Kaitlin Goes to Orientation

First of all this blog post is going to be a long one, my apologies.  Secondly, orientation was amazing.  I met so many people and made myself some new friends! I now kind of understand this campus and might be able to make it to my classes without getting lost.  For those of you who don't know much about UTS it is right in the heart of Sydney, a block from central station.  There are about 30,000 students, 5,000 of which are undergraduate engineering majors such as myself.  The uni is also only 26 years old so everything is very modern.  Basically think the exact opposite of Clarkson in every way possible.

UTS actually stands for Ugliest Tower in Sydney

The new engineering building at UTS where I get to have classes!

Orientation has been a whirlwind of fun the past couple of days! Part of my orientation has been just for international students like so we can learn how to live like a local in Sydney.  The other part of my orientation has been for all new students, including freshman.  So essentially, I'm reliving frosh orientation again.  Seeing as I skipped most of mine at Clarkson it hasn't been too repetitive. It also comes with lots of free stuff and everyone presenting in an Australian accent so there isn't much not to like. Here's a small day to day rundown:

Day 1: How to Survive at Uni
This started out with a wonderful presentation by a professor from UCLA about how the consumption of alcohol at about 2.5 drinks a day can actually boost your grades.  It was stated that an original study took place in Cali and they were looking to expand their research internationally so they came to us to offer students the chance to drink every single day and track their grades.  Of course all the Europeans and Americans jumped at the offer.  The UCLA professor then ripped off his suit, mustache, wig, and stopped with the American accent to reveal that he was not a professor and no such study existed.  He was there to give us the basic "Now that you're on your own at college drink responsibly, don't do drugs, ask for help, blah blah blah speech"  He was hilarious throughout the entire thing and it was way better than any such talk ever given at Clarkson.

Day 2: How to be Professional
The professional atmosphere in Australia is much more relaxed than in America.  Professionals joke around in the workplace and there isn't as much a sense of hierarchy in the office. Aussies work to live instead of living to work.  (Also random culture fact: in China engineers aren't well regarded, instead it is business and marketing professions that are highly regarded) Ninety percent of jobs in Australia aren't advertised publicly so networking here is a big deal.  Also, resumes here are expected to be more than one page so that you can really show your perspective employer what your skills are.  People who have had lots of experience in different fields would probably have a resume about 5 pages long and that would be acceptable. So after I've spent all this time making my resume as short as possible I'm going to have to lengthen it while I'm here if I hope to find a part time job. Awesome...

Day 3: Speed Friending and Alcohol
One of the points of orientation is for you to meet as many new people as possible. So speed friending is where you put a bunch of people in a room and everyone has about a minute to talk to each person so you can make lots of new friends.  This is how I've met some of my new friends. So far I'm closest with 3 international students who are actually working on their masters while they here.  Arjun is from India, Humberto is from Mexico, and Julia is from Germany. I've met people from basically everywhere (Burma, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Brazil, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Spain, Ireland, Russia, the States, etc.).  Thank god the world cup just happened or the only small talk we would have is the weather. Oh yeah, I've met a couple people from Sydney too.  Interesting fact about Sydney is that 40% of the population is not native to Australia.  So as an international student, I'm not really that special.  A couple of people have called me out on being American by my accent though.

Day 3 also included an international students cocktail party which marked the beginning of my life of legally drinking! Everyone got 3 glasses of alcohol and it was great to see the different levels of drunkeness.  The students who never drank at home were drunk after one and the Europeans were trying to find ways to get more after they finished their 3 in a half hour.


Day 4 and 5: Is it the weekend yet?
Today and yesterday weren't really fun but everyone is getting excited for the weekend.  There are all sorts of parties happening for students this weekend and everyone is really excited to experience the night life of Sydney.  I don't know what my evenings have in store for me yet, but I'm hoping to do some more sightseeing around the area this weekend and maybe figure out how the train system works. I really want to see the ocean as soon as I can, I don't even care if its cold.

Oh yeah, you also may have noticed I changed my name on facebook to Kaitlin.  The whole Keighty thing is way too complicated to explain to so many people who speak English as their second language.  And with all the different accents people have Kaitlin actually sounds cool!