Livers need loving too

Currently: suffering from bout of food poisoning. Cooking congee. Blog called, update ensues.

I guess I should briefly recap Melbourne Welcome (the orientation 'camp' for incoming international students) since I probably won't remember much of it in the future.

Day 1: Woke up to rainy weather. Esther and I decided to try and wait out the storm.. we were supposed to check in at Newman College between 9-12. A lot of sitting around waiting for the rain to go away, but it didn't. So we went out in the pissing rain sans parapluie (I'm in a Français mood these days, bear with me) and checked in at the College. People here do not call them 'dorms' and instead it's a College. BBQ Lunch was interesting. There seemed to be a huge abundance of Americans, many of which seemed to know eachother. Awkward because little groups formed everywhere, but regardless, met some cool people including a guy from Lithuania.

Met our group that we'd be travelling around with for the next couple of days. Host: Kirsty. Nationality: Scottish. That was a surprise. Let's have an international student lead around more international students. Not that I minded, ha. She was cool, had a lot of energy albeit a bit.. dare I say it, confused? at certain times but in a funny way. (if you're reading this, it's not a bad thing, I swear). Went up to the Eureka Tower, this tall building in Southbank. My fear of heights were sort of conquered. Took me a while to be able to stare down at the view. Stomach was doing 2323 flips/minute. Dinner was the first of three 'formal' ones we'd be having there. I hate dressing up. That's all I have to say about it.


Wine and cheese tasting followed apres dinner. It was supposed to be classy as one would expect. It turned out to be an open bar of wine and beer with hosts running around forcing us to taste cheese. It was here that I met Taylor and Sarah, two friends I've been hanging out with quite a bit since. Effects of alcohol were .. well expected. Went out to another pub afterwards. Drank, talked, walked back, slept.

Day 2: Thankfully brunch was a bit later.. The 'rest' was much needed. We headed off to the Queen Victoria Markets. Didn't really buy anything other than food. I keep telling myself I still have a good 5 months here, I'll have plenty of time to go. Sadly, the weeks are flying by. Went to the zoo afterwards. Saw a variety of animals. Butterfly house was breath taking. Never seen anything quite like it. You go in and there are literally hundreds..thousands of butterflies just flying around. If you're lucky, they'll land on you. So many different colours and varieties. Downside was that it was in a greenhouse type place and considering the weather was in the upper 20s/30s, it was uncomfortable.

Got my first sunburn on my neck. It's still not healed. Met Mark here, Dutch guy. Along with him, T & S we went bothering the animals. Taylor's American, so she enjoys disturbing animals by yelling and clapping loudly at them. I'd attack her if I were one of those animals, like the kangaroos that almost did. Ha.
I'm still Chinese.
Cute eh?

A couple people went off to the St. Kilda Festival (district just south of Melbourne city) but I decided to stay behind for Trivia Night. Our group almost won even though another host, Jack, was giving us not so subtle hints. I hate ties, especially in summer. What else... We went to a bowling place but they were being the biggest pricks and wouldn't let us in unless we showed them our passports. Of course, barely anyone had it as it's just stupid to bring it out at night. Most of the group bailed and went to some expensive bar in Melbourne Central. I met my American drinking buddy here. (I really shouldn't be putting all of this up, whatever) We shared a jug..or two. They don't call them pitchers here. Stubbies, schooners, pints and jugs. I'm still not used to calling it that. And their jugs are way smaller. The cheapest one I've come across was $9.. most are about $11-15. Expensive.

Day 3: SURFING! Woke up at 7am. Suffice to say, I was severely sleep deprived during this whole thing. Barely ate anything. Ocean Grove. Cold, windy, bad sand, lame. Sun finally came out at noon, it made up for the initial 2 hours. Surfing is harder that I imagined. I almost, almost, got up on my feet on it. Our group's instructor was too busy flirting with a certain someone. Damn girls, they get it so easy in life. It was a good experience, and I definitely plan on giving it another go in the near future. I think I'm just too tall and heavy to get up on it. I swear. The board sinks everytime I get my knees on it. The waves were also pretty small, so it was slim pickings all afternoon.

Weather really cleared up nicely later in the day..

Turf (I think) at night. I really don't remember what exactly went on here, not because of intoxication, (I had good control this entire weekend) but because my memory's failing me. Oh wait, I went on a mission. Mission: failed. OH, right, and we went to a park. T, S, M and I met possums and Alanah. Alanah is a psycho. "TEXT ME. CALL ME BACK PLEASE" Freak show. We didn't recycle the bottles though. Whoops.

Day 4: Went on the Yarra Boat Cruise. The Yarra River runs through the city of Melbourne, really nice actually. Was a hot day, got tired. Took many pictures like the tourist I am. No shame at all. Lunch at the Crown Casino Buffet. They were still in the Chinese New Year mode, so there was a fair number of Chinese-inspired dishes. The siu mais were disgusting. Chocolate pudding cake was incredible. Never had anything quite like it. I'm already drooling for it. I also learned from a certain someone people in Australia are like us back home with Sharpies and sleeping individuals after a night out. I had a good laugh. Headed back to the College early (missed the afternoon tours..couldn't be bothered) and tried to just relax and prepare for the last dinner. A formal one complete with a white shirt and black tie.

This was painful to watch. We were at Federation Square waiting around for the cruise in the morning. I was the only loud obnoxious Canadian around I think cheering on Mike Robertson.. I could not believe the American overtook him in the final couple of turns. What the hell. I was so sure he'd win too with his lead.. Doesn't matter though, 14 golds this Olympics, straight into the record books.

Arrived late for the pre-dinner drinks at the pond for other reasons. Dinner was pretty good. I tried so hard not to laugh during Grace. Newman is a Catholic college, sorry, but I'm anything but religious.


Puggs + Bimbos at night. That echo room was neat. Compared the different vegetation BC and Tasmania has with these guys. I think BC wins.

Day 5: Good bye Newman. Packed, ate half a banana and left.

Even though the program cost quite a bit the friends and experiences I had there made up for it. I couldn't imagine how my life in Melbourne would be like without this. Even though one of my main goals was to try and befriend some locals, making new international friends is just as worth it. If anyone is going to go on exchange and such an orientation program exists, I'd highly recommend that they do it..even if it means living like you're in first year again.

This post got long very quick. I'll leave it at here for now. The other events of the week and weeks following are not meant to be publicly talked about at this moment.

After Melbourne Welcome Priscilla came and visited. Elaborate on that another time. I still need to find some way to properly celebrate Canada's gold medal in hockey.. Je veux des Canadiens maintenant s'il vous plaît.