Checking into Hogwarts.

This isn't exactly what I had pictured. It was worse. This place was dark, and cold, and smelled awful. There we stood, 33 of us with all of our baggage. Our instructions were to grab a pen, sign the "house rules", receive our keys to our rooms, and go to Classroom 1 where we would be given a brief rundown of what the day's and week's schedule consisted of.

This is Hogwarts. Seriously!!! We were waiting for the staircases to start moving on us!



I obviously did not take this picture - I'm deathly afraid of heights. I live on the 4th floor; 97 steps to make it there. My legs are absolutely ripped. :o)



The view from our window.

 Room 330 - REPRESENT!!! It was me and Molly from Michigan. (Go figure... the girl I am roommates with is the only girl to contact me before the trip and lives 5 minutes from where I work). Okay, well at least I have a familiar face in my room. It's getting better already. Molly and I make it up the FOUR flights to our room. The drag? Four flights up and NO lift. That's right, that means we walk all 97 steps. We call dibs on our beds, check out the view, and just sit there - staring at the wall. We still have a 3rd mystery roommate that isn't there yet... But for now, that is more than okay with the both of us.


All that was on the agenda for the night was dinner. ICMS was doing it's best to make this "fun" and "exciting". After a quick campus tour we landed at the CYC (Courtyard Cafe). They had a little duo playing guitars and singing. They were great! Then we got to see their dining facilities. Ohhh snap. There is one cafeteria with one dinner option. If you don't like it? You get lettuce or go hungry. It was then that I realized my life was going to change. And this little "Diva" picky eating business was coming to an end. Night #1 - fish. I was in trouble - big trouble. Looks like lettuce it is...

A ridiculous case of homesickness kicked in.Who was this girl? Certainly not me. I'm not a home-body. I have no motivation whatsoever to unpack... this isn't home. I don't want to make it feel as such. The bed is uncomfortable, and the walls are yellow, not to mention the smell of an old-folks home lingered everywhere. I want to cry so badly... this is not what I signed up for. But I hold back because Molly is already knee deep in unpacking and is smiling ear-to-ear. The excitement is beaming out of her and I wasn't about to be a steal-joy. A part of me was jealous... I thought I was going to have that reaction. Or anything other than this feeling of paralyzing regret. I fake a smile, decline an offer to paint the town, and call it an early bed. I wanted/needed to talk to home or anybody familiar to reassure me that things will be just as I left them for the next three and a half months, but it is 5am Michigan time - no time to be calling for reassurance. The next best thing to a comforting voice, was a good night's sleep.

Woke up the next morning to a facebook message and a phone call - my sister had been in a bad accident that night. I couldn't even finish my sentences... I just cried. At the time, it was probably the best thing for me. To just let it out instead of holding it in just to appear as if I was "okay". Because to be honest, I wasn't. I knew she was fine. And D was there, with my family... doing exactly what I'd do, if I was home. But I wasn't home. I was 10,000 miles away and completely, utterly helpless. It's not even that I could've done anything if I was there... I think it's a feeling you have to experience to understand. It is difficult to hear about change when you're gone and can't witness it. It's awful to hear about a minor tragedy and not be there.

The next Morning started early. Brekkie began at 7:15. Corn Flakes - I added a check to my tally marks of cereal which was rapidly growing and got ready for the day. From 8:30am until noon, there was 'Official Enrollment' for students with my surname. We gave them our personal information and received our new student ID's. A Computer/Internet Orientation was required and I made sure to get this finished as soon as possible because... it was a holiday. An American holiday - Superbowl Sunday. At 11am, 'Superbowl Monday' was put on the big screen in the Courtyard Cafe. But it just didn't feel right... watching Superbowl on a Monday morning without the commercials that we all wait 364 days to see was just disappointing. Be it as it was, we watched the Packers run to victory and a local newspaper came to interview a couple American boys that were die-hard Packer fans, all decked out in green and yellow. The article was published the following morning.

Yep, that's "our" boys. Zach from Iowa and Derrick from Wisconsin.
American ICMS students makin the front page of The Manly Daily.

That afternoon, we didn't have much down time. From 4-5pm, we had a Study Abroad Attire Briefing. In a nutshell, ICMS used to have uniforms (I've mentioned this before...) and this year they changed their policy. We were now required to wear our own personal business attire, which I own hardly any of. We were all given a $500 gift card to the Warringah Mall and some wicked discounts to some fancy stores. We were then instructed on what is/not allowed and the behavior that is/not considered professional. Some of it, I considered common sense... But given some of the Americans that are also on this trip, I realized it was not common sense for all of us. Notes were taken and questions were asked; This was our one shot to understand it - the next morning, we were taking $500 to purchase our wardrobe for the semester. Not an ideal time to have a misunderstanding!

Just before dinner, we had a Study Abroad Academic Briefing. And holy smokes... about 10 minutes in, I almost ran out the back door. What was I thinking?!? I missed GVSU already!  This school is hard core, for lack of a better term. I was warned by Ross (an AustraLearn leader), back in Brisbane, that this would probably be where I wrote my first 100 page paper. Not sure what I was thinking, but I didn't believe him. The Dean was the sole speaker of this briefing - great guy, good speaker. BUT he laid it out for us... high expectations. This is one of the most prestigious schools in all of Australia. And they didn't accidentally come upon their nickname; they earned it! 100% class attendance is expected. He described the grading scale - (They don't use the 'A-F' letter grade system, but I'll put it in American terms for lack of confusion) it is hard to receive an A or B. You have to legitimately work to earn a C. Oftentimes a low B is the highest grade in the class... and there is no such thing as a curve here. Well... there went my excitement for my classes transferring back as "credit/no credit". The good news? The term is only 10 weeks long. Even if I do have a 3,000 word paper due, I'm going to have less than 10 weeks to stress about it. By the time I really get myself worked up, we're going to be knee-deep in Finals. It's go time...

We "enjoyed" a quick dinner and had to make it to our last meeting for the day: The residential meeting. This one was a little more casual and run by our RA, Henrietta. She's a super sweet, down-to-earth girl from Sweden.
Basically, she had a script that she was required to follow and certain things that she had to tell us. But, she was pretty straight up honest with us. She knows that we're going to bend the rules (because we're in our 20's and are going to do it no matter what) so we discussed what we could get away with and what was going to get us kicked out and deported (handy thing to know!). I'm learning very quickly that living in a dorm is something you kind of take for granted when in America. But when you mix numerous cultures from all over the world, sometimes 3 different cultures per room, and have the entire hall share ONE bathroom, it's not so 'common sense' anymore. Maybe this is well known... but I had no idea that people from Eastern cultures don't use toilets the same way that the 'rest of the world' does. So, we have "using the toilet" instructions posted on the wall. Yea... weird to get used to.

But, I really couldn't complain. In the application process for Study Abroad, I cannot begin to count how many essay questions somehow asked, 'Why do you want to study abroad?'. My answer always consisted of something like... Because I think the best way to learn about a culture is to completely submerge yourself in it. And? I was doing exactly that. In fact, I was getting more than what I paid for - I was experiencing all dimensions to many different cultures, not just Australian.