O-week is O-ver :(

Well O-week (orientation week) was definitely like reliving frosh week all over...except funner, more exciting and just plain better. I’m kind of sad that it’s over, but I'm looking forward to starting school tomorrow to compare Monash engineering to UW engineering. I know…I'm such a geek.

I am living in "Farrer Hall", which is basically the party hall of residence. It’s been quite fun but I haven’t really got much sleep this past week...maybe that’s why I'm sniffling and getting over a cold. Don’t worry mummy, I'm eating fruit and vitamins.

The theme song of the week was Madonna's "Time goes by...so slowly"... we had a whole set of actions developed and any time it played we were required to act out the song. When we didn’t know the actions we did some "interpretive dance"...which means just waving your hands around and looking artsy.

Monday in the daytime was what they legally call a "Scavenger Hunt" but really it was a pubcrawl around the city, where you are assigned in groups (Mine was the "Pink Panthers") and you get to take random photos. We took a fierce one on the hood of a car, looking quite Panthery and other ones included satisfying terms like:

-Men in Suits
-Very Old
-Very Tall
-Very Wet
-Green
-Unappealing, etc.

We came in third place, and it was the first day I really got to see the city. We then had pizzas by the Yarra River, which I’m sure I'll be seeing a lot more of. That evening was another event but I skipped it for fear that it would mess up my sleeping schedule...little did I know, you cant escape o-week...




5 am that night/morning and I heard doors banging outside my room, pots and pans slamming and the PA system running amok. I was trying to sleep through it but after the incessant annoyance I decided to come out of my room and find out what the disturbance was about. Upon leaving my room, I was forced to go to the common room in my night clothes. I walked in wearing my PJ’s (and Japanese robe i acquired for 5 bucks in HK) to see the tired angry faces of other o-weekers. We were all told to start walking outside, to a destination unbeknownst to us. 40 minutes later, after a treacherous walk up Blackburn road, i saw the golden arches. They made us WALK to Maccer's (Read: Mc Donald’s, Pronounce: Mack-as) and not only that, we had to BUY our own food. I was livid, but after the long walk the hotcakes tasted heavenly.

That day we took it easy and went Chadstone mall, the greatest mall i've ever been in. After 2 trips there, i still haven’t seen the first floor. It is sooo huge and sooo wonderful i feel like being a mallrat there. That night we went bowling which was quite fun - however my score was quite embarrassing at 65.

Wednesday was beach day...we went to a nice beach in a suburb outside Melbourne called Mornington...it really just felt like i was at a lake in Ontario. I was a bit disappointed and it was really overcast. That night we had a crazy beach party…fun fun fun.



On Thursday, after i was asked to join the Sri Lankan Student society, Jen and I decided to venture into public transport and take a bus to a beach in St. Kilda. We ended up at another beach called Ellewood. It was such a pretty stretch of beach...it was so wonderful to relax there and get darker and darker. I thought i would stop tanning at a point but i haven’t reached it yet and i don’t know if there is one. Thursday night we went out to the ONLY local pub around, The Nott, for the second time. It’s basically like the Bomber...actually I think it is Bomber in disguise. (Note to non-Waterloosers: Bomber = The Bombshelter = Wednesday night fun at UW).








On Saturday I went to watch my first footy game! Aussie Rules Football is so unlike any sport I’ve ever witnessed in my life. The field is oval, they bounce the ball like a basketball (every 15 steps), they punch it like a volleyball (they cant throw) and they kick it like a soccer ball. There are 3 types of scoring, one is the Super Goal worth 9 points when the ball is kicked into the big goal post from behind the 50 yard line, the other is just a 6 pointer kicked into the big goal post and the last is the 1 pointer kicked into the 2 small goal posts. It was quite interesting and very fun...Geelong Cats versus Carlton...Geelong won. I need to get me a footy jersey or scarf!





Next post...Australian Fashion! I know you’ve all been waiting….lol.