Wednesday and Thursday were the first and second days of orientation for new students doing their full degree programmes, and it started with the welcome speeches at the Great Hall. And really, people, it's not called "great" for nothing. The view as we walked through the university was quite spectacular; the architecture of these ancient sandstone buildings is, for lack of a better phrase, breathtakingly beautiful.
The full degree orientation programme basically consists of one session after another of 'important' lectures deemed by the university to be useful information for new students. The first day we had morning tea at the Quadrangle, where the famous tree is, y'know, the one that turns purple and that's always grazing the front covers of the university catalogues and brochures. It was green though, with only one purple branch of leaves near the very top of the tree. I got me a plastic cup of cold orange juice and ended up sitting on the grass, chatting with my friends and enjoying the view.
Wednesday afternoon I managed to visit Victoria Park, which is usually very dangerous to walk through alone, but we went with a bunch of people who were playing football there, so I thought if I ever intended to step foot there, this was the moment - who would wanna mug a group of footballers right? The park's really a very nice place to lepak. The wind is nice and cool, and the trees are really quite different from the ones you get back home. There are lotsa people around too, and many of them walk their dogs here.
Thursday was pretty much the same informational sessions in the morning, but the afternoon was pretty interesting: we joined one of the guided tours around campus (haven't transferred the pictures from my camera, sorry!) and that took about a couple of hours. At about 9 p.m. that night there was a party at the Manning Bar for the international students, so I went with a few friends to that one. It's not something I'm used to, but it was pretty interesting.
Thursday was pretty much the same informational sessions in the morning, but the afternoon was pretty interesting: we joined one of the guided tours around campus (haven't transferred the pictures from my camera, sorry!) and that took about a couple of hours. At about 9 p.m. that night there was a party at the Manning Bar for the international students, so I went with a few friends to that one. It's not something I'm used to, but it was pretty interesting.
This morning was spent at the Quadrangle and the Wentworth Building, and then it was back to IH. Dinner was interesting today: they posted up on the menu "nasi goreng", and fellow Malaysians, seriously I was happy, but I don't think the other international students liked it. For one, it was kinda soggy, and even I've gotta admit that our Malaysian flavours are rather hardcore for non-Malaysians not used to our tastebuds. After dinner I went to Broadway with Ann, Axel, Lorenzo, Nori and Tania. They bought sunglasses, and it was a good excuse for me to walk around town again. Tomorrow should be very interesting - they wanna go to Manly Beach, which is apparently considered a far more beautiful beach than Bondi, and the plan is to catch a bus and a ferry there. So it's gonna be an early night for me tonight, haven't been getting much sleep lately (the ibis birds attacking the trash can get rather loud), and I'm gonna need every drop of energy for tomorrow's grand outing! So cheers, y'all!
P.S. If I don't blog regularly, it's not because I don't want to, but because the Internet connection from my room is so horrible it's mindboggling! End of P.S.
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