O-Week at UTAS

 Tanner and I have almost made it through our first two weeks in Tasmania and we have completed O week (orientation week or week 0). It has been a super busy couple of weeks and it’s been a blast!

Day 1: Arriving in Hobart

Tanner and I spent our Valentines Day on a Jetstar plane traveling to our home for the semester! It was soooo romantic… actually I don’t think either of us really realized what day it was until we were settled at the University of Tasmania. Chris and his dad dropped us off at the Brisbane airport. It was sad to see them go and know we had to leave. We figured out how to check in our bags. We had some minor struggles trying to figure out that process.... the guy at the desk thought I was a dummy, but that's ok what else is new?!?!  Then went through security (which is different then the US). It was going somewhat smoothly until we got to our gate and found out our carry-on bags were too big for Jetstar standards. It ended up working out fine, but we had to check the bags in at our gate and it cost us 50 Australian dollars each to get our bags on the plane. 

When we landed in Hobart we found the man from the University of Tasmania that was taking us to our accommodation right away. It was so much less stressful than trying to figure out how to get to our hotel in Sydney. We waited for our luggage … one of my pieces of luggage was the last thing to come out. Someone walked it out a few minutes after everything else came out. I got it, so that’s all that mattered. It was rainy and cloudy when we first got to Tasmania, but it was still amazing! When we got to our accommodation we checked in and they showed us where our rooms were and took us on a quick tour of the facilities. Tanner and I live down the hall from each other in Christ College. It is dorm, but they call it a college here. I’ll refer to where I am living as my college just so everyone is warned. Uni or University is what Australians call the actual school. After getting settled in we went to find food because our dining center was closed by the time we were ready to eat. We ended up at a really good Asian restaurant! The walk back to our rooms is when we truly realized we were not in Iowa/Illinois anymore. We live on a huge hill and not the Midwest kind! We are also surrounded by lots of hills/mountains. We actually live by the highest point in Tasmania, Mount Wellington. It is beautiful here!

Tanner in front of Christ College... our new home!

Day 2: Sunday

We decided to walk around campus and find a Telstra store to set up our Aussie phones. We walked about 40 minutes to the nearest Telstra only to find out it was closed on Sundays. Oops! I was still an awesome walk and we got to see more of Hobart. We walked down by the water for a little bit and saw where the famous Salamanca Markets are held. Then we headed back to campus. The Midwest so did not prepare us for Tasmania…  I sweat a ton every time I have to climb the hill to go back to my room. The elevation difference gets to me too… don’t have to worry about that at home. My leg muscles are going to be in prime shape when I am back! When we got back we ate at Pepperz our dining center. My first meal was some vegetarian lasagna and it was actually delicious! Later that day we meet with our college and our O-week leaders. 

In front of my beautiful campus

The Orientation Expo... also the middle of campus. It's so pretty here! 

We had some Tasmanian pizza with our college, which was pretty similar to the pizza ISU provides at activities. We couldn’t eat that much though because we had already planned on having dinner with Tanner’s Aunt and Uncle!!! J He found out after we had picked UTAS or the University of Tasmania to study at that some of his relatives were also going to be in Tasmania on a vacation. Such a coincidence, but it was awesome to get to meet them. We had a really nice dinner with them. Tanner even tried octopus…. Ewww! He enjoyed it though.  When we walked back to our college there was a wallaby and her joey right by our building.  Wallabies are frequent guests by our college. It’s beyond awesome!

Day 3: Monday

We tried to go to Telstra to set up our phones again.   This time it was open, but apparently it only dealt with businesses. A person who worked at Telstra told us where the regular store was located. She made it sound super close so we started walking towards it. After another 15/20 minutes of walking we decided it was a lot further than the lady made it sound. Since we needed to get back to campus for orientation we decided to just forget about Telstra again. Once we made it back to campus we went straight to the orientation expo. There were some organizations there and music. There was also a free BBQ with some veggie patty things and sausages. Instead of buns the food was served on just regular white bread, which was new to us! Before we left for Telstra Tanner locked himself out of his room, so after we walked around a little and ate we went to accommodation services. Our room keys here are just white cards (like hotel rooms), so they blend into the white desk and dressers in our rooms really well. They helped him get back into his with no problems! Then we made our way back down to campus to go to the International Student orientation. It was two hours long, held in a very warm room, and there was a lot of information being thrown at us, so it was very overwhelming and not that exciting. I was happy when the study abroad/exchange students got to leave and go to a separate orientation. This orientation session had a completely different feel to it. It was much more relaxed and we talked more about clubs, traveling, and exploring Tasmania then anything else!

 

Later that night we met Tanner’s Aunt and Uncle for dinner again. This time we ate at a café in Salamanca. It was an awesome ending to a stressful day. Tanner’s uncle surprised Tanner with a Telstra card and helped him set up his phone. He also explained to him how to set up his phone plan, so I had a much happier boyfriend! After dinner we had to say goodbye to Tanner’s family because they were leaving Tassie and were on to new adventures. His family was absolutely wonderful and I am glad I got to meet them. It was so much fun having dinner with them. I have been so blessed to meet such kind and loving people on this trip! I hope they are having a blast in New Zealand and on the mainland of Australia. J

Day 4: Tuesday

Tuesday is when the O-week fun began! We woke up early to go get our ID cards. Now it’s really official… we are UTAS students!!!. Then we headed back to our college. We decided to join our college for a “special activity”, which ended up being a dance. Tanner and I got our teams (red and blue respectively) and had to pick a fresher sign to wear all week. Yes, we are called freshers here! Personally I feel like I’ve worked too hard to be called the equivalent of a freshman again, especially since I am the same age or older than half of the leaders. J I guess I am a freshie here though, so it’s ok!

