Where in the World is Ashley?

“Not all those who wander are lost.”- J.R.R. Tolkien

2010-06-03T14:39:00.000+10:00

Its June 3^rd. This is a big day!

For one, I am OFFICIALLY DONE WITH CLASSES! I cannot believe it. Its really surreal. I feel like I was just at orientation yesterday getting lost on this giant campus. I’ve grown to love everything about my school and I really do not want to go home just yet. My classes have been some of the most challenging but all of them were so interesting since I was getting an Australian perspective in some of them. There were days where I wished I could just wave and say hello to people in the great court like I do at BSC, but the experience is a give and take. It made me realize that I love Bridgewater State and cannot wait to see my friends back there.

Now, this is the bigger news! DAN BEALS WILL BE IN AUSTRALIA IN 24 HOURS!!!!! Now, you may have been thinking that I have been waiting for this for 5 months now, but actually, Dan and I have been planning this trip since 2007. This dream is 2 years in the making!! I am beyond excited and I know I wont be able to sleep tonight. I get to see my best friend!

We have big plans for the next two weeks. This weekend we are staying around Brisbane since Dan will have some major jetlag time traveling and all. On Tuesday, we are heading south to Melbourne for 2 days. I’ve wanted to go their all semester and I really only wanted to go with Dan. It seems like its our kind of city. It’s a coffee shop/live music city and I am so excited to explore it with Dan. Since its going to be cold there, we are only staying there for 2 days and then moving north to a semi-warmer environment in Sydney! Yep, back to Sydney! My parents were generous and bought us a hotel room for the weekend. We are going to be in Sydney from Thursday-Sunday. I’m excited because we can see the city and finally go to Olympic Park were the 2000 Olympic Games were held!

We are heading back to BrisVegas on Sunday because, unfortunately, I do have a final on the 15^th that I need to study for! So that Monday and Tuesday is all study time! It’ll be hard to study since I know that the next morning we leave for Cairns! Tropical Paradise! This is the most exciting adventure since we are finally going to be diving the Great Barrier Reef! I wasn’t able to go before, and this time around we are doing a Live Aboard trip. For 2 days and 1 night we are going to be on a boat in the middle of the reef completing 7 dives including 1 night dive! We are both thrilled! Those are the only plans so far up there, and they are the most important, but then after we have 3 days to do whatever we please. I guess we will figure it out when he gets here!

..wait when did it become june?

"You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give"- Eleanor Roosevelt

2010-06-02T21:02:00.000+10:00

I’m sorry, I’ve been really terrible with my blog posts. Many of you many not realize but it take a while for me to actually write everything and post it!
Anyways, I have the time to post again. Why you ask? Well I have currently just finished 3 of my 4 classes in the past week which equals a lot of work! Heres an insight to what my workload was.

1. EVNT2001-Event Proposal & Sponsorship, 6500word group project on the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival in South Bank, QLD in August. Worth 70% of my grade.

2. AUST2000- Australian Popular Culture, 2500word research paper on Surf Lifesaving. That was awesome, I was able to pick my own topic so of course I had to do something with the ocean and the lifeguards! Worth 40% of my grade.

3. MSTU2008-Television and Popular Culture 2000word research paper on television. It was a struggle since I barely watch television at home and here I don’t even have to TV. I picked the question relating to makeover/transformation shows but I still struggled to finish it..but now its done! Worth 40% of my grade.

Now, those are three of my classes, now I still have one final on June 15th at 5:45pm. Its my BIOL2001 class, Australia’s Terrestrial Environment, and that’ll be a difficult one since even of here I suck at science. But I can’t believe I am finally done with 3 out of 4 classes! Yay!

“Home is the place where it feels right to walk around without shoes”

2010-05-24T16:37:00.002+10:00

Why Study Abroad?

Everyone has their own answers to this question. Some just go to live in a foreign country, others go just to get away from the reality of home, but for me, I wanted it all. I have been planning studying in Australia since high school and even chose my college around the fact that I wanted to be able to afford to go abroad. I wanted the entire experience. The experience of travelling, living on my own, budgeting my life savings but most importantly, I wanted to see how I would handle moving 16,000 miles away from home, knowing absolutely no one and having no expectations of what would happen next.

In the past 4 months, I have been successful in this journey. I have kept up my grades, stuck (mostly) to my budget and made friends from around the world. My grades do not transfer back to Bridgewater State, they only transfer back as Transfer credits, but I do not that I did my usual. Straight A’s and B’s. I have a 3 more assignments left in the semester and then its over. I made it through my abroad experience alive!

Of course there have been sacrifices along the way, but in the end, like I always say “everything happens for a reason.” I decided to spend my money on trips instead of going out to restaurants and bars. After doing my finances with my family, I realized this trip is an enormous debt waiting for me to return. Travelling and experiencing the world is more important to me than spending money on clothes or intangible items. Senior year of college will be spent commuting from home, working at best buy, and travelling. Ask me 3 years ago about what invisioned my senior year looking like, none of the above things mentioned would be there. It’s a give and take and the money that I have spent on an experience of a lifetime is worth living in a dorm a million times over.

What conclusion has this brought me to? Easy. I want to travel everywhere. Before I got here, people had told me “congratulations, if you survive going to Australia, you can go anywhere.” I still don’t understand why I wouldn’t have survived, but I have a feeling its about the distance away from home. I’ve only missed a few things at home which made me re-evaluate what was really important when I go back home. I miss working, its true I am a work-aholic and I need to be back at Best Buy. Secondly, I miss my family, my immediate family and my best buy family. But in only 7 weeks I will be returning to New England with a new sense of what “home” really is. For the second half of 2010, it’ll be very difficult to top the first half, but I have a feeling it’ll be perfect.

"Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things; air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it. " -Cesare Pavese

2010-05-14T00:27:00.000+10:00

21. 21 days and my best friend is coming to Australia. 16,114 miles away :-) I am beyond excited. Dan and I are obsessed with traveling, I think once he's here, he is going to catch my travel bug disease. June 4th can't come fast enough!

Heres our first flight to Melbourne, Victoria. I'm ecstatic!

Cheers!

Tomorrow.

2010-05-13T17:11:00.000+10:00

I thought this was really cute, and I've said it to most of my friends whenever I am on skype with them.

"The future of our country is not found in our boardrooms, but in our classrooms."- Michael Milken

2010-05-05T10:59:00.002+10:00

Well, my travels have slowed down for the next month. With my blog I’m sure people reading this don’t think I’m doing much in school, but I am. It’s a different school system here, there isn’t weekly homework assignments and small pointless work to do like back home. My classes come in waves, its weird but I like it a lot more. My classes have large assignments that are worth between 30-70% of my grade. 3 of my 4 class do not give marks for participation and they do not take attendance in the lectures. It is up to me to get to class, learn the material and know when my assignments are due. This past week was hell for me. I had 2 lectures to present, a small research paper, and a lab report, each of these were worth 30% of my grade in each class. Now today, I am finished with all of those assignments and I do not have anything due until the 1st week of June.

Hmm wondering how I did on some of my assignments? I received two 6’s, which is ‘Distinction’. Their marking system goes up to 7, so if you get a 6 or a 7, it means an ‘A’ back home. To get a 7, is almost impossible here, unless everything is absolutely perfect, even the Australians say its hard. And no, they are not easy graders AT ALL.

Anyways, like I said nothing else is due until the first week of June and then I’m done with classes, with only 1 final to take. In the next week or so I am going to try and finish 1 of the 2 research final essays that I have. I want to get everything done because well, first , I have the time and secondly, Dan is coming June 4th!!!! So I don’t want to be stressed the first few days that he is here :-).

Plans for the evening? Well, I'm totally making tacos for Cinco de Mayo. I found mozzarella cheese a few days ago, I'm overly excited for mozzarella cheese.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

"P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney! You asked me where I'm going? OK, I'll tell you: P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney! That's where I'm going! " - Finding Nemo

2010-05-02T14:55:00.000+10:00

P.Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way….

…Well I didn’t find nemo, but I did fall in love with Sydney! The past two weeks have been long weekends because of ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) and Memorial Day. So a bunch of us decided that we were going to take advantage and head down to Sydney!

