First Week in Townsville

Well, for starters, i think i should write about why i have this blog and what i'm going to write about here.

Firstly, why. I'm writing primarily to keep those who want to know how i'm going informed. It's so sweet how concerned (or interested) all of you are about me here and what i'm up to. As opposed to me repeating the same stories to individual people, i thought it'd be nice to keep everyone informed here. =)

I also hope to use this as a kind of "public" journal for myself. So that i can see my own journey through this college and university experience. It is said to be a blessing to be able to stay on campus and really experience the university life - and be able to really minister and bless people through my actions and words.

Secondly, what i'm going to write about is basically a log of my life here. What i've been doing, interesting stuff, photos and such. Some things may be downright boring (>.<) and i admire any who actually keep up with what i write. But i'll write it anyway because it would probably be a good thing. =)

So here we go, my first post for who knows how long (let's hope i keep up with this! I'm so lazy and my attention span is so short when it comes to blogs...especially when i press backspace my mistake and everything i write disappears just like that =.=). Anyway, i'm ranting.

Well...

Can you believe it? It's been almost, exactly one week since i've moved from Sydney to Townsville. One week of boiling hot weather and absolute humidity. It's basically like Singapore except a bit worse because the sun is really heavily shining up here.

I think that's the worst thing - the weather. The weather and the loud noises that have occurred sometimes when one is trying to have a peaceful night.

So, what have i actually done these past few days?

The first days involved shopping with my mum for moving into uni. That was pretty hectic as you don't realise how MUCH you need until you move in and go...oh crap...i totally forgot about blahblahblah. And the walls of my room are so WHITE...in fact, everything is so white (thus i dub it the mental assylum room) so i was compelling to fully decorate it. That in itself costed almost $50 to make the room homey. Throw rugs on the floor of red and brown colour, 4 posters (puppies, Happy Feet, HSM2 and HSM3) and a little canvas nature piece. Oh, i also got a plant which i should really repot into a bigger pot soon (need to also buy fertiliser for the poor baby on the weekend).

Now that i've made it homey, the room is rather nice. It's got everything one would really need and it's an escape from uni life for me. At least it's mostly quiet and no one really disturbs me =).

O-week has involved venturing around with Jono to various events (Market Day, Seminars, Movie Night) and just checking out the different clubs and what uni life is all about. I've done more walking than usual and now, my feet are absolutely dying from wearing my thongs everyday. Here, it is the norm to wear shorts, thongs and a top as it is always hot. I have also gotten so tanned, i look like a beach or tribal person.

The uni is lovely and i couldn't ask for a better campus to go to. Walking through the Student Mall to the Med School is like doing a nature walk through a lush rainforest. You cross the bridge above a running creek and through some dirt paths which pass the tall trees and grassy patches, running into some Bush Turkey on the way. There's the calls of birds and even a Kookaburra hoping on chair at the Rococo Cafe in the middle of campus.

If you stand, watching the sight of the uni with the towering, green mountains in the background for a little too long, you may even get stung by mosquitoes or a mega wasp.

Making friends itself has been really exciting. I've made a few friends in my college - a lovely girl from Cairns who is doing Biomedical Science and two girls doing med with me (one from Perth and one from Melbourne). I met a guy from Melbourne doing Vet Science and my neighbour is an American Student on a programme to do Environmental Sciences (she's really cool and i hung out with her in her room on the first day i came to college). She says that uni here is really different to in America.

I love my new med friends. It's really interesting how people seem to congregate in terms of cultural background. Currently, there's a group of us asians from different places - but nevertheless, we're all chinese. There's me and Jono from Sydney and then we have Linda who is my new, really good friend from Canberra (she's super nice and really funny), Amy from a country town who was like "it's just a Cane Toad" when i yelled in excitement when i saw my first ever Cane Toad, Vince from Toronto, Canada who told us the funniest stories about his driving around on the "wrong side of the road" and who shares the same birthday with me (go us!!) and Andrew, also from Toronto Canada.

There are a fair few really nice Indian girls who also congregate in their own circle, and then there's the caucasians who also generally congregate in different circles.

But we're all excited to do med together...we know that it's going to be a lot of hard work and the Eddie Mabo Library (that's the name of our uni Library) will definitely be our second home, but nevertheless, it's gonna be a lot of fun as well.

College life itself is kind of like in the movies, in a way. You get your small, individual rooms (or mental assylums) which are cleaned once a week by the lovely (and i mean, really lovely) cleaning ladies. You have a common room complete with couches, ironing board, TV with Austar (or Foxtel) and a backgammon board. There are communual toilets which are quite okay and, for some reason, always free. They use the term "Fresher" for new students and actually bully them, depending on the College you stay in (yes, from being the king in highschool, we're now the little kids again. Ahhh, the heirarchies in life).

I was standing in line, waiting to go to the toilets in the Library and i overheard a girl saying that the initiation process in one of the colleges involved the seniors banging into their rooms at 3 in the morning (the RAs have the master key, you see) and making all of them jog around campus, waking all the other colleges up by screaming really loudly. They then got them to stand at the college building, with their backs to the wall to take a picture. Instead of having a picture taken, there were seniors in the top level of the building who poured buckets of stale milk, anchovies and other disgusting things onto the Fresher's heads. The smell, according to this girl, was absolutely vile and made them all want to puke. So they all wanted to go to have a shower but someone had locked all the showers and they had to get a skinny guy to climb under every shower door to unlock them.

How vile and heartless >.<

So, as you can imagine, there is a fair amount of people getting drunk on campus.

What has been really comforting is hanging out with the Christian Union people tonight. We played some getting to know you games and listened to stuff that's happening this year. It was really awesome meeting brothers and sisters in Christ from...EVERYWHERE! Especially listening to the older med students. =)

As i was writing, we just had a FIREDRILL at this time. 11:40pm...who'd have thought it was the "ideal" time for a firedrill...how evil.

It's...interesting too. Doing stuff when you want to. Organising things on your own accord and time. But yeah...

I miss Sydney. I miss the cool weather. I miss my own bed and own room. I miss my family. I miss my dog. I miss my friends and the holidays. I miss hanging out on Sundays and feeling...at home.

But it's been an *adventure*, i guess. And we'll see where this goes. I already know God put me here for a reason. There are so many opportunities to help people and tell them about His love for them. I'm so excited and motivated by this. God is just so amazing and i can really see Him in action.

So it's a blessing. Whatever you do, if it brings you closer to God...it's a blessing.

Well, so i guess this ends my MEGAlong essay of a post. I have been spending my nights on msn, just catching up. It's been really good. I hope i can continue to stay on contact with all my lovely, loved friends in Sydney.

I'll continue taking cool pics of my uni and Townsville surroundings (need to do the touristy thing soon with my med friends).

Oh, and what has been especially handy is that i'm going through A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Yes, >.< i haven't read it yet. But it's been so good reading it. I've also been continuing my bible readings of John. I really feel God's presence with me, guiding me every step of the way and opening my eyes to just how BIG the world is and, more importantly, how BIG He is. Getting to know Him and His heartbeat better is something i'm EXTREMELY looking forward to.

So God bless. I'll post sometime soon...maybe next week on Saturday after first week of lectures!

<3