Orientation Day & O-Week(end) 7/24-7/28

So I got off the plane and went through immigration and got my bags sniffed by a security dog and then looked all over the place for where this guy was supposed to pick me up to drive me to UNSW. I asked 3 people(first two were cute old ladies at 2 different information booths and both gave me wrong directions). Then this dude at a booth for excursions in Sydney finally told me the correct directions to this place that was just labeled as 'THE MEETING POINT,' and the guy who was there to pick me up had a hoodie that said UNSW but was sitting down behind all these other people. I thought I was going to get limo service and a private driver but it was just an Aussie who works for the international office at UNSW. We waited there for a solid 45 min for 'a few other exchange students' who never showed up so then it was just me and James in his massive white van. I forgot at first that they drive on the left side here, so I tried to get in on the right side of the van thinking it was the passenger side and he was like 'uh.... you can hop in on the other side,' and I was like 'haha no I'll drive.' I played it off so smooth but really I'm an idiot... Anyway, driving on the left side was a new experience ~

 

 It takes some getting used to, and I don't think I'm completely accustomed to it yet because I still look both ways 3 times before I cross the street because I never remember which was is the right way to look. So James dropped me off at University Terraces (my sweet dorm). So then I met my roommate, Jesse, who goes to Duke. I set up my wifi because that's the most important thing I had to do at that moment... then took a quick shower and ran to find where the orientation was.

I met Ian while we were waiting outside, he's from upstate New York. They started us off with this supah chill aboriginal welcome. They played the didgeridoo (!!!!) and did dances and sang songs. Good times ~

 

And then they had about 2.5 hours of funny but boring speakers. ('Australia's national animals are the kangaroo and the emu... It is also the only country I know of that eats their national animals.' Lol)

After the orientation, I had a bunch of errands I had to run, so Ian helped me out a bit. I went and got my beautiful ID card, but for some reason to activate it you have to go to the residential building.. so I still had to use my temporary ID (and was too lazy to try to activate it until Monday). Then I went and exchanged some money at the bank and then went back to my room for a bit.

For dinner, Ian and I wandered a bit off campus and found this Japanese place, and I got udon and a tuna roll. I should've taken a pic of that tuna roll... it had so much tuna, it was so glorious.


 

It's winter here, so it gets really dark really early -- sunset is around 5........
And I didn't sleep at all on the plane ride, so I went back to my room around 7:30, and got really tired.

It is also really cold because it is winter. Not nearly as cold as NYC winter, but it was around 50s at night when I got here. So luckily I have 2 blankets and also sweatpants and stuff, but the first few nights were really cold.

Oh and also my room doesn't have glass on the windows -- it's just a screen. And also there is no heating or AC. When I told my dad, he responded "Are you in a third world country?" And I found out it's really normal throughout Sydney in all the houses and apartments not to have heating or AC.

The next day, I woke up and went to the Village Cafe. UNSW Village is the dorm next to mine, so this was the cafe downstairs.



I got a ham, tomato, and cheese sandwich and a macchiato. It was good!

So then, that afternoon, a bunch of us (exchangers) went on a walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. I met a bunch of really nice people, mostly from Europe. Anyway, here are some pictures I took:

A really crappy panorama, but Coogee Beach ~

Coogee is about a 15 minute walk from campus. You just have to walk up a giant hill...

Gordons Bay

Gordons Bay

 Gordons Bay

Gordons Bay

Gordons Bay

Gordons Bay

Bronte Beach

Da Pacific Ocean

Bondi Beach down there!!!

My big head & Bondi Beach

So we finally finished the walk... There were so many stairs up and down. My calves were so sore. Then, we went to a cafe nearby because Betty's flatmate works there. And we had an early dinner. We took the bus back home and went to Unibar on campus for happy hour. We had some beer and played some pool! Christian and I got pretty tired, so we left around 8, and I went to bed sometime before midnight.

The next day, I didn't really do much and I was ok with that because my legs were so sore. I got lunch from downstairs; there are quite a few restaurants just in the ground floor of my building. So I got some kungpao chicken or something. And then after dinner, I went and explored near Coogee with Christian. And we got gelato! 

Pistachio and coffee (the girl who scooped this does not know how to scoop: that coffee scoop dripped on me 2 seconds after I took this picture)

I didn't really do much the rest of the weekend because I was lazy and also because the other dorms had fun orientation events planned, like going to Taronga Zoo, but Terraces didn't have anything. And I didn't have class on the first day (7/28).

[Btw if you click one of the pictures, you can view it larger.]