Well, I’m back from New Zealand and it was amazing. Spent a week there, half in Christchurch and the other half in Auckland. I flew first from Brisbane to Christchurch, which was an experience. They should really tell you on your itinerary that if you have a foreign passport then you need your itinerary for your return flight before you can board the plane. That caused lots of drama. Fortunately I was there with plenty of time so I still made my flight. The flight there is a little over three hours, which isn’t that bad. I landed and got to my hotel, which was a bed and a bathroom in a closet like room with no window. But it was very nice, and I knew when I made the reservation that that would be what it was. They had this thing that you could set an alarm and five minutes before it went off a light above the bed would start to glow like a "morning sunrise" so you could slowly wake up to that. I did not take advantage of this. Instead I woke up to a pitch black room and blasted my eyes with a halogen lamp.

Christchurch is beautiful. For a city it was very unpopulated and it is situated right around the mountains of the canterbury region, near the southern alps. My first full day there I went on a Lord of the Rings tour where they took us into the mountains to see where they filmed a lot of the second movie. I was there really for the scenery, which was amazing, but it was a little cool to learn all about the movie.

We drove through a lot of the mountains and then walked up the hill where they filmed it, the town of Edorus. The hill is in the center of the valley surrounded 360 degrees by snow covered mountains. And if that isn’t enough there is a little stream at the bottom, which is actually a class 5 rapid, but since we couldn’t get high enough it just looks like a dried out river bed. I got a taste of real New Zealand farm land on the drive out there. We got in two traffic jams, one caused by sheep and the other by cows. Certainly an experience.

My second day in Christchurch I went and saw the Ron Mueck exhibit at the Christchurch Art Gallery. Amazingly enough the all glass building withstood the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit the city two months ago, and none of the pieces were damaged. Unfortunately though, the earthquake damaged a lot of the old buildings, many of which were still under construction when I was there. After the quake Christchurch has already had over 1800 aftershocks, one of which occurred my first night there, it was 3.1 magnitude. But apparently no one gets out of bed for less than 5. Well then. Luckily enough no one was killed and only one person hospitalized, but they have since been released.

Later that day I took a bus about a half hour outside the city to Sumner Beach. It was pretty nice, reminded me a bit of Colorado, with the small town right next to the mountains.

After Christchurch I flew into Auckland, which was not nearly as impressive, although still very cool. It was just like any other city in any other part of the world really. Lots of people, tall buildings, and the like. The first day there I met up with Meaghan and we walked around the city and went to One Tree Hill. The tree that sat up on the hill is no longer there due to protestors, but it is still a beautiful walk around the domain and is a great lookout place. There were tons of sheep roaming about, which was also a nice touch.

Our second day in auckland we went bungy jumping off the auckland bridge! It was terrifying and awesome. The feeling of free falling is completely foreign and was terrifying, but after the initial drop it is more enjoyable. They dunked me in the water, which was also a new experience. It’s the only bungy that can do that. Then we took a ferry over to Waiheke island and explored a bit. Lots of small towns and beaches.

Our last day we went to a dormant volcano, Rangitoto Island. We hiked up it, about an hour and a half and got awesome views of the city and the water. I had never been to a volcano before, so it was a new experience. It's the youngest volcano in New Zealand, having only erupted 600-800 years ago.

New Zealand is hosting the Rugby World Cup next spring (for them) so everywhere we went was an advertisement for it, or a place selling clothing. They have countdowns everywhere and it's still a little less than a year away. Crazy. They take their rugby seriously.

Now it’s back to life on the Gold Coast for five more days before I depart for America. 13 hours to LA, 5 hours in LA, and 5 1/2 hours to Boston and I'll be home. Crazy how fast this went by. It was certainly a life changing experience and I recommend that anyone who can study abroad definitely should.

This past week I was lucky enough to travel down to Sydney. We were there for a total of four days and managed to fit everything in. The first day we went to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Botanical Gardens, and walked down George Street, famous for it's shopping, and found Gap australia-only the second to be here, the first is in Melbourne.

The second day was spent in the Blue Mountains. We went on a group tour so we learned lots of fun facts. The Blue Mountains got their name because when viewed from a distance there is a blue tinge. This is caused by light reflecting off vapours from the eucalyptus leaves. The mountains, which are actually not a mountain range, but a plateau made from mostly sandstone, border metropolitan Sydney. They begin on the west side of the Nepean River. They are part of the Great Divide and are dissected by gorges of up to 760 meters deep. It's World Heritage listed, the fourth area to be listed in New South Wales.

In the mountains is a place called Scenic World, which houses the world's steepest railway, which I had the pleasure of riding. The steepest grade is 52 degrees. You start out on a flat surface and are laying down in the seat. As it goes up you sit straighter and straighter. It was slightly terrifying, but awesome. You're caged in essentially though, but that doesn't stop everyone from feeling the need to hold on to the cage. The railway is Guinness certified, so it really is the World's steepest.

Probably the most recognized feature of the Blue Mountains is the rock formation called the Three Sisters. Legend has it that three sisters, Meehin, Wimiah, and Gunnedoo lived in Jamison Valley as part of the Katoomba tribe. The sisters fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, but tribe law forbade them from marrying. The brothers, unhappy with this decision, captured the sisters causing a major tribe battle. A witch-doctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the sisters into stone to protect them from harm. Unfortunately he was killed before he could turn them back. Now the sisters remain in their rock formation as a reminder of the battle. The sisters stand 922, 918, and 906 meters tall.

