Day 22

This morning I woke up bright and early and went to the gym, where I thought it would be mobbed but it was completely empty. I guess Sunday morning is the perfect time to go to the gym and not embarrass myself with how little I know about the equipment I'm using besides the treadmill. Afterwards I decided to take a walk into the giant graveyard across the street from my apartment building, the biggest graveyard I've ever seen. It was literally the same size as my campus, which holds 45,000 students. It was hauntingly beautiful but also very creepy with how many graves there were. They are also all above ground graves, and many of them are falling apart, so all I could think about was how if I just dug through the dirt a little bit I could find a dead body. I took tons of pictures of fallen graves and things I thought were really cool, so I'll post those on facebook soon! Being myself, I totally got lost in the graveyard and ended up hiking around at least a good two miles longer than I had to in order to get back to the road. For a graveyard that big, it should really have more than like three exits.

Eventually I found my way and ended up wandering around Carlton a little bit. It turns out there is a convenience store literally right next to my building and I had no idea. The prices are a bit steep, but if it's dark, I'd rather go there for milk the next morning than walk all the way to Woolworths. This definitely could save me a lot of time!

After my adventures in Carlton, two arcadia people and I went on a photoshoot around uni campus (again, pictures posted soon!) We were waiting for a nice day to do it, and today was perfect as it was absolutely beautiful out! It's weird how it is the dead of winter here yet a sweater and a skirt is perfectly acceptable to wear and still be warm, yet some days I wear everything I brought and I'm still freezing. Crazy Australian weather.

The night finished off with our weekly Sunday Night Dinner, where a delicious chicken alfredo was made. Then someone surprised us all with tim tams and the night was complete! Back to school for week two tomorrow, I hope I have a better Monday than I did last week!

Day 21

Today was a very relaxed Saturday! I slept in until noonish and then just watched tv shows and read for my classes all day long, and it was fabulous. I have also discovered a new gem: hand washing your clothes. With laundry being 6 dollars here, I was obviously pissed when I ran out of socks. Of all things, I run out of socks. I didn't have enough for an entire huge load that will be worth 6 dollars so I decided to try and wash them myself! The biggest pain was plugging the drain, since we don't have one built for it like I do at home. I ended up pushing down on a measuring cup to plug it while I kneaded my clothes with my other hand. It was quite interesting, but so far my clothes seem to be smelling better! I don't think they're as clean as they would be in the washer, but with my $1.50 detergent, I don't think they'd ever be THAT clean. Drying my clothes was also a giant pain, I hung up everything strategically in the shower about 20 minutes before my roommate came home and said she wanted to take a shower. So now my clothes are hung throughout the apartment, some in my closet, some in my bookcases...everywhere. But so far I'd say it is totally worth hand-washing my clothes to save 6 dollars a week! Maybe I'll just machine wash them once a month or so and do touchups every week in the sink. The fascinating possibilities are endless.

I also did something almost as interesting as laundry later on, and stayed in to watch forgetting sarah marshall with some Arcadia peeps. It's so nice to have kind of this family away from home thing going on. I think I'd be a lot more homesick and lost if I didn't have them! I also found out today that megavideo works in Australia! Just being able to watch some of my favorite tv shows somehow makes everything more home-like as well. I sometimes wish I could at least just call my parents or friends when I wanted to and not have it be 3 in the morning, but it's teaching me to be more independent. This is my first push into the real world!

Day 20

Today after my classes, which were both pretty boring reviews of things I already knew, I walked to Queen Victoria Market. I actually bought some really cheap stuff, like 8 kiwis for 2 dollars and a box of crackers for a dollar! Apparently I could also get cheaper deals since you're supposed to bargain, but I feel like I am not aggressive enough to actually argue with a vendor... so the prices they put up were good enough for me, especially compared to woolworths! I even resisted getting the four boxes of tim tams for 5 dollars so I felt especially accomplished!

We went to brunswick street tonight and finally checked out the place with a creepy baby in front of it, which apparently, according to local melbourners, is the best pizza in melbourne for only 4 dollars! So we made out way across melbourne, and I was not lucky enough to try this pizza, but others said it was delicious! They made it sound like it was a large pizza but it was a personal sized pizza for 4 dollars, which isn't as good as it originally sounded, but if it's delicious then maybe we'll go back! Can't wait to sleep in tomorrow!

