Orientation Week!
Posted by Prashant Katwa
Sorry I haven’t written a blog for like a week, but I’ve just been busy doing things here and there. This past week was orientation week for the Study Abroad / Exchange Students. It was alright, pretty boring as I would expect any orientation to be. But now I guess i’ve “settled in” if that really means anything. So let me tell you a little bit about what I’ve been up to.
Well the day after I arrived, Monday, I pretty much slept all day. It was mostly a gloomy day. I went to the dining hall thing for lunch. It was, um… okay. lol. Yeah i guess it pretty much sucked. But I also went almost when it was closing so perhaps that had something to do with it. Anyway, on Tuesday the orientation began at 9:00am with what they called “hot drink and yummy pancakes breakfast.” It wasn’t too bad. The orientation began by giving us a brief overview of Australia and it history. It was fairly interesting and the professor giving the mini-lecture was definitely entertaining. He also gave away a few prizes for answering some history questions right. In fact, he even gave away a six-pack of beer to some girl for answering a question. haha. Anyway I should have enjoyed it while it lasted, ’cause after that it was downhill. It got pretty boring. Honestly, I don’t remember half the stuff that was said and most of it was repeated like twice, clearly unnecessary. I won’t bore you with what was talked about.
I met some cool people who I soon befriended this week. I’ve met like a few people from UCLA, someone from UCSB, someone from UCSD, a girl from France, a few others including three students from NC State. I also met people from Japan, Germany, and several other places. So, a group of us have been hanging out with each other going shopping and roaming out into the city. It’s been pretty fun. Because we are exchange students, our orientation was actually like two weeks before classes start, so most of the “real” Australians, if I can call them that, are not even here yet so I therefore haven’t had a chance to meet many of them.
During the week we went to the city almost everyday. For your information Monash University has like 6 campuses in the state of Victoria in Australia. The two main campuses are known as Clayton and Caulfield. They are both in the suburbs of the city as opposed to Melbourne University which is near downtown Melbourne. Caulfield is probably about 20 mins from the city center and Clayton is probably 40 mins from the city center. Most students live and study on the Clayton campus. In order to get to the city, you have to take like a bus to the train station and from there ride the train into the city and get off at one of like 4 or 5 stations that are on the city loop (including Flinders St. Station, Parliament Station, Melbourne Central, Southern Cross, and I think one more that I can’t remember right now. Anyway, we usually get off at Flinders Street because its near one of the most happening places.
On Tuesday four of us (friends from UCLA and NC State) decided to go get dinner in the near the city somewhere. We got off at the South Yarra Station which is like right before you get to the city. Supposedly its the place to go for fashion and clubs. We eventually came upon this restaurant called Amigos. It was a mexican food place, which surprised some who were told that its very difficult to find mexican food in Australia. Whatever. We decided to get the chefs menu which said it feeds four, but it turns out that we still had to pay individually. Slightly unexpected, but it was very much worth the money, considering we had nachos, fajitas, enchiladas, salad, and dessert. I think Australians take their time when they eat, cause they waiter was taking forever to serve us each time. After that we were going to go out, but all of us were tired so we decided to call it a day.
On Wednesday, Bill, who is the Monash Abroad activity coordinator person, planned a trip to Federation Square in the city. Most of the study abroad/exchange students came and we walked along the Yarra river (near Flinders St.) and took a ride on a Giant Sky Wheel. That was okay. It wasn’t anything exciting. Bill took us to a nearby bar later, but me and the NC State kids decided to go out and wander around. So we did that and eventually headed back to campus. Oh, we also enrolled in our units (or courses) on this day. We visited our Faculty (or School/Dept).
On Thursday evening we went to Chaddy’s!!! (aka Chadstone Shopping Centre). It’s pretty much a huge mall. It has two levels. It has a Meyer and a David Jones which are pretty much like Macys or Nordstrom. It also has a Toys”R”Us, a Target, a K-mart, a Borders, a Coles (which is a popular grocery store around here), and Hoyts (which is a movie theater). In addition, it has two food courts, and tons of stores, including an Armani Exchange. It’s apparently one of the biggest, if not the biggest, shopping complexes in Australia. So yeah it was fun! In fact, I went back there today because some of my friends had to get a few things. Oh and on Wednesday I bought a cellphone.
Oh Friday! So, on friday night we had a welcome dinner at a place called the Red Scooter located in the suburb of St. Kilda (which is near the beach). The Monash Abroad dept rented out the place. It was like a really nice venue! Supposedly its used for private events and wedding receptions and stuff. [It's sad that I kept thinking how great this venue would be for an afterparty. lol.] They served us an Aussie BBQ and drinks. They also played the US anthem in recognition of July 4th! Oh and there was also some dancing. After that, we all (including much of the Abroad coordinators) went to a bar in the city. Yeah we learned on friday night that drinks here are mad expensive (along with everything else for that matter). I could probably write a whole post regarding US vs Aus price comparisons. lol.
And lastly on Saturday, my friend from NC State and I went to the gym for a while. So apparently we have to pay for the gym too. It figures, since we got to pay for everything. I should have just gotten a membership that day since I paid like a quarter of how much it would cost for a month just for one day. Some of us went out later that night and went to a club near Chapel St. It was an interesting experience. We were planning on going today too for someone’s birthday, but its been raining so we decided to just hang out in the halls tonight.
But, yeah overall its been pretty fun. Melbourne is a really nice place. We’ll see how busy I get when classes start and how often we’ll be able to visit the city. I have some photos on facebook. The links are below. Until next time, adios!
Aussieland Photos 1
Welcome Dinner and More! [Aussieland Photos 2]
-pkat
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