Melissa, Kelly and I were all on the same flight heading down, we hopped on VirginBlue for a 9pm flight and we were in Sydney by 10:30! There we met up with 7 others at the Woodduck Inn. Well, it was a hostel and we were prepared to stay there, after all , a hostel at $27 a night is right in a students price range. Unfortunatly, it was beyond gross. First off, it was just a few blocks away from the Red Light District, and my favorite…cockroaches! Everywhere! After all of us brainstormed what to do, we threw out the idea of if anyone has points on a credit card or hotel. Luckly! Colleen and Kyle’s parents both did! Amazingly they were able to get us 3 rooms for 3 nights at the Marriot outside the city. WE WERE IN HEAVEN. All 10 of us were like 5 year olds, since we were all used to sleeping in terrible hostels and always being weary of other in the room, a hotel was seriously heaven. Anyways, so yes, we were blessed and were able to stay in a hotel for the weekend, so by Friday afternoon we were all ready to explore.

Friday afternoon began our journey and all of the girls decided that the best thing to do to see all the city at once would be the hop on hop off bus tour with the ticket that was good for 24 hours. We stayed on the bus for the full 90 minute tour, and then decided that the next morning we would stop off at all the locations that we wanted. Overall Friday was a relaxing day, since all morning we had to figure out the hotels and actually getting there. That evening we headed back to Darling Harbor to Sydneys Ice Bar, Minus 5. All 10 of us went and we had a blast! It was very cold and the drinks that we got with our entrance ticket were great. Since of course its in the negatives, we could only stay in there for a little over a half an hour. After we came out, most of us just headed back to the hotel and called in an early night so we could have a full day ahead of us.

Saturday was a busy day! I love being on the go all day! We were up and out by 8:30 and we got on the Hop on Hop off Bus first thing. This morning there were 7 of us and we started out journey around the city. Our first stop was a surprise, there was a little market going on right off of Kings Cross so we stopped and had a look around. It was great since we didn’t have breakfast yet! They were selling the usually fruits and veggies, but they also had a crepe stand and believe it or not a breakfast sandwich stand. Melissa and I split a HUGE bacon and egg sandwich for $6, and it was worth it, it was so good and made right on the spot! Our next stop? The one and only Sydney Opera House!!! We were so excited, we took full advantage of being tourists and taking a million pictures. I think after going through my pictures I have every angle possible of the Opera House. I was so excited, it was one of my goals to see the opera house in the next two years and I was so happy to finally be there. We ended up staying there for over an hour, which was a little ridiculous because there is nothing around but the Opera House. Our third stop, Darling Harbor. It was so beautiful. We had a great weekend of sun so I feel that the good weather defiantly made everything better. The Harbor was full of ships,boats, restaurants, bars, and of course the world’s largest IMAX theatre at 7 stories high. We walked around there for a while, which reminded me of the Baltimore Harbor. After the harbor, we hopped on another bus that took us straight to Manly Beach right outside the city. The beach was huge! Tons of surfers and even though its considered to be Autumn here, there were hundreds of people still on the beach and in the really cold water! (so cold it was like New England water!)

For that evening since we weren’t all together with the entire group for most of the day, all of us decided that it would be nice to go to a nice dinner on the harbor for the night. There was numerous restaurants varying in very different price ranges, but we found an Italian restaurant that overlooked the harbor. Somehow, we managed to get a reservation for 12 people overlooking the water! The best part that we didn’t know about until we got the reservation? They were having fireworks on the harbor at 8:30! There was no reason for them that I could find, but they were doing 3 installments in the next month of fireworks, and we were able to see the first display! After dinner, we headed to a bar called the Scary Canary that was supposed to have Karaoke was it was cancelled. Melissa, Kelly, Julie and I didn’t want to stay so we ended up just leaving and walking around until we headed back at around 11pm…we didn’t much of a night life because we wanted full days of everything and we really loved our hotel room and TV!

Sunday we slept in until about 9am and headed into the city. It was the official ANZAC day, so everything was closed until that afternoon. When we got off at Town Hall Station we heard bagpipes and drums, and to our surprise the ANZAC parade was still going on. I was bummed at first because I watched it on TV in the hotel, assuming I missed it since it started at 8am and it was now 11. But it was still going! I was so excited to see these parade, its similar to Veterans Day in the US but this parade was the largest parade I’ve ever seen. Each division had a flag, and the each division’s infantry had a flag. It was pretty much broken down into so many different sections so everyone was able to be rightfully seen. It was an amazing thing to watch, it was so weird because the uniforms are different and I had only had a slight idea who was in the air force, marines or army. My favorite part? After about every 10 minutes there was a band of bagpipers playing. It was so wonderful. We stayed for almost an hour and it still wasn’t over. This parade was going on 5 hours long! Once we left we met up with Megan and Katelyn to head back to Darling Harbor. They all went into the aquarium but I ended up people watching. I didn’t want to spend money to go to the Aquarium because the day before I lost my $50 train pass and had to buy a new one. :-( .

But I loved people watching! It was a great day to do it, because all of the Sailors were around the harbor and families were with their loved ones on their solemn day. I swear I could have sat on that bench all afternoon. For lunch, they took and break and I met up with them to head to a delicious burger bar. I had the best cheeseburger since I’ve been in Australia and it was cheep! Only $9.90 with fries! It filled all of us up and then since the Aquarium wasn’t really checking tickets, I was able to sneak back in with the girls, which was very nice of them.

After we were finished at the Sydney Aquarium, we headed over to the Lindt Chocolate Café. I was in heaven..actually all of us girls were. I ended up getting a chocolate milkshake and some type of chocolate lava cake. Note to self: never do that again. I was on chocolate overload. That evening most of us ended up staying in and watching tv. Yes, we watched tv, but some of you may not realize…I have not seen television since February 11^th. I don’t have a TV here! So what did we watch? Nickelodeon and the movie Stick It. I’d say overall it was a successful night in!

Monday was a relaxing day. We stayed in our hotel room until we had to check out…at 12. We pretty much just wondered around the city, we took the ferry from one side to the other so we could see the opera house and bridge at another view! We were able to see Luna Park, a permanent amusement park right on the water, and we went back to the cheep burger place on the Harbor. Can you tell the Harbor was our favorite place? After lunch we ended up go to Paddy’s Markets in Chinatown. Overall it was a glorified Flea Market, so it was fun to look around and it was a great place to pick up touristy t-shirts and souvenirs. Later that evening, a few of us headed to a bookstore to just relax, which was really nice and very unexpected. After relaxing, I was finally able to get a cupcake! After drooling over Cupcakes on Pitt, the final day we all went! They were really delicious but pricy for the size. But to make up for it, they did put it in a cute little lunch box, which I tore right open. Like I said Monday was relaxing, and that evening we caught our 9pm VirginBlue plane back to Brisbane.

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

2010-04-21T23:41:00.000+10:00

The month of April has flown by over here. Most likely because I have been traveling for 3 of the 4 weeks in the month but still!

Today at the front desk of my apartment, I was asked to do a survey about how living in Urbanest was. The first thing it said was “ You’ve been living here 10 weeks…that’s 70 days!” Well, that hit me, I’ve been here exactly 10 weeks. Time is flying by and I feel like I just stepped of that 14 hour Qantas flight a few days ago! I have the travel bug and I just want to be able to see everything this country has to offer. I’ll be leaving for Sydney tomorrow night for the weekend, and I’m excited to see one of dreams, the Sydney Opera House. The weekend should be great, I’m going to 8 other AustraLearn people and we are sharing a hostel, so for the first time, I won’t be sleeping with strangers! I’m trying to see as many free things as possible this time around, because I’ll be heading back there when Dan comes down. We have no solid plans, which for me , as most of you know, is a big step. I am a planner! I need everything written down before I do it, and this weekend, my agenda is,well, empty.

