Orientation Week

UQ’s O-week was held last week to welcome the newly enrolled students. I went to the campus — for the first time after 3 months of summer holiday — on Wednesday. There was an event, called Market Day where students can gather at my favourite spot, Great Court to join some activities and games. All kinds of UQ Union’s clubs and societies have their stalls built on the side of this massive court for those who want to become members. I went there with my housemates. Usually there are many free stuffs available for us on this day from UQ Union and its sponsors, e.g. annual book planner, shopping vouchers, bags, etc. Mayu and I were specifically hunting for that!! Hehehe. We arrived there at about 12 noon and there were sooo many people already! FYI, UQ has about 30,000+ students studying at St Lucia campus alone! (this is the campus where I’m studying at). Not to mention other non-UQ students who also took advantage of this event! . The Great Court was filled with many stalls, from UQ Sport, UQ Union, to some of the sponsors. Everyone queued to get free posters, diary, and other giveaways from the Union. The queue was soooooo freakin longggggg! But anyway, we got the diary!! Wohoo . We also got $5 shopping vouchers, bags, and pens. There were also many food stalls, and they provide them for free! I got a cup of noodle, juice, and ice tea. Free is good, you know?? Anyway, Jenny and I met Bertie at about 2 and we went to the Pizza Caffe at main refectory to have lunch. I had a really great time!!

I was a bit surprised when I first stepped my foot at UQ. The campus is sooo big! I had to make sure that I brought my UQ’s map, otherwise I couldn’t find the buildings. I also wasn’t used to the Uni environment, every students seemed to do everything by themselves. No one told me which subjects I should take and how I could find the timetable. The academic advisor was not as helpful as I thought either! I felt so lost. The only friend I had who took the same major as me was an American, Max. He patiently explained everything about Uni to me. He saved my life! Hahaha. Seriously, I did feel I wasn’t belong there . But yeah, after few weeks… I got used to the UQ’s environment. Everyone has their own schedules. The students are so diverse; some are from Science, Arts, Business or other UQ faculties. Sometimes I’d meet new people on the first week of lectures, but then they all “disappear” on the following week. Nobody, including the lecturer, cares if you are late, attend lectures everyday, or prefer to sleep all day. It’s totally up to you. You are regarded as adults; no one would tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. No one would even bother you if you sleep in class. On average, each courses have a total of 100 students or more (sometimes it will exceed 200). So don’t expect your lecturer to know that you are his student. He doesn’t remember your name, not even your face. But he always emphasises to his students that he’s always available for consultation. I heard the case about Indo lecturers who are so hard to be approached. That’s not the case with Australian universities. We just have to come to lecturer’s office or send email, call by phone, or sometimes send sms to make an appointment. Honestly, I had arranged an appointment 2 hours before my final exam! And the lecturer said YES! How amazing!

Speaking about orientation, I have quite “bad” memories of my orientation (month) in my senior boarding school, Madania. It was my FIRST and LAST freak orientation ever I had in my life! Two full months of repression in “jail” — we’re not allowed to go outside the campus, make a phone call, not even meet our parents! We’re totally excluded from the outside world; well, there was a TV in a Cafetaria, but it’s always occupied by the senior students. One exciting and funny memory during this frustrating orientation was on a camping day with members of Pencinta Alam (PA) — how do you call that in English… Nature Lovers? LOL. PA was an organisation ran by students which focuses on nature and physical activities, like camping, hiking, etc. It was compulsory for new students to join this organisation, so all of us went to a place in Bogor to experience our first camping. On the night the same day we arrived, we lit a bonfire (api unggun). It was all smooth and steady, until one of my teachers, Pak Udin spoke up about how dangerous this place was. He told us many stories of murders and killings that happened recently there. Then he announced that all programs that were previously been planned were cancelled and we would be back at school by tomorrow morning. So, yeah.. we didn’t think about anything. We were just happy that we’d be back soon to avoid the-always-annoyed senior students.

We slept in a big tent, not expecting anything except going back to our dorm. I slept peacefully; I couldn’t remember who the person sleeping on my right was, but I remember Irenne was on my left side. Then, in the middle of the night, someone who turned out to be one of the senior students, woke Iren and I up. She said, “wake up!!! your parents are here!” Obviously she lied, and I quickly realised that all my friends who slept on my right side were gone!! We were sent to another senior student, not far from the tent. He then told us to walk and follow the candles located few metres away from one another. I still felt like I was dreaming, “What the hell is going on?” Then Iren and I started to walk — half asleep. She was soooooo scared, she held my hand so damn tight. She was panic; and that made me feel panic too!!!! I told her couple of times to be calm, otherwise I’d die in place . At the beginning, I was scared to death. There was no electricity or whatsoever… It was so dark. Then I realised that if none of us lead this stupid long walk, we wouldn’t arrive on time and we would be in trouble. So I calmed myself down, murmuring any Qur’an ayat that I could remember. We walked, climbed, fell down. I said to myself, “God I’m ready to die now!”… I stupidly believed those stories told by Pak Udin. As we walked further more, I saw someone hiding behind the trees. So, yeah.. somebody was indeed watching us to make sure that we walked on the right path (coz sometimes the candles were too far…). All the teachers, staffs, and senior students were obviously responsible for our safety. That made me feel much secure; though the idea of somebody kidnapping us was still in my mind . We met few senior students with their different techniques to scared us. But I wasn’t scared at all; they’re just trying to fool us. After a while, we arrived in a cemetery. It was so dark, I didn’t even realise that it was a cemetery. We picked up our green PA scarves located on top of someone’s grave and continued our journey. Then after walking for few metres, we arrived in the darkest path ever. The moon was not visible; not even a single star. I just felt like I was blind! It was soooooooo dark. Somebody turned on the torch towards our direction. Pak Udin was there to guard the place. At the same time, I realised that my green PA scarf was gone!! I was sooo panic! It must have fell without me noticing. I badly wanted to go back, but I knew there was no way I could find it… since it was so dark. So Iren and I decided to continue our journey. We arrived at our destination before the sun rose. Just like what I expected, the senior students scolded me and screamed at my face coz I lost the bloody scarf! I tried to appear as weak as possible so that they did not punish me any further hahaha. It worked!!! LOL. Tricks are important to be applied in an emergency situation .

A year had passed. We did the camping again to welcome the new students. By this time, I was a senior student. The activities were pretty much similar to the one we had before, except that the new students had to walk ALONE, instead of a pair like we did. I joined Iren (again!), Bima, and Syukur to guard one area/path. We decided that, instead of just hiding and guarding the place, we should scare them too!!! Bima — a friend who used to fight with me all the time — came up with many ideas… oh he was damn funny. His skin is so dark that no one basically could see him that he was standing beside the trees. When a junior student walked toward him, he surprised them “DOR!!” . Iren was even much more creative. She put her hair to the front to cover her face and held a torch to light her face. It looked scary!! I did something, but I don’t really remember what I did. But I LOOOVEEEE the screams, surprises, and scared faces of the new students…!!! Man, it was funny to watch! We laughed, laughed, and laughed! Someone even almost cried ehehehe (sooo sorry…). We made them paranoid. Yeah, this is what we call a revenge .

I’m gonna return to Uni for my 5th semester next week! Hooray! I’m excited, though I still feel the lazy environment of holiday hehehehe. I can’t imagine that I’m a 3rd and FINAL year student!!!!! Woww… I’ll write about my first week of Uni later .