Monday started O-week, but it was mainly a day for students to check in and get their room assignments. Since I had registered last week, there wasn’t much to do. We now just have meals served on campus, which saves me a great deal of cash! The food is interesting. The “rocket” (aka salad) is more like leafy greens and the dressings are unusual. Everything is familiar, it just has an Australian twist. We did make it down town to watch the SuperBowl by 10am. It wasn't the same though without the sweet new commercials. People loved us and hated us because we were watching American Football in Australia. -- FYI: "Rooting for" means "sleeping with" in Aussie language.-- We never understood why we were getting strange looks when we said we were rooting for the Patriots.

Tuesday wasn’t my day to do much either. The school brought in a band for some entertainment, but there wasn’t much on my agenda. We had a Study Abroad program briefing in the evening. There are 81 SA students, and atleast 50 are from the United States; 8 MSU, 7 GVSU, 1 CMU, 4 Texas Tech, and a handful of other schools. ICMS has put together a Private Sunset Harbor Cruise on the 17th for just Study Abroad students. I am looking forward to that. The harbor will be beautiful at night! There was a Cocktail Welcome Party on Tuesday night. This was kinda fun. It was a chance to get all dressed up and mingle with the other students and staff. We had exotic hors d'oeuvres and all-you-can-drink beer, wine, and champagne. I definitely wasn’t complaining about that, but I wasn’t a big fan of many of the hors d’oeuvres. I went out on a limb and tried them though!

After our Cocktail Party, many of the students headed down to The Corso to hit up The Shark Bar. We hadn’t been to this bar yet. It was more of a modern lounge with crazy colors and a really sweet balcony. It was an early night though (home before midnight) because my group had sessions to attend Wednesday morning. Yesterday, the weather was absolutely perfect. I got up in the morning and attended my “Official College Welcome” and completed all my enrollment forms. I was then fitted for my rather awful school provided uniform. It consists of a navy knee length skirt and blazer, and a long sleeve white button up and short sleeved electric blue blousse. This should be interesting! With the great weather, and finally no rain, we headed to the beach to soak up some rays! I just happened to miss my left thigh with sunscreen, and it is VERY burnt, painfully burnt. My arms are a little toasty, too. I have learned my lesson and I will be more careful next time.

For our evening festivities, the school threw an “Aussie Party”. Australian flags galore, temporary tattoos, and a barbecue station set up. Our entertainment were aboriginal dancers, and that was very cool to see that side of the culture. Then a guy from the local Reptile Shelter came in and showed us what to pick up, how to pick it up, and what to avoid if we ever were to encounter them in the wild. Blue-tounged lizards, horseshoe iguanas, venomous frogs/spiders, and a number of different snakes. He even brought in a baby alligator which was surprisingly cute! I held the snake that was over 6 feet long! They had many Australian snacks for us, too. Cheezzules(?) and different finger foods. They even ended the night with some “shrimp on the bar-b”… or Prawn… It’s really big shrimp and we had to rip off their heads and tear apart their bodies! It was similar to the crayfish we used to cook up north… Similar, but also very different.

Today was long. Seminars all morning, and not very interesting ones at that. They were mostly about culture, and the environment, and blah, blah, blah! Haha. It rained all day and it wasn’t very pleasant… especially when it came time for my Beach Safety session. It was down pour rain and we had to walk about 10 minutes to the beach. Then we learned all about waves, and rips, and sandcastles! Then we headed down to the harbor which was another 10 minutes of walking in the rain, just to hop on a foam surf board and “get a feel for it!” My real lessons are on Sunday, so that should be fun!

I got my classes today too…
EVT 110: Venue and Hospitality Operations
MGMT 236: Hospitality Human Resources
EVT 111: Intro to the Event Industry
CPTS 324: Hospitality Information Systems (sorta computer-ish)

Tonight we were supposed to have a Wine and Cheese Party at Sunset on the grass looking over the water… BUT the rain wasn’t our friend this evening. So instead, we mingled on the balconies of the castle, which wasn’t so bad. I really got to know some of the GVSU and local Australian girls. It was a really relaxing night. There were only about 50 people that could sign up for the party and about 35 of us were American Study Abroad students! The view was beautiful!

Tomorrow shouldn’t be too intense. Just “team building” activities for my group and possibly a movie later in the evening. I will keep you posted. It has been an eventful, and exhausting week… But I am definitely not complaining! My mom keeps reminding me—Remember what you are there for! Haha! Ok, Mom! Classes start on Monday, so I am sure it will be a long, exhausting, but very fun weekend.

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow at home! Drive careful!
I love hearing from all of you!

Love&Miss.
xoxo

P.S. My pictures wouldn't upload tonight... I will load them ASAP. They are exciting! :)