O-Week and A Trip to Merry Beach

Hey All!  Well, I finally got down to uni and its been a crazy week!  I got to Wollongong during the last few days of "O-week" which is orientation/party-week for all the first-year students.  It was soooo fun!  They had themed parties every night (including a toga party...haha) and then during the days we just went to the beach.  I met tons of fun people from the states and Australia.  

After o-week was officially over, we had the week before school to just chill out and explore the city.  The walk to the beach (and the beach itself) is gorgeous!!  Its about a 20 minute walk away, but worth it.  There is also a really cute little city mall down the street...about a 10 minute walk.  I really like my dorm too- the rooms are decent sized and they have cleaning staff that come and vacuum and wash everything every 2 weeks (or fortnightly as they say here in Aus).  So far, I am really liking the city and am looking forward to doing some more exploring in the next few weeks.

Classes or "uni" start today, but since they don't have tutorials during the first week for most classes, I don't start until 4:30 in the afternoon!  The campus here is beautiful as well.  The whole place is a series of little windy paths filled with trees and cute little duck ponds everywhere.  It is just like walking through Jurassic Park- haha!  I'm a little worried about how Aussie classes are going to differ from home, but I figured I'll just roll with it. :)

Almost forgot: this weekend, I got to go on a trip to Merry Beach (which is about three hours south of Wollongong on the coast) with my program group (CIEE).  The first day we got there, we got to go on a bushwalk with the "real" Crocodile Dundee.  He was seriously like an older version of the guy from the movie- it was so funny.  He took us all along the coast surrounding Merry Beach and a little bit into the "bush."  During the walk, I got to see my first wild kangaroo!!  It was so exciting!  They are so cute and every time they hop, it makes you want to say "boing, boing, boing..."- its hilarious.  Then, after going to dinner at a little restaurant down the road from our resort, we came back to find at least 50 kangaroos hopping around the cabins!  I was actually kind of scared of them at first just because they are not afraid of people at all.  They don't hop away when you walk towards them and eventually, they let you pet them!!

The next day of our trip, we went on a hike up Mount Gulaga, which is another 2 hours south of Merry Beach.  The hike was really difficult and I was literally sweating through my shirt by the time we got to the top (very humid!) but the views from the top were worth it!  We were led by an aboriginal woman at the top to the sacred aboriginal lands.  Before we could go into the area, she painted our faces to remind us to use our "third eye" and listen to the forests.  The sacred lands were so beautiful- they had all of these really beautiful rock formations that were huge!  It was a really cool experience.  Then, after the hike, we went back to Merry Beach to have dinner and play with the kangaroos. :)

Well, that's all for now!  I better do something with my life now!!!  Until next time,

Caitlin