Work It Like a Rawk Star, Baby!: Joy To the World

Last night, we slept in our new apartment! YAY FOR US!
I will post pictures of the house once we have everything settled so that you will get a good idea of what the apartment is really like. Hopefully, we will be properly kitted out by mid to late August.

Also, today was Orientation Day for us and as expected, we were bombarded by all the groups and student service people who had their stalls set up to provide us with information. They ranged from travel services, to English Language support, to International Student Committee activities. We signed up for the ISC Discover Perth Tour, and the Twilight Tour to Fremantle and Cottesloe for the sunsets. I'm sure I'll be posting pictures on that as long as my camera still decides to work.

But what happened after the Orientation was the biggest laugh of all. We met up with this student volunteer called Usha, a Chinese-Indian girl from Malaysia. We had met her before at one of our other briefings and so we took time out to properly chat with her after this morning's talk. Soon, she introduced us to a few of her friends from Malaysia and they in-turn introduced us to their friends. Next thing we knew, we were invited to a house party and it being a Friday night, we didn't wanna be sitting at home so we agreed to come along.

Michelle and I hopped out to buy two bottles of wine to bring to the dinner and soon, Usha and her friend Jimmy came to pick us up at 7. The party was held in a townhouse in Bentley, rather close to the University campus.

The host, this Malaysian Chinese girl called Peilin, was a walking fashion disaster and that was basically the first rude shock of the night. Next, we discover the filthiest kitchen, especially for a house with four girls living in it. The townhouse was big and spacious, but someone needs to feed these girls with decorating tips pronto. Maybe a few Martha Stewart DVDs could prove useful.
And honestly, if you had agreed to host a dinner/ house party at your place, the least you could do is try to clean up right? This kitchen had dirty dishes piled high in both sinks and dirty saucepans and skillets all over the counter. There was pratically only a 2 feet-by-2 feet area of countertop left for us to use. Thank god they had a dining table! It appalls me to think where the potluck dinner could have been placed otherwise!

Then, came the utterly horrendous bit. After introductions, the organisers thought that we should start off with some games. The first thing that came to mind was Truth or Dare. But Michelle wanted to eat, and we soon realised that we had been duped once her protests to eat were granted: the whole group bowed their heads and said Grace. I looked at Michelle with my "WHAT THE FUCK?" face and she responded similarly. By then, everyone had jumped up and were more than ready to eat. Then came the host's scramble to find clean dishes and utensils. This was getting better by the minute.

Then came our yummy wine. I knew I needed alcohol to make it through the night and Michelle obviously did too. We offered wine to everyone but no one seemed the least bit interested. As rude as it was, we basically drank the wine we brought. But we knew we'd need it so we couldn't care less at that point:

Funniest thing after that was once we had a few glasses of wine each, we both predictably brought out our cameras and went snap-happy again. And of course, we laughed at everything (which most of our friends are used to by now). The host thus thought that we were drunk and practically hid our second bottle of wine! That seriously made me laugh almost uncontrollably. And again, I gave Michelle my "WTF?" look.

Our friend Usha:

The Christian boys are seen here having a go at the interesting mix of dishes. Thank god the food was alright. If not I would've feigned sudden illness and beelined my way out of that townhouse:

The girls, Peilin (far right) in her very questionable ensemble, and that unpleasant kitchen:

After dinner, of course, came the dreadful games. The bunch here is listening to one of the organisers explaining the finer points to a game. This game was a memory-based one. I won't go further into it as it would undoubtedly tarnish my reputation to acknowledge that I had actually participated in it: