What a HUGE week! This whole studying abroad thing is crazy, it’s way more than you can imagine, yet everything you could ever imagine. I think the most incredible thing is how often you keep learning little life lessons, you are continually being shown new things about yourself and the world around you. It’s insane. Amazing. Indescribable really. I’ve had a really positive and rewarding week, and a very difficult one as well. I can’t get over the fact that I’m here, that I’m living this, that I’m so lucky. I’m amazed at the strength and will power that I’ve seen from myself while here. I’m proud of myself, and although a little sick of it, glad to be so challenged. Time seems to be flying by, I can’t believe I’ve been here for two months already, it makes me sad for when the day comes I have to leave this incredible place, oh how quickly you become attached! So what did I do you ask? Well here let me tell you.
Monday was exciting and I’d been looking forward to it since the day I left! My mom came and I got to see her for the day! She was in Melbourne for the day as a stop on her cruise. So I went into Melbourne that morning, way too early, and met up with her. That was interesting in itself. I had my first assignment due that day, so I finished it up the night before, really it was all making it look pretty and figuring out how to put our graphs into the word document. Well, turns out I was doing it in Works and it couldn’t be read in the lab to print it off, or to turn it in online. So it took me forever to figure out how to make it work with my computer, after a call to my dad I finally got it working. Well I was done with it about 10pm but didn’t get to turn it in til almost 1am!! I took about five trips running back and forth between the lab and my unit and Loretta’s unit (we worked on it together since she’s in my class). It was very stressful for me, being my first assignment at uni, they are more stressful to begin with seeing as they are worth 15% of my grade, not just another assignment like back home that you can always gain back the points if you screw one up. Anyway, my point is I was stressed and tired and didn’t get to bed til much later than anticipated. I had my alarm set for 5:15 Monday morning! You do the math, not near enough sleep, especially for being on the verge of sickness. I guess my body decided that was too early, because I very vaguely remember the alarm going off, but don’t remember doing anything about it. Next thing I know I wake up and it’s 6:30! The bus to the train station left at 6:12 if I wanted to get there by a certain time! So I was freaking out, yet again, I mean if I didn‘t get there in time I had no way of contacting Mom and telling her. But I put on my logic hat and figured it out, okay a bus won’t get you there in time, so call a cab. I got ready really fast, good thing I’d gotten most of my stuff together the night before! And by the time I got to the bus stop the taxi was there! So I had to pay $19 more than the bus ride, but I still got to the train station with 3 minutes to spare before the 7:23 train to Melbourne, my latest option I had figured out to work. Phew. So I got there fine, but then had to figure out where the bus stops were, I knew which bus route I had to take, but wasn’t sure where to get on it. So I just walked out of the station, after switching trains to get to Flinder’s St instead of Southern Cross where the train from Geelong ends, and hoped to find it, and I did! I walked right into it. I only had to wait about 5 minutes for the next bus, too, which was perfect. So then I wasn’t real sure where to get off but online thought the intersection of beach and bridge st. in Port Melbourne looked right, so that’s where I got off. It took a bit of a long time because of morning traffic going to work. I went into the local chemist to ask where Station Pier was and they told me, but informed me it was about a 15 minute walk, indeed it was. But luckily Mom called me on my cell phone to see where I was, seeing as I was about 10 minutes late. But I found them and got a BIG hug!!! It was great. It was funny to see so many tourists, they looked like it! So we all loaded on to the next tram back into the city, that was interesting. We got off and walked around for quite awhile. I took them down to the Yarra River to walk along there for awhile til we got to Flinders St Station and Federation Square. Then we hoped on the free city circle tram for tourists. We rode that awhile just to see the city some. I think we got off first at the Victoria Market, then caught the other free tourist tram which was nicer, and got off on the other side of town at the Botanical Gardens and The Shrine of Remembrance. That was pretty cool, it was a WWII memorial and was quite pretty, with an eternal flame and some poppies and a big cool monument building. Then we headed back into the main heart of the city to eat some lunch. We walked around awhile to find somewhere we wanted and saw a lot of cool little places and side streets doing so. We ate at some place called Maori I think, sandwiches and such, it was good. Then we walked over to the Treasury Gardens, a nice little park, and on across the street to the Fitzroy Gardens. I really liked this park. It was so green and quiet and peaceful, right in the big city. We saw the Fairies Tree carved for the children of Melbourne, and the Sinclair cottage that was the original gardener’s, and Cook’s Cottage, as in Captain Cook who came and settled Australia. There was also a really nice conservatory and beautiful plants and flowers everywhere, it was a nice walk. Finally, we started walking back into the city and slowly worked our way back to the tram stop they had to catch to get back to the Pier. We stopped in a little mall to look around and a little café to get something to drink. Then it was time for them to get back! So I got another great big hug and a see you in a couple weeks and I was on my way back to the train station to head home. Whew, this is getting to be a long day, eh? That’s what I thought because I was running on little sleep and I was definitely getting sick, that was the beginning. So I found which platform my train was at, it wasn’t leaving for another 40 minutes, but that was okay. I was waiting to get on the train and it never opened up. There were a whole bunch of us quite upset. I guess they were waiting on another train to come and connect to this one but it never showed up and they hadn’t heard anything. So we all had to get on the already full train on the next platform leaving about 10 minutes after that one was scheduled to. It was quite frustrating. So I had to stand in the little area where the doors to the train are in the first class car, fabulous. I was so tired and we’d done a lot of walking, and now I had to stand for the next hour doing nothing! But I made it, it was a long ride but what can you do. I left Mom about 4 and didn’t get home til about 7 after all that confusion. When I got back I had to walk to downtown Geelong to catch the bus back to Uni, that was a long ride home. Anyway, I got a bit of food and forced myself to stay up for just a couple more hours and went to bed around 9! I was so exhausted.
Tuesday I got up and went to my first two classes, but skipped the third because I felt so terrible. I was definitely sick, it just felt like a really bad cold. (Whew, I’m getting tired typing, it feels like me and the screen are moving around a lot, you’ll find out why later, just thought I’d note it.) So I went back to my room and decided to go into town to get some juice, soup, medicine, and Kleenex. That was good, and when I came back I just laid in bed all day and dozed in and out. I didn’t feel well. Wednesday was worse, I just stayed in bed the entire day, sleeping, driving myself insane, and playing solitaire. I made it down to caf though, and actually ate quite a lot! It took me awhile, but I pretty much finished off my bowl of pasta and plate of salad and fruit and rolls, and my éclair! The boys were impressed with me, haha. My head was hurting with so much pressure and I couldn’t stop blowing my nose. I slept a whole lot each night as well, about 10 hours. It was incredible, I haven’t been able to sleep near that much in forever, I guess you war your body down enough it will react and force you to get better. Well, Thursday I still felt really terrible, even worse I thought. So I got up and went to see the campus nurse who thought it may be more than just a cold. So I got to see the doctor right then and he asked a few questions about what I’d felt like and then checked in my ears and said, oh yeah, you have a middle ear infection definitely. Yikes! I haven’t had one of those since I was a little kid, but then I used to get them often. He asked if I’d been under stress lately as if that’s the only reason I got sick, yep. So he wrote me a prescription and I was on my way. I had to try and figure out my insurance card because I automatically have the Overseas Health Coverage, but ordered the actual card and never got it. Deb, the Deakin International lady, helped me out and got it figured out, but I still have to wait on my card. Anyway, then I waited for the next bus to the nearest shopping center, it only comes a few times a day. I went there and found the Chemist and filled my prescription. That was the best part of the day!! I looked and felt terrible and it took all my strength to make that trip seeing as just walking to class had been wearing me out. However, the pharmacist who came to talk to me about the medicine noticed I wasn’t local and asked where I was from and I said the States. I realized quickly that if I just said Kansas a lot of people didn’t know what I was talking about, so even though I’m sure they can tell I’m from the States, that’s usually satisfactory for them. Well he asked me where abouts so I said Kansas and he was like, no way, you’re kidding! He said when he was just out of Uni a couple years ago he and his friends took a 5 week trip across the US and spent 5 days in Kansas, more specifically at K-State!!! I said, no way, that’s where I’m from!! They knew a couple girls there who had studied at Deakin, this was back in November of 2005 that he was there. I was so excited! Here I was feeling terrible, and missing home more since I was sick and wanted to be comforted you know, and this Aussie has been to my home!! He said they absolutely loved it there and had the best time. That made me so happy. He said they got to go to a K-State vs. KU game and loved it and spent most of their time just walking around campus. They went to Aggieville and loved it and fell in love with “one of your burrito places, I can’t remember…” Chipotle!!, “yes, that’s it right by the Subway there!” AH!! I loved this guy right then, oh goodness I miss Chipotle and really wanted one then! It was great, he said it was one of their favorite places, and he liked Austin getting to see a UT game, oh well, I’ll let that slide. It was awesome getting to talk to this random Aussie about Manhattan Kansas! Made me miss it though! How weird is that, my pharmacist when I get sick down here has been in the same town as me a year and half earlier! Crazy. Anyway, I had to wait another 30 minutes for the next bus back to campus, but I made it back alright, with none of my Kleenex left I’d brought with me, and just a sip of water. I laid down and slept for awhile before our unit function. I actually got up, took a shower, got dressed in real clothes and put on a touch of makeup! It was quite exhausting. I was upset I was so sick for our unit function because otherwise it would have been heaps of fun. Unit functions are put on by each RA, all the units they’re in charge of, in my case two of us (Evatt 1 and 3), get together and have a party with just those people basically. There is supposed to be some theme, ours was “P Party” so you were supposed to come as something starting with a P. I was so worn out that I just stuck on a purple shirt with a powercat on it and called it good. We had a barbeque first at the common room. That was nice, I had two sausages. I guess since I didn’t ever eat much during the day, I got hungry for dinner! It was cool to just have the people from our units around, nice way to talk to them and stuff. It was hilarious what some people came up with for costumes. We have this one guy, Pete, in my unit who always wears jeans and this blue tank top, it’s hilarious, like every single day the same thing. So three of our housemates went as Pete! There was a Purple Persian Prince, that was Viv, the crazy one in my unit, he’s great. And he had his princess, my neighbor Ash. It was a good time. We went back to the other unit and hung out for awhile, it was entertaining watching from the sidelines and taking pictures, but I wish I could have participated a little more, I was just so exhausted. I had to just sit there, it was pretty pathetic. They all went to change to go out about 10, and I called it a night. A little sad, but you gotta do what you gotta do right? Plus, I had to get up early in the morning again and I needed to be feeling tip top!
