Orientation week

Today was the first day of International Student Orientation and I'm pleased to announce that I have met a lot of great people while here so far. 

While the sessions are fairly straight forward I do believe the whole point in showing up is to get to meet other people in your same situation. Thus far, I've encountered two people in the business program from Chicago, 5 people in law from London England, and a Canadian in International development. I even briefly met a girl from Carleton. So that's been very good.

However, it is such an awkward experience trying to meet people when you're older. Especially when I have chosen not to live on res again. Gone are the days when you could run up and slap another person on the back- yell "YOU'RE IT!" and immediately have a best friend- and damn I miss those days. Now it's 

"hey, can I sit here?" *pull out cell phone and pretend to know more than one person in this country* 

"so... this session is lame eh?"

 "yeah... are you Canadian?" 

"yeah"

 "kool".... more silence...

Another thing to be noted is that these people are doing their undergraduate degrees, thirsty to move even further from their parents and rules- they're about 19. 

Now I'm not saying that at nearly 22 I'm the model of maturity, but I think not living in res was a good idea. I've seen WAY more of Melbourne than these kids have already- which is great. Also, if I'm going to be trying to get distinction with this master's I've got to keep my grades up and my booze consumption down. I've realised that saving my money to travel on the off times, is WAY better than getting drunk and passing out (although I would have thought I was lame saying this 2 years ago hahaha).

Major differences in study abroad undergraduate degrees and international student post grad programs is that I get grades like A, B, C and hopefully not D. These kids are on pass or fail so no matter how hard or little they work- they will only get a pass or a fail. That means that these people really don't give a crap- and who could blame them!?! Unfortunately I'm not so lucky.

Thankfully I have met a gem of a girl who is in a similar boat as me, and her grades count. She lives in res in the res I would have lived in if I had accepted their offer of residence. And she's Canadian :)

The two of us are going to see Harry Potter tonight (because it comes out 2 days earlier than in Canada!) so let's hope this pans out into a beautiful friendship- because quite frankly culture shock is beginning to set in.

Here are some pictures of my beautiful green campus! 

Monument for those who have contributed to the University

A gumtree sans kookabura

The lovely lake in front of my university 

Lake from my bus stop

So far I have also got lost of this campus about 4 times today- but who cares when it looks like this!!!

(and it's "Winter")

More posts to come as I've finally emptied all my suitcases, done groceries and managed to get myself home on the train without a guide- that's what I call success!