Orientation Continued

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore: watching "premiere episodes" I've already seen

It's a good thing I've been keeping little notes about my days. Otherwise I'd have a great deal of difficulty remembering everything I wanted to write about. Last Orientation update, I left off at the end of the "Adjusting to Life in Sydney" session. When it finished, we went all the way to the room next door for Unimates. Unimates is a group that helps international and local students get to know each other through various social activities and regular meetings. Vikki and Triona joined us for the session. We found out that there was a beach bbq at Coogee that Friday (the 23rd). With free food. And it would be at Coogee beach. None of us had managed to make it to the beach yet.

Monday's orientation included a free lunch. We grabbed some little sandwiches and wandered around collecting goodies from the different club/organisation displays. Of particular use was the transport booth which had free route maps that actually show exactly where the buses go. You'd think all bus maps would be like that, but you'd be expecting too much. We stocked up. After a while, we grew tired of standing around attempting to balance bags, papers, napkins, juice cups and food so we looked for a table. There were no tables or chairs. Apparently international students don't need a place to sit down for lunch? We (Triona, Vikki, Ching, Gareth from the hostel, myself) decided to prove them wrong and sat down in the middle of floor to relax and sort out all our stuff. A few minutes later, a girl came over and asked if she could join us on the floor. And that was how we met Heidi, an exchange student from Sweden who had only arrived a couple of days before. Somehow the conversation turned to Ikea and how we (Ching, Triona and myself) needed desks and Heidi was homesick and wanted to see all the Swedish stuff and get food from the cafe. We made plans to go to Ikea after the enrollment information session on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning, Ching and I again dragged ourselves out of bed much to early for our satisfaction, picked up Triona, and met everyone in the auditorium on campus. After a brave attempt to stay awake while Caitlin from the exchange office talked on in her annoying Texas drawl, we got as many cookies as we could from morning tea and then hopped a bus to Ikea. It's quite a long way away and we got to see a great deal more of Sydney. We had no idea when to press the button to get off the bus since we had no way of recognising what street we were at. Thankfully, since we were the only people on the bus actually talking it was easy for the girl across the aisle to figure out that we were trying to figure out how to get to Ikea and she told us when to get off and gave us directions. We got off the bus and realised that when she'd pointed towards Ikea the bus had yet to turn several corners and we weren't at all certain which way to go. Fortunately Triona had been paying close attention to where we were and managed to figure things out. Ikea is fun. We had a great time touring the store and imagining that the display rooms were actually in our houses. I even found a jar of pasta in one of the cupboards!

Heidi found some accessories for her apartment and Ching, Triona and I all ended up buying the same desk. We were informed that we were to pick them up at the warehouse, just five minutes away. Five minutes away if you have a car and aren't just planning to call a taxi once you get to the warehouse. We followed the little map that I'm sure is perfectly clear if you're driving, but was a little sketchy for four girls who were totally unfamiliar with the area and were lugging a bag of quite heavy Ikea accessories. We found the warehouse in much the same way we'd managed to find everywhere else since arriving: we headed in what we knew to be the general direction and prayed we'd spot a street sign with the name we needed. We did, we called a taxi, got our desks, and split the fare to my house. Then Triona decided that rather than have the taxi continue on to her place, she'd just get out there and carry the desk home. Poor Heidi, who hadn't purchased anything heavier than some tealight holders, ended up helping. Getting the box up Triona's very narrow stairs, and around a hairpin turn in the middle of the stairs, was a little scary.

Triona, Heidi and I then headed to Broadway while an exhausted Ching went home for a nap. We were getting our student cards the next morning and needed to have a passport size photo. Since it was getting late and Heidi didn't have one and also didn't have time to head to the place on campus that's supposed to do very nice ones for a very nice price, Heidi decided to try the photo booth. You certainly don't get quality there, but you definately get fun. Especially when Triona managed to get Heidi to make a silly pose for her final photo. And then Triona and I decided we would split the photos and see if we could come up with better photos than the ones we had. And Heidi wanted one more try. It was a little photo assembly line. Triona sat down, pulled the curtain shut. Little red light. Flash. Triona falls out of the booth, trying not get too tangled in the curtain as I dive in and she pulls the curtain shut. Red light. Flash. I leap out and Triona holds the curtain as Heidi sits down. Triona pulls the curtain shut. Red light. Flash. Triona and I pull back the curtain and jump in for the the final photo. Red light. Laughter. Trying not fall over. Flash. Triona backs out of the booth, I follow.

We stared in at Heidi, who was stuck in the corner. We'd knocked her off the stool so that her long legs were stuck under the seat. Triona and I doubled over as Heidi tried to extract herself without bashing her knees. She succeeded. Almost.

Once we finished our shopping (Triona had those plastic drawers on wheels, I had a chair) we decided to go to Blockbuster and rent a movie. It turned out that we could get two for one so we ended up with Love, Actually and Something's Gotta Give. We walked out of Blockbuster and there was an abandoned shopping cart right in front of us. Triona and I looked at each other over a box and chair, dumped our stuff into the shopping cart, and pushed it home. It wouldn't have been such a spectacle if the sidewalks weren't so uneven and the cart didn't rattle quite so much.

After dinner, Triona and Heidi came over and joined Ching and me in the living room. The OC had been on for about 5 minutes. I only ever watched about one episode back home, but had heard nothing but wonderful things about the show. When we arrived in Australia, the first season had just started. We missed the first couple of episodes, but were hooked the first time we sat down to watch it. Triona loves the show and was very excited that they were showing episodes she'd missed back home (she didn't start watching it until halfway through the season). Tuesday evening was the first night of what has now become a regular event: getting together to watch The OC. Love, Actually was a wonderful movie and I now know why everyone who has seen it has seen it more than once and doesn't mind seeing it again (Heidi and Triona being two of those people).

Ánd that brings the second day of Orientation to a close.