Day 25 – February 27, 2008

Woke up around 10:00 today, and Adam, Emily, and Katie came over to make breakfast in my kitchen. The four of us went through a whole dozen eggs. The biggest egg size I have seen here are extra large, and even those aren’t very big. We decided that we need to do this little group breakfast get-together more often, and brainstormed possible breakfast meals for the future. Afterwards, Adam, Emily, and I went into campus to talk with STA Travel about possibly getting a group rate on our tickets to Thailand. The woman working said that someone had already come in and talked to another employee about the trip, and this person was with our group, so we just left. I had some time before my class at 2:00, so I faxed my “Credit Only” form back to Miami and walked around the Campus Centre for a bit. Now, only two of my classes’ grades will transfer back to my GPA. I then went off to find my building and, naturally, got lost. The buildings here are differentiated by numbers instead of names, and it is common that two different “buildings” are connected, making it, in actuality, one building. The room numbers aren’t any easier, as they usually have both letters and numbers, such as SG05 or E2. I finally found my classroom and saw a guy I knew standing outside. He was also in the class, and after a few minutes, we went inside. Today’s class was an economics course called Globalisation and Economic Systems. It seemed pretty interesting, and UM doesn’t offer a similar course, so I decided to take it here. It is supposed to be about the different types of economic systems that countries in the world have and then the end is about globalisation (that’s how they spell it here.) I think it’s gonna be a interesting class; the professor seems really into the material, and I think he knows a lot about the subject. At one point at the beginning of the class, he had a slide of famous economists up and was asking the class to name them. He got to a picture of Milton Friedman, and only one kid in the class of over 100 students knew who he was. I was pretty surprised because if I were in an upper level economics class at Miami, I think most of the class would have recognized him. This economics class also seems different from back home because we won’t be using any numbers or graphs or anything. All my econ classes at UM relied heavily on numbers and math. Here are a few other differences I’ve noticed about school here: since you have both lectures and tutorials as part of classtime here, the time spent learning new material is only 1-2 hours per week, far less than in classes at home; in my 2 hour lectures, the professors give 10-15 minute breaks after about an hour, the only breaks I got in college classes at Miami were the 2.5 hour ones; professors pass out thick packets about 20 pages long, both front and back, as syllabi, my ones at Miami were 3 pages, max, and often only 1; the majority of the grades in most of the classes here come from a major essay and a final, there is minimal, if any, coursework throughout the semester aside from keeping up with the reading. We didn’t have the tutorial today, so I came back to my room earlier than a normal Wednesday, beginning my weekend. Having had all three of my classes, I decided to organize myself and figure out when all my things will be due. Howitt Hall sponsored a “Beach Party” in the banquet room of the dining hall, and they served us pasta and drinks for free. I finally had another opportunity to wear my Hawaiian shirt! After the dinner, I went down to the basement for a little, where a lot of people already were, and then came upstairs to pack. Tomorrow night I’m leaving for Sydney. I’m really looking forward to the trip because I haven’t been there yet, except for the one night I spent in the hotel near the airport three weeks ago from tonight. Tomorrow, I don’t have any class, so I am planning on going shopping during the day to buy some ridiculous costume to wear to the Mardi Gras Parade. I won’t be able to blog over the weekend again, but I should have some sweet pictures and stories when I get back on Monday.

Day 24 – February 26, 2008

I had to get up at 9:30 for class today. My 11:00 politics lecture on Tuesday is my earliest start, so that’s not too bad. I was a little bit lost on my way to the building, but I found someone I knew who was also in the same class, and she led me in the right direction. The class, Seeking a New World Order: Washington and World Politics, is the course I am most looking forward to taking while I am here. I think it will be really interesting to see another perspective on American foreign policy, since I have never really gotten the view of America from another country. Based on the introductory lecture, I think it will be a pretty good class and hopefully not too much American-bashing will take place. The tutorial for this class was cancelled for the first week, so my day would end a little earlier than usual. I knew a few people in the class, and afterwards, some of us went to lunch. There is a student-run Wholefoods restaurant upstairs in the Campus Centre, which is supposed to have some of the cheapest prices and healthiest food on campus. We went to try it, and it was pretty good and definitely cheaper than some other meals I have had here. Adam and I were scheduled for the same tutorial for Contemporary Australia at 2:00, and we had some time to kill before, so just sat around outside for a while. At Miami, it is pretty uncommon to see people relaxing and playing on the grassy areas near the academic buildings, but here it is quite the opposite. People were playing frisbee and hanging out everywhere on the grass. The tutorial wasn’t anything exciting, and we got assigned group presentations and then left after about 30 minutes. During my afternoon off, I took care of some things, printing (which is not free here, the way it is at UM) and doing laundry (the 4^th floor dryer also sucks.) I tried to fax a form back to the Study Abroad Office at Miami, but the lady in the Residence Office said it would cost me $9! It is cheaper at the Campus Centre, she said, so I’ll try that tomorrow. Tonight, we made fajitas on the grill outside, and I enjoyed those. A kid on my floor, Dan from Wisconsin, turned 22 today, and coincidentally, the bar on campus had its grand opening, so he had a birthday celebration there. We went for a few hours, and it was fun. After that, a group of us came back to Howitt to go to Cheers, the usual Tuesday night bar. It kinda sucked tonight. It wasn’t really crowded and about 90% of the people there were guys. Also, I don’t know if a lot of Monash people went, but the only people I knew were the eight other people I came with. Maybe it was a little less crowded since it’s the first week of school. We came back, and I made some food in my floor’s kitchen with a group of people. It’s pretty annoying that there really isn’t anything open around here for late night food, even on weekends. On the other hand, as Adam says, it’s a bit of a blessing in disguise, since it will usually prevent you from eating a lot right before bed. Tomorrow’s class doesn’t start until 2:00, and I’m going to try to get up in time to make eggs.

Day 23 – February 25, 2008

My only class today was at 4:00 so I could sleep in until around 11:00. When I got up, I had an email saying that one of my tutorials was just going to be added to the end of the class’s lecture. That means that my earliest class tomorrow is gone, and I’ll have economics from 2:00-5:00 on Wednesday instead of 2:00-4:00. I don’t mind the later start, but I was hoping to have all my tutorials on one day, as those are the classes you really need to go to. It’s not really a big deal though. Next, I finished up some things from last night, such as working on the weekend’s blog and tagging facebook pictures. I went with Harry for lunch at the Campus Centre, and on the way we saw a bunch of people we knew around Halls, and Emily joined us. She was on her way to eat before her class at 2:00 anyway, and Harry didn’t have anything all day. It seems like almost no one here has Friday classes, and it is pretty common to have an additional day off, as well. After lunch, I came back and took care of some more things around my room. At around 3:30, I left for my first class since the week after Thanksgiving, almost three months ago. Pretty sweet Winter Break. My class today was Contemporary Australia, basically a class for international students to take that teaches them about all things Australian. I got there and saw a lot of people I had already met, since the class consisted of nearly all exchange students, most of whom were from America. The class itself had pretty much the same setup as those I have taken at Miami. The teacher is in the front, with a powerpoint projected on a screen, and the desks are stadium style, with the little tables that pull up from the side of the chair. The only difference I noticed was that this professor swore a few times. Other than that, pretty similar. I think this class will be alright, especially considering some of the assignments include going on field trips. Also, for someone who is going to school here, I don’t really know much about Australia, and I would like to know more. I think this class will help me in that. Last week, Harry, Adam, and I stocked up on meats to freeze so that we could make group dinners this week rather than all cooking independently, and tonight was hamburger night. Eric was also grilling, so we got the key to the grills outside Howitt and cooked our food there. We had the temperatures on around 250° until we realized that it was in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, and then turned it down. It took us a few minutes to figure that out. After dinner, I came up and hung around for a bit, organizing my stuff. At 9:00, we decided to have a meeting in the basement of Howitt for anyone interested in planning a trip during Spring Break. About 20 or so people showed up, and we split into groups of those who wanted to go outside the country (Thailand) and those who wanted to stay in the country (Cairns, Gold Coast.) I had been planning on Thailand for a while, so I went with that group. Roundtrip tickets to Bangkok are pretty expensive, but apparently once you get there, you spend very little money on hotels and food because everything is so damn cheap. We will probably end up spending about the same, if not less, there than if we were going to a popular holiday destination. The tickets to Cairns are expensive to begin with, and then you spend a lot of money while you are there, especially during a popular tourist week. My group decided to check out flights and regroup tomorrow in an effort to book the tickets by Wednesday. I came back up to my room and finally got my DC++ working, so now I can download songs and movies and TV shows at lightning speeds. I spent a lot of time looking through what people have on the program. My first class tomorrow is at 11:00 am, and then I have two tutorials after that. I’m not expecting anything too intense, as it is still the first week.

