Harry Potter was great, just as expected, and a surprisingly large group from the house went. The next morning, another big group met to catch the train into Sydney for our tour of Chinatown and the China Gardens. It was another miserably rainy day, but I remembered to bring an umbrella and managed to keep fairly dry for the day. Our tour guide spoke mainly about the history of the Chinese in Australia, and he gave us some fun facts, but the weather was so distracting I feel like I didn’t retain a whole lot. The poor guide’s awful tangents about his brother and a Chinese girl he’d had on a tour once were difficult to listen to, and the anecdotes didn’t help the group’s focus, either. Still, the gardens were pretty, and it was my first time really seeing Sydney, so I’d still chalk the morning as a win. The afternoon was an interesting adventure, getting back from the Qantas building and onto the correct train in Sydney – feel free to read about that fiasco here.
After getting back from Sydney, I went straight to dinner where they were beginning to set up for Bush Dance, which I understood to be the equivalent of a square dance in the US. Though I was urged to check it out by some SDO/mentor friends, I ended up hanging out, chatting, and having a drink as I desperately procrastinated and avoiding packing for surf camp. Eventually I did make it to packing and caught the bus with Kathleen, one of my American girlfriends, and we were on our way to camp. Only four people from I-House went to the camp, so we had a room to ourselves. Saturday and Sunday morning both started early, at 7:30, and we were given three two-hour lessons in the water, as well as a lesson on surf etiquette if/when we choose to go surfing in the “real world.” I managed to stand up and the instructors even got some videos while we surfed, so it was an incredible, exhausting, fun weekend.
By the time we rode the bus back on Sunday evening, I was dead tired and ready for bed, but everyone at I-House was ready to go out again. My refusals were refused and in the end, I ended up catching the party bus with what seemed like the rest of the house and went to Abbey’s, another club in Wollongong. Despite soreness from surfing, not wanting to go out in the first place, and the dread of my first Australian class at 9:30 the next morning, it turned out to be a great night. I’m beginning to think that there’s no such thing as a bad time in Australia.
Even my classes were bearable this week, and I think I’ll really enjoy all of them. I’ve signed up for an advanced fiction writing course, a writing seminar-type course with a mini-thesis, an American lit course, and an upper-level French language course. Everyone from my writing courses clearly all know each other, and I felt a bit awkward in my fiction class among a group of old friends. Still, even though fiction isn’t really my forte, I loved my intro to fiction, so I have high hopes for the course! The seminar class is basically a combination of all the upper-level writing courses, so I’m with all the same people and then some from my fiction course, and they all know each other, as well as the teacher. He actually walked into the class and looked around, stopped at me, then pointed and asked plainly, “Who are you?”
Being caught off guard, I answered (dumbly), “Um, I’m new.” I forgot to mention that I came down with a cold this week, so I said this with a thick throat in between sniffles, since I forgot to bring tissues. Great way to make friends.
Since it was obvious that I was new, the instructor rephrased his question so even a simpleton couldn’t answer wrongly. “And your name is..?”
I answered “Kiley” simply enough, and I efficiently responded to his questions about where I’m from and that I’m here for the semester, studying abroad. At this, he had the 30-40 students in the room introduce themselves to me in turn, so I learned everyone’s names quickly along with some varying form of “nice to meet you.” Awkward as I felt, it was nice to be introduced and welcomed into the group, and I spent the rest of that lecture thinking about my project for my mini-thesis final, but really I was just focusing on not coughing all over the poor two people next to me. This was also my primary focus in my American lit class, which I hope will be interesting to hear about the US from another country’s standpoint, as well as French. My ten person class also all knew each other, except for a friendly Aussie guy who took a year off and happens to have a brother living at I-House. All in all, I think my classes will be really great, and I’m so looking forward to them!
Party-wise, this week was much tamer than the last. I made it out on Wednesday again, but caught the first bus back since I was feeling so poorly. Thursday was a calm day off, since I only have class Monday-Wednesday, and I spent most of the morning reading outside in the Australian sun with Kathleen and Elana, both American girls I’ve been spending most of my time with. Friday turned out to be the big party night, known as the plex party, hosted by former I-House residents just a block away. It was another fun but short and uneventful night for me. On Saturday, I got a surprisingly early start and spent the morning watching shows with a friend on my deck, complete with a run to Chicko’s where I got the best chicken burger and fries I think I’ve ever had.
After fully recovering with TV and greasy food, we went to the beach to meet a group from I-House and relax. To be able to call sixty degree weather where you can comfortably sit on a beach in the sun in a swim suit just doesn’t count as winter, but I’m perfectly happy to be here in this weather. Eight of us in the group got to play soccer on the beach. Low tide gave us a great, flat and slightly hard ground to play on and, even though my team lost, it was a good work out and so much fun, as beach soccer always is.
Saturday night was as lazy as ever. We were able to claim the Red Room, a large room with over a dozen couches and a TV, and had a movie marathon where probably over twenty people filtered in and out over the course of the night. After a late night Macca’s (MacDonald’s) run, I passed out on a couch to Finding Nemo, then made it upstairs to bed. Today has been calm as well, aside from my first rugby game ever. Still trying to understand the rules, but St. George Illawarra Dragons (our team in Wollongong) are apparently pretty good, despite their loss today, so I expect I’ll see many more rugby games. Still on the agenda tonight is a shop run for a Nerf gun – necessary for living on C Deck, it seems – then this week we’ll hopefully plan our mid-semester break to Cairns (pronounced like “cans”) and the Great Barrier Reef. Should be another great week! Thanks for keeping in touch and continuing to read to everyone at home =)
Here and there,
Kiley
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