Where to park at Uni

Aimee

Now that you’ve got your head around your schedule and where your classes are located around campus, it’s time to think about parking.

For me, the first day I came to Uni I parked in a random location, I hadn’t figured out the campus so just sort of thought ‘anywhere will be a fine place to park!’ Basically I parked in the first carpark I saw, my car was under a tree which is essential in summer weather and it actually wasn’t a very busy car park. Succeeding at parking at Uni- tick! Naturally I just kept parking in that general area (I’m a creature of habit so once I’ve found something that suits me it generally sticks…for a while).

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Cam Goes to Gippsland

selfieI’m back, baby!

As is everyone else! University has started, the students are singing, the lecturers are giving their wisdom, and (quite importantly) the cafeteria is cooking. But today, I want to tell of an experience that I had a few weeks ago, because it was fun. You see, I’m a student at the Mt Helen campus in Ballarat. In preparation for work with the ASK service this year, a few of us (Ryan, Tegan, Lily and I to be exact) from the Mt Helen campus went down to the campus in Churchill (Gippsland) to meet up with all of the awesome Student Leaders there, so we could all do some training. I’d never been to the campus myself, despite hearing a lot about it and even telling others about it myself (oops)!

One of the many scenic views at from the campus.
One of the many scenic views at from the campus.

So, it was a Tuesday, ahhh I remember it well. Lily was to meet us down there, via train. For the rest of us, we took a FedUni car down (after packing it with supplies and enjoying the awesome fingerprint scanner set up to authorise key use). To gauge Ballarat to Churchill, it’s roughly a 3.5 hour drive, if traffic is on your side. It was a great car trip — Ryan and Tegan are as interesting people as you’d ever meet! I distinctly remember at one point looking up from the back seat and seeing 3 men in a truck all staring down at the car. I gave them the thumbs up and the weirdest face I could and watched them laugh as they took an exit off the highway. A moment I will cherish forever!

Editor’s note: I had no idea that this happened. I’m going to have to keep a closer eye on Cam.

One of the main reasons that I’m writing this post though, apart from the great company and experience of the trip, is how beautiful the FedUni campuses are, Churchill being no exception. Churchill is a relatively small town and yet the FedUni campus there is astonishingly big and spectacular! We got there and parked in the residency area, having rooms booked for the night for the training on the Wednesday. Now, though, we needed to find the keys, and that’s pretty hard to do when only one of you has been to the campus and it was a year ago. But we managed to walk through the campus (admiring it as we went) and find FedUni Living. Because it was after hours, we needed to call Campus Security.

That’s when we met Antonio. Antonio is just about the greatest bloke you’ll ever meet, hands down. He showed up within minutes, grabbed the keys, and offered us a lift back to the accommodation. His car was silent as a mouse — all electric. When we got out of the car and looked away for a split second, it was 100m up the road already! But that wasn’t the last we’d hear of Antonio..

Arriving at res. We thought we were staying in these buildings. It turns out we weren't. Have a photo of them anyway!
Arriving at res. We thought we were staying in these buildings. It turns out we weren’t. Have a photo of them anyway!

We got settled in the apartments, and soon realised one of the smoke alarms seemed to be going off. So what did we do? We gave Antonio a call. He came back and helped us out with that. He even searched for half an hour for bug spray around the uni for us after hours. I don’t want to be too bold here, but I think Antonio may have just been the greatest person in the world. And so, thanks to him, we were settled and comfy in the our rooms for the night, one room each. After that, we went to get Lily from the train station in the nearby town of Morwell. Then we went out for tea in Traralgon! It was a great time to relax after the long drive of the day, of which I actually drove nothing. But who’s counting…? After a quick game of Love Letter (Ryan and Tegan teaching Lily and I), we headed to bed back on res, set to rise bright and early.

Editor’s note: the game ‘Love Letter’ isn’t as weird or seedy as it might sound. It’s perfectly tame. What Cam is also neglecting to tell you is that he loved it so much he actually endeavoured to make his own copy, which he brought in a week later and proudly showed us. But it’s entirely work-appropriate. You know what? I think I’m making this worse. I’m just going to let Cam continue.

On campus at Gippsland!
On campus at Gippsland!

In the morning we headed over to the campus, a little more familiar this time, grabbed some breakfast, and headed over to meet the PASS leaders in Churchill for the first time. Oh yes, we met Dean and Aaron and Aimee and Mark and Chris, just to name a few. Without going into the specifics of training, we certainly worked together to come up with the best way to help students — that’s you guys. There’s a multitude of resources that FedUni provides, just waiting to be used, and as students of the ASK service, we are here to help any way we can.

After training, we parted ways and the four of us from humble Mt Helen headed back, unfortunately cutting through peak hour in Melbourne, but making it home without a worry in the world.

That is, what I can honestly say, training well spent.

-Cam