O-Week and Kangaroos

Well, we survived orientation.
I want to say "barely" right there. Like oh my gosh, I baaaaaarely made it through the sea of information without Moses, I am still so confused about how to get around campus, oh em gee...
But honestly, orientation was so laid back compared to Cal's. At Berkeley it was 48 hours of nonstop team building and new knowledge. Here, we went to a session on how to enroll in classes, a safety hour about all of the animals in Australia that will kill you (everything), and a program specific to study abroad kids where they gave us free cookies. So basically, it was a breeze.
We've spent the rest of the week getting acquainted with campus and other international students, as well as finishing getting all the stuff we need to live and be functional people. There is so much stuff I bought in Berkeley when I first got to school that is necessary to daily life that I just forgot about here. Things I forgot I use often. Like ziploc baggies and coffee filters and pens and paper and all that stuff that is just normally in your house, I totally forgot I would need. After multiple trips to the store and some trial runs with the cheapo coffee pot in our house, I finally feel settled in and ready for school to start.
Aaaaanyway.
This week I've been going to a lot of events put on by a group called Quest. Quest is pretty much a bunch of Australian uni kids doing things for international kids. They held a BBQ Tuesday afternoon. And when they say BBQ, they mean hot dogs on bread. Yeah, BREAD. Not even buns. That's what an "Aussie BBQ" is. Needless to say, I went expecting burgers and fries, and I got a sad potentially not even Hebrew National hot dog in a sad piece of bread with sad ketchup.
Tuesday night they threw a party at a club in the city. Which means 500 sweaty international kids crammed onto a super tiny dance floor. And it was pretty fun! I met an Australian boy who took some time off after high school and moved to Canada where he became an ice road trucker. I am not kidding. He spent like 20 minutes telling me about a time when he brakes froze up. I pretended to be interested until he left to get a drink, and he hadn't offered me one...so I bailed and went and danced with my friends. It was great.

roomies

Wednesday we had a few other orientation things, and then that night Martha, Bridget, and I went over to South Bank on the ferry for a "Night Noodle Market." South Bank is my fave part of the city so far. It's so cute! It reminds me of Prospect Street in La Jolla, but with more cocktail and dessert bars. The noodle market was nice-a lot of cheap Asian food, cool music, and a ton of people. We rode "The Wheel of Brisbane" that night too! It gives you awesome views of the whole city and the river.

Noodle Market

Me chillin on the ferris wheel

Yesterday, we went out to the suburbs to meet a friend of a friend of Bridget's who grew up in Brisbane. She gave us a massive list of places to go and things to do. Our bucket list went from 6 things to 46 in a second. There's a glow worm cave she told us about and if I don't make it out there I'll be severely disappointed.
And then today....

YES. IT HAPPENED.
We did the stereotypical Aussie tourist thing and went to an animal sanctuary to hold koalas and feed kangaroos. Yeah, I paid to hold a koala for 5 seconds AND IT WAS AMAZING. Like why did I not do that last time I was here? They're not cuddly though. She kind of clawed at my hair. But it was okay because I got this fantastic picture:

AW YEAH

Since my generation is obsessed with ourselves and documenting everything, I took a ton of selfies with the 'roos.

my new Aussie boyfriend

They're so soft and they have giant teeth. I was kind of worried one of them would spontaneously decide to punch me because that can like kill a person, but they were so tame and relaxed and probably actually miserable from being touched by children all day. But it was fun, and definitely something you have to do while you're here.

Woooo! Classes start Monday and I actually can't wait. I'm excited for all my courses and to have a routine and what not.

Here we go!