Why did I have to get up early you ask, because I was going swimming with dolphins of course!! Yay! Yep, that was today. It was an absolutely exhilarating day! It was a little hard to get up because it took forever to fall asleep last night since I couldn’t stop coughing, but it was alright. I wasn’t feeling the best and quite nervous about everything, but very excited. I used money from Mark on this, so it was his Christmas present to me! I’ve never been snorkeling before and I’ve never been a huge water person, so I was a little scared, but the people on the boat were really helpful. We got to Queenscliff and to the boat where they gave all of us wet suits. They were quite thick ones seeing as it was a bit chilly today and the water down here gets quite cold. I’ve never been in a wetsuit either, that was an experience itself! It was so difficult to get on, and then to get it off was almost worse! I had to go to the toilet once on the boat and let me tell you, I’ve never worked so hard to pee! Anyway, so we got on the boat and headed out to sea! We stayed in the bay the whole time we were out. Our first stop was a little manmade reef thing on a natural sandbar. There were rocks around this area and somehow a reef sort of formed there. It was a good thing I was stuffed up and couldn’t smell anything, apparently the birds there were quite foul smelling, as they made nests out of seaweed and their own poo. This was my first time in the water in flippers and a snorkel! I was pretty dang nervous and scared! The lady told us some tips and how to use the snorkel and everything, so that was good. When I got in she told me to stick my head in and look down. I did, and I freaked out! It seems like it’d be easy but sticking your head underwater automatically feels like you’re drowning or something! It took me quite awhile to get used to the fact that I could actually breath when my head was under the water. Plus I kept getting little tastes of the salt water, and that just made me gag. I was very nervous and that didn’t help. The few times I calmed myself down it was amazing, though. I just had to stop and concentrate on breathing and stop worrying about swimming. Our wetsuits acted like life jackets and you really did just float if you relaxed yourself. So when I did that I just floated in the water with my head down and looked all around me. It was absolutely breathtaking. There were quite a few fish really, and ones that I’d never seen anything like in my life, and all sorts of plants. It was incredible how clear the water was, and with the sand right below it was gorgeous. It was definitely a good place to have our first experience because it was fairly shallow and the waves weren’t so strong since we were protected. It was so scary but very awesome. We got back on the boat and headed out to this place called Chinaman’s Hat, a little structure where a colony of seals live. That was awesome. We arrived there while I was in the toilet, so when I came out we were right next to this house of seals! It was pretty neat. There were so many of them! You could see them all swimming in the water as well. This was out in the middle of the bay and the waves were pretty strong here, quite a current. It was a very windy day. They let out this line for us to hold on to so we didn’t float away. I was terrified here. Loretta was a little bit too which helped, we just aren’t the best swimmers and hadn’t ever done this and aren’t huge water people. Anyway, we were some of the last ones off the boat, but we got out there. The one lady took her lifesaver buoy thing and we held on to that while she took us around away from the rope. That was pretty cool. Again, I still had some freak outs, but when I put my head down and looked around, the seals were all swimming around us and below us, so close. I know I keep saying this, but it was truly amazing! I can’t describe it. These wild animals are just swimming all around you and you’re so close! It’s cool to see them from above the water and everything, but it’s a whole different thing to see them right there with you swimming under the water. It’s really almost magical or something, and it’s all quiet underwater so it’s a bit surreal. I loved it even though I was extremely terrified! The worst part to me was getting all that salt water in my mouth, it just made me gag and that freaked me out. Plus here, the current was strong and to be floating there and then see this big wave coming for your face was a little daunting. I was tired from swimming, too, here we actually had to kick and couldn’t just float or we’d be carried away! It was exhausting for me one because I don’t really swim, and two because I still felt pretty sick. Anyway, we headed in a couple minutes before everyone else. I feel bad, I really wanted to stay out there and see more seals, it was absolutely indescribable, but I was just scared! So we headed to the other side of the bay and kept on the lookout for dolphins, as there is no guarantee to see them, you have to help watch for them. We finally found some and it was so exciting. They were cool to see from above water even! I’ve never seen any dolphins in the wild before. They would jump up and swim in front of the ferry that went by us! So there are rules for swimming with the dolphins to try and protect them. One is they can’t coax them over at all with anything, and we can’t touch them. Also, we were only allowed 4 swims, times out in the water, with 10 people out each time. There were only about 20 of us so that was good. There are only about 100 dolphins that permanently reside in Port Phillip Bay so they try really hard to protect them. We also had to just have a free swim, without flippers, and be holding onto the rope the whole time. The first swim was a good one apparently, all those people said they saw a bunch of the dolphins go right under them. We could see them from the boat as well. Again, it was really amazing. I went out in the second swim and saw one dolphin go under the boat in front of us but that was it. I still had just a tad bit of difficulty keeping my head under the water the entire time. We had to come back in and try to find them again and see if we could get a better view. So I went out the third time as well to try again. This time was no luck at all, I didn’t see any in the water with us, only when I looked above the water did I see any of them. So we came back in, drove around awhile to try and find them again so we could try one last time. It was all about patience, we had to go around looking for them and hope they’d stay near us. This time we found them and they all swam really fast away from us! So we followed. They went really close to the shore, I think there was a big school of fish. So there were heaps of dolphins!! We saw so many fins come above the water! It was so exciting! I was so giddy! They’d jump out of the water a bunch too, playing around, doing flips and everything else. It was really awesome. So we found a good spot and Frog, the skipper, yelled out to us, “Go go go, go now!!!” So we all hopped down and jumped in the water. I stuck my head down right away and did a great job of keeping it down, for about the entire time I was out there. It was amazing, absolutely breathtaking and unbelievable!! There were 10 or 15 dolphins swimming right below me, just a couple meters away!! They would swim and turn around and stuff, all right there, so close to us! I couldn’t believe it! It was hard to not smile and scream in excitement when I was underwater! Everyone said that was the best they’d seen above the water as well, they were all jumping up and doing stuff as well. Being underwater with these wild animals was so thrilling!! I don’t know how long we were out there, 5 or 10 minutes is all I think. It was just incredible, truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life! It’s just unreal to be there in the ocean with wild animals that come so close to you and you just get to float there in peace and watch their beauty and grace and everything you can’t see from above the water! Really a lucky thing to get to experience. It was freezing when we got out of the water on the boat, it was so windy and everything. The ride back in was quite choppy, we got pretty soaked with all the waves that kept hitting the boat, we joked it was like the Perfect Storm! That was an experience in itself really. Today was so fun. I’ve never been so terrified, and so exhilarated at the same time!! I was very proud of myself for going out every time, especially the three times so I could see the dolphins, it was totally worth it despite my fear! I feel like that was something I never thought I’d ever do, or I ever could do! But I did it successfully and it was absolutely perfect. Even though I was sick, exhausted, not feeling my best, and then freezing, it was more than worth it. The salt water was pretty disgusting, I gagged a lot today, but you just spit it out and move on. I was really glad I brought my heavy coat for out on the boat, I needed it after we got out of our wetsuits! The gave us hot chocie and biscuits and fruit, it was nice. The crew was fabulous - they were all so nice and helpful. There was this hammock thing off the side of the boat that a bunch of people went out on and rode over the ocean in it! A couple of the guys hung off the rope while we were going, too, it was funny, they got plenty of salt water in the mouth! I can’t believe how clear the water was everywhere we went, it was amazing. The lady on the boat was saying how that was probably the best seal swim she’s been on and a really great dolphin swim, so we were pretty lucky. We came back into Queenscliff and got Fish and Chips which are always delicious, even when I can’t really taste anything! I came back and took a shower right away, that salt doesn’t do anything good for my skin or hair, it was gross. Plus, I was freezing and still didn’t quite feel dry. So that did wonders, then I got into bed and fell asleep for almost three hours! I woke up, it was dark outside, and I was thinking oh no, I’ve slept into the night and now I’ll be all screwed up! Luckily it was only 7:30, and now I can definitely go back to sleep and probably sleep the entire night through until late. I went to visit Wookey 4 just to get out a little bit and they were playing Halo, made me think of the boys back home, it was funny. Of course, they weren’t near as good as you guys are! So, yeah, I had a really great day! I’m not sure if it was the best idea for me to go swim in the ocean with an ear infection and be out in the cold wind all wet, but I have antibiotics, so whatever! It was totally worth it. I can’t describe how breathtaking the whole experience was. I can’t believe I actually did that! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a whole lot of pictures, all I have are a few with the underwater camera, and with that I didn’t even get any of the dolphins because I was so concentrated on just enjoying it while they were there. I’m okay with it though, I was there, I got to see it!!
So, I apologize for the extreme wordiness here! But it was probably the best thing I’ve done since I’ve been here, totally exhilarating. I loved it. I hope you’re jealous. And I hope you leave a comment!! Come on! It’s bedtime for me. Hope you all are doing well and you have an enjoyable weekend. Mine will be relaxing and getting better. I really miss you and have recently been very thankful for all of you. It’s nice to be reminded of how wonderful the people you have in your life really are.
Here are some quotes, I feel like accomplishing things, and like I have things I want to get to, hopefully.
“Set your sights high, the higher the better. Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now. Realize that nothing is too good. Allow absolutely nothing to hamper you or hold you up in any way.” Eileen Caddy
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” Helen Keller
Love, Alissa
Friday, March 30, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Blah blah blah....here I go again! Leave a note!
Goodness, I think I have a problem with always having too much to say even when nothing is really going on! Oh well, I’m not forcing you to read! There has been a lot more talk of differences in cultures and slang words lately. And I’ve done a few exciting things I guess. Everyday in Australia is exciting, who am I kidding. I have to keep reminding myself I’m actually in Australia living my dream! I’m really doing something I’ve wanted to my whole life, I did it, that’s pretty cool. It also makes me extremely lucky and blessed that I’m able to do this. There is no way I could ever in my life come close to regretting this experience in any way whatsoever, even on the hardest days - and that’s an awesome thing. Anyway, my observations and adventures!
One thing I have sort of noticed but never said anything about until a couple nights ago was that most Australians use their knife when eating a lot more than we do. It almost seems like it’s used like we use bread, to help get things on your fork. They are always holding it, too, not just when they cut, it’s a utensil used for everything during the whole meal. When I pointed this out to some of my Aussie friends, we had a fairly in depth conversation about it. I then realized something more. They hold their knife in their dominant hand, just like we cut with our dominant hand. But as I said, they are always holding their knives, so they are always eating, with their fork, with their non-dominant hand. That’s right. It’s strange, huh? Think about it, we always cut up a few pieces of our food, (or all of it, whatever your preference) at one time, then set our knife down, switch the fork back to your dominant hand and eat the pieces. They just keep the knife and use the other hand to eat. Further, they hold the fork prongs facing down, like what we would think to be upside down. They say the fork is the stabber, your spoon is used to scoop, so it makes sense to hold it prongs down to stab the food. I don’t know about this. It was very strange the more I observed. I tried to eat like them and it was very difficult. They said we just waste energy switching hands so much (and they call us the lazy ones). I don’t know. That’s their manners though, that’s the proper way to eat they said. To me it looks almost “barbaric” except not that harsh of a word, I can’t think of what else to say though. It’s crazy. Very interesting difference there. Let’s see. They say they “hire” a car, not rent one, some even use it to say they hired a movie, although some still say rent a movie, like the bigger the object is, the more you say hire instead of rent. They have quilts and quilt covers, not comforters, and they call them doonas sometimes. They have weird rhyming slang like hit the frog and toad is to hit the road. Strange how they shorten just about everything except a few phrases that are actually a lot longer. They shorten emo to just mo, which I think is really lazy seeing as emo is already shortened from emotional! That’s a bit ironic as well, Americans are supposedly lazy, but the Aussies are the ones who can’t even say full words or switch hands to eat! They even say ta instead of thank you, how much work is it really to say thank you? It’s funny. There are a lot of differences in pronunciation as well, but those are a bit difficult to demonstrate just with written words. Basil and oregano are both weird ones. Basil is like bahh like a sheep, then sil. Oregano is oreg like you’re saying Oregon, then ano like ah-no. Does that make sense? They think it’s hilarious how we say it. Melbourne is said without the r and Canberra, the capital, sounds like Cambra. Cairns is cans. They laugh every time we say Kansas, too, like we say it really hick-like. They say feral a lot as well, like “he’s really feral“, he’s gross, disgusting, dirty you know. A weird one is “hot as” or “soft as”, they say “as” after some word as if they were going to make a simile, but they don’t finish it. It’s funny. I think they say “yep” a whole lot, like when talking in conversation, as if it’s a head nod, or I guess we say yeah it just doesn’t seem as obvious or something, I don’t know. Oh and spew seems to be a favorite term for throwing up, although there are many, many terms. They do say bloody quite a bit, though they can’t really say what it means, it’s just more like a less harsh word for other curse words. Jumpers are sweatshirts. Avo is afternoon. Cookies are called biscuits. I think I already said cell phones are mobiles. There are a million different phrases for being drunk. I’m trying to think of all of them and write them all down so I don’t forget. Oh, Sheila is a girl. Mates are friends, but I’m sure you already knew that one. They don’t have Neosporin. The pain reliever here is about a fourth less strong than our Tylenol I think, so it doesn’t do anything for us, they think they’d die if they took as much as we do, though. I can’t find anything like Purell or even Lysol wipes. They don’t have graham crackers. I’m not sure if people know this or not, but they use A4 size paper here, it’s bigger and weird to get used to since I brought a notebook from home and it seems super small and won’t hold any of my handouts! I don’t like the tap water here, it’s fine health wise, just my preference. Bread goes moldy in a week or less, they don’t have as many preservatives in anything here as we do. Oh, napkins are called serviettes. I think I’ve said nappies are diapers, that was a funny one to see. They call silverware cutlery, because silverware is really their nice china, cutlery is their everyday eating utensils. That’s about all I can remember at the moment. As I said, there are so so many little differences to get used to even though it’s another English speaking country and we were both settled by the British and have seemingly similar cultures. It’s quite interesting. As with many things in life, in cultures, the little things can mean the most, or make the most difference.
Now what’s been happening for the past week? A fair amount, although it didn’t start out that way. Monday was about the laziest day I’ve had here, although quite wonderful honestly. I stayed in my room and in my pjs til about 3 in the afternoon. I don’t have class, so I never do much, but this was extreme. I finally took a shower then and continued to not do much. I caught up on some emails and such and did some of my homework as well, so I was a little productive. My favorite part was reading my Harry Potter and actually taking a short nap as well!! It was amazing. I am still waking up pretty early and haven’t slept too well and can never seem to nap. So it was nice. Plus I haven’t been reading much and I love that book, I’m on the 6th one. I’ve read a lot of this week actually. That night I played Halo on the Xbox, one of the guys in Loretta’s unit had it. I have never played that game, despite how much I’ve watched all my friends play it back home. So it was interesting, fun to a play video game actually. And Jared was pretty impressed with me, said I did a good job, yeah, I’m awesome. I took a few walks this week, I usually go at sunset over to the lakes and just watch the sun go down, it’s quite nice. I went to class, although I didn’t always want to. I went to caf, it was pretty good this week. The weather was surprisingly dreary the first half of the week, and then Thursday and Friday were surprisingly hot and sunny. I’m pretty sure it got to 100F both days!! And it was also a hot, strong wind, it was a bit miserable really. I’ve had really strange dreams lately, and a lot of them. I can’t really remember any when I wake up but I know they were weird ones. I called my friend Kyle this week and that was spectacular! I miss him lots and he’s awesome. My classes were very frustrating this week for some reason. My bus. comm. teacher still doesn’t seem to like America and that is difficult to keep quiet. My econ teacher is okay, she just can’t truly “teach” well. I feel like we have to teach ourselves a lot more here anyway, it almost seems like what’s the point in having teachers? Australia Today should be a really excellent class, and I thought it would be, but the way they have it set up doesn’t work as well as it could I don’t think. They basically have us teaching the tute, but that doesn’t work seeing as we don’t know things about Australia, that’s what we’re in the class for! We can read things anywhere. Finance is okay, but this week we went over time value of money which I already know like the back of my hand from Accounting. It’s so easy and we spent so much time on it. He even taught it a little differently, using different words and such, and it took me about one second to comprehend what that word was from the way I know it. So they were long lectures for me. But I went!
Wednesday was pretty big. The day was boring and normal, but then that night was the Bomb Squad. Now if you don’t want to know about any parties or anything, skip to the next paragraph now! But you must remember I am legal, and this is all part of my experience! So a club on campus set up this event at Room 99, a club downtown. They were trying to break the world record for the longest line of Jagerbombs. I don’t know if someone was there from the Book of World Records or if they can turn it in or what, but we did it. There were 405 of us there and the previous record was around 100. So that’s pretty cool, huh?! I’m part of a world record!! Even if it is that. They did it like a domino effect and we were all lined up zig zag across the dance floor upstairs, then in front of the bar, and down the stairs and the same way down there as well. It was crazy. They provided busses down there for us which was nice. We got there about 8, it was early. So a fair amount of people left early, Loretta, Jenny and I left around midnight, that was a long night! Basically three straight hours of dancing gets exhausting! It was so much fun though. The place was only open to Uni students until 11 which I thought was pretty cool. They did the jagerbomb line fairly quickly after everyone got there. My feet were killing me by the end if the night since I was stupid and wore heels, I had to look good though! That was really the first time I’d been out since O-Week so it was a good time, I needed that. Even if Thursday I woke up very tired with aching feet!
