2/28 - Orientation Observations

The last few days have been pretty average.

It's been orientation week and they've been essentially carting us from meeting to meeting where we hear from all the offices and organizations about what's available to us on campus. It's (mostly) all been important stuff to know - like i'm glad we have a counseling services and academics office and chaplaincy and career services and student services and Unilife and and and etc. - but it's just been an information dump and I'm going to end up inquiring about these services on an as-need basis anyway so learning about them now isn't doing me much.

But we have all our meals provided for us so there's that.

Yesterday we got to meet the Mayor of Lismore too! He came and talked to us and had "morning tea" with us ("morning tea" i've found is really just a snack break around 10am that I have yet to see really involve tea). He was a very friendly guy and was cracking jokes at all the right moments in his speech to keep us engaged so I can definitely understand why he's a politician, but he actually studied communications like me and I got a chance to have a good chat with him.

People are very friendly here and I've had some good conversations with some people. I've made good friends with some of the students who have come here from Japan and have been traveling around with them mostly. We all went to do some shopping yesterday afternoon while the pool party started at Orion. There was another party last night, which makes it the 4th night in a row since I've been here that there has been a party in the college (dorm) with a lot of people drinking heavily. I only drank Saturday and a bit last night, but daaaaaaang these people go hard. I talked some Aussie guys this morning that assured me that it's just because I live in the party dorm and it's orientation week so it'll mostly die down once classes start (hopefully). I really don't mind it anyway. It's fun to go out with them occasionally. Plus, there was a room party in the apartment right next to mine on Monday night and when I decided to go to bed my first thought was "oh no, I'll have such a hard time sleeping" and my next thought was the next morning because I passed out in like 5 minutes. So that's good news, I can sleep through a party.

All in all, All is good. By now, I just really want classes to start so I can actually start working on things and have a purpose and direction. Right now, it's been a lot of exploring the different *possibilities* but I've been lacking in any sort of responsibilities, which can be irritating.

Below I've accumulated some miscellaneous observations I've had so far, but were unable to incorporate into full thoughts and paragraphs relating to my adventures because I'm tired.

 (in no particular order):
- Wow I'm tired and I'm finding that jet lag is not a one-time fix
- Fire safety codes must be real different. I've encountered many a exits that are pull doors only and it's very frustrating.
- Even though "barbecue" makes you think of sausages or meat things, Aussies are surprisingly understanding and very prepared for vegetarianism. They always have veggie sausages or veggie patties and it's been quite the relief.
- My dorm is called a college
- Free public transport to down town is really awesome but I'm still terrified to go on public transportation because 3 out of 4 times I got on buses in St. Paul I wound up in a totally wrong area.
- Some Eau Claire people know me simply as "board game guy"
- I don't blame them because I've only been here a few days but I already located and joined the Table Top Board game group in town (they play on Sundays 11am-7pm)

2/25 - Running late 2: The arrival saga

The last 24 hours have been a ride.

I boarded a really janky bus that took me from Brisbane to Lismore. There were three other international students with me but none of them were from Eau Claire or even the midwest. One was from a school in New York and the other two were students from China who were here for a semester. The bus took us directly to the SCU campus dorm that we'd be staying in but we weren't the only ones on route so there were others that were picked up and dropped off at different stops along the way. So essentially, I had time. So I finished another book. I've finished 7 books so far in 2018! so I'm fast approaching the 15 book milestone I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Maybe I'll shoot for 20.

Anyway, it started pouring rain then we had to transfer buses and it was wonky all over, but we made it. They drop us off at the campus dorm (Orion college) and the bus drives away. We look around and the college is several buildings arrayed and spread out along a long path that goes down to the campus. There's a pool outside on one side and there are maybe 40 some people there having a pool party, bumping dance music, and very very drunk. So here I am with a huge camping backpack, a second backpack thrown over my shoulder, and a suitcase in tow and it dawns on me that I have no idea where I'm going. I was sure there would be some sort of main building to check into or something but there wasn't and there was certainly nobody there who looked like they were expecting us. We ended up asking for directions from a guy who was just passing by and he brought us to an RA who then called somebody else who showed us to our dorms.

