First week of uni!

School's back in session!

Man, after a year off it feels so weird to say that.

In true Jamie fashion it was an interesting start to the semester. There was no tutorial or practicals the first week so my first class wasn't until Tuesday.  There was an unbelievable amount of traffic on campus that morning and I got there a tad late.  Pause.  Before I go any further, let me vent about something that urked me last time I studied here...and it still urks me.  The way they have most of their lecture halls set up just doesn't make sense.  When you sit down and pull the desk part up, it blocks the entire path so you no one can get by.  Some idiots sit on the end, pull their desk up and make the middle empty seats inaccessible.  Okay, resume story.  So I walk into the classroom, after the professor has started the lecture, and look for a seat.  This class is filled with those people I just talked about, the ones who make poor seating choices.  There is a path along the back row and a few open seats in the middle of that, so I make the executive decision to try and climb over the back instead of making everyone stand up and make a scene.  Except, being Jamie, I made a scene anyways.  I tried to gracefully climb over the back but ended up getting my foot stuck.  I did and awkward shuffle, lost my shoe, and drew attention to myself.  Mission failed.  I refused to make eye contact with anyone in that class, not until I changed my clothes at least.

That night I took the bus down to the Strand and met another one of my American friends, Kayley.   Kayley studied abroad with me last time I was here and decided to stay and finish her degree at JCU, so she's been here ever since.  So I met her for some cheap pizza on the beach and then we went downtown for some cheap drinks.  Australians are kind of weird in the sense that certain days are designated for things.  Tuesdays are cheap days.  A lot of restaurants and stores do cheap deals as well as bars downtown do $2 drinks.  Thursday is late shopping day, where everything is open until 9pm.   It's just odd to have designated days, country-wide, like that.  Anyway, Kayley and I went to town and met up with some of her friends and then later I met up with Chris, Lindsay, and Jordan.  We danced the night away at Mad Cow, a club on Flinders St.

Jordan, Lindsay, and Chris at Mad Cow

The next day I was off to school and embarrassing myself yet again.  My first class was pretty harmless.  I was late again (different class then yesterday) and made a slight scene when I battled some guys backpack in order to pull my chair out.  I could still make eye contact with people after that one though.  It was my later class that I was mortified about.  I got to class early and did what I wish everyone else would do, I sat in the middle of the row so that I wouldn't block people from getting seats.  People start filing in and were being super friendly, filling all the seats on both sides of me.  Asking my my name, what I do, etc.  I was thinking "gosh, these people are so nice.  I'm going to make a ton of friends in this class!".  Everyone seemed to be all chummy with each other and that's when I started to get concerned.  Whyyy does everyone know everyone?  The girl next to me whips out her notes and I thought I saw the word medicine out of the corner of my eye.  I quickly ask her what class this is and she tells me its a med school class....not where I want to be.  One more little tid-bit about the med students at JCU.  They all have the same schedule.  They take the same classes at the same time every semester with all the same people.  Once I realize I am in the wrong class (as do the people around me) the girl next to me shares that she though I was a guest with the teacher.  That's why everyone was trying to be so friendly with me, they were trying to suck up to the teacher!  Except now I had people on both sides of me with their desks out (in these stupid lecture rooms!) and I needed to make an exit.  Any other class I would have sucked it up and sat through the whole thing, but not this one.  Everyone in there knew I wasn't supposed to be there.  Everyone.  I tried to make a quick exit before class started but as I stood up and was making my neighbors lift their desks and stand, the teacher quieted the room down.  Nothing but the sound of my flip flops as I walked out the door.  Awesome.  hahaha.  What's even better is that I was in the right room, just an hour too early.  When I came back an hour later for my class I was sure to hide behind a pillar as their lecture let out.  Oi....

Luckily the next two days were painless.  No more embarrassment.  Phew.

That Thursday night Emily, Jordan, and I decided to go to uni club and get our dance on!