On our way back from the mountains we stopped at a National Park to observe some wild kangaroos. We saw a mom and a baby joey about 18 months old. Now I had no idea how cool kangaroos are. The most often seen kangaroo is the Eastern Grey. Now kangaroos have fixed hips, so they can't walk, they hop. But their hind legs have stretchy tendons that store elastic strain energy, so they use hardly any muscular effort to move. Also, there is a link between their hopping and breathing. So as their feet leave the ground air is expelled from the lungs and as they move their feet to touch the ground their lungs are refilled. Because of this increases in speed require very little extra effort. Female kangaroos are the cool ones though. They are essentially always pregnant. And inside their pouch is four different teats and they can produce two different types of milk to provide for joeys of varying age. They can also suspend the development of a joey when there is little food or water to provide the best chance of life. Kangaroos are shy by nature, though the males will often 'box' with other males for play or territorial reasons. Their tail serves as a fifth limb and often when they are fighting they will balance themselves on their tail. Aboriginals use kangaroo for their meat, hide, bone, and tendon. And a little fun fact, kangaroos and emus are featured on the australian coat of arms because they are the only animal that can't walk backwards. And australia is the only country that eats their coat of arms.

We then went to see an aboriginal carving. Now did you know that aboriginals banned graffiti? They only allow it if it tells a story. The one we saw was of a kangaroo that had been taken down by a hunting boomerang and then killed by a spear through it's heart. The way it was facing pointed to where they then went and it's legs were in a wide stance, indicating it was moving fast when it was taken down. Very interesting. Aboriginals also get a tattoo when they are a teenager of their tribe symbol. When they want to marry they go to the tribe elders and show their tattoos. If they don't match they can marry. This prevents inbreeding. Crazy business. Their traditional instrument, the didgeridoo, is traditionally only played by the eastern kimberley region, and only by the men.

And have you ever wondered why the australian sporting colors are green and gold when their flag is red white and blue? Well that's because of the wattle tree. With it's green stem and golden leaves. There are over 985 species of the wattle tree in australia. And so they use the golden wattle for their sporting colors.

Our third day in Sydney we went to Bondi Beach, a very famous beach. This art thing called Sculpture by the Sea was taking place so we walked around that which was cool. And then we headed back to the Gold Coast.

So I bought this book yesterday called "Things Bogans Like", essentially it's like the book "Stuff White People Like" only for australia. Regardless, I am super excited to start reading it. Books here are super expensive, borders was selling it for $40, but alas, with my clever shopping skills I got it for a mere $24 with free shipping. What a find. Bogans have been everywhere in the past couple of days with the Gold Coast 600, a race car event of the sorts with bands playing at night. "Race by day and Rock by night". It brought the bogans out in full swing. This was not a weekend to be spent in surfers, although there never really is a weekend to be spent in surfers. But alas, I shall now take the time to describe how australians speak.

Their favorite words include, but are not limited to, heaps, reckon, bogan, eh (not to be confused with canadians). Sunnies=sunglasses, doona=comforter, jumper=sweatshirt, singlet=tank top, they refer to pots and pans as cookery, silverware is cutlery, bathers=swimsuit, a fillet is pronounced with the t, nap=kipper, they enjoy saying they will "have a think" or "have a sleep", liqueur stores are bottle shops. Overall australian speak is way more fun than american speak.

I went for a run the other day along a path I usually run on, and it had been raining for the previous several days. I'm running along, rocking out to my music when all of a sudden a blue tongued lizard runs out in front of me. Now, blue tongued lizards are not large, maybe a foot long, but are they dangerous? Well i have no idea. So of course it scares the crap out of me and i have a little freak out, all by myself, on this path. It's a good thing i was all by myself or i may not have any friends at the moment. But as it was running across the path it turns its nasty blueish head to look at me and slithers its bright blue tongue at me and then continues on. It was most distressing. But i pressed on.

The tongue has not been colored in, it is literally bright blue.

Meaghan, Kate, and I went for a walk about a week ago, and it was chilly in the shade so we switched up our normal routine and decided to go for a walk through some of the nearby neighborhoods. 1. so we could stay in the sun and get our bronze on, and 2. to creep on some of the houses/people. On our way back we decided to follow a path through the woods that would take us back to the village. The path ended. We had to bush walk it back to the village. As we're walking Kate says that we should make a lot of noise so the snakes don't come out. Excuse me?! So in a span of a few days i had my first aussie wildlife encounter and i had myself a nice bush walk. How very aussie of me.

It's the last week of classes over here. crazy, i know. But no fears, i'm not completely done until the 18th when i have my only final exam. Lame. But meaghan and i will be venturing to sydney next monday where we shall explore the Blue Mountains among other things. And! I'm officially going to New Zealand! It's official, the 21-27 i'll be an unofficial Kiwi (New Zealander). I'm going bungy jumping off the Auckland Bridge, a 40 meter jump, and they dip you in the water! It's all so exciting. We're doing it on Thanksgiving as well. So when i'm asked what i did for thanksgiving i can say "well i went bungy jumping off the auckland bridge." Who gets to say that?

The thing about kitchens without ovens. Creative cooking, I like to call it. We like to refer to our microwave as a "moven". It supposedly has an oven setting, but whether this is a true "oven" setting is questionable. It only heats to 100 degrees, which, if you've ever cooked anything in your life you know 100 degrees won't get you very far. So what do we do? We improvise. This past weekend we had two lovely family dinners. Lasagna was cooked in the "moven", I discovered there is such a thing as brocciflower (a broccoli/cauliflower hybrid, apparently it's brocciflower season), we indulged ourselves in a roast, which could be smelled from down the sidewalk, gravy was made from a bag, and cheese sauce was served out of a tupperware container. Now, these weren't dinners to write home about (although I did) but for broke college students without a real functional oven, it was the best thing I've had since I've been here that's been cooked in a village kitchen. I don't know if it's that they don't trust us with ovens, because they are very serious about their fire safety. In the first week we were told maybe 10 times that if you set the fire alarm off you have 30 seconds to press the "oops i set off the fire alarm" switch and then you have 2 minutes to clear the apartment of smoke before they call the fire brigade and charge you $1000. And no one wants that. Especially now that the exchange rate is no longer in my favor. But that's a whole other story.

