Week 1

The first week of school didn’t really feel like school at all. Monday I had Buddhist Philosophy. My teacher just so happens to be from Burlingame so she has a normal American accent. We had to fill out a survey with very vague deep questions. One question was “Who are you” and you couldn’t write about your gender, ethnicity, age, origin, talents or shortcomings. After class I went to the doctor. However, first I had to see the nurse, which was a waste of time. She looked at my throat and told me its red and I need to see the doctor, well OBVIOUSLY it’s red. I had to give the doctor some background and he told me I had a sinus infection but that’s probably because I told him I always get them after a cold. He prescribed me some medicine but when I told him I normally take azithromycin he gave me the Australian azithromycin instead. He also told me to use my inhaler and nasonex. Apparently he’s been telling everyone that goes in with a cold to get an inhaler.

Orientation Week

Tuesday was spent running around getting the basic things done. I got my Bond ID card, O-week package, medical insurance card, GoCard (for the bus), set up my IT account, and got my card swiped to get access to my building. Then we tried to get 18+ cards but you needed proof of residence which none of us had so we just decided to skip it and stopped by the liquor store on our way back to campus. Alcohol here is crazy expensive!! Everyone bought cheap 10-dollar white wine, and obviously I did too, but I also bought some Raspberry Absolut for $40. Next round I’m getting Malibu. That night we planned to go to a bar that was walking distance but met up with the rest of our Arcadia group and ended up getting maxi taxis and going to Surfer’s Paradise! We went to a bar and there was a live band that was actually not that bad and during their breaks they played normal music so we were all dancing and having a good time together.

The Beginning

The morning of my departure was crazy!! The night before I had one suitcase packed with all of my clothes perfectly weighing 45 pounds and I had laid out everything to pack in my second suitcase and carry on. When I actually packed them in the morning, they were both overweight and could barely close. My parents and I spent all morning moving things around to balance out the weight. Unfortunately, we hadn’t solved the issue before it was time to leave so I threw everything into a bag and brought it along to figure out in LA. After everything was settled we had some family bonding time while we waited for our flights. We tried to figure out how I’d carry all of my suitcases by myself. My dad had bought two belts that we used to tie the carry on top of a big suitcase and then tie the other suitcase to the first one to carry them kind of like a train. Soon, it was time for my parents to leave and they bid me goodbye and hugged me several times. It was weird watching them walk away knowing I wouldn’t see them for 4 months.