Study Abroad, Chapter 4: First Week of Class!
This past week was Sydney Uni’s first official week of classes, so I woke up early Monday morning only to find out that my schedule didn’t actually have me starting classes until Thursday. Naturally, I went back to sleep.
I woke up later that afternoon to the voices of my roommates complaining about how awful their first day of class had been. With nothing else to do I headed to the gym for a little workout. I came back to find my roommates still whining about their day. Screw ‘em.
I logged on to Sydney Uni’s super secret DC++ Intranet and set Donnie Darko to download as I made some dinner. My plan was to stay in and watch a movie as no one was willing to go out after their first day of class. Though the night was mellow, I somehow managed to break my permanent retainer during dinner, which left me with a metal wire sticking out the side of my mouth.
Guess what I did Tuesday. Yeap, find an orthodontist that could accommodate me ASAP. After tracking one down, I headed out to run some errands. First thing on the agenda was to get a haircut. I ended up getting my hair cut by a 30-something year old lebanese man who worked out of a 7/11. Seriously, he cut my hair behind the register. Very weird, but he did give me a traditional “Aussie” shave for only $13. That left me with more than enough money to go out that night.
Wednesday morning I felt inspired to join Sydney Uni’s Wakeboarding Club, which is probably the greatest decision I have ever made. More on that later. First I must rant on how I spent $400 replacing my retainer at Edgecliff Orthodontics. So much for universal health care; this procedure would have cost no more than $75 in the States.
The Friend In Hand Hotel
So now that I found myself $400 poorer, what was I to do? Hit up Arcadia’s FREE Reunion Dinner, of course! We ate at the Friend In Hand Hotel in Glebe (bars are sometimes called hotels here, don’t ask me why). With a free dinner in my belly I headed to the bar at St. John’s Residential College to meet up with a friend who was visiting from Macquarie University. In case you were wondering, the Residential Colleges in Sydney are cool enough to have bars in their basements.
After realizing that I knew absolutely no one at John’s Bar I headed back to my apartment, where one of my roommates had some friends over. From there we all headed out to Landsdowne Hotel. There I met met two kids that go to the University of Miami, which was pretty cool. I ended up walking back to my apartment around 2:00am, stopping at Istanbul for some late-night kebab action on the way home.
Istanbul on King Street: The best place to get food at 3:00am
Thursday was my first official day of classes. First thoughts: the classes are massive (one of my classes has 750 people), and the pace at which the class is taught is considerably slower than Northwestern’s. After class I focused on getting myself organized: buying notebooks, printing lecture slides, ordering textbooks, etc.
Friday morning I woke up remarkably early for a 9:00am class. I had class straight through 5:00pm. From there I ran home to pack for the Wakeboarding Club’s Orientation Trip. The group was to meet at 6:30pm for a 1.5 hour drive north to Clfftonville Ski Park where we were going to board all Saturday and Sunday, staying in log cabins on Friday and Saturday night.
USyd Wakeboarding's Boat
The first club member I met went by the name Alex. As a full-time wakeboarding coach, he is quite the character. Funny story: I noticed that he was storing his wakeboard in a modified golf bag, so I asked him what that was about. Apparently he gets a real kick out of telling airline employees that he is a professional golfer. According to him, professional athletes can check in their equipment (his “golf” bag) free of charge. And so goes Alex, the professional golfer and wakeboarding club secretary.
We pulled into Cliftonville Ski Park 2 hours behind schedule. On the way we decided to stop at a McDonald’s, then a KFC, then a liquor store, then a gas station, etc. etc. It didn’t matter because we were finally there! The 20 of us stayed up until 4:30am drinking in our cabin. That is when I realized that Sydney Uni’s Wakeboarding Club is also Sydney Uni’s Unofficial Drinking Club.
Cliftonville Ski Park
We all woke up around 9:00am on Saturday morning ready to board. Before hitting the water I ate the most amazing concoction ever conceived: peanut butter and toast. I kid you not, it tasted amazing. After my PBT “discovery” I went out on boat with 8 others and wakeboarded straight through lunch. Turns out that my wakeboarding skill level sucks in comparison to these guys. Their “warm ups” consisted of 720’s (two spins, mid-air) and Tantrums (inverted trick).
We came in around 2:00pm for some food. I was stoked, these guys were the best wakeboarders I had ever boarded with. As we ate the other half of the group went out riding. We were then in charge of cooking dinner for the group. We had a nice little barbecue outside of the main cabin, then went on to party for a second night in a row.
Boarding...
I woke around 9:00am on Sunday and hit the water immediately. We rode until we ran ran out of gas around 11:00am. When we came in to refill we were greeted with some barbecue eggs by the other half of the group. After breakfast I headed back to Sydney Uni with some guys while the rest of the group got in some last minute rides. My body was aching and needed some rest, so I came back and passed out waking up later that night. Went for a little jog after waking up, and now I write this. A little longer than the rest, but definitely worth the read!
RELATED POSTS:
- Study Abroad, Chapter 3: Last Week of Freedom Before School Starts!
- Study Abroad, Chapter 5: Same Old, Same Old.
- Study Abroad, Chapter 1: Sorrento & Melbourne
- Study Abroad, Chapter 2: What’s Up Sydney!?
