On Tuesday, April 10th, we slept in. After breakfast, we did a little shopping, ate lunch, and went to the Lagoon down the street from our hostel. It's basically a big pool overlooking the ocean. Very pretty! We layed out in the sun for a while (I took care to put on a gallon of sunscreen and not let the sun shine on my poor, red back lol) then hopped in the pool for a refreshing swim. It was a pretty relaxed day:)
Wednesday Alex, Benny, Viivi and I arranged a guided tour of Cape Tribulation in the Daintree Rainforest Region. Cape Tribulation is where Captain Cook's boat sank in Northern Queensland, so all the landmarks have pretty depressing names, like Tribulation or Mount Sorrow lol. Our guide, George, picked us up bright and early in a big van. Our first stop was Mossman Gorge, where there was an opportunity to swim in the clear, cold water coming down from the mountain. I elected not to swim, but enjoyed taking pictures of the pretty scenery and walking around on the different suspension bridges.
Next we took a ferry across the Daintree River and drove up to the Alexandra Range Lookout. The view was amazing. None of the pictures I took can capture the beauty and majesty of the mountain and the surrounding area. Our next activity was the Marrdja Boardwalk, a winding walk through the rainforest. This was awesome and terrifying at the same time. There are so many things that can kill you in the rainforest: spiders, snakes, ants, crocodiles, etc. One girl almost walked straight into the web of a huge female Golden Orb spider the size of my hand. The guide told me that female Golden Orbs eat the males after mating...yuck! The trees were beautiful though, and the guide told us lots of interesting facts about the plants and animals.
After our walk we made our way to the Main Beach for lunch. We couldn't swim there because of the crocodiles and stingers, but the scenery was pretty:) We then went on a wildlife cruise down the Daintree River. I was pretty disappointed, because it started getting really rainy and windy at that point, which means that most of the crocodiles stayed underwater or hid behind the vegetation to stay warm. We saw an 8 ft. croc named Scooter, as well as a little baby, but that was it. I learned some pretty interesting facts about crocs though:) The last thing we did was drive through a small town called Port Douglas on our way back to Cairns.
Overall, it was a really cool trip! I'm having so much fun here. Today Alex and Benny are off whitewater rafting, and Viivi was supposed to go skydiving (but it's raining like you wouldn't believe, so she went to a museum instead), so I'm just chilling by myself at the hostel right now, enjoying a little alone time:) It's kind of hard to come by on trips like this, so I enjoy it when I get the opportunity. I like to get up earlier than the others in the morning and have some quiet reading and praying time as well. Tonight we are taking a bus down to Airlie Beach, where we will go sailing around some of the Whitsunday Islands:) I can't wait!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Vacation!!!
Not like being abroad in Australia for a semester isn't vacation, but right now I'm on my two-week semester break, so it's like a vacation within a vacation haha. My one dream in coming to Australia was to visit the Great Barrier Reef, and I'm finally getting to do it! Some friends and I are taking these two weeks to fly up to Cairns and then work our way down the east coast. Some of us are traveling by Greyhound bus and staying in hostels (Benedicte, Alex, Viivi, and myself) and the rest are renting a van and driving down themselves (Bethany, Bubba, James, Trevor, Gabe, Jacob, Kyle, and Lyndsay).
On our first day in Cairns, we arrived around 7 pm, so we didn't do much. We checked into our hostel, a place called Corona Backpackers Hostel. The receptionist, Angelo, is one of the coolest people I've met. He's super chill and really helpful. He helped us book a bunch of activities and even got us 20% off! And our hostel is nice and clean! (not always the case with hostels I guess). Alex, Viivi, Benedicte (aka Benny) and I are staying in a 4 person air-conditioned room, so it's a pretty ideal situation. Our hostel provides us with meal tickets that get us a discount at a local restaurant, so we went there for dinner. The restaurant is a saloon type place called the Woolshed. It's got a pretty good vibe to it, and we can get nice steak dinners for only $8 with our hostel cards.
On our second day, Sunday, we got up and did some grocery shopping then went to Palm Cove beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and we got lots of time out in the sun! Unfortunately, even though I put sunscreen on 3 times, I got pretty burned:/ The water was nice and warm, and we had a great day. The only thing that was a bummer was that we could only swim in a netted-off area in one part of the water, because it's jellyfish (aka stinger) season and there are also a lot of crocodiles in this part of the ocean. Other than that, it was great:)
On Monday we went to the Great Barrier Reef!!! It was easily one of the best days of my life. I've been wanting to go to the reef ever since I was little, when I used to be obsessed with whales, dolphins, and other marine life. Originally, I just signed up to snorkel in an effort to save money. When we got there though, my friend Lyndsay, who had signed up for one intro dive, found out that she wasn't allowed to dive because she has asthma. So I got to swap places with her for only $20 or so. We went to our first site in the morning. I started out snorkeling around to get used to being in the water and everything. Alex even let me use his underwater camera to take pictures of the reef! The water was warm and it was so beautiful. After about 30 minutes, they called me in to go diving. We got outfitted with oxygen tanks and all the other gear and hopped back in. I was pretty nervous at first, but the guide (Fraser) was very helpful. When I first started to descend, my ears were hurting pretty badly, but after a while I fixed it by "equalizing", which is plugging your nose and blowing out of it to get air into your sinuses and stuff. Diving was awesome because we could get right up close to the reef and all the fish and animals at the bottom. We saw a stingray, some giant clams, and other cool things.
