Lorne Orientation Trip

G’Day Mates! It’s quite hot here today, and will be all weekend! I’m getting a little bored of having nothing to do. I know, seems crazy, but I’m here for a total of 3 weeks before school starts, it’s beginning to drive me crazy! But the rest of the aussies move in this weekend which will help a lot. We enrolled today, so that was exciting, and tomorrow we’ll pick out the times for our classes. I was a little disappointed because they wouldn’t let me take 5 classes, they said I couldn’t, so I’m stuck with only 3 business classes and the one Australia Today class. That just means one more class next semester, but I’m sure it will be okay. This weekend I’m excited because we’re going to Melbourne Saturday and down the Bellarine peninsula Sunday to the beaches and such. It should be pretty awesome.

The first three days of this week were quite amazing as well. We had our orientation trip down to Lorne, it was more of just a beach vacation which was nice. It was so relaxing. I’ve never experienced such a trip! On our vacations back home we don’t have much time so we go go go to see everything and stuff, which still calls for an amazing time, but this was so different. Lorne is a little tiny town all about tourism now. It started out as a fishing town, but the fish are mostly gone now, so it’s a tourist place, and a place for Australians to have summer homes. The pop is about 2000 but reaches 20000 in the summer! So we sort of took over, with over 200 of us international students from all the campuses. I stayed in a really nice hotel in a “unit”, like a little apartment, with Loretta, Jenny, and Sophie from England. It was pretty amazing. I spent a lot of both days just laying on the couch with the back porch doors open listening to the ocean that was down the hill across the street. We also laid out on the beach for awhile both days. It was all free to us except for one lunch as well, pretty nice! We had a great dinner both nights, at different restaurants. One was sort of Mexican, and the other was grilled barbeque stuff, delicious! I was actually full, too, which was a wonderful change. Monday we were so tired and didn’t get done with dinner til after 9 so we went back watched some TV and went to bed. Each day we had to be up by 7 anyway! So Tuesday were our activities they had set up for us. I didn’t get all that I had signed up for, so I only went to one of them, they were pretty much optional. My morning one was hiking and it was pretty spectacular. I loved it. It was actually a bit of a hike, too, I was tired!! We walked along the beach for awhile, but the beach turned into all rocks, so we had to do rock hopping for awhile making our way across! Scary! But I did good. Our guide showed us some crabs under the rocks and a prehistoric creature I couldn’t hear the name of. They outlived the dinosaurs and are still here, they are just this little thing with 8 plates for protection and they slither along the rock and eat algae, that’s it. Then we went up into the forest. It was much cooler in there thank goodness! I was amazed at how green and quiet and calm it was since the draught is so bad right now! It was gorgeous in there, we saw a few streams and lots of birds. It was fun to listen to them, there are some very different sounding birds here! The worst part was the trek out of the forest, it was a huge steep hill! Unfortunately we didn’t see any kangaroo or koalas, but Loretta did when she went later! I saw some horses in the pasture and birds was all. Thankfully no snakes either though! There are spiders and ants all over though. Mostly daddy long legs though, no worries. So after the hike I rested awhile, then rested on the beach awhile! There was a big fire in the distance that we later found out an arsonist started, not good in these conditions. We got to watch a lot of the surfers too, but nothing too spectacular. I went back a ways on the beach to where we’d gone earlier on the hike so I could pick up some sea shells and take some more pictures. It was so gorgeous, really, none of my pictures can capture how beautiful anything is. But I got a bunch of cool sea shells and took way too many pictures before going back to the hotel to lay around a bit more. I’ve never experienced such relaxation, I highly recommend it. Oh, I also bought some ½ price bread at the local bakery and when the girls went later they bought some and were told to take whatever else they wanted for free! Not fair! We started to go out to the local pub Tuesday night but Loretta and I decided it wasn’t that much fun and we were tired so went to bed. Wednesday was our long day! We were on a bus most of the day. We got up early to eat breakfast before heading out. They took us to see the Twelve Apostles and drive along The Great Ocean Road! It was spectacular! AND, we saw a koala! It was in the middle of the road, we had to wait for it, but that was a probably a really bad, sad thing since he was most likely lost and not going to make it back safely. I saw another one in a tree along the way as well! So I was happy! So I sat on the wrong side of the bus and didn’t get any pictures of the amazing views of the ocean from the road, but I got to see them so it’s okay! We made a stop at Mait’s Rainforest walk, it was a short little path in the rainforest there, pretty incredible. It was actually cold in there! It was amazing to be in the rainforest, so much vegetation! Then we were on our way again. The Twelve Apostles were actually much more amazing than I even though they would be! I don’t know why, they just seemed bigger, closer and more incredible than I had imagined. So of course I took way too many pictures there. Too bad it was a little foggy, but you could still see them fine. We also went somewhere else to get another view of them and see where the ship wrecked there and the two surviving people lived in a cave for awhile. Then we went to Gibson Steps to go down to the beach and see yet another side of the rocks. It was gorgeous. The ocean is so pretty! Some people were complaining about being on the bus and that they didn’t care to see these things. I was in shock! You could complain about seeing such beauty and something known around the world?! Whatever. So anyway, we drove back the inland way to Geelong, it was much faster, though not as pretty. We saw a lot of farmland though, and some cows and sheep. I met a girl on the bus and my hike from North Carolina, she was pretty interesting, we talked a whole lot and it was a little tiring for me! But she was nice.

When we got back here they got some buses and took some of us into town to eat dinner. It was Valentine’s Day so I got dressed up sort of because I wanted to since I would if I were home! But everyone else was all depressed so it sort of hurt my mood you know. I was sad I couldn’t be home with my valentine, but I wasn’t depressed because I know I have one at home! That’s a happy thing! But again, whatever, people can complain and be poopy all they want, I’m not doing that, I’m in Australia for goodness sake!! Dinner did kind of suck though. And that’s all we did seeing as everyone else were being downers. I got to sleep this morning! Yay! But I’m pretty bored today and will be tomorrow as well. Oh well, it will get better when we actually start school! I’m not sure how it works or what it costs, but if YOU can figure it out, you’re more than welcome to call my cell phone or text me if you’d like. The number is 0434085254. I don’t know anything about international stuff with it though. The other number I gave was my room phone. Well, phew, good job if you made it through that! I just have all this time on my hands, I have to do something somewhat productive!! Let me know how you’re doing! I still miss and love you guys!

Bye now!, Alissa