July 15 - City Slickers

Took it a bit easy waking up this morning. I didn’t have anything that I had to do until 11:30, so I made myself some brekkie, and took a leisurely stroll to the campus. I took a class on looking for work and living on a budget. They talked about how to get a work visa and where to find jobs. Then part two discussed where to find cheap deals and how to make sure you stay on your budget. It was a good class. After that it was another Chinese lunch, but it was free and I’m not going to complain! After lunch was a class on writing at the uni. It wasn’t all that helpful really. They discussed plagiarism and where to go get help if you are a non-native English speaker and need help with your grammar and vocab. I attended a quick post-graduate panel after that which was a complete waste of time, including the fact that the speaker was late and had nothing really to say. Her English was not all that good. I had already been by the Post-grad office and had a much more helpful and quick session with the guy who keeps the office running.

At 3:30 it was time to do the city tour and scavenger hunt. It was a good time. We took a tram and a train to get into the city just so we could see how the transportation systems worked. We got to the city and checked out the visitor’s center, local landmarks, walked over the river on a gorgeous footbridge with picturesque cityscapes on both sides. I hope my pictures turn out. After we completed the questions and picture hunt, we met up with everyone for dinner. Guess what? Chinese! And not just any Chinese, but Chinese fondue. It was pretty scary. Poor vegetarians on the journey were pretty stranded. I was able to figure out how to cook the beef and roll it in lettuce like bulgogi in Korea. Fortunately, that experience saved me from a sad stomach. I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat $15 worth, but whatever.

The whole group from there went to a place called Father Flanagan’s, which is on our tram stop and apparently a main hangout for the younger colleges since it offers some deal every night and the tram runs pretty frequently even at night from there. We had $2 happy hour for a while and a guy doing cover music who was good. We had a blast just having some drinks and dancing. After a stop at another close-by location, a group of us taxied back around 1:30am. I was pooped!