ericasaussieadventure

Wow it's really the end of this

2008-06-21T17:22:00.002+12:00

My last day in Australia. It's a hard concept to wrap my head around. It's been a great day though. Will and Jo, my 2 best friends here, had their last finals at 8am this morning, so I got up at 7am to have brekkie with them (for the last time!) :( Then I packed a bit more, went to the gym, and showered. At that point they were both back from their exams and it was time to celebrate! I put my last load of washing in and we went to the bottle shop so I could get a bottle of champagne and Will could get coronas. It should be noted that it was supposed to be a themed Mexican day, but I ruined it because I wanted champagne instead of coronas or margaritas. Anyway, we began the drinking at 11:30am--always a sign of a great day!. It was kind of chilly today but the sun made it that perfect temperature. We sat outside and had a picnic which was awesome. Everyone was just out on the oval having a few beers and playing some rugby or soccer or frisbee. We played some frisbee and I climbed a tree. Perfect final afternoon in Australia. Now I'm back in my room, waiting while Will packs a few things before he takes off with his friend who is picking him up for a concert tonight. Jo left about an hour ago for the airport. So basically I will spend tonight alone, in my room, with my stuff all packed up. Very exciting stuff.
It's going to be a long journey back home because I leave for the airport at 8:45 tomorrow, depart at 11am, get into LAX at what will feels like midnight but will be 7am there, then have a near 9 hour layover before my 5 hour flight to DC. I get in just before midnight EST. Oh well, I'm over it. It think I'm just ready to leave. I've had to say goodbye to everyone and it's been really hard. SO I suppose this is my last entry. I might buy access to the WiFi In LA so that I have something to do and maybe I'll post then? We'll see how desperate I get!

DONE!

2008-06-16T22:13:00.003+12:00

I'm done with my final exams! Chemistry this afternoon went pretty well--I've improved my cramming skills immensely since being here. I counted up t he points I'm sure of and I definitely got enough to pass and probably got enough for a grade higher actually. So my grades will probably be much better than I expected. That's good since I've been thinking about coming back to Australia next year for grad school. Anyway, now in the next 5 days I just need to send a package home, close my Aussie bank account, and pack! I was hoping the weather would be perfection (as usual) for the rest of my time here but it's looking like it will be cloudy several of the days :( If it was going to be unseasonably warm I was thinking of heading to Gold Coast for a day to surf because the surf school I went to lets you use their full wetsuits for free when you rent a board. But it's looking like it will be just a bit too chilly for me to travel that long and risk it. I was originally planning to try and do everything in Brissie that I hadn't done/see what I hadn't seen but I'm kind of tired now and just want to rest. Maybe after tomorrow I'll feel differently. I'm a bit nervous for packing because it just seems like there's a lot of stuff in my room...how am I going to fit it all into one suitcase and one (very large) backpack? And not have it be way over the weight limits? Oh well, it has to be done somehow! Tomorrow I go on a search for a box--I'm hoping the post office on campus will have one?--so I can package up some bulky things to send home. Anyway, I'll probably update again on how my packing goes.

No hero in her sky

2008-06-14T19:28:00.002+12:00

So exams are going by relatively quickly and smoothly. I have only one more left, but it's my chemistry one and it's going to be really hard. Plus, I actually need a decent grade on it. My first exam, for marine science went really well and I actually enjoyed some of the studying for it since over half of it was on marine plants and marine animals. So mostly I was just zoning out and thinking about my time on the reef but I guess it worked! I realized just before walking into the exam that I had actually already passed the class without even taking the exam! It was nice to have the pressure off. It's also nice to just have to pass my classes since the grades don't transfer back to lehigh. I had my anthropology exam yesterday afternoon and psychology today in the afternoon and both were straightforward and I'm sure I did really well. Both of those I only needed minimal points on the exams to pass. But now I have chemistry the day after tomorrow and I'm really not looking forward to it...but I also don't even want to study...it's terrible!
Today after my psyc exam, which I finished in 50 minutes by the way, I came home and went to the college gym with Will because he hates exercising by himself. He's not the most athletic boy I've ever met, so what he considered a lot was not all that much for me...haha but I had a good time. Since I'm still sick it's not a good idea that I do a crazy workout anyway. It was enough to get some endorphins flowing and that's what really matters!
So now it's nearly time for dinner and I have to begin the chemistry madness. I have an incredible amount of information to cram into my brain in the next... 44 hours? And considering I'll be spending at least 20 of those sleeping and 10 of them (at least) wasting time or eating or running or something....The point is I will never learn it all and I just have to try to fully understand the concepts of which I already have a vague understanding. There's no time to learn the stuff that I don't understand at all. And it's incredibly hard to concentrate with 39252308 other things on my mind that seem much more important right now. I can't believe I leave here in a 8 days.

the best deceptions

2008-06-08T21:08:00.002+12:00

The past 8 days were absolutely amazing. Cairns is an amazing city. The Daintree rainforest, Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation...all breathtaking just like I had expected. But nothing on this planet can compare to the reef. Or scuba diving. Learning to dive was so much fun even with all of the classroom time and 4-hour pool sessions. I, surprise surprise, met some really amazing people. My dive buddy and I, an Irish guy named Darragh, became fast friends. I guess that's what happens when you are so quickly put in a position where you are responsible for another person's life! Our instructors were AMAZING and made everything so much fun. The boat was really nice too and even though there were about 40 of us on the boat we all got to know a lot about each other just by sitting with different people all of the time at meals and discussing dives.
The Great Barrier Reef...I could go on for days. I saw hundreds of different species of fish and corals and was able to either identify them on the spot (I attended this "reef teach" class the night before we left on the boat) or later using one of the books or charts on the boat. I swam along side blue-spotted lagoon rays and this beautiful green turtle who was at least twice my age. I saw giant clams that were at least 1 meter long, a white-tip reef shark (on my night dive), a mackerel shark, and swam right next to many Maori Wrasse (fish that probably weigh more than I do and are incredibly friendly). All we did for the 3 days was dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, eat, dive each day. It was amazing and I'm still incredibly exhausted. I loved it so much that I ended up doing more instruction and furthering my certification to adventure diver which means I can dive to 30 meters, anywhere in the world, anytime for the rest of my life. Plus I did my technical training in underwater photography! After we got back to land on friday in the late afternoon I checked in at my hostel and talked with my new roommates. Then I went to the restaurant where all of the staff and everyone else on our trip met for dinner and drinks. Later we all, well at least the younger crowd+ the staff, went to a bar/club where we were all let in like VIPs because our instructors know the bouncers really well. It was a great time but I got home really late and therefore only got a few hours of sleep before I got up to check out of my hostel.
Anyway, I'm really sad that it's over because the whole trip was such a high. And now I'm trying to concentrate on my 4 finals that begin in just 2 days which I haven't really started studying for. It's not working at all and I feel no pressure at all which is terrible. All I can think about is how I have to leave this amazing country soon and spend (at least) a full year not traveling. I love it here and I don't like the idea of living anywhere that's not here...
On top of this distraction I think I'm getting sick, or I should say sicker really because I've already been kind of sick all day today. It's probably stems from the 6 days that I pushed myself to full exhaustion every day...Basically studying has been close to nonexistent today and that's bad, right?

Going

2008-05-31T14:31:00.002+12:00

I'm leaving for the bus station (bus to train to airport) in 5 minutes! I'll arrive in Cairns in the early evening. I'm very excited even though tonight will probably be dull. I'll write all about it upon my return (June 7).

Caught by the river

2008-05-27T19:42:00.002+12:00

I haven't been writing often enough lately so this is my effort to do so!
On monday I only had my 8am chem lecture so I spent the rest of the day going through all of my notes/readings/random papers from the whole semester and organizing them. I organized a lot of other stuff too. It actually took all day! In the evening I had my last extreme spin class :( but it was SO good. I could hardly walk home after it!
Today I got up, went to brekkie, wasted time, gymmed, went to lecture, and went to the mall with Will to get our hairs cut. I went to a place called "Price Cutters." Yea, I know, no description needed. Anyway, it was $19 and it's not crooked so whatever. I got back at 4:30 and just couldn't stop thinking "where did the day go?" I feel so tired. I think I've been fighting off some virus or multiple viruses for weeks now. I cannot get sick though because anything sinus related would not bode well with the whole scuba diving thing!
Anyway, tomorrow is quite the busy day as usual. I will also be getting back both my psychology paper and my anthropology ethnography paper. I have a practice final exam in my psyc tutorial and in my anth. lecture my professor said she was basically going to tell us exactly what we need to know for the final. My anth. tutorial, my last class of the day, is at pub that is on campus. I believe my prof. is buying us a round of beers. Not sure if I'm going though just because I usually go to the gym after that class. But yea Aussies are so amazing.
Okay off to dinner. I am being summoned outside my room!

Understood

2008-05-25T22:20:00.002+12:00

I haven’t written since last Sunday! It’s just been busy here. Where to start?

Basically up until Thursday afternoon my field research report was my life. Monday was my last chem. practical. Before it I attended the study abroad going home seminar thing for information on transcripts and stuff. They had a raffle and I was one of 7 winner—I got a UQ hat which is pretty sweet. After prac. I had my second-to-last :( extreme spin class and it was the best one so far. Tuesday involved the gym, marine lecture, going to my tutors/professor for help/revision of my research report, and giving blood (yay second time in Australia!). Wednesday was the typical crazy day except for that it was even crazier because after my 7 hours of class it was the first round of State of Origin! State of Origin is the 3 rugby league matches between NSW and QLD. Long story short, we lost, but at least I finished the first draft of my report and was able to send it to my dad for some editing! Thursday I finished up my report, submitted it, gymmed, went to lecture, went to the mall to buy stuff for my costume for MiniBall. MiniBall is the biggest event of the semester at Union. It’s just a huge costume party where everyone goes all out. I was dressed as the ocean/the great barrier reef…there are pictures. The event was at a really amazing club in South Bank called Foxy’s. The top floor, where we were, is outdoors and there’s an amazing view. Overall, everyone looked so amazing and it was a really great night that, as any good night does, ended at the kebab shop! Friday involved lectures, gym, and I think about 2 or 3 naps. In the evening I finished my chem. prac. calculations (thrilling). I also finally booked my hostel in Cairns for the first 2 nights. The last night, which is 4 nights after those 2, is still up in the air because I don’t know if I want to stay in the same place or a different place.

Yesterday, Saturday, I worked on my third and final chem. computerized test thing, gymmed, lunched, worked, did a quick shopping, and submitted my test after dinner. I did not do well, and the worst part is I don’t understand why my calculations are wrong. Oh course, this is the one test that we only get one chance to do—just my luck. Anyway, I’m going to have to get help from my professor sometime this week because I know that there will be at least one question on the final like the ones I got wrong.

SO that brings me to today. I had seen that today was going to be beautiful weather and warmer than it has been (27!) so I knew I wanted to be outside, especially since I had officially finished all of my assignments for my classes (!). In the morning I went with my friend Will to the Sunday markets in the Valley. They were not really all that impressive and I later found out from a girl in my hall that Saturday is when the valley market is big. Oops. After seeing all that was there, we wandered to find food and, despite it being only 11am, ate at this place that serves “healthy burgers.” I got a child’s one--any place that lets me order the child's size is winner in my book--and Will got one with heaps of topping including pineapple and avocado. They were so good—all the veges were so fresh and the meat was so lean. Plus we sat outside in the sun which felt so good. After eating we walked from the Valley to the city by the river which took about a half-hour and then we took the city-cat home from the city. Even though the market wasn’t as good as I had hoped, we both agreed it was a very good morning. I got home a bit after 1:00 and changed to go to the pool where I sunbathed and started a new book. I probably would’ve stayed for several hours, but I got bitten by one of the ants that I am allergic to after an hour or so. It bit one of my toes and the pain was basically crippling. I tried to stay despite it but it was not possible. I was tearing up the whole time I was walking home! The pain has subsided since the afternoon and I still consider today a great day. I’m currently doing laundry (much needed, I have only one gymming outfit left!) and I’m going to try to organize some of my class notes and stuff.

On another note: Before dinner, one of the 3^rd-year guys was walking across the courtyard completely naked…just leisurely walking. Like that is completely normal behaviour. Funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time!

Last week of class? Bring it on. Finals? Not so much...

Listen up destiny

2008-05-18T22:33:00.002+12:00

Just a quick post on the weekend. Saturday I worked hard on my report but still seemed to not get all that far somehow. At the gym I managed to multi-task and read 3 journal articles which helped the time issue out a bit. After a really fast dinner, Bridgette, Will, and I got the bus to Suncorps Stadium to see the Queensland Reds vs. New South Wales Warratahs--rugby union. NSW and QLD always have the biggest rivalries for every sport in Australia, so this was the biggest game of the season from my understanding. It was very fun but QLD lost by a few points...I actually forget the score...15-18 maybe? Well, whatever, I didn't really care that much that they lost, I was just happy to be in the atmosphere and watch some rugby! After the game we ended up walking about halfway back to Uni just because everytime we came to a bus stop we would've had to wait at least 15-20 minutes so we would just keep walking to the next stop just so we wouldn't have to sit around.
Today I woke up and started working immediately. Writing up my research is so dull and I cannot wait until I turn the stupid thing in and never have to look at it again haha. After getting distracted many times in the afternoon I headed to the gym so that I could be guaranteed to be productive for at least a short period of time! Anyway, I've gotten a lot done since dinner but now I can hardly keep my eyes open--probably from staring at word documents and excel spreadsheets all day! This is a really busy week in every aspect but after this week there's only one more week of class and I don't have all that much to get done that week. Must keep going!

Looking for something I've never seen

2008-05-16T20:07:00.000+12:00

I was alerted by my dad when I spoke with him over the phone this morning that I had not posted recently enough, so I thought I’d give a little update.

This week has been good and very busy. Tuesday made me freak out a bit about my marine report because I’m so unprepared for it. I have a lot of research to do and heaps of statistical analysis to run on our data. They are very serious here about writing field work up as if you are sending it out to try and get it published. We have a 3000 word limit and it seems to me that if I get half that many words I’d be pushing it. The whole thing is such a daunting task for me right now.

Anyway, Wednesday was crazy Wednesday. I got my psychology paper back and at first I didn’t think the grade was that great, but I forgot how harshly they grade writing here. Basically, over a 50% is good work, and no one gets very close to 100 at all. Thursday I tried to get a lot done but had to spend all of my time finishing my chem. computer-managed test which was due today. I got a 10/12, and I think I understand why I got the 2 wrong that I did, so I’m pretty happy with that. Today I had my lectures and I did my last hour of research participation for psychology. I’ve been trying to work on marine for days and it’s not coming together at all because I’m all over the place. I’ve just been concentrating on making it to class and the gym every day and it’s been pushed aside.

This weekend, other than the serious working part, should be really fun. Tomorrow in the afternoon I’m teaching my hall beer pong. Will is going to the city in the morning to get the red solo cups—he really wants to be authentic--and balls. None of them have ever played and they are so excited. The pong session will be followed by going to the city to Suncorps stadium to see the Queensland vs. New South Wales rugby match. It’s the biggest rivalry in rugby union. I’m happy to see rugby union since I know it, but I’m also really excited for State of Origin which is next weekend—the huge rugby league match of Qld vs NSW. Apparently everyone paints their bodies maroon and packs into the pubs in the city. I’m SO excited for that!!! Also this Thursday night is union’s ball which is basically a big event for only union people where everyone gets dressed up as…whatever they want! My hall is most likely going to be smurfs…only because we really want to be blue for days afterward haha. Anyway, I have t go to dinner and then get to work!

Hold on tight

2008-05-12T19:29:00.003+12:00

Back from another fun weekend. I’m still exhausted so I’m going to try to keep this short…but that’s always hard for me! Just like for last weekend’s trip, I had to leave at 5:20 to catch the ferry to the city etc. When I was sitting at the bus station gate Char’s 3 roommates arrived and I sat with them and I immediately began to wish that they weren’t there. (It’s hard to explain…it’s not that I dislike them, it’s just that the three of them have this impenetrable bond and they don’t want to let anyone else in on their little clique.) So when we were getting into the 2 4WD vehicles, I was getting in the one with them, but there ended up being 1 seat left in each vehicle and 2 girls who didn’t want to be separated so I volunteered to go to the other car. Little did I know, this was my best decision I could’ve ever made. The car that I left had 2 girls from Mexico, the 3 roommmates, and 2 girls also from UQ. I honestly don’t know if any of these 3 groups socialized outside of their group the entire trip…SO the vehicle I went into had 3 German/Swiss girls, a guy from London, an older Aussie woman, another guy from England, and an American doctor. It was a fun group!

Onto the actual trip.

We had to drive a long way because the southern tip of Fraser Island is just north of Rainbow Beach on the Sunny Coast. The driving was about 3 hours or so and we took a break halfway to Rainbow Beach. We spent a while at rainbow beach and had lunch which was nice but mostly we were all anxious to get over to the island. We drove about 15 more minutes north and took the ferry to the island—it was SO much smaller than the Moreton one and took 10 minutes (as opposed to the 2-hour Moreton ferry). As you can see, it’s a very short distance between the southern tip of the island and the mainland:

http://www.boxatrix.com/images/area-map.gif

The island is very large—the largest sand island on the plant—so it takes a while to get places. We went to the Maheno shipwreck which has a really cool story that I don’t feel like telling, Eli Creek, and Lake Wabby—all very interesting and fun. We got back to the campsite just before dark and took showers. Everyone fixed their dinners and ate and drank. The night in short involved 7 hours of competitive card playing with our 3 AMAZING guides, Wes Mic and John and the other cool people on the trip—meaning everyone who actually socialized with people other than the ones they came with! Everyone else just talked amongst themselves and eventually went to bed. So yea the 3 Swiss/German girls, Dave from London, Wes, Mic, John, and me stayed up until 3:30 or so playing 500 and some other game that I forget the name of that were basically spades and hearts with other complicated rules added. Despite being on a gorgeous sand island with rainforests and sparkling lakes, I say with confidence that that night was the best part of the trip. I won the first 10 games or something so Wes begged me to get a job as a tour guide with them just so they could use me to hustle people! Taking tourists around a beautiful island during the day, hustling by night? Not a bad life! I was incredibly tempted and still am! Haha. Anyway, I eventually lost my luck and had a bad losing streak for the rest of the night. (Oh and I should add that before going to bed I had brushed my teeth and was walking back to camp and witnessed Wes backing up the car into a huge sand dune. I was laughing so hard. I promised him it would be our little secret! In the morning he made up some excuse to everyone on the tour to explain why there was a huge pile of sand on the back bumper :D)

At night it POURED rain on and off so all of my stuff that I’d left out to dry was soaked in the morning! Not the most pleasant thing to wake up to at 6:30am! We cleaned up the site, had breakfast, and went to Lake McKenzie where we swam even though it was cold and raining, and then drove to and walked around the Central Station rainforest. Wes explained a lot of cool things about many of the plant species there, but it was rushed because everyone was wet and getting cold. Then we headed to one of the resorts on the island where we had lunch in a pavilion next to the beach. The weather was finally really nice and sunny. After lunch we got in the trucks and drove down the beach to the ferry to go back to rainbow beach. Once again we spent some time there and I mostly sat out/ walked on the beach with some others. The drive back to Brissie was long and tiring. Sunday late afternoon traffic into Brissie from the Sunny coast is normally bad enough, but being Mother’s Day made it even worse. We actually left earlier than normal for this trip because of that. Saying good-bye to everyone at the transit center was hard and I’m just no good at this good-bye thing as I’ve explained before. I was so sad to leave Wes especially—he is one of my favorite Aussies so far, which really does say a LOT because I’ve loved most Aussies that I’ve gotten to know! I really do wish I could just be a tour guide like that. Too bad I’m probably too weak to pack heavy coolers etc. on top of big 4WD vehicles :( and I’d be hopeless at driving the things! Anyway, I got home and unpacked my wet, dirty belongings, took a much needed shower, talked with my hallmates, called my mom to wish her a happy mother’s day, and went to bed.