In other news, it appears that I will be New Zealand bound the last week in November! If all goes according to plan (and mommy and daddy say yes) I will be flying into Christchurch (the south island), spending a few days there, and then flying to the north island to Auckland and spending a few days there. Other than that not much has been happening around here. It's been raining essentially since we got back from the Whitsundays. I thought I left Ithaca, but apparently it's weather came with me. Finals are coming up, so everyone has finals fever. Although it is must less severe here than back home. I really could care less about them considering I only have one final. If you can even really call it that. Also, the release of Harry Potter in australia is before its release in the states. And I will be seeing it at midnight.

Well, I'm back from my trip to the Whitsunday Islands. It was fabulous, tiring, and a little scary. We arrived on wednesday night and took a bus from Prosperpine airport to Airlie beach where our hostel was. Now, I've only ever stayed in two hostels, one in Byron Bay and one in Melbourne. The Byron one was fair, but since we were with a group it was better. Melbourne the hostel was fabulous. Quiet, clean rooms, the bathroom was down the hall, but that was no big deal, a little cold, but over all very enjoyable. Airlie Beach hostel was bad. Very, very bad. We get to the room, luckily it is air conditioned, it has a small little kitchen and a bathroom in the room. Those are its only redeeming qualities. Our bunk is right next to the door, we are the only girls with 4 other guys, 3 of which are 20 and from England, studying at Brisbane. We're tired so we just want to go to bed. The 3 guys go out for the night and return at around 3 o'clock in the morning. They then decide it would be a fantastic idea to make heaps of noise. They are taking pictures, and I'm not sure if they actually took a picture of us sleeping, because i saw the flash and then heard them like run and laugh. So, I go on defensive mode. I face the wall but am wide awake to ensure I can kick them in the balls if they try and do anything funny. One of them brought back a girl and proceeded to do dirty things in the bathroom. They continued on like this for a good 45 minutes. I was pretty sure we were going to be raped, but we were not. The second night the room is then joined by 2 other girls from england, but they just got off a boat and were very tired as well. The boys went out again that night, and returned around 1 and again made a boat load of noise. This night, though, no one brought home a girl. They did this again on the third night. Good thing we were only in that room for 3 nights. I feared for my safety a bit. I don't know what it is with these europeans, but they like to sleep in the hot. All the rooms had air conditioning, which i was very content to leave on all night. But they would turn it off! Who does that! So we wake up in the morning and it's beastly hot. Not okay.

After getting over the horrible hostel experience, we did have a good first 3 days. We went jetskiing, which is very fun. The water was a little choppy

which made it very hard to drive it. We got caught in

a boat's wake and i'm pretty sure we got some major air going over those waves. They make it look very easy to drive in the movies, but let me tell you, for a first time jetskiier, it was very not easy to drive. We also got to hold baby sharks and feed barramundi fish. Now when these fish eat it's crazy. You dangle their food right in front of their nose and they just wait. Then when they decide it's the right time to eat, they will pounce and suck in the food and like 2 liters of water in a fraction of a second. It's ridiculous. So of c

ourse we all got a big kick out of it. We also got to feed giant sting rays. Because their mouth is on their stomachs essentially, you have to push the food under them so they are on your arm and they just like suck it up. Strangest feeling ever.

On saturday we went on our boat trip. We were on a maxi yacht called Broomstick. That was awesome. It was all a bunch of other young travelers backpacking through australia. We met up with two other americans and were dubbed team america by a crew member we du

bbed team england. That stuck for the duration of the trip. We sailed around the Whitsundays, slept on the boat, went scuba diving, snorkling, went to Whitehaven beach and had a marvelous time. I went for an optional dive, which was amazing. We went about 7 meters down and saw 2 sting rays and this big fish that is in the process of changing for a female to a male. How

interesting. That morning it was raining when we woke up. But we decided to go to Whitehaven beach anyway. This is like the most beautiful beach in the Whisundays/most of australia. It's actually I think something like a national park, so you can only visit it was a tour group, and you can only stay on it for I believe 4 hours. The sand is so white and soft it's outrageous. I wanted to bottle it up and take it home with me. As soon as we got to the beach the weather cleared up. But of course because it was so gross out when we left none of use were wearing sun screen so we had to stay in our lovely stinger suits (a lighter wet suit to protect you from jelly fish). We frolicked in the water for a few hours before heading back to the boat.

After the boat trip we were back in Airlie for 2 more days. We just hung around mostly. On our last day we were parasailing. Such great fun. Plus the boat driving was a babe. Such a great ending to a great trip. Now it's back to reality for a few more weeks. Only 4 more weeks in the semester here, crazy. We're planning a trip with a bunch of people back to Byron in early october, a trip to sydney in early november, and then hopefully we'll get over to New Zealand before we head back to the states.

Melbourne was AMAZING. I’ve decided that Melbourne is my city. Everything about it was wonderful. It was clean, interesting, artsy, friendly, and fabulous. There is so much to do and see. It was very European. It really didn’t feel like I was in australia, but I don’t think I would be able to place where I was on a map. The city itself is really nice. Much like any other city it has tall buildings and shopping. But it has all these trams that run through it, which is the main form of public transport. Outside the city are all these little towns and such. There is St. Kilda, which has a bunch of shopping and is on the water. Then there is Fitzroy, which has Brunswick St. which is really artsy and alternative. Then there is South Yarra, which is more upscale shopping and such. It was really just a great city, very user friendly.