As I stated before, I want to see what this country has to offer everywhere. But as I’ve been saying that, it reminded me that Australia is about the same size as the United States, and I was never as excited to just journey around my own country. When I come back, I know I’m going to have a different outlook, since I have so many beautiful things to see in the U.S, why not just explore my own country? My dad asked years ago, why I would want to leave America when there is plenty of things to see there, instead of going to Europe and I didn’t have an answer. I hope in the next few years I will be able to experience the U.S more then what I have before. Maybe go down south, or Midwest..or everywhere Thanks Austraila, this experience is giving me a better outlook on not only this country but my own. :-)

Cheers!

Bula! Fiji Part 1

2010-04-16T14:48:00.000+10:00

Bula!

This past week I returned home ( to Brisbane) after an amazing experience in Fiji. It wasn’t your typical tropical destination that most people would do when going to Fiji. I, on the other hand like to do more things than just drink and sit by the ocean all day. I found a tour company that was suggested by one of my roommates whos friends went a few months earlier. The tour company was called The FeeJee Experience. There had been nothing but good reviews and the fact that I would be able to see the main island of Fiji in a different light made me intrigued. Each day was filled with new activities, culture, and experiences that I know I would have never been able to experience without this company.

Getting to Fiji was pretty easy, besides all the customs stuff that you have to do, it was smooth sailing from Brisbane! It was only a 3 ½ hour flight to get there and a 4 ½ coming back. I took Air Pacific with my friends Melissa and Kelly and we began our journey at 6am on Easter Morning! I loved Air Pacific, I will recommend it to anyone! With a 3 ½ hour flight we received a delicious full meal and movie. It’s funny because Air Pacific is the sister airline to Qantas, which I would NEVER recommend to them, because their service is horrible. Anyways, the three of us arrived in Nadi International Airport at 5pm local time to be greated with “Bula!... Bula! …Bula!” In every direction. We met up with Tourist Transport and they set our accommodations for us for the rest of the trip! The first night was interesting, for the first time, I experienced culture shock. I didn’t realize that Fiji was a third-world country, and that was a big shock. The first day I felt terrible about being there, and how sad it must be…but I soon realized as the days went on, that the Fijians were happy, content, and didn’t want to change anything. Needless to say, the experiences that I am about to share really helped.

Feejee Experience Day 1:

Our guide and driver picked the 3 of us up at our hostel at 8:15am. We travelled from Nadi to Mango Bay, Coral Coast. Our first stop was in the Nadi Town markets to buy water and food for our BBQ lunch. We stayed there for minimum time because a lot of the shops were closed because of Easter Monday. After driving for a while, we stopped at a famous beach, Natadola Beach. It was absolutely beautiful! The water had to have been 84 degrees and it was so clear! We stopped there for a few hours, because our guide Ruben, told us lunch would be ready…when it was ready. About an hour and a half later, BBQ was served. It took so long because, the local Fijians were out in the ocean catching fish for us to eat! Talk about catch of the day! Since I don’t eat fish, I had some delicious chicken instead, but the fact that we literally watched them catch our fish was awesome!

Right after lunch, about 8 locals came and set up their jewellery that they make for a living. There were only 2 adult women, and the rest were young Fijian boys under the age of 12. A very different way of life but I was able to talk to some of the boys and they all make the jewellery by hand and with a small hand machine to sell for a profit. I ended up buying a coconut bracelet that was really different and I felt good, since the little boy I bought it from made it himself. After lunch, our group went to Malomalo Village to visit and learn the traditional customs of a Fijian Village. It was so eye opening and a great experience. These people have housing, but there is nothing in the houses, it is just a protective area for them. Each village has a church and you must wear a Surong, that covers your knees and your shoulders cannot be shown. From there, we made our way to the Coral Coast and went sand boarding down the Sigatoka Sand Dunes! It was so scary! The hill was so steep and I was just thinking “am I really going to go face first on a boogie board here?”..well of course I did! While everyone was becoming exhausted, the night was not over! We finally made our way to Mango Bay, a beautiful hostel with a beautiful view! That evening we watched crab racing, and participated in our first Kava ceremony. Kava ceremonies are held when new visitors come in, it’s a welcome ceremony and it is held in villages and hostel in Fiji went new guest arrive. The Kava was well, DISGUSTING. It isn’t alchol, but after a few cups of it, it makes you go numb. They call it Groggy. The Kava comes from a root and it harvested after 5-7 years. After that, I was ready for bed! Our hostels were nice! About 16 people per room, but we had misquote nets around our bunks so it was like everyone had their own cocoon!

Day 2:

This I decided to be my typical, relax on the beach and drink day. The tour was going to be heading into the rainforest to see waterfalls and experience the outdoors, but the past few weeks in rainforest had done me in! That wasn’t the only fact, our tour guide said that our shoes will be ruined on this trek and we will be walking up to our thighs in water…im adventurous, but I didn’t want to ruin my $100 Nikes for another rainforest. So I ended up going straight to Uprising Beach Resort. When I got there, a few of us were there before breakfast ended, so we ate another breakfast. Anything we could get for free, we would take full advantage of it! But the morning got better! Since we went though this tour company we were able to get full body massages for an hour! For $35 Fijian Dollars! ( our money is worth double there)
So, needless to say, I took full advantage and then spent the rest of the morning hanging out. The rest of the group got back at around 1pm so we had a group lunch and the rest of the day/night off. It was so relaxing! But by the time we had to go to bed, it was not as fun! We were in the “tree house” dorms, which sounds great…but in reality it was a big room with 28 beds, and 2 toilets and 2 showers. Awesome. So that night was a terrible nights sleep, but that’s okay, it was about the experience! Haha.

Day 3...continued in post below!

Fiji: Part 2

2010-04-16T14:33:00.001+10:00

Day 3:

From Pacific Harbour, we headed out early in the morning because we had a lot of driving to do! We were heading to Volivoli Beach! But before we got there, we had a few more stops to make that were just as exciting as days prior! Our first stop of the morning was to go to Wailouta village to meet the chief and for our group to participate in a real sevu-sevu ceremony (Kava Ceremony!). We made sure our knees and shoulders were covered and we began our journey. The ceremony wasn’t like anything I’ve seen before. There was about a 5 minute prayer that was in Fijian before we could start and all women have their feet to their left or right, while all men sit cross legged. We were able to have Kava again, but this time it was not as strong, and I actually semi didn’t mind it. Once the ceremony was over, we were split up and I went with the chief’s wife. There we learned how to make bracelets out of Bandana leaves. We were able to keep the ones that we made, which was really cool, because now I have a bracelet that I made myself!

Once we were done at the village, we then went to the local school. This was the most rewarding, because of course; children just instantly make your day. This school had 3 teachers, 3 classrooms and 6 different grades. Grades 1-2 were together, 3-4 together, and 5-6 together. It was amazing to me, grade 1 hasn’t learned English, grade 3 understands English and Fijian, and by grade 6 they are fluent in both Fijian and English, and are then learning Hindu. Very different school system but the children were so happy with so little. That was probably one of the highlights of my trip.

During that day we also drove by Suva, Fijis capital city and we were able to stop at their “white house” and take a picture with the guard. After a full day of this, we found ourselves at a BEAUTIFUL resort called Volivoli beach. It was what you would imagine Fiji was like! It had a pool, sand, great rooms with only 8 people in them, amazing views of the sunset and sunrise..just amazing!

Day 4:

This was our last full day in Fiji, and as a group :-( . We started late that day, so that morning, the girls and I woke up early for the sunrise, went back to bed, and then woke up and hung out around the pool for the rest of the morning. We headed west to complete our circle of the main island and our first stop of the day was lunch. In Fiji the second largest population there is Indian. We were able to stop in Ba Town for a traditional Indian curry lunch. It was all about the Indo-Fijian culture and it was diffinatly different but I loved it! I never really ate curry before, and I feel in love with it. I also was able to make my own tortilla and everything! After a delicious experience in Ba Town, we headed to the Sabeto Valley mud pools and hot springs. It was a select few from the group that decided to strip down and go into what looked like a black hole, but don’t worry, I of course was the first one in :-). It was really gross at first but then a lot of fun.

Who wouldn’t have fun in the mud! I didn’t wear my bathing suit in because I heard that mud pools could ruin it, so I decided to wear a sports bra so I could just throw it away afterwards. Once we were done with that, our adventure was pretty much over. We met for dinner in the town center of Nadi and we were able to have another traditional Fijian meal for our final dinner together. The girls and I called it an early night though because we had to be at the airport at 6am.