Days 20-22 – February 22-24, 2008 (Part 2)

Saturday morning, we woke up kinda early and got ready to checkout by 10:00 and leave. We loaded the cars and continued our trip at a little past 10:00. It was pretty chilly today too, and I regretted only packing one long-sleeved shirt. Our first stop of the day was Aireys Inlet, a scenic spot with the lighthouse from my pictures. We walked around the various paths for a bit, taking pictures and enjoying the landscape, and then got back in the car to continue our journey. The view from the road was amazing. The Great Ocean Road winds itself along the coastline for kilometers, so you are hugging the side of the mountains and able to enjoy the ocean and rocks almost the entire way. I took some pictures from the car, but eventually stopped because, while they were still gorgeous, a lot of the scenes looked kinda similar. We stopped for lunch in Apollo Bay, one of the larger towns on the Road. I wanted to try and get seafood, so I ordered muscles in a tomato sauce. They were good, but not filling enough, so Eric and I also bought a few dim sims. The ride continued, and we made it to our next hostel in Port Campbell. Today’s ride was about another 2-3 hours, I think. This hostel was much nicer than the first one. To start, everything we needed was contained in one big building, unlike the last one. In addition, they had computers with internet access for a fee, a bigger kitchen area, and the bathrooms were a lot cleaner and actually had paper towels. The rooms only could fit 8 people each, so we had to split 5 of us in another room. I had a bed in the room with 8. We checked in and showered after the day in the car. The shower pressure at both hostels was surprisingly strong. Stronger than the ones in my Hall. After relaxing for a bit, a group of us took a walk down to the shore about 1 minute from our hostel. We took more pictures and walked around to the dock area. There were some guys fishing and, as we were making our way onto the platform, one dude caught a fish. He swung it onto the platform and then stomped its head off with two quick drops of his foot. Having never seen that done before, I was amazed and took a few pictures of the headless fish. It started to rain, so we went back to the hostel. [I just remembered something from the day before. At one store we were at, we saw a bottle of alcohol called “Mount Gay Rum.” Just thought that was something funny.] We had wanted to go see the Twelve Apostles at sunset because we had been told that that was the best time to go, so we planned on eating dinner and then driving the 10-15 minutes back to see them for the 9:00 sunset. We went to a pizza place across the street and ate there. The service was a little slow, and we left a bit later than we had originally hoped. We also got slightly lost on the way and ended up getting there after the sun had set. After unsuccessfully trying to take pictures in the dark, we returned to the hostel for the night. Everyone came in our room and we all played Truth or Dare for a few hours. To explain the photo in my album, at one point I was dared to go in the kitchen and ask one of the other random guys in the hostel to sign my stomach and then take a picture of it. Luckily, he didn’t mind. Got to bed pretty early and woke up before today’s checkout at 10:00. Following a quick breakfast down the street, Sunday’s adventure started back at the Twelve Apostles. Apparently, there aren’t twelve anymore, but it was still pretty amazing to see. They make it really easy to see things from different angles at these tourist stops with a lot of paths and walkways throughout the cliffs. Next stop was Loch Ard Gorge. Here we saw a lot of things, including a blowhole, thunder cave, and some other really cool sights. At one point, we ventured onto the Sherbrooke River area and explored different areas. The waves were crashing nearby, and a bunch of us got wet when we weren’t paying attention. Our last two stops on the Great Ocean Road were London Bridge and the Grotto. Again, both were great and had their own distinct characteristics. We went as far west as Peterborough and then started heading back up to Melbourne. I think we hit most of the big coastal attractions on the Great Ocean Road, and while it was a little cool and sometimes windy, we luckily avoided the rain that had been forecasted for the weekend. Our van took the scenic route back along the Great Ocean Road back to Uni while the car took the more direct route, and we stopped in Apollo Bay for more food on our way around. We started running out of things to do on the approximately 4 or so hour car ride back, so we kept ourselves busy by doing various things such as singing, playing games, trying to spot kangaroos and koalas, photographing road signs, and attempting foreign accents. Those activities made the time pass a little easier. We also heard “Please Don’t Stop the Music” by Rihanna on the radio about 30 times over the course of the weekend. When we finally got back to campus, I think it was around 8:30 maybe. Overall, I had a great time this weekend. The roadtrip was a lot of fun, and we found ways to make it a relatively inexpensive vacation. There was a dessert “supper” downstairs in the common room a little after 9:00, so I went there for a bit and then came upstairs to get some stuff done. I think that the worst part of any trip is when you come back and realize that there are a lot of things you have to take care of now that you’ve returned. So I stayed up late last night doing some things and then went to bed, with today being the first day of classes.

Days 20-22 – February 22-24, 2008 (Part 1)