Day 19

Yesterday I further confirmed that I am going to fall asleep in my genes and genomes class. We spent the entire 50 minutes going over extremely slowly (but not much detail) the differences between DNA and RNA, such as DNA is double stranded and RNA is single stranded. Ya know, stuff we covered in intro to intro to biology. I can't tell if this is just the opening to the class and it'll get harder, or this really is the class material. I would've thought intermediate genetics would have been more complicated than this.

I'm absolutely loving my philosophy class so far. Reading Aristotle completely threw me for a loop, but my professor is fantastic. Even just in the lecture he helped clarify some of the things I had read, so I can only imagine how helpful the tutes are going to be after this as well, when we really dive into the readings. I have a newfound appreciation for the work philosophy majors have to do! I don't think I could spend an entire lifetime arguing over what people in the past said and what they meant.

Yesterday I was also baffled with just how many people come in late for lectures. I understand some people have a bad start to the day or what not, but some people will just nonchalantly enter the classroom a half hour into it and really take their time deciding on a seat, saying hi to their friends, letting the door slam behind them. It's so distracting, and I feel like at Wooster would not be tolerated at all. A lot of students don't even show up for the lectures because they are all recorded online, but I can't help but think what are they paying for? We pay at least something like 400 dollars per lecture, so every time you miss one it's like pouring 400 dollars down the drain. Well, I also feel like I'm doing that when I go to my genes and genomes class, so maybe with some classes students just feel like they're wasting their money whether they go to class or not. Hm.

Day 19

Today I finally purchased my textbooks after a week of worrying about budgets and hating Australia for not having an Amazon. My two textbooks added up to almost $300, which makes me thankful that my other two classes don't have textbooks. Speaking of money, I also decided to set up a budget for myself seeing as I've blown almost a thousand dollars already, and it's only been 3 weeks. Mind you it's been necessary, I haven't bought a single piece of clothing or souvenir except for a postcard at Eureka Tower. It's still really sad to see the money quickly fade from your account, especially since I worked so hard to get it up to that amount. But the budget I set for myself is surprisingly reasonable and I think I can even take some vacations throughout the semester and still get by. I'm sad I'll have to miss out on things like the huge MUSEX surf trip coming up, but 180 dollars for one weekend just doesn't exactly fit in the way I would like it to.

I also had my final class today, Genes and Genomes. My professors voice is so monotone and boring I almost fell asleep while she was just going through basic genetics. There is absolutely no way I am going to miss a single class because if I just listened to the lectures online, I don't think I'd make it through 10 minutes without falling asleep.

I made it to the gym again today! I'm already doing better than I do at Wooster. Maybe since it's only an elevator flight away I'll be more inclined to go visit it more often. Also the lack of Organic Chemistry studying and internet access may also lead to excess free time with nothing to do EXCEPT work out so maybe I'll be super buff when I come back (most likely not). Staying in tonight as I have a 9am tomorrow. My first back to back class across campus, which I initially was worried about but now realize that in a class of 150, the professors really don't care if you're late by a couple of minutes.

Day 18

Today was so much better than yesterday, but still with its annoyances. It started off with me going to my first lab of the semester, an Animal Physiology lab 9am-12. It was a simple lab where we dropped rulers to test our reaction time to practice using t-tests and making graphs on Excel. The actual lab was actually fun, my partner was an Australian who found it extremely amusing that I was American and had an accent. But when we started the hour and a half of data analysis, our professor spent the entire time showing us how to graph on Excel. The. Entire. Time. To top it all off, the girl next to me was paying extreme attention because, as she told me, she's never used Excel in her life. How in the world could you be 19-20 years old and never use Excel for anything??

I got lunch at union center with miss lloyd before heading to the library to finish off my first assignment – due next Tuesday. It seems to be just me, but I do not have as much work as I had expected and that all the orientations had made me believe. Two of my classes don't even have textbooks, and one of my classes only has 3 assignments throughout the year, none of which seem all that challenging. At this point, it doesn't really look like any of my classes will be that big of a challenge, which worries me for when I come back to Wooster and I suddenly have to use my brain again. Well I guess I'd rather have less to do here than less to do at Wooster so I can actually spend my weekends doing fun stuff!

