Day 15: How I lost an iPod and my voice, but gained an Aussie. In the same night.

Today is the two week anniversary of Australia and Kathryn. We love each other very much and I know we’re going to have a splendid four months together. I love it here: the city, the weather, the people. From almost any part of campus you can see beautiful views of the fantastic skyline. The streets and campus are always alive with people. Even though this school is huge, 50,000 students huge, it seems like I’m constantly running into people that I know, which makes me feel at home.

I haven’t had time to sit down and write a proper blog since Tuesday; I shouldn’t get behind like this. Let’s jump in shall we? So on Wednesday I finally made it to a class: personality and differential psychology. The lecture halls are huge, which is weird to a Tulanian; I’m getting a taste of big state school I guess. My professor for this class is, well I don’t really know how else to say this, batfreakinnuts. She’s on the breaking edge of psychology, from like 1905. Basically she adores Freud. In the states we’ve been taught to recognize he’s in no way scientific, is really perverted, and all of his theories have no way to be tested empirically. In our last lecture for this class we looked at dream interpretation. Yes, dream interpretation, in a science class. We basically learned how to use free association techniques to analyze dreams and unlock a person’s unconscious desires. Fact: She backed up Freud’s theory that dreams help keep us in a satisfying sleep because our unconscious wishes are being manifested in them by quoting some study in which people with lesioned “dream centers” in their brains reported not sleeping very well. I could write a paragraph about why that’s ridiculous, but instead, I’ll tell you about the next crazy thing she did. She drew a picture of a ship with sails and a giant prow on it (can you see where this was going?) and proceeded to interpret this for us. It was apparently something a boy raised solely by his mother dreamt about. The analysis was that ship was his mother, the sails were her breasts, and the giant prow was the penis the boy imagined his mom to have (since he didn’t have a father). Yea, so I generally sit in this class and snicker at all the crazy things this lady says. I’m hoping to drop the class soon.

My other classes have been great. Outdoor education is taught by Dr. Wayne Cotton who looks like an NFL quarterback with an Aussie accent. I have a small student crush on him already. I found out that I got the internship I wanted at the Brain and Mind Research Institute, yay! Also, campus is beautiful and I love the fact that there are students always sprawled out in the green spaces between classes. This is one of my pass times at Tulane so naturally I’m so thrilled its popular here. Before my social work I snoozed in the grass for a bit and enjoyed looking up at the gorgeous blue sky. I think the sky is bluer here, and bigger somehow. The sun is definitely brighter here, and I think we can blame that on the giant hole in the ozone over Australia.
I got invited that afternoon to go to a service Hillsong holds on campus for their college student group, and it was AWESOME. I was tickled to death to be at a service with other students! And they were so nice!! Also, they have connect groups that meet throughout the week which are like Bible studies, so I’m going to try to go to one next week. Excitement abounds.

I went out with Keelan Wednesday night to Darling Harbor. It was a really nice night and he’s very sweet, but I was hoping he wouldn’t try to contact me again. Honestly, as much as I would not like to admit it, my hearts really in another place. Um bummer, he just texted me. He’s going out of town this weekend though, which lets me off the hook, ha.

Thursday was pretty standard, I flitted around campus like the nerdy tourist I am getting excited about everything. On the way to my last class, I was walking with some friends when we spotted kids with a board that read “do you believe in miracles” and you were supposed to go put a tally under yes, no, or unsure. They also had clip boards and lollipops. Obviously a Christian student group if I ever saw one. So I beelined over there and took a survey that asked me how I feel about Jesus and what I don’t like about Christians, then I struck up conversation with a girl sitting at the table. She’s from Washington, lives in my building at the village, and tells me this group is the Aussie equivalent of Campus Crusade. I think some fireworks went off in the distance at that moment. She invited to a service they were having right after I got out of my next class. I went to that and it was nice, but the people weren’t nearly as friendly as the Hillsong kids. I think its because they’re much more shy, but still, not many people were making a huge effort to converse with me and the conversations I struck up withered quickly. So it puts me in this weird decision making zone: Do I go to Campus Crusade stuff because I LOVE Cru and what they’re about or do I go to Hillsong where the people are much nicer even though they glamorize church a little much for my liking? I’m leaning toward Hillsong at this point because I just felt more at home there. However, I found out that the Cru has Monday morning prayer at none other than 9am! Just like home. I’m definitely going to that.

