Category Archives: el_meheecan’s escapades

Saturday 6 September saw the FSSS (international) department put on their annual day trip to Glacier National Park, about a 3-4 hour drive north of Missoula. We departed from campus at 0700ish on the dot.

After around an hour and a half we found ourselves in the town of Poison (or Polson. Both seem appropriate). We stopped at Walmart for those with weak bladders and those who forgot to buy supplies. We were held up from departing Walmart because there had to be a couple of jokers who took the piss and went to McDonalds, much to the distress of Mona, the trip leader. Them Irish…

We continued to the park while Mona kept us well informed with information about the local areas. She described “Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake on this side of the country. Salt lake isn’t a fresh water lake. And the one in California isn’t as big…”  “there are cherry orchards on the left and right of the road. They grow cherries there.” I’m glad I took my workbook so I could understand the complexities of rural Montana business. Once we entered the park we stopped at the gift shops which happen to be lakeside.

Sunday 7 September (maybe)

Question from last week:

Will economics progress past the high school stage?

Well I fell asleep in one of the classes. In my defense it was very boring and I was ill.

Can I get away with only ‘buying’ one textbook?

Um, so far yes. I will refuse as long as possible from subsidising my lecturer who wrote the damn book. What a cheek. Why do we need school fees if she gets royalties and revenue from advertising on her blog. Surely that’s unethical…

Will the Hi-Tech Marketing lecturer understand ‘Dropbox’ isn’t hi-tech, and will she learn how to describe it?

No.

So another week went by and due to my brush with death http://kiwimeheecan.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/the-drugs-do-work/ I barely remember a thing that happened between Tuesday and Thursday. I remember falling asleep in 2 classes on Wednesday. I don’t think I actually missed much but time will tell.

Labo(u)r Day

September 1 saw the international office put on a rafting trip for all the, umm, internationals if they wished to pay a small fee

Departure was at around 8am so weary eyed we left for the departure point at Sawmill Gultch Road about 45 minutes away. Arriving we organised the groups and found an appropriate leader. Our raft consisted of The Evers-Swindell twins, Hamish Bond, Eric Murray, Mahe Drysdale and Rob Waddell. Now the organisers didn’t approve of such a powerful combination of amazing athletes and conspired to split the group in the name of fairness to the other rafts. We weren’t having a bar of it and teamed up with Dudley to find safe passage through the 15km of river rapids.

Before we set off Drysdale asked to flip the raft over, to the agreement from Murray (myself) and Waddell. However the Evers-Swindel twins along with Bond argued the opposite. The deciding vote was cast by Dudley. Needless to say Drysdale was left disappointed, however came to a compromise with Dudley to make the most extreme lines for maximum enjoyment.

It is beginning to cool down in Missoula, ready for Autumn.

So I have been suffering from the worst illness known to man. It has brought many a people (men) to crying, pathetic whinging toddlers. A fate worse than the All Blacks failing to defeat the crims across the Tasman. That’s right, manflu. It struck me down one night. With no Mum to be seen I had to take drastic action to pull myself out of the pit of despair, the never ending cycle of self pity and a nose that won’t turn off. I went to the supermarket, and bought drugs.

The drugs are ridiculously cheap here. A bag of anesthetized lollies, nasal spray, ibuprofen and most importantly, a bag of lifesavers. All for under $10.

Now unlike the classic Verve song, these drugs do work. I was on some concoction of drugs which put me to sleep in 2 of my lectures (I didn’t miss anything mind you).

It is now day 3 and I’m nearly back up to full health. And I owe it all to the drugs at the local supermarket. Thank you Albertson’s

Thanks to the many people (Hannah) who demanded I add a follow option. Notice on the right hand side of the webpage you are now able to stalk me more efficiently.

Hope this helps

For some reason my lecturer today tried to have a pop at the poms.

“What is that horrible black jam the British eat all the time with bread? It is horrible, tastes like tar. Mar-something, what is it?”

“Marmalade!”

“No, not marmalade”

“Vegemite!!”

“Yes! Vegemite, it’s awful!”

Now Vegemite is a spiteful, half-arsed attempt at recreating a fantastic spread so I agree with her wording entirely. I still find it amusing that she aimed at England, yet shot in the other direction.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Vegemite doesn’t begin with ‘mar’

For the first time in over 3 months my hip wasn’t giving me any grief and felt up to a purposeful run. I set out at about 5pm, intending to run most of the 3km campus perimeter. Because I set out in the early evening, the temperature had dropped to a chilly 26°c.

Little did I realise that 26 degrees is actually pretty damn warm. Sadly I only managed 2.2km before I was overcome with the heat. On the upside however, on my return to exercise I managed to run it in less than 20 minutes with no adverse effects to my hip.

So overall a mixed bag. What is the moral of this fabel? Don’t try and run through 26°idiocy when you are more suited to polar weather.

Toodles

The concrete and fences here get very thirsty. Bugger the grass or plants, the chance to get the odd student wet at 1 or 2, or 3 in the morning is considered a better use of water.

Questions from last week:

Classes begin, how will I fare?

Classes are very basic. My sports marketing lecturer is obsessed with New Zealand. Most are still reviewing level 1 courses while economics is still reviewing basic high school concepts; the locals are lapping up every word

Can I find a better deal than 15 annoyingly small but utterly addictive Twix bars for $4?

Deal of the Century

Will I need to take notes in class?

A small amount. I have yet to open my exercise book in economics because it is stuff I was taught 6 years ago. That the lecturer spent 20 minutes explaining how to calculate GDP is an outrage and frankly insulting

Is using Moodle as horrific an experience as it was back at Onslow?

I haven’t tried it yet

Will the foreign lecturers here actually speak English?

Yes. I understand all 4 of my lecturers. 4 out of 4. Makes a change from 0.5 out of 4. I wish Vic would follow in UMontana’s footsteps.

This week marked the beginning of classes. No tutorials and small classes of between 20 and 40 students with a large crowd sourcing environment. For the most part they look like interesting courses with passionate lecturers.