Today (Monday) involved my 8am chem. lecture, participation in a psychology study (now only one more left!), and chemistry practical all afternoon. I’m still exhausted/my whole body hurts so I am not currently at my spin class. I’ll have to pay for that later in the week but right now it seems like the better option. I hate that laziness plays these tricks in convincing me that it's the better option!

Going the distance

2008-05-08T21:56:00.002+12:00

Don't really have time for an entry right now as I have to leave in 5 minutes but...I must announce that I booked my scuba diving certification and 3 day trip on the GBR! And I booked my flights. I got amazing promo fares from virgin blue and the times are really good too! Now all that's left is booking my rainforest trek (which I looked into a lot today but there are SO many choices--different locations/style/tour group etc) and a hostel for the nights that I'm in Cairns...which I suppose is all but 2 of the 6 nights. Jo, a girl on my hall with whom I'm pretty close, is from Cairns so I talked to her earlier today about helping me choose a good rainforest tour. SHe has a close friend that works for one of the companies so she is going to get in touch and ask around for me based on what I told her I want.
Any, today was a good day. I didn't get that much done in the morning as far as work because I was distracted by all of the Cairns business. After marine lecture I went straight to the gym which was nice because Char was going to the gym from class as well so I had a workout buddy! We always talk about doing this but never seem to go at the same times. After the gym I went to the pharmacy to talk to a pharmacist about Omeprazole (prilosec) and, like I should've assumed when I couldn't find it anywhere, found out it is not OTC. SO I have to go to the docter and get a perscription. I'll try to get an appointment tomorrow I suppose, ugh. Anyway, I came home, showered, ate my lunch that I had packed at breakfast, and got some work done/looked at my parents australia pictures/mucked around on facebook. Everyone on my hall started getting ready at about 5:00 for this crazy decades party thing that I'm very sad to be missing. I really need to sleep since I don't get to sleep much on the weekends, especially because it seems like a flu-type thing is going around and I do not want it!!! Ok I have to go because I'm watching Rules of Attraction with James. It's along story, but we had a discussion about how we both liked this movie a few days after we met while in a pub and we vowed we'd watch it together. So he brought it back from canberra and we're going to watch it yay!
Oh and I found out from char that her roomies are going to be on my fraser trip this weekend. Cool I guess. I kind of like not knowing anyone. :)

Devastation

2008-05-06T21:32:00.002+12:00

SO my camera decided it was a good time to just die on me. I went to load my pictures onto my computer last night before I went to bed and, surprise, it says "lens error, restart camera" on the screen. When I googled the problem--the only way I know how to get answers for anything-- I found all of these forums about how this is a really common problem with the otherwise great powershot sd1000. Essentially there is a piece or few pieces of sand or dust lodged somewhere between the gears that control the lens movement. Most people that fix it do it by banging their camera on a table or something until it magically works again. Yea, I tried it, MANY times, and it didn't work. I will begin a search for a can of condensed air to attempt to remedy the situation but I don't have time to be distracted this week. In the meantime, I have the most amazing parents in the world--my dad got my email and immediately packaged up my old camera and charger,which is now actually his camera, and mailed it to me global priority. It's possible it will get here friday and therefore in time for fraser island this weekend, but it will probably arrive saturday or monday. SO I guess I'll just tell everyone I camp with this weekend about what happened and ask that they share their pictures! Maybe I'll pick up a disposable camera on friday as well.
Anyway, today was pretty good. In the morning Mike called my room phone while I was still sleeping, and needless to say I did not answer, but he called back later so we were able to talk. Of course that contributed to me getting not nearly enough work done this morning! After lunch I had marine lecture and then marine practical for the first time in many weeks since we've just been working on our own with our field research. We had to present our study to the class and state our basic results. I basically had no idea what I was going to be saying until 5 minutes before, long story, but it turned out fine. I got to hear about Char's trip to Cairns over the weekend and she thinks she knows exactly how I should spend my time there so we're going to discuss it soon. When I got back from prac I went to the anthropology building and submitted my paper (25 hours early!) and then went to the tuesday spin class which I don't usually go to. The instructor was this random woman filling in because the regular was sick, and, let me tell you, she was insane. She kept screaming at us and it was just really bizarre because she was this tiny Asian woman and I guess you just wouldn't expect it haha. I came back and had dinner and a shower, and well now I'm here. Tomorrow will be a long day and I really should work on my next assignment that is due next week but I'm supposed to have a good portion of it done for my tutorial tomorrow. Alright, PEACE OUT.

This is the life.

2008-05-05T21:40:00.001+12:00

What a great weekend! So I got up at 5am on Saturday morning, left at 5:25 to catch the 5:45 ferry to the city. I had to walk for about 15 minutes through the city to get to the transit centre from where, I found out, many of the tours to Brisbane’s surrounding area depart. I sat and waited for about 20 minutes before I got into the 4WD vehicle, along with 8 others, to go to the ferry that takes people to Moreton Island. The others on the trip were an interesting mix—a French couple in their mid-30’s, a 24 year-old German girl working as a nanny for an Aussie family, a Swedish nurse in her 30’s, a Malaysian woman who has lived in Brissie for 4 years now, a Californian in his 30’s doing his 2^nd post-doc in neuroscience at UQ, an Aussie couple who were about my age, and an Aussie my age who had been offered the job of being a tour guide for this company and was testing out if he liked it. Then there was our tour guide who was your stereotypical aussie surfer type, 22 (+/- a year… I forget), and who knew basically everything about Moreton Island, from the full history to every species of plant-life.

Anyway, the diverse blend of people on the trip proved to be really fun and we all got along great. Once again, I went on a trip and was so sad to leave the people I had only known for a few days—a very common trend for me! Okay, so when we got off the ferry, a 2-hour ride, despite how close the island is to Brissie, during which we all got to socialize a bit, we hopped back into the truck and drove to the sand mountains—Moreton is the 3^rd biggest sand island in the world only to North Stradbroke and the biggest Fraser (where I’m going this weekend). We got these boards that we waxed the bottoms of and rode down the dunes. It was so steep so the speed was quite a thrill…walking up was not so much, haha. I found a less steep incline where I was able to stand on the board and go down which made me very excited! After that we were all sweaty and hot and we loaded back into the truck to got to the campsite for lunch. Our guide had to fix our lunch once we got there, so we each picked our tents and threw some of our stuff in them that we wouldn’t need for the rest of the day. Then we all went over to Blue lagoon which is a freshwater lagoon that was beautiful and only about a 2 minute walk from our tents. We came back to camp and had a lunch of sandwiches and salad which was good but, little did we know, basically the same as every meal to come for the rest of the trip!

After lunch we went to Moreton Lighthouse and our guide pointed out the turtles that looked like big round masses, all along the rocky shore. It takes about 4 strong men just to lift up these turtles by the way! So yea, pretty cool, and we saw a few dolphin too. We walked down through the forest and down these incredibly steep sand dunes to a little beach. We just relaxed and laid out on the sand and I out over some of the big rocks—all very beautiful. By the time it was almost 5:00, the breeze off the water was pretty cold, so we headed back up; thankfully, we went a different route on the way back that was about twice as long but not as steep. When we got back to camp our guide started dinner and we all decided against any showering (haha) because whatever we were camping. So we took some wine and went to the lagoon to watch the sunset. It wasn’t all that amazing of a sunset, but still very enjoyable. When we got back to camp we started up the fire and ate our dinner in the dark around the fire. We couldn’t even see what we were eating! We spent the next several hours around the fire just talking, drinking, and admiring the stars. Apparently I have never been so far away from the city, because I didn’t realize that stars were so bright and plentiful! It was magnificent.

In the morning we were all up by 7am just because of the sunlight I suppose. We had some breakfast and then got in the truck to head to North Point where we went to honeymoon bay and the champagne pools. At north point there is an endless stretch of white sand beach in one direction and then large rocks at the point where many people were fishing. If you walk around the point, there is an inlet with a really nice, small beach. There were really good waves in the inlet, so I ended up bodysurfing for the entire 3 hours we were there! I was with the Aussie who was training to be a guide, and he was so impressed with my bodysurfing skills that he wanted me to give him tips! Anyway, we left there and walked back to the trunk to go back to camp to have lunch. After lunch we got all of our stuff together and made sure camp was clean before heading to Tangalooma Beach. This beach is famous because 15 ships were sunk just out from shore to make it a good spot for boats to dock. We snorkeled the wrecks for a bit which entailed being surrounded by fish and not having more than 2 meters of visibility. All of the fish ramming into me kind of freaked me out a bit honestly! After we dried off our guide pointed out the incredibly steep sand dune just up the beach where, from the top, you could get an amazing view. None of the men were up for the challenge, but the girls decided to embark on the journey! Looking up at it, none of us thought it could be that bad, but wow, it was really tough. It was so steep that with each steep you only make a few inches of progress, and this thing was tall! It took us a while, but eventually we made it to the top where we took some pictures before running down. It reminded me of the dunes in the outer banks, but much, much steeper! We were all sweaty and exhausted so we laid on the beach for a bit but pretty soon we had to hop in the truck to catch the 3:30 ferry back to the mainland. On the ferry ride home I got an iced tea and laid out on the top level with some of the others. I ended up falling asleep for most of the ride! We drove back to the Brisbane Transit center without a hitch and I said most of my goodbyes there, but I went with Vicki and Ti, the Swedish woman and the Malaysian woman to their bus stop because it was on my way to the ferry. I said my goodbyes to them and then picked up subway—my first (and probably last) American fast food in Australia!—and got to the ferry at 6:53, not even knowing that there is a 6:53 ferry back to uni! Rarely do I have good luck with public transport here, but it was very much appreciated because I was exhausted and in need of a shower—and would’ve had to wait 30 minutes until the next one had I missed it! I came home to most of my hall still a bit drunk from Sunday afternoon festivities, haha. Anyway, today I did a massive amount of laundry—I honestly had not one piece of warm clothing left—and finished my paper for anthro.

I should also mention that I finally know when my finals are! The last day of classes is the 30^th, and then my finals are on the 11, 13,14, and 16. Soooo HUGE gap that I want to use to travel. It looks like I’ll be able to go to Cairns after all! Filipo and James (from my hall) planned their trip to Cairns several weeks ago and are leaving on May 29. I’m going to try and join with them and maybe I’ll be on my own for a bit but whatever. Then after finals I have a little less than a week that I’ll spend seeing everything I never did in Brisbane. I have time to think about all of this so I won’t rush it for now. Alright I should get some more work and organizing done…and wow this was a really long entry!

Truckin

2008-04-30T22:31:00.001+12:00

Today was so exhausting and seemed to drag on forever. Chemistry wasn’t too bad. **Actually, on a side note, it was pretty cool because the lecture was all about radioactive isotopes so I learned about all of the radioactive things that we are exposed to everyday naturally. There are so many radioactive elements that our body uptakes all of the time mistaking them for essential elements and that’s normal! And the ocean naturally has a very high concentration of uranium. A few lectures ago we went through all of the elements that are essential for us and all of those that are toxic in basically any amount. These have been the only lectures I’ve enjoyed, but I’ve enjoyed them a lot because I’m a huge dork (which has already been established many times). **

Okay back to my day. So my first psychology lecture was pretty good, but I knew that the lecturer for the second hour was terrible so I didn’t stay so that I could instead go to the library and check out all of the ethnographies I need to write my paper for anthropology. Very, very luckily, they were all available. I sat outside for a bit and looked over the notes for the lecture I was missing, and observed the winter coats and boots people were wearing—it was about 75 degrees today and sunny. Ohhhh Aussies from Queensland are hilarious. I mean it was in the 60’s this morning but a winter coat? Really? At lunch I got some lentil spinach thing and it had no taste whatsoever. I was not pleased. In my psyc. tutorial we discussed our lab report which I had kind of forgotten about and it’s due soon. Oops. Anthropology lecture was probably the most boring 2 hours I’ve ever had to sit through and it didn’t help that I was falling asleep even before it began. Then our substitute anthropology tutorial leader person decided that it was fine to run class until 25 minutes after it should be over. I was so tired and grumpy when I came home so I just curled up in bed for the half hour before dinner. SO I had dinner which was fine and took a shower and now I’m here. It’s somehow 8:15 already. I have so much work to do meaning I need to start planning out/writing my anth paper but I’m burned out. I’ll probably just go to bed early.

One good thing that happened today was that I got the package that my parents said they had sent. It contained the Australian cash they had left over once they left, a sim card with some prepay minutes, and a tube of mini m&m’s—compliments of kehilat shalom’s purim package that was sent to me at home! Anyway, always fun to get mail.

All I ask for

2008-04-30T00:02:00.002+12:00

Tuesday. Got up really early for no apparent reason and thus I was really sleepy all day. I did some more work on my chem online exam and then went for a run before lunchtime because it was about 21 (that's ~70) or so and fully sunny so I couldn't resist being outside. After lunch I had marine lecture in which we started on plant stuff. Our lecturer for this subject is our practical professor and I like her very much. After that I went to the pharmacy to get some acid reflux medication because my prilosec ran out :(. They don't have prilosec here which i found out simply by asking my friends if they had heard of it and they all said no. SO I got Zantec which does exist in this country. I really hope it works because acid reflux is no fun. Anyway,
I came home and got more work done but had to take a powernap before dinner so that I'd be able to function. I finished my chem online exam after dinner and submitted it about a half-hour ago and...I got 11/12!!! :) Well actually it says I got 9/12 but 2 of them are actually correct but the system marked them as wrong and my professor told me monday to bring in my test so he can fix it if/when that happens. Now that that's done I have to think about my anthropology essay that is 35% of my grade and is due a week from tomorrow. It is by far my toughest assignment and I'm really not looking forward to starting it. Plus I doubt I'll even be able to get a hold on the very ethnography I'm writing my paper on because several others are also using it and I'm sure they're all out of the library...great. I only have the introduction which I photocopied many weeks ago. Oh well, there's not much I can do. Okay I must go read a really long article for one of my tutorials tomorrow. It will be a looooong day.
But :)

DTB?

2008-04-28T22:50:00.001+12:00

Alright so I really should be doing work right now, but I want to update on the past 5 days. So I left for the airport early Thursday morning and took the ferry and then train to the airport. I ended up seeing one of Charlene’s roommates (who was with her mom who was visiting) on the train—crazy—AND found out we were on the same flight. You also have to realize that planes go from Brisbane to Sydney at least every hour if not more. Anyway, checking and security for Australian domestic flights takes about 15 minutes, which was good because my ferry was late and then my train took forever or some reason. The flight was short—it’ only about 70 minutes—and when I landed I called Lindsay, hopped in a cab, and was at her house in about 20 minutes. Her apartment looks out onto the ocean and it’s about a 1 minute walk to the beach. Amazing. She had just gotten home from class, so we chilled for about half an hour and then went to the harbour so I could see the Harbour bridge, the opera house, etc. We walked all around and through the botanical gardens and just talked because we had quite a lot to catch up on. We ate a late lunch at a café on the water and then it started to rain so we ran back to the bus stop and headed back to Coogee beach (that’s where Lindsay as well as most of my NZ friends live). We got together some plans for the night, and just as I had promised, I bought 4 litres of goon for Lindsay and my other friends Taylor. So we got all showered and pretty and headed over to Taylor’s apartment. He lives on the other side of the beach in an apartment with only one other guy. When we get there the first thing I notice is that in their tv room there are 2 girls and I know one of them because she lives in union college with me! How ridiculous is that? It ends up that taylor doesn’t know her, but he knows her friend and they needed a place to stay for the weekend. So anyway, it’s a small world to say the least. We went to this karaoke bar and had so much fun and I got to meet a lot of Lindsay’s friends.

On Friday it was Anzac day, the reason why I had a 3-day weekend in the first place, so we went to the parade/other festivities downtown with several of her other friends. We watched the parade for a bit and then walked all around the city. We had lunch at this yummy take-away salad place. By the afternoon we were so tired and we walked past a movie theatre and decided we wanted to see a movie. Not everyone did, so we split up and Lindsay, me, and her friend Paul saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I hadn’t thought I’d see a movie while I was here, but it was nice. We got home around 7, and got ready for another night out. We went over to Taylor's place and chilled there and then headed back out to the city where we went to 2 of their favorite bars/clubs in the course of the night. Good night.

On Saturday we got up pretty early because we knew it was going to be really nice and sunny out and we walked from Coogee beach to Bondi beach on this path built for that purpose. It was gorgeous—the most amazing views of all of the beaches and huge cliffs etc. It took about an hour and a half so when we got there we were ready to pass out on the beach and we did. We had lunch later at this place that has really good chicken burgers—it was all Lindsay's friend mark talked about the entire walk over to bondi! We laid out after lunch and Taylor and his roommate went surfing—there were SO many surfers out, but the waves were huge and I thought I would get pummeled if I attempted to surf. It got chilly after a while because even though the sun was fully out, there was a very cool breeze off the ocean—too cool. (I’m so happy I’m in warm Brissie J) I walked around with Lindsay and some of her friends to look at the shops and then we took the bus home. We went home and showered and then went back out to get some food. We went to Lindsay’s favorite Indian take-away—it was SO SO SO good and we ate it while watching the Australian Biggest Loser tv show. Then we got ready and went over to my other friend matt’s house because I had yet to see him! He basically lives in a frat house which is so weird since frats don’t exist in this country. Anyway we hung out there for a while and I met some of his 13 roommates (yes, 13!). Then we went to Taylor’s and then were supposed to go to Darling Harbour to where some of the nice and classy-type clubs are—(Lindsay and I were all dressed up)—but instead we went to king’s cross which is, well, the exact opposite of classy. We had fun anyway and I’m glad I got to see so many different areas of Sydney nightlife.

