O-WEEK Mon-Sun 23 February - 1 March

oie, where do we start?

This week was a lot of fun I'd tell ya!

might as well start from the top;

Monday:

A bit too tired for my own good (after the previous night), I got up and went down to the IH courtyard at 8.40am - and there our RAs walked all of the international students to CT202, for the International Student Orientation.

This day was a bit crappy...

They didn't get started until 9.45-9.50am, so we'd just been sitting there for almost an hour, waiting and waiting for them to get their act together... Not a good start...
It did get a lot better quite quick though - a guy from one of the Aboriginal tribes in the area told us all about his passion for the didgeridoo, and how he came to play this instrument - and in the end we got a small mini-concert - very nice!





But him, and a couple of others, were the highlights of the orientation - the rest was shit...

People talked about the same things, they talked wayyy too long, and they didn't know how to reach out to us at all... And at noon everyone was really hungry - but do you know when we got to eat? 1.45pm!!! I thought I was going to starve to death... I need food every four hours or I get really grumpy...

The good things were the freebies - some of the people who spoke gave out free stuff, I got a LonelyPlanet pocket book about Melbourne =)

We also really liked Vanh from Laos, who talked about what it was like to study as an international student here in Newcastle - she's done two or three years here already, and had a fabulous slideshow with pics from the previous years =) we like!

Another fun thing was how almost everyone talked about how we should party and how we should drink...!

Yeah, I'm not kidding!

They (that is - The University of Newcastle) were actually handing out advice on how many drinks per day on average that's okey for boys and girls, and that everyone should allow one or two alcohol free days per week...!! jeez...

And everyone incorporated in their speech that "We know you're here to study, but uni is also
about having fun - so socialise as much as you can, make friends, get a network, go to parties, practice responsible drinking, get lost on campus so you have to ask people for the way, and just enjoy your experience here!", and some people even turned the speech the other way around, saying that "We know you're here to have fun - blablabla - but sometimes you might want to study a little bit as well..."

Hehe, I'm telling you - this would never ever happen in Sweden!

In Sweden I think some teachers would like to keep the illusion that none of their students drink, party or never think of other stuff but studying (sorry to all my profs who read this - I'm not talking about you of course!) - so alcohol and how to drink is never really mentioned unless the lecture is supposed to deal with that subject. So this was a very new experience =)

Some of the info we got during the day was good to know - a lot of stuff that I may use further on during the semester to help me pass my courses etc., but all in all - everything was too long, too much repetition, not enough breaks, and at 4.20pm when I decided to leave they were still talking... and it was supposed to end at 3pm...

I think it's a bit rude to continue like that... If you've not covered everything by then, just tell everyone that "We didn't have time for this and this, but for those of you who'd like to get this info we're going to put in an extra lecture about that tomorrow at this time x in this room y" - I mean, how hard can it be? You have to respect people and the fact that they may have other things planned... like me.. I didn't have time for my stuff...

and yeah, I know, I'm whining - but it's because I was grumpy from the very very late lunch...

That afternoon we had a unit meeting in 830 - Aaron's the RA for 830, and for 210 - we in 210 are the buddy unit to 830. So the people who'd arrived got to know each other a little bit more, and we talked about lots of things in relation to living on campus etc. And then there was not much time left (after dinner that is) to get ready for the Back to School Party!

We started out in the courtyard - seems like a lot of pre-partying will be going on in the courtyard - and then we took the train into town, to the pub (don't remember the name) that was reserved for us =)

Here comes some pics from the night, they say a lot more than I can;

Shared a taxi back with three other guys (the trains had stopped going, same for the buses), and tumbled into bed...

Alright!

Tuesday!:

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I was supposed to go to the Official Welcoming Ceremony - but I realised that I would not be fit for fight for that one... oh no.. So I slept in a fair bit and then got my CV corrected by Nicole in the office, she even printed everything for me - thanks doll! - so I could swing by Bar on the Hill (from now on even called BotH) and give it to my future boss =) a bit cocky I know, but I can be that, considering that I already know the end of it =)

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I also managed to have time to pop by the Glasshouse and get my enrolement pack for International Students, before attending 'Student Life on Campus' - a mini lecture about the life of students here on campus (shocking eye? considering the title of the lecture..) =) It was mainly a repetition of what we've heard yesterday at the International Orientation, but still, some of the stuff was useful - and since it was only a one hour lecture, then it's okey if I've heard somethings before =)
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During lunch - oh yeah, the entire week we got free lunch! but I'll let you down a bit, 'cause it was free BBQ, and their idea of a BBQ here is a hot dog with maybe some onion, ketchup and BBQ-sauce... And after five-six days, you get sick of it... - I went to check out the UniExpo, a quite large expo in the Brennan Room in the Shortland Building - lots of freebies, clubs to join (for a fee of course), and a lot of people to avoid...