And by "showed us to our dorms" I mean showed me which apartment was mine, gave me a key and walked away. There was no orientation. No pazz-azz or catching up. Not really much of a briefing on rules or anything. Just...in the room.

There was a pool party outside though. So, naturally, I walked the furthest I could from it. Not really, I just wanted to see the campus and stretch my legs. Plus I was disgusting from my flight and I didn't feel like socializing. I walked down a long hill that led to campus and familiarized with myself with where the "plaza" was. I had been at least told that Monday night there would be a mandatory dinner to attend that would be meeting at the Plaza. Once I got back up the hill the pool party had disseminated (the pool closed at 8pm) and people had started migrating to room drinking.

I walked into my apartment, still thinking to myself, and there were two girls sitting at the kitchen table talking. Literally, my first thought was that I ran into the wrong room then I remembered that the dorms were co-ed and these were probably some of my roommates. So I sat down and started talking with them. We drank some and then hopped off to one of the room where there were more people talking and drinking. Eventually, we even went down town and went to the club. That's right. I went clubbing. Didn't stay there too long though and called it a night after a fun night of meeting people and dancing.

There was a mandatory bus shuttle (for all international students) to Byron Bay at 9am this morning. when I got home I set an alarm for 8am so I could catch the bus.

Turns out though that I had forgotten to set the time right on my phone so it was an hour behind. I woke up just as the bus was leaving. So instead, I went with some of my roommates - two other guys I met last night - and started walking to the Lismore Mall. The buses don't run on Sundays and I was too cheep for a $12 taxi so we walked (it was only 30 minutes). My original plan was to just get some small stuff to hold me over and put it in my backpack but one of my roommates who was with me and is Australian assured me we could just grab some carts and bring them to the University. So we went on a full shopping trip.

But the way back...that was the tricky part. The entire way there we were going down hill so the entire way back was a steep uphill. And my oh my was it an uphill. We said it would be okay (it wasn't). We said it wouldn't be too tiring (it was) so having two shopping carts would be fine (it wasn't). We wouldn't have any issue (we did). And everything would be fine (it wasn't). We drudged up a hill for a good 40 minutes pushing two shopping carts full of groceries. Next time, we're getting a car.

But hey it was an adventure!

Tonight is a barbecue so I'm excited for it. All the other Eau Claire people were telling me last night that they remembered me from orientation (which was a bit heartwarming) and It'll be fun spending some more time with them and the others here. I've reached the first layer of social penetration theory and I very much look forward to exploring more layers with. Especially my roommates who are super cool people.

EDIT: Forgot the Com Theory reference. Inclusion is mandatory.

2/24 - Travel day 2...and 3...and...4? No wait. Just 3.

As requested, a picture of the cool lamp.

In retrospect, it's not that cool, but I was certainly tired enough to be enthralled by it for about 5 minutes in the hotel (the switch to turn it on is on the side of the desk below).

This second leg of travel has been significantly less eventful. There were no more delayed flights. No running through a ridiculously large airport from terminal to terminal trying to catch a flight that was actually not even really a flight anybody was told I would be on. No, I got on the flight to Auckland, New Zealand and then to Brisbane with no issue and had a remarkably average flight.

I mean, I did get some time to walk around LA before I left. Enough to find that everything was at least $3 more expensive there compared to the midwest (breakfast was $18...but that's okay, I had vouchers :) ) I also made a stop by Barnes and Noble and picked up another physical book to read (Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson). I've been ripping through my audiobooks on these flights so I wanted something else to read and I'm still timid about making the dive into Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. It's huge. And quite boring at times. But it's also a fantasy classic and I'm told that it's totally worth the drudge. I'll get to it soon I'm sure.

