So I have successfully finished my first week of classes! And I already have a ton of work to do... well I did (I have done nothing but homework for the past 3 nights) and now it's all done so I can enjoy the weekend :D!!! It's going to be a pretty busy one, fiesta night tonight (we are making Mexican food), checking out the gym tomorrow, hanging out with friends tomorrow night, sunday I am working on my research project with my group. Somewhere in there too I have to get some new sandals for my marine and acquatic ecology class... busy busy! I can't wait though, it's going to be great!
My classes appear to be pretty good. Some are def. harder/more work than others. Like I said before, not so many tests and a lot more projects/papers. Most of them include research done in a small group so that's going to be a bit different! I think I'm going to miss tests... but we shall see. As I also said, lectures are a lot more involved. Lecturers will often ask the class a question and expect a variety of questions. Labs are usually done in small groups (while wearing lab coats! I still can't get over that!) and are typically 3 hours long. Thankfully my lab on Friday afternoons is only going to be meeting 3ish times this quarter so my Friday's won't be completely full most weeks. As I previously stated, I didn't do too much this week because I was trying to get my work done. Went to dollar burgers last night with friends (the burger is $1 if you buy any beverage with it... so my dinner was $4.10!) and the night before a couple of friends came over for a few hours but thats it. Nothing too exciting. It's crazy, some people go out to bars and clubs literally every night! I'm not sure if they are going to slow down or not because I thought it would have by now but clearly not! I don't know how they do it!
As promised, here is a small lesson on Australian Lingo. I will continue to fill you guys in as I run into more words. They just come up sometimes... it's kind of cool!
-If we were to say "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" they would be expecting that you have PB and JELLO on your sandwich. To them jelly means jello! They call it jam, so you have peanut butter and JAM sandwiches around here.
-If you were to say that you were "pissed" they would think you were DRUNK. There is a difference between pissed and pissed off here. Pissed means drunk, pissed off is mad. I have fallen into that trap a few times haha!
-They often refer to men as blokes.
-If you mention a cell phone, they often have no idea what you are talking about it. They call it a mobile phone, or simply a mobile.
-They do indeed call everyone mate! That is still my favorite one, it is heard quite often.
-I'm not sure how exactly to describe this one. They like to use the phrase "have a ... (fill in the blank). Like they have "Have a chat" rather than talk, they love to say "have a go" (I really like that one!) as like give it a shot.
-Instead of call they say ring. So it's "ring me later" or "I'll give you a ring"
-The ultimate rule is if a word is kind of long they probably shorten it. My favorite is "sunnies" rather than sunglasses. They also say "brekkie" instead of breakfast.
I'll try to add more when I think of them/come across new ones. Well I'm off for a run along the boardwalk and then to fiesta night!
PLEASE COMMENT, I miss hearing from people!
Val :)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
FIRST DAY OF CLASS!
So yesterday (Monday) was the first day of classes! I definitely felt like it was my first day of college all over again, I had no idea where I was going, I didn't know what to expect in classes, etc. All in all, it went pretty well. I had my Australian Legends class for 2 hours in the morning and that looks like it is going to be pretty interesting! Then I had to practically run (and I didn't know where I was going) to my next class which was Animal Behaviour. Its strange, like according to your schedule there is no time between classes because they start and end on the hour. But supposedly they are supposed to end 5 minutes early and then start 5 minutes late giving people 10 minutes to move. Well, mine ended on the hour and the next one started on the hour so needless to say I was late. Oops! That one also ended on the hour so I had to run to my next one (which did start late so that was good!). That was the tutorial for my Australian Legends class. It's a group of about 25 students where you have discussions etc. so that will get interesting. I look forward to that. The animal behaviour class wasn't anything too exciting... she pretty much just read off slides of a powerpoint but oh well. Classes are different in the sense that there aren't as many tests as we have in the states. They do a lot more projects (some group, some individual), and write a lot more papers. It was also interesting because the students are a lot more involved in lectures. When the professor asks a question (that in the states would probably be rhetorical) like 10 people will put their hand up with an idea for the answer and a discussion will start. It's crazy! That was hard to get used to, I just kind of sat back and took it all in but hopefully I will start to become involved more.
I went and visited one of my friends who is living in the dorms and that was pretty cool. I kind of felt like I was in a castle (very Harry Potter like again!) and there were a lot of people around. I wish I lived in the dorms for the sole reason of having so many people to meet and so much to do, but I am also very happy with my decision to live off-campus because I get out a lot more and have more of my own space, and I am enjoying the quiet for once! It was a beautiful day so I walked both to and from school. It is a little over 1 mile to get there. It is uphill on the way TO school and downhill on the WAY BACK. I then went for a run along the boardwalk which was nice because the weather was BEAUTIFUL! It was probably the warmest it has been here yet. I just hung out, relaxed, and caught up with everything last night and it was super relaxing. Off to another day of classes and this one includes LAB! Yikes! I'll let you know how it goes :/ haha I just don't have any clue what to expect!
Wish me luck!
Val :)
I went and visited one of my friends who is living in the dorms and that was pretty cool. I kind of felt like I was in a castle (very Harry Potter like again!) and there were a lot of people around. I wish I lived in the dorms for the sole reason of having so many people to meet and so much to do, but I am also very happy with my decision to live off-campus because I get out a lot more and have more of my own space, and I am enjoying the quiet for once! It was a beautiful day so I walked both to and from school. It is a little over 1 mile to get there. It is uphill on the way TO school and downhill on the WAY BACK. I then went for a run along the boardwalk which was nice because the weather was BEAUTIFUL! It was probably the warmest it has been here yet. I just hung out, relaxed, and caught up with everything last night and it was super relaxing. Off to another day of classes and this one includes LAB! Yikes! I'll let you know how it goes :/ haha I just don't have any clue what to expect!
Wish me luck!
Val :)
Trip Pictures
The sunrise!!!
Australia zoo!
STEVE!!!!(bummer it's a bit blurry...)
Echidna! They were super hard to catch on camera because they just kept running! They never stopped so this was the best I got.
The tiger after the tiger show. The keeper threw that toy right at me on the other side of the glass so the tiger was literally flying through the air straight at me!
Part of the Irwin family!
Lake Mackenzie on Fraser Island! BRRRR!
The shipwreck! Very cool!
This picture is the perfect illustration of cars and planes both using the beach!
The big 4WD bus we drove around the island! They are HUGE!
The champagne pools
Lake Wabby from the lookout!
The sandblow... see the desert resemblance?
DINGO!!!!
Basin LakeI should be posting more once I get some from Ashton, I forgot my charger so she had to take some more for me! If she has any good ones I'll be sure to post them up here!
Keep in touch,
Val :)
My wonderful week!
Here comes a super long post! It is going to include everything I did on my trip last week (in more detail than any of you care to know probably! :P)
So Monday was the beginning of our adventure. I went with my friend Ashton who I met here... she lives in Michigan. We were running a little bit late to the airport so we were a bit panicked already. And by late I mean we left like 15 minutes later than we wanted to but still had plenty of time. We didn't really know where the best spot was to grab a taxi so we just went down to the busiest corner in town and just waited. Ashton pulled out her pro taxi grabbing skills and got us one in just a few minutes! We got to the airport a little bit later than we wanted to but we got through SOOO quick! The airport process is much more relaxed here than it is in the states. They never check any ID, and our bag was a little bit over the limit, but she just put a heavy sticker on it and didn't say anything.
