"O" week commences

If anyone knows me like my parents do you will find this extremely odd... I have been in bed by 9 pm some nights, and I have not stayed up any later than 11 pm except for the night we went to the Pub across the street. I have not slept past 9 am either. Today I was up at 7:30am. It is really weird, and very unlike me, but I like it. I feel grow-up or something. I don't think it will last... but if it does that would be pretty sweet. On the topic of waking up early...

I woke up today and I couldn't open my left eye. I didn't think much of it other than I was just sleepy. When I stepped out of my bed to make sure Chrissy and Laura were up, I fell on my face. When I said I was sunburned I was not kidding. My eye was swollen shut and some parts of my legs were so burnt it hurt to stretch the skin. I am pathetic, to say the very least. I went into Laura's room (who was just a burnt as me) and she said she almost didn't think we could make it to orientation. After calling my mom to make sure it was ok, I popped one of Laura's percocets, 2 St Johns Worts, and I was on my merry way (PLEASE no one let Grandpa Doc read this post--I think he will kill me for this). Again, anyone who knows me knows I do not have the most normal reactions to medications, and since this was my first time ever taking a percocet, I was a little afraid of how I would react (as was my mom and John Crowder). No worries though, I feel GREAT!

We sat through about 1 hour of the orientation lecture and decided it just wasn't worth our time (plus I really don't know how much longer I could have sat there), so we left. Now we are juist killing time until the free lunch at the Bar on the Hill at 1.

On the way to the Student HUB, where the on campus computers are located, we stopped by the on campus travel agent to try and plan some little excursions. There are a few we REALLY want to do, we just need to sit down and actually figure them all out. Most of them are 3 night 3 day cruises on Catamaran's near the Gold Coast and The Great Barrier Reef. They all include meals and sleeping accomodations as well as snorkeling or scuba diving. Depending on which one we end up going on there are other things included as well. Most of them will run us around 470 AUD which is pretty good, considering. There is also a trip to Ularu Rock (UNCLE PAT!!) but it is around 500 AUD and I don't know how keen the other girls are on doing that one. I really want to, but I'm gonna have to really scrape up the money if we end up going on that one as well. There is a cheap trip up to the Gold Coast (Great Barrier Reef Area) for like 191 AUD, and another trip around Carins (which we all agree we HAVE to go to-- thanks to uncle pat) for around 450 AUD. Those are both REALLY do-able when you consider the exchange rate. The prices don't include flights, but we can probably get those for around 49 AUD. I am now taking donations if anyone wants to throw some money my way for all of these once in a lifetime adventures (if anyone wants to show Grandpa Doc this part of the post... you are more than welcome to) JUST KIDDING (kind of).

As you can see, everything is a fair amount cheaper here. For example, we went to the grocery store yesterday and I got a decent amount of food, including a ton of meat, for 60 AUD (about 48 USD). Then I ran over to the liquor store next door because I have been craving wine and haven't had any yet and I picked up a box of wine and a bottle of Penfolds (just for you dad) for 20 AUD (around 12 USD). So far, my money is lasting me.

Since I just wrote yesterday I don't have much else to talk about but hopfully my life gets a little more exciting soon and I will have tons of fun stuff to talk about!

Until next time...

Meg