Steve Irwin Zoo ~July 31, 2010~

Continuing from where I left off the other day...Thursday was the Angels and Demons theme for 240V. Not as many people dressed up for that as they did for the Toga party. Kelly had people over her room and we played drinking games. We won 3 games of beer pong in a row! (woot woot Champions!!) Then Justin and his 2 friends Robbie and Mike came. Robbie is from North Carolina and Mike is from Germany. So ya, Robbie and Justin beat us (barely!) but c'mon...North Carolina...what ELSE does he have to do than play drinking games lol. Kidding. So I was excited to go out, Alice was going too and I love spending time with her she's so funny, but not many people ended up going, so we all just hung out in Kelly's room after the Pav. Kelly and I ate a whole bowl of gaucamole that she made and a bag of chips...YUM! Friday was great not having class. Kelly and I laid by the pool all morning and part of the afternoon. It's so great to have a pool right outside my door at school! We made a huge salad for lunch, it was delicious! We got our Uni photos taken and then we took a well deserved nap. That night all we did was watch movies with Justin Robbie and Mike at my place. We watched Angels and Demons, a Planet Earth documentary and then The Breakfast Club. So great.
Yesterday we went to the Steve Irwin Zoo!! Me, Kelly, Justin, Robbie and his two friends Liz and Stina went, we took a bus from Uni. Liz is also from North Carolina and Stina is from Norway, just like Sebastian. The zoo was so much fun! It was gorgeous outside, warm and breezy, not too hot and it was so good to walk around, get some excercise and see all the Australian animals we don't have back in the States! Kelly got to hold a koala and got her picture taken with it, and Robbie let me be in his picture with it, though he got to hold it. (It cost $20 to hold it.) The pictures are on facebook under Kelly's name because I didn't have my camera. We got to feed and pet the kangaroos there too! It was a huge open area called "Roo Heaven" and you just go in and they are all roaming everywhere, and you just go right up to them and feed and pet them. They are so cool and SO SOFT! Softer then the koalas! They were nice and tame too and so interesting to watch! A couple started growling at Kelly one time, it was really funny. We saw tasmania devils, red pandas, wombats, elephants, tigers, so many birds and snakes too! We went to a show called "Wild Warriors" and got to see crocs in action! It was HUGE! I volunteered for a bird thing, but it was just me making a fool out of myself, but I won a free croc poster with Steve Irwins wife in it, originally $2o! I got a boomerang and a Australian Zoo shot glass, and a tiny stuffed kangaroo. I have a great picture of Kelly and me with a beuatiful colorful parrot too. My favorite part was probably watching the 3 elephants there. They were playing in their pool and I actually heard the noise they make with their trunks! I've never heard it in real life before! They were rolling around, dunking eachother and spraying water with their trunks. It was adorable watching them be so playful! The tigers were really playful as well. They would just go right up to the trainers and hug them and play with them, wrestle and cuddle. Freaking adorable. I was pretty jealous. At the end of the day we were exhausted. I made dinner for Kelly and myself, spiral pasta with alfredo sauce, chopped tomatoes and feta on top with garlic toast. We hung out and watched How I Met Your Mother all night with Chris. We had a bit of wildlife our own. A gecko got into the room and was on the wall and Kelly looked terrified past me, so I got up and screamed because I thought it was a giant spider and it was just a teensy gecko, as long as my index finger, and Matt laughed so hard and caught it and threw it outside. He said it would stick to something...LOL. So yesterday was such a great day. Like I said, there are plenty of pictures on facebook for you to check out!