Thursday night we wandered into the Well just as they were beginning a karaoke contest and whoever got up and sang automatically got a free beer. I signed up. Oh, and the grand prize was an ipod.. a legit nice ipod. I’ll leave out all the gory details and hit the highlights. It’s run on a playstation console and it scores you according to how many correct notes you hit, supposedly. Round one, I whoop everyone. But then this boy tries it on medium and the judge lady doubles his points putting him ahead of me, which creates a round two. He still ends up ahead of me by the end of round 2. Then comes round 3, the big sha-bang, winner take all. I ended up pulling it out in the end, they guy choked, I earn way more points, game over! But this girl came out of nowhere for a somewhat close second, and I guess they felt bad, so they were like, ok now we’ll determine the winner by round of applause. They end up not being able to tell who got more applause so they make us sing one more song that they pick. Its Pink’s “Get This Party Started.” Great. I don’t think she knew it that well so we rock paper scissored to see who went first. I lost. Great. So I sang it, and did pretty well. But she got to listen and learn the song while I sang it so she went and ends up beating me and WINNING THE IPOD. Even though I was ahead of her the ENTIRE time and still had more TOTAL points. I was LIVID, crushed really. Yes, absolutely crushed as I watched her get that shiny new ipod that I stayed in the stupid Well 4 hours fighting for.

We left the bar and I’m feeling quite dejected, so I got a novel idea, “Let’s go out!” One of my other friends from team Dingo, Elissa, asked me to go to Zanibar w/her earlier so I figured we would just meet up with her there. We got there and I can’t find her and its kinda lame so I asked one of our other friends who supposedly knows night life pretty well what’s good on Thursdays. (I found her as I was walking back down King with two guys on either side of her practically carrying her home, oops.) Long story short we end up at a bus stop headed to The Gaff on Oxford. Haha, get ready for this next part. I was reading the bus schedule figuring out when one would show up and I’m really cold so I ask Helen and Belal, who I will now refer to as Benji, haa, if one of them would sit by me on the bench and warm me up. This boy in a white jacket who I didn’t really notice before at the bus stop creepily says, “I will.” Um, weirdo. I ignored him and sat on the bench. Helen ends up striking up a conversation with this kid, whose name is Dave. Turns out he’s a really cool Aussie that offered me some of his chicken flavored potato chips, which were quite good, but gave me terrible breath. After chatting with Dave for about 10 min, I convinced him to come with us to the Gaff. Awesome, right? I’m really glad he came, apart from being cool he navigated, and I would’ve totally gotten lost otherwise.

We got to the Gaff, and oh turns out its also dead too. Although its really cool. The basement is like this techno cave. A few weirdos are out on the dance floor, including this girl with drum sticks who was beating them against each other in time with the techno beat. Hahaha I’m cracking up right now thinking about her. I drank a beer and decided tonight would be the night I would learn how to dance to techno. So I take Dave and Benji out on the floor with me and proceed to attempt techno dancing whilst being stone cold sober. Let me just tell you, it was awesome. But just as I got the hang of it, the bouncers cleared everybody out of the bar. Closing time, ew. The rest of the night we kinda bounced around and ended up at this hotel bar where I proceeded to take over the juke box and played all manner of things people who weren’t in my group found pretty annoying such as Lady GaGa, Miley Cyrus, Usher, etc. Yea, it was awesome. But then when we tried to get home, the bus service was crap and we didn’t have any cash left so we ended up walking home. Yes, from Oxford street. That’s pretty much up there with that one Thursday I walked home from F&M’s. Epic. And I ended up losing my voice, completely, on the walk home. In summary, I lost and ipod, my voice, and picked up a dude at a bus stop. Why is my life so stinkin’ awesome??