After diving, we ate lunch and went to the next site on the reef. This time I just snorkeled. But it was awesome! The reef was closer to the surface at the second site, so I could snorkel over it and still be right up close. The variety in plants and animals was amazing and so beautiful. All the beauty really made me think of God, and how He created all of this for us to enjoy, and how beautiful He must be to create scenery like this. I could have stayed there for hours taking it all in. I almost got hit in the face by a jellyfish though, and I even saw a shark! It was a small White-Tipped Reef Shark, so I wasn't scared. The only thing that I didn't get to see that I wanted to was a turtle. Kyle said he saw a turtle eating a jellyfish, which would've been awesome. Oh well!
After that we went back to the hostel, showered, and went to dinner. That night, everyone else went out to the bars, but I stayed back and had a nice quiet reading time and went to bed early:)
On our first day in Cairns, we arrived around 7 pm, so we didn't do much. We checked into our hostel, a place called Corona Backpackers Hostel. The receptionist, Angelo, is one of the coolest people I've met. He's super chill and really helpful. He helped us book a bunch of activities and even got us 20% off! And our hostel is nice and clean! (not always the case with hostels I guess). Alex, Viivi, Benedicte (aka Benny) and I are staying in a 4 person air-conditioned room, so it's a pretty ideal situation. Our hostel provides us with meal tickets that get us a discount at a local restaurant, so we went there for dinner. The restaurant is a saloon type place called the Woolshed. It's got a pretty good vibe to it, and we can get nice steak dinners for only $8 with our hostel cards.
On our second day, Sunday, we got up and did some grocery shopping then went to Palm Cove beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and we got lots of time out in the sun! Unfortunately, even though I put sunscreen on 3 times, I got pretty burned:/ The water was nice and warm, and we had a great day. The only thing that was a bummer was that we could only swim in a netted-off area in one part of the water, because it's jellyfish (aka stinger) season and there are also a lot of crocodiles in this part of the ocean. Other than that, it was great:)
On Monday we went to the Great Barrier Reef!!! It was easily one of the best days of my life. I've been wanting to go to the reef ever since I was little, when I used to be obsessed with whales, dolphins, and other marine life. Originally, I just signed up to snorkel in an effort to save money. When we got there though, my friend Lyndsay, who had signed up for one intro dive, found out that she wasn't allowed to dive because she has asthma. So I got to swap places with her for only $20 or so. We went to our first site in the morning. I started out snorkeling around to get used to being in the water and everything. Alex even let me use his underwater camera to take pictures of the reef! The water was warm and it was so beautiful. After about 30 minutes, they called me in to go diving. We got outfitted with oxygen tanks and all the other gear and hopped back in. I was pretty nervous at first, but the guide (Fraser) was very helpful. When I first started to descend, my ears were hurting pretty badly, but after a while I fixed it by "equalizing", which is plugging your nose and blowing out of it to get air into your sinuses and stuff. Diving was awesome because we could get right up close to the reef and all the fish and animals at the bottom. We saw a stingray, some giant clams, and other cool things.
After diving, we ate lunch and went to the next site on the reef. This time I just snorkeled. But it was awesome! The reef was closer to the surface at the second site, so I could snorkel over it and still be right up close. The variety in plants and animals was amazing and so beautiful. All the beauty really made me think of God, and how He created all of this for us to enjoy, and how beautiful He must be to create scenery like this. I could have stayed there for hours taking it all in. I almost got hit in the face by a jellyfish though, and I even saw a shark! It was a small White-Tipped Reef Shark, so I wasn't scared. The only thing that I didn't get to see that I wanted to was a turtle. Kyle said he saw a turtle eating a jellyfish, which would've been awesome. Oh well!
After that we went back to the hostel, showered, and went to dinner. That night, everyone else went out to the bars, but I stayed back and had a nice quiet reading time and went to bed early:)
Sorry!
Hey everyone,
I apologize for being such a terrible blogger. Most of the time I forget I even have a blog, and the other times I just get distracted and/or am too lazy to write lol. But I'll try to be better from now on. It's been over a month since I've written, but for most of that time I don't have much to report. Classes are going alright; they can be very frustrating at times, but I'm taking comfort in the fact that I technically only have to pass them--my grades here won't affect my GPA back home. I'm still trying to do well, but it takes the pressure off.
When I'm not in class I'm usually reading, at the gym, hanging out with people, or playing ping pong. They have a ping pong table in the common room, and I swear that game never gets boring to me. There's quite a few people that enjoy playing, so we have fun competing against each other:) I've started doing yoga and pilates classes. My body gets so tight and inflexible, so I'm trying to work on that while I'm here because the classes are free! It's definitely very hard for me, but hopefully it will start to get easier soon. I'm going to miss the gym here when I go home. It's an awesome facility and they have lots of personal trainers on staff that answer your questions and give you free consultations every few weeks. Although, I have a pretty awesome trainer back home (love you mom!) :).
Definitely one of my favorite things in Australia is Hillsong Church. I've gotten to know some of the people that go to Hillsong College, and some that just attend the church weekly. I've even started volunteering for Hillsong! It's a pretty small thing--I carry around trays of food for people to eat after the services when everyone stands around and talks--but I'm just doing what I can and trying to let God use me in whatever way He wills. I've started going to a weekly small group as well. My group's leader is named Lillian, and she is really sweet:) Last Friday was one of my favorite days at Hillsong. It was Good Friday, so we didn't have classes, and I went into the city to attend the Good Friday service at the Sydney Entertainment Center. It was awesome! We had a long period of awesome worship, and Michael W. Smith sang:) I'm so sad I missed Easter Sunday at Hillsong. I bet it was awesome. Reinhardt Bonnke was preaching. I'm going to see if someone has a recording of it that I could watch.
