So, I am clearly not good at blogging, because I haven't been on in a couple of weeks. That I am sorry for.
To start off, the first week here was tiring but so much fun. Here at JCU, the Australians refer to the first week as O'Week, which stands for Orientation Week. Work with me here, as I may not recall everything in great detail because it's been a while. The first day of orientation was Friday, July 13. All of the new and international students met at the auditorium to go over some rules and guidelines of James Cook, as well as tips and tricks about choosing classes ("subjects" here), how to get onto the wifi network, and what there is to do around Townsville. We ate a great pizza lunch, chatted on the lawn with people, and then got to hold a baby crocodile and a snake if we so chose! Of course I did it. Pictures will come soon :)
The actual orientation week was fun, but it went by slowly for me at least, because there wasn't a lot to do for busy-work. We went to the Reef HQ aquarium in town, went on a bus tour of Townsville, and then went to the Billabong Sanctuary where we held wombats, patted kangaroos and koalas, and saw a crocodile getting fed! I had a great time doing all of those things, especially the aquarium because as you all probably know, I'm obsessed with fishies! I stood next to the "predator tunnel" where the sharks were held for close to half an hour :)
The rest of orientation week consisted of going into town at night, and learning about Goon, which is just really cheap boxed wine (the only thing most college students drink here, yuck!). Over all it was a pretty great experience.
The first week of classes went by very fast, as it consisted of a lot of finding my way around and understanding my lecture timetable (schedule). I am taking Aquaculture of Tropical Species, Coral Reef Ecology, Biodiversity of Tropical Australia, and Invertebrate Biology. So far, I think Invert. Bio is my favorite because I find functional and evolutionary biology very interesting and all the critters we have been learning about are aquatic species :)
The social events of the week included Toga night on Tuesday, and Op-shop night, which were two themed events at the UniClub on campus. Toga was by far the best night for me here. We all dressed in bed sheets and went to UniClub early and stayed late. I met some new people there and made friends with a couple people I already knew. Op-shop refers to a theme party where everyone buys cheap clothes at a thrift shop and tries to get the cheapest, ugliest outfit possible and wears it out. I did not bother buying clothes for one event, but I did manage to scrounge a pair of very goofy hiking pants, a t-shirt, a genuine "Aussie hat," and hiking boots, so I looked pretty silly. Op-shop was the night when I didn't go anywhere, but I still wore a crazy outfit and had fun with friends taking lots of silly pics :)
This weekend was also fun. A group of us went downtown for Trivia night at a bar called the Mad Cow. The upper floor was reserved for students from my dorm and alcohol was free with the purchase of a bracelet, so it was a private party and was a blast! Last night a few friends and I went down to the "Tav" or the Riverside Tavern and watched the olympics for a couple hours.
Today was homework day and just generally organizing my life for the upcoming week. We also watched some olympic swimming, gymnastics, basketball, rowing, and cycling in my room.
So, that about concludes the last couple of weeks. That was a short run-down of what happened, but for more details, just take a look at the pictures that I am about to post. Pictures say it all :)
G'day mates!