On Sunday Lindsay and I both woke up so exhausted from so many long days—kind of like NZ all over again!—but we made the journey to Manly beach anyway because Lindsay knew I really wanted to go there. To get to Manly we had to take the bus to the harbour and then get the ferry to Manly. It takes about an hour total, but the ferry is so nice because you get to see the harbour bridge and the opera house from out on the water. Once we got there we just laid on the beach and did a lot of surfer-watching. I definitely could’ve surfed there and Lindsay said I could go rent a board but the water in Sydney is much cooler than farther north and I would’ve needed a full wetsuit. Plus I don’t think I had the energy to surf anyway after 3 nights of minimal sleep. We walked all around the shops there and had yummy salads for lunch—they have so many good salad places there!—and then headed home because Lindsay had a paper to write for Monday that she hadn’t started! We got back and I left her to do her paper and just chilled and watched tv in the other room with her two roommates. I went to bed early because I had to get up at 6:20 this morning to go to the airport. I had called a cab Sunday night to get me at 6:45, and it was on time and got me to the airport in 15 minutes. Then I checked-in at one the electronic check-ins and went through security in about 3 minutes because domestic security here is basically a joke. So I got to my gate around 7:20! My flight left at 8:30 so I had time to get some coffee and was able to call mike and use the rest of my minutes that expired later in the day. The flight was easy and I hopped on the train and then took a bus I’ve never taken before and got home fine. It was so warm here today—29! WONDERFUL. Unfortunately, I got back, had a quick lunch, checked my email, turned in my chemistry lab report, and had my practical from 2-5, so I couldn’t really enjoy the warmth that much. I actually finished my practical early and took a nap because I could not keep my eyes open for obvious reasons. Now it’s near 9:00 and I’ve got so much work to do. But yea overall, great weekend and Sydney is awesome.

But it does end up that I’m going on this Moreton Island trip this weekend on my own L. I just hope there are some people on the trip I can hang out with! I just have to remember that Moreton Island is a place I really want to go and that should be enough. Also, it look like Fraser Island the following weekend will also be just me. Maybe I’ll be able to convince someone if I really recruit, but it’s unlikely and I don’t really have the energy to make that kind of effort. Alright, time to work and then get to bed!

She only sleeps when it's raining

2008-04-24T01:03:00.001+12:00

So it’s late and I should go to bed since I have to get up early to leave for the airport, but I felt I should write before I leave for Sydney! This week has been fine, although my foot is ripped up…I think I’ve written on this?...so that’s been frustrating. It’s really not better and I can’t wear shoes sooo thongs (that’s flip-flops) for Sydney it is! I finished all the work that had to be finished before I left yesterday so I had time to go to all my classes today and pack. But not really, because it’s 11:00pm and I just finished. And I have to get up at 6:45.

I decided to just plan my next few weekends. I booked a camping trip to Moreton island for may 3-4, and a camping trip to fraser island may 10-11. As of now I’m going on my own, but UQ sport books the trips for UQ students so I believe it’s a bunch of UQ students so whatever as far as going alone. But I think Charlene may want to come to Moreton but she’s already been to fraser for a class field trip weekend thing. The weekend after fraser I want to go to a queensland reds rugby game. I’m going with Charlene and some others…at least I think I am—I just sent char all of the info so hopefully she has no problem with that date! Ok I’m exhausted and I should get some rest before my inevitably crazy, long weekend!

P.S. The Anzac day parade is supposed to be crazy in Sydney—just as crazy as in Canberra where the “official” parade is. So I’m pretty excited for that. I also know that the police turn a blind-eye to things like gambling in the streets and probably all sorts of other rowdiness that normally gets drunk people into trouble! All to honor the war veterans so I guess it's just cause! Aussies are crazy. I love them. Ok gooooodnight.

Time Flies

2008-04-20T00:48:00.002+12:00

Where to start? The week went pretty well—it was busy, hence the lack of updating! Some highlights:

On Tuesday and Thursday I did some of my research participation for psychology—Tuesday was kind of boring and involved perceptions of different people’s faces. Thursday, on the other hand, was so fun! It was a study on spiders and birds and learned/conditioned responses. I had an electrode hooked up to my arm that would deliver electric shocks and headphones on that periodically made a very unpleasant loud noise. I had a breathing monitor on and my sweating and blinking rates were also being monitored. So I had wires coming from everywhere! Anyway, the noise and shocks were a bit unpleasant, but all for the benefit of science, right? I thought it was quite fun.

I no longer was feeling sick like I was on Monday once Tuesday rolled around, so I was able to go for a run in the gorgeous weather. Wednesday was the typical crazy busy day and I had thought that I might go out but my plans ended up falling through—long story. I got my psyc. essay in on Thursday morning—it wasn’t due until Friday so that felt good. I did some work in the afternoon but was not very successful in concentrating. I made it to spin class which made me feel more accomplished. I went out on Thursday night to the valley to a place called birdees with some of my friends in my hall and had a great time—I had really needed that kind of night! Friday was a bit tough considering the long night before, but it worked out fine except for me napping all afternoon instead of working. Thus, I had to work until late last night.

Today I got up early for some reason and started work on my chem. lab report. For about three hours I attempted to find journal articles or any previous research done on my topic and found NOTHING. It is so frustrating because it was like I had gotten nothing done all morning! I went to lunch a it upset but cheered up because I gave myself a break and went to Indooropilly (the mall) and did some random shopping and walked around. I got back at 4:00 and started work again. I’ve been working until now on this lab report and it’s terrible. It’s basically supposed to be in the format of a published journal article but that doesn’t make sense to me because I don’t feel that my experiment has any implications whatsoever. Maybe that’s because I can’t find a single real publication on the subject! SO early tomorrow I will head over to the engineering library when it opens to use the class textbook for basic background information, but I still don’t know what to do about the lack of scholarly work. I’ve used every means of searching that I know! I can’t even find unusable stuff on Wikipedia or anything! To me that means one of two things: 1) Cu2+ and ammonia metal/ligand reactions are useless and uninteresting and thus there are no publications or 2) people have done the research but it yields nothing of interest and thus there are no publications. Either one of these possibilities leads to me failing. Metal ion chemistry is not my favorite... as if that wasn't already evident.

Not only do I need to do this report, which by the way is a huge portion of my chemistry grade—honestly the only one that really matters—but I also have a CMT (computer-managed test) for chemistry that I’ve hardly worked on that’s due soon as well. Plus I have to do all of my prelab calculations for Monday. I hope to go to a seder tomorrow evening but I haven’t heard back about it. Complicated story. I’m afraid it won’t work out. I’ll just have to wait and see.

All I want to do is think about is how I leave for Sydney on Thursday morning!!! I’m very excited but I must get my work done before I leave because it’s due within hours after my return to brissie!

Monday

2008-04-14T23:56:00.002+12:00

It was a decent day despite waking up sick with some sort of head-cold-type-of-thing. I got a lot done--I basically wrote my entire paper that's due friday. Actually, not just basically because I fully wrote it. I just need to edit it and turn it in! I had my chemistry practical today that is the one for the full lab report which is worth 30% of my final grade in the class. I had a funny argument with my practical professor on accuracy in buret readings which turned into me calculating all of these probabilities of how accurate one can be when reading a buret in order to make my case. I am such a dork, but I refused to back down on my position and my professor thought it was pretty funny. It's a complicated story so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was pretty funny and entertained the tutors and other students in the lab... a lot. I guess I'm just a pushy American! Ugh I'm so exhausted so this is all for today.

The workers are going home

2008-04-13T21:58:00.001+12:00

Well it’s been forever since I updated last!

Last week went pretty well overall. I got my assignment in on Wednesday for anthropology. On Thursday I studied all day when I wasn’t in class and went to the afternoon spin class instead of the later one—it’s a different instructor at that time and he was like a drill sergeant…not a big fan of it—because we had a college event in the evening. The event was called the “twilight concert.” Basically, it was a semi-formal dinner with free drinks for which we got vouchers with our pictures on them. (I would like to point out here that the college required that I give them something like 6 passport pictures when I applied. Alcohol vouchers are their sole purpose as far as I can tell!) SO also the reason why it was a concert is that people from college performed their respective talents throughout the night and the winners got money prizes. It was very entertaining and the food and wine was good BUT I had to come back, after 3.5 glasses of wine and study for my exam that was the next day at 11am. That evening all turned out fine actually—it was the next morning that went wrong. After my chemistry lecture I had an hour before my midterm so I went to the grassy area in the Great Court to sit against a tree and go over my note cards I had made. Long story short, I got bitten by some ants or something that I have a particularly bad allergic reaction to, had to go over to the health center where I had to sit in the waiting room while getting nervous for my exam and secretly thinking that I might die. All the nurse could do was put some cortisone on it and I rushed off to my exam. The exam was good and luckily I was able to concentrate. My leg, on the other hand was not so good, and the pain was not even gone by Friday night when I got into bed! My whole calf muscle throbbed and the stinging was unbearable at times during the hours afterward. I vowed I would never sit on the grass in the Great Court again!

Anyway, Saturday morning I had to get up at 6:45am to go with Charlene and Carrie, my marine field research partners, to do our research at Moreton Bay. Luckily, Carrie has a car and picked us up. We went to eat at this amazing Italian café that carrie frequents often and I had a soy cappuccino and a some ricotta boysenberry thing that was delicious. We continued out to our first site of the day, Nudgee. We’re doing our study on salinity effects on mangrove growth. Nudgee is a more open site which means it gets flushed more often and the water is thus a bit less salty. We compared this to our second site, Lota, which is farther south on the coast and is more closed to open bay/ocean. Overall, it was a gorgeous day and we all got muddy and had a lot of fun despite it being hard work. I tested about 150 samples! I got home around 2:00, cleaned up, and then spent the rest of the day working on learning chemistry, preparing for my practical on Monday, and starting my paper/reading journal articles on the subject. I worked until late and got a lot done.

Today I slept in for the first time in what seems like forever. After brekkie and a bit of working I went for a walk during which I called mike. I ended the walk at the park where the lakes are. I stayed there for a few hours doing more reading and starting to write out some of my essay. It was so sunny and I ended up getting really hot but it was great. Later I called my mom and found out how their flights were etc. Of course we ended up talking for nearly an hour. I walked home after that as I had been out in the sun for 3 hours at that point. I did more work when I came home although I started feeling sick so I wasn’t very productive. I’m still feeling sick now. I’m getting a cold or something. Somehow I always manage to get sick. SO I’ll probably try to go to bed early and maybe take some meds. It’s going to be a hard week but hopefully I’ve prepared for it well and I can stay focused!

Yikes

2008-04-09T23:58:00.002+12:00

Someone got eaten by a shark in Ballina yesterday. It was a 16 year-old boy and his friend saw the whole thing but could not save him despite his best attempt. Just a bit scary considering I was surfing there only 3 days before that!
I'm stressing out because I'm realizing that I'm very behind in chem because I have become an expert at procrastinating/ignoring the material in that class. Also, with some busy weekends (that I'm turning into very extended ones) coming up, I have to get certain papers and assignments done much earlier than I would normally. Alright I'm going to go work on all of that.

Tuesday Bluesday

2008-04-08T21:29:00.001+12:00

My only lecture today was my marine lecture. We have a new lecturer and she’s talking about marine animals so it’s a nice break from our previous lecturer who was difficult to understand. Before that I had gotten up early and worked all morning and finished my assignment for anthropology that’s due tomorrow. I also went to the library to print some stuff—I really hate how I have to do that almost every day! When I’m back at Lehigh I’m going to appreciate my printer and the free and accessible printing on campus SO SO SO SO much. In the afternoon I went to the bank (which ended up making me really upset...long story) and then for a walk that I went on basically so I could go buy tea, m&m’s, chick peas, and soy linseed crackers. VERY important business. Apparently more important than the readings and research I have to do for tomorrow.

Charlene wanted me to come to the birthday party for Chrissie at their apartment tonight and just stay the night and go to uni with her in the morning, but I don’t have the energy to get dressed up, pack for tonight and for all day tomorrow of classes, and then catch the bus to her place. Plus it wasn’t even going to be starting until after 9:00 and I would have to get up at 7am. It’s just too much planning and honestly, it’s a Tuesday night and at this point going out would just confuse me! I feel bad though because she's going to call me when I should come over and I'm going to have to tell her that I'm not...I hate doing that so much.

So I’m in my room procrastinating and a girl on my hall is having her hair dyed and it’s also Bridgette’s birthday today so there’s a big cake blah blah blah. It was a good day but I was so productive in the morning and then I just wasted the rest of the day away. Now I have a bunch of work that I could do or could not do and I’m guessing I won’t. At least I’m doing my laundry right now so that’s something in the way of not wasting space on the planet!

Funny Little Frog

2008-04-07T22:04:00.002+12:00

Catching up. My midterm went well on Friday so I was able to thoroughly enjoy the weekend in Byron Bay. I met my parents at their hotel after my midterm where my dad was ready with the rental car. We drove to Byron, checked into our motel, and went to a nice restaurant for dinner. Good food and wine and some amazing dessert that had something to do with white chocolate and honey. We were pretty tired so we went to bed early.

We all got up early and it was decided that we would go to Ballina (where my second cousin Kaia lives with her husband Dan and their two little girls) for the first part of the day. We spent some time catching up and then we went to the beach, despite the on-and-off rain, where Dan and I went surfing. The break was great and because the weather was less than perfect there was basically no one on the beach and maybe ten surfers out at most. I was so pleased with the good conditions and free board usage/tips from Dan! After the beach, which we left when it began to rain hard, we went back to their house where we had a delicious lunch. We went back to Byron after lunch, and despite the still on-and-off rain, my mom and I made he trek to the lighthouse. The lighthouse is on Cape Byron, on which is the most eastern point of Australia. I, of course, needed a picture with this sign. The trek back was longer than on the way there—we did a loop—and we ended up getting a little side-tracked because the signs for the trail were terrible. I was also not feeling well during all of this, but all in all, my mom and I both agree it was well worth the over 2 hours of walking. The views off the cape where you are standing so high above the water on a very steep cliff from where you can see the sandy beaches on both sides is just amazing—even when the weather isn’t! So when we got back to the motel we were exhausted and soaking wet. I showered and we took a breather before heading out for dinner. We went to a smaller restaurant that seemed like a little café but ended up being a great restaurant with the best food I had had in a long time. The owner (or we think he was) convinced us to get a $50 bottle of Shiraz which was yummy.

On Sunday we went to the market in Byron which happens every Sunday there and is a place where mostly locals, but also many tourists, go to buy and sell and socialize. Once again, the weather was crazy and there was on-and-off rain. My dad mostly listened to the live music while my mom and I shopped. I bought several pairs of earrings (a weakness!) and a necklace, as well as a piece of artwork that my mom will bring home with her. I could have bought so much more there—I loved everything! Kaia and Dan and the girls met us a bit later and we had lunch together. My mom and I got falafel that was delicious. It got really sunny while we were eating, but then of course it was time to leave! We left a little after 1:00 because we had to have the rental car back in Brisbane at a certain time. The drive back to Brisbane was faster than on the way there. I said goodbye to my parents, who were staying in Brisbane for the night and heading off to Heron Island (on the Great Barrier Reef) Monday in the early morning. I got back to campus in time to shower and unpack before dinner. I caught up with everyone on my hall and then went to bed early because, once again, I was so tired/could not/would not do work.

Today I had my 8am chemistry lecture but no practical this afternoon. I have an assignment for anthropology that requires a lot of research so I’ve been working on that all day at the library and in my room. Now I’m going to go print some stuff at the library/check out some books I need for resources for the assignment and then go to my spin class.

Ok so my computer froze so I'm posting this now. Spin class was super hard today; I'm not sure what it was but our instructor definitely changed something up today. Let me put it this way--I don't know if I'll be able to walk in the morning. Ok I must get work done tonight because I saw Charlene on my way to the gym and she wants me to come to Chrissie's (one of her roommates who I went to Fiji with) birthday party tomorrow night. Peacing out.

Madly

2008-04-03T13:21:00.002+13:00

It’s been a few days since my last post but I’ve been trying very hard to concentrate on my work—i.e. it’s probably a good thing that I haven’t posted! Tuesday I didn’t have any classes because my marine practical is not at scheduled time for many weeks because we’re working on our field research in our own time (or, rather, supposed to be working on it). My lecture was canceled because the professor had a last minute time conflict that he couldn’t avoid. So I spent the day in the library in a quiet corner trying to read an incredible amount of textbook and commit to memory every type of wind, tide, current, wave, etc. I find it all very cool but there is so much random terminology and technical stuff that I really need to know. I left the lib at 5:00 so I could go for a long walk before dinner because my brain hurt and it was beautiful outside. I spent the evening practicing my anthropology presentation and timing myself and such until I felt very prepared.

It was a typical long Wednesday in a way, but it was actually much longer. Chemistry lecture, as usual, just made me feel like I should spend MUCH more time studying for that class…as of now I spend no time, so anything would be an improvement. Psychology lectures were 2 of my favorite so far this semester. The first one was on learning and conditioning stuff which I already knew about but it was still good. The second hour was on sleep and basically answered every question I’ve ever had about stages of sleep and REM sleep. I got some quick lunch and then had my psyc. tutorial in which we discussed our essays that our due in 2 weeks. I honestly didn’t even remember this assignment was coming up! It should be simple though and we were basically given step-by-step directions on how to write it—I forgot that in first year classes you get led through the writing process! The way we’re supposed to write the essay is comparable to the way I wrote essays when I was 12 years-old and thus goes against every rule of good essay writing, but I guess I just have to do it!