After the service, I went with some girls I met that day to Paddy's Market. It's a huge market that sells a ton of touristy type souvenirs and other small goods. I tried to find some good things to bring home:) After a while it got really overwhelming though. There are so many people and so much stuff for sale..and it was really hot. We were exhausted when we got done. We cooled off with a 30 cent ice cream cone from McDonalds (or Maccas, as they call it here) and went home.
That's pretty much what I've been up to for the last month or so! Just studying and enjoying myself:) Nothing too big, until right now....
I apologize for being such a terrible blogger. Most of the time I forget I even have a blog, and the other times I just get distracted and/or am too lazy to write lol. But I'll try to be better from now on. It's been over a month since I've written, but for most of that time I don't have much to report. Classes are going alright; they can be very frustrating at times, but I'm taking comfort in the fact that I technically only have to pass them--my grades here won't affect my GPA back home. I'm still trying to do well, but it takes the pressure off.
When I'm not in class I'm usually reading, at the gym, hanging out with people, or playing ping pong. They have a ping pong table in the common room, and I swear that game never gets boring to me. There's quite a few people that enjoy playing, so we have fun competing against each other:) I've started doing yoga and pilates classes. My body gets so tight and inflexible, so I'm trying to work on that while I'm here because the classes are free! It's definitely very hard for me, but hopefully it will start to get easier soon. I'm going to miss the gym here when I go home. It's an awesome facility and they have lots of personal trainers on staff that answer your questions and give you free consultations every few weeks. Although, I have a pretty awesome trainer back home (love you mom!) :).
Definitely one of my favorite things in Australia is Hillsong Church. I've gotten to know some of the people that go to Hillsong College, and some that just attend the church weekly. I've even started volunteering for Hillsong! It's a pretty small thing--I carry around trays of food for people to eat after the services when everyone stands around and talks--but I'm just doing what I can and trying to let God use me in whatever way He wills. I've started going to a weekly small group as well. My group's leader is named Lillian, and she is really sweet:) Last Friday was one of my favorite days at Hillsong. It was Good Friday, so we didn't have classes, and I went into the city to attend the Good Friday service at the Sydney Entertainment Center. It was awesome! We had a long period of awesome worship, and Michael W. Smith sang:) I'm so sad I missed Easter Sunday at Hillsong. I bet it was awesome. Reinhardt Bonnke was preaching. I'm going to see if someone has a recording of it that I could watch.
After the service, I went with some girls I met that day to Paddy's Market. It's a huge market that sells a ton of touristy type souvenirs and other small goods. I tried to find some good things to bring home:) After a while it got really overwhelming though. There are so many people and so much stuff for sale..and it was really hot. We were exhausted when we got done. We cooled off with a 30 cent ice cream cone from McDonalds (or Maccas, as they call it here) and went home.
That's pretty much what I've been up to for the last month or so! Just studying and enjoying myself:) Nothing too big, until right now....
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Oh yeah...I'm here for school
Hey everyone!
Today I looked at the calendar and realized that I've been here for exactly two weeks. It's so crazy, because I feel like it's been so much longer! In some respects, I am so comfortable here and feel like I have my routines and that I've been here forever. However, starting classes has made me realize all the ways I am new and all the things that are still foreign to me.
Classes started Monday. After being here for over a week and doing nothing but going to the beach, hanging by the pool, and doing whatever ridiculous events they had planned for us, I'm still struggling to get into school mode. My schedule here consists of Macroeconomics, Intro to Statistics, Indigenous Studies, and Australian Politics in a Global Context. For most of my classes, I have one lecture and one tutorial a week, which seems like so little compared to my schedule back home. However, for two of my classes I have 3 time commitments a week. This week we didn't have any tutorials, so my load was a little lighter. (In fact, I had the day off today because there were no tutorials!) It's very strange being in huge lecture halls with hundreds of other students after getting used to Beloit, where the maximum class size I've ever had was 30 people. But I don't mind the big lectures. The only problem is that it gets hot with so many bodies in the room and sometimes it's hard to stay awake when it's warm and I'm tired lol.
I managed to find all my classrooms and everything pretty easily. The campus is bigger than Beloit, but not as big as I was expecting. I only had trouble finding one class. It's a little hard to adjust to a new place, like going to the library and not knowing where the computers are or how to use the system or that some of the computers are reserved for certain courses of study. I have been pretty happy since I've been here, but Wednesday I was tired and feeling a bit lost and that's when I started to miss the comforts of home and the comfort of being well acquainted with my surroundings.
This week was kind of fun because all the student groups on campus set up tents around the courtyard and you can walk through and sign up for all kinds of activities. I didn't peruse them very thoroughly, because everyone tries to hand you a bunch of stuff if you linger too long, but I did stop and sign up at the career services tent, so hopefully I'll be able to get a campus job. On Tuesday I went down to the Macquarie Shopping Center (aka the Mac Center) and spent a couple hours applying at practically every store. I was so exhausted by the end, but hopefully my hard work will pay off. At this point, I don't have very high hopes though, because some of my friends that got here a couple weeks before me applied at a lot of places and haven't gotten any job offers or interviews. Some of the stores told me that they did most of their hiring in December, at the start of summer. But, you never know. I might get lucky and get a campus job or something. I hope so, because living here is very expensive. I haven't even done a bunch of fun things yet and I've already spent a chunk of money just for every day supplies. But I'm sick of complaining about the prices. It is what it is and I'm only here for 5 months!
