The Afternoon
So the flight to the city in which my school abides was like three hours. The first two hours were super uneventful just a normal flight of me wondering when the heck the flight is going to end and being bored. I forgot to charge all of my electronic devices (I know I'm super good with technology...) so they were all about to die which meant I was trying to limit my use of them which meant even more boredom. The last part of the flight was a little more awkward because the lady to my left started talking to me and the girl on my left (I was in the middle). Well actually she started talking with the girl on my left and that was awkward because they were talking across me which always causes me confusion because I'm not sure what I should do. Eventually she started conversing with me and I had to try to explain that I was studying abroad which appears to me more confusing to people than I thought it was. I did find out that she was in the top five realtors in Australia or something just as impressive. So she was going back after receiving an award. And I believe the other lady was visiting her boyfriend. Honestly, I was just really happy that they weren't two large men and were nice and friendly even if I did feel awkward. But I always feel awkward so I guess that doesn't mean that much.
Well once the flight landed I struggled to get my bag down from the overhead place like short people do. There was an exit at the back of the plane too which was new and caused me to try and move faster but really just panic and fumble around even more. I had to walk outside after that and was met with a large dose of humidity and heat. Luckily I got to go back inside shortly after that. We met the person in charge of us in this new city and went to the actual campus/living area of us new students.
Upon arriving at the student lodge we were told a bit of information about where we were staying and some of the important information that we needed to know so that we wouldn't die while staying here. We were then given our rooms and left to get situated and whatnot. Well my room ended up being on the second floor which is really nice and I can't complain but that meant that I had to carry my luggage up the stairs which was a bit of a struggle but I got it so it's fine. Then I went to my room and met my new roommates! I think I got super lucky because both of my roommates are super friendly and nice. Plus we are all in similar majors and we have one class together! I got to meet a bunch of new people through them and was bombarded with names. I'm pretty terrible with names but I actually put effort into learning them and personally think I did pretty good at learning everyone's name. Sure there are two pairs of girls with the same name but that's beside the point.
We sat outside in the courtyard for a bit and met an actual Australian! Okay I know what you're thinking. "You're in Australia shouldn't you have met an Australian already?" Well, I hadn't met and talked to an Australian student yet because I had met all the other international students and that meant a bunch of people from the States and Canada. After that I unpacked and went to bed.
Saturday
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| The campus with the forest in the background. |
I slept in. I was tired and they don't serve breakfast or lunch on weekends so of course I'd sleep as long as I can. I had to get up somewhat early though because the group I came with had a school tour planned and being told more information about how to survive here. Where the school is located is super cool. It's pretty spread out and surrounded by tropical forest. It's almost like forest grew around the different buildings. There are some small mountains that the forest is part of and it's just really really beautiful. There's also a bungee jump place close to the school so apparently we might hear screams every once in a while because of that. I doubt it will happen but we'll see if I do that or not.
After the tour my roommates invited me to go with them and the group I was introduced to as they went downtown because there was a Chinese New Year celebration happening. So we took the bus and embarked on an adventure in which we constantly lost people and were somewhat lost. But it was fine nothing bad happened and we found our way without losing anybody.
We walked around time first and went into a couple of shops but I didn't buy anything. Then we went to the Lagoon in which they have a free public pool that's outside because you can't really swim in the ocean because of the Irukandji jellyfish (the smallest and most venomous box jellyfish in the world). We sat by the shore and looked across the horizon though which was nice and relaxing. After sitting for a bit we decided to go to the street that was closed for the New Years celebration. Some of us just really wanted to find the food stands so that we could eat some food. Once we found the street, we watched a little bit of a dragon dance that was being performed and then left. We decided to find an actual restaurant to get food from because all of the food we saw people with didn't look very good.
In our search of food we found the night market in which there were different Asian food places where you choose the size of plate you want and then you pick the dishes that you want. It's basically Chinese takeout buffet style. We found fried pineapple that was so good! We might go back there just for the pineapple. After filling our stomachs with the wonderful food that we needed we began to explore the night market which has a lot of nice souvenirs. I will definitely be going back to actually get some souvenirs before I leave.
After exploring the night market for a while it was time to go back to the street with the New Years celebration to see a parade. On our way there we ended up stopping to take pictures of all the flying fox bats that were flying. During the day we could see them in the trees all over the place and basically taking up all the space in the trees as they slept. Well now it was night time which meant they were no longer sleeping. They were all waking up from their slumber and there was basically a parade of bats in the sky. We probably stood there watching them for about ten minutes and they weren't even close to being done. It's probably one of the coolest things I've seen since coming here.
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| These are the bats during the day (I just found a picture on google but it's the same thing) |
The bats were so mesmerizing that once we were done watching them we went to watch the actual parade that was our goal in the first place. We were probably only five minutes late but when we got there we saw this one gold dragon traveling above the crowd and then it was over. So we missed the actual parade but we got to see a parade of bats. Hopefully I'll see it again but this time with my camera so I can share it with you.
We had heard that there were supposed to be fireworks after the fireworks but those weren't for another hour so the majority of us went to sit along the coast again and find a place to sit and watch the fireworks from. We sat on a bench for a while and then I needed something to lean against so I sat on the ground and leaned against the bench/sitting thing we had been on previously. Shortly after others decided to join me and we had a little pow wow on the ground with some people still on the bench. We got quite a few stares because of this but I didn't really care because I was comfortable. Finally the time for the fireworks arrived! ...and passed. We waited for half an hour before deciding that the fireworks weren't actually going to happen and decided to leave.
The adventure to find the correct bus stop was a bit of a struggle and we ended up walking in a circle when we could have just crossed the street to begin with but we found it and got back safely which is all that really matters. Then off to bed!
Sunday
I don't think too much happened this day but I do know that we did a bit of running around. We went to the closest mall to us because the stores across from us are expensive since they know they are right across from college students who need stuff suddenly. Well I got an Australian phone because that was a thing I needed and we also got some groceries since we don't have breakfast or lunch on weekends. The most exciting part to me was when we went to Kmart. Now don't go assuming you know what Kmart is like because Kmart is stinking awesome and their clothes are beautiful and soft (although that might just be clothes in Australia in general). You may be thinking that it can't be as good as Target. Well you are wrong. Here in Australia Target it not so good. In my mind in Australia Kmart will probably become my Target in the US.
After that we went to the pool at the lodge and probably won't go swimming in it again because it's rather dirty and surprisingly cold considering we're in the tropics. Then we had dinner and hung out a bit before going to bed. More might have happened but I'm pretty sure I wanted to have a me night because I had been doing stuff nonstop for at least a week and really just needed some time to relax. The majority of us had to wake up early the next morning anyway because orientation week was starting but I'll talk about that in my next post. =)
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