

Sunday

Sunday was a fun day; NRL Grand Final day and a bit of a break from study and a chance to catch up with friends. After waking up late, I picked up Milo from his place at around noon and we headed to a charcoal chicken shop that he had recommended to grab some lunch; a place called El Jannah Restaurant in Granville. It was a nice-looking place, and what was awesome was that they had little translucent PLASTIC business cards, so Milo and I took one each to keep. Awesome. Bought two whole charcoal chickens and a large chips and took it to Kris’ place. Upon arrival, the house was empty since Kris had tutoring, but soon after, Matt arrived with Danny riding shotgun and then Kris with his dad a little later. We went inside and got out all the food and it was good. The chicken was great. I haven’t had charcoal chicken many times before, so I might not have a very developed taste in this aspect, but it was good. Milo commented that it was a bit dry, however, since he’s had it before and it was juicier then. Props for recommending the place, Milo.

Anyway, after we ate more people arrived and we watched the lower grade grand finals while playing on Kris’ laptop and trying to get a bit of study done (of which I did hardly any). When even more people arrived, we played table tennis outside for a bit.

When it was time for the final, we all sat down to watch while Kris’ parents cooked a barbecue for us (I know you won’t read this, but say thanks to them again, Kris!). Good food, good game, good night. Afterwards we played a bit more table tennis in the dark, and I also did a little bit of night photography. We tried light trails again, courtesy of Milo.

At about 8:30 it was time to go home and I gave Milo a lift while he tried shooting the traffic outside.

Monday

Public holiday so the libraries were all closed. Regardless, I studied with Janet and got a few 3U Maths papers done.

Tuesday

Tuesday was Mrs. Pooviah’s Physics and Chemistry Study Classes (or whatever they’re called). Physics was pretty informative for me (since I haven’t studied it since Trials), while Chemistry was pretty useless (since I have studied it) and I zoned out for a lot of it. In the break between, which was meant to be at noon but the Physics class went overtime to 12:20, a huge group of us headed in four cars (Ben’s, Kris’, Peter’s, mine) to Carlingford Court for lunch (I had KFC), before we all rushed back for the 1pm Chemistry class. After the second class, David, Don, Buddha and I went to Carlingford Library for some study from 3pm to 5pm.

Wednesday

Today I went to Parramatta Library. I thought the library opened at 9am, so I went to the bus stop at 8:23 waiting for that bus which arrived at 8:51, with the intention of arriving early to grab some breakfast beforehand. After driving my car around for a few days, I now really hate public transport. Somehow, the 8:23 bus never arrived. Hooray. At 8:45, the next bus arrived but drove straight past. Hooray again. In the words of the dude waiting there with me from 8:23: “Are you f***ing kidding me?!” So, the next one was at 8:53 which arrived a little early, and I hopped on that one. Arrived in Parramatta at around 9:20 and grabbed a Deluxe Brekky Roll from Maccas. I then walked over to the library but it hadn’t opened yet, so I sat outside the library with the many others waiting there, soaking in the morning air and sun while eating my breakfast. Perfect timing; the library opened just as I took the last bite of my roll, so I headed inside and grabbed my favourite corner table and got to work on some 3U Maths. At around 10:30 I had almost finished my paper and more people started arriving. I knew that there was an Ancient History study group today, but boy was I in for a surprise when a whole lot of other people turned up- there was also a PE study group plus others.

At lunchtime (around 1pm), Janet, Sharon, Bryan and I went to Westfield, where they got Subway while I had a Kebab and chips. I don’t think I want to go back to that kebab place, though. The guy there didn’t look too happy serving me and he kind of made it half-arsed. Ah well, it still tasted good. Just as we we going back to the library, we passed all the others who were heading to lunch. Then Bryan and Deva went together into Hungry Jacks to pick up some onion rings for Winnie. Upon their arrival, they realised that the girl at Hungry Jacks had forgotten to put in the tomato sauce. So they went back. And then they came back, holding a napkin with a phone number written on it, purportedly from the aforementioned girl. Then ensued a big discussion about whether it was a real or fake number, and who wrote it. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention: the number had only nine digits. It was missing one. But anyway, for the full story ask one of them.

I got some more study after the break, although it was quite a bit less productive. Headed home on a 5:41 bus back to Carlingford.

Now and to come…

So, in the days remaining until the HSC, I plan to carry out my plan of visiting the library each day when possible (except Sundays, since they don’t open). Tomorrow I will be at Parramatta again, so I hope to see more of you guys like I did today. If anyone wants to drop in and say hi, I will be a Parramatta most days sitting on my single desk in the corner of the study area from 9:30am to 5:30pm (e-stalkers alert!).

I think this will be my last blog until after the HSC. So, if I don’t see you before then, good luck with your studies! I’m sure our grade will perform wonderfully.

Take care everyone.

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