Initiation and Excursions
Okay, so a lot has happened within the past few days, so expect something long (though I'll try to shorten it for comfort's sake).
Wed night started Fresher initiation night. What that entailed was all the Freshers and Fossils going to "The Shamrock" (a bar, of course) and getting drunk-off-their-ass-throwing-up-sick, etc. etc. In my last post I was debating whether or not to go, and in typical Erica style I chose something much more me...I opted for a night of ice cream on the beach haha. One of my Australian friends had her mom and older sister in town, who offered to drive us around. So Amy and I took our friend Sam and her family up on the offer and drove out to Cold Rock (same thing as Cold Stone) on the beach. It was SO gorgous that night, big moon outside, warm air, and all the paths and trees had black lights shining on them. I really wish I had my camera last night, but no luck. Sam's family spent the night laughing at Amy and I, who are still having trouble understanding the slang here. I think my night was nicer, but that's just me.
I am VERY thankful I didn't go drinking during Fresher initiation night because the next morning we got another 5am wake-up call. All the RA Fossils who were still incredibly drunk started banging on our doors (some even kicked holes in them), using airhorns and megaphones and calling every single Fresher out of their room. Those who didn't go willingly were dragged out when the RA's used the Master Key to open their rooms and get them. I tried to wait them out, but eventually got dressed and went on my own accord after about 5 minutes of them screaming at me to come out. You could definitely tell those who HAD gone out the night before were HURTING...BADLY. When all of us were assembled they got us in three lines and marched us around to each residence hall. At each college we had to sing our Uni Hall chant, which I posted on the entry below. A lot of the drunk kids couldn't even make the walk and had to be dragged. After walking around for about 50 minutes we were brought back to Uni Hall. They told us to line up for a picture and sing the song one more time. While everyone was singing the Fossils dumped a concoction that I think consisted of something like: bread, milk, fish guts, cheese...and Lord knows what else all over us. I was one of the very few kids who got it BAD. I was COVERED in that foul smelling sh*t. I'd like to say I thought it was funny at the time, but I didn't...especially when I tried to go to the showers and discovered that the jerks had locked all the shower doors so we COULDN'T wash the stuff off. I was royally pissed at that time (tired literally and mad because I'm not a friggin freshman) so I broke into a shower, clothes and all, and tried my best to get the stuff out. I went to bed grumpy, and the Fossils declared that Initiation was over. Thank God.
I tried to sleep after that, but couldn't. I had to get up at 7am because we were going on our first Orientation Week Trip...Magnetic Island (known for the largest population of wild Koalas anywhere). We took a ferry over to the island and as soon as we arrived at the backpacking station where we were supposed to spend our day it started POURING. Sucked big time. We spent about 4hrs huddled under the roof of the outdoor bar, waiting for the rain to subside (we're talking painful buckets of rain coming down, not something one can ignore easily). A lot of us were cranky because we were bored out of our minds and had not gotten a lot of sleep the night before (and me still smelling like fish). Eventually the skies cleared, so we sunbathed and watched some kayak races, etc. Honestly, between the initation and the rain/boredom it was a pretty crappy trip =P. Probably my worst day here physically and emotionally, but things have been much better since.
The next day was the best day ever. 2nd trip of Orientation was to the Billabong Sanctuary ("Billabong" actually means "water-hole"...who knew?). Billabong Sactuary is great because it's very hands-on and you can touch everything. I got to hold a koala, wombat, salt water croc, and python. I also got to feed kangaroos and wallabies...and pet a bunch of other stuff I don't know the name of as well =). We all watched croc feeding shows, which were really cool. It's the same thing that Steve Irwin does at his zoo in Brisbane. One croc at Billabong was REALLY creepy, his name was Psycho, and he lived up to it. When we were walking by his cage to wait for the show he lunged out of the water and started trying to chew through the fence to get to us. When the trainer came in, even after he fed the croc, Psycho lunged out at the trainer for no apparent reason, started chasing him around, and bit his bamboo walking stick in half. I have it on video =). Super creepy, even the guys all jumped.
Ok, so last paragraph. Today was the last trip of the week, a dive/snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef =D. We were on the trip from about 7:30am to 5:30pm. Took a long time to get out there, but we had plenty of time to swim. I opted to wait on diving because if all goes well I'm starting ceritification lessons next weekend. While I was out there I saw: cuddlefish/squid, sea cucumbers, neon colored starfish, needlenoses, parrot fish, clown fish, etc. etc. My favorite was probably the cuddlefish...so cool, you'd never see those anywhere else =). I tried to scare them but it didn't work, hehe. All the crew was really nice, one of the scuba instructors spent 20 minutes telling my friends and I bad jokes. One of the many things I've learned about Aussies is that they LOVE bad jokes and will try to fit as many as they can into any conversation haha. I guess there's not much more to say other than it was amazing. There are reefs as far as the eye can see, the water is a brilliant color turqoise, and warm to boot. I got sunburned...again...but I suspected as much so no more sun for me for a while. And oh yeah, when we came back our entire college was sh*t-faced drunk...at 5pm. "Drinks on the lawn" was taking place while we were out. I'm a bit sorry I missed it, but the Reef was so much more worth it. I don't think the stench of vomit will ever have time to leave this campus before being replaced with a fresh supply. Yuck!
My fingers are tired and I've got nothing left; this concludes my Orientation Week escapades =). Tomorrow is a day of rest. Cheers!
