Ok, so I've been really awful keeping y'all up to date these past few days. As the locals says, it's been hectic. I had quite a bit of blog filler drafted, but my computer restarted so now I'm going to have to rewrite most of what I had.
The First Few Days:
After I arrived on Sunday and I orientation. It was fun. I met a lot of people from all over the world. It was like being a freshman again, especially because my freshman orientation was with all the international students, everyone was so giddy and excited. Numbers were being swapped left and right. Of course, I was late to the first orientation session. It doesn't matter what country/continent I'm in, I can't get to places on time. Anyhow, they gave a bunch of boring lectures about safety, the social scene, being an academic and learning how to adjust in a foreign country. I fell asleep for part of the safety lecture, but I wasn't the only one. In one of the more interesting segments of orientation, the speaker announced that they were going to perform traditional aboriginal dances for us. It was pretty funny and a great time, but it was a little disappointing. I was expecting to see at least one aboriginal/native Australian in the dancing group, but it was just a bunch of white students. I have to give them props though, I don't think I would have the chutzbah to stand up in front of a huge crowd, in what was basically a loin cloth, and thrash about on stage. After the dancing, the next lecturer called out each country that was represented in the crowd and called upon the students to stand up at the announcement of their home country. It was really exciting to see how people from all over the world came here, to Sydney, but there was a bit of disappointment and embarrasment at the announcement of America. Out of what I believe was 600 or so international students, 250 of them stood up when the orientation leader called out "THE UNITED STATES." I thought I was going to be special, but sadly I'm one of many. However, in the grand scheme of things, I guess 250 students isn't much in comparison to the 50,000 students enrolled here at Uni Sydney. The next day of orientation was less tiring, it was much shorter non-coincidentally, we enrolled in our classes and finalized our schedules. It was really annoying to enroll on paper. Who uses paper anymore? I mean really.
The First Few Nights:
So my first night in Sydney I decided to go Lord of the Rings all over the place (Translation: I got lost and walked for hours and hours with no end in sight). It was great to see the city. My hostel was right in the middle of Chinatown, which is a pretty interesting place, and was right by Darling Harbour which is beautiful and way too cold this time of year. In fact, all of Sydney is way too damn cold. Sydney needs to stop with all this winter non-sense. It's just not cool bro, not cool at all. Anyhow, on the second night I was chilling at MaCkers aka (MickeyD's/McDonald's) trying to use some free internets, but alas it was slower than molasses so I got up and left. I was a little discouraged as it was freezing outside and slow internet can drive any sane person bonkers, but out of the corner of my eye I recognized a bar that I had seen on facebook. Some of the international students had posted on facebook that they were going to a bar named Scubar because there was Crab racing**. So I decided, what the hell, it's legal and I'm thirsty so why not go and buy a jug of beer. SO I BOUGHT A JUG OF BEER and it was pretty cool, but then I realized I didn't recognize anyone at the bar and in what could have been a case of Awkward Aaron drinking Alone awkwardly, I asked a group of guys sitting at a booth if I could drink with them. It's quite amazing how far a jug of beer will go in regards to making friends. They thought it was preposterous that I would have to ask if they wanted to drink let alone if I could sit with them, but they obliged a dumb American and we got to talking and had a great time. The four of them, (I know I didn't mention it, but there were four) were really nice and have become the first new friends that I made down under. I guess that makes them....first mates, BA'ZING!
The next week flew by as I searched for housing, explored the area and went out with my first mates. It's been difficult to find time to write for the blog as I had no internet in the hostel, but no more excuses. I'm back in the game. Comment on these posts if you have any questions or want me to write about anything, or just have some haterade to share as haterade makes the internets go round.
**Crab Racing= Step 1 Bet a dollar on a hermit crab that's numbered Step 2: Give said hermit crab an extremely inappropriate name Step 3: Yell and cheer on your hermit crab as the bucket placing the hermit crabs in the middle of the round table is removed. The winning crab is the one that reaches the end of the table first.
No comments:
Post a Comment