O-week

Hey Peeps! I know I haven't written in a while, I've been busy, this week has been jam packed full of awesome activities for students! So as I drink my after supper hot chocolate I will fill you in on my fun filled week of activities.

On Sunday, I went to a food and music festival with Amber and Renee. It was an interesting morning trying to get there. First we got off on the wrong stop, then we started walking in the wrong direction, thank goodness that was only for 5 minutes, before my brain kicked in and was like, why are you walking this way. Anyways, we walked for a solid hour to get to the festival on Beaumont Street. It is a very nice street full of little antique shops and cute little restaurants. The festival was nice, it had booths set up to advertise some of the stuff in Australia, one booth was giving little samples of ginger beer, we had a little taste and it was really good, Amber and I almost asked simultaneously, "what's the alcohol percentage in this?" The guys response was, "There is no alcohol." Amber turns to me and says, "must be the prairie girl in us, to automatically assume that beer means alcohol." As we left disappointed from that booth we found a booth selling frozen sangria, sangria is amazing to begin with but a frozen slushie of it, was just to good to pass up. This booth was in front of the restaurant Guzman y Gomez, so we figured we would stop for a bite to eat as well. I had the spicy chicken enchilada burrito, the guacamole on the top was the most amazing guacamole I have ever eaten. I could have just had a plate of guacamole and I would have been happy! The enchilada burrito was amazing too, it was huge, and I could only finish half, and they served it with cute little wooden utensils. 

After lunch, we wandered around a bit more, but it was starting to get cool, so we headed back towards  Ambers house where we dropped her off and then Renee and I headed to the bus stop, for our ride back to the University. Just a side note, I really miss my car!

On Monday, was our international orientation, which was mandatory for all international students to attend. It was probably the most useless thing I went to all week, but on a plus side, there was lunch provided afterwards. Just sausage, with no mustard again, but it was still free food. We had a voucher for a free drink, so I got a beer, which I wouldn't normally drink at home, because beer at home is gross, but I have fallen in love with James Squire beer down here. And it is so refreshing on a hot summer day! After the BBQ, the blackbutt reserve brought a few animals in for us to hold, I held a baby bearded dragon, yes I asked if it breathed fire (its a dragon, complete legitimate question), and no they don't. His tiny claws were super sharp, but he was kind of cute in a really ugly reptilian way.

I have no idea who the random person is in that picture, she just wanted to look cool I guess. They also brought in a snake, which no I did not handle, and barking geckos, and this thing that looked like a praying mantis (which took me back to a really disturbing criminal minds episode) but it was just a relative of the praying mantis, and I can't remember what it was called.

After that we went to the expo, which is full of booths from different clubs around the university, it was overwhelming there are so many of them! I signed up for the goon club (only because they are going on a wine valley tour). For those of you reading this who don't know what goon is, which to be honest was me before I asked, it is wine that comes from the box, they call it goon, because from what I understand it is the shit of the wine. I'm not sure if it is the same as in Canada, as wine from a box has become pretty common place at home, but I think I'll stick to wine from a bottle, as the side effects of goon from what I hear are just ridiculous and a little scary. I also signed up for UNLSA which is the University of Newcastle Law School Association, I am super excited for this as they have competitions for negotiating, mooting competitions, they have conferences throughout the year and of course the prestigious law ball (which I am super stoked for), among so many other opportunities. I also signed up for UNISEN, which is strictly for international students as well as Amnesty International, which is all about human rights issues.

On Tuesday, I didn't do much, I slept in, went to the shortland building, facetimed mom, had a coffee from Gloria Jeans (which is about as close to Starbucks as I'm going to get I think), and then when 2:00 rolled around we started our campus quest. The campus quest was designed to help us with finding our way around campus, but since I have been here for 3 weeks, I know my way around pretty well, so I may have been pushing my team a bit harder than need be. The first task was rock climbing, (as there is a rock climbing wall at the gym) while a team member climbed the rest of the team including myself, played a game of basketball, girls against guys, girls lost, 4-1, but I was the one who scored the point, GO ME! If anyone knows my athletic ability, they would be shocked to find out that I scored a basket in basketball!