We had hoped to stay with some fellow Americans that we had met through our program introduction. We called them and they didn't return our calls ever so we were flying by the seat of our pants as far as accommodations went. Thankfully when we found a hostel after we arrived, there were vacancies. We also had no plans for the next day and we stumbled upon tours that took people to the Australia Zoo (the zoo owned by the Irwin family). We thought why not!? We have nothing to do tomorrow so we booked that. We didn't do much else the rest of the night, just strolled around town (stumbled upon a mall) and went to bed early.
Tuesday we woke up at the crack of dawn (literally!) and caught the sunrise over the ocean. It really was a beautiful sight! I have never actually been awake to see a sunrise, much less one over the ocean, so it was a wonderful experience for me! We headed on our way to the zoo (it took about 2 hours to get there). The zoo was spectacular! We were there for 6 hours and just barely made it around the whole thing, it is HUGE! The zoo is very passionate about conservation efforts so I really appreciated that. Every time we watched a show that was put on by the keepers there, they made clear that they were all about conservation and sometimes were asking for donations. We saw a lot of wicked (a little lingo for ya... means similar to Awesome) shows about all sorts of different animals. Elephants, birds, tigers, crocs (CROCS RULE! as they always say) etc. and it was very informative and awesome to watch! Bindi's (Steve Irwin's daughter, she turned 11!) birthday was coming up on Friday so they were gearing up for that. They were expecting 10,000 people that day! As we were glancing through the gift shop I stumbled upon the book that Terri (Steve's wife) wrote about Steve and his life and decided to buy it. I already finished it! It was a wonderful book and I recommend it to everyone!
Wednesday was a pretty lame-o day. We woke up pretty early as check out was at 10. We went down and got breakfast by the beach and as we were sitting at a table outside the birds started to get closer. Next thing I knew a sea gull swooped down and literally tried to grab my food out of my hand! I was in shock that it was THAT brave. Needless to say, I hung on to my sandwich and didn't give him any! We boarded a bus around noon and sat on it for the next 8 hours while it took us to Hervey Bay. From there you grab the ferry that takes you over to Fraser Island and we were planning on doing that the next morning. It was a pretty relaxed bus ride, we got into our accomodation and pretty much just went to bed.
Thursday we got picked up bright and early and hopped on the ferry over to Fraser Island. We got picked up in our HUGE 4WD bus (there was a group of about 25 people) by our tour guide Chris. Wow that guy was knowledgable! Holy cow! A couple of things about Fraser... you can't swim in the ocean because of 1. the tiger sharks 2. the undercurrent and rips and 3. they drive cars on the beach and use them for airplane landing strips. There is a patch of beach (75 mile beach) that is used as a highway so people are driving darn fast on it, as a Chris claims loved by international drivers as you can drive on either side! Even though you cannot swin in ocean the island offers many freshwater lakes that you CAN swim in. The whole island is made of sand, so there are no paved roads, you just drive on the sand. It's a bit like riding a rollercoaster as it is incredibly uneven! So anyway, back to what we did Thursday. We walked to Lake Basin (our first freshwater lake stop!) and hung out there for a couple of minutes. They ask that people don't swim in this one. It is so small that all the oils from people affect the reptiles and fish too much. We then walked to Central Station (the middle of the rainforest) and back to the bus. The whole walk totaled about 5 km (which is a little over 3 miles). It was a wonderful walk, most of it being through the rainforest which was neat. We then ventured over to Lake Mackenzie which is the biggest and clearest of the freshwater lakes. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was a brilliant blue color, and it was COLD! I decided that even though it wasn't a very warm day, and a freezing cold lake, that I was going to swim in it anyway. Why not?! That only lasted a couple of minutes because I got bored by myself and it was cold, but hey! I still did it!! :D We didn't do much after that, just ate dinner and went to bed early (as usual haha).
Friday was jammed packed with stuff to do! We started out by checking out the Mojave Shipwreck on the beach, saw the Coloured Sands (big cliff sands in supposedly 78 shades of color), hiked up Indian Head which came with many phenominal views, chilled in the champagne pools (They are this rocky area where when the ocean spills over the rocks and into the pools it is said to look like champagne), walked around Eli Creek (the second biggest creek on the island), and did a lot of driving. I especially enjoyed the driving this day as we got to do a lot of driving down 75 mile beach and we saw 3 dingos today! They are sooo cool. They do look very much like a domestic dog but they actually run wild on the island. There are said to be between 150 and 250 of them running around. They are currently experiencing problems because people feed them and they are slowly becoming more and more reliant on people, as well as more agressive as well. They have been known to pick off small unattended children if they are desperate enough for food. There aren't many other big animals on the island for them to eat so sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. Ashton and I checked out the sunset over the ocean as we strolled the beach and played with the crabs that call the beach their home. They would run around in groups of hundreds of them and as we grew closer they would burrow down into their holes. They were awesome to watch!
Saturday was another busy day! We started the day at the lookout over Lake Wabby which was a stunning view. The lake is in the middle of a sandblow (a HUGE pile of sand that makes you feel like you are in the middle of the desert). You look around and all you see is sand and then all of a sudden there is this gorgeous green lake and then the rainforest. We walked down to the lake and hung out there for awhile. This lake is much greener as it is nutrient rich and there is a lot of algae in it that sustain the catfish population also present. We walked across the sandblow and out to the beach by the ocean where we met our guide again. We got back on the bus and started driving and saw ANOTHER dingo! It was so exciting! We had a wonderful buffet lunch at the other resort and then headed off to Lake Birrabeen. Unfortunately it was super cold this day so I didn't do any swimming. It was cold to the point where I wore a fleece almost all day! We got back to the resort, hung out for a bit, and boarded the ferry back to Hervey Bay. We stayed in Hervey Bay again for the night.
Sunday was a travel day. Our flight went out of Hervey Bay around 9:45 and we got back into Sydney around noon. I spent the day catching up with life on the computer, going to the market to re-stock my fridge, and grabbing some school supplies as school started Monday. I then had dinner with my friend Claudia and just hung out for the rest of the night. It was a very relaxing day after such a busy, long trip!
I will post pictures as soon as I can (I'll probably start now) so some of this stuff makes more sense. Next time on Val's blog: A lesson in Aussie lingo! Get excited!
Thanks for bearing with me on that super long post!
Val :)
So Monday was the beginning of our adventure. I went with my friend Ashton who I met here... she lives in Michigan. We were running a little bit late to the airport so we were a bit panicked already. And by late I mean we left like 15 minutes later than we wanted to but still had plenty of time. We didn't really know where the best spot was to grab a taxi so we just went down to the busiest corner in town and just waited. Ashton pulled out her pro taxi grabbing skills and got us one in just a few minutes! We got to the airport a little bit later than we wanted to but we got through SOOO quick! The airport process is much more relaxed here than it is in the states. They never check any ID, and our bag was a little bit over the limit, but she just put a heavy sticker on it and didn't say anything.