My second class was my first Human-Animal Interactions class, and it looks pretty easy, but SO interesting. We only have 4 labs throughout the semester which I thought was weird, and one of them isn't even a lab, it's just a speaker coming in, but the speakers sound awesome! The majority of the students in the class are pre-vet so I think it'll be tailored more for what we need, so one of our speakers is a veterinary scientist. The actual lecturer seems extremely laid back and fun too so I think I'll enjoy this class!

I spent the evening in watching Master Chef and The Renovators with the roommate. Practically a perfect Tuesday night! And tomorrow I don't have class until 11!

Day 18

My actual class went better than the morning thus far had been. My coat was still in the same place I had left it and so I was easily able to grab that without looking like a complete idiot. Comparative Animal Physiology actually seems rather easy. I'm tentative to say that but we only have 5 papers throughout the semester, 2 of them are 1-2 pages, 2 are 3-4 pages, and the final one is 10-15 pages. All of them are lab reports, and I'm used to doing multiple 10-15 page lab reports throughout the semester so these 1-2 pages seem easy. The syllabus also seems rather basic, and today we went over things covered in BIO 202 in even less detail than we did then, so I'm actually a bit nervous that this class will be TOO easy. I guess only time will tell.

My second class, Human-Animal Interactions, was canceled since it doesn't exactly make sense to have a lab before you have your first lecture. However, I only found this out once I already walked across campus to the building, got lost in the building for about 20 minutes, and finally settled in next to the classroom to check my email on my laptop. I now had 4 free hours before my next class, so I decided to find out how to print. I went to the IT center and found out you could print from your laptop to a printer on campus, and followed the instructions only to get extremely confused and ended up deleting every printer off my computer's memory. Even after all of that, I'm not quite sure if it will actually print. After a quick lunch back at home and a trip to the market (I had 4 hours to kill after all), I decided to try and put money on my uni card in order to eventually be able to print. After wandering around the library for a good 15 minutes I finally found the machine, then spent awhile staring at it wondering how it works. It wouldn't accept my money, and my card got stuck in the machine. As I was trying to scramble and claw at my card to get it out of the machine, I looked behind me to see a line of about 10 people waiting for the machine. I finally was able to put all of my coins in the machine, a whopping total of $1.10, and apologized to everyone in line for my incompetence.

Printing at Melbourne only got worse from there. I went to try out my now paid card and print off the practical for tomorrow's Comparative Animal Phys lab. I went through all the motions, trying to figure out how to print double sided and more than one slide on one page (I never did and eventually gave up), and put my card into the machine to print. It got stuck. So again, there I was, trying to claw my card out of the machine but it refused to budge. I eventually went to go get help from a man at the front desk who was obviously extremely pissed at me for breaking his precious machine and told me he better never see me again, at which point they had to call someone else to come open the machine and get my card out. I never want to print ever again.

The night ended with a trip to RMIT to see our long lost friends...who we saw yesterday, but still. I wish we all lived in the same building, it certainly would make things a lot easier and more convenient. I hope tomorrow (now today) goes better!

PS

I just realized I also left my coat in the lecture hall. Lovely.

Day 17

So yesterday I forgot to post, even though I ended up going to bed at 10:30 to start classes today. But nothing too eventful ended up occurring. I took an easy last day to the summer/winter before classes started and spent most of the day curled up in a blanket watching tv shows with my friend. The group also continued our Sunday Night Dinner with tacos and mexican rice -- which were absolutely delicious. We also continued to watch Master Chef America and the premiere of The Renovators, both of which I plan to become fully addicted to.

As for today, it is my first day of class, and 9:09 am. I have already managed to go to the wrong classroom and sit down for a good 20 minutes before realizing, wait, I'm not an advanced engineering major. I got the right theatre, but I had read a recent email wrong and thought my class actually started at 9 instead of 10. Turns out just the practical changed times, not the lectures. So now I have an hour to kill, but I have free internet so things could be worse. All I did was look extremely stupid walking out of the lecture right after it started, as well as dumbfoundely ask the kid next to me if the syllabus was a joke. Off to a good start...I knew the rain this morning was a bad omen.

Day 16

Today I woke up after a horrifying dream and spent the entire morning being pathetic and listening to Taylor Swift. Then I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to spend my day like that and went with my friend to try and get our 18+ cards. A lot of places don't accept American Ids, and I didn't exactly want to keep bringing my passport around everywhere, so an 18+ card is an official Australian ID that you can buy that will signify I'm older than 18. After we walked all the way down to the CBD, looked around the street and realized the place to order them was literally right behind us, we found they're closed on weekends. So instead I decided to walk up to campus and work my way through my class schedules. To my luck, my farthest classes apart are only a 5 minute walk from each other so my back to back classes may be a possibility!

