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)