Anyway, by the time I finally got onto my 8:55pm flight from LA to Auckland (yes, I sat in the airport for around 8 hours before boarding) I had finished The Martian (4.5 out of 5 stars). I spent the next 12 hour flight playing a video game, finally watching Thor: Ragnorok (2.5 out of 5 stars), and trying to sleep (1 out of 5 stars). When I woke up I had completely skipped the 23rd (due to In't date line), so I ate on-board breakfast and we landed in Auckland.

Okay, I'm stretching out this story at this point to make it seem like I did something today. The tl;dr is that I finally arrived in Brisbane. I now am typing this while waiting for a bus (I've got another 2 hours to kill) to pick me up and bring me to Lismore. I've slowly learned over these days that traveling involves waiting a long while in a lot of airports. I can't imagine what it's like to have to do this all the time for business or something. Sheesh. But hey, at least this airport has free Wifi!

I'm excited to finally make it to Southern Cross tonight. I had to pay $70AUD for the bus since I missed the free one, but they know exactly when I'm arriving so they'll be ready to catch me up on what I've missed. The only thing is, I think literally all the other Aussie International students from UWEC went on the Fiji trip and have known each other for almost a week now and jumping in late to social life experiences can be scary and a bit ostracizing. But it'll be fine! Just a matter of reducing uncertainty through mutual self-disclosure.

And no. I will not make it through a blog post without mentioning some form of Communication theory. It's my degree and I insist on using it.

2/21 - Travel Day 1

Aaaaannnnd off I go! I set off on my series of connecting flights this morning around 1:30, where I boarded a plane to Chicago that was a quick one hour flight. To be honest, I haven't flown much in my life, but I've found that I actually kinda really enjoy it! The whole process (the checking bags, the TSA check, the flight gates, the boarding, the taking off, etc.) is a logistical process that I think is really cool. Think about it...there are so many goddamn moving pieces when it comes to arranging flights and getting people on board and checked and making sure all of their bags are with them and checked through to each of their destinations. The companies that manage air travel have an extremely complicated logistical task that would put any single event planner or logistics coordinator to shame ten fold. It is very impressive!

I say this also because today, I very much got to witness this logistical machine breakdown as I traveled (at least for me and several other unfortunates anyway). When I landed in Chicago, it was fairly easy to find my gate, so I ate some food and played the waiting game while listening to my audiobook. I had arrived around 3:00pm and the flight wasn't boarding until 4:15pm so I had some time to kill. I actually had far more time than even that though because the moment we were supposed to be boarding they informed us that the plane was having some mechanical issues and that we would be delayed on our boarding. K, right? No. Big. Deal.

Except it was. Apparently, whatever the issue was, they couldn't use the plane and after an extra hour or so of waiting they switched all the passengers to another plane at another gate. Cue more waiting. sure enough, about another hour and a half later, we started boarding that plane. Finally. Buuuuut just to top it off before we left we were delayed on the runway for another 30 minutes. Darn.

It was partially through the waiting when I realized that I was going to be cutting it close between landing in Las Angeles and boarding my next flight to Auckland. "I'm sure it'll be fine," I lied to myself, "I should make it onto the flight". Perhaps what I was really saying was that I hoped I'd make it onto the flight...mostly because I didn't really know the procedure for missing your connecting flight because of a delay.

But hope didn't make me land any sooner unfortunately and three and a half hours later, I landing in California at 8:45...about 15 minutes after my flight had taken off. SO. I went to the customer service desk for United and they rescheduled me for another Air New Zealand flight that was leaving soon. The lady handed me my receipt of transfer (or something, i'm still not sure what it was) and sent me off saying, "you might have to run".

I jogged. Some of the way. Mostly because when I first set out I thought it would be as quick as finding my gate in Chicago. Down this way, up this way, through the hall, you're there kind of thing. As I jogged though, I looked down at a piece of paper she gave me that had directions printed on it. On the bottom, it said simply, "walking from United to the international terminal takes 30 minutes, so plan accordingly" or something like that. I resolved to mostly speed walk because I'm not that athletic.