Week 2 ~July 30, 2010~

I know it's been a long time since my last post! My bad! I'll have to start from where I left off on Sunday night at O'Malleys... So that was one of the best nights out so far! Everyone was in the pav playing games, drinking, talking, laughing, it's so crazy how different it is than St. Norbert. (Or any other American school for that matter.) The culture here is so visibly different and I can't say I hate it lol. Then me, Danielle, Chris, Seb, Chris & Sascha (the Germans) went to play games in Kelly's room. Her roomate Michael also came to drink with us after some convincing! He's from Australia and he's really nice, as well as his girlfriend Ashleigh. At quarter to 10 we caught the bus with everyone else at this school it seems to the kareokee bar. It was pretty packed but there was more room to move around than at 240V on last Thursday. Me and Justin were going to sing but every song we picked they had already played, so maybe this Sunday I'll get on stage! ...Maybe... We all danced and it was so much fun! Also, I don't think I have been hit on so much! It's very flattering and one Aussie even kissed me!! We were leaving and he was saying "nice to meet you" to my friends and I, then he leaned over and gave me a little peck! It was so cute, but unexpected, I still can't believe it! I feel like that would never happen in the States! I should bring my camera out one of these nights, but I don't want to lose or break it by accident! So, anyway, we caught a maxi taxi back to Uni and it was $48.00!! But we had 10 people so $5 each was cheap for a safe ride home! I really like that about here, is that everyone is really into catching buses and taxis and not driving after drinking. Also, everyone wears the seatbelts all the time here, and I like that as well. Tuesday was my first day of class. I had my History of Australian Popular Culture and Journalism class. On Thursday I sat through two back to back two hour lectures. UGH. Social pyschology and Managing Organisational Change. (They spell things differently here.."s" instead of "z," "u" in colour and behaviour, and ect...) No tutorials made for a really short week, which unfortunately won't be the case from now on. At Uni there is one lecture and one tutorial (tute). They are either 1 hour or 2 hours...depending on the class. So this week was the first week so there was no tutes because there was not much material covered. Lectures have everyone in class in them and the tutes divide the students up in smaller groups to have more intimate practices and discussions of the material. Out of all my classes I have 11 assessments (papers and assignments) and only 1 exam... :) I am a little nervous though because I think the writing style for essays and referencing will be a bit different here.
On Wednesday we got pizza from Dominos for dinner. Americans would freak because these pizzas are crap compared to there. They are smaller and the topping aren't ha fresh or even good looking and they are more expensive! I was pretty pissed off actually. Oh and on their burgers they put beats and BBQ sauce and they call "lettuce", "salad" and you have to pay for "tomato sauce" (ketchup) at restaurants for your "chips" or "hot chips" (french fries).
Kelly just got here, we are going to lay by the pool so I will write about last night and stuff later! (I won't forget!...I hope..!)

O'Malleys ~July 25, 2010~

Tonight is Sunday night which means kareokee at O'Malleys! Ben's taking me I think, otherwise I'm sure I'll go with the rest of the crew. Me and Kelly hung out all day today. It's cloudy and chilly again, just like it was yesterday, and I guess it's supposed to be like this for the next couple days as well. Kelly and I went to Joyce Mayne, which is an electronic store like Best Buy, and it was "Boxer Day in July" so there were huge sales on everything. Kelly needed a converter. I guess Boxer Day is like our Black Friday, except it's after Christmas because they don't have Thanksgiving here. So they played a "Christmas/Boxer day in July" type of deal. It was a good walk and we had some good chats :) Then we looked at pictures on facebook, put on some music and took a nap. We woke up, walked to my place and I remade some of the spaghetti bolognese with toasted sour dough bread. It was delicious! Now I'm writing on here and Kelly's watching Ben play Xbox and Matt's off doing a job for IT. Last night was a chill night. Matt made dinner and some of there friends came over to eat with us. Mia is Ben's friend from Sweden, she's been in Australia for awhile, and Jill is actually Justin's roomate who I met before and she's Autralian. It was fin to eat and talk and laugh. Later I went to Kelly's and dyed her hair more blonde, we were sipping on some mixed drinks, but everyone was being lame and watching movies so we hung out with Alice all night and that was so much fun! We just talked and laughed. I'm so glad to have met her, she's great. Kelly and I are pretty upset we are missing The Office season 7, but we will be able to catch up online...(I hope it won't cost a lot of internet time!!) I bought a phone yesterday as well when we went to the bottle shop (liquor store.) Kelly and everyone else had "taco night" last night, she said they were amazing. And she made gaucamole too! The phone's cheap and only for emergencies so the best way to contact me is still through facebook! I hope you all got a chance to look at my pictures on facebook! More to come I'm sure :)