We had hoped to stay with some fellow Americans that we had met through our program introduction. We called them and they didn't return our calls ever so we were flying by the seat of our pants as far as accommodations went. Thankfully when we found a hostel after we arrived, there were vacancies. We also had no plans for the next day and we stumbled upon tours that took people to the Australia Zoo (the zoo owned by the Irwin family). We thought why not!? We have nothing to do tomorrow so we booked that. We didn't do much else the rest of the night, just strolled around town (stumbled upon a mall) and went to bed early.
Tuesday we woke up at the crack of dawn (literally!) and caught the sunrise over the ocean. It really was a beautiful sight! I have never actually been awake to see a sunrise, much less one over the ocean, so it was a wonderful experience for me! We headed on our way to the zoo (it took about 2 hours to get there). The zoo was spectacular! We were there for 6 hours and just barely made it around the whole thing, it is HUGE! The zoo is very passionate about conservation efforts so I really appreciated that. Every time we watched a show that was put on by the keepers there, they made clear that they were all about conservation and sometimes were asking for donations. We saw a lot of wicked (a little lingo for ya... means similar to Awesome) shows about all sorts of different animals. Elephants, birds, tigers, crocs (CROCS RULE! as they always say) etc. and it was very informative and awesome to watch! Bindi's (Steve Irwin's daughter, she turned 11!) birthday was coming up on Friday so they were gearing up for that. They were expecting 10,000 people that day! As we were glancing through the gift shop I stumbled upon the book that Terri (Steve's wife) wrote about Steve and his life and decided to buy it. I already finished it! It was a wonderful book and I recommend it to everyone!
Wednesday was a pretty lame-o day. We woke up pretty early as check out was at 10. We went down and got breakfast by the beach and as we were sitting at a table outside the birds started to get closer. Next thing I knew a sea gull swooped down and literally tried to grab my food out of my hand! I was in shock that it was THAT brave. Needless to say, I hung on to my sandwich and didn't give him any! We boarded a bus around noon and sat on it for the next 8 hours while it took us to Hervey Bay. From there you grab the ferry that takes you over to Fraser Island and we were planning on doing that the next morning. It was a pretty relaxed bus ride, we got into our accomodation and pretty much just went to bed.
Thursday we got picked up bright and early and hopped on the ferry over to Fraser Island. We got picked up in our HUGE 4WD bus (there was a group of about 25 people) by our tour guide Chris. Wow that guy was knowledgable! Holy cow! A couple of things about Fraser... you can't swim in the ocean because of 1. the tiger sharks 2. the undercurrent and rips and 3. they drive cars on the beach and use them for airplane landing strips. There is a patch of beach (75 mile beach) that is used as a highway so people are driving darn fast on it, as a Chris claims loved by international drivers as you can drive on either side! Even though you cannot swin in ocean the island offers many freshwater lakes that you CAN swim in. The whole island is made of sand, so there are no paved roads, you just drive on the sand. It's a bit like riding a rollercoaster as it is incredibly uneven! So anyway, back to what we did Thursday. We walked to Lake Basin (our first freshwater lake stop!) and hung out there for a couple of minutes. They ask that people don't swim in this one. It is so small that all the oils from people affect the reptiles and fish too much. We then walked to Central Station (the middle of the rainforest) and back to the bus. The whole walk totaled about 5 km (which is a little over 3 miles). It was a wonderful walk, most of it being through the rainforest which was neat. We then ventured over to Lake Mackenzie which is the biggest and clearest of the freshwater lakes. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was a brilliant blue color, and it was COLD! I decided that even though it wasn't a very warm day, and a freezing cold lake, that I was going to swim in it anyway. Why not?! That only lasted a couple of minutes because I got bored by myself and it was cold, but hey! I still did it!! :D We didn't do much after that, just ate dinner and went to bed early (as usual haha).
Friday was jammed packed with stuff to do! We started out by checking out the Mojave Shipwreck on the beach, saw the Coloured Sands (big cliff sands in supposedly 78 shades of color), hiked up Indian Head which came with many phenominal views, chilled in the champagne pools (They are this rocky area where when the ocean spills over the rocks and into the pools it is said to look like champagne), walked around Eli Creek (the second biggest creek on the island), and did a lot of driving. I especially enjoyed the driving this day as we got to do a lot of driving down 75 mile beach and we saw 3 dingos today! They are sooo cool. They do look very much like a domestic dog but they actually run wild on the island. There are said to be between 150 and 250 of them running around. They are currently experiencing problems because people feed them and they are slowly becoming more and more reliant on people, as well as more agressive as well. They have been known to pick off small unattended children if they are desperate enough for food. There aren't many other big animals on the island for them to eat so sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. Ashton and I checked out the sunset over the ocean as we strolled the beach and played with the crabs that call the beach their home. They would run around in groups of hundreds of them and as we grew closer they would burrow down into their holes. They were awesome to watch!
Saturday was another busy day! We started the day at the lookout over Lake Wabby which was a stunning view. The lake is in the middle of a sandblow (a HUGE pile of sand that makes you feel like you are in the middle of the desert). You look around and all you see is sand and then all of a sudden there is this gorgeous green lake and then the rainforest. We walked down to the lake and hung out there for awhile. This lake is much greener as it is nutrient rich and there is a lot of algae in it that sustain the catfish population also present. We walked across the sandblow and out to the beach by the ocean where we met our guide again. We got back on the bus and started driving and saw ANOTHER dingo! It was so exciting! We had a wonderful buffet lunch at the other resort and then headed off to Lake Birrabeen. Unfortunately it was super cold this day so I didn't do any swimming. It was cold to the point where I wore a fleece almost all day! We got back to the resort, hung out for a bit, and boarded the ferry back to Hervey Bay. We stayed in Hervey Bay again for the night.
Sunday was a travel day. Our flight went out of Hervey Bay around 9:45 and we got back into Sydney around noon. I spent the day catching up with life on the computer, going to the market to re-stock my fridge, and grabbing some school supplies as school started Monday. I then had dinner with my friend Claudia and just hung out for the rest of the night. It was a very relaxing day after such a busy, long trip!
I will post pictures as soon as I can (I'll probably start now) so some of this stuff makes more sense. Next time on Val's blog: A lesson in Aussie lingo! Get excited!
Thanks for bearing with me on that super long post!
Val :)
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Harry Potter... again!
So today I woke up and went for a boardwalk walk this morning with a friend Danielle. It was absolutely gorgeous!!! We took a lot of pictures and I will post them... eventually. Today was a beautiful day, one of the warmest days in Sydney this far.
Then we went off and saw Harry Potter. This time I actually stayed awake for it :) I really enjoyed it, I thought it was done really well! I then headed home and have just been chilling at home for the evening, hanging out with my roommates and all of their friends.
This will be my last post for about a week as we are off to the Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise) and then to Fraser Island. I won't be back until next weekend so you won't hear for me for awhile and then it will be picture overload! Get excited!
Have a good week,
Val :)
Then we went off and saw Harry Potter. This time I actually stayed awake for it :) I really enjoyed it, I thought it was done really well! I then headed home and have just been chilling at home for the evening, hanging out with my roommates and all of their friends.
This will be my last post for about a week as we are off to the Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise) and then to Fraser Island. I won't be back until next weekend so you won't hear for me for awhile and then it will be picture overload! Get excited!
Have a good week,
Val :)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Travel Planning!