Last Sunday was a very exciting day for me, because my friend Bethany told me that there is a Hillsong Church extension service at the Mac Center (held in the movie theatre lol). We went in the morning and the service was great!! Then, making things even better, our friend Gabe told us that there is a bus that runs for free from the Mac Center to the main Hillsong Church campus on Sunday nights! We went to the 6 pm service at the big Hillsong Church, which was even more amazing! I'm so excited to go there every weekend. I think there's a Hillsong campus group, so I'll have to investigate that. It felt so wonderful to go to church after a couple weeks of not being able to go. We've even got a decently large group of people from DLC to go, and it just keeps growing. Bethany, Gabe, Trevor, Jacob, Kyle and I went this past weekend. A couple more might come with us this Sunday.
Bethany and I have begun doing a morning bible study together every day. It's such an awesome way to start our mornings, and it really helps us keep our focus on God. Here in Australia, it can be very easy to get sucked into the party lifestyle, but we've be diligently working to stay true to who we are in Christ and be good witnesses to all those that live around us. We're going through Proverbs, which is pretty fitting because we need all the wisdom and discernment we can get while we adjust to this different lifestyle.
It's interesting being here and being able to drink legally. Australians go out to the bars a lot, even on weeknights. Wednesdays and Thursdays are big nights to go to the Ranch and Ubar (the campus bar), so we went out with some people from DLC both nights this week. I really enjoy being able to just have a drink or two and be social without getting drunk or anything. It's actually been a pretty good way to witness because people will ask me, "Are you still on your first drink?" and I'll tell them "Yes, I'm not going to get drunk." :) And the dancing here is fun too. Australians don't grind like Americans do--they don't really touch at all when they dance, so I've had fun dancing with my friends in a pretty wholesome, fun way. Like my friend Kyle said, "I like that Australians leave room for Jesus!" lol.
Overall, I'm having a great time. Hopefully I'll get used to this academic system quickly and be able to perform well :)
Today I looked at the calendar and realized that I've been here for exactly two weeks. It's so crazy, because I feel like it's been so much longer! In some respects, I am so comfortable here and feel like I have my routines and that I've been here forever. However, starting classes has made me realize all the ways I am new and all the things that are still foreign to me.
Classes started Monday. After being here for over a week and doing nothing but going to the beach, hanging by the pool, and doing whatever ridiculous events they had planned for us, I'm still struggling to get into school mode. My schedule here consists of Macroeconomics, Intro to Statistics, Indigenous Studies, and Australian Politics in a Global Context. For most of my classes, I have one lecture and one tutorial a week, which seems like so little compared to my schedule back home. However, for two of my classes I have 3 time commitments a week. This week we didn't have any tutorials, so my load was a little lighter. (In fact, I had the day off today because there were no tutorials!) It's very strange being in huge lecture halls with hundreds of other students after getting used to Beloit, where the maximum class size I've ever had was 30 people. But I don't mind the big lectures. The only problem is that it gets hot with so many bodies in the room and sometimes it's hard to stay awake when it's warm and I'm tired lol.
I managed to find all my classrooms and everything pretty easily. The campus is bigger than Beloit, but not as big as I was expecting. I only had trouble finding one class. It's a little hard to adjust to a new place, like going to the library and not knowing where the computers are or how to use the system or that some of the computers are reserved for certain courses of study. I have been pretty happy since I've been here, but Wednesday I was tired and feeling a bit lost and that's when I started to miss the comforts of home and the comfort of being well acquainted with my surroundings.
This week was kind of fun because all the student groups on campus set up tents around the courtyard and you can walk through and sign up for all kinds of activities. I didn't peruse them very thoroughly, because everyone tries to hand you a bunch of stuff if you linger too long, but I did stop and sign up at the career services tent, so hopefully I'll be able to get a campus job. On Tuesday I went down to the Macquarie Shopping Center (aka the Mac Center) and spent a couple hours applying at practically every store. I was so exhausted by the end, but hopefully my hard work will pay off. At this point, I don't have very high hopes though, because some of my friends that got here a couple weeks before me applied at a lot of places and haven't gotten any job offers or interviews. Some of the stores told me that they did most of their hiring in December, at the start of summer. But, you never know. I might get lucky and get a campus job or something. I hope so, because living here is very expensive. I haven't even done a bunch of fun things yet and I've already spent a chunk of money just for every day supplies. But I'm sick of complaining about the prices. It is what it is and I'm only here for 5 months!
Last Sunday was a very exciting day for me, because my friend Bethany told me that there is a Hillsong Church extension service at the Mac Center (held in the movie theatre lol). We went in the morning and the service was great!! Then, making things even better, our friend Gabe told us that there is a bus that runs for free from the Mac Center to the main Hillsong Church campus on Sunday nights! We went to the 6 pm service at the big Hillsong Church, which was even more amazing! I'm so excited to go there every weekend. I think there's a Hillsong campus group, so I'll have to investigate that. It felt so wonderful to go to church after a couple weeks of not being able to go. We've even got a decently large group of people from DLC to go, and it just keeps growing. Bethany, Gabe, Trevor, Jacob, Kyle and I went this past weekend. A couple more might come with us this Sunday.