When I finally got to the Air New Zealand "new" flight I had been "put" on, they seemed extremely confused at the whole situation. As it turns out, they weren't exactly informed on our (there were several other passengers who were with me connecting to the same flight that had gotten rebooked) predicament. The flight was closed. They didn't even have our bags. So, in short, we weren't getting on the plane. For the second time tonight, we had missed our flight (In a sense).

They directed us to go back to United Airlines customer service so we did. "We" being myself and two other passengers - Eric and Mary - that I tagged along with. Eric was in his 30s and was catching a flight to FIJI. Mary was an older woman who was actually stopping in Auckland. We kind of stuck together because we all didn't know what to do so as long as we didn't know what to do together, we'd be more fine or something. We bonded because we shared a group narrative (there's a communication theory attached to that idea but I'm blanking on the name).

Anyway, we made it back to united customer service (which again was a 30 minute walk) and started trying to figure things out. Essentially, it boiled down to the fact that there were no other flights that we could get on until the next day at 8:55pm. Delayyyyyed byyy a dayyyy. Eric did not take it very well and was very much arguing with one of the service reps. and she was getting really heated too so it was getting pretty intense but the woman who was dealing with figuring out mine (there were only two of them) was pretty calm. She was tired though, and figuring out what to do with me was quite the task.

In the end, I wound up with a free night stay in a hotel (I had resolved to sleeping in the Airport if I was going to have to pay a dime), $30 worth of food vouchers, free taxi ride to and from the airport, and a flight scheduled to take me to Auckland (followed by Brisbane) tomorrow night! All said and done? I'm a little bitter, pretty tired, a little sad, partially worried, but mostly happy to have an adventure to start my travel! That being said, I've assembled a short pros and cons list of my current situation.

Con: won't make to Brisbane on time to catch the bus
Pro: Got to stay in a snazzy hotel in Los Angeles with a killer view and a really cool lamp

Con: forgot to listen to my mom and pack a change of clothes in my carry-on.
Pro: The hotel has free wifi I can use to download more books and a shower. I count those as wins.

Con: had delayed flights
Pro: got through almost two whole audiobooks! (The Martian by Andy Weir is so hilarious!)

Con: hotel is under construction and the front door was a little confusing
Pro: breakfast is served inside of a giant tent tomorrow!

PS: Getting in contact with the study abroad office so they know that I'll be arriving late..is the first thing on my to-do list

tl:dr - The airlines kind of messed up and I'm arriving in Brisbane a day later..but I got a free stay in a nice hotel and free food so there's that.

EDIT: I got the date wrong in the Title. Silly me. That's what I get for blogging at 1am.

2/19 - Still Excited

2 days until takeoff

I've created a list of all the things that I still need to do before I leave, organized by when I need to do them. The hardest part about readying for a trip I think really is managing the pre-packing of the things you need to use before you leave on your trip. You know, like, I definitely need to pack my laptop and my chargers and (some of) my D&D stuff but I'm still using those things so I'll need to pack those things the day I leave for the airport; which in my opinion is the most stressful time to be packing.

But I've packed some things and will just have to manage.  I think I'm organized enough to survive at this point and that's about what I need. Luckily, there isn't too much to worry about forgetting because my mom has been doing all of that for me (love you mom!). So I've got everything all written down now and should be good to go. 

I've been trying to be practical this last week to stop myself from being excited. Not that being excited is bad (and believe me, I'm pretty excited), I just have been in a perpetual state of excitement about this since last fall when I decided to rework my academic plan and apply for Study Abroad. So I've been stuck in a sort of excitation limbo where I've been excited for something for so long it's very tiring to think about being excited. None the less, as it draws closer, I'm excited. And tired. Tiredly excited.

On today's list: Last minute shopping, confirming my airport ride, printing my flight itinerary and VISA stuff, getting measured for a tux, making a blog, and responding to a bunch of emails (including one about signing up for surf camp!)