Yesterday was another exciting day! We had just planned to go into town for the day and do some shopping and whatnot, but we came up with a much more interesting plan. We went to Ballarat for the day, (me, Loretta, and Val (another K-stater)) it’s about an hour and a half bus ride north-ish of here. We went with the intention of seeing the Wildlife Park and going to this place called Sovereign Hill. We didn’t end up having time to go to Sovereign Hill. It is this place they have set up like an old gold-mining town with actors and everything and you can pan for gold, but I’ve already down that up in South Dakota, so it was okay to not go. I’ve heard mixed reviews of it from the Aussies anyway. We had to leave here at 8 and take a taxi into town to catch the bus, that’s the bad thing about public transportation, it takes so much longer and you always have to sit around and wait, but whatever. It was neat countryside on the way there, it’s always exciting to see different parts of the country, it’s so diverse here. You don’t have to drive very far to see something different. I thought it was a small town, but it was a decent size really, it was cool I thought. I liked all the architecture and old buildings. Most of the streets downtown looked kind of like the old main streets, how all the buildings are connected the whole length of the street and they’re all old and a couple stories high. I liked it. We had to wait to catch the bus to the park so we went to get some “brunch” at a café, it was good, nice to get warm cappuccino! It wasn’t the best day to go do something as it was rainy and cold the entire day. We were freezing because we were expecting it to get a little warmer, but I think it hovered in the 60s, maybe even 50s all day. The clouds stayed most of the day, just a few small patches of sun, and the rain came and went all day long. It was still good though, definitely better than sitting here doing nothing! The Wildlife Park was really interesting. From where the bus let us off we had to climb over the fence to get in to the park, that was interesting, we were a bit skeptical! The best part was all the kangaroos that just hopped around everywhere, they were loose in the park! So we could go up to them and pet them and whatever. They would hop over towards us as well. It was so cool. I have only seen kangaroos from a very long distance, so this was awesome. I wanted to take one home, they were pretty cute. They were “tame” though, used to people, so that’s the only reason they weren’t trying to fight us, they can be very aggressive. Although Val did have one of them try and bite off her big toe! There were some big ones, too, I’d be scared. There were some little joeys there as well and they were cute. I took my video camera so I got them all on camera. They were so funny, it was a really awesome experience. We also saw koalas and I got my picture right next to one. It is only legal to hold one up in Queensland, but at least I got to pet one and be right next to him. We went to the Koala show and learned a lot about them and a couple of them were awake and the one jumped over to the lady to cuddle with her, it was pretty adorable. I got a bunch of that on video as well. We also saw a vulture and some emus, they looked a little scary! There was a reptile house with lots of snakes and crocodiles and such, it was pretty interesting. We watched the snake show as well and got to pat a non-venomous snake and watch a venomous one eat a couple mice, yikes! The kangaroos were interested in the snakes so they had to be lured away with food. There were some goanna’s there, I think they are iguanas, I’m not sure if it’s different or what. Oh, and we saw a Tasmanian Devil!! It was pretty cool, he ran funny. I think that was it. There were some ducks and a million pigeons there as well. Oh, there were wombats, but there weren’t out, I saw the backside of one of them in his shelter thing through the window. We had to take another taxi back into town since there were no busses after about noon. We stopped at another café for a snack before we caught the last bus back to Geelong at 3:45. There were these two ladies on the bus both ways that were drunk both in the morning and even worse on the way back, it was a little annoying, although quite entertaining. It was a great day, wonderful to get out. We got back about 6 and were exhausted. I stayed in my room and caught up on emails and such and did a bit of homework and called it an early night! Last night was the most I’ve slept almost since I’ve been here which is a wonderful thing seeing as I haven’t been able to sleep for awhile. I guess it just caught up with me that much. I have to go to bed early tonight as well since I have to get up super early tomorrow to go into Melbourne to meet Mom!! I’m sooooo excited about it though so it won’t be bad.
I just realized that we “fell back” an hour last night. I guess I didn’t technically get that much sleep, oh great, that’s great. My room phone automatically adjusted it self but nothing else did. I didn’t know that was happening, so I was very confused. But yeah, we’re not on daylight savings anymore so that sucks. My timing here is all off anyway though. It feels like time is flying by and I don’t have much time left here, but at the same time the days sometimes seem to go by very slowly. And when I compare mine to home I feel like I go through two days to one of yours, I guess just with the time difference and when I sleep compared to when you do. I don’t know, it’s strange. I’m all confused by time and how long things seem. Anyway, that’s my last week. Hope yours was fabulous. I miss you all and think about you often, I hope I’m not forgotten yet either! Give yourselves a hug from me and let me know how you’re doing. Have a great upcoming week!
Oh, and here, the first two are from my daily devotional:
“The way in which we think of ourselves has everything to do with how our world sees us.” ~Arlene Raven
“If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.” ~Mary Pickford
“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” ~Zora Neale Hurston (it's true)
Love, Alissa
One thing I have sort of noticed but never said anything about until a couple nights ago was that most Australians use their knife when eating a lot more than we do. It almost seems like it’s used like we use bread, to help get things on your fork. They are always holding it, too, not just when they cut, it’s a utensil used for everything during the whole meal. When I pointed this out to some of my Aussie friends, we had a fairly in depth conversation about it. I then realized something more. They hold their knife in their dominant hand, just like we cut with our dominant hand. But as I said, they are always holding their knives, so they are always eating, with their fork, with their non-dominant hand. That’s right. It’s strange, huh? Think about it, we always cut up a few pieces of our food, (or all of it, whatever your preference) at one time, then set our knife down, switch the fork back to your dominant hand and eat the pieces. They just keep the knife and use the other hand to eat. Further, they hold the fork prongs facing down, like what we would think to be upside down. They say the fork is the stabber, your spoon is used to scoop, so it makes sense to hold it prongs down to stab the food. I don’t know about this. It was very strange the more I observed. I tried to eat like them and it was very difficult. They said we just waste energy switching hands so much (and they call us the lazy ones). I don’t know. That’s their manners though, that’s the proper way to eat they said. To me it looks almost “barbaric” except not that harsh of a word, I can’t think of what else to say though. It’s crazy. Very interesting difference there. Let’s see. They say they “hire” a car, not rent one, some even use it to say they hired a movie, although some still say rent a movie, like the bigger the object is, the more you say hire instead of rent. They have quilts and quilt covers, not comforters, and they call them doonas sometimes. They have weird rhyming slang like hit the frog and toad is to hit the road. Strange how they shorten just about everything except a few phrases that are actually a lot longer. They shorten emo to just mo, which I think is really lazy seeing as emo is already shortened from emotional! That’s a bit ironic as well, Americans are supposedly lazy, but the Aussies are the ones who can’t even say full words or switch hands to eat! They even say ta instead of thank you, how much work is it really to say thank you? It’s funny. There are a lot of differences in pronunciation as well, but those are a bit difficult to demonstrate just with written words. Basil and oregano are both weird ones. Basil is like bahh like a sheep, then sil. Oregano is oreg like you’re saying Oregon, then ano like ah-no. Does that make sense? They think it’s hilarious how we say it. Melbourne is said without the r and Canberra, the capital, sounds like Cambra. Cairns is cans. They laugh every time we say Kansas, too, like we say it really hick-like. They say feral a lot as well, like “he’s really feral“, he’s gross, disgusting, dirty you know. A weird one is “hot as” or “soft as”, they say “as” after some word as if they were going to make a simile, but they don’t finish it. It’s funny. I think they say “yep” a whole lot, like when talking in conversation, as if it’s a head nod, or I guess we say yeah it just doesn’t seem as obvious or something, I don’t know. Oh and spew seems to be a favorite term for throwing up, although there are many, many terms. They do say bloody quite a bit, though they can’t really say what it means, it’s just more like a less harsh word for other curse words. Jumpers are sweatshirts. Avo is afternoon. Cookies are called biscuits. I think I already said cell phones are mobiles. There are a million different phrases for being drunk. I’m trying to think of all of them and write them all down so I don’t forget. Oh, Sheila is a girl. Mates are friends, but I’m sure you already knew that one. They don’t have Neosporin. The pain reliever here is about a fourth less strong than our Tylenol I think, so it doesn’t do anything for us, they think they’d die if they took as much as we do, though. I can’t find anything like Purell or even Lysol wipes. They don’t have graham crackers. I’m not sure if people know this or not, but they use A4 size paper here, it’s bigger and weird to get used to since I brought a notebook from home and it seems super small and won’t hold any of my handouts! I don’t like the tap water here, it’s fine health wise, just my preference. Bread goes moldy in a week or less, they don’t have as many preservatives in anything here as we do. Oh, napkins are called serviettes. I think I’ve said nappies are diapers, that was a funny one to see. They call silverware cutlery, because silverware is really their nice china, cutlery is their everyday eating utensils. That’s about all I can remember at the moment. As I said, there are so so many little differences to get used to even though it’s another English speaking country and we were both settled by the British and have seemingly similar cultures. It’s quite interesting. As with many things in life, in cultures, the little things can mean the most, or make the most difference.
Now what’s been happening for the past week? A fair amount, although it didn’t start out that way. Monday was about the laziest day I’ve had here, although quite wonderful honestly. I stayed in my room and in my pjs til about 3 in the afternoon. I don’t have class, so I never do much, but this was extreme. I finally took a shower then and continued to not do much. I caught up on some emails and such and did some of my homework as well, so I was a little productive. My favorite part was reading my Harry Potter and actually taking a short nap as well!! It was amazing. I am still waking up pretty early and haven’t slept too well and can never seem to nap. So it was nice. Plus I haven’t been reading much and I love that book, I’m on the 6th one. I’ve read a lot of this week actually. That night I played Halo on the Xbox, one of the guys in Loretta’s unit had it. I have never played that game, despite how much I’ve watched all my friends play it back home. So it was interesting, fun to a play video game actually. And Jared was pretty impressed with me, said I did a good job, yeah, I’m awesome. I took a few walks this week, I usually go at sunset over to the lakes and just watch the sun go down, it’s quite nice. I went to class, although I didn’t always want to. I went to caf, it was pretty good this week. The weather was surprisingly dreary the first half of the week, and then Thursday and Friday were surprisingly hot and sunny. I’m pretty sure it got to 100F both days!! And it was also a hot, strong wind, it was a bit miserable really. I’ve had really strange dreams lately, and a lot of them. I can’t really remember any when I wake up but I know they were weird ones. I called my friend Kyle this week and that was spectacular! I miss him lots and he’s awesome. My classes were very frustrating this week for some reason. My bus. comm. teacher still doesn’t seem to like America and that is difficult to keep quiet. My econ teacher is okay, she just can’t truly “teach” well. I feel like we have to teach ourselves a lot more here anyway, it almost seems like what’s the point in having teachers? Australia Today should be a really excellent class, and I thought it would be, but the way they have it set up doesn’t work as well as it could I don’t think. They basically have us teaching the tute, but that doesn’t work seeing as we don’t know things about Australia, that’s what we’re in the class for! We can read things anywhere. Finance is okay, but this week we went over time value of money which I already know like the back of my hand from Accounting. It’s so easy and we spent so much time on it. He even taught it a little differently, using different words and such, and it took me about one second to comprehend what that word was from the way I know it. So they were long lectures for me. But I went!
Wednesday was pretty big. The day was boring and normal, but then that night was the Bomb Squad. Now if you don’t want to know about any parties or anything, skip to the next paragraph now! But you must remember I am legal, and this is all part of my experience! So a club on campus set up this event at Room 99, a club downtown. They were trying to break the world record for the longest line of Jagerbombs. I don’t know if someone was there from the Book of World Records or if they can turn it in or what, but we did it. There were 405 of us there and the previous record was around 100. So that’s pretty cool, huh?! I’m part of a world record!! Even if it is that. They did it like a domino effect and we were all lined up zig zag across the dance floor upstairs, then in front of the bar, and down the stairs and the same way down there as well. It was crazy. They provided busses down there for us which was nice. We got there about 8, it was early. So a fair amount of people left early, Loretta, Jenny and I left around midnight, that was a long night! Basically three straight hours of dancing gets exhausting! It was so much fun though. The place was only open to Uni students until 11 which I thought was pretty cool. They did the jagerbomb line fairly quickly after everyone got there. My feet were killing me by the end if the night since I was stupid and wore heels, I had to look good though! That was really the first time I’d been out since O-Week so it was a good time, I needed that. Even if Thursday I woke up very tired with aching feet!
Yesterday was another exciting day! We had just planned to go into town for the day and do some shopping and whatnot, but we came up with a much more interesting plan. We went to Ballarat for the day, (me, Loretta, and Val (another K-stater)) it’s about an hour and a half bus ride north-ish of here. We went with the intention of seeing the Wildlife Park and going to this place called Sovereign Hill. We didn’t end up having time to go to Sovereign Hill. It is this place they have set up like an old gold-mining town with actors and everything and you can pan for gold, but I’ve already down that up in South Dakota, so it was okay to not go. I’ve heard mixed reviews of it from the Aussies anyway. We had to leave here at 8 and take a taxi into town to catch the bus, that’s the bad thing about public transportation, it takes so much longer and you always have to sit around and wait, but whatever. It was neat countryside on the way there, it’s always exciting to see different parts of the country, it’s so diverse here. You don’t have to drive very far to see something different. I thought it was a small town, but it was a decent size really, it was cool I thought. I liked all the architecture and old buildings. Most of the streets downtown looked kind of like the old main streets, how all the buildings are connected the whole length of the street and they’re all old and a couple stories high. I liked it. We had to wait to catch the bus to the park so we went to get some “brunch” at a café, it was good, nice to get warm cappuccino! It wasn’t the best day to go do something as it was rainy and cold the entire day. We were freezing because we were expecting it to get a little warmer, but I think it hovered in the 60s, maybe even 50s all day. The clouds stayed most of the day, just a few small patches of sun, and the rain came and went all day long. It was still good though, definitely better than sitting here doing nothing! The Wildlife Park was really interesting. From where the bus let us off we had to climb over the fence to get in to the park, that was interesting, we were a bit skeptical! The best part was all the kangaroos that just hopped around everywhere, they were loose in the park! So we could go up to them and pet them and whatever. They would hop over towards us as well. It was so cool. I have only seen kangaroos from a very long distance, so this was awesome. I wanted to take one home, they were pretty cute. They were “tame” though, used to people, so that’s the only reason they weren’t trying to fight us, they can be very aggressive. Although Val did have one of them try and bite off her big toe! There were some big ones, too, I’d be scared. There were some little joeys there as well and they were cute. I took my video camera so I got them all on camera. They were so funny, it was a really awesome experience. We also saw koalas and I got my picture right next to one. It is only legal to hold one up in Queensland, but at least I got to pet one and be right next to him. We went to the Koala show and learned a lot about them and a couple of them were awake and the one jumped over to the lady to cuddle with her, it was pretty adorable. I got a bunch of that on video as well. We also saw a vulture and some emus, they looked a little scary! There was a reptile house with lots of snakes and crocodiles and such, it was pretty interesting. We watched the snake show as well and got to pat a non-venomous snake and watch a venomous one eat a couple mice, yikes! The kangaroos were interested in the snakes so they had to be lured away with food. There were some goanna’s there, I think they are iguanas, I’m not sure if it’s different or what. Oh, and we saw a Tasmanian Devil!! It was pretty cool, he ran funny. I think that was it. There were some ducks and a million pigeons there as well. Oh, there were wombats, but there weren’t out, I saw the backside of one of them in his shelter thing through the window. We had to take another taxi back into town since there were no busses after about noon. We stopped at another café for a snack before we caught the last bus back to Geelong at 3:45. There were these two ladies on the bus both ways that were drunk both in the morning and even worse on the way back, it was a little annoying, although quite entertaining. It was a great day, wonderful to get out. We got back about 6 and were exhausted. I stayed in my room and caught up on emails and such and did a bit of homework and called it an early night! Last night was the most I’ve slept almost since I’ve been here which is a wonderful thing seeing as I haven’t been able to sleep for awhile. I guess it just caught up with me that much. I have to go to bed early tonight as well since I have to get up super early tomorrow to go into Melbourne to meet Mom!! I’m sooooo excited about it though so it won’t be bad.