Got back from the weekend trip along the Great Ocean Road a few hours ago. I had a great time; it was nice to get a chance to see the Australian landscapes and scenery that I have heard so much about. I’ve already put my pictures on both facebook and webshots, so check them out there. I took over 300 pictures, but a few were of basically the same thing, and I could cut some of them out. So Thursday night we went to Luna Park, which was fun. I took some pictures there, and I’ll put those up after I get done with the Great Ocean Road ones because they really aren’t anything too exciting. The amusement park would have been more fun if the lines were shorter and they had all the rides working, but it was still alright, and they only allowed Monash kids in. We got back after 11:00, and a few of us went to the Nott to hang out for a little, because a lot of people had already gone or were still planning to go. The next morning we had to meet at 10:00 to go on the trip. Ilse organized most of it, and Eric helped her and rented to van. We started calling them Mom and Dad shortly after our adventure began. The two of them did pretty much all of the driving over the course of the weekend. The group in the van was five Americans (Eric, Katie, Steve, Jess, and myself), one Canadian (Emily), one person from England (Adam), and one person from Holland (Ilse). The other car that would come later included two Brits (Harry and Lewis), Messi (from Dubai) and his two friends, both named Sam (I think they were from Dubai, also.) Our trip started once everyone in our van had arrived and we loaded our stuff in. Shortly after leaving, Adam realized that he forgot his wallet in his room and I offered to spot him during the trip. For someone who hadn’t driven on the left side of the road before, Eric was a pretty decent driver and only tried to go on the right a few times throughout the trip. Luckily, no cars were coming on both occasions. It took us under two hours to get to our hostel for the first night at Bells Beach. When we got there, the guy working showed us to our room but said he couldn’t check us in yet because he was leaving to surf, and we could leave our stuff and come back after 4:00. We rented a few surfboards and a bodyboard and left our things in the room. He didn’t give us a key, though, so most of us didn’t feel safe leaving anything valuable in the room and took it with us anyway. Since we now had four surfboards to deal with (including the one that Steve brought), we couldn’t keep them all on top of the car and had to put two inside. That made it pretty uncomfortable for those of us in the back. We checked out a few beaches and settled on one. Someone said it had good waves for surfing or something, and it looked like it had a decent number of people already surfing. So we all went down to the beach, and, initially, only the guys and Ilse went in the water because we didn’t have enough boards for everyone. I had never been surfing before, and Ilse tried to teach me how. It wasn’t very warm out (especially for what is supposed to be summertime here), and the water was chilly. We were the only idiots without wetsuits. I got into the water and attempted paddling at first. I then tried to catch some waves, and, while it was fun, I didn’t end up standing up on my board. I think I’ll need more practice. After that, I messed around on the bodyboard for a little and then went on shore. While I was there, some strange dog came over to us. He was black and white and didn’t seem to have an owner in sight. I figured he must have had rabies or something and made my best attempt to keep my distance. He would just run around near us and when he came close, he wouldn’t look us in the face. The dog just had his head slightly tilted towards the ground. Eventually we realized he wanted to play fetch, so we started throwing rocks and he went and got them. Every few times, he would try to eat the rock after bringing it back. Then the girls tried their luck on the surfboards, and Emily was actually pretty good. She was standing quite a bit and said that she had taken a lesson in Surfer’s Paradise when she first arrived in Australia a few weeks ago. It got pretty cold with the wind, and those of us who were not in the water decided to take a drive and get some food. We came back about an hour later and everyone else had gotten out and was waiting for us. The other car also arrived a few minutes later. We all went back to the hostel and could now check in. Our room, containing 9 beds and 1 couch, was supposed to accommodate 13 people, most of whom were men. I claimed a bed earlier in the afternoon when our van had gotten there so I was safe, but not everyone was so lucky. There were a few extra mattresses floating around the room, and there was a big pool table in the middle. We had our own little cabin, but the bathrooms were a walk outside and into the main office building. I decided to shower after the afternoon in the ocean and realized that the only towel I had brought was the beach towel I had used this afternoon. Amateur backpacker. (The people who stay in hostels are typically referred to as “backpackers,” probably because most of them just backpack through countries/life.) This hostel was pretty grimey. The bathroom didn’t have soap or paper towels, and while I was showering, some guy came in the bathroom, stood just inside the door and whistled for a few minutes, and then just left. Also, everyone else staying here just looked pretty aimless. After getting settled, we all just chilled for a little in our bunk. I decided I wanted to run to the grocery store to buy some cups, and Eric was willing to let me drive the rented van. Harry (from England, where they drive on the left) rode shotgun to coach me, and Katie and Lewis came along for the ride. It was really strange to be driving from the right side of the car. The foot petals were in the same orientation as in America, but everything else was switched. A few times, I went to make a turn signal and turned the windshield wipers on. I think I did pretty well for my first time driving in Australia, and I only hit the curb a couple times. Around here, instead of having traffic lights at most intersections, they have traffic circles (or “roundabouts” as they call them,) but there really weren’t a lot of people on the road so it wasn’t too difficult. I’m sure it was pretty scary for the people traveling with me, though. A little while after we got back, Ilse, with Emily’s help, had finished cooking dinner. We had bought some supplied before leaving Monash, and she made pasta, cooked with peppers, onions, mushrooms, and pasta sauce in the hostel kitchen. It was pretty good, and there was more than enough for everyone. After we finished eating, we played some drinking games, and while we were doing that, some random guy named Steve wandered into our cabin. Personally, I was skeptical at first, but he seemed friendly enough, so he was invited to join us. After a little while, he suggested that we all go to a pub down the road. Since we had nothing better to do, we decided to follow him. As we were leaving, we tried to lock the cabin up, and it turned out the front door didn’t even lock. At this point, I was sure it was a big setup, and that when we got back all our stuff would be gone. However, we did have keys to the lockers inside the room, and I threw all my stuff in one and prayed it would still be there when I returned. It turned out to be a pretty long walk down a dark road, and a few of us thought he was planning to murder us and then take our stuff as we were going along. While we were walking, another strange dog appeared, this one a white pit bull. For some unknown reason, a few people were talking and playing with it. I just tried to avoid it. It followed us all the way to the bar and even tried to go in. Crazy dog! When we got there, they said it was an $8 cover, so most of us said hell no and started walking back. Koala Steve (a name he said to call him during one of the games) wanted us to keep going, but since no one else wanted to go with him, he came back with us. About 30 seconds into the walk, another dog popped out of nowhere without a collar and probably having bird flu or something. This one was black, and he and the pit bull began to size each other up. After a few minutes, they went at each other, and then backed off and went their separate ways. What is the deal with all these random dogs here?? Someone in our group said we must be the dog whisperers. We got back to the hostel and hung around for a little while. Koala Steve didn’t seem to want to leave, but eventually got the message and went to his tent. He didn’t even have a bed at the hostel and had to sleep outside in a tent. Afterwards, we found out that he had tried to hit on all the girls, using various lame pickup lines in an attempt to lure them back to his tent to (in his words) “see his koala.” I didn’t really sleep well that night, as the bunk did not keep out noise very well, and I kept thinking someone was about to come in and rob us. People were also outside until pretty late, talking and doing whatever backpackers do at night. Well, it’s getting past 2:00 am here, and I’m starting to get pretty tired. Tomorrow is the first day of classes [I thought my vacation would never end], so I’m gonna get to bed, and I’ll have to finish working on this tomorrow.

Day 19 – February 21, 2008

Went to the pajama party last night. I saw it spelled “pyjama” in a few places – that must be how they do it around here. I just went in my usual pajama pants and an undershirt, but a couple of the English guys decided to dress in girls clothes. That was pretty entertaining for everyone. The Howitt Hall Society hired a DJ and everything, and all the drinks were free once again. The party was fun, and I like the fact that they do a lot of theme parties here, but it’s tough since I didn’t really bring too much unnecessary clothing that I wouldn’t be wearing on a daily basis. That’s the kind of stuff what would have been perfect for these theme parties here. This morning, they made us bacon and egg sandwiches outside, and I was pretty happy to finally eat some eggs. I don’t think I have had any since I was in Sydney two weeks ago. I had a few of the sandwiches, and then headed back to campus to Day #2 of the clubs and societies expo. It was nice and sunny so I didn’t mind going back today, even though it was the same thing I had seen yesterday. I got some free stuff, including a $50 travel voucher to STA Travel and 3 free iTunes downloads. I also got a free Vitamin Water and found out that Vitamin Water has yet to become big here. No one really knew what it was, and it is just beginning to get promoted in this area. While we were there, a few other guys signed up for the Sydney trip and then we came back to Halls. I wanted to go to the grocery store so that I will have food next week when I return from this weekend’s trip, and my RA offered to take us to the nearby Coles. I was finally able to get some milk, eggs, fruit, and dinner meat, among other things. Tonight, we are having an “International Dinner,” whatever that means. Then, they are taking us to Luna Park, an amusement park in St. Kilda that I have seen the two times I have been down there. Since I’m going away this weekend beginning tomorrow, I won’t be writing a blog for a few days. I’m definitely looking forward to the trip to the Great Ocean Road, but I’ve never done the whole backpacking thing, staying in hostels, so I’m interested to see what that will be like. I also might try some surfing, and I’ll be bringing my camera to hopefully take some nice pictures.

