O Week

O Week is what they call their orientation week. They have tons of stuff planned, some of which we are doing and some we aren't. I will tell you about the exciting things. On Tuesday night we went to see a hypnotist! I thought the one that came to High Point was good, but this one was ten times better. He was Australian and I guess he goes all over the world to do shows. The show was quite long, but very entertaining. He was making them do things that I can't imagine ever doing, let alone in front of a huge audience! Most of it was clean humor, but some parts got a little interesting. It was a great show though!

Tuesday, during the day, I met the other people living in my house. Well I met two of them; there is one more that doesn't come until next week. One is named Aislynn. She is from Canada and has been here for three years. She is doing her Law school here. Jen (the one I haven't met yet) is also from Canada and is doing the same thing. They are both almost finished with school! Caroline is the other person living in my house. She is from Norway and just studying abroad for the semester. I really like both of them so far. They have already taught me a lot about their countries. It is cool living with people who are from different places! I finished unpacking everything today and my room looks good. Madison and I went to campus to get on the internet because we haven't payed for any in our rooms yet. It's about a five minute walk to campus- not too far. We spent a few minutes checking our facebook, email, etc, and then headed for the bus stop. We eavesdropped on an Aussie explaining the bus system to someone else. Thank goodness because we finally figured out what we are supposed to look at. We are starting to understand it better now! We went to the same mall we went to yesterday to finish getting our food for the week. We stayed out for a while kind of mosying around the mall. We bought a bottle of Australian wine just to try it and because we can! Their wine is very cheap so we thought, why not? We asked the person at the store for a sweet one and he showed us a bunch. We haven't tried it yet though. We made ourselves dinner and then went to the hypnotist. We both stayed up till 10pm! That's the latest we have stayed up so far.

On Wednesday, we went to the beach early. Madison and I have been waking up at 6am every day, so we start our days around 8am. We rode the bus to Broadbeach. It took about 20 minutes to get there. There is a closer beach, but we heard this one was nice. I am sure we will make it around to many of the beaches around here! The waves are so much crazier here than at home. They are bigger waves, but they also come right after each other. There is never a lack of waves! It looks a little intimidating, but I wouldn't go too far out anyway. I love watching the surfers out there! It looks like magic the way they stay up there riding the waves. We stayed out tanning and watching the surfers all day until about 3ish. This beach had an outdoor mall too, just like the last beach. We went to yet another grocery store in the mall to get the rest of what we forgot. This beach had an outdoor mall too, just like the last beach. The grocery stores definitely have a LOT less junk food in them. Like there is not even an aisle of junk food. But I found lots of food that I would like, some things are different than at home. And let me tell you, they have great candy here! We headed to the bus stop and each had about four heavy grocery bags. We probably looked dumb on the bus, but oh well. The bags were too flimsy for the long trip back and a bunch of them were breaking. We will definitely have to invest in some of those reuseable sturdy ones. We made ourselves a real dinner and went to bed around 9pm. We didn't wake up until 8am, which was a great surprise!

On Thursday, I skyped home. It was good to see part of my family, but I'm not missing home much. No offense haha. It's just exciting being in a new place. Madison and I spent the day at the pool and we are both getting tan! Reaching that goal to be as tan as the lifegaurds! After the pool, we watched some tv and played cards. There are five tv channels here so most of the time there is nothing good on. But we made dinner and tried our wine! I thought it was ok. It was the best wine I've tried out of the sips I've had of my parents. It was sweeter than theirs which made it a little better. It still had that bittery taste as an aftertaste though. Maybe we will try another one, but who knows! There is a bar on campus, and they were having a themed party. It was called tight and bright, where everyone wears tight and bright clothing. Madison and I put on jeans and a tshirt and decided to see what it was like. So many people went all out with their costumes- it was fun to see! Most people were just socializing, meeting people, but some people were dancing. The dancing was nothing like at home- much more controlled. We didn't stay very long because we were exhausted. This time zone thing isn't too fun. I'm sure I will get used to it soon though- hopefully!

On Friday, it was our first cloudy day. We went to the pool anyway to see if we could bare the wind, and we had no such luck. It was too chilly so we went to my house and just watched tv and talked to my housemate Aislynn all day. It was nice though because we got to know her better! She's really sweet and it's nice to have someone that knows about the area. She gave us lots of tips and the best places to go around town and for travelling. The three of us had fun together. We all made dinner- chicken kabobs, rice and veggies! I am going to become a chef by the time we leave because we don't have a meal plan! And that's the end of O Week. Classes start on Tuesday for me, so there's just a few more days until the schoolwork begins.