I have also decided to start trying to be really healthy and start using the gym I am probably paying for with my housing fees (I better be for this price). So tonight I decided to stay in and just go use the gym instead of going out and getting late night chocolate dipped churros like last night. My plan immediately paid off as I met my first Australian friend and we've decided to be gym buddies! Now I'll actually have motivation to go down to the gym and I get an Australian friend! Win win situation.

Tonight ended with watching the footy game with some of the guys. I tried really hard to be interested, but it's a very complicated game and I had no idea what was going on. Maybe by the end of this I'll be a footy expert!

Day 15

Yesterday was not the most interesting day. I woke up early and skyped, which always makes me happy. Plus it was such a gorgeous day it was hard not to be happy when I'm outside! I also took another chance while I was on campus to look around to find the buildings my classes are in, since I was already on campus for the free internet. At night we started off at RMIT getting free food at the animal party that was supposed to be really fun, but just ended up being really awkward and lame if you were in the courtyard, so after spending most of the night inside peoples apartments, we left to go to Brunswick St. At Brunswick St., a place notorious for awesome indie clubs and bars, of course we ended up at two different food places. But I had, again, an amazing churro covered in dark chocolate. There is not a better late night food in existence than deep fried dough covered in chocolate.

Day 14

This has been a wonderful day!! I woke up early to go to the biology subject introduction...thing, which turned out to be just for incoming freshmen who had never taken biology, but I ended up talking to the girl next to me who was in the exact same situation I was in so I wasn't quite as bored as I would've been. I then went all the way across campus to the genetics building and was able to get my genes and genomes lecturer to sign my sheet – one class done. I planned to spend the entire day looking for another course but ended up finding one really quickly! It's called From Plato to Einstein, a sort of philosophy of biology course which fits in my schedule perfectly and actually sounds interesting! It also fulfills my social studies requirement back at Wooster, so it's perfect. I waited all day for the professor to respond, and finally he said I could absolutely join. It. Was. Perfect. My schedule is finally figured out, and I did it all by myself. :)

Today was also the day to sign up for clubs. It was just as overwhelming as scot spirit day but this time the clubs actually cost money. I ended up joining quite a few including yoga club, MUSEX (some kind of student exchange club), M-ASS (arts society club..even though I wasn't arts they still let me join haha), wine tasting club, and pre-vet club. The last one I'm obviously most excited about and we'll see what happens in it! I also want to join animal protection society and some other sciencey animal ones but we'll see how much time I have first.

The day ended with tim tams and getting freakishly addicted to csi: special victims unit. I don't know how it happened, one minute we were laughing at it, the next thing we were shushing the people around us when the show came back on. I have a feeling this will become a weekly thursday ritual.

Day 13

Today was one of the more stressful days since I've been here – course registration. It started off easy enough, I was told I had an advisor appointment at 11:15 where I would be able to enroll in my classes. I thought, great, I can finally meet with someone in the biology faculty and get their input on what classes to take. I was wrong. I walked into the building and was given a number and told to sit with the other students who were waiting for an open advisor. Once my name was called the man pointed me to most likely a graduate student, who had me take out my form of approved classes and within 5 minutes, she said I was done. I couldn't believe it was that fast and I got all my classes that I wanted – I was thrilled. So I spent the next couple of hours wandering around by myself, getting my student ID card (the picture makes me want to kill myself) and went on a venture to find how to use campus internet. This was quite the feat in itself as nothing is as simple as Wooster here in Australia, but after 2 hours of asking countless amounts of people, I finally did it! Yay free internet!

It was only at the welcome pizza lunch when I was talking with my friends and they started complaining about registering for classes. Some were complaining about how they had classes on Fridays or not having room for classes they wanted to take, and I mentioned I hadn't even looked at my schedule yet. One of them looked at me in disbelief and asked if I had done my time table yet. The time table is your schedule, so apparently once you were enrolled in the classes you wanted, you then had to fit the available sections of those courses into one neat little schedule. But I figured the grad student wouldn't have enrolled me in the courses if they overlapped – wrong. When I finally was able to check and try to figure out my time table, only two of my classes worked, two overlapped completely, and one didn't even have an opening in the lecture.

