Amidst O-Week

Hello again,

This time I greet you in the middle of Cromwell College Orientation week.  It started last Sunday night and goes until this coming Sunday (the day before classes start).  Each residential college does it a little differently, and each college is distinct in its treatment of freshers during their first week at uni (university).  While I can't divulge the deep secrets of Cromwell O-week, I can tell you some of the basics.  It is fairly strict and intense, but not overwhelming.  I understand that its purpose is to build a strong community with each other and Cromwell.  We wake up at 6:15 each morning for the morning program which consists of jumping jacks, high knees, and stretching for a warmup, then continues with some skipping and holding hands to a destination around campus as a group of 130 some freshers in Cromwell.  Today, for instance, we skipped to each of the other residential colleges at University of Queensland and had a cheer for each of them after we were told by leaders what exactly our relationship with the each other college was and is today; some better than others.  

This is a picture of the walkway on all sides of the main quad at UQ.  This is where Market day was held  yesterday.  Market day is the time where all the clubs set up a table and present their group in hope to gain sign on's from the incoming freshers and returning students.  It is also where each college performs their "Fresher Dance."  Ours is amazing and we are told that out of all the colleges, ours is most entertaining.  No bias at all.  Eventually, some form of video will probably circulate around the internet with all the UQ Fresher Dances from 2012.

With only a few days left in O-week, I am excited to get into a fixed schedule and start up classes.  The class selecting process is more complicated here than at Dickinson, but RA's are here to help if you have questions.  All in all, O-week has been fun and challenging with lots of funny stories all kept in my daily journal.  There are too many to tell on this one blog but I will say that during a Bus rally between Indroopoly, Toowong, and Brisbane, where we had to complete tasks, such as doing the hokey pokey in public, getting phone numbers, getting pictures with Emos, getting a present for the social chairs, staging fake break ups, trying on makeup and bras, and many other embarrassing things, for points, I, along with a few others, waxed my eyebrow clean off.  We'll see how long it takes for it to grow back.

That is all for now, I look forward to updating more pictures and experiences as more of them occur here in Australia