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...for me, I like it when an expo is fairly open - by that I mean that I can stand a couple of metres away and take the monter in, before I decide if I want to go up there and talk to people. In this expo all the monters and tables were a bit crammed together, so no matter how you did it, you ended up in peoples laps... So I got caught by the tea-drinking people, the newspaper-people, the Bible-people, and the feminist-gay-people... Sorry you guys, I was just there to find the mounteneering people...!
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Which I did, in the end - and I joined - but I'll see if I can try and get out of it...

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Anyway... I was now packed with heaps of free stuff, catalogues, brochures - and a Bible! - so I decided to bike back with everything, before attending the Auchmuty Library Tour at 2pm.
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The library tours are quite good - they're only half an hour and they tell you pretty much all you need to know - not that you'll remember everything anyway, but you get the idea of most of it.

After that it sure was time to bike to Jesmond to refill my wine cellar - good thing they've got really cheap stuff! (like goon, passion pop and other cheapies... I didn't say they were any good - just cheap)

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Tuesday evening - Around the world speed dating in the Green Room with IH =)
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Got to meet some really nice guys - especially Mickey who put me down as his interests ;)

Hehe, okey, all jokes aside - it was mainly a way of getting to know some more people - and it worked!
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Afterwards Katie (USA) and I went to BotH for the International Student Party =) it was hot, and sweaty, and more hot.... But fun to check out the place and talk to some people (gosh, it's going to be a lot of people... I can't keep track of everyone, it's impossible..)

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Yeah, so that was the third late night - let's keep going!
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Wednesday:
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Hehe, again I was supposed to go to the Great Hall and listen to the Welcome Ceremony from the Faculty of Health... well, we all know that ain't gonna happen... I slept in again...

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Turned out it was a wise decision - I didn't miss out on anything according to a lot (!) of people.
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The rest of the day was spent with my faculty and the first years of Nutrition and Dietetics - we talked about the program and all that I've already talked about during the first week in Gothenburg, but it was nice to see that they do exactly the same here =) you know, when we talked about where we can work, what we will study, salaries, research etc.

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We also attended 'Learning in the online environment' and 'Learning at University' - two half an hour mini lectures about, well, you can understand what it was about. Also a little bit of repetition from Monday, but again, some things were good to know.
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Somehow the first years disappeared, and I was the only one left to walk around campus with Aimee and Josie from third year, and Carina from second year (I'll be joining her class) - they're all three of them SOS-mentors; Supporting Other Students. Almost a little bit like Student Buddies, but they're for all students of their program, and not aimed directly at international students.

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It was nice walking around campus with them - we figured out where we were going to have lectures, smacked a lot of mozzies out of the way and I solved my literature problem; I'm going to borrow the text books I'll be needing from Aimee and Josie! Isn't that great?! =D
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Wednesday night - party night!
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It's just like back home - wednesday is mini-Saturday, although here it's more knowned as Students Night! It's the big night when all the students go out basically - in Gothenburg I think it's Thursday right? Valand and such?

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Well, I had to take it a bit slow, 'cause Thursday morning 9.30am I had my interview for BotH, so I had to be content with a kind of ruff pre party at the courtyard (more drinking games...), and when everyone else went into town around 10.30-11pm I went to bed. Well, okey, I didn't go to bed straight away, I hung out with Aaron (he was on-call-RA that night) for a couple of minutes and here's the result:

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hmmm... good idea to go to sleep...

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So after spending some time on the internet and swearing over my scraped elbow, another late night was over and I was sound asleep...

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Thursday:
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Rise and shine!!

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Interview!!!
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Was extremly tired, but fortunately it didn't show at all - so Anthea (my boss) told me she was almost 100 % certain that I would get one of the jobs. They were interviewing 12-13 people for 6 positions.

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I tried to think that it could still go down the drain, but it's hard when someone practically tells you that you've got the job. Would be rather good though, because tomorrow I'm doing a RSA-course (Responsible Service of Alcohol), that I must have to be allowed to work in places where they serve alcohol. This one-day-course costs 80dollars (480SEK) if you pre-pay, which I'd done, or 90dollars if you pay up front. Apparently I can deduct it from my taxes so I'll get at least something back, but to be able to deduct it from my taxes I need to get the job...
Anthea was going to call me later on that day, or Friday the latest...
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Hold all thumbs!

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I did the last bit of must-do-things (i.e. go to the bank and open an account, do the Huxley Library Tour and got my free sausage...) and then it was the City and Beach Tour for international students! Josie was on this one, so we ended up talking all afternoon =)
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We went to Nobby's Beach and got some info from one of the lifeguards, then we stopped by Fort Scratchley before going down to Bar Beach. Between these places we got a well-rounded tour of the city with lots of tips of nice streets for pubs, bars, clubs, restaurants and sights worth visiting - I've forgotten almost all of it now... =) But it was nice!

