My first Uni party

Before I started class last night I got a text from one of the girls I have made friends with since starting Uni*, that “the group” as they call themselves were going to go the “Unibar” on campus. “The group” is composed of people who met during the international orientation, so I guess this includes me too. They have been doing a lot together most of which I’ve had to miss out on either because I was out of town, had, class, or just couldn’t make it.

I decided I would meet them after I got done with class. As most of you have probably seen on my status on Facebook the Unibar bar is on campus. All of us Americans found this strange because none of us had bars on our campus. Across the street from campus? Yes. On campus? No. The building I had my class in is called the squarehouse and it is located next to the roundhouse. The Unibar is located in the Roundhouse; therefore the bar is approximately 20ft from my class. Awesome.

Much like in most university life, Thursday nights are the nights to go out. This is still true for the kids at UNSW. This Unibar place was no joke. They had two lines to get in, one for UNSW students, and one for non UNSW student. They also had heavy police, who checked my bag, and a drug sniffing dog sniffing people down. As I was walking in the dog started chasing a non UNSW guy down and the cops surrounded him. Sucks for that guy.

The place was huge and there were people everywhere. There were girls dressed up so much you kind of forgot that you were on campus and not at a regular club. It made me laugh because here I was straight from class with a bag on my shoulder with my spiral and planner inside. The place had a huge dance floor complete with dj, lights, and lasers. There was an outdoor place with a live band as well.

We spent the first hour or so walking around, people watching, and then commenting on the people we were watching as everyone does. There were a bunch of people we all knew or sort of knew from orientation that we ran into. It was fun running into people and going I know you, and our little group would get bigger and bigger. Finally, we headed over to the dance floor, where we made our little circle and started dancing. You know the circle that inevitably happens when a bunch of girls are dancing? Yes, but we also had guys in it as well. All of us threw our bags and jackets in the middle and just started dancing around them; it became a sort of bonfire of stuff.

It was so fun to be surrounded by so many people, and people from so many different places. There were people from America, China, Norway, Germany, Mexico, a guy from Chile, Zimbabwe, and a weird Persian guy that showed up out of no where. A great mix of people from all over the world dancing together at the Unibar made for a fun night!

One last funny thing I’ll write to finish up my story is the conversation I overheard while sitting outside waiting for the bus. There were two guys, who I figured were American and traveling around Australia, then a young Australian girl who was a student at UNSW. One of the guys was talking about how he and the other guy “crashed” the uni party and obviously thought they were really cool for doing so. Then someone made a comment about how there were so many “old” people there, “like 25 years olds.” As you can probably imagine I was dying laughing, A. because I am 25 and just got called old, and B. because everyone I was just with inside the bar, all 15 of us, were 25 and older. Anyway, I thought it was the perfect way to end the evening because I got called lame by a guy who is traveling around Australia and didn’t have anyplace better to be than at a university party for enrolled university students like me. I wonder what they would have said if they found out I am going to be 26 this year, and still going to Uni parties!

*Uni is the abbreviated term that all Aussies use when referring to a university and I have adopted it as well.