Bethany and I have begun doing a morning bible study together every day. It's such an awesome way to start our mornings, and it really helps us keep our focus on God. Here in Australia, it can be very easy to get sucked into the party lifestyle, but we've be diligently working to stay true to who we are in Christ and be good witnesses to all those that live around us. We're going through Proverbs, which is pretty fitting because we need all the wisdom and discernment we can get while we adjust to this different lifestyle.
It's interesting being here and being able to drink legally. Australians go out to the bars a lot, even on weeknights. Wednesdays and Thursdays are big nights to go to the Ranch and Ubar (the campus bar), so we went out with some people from DLC both nights this week. I really enjoy being able to just have a drink or two and be social without getting drunk or anything. It's actually been a pretty good way to witness because people will ask me, "Are you still on your first drink?" and I'll tell them "Yes, I'm not going to get drunk." :) And the dancing here is fun too. Australians don't grind like Americans do--they don't really touch at all when they dance, so I've had fun dancing with my friends in a pretty wholesome, fun way. Like my friend Kyle said, "I like that Australians leave room for Jesus!" lol.
Overall, I'm having a great time. Hopefully I'll get used to this academic system quickly and be able to perform well :)
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Orientation Week
Sorry that this post is a little late, but our Orientation Week (O-Week) leaders have kept us very busy for the past few days. O-Week started on Sunday when all the new residents arrived. We met everyone in the Dining Hall, and then had dinner together. Afterwards, we had floor meetings to get acquainted with each other and our RA's, then headed up to the common room for some ice breakers. They had us do a number of activities that got us up close and personal with each other, most of which I can't imagine, as a former Orientation Leader, doing in the United States--orientation is very different here than in the U.S.
Monday was pretty boring during the day, because we sat around from 9 to 4 listening to speakers from the college telling us how everything works. It was barely useful; I wish I would've gone on the beach trip instead. I guess hindsight is 20/20 haha. Most of my friends ditched by the end of the day, which probably would've been a good idea, but being my goody-two-shoes self, I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I sat there and endured lol. After orientation, a lot of us walked over to the Macquarie Shopping Center (a big mall conveniently located about 5 minutes from DLC) to buy a flannel shirt for the evening festivities. The theme for the night was Bush Band/Barn Dance evening, so we had to look like "bogans" (their version of rednecks, who look pretty much the same). Then we went down to the dining hall, where they had pushed aside all the tables and hired a bush band to play songs for us while we did line dances and other silly but fun things. At the end of the night we had to learn the Fresher (aka Freshman) dance that we will be performing tonight at the campus bar. It definitely put me out of my comfort zone, but overall it was an enjoyable night!
On Tuesday we got divided into groups for a scavenger hunt around the city. What they didn't tell us was that it would basically be a day full of making us do embarrassing things and harassing the poor people of Sydney. At each station, there were O-Week leaders waiting for us. They would give us a task that we had a certain amount of time to do before we moved on to the next station. In addition, they gave us a list of dares at the beginning of the day that would give us extra points if we completed them. At the first station, the Botanical Gardens, they made us practice our Fresher dance in our underwear. Luckily, not many people were around and we managed to avoid Park Security (like I said, not like Orientation in the US!! I was a bit scandalized).
The next station was a statue of a pig that supposedly gives you good luck if you rub its nose. Our task was to lay on the ground in the same pose as the statue and get 10 random strangers to rub our noses. Most people were amused as they walked by, but we definitely got some crazy looks. After that, we had to stand behind the two hosts of an Australian Morning Show as they shot some footage outside and wave energetically in the background.
From there we moved on to a big park (I forgot the name). We were given a tambourine and a recorder and were told we had to sing/play and try to get people to give us money. We didn't have much luck at first, but ended up making $8.80. I played the recorder, and we sang Mary Had a Little Lamb because that's all I knew how to play lol (thank you 6th grade recorder lessons). When we were done singing, we had to switch pants with another member of the group. Some of the girls switched with the boys, which was pretty funny looking. I switched with another girl in the group, a really nice, cute girl named Pip who lives on my floor.
Next, we went to Sydney Town Hall. Well, more accurately we went to the intersections outside of Town Hall. Our task was to convince random strangers to give us piggyback rides across the intersection or to let us give them a piggyback ride. We definitely got a lot of strange looks during this task haha.
Moving on, we went back to the area where we were in the background of the TV show, but this time we had to make finger paintings and try to sell them to people walking by. This one was pretty hard, because it was lunchtime and there were lots of businessmen in suits on their lunch break who did not want to be harassed into buying a finger painting lol. I ended up selling mine for 50 cents.
Our next task took place at a grassy area near a train station. We had to play duck duck goose, and run around flapping and quacking when we were the goose. Then we had to try to catch a pigeon (we didn't succeed). Even worse, we had to act like pigeons and try to get people sitting on the benches nearby to feed us (incredibly, we got 3 people to feed us). By this time, we were getting pretty tired (the sun is hot and exhausting!) and were ready to be done with all the embarrassing things, but alas, we had 2 more stations to go.
Next, we went to Circular Quay (a big touristy spot) and were instructed to ruin people's photos ("photo bomb") by running in the background, running right in front of them as they snapped a pic, etc. I felt very mean doing this, so I cheated a little and only did it one time instead of five like we were supposed to. After that, we had to take 5 pictures with random strangers and do funny poses.
