So I am writing this to you all in confidence that you will not judge me for this past weeks performance. Ha but really orientation week was an incredible time with lots of drinking, socializing, and of course partying. I think the last time I updated you on my life, O-Week had just begun, and now it is just coming to an end. I have decided to give up drinking for at least a week after all the chaotic things that happened previously. The toga party was an amazing time with everyone dressed up in their costumes :) It was really neat to see the creativity of some individuals. The pre-party was a good time with all the R.A.s shouting out, "FRESHERS, DRINK!" I don't really think that happens in America, and if it does, I'm not aware of it. We headed to the Uni Club after the party at our hall and it was a hot mess in there. There was lots of dancing, sweating from the heat, and singing in the bar. There were over 2,000 people that came out for this event. It is the biggest event of the year so of course I had to be there. The club has an inside and an outside bar with plenty of space for everyone. The "sex police" were there giving out free condoms to the public. There were two ladies that dressed up in nurses costumes and handed out condoms to everyone they saw, it was quite odd but humorous. That night was lots of fun, to say the least.
I woke up early the next morning to go to the Reef HQ (the largest aquarium in Queensland). As JCU students, we were able to go behind the scenes which was incredible! They took us on a tour of the entire aquarium and showed us how they care for all the animals. We got to see a 2 week old leopard shark and some rehabiliation centers for the sea turtles they have at the aquarium. It was a very good day! After Toga night, no one was really up for anything so I had a movie night with some of the girls I have met here. Leesa, Hannah, and Mel are my three close Aussie friends I have met. We all got together on Wednesday night and we watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and it was a good time to just relax and hang out with the girls. I knew I needed the relaxation in preparation for the next night's activities, Fresher Keg.
Fresher Keg started at 2:30 in the afternoon on Thursday and lasted until 7:30 at night. It was a ridiculous event with ridiculous amounts of alcohol. It was held at the Ross Island Hotel downtown and it was all inclusive. It was an outdoor bar with plenty of picnic tables and large bins of "goon juice" or cheap wine mixed with other sorts of alcohol. It is comparable to our "jungle juice." Anyway, they underestimated how much "us freshers" could drink so they had to make more goon for us half way through the afternoon. The R.A.s would come around to the tables and clip clothes pins to our shirts and count down from 10 to see if we would notice. If you didn't notice, you had to "skull" or chug your drink. At about 5 pm, they had us form a circle around 4 bins of goon and it was called "The ring of fire." I knew it didn't sound good but we all had to participate. The ring of fire consisted of all the freshers walking around in a circle with a cup in our hands and when we reached a bin, we had to fill our drink and have it skulled by the time we got to the next one. We are talking about chugging a drink in about 6 steps. There were plenty of people puking and all the R.A.s thought it was entertaining. I made it through two rounds and quit. It was a fun time, but too much for me. After that everyone was good and drunk and ready for the bus ride home.
When we returned to campus, I was ready for bed at around 8 pm. It was the most outrageous event I have ever experienced, but it is tradition around here to make freshers drink until they cannot drink anymore. They are surprised if you make it through the week. Now I know what they mean.
The next night of O-Week, which was Friday, was our graduation! It is called "Op-Shop Formal" where you pick out the craziest close from discount stores and wear them to the event. I brought a shirt with me that had an octopus on it and I found 8 legs that you attach to yourself, so I became a creature! Some of the guys had 80's dresses on with high heels and others had the most random pieces of clothing I have ever seen. It was held just outside our dining hall with a "sausage sizzle" and free beer and wine. At the end of the night, they gathered all the freshers together for a photo and of course as soon as they snapped the picture, all the R.A.s dumped flour and water all over us. It was humiliating and hilarious at the same time. One of the other halls got fish guts dumped all over them so I wasn't that angry about getting floured. That concludes my O-Week experience and I am so glad I survived.
I will be adding pictures for all who want to see my costumes for the week! Until next time, G'Day!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
It's Only the Beginning...O-Week Begins
Hello Again from Australia!
Being here at Uni is awesome! I have gotten to meet many new international students as well as Australians that have been here for years and even some freshers (freshmen). This weekend has been crazy seeing all new sites and dealing with the stresses of getting adjusted. To top it all off, we had a meeting this morning to inform us "freshers" about Orientation Week or O-Week as they call it. There are many things that go on during this first week to get us all familiar with our new surroundings and colleges (dorms).
