Sydney Trop Fest/Orientation/Pub Crawl/Kayaking Trip

Sorry I haven't written in a while, I have been so busy!! I haven't had any down time the past few days!! On Sunday, we took a train into Sydney and went to the Trop music festival. It is the smallest short film festival in the world! There were about 70,000 people in the garden and we watched 16 short films (really similar to the grammy awards in the United States). We got to walk around Sydney and have dinner and hang out with other UOW students. We rode the train back to Wollongong and we didn't get home until like 130 am. Monday morning, we had orientation at the University where we finished enrolling in classes and tutorials, got our student id's, and took a campus tour. It was a great day and a really good way to meet new people!! After orientation, we went to a campus pub crawl and checked out all the local bars in Wollongong. It was a really fun night and I met lots of new friends!! Today, we woke up early to go on a kayaking trip with our IFSA-Butler group and had a BBQ lunch in the afternoon. My arms and abs are SOOO sore...kayaking is harder than it looks!! After our trip, our adviser Michelle dropped Kayla and I off in Wollongong to run some errands. I got lots of last minute things I needed, exchanged money, and went to the pharmacy. My goal was to buy a fan for my room because it is like 150 degrees in here, but apparently it is the end of the "summer season" and everyone is out of fans. I have looked EVERYWHERE!! I am living in the hottest country in the world and it is blazing hot and no one seems to have a fan!! It is so frustrating!! It is really hard to sleep at night because my room is very humid and muggy!! I met Jeanette today, who is the manager of the kitchen in my dorm and she is taking me shopping tomorrow so that I can pick out all of the gluten-free food I want to have at school. It is really great to have such support so far from home! It feels really good to know that I can be here and enjoy myself and not have to constantly worry about being sick!! Classes don't actually start until next Monday, March 1st. This week is called O-week and it is full of fun activities and events to help everyone meet and mingle!! Everything is going great so far and I'm having a lot of fun!! Miss everyone like crazy!!