First week of junior year down under!

I finally started my first week of University in Australia, which is strange since for me, Elon does not start until August. My brain is already having a difficult time adjusting, but it will work out eventually. No matter where you go to school, starting your first semester after a long break is difficult.

The system here in Australia is a bit different from back in the USA so I will explain a bit of how it works at the University. I am taking four classes. Each class has a 2 hour lecture and depending if I have a lab, a 1 hour or 2 hour tutorial. These are scheduled through out the week so I have 8 “classes” in total. In the University, you schedule your tutorials and lectures at different times. With that being said, this is how my first week of classes went.

My first day of class was Monday and I had two lecture classes. One was Biomechanics and the other was Human Physiology. These classes I am taking for my major and so far I love Biomechanics probably because it brings me back to those fun times in high school geometry and trig (the lovely SOHCAHTOA days). That lecture was smaller than my human physiology lecture but both are held in these large lecture halls that I am not use to. Both subjects were 2-hour lectures and strangely enough they went by quickly. We get a break in between the hours so we can all collect our thoughts before diving right back into more material. After my last lecture, I went back to my room to make chicken rollups before I went to Zumba. I have been trying to get back into a work out routine so taking classes at night has become something that motivates me.

Tuesday I had my tutorials for the two lectures on Monday which are smaller classes and more interactive than just listening to someone talk for 2 hours. Through my large time gap between the tutorials, I started my studying to keep up with my human physiology class. My tutorial for Biomechanics was working with Excel, while the other half of the class worked with the problems in the workbook. At the end of the day I went to Boxfit, which was interesting considering I have never in my life used boxing gloves or pads. It was a good work out either way.

Wednesday was abnormal and social psychology, which I need for my minor. Abnormal psychology is an interesting class as well as the professor teaching it. It was a smaller lecture size but very interesting to sit through. I even ended up contacting a friend back home and had a long conversation with them about the phrase “mental illness.” For social psychology, it was the smallest lecture class I had, but I preferred that since the class was more interactive. The professor was very friendly and even sent me an email welcoming me to the class as an international student prior to the lecture. Since my tutorials for my psychology classes do not start until week 2, I had no tutorial for Abnormal Psychology right after my lecture. Instead I went to Zumba before heading back to my room for dinner then bed

Thursday I normally have my social psychology tutorial but because the tutorials do not start until week 2, I had a whole day off. I first did a small bit of studying before I decided to jump on a bus to Alexandria Headlines to buy a second hand surfboard. The board I got is a 6’4 board which is

different than what I am use to. It is never to late to give the short board a go! I even named it. Her name is Padi (Lina picked the name). After I took Padi back to the apartment, I did a bit more work before I got to speak with my Greek brother Fil on skype. The video session was a bit short when the internet decided not to work. I then went to my Boxfit class before heading back to the room. I ended up stopping by Louise’s place when I heard some music coming from the apartment. The rest of the night a few of just hung out on the porch laughed at Tyler trying to read sweetish and enjoyed each other’s company. It was a great way to end my free day.

Friday was another free day for me so I started with going to the store to buy some eggs and explore one of the other shopping centers near by. Once I returned to my room, I did a little bit more studying before deciding to take Padi to Alexandria for a quick test run before the group went to Noosa beach the next day. I forgot how hard it was to surf on a shorter board. Not only is catching a wave harder, but also trying to get up was difficult because the board is a tad bit shaky when you try to jump up. Tyler and Alyssa joined me a little later when I was about to call it a day. On our way back, we decided to do a little BBQ right outside the apartments for dinner so Daniel and Tyler cooked some burgers for us and I made a large bowl of pasta. Needless to say I slept well after that large meal!

Next morning was an early wake up because a group of us decided to take an hour and a half drive to

Noosa. A bunch went in cars and Cara, Dorthea, Johanna, Sofia and I ended up taking the long bus ride there. After a bus ride and a 20 minute walk from the main beach, we made it to Tea Tree Bay which was a small beach right off the path through the Noosa nature reserve. Once we found the others, I put all my stuff down, put my wetsuit on, grabbed Padi and jumped in the water to try and meet with Daniel and Tyler who were surfing near the rocks. It turned out that the waves were specifically for long boards so Daniel was nice enough to let me and Tyler try his board, as well as Dorthea when she wanted to give it a go. All day on the beach we laid in the sun, buried Alyssa in the sand, threw the rugby ball around, chased away these turkeys and surfed. Once we had enough, Dorthea took a few of us to her relatives’ place right near sunrise beach in Noosa. We all had coffee, donuts, little nibbles and strawberries as we all talked about the beauty of this country (minus the sharks and spiders). They were very nice to offer their hospitality to us and it was so nice to meet some people who are familiar with the area. After, our little group walked to the bus stop to catch the next bus back to USC. It was not a full weekend without one little party so we had one last party of the weekend before heading off to bed.

Photo credit goes to Alyssa and Christine

It feels great to finally get into a routine. It is great to have free time but it is even better when you have a bit of structure. Though I have started school earlier than most of my friends, I will be getting out a lot earlier so there is that J I will try to talk about interesting things that will happen in my classes every week so I don’t repeat the same thing. This coming week of classes will be a full week since I will have my psychology tutorials. Side note you will be hearing some of the same names in these blogs (you know who you guys are), since these are the awesome people I have been spending time with. It still hasn’t hit me that I am across the world but I will let you know when that happens. Have a great week everyone!