Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Dad's 12th Birthday!! (February 29)

I am finally caught up with my blog posts!!! Feels so good . . . but I still have yet to have internet even though we ordered it over 2 weeks ago. Australia has given slow a whole new meaning. . .

Today is a very special day. Not only is it a day that comes every four years but it is also the day the most amazing, wonderful, supportive, loving, kind, generous, remarkable dad was born. This year my dad is 12!! It’s his last year before he is officially a teenager. Since I am not home and missed the family dinner and present opening, I will do the family tradition of what I love about my father on this post. What I love about my dad is how he always puts everyone, especially his family before himself. He is a very selfless man who wants to give his family the absolute best. I love that he works so hard and works ever harder at home with his family. I love how he makes his best effort to be as present in all of his kids lives as he can. I love that he loves and cares for my mom. He is one of the best dad’s you could ever ask for. I don’t know what I would do without my dad in my life. He has been such an inspiring, amazing, and influential person in my life that I will always look up to and want to be like. I miss you tons and love you so so much. Thank you for all that you have given me and I hope that you have one of the best birthdays at Disneyland, the happiest place on earth!!
Me and Dad before I left for Australia

It was an early morning this morning but I had enough time to make a healthy delicious breakfast
Mushroom and Cucumber Omelet with Salsa and Avocado on top!!

Today I had my Introduction into Human Resource Management Lecture. I loved this lecture! Not only was the teacher enthusiastic about the subject but he did a wonderful job of incorporating real life examples to make the topics more relatable and interesting for us students. After class I went back to my apartment and made a quick lunch of a salad with cucumber, mushrooms, avocado, and rice and a hard boil egg. Then I was off to campus again for my second lecture of the day Practical Ethics. In this lecture my teacher is from South Africa, but has a British accent because her mom is from Zimbabwe. This class will be attention-grabbing because it is about euthanasia, abortion, suicide and other super depressing topics.
It was raining and has been raining all day, so I stayed at the hub and checked/wrote emails, skyped my mom, Devon, my Grandma Ann, and Lindsey from Marquette. I thought the rain would let up but after doing all that it was still raining so I just walked home in the rain. My shoes were soaked and my clothes were pretty wet by the time I reached my apartment. I still have yet to invest in an umbrella but really need to with all this rain. Supposedly today was one of the coldest day of summer in 15 years or something like that. Anyways once I got home I cooked myself some dinner. I made chicken marinated in onions, garlic, and wine over rice and I had mushrooms and cucumbers on the side.
My marinated chicken over rice with mushrooms and cucumbers

Later I did laundry, watched some tv (they have very interesting reality tv shows over here. There are a lot that are a spin off the shows we have, but they also have a few of their own). Tash came over and we got to talking about home and I got homesick again. Glad Tash was there to cheer me up. I think this is just a hard time because it is the transition from constantly being with people and having fun to getting back into the swing of school and all being on different schedules. After my little meltdown I cleaned the apartment haha. I vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom. Later I showered, finished my laundry and did some stuff for school.
Its been raining all day and all night and there are flash flood warnings that are coming up but its nice because it has cooled things down a lot. The humidity has been really high the past few days. I finished my work and went to bed because I have an even earlier morning tomorrow. Yay for 8am’s that are 2 hours long!! 

First Day of Classes! (February 28)