A quick pic of Amber, Renee, and myself, before getting super sweaty playing basketball. Once our team member was done climbing the wall, we headed to our next destination, to get our next stamp, and we continued to do this until we finished, it took several hours, and it was fun. Even though our team name was District 14 (yes we may have all been Hunger Games fans), I periodically called us Team Awesome, because we were awesome. There were us 4 Canadians, and 2 Americans and 4 Germans, it was a fun day. After the quest we had an awesome BBQ supper, based on Brazilian food, it was spicy, and it was wonderful.  I most definitely preferred it to the sausage with no mustard that we usually get at BBQ's. At supper they handed out raffle tickets to win some awesome prizes, and I won something! I won a fruit and vegetable box, so I have to go pick that up on March 6th, I'm pretty stoked to see what is in the box. I'll take a pic and post it next week! We then had a beer and sat on the grass in the courtyard of the bar and listened to the live band (which actually played good music).

It was quite an enjoyable night, the three of us girls got to know each other a bit better, and we shared stories, and laughed, and it was fun to just relax. On a side not, Christopher, if you are reading this, you should sell patio covers like the one in this picture, they are awesome!

On Wednesday, there were workshops, my favorite one was the healthy living workshop, we got to put on beer goggles and try to walk in a straight line, it was really interesting to see how badly they affect your vision. The limit in Australia is .05, where as the limit in Canada is .08. I tried on one that ended at .06, then I also tried on one that ended at .10, and there is quite the difference. After the workshops ended, I went and got my criminal law textbooks, I haven't started reading them yet, but I hope they are more interesting than the Torts one. In the evening, Amber and I got tickets to go see this thing called 20/20, where people tell different parts to 20 stories in 20 seconds, it was really interesting, to listen to different peoples life stories, in 20 second segments. Amber and I tried this new wine cooler, which was okay, but then after we got a pitcher of a drink called sunset, it looked so pretty that we had to have it, we soon found out that it also tasted absolutely delicious.

We ended up sitting with these two guys, who are engineering students, they were really odd people, but they were easy to talk to. We tried to explain to them what cheez whiz was, and they tried to tell us how delicious vegemite was (which I still refuse to try), and then we showed them how cold it was at home, and found pictures of how much snow we had, and then we compared tans. Amber and I, the pasty white girls from Saskatchewan who have only had sun exposure for a month, have darker tans than the locals! Take a look!

I personally think the reason being for our darker tans is because these two gentlemen stay inside to much playing there x-boxes. Just a gut feeling, but I think I'm right. After that we went to the Bar on the Hill where we met Renee, and waited for the free bus to take us into the city, so we could go take part in student night. (Wednesday is student night here, weird I know). We ended up going to this club called customs, and all in all, we had a pretty awesome night! Here are some awesome pictures from that night!

Renee & Amber with one of the mathletes

Prairie Girls living it up!

Some of my new friends! Renee & Amber. Then there is my neighbour, Matt in the background, being a nerd.

Then me and Matt, he is such a nice guy!

The night ended at 2:30 in the morning, where exhausted me, passed out in my bed. (I'm to old to party into the wee hours of the morning!)