After that tutorial I went to my anthropology lecture which I enjoyed because it was on kinship and that is what my professor specializes in—so she was very into it. In the first part of the lecture she ended up mentioning this anthropologist, Malinowski, who studied the Trobriand Islanders, and for some reason I remembered everything that he studied from reading his work last semester. SO, being the teacher’s pet that I can sometimes be, during our 10 minute break during the lecture I just went up and talked to her about spirit conception and kinship of the Trobriand Islanders. I think she was impressed :) haha. When we all got to the tutorial, she asked who was presenting and when I raised my hand I like to think she was very excited to get to here ME talk AGAIN with all of my ultimate wisdoms. HAHA, okay, just kidding, but she did have a big smile. But, anyway, my presentation went really well and my professor loved my critique of the writing.

After that I had to walk home very quickly to drop off my notebooks and then walk to the ferry so I could go meet my parents in the city. I couldn’t believe that they were actually here! They were at the ferry stop when I got to the city and we went to one of the first restaurants we saw because I was very hungry. Everything was very expensive but I had the barramundi which was good and the wine was even better. I had an amazing dessert—some peanut butter chocolate masterpiece. We sat and talked for a long time and then walked around a bit while waiting for my ferry home. I got home around 10:20 and was exhausted but I ended up talking with people on my hall and showering and, before I knew it, it was 11:30! I was exhausted and went to bed.

SO it’s Thursday morning now and I cannot believe that my marine midterm is tomorrow. Have marine lecture from 12-1 today, then I have to register for lehigh classes* and then hopefully after I will go to the library with Charlene and Carrie to study with them. I think talking out all of this material with them will really help me learn it and indicate the material I know nothing about! At 5:00 I’m meeting my parents at the UQ ferry terminal so that I can take them around campus and show them my room/hall and stuff. Then we’re going to get dinner at the kebab place that is nearby where I live. Then I suppose they’ll go back home and I’ll get back to studying for as long as I can stay awake. Friday I’ll have chemistry lecture, and my midterm from 1-2, after which I will leave with my parents to go to Byron Bay for the weekend. It should be really fun and hopefully the surf will comply with my needs :).

*p.s. I changed the my lehigh class schedule for those of you interested--I'm taking: analytical, engineering, globalization and religion, and then 3 credits of undergrad research for Dr. Iovine (yay fish!). It's only 13 credits but I'll probably live in Iacocca in the lab. Plus I only need 24 credits after this semester to graduate so...

Back to class. Joy.

2008-04-01T01:28:00.002+13:00

It’s been a pretty average Monday. My 8am chem. lecture was dull and I was going to go the library afterward until noon but I just couldn’t make myself because I was tired and didn’t feel up to it. Normally I would just force myself in a time such as this-- I have so much work to get done, but whatever. I took a powernap and then got some work done before lunch. Chemistry practical was not too difficult but the prelab had taken me forever and the calculations afterward ended up taking longer than the lab itself. I went to my spin class which on Monday is the extreme class and that was great. There was only 5 people in the class so it was really intense. Nothing beats the feeling/endorphin high after that class! I had dinner right after (always a bit nauseating) and did some work before working more on my class schedule for Lehigh in the fall. I have to register at noon on Thursday my time, but I have marine lecture then so I will just do it after—I should have no problem getting into any of my classes.

I just finalized my schedule which has taken me many hours over many days. I'm feeling the pressure of wanting to take all the classes I've ever wanted to take since I have so little time left to do it! I wonder, if not next year, when I'll ever be able to take random classes in all of the subjects I enjoy that aren't science related. :( Thinking about that makes me sad-- is I could have it my way college would never end!!!

Well, in case anyone is interested, I think this is what I’m taking: Analytical chemistry, engineering (ugh, it’s required of me), globalization and religion (finishes up my religion minor and is my writing intensive course), bacteriology (I don’t need to take this at all—I just want to…), and 2 credits (so 2 days a week) of undergrad research for my adviser. SO it’s all only 15 credits but it’s heavy stuff and way more class hours than it is credits. It’s looking like on Monday and Wednesday I’ll go from 9-4 which is always a blast haha.

Okay well I’m exhausted and want to go to bed—my favorite part of the day! Tomorrow I have to get so much studying done for my marine midterm. SO MUCH. There is just no way to avoid cramming for this exam. But I still haven’t even finished my preparation for my class presentation in anthropology. So that first, then some major cramming of marine terminology and processes. Wish me luck—I’ll need it!

BulaBula

2008-03-30T20:54:00.000+13:00

On Wednesday, Char and I got a taxi at 7am—we arranged it the day before—to get to nearby resort where a bus would pick us up and take us to Port Denarau where we got on a boat to go to Tivua Island, one of the Mamanuca Islands. On the boat ride we got to see many of the Yasewa and Mamanuca Islands, all of which looked so beautiful. On the boat we got some breakfast and relaxed in the sun. When we got to the island Char and I decided to go snorkelling first. We were taken out on a boat to the best coral and we snorkelled for an hour or so. Then we went back to the island where there was free lunch and did I mention that beer, wine, and soda was unlimited? So we had some wine and a Fijian beer and lots of diet coke—soda in the rest of the world is incredibly expensive, so we took full advantage! After lunch we laid out on the beach and did more snorkelling. We sailed/boated back to mainland and once again, char and I got a lot of attention from the Fijian crew on the boat—they changed the words of some of the songs they were singing to be about us! Also once again, we basked in the attention! We didn’t get back to the hostel until about 8:00 so we showered and met up with everyone else. Char and I realized that we had to finish the bottle of rum before we left but only I wanted to drink! I told team GB this and they were appalled and thus helped me drink it haha. It was another night of scrabble and cards but this time it went until quite late.

On Thursday, char left after breakfast to head to the airport L I took out a kayak—the hostel offered them free!—and went really far up the coast which was amazing. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying attention to the current, and on the way back I had to go against the current. Needless to say, I was exhausted when I got back. I laid out with the others on the beach for a bit and then it was lunch time. After lunch, team GB wanted to have some competitions in the pool. We had many contests and I would like to point out that I (along with my partner of team GB, who I called Mr. Richard Joyce,) won every chicken fight—that’s when you sit on someone’s shoulders and try and knock the other person doing the same off of their person’s shoulders in to the pool. Anyway, we all felt really sick from all the swimming, handstanding, pool wrestling, and flipping that we had done only about 10 minutes after eating lunch, so we took a break. It was just in time because it started pouring rain right after we got out! The girls went back to go shower because they were checking out in a few hours. I hung out with team GB and then made a coconut necklace—one of the other free activities the hostel offers. I had signed up to get a traditional Fijian full-body massage from 3-4 earlier in the day—it was amazing! I got rubbed down with freshly made coconut oil and it was wonderful…and only cost 20 Fijian dollars (for a whole hour!) which is less than 15 US dollars! At 4 I had afternoon tea with everyone before Team GB and I said goodbye to char’s roommates who I really liked. At 5:00 I played in the daily volleyball game with team GB, some of the Fijians, and a few other guests. It was quite fun but I still have bruises on my arms from it! Quite a competitive crowd—especially the old Fijian men! We all showered and had dinner where I found out that a few Norwegian girls and some English guys were going to make a bonfire on the beach that night. I played some cards with team GB until the fire was started and then we broke out the rum and joined the group around the fire. I was a bit sad as I talked with Team GB that night because I’m just no good with all of this meeting so many cool people when you’re travelling and then having to say goodbye so soon. Meeting people from all over the world is so amazing and there is nothing that compares to it, but when I click with someone so soon after meeting them, it’s hard for me to just let that go. It ends up team GB will be in Sydney up to the day before I’m going to Sydney. I tried to convince them to stay an extra day or 2 in Sydney—I’ll just have to see how it goes. Also, Char and her roommates offered their apartment to them if they want to stay in Brisbane for a bit. Again, I’ll just have to wait and see!

On Friday I got up early and went for a swim in the ocean despite it being overcast and a bit drizzly. I had breakfast (by myself because the boys weren’t awake yet) and then showered and packed up. I went to pay my tab—the hostel just put all the meals we bought and any other charges on a tab which was awesome—and found out that the shuttle to the airport wasn’t going to run that morning because it was only me who needed the transport! So I had to take the public bus again! But this time it was going to be by myself which did not make me happy. Team GB cheered me up though and we hung out for a while before they walked me to the bus stop. My bus arrived—20 minutes late of course because they are on “Fiji time”—and we said our goodbyes. I was really sad and they were too because now they didn’t have me to play cards with! Anyway, I left the hostel at 11:20 and didn’t get to the airport until 1:45 and my flight was at 3:20. I would like to add that if I had asked any Fijian what time I would get to the airport if I took the “11:00” bus they would say 12:30. Yea, not even close. They honestly do not believe in time in Fiji, which was great while I was there, but not so much when you have to catch an international flight! I thought I would have to rush but I had plenty of time to check in and buy a bottle of rum to bring home. Then my flight got delayed 20 minutes but it ended up taking off 40 minutes late. BUT, when we boarded I found I had all three seats of my row to myself! It was a pleasant flight and when we landed my baggage came out on the carousel within 1 minute so I beat the rush to customs. I declared everything I bought just to be safe, which I am glad I did even though it was all fine. They are very strict in Australia with what you bring in because it is so easy to introduce an invasive species. Anyway so I was able to catch a train about 2 minutes after I got to the platform which is awesome because they only run about every 40 minutes. I got off in the city and had to take the bus to campus. At the bus station I ended up talking to a woman, a graduate from UQ actually, for 45 minutes because the bus never showed. Eventually the bus I needed came and I got home around 7:45 and promptly took a much needed shower. I had no food except ¾ of a sleeve of Ritz crackers so I ate that for dinner (healthy) and then went to bed.

Overall, the hostel, the country, the people, and the food were unbelievable. There is no such thing as an unfriendly Fijian. I could have stayed there forever…but I could do with another means of transportation that is not the public bus ;). I could not have asked for a better semester break.

It’s now Sunday evening and I’ve had a lot of work to do since I have my regular work plus a presentation for anthropology on Wednesday and my marine midterm on Friday. I’ve been at the library all day and I still am not even close to being done with my work L Plus, my parents are currently in Sydney and will arrive in Brisbane on Wednesday so I’d like to be fun and energetic when they’re here! I’m exhausted and this was a lot of writing! I can’t help but try to include every detail when I write about this stuff!

Bula

2008-03-30T20:53:00.000+13:00

I’m finally getting a chance to write about Fiji! It was definitely an amazing 6 days of my life.

So it began Saturday night. I slept over at Charlene’s apartment—which is awesome and has a HUGE deck that overlooks the whole city—and we woke up at 5am on Sunday so we could catch the early train to the airport. The train station is about 50 meters from the front door of her apartment complex which was obviously very convenient. We got to the airport and, of course, since we were so early there was no one in line yet to check in. We got first choice with the seats since we were so early, and so we were offered row 1—the one with about 5 feet of leg room! We were at our gate probably within 15 minutes of arriving at the airport. We got some coffee and I got out the 6 pieces of fruit I had taken from the dining hall for our breakfast—I know, I am the master at stealing of food from dining halls J. We just talked and before we knew it, it was time to board. Our flight was great because the crew was really friendly, we had tons of leg room, and char and I talked the whole time making the flight go by so fast. We also used her Fiji guidebook to help plan out what we were going to do. As we were descending, we got to see the gorgeous coral and many of the other islands from above which was amazing. When we got off our flight we got our baggage, did the whole customs thing, got some Fijian money from the ATM—there is only one ATM in the Nadi airport!—and went straight to duty free to get a bottle of rum for the both of us. All the liquor was so cheap!!! Anyway, we got some food—pizza, haha—while waiting for the bus and also looked at some brochures for some day trips we could do. We got on the 4:20 public bus and, well, it was an interesting experience. It hadn’t occurred to us that the bus would not really be a tourist bus, but an actual bus that Fijians use to get around. We laughed afterwards about how we were the only white people and how we put our bags underneath the bus in storage while everyone else used that storage for things like roots and leaves that they had collected. It was a very hot and crowded bus so we were happy when the 2 and a half hour bus ride to the hostel was over.

We checked in and I met Charlene’s 3 roommates and one of their boyfriends who had come from New Jersey to visit for 2 weeks. It was perfect because the rooms were 6 bed dorms and there were 6 of us. They were just going to eat dinner so we went out to sit with them and then char and I swam in the pool for a bit. We just hung out and talked for a while and then showered. We went to the office and had them book the 2 day trips we wanted to do for Tuesday and Wednesday. That left us with Monday (the next day) free to do the waterfall trek our hostel offered. We went to bed pretty early.

On Monday we got up early and had breakfast which was yummy and free from the hostel. Seeing the beach and everything in the daylight was phenomenal. At 10am we met our guide, one of the older men from the nearby village of Navola. It was the six of us, 4 people from Japan, and 2 from England. We basically hiked through the rainforest, barefoot, in lots of mud, though streams, over rocks etc. to get to Korolevu waterfall. During the hike we were taught about many different plants and their many functions/usages. The best part about it is that it is a waterfall that has a special meaning for the people of the village and only they really know about it/visit it. We swam in the pools there and took some pictures after we climbed up the waterfall. We headed back and we were all so exhausted—we didn’t get back until 3:00! We all ate lunch and took showers. While everyone else took naps, Char and I chilled at the beach and read/played on the swings that hang from the palm trees. We had dinner after which we met 3 really fun guys from England who had just arrived and who we hung out with for the rest of our time in Fiji. They are on a 6 month trip travelling around the world as they graduated from uni together at the end of last year and are beginning their respective jobs in July. We played mafia—yea, I know, it felt like camp or something!—for hours and also some other card games and had so much fun. We were all exhausted so we got to bed relatively early again.

On Tuesday, Char and I got picked up at 9am by our tour van that took us to Pacific Harbour, about 30km away from the hostel to the east, where we boarded a canoe and boated up the Navua River. We went to a village where they welcomed us elaborately. We took part in our first Kava ceremony and were told the history of the village. We were taken around the village and got to watch the women doing some really cool handiwork and were able to see the pre-school. The children sang for us and told us their names and ages—it was SO cute. We were served a lunch cooked the traditional way—underground. There were curries and fish and coconut and other salads and things. It was the some of the best food I’ve ever had! After we ate, the young men of the village danced for us and the women sang afterwards. When the women finished the men—all of whom were about our age-- came back and grabbed Charlene and me off the floor to dance with them! It was so much fun and everyone in the group ended up dancing too. The young men really loved Charlene and me and even told one of the elders about how thrilled they were to have “2 such beautiful young ladies” come to the village. Not going to lie—we both loved the attention and got a big kick out of it all. Anyway, after buying some crafts from the women, they sang a traditional farewell song and we got back on the canoe for the next part of our trip. We went to the Magic waterfalls which are huge. We swam in the pools there and got to jump off a rock that was about 15 meters above the pool. After that we got to bamboo raft down the river for a bit which is the original Fijian mode of water transportation. We got back to Pacific Harbour and then got dropped off by bus at our hostel at about 5pm. Char and I decided not to waste any time and to go snorkeling since the tide was high. The snorkeling was amazing at the beach where our hostel was! When the sun began to set, we got out and showered and had dinner with everyone where we were able to catch up on what everyone had done all day. In the evening we went to the village because we had been invited to drink some kava and just chill I guess. We stayed for hours in the village meeting room, drinking kava with the older men of the village and asking them all sorts of questions about their culture. After we walked back to the hostel we played scrabble and more mafia with the boys from England (aka Team GB…for Great Britain—we were known as team USA) Again, so much fun, and being able to hang out in the village seems so surreal.

I’ll continue in another post.

Yes, I'm still here.

2008-03-22T20:56:00.002+13:00

So I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve just been really busy…and still am but felt I had to write something before leaving for FIJI. (!!! )

Thursday I met with my marine group at a coffee shop where we could sit outside to plan our field work. It took us 2 hours but we completely planned what we are testing and the methods/statistics we will use so it’s should all be pretty easy from here. After that I came home to grab lunch and went to the library for the rest of the day to study for my midterms that are (too) soon! I came home, had dinner, and then packed for my Friday excursion.

Friday I woke up at 5:50am (yay!) to catch the ferry to the train to the bus to surfers paradise again for my second and third lessons. It was a gorgeous day, not a cloud in sight the whole day, so the beach was pretty crowded. I didn’t mind though--especially because I spent minimal time on the beach. My first lesson, from 10-12, built on my first one. The first wave I took when we all went in to warm up I caught all the way in which made me feel pretty good! I felt myself getting more used to the balance and everything and even was able to do some turning which is what our lesson was on. I was tired after the 2 hours so I went to lie out on the beach and eat the sandwich I had made for the occasion.

Around 1:30 I went walking around a bit and then headed back over to the surf school for my 2-4 lesson. That lesson was amazing. My muscles were fatigued from the start, but I didn’t care. Also, there were only 4 of us on the third lesson which was fun. We warmed up like we always do, but then our instructor called us out and told us it was time to paddle out in the rip current! Just as he tells us this, by the way, the lifeguard siren goes off and they rescue a surfer from the rip. That was the third or fourth rescue I had seen that day! He told us how to get over the big waves and stuff, and then off we went! I was secretly really nervous, but once we got in and I got over a few waves and felt a little better. Then I got completely wiped out and was able to really feel the pull of the rip and realized that it felt the same as rips I had felt when in the outer banks, just stronger. I was no longer nervous at all and I paddled hard out to where my instructor was. I got roughed up on the way out, but I eventually made it to the sweet spot for catching the best waves. When I got on my first wave, I was caught by surprise at how big and fast the wave was and didn’t stand up fully. But I got back out (which takes about 5 seconds when you’re in the rip) and when I took my next wave I got up and rode it. It was so exhilarating because when you take the big waves, it’s like, “wow, I’m really surfing,” …if that makes any sense at all, which I think it does if you surf and remember how it felt when you started. I only caught a few waves really successfully, I think partly because I was probably getting really tired. Also I kept sliding too far up my board and nearly nose-diving. I actually did nose-dive on one wave—it was actually really fun and I ended up doing several somersaults underwater. I love that feeling. Oh, BUT one of them I took from all the way out in the rip right to the shore!!! I actually just stepped off onto the shore! I was so exhausted and had been in the sun for over 7 hours so I headed to the bus stop right after the lesson. I didn’t get home until about 7:30 so I had missed dinner. I knew I would so I had bought a can of tuna and some crackers earlier in the week. After I ate I showered and fell asleep right away.

