I asked for it

When the first year class began protesting to the poor standard of tertiary education that the TUT Motion Picture Academy was presenting, we never knew it would get this far. We had hopes and dreams, but what has come out of a year and a half of bitching was far less than expected.

When we began we had haphazard lectures, lecturers that didn't attend lectures, and my favourite, the ones that did attend, had nothing prepared and let us go ten minutes after arriving. (A full free day seems great, but waking up at 7:30am to drive all the way through town just to be sent home can be a tad off-pissing.)

There were many other issues including money, false advertising and on-going lecturer feuds, but that's history now.

We have a newly appointed head of department. Since he gave us our first lecture at the beginning of the year, I fell in love (figuratively). He is the most knowledgeable, entertaining, enthusiastic lecturer, mentor and friend I have ever met. Within two months he has changed the roster for the 1st-4th years, hired freelance lecturers, improved projects, introduced an in house magazine and has actually made varsity worth going to. Truth be told we can't skip class, or be late. If one of us is a minute late he phones our parents and reports it to the dean. This may seem extreme to some, but after a year and a half of farting around and bending all the rules, it's actually really great to have some form of authority.

We also have class every day from 9 to 5 and on Saturdays from 9 to 1. They're piling us with work and for anyone who knows my incessant need for laziness; it would be a shock to hear that I love it. But I am. I'm bored of having nothing to do, and doing nothing until the last minute due to the fact that we had no guidance. At the moment I'm finding it a little hard to stay awake, but I'm so excited about this new wave that I'm happily dealing with it.

Added to this I have also been asked to write film reviews for the magazine. My name's been submitted to Brooklyn's Cinema Nouveau and I get to see previews for free long before the film is open to the public. I also have to write a news/gossip column. Don't quite know where to start since it's supposed to be a clandestine project. This may pose a problem seeing as though I usually steer pretty clear from my fellow students, but Gao has agreed to be my informant.

Despite my delight for the changes, I fear that I might be forced into the life of a hermit and it distresses me that I won't be seeing my friends as often as I would like, but I guess that's just the way things go. I'm sure they will eventually understand after all this work pays off and I make enough money to buy them hundreds of pairs of shoes.