We flew in on Wednesday with this cheap ass airline Tiger Airways. So we get to the airport and go to find our gate, which is in like the airport’s basement. We have to walk on the runway for like 5 minutes before we get to the actual plane, which is like half empty. BUT first, when we get to the airport we go to get our boarding passes. So we walk up and they are like, you didn’t “web check-in” so that will be $20, plus a $5 service fee, and oh, you’re using a card, we charge another $6.25 for that. WHAT THE HELL I HATE YOU TIGER AIRWAYS. The security in australia is seriously lacking. When we went through the metal detectors we didn’t have to take off our shoes, or jackets/sweatshirts or anything. On the way home we didn’t even have to show ID. Crazy business. But anyway, when we land in Melbourne we don’t even go in the actual airport. We land and walk on the runway, then through this like tin tunnel and into like the freight area. We were treated like cargo. Ok so the flight was really cheap, but seriously, I am a human being. I deserve to go through the airport. But we survived.

We get to the hostel, which is in like the perfect location, right across from Federation Square and Flinders St. Station. Our room is an 8 person room, but luckily the only open beds were in the corner so no one walked by us. But the light above my bed was broken, and the main switch light was on this 1 hour timer, so at night, when the light went off, it was bed time for me. The showers on the floor we were on didn’t get good hot water so we had to go up 2 floors to shower, which was a pain. But it was fine. It was clean and everything, so no worries there.

Thursday was our first full day in the city. We started the morning off by wandering around the streets and stores near the hostel, just to get our bearings and such. Then we walked over to Federation Square, got lunch, and went and saw the Tim Burton exhibit at the Australian Center for the Moving Image. That was really cool, I had no idea he did so much, and that Johnny Depp was in like all his movies. But there were props and such from his various movies and a bunch of his sketches and such. Then we walked around a little more and then went and got dinner. The food in Melbourne is so good. There are a bunch of like lanes and alleys that have little cafes and stuff. We went to this one cafe and I had the best chai latte I have ever had in my life. Literally it was great. So good.

Friday, it was overcast and a little rainy in the morning. But we avoided that well and went to the aquarium. That was pretty cool, got to see some authentic australian fishes. We watched them feed these giant sting rays and sharks and sea turtles. Man, I’ll tell you, those sea turtles are a pain in the ass. They bite the people that feed them and won’t let go. And the sting rays are very greedy. They just like flopped over the divers and kept coming back for more. It was enjoyable. In the afternoon we met up with my cousin, whom I was meeting for the very first time in australia, how weird. But we met him in St. Kilda and walked along the beach to see wild penguins. We saw two of them because most of them were out and about. But they were really small, it was neat. Then he took us for a drive to Arthur’s Seat, which has really good views. We got to see more outside the city, which was nice. We had scones, with jam and cream and tea, which is called something, but it has escaped me at this moment. But it was delicious. Then Ahron and his wife took us out for dinner at this chinese restaurant. It was just a great day.

Saturday in the morning we went and got crepes that were delicious. Then we headed over to the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail) where the infamous Ned Kelly was hanged. He was a notorious killer with like a political agenda. But it was cool to see. That’s where they shipped a lot of the convicts from Tasmania and such to. After that we walked over to Brunswick Street, which is really artsy and has all these shops and cafes and such. It was cool to see. For dinner we got sushi and then went to the Eureka Skydeck. It’s like 92 stories high, but the actual deck part is 88 stories up. We went on the Edge, which is like this glass box thing that moves 3 meters out from the building, it moves while you are in it. They do this like light and sound show while you’re in it as well. It was actually a little scary. I felt like I had to hold on and couldn’t look down. But I did, and it was really cool. After that we walked around Southbank or something like that, which is just on the other side of the Yarra river. It was really pretty.

Sunday we went shopping. All day. We started the day on Ackland Street in St. Kilda. That’s where all the European Jews first settled, but they have long since gone. But they did leave behind all their food. I had a smoked salmon sandwich was spinach and cream cheese. Delicious. Then I got chocolate mousse and it was delicious. The shopping was amazing. After Ackland St. we went to Chapel Street which is more upscale shopping. That was also fabulous. And we all know how much I love shopping, it was just a great day. For dinner we went to China Town and had wonderful chinese food. We were the only white people in the restaurant besides this one guy eating by himself. But I take that as a good thing, meaning the food is probably good, which it was.

All in all Melbourne was everything I wanted it to be. We got to do everything we said we wanted and then some. The city was a perfect fit for australia, a city, yet very relaxed. Everything worked out very well for a trip planned by ourselves. The timing was perfect, we avoided the rain, the weather was wonderful for Melbourne, and it was actually really nice to be in a colder climate.

Coming up we have the British India concert on Thursday and then next Wednesday we take off for the Whitsundays. I think we’re going to spend a few days on a yacht, which will be very nice. Much more relaxing than our trip to Melbourne, but should be just as enjoyable.

So this week was fun. It’s now September, which means it’s spring here. And apparently, when it hits spring it all of a sudden gets really hot. So it’s been really pretty hot here and very humid, needless to say, my hair has not been very happy. And it gets really hot at night in the rooms. You can sleep with the windows open until like 5 o’clock in the morning and then the birds start making their noises so you have to close with windows and then it heats up like no-ones business. So that’s been fun. Good thing I’m not here for the dead of summer.