Rainforest Bus Tour ~July 23, 2010~

(Sigh...) Where do I even begin...? Last night was amazing. I hung out all day, by the pool and stuff with Chris, Seb, Kelly, Danielle, Sara, Cire (seray-i found out how to spell it!), Nathan and Jagger. We played Rock Band for so long, it really does bring people together lol. It was the Welcome BBQ at the Pav and Ben was cooking the burgers and chicken. I went there with Matt and met up with my friends. The Pav was so packed, inside there was a DJ and lights and everyone was dancing and drinking and eating, laughing and talking, playing pool and such. It was so fun to dance! They listen to the same music we do in the U.S. so that's cool. Mostly everyone were wearing toga's for the club later, 240V. My friends and I didn't, but there were so many great looking toga's! After this, we tried to catch a bus to the club in Mooloolaba, but they filled up and we were waiting for like 45min so we got Chris's friend Adam to drive us. There wasn't enough room for everyone so only me, Danielle, Chris and Seb got to go. It was free to get in with our student I.D.'s and it was so packed! Also, international people need to bring passports out to get in anywhere and to buy alcohol, ect...so that's really annoying because if I lose that I'm so screwed. Dancing at the club was awesome and it was all techno! So cool! The drinks were SO expensive. Seb got a drink for him and I and it cost him $18!! I got a Malibu and pineapple and it was such a small glass!! Crazy... Earlier, Kelly and I had gone to the huge liquor store near Woolies and got alcohol and just to see how expensive everything was (except the wine) was just unbelievable! For example, in the States I can get a 6-pack of Smirnoff Ice (my favorite!) for like $8 or $9. A 4-pack of that stuff here is $16!! So I guess that's good, that way I can regulate my drinking AND my money! School starts this week, however I don't have class until Tuesday. So hopefully this weekend is great :)

NOW. For today... :) You guys will never believe what I did!! We went on a bus tour of a rainforest in the mountains, Kelly Justin, Danielle and I went together with our friend Nicole from the States as well. We took TONS of pictures! I will have to try and find some time to get all my pictures on here, be patient! They WILL come soon I promise! You know how I love to procrastinate :p Anyway, we went on a hike up and down these gorgeous forests, saw waterfalls, little pools, trees so high you have to squint to see the tops and we saw a wallaby!! It was like a tiny kangaroo! So little and cute!! So we came upon is pool that was 60ft deep and so so cold. Think of the coldest water you have ever felt. Times that by 2x. It was FREEZING. So, I jumped in. Kelly and I climbed to the top of the rock cliff after watching some other boys (younger and older) jump off. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. When would I EVER be able to do this? We jumped into the freezing water, plunged down and I could barely speak it was so cold! It was amazing. I screamed the whole way down and I would do it over and over. SO WORTH IT. I will try and put the video on here!

Well Ben and Matt made burgers for dinner, and I need to cut up my watermelon for us as well. I hope everyone is enjoying my blog, if you have any comments feel free to post! Love you all!

Barbeque & Toga Party! ~July 22, 2010~

Good morning world! Yesterday was such a lazy day! I was a little hungover from the night before so I laid around my apartment with Ben and Matt all day and night. Watched Family Guy, South Park, How I Met Your Mother and House. I did go to Uni and signed up for a bus tour of the rain-forests and beaches in Queensland. It's on Friday at 9am and goes until 3pm, it was only $20 and plus whatever for lunch, so I'm pretty excited for that! I'm going with my friend Justin I met and sat next to on the plane here, he's from Maryland. I also signed up for some free info on public transportation and got a really cool orange/black/gray backpack with a huge water bottle that I'm going to give to Dylan. (Shout out to my bro!!) I think I need to back up a little. Not last night, but the night before, we all went to Danielle's room to pre game before going out to Friday's which was the big place to go because it was "cheap night." So it was me, Kelly, Danielle, Sebastian, Chris, Seray, Sara, Jagger(Seray's boyfriend), Nathan (from Australia) and Chris and Sasha who are both from Germany. So as facebook will say, Kelly and I DOMINATED the beer pong table ALL night! So many countries beat! LOL. It was a proud night, and I accidently got really drunk. But I was drinking Australian beer! That's a first for me! It was called Extra Dry and a 6-pack was $16! So expensive! People like to drink cheap wine here, I'm scared to do that because of the hangover... So anyway, we tried to go to Friday's but the bus was packed full and 2 cabs came that filled up as well. As the title of this blog says, tonight is the Welcome BBQ, which Ben is cooking for! Yay! And also there's a toga party in the Varsity apartments across the street. Last night Ben played the guitar and sang while we were chilling on the couch, it was so cool! He likes all the same music, movies and TV shows as I do! They are both the nicest guys ever! So today it looks really nice out so hopefully I find something to do! I could make breakfast for Ben and I right now, Ben has been sick since I met him, though it doesn't stop him from drinking every night! I yell at him for it and he says "yes mum" LOL. Also, we watched a documentary on religion last night, and it's so nice to have someone to talk to about intelligent things. FINALLY! I'm really debating on a phone or not, it's more expensive than I thought, but I should really get it for emergencies. I wish I had another adapter/converter, one is not enough! I am going to try and put some pictures on here, and if it doesn't work, Ill just put them on facebook. (thank God for facebook) lol

