Thank you Professor Mary Joyce

I found out today that my favourite professor at Cal State Fullerton passed away in December. Professor Mary Joyce was an awesome teacher for me. She was passionate, inspiring and genuine. She took an interest in her students and was committed to their achievement. She was the type of woman who instils a desire to learn, an excitement to pursue and a confidence to succeed that only a good teacher can. Professor Mary Joyce also allowed me to talk with her openly about her cancer and ongoing treatments and in doing so, allowed me to reflect and subsequently overcome some personal issues. I let her know all of this at the end of semester and tried to maintain contact with her during my travels. Last I had heard from her, she had just had an amazing adventure in South Africa. My deepest sympathies go out to her family, especially her husband who she spoke so fondly of, the Cal State community and the global village that Professor Joyce touched and would have touched. I want to thank her again for teaching me so much and being a wonderful inspiration.

Sincerely

Kristiana

Good luck Mon

Today I was fortunate enough to have a chat with one of my students about getting involved in community work. She had heard about some of the stuff I have been, and am currently working on and requested a meeting. I listened to what she had to say and encouraged her to voice a dream of hers to make a difference that she had never told anyone (for fear that it was too big a task to be realised). I was astounded at the achievability of her dream. A dream, that from experience, could take as little as two or three months to be attained.

How exciting!

It was such a privilege to be able to tell this student, from a credible position, that she was not only able to achieve her dream, but that she has the freedom to think much, MUCH bigger.

THIS is why I LOVE teaching... I am seriously considering how excellent it would be to become an academic...

k

Random...

This afternoon I was walking across the bridge from the CDB to Southbank and on the phone to a friend when a young man, in a suit (with tie), wearing sunglasses and with earphones in his ears stopped walking towards me to jump up into the air, and land again playing an air guitar while head banging. Having satisfactorily striked a few invisible chords and having head banged twice, the guy continued walking as if nothing had happened. The only acknowledgement I had that the whole random incident had actually happened (not just in my vivid imagination) was when the lady next to me burst out laughing.

So random.

To continue the random theme, about 50 metres later I asked a man who was walking at roughly the same pace as me and in the same direction which university he would study at if choosing for a Masters in Peace Studies. He was very, very knowledgeable and helpful!

And all of a sudden, it was blindingly obvious to me why I love life.

Hurrah!

k

Tutoring... Or at least trying to...

I am LOVING teaching back at QUT although this week has been interesting...

I have seven classes I teach across three days. My biggest day is Wednesday which goes from 9am til 7pm. This week, that also happened to be the day that my cold took its strongest hold on my voice. By the time I got to my 5-7pm Strategic Speech Communication class I was only whispers and squeaks. Of course, that made it all the more interesting when trying to teach a group about tone, pitch, volume and projection... Good times.

Seriously though, I am loving my classes. I love preparing for the tuts, I love facilitating the learning experience for my students and I love the satisfaction that comes out of knowing that they have learnt something new, or have been able to apply a concept and now fully understand it. So rewarding.

I just can’t help thinking that there is some irony in working for and being happier at “the university for the real world” than in the ‘real world’ itself...

k

Happy Hens Night

It was Sarah’s hens night last night and we had to come in cocktail attire. I decided to wear a cute cocktail dress my best friend gave me a couple of years ago that is kind of Spanish themed, sexy. The unfortunate thing about this dress however, is the bust. This dress makes my bust disappear.

While Kristina was getting ready in the bathroom I decided to experiment. Since I never stuffed tissues or socks down my bra when I was 14, I was quite unsure of the technique as a 24 year old but with a little guidance and a lot of fiddling, those puppies eventually looked incredible despite the bust minimisation dress!

Anyway, the night was hysterical with lots of shenanigans and fun was had by all.

I am so looking forward to three Sunday’s from now when the first of our high school crew are married off.

*Loving sighs...*

k