I woke up early this morning—I had gone to bed at 9pm! I did my laundry, went to breakfast, discussed plans for travel tomorrow with Charlene, called my mom, the talked to mike, started packing, went to lunch, and packed for the rest of the afternoon. I will go to dinner in about 10 minutes, then finish packing and head to Charlene’s apartment in Toowong which is about 10 minutes from campus. Her friend is picking me up because the buses stopped running early today. Tomorrow we will wake up at about 4am to get the 5am train to the airport. Our flight doesn’t take off until 9:05am but the next train would get us there at 7:35am which we both agreed is way too late for an international flight. So we’ll get there early and just get breakfast or something. Even though the flight is only 3.5 hours, by the time we catch the bus from the airport in Nadi to our hostel it will be 6:45pm Fiji time—(3:45pm Brisbane time). So it will be a LONG day. I’m so happy to be going with Charlene though—she is the so much fun and we are very much alike in our travel style. Ok I have an hour before I get picked up and I have to go down to eat and I’m not even fully packed!

I’ll be back on Friday night!

Oh and one more thing—I think it’s going to be raining the whole time we’re in fiji! Oh well, I think Charlene and I will make the best of it! I'm already tan so I don't need to work on that haha, so if I can't lie out on the beach, so be it. We'll hang out in the rainforest or something. :)

wed-nes-day

2008-03-20T00:16:00.002+13:00

It was a typical Wednesday. Library at 8am because I printed the wrong article for anthropology and needed my psychology lecture notes, 3 hours of lecture (9-12), quick lunch, turn in chemistry prac calculations, 4 hours of tutorials and lectures (1-5), out for a run that ended in going to coles to get m&ms (necessary), dinner (nice and sweaty for that), shower, marine prac abstract/data write up…and now it's after 9:00.

I’m very tired and now that I just sent in my marine science, I think it’s time for a bit of relaxing before I go to bed. Tomorrow I have a lot I want to get done so that I can enjoy my Friday of traveling/surfing all day.

Note to Lauren: I guess the only kind of cuisine that’s Australian is aussie bbq? Oh and they eat vegemite. And natural yogurt which means it tastes like plain yogurt but then they add fruit an stuff. Apparently you can eat kangaroo but I don’t intend to. They don’t really have a cuisine, they just make crap versions of everyone elses cuisines! But they do have the most diverse vegetarian menu I’ve ever seen. Oh and they eat tons of pumpkin, chick peas, sweet potatoes, watermelon, cantelope, and pineapple. It’s a good thing I love all of that! Also, lots of things are put into the form of quiches and anything and everything is put into crepes and then called dinner. Almost every dessert has some sort of custard to put on it. They put penne pasta in tuna salad sometimes. Everybody likes a kebab after a night out. Wow, apparently I can go on and on about food. Not really a surprise. Hope that answers your question raren!

????

2008-03-19T01:18:00.002+13:00

I would just like to point out that I just noticed that the times (and also therefore dates) of my posts are always wrong. Maybe I should fix that...I probably won't.

When it rains...

2008-03-19T01:15:00.001+13:00

Wow. My classes are really starting to pick up in pace. It didn’t register for me that I have 2 midterms scheduled for the week after break—and I have a presentation on that Wednesday—and the next week I have a big assignment due and another midterm. Plus my practicals take a lot of time and require a reasonable, but still quite time-consuming, amount of preparation. I can’t even finish everything I need to do tonight because I can’t keep my eyes open and I need to be rested for my seven hours of class tomorrow!

Anyway, I got word from Sydney that the weekend I was thinking of coming is good, so I just purchased the tickets. I had already done my research so I just had to buy them. The flights cost $200 with all the taxes and charges and stuff. I think that’s pretty awesome. I decided to leave Thursday morning and to come back early Monday morning. Sunday flights were more expensive and the latest I’d be able to leave was 1pm…so that would be a useless day. Plus, I know that Sunday is a big deal in Sydney, meaning everyone goes to the bar starting in the early afternoon. So I didn’t want to miss out. It should be an amazing weekend and I’m looking forward to it, but right now all I can really think about is all of my work… oh and surfing on Friday, and FIJI (!), and then A LOT more work and studying and a midterm, then parents are here/Byron Bay for the weekend, then another midterm and a big assignment.

Hence the craziness begins now.

I’m incredibly tired and the soreness from surfing Sunday only just wore off late this afternoon.

Get on your boardies

2008-03-17T00:09:00.002+13:00

Today was a glorious day. It began at 5:55am when woke up, got ready, and headed out with James and Filippo to catch the 6:46 ferry to the train station. It’s a 15/20 minutes walk to the ferry, and then from the ferry to the train it’s another 10/15 minute walk. We caught our train which goes down the coast to about the same latitude as Surfers Paradise, but still west of the coast. It should have been as simple as getting off the train and onto a bus that takes us right to the beach, but of course, nothing can go that smoothly when it comes to public transportation here when I’m involved! It ends up the train that we were on did not continue all the way to the stop we needed to get to, so we had to get off and take a bus to catch the other bus. We were about 20 seconds from missing that second bus because, as you can imagine, the train goes much faster than a bus does! I was quite stressed because if we were to have missed that bus, we would end up arriving at the surf school about 5 minutes before our lesson was to start! SO I was very relieved to catch the bus. We would’ve had no idea at which bus stop to get off in order to get to the surf school, but luckily, being travel savvy me, I had google-mapped the area and printed it out. So we got off about 2 blocks from the school.

The three of us paid for our lesson. I found out that I can pay for the lessons in the package whenever I want—in other words, I didn’t need to decide if I want to take 1, 3, or 5 lessons before I took my lesson today. You simply pay for your one lesson, and then if you come back you just get the discount on the next 2 (so the same goes for lessons 4 and 5).

Ok so basically we were over a half hour early so we met the others in the lesson and they were all really nice and from all over. There were 2 girls our age from Germany on holiday from Uni who were very friendly, a couple from Ireland, a little girl and her brother who were Russian (but live in Israel!), and then of course us—the American, Italian, and Australian. We started off by getting our boards and lugging the giant things down the beach. You use bigger foam boards when learning because bigger=easier to balance and foam is less likely to injure you or someone else! The downside is they’re heavy. Anyway, we only did about 10 minutes on land before we got in and essentially practices body boarding. We came out and learning how to steer, practiced that in the water, and then we were on to learning how to stand! The was another quick, not even 10 minutes land lesson, and then we went out to try. On my first try I only got to my knees and then fell off when trying to stand, but by the second wave I caught I stood! I didn’t last all that long but it still felt awesome. About an hour or so later when we came out, I had caught many waves and was able to stay on much longer because of helpful tips from the coaches.

Overall, it was AWESOME. I was not happy when we had to get out of the water. Okay, I was happy because I was loving it, but I really could’ve done it for hours more. I mean, I probably would’ve passed out from exhaustion, but I would want to do all day. After we put away the boards, the coaches gave us awards. I had ending up making friends with everyone in the class somehow, especially the little girl who was absolutely adorable. She had done so well—I think she probably caught more waves than most of the class. I told her that if the coaches had given a special award, I think she would have gotten it. She then told me that she thought I was really good and that maybe everyone should get a special award because everyone is special in their own way. It was probably the cutest speech I’ve ever heard from an 8 year-old in my whole life. So the boys and I said our goodbyes and then headed to get lunch since food was the only thing either of them could think about—typical. We went to this little diner-type place and I got a chicken caesar wrap that was quite tasty. The boys were able to get big burgers and chips so they were satisfied. We then walked down the beach a bit so that there were less people, but it really wasn’t crowded. The beach is as big as places like Ocean City, but there were probably 1/10^th as many people. Plus, when I went for a walk later, I realized that just a few minutes down the beach further was completely empty. BUT, it’s empty because there aren’t life-guards or swimming flags set up so you can’t go in the water.

Anyway, we laid out on the beach for the afternoon and went for a swim. The waves are so strong so I could only stay in the water for a short time before feeling exhausted and even a bit nervous. The problem with just chilling in the ocean there is that you’re standing on a sand bar where the water is somewhere from mid-thigh to waist high, so when a huge, strong wave comes, i.e. the first in a set, there is no way to avoid it hitting you hard. I mean, I love my big waves, but I was really missing deeper water for strong waves like that! So after some lazing in the surprisingly cloudy weather and being tumbled around in the waves meant for surfing, we decided to head home. We caught the 4:05 bus and were able to take it to the train and then take the ferry. We got to the ferry station on campus at 6:47 and dinner closes at 7:00 on Sundays so, despite being exhausted, the three of us ran/speed-walked all the way home. We thankfully got to dinner just before it closed.

I just showered and unpacked my bag. I could not be more exhausted. This is my favorite kind of exhaustion. Because that’s normal, having a favorite type of fatigue! Well surprise I’m not normal.

It was an amazing day and I cannot wait until Thursday…oh yea, on Thursday I plan on skipping my 1 lecture of the day, waking up probably around 5:45am and going to surfers again for my second and third lesson. ;) 4 hours of surf amazingness, after which I'll probably be good enough to go pro. Mwhahaha. But seriously, what a way to start mid-semester break!

Save

2008-03-15T02:56:00.002+13:00

So I was trying to go to sleep, but for some reason I’m really awake right now so I figured I’d write a post! This morning I woke up at 6:40 for absolutely no reason! Apparently this not needing sleep thing is happening a lot lately. So I went to the library to get some stuff done before my 9am chem. lecture. I don’t fully understand any of the concepts in chem…only partially. I’m just not interested in what we’re learning at all so I can’t be bothered to actually learn it. Hopefully I understand it well enough that I can get by on the exams. ;) After lecture I realized that I had left my Nalgene all the way back at the library! So I went back and luckily someone had brought it to the help desk. I came home and scrubbed it/rinsed it about 10 times—that may seem like I’m paranoid, but really, what would you do? I came home and took a quick nap because the getting up super early finally hit me. I went to lunch and then to marine lecture. I’m not understanding the material in that class right now either—but that’s not just me—the whole class is a bit lost because our lecturer goes through an incredible amount of material (that is all completely foreign to me) in a short amount of time. Anyway, Charlene wants to get together one day next week so we can plan out our itinerary for Fiji. She also really wants to rent one of these van-type-things (that apparently a lot of people do here) and go camping around the Byron Bay area one weekend. I told her about how I’m going to Byron Bay with my parents after break but that I still would probably be interested because a) it’s camping and b.) it’s the beach. Also, according to her, it’s not expensive at all to rent these vehicles for a few days.

So after class I came home and tried to convince James and Filipo that we just HAVE to go tomorrow to Gold Coast since the night life is supposed to be so good PLUS we’d have 2 days at the beach. And the hostels are cheap. They also think it’s a good idea, but we’ll see how it plays out. Either way, I will be there at some point this weekend—that’s what really matters!

After discussing with the boys I checked my email and found a response from my friends in Sydney that really cheered me up. Basically, I’m welcome to come any weekend after break—and both Lindsay and Taylor have a place I can sleep for the weekend. I’m thinking about going at the end of April because we have a 3-day weekend. I could leave Thursday morning and come home Sunday night and I’d miss 1 lecture. I could even get an early morning flight monday but it'd be about $20 more. I looked at flights this afternoon for quite a bit. I’ll email them with that date tomorrow or sometime soon to confirm it and then I’ll try to book the cheap flights while they’re still there! After some more looking at flights for other weekends and general daydreaming about my travels, I got to work. I had to get done my chemistry pre-lab stuff for Monday just in case we’re leaving tomorrow because I don’t know when we’d be coming back Sunday. It took me until 6:30 to finish, which is good because at 6:30 my hall had an outing to the fish and chips place that is in the shops that are walking distance from the University. It was a lot of fun . It’s an outdoor place and since almost everyone form the hall came, it was quite a big group of us. It’s a BYOB restaurant so a few people went to get some beer and wine while we waited but I was too lazy to get any. The food was good but it took such a long time for it.

I’m starting to get tired so I’ll end this post. Hopefully this weekend will be a success!

Everybody wants to make it count

2008-03-14T00:27:00.002+13:00

Another day and it had its ups and downs just like any other. I woke up really early even though I don't have my lecture until noon. I have yet to sleep in past 8:30am since I've been here, even when I've been out late! I guess it's a good thing I'm not out late too much or I'd be quite sleep-deprived. So I went down to brekkie since I was awake and figured I should get something done. I came back to my room and read a chapter of my ethnography over again--I have to mention that since I feel very little pressure to do well in my classes,(in terms of grades, that is), it doesn't feel like work at all. So I had to do that though because I had to return the book by midday back to one of the libraries.
When I finished reading, it was still so early and I was feeling restless so I went for a leisurely speed-walk... is that a contradiction? Well not for me, haha. It was beautiful out--should I even mention that anymore? I think I will because, for me, the weather will never become redundant! I came back and caught my mom on instant messenger which made me very happy, even if she may not have realized it. I was nearly late to my lecture because I saw lindsay, the first of the canadian/american crew (haha) that I met when I got to Union and we started talking. She was very sweet and commented that it had been too long since we caught up and how were my classes and what was I doing this weekend etc etc. I've always thought she was the nicest, and after we talked I realized that maybe I would be doing some traveling with her. She has a field trip this weekend so she'll be gone, but so will I--at least for sunday when my hall makes our trip to surfers paradise! More on that in a second. So that encounter cheered me up some. Marine lecture was...long? We have a new professor for the next part of the lecture series and he's very knowledgable and asks the class a lot of questions and stuff, but he ran over in time by nearly 10 minutes! I'm quite happy I didn't have anything after to get to because I would've been so late. I went from lecture to the library to return the ethnography and then to the chemistry building because I had to turn in my chemistry lab calculations there in the electronic slot. The calculations aren't technically due until before lab starts next monday at 2pm but being typical me...haha. So I came home and made myself a pb&j in the dining room because lunch was about to close and no one was there to eat with. **On the topic of pb&j, I love how the aussie's cringe when I make it--most of them find peanut butter repulsive as it is, but to spread it on bread with jam? EW. I just remind them that they eat yeast extract with butter on their bread, and then everything is settled :)**
After I wasted about an hour doing nothing, I decided to go to the gym because I just couldn't wait until 5:30 for cycling. After that I showered and did nothing for a bit longer until it was dinner time. I had a sweet potato, bean, and tofu crepe. Who would've thought any of those things would ever be combined? Well it was pretty good.
I just watched some of a surfing documentary with Filipo and James and found out that...drum roll...they want to surf when we're at the beach on sunday! Tomorrow I'm going to suggest that we call up and make some sort of reservation at the surf school that I like :) I hope this all works out. I can never be too sure unfortunately! Oh and I secretly looked up all of these student trips up to the rainforest in Cairns and also trips to the Whitsundays. It's so addicting to just daydream about all of the places there are to see...
With persistence, I'll get at least some of what I want!

Milo Addict

2008-03-13T00:07:00.002+13:00

SO it was a typical long Wednesday. I decided in lecture that I’m sort of understanding chem. which is good enough. Both hours of psychology today were really good; afterward I found myself jealous of anyone who gets to study neuroanatomy. I love it. Now that I’m nearly done with undergrad why not just switch my major? Okay, just kidding. Anyway I went to lunch and then had psyc. tutorial, and 2 hours of anthropology lecture. Both good, but I had to take so many notes in anthropology that my hand was hardly even functioning by the end. I came home but realized that I needed to photocopy some pages from my ethnography because I have to return it to the library tomorrow morning. I also needed to finish studying out of the marine textbook I checked out because that was also due. So I headed to the library and got that done. I got home just in time for the 6:00 seating for dinner.

I’m glad I got my work done straight after my lectures because now I don’t have much work tonight or tomorrow morning. This means I can go for a run or a swim before marine lecture :)
Today something quite good happened. Something, or rather someone, was brought to my attention. Filipo, the Italian in my hall, was asked at dinner by a girl in my hall what he was doing for the break. It immediately dawned on me that we had probably discussed every subject in the past few weeks BUT this. He said that he had wanted to go up to Cairns, but he hadn’t found anyone to go with him, so he might just stay here. When he spoke those words I had three thoughts that came to me all at once, 2 of which I wanted to communicate to him right away—1) I COMPLETELY understand, 2) how is it possible that I’m so blind that I did not think to ask him about his travel plans while here—I hang out with him more than any of the Americans and 3) I’m so happy, in the guiltiest of ways, that someone else is in this dreadful state along with me. So I didn’t say all of that to him obviously. I did, however, remind him of how hard it was for me to find someone to go to Fiji with and let him know that any weekend trip he ever thinks he even might want to do I am up for. He’d be a very interesting travel buddy because, well, he’s quiet, but something tells me he’s not actually quiet—I think he just doesn’t say everything he would normally because his English isn’t as fluent…I mean he’s completely fluent but he doesn’t speak as quickly as everyone else so I can imagine that it would be easier most of the time to only say what was necessary! Another thing that would make him interesting to travel with (sorry mike) is that he’s really good-looking—that combined with his accent gets him so much attention from the ladies! I’d find that commotion fun to be around hehe. Anyway, I don’t know if we’ll end up traveling together, but I’m definitely up for it.

Oh and in other good news, James put up a sign in the hall saying “TRIP TO SURFERS PARADISE SUNDAY.” So happy that he took me seriously when I complained all weekend that I NEED THE BEACH. Filipo and Bridgette are coming too. I personally want to go Saturday morning and then stay in a hostel overnight so we can go out (plus have 2 days at the beach.) I’ll work on convincing them! It would only be like $20 each for the night. Maybe I’ll also convince someone to do a surfing lesson with me? One step at a time.... :) Either way it should all be good and I’m pretty stoked.

Wrong side of the bed

2008-03-11T22:26:00.002+13:00

I should’ve known by the feeling I woke up with that today would not be the best of days. I think I’m starting to get sick which is no surprise because my immune system fails me on a regular basis. I would write about today but the goo goo dolls express how I feel today and how I have been feeling too well. So that’s what I’ll write.

