Week 3: Uni Begins @ UQ

This past week was the first week at Uni (what they call college here) and I felt like a total Freshmen all over agian! I legitimately had my map wide out in front of me constantly looking lost. I think I circled campus 4 times do to my poor map reading skills. However, once I did find where I was going everything worked out and I got to all my lectures on time. Uni is much different here than it is back home. You only have class once a week accompanied by one discussion (tutorial) section. There may be only 1 or 2 exams for the entire semester and all classes require at least an 8 paged essay throughout the course. I'm taking a few psychology classes, a geography class, and a music class which should all be interesting and hopefully not too difficult. Believe it or not, some of the Australian professors I have are difficult to understand at times. The Aussie accent is fast and the words kind of slip together, so you definitely have to pay closer attention than usual.  Last Wednesday was Market Day where you basically sign up for all the clubs/organizations you're interested in doing while attending uni. I signed up for waterskiing and dancing. I'm definitely looking forward to attending those!

 

Besides school, the past week was filled with a bunch of nights of partying. My roommate has introduced me to a lot of her international friends from another university here. We all had a great time dancing, socializing, and drinking at various fun bars and clubs. Last Friday my friend Emily came out with us and for the first time we were both offered drinks from these guys that we had met. Free drinks is always a nice thing :) Unfortunately, however, I currently have a cold from all the nights of going out. My body is exhausted and definitely needs to refuel before I can take on another one of those crazy weekends.                                                              
Things have seemed to calm down a bit and become more routine here. Grocery shopping has become one of my new favorite things, and laying on the beach has become something quite habitual for me. I got to finally see the movie "Inception" here in Australia. Movies come out much later here, so I have to wait longer to see some films.

 As this week begins, classes will start to get more intense and work will start to take a stronger role in my everyday schedule. I have 2 days free from class so I'm either going to look for a job or hopefully start research with a professor here. Other than that, my friends and I hope to plan a few vacations such as: Fiji, Sydney, and New Zealand within the span of the next 4 months. We want to plan them sooner than later to get better deals and such.
I might be headed back to the Sunshine Coast this weekend to relax in the sun and ride the waves. As for now, things seem to be buckling down so I hope to continue making friends and explore Brisbane even more. Also,  I met a girl from Chile who is jewish, so we are going to try and go to Friday night Shabbos this week at a synagogue hopefully not too far! This city is beautiful, I really love living here.