Overall, this trip was 100% worth it. If I had the time and the money I would have loved to stay longer, but reality had to hit me and we had to go back to school. The FeeJee experience was worth the money, the places they took us, was so unique and I was able to learn so much about the culture and the Fijian way of life. I’d recommend it to anyone :-)

Bula! (means hello and goodbye!)

"Look at all the sand! Well, it is the largest sand island in the world..."

2010-04-03T22:40:00.001+10:00

This past week was spent in the beautiful sand island named Fraser Island. This island is considered to be the largest sand island in the world and is also a World Heritage site. I didn’t go here for just fun though. For my Biol2001 class, it was a 5 day research trip to study the sand dune transact, the Sclerophyll Forest and Rainforests that were located in the island. To be honest, I’m so happy I went. I learned so much information about trees, animals and the vegetation, that I can now easily tell what one tree or plant is from another. The only way to get around the island was in a 4x4. We took some comfy looking Land Rovers from UQ all the way to the island ( 4 ½ hours) and then for the next 4 days, our road was the beach. Each day consisted of rocky off-roading, waves hitting our rovers, and lots and lots of bugs!

Each morning was filled with research. The first day I was up at 5:15am. This was an ungodly hour since I haven’t woken up this early since I’ve been in Australia…but it was for a good reason! I was required to go bird watching! It was awesome! We were able to spot about 18 different birds within an hour and I learned about how and why they go to certain trees, their calls, and about their colors. A few birds that I was able to see were Honeyeaters, Doves, Grey-Shrike Thrush, Varied Trillers and many more. Once that was over, our first day of research had begun by learning about the sand dune transects. We had a 100 meter area where we took down notes every 20m on what ground cover there was, the types of trees and different shrubs. The afternoon was spent at Eli Creek, a natural spring creek in the middle of the forest! It was only about half a meter deep but it was refreshing!

The second day we headed to the Sclerophyll Forests to do research on ground cover, canopy cover and new plant growth. It was long and tedious but very interesting! I was able to what types of trees grow where and why, as well as the different plants. Once we did that, we moved to doing plants and had to classify what they were and their traits. Once the morning of research was done, we ate lunch and suffered ( and I mean suffered! Too hot! And giant spiders!) through a 7km hike through the forest, which on the other end, was a lake. It was so refreshing, but before that, we stopped at a 50m sand dune, which we had to climb, but we could jump off of it! I felt like I was in the desert, yet there was forest surrounding the area.

The third day, we journeyed about an hour out into the rainforest. This time we worked on the canopy cover, the size of the trees, and the leaf litter. This was a quick morning, because my group wanted to get out of the rainforest and all the bugs as fast as possible! I’ve never had a problem with bugs, but these bugs in the rainforest are REALLY big! For example, I almost ran into a Golden Orb Spider, check it out. Its terrifying when your inches from it. That afternoon, was absolutely amazing to make up for a scary morning. Our group headed to Lake Mackenzie, which is a white sand beach with clear blue water! It was so beautiful, and since its so natural, we couldn’t wear any sunscreen when we went in, just to preserve the lake! Luckily it was a slight overcast, so no burning occurred!

The final day was exciting. We were done with our research, my team stayed up all evening to finish imputing our data, that by the end we were all going insane. We went to Lake Wabby for a few hours in the morning after our breakfast, and this lake was bright green! Each lake that we went to was a different color from the vegetation, and the sand was also different colors because of the nutrients. This final day at Lake Wabby, I truly felt in the dessert. When we arrived, all you could see was sand, but when you looked to your left, there was a forest! In the next 100 years or so, the dunes will actually take over Lake Wabby, and as you can see in the pictures, the sand is slowly taking over the forest. Its so amazing how nature works.

I could go on for days about all of the extra stuff that we did, but overall these were the highlights of the trip. I hope you enjoy the photos and soon I will be putting together a video blog about my trip on Fraser. I would do it now, but I have to pack for my flight to Fiji in the morning :-)

Cheers!

“Australia is an outdoor country. People only go inside to use the toilet. And that's only a recent development.”- Barry Humphries

2010-03-28T00:11:00.000+10:00

For the next 5 days I will be in Fraser Island with my Bio class for a Research Trip. So until next week, there will be no post. But I'll leave you with my first attempt at a video blog. Let me know if you like it by commenting!

(ps. if you want to comment you don't have to have a Gmail account, just post as anonymous!)

Enjoy!

One Question. What is your answer?

2010-03-26T16:55:00.003+10:00

I found this on you tube today and fell in love with it. I'm not a usual you tube viewer but this was such a wonderful video. I don't like posting random videos that I feel isn't worth watching. So please take 10 minutes and check it out. The question is interesting and makes you think. In the end, what is your answer to this question?

'if you're out surfing serious waves and you wipe out, you don't land on soft snow. It's usually either very sharp coral, or you get raked across the beach gravel and sand while you're tumbling underwater."- Frederick Lenz

2010-03-24T23:14:00.002+10:00

This past weekend was absolutely fantastic! I went to Arrawarra Beach in New South Wales to learn how to surf. I packed up by backpack and headed to catch a bus in the center of Brisbane at 7pm on Friday night. I was happy and ready for the trip to begin. All these weeks I thought the ride down was a 2 ½ hour journey…well whopps, 6 hours later, I arrive at Mojo X Surf School. The beach was absolutely beautiful and very quiet. It was like a little hidden beach since no tourists are here and the only locals are the surfers. Once I arrived it was about 2am, an hour ahead of Brisbane.

The living arrangements were simple, the host said “okay, 10 of you in this room now, go!” and go forth! There was a total of 32 people on my trip and it was awesome to be able to talk to people from around the world. I roomed with Canadian, some Dutch girls and a few Norwegian men. We all went straight to bed for our first morning of surfing at 9am the next morning.

Daylight came very soon on Saturday! One of our Surf instructors woke us up by coming in and banging on the walls of the cabins. What a scary start to the morning! We had a delicious breakfast and had to be ready by 9am to be at the water. Before we headed out , we learned about the tides and how not to get caught in the rips, which was useful since a Cyclone was right around the corner and the waves were HUGE. Each of us grabbed a wettie ( wetsuit) and the instructors gave us surfboards depending on our height. Once we heading to the beach, we learned the steps to get on the board, what to do if you fall, and all of the rules of the ocean when surfing. And then finally, it was time to ATTEMPT to surf.

You’d figure since I love every other water sport and adventure sport I’d like surfing…well, this is the one exception. I was so completely terrible. I mean I wasn’t the worst person out there but I think I had more of a fear of the water then anything. I learned growing up that when waves like this arise, you don’t choose to go in them! Surfing is all about getting into those terrible waves that most people stay away from! Don’t get me wrong! When I got up on the board, I felt like I was the coolest person ever! But then when I fell and a wave got me..that’s a different story!

On that Saturday we had 2 lessons. One in the morning and one in the evening. My entire group was exhausted by the time we were done with our second lesson that a lot of us were in bed by 9pm. My favorite part of the day? The was an area that I would like to call paradise in the Surf School. There was sand and three hammocks, looking up at palm trees and blue skies, and the beach was around the corner. I’m 100% sure I have not been that relaxed in years.

The next day? I was up at 6am, before the sun. We had our final surf lesson at 7am so we were privileged enough to eat breakfast outside as the sun was rising. That was absolutely beautiful! The beauty soon went away when I could barely move from the amount of pain I was in! I guess after all those falls, my body wasn’t too happy with me! I also discovered that my knees, and all of my fingers were cut up from the surf board! No worries mate, my surf instructor just duct taped my hands up! It was an overall successful morning but I was happy to be done! Everyone in my group was in pain! It was only a 2 day trip and some people do 5-10 day trips! Yikes!

Overall, I would recommend Mojo X Surf School to anyone! It was totally worth the money, and I was able to try something new! It was a great weekend away ( beside the whole bus ride part!)

*Reminder, if you click on the photos, they will enlarge! :-)

“Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”- Oscar Wilde

2010-03-18T23:26:00.000+10:00

This has been a quiet blog this week, since my classes are starting to pick up!