The last station was the steps outside the Sydney Opera House. Our first task was to approach strangers outside the Opera House and ask for directions to the Sydney Opera House (extra points if they didn't know lol). Some people thought we were hilarious, some thought we were stupid, some didn't speak English, and some got angry. Lastly, we had to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Itsy Bitsy Spider at the top of our lungs right outside the Opera House.
Mercifully, we were done after that and got to go back to DLC, eat dinner, and get ready for our jungle themed party at a nearby bar called The Ranch.
On Wednesday, the other study abroad/exchange students and I had our orientation, where enrolled in our classes and stuff. I got my tentative schedule, but I'm trying to switch a few classes around right now. After orientation, we had an early dinner then left for an evening cruise around Sydney Harbour. The theme was Stoplight, so people dressed in green if they were single, orange/yellow if their situation is complicated or they wanted to be "mysterious", and red if they were taken. We were told to wear shirts that could be drawn on, so people used markers to write all over everyone over the course of the evening (pretty inappropriate things--typical. except me, I put smiley faces and hearts on people--nice things! lol) The cruise was amazing. Sydney is such a beautiful place, and seeing it on the water as the sun went down was absolutely gorgeous. After the cruise, we all went to The Ranch again. Wednesday is the big night to go there, so the place was packed. We had fun dancing with each other for a while, then came back and hung out. My friend Bethany and I ended up talking to these guys Chris and Mitch. Chris told me a little about Aboriginal history, which is interesting and very sad. Eventually we got really tired and went to bed.
This morning Bethany, Trevor and I got up early and went to get our student ID cards and spent some time sorting things out and getting organized. Then we went to the gym and a bunch of DLC people chilled by the outdoor pool for a few hours. The weight room is very nice here (much better than Beloit). I'm going to enjoy working out there:)
The weather here has been amazing. I was under the impression that it was supposed to rain for 20some days straight when I arrived here, but it has been mostly sunny! I'm loving it. Tonight everyone is going to the campus bar, but I think Bethany, Lyndsay, Dan and I are going to just relax and hang around DLC. It will be nice to have a night off, especially since we didn't go to bed until 3 am last night and we are all a little sleep deprived.
Monday was pretty boring during the day, because we sat around from 9 to 4 listening to speakers from the college telling us how everything works. It was barely useful; I wish I would've gone on the beach trip instead. I guess hindsight is 20/20 haha. Most of my friends ditched by the end of the day, which probably would've been a good idea, but being my goody-two-shoes self, I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I sat there and endured lol. After orientation, a lot of us walked over to the Macquarie Shopping Center (a big mall conveniently located about 5 minutes from DLC) to buy a flannel shirt for the evening festivities. The theme for the night was Bush Band/Barn Dance evening, so we had to look like "bogans" (their version of rednecks, who look pretty much the same). Then we went down to the dining hall, where they had pushed aside all the tables and hired a bush band to play songs for us while we did line dances and other silly but fun things. At the end of the night we had to learn the Fresher (aka Freshman) dance that we will be performing tonight at the campus bar. It definitely put me out of my comfort zone, but overall it was an enjoyable night!
On Tuesday we got divided into groups for a scavenger hunt around the city. What they didn't tell us was that it would basically be a day full of making us do embarrassing things and harassing the poor people of Sydney. At each station, there were O-Week leaders waiting for us. They would give us a task that we had a certain amount of time to do before we moved on to the next station. In addition, they gave us a list of dares at the beginning of the day that would give us extra points if we completed them. At the first station, the Botanical Gardens, they made us practice our Fresher dance in our underwear. Luckily, not many people were around and we managed to avoid Park Security (like I said, not like Orientation in the US!! I was a bit scandalized).
The next station was a statue of a pig that supposedly gives you good luck if you rub its nose. Our task was to lay on the ground in the same pose as the statue and get 10 random strangers to rub our noses. Most people were amused as they walked by, but we definitely got some crazy looks. After that, we had to stand behind the two hosts of an Australian Morning Show as they shot some footage outside and wave energetically in the background.
From there we moved on to a big park (I forgot the name). We were given a tambourine and a recorder and were told we had to sing/play and try to get people to give us money. We didn't have much luck at first, but ended up making $8.80. I played the recorder, and we sang Mary Had a Little Lamb because that's all I knew how to play lol (thank you 6th grade recorder lessons). When we were done singing, we had to switch pants with another member of the group. Some of the girls switched with the boys, which was pretty funny looking. I switched with another girl in the group, a really nice, cute girl named Pip who lives on my floor.
Next, we went to Sydney Town Hall. Well, more accurately we went to the intersections outside of Town Hall. Our task was to convince random strangers to give us piggyback rides across the intersection or to let us give them a piggyback ride. We definitely got a lot of strange looks during this task haha.
Moving on, we went back to the area where we were in the background of the TV show, but this time we had to make finger paintings and try to sell them to people walking by. This one was pretty hard, because it was lunchtime and there were lots of businessmen in suits on their lunch break who did not want to be harassed into buying a finger painting lol. I ended up selling mine for 50 cents.
Our next task took place at a grassy area near a train station. We had to play duck duck goose, and run around flapping and quacking when we were the goose. Then we had to try to catch a pigeon (we didn't succeed). Even worse, we had to act like pigeons and try to get people sitting on the benches nearby to feed us (incredibly, we got 3 people to feed us). By this time, we were getting pretty tired (the sun is hot and exhausting!) and were ready to be done with all the embarrassing things, but alas, we had 2 more stations to go.
