week one

It's nice to be in the swing of things now. I can actually have somewhat of a structure to my life now & keep everyone updated more! Atleast try. I'm going to Magnetic Island this weekend with some friends for an all day trip to chill. "Enjoy some coffee & nibbles at sunset." It's just a little island off of Townsville, touristy little thing to do. We have a pool party after at my other friends house! I'm looking forward to it. No classes on fridays so my weekend has officially begun! It's been an awesome first week, I turned 21 on Sunday night so all my friends took me out to the tav. Made me a birthday sash and all, haha so necessary for free drinks. The last few days have just been smokin hot. There was also a themed SORORITY/FRAT party on tuesday. I really had fun with this one. All the girls in my dorm were like oh my god, I wonder what they actually wear over there?! I guess tall socks, short skirts & a tank top. I was absolutely befuddled. Really girls? Haha, when I told them I'm in a sorority they freaked out and said, "TELL US ALL ABOUT IT!! IS IT REALLY JUST LIKE LEGALLY BLONDE?!? DO THE GIRLS REALLY WEAR SHORT PINK DRESSES & CARRY A PUPPY AROUND?!" I was like wowwww, no. Not at all. We just wear normal clothes & normal shoes. Sperry's anyone? That was a definite no. They told me their grandfathers wear them, hahaha. I get a laugh out of literally everything here. It's just what I do. So that was that! I dressed up for pretend & had fun with it. The guys nailed it, easily. So, I've been planning a sailing trip all week for Ry & I to do when he comes here. Finally topped everything off today & made it official. We'll be sailing all over the great barrier reef & Whitehaven beach (seriously,google it) for 2 nights & 3 days. It's going to be phenomenal!!

I've finished my first week of classes at uni! The campus is so different. I mean, I've seen plenty of campuses and this one is just odd. The sidewalks just tend to end into trees, turkeys sprint around the place (don't touch them, it's illegal and you will actually go to jail) & all the buildings are misnumbered. As in, one of my classes could be in building number 5 & then 6 is on the opposite side of campus. I don't get it. I'm taking sex,drugs & nature, youth deviance, perspectives of criminology & anthropology of violence. Pretty interesting classes, actually very interesting. On tuesday, I was in class with Liz and neither of us could even understand what the bloke was saying. He's an older guy who hates America for no apparent reason... "We'll be using a textbook that's from America... unfortanetly!!" That's happened numberous times with my professors. Quite comical. In my sex,drugs & nature class today my coke snorting teacher tried to tell us that Oprah supports MDMA.. HAHA. Really, guy? Oprah supports ecstacy?! Riiiight. I guess he didn't realize that there are actually kids from the states that know who she is... and frequent her show. What a shame, but understandable considering how drugged out he was. You should've seen this guy, itching his neck and completely bugging out. I couldn't keep a straight face the whole class. He claims he has taught this class before, but he did a seriously awful job at showing it. He actually used the word "unpackinglyness". Serious nut. As for my other classes, easy breezy. I have some readings to do every week and like a major assignment and test in all of them. Just have to keep! No one is there pushing you every step of the way like in the states. It's quite nice & relaxing.
I wake up here every morning around 7 or 8 in the morning. Surprisingly! I just can't let my time slip away by sleeping. I took a nice run this morning while it was still tolerable outside. I left around 7:30 and by the time I got back it heated up 15 degrees. I can't believe the heat here. It's crazy! I tolerate it though & hang at the river or the pool.. or hop in an all cold shower. Literally, don't even touch the hot water. It's all you need! I really love it. It makes me realize how unhealthy America is here. I have heaps & heaps of vegetables for every meal. It's so great. A large here at mcdonalds is a small in the states just to put it into proportion. YUK. Everyone's out playing sports & just enjoying the nature. I'm trying to join a sports team here. I'm leaning towards ultimate frisbee. Should be great fun! Time for a chill night with friends. I miss home & all, but I'm loving every minute here. Even my down time when I'm sweating my ass off. It really is the simple things in life I've learned :)