Today I went to another free bbq (see photo), my 5th I think. Oh and I’m having free bbq for dinner tonight. I’m also going to King’s Cross tonight; I’ll let you know how that goes. I did laundry today, it cost me $15. $5 to buy the card to be able to do laundry and then $5 a load. In the washer only. I brought my clothes home wet and they’re drying on the balcony as we speak. Darn you high cost of living.

Oh, and I have a question: why the heck are Thursdays, aka the most best/my fave night of the week, dead here? People like to go out like on Mondays, its just weird.

Day 13: A Dingo Ate My Baby!

Word got back to me that I made mom cry with the last post, so I’ll try to be a better daughter in this one. Haha. So, like I said at the end of the last post, after my nap I woke up feeling much less gloomy. It was still yucky outside though so I decided to forgo journeying to the store and instead had PB&J (my new best friend) and played Trivial Pursuit with my roommates. (Incase you’re wondering I was first to fill up my pie plate but couldn’t roll exact to get into the middle and ended up getting beat, boo.) Then after the others had gone to bed, Violetta and I stayed up to pig out on cookies and cream ice cream. They make it with butter milk here and its quite delicious.

I woke up Monday and sprang out of bed because it was the first day of class and I was SO excited. My schedule needed tweaking so Helen and I started off at the International Office to take care of that bright and early. I got my schedule and I really don’t like it because, call me a dork, but I don’t go to class enough. I have class all day Monday and then hardly at all the rest of the week. Like once a day and not at all on Friday. I think one of my classes doesn’t even start until week 7. So I didn’t go to class yesterday because the only one I had that actually started yesterday was at the same time as my interview with BMRI. The interview was interesting. I have no idea how I did because I didn’t really do anything, they basically just sat there and told me all about their institution and I just kind of nodded my head and said “mmhmm” while they went on and on for a good 30 min. I told them I could start this week but that was before I got an interview with this cool political grassroots organization that isn’t affiliated with a party called GetUp Australia. So we’ll see how all of this pans out. If I end up not getting an internship, that wouldn’t be so bad either as I’m now trying to take on more classes so I actually have some to go to.

After interviewing and running around trying to find a tutorial that doesn’t start until next week, I had a rather successful grocery store outing. I finally got myself some reusable tote bags which are not only environmentally friendly, they also make carrying groceries the 200km back to the apartment much easier. After I got back and put the groceries away, a few of us went and got some takeaway Thai food, yes they call it takeaway instead of togo. And interestingly enough, Thai food is like THE food around here. Really, you couldn’t go a block down King Street without passing at least 3 of them. My first Thai food experience was not that great. The stuff I got had peanut sauce on it which was weirdly sweet and slightly nauseating and I thought the pad Thai tasted like plastic. This is all very unfortunate as I paid $10 and signed up for this group outing Thai dinner tonight. Ha, wish me luck.

I digress. Anyway, so we took our food back to The Well which is our complex’s bar for Monday night trivia. Yes, they have trivia every Monday and yes, you can charge drinks to your U-card. Sa-weet. Also sweet is the fact that they charge normal prices for beer as in you can get a Toohey’s Extra Dry for $3. I don’t know if I mentioned this in another entry, but oddly enough Corona is very popular here. They don’t offer tons of imported stuff, but every bar has Corona; which I think is weird. Oh and they put lemons in it, also very weird. I like Corona and all, but I feel like I didn’t come all the way to Australia to drink over priced Corona.
I digress again. So we ended up meeting some really cool people and formed an unstoppable trivia team called “A dingo ate my baby!” And by unstoppable, I mean we came in somewhere around third to last. But we all committed to meeting up again next Monday and making another attempt at domination. Following trivia the RA’s took us on a pub crawl. I love it, that would be the very last thing your RA would ever officially be able to do in America. All in all, a pretty splendiforus night, except that upon leaving our complex’s bar I had to pay double for my Toohey’s.