Wed night started Fresher initiation night. What that entailed was all the Freshers and Fossils going to "The Shamrock" (a bar, of course) and getting drunk-off-their-ass-throwing-up-sick, etc. etc. In my last post I was debating whether or not to go, and in typical Erica style I chose something much more me...I opted for a night of ice cream on the beach haha. One of my Australian friends had her mom and older sister in town, who offered to drive us around. So Amy and I took our friend Sam and her family up on the offer and drove out to Cold Rock (same thing as Cold Stone) on the beach. It was SO gorgous that night, big moon outside, warm air, and all the paths and trees had black lights shining on them. I really wish I had my camera last night, but no luck. Sam's family spent the night laughing at Amy and I, who are still having trouble understanding the slang here. I think my night was nicer, but that's just me.
I am VERY thankful I didn't go drinking during Fresher initiation night because the next morning we got another 5am wake-up call. All the RA Fossils who were still incredibly drunk started banging on our doors (some even kicked holes in them), using airhorns and megaphones and calling every single Fresher out of their room. Those who didn't go willingly were dragged out when the RA's used the Master Key to open their rooms and get them. I tried to wait them out, but eventually got dressed and went on my own accord after about 5 minutes of them screaming at me to come out. You could definitely tell those who HAD gone out the night before were HURTING...BADLY. When all of us were assembled they got us in three lines and marched us around to each residence hall. At each college we had to sing our Uni Hall chant, which I posted on the entry below. A lot of the drunk kids couldn't even make the walk and had to be dragged. After walking around for about 50 minutes we were brought back to Uni Hall. They told us to line up for a picture and sing the song one more time. While everyone was singing the Fossils dumped a concoction that I think consisted of something like: bread, milk, fish guts, cheese...and Lord knows what else all over us. I was one of the very few kids who got it BAD. I was COVERED in that foul smelling sh*t. I'd like to say I thought it was funny at the time, but I didn't...especially when I tried to go to the showers and discovered that the jerks had locked all the shower doors so we COULDN'T wash the stuff off. I was royally pissed at that time (tired literally and mad because I'm not a friggin freshman) so I broke into a shower, clothes and all, and tried my best to get the stuff out. I went to bed grumpy, and the Fossils declared that Initiation was over. Thank God.
I tried to sleep after that, but couldn't. I had to get up at 7am because we were going on our first Orientation Week Trip...Magnetic Island (known for the largest population of wild Koalas anywhere). We took a ferry over to the island and as soon as we arrived at the backpacking station where we were supposed to spend our day it started POURING. Sucked big time. We spent about 4hrs huddled under the roof of the outdoor bar, waiting for the rain to subside (we're talking painful buckets of rain coming down, not something one can ignore easily). A lot of us were cranky because we were bored out of our minds and had not gotten a lot of sleep the night before (and me still smelling like fish). Eventually the skies cleared, so we sunbathed and watched some kayak races, etc. Honestly, between the initation and the rain/boredom it was a pretty crappy trip =P. Probably my worst day here physically and emotionally, but things have been much better since.
The next day was the best day ever. 2nd trip of Orientation was to the Billabong Sanctuary ("Billabong" actually means "water-hole"...who knew?). Billabong Sactuary is great because it's very hands-on and you can touch everything. I got to hold a koala, wombat, salt water croc, and python. I also got to feed kangaroos and wallabies...and pet a bunch of other stuff I don't know the name of as well =). We all watched croc feeding shows, which were really cool. It's the same thing that Steve Irwin does at his zoo in Brisbane. One croc at Billabong was REALLY creepy, his name was Psycho, and he lived up to it. When we were walking by his cage to wait for the show he lunged out of the water and started trying to chew through the fence to get to us. When the trainer came in, even after he fed the croc, Psycho lunged out at the trainer for no apparent reason, started chasing him around, and bit his bamboo walking stick in half. I have it on video =). Super creepy, even the guys all jumped.
Ok, so last paragraph. Today was the last trip of the week, a dive/snorkeling trip to the Great Barrier Reef =D. We were on the trip from about 7:30am to 5:30pm. Took a long time to get out there, but we had plenty of time to swim. I opted to wait on diving because if all goes well I'm starting ceritification lessons next weekend. While I was out there I saw: cuddlefish/squid, sea cucumbers, neon colored starfish, needlenoses, parrot fish, clown fish, etc. etc. My favorite was probably the cuddlefish...so cool, you'd never see those anywhere else =). I tried to scare them but it didn't work, hehe. All the crew was really nice, one of the scuba instructors spent 20 minutes telling my friends and I bad jokes. One of the many things I've learned about Aussies is that they LOVE bad jokes and will try to fit as many as they can into any conversation haha. I guess there's not much more to say other than it was amazing. There are reefs as far as the eye can see, the water is a brilliant color turqoise, and warm to boot. I got sunburned...again...but I suspected as much so no more sun for me for a while. And oh yeah, when we came back our entire college was sh*t-faced drunk...at 5pm. "Drinks on the lawn" was taking place while we were out. I'm a bit sorry I missed it, but the Reef was so much more worth it. I don't think the stench of vomit will ever have time to leave this campus before being replaced with a fresh supply. Yuck!
My fingers are tired and I've got nothing left; this concludes my Orientation Week escapades =). Tomorrow is a day of rest. Cheers!