Day 8 (LaTrobe University) - Bendigo, Victoria Australia

As I was on my way to International Orientation for the second day, I noticed a surplus of students at the Ironbark Center where orientation was held. I found Garrett and Sam, two American students also studying Outdoor Ed, who told me that they're participating on the Outdoor Ed Orientation instead of the International Orientation for the next three days. WTF. How did this happen? Where did this come from? Confused, I sat through two hours of torturous International Orientation. I've been going to college for three years, and with the amount of organizations and activities I'm involved with at Central, I am fully aware of all the resources available Uni and how to ask if I need to use them, as well as how to stay safe on campus. I decided that I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by. As soon as we had our lunch break I went straight to Grace, who is in charge of the international students, where I politely asked why the other American Outdoor Ed students were at Outdoor Ed Orientation and asked if I was supposed to be there. Apparently she had no record of me studying Outdoor Ed, just that I was in the bachelor of education program. She had Richard, one of the International Host Students, take me to the Outdoor Ed faculty and figure it all out. After talking to some Outdoor Ed Faculty we found out that they also didn't have me on any of their records as being in their program. I then mentioned that there was another American and a guy from Ireland who are also in the program and should quite possibly be at Outdoor Ed Orientation too.Sure enough the three of us left international orientation and moved over to Outdoor Ed.

Now about Outdoor Ed…It is so strange "starting over" again.I've been actively studying broadcasting for the past three years and had just picked up Outdoor Recreation last semester. Essentially all of those feelings of "I'm a newbie," "I'm so inexperienced," and "I feel so small in this big group," came flooding back when I entered the group of all first year students studying Outdoor Rec. I remember feeling so small and inexperienced with the first year broadcasters as everyone boasted about how great and talented they were because of their high school's great broadcasting program. It's overwhelming to be amongst so many people who seem like they've climbed every mountain, camped at every campsite, canoed every river, and have basically lived in the outdoors since birth, when I have no experience whatsoever.

For Orientation we were broken up into five groups of 25-30 first year students. There were a handful of "mature aged students" in the group too. I think you're qualified as a "mature age student" if you're over the age of 25. This was different because I only recall two students in my last three years at Central who were over the age of 25. But it's more common here to have mature aged students, plus LaTrobe has programs and areas designated specifically for them. Some of the sessions covered first year stuff, like explaining what a subject outline is (aka a syllabus). I had to go through the "don't lose this, it has all homework assignments and due dates in it, don't plagiarize, no one takes attendance, this isn't high school" speeches. Oh yes, the sounds of professors freshman year.

Class structure: Most classes consist of a lecture and a tutorial. For example, the "Ways of Knowing Nature" class has lecture one hour on Mondays and Wednesdays. This is where everyone comes to a lecture hall and takes notes, and you're not supposed to ask questions. One then has to schedule a tutorial (or tute as they apprev it) which is only one day a week for one hour. This is where a student who has already passed the class leads discussion and explanation of the lecture, and where you can ask questions. Basically, it's a lab.

TV: The primetime shows don't start until 8:30pm, whereas I'm used to 8pm back at the states. I couldn't call myself a broadcaster if I didn't analyze their news structure too: National news lasts an hour, covering sports and weather. It didn't seem like they used as many "hard news" stories like they do in the US. Of course it wasn't as flashy with graphics as in the US, and they don't do live shots. Their news stories are longer than ours too.

A lot of shows aired are American: How I met your Mother, Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, The Mentalist, The Good Wife, Survivor, Two and a Half Men, The Simpsons, Family Guy, but they also have Aussie versions of: So You Think You Can Dance, 60 Minutes, Australia's Funniest Home Videos. They're about two months behind though, so I'm watching "new" episodes that I saw in the US already. Hulu and other network websites won't allow me to watch US shows online in Australia - a message appears stating that there are international restrictions. I can't use Pandora either. Everyone seems to love the show Friends. At least two people have all of the seasons on DVD, which we watch a lot it seems.