Newcastle Uni, Australia

My first three weeks in Australia have gone by in an immense blur. I arrived in Sydney, and was picked up at the airport by Sim, who then drove me up to Newcastle, where I was lucky enough to stay at his brother's house for a few days before I could move on to campus. My first day in Newcastle I was able to enjoy a few wonderful swims in the ocean and experience some of the sites of the town.

Moving into Evatt House the next day was very exciting, I unpacked my bags, which, after living out of a car, was more thrilling than can be put into words. Most of the other students hadn't moved in yet, so it was pretty much me, a few Americans and all the Resident Advisers (RAs). I quickly came to realise that the RAs at Evatt, were going to be very different from those in Helmcken (my first year dorm). The RAs had organized a punch bowl for that night, which was made up of Goon (5L box wine) and a variety of juices. We enjoyed this punch bowl in the CAT room (the common room for Evatt Collage) where we played some games, including beer pong, King's Cup, and many others. The CAT room is rather impressive, with a large projector screen, sound system, ping pong table, pool table, fooze ball table and couches. A set up for some very good times.

Then on Sunday O-Week began...
All the first years and the rest of the internationals (who are 99.9% American) moved in and we had a BBQ and a getting-to-know-you evening. The week was jam packed full of events. We had a inter-collegiate day, where we played sports-day games, and then later went out on buses to Customs (a bar in Newcastle). We had a scavenger hunt with our block (aka building) and were forced to walk around Newcastle dressed in embarrassing costumes and take pictures doing some pretty funny things, including jumping off the pier and swimming in some of the dirtiest water ever (it compares to the marina water down at the Point).

For a more detailed and explicit version of O-Week please refer to my note posted on Facebook.

Classes began on Monday, and I was very excited by the fact that my 12 hours of class per week would be scheduled during Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, leaving me with a long 4 day weekend every week. The classes here are really not that different from at home, which was good to learn!

This past weekend, me and some of my fellow exchange students went on a surf trip up to Seal Rocks. It was unbelievably beautiful up there, and the beaches were surprisingly un-crowded, which made it even better. I worked on finessing my surfing skills, while most others had their first experiences on a surf board. We spent most of the day on Saturday surfing, and although we were exhausted that night, that didn't stop us from breaking some sort of record of number of pitchers consumed before diner. I am also happy to announce that my fellow Evatt friend, Cole, won Surf Camp Idol, which was rather exciting.

Now its back to another week of school, and unfortunately I had to make a trip to the doctor today due to an incessant cough. I guess I should have learned by now that my Mother is always right, and lack of sleep is correlated with getting sick!