And i thought americans drank a lot. Australians drink like it's their job. But the odd thing about it is that they start drinking at around 5 o'clock and then everyone is dead tired at around midnight. So this past week has been O-Week. Which is essentially a huge party every day and every night. Monday was really just a bunch of meetings, but at the end of each meeting we were offered a free beer. And who is going to pass up a free beer when alcohol here costs about 5 times as much as it does in the states. Tuesday was when the party really started. There was free pizza at night and then they bused everyone over to this club called SinCity. There were like 3 huge buses full of people already drunk. It was ladies night, so we got in for free and all our drinks all night long were free. Mistake #1. Mistake #2 was taking advantage of all those free drinks. I went with my roommates, so we stuck together the whole night long. So we get to SinCity at around 9:30 and the bus will take us back at 2 in the morning. We stay at that club for a few hours, get a few drinks in us, probably around 4 or 5, and then we go outside, where this nice 40 year old german man gives me his coat because it's freezing outside. He then tells us he lives in the Village, which is where i live. What is a 40 year old german man doing in the village. That's what i want to know. We then go back into SinCity, have a few more drinks and leave. We walk around Surfers and go into another bar. Where we have a few more drinks. Bad things happen at this bar, which is why i'm going to remove it from my memory. Mistake #'s 3-6. We make our way back to where the bus is going to pick us up. And on our way home we are. I don't get to bed until close to 4 and i have to be up at 7:30 to go to Byron Bay for an orientation trip. Now because i've been heavily intoxicated the whole night long i now need to pee every 30 seconds. So that was not a restful 4 hours of sleep.

Byron Bay was beautiful. We stayed in a hostel right on the beach, which was also beautiful. Our first day there we went on a hike up to a lighthouse which is on the most eastern point of australia. It was super super nice there. Wednesday night we go out to this restaurant/bar cheeky monkey. It was interesting. The DJ was awful and the dancing was all on tables. Now i was still recovering from tuesday night, so my wednesday was not that bad.

Thursday morning we went sea kayaking. I was with a girl from germany of holland, i'm not exactly sure. She was dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. They put her in the back of the kayak because she was bigger than me. Mistake #1. We flipped over twice trying to ride the waves in because she had no idea what she was doing. During a little intermission we had Tim Tams. Best thing ever. They are like this biscuit/chocolate thing. Oh my word they were fabulous.

Thursday night we had this cookout at the hostel and we all pitched in 5 dollars for a punch. Now this punch was like no other punch. It was red and white wine, vodka, rum, pina colada, and only 3 liters of juice to this huge vat of alcohol. It got me drunk, and it got me drunk fast. We then head out to this bar called cocomangas. Now i'm already trashed, can't walk in a straight line and can hardly stand up. We get there, and we get a free drink. Luckily that's all i drank while i was there. We stayed there until around 1, which by then i had pretty much sobered up.

Friday we went surfing in the morning. The water was so warm it was wonderful. I was able to get up which was lovely. When we got back to the hostel everyone was just so tired it was hard to think. And then it started raining so we just hung out. By this time i'm just so sleep deprived i need some energy. I ate an entire pizza all by myself. Mistake. We leave Byron at like 4:30 and head back to campus. Friday night was very low key. Me, Meaghan, and our 5th roommate kate went to see a movie. Their movies are expensive. like 16 bucks without a student ID, or 13 with one. I passed out after the movie and slept like a rock.

It's been a very eventful week, perhaps a little too much drinking and debauchery, but all in all, very successful. Monday is the start of classes. That's just so upsetting. Fortunately my classes only run monday-wednesday. It's still hard to believe i'm in australia. Every now and then i'll have one of those "holy shit i'm in australia" moments. Once classes start and i have a routine it will begin to feel less like an extended vacation and more like i'm actually here to study.