What a time it has been! So sorry for dropping off without saying a word… once again I have been doing orientation stuff.
I attended the Melbourne Welcome, a five day orientation for international students. It was great! I got to stay at Queen’s College and eat meals in the great hall. Wait. Let me start at the beginning:
They broke us off into Host groups and my Host leader was name Flick (short for Felicity, who knew!?). My group consisted of the following people: Adrian (France), Cecilia (Sweden), Alex (Sweden), Niamh (“mh” is a “v” sound, Ireland), Christa (US), and Erin (US). Oh! I can’t forget Anthony from the US who did not hang out with us at all and who we really considered disowning… It was a great group and I love being with them. Hopefully we can meet up throughout the semester and go to the pub or have a pot-luck dinner.
Well, the Melbourne Welcome staff had things planned for us every day. Let’s just say that I was exhausted almost every night. Man! We walked so much!
Day 1: Scavenger Hunt in Melbourne (This was great because it allowed us to get a taste of things to do and where to go. I liked discovering places that I would like to go back to.
Day 2: Surfing (Yes, I went surfing again and it was a lot of fun. I got to stand up multiple times. I guess the most frustrating thing is that I many times when I would finally catch a wave and stand up it would die abruptly. Stupid wave…)
Day 3: University Tour and Melbourne Zoo (It was great to see the campus, but it would have been a whole lot better if it wasn’t closed because it was a Sunday! This is also the day that I turned up late to our meeting place in Queen Victoria Market (not my fault!) and had to figure out (by myself) how to get to the Zoo. I was very proud of myself. The zoo was pretty cool. We were there for about 2 hours and did not see even half of it!)
Day 4: More Tours and Eureka Building (I decided to be a rebel and not go on a tour. Actually I wanted to go on a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, but it filled up even before the sign-ups were announced. Uh! But it was good because I finally called Bank of America and reassure them that I had my credit card and there was no fraud occurring. Then I went to the park next to the Botanical Gardens to eat lunch with everyone and then up to the Eureka Building. It is supposedly the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere at a height of 88 stories – my ears popped going up! And a group of us did the Edge- a box of glass that juts out of the building, kind of disconcerting standing on glass over 300m off the ground.) Farewell Dinner (We had to dress up in Church clothes and the people at the High Table wore the academic robes. It was a very format dinner and I wish we had more of them in the US…)
Day 5: Brunch and Leaving
Over all it was a tiring experience. We walked all day and then at night they took us to different pubs and bars. However, I loved it and I am so glad that I did it. I met some really cool people and I hope we can keep in touch.
Cheers! Allison
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