First Day of School

So today was my first day of school as an international student. I'm actually getting excited about my classes even though I have just now changed around my entire schedule. It was necessary b/c one of my classes was Friday from 6-9pm which as we all know is unacceptable. So now I've changed it so that I just have class Mon.-Wed. So there are some differences between going to school here and in the states the most obvious which is the grading system. Thank goodness the professor in my first class was kind enough to explain it to us. They go on a 7 point GPA system here so 7.0 is HD (High Distinction), 6.0 D (Distinction), 5.0 C (Credit) 4.0 P (Pass) and 3.0 LP (Low Pass) and you can't get more than like 3 LPs in order to graduate. It's all very confusing considering that having a 4.0 GPA here means simply that you passed. Also at the beginning of class we all had to go up and say our names and where we were from and what our first degree is in and our work background. It was kinda intimidating at first but well everyone in there I'd say is between 25-28 so have roughly the same amount of experience. The crazy thing was though that I am the only American in that particular class and there are people from 16 different countries in this particular class, mostly from Europe (Germany, Sweden, Norway, France) then you have some from Asia (Thailand, China, Japan) then India, Sri Lanka and about 5 or 6 Aussies then me the lone American, should make for an interesting class and also will be interesting to work in groups with people that are from so many different places (if not a bit maddening!) It definetly looks like I'll have my work cut out for me though judging from the unit outlines my classes are no joke and I'll be writing loads of papers and doing lots of presentations, at least I have the advantage of english being my first language.

My new abode

Alright so today I found a place to live. It's in a suburb of Brisbane called New Farm (http://www.ourbrisbane.com/living/suburbs/new_farm/home/) which has loads of shops, restaurants and nightclubs in it. It's also right next to Fortitude Valley which is the biggest cultural and arts center of Brisbane. The house I'll be living in has 20 rooms..yes 20 and 5 bathrooms. It's in a style of house called a Queenslander which is a huge house with a wraparound porch that is set a bit high off the ground to make it cooler in there. My room has windows that open out onto the wraparound porch. From my house I can either take the rivercat ferry to school (river bank is about 2 blocks away) or I can take a 15 min. bus ride. I move in tomorrow so I'll try to get some pics soon for everyone!! I can't wait till someone comes to visit me and my 20 new roomates (none of whom I've met yet) at my new place.

Delinquent

Okay so I’ve been delinquent about updating the blog but well I’ve been busy. Here’s the latest: I’m leaving on Thursday to move to Brisbane to go to grad school for International Business. Right now I’m in the process of trying to get my student visa which believe me is a freakin’ ordeal of ordeals and costs lots of money. Also I’m moving out of my place and staying in hostel for a few days so not getting much sleep sharing a room with 8 people who are coming and going at all hours. I will be so glad when I can get up to Brisbane and find a place to live. I think I’m gonna live in a share house with probably 5-6 people but I’ll have my own room so that’ll be good. So yesterday was Valentine’s Day and also my first night in the hostel. In the hostel bar they had traffic light night which means that you are supposed to wear a green, yellow or red shirt—green for let’s go, yellow for maybe and red for taken. It was kinda wild down there and some good people watching. I refrained from picking a color and wore black—it was best..everyone down there was super drunk, although lots of greens seemed to hook up. The best though was one of my roommates in the hostel Simon—a crazy brit, he had this green silk robe that he just got in Vietnam with a big yellow dragon sewn on the back and he wore that..he however did NOT hook up but he did almost step on my head when he was trying to get into his bunk at like 5am. Also there was a guy wearing a shirt that had an arrow point up that said The Man and then an arrow pointing down that said The Legend, classy that one. Also one of my other roommates there is a flight attendant and he had this huge bag full of mini bottles that he was sharing with all..I have to admit I did have a couple mini bottles of Finlandia, he was drinking mini bottle after mini bottle of Chivas Royal..gross! Anyways so that was my valentine’s day..chillin with the hostel crazies and getting not much sleep but well I’m having a good time and really looking forward to my move.