Today was the day I finally started classes. My schedule here is very different from back at home. Here you only have either one 2hr lecture or two 1hr lectures and a tutorial to go with that so you don’t have much class time. I am only taking four classes this semester so my schedule is pretty light in terms of going to classes. I am taking Organizational Behavior, Cross-Cultural Communications, Practical Ethics, and Introduction into Human Resources. For my schedule I have no classes on Mondays, 1 lecture on Tuesday starting at 5pm, 2 lectures and 2 tutorials on Wednesday starting at 10am, 2 lectures and 2 tutorials starting at 8am on Thursdays, and no classes on Fridays. I pretty much have a 5-day weekend, which I’m pretty stoked about because that means more traveling! : ) This week we also only have to attend lectures, not the tutorials, so I only have class 5 times.
That being said, to kill some time Lewis and I made a trip to Costco. We got super lucky with the trains and getting some express trains (limited stops, so it’s a lot faster) and we were able to get there in about 45 minutes. After eating a very inexpensive Costco lunch of combo pizza and a mixed berry smoothie because it was so hot out we headed into Costco. (Side note about the pizza, instead of pepperoni they have Hawaiian, which I’m definitely going to have to get next time) We stalked up on toilet paper and paper towels. I also got notebooks for my classes, peanut butter, canned albacore tuna (which I’m super excited about because its really hard to find albacore in the stores here they have all these different flavors and kinds that are not familiar to me at all), almonds (also a great buy because nuts are so pricey here so I got a big pack and will freeze half while I eat the others), and my favorite frozen salmon that my mom buys all time. I will definitely being making another trip back to Costco but with a cool bag so I can get more frozen foods.
After a bit of a longer trip back home I headed over to campus to figure out where my classes were. I found out my first class is in one of the furthest buildings from where we live. It ended up not being too far, but its definitely a trek to class (about a 15-20 minute walk on a good day). I met up with Natasha half way there because we have this class together. We ended up being early so we waited for a bit, then we were let into our lecture. Our teachers name is Martina Mollering. She has a very interesting accent and loves to get the class involved. This is very rare for lectures from what I heard, normally you only talk/participate in your tutorials. We went over the structure of the course, the assignments, some main definitions, and had a discussion and then we were dismissed. The hour went by a lot more quickly then I expected it to. After class I headed to the library to try and find the books I needed for my classes and check them out from there instead of having to buy them. I was only to find one, but seeing that two of my courses have an online book that was pretty good. I also downloaded some handouts and such from the ilecture. The ilecture is the teacher’s online portal where they post everything for their class. They post every single lecture (so technically you don’t ever have to attend lecture you could just watch all of them but I will be going to the lectures), assignments, articles, grades, etc. It’s the main place to go if you have any questions, missed anything, want to start a discussion, etc. I want to attend my lectures not only because I learn better this way but also because I really want to meet more Australians and experience the lecture in the class room not in my room or the library. It will be convenient if I fall ill or for some reason can’t make it but I am going to try and attend every lecture.

The traditional 'First day of School' Photo

Oh ya the library is gorgeous. They just redid the library and it is amazing. I will probably be spending a lot of time in there so I’m so glad I love it so much. (A big plus about it too is that it is air conditioned!! Woohoo)
I headed home after being at the library for a few hours. I got a little home sick on the way home and had a little moment of crying while walking home. After getting home and taking a shower though I felt a lot better. I don’t know why I started crying or what made me home sick it was just so random but it happens I guess. I didn’t feel like cooking because it was a little late, so I just made a classic toasted pb&j and then Minna, Suzy, Lewis, and I watched the movie ‘Big’

Beginning of O-Week (February 27)

I slept in today because I was not feeling 100% I woke up at 7 but then fell back asleep till 11. Minna, Suzy, and Taylor all had classes but I am lucky and pretty much have a 5 day weekend!! My first class isn’t till 5pm tomorrow. I still had to go over to the uni to figure out a few last minute things with my classes and I also wanted to check out some of O-week. After sorting my classes out I went around to all the different booths seeing what they had to offer. I ended up filling out an application for an on campus job, getting free things like rice, coke, chips, and BBQ for lunch. I signed up to join the swim and water polo clubs as well. I loved being on campus today because there were so many people and everyone was really getting into the clubs they were supporting and it just felt like I was at school again.
All the tents are up

this is the center of campus


Quick video of the activities going on in the center of campus during O-Week

After an hour or so I headed back and quickly got ready for the beach. Michael, Ben, Dean, Tim, Lewis, Rosemary, Tash, and myself were off to Mona Vale Beach for the day. This turned into quite an interesting trip. What we thought would be a quick hour bus ride turned into 2 hours because of an accident in the road
the accident that took hours to clean up

After finally getting there I grabbed a delicious toasted turkey sanwhich inside the shopping mall where the bus dropped us off and then we made the 10 minute walk down to Mona Vale. It turned out to be not super crowded which I loved. The walk down had a beautiful view.

Bus ride there

view walking down the hill

the golf course next to the beach

We were there for about an hour till we had to head back up to catch the last bus.

Right view of Mona Vale

Left view of Mona Vale

the sand (its a slightly different color then the sand at home)

took a while to get the group together for a photo

the best group photo we could get haha. Ben, Michael, Dean, Tim, Rosemary, Lewis, Me, and Tash

The view coming up the hill heading to the bus stop

We made it to the top and ended up waiting 45 minutes for the bus because apparently the accident still had not been cleaned up 4 hours later. When the bus arrived the driver said that he had been driving for 3 hours and that it would be ‘dangerous’ for him to drive any longer so we had to wait for another bus to come. The other bus finally came but it only took us to Gordon so we had to go from there get on a train to Chatswood then from Chatswood transfer to a train that took us to Macq Uni. After the long journey there and back (we spent more time traveling then we did on the beach) we went home and took showers.
On Mondays it is tradition to do Mexican Monday. We get a big group of us and someone goes shopping and then we make burritos in one apartment. Everyone ends up having to pay about 4 dollars but we get these massive burritos that are delicious and we all shit and hang out and do whatever. I guess a handful of students from last semester started doing this every Monday and they carried it on to this semester as well. I really enjoyed it. It was like a big family dinner. After dinner I came home and hung out with Minna and Suzy then called it a night. 

