BOND Week Activities

TOGA PARTY

Laying out, Toga parties, beaches, and sleeping in....Right now my life couldn't get much better!! It's my first week here and we don't start school until Sept. 12th so we spend this week meeting people through various different events that the university puts on for us. After we arrived on Sunday afternoon; we checked in, received our room keys, explored campus, and eventually some how fought through our jet lag and enjoyed a BBQ on campus and then proceeded to a nice venue called Hotel CBD where we had a few drinks and met ridiculous amounts of people. Marisa (my roommate) and I have concluded that we have met a person from each continent. We then called in a night and went back to our room; however, even though we were exhausted we couldn't sleep because we were still on our sleeping schedule at home and were starving because we didn't eat the whole day we traveled and we were also late to the BBQ. So then at 6 am I heard someone whispering my name and figured out that Kiley and Allie had the same problem. We then enjoyed our first meal in Australia at 'Juicy Bits' a small cafe 100 feet from our dorm. After stuffing our faces we went down to the market place which is a nice walk from campus and did some grocery shopping. We spent the rest of the day setting up our computers with the school's network, getting our ID cards, figuring out our schedule, and spending a great amount of time at a campus fair where they presented us with different activities throughout the semester. 

Later in the afternoon Marisa, Adam, Fink, Stephen, Jeff, and I (all SLU students) decided to walk 4.2 km (equivalent to 2.7 miles) to the mall. It was a nice walk where we saw many nice houses and parks. After finally arriving we spent the next hour purchasing items for our room and school, we also ALL bought a cell phone to use while we are here to call each other. Marisa and I had huge bags of towels, pillows, and decorations that we all thought it would be best to take the bus back to campus. The public transportation is very convenient here and we enjoyed an entertaining ride with many walks of life. Getting back on campus, Marisa and I decorated our room and begin to sip some wine (which is the cheapest alcohol here for about $9 AUD for a bottle). After decorating and socializing with people on our floor we started to get ready for the TOGA party at Don's (which is the bar on campus...where YES I can use my meal plan). We all had a tough time perfecting our toga's to look good and cover our body. At Don's we just all hung out until a bus took us to a night club in Surfer's Paradise ( a nearby city) we stayed there until 3am dancing and hanging out; we all had a great time. After 'skyping' (video chatting) with my cousins Mary Michael and Kathleen I finally went to bed at 5 am ( it was early afternoon for them in KC).

Pool View

Today (which is Tuesday) we slept in and then went to lay out at the pool and then went to an introduction ceremony at the amphitheater on campus. we finished the night early for once to give our bodies a break by sitting in the cafe talking and laughing about all the funny things that happen at the toga party (unfortunately I believe that Mary Michael and Kathleen also know everything as well). Tonight I realized that we already have a good solid group of friends and are already planning a weekend trip to the Sunshine coast which is north of Bond University to explore. 

I love this place and I'm having so much fun; of course I miss my family and friends back home but I have been 'skyping' with Alec everyday and talking to my sister constantly. I know I'm forgetting a lot of details about the past 2 days but I am so dead tired to think. I will add a new post soon about how similar and different Oz (a term for Australia) and the US really is. Hope all is well!!!

SEEE yaa!