Just a quick update!

1. " I am going to be gone all weekend J Friday, I am going to Brisbane Forest Park for a research trip then I am going to learn to Surf from Friday-Sunday at MojoSurf. Lets just hope this cyclone doesn’t interfere! The swells the days we are learning to Surf are going to be about 12ft high. I am 100% positive that I have never even seen waves that high, never mind SURFING in them.

2. I booked my flight to Fiji! My roommate Melissa, my friend Kelly, and I are going to be staying in Fiji from April 4^th-9^th! I am beyond excited! Never did I think it was possibility to actually go here!

3. I actually have assignments due on Friday. One of my assignments is worth 30% of my grade ALREADY. Its hard because if you do bad on one assignment you are very likely to fail the course.

Enjoy the weekend! I hear its beginning to look/feel like Spring in Ma! I miss Spring! We are heading into our Autumn. But Brisbane’s Fall gets to a chilling 70 degrees. J

xoxo

"Eating Ants the Australian Way"

2010-03-16T23:30:00.003+10:00

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." -St. Augustine

2010-03-13T01:05:00.002+10:00

This is just a quick post!

I wanted to keep everyone updated on a few things! I’m sure you love hearing about the life in Brisbane but I bet you would love to hear about my travel plans as well!

Each month I have about 2 weekends to travel. Here is my current itinerary so far and a little excerpt on what I’ll be doing during the trips.

19^th March- Biol Field Research Day Trip to Brisbane Forest Park

Brisbane Forest Park is a rugged national park that encircles the Brisbane region from the west. This full day field trip offers a great chance to experience some of south-eastern Queensland's magnificent rainforest. At Walkabout Creek Wildlife Centre you will get to see a platypus, a wombat and mainland Australia's largest marsupial carnivore, the spotted quoll. Other animals include various rainforest birds, freshwater fishes, turtles, snakes, lizards and local wallabies and kangaroos.

19^th-21^st March- Mojo Surf, Surf Weekend ( literally departs 1 hours after Field Research)

This is an awesome way to start your surfing career and escape the city for the weekend. Departing every Friday evening you will head to one of our secluded purpose built surf camps where the vibe will wipe away the hustle and bustle of the city. By day you will be learning to surf on some of the world’s most pristine and uncrowned beaches. Saturday night is always a blast around the campfire telling tall tales, meeting new friends and experiencing the best lifestyle on the planet.

28^th March- 1^st April- Fraser Island 5 Day Research Trip

Fraser Island World Heritage Area is the world's largest sand island. The 5 day BIOL2001 field trip to Fraser includes 4WD transport, accommodation and meals. Activities include hikes and four-wheel drive excursions to various island ecosystems, ranging from the beaches to the towering inland rainforest. Highlights include visits to spectacular freshwater lakes and giant sand dunes, as well as spotlighting for wild dingos.

2^nd -8^th/9^th April- Nadi, Fiji! ( we are booking this on Monday if the flight prices stay the same.)

First stop this morning is Wailolola Beach where your Guide and Driver will outline the Feejee Experience product. Then it’s onto Nadi Town markets to get some supplies and barter with the locals. From Nadi town we head south to our lunch spot and one of Fiji’s most famous beaches, Natadola Beach for sunbathing, body surfing and mingling with the locals all whilst your Driver and Guide cook a BBQ lunch. Early afternoon is the first cultural experience at Malomalo Village, where your Guide will explain traditional customs in a Fijian village. The last activity is on the Coral Coast itself - sand boarding the Sigatoka sand dunes! Later in the afternoon we arrive at our accommodation, Mango Bay - a beachfront resort, complete with free snorkelling, kayaking, pool, volleyball and loads of other free and paid activities.

22^nd-27^th April- Syndey

We just booked this today on a “happy hour sale” so we have no current plans but we will make some! J

I love and miss you all from home. <3

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating"- Luciano Pavarotti, Pavarotti, My Own Story

2010-03-13T00:37:00.000+10:00

Food. This post is all about Food.

The first few weeks here in Brisbane were excellent. But I already began feeling sick of eating the same things every day. The grocery stores are similar to ours but the food, well I can’t complain to much. I actually really enjoy all of the food here! Except for the mayonnaise, yuck. I asked my mom for a few easy recipes that I thought would be simple but Australia doesn’t have the little things!

For example, I wanted to make my moms delicious Stuffed Shells, (obviously NOT as good as hers,but I wanted to attempt) but for the past week, 3 grocery stores, and a fresh pasta market later…I’ve come to the conclusion that Australia, or at least Brisbane does not sell large shells. This was an unfortunate discovery but I am surviving. What else don’t they have? Well cheese is a bit different. They don’t have string cheese, or any of the wonderful laughing cow cheeses. Only the basics. It also seems like every flavor of cheese I get it called “Tasty” cheese. What is that supposed to mean?! This is labeled on my shredded cheese, my parmesan cheese, and my slices of cheese. I just want some Mozzarella!

On the other hand let me begin on the topic of Candy! Or as the Aussies call it, Lollies. I may have fallen a little head over heels for anything confectionery in this country. Now, everything delicious and really unhealthy for you is way overpriced here, but about once a week I spend my change on some new treat. The first thing I bought was a package of starburst babies. This was a recommendation from the lovely Chris McCarthy, and I wasn’t allowed to leave Australia without trying these. So the very first week I decided to buy these” babies”. They tasted just like any other fruit snack but I think that these Aussies are a little out there. These fruit snack are literally molded babies! I’m sure some of you will be offend but when eating them I can’t really say anything but, “these babies are delicious” or “what flavor baby did you get?”. If heard in the wrong context, well you get the point.

This other delicious chocolate delight would have to be the TimTam. These are made with a variety of different chocolates, with wafers in the middle of them. I guess you could compare them to a Kit Kat, but less crunchy and more chocolaty. I believe there is about 8 flavors and I have had about 4 of them so far. They come in a pack of 8 or 9 and if your really craving the chocolate fix, you could eat them all in a sitting or two.

The third and final treat would be Pods. Pods cannot be related to anything in the US and I’m almost positive my dad would love them. Pods are bit sized candy similar to what you get at Halloween or something. They only have a few flavors, like twix and crunch bar. I have only had the twix so far and it was awesome! Okay, so imagine a bit sized twix, but the cookie is in a little cup form with the perfect amount of carmel and chocolate in the middle. This is the only picture I didn’t take, but I just had ot show everyone anyways.

Here is a few pictures of the lollies that I have been talking about. The pod picture is probably the best because: 1.) I didn’t take it 2.) There’s food in the picture and unfortunately my candy is gone by the time I think of taking a picture.

Fast Fact of the Day!

If you are looking for the cheapest meats. After about 4pm, all of the butchers and grocery stores give price reductions on meat. This goes for hamburger, to chicken to fish. I think this is one thing I won't be looking for a deal on.

P.S- If anyone is having trouble seeing the photos that I am posting here, if you click on the photo, it will enlarge it!

Love & Miss xox

"No part of Australia is more than 1000 km from the ocean and a beach. "

2010-03-07T22:19:00.000+10:00

I have made it through my first week of Uni!

The Australian school system is so different compared to what I’m used to at Bridgewater State. I am not too worried about studying, and doing my work, its just the most difficult thing that I have found is during lectures. I cannot for the life of me, listen and take notes at the same time. Since the class sizes are much larger than 30 people, the lecturers can’t just stop for a question. During my first real biology class, I realized that I’m going to need some help if I’m going to remember anything from the lectures so I ended up going to Dick Smith, Australia’s electronics store, to get a voice recorder. By spending the money on the recorder, I can already see that it has made a difference to how my study habits will be. It seems like for the three weeks I’ve been here, I’ve spent the most money this week on school supplies, books, and field trips.

School supplies..yay! Well down under, they don’t use paper that is 8 ½ by 11, its just slightly larger at 8.3 by 11.7. Its not that big of an adjustment but its annoying that if I bring my notebooks back, they will be a different size. With all of my classes, I needed a total of three books, which was great. Many of the professors put their notes online because they do not want students to waste their money on material that they cannot sell back. The highlight of the week was paying for my field trips! Like I said in an earlier post, I will be going on 4 trips this semester, most of them day trips, and one 5 day trip. Here are my research trips!

March 19th- Brisbane National Park Research Trip

March 28^th- April 1^st- Fraser Island Research Trip

May 7th- Lamington National Park

May 28^th- Australia Zoo ( behind the scenes! )

This past weekend week was a relaxing but eventful weekend! Since I have no Friday classes, my friend Emily and I went into the city, but then decided to go a different way to explore! Well in a few short minutes we found the entrance to Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens! It was such a lovely find, it didn’t seem like it belonged in the city! There were lakes, flowers, tropical trees, picnic areas..everything! We enjoyed it because for the past 6 days or so its been raining and even in the misting rain, the Botanical Gardens were beautiful! There was so much wildlife, I couldn’t believe I was in the city! Giant bearded dragons, ducks, eels, (yes eels) it was awesome. Friday night was an early one because I’ve been planning on going to an event in the city for the past few months. It was Brisbane Welcomes International Students Day! So I got up and headed into the heart of the city with Emily and Chelsea. We got some great information about the city, we heard Brisbane’s Chancellor speak, and best of all I got to meet and speak with “Greatest Job on Earth” winner, Ben Southall!!!! That 100% made my day!

Sunday my roommate Melissa and I deiced that we were done exploring Brisbane and made our way to the Surfers Paradise, on the Gold Coast. Our apartment complex is in the perfect location beucase we rolled out of bed and caught the 8:03 train down to the beach right next door. The ride was about 45 minutes and then we hopped onto a bus for about a half hour to take us right to paradise. The ride was smooth! This is defiantly a day trip/ overnight trip. We got their early and it was BEAUTIFUL! The water was 74 degrees and the sand was so soft. Since we were their early in the morning we were able to watch some surfs schools, lifeguarding classes and swim team all in different areas of the beach! I was very impressed with the lifeguards.

Watching them practice made me miss guarding a lot, but it was really interesting how they recovered victims from the ocean as opposed to a pool in the U.S like I am used to. As we were walking, I was also mesmerized by the swim team swimming laps in the ocean! This may not seem like a big deal, but the swells were at least 6 to 7 ft high and all of the kids just jumped right in! After sitting in the sun for a while we decided to take a walk around all of the different shops and food areas. It was a great area and the people watching was by far the best in Australia so far! We both put layers of sun block on but we still managed to get burnt. The sun is just so hot that after just a half hour you really feel like your baking in the oven. My burn isn’t bad though, its like a usual beginning of a summer burn that goes away in a day or two. We headed home at about 5 o’clock so I would say it was a successful day trip! We are already thinking of going back on Friday!

Fast Fact of the Day! What is a Seppo? Well, Australians sometimes refer to Americans as Seppo's.Why? Because this is an abbreviation for 'Septic Tank' which is rhyming slang for Yank as in Yankee. If you dont get the lingo, it understandable because usually someone would have to explain where a certain name came from.

Cheers from the heat!

Love & Miss.

"Australia is so cool that it's hard to even know where to start describing it. The beaches are beautiful; so is the weather. Not too crowded. Great food, great music, really nice people. It must be a lot like Los Angeles was many years ago. "- Mary-Kate Olsen

2010-03-03T22:41:00.000+10:00

School is officially in Session!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I’m that excited about it. Why? Well it probably has to do with the fact that since December 18^th, 2009, I have had no schedule besides working at Best Buy. That’s a very long 2 ½ months for me not to be busy! Starting this past Monday, I’ve finally began a schedule!

Monday’s- I have all day free, because my first class of the day actually starts at 6:00pm. My first lecture is on Television and Popular Culture. I was a nervous on my first day because the lecture room held about 150 people but there were only about 80 students. Yes, 80 students, still seems a lot but I was relieved at that number! My course head, Lisa, began the class and like every other first week of school, she just went over what is expected and what we will be doing for the semester. She was different to say the least! Flaming dyed red/orange hair and think rimmed bright red glasses, and of course you have to add on the Australian accent. The lecture each Monday is 1 ½ hours and then I go right to my tutes. ( a.k.a Tutorial). This is where I feel much more comfortable, since the class size it’s about 20 students. Luckily I have the same professor, Lisa for my tutes and she makes it fun! I’m very excited about this class, I’m one of three American students and we had to introduce ourselves. Long story short, since it is a Television and Popular Culture class, they asked me if I watched the Jersey Shore…and I was proud to tell them NO. We are also working in partners for a project, and my partner is Emily, an already graduated Law student but she is currently working on her Bachelors for Arts. I think we will be good partners, since we are doing our project on Crime shows, so of course CSI Las Vegas comes up and both of us agree. Perfect.

Tuesday’s- This is my semi busy day, its weird because I have to commute everyday from my apartment. On the bus. It’s only 7-10 minute ride, depending on the time of day. My roommate Melissa and I are both in our 9am, Australia’s Terrestrial Environment. It’s a biology class and is geared for students who are on exchange for a semester. It’s a big class because….we have field trips! It seems like a very interesting class, my professor Steve is a vertebrate Paleontologist, so its great to listen to him lecture. Only down side, I can’t write that fast! So I had to buy a voice recorder because the class is much larger then usual. So! My Field Trips! We go on three day trips and a 5 day trip. My day trips are Brisbane Forest Park, Lamington National Park, and “behind the scenes” tour of the Australia Zoo ( Steve Erwins zoo). The big field trip is the week before our semester break and it’s to Fraser Island, the biggest sand Island in the world. This link will direct you to a previous semester’s trip to Frazer Island, check out what I’ll be doing! (click--> BIOL2001) Of course, there trips come with reports that we must do, but at least I get to see different parts of the city and learn!

I also have Australian Popular Culture on Tuesdays, but so far its not very exciting. We only went over the syllabus and the highlight of this class so far is that we have to watch a movie every week and discuss it. I think I can handle that. This is a boring class compared to the biology class.

Fun Fact of the Day!

You may be wondering why I am referring to my professors or lecturers by their first name. Well, in Australia everything including the classroom is casual, so the professors want to be called by their first name. They believe that they are not above us or special, of course they may be a doctor, or have their masters, but they don’t boast about it. If you call them Professor, they just give you a weird look and remind you what their name is.

"It's like we're studying at a Hogwarts, just without the Great Hall, we have the Great Court."

2010-02-28T00:58:00.005+10:00

This is my first school post! It's hard to believe but I AM studying here! If you don't already know, I am going to be studying at the University of Queensland at St. Lucia. I could go on about why I chose to go to school here but heres a few of my top reasons why I chose UQ over 25 other schools in Australia.

1. The weather! Sorry Massachusetts, but I hate SNOW. I'm the happiest in the summer or in the sun. In Brisbane, QLD, the coldest it gets is around 70 degrees in their winter. So for all your New Englanders...THIS WEATHER IS AWESOME.

2. University of Queensland is ranked one of the top schools in the world. Its ranked in the top 8 in Australia and as opposed to Bridgewater State College, this school has classes from Undergrad to PhD. They have research stations all over Australia and huge breakthroughs have happened here. Who wouldnt want to go to a school with such an amazing atmosphere.

3. Networking. If I meet the right people here and get my name out, being able to have networking oppourtunities in outher countries is a gift. I've already started that by joining the UQ Management Society, our first big event is "Speed Dating" which companies such as Loreal, Cadbury, Ernst & Young and other global businesses will be there to talk about their company and just for the Undergrads to be able to learn how to hold professional conversations.

4. The city of Brisbane. This city is an up and coming young city. In the early 80's this place was considered the "country" and it has come far. Theres beaches, great public transportation, shops, open markets, street performers, clubs and anything that could fit a 20 somethings tastes. Each day of the week there is something to do, and if you really get that bored, we have Street Beach. A beach that was man made next to the river, but it has sand and palm trees. I literally have my own beach in my backyard.

Since these all seem like wonderful reasons to come here. I can't summarize how much of an impact my University has. Insted of me going on about it. I have a little Wiki excerpt.

