God Bless America

Hello Hello!

It's been too long. Sorry for the lack of updates but it is Orientation Week at the university. Yes, I'm actually here for school. The university is pretty cool. It's a mixture of modern architecture and old world charm. Ash and I had to sit through a couple of information sessions and a welcome meeting for all international students. During this ceremony, the emcee would call out a country's name and everyone from that country was asked to stand. There were about 88 Canadians here. How many Americans do you think are here too? About 550.

Damn.

No offence to Americans, but we just don't like to be naturally lumped with you because of our lack of Australian accents. We like to be identified as Canadians.

Case in point: Ash and I signed up for this Students Abroad Club. It's this club that allows many international students to meet each other and hang out. The first event was this mix'n'mingle at a bar/pub called The Regatta. We've passed by the bar many times and always wanted to check it out. So here was the opportunity. When we got there, we had to fight the urge to kill ourselves. It was filled with Americans. You could point each and every one out of the crowd. The girls were so loud, shrill and obnoxious and they were hardly wearing clothes. The guys were in their ubiquitous button-down shirts, jeans and loafers/dress shoes. All they needed was a yacht club blazer. As I waited at the bar to get our drinks (which was chocolate milk for all of you who were wondering), American guys kept cutting in front of me. If it wasn't for this Australian guy who told the bartender that I was next, I would still be there. Ash and I really don't have anything against Americans. We've met some really nice ones throughout our lives. But these ones....it's a new breed of heathens.

I have never seen Ashleigh down her beer (i mean, milk) this quickly. We wanted to leave as soon as possible. The only thing was that it had begun to pour outside. It was either we remain in the bar, which we have aptly named South Dakota, or we get drenched while waiting for a cab.

It didn't take us too long to dry off.

Other than that, this week has been pretty easy-going. We're just not looking forward to actually starting to be useful somehow. I'll keep the updates coming and finish off the remaining two days of our Cairns trip.

Jess