2013.02.25 Orientation

Marking one week until classes start, I woke up on my first Monday in Melbourne for orientation.  It was located in the Advanced Technology Centre, but I didn't even need to pull up a map - I followed the crowd of people with accents.  I realized that this was my first walk through the heart of campus, down John Street.  From my direction, the beginning of the walk looks like this:

Walking a little further I ran into my favorite structure on the campus: the library.  Honestly, this is just getting ridiculous now.

And yes, that is a waterfall running in between the railings on the stairs.  I now realize why Drexel is rated as having one of the least aesthetic campuses.  The building features a psuedo-outdoor atrium/lobby area with seating and tables for group studying, while the actual library the the orange building on the right (in the picture above).  I even love sliding glass doors used to enter the lobby and the library itself.

Here is the AD building, titled the "Old Administration Building"

Once I stopped myself from being distracted by the campus I continued to the ATC building, was welcomed into the lecture hall and took a seat.

I found out several interesting things at the orientation session.  I learned that this is only one of two actual academic orientation sessions throughout the week.  The rest of orientation at Australian universities consist of the school organizing social events for students.  Many of these are even just parties put together by the university, with drinks included for free!

One of the professors, Mark (Dr. Mark Finn actually, but in Australian academic culture professors are almost always called simply by their first name) started his speech by saying something similar to this:

"I see a very common issue when exchange students visit Australia - especially from countries with higher drinking ages.  And the problem is this: you have a hard time keeping up with our drinking.  Alcohol is a big part of Australian culture and if you cannot drink as much as us that is OK, you don't have to."

I was excited - I definitely chose the right country to have an fun, exciting, adventurous and cultural experience at.

After a few more lectures on fire safety, school security contact numbers and police phone numbers, a final presentation was put on by two students - Tim and Josh - that covered several more exciting topics including Australian slang.  Here are some examples I remember.

Pull up a stump - take a seat
Bugger - oh crap
Arvo - afternoon
Froffel, tinny, schooner (and more I can't remember) - beer
Things went off light a frog in a sock - things got crazy
Budgie smugglers - speedo
Bogan - something similar to an Australian redneck
Flippin your wig - freaking out
Woopwoop - general term for somewhere out in the middle of nowhere
The bush - the outback
Old mate - dude (can be used to refer to anybody)
Old boy - dad
Old girl - mom
Missus - wife or girlfriend

There is much more, and you can look at more of them here if you'd like: http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html

After orientation was finished I headed to the train station on my own to go to the inner city - I needed to exchange my currency.  After White Night I was versed in the train system and was there in no time. Things looked quite different when it wasn't taken over by White Night decorations and celebrators!  This is Flinders Street station, the first inner city station from my direction (and the one I got off at on White Night).

After a one block walk to a currency exchange outlet I began exploring.  The station is right next to the Yarra river, which has walkways for joggers, cyclists, and walkers.  And believe me, it has the Schuylkill river trail in Philadelphia beat. 

I walked out onto the Flinders Street bridge to get a better view of the Yarra River.

I kept walking across the river to the tall tower I saw lit in Blue during White Night to find out what it actually was - it turned out to be the Melbourne Arts Centre.

Again, it is absolutely gorgeous.  In the courtyard just below it there is some neat modern art for pedestrians to get some shade under.

And finally, I walked up to the highest landing I could on the Melbourne Arts Centre to take a snapshot of the full inner city skyline.

With that I headed back - I still had to get a new SIM card for my iPhone before the stores closed.  I had noticed that in Australia, similar to my experience years ago in Germany, stores close earlier than in the United States, so I made sure to head back to Swinburne early enough.  For example, almost all restaurants on campus are closed by 6 pm on weekdays.

I got back onto campus, grabbed a new SIM (the Optus store is right off campus) and headed back to my apartment to relax for a few hours before the night's festivities began.

That night I enjoyed an outdoor barbie (slang for barbecue) and apartment party at one of the orientation leader's apartments.  After hours of drinking a handful of exchanged students headed back to my apartment to wind down the night with a few more drinks.  With a deck of cards my sister gifted me before leaving in my hand, I learned that none of the students knew how to play Kings!  That night, I taught students from over 5 different countries how to play an American card game!

At that point, it was extremely late, and I hit the bed with nothing at all scheduled for the next morning.  Ahhh, sleeping in.