We have to wear these yellow bandannas around our heads to let everyone know that we are new at the school. The underage people get to wear black bandannas and all of them have our names printed on them so you can't miss us. It is all fun and games until Monday, then it gets serious. Some of the other colleges have to wear pink panties and bibs around their heads. I only have to wear mine around our college but some have to wear them into town, to clubs, etc. If you forget, they make sure you don't forget by permanently writing it on your forehead!
Anyway, on the fun side, we get to have an all inclusive all you can drink party basically every day of the week. They take us to a hotel and provide drinks and games etc. The bars and clubs down town sponsor events for us and they are usually keggers or jungle juice parties. Their only motive here is to get as drunk as you can until you are sloppy. We will see how that works out.
Each college (dorm) competes against each other and there are rivalries between some. I believe we are the most laid back about things like that, which is more my style anyway. We get to go to a toga party at the Uni pub and all week there are sporting events, barbies (barbeques), and parties, of course. They are surprised if you survive the week.
Besides all that jazz, we have been exploring the land around the university. Here at Townsville, we are surrounded by rainforests and mountains and it is absolutely beautiful and green. There hasn't been much rain here lately so it has allowed us to go out and see many things around the city. Yesterday we walked three miles to The Lagoons, it is a YMCA type deal with 3 different pools overlooking the river and waterfalls. It was a really good place to cool off and we got to see a lot of different places along the way.
Getting around here isn't too hard and we take the bus anywhere we need to go. We are students so we get a 50% discount which is nice to have when you are going multiple places everyday by bus. Once we meet people here with cars, it will be much easier to get around because that is the fastest mode of transportation.
Next week amongst the vigorous activities of orientation, I hope to get to Magnectic Island which is an island right off the coast of Townsville with many gorgeous beaches and good diving, or so I hear. We are also doing a bus tour of Townsville which is organized through the school which could give all of us a really good opportunity to see what is in close vicinity to us. Last but not least, there is a behind the scenes tour of the biggest aquarium in Queensland "Reef HQ", which happens to be in my town! It is $20 AUD and we get to see the sea turtle sanctuary and the different exhibits up close and personal!
That is what my week consists of so I hope to see updating it after my orientation. If I survive, that is. Love you all. Talk at you later. I am always on skype so come and chat! Cheers.
Being here at Uni is awesome! I have gotten to meet many new international students as well as Australians that have been here for years and even some freshers (freshmen). This weekend has been crazy seeing all new sites and dealing with the stresses of getting adjusted. To top it all off, we had a meeting this morning to inform us "freshers" about Orientation Week or O-Week as they call it. There are many things that go on during this first week to get us all familiar with our new surroundings and colleges (dorms).
We have to wear these yellow bandannas around our heads to let everyone know that we are new at the school. The underage people get to wear black bandannas and all of them have our names printed on them so you can't miss us. It is all fun and games until Monday, then it gets serious. Some of the other colleges have to wear pink panties and bibs around their heads. I only have to wear mine around our college but some have to wear them into town, to clubs, etc. If you forget, they make sure you don't forget by permanently writing it on your forehead!
Anyway, on the fun side, we get to have an all inclusive all you can drink party basically every day of the week. They take us to a hotel and provide drinks and games etc. The bars and clubs down town sponsor events for us and they are usually keggers or jungle juice parties. Their only motive here is to get as drunk as you can until you are sloppy. We will see how that works out.
Each college (dorm) competes against each other and there are rivalries between some. I believe we are the most laid back about things like that, which is more my style anyway. We get to go to a toga party at the Uni pub and all week there are sporting events, barbies (barbeques), and parties, of course. They are surprised if you survive the week.
Besides all that jazz, we have been exploring the land around the university. Here at Townsville, we are surrounded by rainforests and mountains and it is absolutely beautiful and green. There hasn't been much rain here lately so it has allowed us to go out and see many things around the city. Yesterday we walked three miles to The Lagoons, it is a YMCA type deal with 3 different pools overlooking the river and waterfalls. It was a really good place to cool off and we got to see a lot of different places along the way.
Getting around here isn't too hard and we take the bus anywhere we need to go. We are students so we get a 50% discount which is nice to have when you are going multiple places everyday by bus. Once we meet people here with cars, it will be much easier to get around because that is the fastest mode of transportation.
Next week amongst the vigorous activities of orientation, I hope to get to Magnectic Island which is an island right off the coast of Townsville with many gorgeous beaches and good diving, or so I hear. We are also doing a bus tour of Townsville which is organized through the school which could give all of us a really good opportunity to see what is in close vicinity to us. Last but not least, there is a behind the scenes tour of the biggest aquarium in Queensland "Reef HQ", which happens to be in my town! It is $20 AUD and we get to see the sea turtle sanctuary and the different exhibits up close and personal!
