back to school - and role reversals

customised QUT bag

This week has indeed been a bit surreal - and a bit of a culture shock as well. When I first went to uni, in 1977, we wrote our assignments by hand (being too poor to own a typewriter!), and there were subsidised cafes, union shops and communal spaces to hang out; now we have to go to Google Hangout, which isn't actually a real place, but an internet virtual space. And a cup of tea cost me $3.70 at the campus cafe...so the next day I took my thermos flask and tea bags with me...

I am supposed to be 'friends' with other students in my cohort of over 50, on Google plus, but I don't yet know the names of most of the other students, and the maximum in a group is 10 - so who do I choose? And is this really just another glorified version of Facebook?

To be fair, the content has been fine, the students I have spoken to have been friendly and interesting, I am learning my way around, and the number of assignments is daunting but probably do-able. The days have been long however, and I am keen for this first part to be over, so I can digest and reflect...I am only writing this today as the Saturday workshop was cancelled at the last minute, so I have some free time. 

A couple of 'my' graduates from UQ MMH art therapy program are doing the same course as me, this is really interesting and I am already noticing changes in my relationship with them, since I no longer have to be their teacher. There is a small group of creative therapists in the cohort, which is fantastic. I am starting teaching next week, so the weirdness will continue. I am sure I will have more empathy at least...

Meanwhile, in the real world (sorry QUT) it has been raining like crazy. More rain is likely in the next week. 

And its a year since the most damaging Christchurch earthquake.

And the Australian Labor party is having its most cataclysmic, ridiculous, damaging leadership battle, again, between Julia Gillard (Prime Minister) and Kevin Rudd (recently resigned Foreign Minister). Hopefully it will soon all be over. I can hardly bear to reward this bad behaviour by ever voting for them again...is it just me?

more later