I just realized that we “fell back” an hour last night. I guess I didn’t technically get that much sleep, oh great, that’s great. My room phone automatically adjusted it self but nothing else did. I didn’t know that was happening, so I was very confused. But yeah, we’re not on daylight savings anymore so that sucks. My timing here is all off anyway though. It feels like time is flying by and I don’t have much time left here, but at the same time the days sometimes seem to go by very slowly. And when I compare mine to home I feel like I go through two days to one of yours, I guess just with the time difference and when I sleep compared to when you do. I don’t know, it’s strange. I’m all confused by time and how long things seem. Anyway, that’s my last week. Hope yours was fabulous. I miss you all and think about you often, I hope I’m not forgotten yet either! Give yourselves a hug from me and let me know how you’re doing. Have a great upcoming week!
Oh, and here, the first two are from my daily devotional:
“The way in which we think of ourselves has everything to do with how our world sees us.” ~Arlene Raven
“If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.” ~Mary Pickford
“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” ~Zora Neale Hurston (it's true)
Love, Alissa
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Life in 'stralia
G'Day! It’s been awhile! I guess I just haven’t had any super exciting adventures. But there’s still plenty going on too keep me occupied and happy. I’ll jot down a few more little differences I’ve continued to notice. As well as what's been going on and such.
The weather is very interesting here, a bit like home in that it is very indecisive. It is even more extreme, though. Now it’s autumn here so the temperature has dropped on average, but a couple days have still been in the 90s, and one night it was in the 40s, it was quite cold. Then there are days that is fluctuates about 3 degrees Celcius the entire day. It’s just crazy. And the strange thing is, it seems that on most days you can be comfortable outside in either pants and a jumper (hoodie) or shorts and a t-shirt. All the aussies think the 70s are warmer than I perceive them, and the 50s are much colder than I perceive them. It’s strange. I guess here is just really temperate all the time and that’s why. Let’s see, they’ve told me all the words that are derogatory terms towards different groups so I don’t get in trouble. There are some words that we say that mean something totally different and we would not be looked at inviting if we used, so that’s helpful. The light switches here are a little strange, they’re like buttons almost that you flip, and up is off while down is on, opposite from home. There is a debate even between aussies about the color of traffic lights. Most say red, amber and green, others call the amber orange. But nobody calls it yellow, I suppose they’re right, but still. The metric system has been a little difficult to switch to, but I’m getting the hang of it and usually know close to what it equals in our system, I get the general idea. Of course they drive on the opposite side of the road, but the strangest part of it is that means the gear shift is on their left, but the pedals are in the same place. Peanut butter isn’t very big over here, and they really don’t seem open to the idea of mixing it with chocolate, like Reece’s. It’s a little disappointing, they don’t seem to like it, I am obsessed. All their food seems more salty, and less sugary. They have long shelf life milk that is just on the shelf, not refrigerated, I haven’t figured that out yet, it’s not like condensed milk, because they have that too, I’m not sure. They also keep their eggs just on the shelf, not in the fridge section. Granola = muesli but it‘s not as good if you ask me. Sultanas are what they use instead of raisins, it’s the same thing, but from a different grape I think. They have raisins as well, but sultanas are popular. Right now they have hot cross buns, it’s an Easter thing, and I hear they’re pretty good, I must try them since they are a bakery item with cinnamon in them. I’m sure I’ll fall in love with them. I can’t decide whether things are more expensive here or less. I guess it depends on the item. With the conversion rate it usually ends up a lot better than it seems. Although I know for sure that toiletry type things like shampoo and stuff is quite a bit more expensive. I’ve heard a few people say fair dinkum, which can mean true blue, it’s right, or are you serious?, but some people say only country people use that. And country people are called “bogans” not hicks like we call them, although they do know that term as well. I’ve found that the Aussies seem to know a lot more about Americans and our culture than we know about them. It makes sense because they get a lot of their TV and movies and such from America and we don’t really have any influences from here, but it’s still interesting. It sort of reinforces the idea that Americans are self-centered and ignorant about the rest of the world, it’s a little sad. But I’m learning so that’s good! Gas stations are servos and I got made fun of for saying I needed to go to the store, not the supermarket or something. Coozies for your drink are called stubby holders because they call them stubbies. The hood of a car is the bonnet, and the trunk is called the boot. A comforter is a quilt, or a doona. If something is required, they say compulsory. We have the word nil meaning nothing, but I’ve actually seen it used here, like nil prerequisites. If they’re saying what?, like if they didn’t hear you, some people say hey? instead. I know there are more that have come up, but I can’t think of them, I forget to write them down. They also try to teach us how to pronounce the words they use, it’s interesting and they sit and laugh at us awhile while we try to say it right. I think I’m saying it right and they keep laughing, it’s pretty funny. One of our friends, Amber, loves the way we say her name because when she says it with the accent it almost sounds like she’s saying Emma, it’s a lot softer. So when we say her name with our accent she laughs, it’s funny.
So, anyway, more of what I’ve actually been up to now. Since last weekend going to the gardens, not much really. Classes are getting more involved now. My first assignment is in international econ and due next Monday and we have one ongoing assignment not technically due til April in bus comm but we have to show her a part of it every week that we work on in class and have to then finish. It’s not too bad, but anything seems like a lot of work right now since I haven’t really done much. It’s a little scary not knowing how they’ll grade because I really am not sure what to expect and these assignments are all worth at least 15% of my grade each. It’s so different than home! I just have to keep telling myself I technically just have to pass to get credit since the grade doesn’t transfer, and I could do that without going to class probably. So I’ll be fine, it’s just the pressure I put on myself to do so well. I’m getting used to it all and am doing a better job of reading and pacing myself and such. Going to class is most of the battle though, and I haven’t missed one yet so that’s good. My econ class is a bit frustrating, I don’t think any of it is really that hard, I understand it mostly and I’m fairly smart in the subject, but she explains things differently than I’ve learned them and she’s really not the best teacher in general. It’s harder than it needs to be. There is also this know it all girl in the class which bothers me, because I know as much or more than she does, I just don’t speak up. I guess that’s my fault, but I just don’t feel like I always know it as well as I do, so she thinks she’s really something, that bothers me. My business comm class is fairly pointless, I haven’t really learned anything besides the teacher’s preferences for things, and she’s picky. She also doesn’t seem to be too fond of America, which I don’t like too much since I am! Our book is American and every single class, including our tutes, she has something to say about the way Americans are and how it’s that way in the book and why it’s such a bad thing. Australia Today is fairly interesting, but I think it could be more so. The tute for that class is annoying, too, the tutor is very particular and gets way too into things to where they aren’t really interesting anymore. I don’t know, I definitely enjoy the class though. The lecture is fabulous. My finance class is actually pretty good too. I have learned a lot and I understand it all pretty well. The professor for that class is super enthusiastic, I’ve never seen anyone so excited about stocks and other finance things. It’s crazy, makes for an interesting lecture though which is good since one of them is 9am on Fridays. It’s nice only having four classes, although I feel like a bit of a slacker. They wouldn’t let me take 5 though! This is a lot of work for them, I think it all comes back to a culture difference. Here they enjoy relaxing more and think it’s more important, although they do work hard at times. On the other hand, we are always go go go and there’s no time to rest and do nothing, you’re supposed to be productive all the time. It’s interesting to see so many differences, and really be exposed to more about our own culture that I never really noticed so much.
I was sad to see K-State not it the NCAA tourney, but happy about the NIT. Now I’m sad again as I see we lost today in the second round, pretty disappointing. But I listened on the internet to the end of our close first game and was pretty dang excited we won it! Nobody else here cared so I felt a little strange, but it was good. I was also very excited to get an email from K-State saying I’ve been awarded another scholarship! I got a management one that I had applied for before I left! So that was great news and makes me feel better about spending so much money to be here! I’ve been trying to follow the NCAA tourney from here, it’s tough. I miss watching all that basketball though, it makes me sad I don’t get to. Nobody else here cares to much about it at all, so I can’t even talk about it with anyone!
We’re going into winter here now, that’s everyone says. Even though it’s just the start of Autumn(they don’t call it fall) and it won’t really get into winter til just when I’m leaving! It is getting cooler though. Especially at night it can get quite chilly, I don’t want to get out of the covers in the morning because it is chilly in my room! The days are still really nice though, almost perfect weather most days. It hasn’t rained a whole lot, but it looks like it might sometimes, and they’re hoping with the weather pattern that it will be a cold wet winter. I’m not sure if I really want that but it will give them relief from the drought which they really desperately need, so I guess it would be good.
Last Friday I went fishing again with Nick, Marc, Jeff, and April. April was the only aussie, she drove us which was really nice. We went at night to try and get sharks, but had no luck. It was quite a good time though. I needed to get away and that was enough. It was super cold on the water because it was really windy, but I survived. We got to watch the entire sunset which was pretty awesome. We cooked some dinner and ate late again, it was a good night. Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day and we were all pretty excited for it. The Aussies don’t seem to get as pumped up about it as we do, though. It’s celebrated, but it’s not really commercialized at all, in any way. A lot of people didn’t even wear green! I was disappointed. We went into town during the day because we heard there was an Irish festival. Well, it turned out that was just an Irish Pub with the alley blocked off next to it with a live band. We had to pay $5 to get in but it was good all day with the stamp. So we decided to go back, get something to eat, and do nothing for awhile and come back later that night. So we did, and then decided to go out about 9. The last bus that ran left at 8, but we thought that was too early so we waited and called a taxi. Well we called the taxi four more times after that as well. We never got one. They never came. And there is no other way into town. So we ended up staying on res and just hanging around here. It was pretty frustrating we didn’t get to go out and celebrate St. Patty’s Day, but it was still a pretty good evening anyway. One of my friends here, Nick, got sick over the weekend so Sunday a bunch of us took turns helping to take care of him. He had a bad fever and felt horrible, I didn’t especially want to be around him, but I felt bad since he was in such bad shape. A bunch of us cooked some dinner that night as well and had lots of desserts with it! Loretta and I have been doing a little bit of our homework assignment every night which has been really good. Yesterday was my day off with no classes and I did absolutely nothing really. I stayed in my pjs and in my room until the afternoon. It was nice though, I got some homework done and read some Harry Potter, I haven’t done much of that yet. Loretta’s roommate has an Xbox so last night I played HALO on that for the first time ever. It was exciting, I was actually pretty good at it too! He thought it was funny how I concentrated so hard and got into it. I can’t help it! It felt good to release some energy through that.
Nothing else is really new. No exciting adventures really. I don’t have anything particular planned for this weekend, either. We were going to go on a surfing trip this Friday, but not enough people signed up so it was cancelled. That was pretty disappointing. But the next Friday I get to go on a trip to swim with the dolphins and that is something I have always wanted to do, so that’s awesome. On Monday I’m going into Melbourne for the day to see Mom!! She stops there for the day on her cruise before she comes to see me on my break in a couple weeks. So that is super exciting, I get a hug! I can’t think of anything else. I hope everything continues to be well for all of you back home. Let me know what you’ve been up to and how things are going. I still miss you!
I almost forgot! My quotes/advice/whatever. Here you go:
“There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer, no disease that enough love will not heal, no door that enough love will not bridge” ~Emmet Fox
“There isn't a ruler, a yard stick or a measuring tape in the entire world long enough to compute the strength and capabilities inside you “ ~Paul J Meyer
Love, Alissa
The weather is very interesting here, a bit like home in that it is very indecisive. It is even more extreme, though. Now it’s autumn here so the temperature has dropped on average, but a couple days have still been in the 90s, and one night it was in the 40s, it was quite cold. Then there are days that is fluctuates about 3 degrees Celcius the entire day. It’s just crazy. And the strange thing is, it seems that on most days you can be comfortable outside in either pants and a jumper (hoodie) or shorts and a t-shirt. All the aussies think the 70s are warmer than I perceive them, and the 50s are much colder than I perceive them. It’s strange. I guess here is just really temperate all the time and that’s why. Let’s see, they’ve told me all the words that are derogatory terms towards different groups so I don’t get in trouble. There are some words that we say that mean something totally different and we would not be looked at inviting if we used, so that’s helpful. The light switches here are a little strange, they’re like buttons almost that you flip, and up is off while down is on, opposite from home. There is a debate even between aussies about the color of traffic lights. Most say red, amber and green, others call the amber orange. But nobody calls it yellow, I suppose they’re right, but still. The metric system has been a little difficult to switch to, but I’m getting the hang of it and usually know close to what it equals in our system, I get the general idea. Of course they drive on the opposite side of the road, but the strangest part of it is that means the gear shift is on their left, but the pedals are in the same place. Peanut butter isn’t very big over here, and they really don’t seem open to the idea of mixing it with chocolate, like Reece’s. It’s a little disappointing, they don’t seem to like it, I am obsessed. All their food seems more salty, and less sugary. They have long shelf life milk that is just on the shelf, not refrigerated, I haven’t figured that out yet, it’s not like condensed milk, because they have that too, I’m not sure. They also keep their eggs just on the shelf, not in the fridge section. Granola = muesli but it‘s not as good if you ask me. Sultanas are what they use instead of raisins, it’s the same thing, but from a different grape I think. They have raisins as well, but sultanas are popular. Right now they have hot cross buns, it’s an Easter thing, and I hear they’re pretty good, I must try them since they are a bakery item with cinnamon in them. I’m sure I’ll fall in love with them. I can’t decide whether things are more expensive here or less. I guess it depends on the item. With the conversion rate it usually ends up a lot better than it seems. Although I know for sure that toiletry type things like shampoo and stuff is quite a bit more expensive. I’ve heard a few people say fair dinkum, which can mean true blue, it’s right, or are you serious?, but some people say only country people use that. And country people are called “bogans” not hicks like we call them, although they do know that term as well. I’ve found that the Aussies seem to know a lot more about Americans and our culture than we know about them. It makes sense because they get a lot of their TV and movies and such from America and we don’t really have any influences from here, but it’s still interesting. It sort of reinforces the idea that Americans are self-centered and ignorant about the rest of the world, it’s a little sad. But I’m learning so that’s good! Gas stations are servos and I got made fun of for saying I needed to go to the store, not the supermarket or something. Coozies for your drink are called stubby holders because they call them stubbies. The hood of a car is the bonnet, and the trunk is called the boot. A comforter is a quilt, or a doona. If something is required, they say compulsory. We have the word nil meaning nothing, but I’ve actually seen it used here, like nil prerequisites. If they’re saying what?, like if they didn’t hear you, some people say hey? instead. I know there are more that have come up, but I can’t think of them, I forget to write them down. They also try to teach us how to pronounce the words they use, it’s interesting and they sit and laugh at us awhile while we try to say it right. I think I’m saying it right and they keep laughing, it’s pretty funny. One of our friends, Amber, loves the way we say her name because when she says it with the accent it almost sounds like she’s saying Emma, it’s a lot softer. So when we say her name with our accent she laughs, it’s funny.
