The weekend is finallly here!

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 :)