Thursday was shopping tour day, as in I slept in till noon, and then went to Gloria Jeans for a midday coffee, then hung around the shortland building until 3:45 when we went on the shopping tour. We went to Charlestown mall, which is the biggest mall in Newcastle, I'm still a bit overwhelmed by all the stores and the different fashion trends. The first store I went in to, I tried a bunch of super cute dresses, but everything was way to big, and I got frustrated so I gave up on trying any more clothes on. Australian sizes are so weird!  I did buy a pair of fuzzy slippers from Target though, I miss my slippers from at home, so even though it is warm here and one may not need fleecy fuzzy slippers, they definitely make my feet happy now that I have them. Around 7:30 we left the mall, and got on a bus to go meet with our international representatives Kim and Ashley. They are both from Canada, and they wanted to meet us before school started so we could get to know each other, and they could give us some information and tips on how to get through law school. We met at this place called the Squire's Maiden which is on the harbour, and it is such a beautiful place, it was dusk when we arrived so you could only see the outlines of the ships in the distance, but I'll definitely be heading down there one day to see it in the daylight. I also met two new girls in my program on Thursday as well, Paulina and Meena, they are also from Canada. Paulina has a car so she offered to drive us home, and walking to her car, I saw my first ever cockroach, yes I screamed a little bit, it was huge and gross, and I never want to see one again!

Friday was my law school orientation, I was looking forward to it all week. I woke up to pouring rain, so I figured I'd dress accordingly and put on closed toed shoes so my feet wouldn't get wet. Big Mistake! The rain was coming down so hard, that I was walking on the sidewalk in water up to my ankles, needless to say my shoes were soaked and it might be time to invest in rubber boots. Orientation started at 9:00, where the Dean of the Law School welcomed us, and had quite the discussion with us. After that UNLSA, chatted with us for a bit about how awesome it is in Law School, and all the fun stuff there is to do. And then we got split up into groups, and the JD students (aka me) got split up and had a separate sessions. I found out that there are less than 20 students in the JD program and there are more Canadians than any other nationality including Australian in the program. It's kind of awesome that Canadians are such huge representatives over here. I also found out that there are no men in the program, and if they are they did not show up for orientation, which was not a smart move on there part. I met my criminal law professor, and my Legal Systems and Methods professor, they both seem like really awesome people, and I can't wait to learn from them. During this session we got our syllabus' for all four of our classes and we also got an assignment for our criminal law class (I'm sorry I thought the semester didn't start till Monday, assignments already?!?!?) Once our session was over, we went for lunch, any guesses on what it might be?! If you guessed sausages you are correct! BUT they had mustard, so I like Law BBQ's because they supply mustard for there students and although they are still lacking in the pickle department, at least I got my mustard, it made the sausages so much more enjoyable. After lunch we went on a library tour, and were shown where the law library is, our wonderful tour guide, was also Canadian, he is in his final year here, and is originally from Niagara Falls, and his brother lives in Regina and works at the Leader Post, small world! During the library tour, they showed us the ground level which is open 24 hours, so procrastinators like me, can come use the library at 4 in the morning. After the tour was over I swung by the bookstore and picked up the last of my textbooks. It looks like I'm in for a lot of reading for the rest of my life.

 Last night, I stayed in, and read my syllabus' and painted my nails, and caught up on some TV shows, before crawling into bed nice and early. I figured it could be one of the last nights I get to sleep before 11:00 for quite some time!

Today which is Saturday, March 1, 2014, I tidied up my room and started getting myself prepared for school to start. Yes I know I am a nerd, but I had to get my backpack organized and clean this mess of a desk!

I did get it cleaned off nice and tidy. Took me a few hours, but it was raining today so it's not like I could catch any tanning hours outside. I put my super cute notebooks inside my super inspirational binder and through it in my backpack, with some super awesome pens, to begin my law journey on Monday!

As I was cleaning my room this afternoon and emptying out all of my goody bags that I got all week, I realized that I definitely do not need to buy a reusable shopping bag while I am down here because I got an abundance of them for free this week. Check them out!

Anyways, I'm sure that's a long enough write up for you to read. It is now 9:00, it took me 2 hours to write this, so I am going to catch up on my TV shows aka, Scandal and Grey's because I didn't get to watch them last night, and I hear they are a must see asap kind of show. So, have a good night, and I will try not to take so long of breaks in between my posts, so they aren't novels for you all to read!