g'day

Ello, mate. sydney was just an all around amazing time, hands down. What an interesting city, so clean.  Everyone's so healthy, I love it! Overly friendly, so different than what I'm use to. While we finished up our orientation week in sydney, we kept seriously busy. Always on the go! We did the sydney harbor bridge climb. I was pretty nervous at first, but went out there with no regrets. We climbed to the highest point on the bridge, reaching 500 feet. What an amazing sight it is up there. You can see all of sydney, all the way to the blue mountains. I wasn't expecting sydney to be as hilly as it is. Breathtaking, we took pictures along the way, as you see! After the climb, we had some lunch outside. The food is phenomenal. It's all just so fresh & delicious! Later that night, we went out to a nightclub called soho with kat's friends that are from around town. Very welcoming folks, took us out & got in for free. Always a plus. We left there and continued on with several other bars & nightclubs.
On our last day there, we had the whole day to ourselves to do whatever we pleased. A few of us went downtown to paddies market. Just an outside vendor sort of thing with goodies. At 4 we all went out on a dinner cruise. We had a 3 course meal & enjoyed dancing with old folks to a live band. The macarana came on & all the aussie's looked at us like we were crazy. A whole group of americans doing the same simple dance, how odd. Australians can't dance. They'll admit it too. It's quite funny, they all sort of stand in a circle and hold their pointer fingers out to point-dance all over the place. None of that grinding stuff that we tend to do. If we were to do that here it would strongly convey an awful message to your dancing partner. I like it though, it's not all grimey & dirty. Everyone's in their own little world so I fit right in! Haha. After the cruise, some of us went to some random bars on the way home & later on to the casino. It was my first time at the casino so I had fun! We all stayed out really late since it was our last night & had to up & pack the next morning to catch our plane to townsville. We had to say bye's to a few people going to other uni's, lame. We arrived here to 90 degree weather with 100% humidity. Yeaaahh, it's hot as hell here. We all slowly got dropped off at our dorms to find out that we had no a/c. Yeah, it sucks. It gets extremely hot during the day, but night is tolerable. Thank god for ceiling fans. If you're outside for more than 6 minutes, ya start to burn! It's just a little known fact around here so they all load up on spf. There's really no point in showering either. You feel so clean then once you're out you just start to sweat instantly. Very different than what I'm use to, but I love it here. This whole week is "O week" (orientation week) for freshman so I assume we're here because we're new students & it's a great way to meet everyone around here. They have all sorts of activities set up for us all week & all sorts of parties every night. It's quite fun. However, 2 nights ago I experienced some aussie hazing! Apparently, australians haze all the freshman during this week. The aussie's believe that all this non sense comes from america. They see american pie movies & think that's how it actually is... It's pretty weird. Sort of like some stereotypical frat/sorority thing going on. My "college" (which is just what they say for your dorming community) was all given BIBS the first day we got here. We have to wear them to all our meals & functions. Other colleges were given shirts, bandanas or something of that sort they have to wear as well all week. It jus depends on where you're living. So 2 nights ago we were woken up at 3 a.m to go outside and do war crys for an hour & a half until the R.A's approved... very weird? It's just an ice breaker thing they do so people can meet each other.
It's nice to be all settled in here. I can truly say that I'm having the time of my life & could honesly see myself living here. Hats off to the next 4-5 months!

criiiikey!