Today I finally got to sleep in! It was wonderful! I only ended up sleeping until about 9:30 but hey, it was better than having to get up early. Went for a run, and discovered this beautiful boardwalk that goes by the ocean for quite some time! The views were amazing, I still can't believe I am LIVING HERE!
My friends Ashton and Danielle then came over and we started looking at some trips that we wanted to put together. Ashton and I don't have class this week so we have a free week so we figured we would do some traveling! Why not!? We ended going over to Backpackers World Travel and they helped us book our trip! We are going to Fraser Island for a 3 day, 2 night guided tour and we are also spending 2 or 3 days on the Gold Coast relaxing on the beaches and stuff. We leave Monday!!!! I am not taking my computer with me, so unfortunately you guys will have to wait awhile to hear from me and see the next set of pictures. I am super excited to be doing that!!! After checking out all of the things at BAckpackers World, I realized there are so many different places that I want to go to, I don't think I'm going to have the time to see all places. Unfortunately I have class 5 days a week too so I won't have long weekends to travel (most people have at least 1 free day... but welcome to being a science major where you have no time haha) but oh well. I will get as many places I can, and the adventure begins Monday!
We had to run around town a bit trying to get that whole trip sorted out and so we ended up missing Harry Potter that we had planned on going to. :( Oh well! BUT we ended up trying Australian McDonalds and it tastes SOOOO much better than McDonalds does in the states! The beef is DELICIOUS (they even advertise that it's Aussie beef), everything in general is less greasy and much better quality. It was neat to be able to test it and see the differences.
We decided to just hang out at my apartment (which I LOVE) and watch a movie and relax tonight. We were all so tired from running around all week that it was nice to just relax for a couple of hours as that has not really happened yet!
Please leave me comments, I love to hear from everyone!
Val :)
My friends Ashton and Danielle then came over and we started looking at some trips that we wanted to put together. Ashton and I don't have class this week so we have a free week so we figured we would do some traveling! Why not!? We ended going over to Backpackers World Travel and they helped us book our trip! We are going to Fraser Island for a 3 day, 2 night guided tour and we are also spending 2 or 3 days on the Gold Coast relaxing on the beaches and stuff. We leave Monday!!!! I am not taking my computer with me, so unfortunately you guys will have to wait awhile to hear from me and see the next set of pictures. I am super excited to be doing that!!! After checking out all of the things at BAckpackers World, I realized there are so many different places that I want to go to, I don't think I'm going to have the time to see all places. Unfortunately I have class 5 days a week too so I won't have long weekends to travel (most people have at least 1 free day... but welcome to being a science major where you have no time haha) but oh well. I will get as many places I can, and the adventure begins Monday!
We had to run around town a bit trying to get that whole trip sorted out and so we ended up missing Harry Potter that we had planned on going to. :( Oh well! BUT we ended up trying Australian McDonalds and it tastes SOOOO much better than McDonalds does in the states! The beef is DELICIOUS (they even advertise that it's Aussie beef), everything in general is less greasy and much better quality. It was neat to be able to test it and see the differences.
We decided to just hang out at my apartment (which I LOVE) and watch a movie and relax tonight. We were all so tired from running around all week that it was nice to just relax for a couple of hours as that has not really happened yet!
Please leave me comments, I love to hear from everyone!
Val :)
PICTURES!!!
Here are the pictures that I have been promising to put up!
Enjoy,
Val :)
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The view from my balcony!
Coogee Beach (less than 10 blocks from my house!)
Enjoy,
Val :)
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The view from my balcony!
Coogee Beach (less than 10 blocks from my house!)
Friday, July 17, 2009
Orientation Day!!
So Friday we had orientation at the University of New South Wales!!!
Ok first of all, it is sooo weird because the busy street on the edge of campus is called HIGH STREET! Those of you who are OSU folks can realize how crazy that is! What are the chances!? But anyway, we got to campus fairly early so that we could walk around a bit and try to figure out where our classes our. Mine are all in one part of campus and none are too far from the bus stop so that is very nice! We went and sat in orientation for aboutg 4 hours... nothing too exciting there, and then went to a quick free BBQ for dinner... nothing like some free food :)
That night we went out in Sydney and I had a WONDERFUL time! Some friends of mine were on a pub crawl where they changed places every 30 minutes so we just found them in Sydney and hung out with them. We went to about 7 or 8 different places so it was cool to be able to experience Sydney that way. The people they went with are all people that live in their dorm building and they are from all over the world so it was cool to not just hang out with Americans but meet some Australians and other people as well. A lot of them are from around Australia so it was cool to see the differences in people, accents etc. One of them kept trying to figure out how to have an American accent and it was HILARIOUS! He was awful at it but it was sooo funny!
I gotta run though because some friends are on their way over so we can make travel plans for next week since I don't have any class! WOOO! But I will have HEAPS (thats a word the locals love to use) of pictures for you guys later. It may be tonight, may be tomorrow, not sure but get excited because they are GREAT!
Miss you all,
Val :)
P.S. for those of you real world watchers, I am TRYING to get caught up but time is just not allowing it. I will watch and we can discuss as soon as I finish (hopefully within the next week!)
Ok first of all, it is sooo weird because the busy street on the edge of campus is called HIGH STREET! Those of you who are OSU folks can realize how crazy that is! What are the chances!? But anyway, we got to campus fairly early so that we could walk around a bit and try to figure out where our classes our. Mine are all in one part of campus and none are too far from the bus stop so that is very nice! We went and sat in orientation for aboutg 4 hours... nothing too exciting there, and then went to a quick free BBQ for dinner... nothing like some free food :)
That night we went out in Sydney and I had a WONDERFUL time! Some friends of mine were on a pub crawl where they changed places every 30 minutes so we just found them in Sydney and hung out with them. We went to about 7 or 8 different places so it was cool to be able to experience Sydney that way. The people they went with are all people that live in their dorm building and they are from all over the world so it was cool to not just hang out with Americans but meet some Australians and other people as well. A lot of them are from around Australia so it was cool to see the differences in people, accents etc. One of them kept trying to figure out how to have an American accent and it was HILARIOUS! He was awful at it but it was sooo funny!
I gotta run though because some friends are on their way over so we can make travel plans for next week since I don't have any class! WOOO! But I will have HEAPS (thats a word the locals love to use) of pictures for you guys later. It may be tonight, may be tomorrow, not sure but get excited because they are GREAT!
Miss you all,
Val :)
P.S. for those of you real world watchers, I am TRYING to get caught up but time is just not allowing it. I will watch and we can discuss as soon as I finish (hopefully within the next week!)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Downtown Sydney!
Today was a wonderful day in downtown Sydney!!! (Sorry no pictures tonight as I am exhausted but maybe tomorrow :) )
I was woken up by my roommate moving in for the first time which was alright. It is nice for her to finally be here! Her name is Lindsey and she seems cool from what I saw of her today. Some friends and I then jumped on the bus (yet another one!) and headed to downtown Sydney and it let us off right at Circular Quay, about half way between the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was really nice to have the full day in the city and not really have any agenda... just knowing that we wanted to take a lot of pictures! We hung out around the two and around the warf for a couple of hours before walking around deeper in the city, again, with no destination in mind. We ran across a couple of cool shops so we spent some time in there. We ran into a wonderful ice cream place that was ice cream from all around the world! I tried "Hokey Pokey" from New Zeland and it was delicious! It was caramel and chocolate and yummmy. The kind they chose to represent America was fudge brownie... not sure how I feel about that.