So, anyway, more of what I’ve actually been up to now. Since last weekend going to the gardens, not much really. Classes are getting more involved now. My first assignment is in international econ and due next Monday and we have one ongoing assignment not technically due til April in bus comm but we have to show her a part of it every week that we work on in class and have to then finish. It’s not too bad, but anything seems like a lot of work right now since I haven’t really done much. It’s a little scary not knowing how they’ll grade because I really am not sure what to expect and these assignments are all worth at least 15% of my grade each. It’s so different than home! I just have to keep telling myself I technically just have to pass to get credit since the grade doesn’t transfer, and I could do that without going to class probably. So I’ll be fine, it’s just the pressure I put on myself to do so well. I’m getting used to it all and am doing a better job of reading and pacing myself and such. Going to class is most of the battle though, and I haven’t missed one yet so that’s good. My econ class is a bit frustrating, I don’t think any of it is really that hard, I understand it mostly and I’m fairly smart in the subject, but she explains things differently than I’ve learned them and she’s really not the best teacher in general. It’s harder than it needs to be. There is also this know it all girl in the class which bothers me, because I know as much or more than she does, I just don’t speak up. I guess that’s my fault, but I just don’t feel like I always know it as well as I do, so she thinks she’s really something, that bothers me. My business comm class is fairly pointless, I haven’t really learned anything besides the teacher’s preferences for things, and she’s picky. She also doesn’t seem to be too fond of America, which I don’t like too much since I am! Our book is American and every single class, including our tutes, she has something to say about the way Americans are and how it’s that way in the book and why it’s such a bad thing. Australia Today is fairly interesting, but I think it could be more so. The tute for that class is annoying, too, the tutor is very particular and gets way too into things to where they aren’t really interesting anymore. I don’t know, I definitely enjoy the class though. The lecture is fabulous. My finance class is actually pretty good too. I have learned a lot and I understand it all pretty well. The professor for that class is super enthusiastic, I’ve never seen anyone so excited about stocks and other finance things. It’s crazy, makes for an interesting lecture though which is good since one of them is 9am on Fridays. It’s nice only having four classes, although I feel like a bit of a slacker. They wouldn’t let me take 5 though! This is a lot of work for them, I think it all comes back to a culture difference. Here they enjoy relaxing more and think it’s more important, although they do work hard at times. On the other hand, we are always go go go and there’s no time to rest and do nothing, you’re supposed to be productive all the time. It’s interesting to see so many differences, and really be exposed to more about our own culture that I never really noticed so much.
I was sad to see K-State not it the NCAA tourney, but happy about the NIT. Now I’m sad again as I see we lost today in the second round, pretty disappointing. But I listened on the internet to the end of our close first game and was pretty dang excited we won it! Nobody else here cared so I felt a little strange, but it was good. I was also very excited to get an email from K-State saying I’ve been awarded another scholarship! I got a management one that I had applied for before I left! So that was great news and makes me feel better about spending so much money to be here! I’ve been trying to follow the NCAA tourney from here, it’s tough. I miss watching all that basketball though, it makes me sad I don’t get to. Nobody else here cares to much about it at all, so I can’t even talk about it with anyone!
We’re going into winter here now, that’s everyone says. Even though it’s just the start of Autumn(they don’t call it fall) and it won’t really get into winter til just when I’m leaving! It is getting cooler though. Especially at night it can get quite chilly, I don’t want to get out of the covers in the morning because it is chilly in my room! The days are still really nice though, almost perfect weather most days. It hasn’t rained a whole lot, but it looks like it might sometimes, and they’re hoping with the weather pattern that it will be a cold wet winter. I’m not sure if I really want that but it will give them relief from the drought which they really desperately need, so I guess it would be good.
Last Friday I went fishing again with Nick, Marc, Jeff, and April. April was the only aussie, she drove us which was really nice. We went at night to try and get sharks, but had no luck. It was quite a good time though. I needed to get away and that was enough. It was super cold on the water because it was really windy, but I survived. We got to watch the entire sunset which was pretty awesome. We cooked some dinner and ate late again, it was a good night. Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day and we were all pretty excited for it. The Aussies don’t seem to get as pumped up about it as we do, though. It’s celebrated, but it’s not really commercialized at all, in any way. A lot of people didn’t even wear green! I was disappointed. We went into town during the day because we heard there was an Irish festival. Well, it turned out that was just an Irish Pub with the alley blocked off next to it with a live band. We had to pay $5 to get in but it was good all day with the stamp. So we decided to go back, get something to eat, and do nothing for awhile and come back later that night. So we did, and then decided to go out about 9. The last bus that ran left at 8, but we thought that was too early so we waited and called a taxi. Well we called the taxi four more times after that as well. We never got one. They never came. And there is no other way into town. So we ended up staying on res and just hanging around here. It was pretty frustrating we didn’t get to go out and celebrate St. Patty’s Day, but it was still a pretty good evening anyway. One of my friends here, Nick, got sick over the weekend so Sunday a bunch of us took turns helping to take care of him. He had a bad fever and felt horrible, I didn’t especially want to be around him, but I felt bad since he was in such bad shape. A bunch of us cooked some dinner that night as well and had lots of desserts with it! Loretta and I have been doing a little bit of our homework assignment every night which has been really good. Yesterday was my day off with no classes and I did absolutely nothing really. I stayed in my pjs and in my room until the afternoon. It was nice though, I got some homework done and read some Harry Potter, I haven’t done much of that yet. Loretta’s roommate has an Xbox so last night I played HALO on that for the first time ever. It was exciting, I was actually pretty good at it too! He thought it was funny how I concentrated so hard and got into it. I can’t help it! It felt good to release some energy through that.
Nothing else is really new. No exciting adventures really. I don’t have anything particular planned for this weekend, either. We were going to go on a surfing trip this Friday, but not enough people signed up so it was cancelled. That was pretty disappointing. But the next Friday I get to go on a trip to swim with the dolphins and that is something I have always wanted to do, so that’s awesome. On Monday I’m going into Melbourne for the day to see Mom!! She stops there for the day on her cruise before she comes to see me on my break in a couple weeks. So that is super exciting, I get a hug! I can’t think of anything else. I hope everything continues to be well for all of you back home. Let me know what you’ve been up to and how things are going. I still miss you!
I almost forgot! My quotes/advice/whatever. Here you go:
“There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer, no disease that enough love will not heal, no door that enough love will not bridge” ~Emmet Fox
“There isn't a ruler, a yard stick or a measuring tape in the entire world long enough to compute the strength and capabilities inside you “ ~Paul J Meyer
Love, Alissa
Sunday, March 11, 2007
The excitement never ends!
This weekend was going to be a sort of do nothing weekend, but I actually ended up doing quite a bit. It was all very good, a quality weekend. Warning, it may be a long post this time! I’ve done a lot of thinking and had time to myself, and gone on adventures and taken lots of pictures and lots of hanging out with people, so there’s a lot going on!
Thursday night Loretta and I fell asleep watching Office Space, a wonderful movie but we were exhausted for some reason. Friday was a strange day for me for some reason. I was very fidgety. I called Amanda (my roommate) and talked to her for the first time, though!! So that was very exciting and made me feel so much better! That night was great fun, I felt like I was at home a little bit. We all hung out in Wookey 4, beginning to be common, like The Apt back home. I convinced everyone to play Phase 10, nobody had before!! I love that game so that was a blast, although I didn’t end up winning, L . We played a bunch of other card games, some different poker, BS, 500 which was a whole lot like pitch. Nick cooked us all steak and potatoes that were absolutely delicious, it was great to have a real meal! We also watched some footy, I’m learning slowly all about that rough game, it’s interesting. Oh, and I got a package in the mail on Friday from my Mom, full of American candy and food!! It was a wonderful surprise with some of my favorite comfort food, like lemon cookies, Twizzlers, and Reece’s!!
Saturday was a very exciting day! I went on a little fishing trip with Nick(New Jersey), Marc(Ohio), and Scott(Ohio). Craig, an aussie, was kind enough to drive us down to Swan Bay where we were renting a boat. We got a little lost because it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but we got there alright and started our quest. Nick’s a fisher, but nobody else really was. The boys got fishing licenses but I didn’t so I couldn’t even touch the poles or they’d fine my thousands of dollars! The place we rented the boat from was a little dodgy, but everything was fine so it wasn’t a big deal. They drove us down to the pier in this van with no back and no seats in back so we sat on the wheel inside you know, it was a little scary! The boys learned where to go and how to drive the boat and we were on the water!! I haven’t ever been in a boat like this, just a little motor boat thing, it could only hold us four. I felt so close to the water since I’d never really done that! It was pretty exciting for the first few minutes, a new experience! It was absolutely gorgeous at this place, too. I think it was called Swan Bay, at Portarlington, but it was close to Queenscliff. Anyway, it took us awhile to figure out where exactly we could drop the anchor and fish, the map wasn’t very detailed. So we finally found a good place, stayed there awhile and didn’t catch anything. So we moved on to the next spot a little further out past Duck Island, but still in the bay. That was a better spot. We caught something, I’m confused as to what it was, either a whiting or a salmon of some sort, I didn’t know what they decided on. It was 28 cm so we threw it back because Nick thought it needed to be 30 cm to keep, but it was really 20 cm we found out about a minute later. Oh well, it was pretty cool anyway! And then somehow a skate caught our line, it wasn’t in its mouth though. That was pretty awesome, it was a cool creature to look at. Really it was just amazing to be out on the water, enjoying the view, the smell, the sound, and the sun. I did end up getting quite a burn on my back and splotches on my legs, it’s a little funny really. I guess I wasn’t too efficient or even with my sunscreen! It was quite a hot day when we just sat there, but it felt great when we were driving around in the boat. So we had to come back in after 3 hours out there and only two catches. It was totally worth it though. Nick and Scott took the long trek back to the shop to tell them we were back and get our deposit back and pick up some lunch for us. Well, turns out it was more of a convenience store than a café, but we had some chips and cookies and water. And back to the fishing. There were some fish starting to come in right near the jetty, or pier or whatever they call it. So Nick set up his poles again on that. It’s quite amazing how much time you can waste on a pier. We had a good time too. It was about 3 hours we were on it, just sitting around, fishing, watching everything. There is constantly something changing though, the tide is always changing and the fish come and go, birds come and go, people come and go. It was quite interesting. We saw a jellyfish, a huge skate, some puffer fish, a bunch of other fish, some tiny fish that were in schools, lots of sea gulls, huge pelicans, other birds, a couple dogs, some cute kids with their families. It was good. And the changing water allowed for a million different Kodak moments! I was a little shutter happy, it was the first time they’d really seen me use my camera so they were a bit surprised at how many pictures I took! I can’t help it, it was absolutely, incredibly gorgeous there. So it was an adventure, a new experience for me, and quite a fabulous day. Then we came back and cooked dinner, and watched a movie. It took forever to convince Marc he could cook his Macaroni and Cheese from scratch without his recipe, just trial and error and close monitoring. He’s pretty strict in his ways of doing things, but I got to him so we finally headed to the store and cooked it up and ate around 11pm. We were starving needless to say. But it was well worth it! We also cooked some kangaroo steak!! My first taste of roo, it was pretty good, very different and unique, but tasty!
Now for today! I decided I didn’t want to sit around here doing nothing all day, so after awhile I got around and ready and decided to go into town. I have really been wanting to go see the Botanical Gardens and thought I should hurry and do that since summer is almost gone here. So that’s exactly what I did. I went all by myself since nobody else really wanted to and I was determined to go. I think I’d rather have it that way really though. It allowed me to take more than enough pictures and take my time and do exactly what I wanted, and not what anybody else wanted. It was quite nice. I thoroughly enjoyed my day. And as sad as it is, I sort of felt proud of myself, like I was some big city girl today and I succeeded! I took the bus and knew exactly where I was going and how to get to the gardens and everything, it just felt good to be completely and utterly independent. It was really pretty, but not as impressive as I was expecting. Trust me, there were a couple hundred pictures snapped still, but not as colorful or lush as I was hoping. Of course, they are in one of the worst draughts ever right now, maybe that’s a factor. The conservatory was really cool. There was a rose garden and a 21st century garden with plants from around the world, a garden with native Australian plants, and some other areas as well. A fern garden and a geranium stand. It was really interesting, a lot of plants I’d never seen or heard of from all over the place. It was a really nice day out today as well. The best part was only having to pay a total of $1.80 in bus fares for the whole afternoon of awesomeness! I did buy myself a sandwich for lunch as well, but you know, a girl’s got to eat so that doesn’t count in my day of fun fund. Anyway, I walked around for about an hour and a half there taking it all in. Afterwards I figured I had more time than expected before the last bus left the city so I walked down to the beach which was just down the hill. I took a nice stroll along the waterfront for quite a ways before heading back into town and the trek back to the bus stop. Then I waited there for close to thirty minutes. I hate how much waiting for public transportation we do here, and then riding on it takes three times longer than it would directly as well. Oh well, it’s cheap and fairly easy I guess. It was another good day, I love seeing new things all the time and am starting to feel like that’s all I want to do. I have trouble just sitting around on campus all day every day, I want to get out, do as much as I can all the time, keep busy and see everything. I guess that’s what I’m here for, huh. The boys cooked dinner again tonight but I didn’t eat with them, I just ate their dessert, homemade Apple Crisp, oh yes. It was delicious, with some Home Brand (the cheap brand like Great Value or Dillon’s) ice cream. I loved it. We watched School of Rock as well.