Day 18 – February 20, 2008

Over the past few days, I had thought people had been saying “long bowling” instead of “lawn bowling” when talking about our floor outing for last night. I was pretty confused, especially when I googled “long bowling” and didn’t really get any results. I only found out yesterday afternoon that it was in fact “lawn bowling” when I had seen it written on a board. My floor and three other floors went to the lawn bowling place. It was a little ways away and we needed to take a bus to get there. Everyone who was working at the place was old, and they kept trying to convince us that lawn bowling can be a young person’s game. Lawn bowling itself is basically bocci on short grass, but the balls are unevenly weighted so they curve to one side when you roll them. The game was boring and slightly better than doing nothing at all. Afterwards, everyone stayed for a few hours because apparently this is where they have the cheapest drinks around. Groups of a few people left periodically to take the bus back to Monash, and I left with a group of 5 at around 11:15 because the last bus back to Halls was supposed to leave at 11:30. That bus never came, and we started the long walk back. We tried to hail some cabs and for some reason none would stop. At one point, the RA who was with us called a taxi company, and they told him that they would come get us in 10 minutes at a nearby hospital. Two calls and 25 minutes later, they never came and we continued our walk. We didn’t get back to campus until a little after 1:00. After so much walking all day, I was ready for bed. Got up today and did a little reorganizing of my room. I also finally took some pictures of my room I posted here. One of the girls I know here organized a trip to the Great Ocean Road for this weekend, so I will be heading there Friday morning and getting back Sunday night. She worked out the details to secure a van and space in a few hostels, and there are 11 of us going between the van and another car. It will be my first traveling adventure in Australia, so I’m definitely looking forward to that. All the clubs and societies on campus were tabling near Campus Centre today, so a group of us headed down to check them out. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and I didn’t have an umbrella yet, so my shoes got pretty wet. I saw a booth with American football and signed up for that. Unlike flag football, this club uses pads and equipment and everything. I lied and told them I played wide receiver in high school, thinking they would never figure it out and I could be the American who knows what he’s doing. After being in the rain for a while, we went to the STA Travel inside the campus centre. My friend Katie and I really wanted to go to Sydney for Mardi Gras, so we signed up and paid for the trip. It’s in a week and a half, and some other people said they will probably come back tomorrow to pay. We didn’t know this before going it, but it was a good thing we went today because the deadline to pay is tomorrow. So that means I’ll be off traveling for the next two weekends. On the way back, we remembered that Howitt was having a Gladiator event this afternoon. Inside one of the banquet rooms in the dining hall was a blow up arena, and people were fighting with big, air-filled weapons. It would have been outside, but the rain prompted the move indoors. All you had to do was get a number, and they randomly selected people to fight one-on-one. Everyone got to participate, it was just a matter of who you fought. Even girls were doing it. I went against one of the RAs I know, Toby. It was fun to do, and they also had free snowcones for everyone. For dinner, they grilled burgers, and I had my first hamburger in Australia. I had expected to be eating them daily, with all the BBQ’ing they allegedly do here, but now I know it is mainly sausage. Tonight, the Howitt Hall Society is hosting a pajama party, the first of many events put on by the Society throughout the year.

Days 16/17 – February 18 and 19, 2008

Again, with the start of the next orientation, I’ve been pretty busy the last few days. Casino night was fun. They gave us fake money, and we used it to play the different games they had set up: two tables of roulette, one table of blackjack, and one table of poker. They also started up bingo as it got more crowded, because there were too many players and too few seats in the existing games. At the end of the night, you could pool your winnings with other people and bid on prizes in an auction. I started playing roulette and initially won but then lost everything I had put in. I wanted to play poker, but there was a wait. I then moved on to blackjack where I lost again. It’s so strange here, because this was a function put on by the residence hall, and they had free beer and champagne. It is such a contrast to the US. Everyone on my floor pooled our money together, and we won the mystery prize. It was a huge box of condoms. After the Casino Night, a bunch of us went into the basement. Every night, it has gotten more and more crowded, and tonight must have been the tipping point, because the janitor kicked us out. After that, we went outside by the lake for a little bit and then went to bed. My cell phone ran out of minutes yesterday, so I had to buy some more. One of the guys I’ve been hanging around with, Darcy, has a car here, and he said he had to go to the mall also. It was nice to not have to take the bus to get there for a change. At the mall, I bought a few things I needed and got some more prepaid minutes. I went to a Subway for a meatball grinder for lunch, and the lady asked me what kind of cheese I wanted. I said “American,” and she started blankly at me. One of the English guys I was with informed me that they don’t have American cheese; white American is known as cheddar. I told him that we have another cheese called cheddar in the US. After the mall, I went upstairs to take a look at a fridge that the Deputy College Head for my building was selling. He had mentioned to me he was looking to sell it and was offering a pretty fair price. The best part was that it would be easy to get it to my room since he lives in my building. It looked good enough, so I bought it. Now I can finally have some cold stuff in my room and begin buying things to cook. For dinner, they made us chicken, salad, and lasagna. It was pretty good, but right afterwards we had to go to some stupid Uni-Smart presentation intended for first year students. As internationals, we are, for some reason, grouped in as well, and were forced to sit through a pointless presentation for adjusting freshman. Aside from the sheer boredom, the worst part was that the Host Scheme Party was last night, and the first buses were leaving at 9:30. Host Scheme is supposed to be one of the biggest parties every year here, and it’s at supposedly one of the nicest clubs in downtown Melbourne. They say that every year over 2,000 people go, and you have to buy tickets in advance. So while we all wanted to be showering and getting ready, we were forced to attend a compulsory presentation that all of us had heard when we were first year students. It didn’t even end until around 9:15. Not everyone was ready in time to make the first round of buses, so we decided to wait for the 10:30 ones. The first bus actually broke down, and we were stuck waiting longer than expected to get there. We finally arrived around 11:30. The club looked pretty nice. It was definitely reminded me of clubs in South Beach because it had a massive dance floor and lights and things, but it still was a lot different. It was crowded (I don’t know if there actually were 2,000 people), and I had a good time there. We didn’t get back until after 3:00, and then a group of us went upstairs to one of the kitchens to make nachos. I somehow got up this morning at a little after 9:00, in time for breakfast. I had wanted to make it up because there was a Scavenger Hunt today that I heard was pretty sweet, so I figured if I was gonna be up early, I might as well get a free breakfast out of it. They gave us cereal, toast, and juice, and then we had to meet at 10:30 to head downtown. They split us into teams and gave us the list of what we needed to do. A lot of it wasn’t necessarily getting things; most of the tasks were to photograph us doing various things. From the start, two people on each team had to be handcuffed together for the whole day and everyone had to wear a ribbon with a unique design on it to identify the teams. So we got on the bus, took a train, and got downtown to do the Scavenger Hunt for a few hours. It was pretty cool, and I think I was definitely on the team that had the most fun. Some of the things we did throughout the day included going into a radio station and getting on live air, teaching old people the Macarena, starting a conga line and the wave in public places, and many other things. One girl and I spent three minutes asking a woman how to get to the Flinders St. train station while we were standing right outside it. Overall, there were a lot of funny tasks to complete and I think my group did a pretty good job, and we all enjoyed doing them. It has been really hot lately, and it definitely gets you tired after walking around downtown all day. Tonight is pasta night and then my floor is going to lawn bowling. I’m not exactly sure what that is, but I guess I’ll be finding out soon enough.

