Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 48 - 46 Writing to Tell You

On the flight back to China, Qi Yi wrote his first email to Yan Yan.

Waiwai:

This is the first time I’m typing you a letter, seeing the tidy characters on the screen.

I’m not quite used to it.

When I wrote you letters in high school, I always deliberately made my writing more and more slanted, until it was completely upside down.

Emails have a speed that surpasses letters, but they lack the warmth of paper.

I can’t put the letter on your desk.

I’m not quite used to it.

But what is habit anyway?

Habits are always formed slowly.

Going to Melbourne to find you was an exceedingly impulsive decision for me.

I didn’t know if I could find you, didn’t know what I wanted to do, didn’t know if you would want to be with me, yet I came on impulse.

Other people’s impulses are devils, but my impulse was like an angel, so beautiful.

My love was reborn from the ashes, just like my mood at this moment.

Question =>

I never visited your home before. In high school, you received the school’s thrift award every year, and our classmates thought your family wasn’t well-off. Going to Melbourne this time, I learned you might be someone who has been privileged since childhood. Am I right in this understanding?

.........

After Qi Yi left, Yan Yan and the other two in her household made their noisy way back.

Yan Yan particularly enjoyed being with Bao Bao and Shen Xi; as long as the two of them were there, there were rarely moments that left her feeling agitated.

Comparatively, Yan Yan’s relationship with Bao Bao was a bit better than with Shen Xi.

Shen Xi grew up in Australia and had a more Westernized personality; she was utterly straightforward, carefree and sometimes a bit inconsiderate of others’ feelings.

Or maybe, due to cultural differences, Shen Xi didn’t know that being too blunt could make others feel uncomfortable.

But Shen Xi had the same kind of enthusiasm for life as Australians, always curious about everything around her.

When Shen Xi first met Yan Yan, she wanted to compete academically with her every day, and at that time, their progress was quite similar.

After Shen Xi got to know Bao Bao, she focused most of her efforts on figuring out how to "turn" Bao Bao and win her over.

Once she succeeded, she got busy with the relationship, and in the last year of university, Shen Xi started to forget what studying even meant.

As a result, while Yan Yan was nearly halfway through her master’s, Shen Xi still couldn’t graduate because she had not finished a course from her undergrad.

Studying in Australia, failing a course is a mix of skill and luck.

And yes, it’s the skill of failing, not a typo.

The University of Melbourne has three semesters a year, and those with good failure skills prioritize reviewing and choosing those courses in the enrollment system that are only offered once a year.

Missing a required course means you definitely can’t graduate. freewёbnoνel.com

For such a course, as it’s offered only once a year, if someone fails it in the last semester of their third year,

they must wait idly for over half a year until the last semester, when the course is offered again, to complete it.

This is the mark of poor failure skills.

But if you fail a required course that is offered in the spring, autumn, and summer each year, even if you fail, you might just need to stay an "extra summer" in Australia.

This might set you back only a month or two compared to those who graduate on time, letting you smoothly receive your diploma.

So, failing the same course in your final year could mean an extra month or two for some and a whole year for others.

Thus, failing, whether due to lack of skill or bad luck, can have quite severe consequences.

In Australia, there isn’t the concept of retaking failed exams as there is in China, where some schools let you keep retaking until you pass.

In Australia, no one really cares if you study or not. If you fail, you just pay to retake the course when it is offered again.

With more and more high school students from China choosing to study in Australia, the Chinese deep-rooted emphasis on exam skills and tactics has also crossed the seas to Australia.

International students particularly know how to "huddle for warmth" regarding not failing.

Different professors teaching the same course have different reputations for strictness, whether they take attendance or not, and such intel is usually passed down and thoroughly researched.

Another consensus is to avoid choosing elective courses taught by new professors.

With a new professor, who lacks a "history" to "study," the risk is too unpredictable.

However, each professor can only take on a limited number of students.

This is why many people at the University of Melbourne congregate in the library or find places with good internet on the day the enrollment system opens, to "fight for" classes with "good professors."

Foreign students tend to study the tactics of not failing less diligently. Yan Yan, who attended classes seriously and wasn’t worried about strict professors, always picked her classes leisurely, since there was never a shortage of courses to enroll in, so no need to compete for a spot.

Shen Xi was even lazier. During the course selection period of her third year’s second semester, she couldn’t even be bothered to choose and gave Yan Yan her student account and password to select the same as hers.

Unfortunately, Shen Xi ended up with a class from a notably strict new professor.

The professor was so strict that she failed because of two absences.

For this mishap, Shen Xi had already extorted over a dozen lavish meals from Yan Yan.

Both Yan Yan and Shen Xi felt they were wronged.

But in truth, the only truly aggrieved party was Yan Yan alone.

At the University of Melbourne, students can switch classes if they dislike the professor.

For every course, the first two weeks after enrollment are a trial period.

During these two weeks, you can drop the class for any reason, whether you find the professor’s teaching subpar or their appearance doesn’t fit your aesthetic. Whether it’s an elective or a required class, if necessary, you can ask other professors teaching the same course to take you in.

Except for a few classes with only one available professor, most courses allow for mutual selection between students and professors.

Plus, even if the "good professors’ " classes are full in the enrollment system, it’s not impossible to attend their classes and afterwards request to be manually added to the system.

But Shen Xi, who was preoccupied with romance at the time, completely skipped school during the trial period, taking advantage of the fact that professors don’t take attendance then.

Shen Xi’s grades were actually not bad, and had she not infuriated the strict new professor with her attendance issues, she shouldn’t have failed at all.