It was hard to remember that simialry to how they drive, they also walk on the left side of the sidewalk. It is much more noticable in the city than it is around where I live as you don't too often pass someone on a narrow sidewalk around my apartment. I found myself drifting to the right and would have to consciously think about walking on the left again.
We then headed back to Coogee and hit up the Coogee Bay Hotel where Thursdays are dollar burgers... yummm. That was delicious and really fun because it was pretty much the place to be. Saw a lot of people we knew, both intentionally and unintentionally so that was fun! :) We then headed over to my friend Kim's house and hung out with her and her roommates for a bit and now I am here and ready to turn in early as I am EXHAUSTED! It has just been go go go for so many days that it is finally catching up with me. Orientation for the University is tomorrow so I need to get some good rest so as to be ready for that.
The weather today could not make up it's mind. Every day I have been in Sydney it has been sunny and decently warm. For those of you wondering what the weather is like at this time of year it is typically low to mid 60s during the day, getting colder at night (somewhere in the 50s). Today though it was overcast and 48 when I woke up, turned sunny, went overcast again (and fairly chilly), and tonight it was pouring rain. Not quite sure what it wanted to do. I really can't wait for it to warm up around here as it will be nice to be able to hang out by the beach a lot more!!
Cheers mate,
Val :)
p.s. the time on here is super wrong. It is currently 10:50 pm on Thursday July 16th. I haven't quite figured out how to change the time on this blog yet...
I was woken up by my roommate moving in for the first time which was alright. It is nice for her to finally be here! Her name is Lindsey and she seems cool from what I saw of her today. Some friends and I then jumped on the bus (yet another one!) and headed to downtown Sydney and it let us off right at Circular Quay, about half way between the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was really nice to have the full day in the city and not really have any agenda... just knowing that we wanted to take a lot of pictures! We hung out around the two and around the warf for a couple of hours before walking around deeper in the city, again, with no destination in mind. We ran across a couple of cool shops so we spent some time in there. We ran into a wonderful ice cream place that was ice cream from all around the world! I tried "Hokey Pokey" from New Zeland and it was delicious! It was caramel and chocolate and yummmy. The kind they chose to represent America was fudge brownie... not sure how I feel about that.
It was hard to remember that simialry to how they drive, they also walk on the left side of the sidewalk. It is much more noticable in the city than it is around where I live as you don't too often pass someone on a narrow sidewalk around my apartment. I found myself drifting to the right and would have to consciously think about walking on the left again.
We then headed back to Coogee and hit up the Coogee Bay Hotel where Thursdays are dollar burgers... yummm. That was delicious and really fun because it was pretty much the place to be. Saw a lot of people we knew, both intentionally and unintentionally so that was fun! :) We then headed over to my friend Kim's house and hung out with her and her roommates for a bit and now I am here and ready to turn in early as I am EXHAUSTED! It has just been go go go for so many days that it is finally catching up with me. Orientation for the University is tomorrow so I need to get some good rest so as to be ready for that.
The weather today could not make up it's mind. Every day I have been in Sydney it has been sunny and decently warm. For those of you wondering what the weather is like at this time of year it is typically low to mid 60s during the day, getting colder at night (somewhere in the 50s). Today though it was overcast and 48 when I woke up, turned sunny, went overcast again (and fairly chilly), and tonight it was pouring rain. Not quite sure what it wanted to do. I really can't wait for it to warm up around here as it will be nice to be able to hang out by the beach a lot more!!
Cheers mate,
Val :)
p.s. the time on here is super wrong. It is currently 10:50 pm on Thursday July 16th. I haven't quite figured out how to change the time on this blog yet...
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Public Transportation is wonderful!
What a crazy day! Public transportation became a good friend of mine! I finally bought a bus pass so I no longer have to worry about paying in change every time I get on! I ended up taking 6 different buses today!
I hopped on a bus (and transferred buses) with a couple of friends of mine and we went over to Bondi Beach/the town of Bondi and visited another friend of ours who is living over there. It is a very different experience over there. It was cool to see a lot of people at the beach, in the water, and even surfing! The town is also a lot bigger, and a bit more touristy. It was cool to check out what was going on over there.
After that I jumped on yet another bus and headed over to the University of New South Wales! It is a BEAUTIFUL, very large campus. Reminds me a little bit of Harry Potter... ok a lot bit! Again in typical fashion it is on a hill so there are many many stairs. I went in and got my ID card, my schedule etc and am ready to go. I also went and got my books so I am all set for school. Next week is the first week of classes but lucky for me I don't have classes the first week! I think some of us may plan to go on a trip somewhere while we have a week off! Why not? But yeah, I didn't get too much time on campus so I'm going early tomorrow to check it out before orientation starts.
After visiting campus we walked back (it's about a 20 or 25 minute walk back to my apartment), got all my stuff put away and went over to my friend Meredyth's house for dinner. After that we got a huge group of us together and went and saw HARRY POTTER!!! Which, this theatre was HUGE!!!! It was like an old theatre where they used to go musicals and stuff like there as there was a balcony, carpeted floors, and a stage. It was quite the theatre. But unfortunately (and don't hate me for this!) I fell asleep for about a quarter of the movie. I was so exhausted from running around all day and I'm still not completely jet-lag free so it didn't go so well. Actually most of us fell asleep at some point or another, I just missed more of the movie than some people. Needless to say I am planning on going back and giving it another go sometime this weekend hopefully. I did enjoy the parts I saw though! The movie was sooooo long... it was from 9:30-12:20 which is why it was so hard to stay awake.
Ok, so THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR... the toilet flush. Everyone always asks "does the toilet flush in the opposite direction of the way it flushes in the states?" Around here you usually can't really tell which way it flushes. I prefer to call it "a waterfall from the front". There is just a large amount of water that flows from the front of the toilet bowl all at once. It doesn't really flow in a circle. And also when you go to flush... there are two different buttons you can push. I hope you can all figure out the difference in the two :P
I also kept hearing about how the Coke tastes better here than it does in the states. Even though I don't drink much pop anymore (now that I am not an OA anymore!) I had to test the theory. Boy it sure is even more delicious over here!! Word on the street is that they use real sugar cane and not so much syrup. Not sure what the real reason is but it is wonderful! Yummmm.... if you ever come here try it out!
Well I'm off for a busy day in downtown Sydney and I will update about it later (hopefully with some pictures too),
Val :)
I hopped on a bus (and transferred buses) with a couple of friends of mine and we went over to Bondi Beach/the town of Bondi and visited another friend of ours who is living over there. It is a very different experience over there. It was cool to see a lot of people at the beach, in the water, and even surfing! The town is also a lot bigger, and a bit more touristy. It was cool to check out what was going on over there.
After that I jumped on yet another bus and headed over to the University of New South Wales! It is a BEAUTIFUL, very large campus. Reminds me a little bit of Harry Potter... ok a lot bit! Again in typical fashion it is on a hill so there are many many stairs. I went in and got my ID card, my schedule etc and am ready to go. I also went and got my books so I am all set for school. Next week is the first week of classes but lucky for me I don't have classes the first week! I think some of us may plan to go on a trip somewhere while we have a week off! Why not? But yeah, I didn't get too much time on campus so I'm going early tomorrow to check it out before orientation starts.
