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.