Soo much has happened in the last week that my head is a blur! With only two days left till uni is starting I realized I had neglected to tell everyone my tales of life down under and my head is bursting at the seems! I need to clear it out for the bucket loads of information that is going to be thrown at me straight away monday morning at 8am!
So i believe I left off on Thursday 07 Feb 2013! (they write all of their dates with day/month/year and its the worst thing I've had to adjust to so far! - rough life right?) :
Murdoch Uni Village Orientation -
was 2 hours of 200 sweaty college kids stuffed into a rec room! Luckily, Brian and I got there first and we were able to pick our seats. THEY WERE THE BEST! Couch like seats at the back directly in front of a window! it looked so miserable for everyone else that was cramped like 4 rows of like 40 across! I would have HATED to be in the middle of a row! After all the legal safety talks were covered, RA's were met, and staff was introduced, It was noon! Burn-fest! However, we were broken up into groups based on our apartment numbers and each group then further broke into two teams (A LOT OF TEAMS!!). We were now a team of the Amazing Race - Campus dorm style! Prize: A FREE DINNER!!! WOOT!! :D Nothing better than free food! each team got a different clue, where we had to either do a task or had a question to answer. We ran from the far back left corner of the village to bring a trolley back to where they belong at front of campus, where we had to cross over to north campus where two team members had to sink a ball on a pool table into the cross table corner pocket. Brian and another girl got hole-in-ones! Then across 4 hectares back the basketball course where we had to make three free-throw shots. I was one of them! YAY! it didn't help that the backboard was crooked! Off to the TV/Study Building for one teammate to do a task on the computer, next was the res office to say a bus number that goes from Fremantle to Murdoch Uni, off to bush court on the main campus, then to the food court to answer a question, back to the res office to take a group photo, then I think we had to run back to the rec room. WE CAME IN SECOND! gahh sooo close! Oh well, everyone got free subway!! GO VEGGIE SANDWICH OPTIONS!! However, there was no yellow mustard in sight! AHH BRIAN AND I LOOOOOVE MUSTARD!! After running around forEVER during mid-day, our new friends and us went to the village pool for a swim. SWIMMING FOR 4 HOURS GETS YOU SUNBURNT SOOOO BAD!! Tip for future - always get out and apply more sunblock! We met a really cool aussie girl, a LOT of wisconsinites, and a lot of other Americans. We played pool volleyball with a Dutch guy and a German guy! We met a lot of amazing people with really cool backgrounds and stayed at the pool for hours just mingling! then we had dinner and bed!
Friday 08 Feb: International Orientation Day -
Today all the international students (and brian) hopped on busses and went off to Curtin University in Freo (COULD SEE THE OCEAN) in order to use their auditorium because ours was in its last stages of remodeling! It was a long day, but necessary! It also didn't help that one of the busses got lost and dropped off the international students and student volunteers at the wrong location. ha. We had a really awesome Aussie professor, that has spent the last 10 years teaching in Japan, tell us about cultural things and most importantly on how to speak and understand the lazy & super speedy Aussie-talk! We had awesome veggie lasagna lunch and then sandwiches for seconds because all lot of other students took the first bus back to campus so everyone who lingered longer got more food. They also had roast beef and roast pork sandwiches available. This is also where we got our phones and SIM cards that we ordered before we left home. We were lucky enough to get free pens, water bottles, highlighters, and candy from banks trying to get our business. After the day was done you could follow student volunteers into Freo, but you had to pay for your own way back to campus (Simply hop on the 99 bus). Brian and I were SUPER sunburnt from the day before and just plain heat exhausted and decided to hop on the 2nd buss that arrived instead of going to Freo! Great choice because we met some really cool student volunteers and this one volunteer from Singapore in her 2nd year here at Murdoch was getting a kick out of learning about America. We also go to know a cute couple from Florida who are also going into a medical profession! They are just studying abroad for one semester and not doing their whole medical degree here. Brian, the couple, and I all went to the student center after unloading from the bus and sat for almost 2 hours just to get tickets for the school trip to Caversham Wildlife Park on the following friday. We sat for so long because the lady at the counter was soo unhelpful that she just said "grab a ticket, get a number, and wait to be called". So off to the kiosk we go and with the beautiful instructions we recieved we found out two hours later that we had indeed chose the wrong ticket type to see the cashier and we were actually waiting to see an academic advisor! After all was said and done, Brian and I got tickets to go on the outing to the Park. I think by this time we were off to have showers, dinner, a movie and past out really early!
Saturday - More International Student Orientation and FREE FOOD!
There was a pancake breakfast awaiting us at the lovely sleep in hour of 10am! and even if they were instant pancakes, they were amazing! We almost didn't get fed because they under estimated how many kids would want free breakfast! WHO TURNS DOWN A FREE BREAKFAST?! not any college kid that I know! haha After breakfast we went into Murdoch's finished auditorium and had talks on how to use transperth (public transport) and how to obtain a smartrider card so you get cheaper fare than paying for cash to the bus driver, next we had talks from the student guild which is the biggest and oldest student group on campus which has a lot of really amazing benefits, then there was a talk from the student group for post graduate students, someone from the city gave a talk on all the proposed plans of remodel for Perth and festivals that are coming up. We also had the financial aid lady speak to highlight visa breaches again for the kids that didn't catch the seriousness of it the day before. I think that is all and then there was an optional trip to the beach with school! Brian and I originally thought we were going to go because hey free trip to the beach plus free lunch, but instead we were still way to sunburnt to go and thinking of 200 international students all on the beach at the same time didn't sound like a good time! We like to go to the beach when it is less crowded! ha and the rest of the day is lost to brian and I! So much has happened that apparently we didn't do anything exciting enough to stick in our brains! haha
Sunday - Student Carnival
This was the first day that it was like 102 since 9am so we laid around most of the day because it was just too sticky to do anything. By 430 we decided to join in on the village carnival that was happening by Village North. They had a DJ, FREE FOOD, inflatable races, and a mechanical bull. Brian and I went straight for the free food and had a pretty decent tuna salad. Then we went back to get our swimsuits because most everyone was out of the pool and watching a soccer match. We swam for quite awhile, changed, and then played each other in a game of billiards! The balls are smaller here and its super weird!! haha and I almost beat brian, but then the 8ball went into the opposite pocket that I had called hahaha! I'm not very good at calling the pocket or shooting under pressure! Brian and I were trying to watch rugby and learn the rules while playing pool so after the game we just sat on the couches and tried to figure out rugby, but then the rugby game ended! AHH it was alright though because we started watching animal planet on a puppy mill rescue! LOVE IT! then a bunch of aussie's came in (one we knew already) and we made some more friends. Come to find out they were also going to our friend Em's apartment! Em is from New York and is AWESOME! we played some beer pong and made a LOT of new friends! There was really cool people there! and off to bed we went!!
More orientation stories to come! on next post! I am off to Freo to go to the BEACH!! :D
I will not say how much we have had to walk in the two and a half weeks we have been here but a picture of my almost healed blister that was just shy of 2 inches long should be a clue!!