"The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in Brisbane, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the older university in Queensland and the fifth in the nation. UQ is ranked among the top universities, both in Australia and the world. UQ research led by Professor Ian Frazer pioneered a vaccine for cervical cancer. The vaccine Gardasil protects against an approximate 70 perfect of human papilloma virus related cervical cancers. The 274 acre campus also includes sporting fields, gardens, duck ponds, and cycling tracks. The athletics centre features 21 floodlit tennis courts and Olympic standard swimming pool, a three-level gymnasium and a multi=purpose indoor center. The university is served by a CityCat wharf, two bus stations and is also served by the Eleanor Schonell Bridge providing pedestrian and bus access across the river to Dutton Park. " - Thank you Wikipedia!

Okay, so now that you know a little bit about my school and how pretty much amazing it is, I’ll tell you my perspective! So yes, this is the most amazing and beautiful campus that I have ever seen but it’s defiantly a difference from the US Public school system. The biggest complaint I have it that at UQ, they want you to learn on your own, which includes how to pick classes. I have been so lost at picking classes and I’m usually really good at it! Let me just tell you how strange it is. Okay, so I can take 4 classes, because that is considered a full class load, as opposed to 5 classes at BSC. Now, we meet for up 1, 2 or 3 days in the week but when we meet, we have different times and different topics to discuss. Each class has a “lecture” or “contact” that is required. The some classes have a “Tutorial” that has numerous different hours/sections to pick from. So you have to pick a lecture and a tutorial and sometimes a practical, which is similar to a tutorial but apparently it’s different? But when you are picking your classes and everything is full, you email the course head and tell them you want to be in this class, and if enough people do that, then they open up a different section. It’s annoying beyond belief and most of you know me, I love picking classes, but not here. There are no advisors to help you, and if you do find a student center staff member, they just tell you to email the course. Everything is self taught. I just want my classes! Meh.

Fact Fact of the Day!
Did you know that I have a Ferris Wheel in my backyard? Well I didn't until we passed it for the first time on the way to my apartment! It was a plesant surprise! This is the Wheel of Brisbane! It stands 60 metres tall ( much smaller than the London Eye's 135m.) but it give tourists a bird eye view of the beautiful city! I love it at night because each capsule is lit up with bright blue LED lights and just adds to the city. Here is it during the day, I hope to get a picture of it at night soon!

Good day!

"O-WEEEEK.! Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi! "

2010-02-25T20:17:00.003+10:00

I’m not going to go into detail about classes, I know, it’s the boring stuff. But! I will go into my orientation week or O-Week as it’s called. All this week is O-Week and there are things to do every day. They do not have Greek life in Australia but wow, hazing is 100% legal here. For example, each college on campus ( dorms) has different things that they have to do throughout the day. Take Emmanuel College, they have to be up at 5am, the hall leaders wake them up and make them run around the campus screaming absurd chants that often include F-bombs and ridiculous singing. They all have to wear sailor hats with nicknames on them, and if a leader sees you around campus without your hat on, then they write your nickname in permanent marker on your forehead. Crazy right? Another college, Women’s college, has weekly dinners that they wear “dress robes” to and they live like Harry Potter ( only thing I’m jealous about!) but during the o-week they are required to wear their houses Polo and navy shorts. I’m not sure if this post is getting the message across, but every day you KNOW who lives on campus, because they are the ones doing ridiculous things. These examples may not sound that bad, but honestly if you saw it, it would be a different story. See, this may seem fun, but at Uni, most people that live on campus are ages 17-19. So if I was a freshman, I may have thought this was awesome, but my friends that are currently living on campus, say it’s more of a chore at 20-21 as a junior or senior in college.

Fast Fact of the Day!(Maybe I’ll do this each blog, what do you think?)

In Australia is someone asked what college you’re in, that actually means what residence hall you are living in. If they ask what you are studying, you tell them University of Queensland. If they ask what area, that is when you say your major. Example time! So I do not live in a college, I live in Southbank. I’m studying at University of Queensland and my area of study is marketing. Doesn't seem to complicate but when you’re in a conversation, Australian’s give you a look like you have five heads if you tell them you go to college at UQ and your major is Marketing. Little culture gap there!

Okay, so besides the whole hazing and living on campus thing, which doesn’t really involve me, I just find it amusing. I have to tell you guys about Market Day! Market Day is the best day ever! Market Day at University of Queensland is amazing, it is when EVERY SINGLE CLUB OR SOCIETY comes out with a table for people to get more information about a certain area, sign up, or just get free things from different vendors! These pictures don’t really do it justice, since they were on my phone but all of these white tents had different clubs. At UQ each club you join has a fee, so if you want to participate you pay the membership fee, and if you have no interest your student fees don’t go to something you don’t have interest about! Over 250 tables were there to look at. There were tables for sports teams, law clubs, translink ( the public transport), the local police, IKEA, cell phone providers, Apple, choirs, student unions, different religious clubs, alumni association…pretty much if you ever thought of joining a club, they have everything possible to offer you. I ended up going on my own, because I love getting free things, it may sound terrible but if you look hard enough, free is right there!

I was in all my glory! I got calendars and post it notes, water bottles, reusable bags, I won a t-shirt ( which I said during my previous post), candy, cokes, pens, pencils, other various food items, stickers, important info , ice cream, ect. These may not sound very exciting but I got as much info out of these people as possible so I knew what was in the area and so I could be knowledgeable and hold a conversation other than “sooo you’re an international student” to another student. I ended up joining 2 clubs which I’m very excited about. Both only cost a $5 membership fee too! The first organization I joined is the QUEST Society, which is a group of multicultural students from around the world but we all share a common interest of learning more about Brisbane and the state of Queensland in general. We have discounted day trips, as well as a student’s perspective on where to go out at night, or to eat a cheap meal to nice areas to just enjoy the scenery.

I am excited about this because we are already finding really local spots that most travel books never even mentioned! Another society that I joined was the UQMA which is University of Queensland Management Association. It is a not-for profit organization for students that are looking to pursue a more professional side and to be able to be connected with quality networking opportunities’ throughout the semester. With my membership card, I also get discounts at different restaurants and free entry to clubs and bars. This is hopefully a society worth joining because even at the table I felt like I fit right in. The UQMA is for any Business, Economics, Commerce or Law majors so I was right at home!

There is a 3rd club that I am hopefully joining. What is this club you ask? Well, it’s the DIVE TEAM! Not as in 1 meter diving, but SCUBA diving! I didn’t have the amount of money to join today but I am going to a BBQ tomorrow night at their dive house that is located right next to UQ’s outdoor swimming pool. Don’t worry family! I have a friend that is doing it with me, his name is Chris and he also is a student from the US and both of us are really excited about this dive team! I’ll have to keep you posted on that but I would love to be able to join a club that I otherwise would never be able to join at Bridgewater State.

Cheers!

"and he said... "Do you come from a land down under? Where women glow and men plunder? "

2010-02-24T22:28:00.003+10:00

While I was at my orientation in Cairns, N. Queensland, they told me that the first few weeks of being in a foreign country are always the “honeymoon stage” which pretty much means that you’re in love and then you start to realize, it’s not what you expected. I’m already heading into week 3 and my “honeymoon stage” has yet to be complete. Honestly, I don’t think I will leave this so called “honeymoon stage”

I believe that I have become quite adjusted to living in Australia. The first night was the hardest because I was in a completely foreign city! Even after reading all of my survival guides to Australia, it didn’t help the fact that I was totally on my own with no direction on which way was up. My apartment is in a very beautiful part of the city and I have come to realize that South Bank (the different areas in Brisbane, such as “the north end” or southie in Boston) is a rich and up and coming area. When I met people and tell them I live in South Bank, their reaction is always the same; it’s the “OHHH wow. That’s wonderful!” or “Really? Goodness you have it made!” I’ve finally gotten a hang of the city and the streets and how to get around with the public transportation.

Since I have been talking about how I’ve gotten to know my city better. Here are some interesting facts about Brisbane that you most likely won’t find in travel books. Some of them are quiet pointless, but I was either very happy/excited/ interested that I found them out!