Stranger than your sympathy
And this is my apology
I killed myself from the inside out
And all my fears have pushed you out
And I wished for things that I don’t need
All I wanted
And what I chased won’t set me free
All I wanted
And I get scared but I’m not crawlin’ on my knees
Oh, yeah
Everything’s all wrong, yeah
Everything’s all wrong, yeah
Where the hell did I think I was?
And stranger than your sympathy
Take these things, so I don’t feel
I’m killing myself from the inside out
And now my head’s been filled with doubt
We’re taught to lead the life you choose
All I wanted
You know your love’s run out on you
All I wanted
And you can’t see when all your dreams aren’t coming true
Oh, yeah
It’s easy to forget, yeah
When you choke on the regrets, yeah
Who the hell did I think I was?
And stranger than your sympathy
And all these thoughts you stole from me
And I’m not sure where I belong
And no where’s home and no more wrong
And I was in love with things I tried to make you believe I was
And I wouldn’t be the one to kneel before the dreams I wanted
And all the dark and all the lies were all the empty things disguised as me

This feels a bit like Lehigh…

2008-03-10T23:15:00.002+13:00

So today was a crazy busy Monday and I’m exhausted in every way that exists. I got up at 7am, had chem. lecture, went to the bank to get my online account unfrozen…long story…to find that it doesn’t open until 9:30, went across campus to the bio.sci. library to check out the marine textbook (I didn’t buy any of my textbooks) because Friday’s lecture went right over my head, read there for a while, checked out the book, went back to the bank, then spent an hour being a guinea pig for a psyc. PhD student…all of this was before lunch! I went back to college for lunch, dropped off books/picked up my lab gear and ate really quickly. Before lab I had an hour session at the lib on how to use the library cataloques/databases for my anthropology class. I mostly spent my time actually doing my research rather than listening to the library woman because it’s really not all that complicated to run the searches. I had to practically run from there to get to my lab on time. We had to run twice as many titrations as we did last week. Awesome. There were also a bunch of calculations and questions but I was happy to do them knowing that I didn’t have to do a formal lab write-up! Anyway I finished first just because I'm efficient and amazing...or maybe because I got lucky...whatever you'd like to think. I got out at 5:00—it starts at 2 and is supposedly over at 4:50—and had to rush home and change because I have cycling at 5:30 and it takes about 12 minutes to speed-walk to the gym. I got there just in time and found out it was the extreme class—it’s a full hour instead of 50 minutes because there’s an extra hill set and racing set. As if I wasn’t exhausted enough from the day in general!
I had dinner with some Americans who had also been at the gym but in a different class, and it didn’t please me. The dinner was actually decent but I don’t like many of them very much. It's weird because even though I'm very picky with who I chose as my close friends, I'm not at all picky when it come to aquaintance-type friends. Anyway, I just don’t see myself traveling with most of them. There are a few that are okay but now that I’m getting to know them better I just don’t feel like I’m fitting into their little clique. I think there are some in that group that don’t feel like they fit in either. I don’t know. Girls are lame.
I have a bunch of work to do. I actually like it that I have to take out textbooks from the library and return them within 3 days because it forces me to read the chapters while I have it.
I just showered and it’s 8:20 .At 9:00 union girls have their first netball game vs. another one of the colleges and Bridgette from my hall is on the team. A bunch of us are going to cheer her on. I think someone might have to carry me there. I really want to go but also I also really want to breathe for the first time today. Everyone (in my hall as well as the rest of the college as well as the entire university) is sick or has been sick for the past week. I know myself and on days like this where I overexert myself my immune system tends to just shut off. I don’t want to catch the bug. I want some m&m’s and my studying to be done. I want bed now. Dilemma.
I’m indecisive and I can’t stop thinking about things I wish I had done a few weeks ago so that maybe right now wouldn’t be so hard for me. My solution for tonight is to study—at least doing well in my classes is something I can control…
And Tuesdays are usually pretty good. I'll discuss my life with Charlene in marine lecture and I'm praying that she has something to say that will cheer me up. I've never had to rely so much on one person. I don't like it. But I can deal with it. And I will have to deal with it. Ok study of continental margins and volcanoes and atoll formation and...and then bed.

Just a day, just an ordinary day…

2008-03-09T22:41:00.002+13:00

Last night I stayed up too late for no reason except that I didn’t feel tired. I woke early as usual this morning though and now I’m starting to feel the effects of not enough sleep. Ick. This morning, when I was dragged to brekkie by my mates…wow I didn’t even plan that word drop…it was pouring rain. It took me by complete surprise when I walked out the door. I imagine I had a look on my face that was something along the lines of what someone who had never seen rain before would have. Seriously though, I had forgotten that rain existed. Anyway, the rain lasted for about ten minutes and then all of a sudden the sun came out full force and within a minute the rain had stopped. I freaking love Queensland. 10 minutes of rain is all I need to get my fill of it for a few weeks. :)

So I spent the morning on the phone with the mum and then with mike. Somehow that, along with looking at the new surf school website/deciding I need to surf ASAP, took up my entire morning. I went down to lunch even though I’ve had no appetite with the goal of sitting w/the Americans but didn’t see them anywhere. About half way through eating I saw them, oh well.

I sent an email to Charlene, the girl I’m going to Fiji with, asking about surf school and the 2 3-day weekends we have in april/may. I must must must utilize those 3-day weekends.

**I must comment that some of the boys from my hall, the socially inept ones in particular, are sitting in the hall right now discussing anime and comics. Have I mentioned that one of the boys from another hall—long story but he’s sort of a groupie of our hall—has put me in charge of making these boys less awkward? I'm just so mature and wise in the art of social interaction. Anyway, they have no idea obviously but I think I’ve been helping them a lot with their conversation skills just by being my loud, “so close to crossing the line of appropriateness” self. I've definitely made them blush on several occasions! **

Okay so anyway I got an email back and we’re going to discuss it on Tuesday in marine lecture. It seems hopeful. For the afternoon, I did some work/going over of notes that I don’t really understand and then went for a long walk since, surprise, it was a beautiful day. I tried to run but my legs weigh 100 lbs each today...I hope I haven't caught the bug that everyone in the hall seems to have. At dinner, I again had planned to make myself eat with the Americans so I could see what they had done this weekend/see what they were going to do next weekend, but when I came down none of them were there yet. My hall tends to get in line early for meals so I just ate with them. I’m really trying to be around the other internationals more but it feels like every force in the universe is working against me! I’ll try again tomorrow (and every day following…) Anyway I need to go shower so I can go watch the Australian version of “so you think I can dance” with a bunch of people down in the lounge. I had no idea there was an Australian version…not that I’ve ever watched the American version! Oh well, it should be entertaining. Super long busy day tomorrow.

Do you want to go the seaside...

2008-03-08T22:52:00.003+13:00

I didn’t do anything all that amazing today, but it was still a good day. I got up pretty early and wrote some lists and things to make myself feel better. Then I went to the library to get work done because I don’t trust myself when I’m in my room! I was there for a few hours and got quite a bit of work done. I came back, dropped off my books, and went to lunch. I ate really quickly so I could catch the 1:00 bus to the Indooroopilly shopping center. I shopped for hours because I was having so much fun browsing in so many stores that are new to me! I fell in love with this one store Supré that is sort of like American Apparel in that they have crazy neon stuff but there is also a surfer vibe and a bit of 80’s too. The best part is that it’s so cheap! That’s a first for this country! I ended up trying on tons of dresses and tops and bought 2 dresses, a top, and a fluoro-green headband. I will definitely be back there— I love everything there plus I know that no one in the US has the stuff! But other than just browsing there were some priority items such as a normal sized beach towel (I only brought small towels for the sake of space.) I caught the 4:10ish bus back and started my laundry when I got home which was very necessary. I had dinner with my hall and took a shower and, well, now I’m here! I’m going to try to get a bit more work done but then I’ll relax/maybe plan some travel.

Next weekend (hopefully!) I’ll go to the Gold Coast with some people on my hall. I’ll see if Aussie’s do the beach thing like Americans do haha. I just want the beach so badly! I kept complaining last night so James and Bridgette said they'd come to Gold Coast with me. I really want to start surf lessons but I’m just sick of repeatedly asking people (cough Americans cough) if they want to do it. The summer is ending here and the water gets colder! That’s why I’m feeling so much pressure to be doing traveling and surfing etc. now—so much of what I want to do is weather-dependent. In Brisbane it basically stays beautiful all the way through winter and never gets cold at all but it varies up and down the coast from here. I think I’m the only study abroad person who realizes this sometimes. For example, I was talking to a girl who had gone to Fiji before the semester and had decided to do New Zealand after the semester ends…so basically in the middle of winter. It gets pretty cold there and there’s no way it’s as good then as it is now. As far as Fiji, they have their beast weather in the winter. But whatever, I don’t care if stupid people waste their money. Can I just meet some smart people so I don't have to waste mine? So that’s my rant. The quest continues for my surfing buddy/buddies. Unfortunately if I don’t find anyone, one of the dreams I came here with will be shattered. :(

For now I’ll just focus on all the good stuff because deep down I know there’s so so so much more of that than the bad!

Kebabs and Pancakes

2008-03-08T00:59:00.001+13:00

It’s finally the weekend but once again I’m not doing anything all that fun. But first let me catch up. Thursday: I went to the library straight after brekkie to print lecture notes and assignments for all of my classes and to choose my ethnography for my anthropology essay. I went through the list and found a few that sounded particularly good but one in particular. I was happy to find that the one I wanted was at that library, and even better the seven-day loan copy was there. So I checked it out and printed everything and was about to head home but realized it was already 11:25 and my marine lecture was at noon. I didn’t want to go all the way home because I would get nothing done in the short amount of time I’d be there. So I sat outside and started to read the ethnography, which is on aboriginal sorcery/healing methods/medicine. It was very enjoyable to read, not only because of the style, but also because I’m already so familiar with the topic from my witchcraft and magic class last semester! So I guess I’m cheating a bit by choosing this topic but I couldn’t resist. Marine lecture was good—we learned a lot about winds and the Coriolis Effect etc. I think the last time I had seen that material was in elementary school so it was an odd experience in that the whole lecture felt vaguely familiar. Anyway after that I came home for lunch. The main course was pizza and it was the most pathetic excuse for pizza I’ve ever had. It tasted like so weird bread with tomato paste on it…and that’s all because everything fell off of it when it was put on my plate! So some of the food here is pretty terrible but there’s always the salad and fruit. By the way, they don’t have salad dressing here. There is actually nothing to put on your salad (unless you want tomato sauce (ketchup) haha. Luckily I’m fine with that but some of the other Americans are not coping so well! Oh and they don’t serve lettuce either—salad is always what we would call spring mix or something along with red cabbage and some other leaves I’m not familiar with, most of which look like weeds you’d find sprouting up in your yard.

Enough about food, back to Thursday. I somehow got nothing done in the afternoon but from 5:30-6:30 I had my cycling class and a girl from my hall came with me which made it even better! We came back for dinner during which I found out that everyone was going out in the city and I just had to come. So I showered and such and most of the hall headed to catch the bus to Union Jack’s, a pub right in the center of the city. It was a very fun night and K-floor—that’s my floor—definitely took over the dance floor for a decent part of the night. I left with Bridgette, Sarah, James, and Filipo, aka Bungee, Lobster, Peaches, and Flipper, respectively. Yea, we all have nicknames. It’s an Aussie thing! I’m America, even though it was just a joke when someone thought of it, but it just stuck so everyone either calls me “America” or “Erica America.” Anyway the five of us got a cab and when we got dropped off the boys decided that they NEEDED kebabs right away. Sarah and I came along for the walk. The kebab place is apparently the place to go after a night of drinking—there was quite a line! When the boys finished eating we headed me and I promptly went to bed.

I had to get up at 8am for chem. lecture which was not fun, to say the least. After lecture I came home and left for long walk because there was no way I could handle running at that point, but it was another gorgeous day. When I got back I sent an email to the hostel in Fiji because I hadn’t gotten a response on whether or not I was booked in. I went to lunch and then to my marine lecture in which we had a guest lecturer who spoke on plate tectonic stuff and how coral reefs are formed. It was interesting but I couldn’t understand all of it because I didn’t know all of the terms he was using. Anyway I went to the store after class to get some m&m’s (the only chocolate I can have in my warm room) and tea. These are obviously the essentials! Then I came home to my list of work to do but instead of being productive I wasted the afternoon away getting music and movies for free via the sharing network the college has.

The good news is I got an email from the woman who runs the hostel saying that my booking went through and that they will try to get me in the same room as my friends. So I might not be in the same room but I actually don’t care that much especially because I don’t plan on being there except for sleeping.

I felt so tired but I suppose that’s because I was out late and got up early—duh. I went to dinner and it was pasta night which basically means yuck. Garlic bread and salad it was! I just watched 4 episodes of Sex and the City that I got from the shared network and then went on a mini-adventure. I walked out with Bridgette and the boys to this pool party that was happening off-campus just for the sake of a walk—Bridgette and I just wanted to check it out haha and we walked home right away. It actually did look really fun…I think it started in the late afternoon and is just going to keep going until?

I want to go to Gold Coast tomorrow just to hang out at the beach but it’s so hard to plan things when there is no one to plan with! So that plan’s down the drain. I guess I’ll be at the library instead doing work…because after today I now know that nothing gets done in my room!

I’m exhausted. I’m hoping that something, even if it’s just for a few hours, comes together for Sunday. I’ll try not to get excited about anything since there’s a 99% chance that no one will invite me to do anything and my constant attempts at making plans and asking around for interest keep failing miserably.

Good news will come to you from far away

2008-03-06T01:05:00.004+13:00

So much has happened in the past 2 days! I’ll try to summarize. Tuesday I woke up and went for a swim which was nice because I was super sore. Then I talked to my parents on skype which was grand! After marine lecture we had a field trip for the whole afternoon to the coast to Moreton Bay. We saw mangroves and walked through the slt marsh and mud flats where we got muddy and dug around for anything we found interesting. There were lots of big mussels and snails and stuff. My group tried to classify some species using our Moreton Bay Guide book but it was a challenge! One of the most interesting things I learned about was the cyanobacterial mat (delish) that is pretty much covers the salt marsh wherever there isn’t grasses and other plants. It doesn’t look like anything but some whiteish patches on the mud but it is so vital for the ecosystem for fixing nitrogen to ammonium so it’s usable and for photosynthesis. Another interesting fact is that in the mud flats there are undulations in the surface that fill with water and they look like they’d just be caused by the current during high tide but really they’re from sting rays burying themselves in the mud! Overall, it was beautiful weather and I was happy to spend the afternoon learning about ecosystems that I know nothing about while feeling the ocean breeze and sun on my skin. Even MORE importantly…

I’M GOING TO FIJI FOR MID-SEMESTER BREAK!

When I told Charlene, my friend in my marine class about what happened last weekend and how hard it is to plan with the people in my college and how I want to go to Fiji but I can’t get anyone to plan with me etc, she insisted that I try to join her and her 2 roommates for break. So I came home after the field trip and immediately checked fights and got cheap ones by leaving on Easter Sunday, which is the flight Charlene is on because she also saw how much cheaper it is than leaving on Friday or Saturday. I’m leaving Fiji on Friday afternoon, so it’s definitely shorter than I’d like but I’m saving about $500 by going for 1-2 days less! And Charlene is coming back early too. It should be really fun because she is really the only person (from the US, that is) that I’ve clicked with so well right from the start. Plus, she is thrilled I’m coming because we are both really adventurous and want to do as much as possible while her 2 roomies were planning on spending every day lying on the beach sunbathing. I still need their hostel information so I can book that, but other than that it’s just planning what activities/sites we want to do/see which is like heaven for me. Unfortunately I’ve spent more time researching traveling than I have studying! Oh and also she invited me to do whatever she’s doing this weekend, which she thinks is a wine tasting tour. Anyway I was exhausted last night and went to bed early because Wednesdays are LONG.

So today I had 7 hours of lectures and tutorials. It was not easy to concentrate for all of that time today but I did alright. I’m starting to get a lot more work—I had to sign up for presentations, sign up for research participation, got assigned readings and found out I need to choose an ethnography asap for an essay I have to write for anthropology. I go from 9-5 and at 5:00 I could not have been more relieved! I rushed home and got ready for the formal International dinner for Union that started at 6pm with drinks. I got all pretty and went down to the courtyard with Filipo, the only other international on my hall and the only guy from Italy at Union. It was a very fun dinner and they gave us so much wine and beer! There were 4 at my table and we got a choice of champagne or beer before the meal, and then 2 bottles of wine for the table! One person was chosen from each country to give a speech and they all did so well! I thought that at least one person would go over-the-top trying to be funny and that some would be dull but everyone was so unique and funny with their speaking! After the dinner which ended around 8:30 or so, I left and went to check my mail because I had gotten a phone message that I had a parcel. I assumed of course that it was my printer, but it was not. It was a big package from Mr. Mike Berilla!!! The receptionist handed me the package and I said “Wait. This is supposed to be a printer…but this is from my boyfriend..Oh wow...this must’ve cost a fortune!” Then a girl who was also there commented that he must really miss me and I said “Yea, I think so!" I was loving it. I ran up the stairs to my room everyone came from their rooms because I made a big commotion— all the girls got so excited! I waited to open it but I only lasted a few minutes! Basically no one would understand what Mike sent me, so I won’t go into detail, but he wrote 396438987654345 letters and, for the first time since I’ve left the US, I cried. It was a happy crying though—the letters were very, very funny at times. Anyway the package definitely made my day/week/month. I’m so exhausted and even though I have only one hour of lecture tomorrow I have a very full day. But full days are what I live for!

Form a line

2008-03-04T00:10:00.003+13:00

It was a busy Monday and I’m exhausted. Got up at 7, went to brekkie, then chem. lecture from 8-8:50. Now that UQ sport’s week of everything being free is over, I went to the gym to sign up for membership. I got a value pass so that I can use everything in the gym whenever but also have full access to the pool and can take any of the fitness classes whenever I want. I’m happy that I can do any of the cycling classes whenever I feel like it—they have them every day of the week but some times are better than others—and that I can go to the pool in my free time to swim laps or just relax. Then I had to go buy a calculator because, oops, I left that in the US! I found a cheap basic one which is all I need. Then I headed to the library to print 2 articles that (I think) I have to read for my aboriginal anthropology tutorial on Wednesday afternoon. I came home and felt surprisingly energized, probably because the weather was once again impeccable. 75 degrees, sunny, perfect breeze! I went for a run that ended up being my longest yet in this country so I was happy about that. I walked around the lakes for a while and got back home just in time for a quick shower before lunch. After lunch I tried to read my anth. Articles but the first one was hopelessly dry and I nearly fell asleep. When I got to my chem. practical at 2 I thought for sure I’d be out of there in 20-30 minutes because it was a simple titration and a few easy calculations. Despite the lab itself, as well as all of the glassware and other apparatus, being the best, most clean and organized I’d ever used, I had forgotten how long a titration takes when you are the first to actually start and you have no idea what the amount is supposed to be. I went slowly and carefully and ended up never overshooting and having three perfect titrations. When I finished my calculations, the tutors (that’s what they call TA’s here) alerted me that I was extremely close to the actual value—I was only off by 0.002M! It ended up that one other person was as close as I was but we had the best data in the class. I was quite proud of that…basically I’m a huge dork.