~July 20, 2010~

Up and early! As usual! It's kind of nice though, not wasting the day by sleeping until noon, and I haven't napped at all! (okay maybe once!) Ben is making breakfest for us, bacon egg sandwiches! He thinks it's funny that Americans "go crazy over cheese"...he has no idea! HA! He also has vegimite, which obviously I have to try, but maybe I'll hold that for a little bit longer! He also thinks that we love peanut butter way way too much! Last night was SO MUCH FUN! It was really casual, didn't do much, but it was just really fun. We get to drink on campus and it's really popular to go the the middle of Uni where the pavillion is (Pav) and drink with everyone. There's a huge deck with chair and tables and a pool and inside there's couches, music, tv, air hockey, ping pong, pool, another type of pool (with only small orange and red balls, but with a black and white one as well) and there's tennis court, and a basketball court behind the building on the opposite side. The whole thing is glass windows that are open 24/7 so it's really great for sociallizing! I had some Australian beer that Ben showed me, it's not that bad. Pretty much tastes like miller lite. There was this beer called Extra Dry I tried is was good, tasted like Bud light. And I had some white wine as well, though I'm not sure what it was. Ben's breakfest is delicious by the way! They call ketchup "tomato sauce" and they pronounce the tomato differently, like "ah" instead of "ay". And they say "tele" for Tv. And they say "no worries" ALL the time! It's laid back, casual, super relaxing type of mind set. Ben and Matt both love DMB too! AND THE OFFICE! It's great, Ben has a hard drive hooked up to the tv and theres like 500 movies, tv shows and music on it! I'm so lucky to have got such great roomates!
So today I might go to the beach with my friend Justin who Kelly and I sat with on the 14 hour plane ride lol. He's from Maryland and he's SO nice! Also, our friend Alyssa from New York might come as well. Tonight is "cheap night" at the pubs so everyone is going out, and Ben is taking me to Fridays where everyone is going to be! Also, it's a birthday party for a Ben from Canada, he's going to be 25! I hope it's nice out today! The sun is SO hot, but the shade is kinda chilly. And at night it's pretty cold, but I mean, it is winter so...
Well Ben has Family Guy on (he thinks it's cool I'm from Rhode Island because that's where Family Guy is from LOL). I want to go watch!

Orientation Day ~July 19, 2010~

I have so so much to write I feel like it could fill a novel already! Yesterday we went to the beach with Danielle's roomates. Chris is Australia, Seray is from Holloand (and I don't know how to spell her name lol) and Sebastian is from Norway. Also, Sara from Sweden came with us who is a friend of Seray's. They are all so cool and so nice and great to talk to! We went to Alexandra's Headlands (Alex Heads) near Mooloolaba Beach. We took the bus from campus to Sunshine Plaza and it only cost $3.00 for an all day pass! We walked to the beach and even though it's winter here it is so nice! The shade is pretty chilly at times, but the sun is SO much hotter here. You can literally feel the ozone is thinner here. I guess that's why 1 out of 3 Australian's get skin cancer. Even Chris had skin cancer once and got it removed and now has a huge scar on his back! I'll try and put pictures up soon. The beach was gorgeous and cold but not intolerable. Kind of felt like the Atlantic in Rhode Island, at South Shore but a little colder. We took pictures, played football, laid in the sun, talked ect... Then disaster hit...Not really, but Sebastian went on top of this huge sand hill, jumped off and did a flip!! Then Chris was going to try and he fell and rolled and smashed his legs on a rock. Oops... So he had 2 gashes in his shins, one on each leg and they were bleeding and looked liked indents in his bone. It was really gross and he was in some pain. But these Australians are so funny, always saying "no worries" and "cheers." He resisted for hours but he finally went to the medical centre. The medical centre's are for non-emergency and hospital's are for emergencies. So he got a couple stitches and he's fine, thank goodness. So we went back to Uni and ate lunch, napped and such. Danielle hung out with our friend Ryan (who studied at St. Norbert last semester), Kelly watched a movie with her roomate Alice and I hung out with my roomate Matt. He's from England, but has been here for 4 years and at USC for 2 years. Ben is watching Happy Gilmore with his friends in the other room right now. He's Australian. I have heard from the ladies on campus (the ones who checked all us in) that I live with the party people on campus. LOL. Of course, only me haha.

