By guest contributor: Jaclyn Rodrigues
After completing two and half years at the University of Ottawa, orientation week (AKA 101 Week) was becoming pretty familiar. I knew who my friends were and I knew the campus buildings by heart. I also knew that the OC Transpo buspass line would be at least a two-hour wait and that if I were lucky I would only have to go to three places to buy my textbooks.
Unlike most students on exchange, I had the luxury of spending my first week abroad with my Australian relatives. As much as I was in a new country, with a massive time change and a few culture shocks like getting in the front seat of the car on the opposite side, it wasn’t until orientation week that I really felt like I was away from home. I was thrown into orientation events almost immediately after arriving with thousands of new faces and places I had never seen. As orientation week took its course I was reminded how extremely helpful and entertaining orientation week can be. I am attending the Australian National University in the capital city of Canberra. ANU has a beautiful sprawling campus and I went from winter in Ottawa to summer here so I feel I cannot complain too much. Altogether it has been a good transition but I thought I’d share some tips on surviving orientation week while on an exchange.
Do not under any circumstance judge your experience based on the first few nights.
On the first night I attended an event that was primarily first year students. Although there were international students present, it was too early to know who they were. On top of that, the event was a low-key trivia night that made it difficult to mingle with others. I remember returning to my residence room that night wishing I were back with my rowdy relatives or friends back in Ottawa. Two days later, once I had made some upper year friends and gave more orientation events a try, I had an amazing week.
Make sure you attend any international student event or meet and greet.
Find out if the international office at your host university is holding an international student meet and greet. If so, I highly recommend making sure that your flight is booked to arrive in time. The meet and greet is not only the beginning to many new friendships, they are very informative as well.
Attend as many orientation week events as possible.
Orientation week provides you with easy to attend, fun events to meet a broad range of students. A bonus, there are also often events with free food and other goodies, which realistically we could all use being on a tight student budget.
Ask questions.
Finally, know that more than enough people are willing to help, whether it is assistance navigating the campus to finding out where to get involved on campus in things that most interest you.
Exchange is all about exploring new places, meeting new friends, and becoming familiar with new experiences. Orientation week is just the beginning. Due to my successful orientation week, I can already safely say I feel at home here. I have planned two trips, one to Sydney and one to Surf Camp Australia with the fellow international students I met only a week ago. If getting involved in orientation week to the fullest taught me anything, it was that this exchange was really worth all the time, money, and difficult goodbyes. Orientation week reassured me that there was nothing to be upset about and that all worries aside, I was pretty darn lucky to be where I am. There is nothing like having a positive orientation week full of excitement to kick-off a positive experience abroad.