On Friday we went to the beach for a few hours and then me, meaghan, kate, and simon went to a rugby game. It was the Gold Coast Titans vs. Wests Tigers. The Titans were ranked #4 and the Tigers #2. It was a very good game. The Titans won by like 4 points to secure a home game for the semi-finals. The best part of the game were the hotties sitting in front of us. They were nice to look at. At half time they had little kids come out and play rugby and this little kid, probably no older than 9 completely decked this other little kid. It was nuts. They have no fear.

Saturday was a lazy day. Got some work done. I have to do this presentation in my creative writing class on controversial writers. So I’ve been gathering information for that because I will be gone the weekend before it’s due. I’ve also been writing a short story for that class.

Sunday we went to this vintage market in Burleigh. I found this nice little bag. It was a find. It rained, which was gross. There was this one stand place that had the best 80’s jumpers (sweatshirts). One looked like it was straight out of Saved by the Bell. We came back and had ourselves a nice sleep. It was fabulous. We bought tickets to go see this band from Melbourne, British India on sept. 16th. Exciting.

We’ve got the Melbourne trip coming up. We leave on Wednesday and get in at night. We plan on going to this jail where they kept all the convicts to be executed. This big serial killer, Ned Kelly was executed there and they have his execution mask, should be pretty cool. We also plan to go to the aquarium, see some australian fishes. I’m meeting up with my cousin Friday afternoon, he said he would show us the non-touristy melbourne, should be fun. It’ll be nice to get off the Gold Coast. It’s nice here, but it’s a little tacky. Lots of high rises of various colors, many of them a pink color. Lots of boguns, australian creeps, essentially.

Sunday was fathers day here. Good on me, I texted dear old daddy. Lucky him getting two father’s days this year. Other than that, not much is going on here. Just gearing up for a hectic September.

Hello world

I’m going to write a blog post while watching Good News Week in an effort to stop eating. Good News Week is this show where they take comedians and musicians and the like and make the news headlines from all over the world into these funny little stories. They play games, like guess the headline, and they make up headlines and have them guess which one is correct. They also take the beats of popular songs and put news stories to them. It’s funny. It’s also an hour and a half long, and after it the Emmy’s are on. A day later than in the States, upsetting. Today I had to avoid my Yahoo News trying to tell me who won and who was upset they didn’t win. I could have read the complete list of winners, but no! I will wait until I can see it for myself here in australia dammit! While we’re on the subject of TV, there are also these two australian shows that are like all the rage here. They are called The Offspring, and Married Single Other. But apparently the latter or which is english. Let me tell you, australian TV is just not up to the standard I’m used to. Sure american TV sucks, but woah baby australian TV is awful. The actors are atrocious. It’s hard to watch. But they do have funny informative shows, such as Good News Week and Talkin’ Bout Your Generation. Funny funny. There is this guy who is probably in his twenties on Your Gen. If he were not a raging homosexual I would be in love with him. But alas. Also, australians love Modern Family. And I mean who can blame them? Modern Family is awesome, and apparently killed at the Emmy’s. Yahoo News could not spare me that. They now show it twice a week, Sunday nights and Tuesday. Best nights of the week. We get the channel called Go! Apparently it just launched like last year. They play the strangest mix of shows. They play old stuff like Bewitched, Hogans Heros, and MASH, and then they play the Hills, Wipe Out, and a whole bunch of other stuff. They play all these movies too. But good news! A commercial for the new season of Glee just came on and I will totally be able to watch it here in aussie land! There are also two long running soap operas. Neighbors and Home and Away. Apparently every australian actor and musician has been on them. Also very popular in australia is True Blood. Probably because it’s like soft core porn and australians really love to do the dirty.

In other news it’s Grand Final time. Which is for the AFL. Brisbane is out, but no one expected them to be in. We watched this guy, Ben Cousins, play his last game the other day. He was this really good footballer who then had a public struggle with drug addiction and was banned from the AFL for a little while. He was captain of the West Coast Eagles or something and had to step down. He went to rehab in LA and stuff and then came back. But then he relapsed for whatever and went back. Basically he is a disgraced footballer. But this team, Richmond Tigers picked him up for his last two years. But now he is retiring and it’s this whole big to-do. So we watched. It was sad. But for anyone that cares, Grand Final day is the 25th of September. I will be basking in the sun on the beach in the Whitsunday's at that time. What a tough life.

It’s almost September. Which is just outrageous. Can someone please tell me where August went? September looks like it will be a busy month over here. On tap is the Brisbane Festival, which hopefully we’ll get down to see this weekend. Then on the 8th Meaghan and I will be flying down to Melbourne until the 13th. I plan to do some serious shopping, apparently Melbourne is like shopping heaven. Then we’re leaving for the Whitsunday’s on the 22nd until the 29th. And then it’s October. And that’s the last month of classes. Oh Australia how I love thee.

Hey guys,

Sorry it’s been a while since my last update, it’s been relatively busy around here. I’ll start with last weekend.

Last Saturday the roommates and I went on this pub crawl for the rugby team. It was pretty fun, we went to four bars, Surfers Rowers, SinCity, The Beach House, and Cocktails and Dreams. We got these shirts that we had to wear to show that we were with the pub crawl, so we made them fashionable. I’ll tell you, the worst part about going out is trying to find something to wear, so it was a relief that we had to wear the shirts. We lost Simon at SinCity, he just kind of wondered off and we didn’t see him again until the next morning. No worries though, we’re pretty sure he went back home after SinCity. We lost Chris after the Beach House, so after Cocktails Kate, Meaghan and I got a taxi back to the apartment where we took some classy pictures and made a ruckus. Unfortunately for us, we all had to be up early the next morning for the AFL game.