Day 15 – February 17, 2008

Last night, most of the people who had moved into Howitt went outside for Games and Trivia. The first part involved us splitting up into groups and then had the groups going around to different games stations, doing ice breakers, getting to know each other, and various other silly activities. After that, we broke into new teams for a few hours of trivia. Some of the questions were pretty tough, and my team finished in 5^th place out of I think ten. Following this was an “ice cream supper.” Apparently, supper is not just another word for dinner here. It refers to an after-dinner snack or dessert. I was hoping for an ice cream dinner. After the ice cream, a group of us went into the basement for some card games and stuff. Some of the “stinky freshers” (freshman) came down there too. Also, more of the returning students have also arrived, since some are working for the O-Week, so they came down as well. This morning, the RAs made us pancakes out on the lawn at 10:00. They tasted good, but I could have eaten a few more, except they ran out. The buses to the beach left at 11:00, and as we lined up, they gave us all $10 for lunch and a bottle of water. After spending so much money in the last week or so, it’s nice to finally not have to pay for meals for a few days. As we were getting close to the St. Kilda beach, our bus broke down. We had to walk a little ways to get to the beach, and the sun was hot. I was later told that there was some big wine tour today, so most of the buses had been rented out for that, and we were stuck with the bad ones. When we finally made it to the beach, I put on some sunscreen and went in the water. It wasn’t too cold, but it definitely was refreshing. The water tasted really salty, though. Stayed in the water for a little while, swimming and throwing around some of the balls that had been brought. Eventually, a group of people were going for a walk to get some food, so I went along. We went to a small burger place and I got a chicken sandwich. Here, they are typically called “chicken burgers,” but I think that is odd, because whenever I hear “burger,” I automatically think of beef. They also call it “takeaway” instead of “takeout.” After lunch, we returned to the beach for a little while and went in the ocean and threw around a ball again. A huge jellyfish had washed up on shore, and I almost stepped in it as I went back into the water. A new bus driver picked us up, and we came back to Halls. I just showered and now I’m relaxing in my room. After waking up early and being in the sun all day, I’m pretty tired. At 6:30, they are making us a Mexican dinner. I am interested to see how Australian people do Mexican food. Tonight’s activity is Casino Night, where they set up a casino in the common room and have some pretty sweet prizes to give away.

Day 14 – February 16, 2008

Last night’s dinner at the Red Scooter was fun. They rented out the entire restaurant, and it looked like a pretty nice place. They had a lot of tables set up throughout, and there were chandeliers hanging everywhere. As we walked in, everyone received a free drink. They had strawberry daiquiris as an option, so I obviously had no choice but to choose that. Before dinner, everyone was walking around, talking, and taking pictures. The servers for the restaurant were going around with two different appetizers. They had shrimp in some buttery sauce that I kept grabbing because they were so good. The other appetizer was a little weird. They came around with trays of those white, folding Chinese food containers, but inside were French fries and a piece of both fried calamari and fried fish. It was a strange combination, especially in a Chinese food box, but they too were good, so I had about three of them. After a little while, everyone sat down for dinner. The meal was served family-style, and the servers came around to all the tables with big plates of everything. The main course was chicken drumsticks and sausages (again??), and they also had garden salad and potato salad and corn and something else that I forgot for sides. The food was good, but it would have been nice to have a little more of everything. It seems that the portions here are smaller than back home. During the dinner, there was a raffle, and some guy at the table right next to mine won a free trip to Sydney for the Mardi Gras in a few weeks. I was pretty jealous. After dinner, we stayed there for a little while longer, dancing, lounging, and exploring the upstairs of the restaurant. People came around with some type of passion fruit cheesecake and those packaged ice cream cones called Drumsticks. At around 11:00, they said the buses were leaving, and were taking us downtown to a bar known as Eurotrash. There were a lot of people going, and unfortunately, the place wasn’t very big. It also played crappy music, was really hot, and overall was not too much fun. A group of us decided to leave, and we started walking around, looking for somewhere else to go. The free buses weren’t taking us back, anyway, so we had no real motivation to stay. While we were walking, I soon realized that we were in Chinatown, actually quite close to where we had been a few nights ago. We walked around for a bit, trying to find somewhere to go, but we couldn’t, so we took cabs back to Monash. Today, a lot of people started to arrive. There were loud announcements on the speaker system all morning, giving information to the new students. Pretty much everyone arriving today or in the next few days is a new student. For lunch, I went outside where they were having a BBQ and ate sausage for like the 100^th time in the past week. After that, we decided to teach the English guys how to play American football, and a group of us went down to the fields. When we got there, we noticed a moonbounce off on the other end and walked down to investigate. The only way I could describe what I saw was people literally playing foosball. It was a big moonbounce, and there were ropes going across the blowup “field.” At regular intervals in the ropes, there were spots to tie people in, and goals at either end. A soccer ball was thrown in, and it really looked like humans were being the foosball dummies. I had never seen that before. Next, we played football for about an hour or so, and then I came back up to shower and stuff. At 5:30, orientation started, and we took a tour around the building, meeting people who are in charge and having them speak to us about certain things. After that, we had a floor meeting in the kitchen, and they brought pizza. They gave us a total of 7 pizzas from Dominoes (I don’t know what sizes they bought, but all would probably be considered smalls in the US), and not one of them was either plain cheese or pepperoni. Every pizza had at least 3 toppings on it. Tonight, they’re having games and trivia. It is kinda weird that I have only been at Monash for a little over a week, yet I’m pretty comfortable here. I think I know my way around pretty well and I’ve met a lot of the people who are here presently. All three of the people who spoke to us on the tour tonight knew me by name. Obviously, a lot more people are still coming, but there are kids showing up today who are actually going to this school for a degree, and at this point, they know even less than I do. It’s a little strange that this is my third year in college, and here I am with all the incoming freshman, going through orientation. But I do enjoy experiencing all the newness again.

Day 13 - February 15, 2008

The Nott last night was pretty awesome. The student part is way different from the part I had been in last week. It looked like a nice place, and there was an indoor bar with a lot of tables and booths, and then an outdoor area with a ton of picnic tables. But I think one of the best parts of the Nott was the fact that right between the indoor and outdoor areas was two guys playing acoustic guitars and singing typical American bar songs. When we walked in, they were playing “Drops of Jupiter” by Train. Over the course of the night, they played a lot of sweet songs like “Livin on a Prayer” and “Wonderwall.” We went to the Nott with a pretty large group, probably at about 20-30 people. There were a lot of people already there when we arrived, and apparently it even gets more packed during the regular school year. I met some more Aussies who go to Monash, and all of them seemed pretty cool. This morning, I decided to sleep in and went to a free BBQ near campus center for lunch. The BBQ was sausages again, and I didn’t mention this yesterday, but they don’t use regular buns here. I’m not sure if it’s just here or if no one uses them, but at both BBQ’s, the sausages are just eaten on regular slices of white bread. I was also told today that a BBQ here typically means sausages. Apparently they don’t really do hamburgers and hot dogs the way we do in the US. After the BBQ, we stayed outside in the sun for a little, then I came up to do some laundry. The dryer on my floor sucks, and it takes forever to dry my clothes. I’m actually pretty sure it’s broken, so I’ll have to do something about that. Tonight, Monash Abroad is hosting a Welcome Dinner to finish off our orientation week. I think they said that they rented out some restaurant in St. Kilda, and afterwards, they are providing transportation to take us to a club. This event is only for exchange students and you had to buy a ticket in advance. Tomorrow, most of the Aussie freshmen will be coming, and I’ve already started to see some of them walking around campus.