At wooster, this would have been a pain, but I could just go through and sign up for a different class. Here, entirely different story. I need to have the supervisor of that subject sign off on the fact that I can take the course to even have it show up as an option online for me, and then I have to see if any of those sections fit into my time table. This means I need to run around campus trying to find these lecturers, beg them to put me in their class, but it all could be for nothing if it can't fit in my time table. I was ready to freak, and I had no idea where to go to for help. I finally ended up emailing a couple of professors to see if I could get into their class, and left to go home. It was ridiculously frustrating, but later in the night one of them emailed me back saying I could absolutely join her class and she doesn't think the time tables with overlap, so I'm overjoyed. I now have 3 of my 4 classes, the forth is a giant question mark at the moment but I'll find a subject tomorrow.

I finished off my night by watching gran torino with a couple people from arcadia, which I thought was absolutely fantastic. Very powerful movie. Let's hope tomorrow is better class-wise.

Day 13 Talking about Day 12

Wow, a day after I set my goal and I'm already behind. Off to a good start! Anyway, yesterday was the first day of our FINAL orientation! We have had far too many, and each are way too expensive. It didn't start off well, as when I finally found the building I was supposed to be in, they told me I couldn't get my orientation packet or go into the lecture hall without my passport. I, unlike other people, hadn't been carrying around my passport because I feel I'm destined to get mugged when I'm walking around in a big city. After slightly panicking, the woman said I could go in to the lecture but would have to pick up my packet later on that day. Luckily the lecture was short, and only about the process on how to register for classes and the different science courses they had (courses meaning biology, chemistry, etc. A subject is the actual classes themselves. How weird is that?). But because it was only an hour I was able to run back to my apartment, get my passport, run to and find a different building, wait in the longest line of my life because everyone in the line in front of me had bigger problems than I had and thus took SO LONG but I digress.

After a free lunch I decided to go to the optional lectures afterwards about life in australia because, why not? The first was actually very helpful and interesting, the man talked about different places in Melbourne to go to if you're on a budget (me for sure), as well as talked about the best places to travel around Australia and the best ways to go about doing it. The second lecture, however, was one of the most boring experiences so far. The lecturers here keep telling us how much harder uni melbourne will be from our normal classes and how we'll have to make a lot of adjustments. These adjustments include, writing an argumentative essay (who knew you needed a thesis and points to back up your thesis?) and actually reading an assignment before you come to class. Both of these were explained in full detail to the point where I really wondered how bad they thought our previous schooling was. It was ridiculous.

Last night I was also able to cook rice and stuff for the first time since I've gotten here! It was fabulous, and definitely will be happening a lot as it is the cheapest thing in the world to eat. Gotta love it. Afterwards I saw RMIT on the inside for the first time, which definitely reminded me more a dorm-style living situation than college square, but that's not really a bad thing. It's a complete maze though, fit with hallways that just end to haunted elevators. We ended up heading to Turf, a bar/club next to RMIT, and thankfully left just before 11 so I was able to actually sleep before I have my advisor appointment today!  

Day 11

I've decided that I'm going to try and post at the end of every day just saying what happened that day.  Maybe it'll be fun to look back at all this later on and remember things.  So here goes!

Today I felt really lazy when I woke up and sat by the tv watching infomercials and drinking tea, especially when my roommate went downstairs to the gym to work out, but it was amazing.  I haven't had a nonbusy morning in too long of a time.  Around 11:30 miss lloyd and I walked over to rmit, the other apartment building our friends are staying in, which is across campus so it took us quite the while to get there. RMIT looks adorable, very french style and it seems to have much more a community than College Square does.  The group of us was going to all see Harry Potter at 1, but since when we got there and there is assigned seating in Australian movie theaters (how weird is that...?), the only seats we could get together would be in the second row.  I personally, and most of the others, did not want to strain our necks trying to see the last and final movie that marks the end of one of the best series in history, we opted to go to a later showing.

In the break between we did a bit of shopping for such fun and exciting things as hangers and towels but then stopped at a chocolate and coffee shop, where I had the best churro I've ever had in my life.  Maybe it was the chocolate sauce it was dipped in or the wonderfulness of fried dough, but I was in heaven.  We eventually made our way back to the movie and it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!  If any of you have not seen the last harry potter yet, GET ON THAT.  I, like many others, started tearing up during the movie, but alas it was stupid American problems creeping back that the movie had reminded me of that made me do it.  I guess you really can't escape your feelings by moving across the world.  Living in a different country has for sure helped the situation, but mostly because I haven't had time to think about anything except the present.  I'm scared to think what'll happen when I actually have more down time.

