Classes/Campus

Forgot to mention some other stuff, and I have some free time that I'm not really sure what to do with! So here are the classes I think I'm taking:

Australia's Marine Environment
Australia's Terrestrial Environment
Aboriginal and TSI Perspectives
Buddhism OR Meditation and Soul Journeys

I'm really pumped about all of them, and the environment one has awesome field trips. We've been around campus a bunch for info sessions and such over the past few days, and it's really beautiful (though large!). There are 3 lakes, and one of them is absolutely gorgeous and we sat by it yesterday for a little bit and there were tons of crazy birds, pics to go up soon. Now it's almost time for lunch - send news from home!

Crazy O-Week

So basically this week has been insanity and it will continue until tomorrow. The other night we did a pub crawl, in which we didn't go to that many places but we had a bunch of tasks to complete and document, and it was absolutely hilarious. We had to pick a group of 10, which was all Americans, but we didn't feel bad about it for long because our group CLEARLY had by far the most fun and it was amazing. We had 3 wing leaders with us and they made us order certain drinks at each place and this one girl was making us all skull (chug), but it was a lot of fun. The best part was probably when we had to "ghost" someone, which means walking behind them and imitating their walk. All 13 of us got behind this one woman one at a time and she had NO idea we were there, and we videotaped the whole thing. Hopefully it will be on facebook soon - it is absolutely hilarious. One of the nights Brynne and I decided to take it easy and we took the ferry (which is our new favorite thing) to South Bank where there is a man-made beach/pool and a stream by the river. Side note: you can't swim in the Brisbane River because it is full of sharks! So South Bank is absolutely beautiful, and we are going back on Saturday after we cuddle with koalas at the koala sanctuary. Last night we had a talent night which was pretty funny except when I couldn't understand what the Aussies were saying (they might as well speak another language), and afterwards we hung out at one of the off campus apartments and that was a lot of fun. Another side note: my wing leader hasn't been knocking on my door in the morning, which I am SO thankful for. A lot of the international kids just aren't getting up so I don't feel bad about it. Apparently yesterday everyone had to jump in a kiddie pool of mud and goon (Golden Oaks boxed wine, it's the cheapest stuff here and everyone drinks it). So good thing I missed out on that. Today we're going on a bus tour of the city with the Butler kids, which should be cool. So everything is awesome, except the food, but I'm getting used to it. I've been eating vegemite every day, which is just really salty but I mix it with peanut butter so it just tastes like extra salty peanut butter. Also, I bought 30 gigs of internet for a really discounted price so I will be using internet more as I get more time and maybe I can even skype. Woot! That's it for now, hope everyone is doing well!

Shout out back home

So I debated creating this blog for a long time, and I finally decided I should do it. We have very limited internet access here (as in we pay by the megabytes we use), so I'm not going to be doing a lot of individual contact with people, and I think this is the best way to let people know what's going on! So going back to the beginning...I left home at 6 am on Feb 15th for a 7 40 flight to LA. I got to LA around 11, and I hung out with Stephanie for most of the afternoon (which was awesome, I should add). The group flight to Sydney left at 10 30 pm LA time, so it was a long, long day. I met some kids at the airport from the program, but basically it was awesomely awkward. We flew Qantas, and the plane was brand new and SO nice! Our seats reclined a lot and they gave us a blanket, pillow, eye mask, socks, and some candy/treats. The flight was almost 15 hours - I slept for about half I think, but they had an amazing entertainment system so I didn't even mind being awake that much. We landed around 8 am Sydney time - the airport with all the kids (~130) was mad crazy, and it took a while to get out (and it was crazy hot) but we somehow got everyone onto buses with kids from the same schools and drove about 45 minutes outside the city to this park kind of area with cabins and an RV park. It was really pretty, with a beach right across the road. We signed up for cabin mates on the bus, and I was the very last person to sign up so I was with two random girls, who ended up not knowing anyone either and they were both great. We had a couple presentations and got our cell phones (which suck, by the way), then hung out at the beach for a bit. We had a presentation on Australian culture that night (Tuesday), and then we all went to be really early. On Wednesday we went to the Taronga Zoo and on a harbour cruise of Sydney. Both were amazing! We had rainy/cloudy weather from when we got there until the end of the time at the zoo, so it cleared up perfectly for the cruise. I got to pet a wallaby at the zoo (see: profile picture) which is basically a small kangaroo. All of the animals were awesome - my favorite I think was the tasmanian devil, it's so cute!! That night we had a presentation on Aboriginal culture, which was pretty cool. On Thursday we had a talk about school stuff for a while, then surfed in the afternoon. There were WAY too many people for 4 instructors, but it was alright. At first I went pretty far out and I rode my first wave in, which was awesome, but then I got absolutely smashed by the next one. After that I found the female instructors, who said to just ride the breaking waves and that was a lot of fun, and I got up a bunch of times. Thursday night we had an Aboriginal dance show, which was reallyyy cool. Most of the dances are mimicking animals, so they were hopping around like kangaroos and stuff. Friday morning we left around 9 for the airport (I had a huge struggle re-packing my bags) and we flew from Sydney to Brisbane. The airport security is so much better here - you can have anything in your carry-on except sharp objects. We arrived in Brisbane around 2 I think (and gained an hour because Brisbane doesn't do daylight savings while Sydney does), then we hopped on a bus and everyone got driven to their different residences. We drove through the city on the way, which is amazing. So I'm in Emmanuel College, which looked to be a palace online but isn't, but it's still really good. I thought it was going to have a nice gym, but it's this really gross room that has like all broken equipment and stuff. We all have memberships to the Uni gym though, so I'm all set. Friday night I took the bus into the city with a few girls to get toiletries and pillows and stuff, and the city was AMAZING. Saturday all the freshies arrived, so it was kind of hectic. They gave us these green hats (basically fedoras with a feather) and everyone gets a freshie name on it, and mine is "DURAG" (dew rag I think, they spelled it wrong). Not everyone knows why they got theirs, but mine is because I like the Celtics. Racist. Anyway, yesterday we had this ceremony where we all got called up to sign a book, and we wore our Harry Potter robes (which are awesome, and we wear them to formal dinners). I explored the campus a bit yesterday as well, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Last night we had "bush dancing," which is where everyone dresses like cowboys and does line dancing. It was SO MUCH FUN. Everyone was sweating like crazy but it was hilarious and awesome. Afterwards they bussed us to the Port Office Hotel bar, which was heaps of fun. (Oh, and we have to wear our green hats everywhere or else we get our names written in Sharpie on our foreheads.) Some other Butler kids (the program I'm in that had the orientation in Sydney, forgot to mention) came to the bar as well. We all went to bed pretty late, and at 6 am the wing leaders came around BANGING on everyones doors to make us run to the cricket field and roll on the ground and do push ups and crap, but somehow I didn't hear it. So glad!! Everyone was really pissed about it this morning. We just had a health talk which was absolutely awful/hilarious, and I have to go to lunch in a few minutes. I forgot to mention - it has been like 90s and humid since we got here, and we don't have AC in our rooms! Today isn't as humid as the past two days, but it's taking a bit of getting used to. Oh, and each wing is 2 floors, one for guys and one for girls. I'm the only international and/or freshie on my floor, so it's pretty quiet because the 2nd years don't come until next Sunday. There are a few boys downstairs though, and they're a lot of fun. We have a chapel ceremony and formal dinner where we get to wear our robes again, haha. They're really great, I'll have to get a picture. I posted all I have so far to facebook, so check it out! And if you want to contact me, email is the best so I don't have to open lots of webpages and use all my internet quota. Ok that's it for now, I'll write again soon!