Anyway I got home at 5 and decided that I might as well go to the cycling class at 5:30, so I did. I really love that class, but the part of the class where we’re supposed to be going up a huge mountain nearly made me pass out…okay exaggerating...but running and then cycling class was a bit crazy of me-- my whole body is sore. Okay I’m going to read and prepare myself for tomorrow—marine science field trip to some Creek where we will look at mangroves and different sea grasses all afternoon! I'm just quite happy to be going somewhere!

The Kooks speak my life right now

2008-03-02T20:47:00.002+13:00

So I did actually feel better this morning! I got up for brekkie (that’s breakfast) and 2 of the girls who left me yesterday came up at different times and each apologized about what happened. It was such a relief because I was beginning to think that they were very bizarre, emotionless people, haha. So I asked around regarding what people were doing today and was quite surprised (or not surprised at all?) that NO ONE was planning on doing a single thing today! And not just the Americans, but everyone on my hall as well was just going to basically lie in bed all day. I was not thrilled about this because I knew the weather was going to be perfect all day. So after I got a wonderful and much needed surprise call from Mike :) I decided to go over my chemistry lectures from last week which got old really fast! I read my chem. practical for tomorrow and highlighted all the important steps of the procedure which was so unnecessary—it’s a simple titration…I could probably do it in my sleep. I actually think I will be out of lab tomorrow within 20 minutes. I decided to escape and went out for a run. It was about 74 degrees and sunny with a perfect, cool breeze. I stopped in the Great Court so I could stretch under a tree and then walked to this park where there are 3 lakes, one of which has a huge fountain in its center. There were people walking on the nice pathways all around the lakes and others having picnics. I walked home and had lunch with my hall. I came back to my room and did a bit more studying and organizing but got bored of it so quickly—there really isn’t any work that I need to do so what I did today just got me ahead if anything. It was 2pm at that point and outside world beckoned me so I went on a long walk to clear my head. It was hotter out but the breeze was so nice and it wasn’t humid at all. I walked along the river for a while but ended up back around the lakes because it is just so beautiful there. I came back and felt refreshed. I’ve organized myself for the next few days so I think I will just read because I have the time and I can! I love that. Time to read for pleasure while at Lehigh= not possible. I will treasure it!

"I feel stuffed"

2008-03-01T23:47:00.002+13:00

It’s been an interesting 2 days. Friday I got up for a run at 7am which was not easy to make myself do. I went to breakfast and sat with the Americans/Canadians which was good because I had realized the night before that I had no plans for Saturday or Sunday! I found out they were going to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which is the biggest koala sanctuary in the world, so I asked if I could tag along and they said of course. After that I had chemistry lecture and then I donated blood—I had signed up earlier in the week. Blood was successful—I really love giving blood for some reason—and I ended up meeting an American and a Canadian girl as we were all three finished around the same time. One of them lives in Indooroopilly which is where the big mall is and the other girl lives right in the city center of Brisbane. Living in the center of the city would be awesome for the shopping/nightlife/convenience but I would probably end up only coming to about half of my classes! I’m quite happy with my living situation right now. Ok so I gave blood, recovered there for a bit and drank a popper (juice box), ran a few errands, and came home for lunch. I had marine lecture after that which was again very interesting. I think that my friend in marine lecture, Charlene, is my best bet for a traveling buddy, but she lives off campus with some other Americans so I don’t know since she’s planning stuff with them. Plus, let’s see, I’ve known her for what, 4 days? Everything is so complicated. Everyone else just comes and meets a few people and that’s it—that’s who they do everything with for the weekends and travel. Or they already know people from home. I think I’m doing the right thing by branching out and making friends with lots of different people from different places, but it is making my life so complicated and I’m beginning to second-guess myself. I know the easy way is usually less rewarding than the hard way. I’ve been trying to remind myself of that every day. I just want to plan my travel so badly now. I’ve pretty much figured out all of the trips that I really want to do and the most important destinations for me, but who knows if anyone else I know/meet will even want to go? And of course spring break is now, um, 20 days away! I want to know what I’m doing and how much it will cost and who I’m going with and when I’m leaving/coming back and…just everything. I can’t believe I still have no plan yet and see no indication that I will be able to make any soon.

SO this is what has been going through my head pretty much relentlessly. I somehow fell asleep for 2 hours in the afternoon despite my racing mind. I got up because the hall was noisy and when I came out everyone was already getting ready for the party that was going to be happening at Cromwell College, one of the others at UQ. I was so happy to be going somewhere that we’d be able to walk back from instead of taking a cab, but I hadn’t realized that it was starting at 7pm! It was a “used to be cool” party and I had nothing to wear so I improvised. I wore my shiny spandex biking shorts and a sweatband and put my hair in a crazy side ponytail. I drew a Tamagotchi with a permanent marker on a white tee-shirt I had (it was actually quite good). And Voila! Oh and I wore some really tacky bright blue eyeshadow of course. Our hall was hilarious all together because we all looked so ridiculous. It ended up being a really fun party and there were tons of people there dressed in everything you can imagine. Almost every guy was wearing those really short shorts and some sort of neon, 80’s-looking spandex. You could pretty much rate the cockiness of the guy by how tight his outfit was—the girls from my hall and I had a good laugh about that!

Saturday I got up and went down to breakfast with Bridgette, a girl from my hall, and saw a few of the Americans. I asked when we were going and it seemed like they hadn’t really even thought about it, but later into breakfast I was told either the 10:10 bus or the 10:40 bus would be likely. I told them to call or text me when we were going to finalize it and went up to my room to get ready. Long story short, I did not get a call, so at 10:40 I called and Amanda says that they just got on the bus.

THEY HAD LEFT WITHOUT ME!

And what was worse was that they didn’t even seem concerned about it, like it was completely okay that they forgot to call me and thus ruined my day. I didn’t know I was capable of being so mad at people I hardly even knew. They said “oh catch the next bus, it’s in 20 minutes.” I was like “NO, actually it’s only every hour.” SO I really wanted to sit around and feel sorry for myself and just be angry but I knew that if I didn’t go today then who would I be able to go with to the koala sanctuary on another day? I decided to be adventurous and make the journey on my own and just meet them there. I caught the first bus fine and got off at the second stop. I was supposed to have 6 minutes before the next bus I needed to catch arrived, but after about 10 minutes of waiting I realized that my first bus had been about 8 minutes late to that stop so I had in fact missed the bus! AND THE NEXT BUS WAS NOT FOR 45 MINUTES. I waited all of that time and that bus never showed but 20 minutes after that one was supposed to come, another one showed. So by the time I got to Lone Pine it had been 2 hours…and remember I left an hour after the group in the first place. I found them once in the sanctuary and after describing my disaster of a journey I didn’t even get sympathy. They all seem so normal but I have never met anyone in my life who would have this type of reaction (or lack of reaction really) to what happened today. Oh, and of course, they had already basically done everything so within 10 minutes I was on my own again to go see the kangaroos because they had already done that. I spent the rest of my time there on my own which just sucks because it would’ve been so much more fun with other people. They called when they were leaving to ask if I wanted to come but I was in the middle of a birds of prey presentation and you can’t exactly leave (or even stand up) once you’re there because there are large predatory birds flying around. They did not bother to wait up for me, which at that point I couldn’t have cared less about, except for that I didn’t really know how to get home. I eventually did get home, but I had to ask someone at Toowong, the station where I decided to change buses this time, how to get to UQ and it ended up that I had to walk a bit to another station, and then I missed a bus because I was again at the wrong station.

I finally made it home and had to try to pretend to everyone who was around on my hall that everything was just great. I mean, I ranted a bit about what happened, but I pretended like I still really had fun even by myself. I guess I did, but I just can’t deal with more excursions like today. I want to be able to be mad at all of them for what they did but I feel so trapped; they are my primary connection to the familiar right now and I don’t know if I can deal with having the link to everything I know completely severed right now. The fact is, I just have to forgive and forget, and the faster the better. But then comes the problem of what to do tomorrow…what I want to do is go into Brisbane and wander around Queen Street, mainly so I can go to a surf shop that is there, but also because it’s a really cool area with lots to do and see. Plus you take the City Cat ferry there which I still have yet to do! BUT so far no one seems to be interested. And I would be perfectly happy going on my own but I don’t think it’d be a good thing for me to spend another day on my own…my self-esteem is dropping by the second haha. I guess I will just see at brekkie in the morning…

Kiwi's are delish

2008-02-28T18:58:00.000+13:00

I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday, but it was a pretty good day. Tuesday night I drank wine and played cranium with some of the boys in my hall…and my partner and I won mostly because I can spell words backwards really well…I had no idea I could do that. Anyway, I had my second chemistry lecture in the morning which is with a different professor than the Monday lecture. She was a young woman and was much cooler and more interesting than the 2 old men of Monday (aka the stereotypical chemists!). She does the Wednesday and Friday lecture so I will have more of her than the other professors. Nice. Then I had to run completely to the other side of campus to make it to my cognitive psychology lecture. It is HUGE. There are 800 people (!!!!) in the class but there are three lectures given during the week and anyone can go to whichever lecture they want each week. We were in a huge engineering lecture hall and it was filled. There must have been about 400 there. But the professors are very good and engaging. So there are 2 professors for the class. The first hour is a professor lecturing on methods and topics like memory, consciousness, and decision making while the second lecturer focuses more on neuroanatomy and topics regarding the nervous system and later in the semester endocrine system. It should be super easy and fun to learn. That lecture, which is really 2 lectures, ended at noon so I went to lunch back at the college. Normally at 1:00 I would have my tutorial for psychology but we don’t have tutorials this week.

At 2:00 I had my aboriginal anthropology lecture. They had changed the room (I think just a few hours before) but there were around 10 of us in the wrong room and we waited for about 15 minutes before checking at the office where we found out that we were across the campus from where we needed to be! So we all walked into the lecture 25 minutes late together—so happy I was not by myself. That class should be fun because we watch a lot of films and I’m sure the readings will be very interesting. That finished a little early/around 3:45 and normally I would have my tutorial from 4-5 but, again, no tutorials this week. So instead I went to the bookshop—I swear I go there everyday—and got myself some binders because all of my class material for every class will be notes/presentations that I print and then take notes on.

I came home and relaxed for an hour before my cycling class. The class was so challenging, probably even more so than on Monday because I was still tired from Monday’s class! I got home at 7:30 and I had signed up for late dinner so I went and ate the meager dinner that I found you get when you sign up for late dinner! You basically get what leftovers of what no one wanted thrown all onto one plate. Mine was half white rice and I don’t even like white rice. Oh well, I, along with the few others eating with me, had a good time joking about the skimpy dinner. When I got back up to my hall many were getting ready to go out because it was student night at the Regatta Hotel. Somehow in about 2 minutes they convinced me that I had to come, so I jumped in the shower asap. Near the end of my shower someone pulled the fire alarm! I was not about to evacuate in a towel so I threw on a shirt and shorts before leaving. This is the third or fourth time the alarm has been pulled—it reminds me of freshman year at Lehigh in Dravo! Well I got ready in time anyway and we all took the bus to Toowong where the hotel is. We had to wait in line for over 45 minutes before we got in and it wasn’t all that great. Very cool place but I think we were all just fed up from waiting in line for so long. So even though we left late I didn’t get back too late.

This morning I woke up early as I am incapable of sleeping in here. I went to the pool because I had a free pass (much like the free spin classes). I swam laps for 40 minutes straight and it felt really good. I knew that there was no way I’d be able to run today because my legs currently feel like bricks. Actually more like sore bricks if that’s possible. I only had one class, marine science from 12-1. It was a very interesting lecture mostly about jellyfish. They are basically going to take over the world or at least the ocean for now, and are well on their way. OH and my professor had a graph on oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay!!! I nearly let out a squeal of excitement but managed to contain myself. All he said about the location was “Chesapeake Bay, that’s in the US.” I wanted to say “It’s THE Chesapeake Bay.” It’s just doesn’t sound right without the “the.” Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the lecture. After that I got some lunch and thought I was going to be eating by myself but some people I knew showed up within a few minutes which was nice. Now I’m relaxing and doing some laundry. I absolutely do not have any sort of homework or reading. Classes here are so chill. Alright I’ll stop now because this is very long—typical!

Let it rain, let it pour

2008-02-26T22:51:00.000+13:00

Second day of classes went well. It most of the day, some of the time quite hard, which was inconvenient but everyone here really likes their rain! I guess that’s what happens when you live in the sunshine state!

I didn’t have class until 1:00, which is btw the latest I’ve ever had my classes start on a given day, so I ran went for a run (really hard since I could hardly move because of my cycling class last night), went down to breakfast and ate with some Americans/Canadians (met some new ones!) and then ran some errands. I went to the library to print a sheet I needed to fill in for marine science which I then had to turn in by going to a building on campus where there was a slot at the reception desk that reads the bar code as you slide it in and then alerts the professor that you’ve turned it in! Super high tech…I was quite impressed! I went to the bank to see if the money my mom wired to my new account got there, and it had, and then I had to send money to the ebay seller who I bought the printer from which turned out to be very simple. Hopefully I will get the printer soon—the seller had very good feedback so I expect good results. Then I had lunch with some from my hall and went to my classes. I had marine science lecture and then the practical. I’m excited to learn about oceans and stuff…that sounds like a joke but really that’s what we’re going to learn about. In the practical we found out that we don’t even really meet at the scheduled time until the 8^th or 9^th week of classes! Next week we have a field trip to look at mangroves and different grasses etc. and then we start our field projects at Moreton Bay (on Moreton Island, which is supposed to be so beautiful). I’m in a group with 3 other girls—1 American (Californian), 1 Canadian, and 1 Aussie. The girl from California I really like and we ended up talking for a long time after class. I told her about how basically all of my friends so far are Aussie so planning travel is hard, and she was like we should travel together! She seems really cool so hopefully we can. Oh and she lives off campus with 2 other Americans an they’ve already planned a lot of their traveling so she said I should try and go with them. So that reassured me some! Anyway, I ran more errands after my prac and then went to dinner. I was starving and dinner was really good tonight. I had tofu and chick peas and pasta and peas and broccoli and cantelope (i mean melon) and pineapple and I just love all the fruits and veges here! I just got back from a goon run with a bunch of people from my hall. We decided to have a party tonight so I better get to that! Every night this week there are huge parties with different themes. It’s so funny because my college organizes a bus to these parties and advertises them a lot—including special prices of drinks and stuff…it’s so funny to be in uni where everyone is old enough to drink legally! I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it! Peace!

Lectures, Tutes, and Pracs!

2008-02-26T00:01:00.000+13:00

The semester is officially started! I started with analytical and metal ion chemistry (thrilling) at 8am. There are 3 professors lecturing and they all seem good. The class is relatively small (somewhere is the 60’s) which is good because the professors were reassuring that they are available to help anytime. After that I technically had nothing for the rest of the day but, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I had to go to try to get my lab switched to anything but Friday! Before that though I went to the library to try to print some lectures and papers I needed to read and sign. Both of the libraries I was in were packed. So I knew I had to pay something like 10 cents per sheet, but printing is so much more complicated than that. First you need exact change to get a printing card. So I got a 5 dollar bill put into 1 dollar coins by a machine which took me forever to find. Then I bought the card and went to a computer, which were 99% occupied, and opened up the 32 pages of one of the chem. professors lectures. I pressed print and then went and stood in line at the printer where you have to finds your document, click on it, confirm that what you’ve selected is indeed what you want, swipe your card, select a few more options, and then it FINALLY prints your document. Meanwhile, you have to leave your computer unsupervised across the library. It’s a terrible system. There were many other glitches in this process that I will not get into because it is boring, but I will say that my card did not work the first 2 times I did this whole list of things and I had to have the I.T. guy at the info desk fix it. Overall, just printing 1 of the 2143480 things I needed printed took an hour and a half and 2 different libraries. The first thing I did when I got home is search for used printers for sale. I was not successful, but later I looked on ebay and bid on one for 31 dollars with shipping and it included the cartridges. Who knows how good it will be, but I really just need one, especially since I found out today that I don’t really need to buy the 2 over 100 dollar each textbooks for chem. because the notes posted online are so extensive…but overall it will be around 200 pages or more to print.

Anyway, on a more important note, I arrived at the lab a half hour early which didn’t really do me any good but oh well. I just sat in lab and listened to the briefing and all of the info about how the lab works and at the end of it all the coordinator of the course asked if anyone wasn’t in the class and I explained my story to him after everyone left. He said that he thought a spot just opened in Monday lab so I quickly logged on and found that it was true! I signed onto Monday lab right away. So I’m IN!!!! I’m much happier with my schedule now! The only day that’s really busy is Wednesday when I have classes from 9-12 and 1-5, but it’s mostly anthropology and psychology…does that even count as class?

After lab I went to the bookshop to get a lab coat and goggles which I completely forgot I would have to get. The line went around the whole store! I came home and felt exhausted and hungry so I got a snack and then got ready for the cycling class I had planned on going to at 5:30. UQ Sport is running a program this week where all the classes are free so I’m definitely taking advantage of that! The class was an “extreme” cycling class so it ended up being mostly people who are there several times a week! For some reason no one from my hall wanted to do the extreme cycling class with me…I have no idea why haha. It was very challenging and I know I will hurt tomorrow but I had fun and want to keep doing that class. After this week I’ll buy my gym membership—I might as well wait until after the free week because you buy membership in 3-month slots. I went to dinner with some others from my hall who had also just finished their respective gym classes. Now I’m home and showered and most people from my hall just left to go to the stoplight party. Everyone was mad at me for not going because I had said earlier that I might, but I knew the whole time I wasn’t. Guess I’m just not up for the Monday night partying these days! Ok I’m exhausted I’m going to go organize and then get to bed. Pilates at 7am maybe? Probably not since I don’t have class until 1…

Vegemite

2008-02-24T23:20:00.000+13:00

Today, Sunday, was oddly enough much like yesterday. I didn’t have such a late night because we ended up not going out but instead just hanging out here and on some other halls. This morning I went to go run some errands but found that every building on campus was closed. I thought at least one of the 15 libraries would be open, but no! I had wanted to print my schedule as well as some forms that I’m supposed to sign and turn in. Anyway it was again very hot today but not as bad—it’s only 88 in my room now and it feels nice. I was tired by the time I got back from wandering, but 2 guys in my hall were about to leaves to go to Coles which is a supermarket kind of place with other random stuff as well, and I thought I should tag along and see if I needed anything. It’s only a 10 minute walk off campus and I ended up getting some hair conditioner and some Timtams which are these biscuits that everyone here is obsessed with. I had yet to try them and this was a tragic misfortune according to my hallmates, so I had to do it—as if buying chocolate covered cookies was just SO hard for me to do. I tried one, okay maybe two, and they were delicious. But I don’t think I will be buying them again since I don’t have a fridge and my room is far too hot to have chocolate. So once we got back from shopping it was time for lunch. I went to the pool again with many from my hall and some others for the afternoon to escape the heat. I swam laps for a while and then just relaxed. Now I’m focusing on classes beginning tomorrow. I have a problem with my schedule—I have Friday afternoon chem. lab until 5pm! When I enrolled in my tutorials and labs on Monday it was the only lab left. This means that most weekend trips would be off-limits for me which is soooooo not cool. Thus, tomorrow I have to go into the Monday lab tomorrow afternoon and beg to be let in either to that one or Wednesday morning. Depending on which one of those I could get, I would have to choose between 2 psychology courses. So while I’m using my persuasion to the best of my ability I will be missing a lecture in a course that I’m potentially taking…annoying. I do NOT like missing anything…ever. I’m just very worried that I won’t be able to get out of taking Friday lab and I can never miss one for the whole semester because the policy is that if you miss one you fail the whole course (lecture and lab!). I’m so tempted not to take it and to just take easy classes but I really don’t want to have such a hard final semester at Lehigh. If I can’t change this lab I really might have to drop the course…which is also annoying as it took me many, many hours of work to get the course approved last semester. I don’t want to think about this anymore because it’s really stressing me out. I can only make my best effort to fix my schedule and hope it will all work out. I’m exhausted because I probably spent too much time outside today in the sun/heat…something I have a feeling will be happening far too often!