Quick fun fact: Here they don’t have freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classifications. It is just 1^st year, 2^nd year, etc.

There weren’t many signs left because we missed college activities the first day. I was some kind of duck, goose, thing (maybe the ugly duckling?) aka bad drawing. Tanner rocked a guitar all week! Then we split into our groups and learned our fresher dance. We had to repeat it 3 or 4 times for practice and then watch each of the 4 teams do it. I didn’t know the song before that day, but now I do…

My team took the win for the dance competition… Go BLUE TEAM! Tanner took an individual win though. He had the best guitar solo during the dance. So proud to be his girlfriend J

Then we hopped onto a bus to go to the beach to have BBQ with our college. The only problem was in was rainy and kinda chilly, so it wasn’t much of a beach day. It was still fun though.  We had another BBQ with white bread. This time I got a hamburger, which tasted like a meatloaf patty! Also there was a salad with tomato, lettuce, red pepper, and cucumber. I learned that you are suppose to put it on top of your hamburger here… who knew!?!?

A group called the Red Frogs was there. They help student’s transition to Uni, and help students who are in need of extra assistance while they are away at school. They also bring a candy around called Red Frogs! They are basically Swedish Fish in the shape of a frog.

Quick Fun Fact #2: In Sweden they don’t call their red fish candy Swedish Fish. I talked to a guy from Sweden at the BBQ and he didn’t know we called them that.

We ended the night with the Intercollege party! We went to John Fischer College, which is right by Christ College. They had a bar in the bottom of their college. Yea don’t think that would go over well at an ISU dorm. It was a pretty good time and it was fun to hang out with people from our college and other colleges. Also it has taken me 2.5 years, but I have officially gone to my first college party!

Day 5: Wednesday

Later in the day we went to Port Arthur, which was where they held convicts a long time ago. Before we went in we played games with our teams and one of the leaders showed us how to kick an Aussie football. Their football is rounder and harder than ours. Tanner was a natural of course. He made it look easy. I am absolutely awful… I did my best, but just couldn’t get the hang of it. Then we tossed a rugby ball around (not a game or anything). I did a little bit better with that… at least I didn’t embarrass myself quite as much. When it got dark we entered Port Arthur for our Ghost Tour. If you know me you know I HATE anything scary… but I want to take every opportunity while I’m abroad, so went for it. I jumped a lot and probably cut off circulation in Tanner’s hand! I made it though and it was actually pretty cool hearing some of the history of the place. I would love to go back during the day so I could see all the old building in the light.

Day 6: Thursday

Thursday we found where all of our classes were because we actually have to go to school while we are here. It’s been the longest winter break ever… my head is confused! J We also both got to talk to our family, which is always awesome! Then that night we went to the Unibar. Our university has bar on campus (connected to the union)! Our college rented it out, so we could hang out there.

Another thing that wouldn’t happen at ISU or their orientation week!

Day 7: Friday

Tanner and I signed up to go on a red decker bus tour with a group called Uni Friends. It is a group they have at UTAS for international students.  As we drove around the city they would point different landmarks and buildings. Our first stop was at a lookout. It was beautiful! Next we went to Hobart’s Royal Botanical Gardens, which was probably my favorite part of the day. The flowers were gorgeous and it was very peaceful inside the gardens. We ended the day at MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art.  It was probably the oddest art museum I’ve ever been too.

The Tasman Bridge 

Botanical Gardens

Tanner enjoying the air conditioning in the subarctic house at the gardens!

Inside MONA

Views from outside of MONA... They were amazing! 

Day 8: Saturday

Our first adventure of the day was exploring Hobart’s famous Salamanca Markets. We walked down to the markets with our college and spent the next two hours looking at all the different booths.  I got some Tassie honey to try and had an awesome sandwich and glass of apple/currant juice (currants are big down here). They hold the markets every Saturday, so I’m sure I will be back! 

Salamanca Markets

We went back to our college to relax for a little bit and then went to our last BBQ of the week. More meatloaf patties (or hamburgers) and sausages J Then we went to get ready for the boat party, which was held near the water. Unfortunately, it was not on a boat, like the name suggests. It was a great place to meet people from our college. At point during the night I was talking to a group of girls from Christ College and we realized not one person in our little circle was from the same country! Another time I noticed in a group of 13 ish people talking to each other there were 7 different countries represented. Super cool! I can now say I’ve meet at least one person from China, Germany, Austria South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Sweden, and of course Australia.  J

Day 9: Sunday

Tanner and I ended our first week by going to the beach, since it was a super hot and sunny day. Of course after we walked about 40 minutes to get there it started to rain. The rain didn’t stay around too long though and the sun tried to come back out too. The water is much colder than on the mainland though, but the beach had some awesome views so it didn’t matter.

Can't say I miss the cold or the snow!

 

Two minutes after I took a pic of this cute little duckling I watched it get eaten by a huge seagull! It was horrific! Two seagulls started tearing it apart. It even made Tanner feel bad. I guess it's the circle of life.... 

I have officially survived our first week of classes too! Now the whole study in study abroad comes in. Bummer ;) Actually our classes seem really interesting and our professors seem awesome, as well. We are in Protecting Antarctica, Plant Ecology and Tasmanian Fauna and we have a 3-day weekend! What’s not to love?!?!

Hobart and UTAS have been amazing so far. Thank you to all the O-Week leaders that made the first week so fantastic... I'll definitely have memories forever! I can’t wait to have more adventures in this beautiful place!!! I miss everyone back home tons! Hope you guys are staying warm… I’ll try to send warm weather your way. <3

Love Always,

Bobbi

PS Sorry for the epically long post. If you've gotten this far you're the best! <3

PSS Thanks for reading 5P... Have an awesome day. Learn lots!