"But really, guys, this is not real life."

These past two weeks have been absolutely crazy and so busy. I cannot even exlain how many times someone in our group has said "But wait...this is our life now." Or just even "this is not real life," because really, it just isn't!

So, leaving off after orientation…On Sunday March 24^th I moved into my apartment, which is absolutely awesome. It’s two stories and is a two bedroom/two bathroom apartment. The walls are painted nicely and there is actual artwork that matches everything. Although extremely unnecessary, someone also comes to clean our apartment once a week. We also have a small balcony, although compared to some other views, ours is just a building. There is a pool, hot tub, and a sauna in the building as well. Every time I come home I struggle to believe that this is where I am living for the next four months, as it’s just not a real college home!! In the apartment I have three roommates, all of whom are juniors at Northeastern University in Boston. There are also a few other people from Madison in my building, a TON of other Northeastern students, and a few students from my orientation group. Although I basically live in Chinatown (lots of good thai and Chinese food), I am only a ten minute walk to the CBD (central business district—where everything goes on “downtown”), so it’s a really fun building and area to live in!

The next two days I had Uni orientation. The first day we had an international student welcome and then got all the basic information about literally everything uni related and life related. The second day we were given the classes we were (automatically) enrolled in and went over more uni lifestyle and class style stuff. As informative as it all was, it was definitely not where I wanted to be on those 80 degree and sunny days, so after orientation on Tuesday my roommates,  my neighbors (northeastern girls), and myself went to Bondi Beach. Many of you may have heard of it as it’s “the beach” to go to in Sydney. It’s in a beautiful area, but it’s a bit touristy and EXTREMELY busy, so it wasn’t my favorite beach ever. But whatever, it was a beach and I’m in Australia!
(*Note—Uni = university, college, campus)

 
Since this entire week was "O-week," which is their orientation week for "freshers" to get acclimated and involved in campus, a lot was going on. I went back to campus on Wednesday to check out some clubs, as they had a huge fair with free food and music. There were a bunch of tents set up infront of "the Great Hall" (aka Hogwarts), which is like the most beatitful area ever. There were hundreds and hundreds of clubs including surfing, skiing, bushwalking, jewish comedy club, beer brewing, quidditch, chocolate appreciation, ect. If you think of it, it probably exists here! There were so many I wanted to join, but many of them have a fee, so in the end I chose Bocce ball club, Long boarding club, Food and Wine club, and the Women’s collective. After clubs I got a lot of free food and drinks and got my cards read. The guy guessed my major and situation before I even said anything! I picked all of the awesome card such as wealth health and love, so I guess I'm doing okay. Also, sorry mom and dad, but I might never end up leaving Australia according to him!! Wednesday night there was an O-week party for all the international students at Manning Bar, which is one of the bars on campus. Yes, I did just say the campus bar. The fact that I was at a bar  looking out the window at classrooms was really just so weird to me..again, it isn't "real life."

The first weekend in March was the big LGBT pride festival, although here in Australia they call it Mardi Gras. It is one of the biggest gay pride parades across the world, and all of Sydney was absolutely crazy. The actual parade was Saturday evening. It started in Hyde Park and went all the way down Oxford Street. Although it was on and off sprinkling to pouring rain, no one really seemed to care. Literally all types of people were there as well—straight, gay, bisexual, transgender, people dressed in drag, costumes, and even NOTHING at all! It was really something beautiful to see the mutual respect and openness that went around for all different people, relationships, and experiences. Unfortunately I got to the parade a little late and couldn’t see much, but I bought a milk crate to stand on and was able to catch some of the floats and marchers. I watched the parade for about an hour to an hour and a half, but it started at least 20 minutes before I got there and went on for about 45 minutes after I left! That’s how much they love their mardi gras!