Day 12 - February 14, 2008

Today’s orientation actually started later than I had thought. We all got there around 9:30, but it didn’t even begin until 10:30. So we just hung around and ate free muffins for the extra hour. They told us about some useful information today, including traveling, sports, and health insurance. When they were talking about life in Australia, they mentioned “queues.” Here, they don’t call them lines; they say they are queues. It seems to be the same thing in the UK. They also told us about a trip to Sydney in a few weeks for the Sydney Mardi Gras that I had seen on the Real World last season. The people on the show who went all said it was so much fun, so I think I’m gonna try and find some people to go with me to that. After about 4 hours of orientation, they said we could meet them on the fields to learn some Aussie sports. I was not aware of this a few months ago, but here, they play rugby and another game called Australian Rules football (“footy”). I had thought they were the same thing until recently. The guy in charge was explaining the rules of Aussie rules football and demonstrating. It seems like a wild game. It has tackling like American football, but that’s about where the similarities stop. You can pass the ball by holding it in one hand and punching it with the other, giving it backspin, or by punting it. If the ball hits the ground, play continues. You can run with the ball, but every ten meters, you have to bounce it. It’s hard to bounce, though, because it is shaped just like an American football. There are no pads, and players try to bring down the man with the ball. At the ends of the field are four posts, two smaller ones on the outside and two larger ones in the middle. If you punt it between the two posts in the middle, it’s 6 points, and if you get it inside the outside posts, it’s 1 point. We did some drills, and then a group of us decided to get a game going. It was a lot of fun, but very tiring. We eventually turned our game into an Americanized version, as we stopped following the real rules because they were hard. While this was going on, people were learning cricket, but it seemed really boring. After that, I went up to play some soccer on another field. Towards the end of one of the games, the ball hit me right in the nose, so I left. A BBQ was about to start, anyway. It was put on by the mentor program, and they were grilling sausages. I found it funny that they were serving orange juice as the beverage. So they don’t open the dining hall for breakfast, but they serve OJ for dinner? This is backwards! Tonight is my first Thursday night going out to the Nott, so I’m looking forward to seeing what that’s like on a big student night. Also, I think pretty much every exchange student is going to be there, so that should be fun.

Day 11 - February 13, 2008

The place we went to last night was called Cheers. Since it was supposed to be fun, a lot of people decided to go. Apparently this is one of the best places to go on Tuesday nights. They run a special where when you order a drink, the bartender flips a coin. If you call it right, your drinks are free. If you’re wrong, you just have to pay. The drink prices are a little bit raised, but it is still not bad. It’s especially good when you get a lucky streak going. Today’s orientation consisted solely of us enrolling in our courses (“units” as they’re called here). We had a brief introduction, then split up into our different groups based on subjects. My registration was supposed to be at 11:30 and I had some time to kill, so some of us wandered around the Campus Center for a little. I got a sandwich in the food court for lunch. Aside from the turkey and bread, everything else cost extra. Lettuce was $0.60. If I wanted it on a roll, instead of regular white bread, it was an additional $0.60. Generally speaking regarding Australia, it seems like few things are included when you buy something, and you get nickel and dimed to death. Even in the dining hall, ketchup is $0.40 per packet. I’ve noticed this at quite a few places. It’s as if everything wasn’t already more expensive here, they have to add little extra costs here and there. After eating, we saw a girl we knew, who told us that they weren’t checking appointment times, so we just went in the building and enrolled. The course registration process here is a lot more complicated than at back home. At UM, I just pick my courses, get them approved, and sign up at my scheduled registration time. Here, you also have to get them approved, but then you need to enroll in them. After that, you go online and rank your time preferences. Then, every student’s position in line is randomized and the computer gives you your schedule. I won’t find out when my classes are until next week. It seems a little excessive to me, after being used to a simpler system. After enrollment, I came back to my dorm to relax for a little. At 4:30, there was an orientation program that would take us downtown to the Queen Victoria Market, which is supposedly open every Wednesday and is a big attraction in the city. We had to take public transportation, and it took us some time to get down there. When arrived, it was really crowded. They had food stands lining the right hand side. Everything from paella to crocodile burgers to lo mein. There were a lot of shops selling the usual market items, including hats, decorations, and t-shirts. After we left the market, we hung around downtown and tried to find a karaoke place. The one we finally found was expensive even just to get in, so we decided not to go, and took the train back to school. The city looked really beautiful at night. They light up the buildings with different colors, and there is an Eiffel Tower-looking structure that is lit up as well. As I’m writing this, it is around 1:00 am and there is some kid on my floor from Hong Kong who is vacuuming in his room and talking really loudly to someone. I’m sure some people are trying to sleep right now, and the rooms are not very soundproof. There is a space at the bottom of all the doors, so sound travels easily, and usually during the daytime, I can even hear whenever someone closes a door nearby. In this particular situation, I live down the hall from the kid and I can hear it pretty clearly. Does he not realize what time it is? I always thought he was a little odd. Anyway, tomorrow’s orientation starts a little later, so it will be nice to get the extra sleep.

Days 9/10 – February 11 and 12, 2008

Been pretty busy from yesterday afternoon till now (almost 8:00 on Tuesday) especially with Monash Abroad Orientation beginning today, so I thought I would just combine the last few days. As there was nothing in particular planned for yesterday, a group of us decided to go to Chadstone Mall to pick up little things that we needed. I had made the decision that I can’t be eating the dining hall food for the entire semester, so I had wanted to get some cooking things and begin to look for a fridge. It would be pretty difficult to bring a refrigerator back on the public bus, so I figured that purchase would have to wait. At the mall, I bought a small George Foreman Grill, as it was only $30, a little bit more than the grillpan I was about to buy. I also got a pan to make eggs in and some cooking utensils and some paper plates and stuff like that. I couldn’t buy any food yet, though, because I don’t really trust the public fridge. After we got back, some of us walked to the bottle shop (Australian for liquor store) that was connected to the Nott. The alcohol here is proportionally more expensive than most other things that I have bought. They usually sell liquor in 700 ml and 1.125 L bottles. A 1.125 L bottle of Smirnoff cost $53! That is about twice as much as it would cost at home, and you get over 500 ml less here. Everyone I was with thought the prices here were pretty ridiculous, but apparently those are the same costs you would find anywhere around. One thing I have noticed recently is that it seems like when people are forming their groups of friends among international students, the Westerners tend to stick together and the Asians do the same. At least at this point, most of the students from Western countries hang around together, while those from Asian countries create their own groups. Although most of us do come from different countries, it is interesting to notice how people gravitate towards those who are most similar and resemble what they are more used to, whether it is by language or appearance. Later that night, we went to a Game Night in another one of the residence halls, where I met some new people and played some of the small-ball pool. A group came today from Loyola-Maryland with about 30 students, by far the largest group from any one American university. After the game night, a large group of probably about 25 or so people went into the basement of Howitt Hall, the dorm I live in, and played some Kings. After a while, we moved into a bigger room because more people were coming, and it eventually turned into a crazy dance party. Naturally, by now there are many more new people around, and everyone is still getting to know each other, so people want to do as many social activities as possible. Today, the orientation for exchange students began at 9:00 am. After everyone had been up so late, I was a little surprised that no one who had been there last night missed it. Monash Abroad hired a company to come and cook us pancakes, and they were pretty good. Instead of putting butter on top, they were scooping ice cream. The orientation for today was pretty boring, and we were told a lot of things we already knew. Everyone registered for school and got student IDs, and tomorrow we will enroll in our classes. They said that there are about 270 exchange students and almost 90 of them are from a Monash campus in Malaysia. Tonight, I think a lot of us are planning on going out to a pub. It’s kinda funny that after being here for less than one full week, I feel like I am starting to become pretty familiar with this place and am definitely a lot more comfortable than when I first arrived.

