New Experiences

I have just realized that I haven't posted in a LONG time, so here it is.  This is a summary of orientation week, as well as the first day of class.  New experiences is a good way to put it because that is exactly what has been happening.

This post will start with our travel to school.  On Feb. 21st, we woke up at the awesome hour of 2:00 in the morning to catch the shuttle bus to the airport.  It was REALLY early.  Our shuttle bus left at 2:55 and we got to the airport around 3:30 or so, but the check-in didn't open until 4:00.  So we sat around and waited.  Our first flight left at 6:00 from Cairns and we flew to Sydney.  Sydney's airport was really delayed for some reason, so our next flight was delayed an hour or so.  We were freaked out the entire time because our connecting flight was going to leave before we got there, but they kept reassuring us that we would make the connection.  So, we took advantage of the free internet and posted our pictures and such.  This flight was from Sydney to Melbourne, connecting to Perth.  We realized that they were holding the plane in Melbourne because 30+ people were connecting, and that would be more of a headache to reschedule everyone than to delay a plane 30 minutes.  We were happy.  We finally landed in Perth, and made it to school around 6pm or so.  We settled in, finally unpacking our suitcases, and checked everything out.  We went to buy groceries and such.

Orientation week (the rest of that week) wasn't too exciting.  We had a lot of different talks about academics and the like, which I had heard most of before.  Friday was my birthday, which was fine, nothing too crazy.  There was an Amazing Race type thing in the morning, which was fun, but super exhausting.  We probably walked like 4 miles during the whole thing, mostly in the 99 degree sunny areas.  I drank like 48 oz of water in 6 hours.  My group came in third, so we apparently are getting bookstore vouchers or something.  I had a big headache from the sun/exhaustion, so I wasn't really in the mood to do much celebrating.  We did go out for a little while though.  Drinks are way too expensive here, and I haven't really found anything I would buy because I liked it.  So I haven't done any more of that.  The weekend was filled with relaxing and such.

Monday was the first day of class (finally).  I had Eschatology at 9:30, which is a theology class about the afterlife and such.  I am pretty excited for the subject matter, although my professor (called lecturer here) was discussing a chapter I hadn't read yet because I didn't know we had to read it/where to get the reading.  I caught up that afternoon and remembered lots of what he said, which was good.  I didn't have any more class that day.

Today is Tuesday, and I don't have class on Tuesdays, yay!  Unfortunately, my day started at 7:15 or so this morning with a lovely fire drill.  Our building all got out really fast, so thank God we won't have to do it again.  It was kind of a buzzkill because I was planning on sleeping in, which I ended up doing.  I woke up and went to the bookstore to get more books.  Then I went to the library to work on some homework for Thursday's class, and am now just hanging out, writing this blog.

Some things I have noticed that are different here (good and bad):
-Rice Krispies are called Rice Bubbles
-Refrigeration is weird here.  Amanda and I store our stuff in a walk-in color type thing, but it is never very cold.  Thus, things get moldy fast and gross fast.  We have decided not to buy milk anymore because you can't drink it before it spoils.  You have to put lots of things in the fridge so they don't get moldy/melt, like bread and chocolate.
-Cockroaches will invade the kitchen if it isn't clean, so someone has kitchen duty every night to make sure no food is left out.
-Everything is more expensive except college.  Tuition at the school we are at is like 5 grand at the most; not sure of the exact number.  Everyone here basically lives at home and comes here during the day.
-They start uni (college) here at 17/18 years old, and it is only for 3 years.  Lots of people here are thus younger than our group, which is 20/21.
-The library is louder than Clemens, which I didn't think was possible.  There are quiet study rooms, but I haven't tried them yet.  Amanda said they aren't much better.
-The library is the place to hang in between classes since it has A/C.

I will post more of these as I think about them.

Coming up: The rest of week 1 classes