Sunday, July 26, 2009

B6: Getting Settled

(St. Patrick's Cathedral, I think, and Federation Square. [Flinders St., Melbourne])

Hi!

Orientation went well. Every exchange student sat down with an academic advisor and they personally helped advised, enroll, and register us for our classes. I guess the administraters here in Australia actually do some adminstrating… what a concept. Anyways, I went to a bunch of the optional orientation presentations and found them incredibly helpful and lively. Even the handbooks have a much lighter tone, talking about drinking and living life. I felt very welcome druing my Welcome Week.

(My student ID (concession card) and planner (diary).)

My friend and I went to a movie (at the concession stand they served beer, fudge, and popcorn)and decided to see an authentic Australian movie instead of “Harry Potter”. I picked “Wake in Fright” after multiple recommendations from the ticketer and other random Aussies. Here are the specs of the movie:
- Setting: Australian Outback (in a small mining town)
- Characters: John Grant, an educated school teacher who is looking to fly to Sydney to meet his girlfriend during one of his vacations.
- Plot: There was none. All he did was drink, gamble away all his money and hunt kangaroos. He never even got around to seeing his girlfriend. The disclaimer at the end of the movie explained that the kangaroo hunting scenes were from an actual kangaroo hunt. They wanted to show the brutality of such an activity and it made me cringe at every crack of the rifle.
- Soundtrack: Didgereedoo background music.
- Production: I don’t think a tripod was used. Lots of quick, random flashbacks.
After the movie, my friend leaned over and said “Well, that was very Australian” and I must agree. Reviews said it was “One of the greatest films to be made in the country” (Garry Maddox, Sydney Morning Herald). I really enjoyed the movie and it proved to be an excellent way to be introduced to the Australian way of life: drink and offer other people drinks.

This week has been incredibly busy. There were a couple more bar nights and I after one of the nights out, I found myself at the Crown Casino with the New Yoka again. The guys at my table were playing Michael Jackson on their iPhone speakers and constantly made fun of eachother (especially me, after I lost my money). I stopped using my free gym pass because the lady pushed so incredibly hard for me to get a membership… she doesn’t understand that I only want the free 7 days. Today I signed up for a gym membership through school. I’ve spent the other nights walking around trying the deserts in the city and drooling over the cakes in the window shops.
(Cakes from Brunetti. [Lygon St., Carlton])

I moved out of the hostel (after saying goodbye to the French girls) and moved into my flat. My house mate is very helpful and has already driven me to look at some beds and do grocery shopping. Tomorrow we are going to buy tickets for the Melbourne Storm vs. the Sydney Swans rugby game next week in the brand new stadium. We also hope to make it over to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for an Aussie League Football match (the stadium holds over 110,000 people). I have found a bed through gumtree (Australia’s version of craigslist) and am in the process of getting it to my place.

This week I start classes (eek!) and am going to look into joining some clubs. My housemate said all the clubs only go to bars and drink, so hopefully I can find one that actually does an activity. I’m looking at an indoor soccer league with my housemate. I am also working on getting some research done with a professor here at my university (uni) in the field of text mining. Text mining is a technology that will (someday) be able to “read” through heaps of documents and sort them according to topic. I’ll let you know more about it when I learn a little bit more.

Until then,

Mikey Doo


(Sandridge Bridge. Looking at the north side of the Yarra River. [Melbourne])

(Crown Casino. Where my money is. Looking at the north side of the Yarra. [Melbourne])

(Pasta night at the nunnery. It was free. [The Nunnery Accommodation])

(Apparently, my friend likes gelato more than I do. [Lygon St., Carlton])

(Australian wildlife. Actually, they are just pigeons. [Carlton Gardens])

(These Triple Choc are timtam knockoffs. Tim tams are delicious. The Tiny Bears were gross and that milk doesn't need to be refrigerated! [Lygon St., Carlton])

1 comment:

  1. If you aren't going to finish your gelato, I'll eat it. :D

    -Alex

    ReplyDelete