Orientation

At 7.30 I woke up, not being able to sleep anymore. I guess I was too excited and nervous about the first official day at Curtin Uni. After breakfast and a quick shower (I take less time now cuz I'm not putting on make-up - it would just melt off my face) I headed towards campus. I left extra-early to not be late for the 9 AM welcome at Henderson Court. I thought I was gonna take ages finding the place but it turns out that it was pretty easy to get there. I actually already know my way around campus kinda well, or at least I know where the places are I need right now like library, student center and the Tavern (something like the Union building in Lufbra where you can get food and drinks, hang out and have parties) because I walked back and forth so many times today trying to get all my things sorted.
So the welcome was at Henderson Court, a big piece of grass where students usually hang out during their break. It wasn't that full and actually pretty useless. It was just the heads of departments saying HI to everyone and welcoming the new students. At the end a aboriginal (is that a word? I think you know what I mean) dance group performed a traditional dance accompanied by a Dijaridoo (omg that must be the worst spelling ever - I will find the correct one at some point). The dance wasn't too exciting but it was interesting to see. I think the dancers were impersonating the typical Australian animals like Kangaroo and Emu. The music was pretty cool though. I would like to find out how to play that thing but Kate told me that it is insulting to the Aborigines if anyone else besides them plays it.
After the welcome I came across a small stand at the side of Henderson Court advertising - wait for it - BEACH HANDBALL!!!!!!!! :D Of course I immediatly got a flyer and gave them my email adress. I would never have expected to find Handball here in Australia, even though the Australian team participated in the world championship 2009 (they became last - suckers). Still, where else can you plac beach handball. I'm SO excited already! Training's gonna ba twice a week, as the German girl who was at the stand told me, and it'll be at Scarborough beach, which is also one of the nicest beaches around. Man! If I don't tan there, where else....
So after Handball made my day I got myself a large coffee and headed towards the orientation meeting for exchange students. There were less students than I expected and most of them are Americans (I think I've met more Americans than Australians so far...). I quickly got to know Roman, a German guy from Cologne who studied in Aachen and who's doing his diploma thesis here in Curtin. He's pretty nice and we got into a conversation deciding that we're gonna take a bus trip to Perth soon to explore the city. I also met Beata, a girl from Switzerland and Aurelian and two other Swiss dudes whose names I already forgot (damnit, I need to start writing things down. I think the 22 years of age are already getting to me -.-). And also Benedikt, another German guy from Mainz who already asked Roman and me to come on a weekend trip to Rottnest Island, one of the hot spots around Perth and apparently an awesome place to scuba dive. Would be awesome if I could already do that next weekend. Gotta get a bathing suit before that though. But that shouldn't be too hard since I also bought the Guild membership which gives you tons of discounts on all sorts of stuff like coffee, stationaries and clothes from the Union shop.
After the orientation, where they told us about all kinds of important things to know and how to cope with the culture shock, we headed to the Tavern. There we got FREE food and drinks and a chance to chit chat with everybody.
Then it was time for me to sort out my classes and so I headed for the International Office where Julie Lea (who must be the nicest person I've met so far) told me that things weren't as complicated as they seem. I believed her right away cuz she was so cute walking around the office barefoot. The Australians generally are pretty laid back and cool. So Julie enrolled me and put me on for Australian Studies so that I was in the system and was able to get my student ID card. I will sort out my classes tomorrow (hopefully) so that I have my schedule done by Wednesday. I will have to sign up for lectures and tutorials myself so that I can make my schedule myself, which is pretty cool!
After having gotten my enrollment letter I went to the Student Center where I stood in line for 20 min to be told that I wasn't in the system yet (it takes a while sometimes) and couldn't get my Student ID yet. So I got another coffee and just sat down in the sun for a while. After about 1 hour I was able to get my Student ID (they take the picture right there - thank god I looked decent today). I then headed for the Guild shop to get my Guild membership, which also gave me a free Curtin diary with all the important dates in there. I guess I bought my diary for nothing (again). I wanted to sort out my buspass thingy as soon as possible so I can go to Perth for less (the buspass gives you a lot of discount on bus fares and allows you to travel cashless), so I walked all the way back to the bookshop where they told me that a stamp from the student center was missing. So I walked all the way BACK to the student center where again I was told that I was enrolled for only one unit (the Australian studies one) and wasn't allowed to get a buspass unless I had at least 3 units. I was kinda irritated by then cuz my bag was quite heavy and I had been walking around all day already. But I guess I will have to get the buspass tomorrow after I enrolled for my real classes (I SO hope it'll all go easy cuz Alex, the dude from my flat, told me that it can take quite a while... I will let you know tomorrow).
After being sent back and forth for nothing I finally decided to go back to my room. On the way I met Roman again who showed me a shortcut to campus (straight across the playfield). Halfway through my bag, and the only one I brought, decided to piss me off too and broke, irreparable. I guess I will have to get a new one. -.-
Since it was already 16.30 I decided to go shopping (the shops here close at 18.00 already). I got basic stuff like hangers so I could finally unpack my suitcase which I did after I got back. I also asked the cellphone shop dude why the hell I was able to call any number from my cell but wasn't able to send text messages to the same numbers I was calling. He was clueless (of course) and told me to call the service number (thank god that one is for free). I will actually call them in a minute and find out what's wrong this time.
So I guess that was my day. I don't know yet what I will be doing tonight but I might just hand out at Chloe's or something. But now I gotta run to the bathroom....