Cheap Tuesdays!

Today started off with some more boring orientation stuff. We were guided through campus and sat in on a talk given by our department, but it didn't really apply to exchange students like myself because most of us are entering into higher level classes and already have the prerequisites completed. After all the boring stuff we had the most delicious pizza lunch out behind the student union and I don't think I could've been happier. Well, unless it was Lou Malnati's or something like that. I wanted to take care of registering for two more classes today so that I would have a full course load, but that turned out to be a nightmare. I went to the faculty of science and engineering to get approved for the coral reef ecology class that I really wanted to take, but wasn't approved for because when I had applied i was still taking the prerequisites and didn't have grades for them yet. After the difficulty I had finding that, the lady gave me a form and a copy of my transcripts and told me I had to go talk to an academic adviser for my program to finish sorting things out. She then pointed me in the direction of building 21. It took me a good 15 minutes to find the building, seeing as the maps we have of campus are sometimes very hard to read. After finally getting there I walked inside and was very confused on where I was supposed to be. Luckily, a nice man walked out of his office and I inquired where I could find Orpha, the woman who was to be doing my advising. He didn't know who the hell she was or where to find her, and at first I thought I had gotten her name wrong. After all, who the hell names their kid Orpha? He asked why I needed to see her and for what course, and then he told me that I should've been directed to building 28, because the one I was in was actually that of molecular biology. I was getting pretty overwhelmed at this point, but I set off anyways to find building 28 this time. This one didn't take me quite as long because i recognized the marine biology building. I found where I was supposed to be and double checked with the woman, but I had to come back an hour and a half later when walk-in meetings were available. Fast forward an hour and a half to meeting time. I got there early because I was in a hurry to get back to hanging with the cool kids at George Roberts. Turns out, Orpha is basically 4'7" and possibly the spawn of satan. She told me that I hadn't listened to my orientation meeting and that she wouldn't be doing any of this for me until Wednesday after I checked my schedule to make sure none of the class times would clash with one another. I also wouldn't be helped because she had other students to attend to. In all reality, I was the only person on the second floor and it would've taken her two seconds to sign off on my sheet instead of being such a dumb, condescending wench about the whole thing. So yes, now tomorrow at 10:30 I have to find another building and go to another orientation meeting just to learn about my schedule and how to read it and how to tell if classes don't go, at which point she will sign off.

After all of that mess Lisa and I hit up the mall so I could get my cell phone and pick up some other things. The mall wasn't that exciting, but we did try on some sassy silver sequined dresses. On the bus ride home it was just us and the bus driver, and he asked if we were in a hurry. We said he could take his time, but he informed us that he would like us to be in a hurry so he could get this bad boy moving! We had the most lovely conversation with him on the ride home. He told us all about where he lives more inland in the bush, where some good restaurants are, and that we should definitely eat kangaroo. As a matter of fact, he hunts kangaroo with a bow and arrows and makes jerky out of it, among other things. HOW COOL IS HE?!

The most exciting part of today was that it was cheap tuesday! That means that all drinks are cheap and that we would be going downtown to hit up the bars/clubs this evening. Before going out, a lot of us went to Dave-O's room to hang out. I kept it classy with some boxed wine that I'm pretty sure they affectionately refer to as "Goon". I learned how to play the game king's cup, and it was just really nice to socialize with a lot of people that weren't just americans. After most people were sufficiently boozed up, we got on the bus to get downtown. The bus ride turned out to be great! Only 6 or so of us had made it onto the first bus because everybody else was being too much of a drunkard to pay attention to the bus schedule. We had a lot of good laughs, mostly making fun of american accents and especially of how nasally some of my vowels are. We also broke down in some bus-wide singing, belting out hits such as Ain't No Mountain High, Don't stop believing, and I'm pretty sure there was backstreet boys or N*sync in there somewhere too. The first bar we stopped at was called Mad Cow and it was a blast. I got my dance on and was able to continue talking to this super cute boy who lives over in GR with all of my buddies. I also found a drink that is absolutely delicious. It is called a Vodka Raspberry and it rivals the deliciousness of pina coladas. I only had to pay for one drink that night, a rum and coke, and this guy bought me and the ladies a vodka razz each for us all to try. I continued to get my dance on, because us Gucinski's are such professional dancers, and just kept enjoying the great night out I was having with all of these random people. Eventually I got my dance on with previously mentioned cute boy and Lisa proceeded by playing the most excellent wing man the world has ever seen. He asked for my recently obtained cell phone number, which she provided because I had no clue what it was, and after we had switched bars and he had left for the evening he sent me the most lovely goodnight text. Thank you, Lisa!

Moral of the story is: Australia is the greatest place in the entire world and I've already had more fun here than i think I've ever had back home at school. The people are great, the location is great, and the accents are hilarious and quite endearing.