After visiting campus we walked back (it's about a 20 or 25 minute walk back to my apartment), got all my stuff put away and went over to my friend Meredyth's house for dinner. After that we got a huge group of us together and went and saw HARRY POTTER!!! Which, this theatre was HUGE!!!! It was like an old theatre where they used to go musicals and stuff like there as there was a balcony, carpeted floors, and a stage. It was quite the theatre. But unfortunately (and don't hate me for this!) I fell asleep for about a quarter of the movie. I was so exhausted from running around all day and I'm still not completely jet-lag free so it didn't go so well. Actually most of us fell asleep at some point or another, I just missed more of the movie than some people. Needless to say I am planning on going back and giving it another go sometime this weekend hopefully. I did enjoy the parts I saw though! The movie was sooooo long... it was from 9:30-12:20 which is why it was so hard to stay awake.
Ok, so THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR... the toilet flush. Everyone always asks "does the toilet flush in the opposite direction of the way it flushes in the states?" Around here you usually can't really tell which way it flushes. I prefer to call it "a waterfall from the front". There is just a large amount of water that flows from the front of the toilet bowl all at once. It doesn't really flow in a circle. And also when you go to flush... there are two different buttons you can push. I hope you can all figure out the difference in the two :P
I also kept hearing about how the Coke tastes better here than it does in the states. Even though I don't drink much pop anymore (now that I am not an OA anymore!) I had to test the theory. Boy it sure is even more delicious over here!! Word on the street is that they use real sugar cane and not so much syrup. Not sure what the real reason is but it is wonderful! Yummmm.... if you ever come here try it out!
Well I'm off for a busy day in downtown Sydney and I will update about it later (hopefully with some pictures too),
Val :)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Wow.... this place is GORGEOUS!
Good evening everyone! Tonight is a late night entry... it is 1:00 am! Boy am I tired... especially after the crazy day I had today!
It was pretty crazy because the plan I had in my head definitely did not turn out to be the plan that went into action! I had planned to wake up, go get my friend Kim, go to campus and then go to the mall. Well I woke up, realized I STILL didn't have any food to eat, and that Kim didn't have a phone. So I decided to just walk over to Kim's house and boy is this town hilly! Holy cow! People seem to compare it to San Francisco. Well I live on one hill (and hill just doesn't do it justice lol) and Kim lives on another so I had to walk down mine, and then up hers and hers is steep!!! So I get to her house to find one of her roommates and she informed me that Kim was gone for the day (ugh!) and there was no way to get a hold of her. So I ended up at another friends house with which we decided to go over to the mall and get everything we needed. So I finally got sheets, hand soap, and other necessities. Oh, and side note for those of you who ever plan to attend an Australian mall, you can't sit on the ground, and you can't stand in front of stores and wait for people. You have to be out of the way of the door... strange. We had our first adventure on public transportation here... not too bad actually. The buses work a lot like the ones do in the States. We then realized that we weren't going to make it to the International office by the time it closed so I went on to plan B. I got back, put my stuff away from the mall and just hung out a bit on my patio. It was a beautiful 60 degree sunny day so I figured I should enjoy it while I could! I then decided to go for a run (again this place is CRAZY hilly!) and that was interesting. It was nice to do a bit of exploring around my apartment and I also ran down to the beach and got to enjoy that. It is BEAUTIFUL! I still can't believe that I live literally 4 blocks from the beach! :D LOVE IT! I then FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY found the grocery store and stocked up on some food for my fridge! It was a good feeling after not really knowing when/where my next meal was for awhile there. Spent the evening with all my American buddies and it was nice to have everyone together again. I can't wait to start really getting to interact with the locals though! Just a few more days before school starts!!!!
So the shopping at the grocery store was a little bit different than normal. First of all, things tend to be more expensive than they are in the states. That is how most things are around here. Also, it's strange to see different brands on everything. I did as much bargain shopping as I could. If you are going to be in Australia anytime soon I HIGHLY recommend trying Tim Tams. They are a type of chocolaty cookie and they are delicious! Also, nobody really uses plastic bags around here. Everyone uses the environmentally friendly re-usable bags for most things they need to carry.
Oh and one more thing... I'm still waiting on the girl that is supposed to be living in my bedroom with me. I'm not sure when she is going to be here but I hope soon! I don't really see the other two girls often... it has probably been a total of about a half an hour since I got here! It will be interesting to see if that changes once school starts. I actually am VERY excited to start school... which I NEVER thought I would say haha!
Slowly starting to figure out that traffic is coming from the other direction when crossing the street,
Val :)
It was pretty crazy because the plan I had in my head definitely did not turn out to be the plan that went into action! I had planned to wake up, go get my friend Kim, go to campus and then go to the mall. Well I woke up, realized I STILL didn't have any food to eat, and that Kim didn't have a phone. So I decided to just walk over to Kim's house and boy is this town hilly! Holy cow! People seem to compare it to San Francisco. Well I live on one hill (and hill just doesn't do it justice lol) and Kim lives on another so I had to walk down mine, and then up hers and hers is steep!!! So I get to her house to find one of her roommates and she informed me that Kim was gone for the day (ugh!) and there was no way to get a hold of her. So I ended up at another friends house with which we decided to go over to the mall and get everything we needed. So I finally got sheets, hand soap, and other necessities. Oh, and side note for those of you who ever plan to attend an Australian mall, you can't sit on the ground, and you can't stand in front of stores and wait for people. You have to be out of the way of the door... strange. We had our first adventure on public transportation here... not too bad actually. The buses work a lot like the ones do in the States. We then realized that we weren't going to make it to the International office by the time it closed so I went on to plan B. I got back, put my stuff away from the mall and just hung out a bit on my patio. It was a beautiful 60 degree sunny day so I figured I should enjoy it while I could! I then decided to go for a run (again this place is CRAZY hilly!) and that was interesting. It was nice to do a bit of exploring around my apartment and I also ran down to the beach and got to enjoy that. It is BEAUTIFUL! I still can't believe that I live literally 4 blocks from the beach! :D LOVE IT! I then FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY found the grocery store and stocked up on some food for my fridge! It was a good feeling after not really knowing when/where my next meal was for awhile there. Spent the evening with all my American buddies and it was nice to have everyone together again. I can't wait to start really getting to interact with the locals though! Just a few more days before school starts!!!!
So the shopping at the grocery store was a little bit different than normal. First of all, things tend to be more expensive than they are in the states. That is how most things are around here. Also, it's strange to see different brands on everything. I did as much bargain shopping as I could. If you are going to be in Australia anytime soon I HIGHLY recommend trying Tim Tams. They are a type of chocolaty cookie and they are delicious! Also, nobody really uses plastic bags around here. Everyone uses the environmentally friendly re-usable bags for most things they need to carry.
Oh and one more thing... I'm still waiting on the girl that is supposed to be living in my bedroom with me. I'm not sure when she is going to be here but I hope soon! I don't really see the other two girls often... it has probably been a total of about a half an hour since I got here! It will be interesting to see if that changes once school starts. I actually am VERY excited to start school... which I NEVER thought I would say haha!
