nine

i've been volunteering as a peer networker at uni orientation for the past three days. basically this means that i run campus tours, serve at barbeques and coffee carts, usher people into halls and walk lost new students to their desired destinations.

it's a a tremendous amount of work and when i get home at the end of a long day i feel like i could just fall flat on my face and sleep through a hurricane. but at the same time, it is SO MUCH FUN. not only have a met a huge group of amazing new people from all faculties across uni, but i also feel a profound sense of actually being useful in the world.

since it's mid year orientation, all the new students are international. i have met hordes of gorgeous europeans and even had yum cha with a group of them, i've attempted to use my long lost french skills on a french canadian and i've spent fifteen minutes listening to an emiratie complain about every aspect of australian culture while i walked him to the library in the rain. as for the indian engineering students, my friends and i try to avoid them because of our inherent fear of receiving marriage proposals in lieu of Permanent Residency visas.

definitely one of the more eye-opening and stimulating experiences of my life.

eight

so that's a scan of my brain. the random white blob in the top right corner is a picture of the ball of blood (hemorrhage) which was in my brain during the summer.

according to the doctors, my brain bled for only 10 - 15 minutes. which is an almost entirely ludicrous concept, despite it being true. consider this - that one teeny tiny blood vessel, out of the bazillions in my brain, stopped doing what it was supposed to be doing for only ten minutes. and this is what happened to me:

1. i puked continuously for three days straight, in airport bathrooms, in hotel lobbies, on airplane seats, and on my dad's jackets

2. i spent five days in hospital

3. i had massive, massive headaches which persisted for about a month

4. i lost half my vision field for a month

5. i couldn't read for a month, and am now the slowest reader on the planet probably

all that trauma and disorientation caused by one tiny blood vessel. what a little bitch.