I MADE IT TO AUSTRALIA!!!!!! Wow, what an adventure the past few days have been! All the flights over here took f.o.r.e.v.e.r! I left around 12:30 in the afternoon on monday & got here wednesday at 8:00 a.m. What a beautiful flight it is on the way over here. I could've done without all the lay overs, but it's been soo worth it. It was about a 15 hour plane ride... Not as bad as I thought considering I had a human australian encyclopedia sitting right next to me. So now I know everything I wanted to know... and more about australia! We all got in the first day & battled customs. Took a bit to get out, but we fought through it. It's really been great adventure so far. The orienatation is pretty chill. Yesterday we were all battling to stay awake. Our guides gave us our phones, fed us lunch & took us out to dinner as well. I tried kangaroo for the first time... as well as the rest of our table! There's about 20 of us going to james cook university with the exception of 2 guys. After dinner a few of us went to a couple bars, bar century & the bank of australia. The bars here are nothing like america... and neither is the beer. A popular beer they drink over here is called "pure blonde". Taste sort of like carbonated apple cider? Really weird, so we all tried another beer called oscars lager. Much better, but still a very distinct taste. The bank of america bar was really, really cool. It was about 5 levels with live bands. Not too packed, but very entertaining! They played music we all enjoyed.. alternative//reggae. We only stayed til ten then walked back to our place, right across the street. We're staying at the world tower in the heart of sydney. SO JET LAGGED. However, the coffee has done an immaculate job keeping us awake. The coffee absolutely phenomenal here. Apparently, aussie's brought starbucks over here to see how it'd do & they couldn't keep the business going because it's so awful to them! Any little coffee shop here beats starbucks by a long shot. Yes, starbucks sucks.

Today we had a 3 hour walking tour of sydney & stopped for lunch to have meat pies... new addiction. Meat pies are a big australian tradition//icon over here. Kind of like america with hot dogs. Same deal. A meat pie is a puff little pastry with meat, mashed potatoes, mush peas & gravy. There's a vegetarian kind & a few others, but the traditional pie is the best. Really good & simple. We ate at a harbor right at the water. After lunch we went to an animal park. We, finally, saw kangaroo's & koala's!! They're so freakin adorable. We got to feed them & take more pictures than needed. Such a touristy day! Now, we're back at the place hanging at our hotel... paying to use the internet. 5 dollars an hour, so dumb. Australia is sooo behind on technology, it's rather annoying. Our phones... slide... with ABC texting. Oh, aaand they're nokia. Really? No swype texting?! Ugh. Haha. So, essentially, it takes about 15 minutes to write a little e-mail. Ohhh well. 

Ryan & I just got to skype for the first time! It was really good to see him, it's so hard being on the complete opposite side of the world. I know he's keeping really busy though with work & school. It's always nice to catch up though :) So odd that he's going to bed right in the middle of my day over here. I really miss my boy!

Well... Me & 2 other girls (kat & karen) are going out for thai tonight! Number one cuisine in Australia, apparently! Shower time. Until later :)

Pre-Departure

As my journey to the complete opposite side of the world gets closer & closer, reality starts to set in. I've started to follow Australian news instead of ours, try to figure out what to actually pack & saying final goodbyes to everyone. So many questions float around in my head about lifestyle, culture, news & most importantly natural disasters. Of course the week before I set out on my big adventure, a category five Cyclone Yasi has struck Townsville and surrounding areas. I was extremely worried when I first heard about it. I mean, I know they're use to these types of situations, but they can't stop 200 mph winds! I was soo scared that I wasn't going to be able to go!

Numerous people fled from Queensland to Sydney to get away from the disaster. Us, students, were sent various informative e-mails from our advisors to let us know that James Cook University has been closed til my departure date, February 7th. Over the past few days, I've been following the storm closely. Good news is that the storm somewhat calmed down once it hit land! It wasn't as bad as the Aussie's were expecting. On the down side, there's still thousands of homes without power all along the coast of Queensland. They're really tackling the issue hands on though everyday, so I'm not too worried about the situation anymore!

Anyway, I have superbowl weekend ahead of me with friends & family then I'm out of the U.S for 4 months! Bittersweet! I'll really miss my other half, but skype will be our life line just like it was before. Long distance is tolerable even though it'll be a little different with the ten hour time shift this time! We'll work it out, I'm sure of it. Ryan's truly supportive of the whole situation which will make my transition a million times easier. Only positive vibes, what a guy :) 

Only a few days left to get myself together for a new country... Errands, pack, pack, pack! 

BON VOYAGE :P