Chill Day (February 26)

Today we all wanted to go to Mona Vale beach but unfortunately once we reached the bus stop we realized we had missed the bus by a while and the next one wasn’t for another 2 hours. We thought we would wait it out so we went inside the centre where we all got food to try and kill time. After all having ate we got over waiting and decided to go to the pool again. Not everyone came but it was Breezy, Rosemary, Tash, Tim, Lewis, Suzy, and Anaelle. It ended up being really cool at the pool because they had a free BBQ and a huge blow up obstacle in the pool. The weather was not that great so it was perfect. After less then an hour of being there it began to sprinkle so everyone bailed. We were just getting on the blow up obstacle when they decided to shut it down so I only got less than half way through it. It was a lot of fun and something I definitely would do again (I hope they have it next Sunday).
grass area, pool and the big blog up (they were spraying people with hoses too)

It started to get a little cold so we headed home. After showering I went to Lewis’ apartment where he kindly let me use his internet so I could check some things as well as skype my parents and not have to walk all the way to campus. This was the second time I had skyped them since I have been here. I loved seeing them and being able to talk to them for half an hour. I cant wait to have internet at my place so I can show them around and they can meet my awesome flat mates. After skyping I came back to a meal cooked by Suzy. She had made us a ‘pie’ for dinner. It was scrumptious. She made the crust by hand and put wholegrain Dijon mustard, onions, tomatoes, and cheese.
The delicious dinner Suzy made (one of her specialties!)

Lewis and Natasha had come over and the five of us watched one of my favorite movies Despicable Me and then called it a night after. 

Apartment Building Party (February 25)

Another day of gorgeous weather! We went to the pool today to lay out, relax, and get our tan on. I wanted to go to the beach but slept in too late so we went to the pool instead. The gym on campus, that was just recently redone and looks amazing, has an indoor pool and an outdoor pool. On super hot days like today they have lawn chairs you can lay out on and a huge grass hill you can lay out on. They also have lanes you can just mess around and cool off in while they still have the swim lanes. We decided to take advantage of the lawn chair and cool water with such a hot day. I had brought my computer with me to the pool so after we had finished there I was able to do some things on my computer now that we have our access codes to get on the campus wireless computer. I was lucky enough to catch my grandma being online and was able to Skype her for half an hour. It was so good to see her and talk to her especially since I have not talked much to my family since I have been here. It was getting kind of late and I still had to make dinner and get ready for the party so I headed back to my place. Tash came over and I made us lettuce wraps with green beans, rice, mushrooms, salad, chips, and salsa. It was delicious! Suzy tried some and loved them, at first she was very confused at to what is was, why I served it the way I did but once she tried it she liked it.
Lettuce wraps, rice, green beans with onions, mushrooms, salad, salsa, chips, and a glass of wine : )

We cleaned up then got ready for our apartment building apartment. Minna, Suzy, and I had thought of having a party for our apartment so the people in our building could meet each other and we could all hang out. Our initial idea was everyone makes a drink for their apartment then we will all have our doors open and go apartment to apartment but it ended up just being in one of the apartments, which was perfect. We all had a lot of fun and I got to know a lot more people that not only lived in our building, but the other buildings as well. It was a successful and entertaining night
the flatmates : ) 

outside on the balcony

new boys we met that night

Dominic (from Germany), Stan, and Me

Anaelle and Me (love this girl)

Breezy and Me. Californians stick together ;)

Tash, Breezy, Me

Just a typical night!

