July 13 - Nomaste

James and I joined some others in the East building for some tv and then began playing Scrabble. Now this should have been an easy feat. The first time we played it was just for fun since James is Italian and was only doing 3 or 4 letter words. The second time we played for points and he had a triple word that just damaged me in the end and he won by 20 points. I was shamed! So I decided it was time to head back to bed at 3am.

I woke up at 7:30 to the sound of what sounded like a distant fire alarm. Then sirens. Putting two and two together with what I have been told are seriously tempermental fire alarms, turns out the alarm was in the East building. I put on my shoes and a sweater and went outside to check the scene. No fire, just a false alarm to which someone will be receiving a $1,800 fine! Seriously! I took a picture of the trucks, but it didn’t turn out all that well.

I decided to go ahead and get dressed for the day and walk on in to campus allowing time to get lost. Fortunately, I did not get lost. I took a somewhat roundabout way to get to the building where I needed to go, but I made it nonetheless. Day one’s orientation consisted of an Indigenous Welcome, Essential information, Lunch (from Ping’s Moat Café), a skip of the Campus Capers to hit the library to email, a group photo (address on where to find it will come later), and the shopping bus to Kmart and Coles grocery.

After returning to campus with my purchases, I schlepped across campus and back up to the house. That was a rough walk with 5 bags and a pillow! I made it and made my room a tad more homey and was able to hang my clothes. With my groceries, I made myself a sandwich for dinner and watched my first Bollywood movie with a couple floormates. Then Mark made some great pasta and offered me a bowl. It was some good stuff! Some of the floor people hung out for a bit and then my poor little eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer. At 10:30 it was lights out.