The past two mornings I’ve woken up really early, before 8am, under no desire of my own. I don’t know why, but it’s been happening a lot lately, I wake up and just can’t get back to sleep no matter how tired I am. So I did something instead of laying in bed trying to sleep and failing like I have done previous days. I got up and went on a nice walk both mornings. I think if I continue to wake up early I’ll continue going on walks. It’s been really nice. For one it gets me out and moving around. For another, this campus is really gorgeous, even in the drought with dirt rather than grass. I can’t even imagine it if things were flourishing here. We have at least four different lakes, and a gravel track around the whole campus that is about 4km I think. There is hardly ever anyone on the track and there is always a place to sit at at least one of the lakes. Three of them are sort of connected through the drain thing, you know, and are behind most of the major buildings on campus. Then there is one at the entrance. It’s peaceful back there and serene and quiet and a wonderful place to escape to. It feels good to be outside and moving around and taking it all in. It has also been a really good time for me to think about stuff and kind of clear my head, or let my mind wander off to whatever it wishes, spontaneous pondering. So I’ve thought about some things that I think are fairly interesting. I’ll share a couple of those thoughts. I can’t believe how much this experience is strictly my own and nobody else’s. All the people I love back home really don’t know what this is like, as you can’t even begin to imagine until it’s happening to you. Nobody knows my daily life, I don’t share any of this experience with any of my people from home. That’s just not how things usually work, and it’s strange to think about. I enjoy sharing things with the people I love, so it’s sort of difficult for me that I can’t share any of this with anyone. But at the same time that is part of what makes this all so incredible. I get to be totally selfish, this is all for me. Everything I am doing is to please myself, stretch myself, and benefit myself. That’s crazy that I get to do that. At times I wish I could get to do things for other people more or give myself like I do when I’m home, but I guess I have the rest of my life to do that. Now I actually am living only for me while I’m here. That’s difficult to grasp really. I went on with that one for awhile. Anyway, I also thought about what will happen in a little less than four months. That’s not very long. I know I shouldn’t think about it, but a few of us were talking about it the other day. I can’t begin to imagine what that will be like. To leave this place. I already feel quite comfortable here. I feel an attachment, I love Geelong and this campus. I’ve made some pretty good friends, but really I’m not terribly close with anyone yet and I already would feel sad leaving them. With all the American friends, it’s going to be bearable because we can visit each other, everyone will have to come to K-State since that’s where a bunch of us are from! But we can see them again if we really want to. All the Aussie friends we make, it could be the last time we see them in our lives. And to come home after experiencing so much here. I can already imagine how bored I’ll be! I have done so so so much more here in the past month than I do in a year back home. Every weekend we go somewhere and see something new, even if it’s just into Geelong. It’s always exciting. But I don’t want to think about that too much because I have a lot left to do and see and more people to meet and get attached to before then. It’s just crazy to think about some of these things sometimes.
Okay, I warned you it would be a long one. I think I’ve become unhealthily obsessed with sharing info and talking in the past few years, strange I know as many people have always thought me the quiet one. Oh but some of you know differently. Anyway, I’m glad you keep up on my life, it’s nice to know. I hope you’re all still doing wonderfully. I’m keeping my head up on this incredible journey trying not to miss a second of it. I know I’m blessed in millions of ways and God is looking out for me all the time whether I can see it or not.
My quotes for today(I‘m becoming obsessed already):
~”Be careful what you set your heart on, for it will surely be yours” Ralph Waldo Emerson
~“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” Vince Lombardi
~“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out if they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got. You'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” William James
Love and hugs, Alissa
p.s. i changed the timestamp so now it's my time zone! AND I rememberd to change my clock with back home time for daylight savings so I'm set for that. I'm so smart.
Thursday night Loretta and I fell asleep watching Office Space, a wonderful movie but we were exhausted for some reason. Friday was a strange day for me for some reason. I was very fidgety. I called Amanda (my roommate) and talked to her for the first time, though!! So that was very exciting and made me feel so much better! That night was great fun, I felt like I was at home a little bit. We all hung out in Wookey 4, beginning to be common, like The Apt back home. I convinced everyone to play Phase 10, nobody had before!! I love that game so that was a blast, although I didn’t end up winning, L . We played a bunch of other card games, some different poker, BS, 500 which was a whole lot like pitch. Nick cooked us all steak and potatoes that were absolutely delicious, it was great to have a real meal! We also watched some footy, I’m learning slowly all about that rough game, it’s interesting. Oh, and I got a package in the mail on Friday from my Mom, full of American candy and food!! It was a wonderful surprise with some of my favorite comfort food, like lemon cookies, Twizzlers, and Reece’s!!
Saturday was a very exciting day! I went on a little fishing trip with Nick(New Jersey), Marc(Ohio), and Scott(Ohio). Craig, an aussie, was kind enough to drive us down to Swan Bay where we were renting a boat. We got a little lost because it was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but we got there alright and started our quest. Nick’s a fisher, but nobody else really was. The boys got fishing licenses but I didn’t so I couldn’t even touch the poles or they’d fine my thousands of dollars! The place we rented the boat from was a little dodgy, but everything was fine so it wasn’t a big deal. They drove us down to the pier in this van with no back and no seats in back so we sat on the wheel inside you know, it was a little scary! The boys learned where to go and how to drive the boat and we were on the water!! I haven’t ever been in a boat like this, just a little motor boat thing, it could only hold us four. I felt so close to the water since I’d never really done that! It was pretty exciting for the first few minutes, a new experience! It was absolutely gorgeous at this place, too. I think it was called Swan Bay, at Portarlington, but it was close to Queenscliff. Anyway, it took us awhile to figure out where exactly we could drop the anchor and fish, the map wasn’t very detailed. So we finally found a good place, stayed there awhile and didn’t catch anything. So we moved on to the next spot a little further out past Duck Island, but still in the bay. That was a better spot. We caught something, I’m confused as to what it was, either a whiting or a salmon of some sort, I didn’t know what they decided on. It was 28 cm so we threw it back because Nick thought it needed to be 30 cm to keep, but it was really 20 cm we found out about a minute later. Oh well, it was pretty cool anyway! And then somehow a skate caught our line, it wasn’t in its mouth though. That was pretty awesome, it was a cool creature to look at. Really it was just amazing to be out on the water, enjoying the view, the smell, the sound, and the sun. I did end up getting quite a burn on my back and splotches on my legs, it’s a little funny really. I guess I wasn’t too efficient or even with my sunscreen! It was quite a hot day when we just sat there, but it felt great when we were driving around in the boat. So we had to come back in after 3 hours out there and only two catches. It was totally worth it though. Nick and Scott took the long trek back to the shop to tell them we were back and get our deposit back and pick up some lunch for us. Well, turns out it was more of a convenience store than a café, but we had some chips and cookies and water. And back to the fishing. There were some fish starting to come in right near the jetty, or pier or whatever they call it. So Nick set up his poles again on that. It’s quite amazing how much time you can waste on a pier. We had a good time too. It was about 3 hours we were on it, just sitting around, fishing, watching everything. There is constantly something changing though, the tide is always changing and the fish come and go, birds come and go, people come and go. It was quite interesting. We saw a jellyfish, a huge skate, some puffer fish, a bunch of other fish, some tiny fish that were in schools, lots of sea gulls, huge pelicans, other birds, a couple dogs, some cute kids with their families. It was good. And the changing water allowed for a million different Kodak moments! I was a little shutter happy, it was the first time they’d really seen me use my camera so they were a bit surprised at how many pictures I took! I can’t help it, it was absolutely, incredibly gorgeous there. So it was an adventure, a new experience for me, and quite a fabulous day. Then we came back and cooked dinner, and watched a movie. It took forever to convince Marc he could cook his Macaroni and Cheese from scratch without his recipe, just trial and error and close monitoring. He’s pretty strict in his ways of doing things, but I got to him so we finally headed to the store and cooked it up and ate around 11pm. We were starving needless to say. But it was well worth it! We also cooked some kangaroo steak!! My first taste of roo, it was pretty good, very different and unique, but tasty!
Now for today! I decided I didn’t want to sit around here doing nothing all day, so after awhile I got around and ready and decided to go into town. I have really been wanting to go see the Botanical Gardens and thought I should hurry and do that since summer is almost gone here. So that’s exactly what I did. I went all by myself since nobody else really wanted to and I was determined to go. I think I’d rather have it that way really though. It allowed me to take more than enough pictures and take my time and do exactly what I wanted, and not what anybody else wanted. It was quite nice. I thoroughly enjoyed my day. And as sad as it is, I sort of felt proud of myself, like I was some big city girl today and I succeeded! I took the bus and knew exactly where I was going and how to get to the gardens and everything, it just felt good to be completely and utterly independent. It was really pretty, but not as impressive as I was expecting. Trust me, there were a couple hundred pictures snapped still, but not as colorful or lush as I was hoping. Of course, they are in one of the worst draughts ever right now, maybe that’s a factor. The conservatory was really cool. There was a rose garden and a 21st century garden with plants from around the world, a garden with native Australian plants, and some other areas as well. A fern garden and a geranium stand. It was really interesting, a lot of plants I’d never seen or heard of from all over the place. It was a really nice day out today as well. The best part was only having to pay a total of $1.80 in bus fares for the whole afternoon of awesomeness! I did buy myself a sandwich for lunch as well, but you know, a girl’s got to eat so that doesn’t count in my day of fun fund. Anyway, I walked around for about an hour and a half there taking it all in. Afterwards I figured I had more time than expected before the last bus left the city so I walked down to the beach which was just down the hill. I took a nice stroll along the waterfront for quite a ways before heading back into town and the trek back to the bus stop. Then I waited there for close to thirty minutes. I hate how much waiting for public transportation we do here, and then riding on it takes three times longer than it would directly as well. Oh well, it’s cheap and fairly easy I guess. It was another good day, I love seeing new things all the time and am starting to feel like that’s all I want to do. I have trouble just sitting around on campus all day every day, I want to get out, do as much as I can all the time, keep busy and see everything. I guess that’s what I’m here for, huh. The boys cooked dinner again tonight but I didn’t eat with them, I just ate their dessert, homemade Apple Crisp, oh yes. It was delicious, with some Home Brand (the cheap brand like Great Value or Dillon’s) ice cream. I loved it. We watched School of Rock as well.
The past two mornings I’ve woken up really early, before 8am, under no desire of my own. I don’t know why, but it’s been happening a lot lately, I wake up and just can’t get back to sleep no matter how tired I am. So I did something instead of laying in bed trying to sleep and failing like I have done previous days. I got up and went on a nice walk both mornings. I think if I continue to wake up early I’ll continue going on walks. It’s been really nice. For one it gets me out and moving around. For another, this campus is really gorgeous, even in the drought with dirt rather than grass. I can’t even imagine it if things were flourishing here. We have at least four different lakes, and a gravel track around the whole campus that is about 4km I think. There is hardly ever anyone on the track and there is always a place to sit at at least one of the lakes. Three of them are sort of connected through the drain thing, you know, and are behind most of the major buildings on campus. Then there is one at the entrance. It’s peaceful back there and serene and quiet and a wonderful place to escape to. It feels good to be outside and moving around and taking it all in. It has also been a really good time for me to think about stuff and kind of clear my head, or let my mind wander off to whatever it wishes, spontaneous pondering. So I’ve thought about some things that I think are fairly interesting. I’ll share a couple of those thoughts. I can’t believe how much this experience is strictly my own and nobody else’s. All the people I love back home really don’t know what this is like, as you can’t even begin to imagine until it’s happening to you. Nobody knows my daily life, I don’t share any of this experience with any of my people from home. That’s just not how things usually work, and it’s strange to think about. I enjoy sharing things with the people I love, so it’s sort of difficult for me that I can’t share any of this with anyone. But at the same time that is part of what makes this all so incredible. I get to be totally selfish, this is all for me. Everything I am doing is to please myself, stretch myself, and benefit myself. That’s crazy that I get to do that. At times I wish I could get to do things for other people more or give myself like I do when I’m home, but I guess I have the rest of my life to do that. Now I actually am living only for me while I’m here. That’s difficult to grasp really. I went on with that one for awhile. Anyway, I also thought about what will happen in a little less than four months. That’s not very long. I know I shouldn’t think about it, but a few of us were talking about it the other day. I can’t begin to imagine what that will be like. To leave this place. I already feel quite comfortable here. I feel an attachment, I love Geelong and this campus. I’ve made some pretty good friends, but really I’m not terribly close with anyone yet and I already would feel sad leaving them. With all the American friends, it’s going to be bearable because we can visit each other, everyone will have to come to K-State since that’s where a bunch of us are from! But we can see them again if we really want to. All the Aussie friends we make, it could be the last time we see them in our lives. And to come home after experiencing so much here. I can already imagine how bored I’ll be! I have done so so so much more here in the past month than I do in a year back home. Every weekend we go somewhere and see something new, even if it’s just into Geelong. It’s always exciting. But I don’t want to think about that too much because I have a lot left to do and see and more people to meet and get attached to before then. It’s just crazy to think about some of these things sometimes.
Okay, I warned you it would be a long one. I think I’ve become unhealthily obsessed with sharing info and talking in the past few years, strange I know as many people have always thought me the quiet one. Oh but some of you know differently. Anyway, I’m glad you keep up on my life, it’s nice to know. I hope you’re all still doing wonderfully. I’m keeping my head up on this incredible journey trying not to miss a second of it. I know I’m blessed in millions of ways and God is looking out for me all the time whether I can see it or not.
My quotes for today(I‘m becoming obsessed already):
~”Be careful what you set your heart on, for it will surely be yours” Ralph Waldo Emerson
~“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” Vince Lombardi
~“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out if they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got. You'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” William James
Love and hugs, Alissa
p.s. i changed the timestamp so now it's my time zone! AND I rememberd to change my clock with back home time for daylight savings so I'm set for that. I'm so smart.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
It's Thursday. I'm bored.
Another post! This may be my shortest yet. I haven’t had too much going on, but I felt like writing. I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, kind of strange, but I enjoy it. Maybe I’ll let you all in on some more differences that I’ve noticed, that seems to be popular. First what little I’ve been up to.
School is still not in full swing, I don’t start one of my tutes until Tuesday, and with that one I can’t go to, I’m really only in class about 10 hours a week. I’m not sure what all I’ve been doing to keep myself occupied! I still haven’t gotten used to everything, and it’s hard to focus and get myself to actually read everything I am supposed to. I don’t understand it either, the students here all tell me different things. They always ask if I’m keeping up with the reading and whether I’ve done my studying. Well thus far I haven’t done much, it doesn’t seem as though I need to. But then they also say you don’t have to do all that is technically assigned. I don’t get it. There is a ton of reading, though. They give you reading out of the book, then readings online, and in two of my classes they have an additional readings booklet. Crazy. So some weeks there are 100 or more pages to read for one class. The book is exactly what they have slides on in class, so I think that’s just like home where it’s more to help you and reinforce, you’re supposed to read it but it’s just for your own good. While maybe the other readings are more important. I’m not sure. It’s difficult because there aren’t any quizzes or anything, just the one big final at the end, and most of those are worth 70% of our grade. Then usually two “assessments” as well, either assignments, essays, or in one class I have a MC test before the final exam. Anyway, I’m still adjusting to the school aspect of things.
Everything else is becoming very comfortable to me though. There are times I still feel very much like an outsider simply because I am basically. At times it feels like all the Australians know each other already, even if they’ve only known each other for a day or something! I think that’s part of how they are though, just very friendly right away and just like that you’re mates with someone. Everyone is mates with everyone. Some people are like that back home, but I’m not one of them. It takes me a little longer. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made some great friends already and am making more all the time, it’s just another way I’m different. I’m fine with the language now, every once in awhile there will be another word I haven’t heard of yet, but I’m getting the hang of it for the most part. I don’t have trouble understanding them at all unless they’re talking really fast, which a few do. I have the bus system and everything under control now and know my way around campus and town pretty well. I feel like I’ve adjusted very well and that’s great to finally feel that way for the most part.
