O-Week!!!

Monday 19 July, 2010
Monday was the first day of semester 2 orientation! Today was a chilly day. Way colder than in Cairns! We started off with a mass informational meeting that lasted for 4 hours. The lady that was running it was funny; she made us stand up and jump and stretch! Afterwards we headed off into random groups for our pre-amazing orientation race meeting. I was a member of the wolves! A-whoo! After a barbeque we were free to do our own thing. I went to get my student ID card. I tried to get it earlier but I forgot to bring my passport which is a 100 point form of ID. We got some free stuff at the barbeque, none of it was useful, but hey its stuff right? After getting our ID s we tried to settle our health insurance cards, but no one was where they were supposed to be. Lovely. So I just went back to my block in International House (4) and hung out until dinner. Dinner is in Edwards Hall or Teds (Aussies have nicknames for everything!) Now I am self-catered but most of IH gets five dinners per week. Our house (block) is set up with a full kitchen, living/dining area in the middle and 5 rooms on each side in 420. 410 only has five rooms. That night was the international house pyjama party. There was a lot of alcohol and a really loud DJ. My ears were ringing for days afterwards! The party was pretty good until I got goon sprayed all over me and in my eye! Rhiannon (housemate), Holly and I left after that. People were too drunk and it was late and we had an early day!
Tuesday was the day of the Amazing Orientation Race. Our groups (go wolves!) followed clues across campus and across town. We solved puzzles and riddles and had a lot of fun learning about our area. The day was really long and exhausting but after 6 hours and a 2nd place finish, my day was not over yet! I had the IH mystery dinner to go to. We got all dressed up (I wore my new brown and turquoise polka dot dress) and got on a bus with no idea where we were headed. (Well obviously some people knew otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten there!) It was the funniest bus ride of my life! All the Aussies have fantastic songs to sing on rides that make you laugh ‘til your sides hurt! The destination of our mystery turned out to be a lake. The dinner was on a riverboat that took us around the lake. The dinner was actually pretty good and I got watermelon for dessert and lots of good company making it a good night!
Wednesday I blew off the seminars and info tours and just registered for classes and looked at books with Beth and Fion. We checked out the library, hit up the free barbeque, then went to a Uni sports info meeting. Turned out to be a pretty chill day. I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I didn’t go to the rubix cube party with everyone.
Thursday was a free day so I just hung out with Holly and Victoria. Met Colin, Andrew, Tim, Jono (Aussie name thing o), and Emma. We chilled in the hallway and talked for a long time. Of course there were some gymnastics demos outside.
Friday was the dolphin watching and petting zoo adventure! Called Colin to make sure that he was ready and headed over to the CT building to wait for the bus. It was about a 40 min ride tothe marina. Colin and I talked pretty much the whole way there. Our bus was the first to arrive so while we waited we occupied a small playground and ate bikkies. In the water there were two plastic orcas. The joke of the morning was that we paid to see the little orcas. The other bus arrived and we boarded the boat. I preferred the upper deck of the two viewing decks because I could more easily see both sides. It took a lot of patience and dealing with some rain and heavy wind, but eventually we saw some dolphins! They didn’t jump but it was still cool to see them in their natural environment. The view of the bay was incredible. The captain showed us this really cool cave inside the cliffs on the far edge of the bay and ten some islands. It was all so gorgeous I was regretting not having my camera. We were on our own for lunch. My salad was drowned in balsamic vinegar, but it was food! When we got to the farm the people gave us a bag of food to feed any of the animals there. There were lots of goats and sheep (cute babies), ducks, some fugly chickens, calves, bulls, camels, koalas, wombats, a horse, dingos, kangaroos, birds, emus, ostriches, wallabies <3, and my favourite next to wallabies was the reptile house. There were so many boas, lizards, and way cool/creepy reptiles. Colin and I were the last ones to the bus, we almost had our own little adventure! Lol. I slept pretty much the whle way back. It was a really great day. I was happy that I chose to wake up that morning! 
Saturday and Sunday were just lazy days. Classes start on Monday!