Next, we went to Circular Quay (a big touristy spot) and were instructed to ruin people's photos ("photo bomb") by running in the background, running right in front of them as they snapped a pic, etc. I felt very mean doing this, so I cheated a little and only did it one time instead of five like we were supposed to. After that, we had to take 5 pictures with random strangers and do funny poses.
The last station was the steps outside the Sydney Opera House. Our first task was to approach strangers outside the Opera House and ask for directions to the Sydney Opera House (extra points if they didn't know lol). Some people thought we were hilarious, some thought we were stupid, some didn't speak English, and some got angry. Lastly, we had to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Itsy Bitsy Spider at the top of our lungs right outside the Opera House.
Mercifully, we were done after that and got to go back to DLC, eat dinner, and get ready for our jungle themed party at a nearby bar called The Ranch.
On Wednesday, the other study abroad/exchange students and I had our orientation, where enrolled in our classes and stuff. I got my tentative schedule, but I'm trying to switch a few classes around right now. After orientation, we had an early dinner then left for an evening cruise around Sydney Harbour. The theme was Stoplight, so people dressed in green if they were single, orange/yellow if their situation is complicated or they wanted to be "mysterious", and red if they were taken. We were told to wear shirts that could be drawn on, so people used markers to write all over everyone over the course of the evening (pretty inappropriate things--typical. except me, I put smiley faces and hearts on people--nice things! lol) The cruise was amazing. Sydney is such a beautiful place, and seeing it on the water as the sun went down was absolutely gorgeous. After the cruise, we all went to The Ranch again. Wednesday is the big night to go there, so the place was packed. We had fun dancing with each other for a while, then came back and hung out. My friend Bethany and I ended up talking to these guys Chris and Mitch. Chris told me a little about Aboriginal history, which is interesting and very sad. Eventually we got really tired and went to bed.
This morning Bethany, Trevor and I got up early and went to get our student ID cards and spent some time sorting things out and getting organized. Then we went to the gym and a bunch of DLC people chilled by the outdoor pool for a few hours. The weight room is very nice here (much better than Beloit). I'm going to enjoy working out there:)
The weather here has been amazing. I was under the impression that it was supposed to rain for 20some days straight when I arrived here, but it has been mostly sunny! I'm loving it. Tonight everyone is going to the campus bar, but I think Bethany, Lyndsay, Dan and I are going to just relax and hang around DLC. It will be nice to have a night off, especially since we didn't go to bed until 3 am last night and we are all a little sleep deprived.
Friday, February 17, 2012
I'm here! Finally:)
Well, it's 4:00 in the morning here and I'm up because I went to bed at 7 p.m., so I might as well start my blog! For those of you that don't know, I'm in Sydney, Australia studying for a semester at Macquarie University. I'm staying in one of the residential colleges on campus (like a dorm in the U.S., but we have a dining hall and they cook for us right in the dorm). It's called Dunmore Lang College (DLC for short). I'm not sure what classes I'll be taking this semester yet, because we don't enrol and get our schedules until Wednesday.
I guess I'll start with the plane ride. I took a bus from Janesville to Chicago, then a plane from Chicago to LA, then another plane from LA to Sydney. The flight from Chicago to LA wan't too bad; it was about 4 hours. I tried striking up a conversation with the man sitting next to me when we first got on the plane, but he was clearly not in a talking mood, so I watched the Three Muskateers and an episode of the Big Bang Theory to entertain myself. However, I quit watching when they put Storage Wars on (I really didn't get the point of that show, so I started reading a little booklet titled A Call to Prayer instead, which was very good). Towards the end of the flight, I attempted to talk to the man to my left again. He told me that LA was his final destination, and then asked where I was going, to which I replied Australia. Then, the girl that had been sitting on the other side of him who had been really quiet the whole time got all excited and said that she was going to Australia too! She was going to Brisbane though, but we had a nice time talking about our impending adventures for the last 10 minutes of the flight.
After that I had a 2 hour layover, where I met a girl named Joy going to study abroad in Australia also. (she was studying in Melbourne) We had a fun time talking about it and chatting with an elderly lady sitting near us. Then I got on the plane for the insanely long 14.5 hour flight. Fortunately, I ended up sitting next to a guy who goes to Maquarie University and he was very funny and friendly, so we had a good time talking about that:) The plane ride was sooooo looooong. I watched 3 inflight movies (Footloose, Real Steel, and One Day) and some TV shows they had playing (Glee, NCIS, etc) because I realized that my Nook was out of battery power and I couldn't read at all:( I didn't sleep very well on the plane--they're really not that comfortable, so I was pretty tired afterwards.
After the plane ride, I made my way through customs and got picked up by a driver from the University. His name was Mark and he was really funny. People kept calling him on his cell phone and he would pick it up, talk for a while, then hang up and grumble under his breath every time lol. I love Australian accents!! He dropped me off at my dorm, so I went and checked in and got settled in my room. I wanted to take a shower sooo badly, but they had shut the water off to do repairs, so I had to wait about a half hour.