So we took the train into Brisbane for the AFL game. Kate gets motion sickness so she took some drugs that make her go numb, needless to say it was a hilarious train ride. We walked to the game where we promptly entered the AFL store where I got an AFL ball so we could “have a kick with the footy” and a supporter scarf. It was exciting. We got to our seats, which were in the second row from the field, fabulous seats for a mere $17. It was hot. Very very hot. The sun was just beating down on us, there was no shade, it was relatively miserable for the first half. Fortunately we got some clouds for the second half. I stole a poweraed, by accident mind you. I had it under my arm when I went to get my meat pie (more on that later) and I just walked off with it. It was like $5.20 so that was pretty lucky. I also had my first meat pie. An australian staple. You put a little tomato sauce on it and it is absolutely delicious. Brisbane ended up loosing, no surprise there, we’re like the second from the bottom. But it was a close game. They played Adelaide. After the game we walked around South Bank. We got some dinner and headed home.

Tuesday was Kate’s 22nd birthday. She was all worried about turning 22 so we got a cake and put 18 candles on it. We’re so funny. We made tacos for dinner, which were delicious.

Thursday Meaghan and I went to the beach for a few hours. Delightful. Who would have thought this was their winter. For dinner we all went and got Indian, fabulous.

This weekend was a little more uneventful. On Saturday Meaghan, Chris, Simon and I went to this thing called the Q-Deck. It’s like the tallest building on the Gold Coast, also one of the 20 tallest buildings in the world. You can see like all up and down the coast, it was crazy beautiful. Then we got lunch in Surfers and walked around a little. An enjoyable afternoon.

I can’t even believe it’s almost September. Where did August go? Now that everyone is going back to Ithaca it’s weird to think I’m not going with them. Don’t forget about me! We still have so many things we want to do it seems like there just isn’t enough time! Even still, this has been the most amazing experience ever. It just feels like I’m on a five month vacation in paradise. Mom, I’m never coming home.

Love to you all

Another week, another weekend. This past Saturday was Race Day. We pay $50 to get free drinks for 5 hours and watch people race horses around a track while dressed in our Sunday best. $50 well spent. So I get up at around 9 o’clock, sit on the balcony, per usual and soak up some rays, then at around 10 o’clock I get dressed. Then people start to arrive at the apartment to start drinking because everyone knows you can’t show up to an event where alcohol is involved sober. Huge no no. So alas we all sit on the balcony, my new favorite spot, for a solid 3 hours drinking and chit chatting while we watch everyone else walk by and judge their outfits. There were some good looking kids. This girl that we watch in her room picked the dress we liked (she was showing her friend them one day and we were watching) and she had a rocking hat. Then at 1:30 we get ready to go, and we show up a fashionable 2 hours late. Let the drinking begin (sorry mom).

Race Day was just one huge sloppy mess. Some highlights include, but are not limited to: girl with toilet paper in her dress, then 2 minutes later it unravels and falls down her back, we spill so many drinks on the table the table cloth is dripping wet, meaghan’s drink falls from her hand and spills all over my leg, free delicious food, especially the rolls, a nice english boy.

After the races we get bused into Surfer’s where we eat Hungry Jack’s, Australia's version of burger king, and we lose Chris. Then we head back to the apartments and I’m passed out spinning in my bed by 10. Successful day.

This week we plan on heading to the beach called Broadbeach and I’m going to look into taking more surf lessons. I’ve decided that I want to buy a surfboard. Yeah mom, it’s happening. This Sunday my roommates and I are going to Brisbane to watch an AFL game, the brisbane lions vs. Adelaide. Apparently Brisbane sucks, but thats ok. We’re also planning on flying to Melbourne at the end of August/beginning of September. For spring break Meaghan and I are going to the Whitsunday Islands. We’re going to island hop for a week while getting as tan as possible.

Yesterday in philosophy when we were leaving we had to give the professor our names so he can start to put faces to names, and he pronounced my last name like they do in Germany, because he’s german. He was like Vagner? So I’m like yep that’s me! So now I feel that he may like me more because he’s german and I’m kinda german, we’re connected. The village has this thing called DC++, which is like a network where only people who live in the village can share movies, tv shows, and music, for free. Needless to say I’ve been a pretty happy girl downloading movies and music and tv. I’m taking full advantage of this. My nutrition tutorial starts this week, now I have 3 hours of class on Tuesday rather than my usual 1.

Other than that not much is going on here. It’s starting to warm up a little bit. Not getting as cold at night as usual. The sun here is very strong, sitting on the balcony for like 10 minutes will get you a tan line. The birds are as loud as ever and the couches are still shedding little black things all over.

Hey all,

It was another beautiful day here in australia. I had a pretty good weekend this past weekend. On Friday my roommates Meagan and Kate and I went into Harbour Town, which is like this big outdoor shopping center. It’s got a bunch of discount stores and such. I must say, aussie discount stores, not as good as american discount stores. Just a bunch of really cheap crap. There were some good finds though, the Levi store was having a buy one get one free sale on everything in the store, so of course I had to take advantage of that. We went into the Nike store and there were some wicked sweet 80’s jackets, like wind breakers. I wanted one so bad but they were like $90, and even with the exchange rate that is slightly out of my price range. Look mom, I resisted, be proud. But we decided that those jackets with some high tops would totally win at an 80’s party. We got ice cream there too. It was heavenly. The best ice cream I have ever had. I got white chocolate and creme brule. It was delicious.