That is what my week consists of so I hope to see updating it after my orientation. If I survive, that is. Love you all. Talk at you later. I am always on skype so come and chat! Cheers.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Arrival Down Under Feb '09
G'Day! I finally made it to the land down under, the beautiful Queensland, Australia! Travel was a bit of a task seeing that my carry on was more the size of a checked bag and ended up costing me $106 USD to get to my destination. Walking through the airports with 5 months of luggage is not a fun thing, I can tell you that much. Through the delays and mishaps, I made it here all in one piece and as happy as I could ever be.
It all started when we arrived there Monday morning Australia time and got to our appropriate hostel. We spent three days in Cairns for our Program Introduction through Australearn. We had leaders that helped us with the transition and they gave us heaps of useful information. Anywho, we all filed into our rooms and settled in for the next few nights.
We got up early the next morning and went to a place called Rainforestation which was a wildlife park with all the indigenous Australian animals/plants. We got to hold a koala bear and feed kangaroos and wallabees. There were crocodiles, dingos, rainforest, and boomerang throwing of course! There was much to see in so little time. On Wednesday we went to the long awaited destination-the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). I am going to have a hard time describing what it was like to people who have never dove before, but basically it was better than the best playground you have ever seen. So many things to see and watch, it was just incredible. The pictures to the right are from the boat trip and we had a blast! We had to wear the stinger suits because jellies are a huge problem in Northern Australia. They have the kind that will kill you if you aren't careful, it's nothing to mess around with. I took plenty of pictures that I hope to upload soon and I can't wait for you all to see them!
We departed the next day to make our 4 hour bus journey to our campus in Townsville, QLD. When we arrived, we were escorted to our rooms by our R.A.s and then we toured the campus to see what was around. I am at James Cook University and the campus is fairly large. It is going to be a good 10-15 walk to class every morning but I am okay with it. I have wallabees on my campus!! Getting around is either by bus or taxi which is different from what I am used to. Culture shock hasn't really hit me because everyone is super nice here and they make you feel at home. They love to make fun of Americans because they love us so much, it's the truth. I have a new room mate and his name is Jason. I am living in a shared apartment with two other people and we each have our own rooms. He is from around here and I can't wait to learn more about the area and what he does at JCU. He has already taught me a little bit about cricket and rugby! There should be a girl moving in soon and I cannot wait to meet her! That is about all I can think to say right now. This is a rough post I know, but I am working to improve my writing. I am rushing to get this out as it is. Love you all. Til next time.
It all started when we arrived there Monday morning Australia time and got to our appropriate hostel. We spent three days in Cairns for our Program Introduction through Australearn. We had leaders that helped us with the transition and they gave us heaps of useful information. Anywho, we all filed into our rooms and settled in for the next few nights.
We got up early the next morning and went to a place called Rainforestation which was a wildlife park with all the indigenous Australian animals/plants. We got to hold a koala bear and feed kangaroos and wallabees. There were crocodiles, dingos, rainforest, and boomerang throwing of course! There was much to see in so little time. On Wednesday we went to the long awaited destination-the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). I am going to have a hard time describing what it was like to people who have never dove before, but basically it was better than the best playground you have ever seen. So many things to see and watch, it was just incredible. The pictures to the right are from the boat trip and we had a blast! We had to wear the stinger suits because jellies are a huge problem in Northern Australia. They have the kind that will kill you if you aren't careful, it's nothing to mess around with. I took plenty of pictures that I hope to upload soon and I can't wait for you all to see them!
We departed the next day to make our 4 hour bus journey to our campus in Townsville, QLD. When we arrived, we were escorted to our rooms by our R.A.s and then we toured the campus to see what was around. I am at James Cook University and the campus is fairly large. It is going to be a good 10-15 walk to class every morning but I am okay with it. I have wallabees on my campus!! Getting around is either by bus or taxi which is different from what I am used to. Culture shock hasn't really hit me because everyone is super nice here and they make you feel at home. They love to make fun of Americans because they love us so much, it's the truth. I have a new room mate and his name is Jason. I am living in a shared apartment with two other people and we each have our own rooms. He is from around here and I can't wait to learn more about the area and what he does at JCU. He has already taught me a little bit about cricket and rugby! There should be a girl moving in soon and I cannot wait to meet her! That is about all I can think to say right now. This is a rough post I know, but I am working to improve my writing. I am rushing to get this out as it is. Love you all. Til next time.
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