Marvelous City
I woke up this morning with a strange feeling. Since I arrived late yesterday night, I had not met any people here. So, I was a little bit nervous about the upcoming orientation session and meeting the different people that would be there. However, that would soon change as I was lucky enough to catch a group of people leaving my building and walking over together to the university. I quickly met a bunch of people I shared similar interest with, which made that nervous feeling disappear. The walk over to the university was a very pleasant one, as the weather could not have been any better!
When we started to approach the building where the orientation session was taking place, my newly founded friends and I met a very nice Aussie who asked us if we were students at the university. We told him that we were students here over the summer and that we were looking for the building where our orientation was taking place. He then told us that he could help us finding it, and we said sure, since we were really lost at that time. It was not very clear who this nice fellow was, but he truly kept his promise and showed us the way to the correct building.
Thankfully, we arrived at the auditorium and sat down to listen to the speaker. After the formalities were done, the speaker introduced something called the “surf-camp weekend”. All of the sudden, the Aussie we met on the street earlier came in and introduced himself as Mitch and the owner of this highly interesting experience. It was so unexpected to see him show up all of the sudden, and he made such an absolutely hilarious presentation about his surf-camp, which made me want to sign up right there and then. I cannot wait to learn how to surf!
When the presentation was over, the groups then proceeded to walk to another spot on campus where an aboriginal looking man was awaiting us. He sat there with a baseball bat looking thing called a digido (turned out to be a musical instrument). He then proceeded to tell us the about significance of the digido and the history behind it. He demonstrated several different animal calls, which was very interesting. He then proceeded to show the audience a sort of “bowl”, which included something that resembled chalk. This “chalk” was later proven to be the material of a ceremony face paint. The significance behind the material was to represent man’s appreciation to mother earth and all the animals. He then asked if there were any volunteers who wanted to have their faces painted. First, there were not many who volunteered. However, let’s just say that the guy was pretty persuasive. So, after some convincing, a couple of people had their faces painted in a ceremonial way.
After this marvelous presentation was over, the man showed the way for us to paint our own boomerangs. Believe me, it is not as easy as you may think (which is proven by the picture. I am not sure what I was trying to do with the red and yellow). The painting session was a very nice activity as the weather was still absolutely incredible. I still cannot believe that the Aussie’s call this fall (or autumn as it is called here…)!
We then went on with exploring the university’s beautiful campus filled with an incredible mix of modern and old architecture, as well as beautiful vegetation. It was truly different from what I am used to at Northeastern. Typically, there is an overall common architectural design at Northeastern. However, here at Sydney, the campus is very much mixed between historic and modern buildings.
The ending of the campus tour concluded the orientation session, so I decided to accompany a friend to explore more of Sydney for ourselves. Later on during the day, we went down to the Darlington Harbor, and it was totally amazing. We explored the neighboring areas and walked around the different wharfs. The harbor was almost completely covered in vivid lights, which covered not only the boats, but also all the different neighboring buildings and skyscrapers. It was simply an amazing sight. Additionally, there was a cool fountain show in the middle of the harbor. The water changed from several different colors, and also adapting to different patterns. This was truly an amazing evening walk.
The first full day here in Sydney has been very pleasant and welcoming. From my experience so far, everyone greets you with a sincere smile and a warming hello. My first day has been great, and I cannot wait to continue to explore this marvelous city.
