- A lot of people will say "How're you going?" instead of "How are you?"
It's been a busy week and a half! So once again, I'm going to write too much.
Last week was orientation week for the exchange students and new students just starting this semester. This week is RSO week. If anything, UC knows how to keep us entertained.
Last Monday kicked off orientation. Kelly, our program director I guess you could say, is really cool. She’s new to Canberra as well so it’s kind of funny when she’s like, Well… I don’t know where that is either. She brought us candy (like musk candy) and cookies (TimTams are delicious!) to give us our first taste of Australian junk food. In the exchange group are a lot of Americans from California to Jersey, 2 Canadians, 2 Swedes, 1 German, and 1 Mexican, and 3 girls that go to school in London but they’re from Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary. So we mingled and got to pick out stuff last semester’s exchange students left behind (I wish I would’ve known we were doing this before I bought so much!).
The best part about orientation is of course, all the free food.
Overall, group dynamics of the exchange students have been really good. We can all hang out together and most of us do. For the first week, we all stuck together partially because most of the Australians hadn't returned from winter break. Some of the new Australians hung out with us too, such as G, a girl from Melbourne who is really cool. For the first week, my floor was pretty quiet.
A lot of activities were planned in the residences for night as well.
Monday was movie night. Here's an interesting thing to note about these events. No matter who they're planned by or where in the residences they're held, alcohol is welcome. People will bring their own beer or some goon (boxed wine that everyone hates but drinks anyway) to share. You can drink in the shared kitchen, the common areas, the courtyard, doesn't matter. It's a little weird to get used to.
Tuesday night was $7 steak and trivia night at the Lighthouse (aka Lighty), the pub that's a two minute walk from where I live. The steak was good and the place was packed for trivia. My table beat the other group of exchange students and overall we didn't do too badly, despite the questions on Australian sports. Afterwards some of us went back to Q-Top (the floor across from mine. Mine is called P-top) and hung out with some of the Australians. At this point, I decided I'm glad I'm a girl because the Aussie guys made the American guys chug (or "skull" I think they say) a drink while they sang a song - the song I love, because they REALLY get into it:
Here's to ____, he's true blue! (ai!)
He's a piss pot through and through (ai!)
He's a bastard so they say
Tried to go to heaven but he went the other way
He went down, down, down, down... sip it, sip it...
Wednesday was ping pong night. Afterwards we went to the Lighty again because it's the big night for drinks and dancing. This week wasn't that big because of school not being in, but it was still fun, although the night ended early because everyone was pretty tired.
Thursday we went down to Parliament House with Kelly. We took pictures outside, wandered around inside (because you can just wander around - if parliament was in session we could have just walked in to listen and watch), and went on the roof to see the view. On the roof we started talking to some security guards. They think it's funny that the US has a state and city named Washington. They wondered if Minnesota has tornadoes. And then, upon asking us where we'd been, they got into a Sydney vs Melbourne debate - I'd been waiting for this! "Sydney's a pisshole." "Melbourne's weather doesn't make any sense. We call them Mexicans down there."
Friday night was a relatively quiet night playing the Battle of the Sexes board game (which was challenging, since it was the Australian version - we didn't think of that when we bought it) in the common room until Australia lost to Iraq in soccer and some guys told us our game was dumb and threw his beer all over it.
Saturday Jessica and I got up early and went to the National Museum. No one else made it early, but a bunch of people showed up later. We were probably looking at exhibits for about 5 hours. The map fools you into thinking the museum isn't that big, but there is a lot to look at and read! One of the coolest things was the introduction called “Circa” which is a spinning theatre that shows you really cool images of Australia and its people… moving screens and cool lighting and statues… I can’t really describe it, but it was great. It looked like an art student’s amazing thesis. The rest of the museum is really cool too. There’s a “Garden of Australian Dreams” with a huge map of Australia combined of different maps: road, vegetation, electoral, weather. Then there are different things around the garden to symbolize different things in the country and parts of its history. Throughout the museum there are sound clips, touch screens, and other things to see, hear, and touch. Plus the architecture of the building is awesome inside and out.
That night was more free food (and the pattern of not being provided with plates or utensils continued), and then boys and girls split up for a while until we rejoined to go into the city. We went to a club called Mooseheads, which was pretty fun. And I discovered something amazing - Australian guys dance! They don't just bob around - they actually dance AND they dance with each other.
Sunday – Rugby game! Rugby Union is what’s big, but now it’s Rugby League season (there’s a difference but I’m not sure what it is) and the Canberra stadium is a 20-30 minute walk away. Canberra Raiders vs Gold Coast Titans. We were in general admission, which wasn’t very crowded so it probably would have been better to sit elsewhere. I was the only one who knew anything about rugby, besides Madeleine who I think had just read the rules that day. We split into 2 groups to cheer for opposite teams – I was on the Raiders side (I was wearing my green!) and we won… 54 to 10 I think it was in the end. I had a great time, but I think everyone else got a little bored, between not knowing the rules and sitting in a quiet section. I definitely want to go again though.
Afterwards, it was free bbq at the Lighty, so we went down there. It’s our second home.
That night while waiting for a tv to free up to watch a movie, we got to witness our first AFL (Australian Rules football) game. Really, I didn't know what was going on. I'll have to figure it out because we're going to an AFL game in Melbourne in a month and a half.
After the movie, I expected to return home to a quiet floor - but no! There were actually people in the kitchen, hanging out! After the other guys from Mason left, I was the only non-Australian. That was the first time that happened here - about time!
The next day, was the first day of class. I'll talk about my classes another time. But I only have Monday and Tuesday classes. Helloooo 5 day weekend.
RSO (resident student org) Week began, which means there are events all week. Monday was guys and girls day, where each would go to different bars and meet up at one later. Some of the exchange students went, but I just hung out with some of the girls and people on my floor. I've now met too many people to remember the names of! Really, it's a friendly place. Even Kelly said that Canberra is friendlier than other parts of Australia.
Tuesday night's event was beer bingo at - surprise - the Lighty! The place was packed and the bingo callers were horribly slow, which led to boredom and the game ending after 5 rounds instead of 10, so people danced instead. I sat at a successful table - Amanda alone won 5 jugs (pitchers) of beer. It was a fun night because we kept saying we were gonna leave but then each time someone would say "Oh, just one more song!" Juan, the guy from Mexico, brought up salsa and how he should teach me to dance. And then he decided, why not now? So even though the music was Gwen Stefani and such, he attempted to teach me. If you know me, you know I can't salsa. But he spun me around so much and I managed not to fall over, so that's good! It was actually a lot of fun. And it made me think of Ivicic and our horrible attempts at trying to salsa - We'll master it one day! :)
Yesterday I sat around in my PJs since my weekend began. The day's event was a car rally where you have to drive around Canberra doing things. I don't know anyone who entered, but from what I heard of years past, it's a crazy event, involve things like nudity and "car rally" tattoos. NOO thank you.
And of course, the after party was at THE LIGHTY! (Have you noticed a trend?)
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