UQ's O-Week 2008

g'day mates! time passed by so fast that it has already been a week since i left singapore. pretty much settled down into the aussie lifestyle.

this week was o-week, orientation week, for the international students who came from all over the world to study and make friends in UQ. some statistics on where we, the international students, came from: leading the chart is china, second is united states, third will be malaysia and singapore lies fourth on the list with one hundred and ninety six. we also have representatives from afghanistan, argentina, kuwait, russia, african nations, germany, finland, norway, united kingdom, trinidad & tobago, japan, korea, cambodia, etc. too many countries to list out but there are about two thousand of us, undergrads and postgrads. i think it is going to be exciting yet challenging to go out and take the initiative to say "hi, i'm daniel and i'm from singapore. how about you?". don't you think so?

o-week is all about attending the various talks by the university's admin office, the student services department, the faculty and also talks on study skills such as plagiarism, note-taking, referencing, etc. i find the study-skills talks informative as i am not taught much on note-taking and referencing in singapore. come to think of it, i think it is going to be an uphill task to study four different courses for one semester when i have not touched any books for the past two years. o yes, during o-week, there were also free thirst quenching drinks given out too. weather has been pretty hot the last couple of days with temperatures rising to a high of thirty-six degree celsius today. there was also 'market day' where the various clubs and societies set-up booths and pull new students into their club or society. first time seeing the campus being so crowded, especially in the Great Court.

i must admit i have not made any friends during this o-week. it is quite difficult as you are unsure who will be your lecture and tutorial mates. moreover i do not live in any of the uni's hostels. so it is quite sad and lonely to walk from one building to another a-l-o-n-e and seeing different groups of students chatting away. luckily for me, i have a trio of secondary school mates who are also studying in the same campus with me, though studying different degrees. o well, lets just hope that i will make more international friends when lessons officially start on monday.

yesterday was the first time i walked around the city and i did it alone. took a bus down and the journey was about fifteen minutes. initially, i was lost but managed to get my bearings after i circled the place. the shopping belt is along queen street. compare to singapore, the shopping scene here is not as big. however, i think it is good enough for me since i do not shop much unless there are great sales, like those in their factory outlets. below are photos of the Brisbane Museum and Conrad Treasury Casino which i passed by:

Brisbane Museum

Conrad Treasury Casino

have been living the life of a pig lately, eating and sleeping a lot with no exercise except for my daily hundred push-ups. o well, my ankle has not fully recovered, still giving me pains. asked ranger to drive me around the estate to scout for running routes and hoping to do one hilly five km route which seems to be a never ending bending road.

my apologies but i will post photos of UQ soon, so do keep a lookout. see ya!