Orientation Week!

Time for my second post! This past week has been incredible. It was orientation week, aka "Bond Week", meaning BUSA (Bond University Student Association) planned all sorts of fun activities for new students all week long to help everyone adjust to the campus and get pumped about being a part of this university. Monday my friends and I went over to campus and checked out the enrolment hub, where they had Bond students and staff helping the new students and international students with getting their classes straight. I switched some of my classes around based on some recommendations, so I am now scheduled to be taking three classes- Australian History, Australian Pop Culture, and Psychology of Love, Sex and Relationships. The last class was recommended to me by several people-- apparently its extremely popular for international students to take and the professor is hilarious.. should certainly be interesting! After the enrolment hub, we went over to the library where we got our student ids and set up our Bond email accounts. Next, we headed over to the information hub, where all sorts of student clubs and events set up tables, and we got our orientation week packs, complete with two t-shirts and a backpack! (love free stuff) After we were through with getting everything squared away on campus, a few of us headed over to one of the local shopping centers, Pacific Fair, where we did big shops at the grocery store (Coles) and Target. It wasn't until after I was finished shopping that I realized that I was a huge idiot and bought exceedingly more than I could carry onto the bus and home, so I got extremely crafty and started tying bags onto me in every possible place, and put tons of bags in the laundry basket that I bought at Target-- I more or less looked like the stereotypical foreigner who got herself into a ridiculous situation on her first full day living at a school in a foreign country.. either that or a homeless person. Anyway, when I finally made it home, I made myself some dinner and then got ready to go out to Don's Tavern, the bar right on campus, for the Rumble in the Jungle themed party. It was TONS of fun and everyone got really into the theme. Apparently themed parties are really big in Australia which is extremely exciting to me because themed parties are my favorite by far. After the party, a few of us went back to my friend Emily's and hung out with her Australian roomate Lizzy and some of her friends. It was fun to hang out with a couple Aussies!

Tuesday was much less hectic than Monday. In the morning my friends and I walked over to Market Square, which is a really nice area with shops and restaurants located directly next to campus and within easy walking distance, and signed up for our student spa packages!! =D For $60, they offer new Bond students a spa package with four massage sessions, manicures/pedicures, facials, etc. We all thought it was a great deal and thought since you get four sessions it'd be a nice way to treat ourselves once a month and relax a little from all the traveling running around I'm sure we'll be doing. After that we went over to campus for a study abroad info session. The professor in the session kept using the phrase "think outside the square," which I thought was funny, since its outside the box in the U.S. Anyway, after that I took a little time for myself in the afternoon and went to the gym and did a little bit of solo exploring around campus which was nice. For dinner, Emily, Alysa, Steph and I (three of my good friends here in Australia) went back to Market Square and got pizza and pasta for dinner. On Tuesdays, the pizza place runs a great deal where you get two large entrees for the price of one, so it ended up being like $2-3/person for a nice meal in town. We decided that will be our Tuesday night tradition! (One thing that is really nice about Australia is that you don't tip ever-- not at the bar, not at restaurants, not in taxis.. nowhere-- which ends up saving you lots of money.) After dinner, we headed back over to campus for a hypnotist show. The hypnotist's name was Mark Anthony, which I thought was funny, and he's apparently the best in Australia and pretty well known internationally. It was a hilarious show.. definitely a little strange and inappropriate at times, but still very funny. 

Wednesday morning we had several international student info sessions that we had to attend on campus. For lunch there was a free poolside bbq/sausage sizzle on campus. After lunch we took a tour of campus, which literally took about 20 minutes. Its so strange to adjust to such a smaller school when I'm used to OSU. There is literally one building where essentially all the classes are held, which is such a contrast to the dozens and dozens of classroom buildings at Ohio State. Wednesday night we just relaxed and stayed in, and Steph and I did a little research online about trips to take in Australia, trips to New Zealand, etc. 

Thursday was finally beach day!! A couple of us rode the bus over to Surfer's Paradise, which is a big beach town that is very well known in Australia. It is a big tourist attraction, but right now since its not peak season yet the beaches and town weren't too crowded at all. We spent the whole day at the beach, lying out for a while and then walking around the town afterward and browsing through the surf shops. Thursday night was another themed party at Don's tavern.. this time it was the 80's/TIGHT and BRIGHT party. The outfits that people put together were absolutely hilarious, and it was once again lots of fun.

Friday we decided to go to the beach again. This time we tried out Burleigh Heads beach, which is much less toursity and really nice. Friday night was a relaxing night. It was "movies under the stars" night, so they set up a big screen on one of the lawns on campus and played Knocked Up. We don't have tv's in our houses, so it was actually really nice to just relax and watch tv for a night for the first time since arriving in Australia. 

Saturday was when I experienced my first round of the true Gold Coast night life. A bunch of us bought these bar and club passes for the semester, which give us unlimited access into all of the bars and clubs in the area as well as a ticket into a pub crawl every week if we'd like (although we'll probably only do the pub crawl a couple of times). Saturday at 4:30 pm, everyone who bought one of these passes met at a bar on campus. From there we were all bussed out to Surfer's Paradise, where we went to our first bar of the night. From there, we walked over to the ocean, where we got onto our boat/booze cruise!! It was nuts-- the boat was packed and everyone was dancing and drinking and having a good time. After the booze cruise, they took us around to a few more bars and clubs, before we all called it quits at about 12 (starting at 4:30 makes you tired early). 

Today has been a relaxing day. I took a trip by myself over to Robina Town Centre, another one of the local shopping centers, which turned out to be an enormous mall. I did a bit of grocery shopping and it took every bit of strength in me not to go trying on all of the clothes in the mall-- they have some really great stores but I'm resisting the urge to shop because I know my money will be better spent on travel! Later in the afternoon, a few friends and I walked over to campus and checked out where our classrooms are for tomorrow. Tonight a bunch of us are going out to a Japanese restaurant in celebration of wrapping up orientation week and getting psyched about classes starting tomorrow!

I still of course miss everyone at home tremendously. I watched the terribly disappointing football game online today-- my sympathies go out to all my OSU friends.. that was a big bummer. I can't wait to update about all my classes and my first real week of being a student in Australia!

Love you all!

Arlyn