Tonight was the Barton College (res complex I live in) Dinner. It was pretty good, better than the usual caff, but nothing as amazing as I expected. There was some sort of beef (none of the beef here is anything compared to Kansas beef!!) and chicken and penne pasta with a couple salads and rolls. They always have great rolls. We got two vouchers for wine or beer, so I had a glass of wine with dinner, it was really great with dessert! A big piece of rich chocolate cake and a glass of wine, how wonderful, it made me feel special! J They had places for us and it was totally random, not by unit or anything, so I got to meet a few more people which was cool. Our colors for Barton are red and blue, and they had decorations everywhere, with white table cloths and star confetti. So I felt like I was a Fourth of July party or something! Yeah USA! It was funny. I got a little dressed up, just jeans and a nice shirt with my heels, it felt good to get fancy for something, and I must say I did look pretty good!
Last night ended up being much better than expected. We threw a Frisbee around for awhile, it felt good to throw something for some reason. I wish I could play some darts or shoot some baskets! Maybe I’ll get someone to rent a bball for me and head over to the courts for a bit someday. You have to pay for the gym membership here and I didn’t feel like I’d get the my money’s worth, but you also have to pay to rent equipment if you’re not a member which sucks a little bit, but I can get other people to rent it out for me. Anyway, we played a few card games as well and just sat around chit chatting, it was a good time. I sort of felt like I was back home. Mom sent me a couple packs of Kool Aid in the mail, which I was very excited about., and we had already talked about it once this semester with some people. The Aussies didn’t know what it was. So I showed them all and they’re excited to try some! I got made fun of a little for liking it so much but whatever, it’s good! There are a couple guys in my unit who play guitar all the time, it’s kind of nice to hear some instrumental music around here, I really enjoy it. I need to try and find a symphony concert or a live jazz club or something to go to.
Let’s see, what else…Well, Tuesday Loretta and I had an adventure into town that was actually really good. I’m not sure why, but it was a great day, a nice refresher. We just went to do a bit of shopping and eat dinner. We didn’t want the caff’s burgers, bad beef experiences so far. On the bus ride home we got lucky, our tickets were only good til 7, but the bus didn’t come til 7:05 so we thought it would be fine, so we just showed the bus driver our ticket. He was a happy guy, and I honestly think my shirt saved us, I was wearing the one that says someone in Kansas loves me, he thought it was interesting. So he let us get on and not pay again. But when we got to be the only two left on the bus, he had a bit of a chat with us, telling us that he was generous and really next time we should just put it away and pay again. He said they were coming out with a new thing where we will all have a card and you just swipe it when you get on and off, so it won’t be so generous and it will make us pay, did we catch his drift? It was a little awkward, we were like, yeah, okay, we get it, sorry. Then we also did some homework together that night and planned our trips a little bit for the rest of the semester! That was fun. We didn’t do any definite planning or booking, just when we’re going to go where. So we plan on going to Sydney not this weekend, but next, for a four day weekend. Then we’ll go to Tasmania the end of April, and New Zealand once we’re done with school! I’m excited. The other weekends left we have a few day trips planned, and we still have a lot of exploring to do in Geelong, Melbourne and the little towns nearby here. There are some little wildlife parks, museums, and things of that nature around here we want to check out. It was exciting to think of where all we’ll be going! I’ve already done more traveling than I have in the past few years back home!! But I love it, that’s a huge reason I came here! And to learn about the country and culture, and I’m getting to do that as well. It’s so interesting, I love all the learning I’m getting done here. I felt super smart in my International Econ class the other day. I’m not sure why, but it seemed so easy, people were confused by things and I knew exactly what was going on! It really doesn’t happen that often. The teacher was being really confusing about things, making it much more confusing than it ought to have been, but I just stopped listening to her and looking at what she was trying to explain and got it fine. We had a few questions at the end of class and the last one was ultra hard for a lot of people, but I knew the answer right away and understand the explanation behind it perfectly. I felt so good about myself! So that was nice.
Hmm…I think that’s about it. Nothing too exciting. Still a long enough one though, eh. I love this Tom kid playing guitar right now!! He’s good and playing some great songs, including REM songs, nice. I think tonight will be a laid back chill night. I hate having 9am class on Fridays. I might go check out the botanical gardens in Geelong this weekend, that’s exciting to me. I’ll update soon I’m sure, it keeps me busy, and makes me feel somewhat productive. Hope you all continue to be well. PLEASE, you should really leave comments on here, otherwise how will I know anyone ever reads these long boring stories! Give yourselves a hug from me.
And I’ll start giving some advice, or quotes or something, so here’s two for today, very simple:
- “No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you.” C.D. Martin
AND
- “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart.” Dag Hammarskjold
Love, Alissa
School is still not in full swing, I don’t start one of my tutes until Tuesday, and with that one I can’t go to, I’m really only in class about 10 hours a week. I’m not sure what all I’ve been doing to keep myself occupied! I still haven’t gotten used to everything, and it’s hard to focus and get myself to actually read everything I am supposed to. I don’t understand it either, the students here all tell me different things. They always ask if I’m keeping up with the reading and whether I’ve done my studying. Well thus far I haven’t done much, it doesn’t seem as though I need to. But then they also say you don’t have to do all that is technically assigned. I don’t get it. There is a ton of reading, though. They give you reading out of the book, then readings online, and in two of my classes they have an additional readings booklet. Crazy. So some weeks there are 100 or more pages to read for one class. The book is exactly what they have slides on in class, so I think that’s just like home where it’s more to help you and reinforce, you’re supposed to read it but it’s just for your own good. While maybe the other readings are more important. I’m not sure. It’s difficult because there aren’t any quizzes or anything, just the one big final at the end, and most of those are worth 70% of our grade. Then usually two “assessments” as well, either assignments, essays, or in one class I have a MC test before the final exam. Anyway, I’m still adjusting to the school aspect of things.
Everything else is becoming very comfortable to me though. There are times I still feel very much like an outsider simply because I am basically. At times it feels like all the Australians know each other already, even if they’ve only known each other for a day or something! I think that’s part of how they are though, just very friendly right away and just like that you’re mates with someone. Everyone is mates with everyone. Some people are like that back home, but I’m not one of them. It takes me a little longer. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made some great friends already and am making more all the time, it’s just another way I’m different. I’m fine with the language now, every once in awhile there will be another word I haven’t heard of yet, but I’m getting the hang of it for the most part. I don’t have trouble understanding them at all unless they’re talking really fast, which a few do. I have the bus system and everything under control now and know my way around campus and town pretty well. I feel like I’ve adjusted very well and that’s great to finally feel that way for the most part.
Tonight was the Barton College (res complex I live in) Dinner. It was pretty good, better than the usual caff, but nothing as amazing as I expected. There was some sort of beef (none of the beef here is anything compared to Kansas beef!!) and chicken and penne pasta with a couple salads and rolls. They always have great rolls. We got two vouchers for wine or beer, so I had a glass of wine with dinner, it was really great with dessert! A big piece of rich chocolate cake and a glass of wine, how wonderful, it made me feel special! J They had places for us and it was totally random, not by unit or anything, so I got to meet a few more people which was cool. Our colors for Barton are red and blue, and they had decorations everywhere, with white table cloths and star confetti. So I felt like I was a Fourth of July party or something! Yeah USA! It was funny. I got a little dressed up, just jeans and a nice shirt with my heels, it felt good to get fancy for something, and I must say I did look pretty good!
Last night ended up being much better than expected. We threw a Frisbee around for awhile, it felt good to throw something for some reason. I wish I could play some darts or shoot some baskets! Maybe I’ll get someone to rent a bball for me and head over to the courts for a bit someday. You have to pay for the gym membership here and I didn’t feel like I’d get the my money’s worth, but you also have to pay to rent equipment if you’re not a member which sucks a little bit, but I can get other people to rent it out for me. Anyway, we played a few card games as well and just sat around chit chatting, it was a good time. I sort of felt like I was back home. Mom sent me a couple packs of Kool Aid in the mail, which I was very excited about., and we had already talked about it once this semester with some people. The Aussies didn’t know what it was. So I showed them all and they’re excited to try some! I got made fun of a little for liking it so much but whatever, it’s good! There are a couple guys in my unit who play guitar all the time, it’s kind of nice to hear some instrumental music around here, I really enjoy it. I need to try and find a symphony concert or a live jazz club or something to go to.
Let’s see, what else…Well, Tuesday Loretta and I had an adventure into town that was actually really good. I’m not sure why, but it was a great day, a nice refresher. We just went to do a bit of shopping and eat dinner. We didn’t want the caff’s burgers, bad beef experiences so far. On the bus ride home we got lucky, our tickets were only good til 7, but the bus didn’t come til 7:05 so we thought it would be fine, so we just showed the bus driver our ticket. He was a happy guy, and I honestly think my shirt saved us, I was wearing the one that says someone in Kansas loves me, he thought it was interesting. So he let us get on and not pay again. But when we got to be the only two left on the bus, he had a bit of a chat with us, telling us that he was generous and really next time we should just put it away and pay again. He said they were coming out with a new thing where we will all have a card and you just swipe it when you get on and off, so it won’t be so generous and it will make us pay, did we catch his drift? It was a little awkward, we were like, yeah, okay, we get it, sorry. Then we also did some homework together that night and planned our trips a little bit for the rest of the semester! That was fun. We didn’t do any definite planning or booking, just when we’re going to go where. So we plan on going to Sydney not this weekend, but next, for a four day weekend. Then we’ll go to Tasmania the end of April, and New Zealand once we’re done with school! I’m excited. The other weekends left we have a few day trips planned, and we still have a lot of exploring to do in Geelong, Melbourne and the little towns nearby here. There are some little wildlife parks, museums, and things of that nature around here we want to check out. It was exciting to think of where all we’ll be going! I’ve already done more traveling than I have in the past few years back home!! But I love it, that’s a huge reason I came here! And to learn about the country and culture, and I’m getting to do that as well. It’s so interesting, I love all the learning I’m getting done here. I felt super smart in my International Econ class the other day. I’m not sure why, but it seemed so easy, people were confused by things and I knew exactly what was going on! It really doesn’t happen that often. The teacher was being really confusing about things, making it much more confusing than it ought to have been, but I just stopped listening to her and looking at what she was trying to explain and got it fine. We had a few questions at the end of class and the last one was ultra hard for a lot of people, but I knew the answer right away and understand the explanation behind it perfectly. I felt so good about myself! So that was nice.
Hmm…I think that’s about it. Nothing too exciting. Still a long enough one though, eh. I love this Tom kid playing guitar right now!! He’s good and playing some great songs, including REM songs, nice. I think tonight will be a laid back chill night. I hate having 9am class on Fridays. I might go check out the botanical gardens in Geelong this weekend, that’s exciting to me. I’ll update soon I’m sure, it keeps me busy, and makes me feel somewhat productive. Hope you all continue to be well. PLEASE, you should really leave comments on here, otherwise how will I know anyone ever reads these long boring stories! Give yourselves a hug from me.
And I’ll start giving some advice, or quotes or something, so here’s two for today, very simple:
- “No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you.” C.D. Martin
AND
- “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart.” Dag Hammarskjold
Love, Alissa
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Phillip Island Adventure
More exciting things have happened! I’ve already been here a month! Wow. I’ve kept busy and kept doing new and exciting things to make this past week go by faster. Sometimes I wish I could just pop back home for a minute for a hug, or a short conversation face to face, or a bite to eat, something just for a minute. But it’s all good, I already know I will in absolutely no way regret this experience, it’s a once in a lifetime incredible opportunity that has already made a big impact on my life. I keep meeting lots of new people and have made some good friends already and only look forward to making more. I’m starting to get to know my housemates a little better and they all seem really great. It’s really great having Loretta and Jenny here even though I really didn’t know them at all before we flew over here. Loretta’s housemate Tom almost feels like a little brother to me, he’s such a nice guy. And we’ve made some pretty good friends with Marc from Ohio and Nick from New Jersey. It’s cool to have so many K-State people here as well, it’s kind of an automatic connection to home.
Okay, so what’s been going on the past few days. I went to all my lectures, and had one tutorial as well. I only need to pass, which is a 50%, to get credit for all my classes back home, but it’s still going to be a good amount of work. I think it will be fairly difficult for me. It’s hard right now to get back in the swing of things since I’ve been out of school awhile and have been on the “vacation” of my life so far here. The hardest part for me is the fact that we don’t have many assignments at all. We have to read every week by ourselves, because we will need that info for our tests at the end of the semester. That’s a lot of self discipline! We also have questions to do every week that we talk about in the tutorials, but again it’s all up to you. Most of my classes have two assignments and one big test at the end. Finance has a three hour test at the end, along with a multiple choice test the week before! But he promises it should be an easy class for us. We’ll see, he has a lot of enthusiasm and is a little out there, but usually that helps! International Econ sounds like it’s going to be a really interesting class. It might be quite difficult though because I have to do the tutorial part all on my own since it clashes with another lecture I have and she couldn’t move the time at all. So I guess I’ll have a good relationship with that teacher since I’ll have to have one on one, yikes!! Business Communication looks to be fairly easy and probably quite helpful. I’m most excited about Australia Today! It’s only for international students and they teach us everything about Australia, the culture, the history, the people, the land, all of it. And all of that interests me a great deal, and is a big reason I came here in the first place, to fully immerse myself in and experience a different place in the world. It’s strange only being in four classes, but I really do feel like I’m in class a fair amount of time and will have plenty of work to keep myself busy with. It’s a little difficult to adjust to a new system of learning, they do things a little different here although I’m not really sure what exactly all those differences are.
I’ve been trying to organize all my school stuff and figure out my calendar for the next four months, it seems like it’s no time at all!! We’ve also been watching movies and such to keep ourselves entertained and busy. Friday night Tom took me and Loretta to the grocery store, bad idea since we were hungry, but really a good thing as I got some Cookies n Cream ice cream so I can pig out whenever I want! J We went to get ingredients to make a quiche, though. Tom got his Mum’s recipe and decided to make it for us. It took quite awhile to make and was a bit of an adventure, he didn’t exactly know what he was doing, we didn’t have a spatula so the bacon grease kept splattering and it hurt badly, there were a few egg shell pieces in there and the flour didn’t get sifted, just poured. But it ended up tasting quite delicious. I reckon I’ll have to get the recipe from him.