Mozzies

2008-02-23T22:22:00.001+13:00

Today was a very, very hot day. I got up at 7am to go running and it was already 80 degrees so I knew what was coming! This time I didn’t get lost on my run! There were heaps of people out cycling, I reckon most of them were a cycling team or something. There were many out running also, although I expected to see more since it seems like the path by the river would be a very popular trail. Anyway so at breakfast a few girls and guys on my hall brought up going to the pool for the afternoon so that’s just what we did. When we left to go to the pool at about 12:45 it was 92 degrees in my room, and about 96 outside! The pool was nice and less crowded than I thought it would be. I swam some laps but mostly just relaxed in the water and laid out a bit. I slathered on SPF 30 but I still got color today. The sun is just too strong here! We got back around 4 and I did some research on surf lessons and on the other trips I want to do. I’m hoping to go on spring break (maybe to Fiji?) with some of my friends from the New Zealand trip but we’ll see. That would have to be organized soon though—only 4 weeks of class then it’s spring break! Hopefully I will get some info on what they are doing sometime this week. I found a surf school that seems perfect because you can get 4 separate lessons and just use them whenever you want. It also doesn’t hurt that the price is pretty reasonable—especially for that flexibility, and flexibility is exactly what I need! It’s a school just north of surfer’s paradise on Main Beach. It’s just over an hour drive there. I figure I could do them separately or 2 lessons over 2 weekends. Then I’d have to get one night at a motel or hostel which should be easy in that area. But obviously before I book this stuff I want to talk to all of the international students in Union to see who wants to do this with me. I recall that a few girls I’ve talked to want to surf so hopefully they’ll want to go to this surf school as well. I think we could get a Uni group discount that way too. The only thing left to figure out would be how to best travel there. I’m not really sure about buses and trains that run that way. But it’s a very popular beach so I’m sure there’s a way, especially because the school advertises on their website that it is the perfect place to go from Brisbane. As you can probably tell, I did a lot of researching on all of the surf schools on the Gold Coast as well as on the islands and I’ve been quite excited since I’ve found this one. Anyway I also want to go on weekend trips to Moreton Island and Fraser Island. UQ does weekend camping trips there, both 3 day and 2 day. They are both beautiful and seem to make perfect weekend trips. I’ll be going to Byron Bay for the weekend when my parents come so at least that’s one weekend that I actually know what I’m doing! But back to the more near future, I’m definitely excited about classes starting even though I’m having a great time just organizing, planning, and socializing. It seems like so long that I’ve studied for anything, mostly because it has been! I found today on UQ’s website that they post the final exams from past years for some classes, so I already saw what my finals will be like—I know, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here. Oh and tomorrow all of the 2^nd and 3^rd-years move in—very happy about that—some more people not 2 or 3 years younger than me! Anyway, I wiped out from all of the sun today but I need to go get ready for tonight’s festivities…I’m not sure where we’re going but we’re going OUT. Haha that’s all I know but I’m sure we’ll end up finding the party soon enough. I'll post again tomorrow!

Sunny disposition

2008-02-23T00:33:00.002+13:00

It is Friday evening, and I’m currently eating the most delicious pear. Fruit here tastes so good—maybe just because it’s so hot and humid? It’s nearly 9pm here and it’s 85 degrees in my room. Earlier it was 87, so you can imagine how hot it was out in the sun! Well let’s see I never wrote about yesterday…that would be Thursday. Oh and I apologize in advance if any of this entry is terrible English as I am distracted by this amazing pear. SO I went to St Lucia shopping village which I can walk to and tried to get a phone but it was not a good place so I ended up at the BWS and bought myself a bottle of wine instead. Don’t judge, I was a bit stressed haha. I was supposed to go shopping after lunch with a girl in my hall named Caitlin but in the morning I went to a working while studying session for international students and met up with the Americans and Canadians from union college, many of whom expressed interest in shopping with Caitlin and me. It ended up that Caitlin could no longer come, so I went with a Canadian and 2 Americans. They are cool girls and they were good shopping buddies—I was so happy to not have to figure out the bus system on my own! We went to Indooroopilly shopping center which is a gigantic mall that looks just like the ones in the US. I went with the Canadian, Jess, to Optus and Vodafone, the 2 most popular phone services, and after quite a bit of research and talking to people, settled with Vodaphone. My phone from Aaron worked but needed a new Sim card—only 9.95—and so at least I saved 70 dollars on an actual phone! I bought a plan and everything and then went wandering to get random things for my room and some toiletries etc. Shopping is much more difficult here because there tends to not be aisles or any clear labels in areas to tell shoppers where they can find certain products. Thus, I ran around quite a bit. And there were certain things that I absolutely could not find. Examples: a mesh laundry bag or any sort of hamper, anything as far as desk organization, a shower caddy. And surprisingly none of the places on campus seem to have these things either, even the pharmacy. Well I’m sure eventually I’ll figure out how to get these things…or at least I hope! I had to bring my laundry down the 56 stairs from my room to the laundry room in plastic bags the other day—NOT fun, especially when it’s nearly 90 degrees haha. Anyway, continuing on, I got back just in time to get a quick shower and get ready for the toga party that is legendary here. My whole hall went together and it was indeed heaps of fun! There were probably a thousand people there (at least) so it was definitely the biggest party I’ve ever been too.

Today Union College had a trip to the water park near here but my cell phone died in the middle of the night so I had no alarm and slept through the time when everyone left! I was really upset because I really wanted to go, but I decided to make the best of my first time alone and went for a run on the path that follows the river. It was all great except I got sort of lost in that I was going I in completely the wrong direction for a long time and didn’t notice for a LONG time. But I eventually got back and now have really seen most of the campus and a good deal of the rest of St Lucia! Unfortunately since everyone was gone for the day there were no meals until dinner so luckily I steal fruit at every meal and had that. I went to the bank and opened an account at the commonwealth of Australia which will make money matters much simpler. I then bought a calendar and some supplies for organizing all of the paper information I’ve received in the past week—between banking, phones, shopping, class information, university information, etc it’s a LOT of paperwork. I happened to see a girl I know eating outside so I got a snack and talked with her for a bit. Then I headed to the library to get some relief from the heat. Then I came back around 5 and told everyone in the hall that I had completely meant to come with them and they all felt so bad that they hadn’t checked on me. But honestly they I had no idea that I hadn’t just change my mind or something so I reassured them that it was all good. We all had dinner together and I ate too much because I was so ravenous. Typical haha. Okay enough computer, I’m going to go be social. Peace out.

P.S. tomorrow afternoon's real feel temperature is 98 degrees! YUM.

Brizzie

2008-02-21T01:20:00.000+13:00

So I’ve been a bit upset ever since I found out that when you get internet in Australia that doesn’t mean that you get unlimited access! I get a 200MB download quota per month and I used that in about 2 days. I think it went so fast because Skype uses heaps of it. Anyway I bought more internet download today and I guess I will just keep having to do that but at least now I know that I have to make it last! Last night m y whole residential college went ice skating which was a nice break from sorting out the not-so-fun aspects of my life haha. I forgot that most aussie’s very rarely ice skate if they ever have at all! I had quite a good time having everyone be so impressed after I told them that I’m not very good! We got back late and I was exhausted. Some of my hall was staying up to hang out but I just had to go to bed. I’m definitely missing out on some of the bonding because I’m so busy with international student info sessions and activities. At the same time, I’m sure I will have no problem catching up. Today was probably the most exhausting day yet. It was a big day for everyone at UQ because it was Market Day—a huge event. Every club and sports team and local vendor was there. I got a lot of free stuff. I ended up walking around the Great court (the main courtyard on campus…it’s gigantic) about 4 times throughout the day, each time acquiring more free things and information. I signed up for a club where you get a card that gives major discounts to all of the clubs and bars that everyone goes to which is very popular. Most of us on my hall got the card. I also signed up for a dance club. Yes I, the uncoordinated Erica Fratz, signed up for a DANCE club! A bunch of girls on my hall did it because it is an amazing deal. All you pay is 2 dollars and that covers the whole semester. Each week there is a dance class for an hour and each week it’s different. I guess I just had so much fun on the first night when union college had dance instructors come and we learned a lot of dances. After all of that I had my “science student day” thing that I attended with a guy in my hall who is also in science. The presentation was cheesy and definitely meant for first year students but I had a good laugh just thinking back to when I watched similar presentations a few years back. After that we had a self-guided tour that was like a scavenger hunt that required answering questions about buildings on campus. Boring but important. Then there was a BBQ but all they had was hot dogs so we made the trek back to the college for lunch there. Then I went back out to Market Day to buy some gorgeous homemade earrings from this nice woman--they were really cheap (2 dollars!). I found out about mobile phone deals and asked about 10 different people about biking and what they think I should do about getting one. I decided that I probably don’t want to do the triathlon training club because they train at 5am 3 times a week and 6am the other 2 days! I’d rather just run, bike, and swim on my own with my gym membership that I want to buy. SO I still have so much to do! Tomorrow in the morning I’m going to the “working while studying” info session for abroad students so that just in case I want to work somewhere on campus I can know what the process is and what jobs are available. I’ve heard that there are some really fun jobs on campus and I feel so guilty about how much money I’ve been having to spend. After that I’m going into the city by bus (my first time!) to buy stuff for my room and some cool fabric for the toga party tomorrow night that is supposed to be legendary. It does make me laugh when I think about the fact that everyone is so excited because it’s their first big party…I still remember that feeling! Okay I want to get the pictures up so this is all for now. Wow this was really long!

Kiwitown part 3

2008-02-19T18:12:00.002+13:00

Day 7 we got up really early to check out and drive to milford sound for a boat ride. There were beautiful waterfalls and we saw some seals and dolphins which was nice but we were all exhausted. We got lunch on the boat and I had to give some of my food to the boys because they were so hungry and the stupid lunches were skimpy! We had to stop for food after the boat ride when we were driving haha. From Milford sound, where btw our guide got harrassed by the police because he didnt have some paper that allowed him to drive a tour in New Zealand that his boss never told him to have...this story could go on forever...we drove to Te Anau for our night's accommodation. We actually stayed in for once becaus ewe had our own rooms and most of us could hardly keep our eyes open or move! We were sort of running from the police after that which excited us all and made the trip even more extreme haha. Day 8 we got up early (surprise) to see the glowworm caves. They were cool and definitely something you should see but we were not thrilled to again be up so early! The we headed off to Dunedin. We arrived in the late afternoon and walked around the city which is known for being a uni town. We went out to dinner which was one of the included meals of the trip and me and lindsay (the other american girl) put goon in our purses for everyone so we could save money! It was a really fun night as usual and we all ended up at Mackers (McDonalds) at the end of the night for some odd reason. The next morning we got up early to drive back to christchurch. I was really sad during the car ride because we all had become so close. We are seriously like family. All of the others are going to Sydney and I'm the only one here is Brisbane. There is no one else I would rather spend my semester with so I'm still pretty upset about it all. Anyway I'm already planning my trip to visit all of them since flights round trip to sydney are 79 australian dollars and that's just the regular budget flight! So currently I'm in one of the 15 (I think) libraries at the University of Queensland. The campus is huge and I get lost 20 times a day but it's okay. My residential college is fun and there are heaps (aussie word) of activities and events going on but I keep having to miss activities to go to international student events. Well I need to get back home so I can get ready for all of the activities tonight! I am going to put the pictures on snapfish but they are alreasy all up on facebook!

Kiwitown part 2

2008-02-19T17:59:00.003+13:00

Day 4 was a big day-- the long anticipated day of the bungy and the sky swing overlooking Queenstown. We had to get up really early and take a bus to the bungy site which was about a half hour from the center of the city. I still cannot believe I bungy jumped. It was absolutely crazy! Only the pictures can describe it. Oh and I was the only girl to do it...granted there were only 3 of us out of the 9 in the group but whatever, I was proud. After a quick lunch which we could hardly stomach we went to the famous sky swing where you are basically in a harness attached to a rope and you pull your own pin to let yourself go which is the scariest thing! I didn't even think about it when i was about to go because i probably would've freaked out. You have to see the pictures to understand what the sky swing is. After we finished the swing we went up on a gondola ride to a luge race course thing. We got five rides and everyone was so competitive and many of us flipped our cars and went off the track (oops!). Again, we completely lived up to American stereotypes, although I should mention the one guy was from Norway and one girl was from Mexico, so maybe we're really just a bunch of crazy young people! After the luge we were exhausted and we took the gondola back down and walked home. Needless to say we all needed a shower and a drink and we all had both! That night was another amazingly fun night in Queenstown. The next morning we FINALLY got to sleep in because it was a free day expect me and 3 others wanted to skydive so we had to get up around 8. Skydiving was my favorite experience. I bought pictures so I will put them up. I can see how people get addicted to jumping out of places--the adrenaline rush is unbeatable. The rest of the afternoon I rested and wandered the city and the beach which was very enjoyable. We finished off Queenstown with a crazy last night and thankfully (and unbelievably) never got kicked out of our accomodation. New post time.

I completely left out a full day! The first full day in Queenstown we went on a speed boat called on the shotover river, did a helicopter ride where I got to sit in front as the driver did all sorts of crazy dips and turns through a narrow canyon, and then white water rafted for several hours in some very rough rapids. It was the next day that we did the bungy jumping, swing, and luge. Okay now I feel better haha.

Kiwitown

2008-02-19T17:42:00.002+13:00

SO the first day of the trip was a long, scenic drive to Fox Glacier. New Zealand is breathtakingly gorgeous! We did many photo stops along the way to break up the drive. Everyone in the group got along so well. We stopped for lunch along the west coast in a town where we got sandwiches and ate on the beach.By the late afternoon we were in Fox Glacier which is a town that is all of one block long and in the middle of nowhere. There is only one bar! Needless to say, we all got showered and went to dinner and the bar for the night. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, we had an awesome time and definitely succeeded in portraying the loud crazy American stereotype...not sure if that's a good thing haha. The next morning (Day 2) we got up early to hike through the temperate rainforest up to the glacier. It was amazing to step out of the rainforest onto a giant block of ice. We had to wear big spikes on our shoes to walk on the glacier. Since we were all young and athletic, our guide took us to places on the glacier where most groups don't get to go. It was incredibly exhausting as the glacier is at a very high altitude so when we hiked through the rainforest it was practically like walking up a mountain for several miles. The hiking took most of the day and when we got back to the town we all relaxed a bit before (surprise) going to the bottle shop. We taught Bruce some American games and he taught us (or tried to at least) some Australian games. We went to the same bar that we had gone to the night before. The following morning (Day 3) we headed to Queenstown nice and early as usual. We got some goon (that's box wine btw for the Americans ;0 ) and some beer and mad the drive really fun. When we got to Queenstown we put our things in our room and headed to the beach because it was sunny and hot out. We all laid out on the beach and explored the city a bit before buying groceries to have an Aussie BBQ, compliments of Brucey, on the public BBQ's at the park which is right on the beach. We had a really great time and even witnessed an old man go swimming in a speedo and then get out of the water and strip... New Zealanders are interesting. We headed back to our rooms and met some others staying in the hostel which was FULL of students backpacking around new zealand. We went out once again but this time we were in a city that had an amazing nightlife! Ok i'll make a new post again to continue onto day 4.

So much to tell!

2008-02-19T17:27:00.003+13:00

Alright so I've been in Brisbane for a few days now and things are hectic as O-week proceeds! I left the MD to go to LA on the 3rd and spent a few days at my mom's friend's Audrey's house with my mom. I got a mini tour of LA over the few days I was there which was good since I had never been there. My ipod tragically died the morning of my flight to new Zealand, so we had to rush to a mall and buy a new one because there was no way to fix it. It all worked out and I got to LAX with plenty of time to spare. My flight left at 8:30pm west coast time on Tuesday the 5th and I arrived early in the morning (around 6am) Thursday morning in Auckland. I then flew from Auckland which is on the north island to Christchurch on the south island. I figured out where the shuttles were and I got to the hostel my tour group would be staying at for the night. I arrived too early for check-in and had to leave some bags in the back room of the hostel while i explored the city. There was a lot going on as it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon. I wandered for a few hours and then at 1pm i checked in. When i got up to the room there was a guy there named Matt. We still joke that we were the originals of the trip. We talked for a while and walked around. He went out on his own and i met more people as they arrived.By the evening there was 6 of us, but we had heard nothing about our tour guide and we were all just clueless about how anything was going down! We got some dinner and stopped by the bottle shop--that's the liquor store for you Americans ;) -- and hung out in the room for a bit before going out to a few bars that turned out to be quite fun. When we got back late that night around 2am, we still had no information about our tour except that we should be leaving early the next morning. We get a knock on the door and it was our tour guide, Bruce, a 25 year-old native of Sydney. He told us we had to be up early--6am! Just after that our 7th person showed up and we were all happy to have another in our group. I will make a new post for the actual trip just because I know reading a giant paragraph is no fun!