Tonight I'm spending the night in, as I still have no voice after a week and a half of talking constantly and not enough sleep.  But I'm hoping lemon tea and Master Chef Australia will help with that situation. I wish I was out having fun with all of my friends, but in the long run I know this'll be best.

Day 10

Tonight I ate kangaroo meat.  That's right, meat from a kangaroo.  It was all going well, we had kangaroo quesadillas, which for the first few bites were normal aside from the chewiness of the meat.  When I had only a few pieces left, however, the group started talking about how it is illegal to kill kangaroos and thus the meat was probably from an already dead kangaroo.  Needless to say I lost my appetite thinking about eating roadkill kangaroo, even if it wasn't true.  But I can at least say I tried it!!

I also have learned today that McDonalds here do not have dollar menus.  So even the cheapest food in America is still expensive here.  Their "value" menu starts at around 5 dollars, or so I've heard.  Damn Australian prices...

I have internet! Day 9 (?)

I figured out, faster than I thought originally, how to buy internet in my apartment! It is absolutely atrocious in price, but I got the cheapest for for 20 dollars a month.  This gives me 2GB of data a month.  I have no idea what that means, but I'm guessing I just won't be able to go online a lot, but enough to do what I need to do.  If I run out and really need internet, I can always go to the uni for free or the public library.  God it's like the stone age...


As I said above, I moved into my apartment yesterday! It is wonderful, very big compared to most other apartments I've seen and Lyndon gave us a giant starter kit with an 80 piece kitchen set, along with duvets and pillows, a toaster, and a water boiler.  It has everything a freaking professional chef would use, let alone two college aged people, including about 6 different kinds of sifters.  My roommate and I live on the top floor (9th) of the apartment building and as a result have BEAUTIFUL views.  One wall is just giant windows which if you look out one side is the beautiful city, and if you look out the other, is the giant ass graveyard.  


Now today I finally get to relax and make my apartment look more like a home! I finally get to start cooking for myself and hopefully spend a lot less money.  Finally. :)

Day 8

I officially arrived one week ago and cannot believe it has only been a week.  It seems like I've known some of these people for months, and there has already been enough fun and drama to fit a month already.  Yesterday we went to the Melbourne Zoo and saw awesome animals like koalas and wallabies and everyone but me it seems got to see an adorable platypus swimming around in circles.  I only got a picture of the sign.  Oh well.

After the zoo I left early to run errands before Eureka tower.  Just trying to find a 7/11 was SO much harder than I thought. I saw one way up on Royal Parade St so spent 20 minutes walking to it to learn that it's closed until the next day, well today.  So I kept walking to see if there would be another one, ended up in these suburbs in the outskirts of Melbourne city and decided to just walk back the other direction.  An hour and a half later, I finally arrived at another 7/11 where the only items on my list that they had were tim tams and an atm.  But at least it was exercise!

Since it took so long to find the 7/11 we were running late to get to Eureka tower, which of course we had no idea how to get to even though it is the tallest building in the city (rivaling some in the world!)  We took the tram down to the city and were told by our host to wait under the train station, which we did for 20 minutes until we got a frantic call that we were in the wrong place and holding the group up and we needed to leave asap, so a host had to come find us and run to the tower in this giant mess.  We both felt so bad but what can you do.  It was worth it though! The views from up top the tower were amazing and we didn't have to pay to go see it later! A win all around!

Tomorrow we leave at 10 am to move in to our actual apartments! I could not be more excited, although I'm not looking forward to actually paying for food again and having to pay for internet, so you all might see less of me than I have been the past week or so.  Why is everything so expensive!?

PS

Here's a list of funny things I've noticed so far.

Burger King is called Hungry Jacks.
Tire is spelled Tyre.
Yield is "Give Way."
Cotton candy is called Fairy Floss.
There is a drink called a fairy bomb that is an absinthe energy drink. Oh. My. God.
The phrase for shit's hit the fan is "it's gone pear-shaped", and it's all good is "she's apples."
A glass of beer is called a pot, and in Queensland the next biggest size is called a scooner.


