Student Bloggers

My first night in my dorm, a Friday night, I met one of my suite-mates and she asked me where I was from. I told her New York City, and she asked how long I traveled to get here. I told her honestly, "over 30 hours", and she remarked upon how exhausted I must be. I told her truthfully that I could fall asleep at any moment. I could see the pity in her eyes as our conversation progressed, with me getting more and more frantic about figuring out how to be a functioning student in Australia. Our casual conversation quickly escalated to me inundating her with a barrage of questions that must have seemed ridiculous. As the words "how does laundry here work?" flowed out of my mouth, I realized just how far behind the curve I felt. Yes, of course behind on hours of sleep, but even more practically than that how far behind I was in terms of living casually in the state of New South Wales.

Looking around, it feels like everyone else knows where they're going, what they're doing, how to unlock a shopping cart at Aldi (a cheap grocery store chain down here)- and I'm just sort of sprinting to keep them in sight. Sure, there are students in the dorms who attend the Uni for their degree, so it makes sense that they’d have a leg up, but even the other Americans in my program seem to know what’s going on. They’ve formed cliques and friendships, they have plans to go out on our first weekend at Uni, and they know where they want to visit during their time in Australia. I’m going to all the same welcome barbecues and chatting up the same strangers, but somehow I can’t manage to seal the deal. People keep giving me advice on where to go, what to do, and how to do it cheap, but for all the lists on my phone and scrawled on various pieces of paper around my room I still can’t figure everything out.

Even as I type I can hear music blasting from another apartment in my building; other students making friends and mingling. Maybe once I’ve sent this in I’ll go and try to join in. But first I have to finish off my growing to-do list:

• Get Tax File Number
• Fix resume/apply for jobs
• Finish blog posts
• Set up bank account
• Figure out online banking
• Set up OPAL card
• Research transit to nearby national parks
• Figure out local museums/spots to visit
• Reach out to clubs I wanna join
• Put events in calendar
• Sign up for flight deals
• Sign up for Arcadia/Uni excursions
• Get SIM card for phone
• Put events in calendar
• Change class schedule

All this, and I haven’t even gone into downtown Sydney to see the city. Haven’t looked at the reading list one of my professors has already provided. Haven’t even really gotten familiar with my campus yet. The one thing I’m right on schedule with is unpacking; I’ve unpacked pretty much my entire room, except for a couple of flags still yet to be hung. And I think that as long as it feels like I’ve got a home to come back to (even if it is a frozen tundra because our suite doesn’t have heating) I’ll be able to get the rest done in due time. The question is: how much time is due?