1.The streets in the city are labeled in either men or women’s names. So if you are looking Adelaide or Alice Street, they will be running parallel to Queen Street, the main street; if you are looking for Albert or William Street, those streets will be running perpendicular from the women’s streets! It makes everything so easy!

2.Never buy fruits or vegetable from supermarkets. Buy them from local markets and to find the local markets…ask the locals! They are so friendly and willing to help whenever I tell them I just moved here. When going to the local markets, wait until the end of the day to purchase your items. I actually did this and I was able to get 12 pieces of fruit for $5! By the end of the day, the locals want to make a profit and still sell their fresh goods! For an example, I ended up getting 3 peaches, 3 plums, 2 lemons, 1 lime, and other fruits ( I forget the name because it was Aussie grown!) and I had plenty of fresh fruit! I was BEYOND excited about this. In the stores each of those items would be double or by a certain weight, and they make EVERYTHING expensive in the grocery stores.

3.Plastic Bags cost money, similar to places in the US, but I love the fact that Australia is all about being Eco-Friendly. Let’s just say that within 2 weeks, I have received a total of 7 reusable bags during various orientations…yay for free bags! And yay for the environment!

4.Aussies love competing. I fit right in! They compete for anything! For example, I won a t-shirt from my university because I beat the Apple employees in a game of iPod touch air hockey. ( they were cocky, and I was happy I beat them since I watch the 5 people in front of me lose)

Did I mention I actually have a tan now? I’m getting really dark because every day is sunny. This makes people in such better moods! The down side is that if you forget to put sun block on, you WILL be burnt within the hour. Yes, I wish there were more downsides, but honestly that is the only one.

Posting will continue soon! Cheers Mates!

"Brisbane's unique Queensland architecture, riverfront setting, perfect climate, cultural diversity and unrivalled employment growth make it one of the most attractive cities to live in on almost any angle. "

2010-02-20T09:36:00.000+10:00

So many plane rides!

So Thursday afternoon, I finally arrived in Brisbane. From Cairns it was a 2 hour plane ride which was a walk in the park compared to 13 hours! I’m done with planes for a few weeks!!!!

I got back in Brisbane International with all the AustraLearn kids and there were separate busses to take us to our final destinations of where we are living. A total of 15 AustraLearn students were living in Urbanest, where I am so we were the first stop. My apartment complex looks identical to the pictures online!!! I absolutely love it! I walked in with a fully made bed so I didn’t have to buy sheets, and my very own bathroom! And my building is all black, green and white, my windows frame is bright green!

I am living with 3 others girls and they are all the same girls that I roomed with for the past week in Cairns which is awesome because they are the girls who I got along with the best! Two go to American University and one goes to West Chester. Yes, you read right, American University…where Dan goes! How is it, that my world somehow gets smaller even thought I am 10,000 miles away?!

But we each have our own room and bathroom; we are literally in a 5 bedroom, 5 bathroom apartment! There is one extra room in here but no one is going to be living in it.

I immediately got settled in to make my room more homey, and for the fact that I was sick of living out of a suitcase! I love love love my room, I printed out pictures and brought my cards from anyone who wished me luck here. In the afternoon, all of the kids that were living in Urbanest decided to go into the city which is a beautiful walk from our Apartment! We walk right around the river, through the gardens and the beach, so its like we have our own city, without the hustle and bustle of the city..get it?

We went to a giant 6 story mall, which was mostly underground to get soap and cleaning supplies and just little odds and ended that everyone needed. It was werid because everything started to close at 6pm, only restaurants and liquor stores stay open later which means we have to plan our whole day around going shopping. MY favorite store so far…The Reject Shop, where it is basically Australia’s dollars store, that is where most of us got our bathroom stuff and hangers from.

More pictures will be coming soon of the city :-)

I think Australians do well here because we feel a bit naughty, like we're in America and if they only knew how much fun we were having, we'd all get thrown out, you know - Melissa George

2010-02-20T03:10:00.000+10:00

Day 5!

Since the past week, I have been mooching off the hostels internet, which is really slow so I haven’t been able to update my blog as much as I wanted. The internet is different here, which I expected but I had to pay 5 dollars for 75 minutes of internet while staying at the Bohemian Resort, so I had to use it sparingly!

Today was a super important day/ dream come true/ straight out of a postcard….it was GREAT BARRIER REEF DAY!!!!! So I had to get up at about 5:45 to catch the bus early to head out on the boat by 8am. The boat ride to get to the reef was actually 2 ½ hours away from land, but my friends and I had the best seats ever on the boat. In the front there were giant hammock like beds that you could just relax on and at the same time, you could see the water underneath you. When we first got on the boat, we had to fill out a sheet to be able to go snorkeling or SCUBA diving. There were a bunch of medical conditions that you had to check off, and I had FULL and I mean FULL intentions of going SCUBA diving, I even packed my own mask, snorkel and fog cleaner all the way down here. So I filled it out, then about an hour into the trip, I was called in….apparently in Australia, you are not allowed to SCUBA dive when you have taken an inhaler/steroids in the past 48 hours. The dive master, Emma, showed me the Australian law because I thought they were joking ( aussies just about everything). Of course I was really upset because this law is only in Australia. So I started crying ( yes, I cried..i was pissed.) so all the dive masters came over and kept saying “no worries mate no worries” which I understood, I knew it wasn’t the end of the world since Dan and I will be coming back here in a few months. It was just in the moment I was so angry that I didn’t lie for once!

I guess the AustraLean people were supposed to tell us that but had failed to mention it, and the dive masters were so mad, that they told me I could have a free stinger suit ( which were 7 dollars, and protected your body from jellies ( jellyfish) or a free drink on the way back.I said it wasn’t a big deal I just wished I knew and I said “ no worries no worries, I’ll be back anyways”. I ended up snorkeling which seemed to be the best option anyways. If I went diving with them, it was only for a half hour and they took anyone who wanted to try it out there, so I wouldn’t have been albe to have the experience I was looking for with newer divers.

So! I got over the fact of the SCUBA situation ( even though I couldn’t bare to look at the divers) and decided to get a stinger suit and pay 7 dollars, I wasn’t going to ask for a free suit since it wasn’t really expensive. The girls and I headed jumped right into the clear water! From the pictures it doesn’t seem as clear, but if even if you just looked from the boat, you could see coral everywhere. So I’m swimming, and swimming and staring at the coral and pretty colored fish I all of a sudden feel a REALLY sharp pain in my lip. I jumped out of the water, more then ever before and realize oh sweet I got stung by something. So I had to swim fast back to the boat to make sure I was oaky. It could have been sea lice or a small clear jellie but it hurt so BAD. The dive master put this disguising tasting (since it was on my lip) spray to make the pain go away. It wasn’t poisonous whatever it was and of course…what did they say “you’ll be right mate, no worries” I’m defiantly bringing this line back to the states.

So! I’m finally in the water! With a throbbing lip and ready to see underwater! It was absolutely beautiful! The coral was amazing! Bright blues and greens and the tropical fish were lovely. Being able to see them in their natural habitat was breathtaking! There were schools of squid and GIANT clams! It was amazing; I took a few underwater pictures which came out amazing. We went to two different locations. The first location I completely forget the name of L sorry! But the second location was so amazing! It was called Micahealmas Cave. Right by the reef there was a sand beach formed atop a coral reef cave and it underwater it looked just like Finding Nemo! I know that’s a terrible reference but it seems that all the 20year olds were referencing it to that too! As we were snorkeling we saw a foot long bright blue starfish and a sea turtle! It was beautiful! I cannot wait to go back.

Overall the reef was absolutely amazing. This is definitely a long post, but it’s the REEF! It had to be! But to end my story from the beginning…the dive master, Emma, came up to be about half an hour before we left the boat and asked if I got my free stinger suit or my free drink. I obviously said no, since I didn’t think they were serious and Emma couldn’t believe it and told me she’d be right back. So I waited and then about 10 minutes later, she came back with $7 dollars and a small 200mL of Pink Champagne! She told be she was so sorry I had such a rough day from not being able to dive to being stung (which was really only the first hour or so of the day, other then that I was in all my glory on the reef!) and she hopes that I return soon. I guess Aussies don’t like when your not right.