So I’m not sure how exactly this is going to go and I think that each week might show up a little differently or I might even do them more daily depending on what is going on that week. But in this entry I am just going to talk about random things that happened over the week of Monday the 14th to Sunday the 20th. So what did we do this first week of school…
This week our classes finally began. I had a good first week of being here, but it definitely felt like vacation and vacation does get a little old for me after a while because I like to be doing stuff and staying super busy. My classes come in two forms, there is the big group lecture which every person taking the class attends and then there are small group tutorials throughout the week. The first week of classes was only the lectures. My first class was on Monday which was Great Narrative Literature lecture. Unfortunately I am now not taking that class because they cancelled the only tutorial that I could go to. I am believer that everything happens for a reason and while I was anxious at first, I am happy that I switched literature classes because I think I will like the one I am in now more. The second class I took was Cell Biology. This class has about 50 students in it! This is super big for me, as my biggest class at High Point was probably like 35. In cell bio we pretty much talked about class expectations and then began with chapter one. The classes here don’t do much actual work, but I have heard what they do, do, gets graded hard. So for example in this class, I have a small participation grade in the tutorial, only 4 labs with 2 lab reports, a mid-term and final. They don’t even have unit tests which blows my mind! On Wednesday I went to my Great Australian Writing class which is my new literature class. We basically read Australian works each week haha. In this class we only have a small participation grade, one paper, one small final, and we lead the reading discussion one week. My week is this Wednesday January 30th on the book My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin. It is okay, I don’t love it, but I can definitely tell it is truly Australian literature. On Thursday I went to Cultural and Ethical Values lecture. This is literally a huge class I am blown away about how unimportant I feel haha I doubt I will ever speak in that class. Basically he lectures about a philosopher each week. We have a small participation grade, a final, and a paper.
On top of classes we have been doing some other stuff as well, basically going to the beach and lots of hanging out. We have done little things throughout the week as well. For example we went to free yoga class at the town centre which was a lot of fun. She was a very good instructor and afterwards we got apples and very yummy banana bread. There was the activities fair which I signed up for a lot of things at. Most notably I signed up for the Student Philanthropy Club, which I am very excited for. They do a lot of work in the community. Like each week they volunteer at the retirement center, tutor middle schoolers, play soccer with homeless kids, etc. I have been going to the gym a lot because I have the time and have been enjoying the classes. My favorites so far are Zumba (the instructor is an extremely flamboyant gay man who is hilarious) and Fusion which is half yoga and half pilates, basically fast yoga. The regular yoga class is kinda slow for me and then the regular pilates instructor is kinda rude and yells a lot and I don’t respond well to threats…haha I tried step but it was way too fast and I was tripped all over my feet and couldn’t keep up and felt like an absolute idiot haha I would like to try more of the cardio classes as well.
In my spare time I also run over the mail center to check and see if I have mail. Which I have gotten a letter from Kimberly! Yay Kim, she is so on top of things! I have been meaning on writing back to her, but I haven’t gotten the chance quite yet, as I want to sit down and write post cards too. Speaking of which, if anyone would like to write to me or call me you are more than welcome to it’s:
Kaitlin Bonner
Campus Accommodation Office
14 University Dr
Robina, QLD, 4229
Australia
Cell Phone: +61 0406572539
Desk Phone: +61 0755954565
I need you guys to write to me and send me stuff because I have to physically ask for my mail by saying Bonner: B O N N E R and I look silly if I go in there all the time and there is never mail for me haha
On to another topic I really want to volunteer in the elementary schools here because you all know how much I love working at them at High Point. Like seriously I would go there every day! I did 50 hours in my kindergarten class in the fall. So there is day care right next to my dorm and I sent them an email because I would LOVE to get paid too. So if I could get an assistant job there that would be awesome, but they never emailed me back =[ oh well. But I emailed the director of the primary school at the varsity lakes school which is within walking distance and if I don’t hear back from them, I will contact Robina Primary school, which I can get to quickly on the bus and I will do something at one of those schools!!!
On to another topic we had a pub crawl that week on Friday the 18th! Like I’m not lying this university put on their own version of a pub crawl and you guys thought I was lying when I mentioned that these kids know how to party and how to drink. A girl even died last year on this event and the school is still putting it on! Like seriously! Basically it started out at Don’s where you could hang out from 3 until 4:45 when they picked us up in coach buses and took us to like 4 different clubs/pubs/taverns/I don’t know, around the local little cities like Broadbeach and Surfer’s Paradise. Even though I don’t really drink I still had a lot of fun. We got to Don’s at 4 and then I took the 11 pm bus home, after being at the last club for like two hours. Basically we all danced around and acted silly for hours.
Oh yea I forgot to mention it is so annoying, but I discovered from the first day that I literally have to put on sunscreen every day before I leave my room. It’s kinda frustrating, but I am used to it by now. I just put it on my arms/shoulders/chest/neck and then the tops of my feet if I’m not wearing my sneakers. Fortunately I have done really well at the beaches, pool, in general. Only one time during the past three weeks, I didn’t reapply enough because I didn’t know when I was leaving the beach on Wednesday and I got a little burnt on the back of my legs and my belly button. Ugh! It hurt and I learned my lesson again, that I have to load up on sunscreen ALL the time!
I don’t know what else I want to say right now (I accidently just typed write because I have been writing forever haha)because I feel like I have been typing for like ever! I will tell you about some of the events of this week a bit later, but I want to go shower and get a snack. Ta ta for now ❤
kaitlin 