Perfect Summer Day (February 24)

I had a morning of errands today. Getting signatures to approve my classes, finally updating my blog, checking emails, going to the post office, working out, etc. On my way home from the gym I stopped at Woolworths and picked up some kangaroo because we were going to have a BBQ. The weather the past few days has been amazing, perfect sunny hot days with no rain clouds in sight. We all brought our own meet and fired up the grill at Lewis’ apartment. While we were waiting for the grill to heat up Stan from Norway had one of those ropes that you tie between trees and you walk across. We all attempted learning how to do it but it’s really hard. The hardest part is learning how to get up on the rope, but we had a lot of fun trying to learn. I am determined to learn how to do it before I leave here. While we were messing around on the rope we were getting eaten alive by bugs (it was really fun to wake up with all the bug bites this morning, it looks like I have some disease. So far I’ve counted 25 bites). After about an hour of attempting the rope we stopped because the bugs were getting out of control and the grill was ready. It was a perfect day for a BBQ and it was so enjoyable. We all brought our own meat and cooked it at Lewis’ apartment on the balcony. After dinner we hung out and began to play games. We played charades, cards, talked, etc. Around 10ish we all decided we wanted to go to the ranch so we quickly changed then headed over. The ranch ended up being super fun, one of the most fun nights thus far.

attempting to get up on the rope

I didn't stay up for that long. ha

getting ready to BBQ

the boys were in charge of the grill

playing games after dinner

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Things I've Noticed Since I've Arrived


Not only do people drive on the left side of the road but walking follows the same rules. For the first few days I kept running into people and always felt like I was walking the wrong way. Well turns out I was they walk just like they drive so they walk on the left. When they go on escaladers if you want to stand you stand on the left and if you want to walk down you walk on the right. Most people love our accents all you need to do is spark a conversation and then people are a whole new person. They don’t like to star the conversation but as soon as you ask a question they love to help or just talk to you and find out where you are from. I really like my flat mates Suzy and Minna. We eat very similarly, all of us a pretty clean, we get along and have fun together. They make me laugh and its fun to go out with them. I love the Macquarie park community and all the people I have met so far. Right off the bat we met so many cool people from so many different places and the group we have is awesome. We are all easy going and mellow but love to have fun. A lot of the foreign people love to text smiley faces when they text. It rains almost everyday here although the past few days have been really nice and rain free which is not the norm from when we got here. The birds sound like monkeys and they are very consistent about making the loudest noise every morning between 5 and 6 am.  There are lots of bugs here. I already have a ton of bug bites, have had a cockroach in my room, had one in the bathroom and most recently saw a huge creepy spider. We also encountered an ant problem in our bathroom but Minna made a homemade ant trap that helped for the time being. Then we went out and bought real aunt traps which eliminated the ants.
 
The Homemade Ant Trap (container, honey, paper, plastic wrap, and a rubber band)

Cockroach that was right under my camera charger. EWW!!!

This huge spider was crawling around while I was showering. I'm a lucky girl ; )

I don’t know if I will ever get used to Asians with Australian accent. It is so strange and throws me every time I hear it.  Everything is a lot more expensive than it is at home (I did find a few discount stores but things are still very expensive but im starting to get used to the prices here). We walk everywhere! My feet are always so tired and so sore at the end of the day. The first week I got a lot of blisters and sores on my feet from all the walking but I think I have built up calluses so I don’t get them that much anymore. I haven’t hung out with any Australian students or Australian my age thus far. I love all the people we hang out with just no locals or Australians but I think that will change once school starts. 

Welcome Cruise (February 23)


2 Weeks!! It’s the two-week marker and yet it feels like I’ve been here at least a month! I can’t believe its only been two weeks. Anyhow, today I got a lot of errands and random things done like fixing stuff at the bank, exchanging my yogurt I bought because I forgot to look at the best if used by date, went to the post office, checked my emails, registered for my Woolworths (grocery shopping) rewards card, tried to fix my classes, etc. Tonight was the welcome cruise that was from 7-10pm. We had to meet at the Opera House Steps at 630 so we had to leave our place by 530 to get there on time. The theme for the cruise was party rock so Minna and I wore grey dresses and then party hats so we were rocks with party hats, party rocks. Minna thought of the idea. At the train station we ran into Breezy, from California and Lindsey, from London we had met them before but had never really hung out with them. All the study abroad and international students dressed up and we went on a big cruise ship going around Sydney for three hours. They severed us pizza for dinner and you could buy drinks at the bar if you wanted to. They had a dj onboard and there were three levels to the ship. We mainly stayed on the top so we could enjoy the views. This cruise ship made me have a new love for Sydney. I am obsessed with the city and the apartments, the opera house, the harbor bridge, all of it. I don’t think I could ever get sick of these sites. I was so happy I went on this cruise because I found a new love for this place and it was the first time I really felt like I was in Australia.
the start of a beautiful sunset


random island in the middle of the ocean

Ben, Tim, Lewis, Tash, Tyler, Michael, Breezy, Me, and Lindsey


Just getting more gorgeous!

LOVE IT!!