After Harbour Town we went back to the apartment and hung out with Chris and Simon as they got ready for the Back to School party the Unibar was throwing. Unfortunately we were a little late on the whole getting tickets that we missed out. We were sitting on the balcony while Chris and Simon got nice and drunk and watched Chris draw all over himself in permanent marker. So we’re all sitting outside on the balcony, we’re listening to music, and the door to the apartment is open, and in walks this guy. He’s like, does someone want to tell me about the witches hats that were found in this apartment the other day. Ok 1, what the hell are witches hats. And 2, who the hell are you. So this guy came back with the boys after some party or whatever and had stolen 2 traffic cones and displayed them on the balcony. So the Village thought it would be totally Ok to walk into our apartment and just take them back. How did they know they weren’t actually ours? That’s what I want to know. Hello invasion of privacy! Luckily we just blamed it on the “non resident” and that strange and unfortunate looking man was on his way. But not before everyone in the village got a nice email saying that Village property belonging to the construction guys was stolen and that this was a very immature thing to do.

Saturday Meaghan and I went into Surfers and went out to dinner. The guy working there was so strange. We both got a drink and we weren’t carded! And this guy thinks that with one drink in me I’m feeling good enough to find him attractive. Wrong. So he’s like are you guys students here. So we tell him we’re exchange students from the States studying at Griffith. He asks what classes we’re taking, so we tell him we’re taking a creative writing class and then he precedes to give us a 10 minute lecture on what not to write. We left him no tip. But mostly because we felt that australians don’t tip. But whatever. Then we met up with these two girls from Norway that we met on the Byron trip and went to their friend’s house warming party. It was a four person house with someone from Estonia, France, Germany, and Sweden. Look at me being all global with all my friends. The girl from Sweden got so trashed she couldn’t even stand up without holding onto something. We also found one of our other friends from the Byron trip, Ryan from California. So we hung out there for a while, had some gross boxed wine, chit chatted. Then we were heading outside to leave and this guy comes up to us. He’s like, “whenever I talk to someone I have this problem of always talking about myself. It’s bad. I can’t help it though because I just talk about all the money in my accounts. I just want to go to a temple on some hilltop in a little village and think.” He asks my name, so I tell him and he says, “adina? that’s very Jerusaelem.” Ok what? Time to go.

Sunday was beautiful. We were all sitting on the balcony ready out books soaking up some rays. We’re so classy. Then all of us hopped in Kate’s car and headed into Surfers to get some ice cream. We parked on this beach called Main Beach and walked into Surfers. So we got some exercise before our calories. We’re so smart. On our way back we walked along the beach. The sand here is so soft its ridiculous. The water was colder here that in Byron, which is weird because Byron is farther south. But it was still pretty warm. Needless to say, that will be a regular occurrence.

I finally did laundry for the first time here. I thought I lost a sock, but it was just hiding in one of my shirts. Silly sock, I thought the dryer ate you. In other news, I desperately need to go food shopping. I have no bread, no milk, no meat. Only peanut butter, a limited number of ritz crackers, stale cereal, and some eggs. Mommy where are you when I need you?

Hey all,

It’s the end of a short week of classes here in australia. Luckily for me I have managed to get a schedule of classes that only meet Monday-Wednesday. All my classes seem like they’ll be good, if not interesting, then not that hard. Nutrition seems like it will be the only class I’m really actually interested in, which makes sense considering I need it for my major and minor. The professor for that class is nice. He’s young. There are two people who will lecture for it. One is the main guy, and then the other is this little guy with spiked brown hair who just looks scared all the time. I guess it’s only the second year they’ve run the course and last years class was like half the size as this years, so maybe that’s why he looks scared. Who knows. I have lecture for that class every Monday and weeks 3-8 I have a tutorial along with lecture, and then the last two weeks of the semester I have a lab as well.

My second class is Modern Masters of Philosophy. I don’t know what to make of that class. The professor is from Germany and switches from speaking in english to german to french. He talks super slowly, like he is thinking about each word that is going to come out of his mouth. He is a philosophy professor, so I guess it makes sense. That class is 3 hours long every Monday night, which is a hell of a long time to talk about nonsense. We spent the first half of the class going over the course profile and then the second half he talked philosophy talk. I had no idea what was going on. There was an old woman sitting on my right and a girl who must have had a cold sitting on my left. She kept sniffling and breathing heavily and I just wanted to hit her.

My last class is creative writing which is broken down into a lecture and tutorial each week. My tutorial is very interesting. Everyone is australian, which is cool, then there is a study abroad student from germany who barely speaks any english. Then this guy who looks like Justin-Bobby back when Justin-Bobby had long hair. His name is Pooya, and when he was introducing himself, yeah we did introductions, he was like “its like boo-ay but with a P.” He mumbles like it’s his job. We had to do a writing on scars and then read them aloud and the guy sitting next to me was talking about hookers and drugs. Next week I’m not going to sit next to him. Then this girl walks in an hour late and she has a piercing in her cheek, then another one in her nose but the kind that goes like around the divider of your nose, she’s wearing purple high top Doc Martins and this black like crop top with a ruffly collar. She was gross. Then there is an older woman who is going back to school to get a new degree who just kept talking about her kids. Ok lady, I get it, you have kids, good for you. We had to go around describing what kind of writing we do, so I’m like, uh I don’t really write, I just need this for the credit. This girl is like I like to write about the mentally ill. Everyone just stops and is like what? She was weird.

I feel like they just don’t go to school. All of their classes meet once a week and they only have to take 3 classes to be a full time student. Like really? Class is just like an hour interruption in their day and then they go about drinking. There are these crows. Oh my word let me tell you. They are the worst things in the world. The other morning it sounded like they were dying, like literally dying. Their little bird call is the loudest thing you’ve ever heard. My roommates and I have decided to go see an AFL game. Which is essentially football, soccer, basketball, and rugby combined. The field is circular in shape and it’s really cool to watch.