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That night we had Trivia in the Green Room at IH - we were all in teams (should've been by block, but never mind, we were in teams anyway) and my team got second! We should've won according to me... But it was fun - I couldn't contribute with a lot (these three guys at my table knew everything though, so it was all good!), except for the Oscar Statue (knowledge, not the actual thing), my bra, a condom, a tampon, a grand-ma sock and something else I think =) And I also came through and took my team to the finals of Twister!

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I love twister!! =D
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(I'm the one on the far left..)

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The last pic - that's all about the fact that we were the last two and we were equally good at Twister (some teasers might say we sucked just as much - but hey, we beat the other eight people!) - so for a final we did RockPaperScissors, and that's when I screwed up..

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then out to the courtyard again - you know the drill by now =)

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Friday:

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Go up extremly early and head down to Hamilton RSL for my day of RSA...
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It was very interesting, but we got the impression that the test in the end of the day was going to be really hard, so I kinda freaked out... I mean, I can't really afford to fail and do the course again - although I still hadn't heard from Anthea so I didn't know if I was doing the course in vain or not..

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'Right, I had indian for lunch (thank god - not a sausage in sight today!) and after that I felt soo much better!
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And well, the RSA really is a joke... The info is good and all - very interesting - but the test, I mean cut it out! It was a closed book test, but the instructor told us that we could glance a little bit if we were uncertain of something, and that he was going to be outside so he wouldn't see what we were doing anyway (he actually said this), and also 'If you could try and not talk too loud...'

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What kind of test is that?
Yeah, okey, I was more than happy about it, 'cause that would mean I wouldn't fail - but everyone tried their best for what, five minutes? Then all of us opened the books, started comparing answers and discussing some of the questions...
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The funniest part though is that when we got out to give the teacher the test, he barely even looked at it - just ticked a lot of the answers (in lightning speed btw - he did not have time to read anything - ANYTHING!) and gave us the certificate - 'There you go, enjoy!'

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Haha =) They really don't want people to fail, 'cause then their course wouldn't get as many people.
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A bit worried now, since I still hadn't heard from Anthea, I went up to BotH as soon as I came back - and, who's surprised?, yieha!! I got the job! =) (she had lost the numbers to three of us, so she was going to try and call Saturday if she'd found them)

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Got my first shift on Wednesday, and orientation first on Tuesday!
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Looking good!

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Is it any idea of telling you that Friday night also is party night?
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Now it was Halls Night at BotH (the halls are International House, Edwards Hall, Evatt House and Barhineban), so everyone was going - but not before some pre partying in the courtyard of course =)

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At BotH we danced the night away - seriously we did, I have not a clue where the night went off to, just that all of a sudden it was late - again...
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Hung out with the guys back at the courtyard a bit, and then turned the lights out at 3.30am...

lovin' it...!

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Saturday:

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slept a looooong time....
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Didn't have a lot of energy so stayed in my room until it was time to get ready to go to the Dinner Cruise - me my dickhead hadn't realised until the night before that it was, in fact, a cruise - on a real boat and everything! A little bit like Ålandsfärjan in miniature it turned out =)

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Everyone was real fancy - but mum, I could have used some help with my hair - it didn't listen to me at all...
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The busride to Nelsons Bay was a bit more than an hour, but once there we jumped on the boat and dug into the entrée =) Then we cruised around the bay into the sunset, ate the most amazing seafood ever (had oysters for the first time, seven of 'em!, thanks Brian!!), and then danced until the boat was rocking against the waves instead of with them =)

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It was super!
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Here's a dance duel between me and Aaron, hehe - sorry Aaron, you have no idea I'm showing this...

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And here's the entertainment in the bus on the way back =)

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And I guess I good thing was that because of the waves a lot of people drank perhaps a little less than they would have otherwise (might have been a good thing since it was the seventh night in a row), 'cause everyone was staggering and stumbling anyway =)

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Back at IH we 'boycotted' the parties and played some games (not drinking games, although you could easily turn it into that as well) in 830 - I got to inaugurate (inviga) Jungle Speed on ozzie soil for the first time since I got here, and that sure was fun! And I learned how to play Spoons =)
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So before we knew it, it was Sunday morning and the last day of o-week =)

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This day, Sunday, I didn't do anything at all...
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Or, that's not true, I spent ages writing about NZ and uploading pics so you guys would have something to read before going to bed =)

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I did make it out of my room though, but that was around 6.30pm, when I finally noticed that the voices I heard was not from the TV or someone far away - it was actually half IH outside my block, pre partying in this courtyard for a change =) but everyone left around 7.30 to go to BotH for a free BBQ (oh noooo....) and I barricaded my door and stayed here - it was nice to have a night off =)
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