OHHH-Week!

Time for everyone to get back into the groove… time to get back to the reality of school! Well, not quite yet. This week is orientation week, and UQ has tons of events planned. Usually, as a third year, orientation is not that exciting, or even necessary. Most people don’t go, cause you generally don’t (shouldn’t) need a tour of campus in your third year. But this week is orientation for international students… the prime time to meet new friends and escape loneliness.  We got up at 6:30 am, with orientation starting at 8:30. You may be thinking that two hours to get ready is a bit much/early… but there are a couple reasons why we did it. First of all, all three of us are sharing one bathroom, which actually proved to be not too bad at all. Also, this day is big! You’ve got to look your best! There’s a balance –you have to look good, but also like you didn’t really try… because who tries for orientation. Tough.

We arrived right on time, following the masses into a large room filled with international students from over 106 countries. Crazy. They did an Olympic-themed greeting. Going through the entire list of countries, they'd have the students from each country stand up and give a cheer. Us Canadians gave a pretty rowdy cheer, but were topped off by the Americans. I would argue that because they were at the end of the alphabet, they had time to get ready. Canada is obviously near the front of the list. It was one of those situations where it’s kind of odd for the people at the front of the activity to go full-out, because they kind of have to set the tone… and have no example. Anyways, that was a sidetrack moment.

It was super cool when there was only one person from a country, and they would stand up and everyone would be cheering for them. It was the definition of patriotism. I loved it. People were from countries that I’ve never even heard of! And I can’t even tell you the name of them, because there were quite a few. Even if I did remember, I probably wouldn’t say what they were, in case it was a place that I definitely should have known of. I’ll try to save myself the embarrassment! 

I met lots of new people. People from Italy, people from Germany, people from Denmark. It was the definition of an international experience. There were a few speakers. Honestly, nothing too interesting… but it was good to be around lots of people, all in the same boat.

There was a barbeque after the speakers. They were serving wieners in a piece of white bread, with onions. Unfortunately I can’t eat the bread due to my gluten intolerance, and I’m not gonna lie, eating just a plain wiener while meeting new people is not the most ideal scenario. But, I was hungry, so I did it. Turns out I didn’t make any lasting friends, only memories.

I got caught in a monsoon walking home from the school. Campus is actually only a 5 minute walk from our place, which is ideal. Unfortunately, a friend and I took a wrong turn and ended up actually walking the opposite way. UQ is organized in a big circular format, so we essentially walked around the circle. It was a great walk, super scenic.... until we got stuck in a storm. Lighting, thunder and the whole shebang (for the record, I don’t think I’ve ever wrote down the word shebang – it’s a first!). The rain was ridiculously hard. It was a monsoon! I look like I’d taken a shower, five times. You can only imagine how wet it was! That’s saying a lot coming from a Vancouver citizen.

Anyways, this is getting a tad long. Orientation week is all week long so I’ll keep you posted! 

Thanks for reading!