Orientation Week

Orientation week started yesterday (monday). As my roommate Hang (girl from France-- her name is not pronounced like you would think) waited in line to get registered, we met a girl named Elly from Germany. Come to find out most of the international students are from Germany. We all started talking and traveling around together to the different orientation programs. The morning started with just the basic what to do and where to go stuff. As the day progressed our group of three grew to about 10-- five girls from germany, three girls from france, another girl from american and myself. We went to a bbq here which I guess just means serving sausages on white sandwich bread. Like in American there was a red bull mini handing out free beverages. This is a steal considering here they cost about A$4 a can. After the bbq we all hiked the 30 minute walk to the alcohol store, the discount store and the grocery store. On the way we found it was one gir'sl, Audrey from France, birthday on Tuesday. At the store we snuck a cake to surprise her with.

Oh and while at the grocery store I purchased cat food for this stray cat that keeps showing up at our apartment. At first I was feeding it my turkey but that got too expensive so I decided to buy a can of cat food just in case... in a day it has almost finished a large can!

Upon arriving home, a friend of mine, Beck (who lived next to a girl in my sorority when she was traveling here) came over and brought her friend Andrew who was from England. We all just talked about what there is to do here and fun places to travel.

Later that night Hang and I headed to steffi's (german girl) apartment to hang out and talk. At midnight we sang happy birthday to Audrey then all headed in for the evening.

TUESDAY JULY 21

Today we went on campus to check out market day. This is where many of the companies in the area come around to promote what they do. There were a number of banks, and other various booths offering free goodies and information. We walked around the almost every booth. I stopped at STA travel where I paid a small fee for a card that would get me discounds on travel and tours. Another booth offered information about the local snakes and some people were even able to hold a snake (I stayed far away during this activity). At one booth we got to try some of the local food. They had bread that you dipped in oil then a crumbled nut thing, this wierd lemon cheesecake, and kangagroo pot pies. It tasted pretty good, it reminded me of beef stew in a pastry shell.

When we returned to our apartments, it was so warm we all put on our bathing suits and headed to the "resort pool," where we played a little beach volleyball and hung out.

Tonight a local pizza place offers A$5.50 for a large pizza so we are all going to walk over and grab one.

I will post pictures the outside of my apartment and the school soon!