Aussie term of the
day…
“That’s OK:” kind of means “Yeah, no problem” or sometimes “You’re Welcome”
For example: One of my housemates wrote me a belated birthday card and
when I thanked her for it she responded with “That’s OK.”
Monday was super laid back though I did get up super
early before my alarm again… Thank you jet lag! I had a makeup international
student welcome session planned for later in the afternoon in lieu of the one I
missed on Friday and one of my housemates offered to take me with her to campus
around noon. The welcome session was oh so fun, as those sorts of things
usually are, and I also got to try and figure out what my upcoming class
schedule looked like. I will tell you
now that the online format for that is one of the most confusing and daunting
things you will ever look at when you first see it. Seriously, it’s just a gigantic blot of blue!
They do things a little bit differently here in that instead of having you
register for just one lab (or as they would call them “tutorials” and “practicals”)
they display ALL of them on your schedule and at first you think “I have to go
to ALL of those??!” No, no you don’t. But they are a little bit more lenient on
which ones you decide to go to. They may
make you choose one on particular that you would prefer to go to later on but I
think in general it’s up to you which one want to you take in any given day.
I ended off the day with going to one of the “Northreach Alternative”
activities put on by the churches college group during O-week (i.e. “Orientation
Week”). Another thing about Australia is that they like to shorten
everything. For example, they never say “University,”
it’s always “Uni.” We (several house mates and I) drove together and did get a
tad lost along the way… I guess you could say we took the long scenic route
around Townsville. Twice… We finally did make it to the pool party where we
played in the outdoor pool a while then made it under the covered pool and watched
Nacho Libre. Golden J.
Oh and sometime around late afternoon the rains came
back, with a vengeance! Holy cow was the rain coming down! Torrential downpour!
Seriously. One thing I noticed as well
is that the rain was WARM! I was honestly not expecting that. I walked outside into one of the puddles
after one of the downpours had ended and it was shockingly warm. You really never get cold unless you walk inside and into air conditioning. Figure that one out.
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| Esther jumping out to play in the rain! |
That brings me into today and the rains are still here.
They were dumping and drenching all night long, sometimes violently so, and
they continued on with consistent strength throughout the day.
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| Blessing and I hopping out during one of the not-so-torrential spells |
I had my “faculty
orientation” today (basically for your major or field of study) which normally is geared towards first years to get them
introduced to campus but it’s really helpful for internationals as well. You usually are in a group of people in your
same major and are taken through some of the common lectures halls and rooms
you will likely be seeing during your studies.
We did a number of “activities” as well such as a Biology Bingo in one
classroom and an introduction into Physics with some awesome experiments thrown
in, in another.
 |
| Playing a game of "Dodge the Raindrops" |
After the provided lunch I headed back to the student
center to try and resolve a schedule clash I had found while typing out my
schedule last night then headed to the library to get an ID card. I got a lovely… very lovely… picture for my
ID card (thank you rain and humidity) and called my ride to let him know I was
finished for the day.
Again the day was ended with another fantastic activity
put on by the college group. They are
doing an activity every day this week in response to O-week activities to give
students an alternative option to the sometimes questionable activities that
can transpire on campus. Today was a Mexican style dinner and fun night at
Cactus Jacks, a popular restaurant no two minutes away from the student lodge I
am staying at.
It was crazy fun really,
the guy leading everything was insane and hilarious and he always frolicked
about the room making us get up and dance when we won a game or speaking in the
most ridiculous Mexican accent you can think of.
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| I would highly recommend those chocolate nachos! Delicious! Then again, you can never go wrong with chocolate :) |
We did a lot of really silly
games like passing a jelly bean all the way up and down the table using only a
straw or being given a small cup of Jell-O with a gummy worm in the bottom and
the goal was to get everything out, but then return the gummy worm to the cup
unharmed and in one piece. That was a
whole lot harder than it sounds! And of course they had to bring out a piñata…
P.S. If you order "lemonade" in Australia, what you will get is basically a Sprite. If you want a "Lemonade" lemonade then you ask for a Solo, which will sometimes be called a Lift. Basically, you go up and say "I would like to order a Solo which I know is sometimes called a Lift which tastes like a Lemonade which is really in fact a Sprite." Wrap your head around that one!
And in case you wanted to hear the rain and some of the
night sounds I have been hearing outside my window these past nights...
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