Settling In

Now that I have been here a few weeks I am recognising a by now familiar feeling. I felt this when I first started at Shepp High, when I changed schools to Wanganui, when I started at Melbourne Uni, and now when I have come here.

When I have started at a new school I have found firstly that I don't need to talk much. I spend most of my time by myself watching everyone else and exploring my surroundings. I feel a little lonely, but it is not so bad as each time I go somewhere new, to a new school, I am not uncomfortable to be by myself. I seem to walk around in a cone of silence. It is a little strange to me also, after the business of last year and getting all of this organised, that outside of class commitments I have no schedule to keep. I don't need to remember to meet someone somewhere or cook dinner for anyone because i don't know anyone.

Most of all I don't have to work. For the first time since I started working in Year 11, I don't have a job. It's a strange feeling. I don't intend to work, as the pay rates are pittance. Resturant waiters get paid $2.13 an hour. $2.13!!! That's why the tipping system is so important. That's not just some nice gesture you are leaving on the table to say thanks, that is their wages.

So I expect things to change a little, but I don't know how much. People here aren't like the music students in Melbourne Uni Music faculty, they don't do most of the classes together. I suspect that I lot of the music students in the history and theory classes are taking these classes as part of another arts degree. I have no idea how many music majors there are, but I don't think that it would even be a quarter of the size of Melbourne. I expect over these next five months to get a lot of practice done.