When I got cleaned up I went to an early arriver's BBQ at the bar on campus, where I got to meet other study abroad students. There were more Americans than I expected (I met someone else from Wisconsin! lol). I ended up talking with a girl named Bua (from Florida), a guy named Taylor (New York), Tony (Wisconsin), David (Georgia), and Danielle (Washington D.C.). We also chatted with people from Costa Rica, Germany, France, Holland, and Denmark. It's so cool to meet people from so many different countries! The BBQ was delicious, and I even tried Kangaroo! It was pretty tasty. (See Isaac, I'm branching out and trying new things! lol)
After the BBQ, Danielle and I went to the shopping center to buy cell phones. I had to exchange my money first though, so we stopped at a bank. Exchanging money sucks!! I lost $67 in the transaction:( Australian money is pretty though, very colorful. We bought phones from Vodofone, because apparently most students use that service so our calls to other students will be free:)
I went back to my dorm after that and organized my room a bit. I left my door open so that people would feel free to stop and chat, and I ended up meeting the guy who lives across the hall (Artyom, from Russia), a guy named Jack who came in and asked to use my computer to go on Facebook, and a guy named Mitch who lives a couple doors down. They can all tell I'm American right away, but only some of them know where Wisconsin is haha.
Before I got to Australia I signed up to have a "buddy" (named Jeff) to help me through orientation, and he and I have been exchanging emails. We decided to meet up for dinner so we could talk and he could answer any questions I have. He showed me around campus a little bit and then we went to the shopping center for dinner (they have a bunch of restaurants there). It was really fun! He's very friendly and entertaining.
After dinner I went back to my room and tried to stay up a little bit longer, but I caved and went to bed at 7 lol. So that was my first day! It was fun--a little overwhelming--but I know I'm going to have an awesome semester:) P.S. It's warm here!! It was around 80 degrees and sunny when I arrived, but cooled off and rained in the afternoon:(
I guess I'll start with the plane ride. I took a bus from Janesville to Chicago, then a plane from Chicago to LA, then another plane from LA to Sydney. The flight from Chicago to LA wan't too bad; it was about 4 hours. I tried striking up a conversation with the man sitting next to me when we first got on the plane, but he was clearly not in a talking mood, so I watched the Three Muskateers and an episode of the Big Bang Theory to entertain myself. However, I quit watching when they put Storage Wars on (I really didn't get the point of that show, so I started reading a little booklet titled A Call to Prayer instead, which was very good). Towards the end of the flight, I attempted to talk to the man to my left again. He told me that LA was his final destination, and then asked where I was going, to which I replied Australia. Then, the girl that had been sitting on the other side of him who had been really quiet the whole time got all excited and said that she was going to Australia too! She was going to Brisbane though, but we had a nice time talking about our impending adventures for the last 10 minutes of the flight.
After that I had a 2 hour layover, where I met a girl named Joy going to study abroad in Australia also. (she was studying in Melbourne) We had a fun time talking about it and chatting with an elderly lady sitting near us. Then I got on the plane for the insanely long 14.5 hour flight. Fortunately, I ended up sitting next to a guy who goes to Maquarie University and he was very funny and friendly, so we had a good time talking about that:) The plane ride was sooooo looooong. I watched 3 inflight movies (Footloose, Real Steel, and One Day) and some TV shows they had playing (Glee, NCIS, etc) because I realized that my Nook was out of battery power and I couldn't read at all:( I didn't sleep very well on the plane--they're really not that comfortable, so I was pretty tired afterwards.
After the plane ride, I made my way through customs and got picked up by a driver from the University. His name was Mark and he was really funny. People kept calling him on his cell phone and he would pick it up, talk for a while, then hang up and grumble under his breath every time lol. I love Australian accents!! He dropped me off at my dorm, so I went and checked in and got settled in my room. I wanted to take a shower sooo badly, but they had shut the water off to do repairs, so I had to wait about a half hour.
When I got cleaned up I went to an early arriver's BBQ at the bar on campus, where I got to meet other study abroad students. There were more Americans than I expected (I met someone else from Wisconsin! lol). I ended up talking with a girl named Bua (from Florida), a guy named Taylor (New York), Tony (Wisconsin), David (Georgia), and Danielle (Washington D.C.). We also chatted with people from Costa Rica, Germany, France, Holland, and Denmark. It's so cool to meet people from so many different countries! The BBQ was delicious, and I even tried Kangaroo! It was pretty tasty. (See Isaac, I'm branching out and trying new things! lol)
After the BBQ, Danielle and I went to the shopping center to buy cell phones. I had to exchange my money first though, so we stopped at a bank. Exchanging money sucks!! I lost $67 in the transaction:( Australian money is pretty though, very colorful. We bought phones from Vodofone, because apparently most students use that service so our calls to other students will be free:)
I went back to my dorm after that and organized my room a bit. I left my door open so that people would feel free to stop and chat, and I ended up meeting the guy who lives across the hall (Artyom, from Russia), a guy named Jack who came in and asked to use my computer to go on Facebook, and a guy named Mitch who lives a couple doors down. They can all tell I'm American right away, but only some of them know where Wisconsin is haha.
Before I got to Australia I signed up to have a "buddy" (named Jeff) to help me through orientation, and he and I have been exchanging emails. We decided to meet up for dinner so we could talk and he could answer any questions I have. He showed me around campus a little bit and then we went to the shopping center for dinner (they have a bunch of restaurants there). It was really fun! He's very friendly and entertaining.
After dinner I went back to my room and tried to stay up a little bit longer, but I caved and went to bed at 7 lol. So that was my first day! It was fun--a little overwhelming--but I know I'm going to have an awesome semester:) P.S. It's warm here!! It was around 80 degrees and sunny when I arrived, but cooled off and rained in the afternoon:(
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