And i thought americans drank a lot. Australians drink like it's their job. But the odd thing about it is that they start drinking at around 5 o'clock and then everyone is dead tired at around midnight. So this past week has been O-Week. Which is essentially a huge party every day and every night. Monday was really just a bunch of meetings, but at the end of each meeting we were offered a free beer. And who is going to pass up a free beer when alcohol here costs about 5 times as much as it does in the states. Tuesday was when the party really started. There was free pizza at night and then they bused everyone over to this club called SinCity. There were like 3 huge buses full of people already drunk. It was ladies night, so we got in for free and all our drinks all night long were free. Mistake #1. Mistake #2 was taking advantage of all those free drinks. I went with my roommates, so we stuck together the whole night long. So we get to SinCity at around 9:30 and the bus will take us back at 2 in the morning. We stay at that club for a few hours, get a few drinks in us, probably around 4 or 5, and then we go outside, where this nice 40 year old german man gives me his coat because it's freezing outside. He then tells us he lives in the Village, which is where i live. What is a 40 year old german man doing in the village. That's what i want to know. We then go back into SinCity, have a few more drinks and leave. We walk around Surfers and go into another bar. Where we have a few more drinks. Bad things happen at this bar, which is why i'm going to remove it from my memory. Mistake #'s 3-6. We make our way back to where the bus is going to pick us up. And on our way home we are. I don't get to bed until close to 4 and i have to be up at 7:30 to go to Byron Bay for an orientation trip. Now because i've been heavily intoxicated the whole night long i now need to pee every 30 seconds. So that was not a restful 4 hours of sleep.

Byron Bay was beautiful. We stayed in a hostel right on the beach, which was also beautiful. Our first day there we went on a hike up to a lighthouse which is on the most eastern point of australia. It was super super nice there. Wednesday night we go out to this restaurant/bar cheeky monkey. It was interesting. The DJ was awful and the dancing was all on tables. Now i was still recovering from tuesday night, so my wednesday was not that bad.

Thursday morning we went sea kayaking. I was with a girl from germany of holland, i'm not exactly sure. She was dumb. Dumb dumb dumb. They put her in the back of the kayak because she was bigger than me. Mistake #1. We flipped over twice trying to ride the waves in because she had no idea what she was doing. During a little intermission we had Tim Tams. Best thing ever. They are like this biscuit/chocolate thing. Oh my word they were fabulous.

Thursday night we had this cookout at the hostel and we all pitched in 5 dollars for a punch. Now this punch was like no other punch. It was red and white wine, vodka, rum, pina colada, and only 3 liters of juice to this huge vat of alcohol. It got me drunk, and it got me drunk fast. We then head out to this bar called cocomangas. Now i'm already trashed, can't walk in a straight line and can hardly stand up. We get there, and we get a free drink. Luckily that's all i drank while i was there. We stayed there until around 1, which by then i had pretty much sobered up.

Friday we went surfing in the morning. The water was so warm it was wonderful. I was able to get up which was lovely. When we got back to the hostel everyone was just so tired it was hard to think. And then it started raining so we just hung out. By this time i'm just so sleep deprived i need some energy. I ate an entire pizza all by myself. Mistake. We leave Byron at like 4:30 and head back to campus. Friday night was very low key. Me, Meaghan, and our 5th roommate kate went to see a movie. Their movies are expensive. like 16 bucks without a student ID, or 13 with one. I passed out after the movie and slept like a rock.

It's been a very eventful week, perhaps a little too much drinking and debauchery, but all in all, very successful. Monday is the start of classes. That's just so upsetting. Fortunately my classes only run monday-wednesday. It's still hard to believe i'm in australia. Every now and then i'll have one of those "holy shit i'm in australia" moments. Once classes start and i have a routine it will begin to feel less like an extended vacation and more like i'm actually here to study.

Hi all!

So I'm finally in australia after almost 24 hours of traveling! The flight from boston to LA was uneventful. And the flight from LA to Brisbane was long. When we got to the airport in LA it was a shocking surprise to find that the flight number was 16! So immediately I am in a terrific mood. Almost half the flight is students going abroad, so that was kinda neat. Although I was very tired from my travels and not in the mood to engage in conversation.

So we board the plane. Of course I'm in the middle seat. No big deal, the flight is only 13+hours. I fall asleep before the plane even takes off and am rudely awoken by a man asking if I wanted dinner because the next time I get to eat will be in 10 hours. After falling back asleep I am again awoken by the sound of snoring. Now we all know how much I hate snoring. So I spend a good deal of time trying to find the culprit so perhaps I can nudge them and we can all go about our business. But no. oh no no no. Needless to say it is not until morning that I realize the overweight gentleman sitting in front of me is the snorer.

So we get breakfast, bright and early at about 4 o'clock in the morning. We get off the plane, find a bunch of other kids going to griffith and make our way there. So two things I've learned about australia so far. 1. kangaroos are to australia as deer are to new hampshire. 2. they drive on the other side of the road.

We make our way to our apartment. Meaghan and I are in the same one. We get there a this nice looking boy with an accent opens the door. I don't remember his name, but he is from denmark! neat! Then another boy comes in. I'm not sure I ever learned his name. But he is from New Zealand! neat! Our last roommate is on holiday so I have not met her yet. The room is like a jail cell. Not as homey as Ithaca, but oh well. there are 3 bathrooms, 2 with showers and 1 with just a potty. I'm so super excited to be here!

More to come later!

Love to all,

Adina

Check here if you want to know all about my crazy australian travels for the next 5 months.