O - week

Classes just began and real life is starting to set in.  But now that it's done I can share with you the adventures of St. Mary's AmigO-week (orientation week, zesty-Mexican style!).  That's right, I travel 10,000 miles across the world to dress up like our neighbors to the south.  Esta muy comico!

Anyway, the week before last was a wild one.  Filled with running, partying, and a little beach time, O-week was a good experience.  First of all, I was considered a "fresher" (they don't have the same "freshman, sophomore, jr, sr" system that we do) which is really annoying because I've been through this all before!  Not to mention that I'm older than the majority of the O-week leaders, so it's pretty frustrating to be called a "fresher" by people who are less experience in university than me.  But that aside, everyone has been extremely friendly and open.

The week started off with "defreshing" which involved rolling through baked beans, peanut butter and Vegemite.  In my opinion, it was kinda fun.  Then we learned the "fresher dance" to One by Yeasayer.  I might show some of you when I come back if I can remember it.

The first night we had an "Amigo Turn" (turn is the same as party here) so I went to the local thrift store and got this little number:

Fantastic, isn't it?

Then the next day we were falsely led to believe that we could sleep in.  We were woken up early to go for a run around campus and do a lap around the track called the "fresher 400".  As I have taken up running over here, I enjoyed the nice morning run even though it was quite early.

Then that afternoon we had a series of Mexican themed "Olympics" involving smuggling "tequila" (apple juice) over the Mexican-American boarder.  All in good fun, but a tad politically incorrect.

That night we went to a bowling pub- that's right, beer and bowling.  It we a good time bowling and having a couple drinks with my new Australian friends.

The next day was filled with university orientation.  I signed up for classes and got my student card.

That afternoon we had an amazing race around Melbourne!  It was heaps of fun and ended in the city center doing our silly dance in front of hundreds of Melburnians.  I was quite tired and everyone crashed as soon as we got back, but the night wasn't over.  We had "fluoro-yellow" night! (fluoro here means neon in america).  So again, I got a ridiculous outfit:

Glamorous, I know.

Wednesday was filled with more university orientation, which unfortunately wasn't very helpful and most people took it as a time to recover and get some well needed rest.  The day was relaxed and that night we saw an outdoor movie (Pulp Fiction to be precise) which was a nice change of pace from the events of the week.

Thursday morning we got up and did yoga, had lunch with the neighboring residential college.  That afternoon the clubs had a fair on campus (much like UIUC's famous Quad Day).  I mused around and found a skating club much like the Inline Insomniacs at U of I (except they don't skate at midnight here, so automatically not as awesome... I will always be an Inliner first and foremost!)  I also found a diving club so watch out for underwater pictures soon! 

Toga party that night (very Animal House) and unfortunately I have no pictures from it, sorry.

Finally, Friday was spent at St. Kilda's beach down in south Melbourne.  A fun day spent playing cricket and volleyball on the beach and then we headed back to Mary's for dinner and trivia night (which my group won!).  And just like that, O-week was finished!  It was a long hall but a fun one!

Now I've had a week of classes and have changed one of my classes already.  We'll see what the next week has in store... I might be diving next weekend or taking a trip down to Prince Phillip Island to see some natural penguins!!

Hope everyone's having a good and safe time back home!

Paul