Day 8 - February 10, 2008

Got up today hoping to try my first breakfast in the dining hall. I walked in at around 11:15 and didn’t see any hot breakfast items. I asked the lady what they were serving, and she said that they don’t do breakfast. I told her I had seen it posted not only in the Welcome Guide booklet they give to all incoming residents, but also on the front door to the dining hall that breakfast was from 11:00-12:00. She said that they stopped making breakfast a few years ago and most likely will not have it this year either. So I bought a couple fruit cups and an OJ and started to think about what I will do without a consistently good breakfast for the rest of the time I’m here. Every orange juice I’ve had since I’ve been in Australia has been terrible. I couldn’t even finish the one I bought and it was only 300ml. They just don’t have any flavor. At least I won’t have to worry about that too much, though, since it’s not like I’ll be eating breakfast regularly anyway. The building I live in always smells like food when I’m in the hallways. But there is no way it really is food, because the smell has been constant, and I’ve smelled it since the first day, and I’m pretty sure there wasn’t even anyone living here to be cooking anyway. Every year, there’s this festival in a town near downtown Melbourne called “St. Kilda’s Day Festival” and they were having it today, so the mentors organized a trip for all the international students. More kids had come by now, so the group was starting to get a little bigger. To get there, we had to take a bus to a train to a trolley, and it took some time. When we got there, there were thousands of people walking around the streets, which had all been blocked off. They had food, music, and little shops everywhere along the sidewalks. I definitely didn’t expect it to be so crowded. We walked around for a little, got some food, and I bought these ridiculous red sunglasses. While they would look pretty stupid in America, you would be surprised that I did see a few Aussies with glasses the same color. And I don’t think they bought them as a joke the way I did. The Festival had one huge stage where bands were playing, and a lot of people were watching. The festival was located right near the beach, so we went down to the shoreline. There was a guy in the water “kitesurfing.” I had never seen that before, but it looked fun. Basically, he was holding onto a rope that attached to a kite-like thing flying in the air, and his feet were on what looked like a small surfboard. Whenever a big gust of wind would come, it would pick him out of the water. There was a food stand there selling “sweet corn,” so I tried some. I had never seen corn sold at an event like this before, but it was pretty good. I didn’t realize it until after, but I got kinda sunburned today. The sun was strong, but it didn’t seem too hot, so I don’t think I expected it to happen. But when I looked at myself later, I had pink on my forehead, nose, neck, and arms. After the festival, we took a trolley and train to downtown Melbourne for dinner. Another group of internationals who checked in during the day met us there. I got a chicken parm at the restaurant, and apparently, it is common to have a slice of ham between the chicken and cheese in that dish down here. I asked for it without, but the ham came on it anyway. After dinner, we hung around downtown for a little while longer than came back. By now, there are a lot more people here, and most of them seem really friendly. I guess since no one really knows anyone, everyone is trying to be nice and make friends, and it’s cool to meet people from all over the world. Again, I’m noticing how different it is for me to me to be the foreigner in a place. I’m not used to being in a group of people in which I consider everyone I’m with to have an accent. I sometimes have to concentrate to understand the thicker ones. But that’s just something to get used to when in a foreign country. It’s interesting to get to know them and find out what it’s like where they’re from, seeing how countries differ from each other. There isn’t much planned to do tomorrow, but I’m sure more new people will be around, and then the Monash Abroad Orientation begins on Tuesday.

Day 7 - February 9, 2008

Woke up today a little later than I had hoped. I had originally planned on taking a free shuttle to Brandon Park, a place that has a grocery store and a K-Mart. The shuttle was leaving at 9:15 and I didn’t get up till after 10:00. I found out later that shuttles ran continuously, but when I did it was too late. Did some stuff around the room for most of the day. I set up my computer a stream live TV, a free service that the University offers. There aren't any cable outlets in the room, but the school worked out a way to get some channels right on your laptop if you configure a few things correctly. That’s good for me, because I wasn’t planning on buying a TV anyway, andnow I will have something to watch. However, there’s no ESPN or any other sport channel that I could find, so I’ll just have to find another way to watch American sports. Went to the dining hall again for lunch and dinner. It might just be here, but I think stir fry must be pretty popular in this country. They have it as an option at almost ever meal, along with white rice. The food itself is pretty bad. Gruel sandwiches. Gruel omelets. Nothin but gruel. During the day, I also shot some pool in the lounge on the ground floor of my building. The pool balls are actually smaller here than they are at home. I thought that was kinda weird. My residence hall is the tallest one and goes up to 12 floors I think. It’s the only dorm with a “lift” in it. There are about 24 rooms on my floor, all singles. Each floor also has a laundry room and a kitchen that everyone living on the floor can use. There’s only one bathroom on each floor so they're all coed. After not having to use communal bathrooms since my freshman year, it’s a pain to have to go back to them. The room doors don’t have peep holes, either, so you never know who’s at your door. After I ate dinner, I went to a Trivia Night that they were having. It was alright, and I met a few other kids from America there. Messi, who was one of the mentors leading the program, said that him and some of his friends were going out to a club downtown, and said any of us could join them. I said I was down, and so did a few of the other people. So we got back from the Trivia Night, got ready, and all met up in the lounge in the basement of the building to predrink (they don’t call it pregaming here.) There were about 5 or 6 of us international kids there, along with about 4 or 5 of Messi’s friends, some of whom I had met on Thursday night. We played some drinking games (they also play Kings here) and then went into a Maxicab, which is a cab that allows you to fit up to 9 people in it. Having that many people definitely makes it easier to get downtown because the total came to around $60 but was split among so many of us. We went into a club called Click Click. It seemed a little small, and they said that it’s usually bigger, but a private party rented out one of the main rooms. The bathrooms here were coed, too. Right after we got there, one of the guys got us all a round of jagerbombs. I immediately thought of “My New Haircut,” but apparently no one else knew what that was. I guess they don’t do the whole youtube thing over here the way we do in the US. Another observation is that here, guys and girls don’t really dance as closely as they do back home. It seemed like instead of dancing with each other, they were pretty much just dancing next to each other. Overall, I had fun in my first night out in Melbourne. After we left, we stopped at a Hungry Jack’s (it wasn’t anything great), and got back to school late, at around 4:30 or 5:00. I was strange that I had just gotten back to my dorm after a night out, and at home it was the afternoon of the previous day.

