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.