At Surfers Paradise: It was a group of 10 us (people who are also doing IFSA Butler with me) got up early in the morning and then took the hour and 15 minute train down to a cute little city. We found a hostel named Backpackers in Paradise, which was relatively cheap for how nice it was- arguably thought it was my first hostel but I thought it was quite nice. Then we immediately went straight to the beach, I slip, slap, slopped (the official slogan of putting on sunscreen in Aussie) on tons and tons of sunscreen and just laid on the beach for at least 4 hours going in occasionally to the perfectly temperature water to cool off when needed. I can totally get how people just sit there for tons and tons of time because of how nice it is, I never wanted to leave. Then around 5 we all headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready because we had signed up for a 5 bar pubcrawl around the city so that we could really experience the Surfers Paradise nightlife. It was relatively inexpensive ($20 for 5 bars and a free drink at each one plus dinner was served) God had such a fun night. The club scene, at least there (I have not yet had time to check out Bris-Vegas' yet due to O-Week) was pretty cool and they really know how to have a good time. By the time the pubcrawl was over we all stumbled back to the hostel where a guy who was staying there was putting on a local concert in the hostel- people who can play guitar really well and sing honestly have a gift. It was wonderful and the perfect way to end such a great day. The next morning two of us left early because I wanted to get back for O WEEEEEEEEK!
Definition of O Week: Stands for Orientation Week and it is for the new "freshers" who are moving in to the different colleges on campus- a week long and you do tons and tons of fun activities and it's a way to get them to all meet each other and get introduced to college life in an awesome way!
So Saturday when I got back to Emmanuel I was immediately given my "freshman nickname" (everyone has one and they are written on a construction workers' hat which you are to wear AT ALL TIMES NO MATTER WHAT OR THE UPPER CLASS LEADERS WILL HAZE YOU- mine is Bo Peep - no idea why. How they choose the names is that the executive leaders all go out to a bar one night with a list of the new freshman and their pictures and drink and come up with all the fun names. Here is a lovely photo of me and my hat, out a bar- on the other side it says BoPeep - these are just other "freshers" living it up at a bar one night. so much fun!So after all the freshers checked in we had like a convocation type ceremony where they individually called us up one by one in front of everyone and made us sign a welcome contract, mind you while doing this we were in our "robes" which picture harry potter and those are the robes. It felt like graduation, especially after the president of the college said, "Welcome to the first day of the rest of your lives..." Thank goodness I didn't trip on the stage, that would made a great first impression on everyone.. The freshers are cute, but a ton of them are 17 so it is a little weird especially because they can't drink and a lot of the activities that we do at night revolve around drinking. But as any typical college student in the states they always find a little way around it. Later that night we "bush danced in the parking lot" it was just a huge excuse for everyone to drink for the first time and then dance around doing aboriginal dances... like I wrote before this aboriginal stuff must be nonsense because when they broke out the makarena i called fowl on that being legit.
So after a night of drinking you could kinda say I was struggling, especially the next morning when I was woken up at 5 am by the leaders pounding on all of our doors and blasting music in the hallways. We were ordered to get us and led into the quad where they were ready for us to go on a little morning run followed by push ups in the wet grass and then we learned some cheers. Needless to say it was a little harder for some of the freshers than others and they left some evidence in the trees during the run.. But a nice way to start out the day I guess.
The next day (Sun. Feb 20) We just had meetings in the morning and afternoon about the regulations of the college, thank goodness though being an international and 20 I did not have to attend anything other than the one where they talked about playing sports for Emmanuel (they do like a Harry Potter thing where the colleges play against each other) After Dinner we all headed (hats and all to a local pub called the Pig 'N" Whistle where we were treated to lovely drink specials and lots of fun traditions + activities that the execs had in store for us. (That is the picture above) It is so weird to be able to buy drinks in a bar legally!
The next morning (Mon. Feb 21) I was promptly woken up again during the wee hours of the morning but thankfully this time it was at 6 am and after doing a nice morning run we were taught a dance which we are performing tomorrow at the local activities fair. God kill me, I am the most awk dancer as everyone knows but! IN AUSTRALIA AT THE CLUBS AND BARS THEY DON'T BUMP AND GRIND THEY DO 7TH GRADE CIRCLE DANCING SO IT IS JUST ALL AWKWARD! So I guess it's a win win win for me!! After that we had some free time to go back to sleep! woot and then we had a fun meeting about "Expectations at Emmanuel" but being a wonderful international student I did not have to go to it because they were like you are a 3rd year in college, you know how to behave or we hope! So the internationals went to the "International Orientation" god what a joke- it was again a meeting that I probably did NOT need to attend! but whatever, after the meeting we broke up into wings and all of us went ugly clothes shopping in order to prepare for the night's activity which was UGLY MINI GOLFING. I bought the ugliest dress probably ever made for a nice 3 dollars, such a find in a thrift store- I don't know how anyone ever bought it in the first place! After dinner just as we were all changing into our wonderful outfits, probably the biggest and most ridiculous storm x10000 that I have ever heard/ seen the lightning flashes broke out and needless to say we could NOT go mini golfing. So they rescheduled the ugly night for tonight I believe and then they set up board games and other fun things that would entertain 17 year olds but us older ones decided to go causally drink at the ON CAMPUS AND RUN BY THE UNIVERSITY bar- probably the best idea ever on that part because I'm sure they don't pay that much in taxes on the alcohol because they are a school and they allow people to come and buy stuff! It's called the Red Room, seems like a fun place to chill and drink on the weekends or casually during the week- overall not a terrible night.
The next morning however (Tuesday) I could not wake up, they were pounding at my door at 5 am but no way after getting up two mornings in a row was I going to be participating in it- I did however miss the second part of the dance, which when we perform it later today will be slightly embarrassing however I will just stand in the back and hope that no one sees me. After lunch we had a meeting about the "Sports at Emmanuel" which actually seem pretty cool, again they do it harry potter style where the colleges face off against each other. They are trying to recruit me to play NetBall because of my wonderful height (it's like basketball but you cannot bounce the ball or travel with it, you just have to pass it up the court and then shoot it in the net) I am probably going to pass though because I want to play touch rugby! The aussie's are obsessed with Rugby so I figure while I'm here I might as well experience it! Plus a nice rugby shirt/ souvenir can't hurt!! Then later after dinner we had a pre activity called "trivia night" where they broke us up into teams and quizzed us on aussie slang + other australian things + things about UQ in general. My team was not the greatest and I know absolutely nothing about Aussie Slang so that didn't end well but after it we went on a PUB CRAWLLL in the city!! WHich was really fun, again we were broken up into teams and at all the bars had tasks that we had to do! The girls on my team started the night off with a wonderful tequila shot so clearly it was a great night for everyone! These activities really do help to bond all of the freshers together, I am so jealous that we don't do this type of thing in America, god it would be SO much fun.
This morning I did go at 530 am after I was woken up and we marched to all the other colleges and yelled our dirty cheers at their buildings and then we ran back to the main field where they had set up an obstacle course where the last piece was a slip-n-slide but instead of water to make traction they were using GOON (Definition: Boxed Wine or in the states Franzia) I thank goodness managed to avoid that part of the course, but they are crazy, I have no idea where they come up with these types of things! Woah looong post, I must be off, we are going to go perform the dance and then head to the HUGE activities fair! yay free swag! more sooon! pictures on fb soon as well!
AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE, OY OY OY
I call foul on hazing. I will be reporting this to nationals.
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