Slowly starting to figure out that traffic is coming from the other direction when crossing the street,
Val :)
Monday, July 13, 2009
Welcome to Sydney!
Now that I am settled in Sydney (I will get to that later) I am free to be on the internet whenever I chose so I will be trying to update regulary.
The day on the reef was a pretty good day! Another busy one that's for sure! We woke up to partly cloudy skys and took off pretty early for the warf and the reef. The boat ride out to the reef spots we were hanging out at was about 2 hours. It went fairly quickly actually, but unfortunately it became pretty overcast on the way out there. It really wasnt that warm either... MAYBE mid 70s but probably low 70s. We had the option to snorkel or scuba dive. I chose to snorkel as I was pretty clogged up from allergies and flying a bunch and I just wasn't sure if my ears couple handle diving it that day. We got to snorkle off of a beach on an island in the middle of the ocean! It was pretty incredible snorkeling really... we saw 2 sea turtles, lots of fish and cool types of coral. Spotted a sea star too which was new for me so that was exciting! It was overcast all day and rainy also which was a bummer but oh well! Nothing we could do so we did the best to have a positive attitude about it.
After the reef we had another orientation session and dinner. After that we decided to check out the night life of Cairns. We did some bar hopping (the drinking age is 18 which is different) and ended up at 3 different bars throughout the night. They were called Shenanigans (what a wonderful name! :D), PJ O'Briens, and the Woolshed. Did that with a bunch of my new friends from America (hadn't really hung out with any of the locals yet as we weren't in Sydney with the school yet). It was a wonderful time and I am glad that I took the time to go out and experience the nightlife there in Cairns!
Today we had a travel day from Cairns to Sydney. It was quite an adventurous day! First our flight kept being delayed until it ended up being delayed an hour. Which we didn't really see to be a huge deal. It was a fairly uneventful start to the day after that. Once I stepped off the plane is when the madness really started. First of all, the person that was supposed to pick us up wasn't there. We rang her (I'm starting to use the lingo haha) and she said she would be there in 20 minutes. That because our group was running late she had to take another group to their accomodations instead of waiting for us. So we waited like lost children in the Sydney airport for about 45 minutes before calling her again. She said that there was a "bus party" and that she wouldn't be picking us up after all and somebody else would be. They finally showed up about a half an hour after that. So we all moved our stuff and went over to the vans in which they were going to transport us. Well turns out they were 2 seats short for the amount of people that we had. So somehow my friend Kim and I ended up being left out of the transportation that was supposed to be provided for us. We were told to go catch a cab (easier said than done when you are in an unknown airport) and that the study abroad office would eventually pay for it. We spent 10 minutes or so trying to track down the taxi area before a local pointed us in the right direction. It kinda stunk though to be left out of the transportation that we were expecting to have. Oh well.... we just looked at it as one more adventure to encounter. So the taxi driver didn't even know where he was going when he started driving and kept trying to look at the map during stop lights! btw ("by the way" for those of you not so up to date on your internet lingo) the taxis here are much nicer than the ones in the states. Not so intense either. Like the types of cars they use are nicer and also there is no seperation between driver and the passengers in the back like there are in the ones in the states. They are def. not so worried about stuff over here in general and I really appreciate that!
But anyway.... he got me to my apartment building in which he just dropped me and my stuff off. I got out of the car and hardly knew what to do with myself! I then spent 10 or so minutes trying to lug my suitcases up a bunch of flights of stairs (and soon thereafter discovering the elevator) and about 10 or so more minutes trying to find my room. I am staying in room 11 and I couldn't figure it out as I could find rooms 10 and 13 but not 11 or 12. I was soooo confused and starting to get really frustrated. I kept riding the elevator up and down and could NOT figure it out. I eventually ended up in the basement parking garage where I realized there are 2 diff. elevators that serve different places... WEIRD! but anyway I was pretty embarassed that I had that much difficulty finding the room but it was ok because I saw NOBODY in the mean time. So I finally found my room and walked into an apartment that is clearly already occupied by SOMEONE. Well I poked around and concluded that 2 of the girls were already moved in and that one had still not arrived. Neither one of them was here which made me feel pretty lonely. My roommate (the one who I was sharing a bedroom with) is still not here and I could tell because our whole bedroom and bathroom are empty. We have a HUGE apartment and it's super nice! So by now it is dark outside but I am so lonely because I haven't seen anyone around, I didn't have any food because I didn't know where the grocery store is, I can't get on the internet beause I didn't have the password, and it was dark so I figured I shouldn't be walking around in dark. I decided to take a shower and begin to unpack when my roommates came back. They are super nice and I think that I will enjoy living with them. They took me down to the convenience store where I got some food and stuff. After that we just hung out around the apartment for a bit, they have plans to go out, and I am going just going to unpack and hit the sack because I am EXHAUSTED! It is nice to finally get to put stuff away and not have to live out of suitcase anymore! Unfortunately our closet was only built for one person and it is going to be incredibly hard to fit two people's stuff in there but hey, we have to make it work! So now I'm sitting here trying not to fall asleep, updating this and catching up with the real world. Here are a couple of pictures for you guys to enjoy :D
oh and people keep asking about the boomerang success from the last post... it curved like it was supposed to but didn't have quite enough power to make it back to me. its harder than it looks! even the guy teaching us didn't get all of his to come back to him! it was a great experience to get to try though! :)
Thanks again for reading,
Val :)
The day on the reef was a pretty good day! Another busy one that's for sure! We woke up to partly cloudy skys and took off pretty early for the warf and the reef. The boat ride out to the reef spots we were hanging out at was about 2 hours. It went fairly quickly actually, but unfortunately it became pretty overcast on the way out there. It really wasnt that warm either... MAYBE mid 70s but probably low 70s. We had the option to snorkel or scuba dive. I chose to snorkel as I was pretty clogged up from allergies and flying a bunch and I just wasn't sure if my ears couple handle diving it that day. We got to snorkle off of a beach on an island in the middle of the ocean! It was pretty incredible snorkeling really... we saw 2 sea turtles, lots of fish and cool types of coral. Spotted a sea star too which was new for me so that was exciting! It was overcast all day and rainy also which was a bummer but oh well! Nothing we could do so we did the best to have a positive attitude about it.
After the reef we had another orientation session and dinner. After that we decided to check out the night life of Cairns. We did some bar hopping (the drinking age is 18 which is different) and ended up at 3 different bars throughout the night. They were called Shenanigans (what a wonderful name! :D), PJ O'Briens, and the Woolshed. Did that with a bunch of my new friends from America (hadn't really hung out with any of the locals yet as we weren't in Sydney with the school yet). It was a wonderful time and I am glad that I took the time to go out and experience the nightlife there in Cairns!
