On Sunday morning James drove me back to Monash, after I spent the night at their house. I got a call from Sarah B., a fellow Gustie who was studying abroad this semester over at the University of Wollongong, about an hour south of Sydney, saying that she was in Melbourne today instead of Wednesday, and thus wondering if I wanted to go into the city to hang out, but I had to say no because I really had to do at least a modicum of studying for the GRE test. Le sigh. She might be back in town on Wednesday for a bit before she hops on a plane back to Sydney, it’d be cool to hang out with another Gustie down here in Australia. So I spent all afternoon taking a practice test and a half (the second one I skipped the writing portion on), but for neither test did the software tell me my score. The spaces where the scores should’ve been listed were simply blank. Weird. But I was a bit frustrated too, since that was part of the reason I bothered taking the practice test in the first place, so that I’d have an idea of what type of score I could expect, oh well. At least I got an idea of the sort of questions that would be asked, I guess that’s the more important thing. And then in the evening it was time for my next-to-last MBT. A sermon on Ecclesiastes 3 and Psalm 39, not your typical “happy” or uplifting passages, that was interesting. And then afterward a bunch of us stayed for quite awhile (till almost midnight) just talkin and having a good time, it was great! I’m really gonna miss those people. At right is a group photo of everyone at MBT last night. After I got back I hurriedly looked up a few words on dictionary.com that I was a bit fuzzy on during the practice GRE test. Dictionary.com is probably almost as good as a real dictionary, but certainly not as heavy!
And then this morning I caught a train into the city to take the General GRE test. It was at the Exchange Tower on Little Collins Street, and while I had no idea where in the city business district it was on Little Collins Street, I guessed it was near Spencer Street Station, so I got off there. Bingo! Less than two blocks from there, yay. Maybe I’m starting to figure out this city after all. Anyway I took the test at 1pm. I think I smoked the writing section (two essays), though I won’t find out my writing score for at while yet; there were more new and strange words than I had anticipated on the verbal section, which must’ve affected my score a bit; and I smoked the quantitative section too. I finally beat John at another test, woot woot! Or at least in one section, since I forget what he said he got for his verbal score. For my four free score reports, I chose to have them sent to the University of Oklahoma (Norman), University of Wisconsin (Madison), Penn State University (Happy Valley) and Mississippi State University (Starkville). Now I’ve just gotta figure out which other schools to pay to send the score report too, and then it’s on to starting the grad school application process. Oh yay. But at least now I’m completely and totally done with tests until 2005, woohoo! Now I can spend my last week in Melbourne stress-free and not worrying about tests or studying or anything like that. Now all I have to do is start planning my trip to Sydney and then what I’m gonna do for the two weeks I’m in New Zealand by myself. But those are happy dilemmas to have, most definitely. (Side note: I can’t believe I only am gonna be in Melbourne for another week to 10 days. Wow.)
Tiny Grantsburg, Wisconsin (just 45 minutes northwest of Cumberland) has made national news by revising its school’s science curriculum to include the teaching of creationism. This is very welcome news indeed, and I sincerely hope that they don’t cave in the face of the firestorm that’s already started since the decision was announced. And more dissection of the election reveals that the youth vote “fizzled like a North Korean light bulb,” as the incomparable Jonah Goldberg puts it. Some local Melbourne divers are proud for raising some money for a local charity while setting a new world record in the thrilling “sport” of . . . underwater ironing. You can’t make this stuff up fast enough! And two ladies came to blows, quite literally, over a sneezing fit in a church in Germany.
Now time for some relaxin’. Let me know what you think of my new photo album design, or of the new photo albums I put up the other day in general.