It's a bit like Hogwarts.

This week here at uni is O-week. If you’re looking at this with a confused facial expression, let me explain. “This week here at college is orientation week.” Clearer? Good!

O-week is a fantabulous 5 day, well, week with orientation sessions, events, and free stuff. There are also parties every night. Yesterday we kicked it off with a welcoming session for international students that was three hours long. There were about 3,000 people there and they represented over 107 countries. As a study abroad/exchange student, I had two more sessions and most of the information I glazed over; a lot of it for me I already knew. Some of it I didn’t and that was helpful.

Today there were sessions on how to enrol in classes and academic advising. It said in the e-mails and pamphlets I was handed out that if you were comfortable with your classes/tutorials, then you did not need to attend this.

Instead of going to them, I decided to spend the morning figuring out where the HECK the State Library was. And I can proudly say I made it there! It’s about a seventeen-minute walk from my apartment, across from QPAC. I went right in and checked my backpack into the cloak room. Yes, Aussies say cloak room instead of coat room! IT IS AWESOME!!! I went to an exhibit on the second floor about Love and War during the World Wars. There was a lot of information on men and women that served in the army/navy/etc., marriages, lost loves, and mixed marriages as well. I learned that Americans came to Brisbane and the Aussies weren’t pleased; the American soldiers were dressed so super fly that the Australian soldiers felt that the Americans were stealing their ladies. There was also a battle called the Battle of Brisbane where they fought it out (they being the Aussies and Americans) in November of 1942.

Afterwards, I jumped on a bus to UQ (University of Queensland where I am studying), and found myself bombarded by people. I quickly made an appointment with the accommodations services and then decided to grab lunch.

Now grabbing lunch at UQ isn’t just a simple head to the dining hall like at Lesley. No…there are OPTIONS! Lots of them. There’s a food court, dining halls for each college (which is a residential dorm), and then various other stores around. I went to the food court and went to the Drunken Noodle and got egg noodles with chicken and spicy Thai sauce. I ended up sitting next to a random girl, whom I began to have a conversation with. I never caught her name, but we quickly bonded over the fact we were foreigners (she’s from Norway) AND Writing/Literature majors. I was totally stunned to find someone else with my area of study (I was the only one in my Australearn group that was a Liberal Arts major). UQ is one of the top research universities in Australia and around the world, so it is perfect for a science major. Which is...not me. At all. So finding someone in the same area of study as me is unusual. Our faculty (Arts) is one of the smallest on campus!

I then took photos of the Great Court, which is this awesome space of land at school. Well, you can see for yourself... It’s not exactly Hogwarts, but its sure close enough.

 

 
 I also applied for "casual work" at uni, which just means I applied for a job on campus. I said that I wanted to work at the library and then when they asked for any other information I'd like to share, I wrote a paragraph on how I am determined to get my Master's in Library Science and how I believe that a job at the library would help me be able to begin this dream. (The $14 minimum wage would not hurt either!) No word yet, but who knows. :-)

This next picture is an example of the hazing that's going on. That's right, hazing. At uni, hazing is totally normal, especially if you're a fresher (freshman) and live in a college. For example, the women's college has the girls wearing polos, blue shorts and matching hats the entire day. The picture to the side shows Emmanuel College's hazing where they are made to wear these construction hats with nicknames on them. If you are caught without your hat, your nickname is written on your forehead in permanent marker. On the first two days, they were woken up at 5 am and made to run around screaming weird sayings and then made to put your head to the ground. The people from my AustraLearn program who ended up in colleges at UQ have to deal with this. It lasts all week since it is part of their college O-week.

I also stopped in the uni's lolly shop. It was heaven. Seriously...I think my dentist should be worried for my teeth. (Kidding!) A lolly shop if you couldn't guess is a candy shop. I grabbed a bag and took what I thought was the most Aussie candy. So no M&M's or Skittles in my bag. I took strawberry clouds, pineapples, cola gummies, English memories (whatever that is) and white chocolate/raspberry bullets. I can't wait to snack on them later! :-)

Tomorrow is Market Day and I am very excited. Market Day is probably the coolest/best day of O-week, where all the clubs and societies come out. I hear there is a lot of free stuff and some neat clubs to check out and join. I'm pumped to see all the clubs, and join a few. Unlike schools back home, there is a membership fee for each club/society.

Alright I'm off to finish my book and realize I need to buy textbooks for next week because classes start. Ugh and I was just beginning to love my summer holiday here. Ah well...I guess I should've expected work to begin eventually. ;-)