Day 6 - February 8, 2008

Last night was my first night sleeping in the dorm room. The bed was a little too short for me, and my feet hang off by about 6 inches. Even though I went to bed late last night, I couldn’t sleep much this morning because the jetlag was still affecting me. I got up at 7:00 and had to force myself back to bed until at least 9:00. When I got up, I tried another time to activate my cell phone. And again, I was told to expect a text message that never came. I decided I would have to go back to the store later today. The dining hall here doesn’t open for breakfast until 11:00. 11:00?? By that time, I’ll already be thinking about what I want for lunch. Does anyone ever have to wake up early and eat breakfast around here? That is definitely one thing that I will not like, especially because I won’t have a fridge to store breakfast food. Today, my breakfast consisted of biscuits (Australian for cookies) that I had got on the plane yesterday and a bottle of water. The Office of Residence Halls has a program for students who arrive early, and they were doing a campus tour at 11:00 that I decided to go to. The weather was surprisingly cool today. It is supposed to be summer here, but it was in the 50s for most of the day, and I had to wear long sleeves. The temperatures for the next few days are supposed to be in the 70s, but that still isn’t very hot for summertime. The campus tour was led by a guy named Messi from Dubai who said he had my room last year. Apparently, in the building I’m living in, room number 19 on all the floors is the smallest one. I have 319. There were a few other kids on the tour, a girl from Hong Kong, a girl from Singapore, and a guy from Canada. After the tour, I went back to the cell phone store so that I could hopefully get my phone working. I told them what had been happening with the phone, and they called the company. Long story short, about 2 hours later, I left with my phone finally working. To call it from the US you have to dial 011 61 4 32245662. A weird thing I noticed was that phone numbers here are different lengths. Not including the international and area codes, I have seem some that have only 6 numbers, while mine has 8. I left the Campus Center and went back towards the Halls. I had wanted to go on a trip that was planned to Chadstone Mall, supposedly one of largest malls in the southern hemisphere, but I thought I missed the group because the phone took so long. Luckily, they were still there and I caught them before they left for the bus. The mall was big, and I had a few things I needed to get, so me and a few other people started out by going to a K-Mart and Target to get those things. Here, those types of stores don’t have as many things as they do in the US. For example, they didn’t sell laundry detergent, bathroom items, or food, to name a few. It seems that most stores are more specialized. The mall also had a fresh meat market in it. I couldn’t really see myself leaving a mall with a pound of ground beef. And there was also a supermarket called Coles that we went into. I asked someone where I could find dryer sheets while in the detergent aisle there, and the guy looked at me like I was crazy. Apparently, that’s another thing they don’t have here. The money here looks a lot different than in America. Not only does each bill type have a different color, but the bills are actually made out of plastic. So if it goes in the wash, it comes out fine. The lowest bill denomination is $5, and there are $1 and $2 coins. Oddly, the $1 is larger than the $2. They don’t have pennies, so everything is rounded to the nearest $0.05 when paying. And most prices that you see listed in stores already include tax. So I got a lot of stuff and put everything in a laundry basket I had bought so I could carry it all. I had gotten a fan for my room too, but it wouldn’t fit inside the basket. So I had to walk through the mall and get on the bus carrying a laundry basket full of bags that was sitting on top of the boxed fan. It was pretty awkward, but at least I got some things I needed. While in the mall, we stopped at the food court to eat. There was a place called Hungry Jack’s, which must be the Australian Burger King. They had the exact same logo, had the similar-looking bags and cups, and sold Whoppers. Just the name was different. It was a little creepy. Another thing I noticed is that people here put carrots on sandwiches. They use the little chopped carrots that sometimes go in salads in the US. I had never seen that before, but it seems pretty common here. Got back to the room and finally had some time to go online. I posted my Hawaii pictures on facebook and on webshots. The webshots address is http://community.webshots.com/user/jon986?vhost=community . After a few hours, one of the kids from earlier called me to see if I wanted to go with him to a bar around here. There’s this bar close to campus called “the Nott” that supposedly every student who lives on campus goes to on Thursday nights since it’s within walking distance from the residence halls. Today was Friday, but since there was nothing better to do, we went anyway. It was a short walk, and when we got there, it was pretty much all regulars. Shortly after we arrived, an old guy sitting near us started talking to us about football. He was saying a lot of things I didn’t understand involving football, soccer, and rugby, but I think the gist of it was that he doesn’t like American football because he said it was soft. After a while, he and I got into a pretty sweet discussion about politics, and I was surprised at how much he knew about American politics. After talking to him for a little, I came to the conclusion that he probably had a crush on Barack Obama. While we were at the bar, there was almost a fight between these two guys and three other guys were so drunk they had to be escorted out and have a cab called for them. And there were only about 20 total people in the place. Typical Australian pub, I thought. The bar closed relatively early, and we were back to the dorms a little after 12:00. All the other international students should be arriving in the next few days, so that should be interesting.

Day 5 - February 7, 2008

Another early morning, waking up around 6:30 am. I can’t believe this is only the fifth day of the trip. Being so busy and switching time zones so often, it seems like it has been a lot longer. I looked out the window after getting up and noticed that the sun was beginning to rise. I thought that, being in Australia, this would be one of the first places that would see the sun rising today. I had to get to the airport for my 10:00 flight to Melbourne, and Steph was supposed to meet her group at the Sydney airport for her orientation. She had originally been told to meet at around 8:30 but the lady called this morning and said she could arrive later. We got ready and finished packing up our stuff. I think that for the first time in the trip, I was getting a little nervous today. It finally hit me that when I would be leaving the hotel, I would really be on my own, heading to Melbourne where I didn’t know anyone. Out our hotel window we noticed a car wash that also contained a café across the street, and since it seemed like the only thing around, we went there to eat. Surprisingly, the food did not taste like oil and we had a decent meal. Another observation about Australia is that here they sell drinks in containers much smaller than they do in the US. I don’t remember exactly how small my juice was, but it felt like I was taking a shot of OJ with my egg sandwich. After breakfast, we went back up to the room, got our stuff, and checked out. I was kinda sad to leave Steph. We had spent a lot of time together in the last few days, as we walked an exciting and unfamiliar path together, and now it was time to go our separate ways. When I got to the airport, I realized that it was not like airports at home. You have to get your boarding pass from an electronic kiosk, then stand in a different line to check your baggage. The line was really long, and I was glad I didn’t take the 8:50 shuttle as I had originally planned. After I finally got my bags checked, I walked to security. Since the long line is at the bag check here, I didn’t have any wait at all here. While Australian security checkpoints do allow you to keep your shoes on, they don’t let you have scissors in your carryon bags. They caught and threw out my haircut scissors, something that I have brought in carryons multiple times in the US. The ride to Melbourne was quicker than I had thought. We left a little late, but the flight time was only 1 hour and 4 minutes. I barely had any time to write this blog because by the time I could use my laptop, it was almost time to put it away again. We landed, I got my suitcases, and looked for the Allied Car service that had been arranged to pick me up. Monash University will pay for a car service to get you from the airport as long as you notify them in advance. I couldn’t find the guy anywhere, so I called the 1800 number they gave me, and they said someone would be right over. About 25 minutes later, a driver showed up and said that he had just been called to get me. They probably forgot about me, he remarked. The ride to Monash took longer than I had expected. I had hoped it wasn’t too far from the airport to make it easier for when I travel during the semester, but it took about 35 minutes. When I got here, I checked into my dorm and came to my room to drop everything off. The room is a lot smaller than I had expected, has a heater but no AC, and very little closet and drawer space. Luckily I could only bring 2 suitcases on the planes anyway. I wanted to activate my bank account and buy a prepaid cell phone while the places were still open, so I took a campus map and navigated my way to the Campus Center, the building that contained most stores at the University. I first saw Westpac, the bank I had opened an account at, and went inside to activate it so I could start transferring money over. After that, I went to the cell phone store and bought a cheap Samsung with Optus service, supposedly the most common cell provider here. I had no idea what was involved in getting a prepaid phone working, and the guy tried to help me, but we didn’t get very far. Even if I wanted to use my Verizon phone while in Australia and pay the international rates, the phone doesn’t even get any service at all. The Campus Center was under renovations, so a lot of the stores inside were closed. After exploring a little and grabbing some lunch, I went back to my dorm. On my way inside, I heard some voices inside the lounge area on the ground floor and went to check it out. (In Australia, they consider what Americans would call the first floor, the ground floor, and call what would be the second floor, the first floor. Also, elevators are lifts, and trash is rubbish. Crazy!) I was surprised to see four guys sitting on the couches, as I had no expected there to be pretty much anyone around yet. I checked in a few days earlier than most international students and regular students wouldn’t be coming for at least another week. I went in and started talking to them. It turned out that the reason they were there so early was because they were RAs, but they didn’t seem like typical RAs from home. They seemed pretty cool and gave me some info on what it’s like at Monash. I was glad that I found some other people who were around to talk to and after a few hours, I went to the dining hall for dinner. There’s only one dining hall on campus and it was pretty bad. It is right outside my dorm, but all the other residence halls are right there too. It isn’t buffet style like most college dining halls at home, and you just choose what you want and pay for each item. I came back up to my room and began unpacking. The guys I had met before came by to see if I wanted to go out to a bar with them and some other people, but with no internet, a useless phone, and clothes everywhere, I decided it would probably be a good idea to stay in tonight to get those things done. I first wanted to get my internet up and running, and that ended up taking a little while. I also had to call to activate my phone, and it was an ordeal. Every time I would call I would be on hold for a while. Twice after I had been on hold for 11 minutes and once when I was actually talking to someone in the middle of setting my phone up, the call dropped for no reason. Because my mailing address here doesn’t have a street number since all the mail is just sent to the University and then just distributed to where it needs to go from there, it became a huge problem for the idiots at customer service to get me past the address step. I eventually got some lady who was obviously reading her lines to me from a script, and she actually claimed that she put my activation through and that I would be expecting a text message with my number. The text never came. I eventually got pretty much all my stuff put away, and there are still a few things I’ll need to take care of, but I’m beginning to get settled.