Today we had a travel day from Cairns to Sydney. It was quite an adventurous day! First our flight kept being delayed until it ended up being delayed an hour. Which we didn't really see to be a huge deal. It was a fairly uneventful start to the day after that. Once I stepped off the plane is when the madness really started. First of all, the person that was supposed to pick us up wasn't there. We rang her (I'm starting to use the lingo haha) and she said she would be there in 20 minutes. That because our group was running late she had to take another group to their accomodations instead of waiting for us. So we waited like lost children in the Sydney airport for about 45 minutes before calling her again. She said that there was a "bus party" and that she wouldn't be picking us up after all and somebody else would be. They finally showed up about a half an hour after that. So we all moved our stuff and went over to the vans in which they were going to transport us. Well turns out they were 2 seats short for the amount of people that we had. So somehow my friend Kim and I ended up being left out of the transportation that was supposed to be provided for us. We were told to go catch a cab (easier said than done when you are in an unknown airport) and that the study abroad office would eventually pay for it. We spent 10 minutes or so trying to track down the taxi area before a local pointed us in the right direction. It kinda stunk though to be left out of the transportation that we were expecting to have. Oh well.... we just looked at it as one more adventure to encounter. So the taxi driver didn't even know where he was going when he started driving and kept trying to look at the map during stop lights! btw ("by the way" for those of you not so up to date on your internet lingo) the taxis here are much nicer than the ones in the states. Not so intense either. Like the types of cars they use are nicer and also there is no seperation between driver and the passengers in the back like there are in the ones in the states. They are def. not so worried about stuff over here in general and I really appreciate that!
But anyway.... he got me to my apartment building in which he just dropped me and my stuff off. I got out of the car and hardly knew what to do with myself! I then spent 10 or so minutes trying to lug my suitcases up a bunch of flights of stairs (and soon thereafter discovering the elevator) and about 10 or so more minutes trying to find my room. I am staying in room 11 and I couldn't figure it out as I could find rooms 10 and 13 but not 11 or 12. I was soooo confused and starting to get really frustrated. I kept riding the elevator up and down and could NOT figure it out. I eventually ended up in the basement parking garage where I realized there are 2 diff. elevators that serve different places... WEIRD! but anyway I was pretty embarassed that I had that much difficulty finding the room but it was ok because I saw NOBODY in the mean time. So I finally found my room and walked into an apartment that is clearly already occupied by SOMEONE. Well I poked around and concluded that 2 of the girls were already moved in and that one had still not arrived. Neither one of them was here which made me feel pretty lonely. My roommate (the one who I was sharing a bedroom with) is still not here and I could tell because our whole bedroom and bathroom are empty. We have a HUGE apartment and it's super nice! So by now it is dark outside but I am so lonely because I haven't seen anyone around, I didn't have any food because I didn't know where the grocery store is, I can't get on the internet beause I didn't have the password, and it was dark so I figured I shouldn't be walking around in dark. I decided to take a shower and begin to unpack when my roommates came back. They are super nice and I think that I will enjoy living with them. They took me down to the convenience store where I got some food and stuff. After that we just hung out around the apartment for a bit, they have plans to go out, and I am going just going to unpack and hit the sack because I am EXHAUSTED! It is nice to finally get to put stuff away and not have to live out of suitcase anymore! Unfortunately our closet was only built for one person and it is going to be incredibly hard to fit two people's stuff in there but hey, we have to make it work! So now I'm sitting here trying not to fall asleep, updating this and catching up with the real world. Here are a couple of pictures for you guys to enjoy :D
oh and people keep asking about the boomerang success from the last post... it curved like it was supposed to but didn't have quite enough power to make it back to me. its harder than it looks! even the guy teaching us didn't get all of his to come back to him! it was a great experience to get to try though! :)
Thanks again for reading,
Val :)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
G'DAY MATE!
Greetings from Cairns Australia!
I have successfully made it to Cairns Australia where I will be until Monday. When we got here on Friday we just did a lot of housekeeping sort of things and hung out and went to bed early. Man was I exhausted!!!! Today (Saturday) we had a very exciting day! We were up bright and early and off to the rainforest! We went on an Army Duck boat ride (the vehicles that go both on land and in water!) and learned all about the vegetation in the rainforest. After that we learned a lot about the Aboriginal people and their way of life. I got to play a didgeridoo, learn to throw a boomerang, hold a koala, and play with kangaroos. It was AMAZING! After that they gave us a free night to do whatever we wanted in Cairns. We are currently exploring (and we stumbled across this internet cafe) and then are heading to dinner. Tomorrow we are hanging out at the Great Barrier Reef! I will fill you in on that next time I post!
I probably won't have internet again until I get settled in at my place in Sydney. Hopefully that will be in the middle of next week but I will post again asap! :) Hopefully I will also be able to post some pics for you guys as I should be able to do that from my laptop!
Miss you all and hope all is well in the US! Feel free to tell people to "follow" me here!
Val :)
p.s. passionfruit is delicious and I highly recommend trying it if presented the opportunity!!
I have successfully made it to Cairns Australia where I will be until Monday. When we got here on Friday we just did a lot of housekeeping sort of things and hung out and went to bed early. Man was I exhausted!!!! Today (Saturday) we had a very exciting day! We were up bright and early and off to the rainforest! We went on an Army Duck boat ride (the vehicles that go both on land and in water!) and learned all about the vegetation in the rainforest. After that we learned a lot about the Aboriginal people and their way of life. I got to play a didgeridoo, learn to throw a boomerang, hold a koala, and play with kangaroos. It was AMAZING! After that they gave us a free night to do whatever we wanted in Cairns. We are currently exploring (and we stumbled across this internet cafe) and then are heading to dinner. Tomorrow we are hanging out at the Great Barrier Reef! I will fill you in on that next time I post!
I probably won't have internet again until I get settled in at my place in Sydney. Hopefully that will be in the middle of next week but I will post again asap! :) Hopefully I will also be able to post some pics for you guys as I should be able to do that from my laptop!
Miss you all and hope all is well in the US! Feel free to tell people to "follow" me here!
Val :)
p.s. passionfruit is delicious and I highly recommend trying it if presented the opportunity!!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
I'm in LA!!!!
Hey everyone!
I'm just starting this blog while I sit in the LA airport. I have an almost 12 hour layover here... YUCK! But hey, I'm on the internet and this should help pass a lot of my time. So at about 11ish tonight (Pacific Time) I'm getting on my flight to Australia! Unfortunately it is going to be super long, and then I have to get on yet another flight to get to my program orientation. But I will have a few days there before I get on a plane and go down to Sydney and to the University of New South Wales!
I can't wait to hear from all of you through facebook, or e-mail, or even just comments here on my blog! Please don't lose touch! I will do my best (and I'm usually pretty good at it!) to write back to everyone. I will also do my best to keep you guys all posted and hopefully I can figure out how to put pictures on here too!
Thanks for checking out my blog and have a wonderful day,
Val :)
I'm just starting this blog while I sit in the LA airport. I have an almost 12 hour layover here... YUCK! But hey, I'm on the internet and this should help pass a lot of my time. So at about 11ish tonight (Pacific Time) I'm getting on my flight to Australia! Unfortunately it is going to be super long, and then I have to get on yet another flight to get to my program orientation. But I will have a few days there before I get on a plane and go down to Sydney and to the University of New South Wales!
I can't wait to hear from all of you through facebook, or e-mail, or even just comments here on my blog! Please don't lose touch! I will do my best (and I'm usually pretty good at it!) to write back to everyone. I will also do my best to keep you guys all posted and hopefully I can figure out how to put pictures on here too!
Thanks for checking out my blog and have a wonderful day,
Val :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