Yesterday was one of the most amazing experiences since I’ve been here. I signed up for a trip through DUSA (the student association) to go to Phillip Island to see the world famous Penguin Parade. I must say the transportation was a little frustrating, but everything else was incredible. We had to go to Melbourne to the Burwood campus of Deakin to meet the bus. Well, that took us way longer than it should have because the bus took another strange route we didn’t understand, and the tram from inside Melbourne out to the campus was crazy long. Then the bus to pick us up was a half hour late and we didn’t have anyone to call, there was no Deakin representative there or anything. But we got on it and got on our way just fine. I’m just glad we didn’t have to be there until 2, seeing as we started out from here at 9:30 in the morning! I believe there is such thing as too much public transportation in one day! We had another hour or two drive to Phillip Island, although it’s just straight across the bay from Geelong, we had to go all the way up and round the bay. So our driver stopped in a little town called Tooradin so we could get out and get a drink or whatever. That was an interesting stop. There was a little lake, more of a pond, by the Café we stopped at and there were these two boys and their mom there. The two boys were running around and swimming in the pond while the mom just sat there. The boys were a little chubby and both needed to pull up their trunks a little, but they were just having fun, whatever. Well then they decided to go over this bridge there that was maybe 6 feet above the water, and they climbed over the rail to stand on the edge and then jump off. It took both of them forever to get up the courage to jump and they just stood up there, dancing around with their mom yelling at them! It was a source of huge entertainment for all of us that were waiting on the bus. One of them decided to pee from up there as well, since he couldn’t get back over the rail and wasn’t ready to jump off I guess! We couldn’t believe it! This was in no way a secluded place, and his brother and mom were right there watching him pee off the bridge!! Anyway, long story, trust me it was quite hilarious to all of us, and we all got some pictures of them! So we were on our way again. We passed through towns of Canbourne and San Remo as well. When we got on to Phillip Island we went to a Koala Conservation Center. That was pretty amazing. They have a boardwalk you walk around and get to see a bunch of koalas in the trees. It’s high off the ground since they always live up high in the gum trees and the trees themselves can grow quite tall. We got to see quite a few of them, and most of them were actually awake and eating as well! That’s an exciting thing since they sleep for 20 hours a day. That’s not just because they’re lazy though. The eucalyptus leaf is one of the worst in nutritional value, and when they eat it, it actually ferments in their stomach and essentially you have a drunk koala. So they sleep both to conserve what very little energy they get from their food source, and because they’re a little intoxicated! Anyway, a couple of them were actually moving around in their trees. One even decided to climb down from his tree onto the railing of the boardwalk, and he took a good long stroll around the railing! It was incredible. I got a few good pictures, but when he did it I was on the opposite side, and there were people all crowding around him and stuff by the time I got over there. The rangers were trying to keep him moving along and keep everyone back since it was a lot of work for the poor fellow to move so much and he wouldn’t if people were too close. Very interesting to watch these little guys! I also saw a kookabura in the tree and along another walk they had we saw a whole bunch of wallabies. They were pretty cute, in some small way they reminded me of hamsters or squirrels! So needless to say I liked them. They would look up at us with their little hands hanging down and let us get fairly close and then hop off! So that was fun. Then we headed to Cowes, a town on the island, to eat dinner and walk around. That was fun and it was quite gorgeous by the beach there. Finally we went to see the Nobbies, some rocks off the coast, one of which a colony of seals lives on, and to the southern most point of the Island, and essentially of Australia. Across the straight was Tasmania, (too far to see) and then south of Tasmania a ways is Antarctica. So it was actually quite chilly there with the strong wind and the sun slowly going down. It was breathtakingly gorgeous though. That is some of the roughest sea in the world, but with the waves splashing up on the rocks that were all made from volcanic lava and ash, it was a beautiful rugged coastline with the sun setting in the distance. We headed to the Penguin Parade then since it’s good to get there before the sun goes down to get a good seat. They have bleachers set up and some room to sit on the sand in front. We took the sand, a front row seat! One of the most stunning views I’ve seen just sitting there with nobody in front of me, watching the ocean with the sun setting. It was absolutely incredible. That right there was a good enough show for me! It was kind of in a little cove with cliffs around and the waves were fairly large coming in, and we watched the entire sunset waiting for the penguins. Then the “Little Penguins” (so named because they are indeed the smallest penguins in the world, but used to be named fairy penguins) started appearing out of the ocean! They’d just pop up when a wave rolled in and shake off and waddle up the shore a little ways. They huddled around and waited on the water line for quite awhile until they got up the courage to come up the beach and go back into their burrows. They go out to the ocean to fish, and they always go alone, but they come back across the beach together for protection from the seagulls, foxes, snakes, and cats. When they are out at sea a group of them are called a raft because they float along the top when they are sleeping. Then they are called a waddle when they come home since they really do waddle up the beach. They go out for a few days or weeks at a time to fish, which they do by diving to the bottom of the straight (sometimes up to 60m) then catch fish on their way back up, all in two minutes. They sleep in the ocean floating along at night, and continue to feed and get fat while they’re out there. They come back a lot to either breed, lay eggs, take care of the chicks, or mault and get a whole new set of feathers. They are monogamous so if their mate dies, they are done breeding forever. They were pretty cute to watch come up the beach, and they were pretty slow since they were so fat from feeding, some even fell over a couple times, or took a short rest on their bellies! There was always a fearless leader and a straggler of the group. Then when we left we could see them all up the hill going back to their burrows. They made this loud noise too, like talking before bed or something. It’s incredible that they just do this all the time, even with the people there like it’s nothing. Every day more come out of the ocean and more go out. It’s also a little crazy people can make millions off of this, but it was worth seeing. There was this one seagull who kept coming really close to me on the beach squaking and puffing up his feathers, he was really mean chasing all the other gulls off, too! All in all the experience was pretty incredible and I enjoyed the day a lot, it was great to take so many pictures as well!! (Although photography and video were strictly prohibited at the penguins) It was a long ride home to Geelong, but worth every minute and penny.
So that’s been my exciting news! Now it looks to be another boring old week, although I’m sure new and exciting things will come up, because I’m in Australia for goodness sake! I’d love to hear from you, no matter how boring you think life’s been for you lately. I miss you and would really love to hear how back home is going. Have a great week and I’ll try to as well!
Love, Alissa
Okay, so what’s been going on the past few days. I went to all my lectures, and had one tutorial as well. I only need to pass, which is a 50%, to get credit for all my classes back home, but it’s still going to be a good amount of work. I think it will be fairly difficult for me. It’s hard right now to get back in the swing of things since I’ve been out of school awhile and have been on the “vacation” of my life so far here. The hardest part for me is the fact that we don’t have many assignments at all. We have to read every week by ourselves, because we will need that info for our tests at the end of the semester. That’s a lot of self discipline! We also have questions to do every week that we talk about in the tutorials, but again it’s all up to you. Most of my classes have two assignments and one big test at the end. Finance has a three hour test at the end, along with a multiple choice test the week before! But he promises it should be an easy class for us. We’ll see, he has a lot of enthusiasm and is a little out there, but usually that helps! International Econ sounds like it’s going to be a really interesting class. It might be quite difficult though because I have to do the tutorial part all on my own since it clashes with another lecture I have and she couldn’t move the time at all. So I guess I’ll have a good relationship with that teacher since I’ll have to have one on one, yikes!! Business Communication looks to be fairly easy and probably quite helpful. I’m most excited about Australia Today! It’s only for international students and they teach us everything about Australia, the culture, the history, the people, the land, all of it. And all of that interests me a great deal, and is a big reason I came here in the first place, to fully immerse myself in and experience a different place in the world. It’s strange only being in four classes, but I really do feel like I’m in class a fair amount of time and will have plenty of work to keep myself busy with. It’s a little difficult to adjust to a new system of learning, they do things a little different here although I’m not really sure what exactly all those differences are.
I’ve been trying to organize all my school stuff and figure out my calendar for the next four months, it seems like it’s no time at all!! We’ve also been watching movies and such to keep ourselves entertained and busy. Friday night Tom took me and Loretta to the grocery store, bad idea since we were hungry, but really a good thing as I got some Cookies n Cream ice cream so I can pig out whenever I want! J We went to get ingredients to make a quiche, though. Tom got his Mum’s recipe and decided to make it for us. It took quite awhile to make and was a bit of an adventure, he didn’t exactly know what he was doing, we didn’t have a spatula so the bacon grease kept splattering and it hurt badly, there were a few egg shell pieces in there and the flour didn’t get sifted, just poured. But it ended up tasting quite delicious. I reckon I’ll have to get the recipe from him.
Yesterday was one of the most amazing experiences since I’ve been here. I signed up for a trip through DUSA (the student association) to go to Phillip Island to see the world famous Penguin Parade. I must say the transportation was a little frustrating, but everything else was incredible. We had to go to Melbourne to the Burwood campus of Deakin to meet the bus. Well, that took us way longer than it should have because the bus took another strange route we didn’t understand, and the tram from inside Melbourne out to the campus was crazy long. Then the bus to pick us up was a half hour late and we didn’t have anyone to call, there was no Deakin representative there or anything. But we got on it and got on our way just fine. I’m just glad we didn’t have to be there until 2, seeing as we started out from here at 9:30 in the morning! I believe there is such thing as too much public transportation in one day! We had another hour or two drive to Phillip Island, although it’s just straight across the bay from Geelong, we had to go all the way up and round the bay. So our driver stopped in a little town called Tooradin so we could get out and get a drink or whatever. That was an interesting stop. There was a little lake, more of a pond, by the Café we stopped at and there were these two boys and their mom there. The two boys were running around and swimming in the pond while the mom just sat there. The boys were a little chubby and both needed to pull up their trunks a little, but they were just having fun, whatever. Well then they decided to go over this bridge there that was maybe 6 feet above the water, and they climbed over the rail to stand on the edge and then jump off. It took both of them forever to get up the courage to jump and they just stood up there, dancing around with their mom yelling at them! It was a source of huge entertainment for all of us that were waiting on the bus. One of them decided to pee from up there as well, since he couldn’t get back over the rail and wasn’t ready to jump off I guess! We couldn’t believe it! This was in no way a secluded place, and his brother and mom were right there watching him pee off the bridge!! Anyway, long story, trust me it was quite hilarious to all of us, and we all got some pictures of them! So we were on our way again. We passed through towns of Canbourne and San Remo as well. When we got on to Phillip Island we went to a Koala Conservation Center. That was pretty amazing. They have a boardwalk you walk around and get to see a bunch of koalas in the trees. It’s high off the ground since they always live up high in the gum trees and the trees themselves can grow quite tall. We got to see quite a few of them, and most of them were actually awake and eating as well! That’s an exciting thing since they sleep for 20 hours a day. That’s not just because they’re lazy though. The eucalyptus leaf is one of the worst in nutritional value, and when they eat it, it actually ferments in their stomach and essentially you have a drunk koala. So they sleep both to conserve what very little energy they get from their food source, and because they’re a little intoxicated! Anyway, a couple of them were actually moving around in their trees. One even decided to climb down from his tree onto the railing of the boardwalk, and he took a good long stroll around the railing! It was incredible. I got a few good pictures, but when he did it I was on the opposite side, and there were people all crowding around him and stuff by the time I got over there. The rangers were trying to keep him moving along and keep everyone back since it was a lot of work for the poor fellow to move so much and he wouldn’t if people were too close. Very interesting to watch these little guys! I also saw a kookabura in the tree and along another walk they had we saw a whole bunch of wallabies. They were pretty cute, in some small way they reminded me of hamsters or squirrels! So needless to say I liked them. They would look up at us with their little hands hanging down and let us get fairly close and then hop off! So that was fun. Then we headed to Cowes, a town on the island, to eat dinner and walk around. That was fun and it was quite gorgeous by the beach there. Finally we went to see the Nobbies, some rocks off the coast, one of which a colony of seals lives on, and to the southern most point of the Island, and essentially of Australia. Across the straight was Tasmania, (too far to see) and then south of Tasmania a ways is Antarctica. So it was actually quite chilly there with the strong wind and the sun slowly going down. It was breathtakingly gorgeous though. That is some of the roughest sea in the world, but with the waves splashing up on the rocks that were all made from volcanic lava and ash, it was a beautiful rugged coastline with the sun setting in the distance. We headed to the Penguin Parade then since it’s good to get there before the sun goes down to get a good seat. They have bleachers set up and some room to sit on the sand in front. We took the sand, a front row seat! One of the most stunning views I’ve seen just sitting there with nobody in front of me, watching the ocean with the sun setting. It was absolutely incredible. That right there was a good enough show for me! It was kind of in a little cove with cliffs around and the waves were fairly large coming in, and we watched the entire sunset waiting for the penguins. Then the “Little Penguins” (so named because they are indeed the smallest penguins in the world, but used to be named fairy penguins) started appearing out of the ocean! They’d just pop up when a wave rolled in and shake off and waddle up the shore a little ways. They huddled around and waited on the water line for quite awhile until they got up the courage to come up the beach and go back into their burrows. They go out to the ocean to fish, and they always go alone, but they come back across the beach together for protection from the seagulls, foxes, snakes, and cats. When they are out at sea a group of them are called a raft because they float along the top when they are sleeping. Then they are called a waddle when they come home since they really do waddle up the beach. They go out for a few days or weeks at a time to fish, which they do by diving to the bottom of the straight (sometimes up to 60m) then catch fish on their way back up, all in two minutes. They sleep in the ocean floating along at night, and continue to feed and get fat while they’re out there. They come back a lot to either breed, lay eggs, take care of the chicks, or mault and get a whole new set of feathers. They are monogamous so if their mate dies, they are done breeding forever. They were pretty cute to watch come up the beach, and they were pretty slow since they were so fat from feeding, some even fell over a couple times, or took a short rest on their bellies! There was always a fearless leader and a straggler of the group. Then when we left we could see them all up the hill going back to their burrows. They made this loud noise too, like talking before bed or something. It’s incredible that they just do this all the time, even with the people there like it’s nothing. Every day more come out of the ocean and more go out. It’s also a little crazy people can make millions off of this, but it was worth seeing. There was this one seagull who kept coming really close to me on the beach squaking and puffing up his feathers, he was really mean chasing all the other gulls off, too! All in all the experience was pretty incredible and I enjoyed the day a lot, it was great to take so many pictures as well!! (Although photography and video were strictly prohibited at the penguins) It was a long ride home to Geelong, but worth every minute and penny.
So that’s been my exciting news! Now it looks to be another boring old week, although I’m sure new and exciting things will come up, because I’m in Australia for goodness sake! I’d love to hear from you, no matter how boring you think life’s been for you lately. I miss you and would really love to hear how back home is going. Have a great week and I’ll try to as well!
Love, Alissa
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