So, its been a couple of days and I haven't gone out yet. That's okay, all in good time. I am pretty happy right now with just relaxing and getting to know people. Today was so so boring at orientation. It goes on all week and I'm not excited about it. I'm going to get a pre-paid cell phone soon, but for now I am happy with my internet. Hopefully I can get a job asap. I heard from so many people that it's really hard, but Matt told me about this pizza and pasta place down the street is hiring, so I'm going to try there in a few days, but I need some other stuff to be able to work, like a tax file number and ect...

I happy so far, except for I wish I had more money, but hopefully SNC will pull through for me and get me my money asap in September. Kelly and Danielle want to go on all these trips, like tours, and surfing and camping and stuff and I don't have any money for that, it sucks. Oh well. I'll be fine. I don't really miss the states yet. It's really weird not seeing people who I used to hang out with every day like Doug and Marissa, and I miss them, but I have been so busy with new and interesting things here, it's hard to focus on those things. I'm not sure what I have planned tonight, hopefully something fun!

The Beginning ~July 18, 2010~

Well hello!! Today is Sunday morning! Wow, first night in Australia, done! I arrived yesterday at 6:30am in Brisbane. The plane ride was actually not that bad. Long, yes, but still not too bad! We left from LAX at approx. 12am and were in for a 14 hour ride above the Pacific ocean! We recieved dinner, snacks, beverages and breakfest as well. We each had our own TV's in the seats in front of us and there were all kinds of recent movies, tv shows, music and games to keep you busy! We even got little travel kits with a pillow, blanket, ect... I didn't sleep much unfortunately, but I wasn't tired at all when we got there. It was all so exciting, yet it didn't seem real! We had an awesome bus driver to take us to USC, he answered all our questions and told us about things and places we passed. I met so many new people already! Everybody is so great! I am glad to be here with Kelly and Danielle though, I feel like it would be so much different if I was here alone. We went grocery shopping at Woolies and I spent more money than both of them! UGH! Oh well, a girls gotta eat right? We had lunch together, met all of eachothers roomates, unpacked, showered and unpacked. I still have to unpack my clothes...(I am such a procrastinator!) But I also want to clean the kitchen a bit...it's kinda...well...it could use some cleaning. I live with 2 boys and 1 other girl. Her name is Rebecca (spelling?) and she's from Germany! She's wicked nice and I talked to her for a while. The boys are Ben and Matt. Kelly's roomate Alice is really nice! One thing that worries me is that everyone says it's Really hard to get jobs here right now...(gulp!) SO, orientation is tomorrow and then we start class next week. I have class on Tuesday and Thursday, (and an hour on Wed) so I hope to be able to go on vacations with my 4 day, 5 night weekends, but if I don't get any more money soon, that isn't going to happen. This whole Australia thing is SO expensive. However, I know it's only the first days so later I know I won't have to spend as much. Last night we hung out with our friend Ryan who lives in Mooloolaba. He drove us around and we had a good time, but by that time I was exhausted! I feel asleep in the car! Went to bed really early last night, I think 10pm. And that explains why I am up at 7:30am lol. I almost have TOO much to talk about, I feel like I could go on and on and on, but this is a really long post so far. Maybe I will unpack and write more tomorrow! Don't know what's on the agenda today...but I can't wait!! :D