End of the Cruise. Minna, Tash, Time, Me, Tyler, Lewis

The Cruise ship we were on (it was 3 stories)

Orientation Day and The Ranch (February 22)


Today we had orientation from 10am till 4pm. This was a long day but we learned a lot about the school, what and how we can get involved, how to sign up for classes, got our student cards, and more. For the welcome part of the orientation meeting we got a special performance from an aborigine group who did some dances, songs, and told us a little about the aborigines. It was very unique. I love listening to the aborigine music especially the didgeridoo.


Poses from their dances


Video of the Aborigines Opening Song/Dance 
We learned about the size of Australia and the comparison to the US. They also had a vegemite contest, which Suzy volunteered for and ended up winning. They had to be the first person to eat a piece of bread with vegemite. The boys and girl were taking huge bites and trying to finish. Suzy just sat there taking one bite at a time like she was casually eating a sandwich. She won it was so funny and entertaining. After 2 and a half hours we were served a BBQ lunch out by the lake/grass area. It was gorgeous out and very hot. The lunch consisted of a piece of bread, sausage, and coleslaw. Its so interesting because they do their lunches so different here. Most things they server you expect there to be another side. For instance with this lunch there was another table so we thought there might be chips or fruit or something but it was just another table with more of the same food. Also when we went to subway they didn’t even have chips you could purchase with your order so it was just a sandwich and a drink. Another thing I noticed that was different was how not big on deserts they are and how they love their milk or dairy chocolate but not dark chocolate. They never serve desert with any of their meals and all their candies and chocolates here are milk or dairy. Anyways just a little side note . . . Following our lunch we split up into smaller groups with our advisers where we learned about our student portal, how to use and access our email, how to add and change classes, and a bunch of other helpful things like getting our student login so now I can use the wireless network with my computer once I’m on campus. My advisor Alex is super nice and helpful. She is currently pregnant and due soon so I will only have her for two more months before she leaves. We finished orientation so Minna and I decided to a workout class at the gym. We did the abs, butt, thighs class, which was a great beginners class. After the gym we headed home and got ready for the ranch. The ranch was a lot more fun and entertaining this week because there are so many more people here and its so close to the start of school. It was a very enjoyable and amusing night. 

City to Surf Tour (February 21)

Today was the City to surf tour I signed up for– Bob was our tour guide and Ben was our bus driver . We went to several places including the gap (where most suicides are commited) Bondi Beach, Mrs Macquarie's chair, a lookout, the harbor, Darling Harbour, Kingscross, and more places. We ended at this cute place called The Cargo Bar. On the tour I met a girl named Katrine from Norway and we hung out the whole time. She is very nice and fun to hang out with. We had a great tour together with a lot of laughs and jokes.
Mrs. Macquarie's Chair (lookout to the ocean so she could watch the ships come in because she missed home so much)


Opera House and Harbor Bridge (never gets old)


Love the Clouds

Was imitating the Asians : ) 



A delicious sandwich and coffee for lunch at Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach

Bondi

Views from the lookout 

another view from the look out 


the clouds were so cool all day long 

The Gap

Our Tour Guide Bob

Love the colors of the water

view from 'The Gap'



Me and Katrine 

cool view

Bar we went to at the end of the Tour


When we got back I went to the hub to check my email and then Minna and Suzy met up with me and we went to game night were we played games and got another free dinner!!
We left early I went and got my gym membership!! Cant wait to start doing classes. I am so happy classes are included in our membership. I also cant wait to see all the hot Australians who work there ; ) We stopped at Woolworths to get some goon (box wine, classy I know haha), but they were out so we got something similar. We also grabbed some lemonade (basically sprite) to add to our wine. When we got back we hung at Tash, Tyler, and Tims (the T Unit) where a lot of new people came over to hang out. Then later on, we headed over to the Village to party. The Village is another set of apartments that are on the other side of campus and where a lot of international students live. It has a lot more apartments and is a lot father away from things. I am so glad I live in the Parklands and not the village.


Natasha and Minna

Lewis and his pet Cricket 

Ben, Lewis, Me, Dean, Tash

Tash, Lewis, Me

Me and the new roomie Taylor

Suzy's new pose for the semester

Taylor, Me, Tash

Suzy, ME, Tash, Dean

Alyssa (Taylors friend), Taylor, Minna, Me, Suzy (and Dean creeping in the back)


The Village has campus security since they are on campus, so their parties get shut down a lot and very early so it sucks. I love living in the parklands I love the location, the people and little community we have formed I love my flat mates (still getting to know my roommate) and our apartment its just a great place.