Meeting fellow International Students

I met the other international students today. We met at Main House, which is an old-looking stone building with fancy engraved patterns on the roof, white with gold trimmings. The building in from the Georgian era, the international relations person told me. According to Wiki, that's from 1714 to 1830. Inside is a marble staircase with a wrought iron banister.

Main House



When I first went inside there were lots of students around. One girl smiled at me and looked away. I didn't ask if she was there for orientation. I'm glad I didn't because turns out those people were lining up for bus passes and were local students. Past the staircase were people talking. A few adults. I didn't know if that was them, and there was no one to ask. Then a petite girl with a delicate accent asked a receptionist something and I heard the word 'international', so I tuned in. The receptionist directed the girl somewhere. I didn't catch the details, so I casually followed the girl out of reception and into a room to the right.

 A lady introduced herself to us, the one who later told me about the age of the building. I sat on the arm of a couch and talked to Katerina for a while. She was the petite one. She's from Greece. On the opposite couch were Sally and Hannah, both from New York. Sally is thin with dark hair and Hannah is fuller figured with really clear skin and straight short hair. She was wearing really nice boots. Katerina and I talked for a while. Later I introduced myself to Chinese girl at the far end of the couch I was sitting on. She'd been talking quietly to Ivan, our student ambassador. Her name is Ester and she’s really nice. She had to ask Katerina to repeat some things she said, but overall Ester's English is great. She wore a very shiny black jacket, which was well padded. Only later did Jake turn up. He's from New York, too, but originally he's from Australia. He only has a slight American accent. He moved to America five years ago.

Over the course of the day, as we walked around campus and chatted, I felt like I'd misjudged Americans. At home, any Americanisation is bad. There's too many American shows on TV, too many American movies. Any American food is fatty or sugary, and therefore bad. The animosity had seeped onto our view of Americans themselves, but even so, our view of the people isn’t much better. We see them as overconfident, which is a huge turn-off to most Aussies.

I am American. Hear me roar.

 I only became aware of this stigma when I realised that I was surprised these American girls were so...normal. Sure, they were confident, but not in a brazen way. They were more or less the same as any other girl. We talked about how much effort and trouble it had been to get the visas and getting the application forms done. We talked about how long the flights had been. We all have one or two parents coming to visit halfway through semester.

 While we were waiting for the kitchen to open in the refectory, we talked about our cultural differences. I asked Katerina how they greet each other in Greece. She will hug and kiss. One cheek or both? Either or, she said. Ester, the Chinese girl, just waves. They don't hug. 'It's different there', she said. I clarified with Sally, and we both agreed that America and Australia are more or less the same--hugs or waving. Shaking hands is a formality for Greece as well. I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure in China they'd bow to each other. I should check that.

They call the cafeteria 'the refectory'



Next I asked about food. Katerina told me about the traditional Greek dishes. One was pasta with a creamy sauce. It had a fancy name I can't remember. I think she said they eat rice, too, but red meat was a big one. It's big for Hannah's family, too.

 'We live for our meat,' Hannah said. 'We have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.'

'What meat do you have for breakfast?' I asked.

'Bacon, sausages...ham.'

Sally said that her diet was more or less the same.

 

Hannah told me how America doesn't have a 'signature dish', like Greece does. But she did tell me about Garbage Plate.

 'You fill a plate with slabs of leftovers. Chicken casserole and meatballs and hash browns and spaghetti all on the same plate. That's Garbage Plate. I only eat it after I've been drinking, but then it's like ahhh' (she made an angelic singing sound).

 Then it was time for our lunch. We had a 3 pound 50 allowance (double it for Aussie equivalent). There was a lunch lady behind the rows of food, like you see on American shows, like Chef in South Park. Some people had the lasagne. I had these crumbed fish balls and chips. I'd heard their chips were good. Then we had salad from the bar. Lettuce and corn and beetroot and boiled eggs. Just those two things had exceeded my budget and I had to pay an extra 2 pounds to cover the difference.

 The chips were almost cold and the fish wasn't that nice. The salad was okay. I left the lettuce coz it was too bitter. The corn was gross, so was the beetroot. The egg was good. Ivan, our ambassador, recommended the curly fries. They looked too unhealthy for me. They were so thin that I don't know how you'd even taste the potato. Jacket potatoes are pretty big here. People have them with baked beans or sour cream and chives. Ivan doesn't like them, though. Hannah doesn't like potatoes unless they're fried, in the form of chips or hash browns.

 We saw the library. They have a study room where you're not allowed to bring in any technology at all! That's pretty cool. Just for people who get annoyed by the tapping of keyboards, I guess. The library isn't as big as I'd have thought. I wouldn't have thought those few study rooms would accommodate all the students, but I guess it works for them. There's only books on the ground floor. Most of their resources are online now. QUT library is way nicer, to be honest. I'll appreciate it even more when I get home. The lecture halls are smaller than QUT's, too. There must be more students at Kelvin Grove.

 Mind you, KG doesn't have lectures in castles either, so those points go to Bath Spa ;)

 On campus living is more common here. Same with the US. Also in the US, Hannah told me, they have different groups within the on campus students. Sororities, they called them. One group is a Greek group. The people aren't Greek, but the dorm rooms are named after the Greek alphabet. I'm not sure what the purpose of that is, and I think each group has a different social status. Hannah likened it to how they portray it in Monster University.

You're not part of our sorority? Get out.

 

We also discussed our accommodation. The American students only had the option of homestay. They were only allowed to stay on campus if they were studying here for a year, but I'm only studying one semester and I'm allowed, so I don't know why it's different. They complained that their host families didn't feel very 'homey.' Jake said he's staying with an older couple who didn't really speak to him, so he just sat in his room the past few days. Hannah is also with a couple. Some language students visit the house every few weeks or so. She's not sure why. They are living a 15 minute walk from the city centre. Ester and Katerina and I are all happy with our on campus accommodation. Once again, I’m glad I chose this option. As the US guys said, it’s a good way to meet other students. Mind you, I don’t know that I’m quite on par with the guys I’m living with.

The six of us are going to keep in touch via Facebook, and we will be meeting to see the Roman Baths next week, Wednesday I think. Ester only joined Facebook when she arrived here because they’re not allowed to have Facebook in China. I asked her why that was and she said she didn’t know.

It'll be nice to keep in touch with people going through the same sort of stuff as me. They totally speak my language.