To be continued! :)

Ugh but yay.

I am completely exhausted.  We have been walking nonstop since we got here last Friday and my legs and feet are killing me.  It seems all we do now is walk and eat extremely expensive food.  I now have the cheapest phone in the entire world yet it was still 70 dollars.  I want to kill it sometimes, and my sometimes I mean always.  I'm now staying at trinity college in the uni in the smallest single imaginable, but it's still warm so I'm happy.  It's cold and raining here all the time which doesn't help the situation.  BUT, I'm absolutely loving being here! I want to move into my apartment now and get settled in but that'll come eventually.  I also wouldn't mind a shower that doesn't drip on your head slowly while you hope that someone doesn't walk in on you.

In lighter news, today we did an aboriginal walk where this crazy old man made us walk around the royal botanical gardens, smelling plants and hugging and kissing trees while beating sticks together.  If it wasn't raining and cold and if i wasn't soaked to my core than it actually would've been a lot of fun, but instead we spent most of the time being exhausted and cold.  Afterwards we went to the National Gallery of Victoria where we were so exhausted most of us had trouble keeping our eyes open let alone walk around a museum listening to a woman who obviously knew none of us really wanted to be there at that moment in time.  I would love to go back sometime when I can move my legs without my entire body hurting!

I definitely need a night in.  The Australian lifestyle is definitely taking its tole on me seeing as everything is sore and my voice has been going since the second day.  But I'm loving every second (in the long run...) so that's what matters!

Arrived!

Good news! I haven't died yet! My plane ride was excruciatingly long, but neither was that terrible. On my plane to LAX I sat next to a Harvard professor that was heading to give two lectures on measuring lung capacity, and on the second I sat next to a girl going to Australia for 3 weeks for a kind of sports tour, who told me she was my age and dating a 36 year old. Am I the only one who finds that ridiculously disturbing? I was actually able to see wild kangaroos my first day!! We stopped at this wooded area and had to hike through some trails to get to a field with small shrub like things. The kangaroos apparently like to lay down between the shrubs to avoid the wind in the winter and I was convinced we wouldn't see them because it was so cold. Turns out we saw about maybe 20 of them, including a joey which was the absolute cutest thing ever to see hop around.

We're now staying at the a cute little old hotel which I guess is sort of like a bed and breakfast since we get breakfast and dinner here in the dining room. For lunch we tried to find the cheapest place possible since yesterdays lunch cost about 20 dollars each, so we ended up at a take-out chinese restaurant. It figures that only on the second day I would end up eating a chinese place. So far for orientation we've been doing seminars on Australian culture and how to make the most of our trip here. Best news of the day though! I mentioned that I am pre-vet and Lyndon, one of the head instructors here, told me afterwards that his mothers partner is a veterinarian in Melbourne and could possibly set me up working or volunteering with him for the semester! If this works out, this semester abroad will have paid for itself with my happiness.

More things have happened but I will write more later as I am late for lunch!  I love Australia!    

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Day Before

So it is the day before I leave and just a few days after the dreaded incident and I am already so much better.  I guess it takes a devastation to realize how wonderful your friends really are, and I've actually never felt more supported in my life.  I'm still sad, but we can hopefully stay friends and I can focus on making me happy all by myself.

Thank you alll sooooo much for your texts, phone calls, skype calls, and facebook messages.  You all mean the world to me!

I leave tomorrow at 1:30 pm for LAX and then fly over to Melbourne for a week of my first orientation where I'll have no internet or phone.  I apparently get to see kangaroos my first day!! I'm finally so ready to leave and just be away from everything.  And I'm taking Mr. Bear and our newest addition, Mr. Hippo, with me!

4 More Days

It is officially 2:30 in the morning after the absolute worst night of my life and as a result I can't sleep.  So why not try this blogging thing.  My worst nightmare came true in pretty much exact wording.  People keep telling me things happen for a reason, but I'd really like to know what this reason is because right now every part of my body hurts.  I just wish I had some kind of warning.  Actually no, I just wish things were different and this never happened.  Hell, right now I even wish he'd just lie to me about the future and everything would stay the same because I had never been happier in my life.  But I guess that was one sided.

Australia will make things easier in certain regards, but it eventually will end and I'll be back at Wooster.  Hopefully by then I'll be in better shape.  I have 6 months.  Can I do it?