This morning I got woken up by a text from that really annoying dude that I’ve been blowing off for a solid week now. He refered to me as “kath” and “sweetie” in this particular text message, so that hit my hot button times 5. Don’t wake me up and then call me kath and sweetie, have some decency! I learned my lesson though, never have your phone out when giving someone a wrong number. A little later the Irish guy that let me talk about psych for ever asked me out. This is really burning up my pre-paid minutes. Haha. He was really nice though, so apparently we’re going to drinks tomorrow at this nice place. You all know how awkward I am so this should be good times, or maybe really bad times, yeeps. I honestly can’t help but join you in laughing at myself right now.

I succeeded in joining the gym yesterday. All the pub crawling, European chocolate, and delicious (affordable) fresh baked bread is starting to worry me. So I swear I’m headed there right now. I have goals: to be rock solid by next month for beach weather.

Day 12: Gloom

Last night I went to Cargobar. I danced to techno music, laughed at awkward European guys dancing, and got elbowed in the rib cage repeatedly by drunkos dancing. Standard. And you know how I have this weakness for late night eating, aka cheese fries (also occasionally Boot pizza, crepes, wings, etc)? So here, the late night eating establishments are kebob stands. They also sell greasy pizza, bready things, and some variation of cheese fries that I can’t bear to try yet. Anyway, I ended the night with one of these nasty pieces of pizza. Good job, fatty. I also met this nice Irish guy who I talked to for about an hour or so. He let me ramble on about psychology, so I was happy.

Anyway, I’m not too interested in recounting any of this because the inevitable has happened. I got hit with homesickness today. Wommmmmmp. I guess it’s the weather; its grey, drizzly, cold, and generally all kinds of nasty out. This is particularly upsetting because I absolutely have to trek over to the grocery store today. But yea, I’m homesick.

I miss my family. I went to a Methodist church this morning and I didn’t like singing hymns without having my mom stand next to me. Claire was on skype a little while ago so I rushed over to Gloria Jeans to try and get on the internet, but the connection was awful and I didn’t get to really talk to her. Plus it was embarrassing sitting in this coffee shop talking to my computer about how homesick I am. Mom and dad tried to talk for a minute too, but all I could hear was the sound of their voices and not really what they were saying. Oh, and their camera doesn’t really work, so to top it all off I couldn’t see them. It was all a huge tease.

In addition to missing my family, I miss my friends; A LOT. I miss having good friends. I’ve met so many people here that they all kind of run together and I’m having the hardest time remembering names. And there’s been no one that I’ve been particularly felt the “omg I wanna be your bestie” connection with. Homesickness makes me even more shy and the thought of running off by myself and being a loner is really appealing. Ha, I think I’ve had talks like this with Lindsey several times.

I want to have people around that say yall and don’t think its weird that I say yall. I’m sick of public transportation; I miss Sid a lot. The cold weather is cold and closed toed shoes are annoying. Paying $7 for a box of cereal makes me want to punch the check out people. I miss Reily, my bike, and the dirt running path at Audobon. Its driving me nuts that they use kJ here instead of calories so I have no idea how many calories I’m eating. My grouchiness is also giving me the worst urges to eat lots of anything I can get my hands on really. There’s a great added bonus if I ever saw one. Yea I could go on, but whatever.

I realize these things happen. They said something at orientation how our time here will probably follow a W shape with a steady decline into a valley because we’ll be homesick and then it will peak back up again. I like the analogy. I’ll quit whining now. I’m going to take a nap and hope the drizzle lets up so I can grocery shop without getting all wet. I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow; school starts (even though I don’t really have a schedule yet..) and I’m interviewing for my internship at the Brain and Mind Research Institute. I’m really excited about that. Its like the Annie song; and I really do hope the sun comes back out tomorrow because this weather is miz. Anyway, to my family and friends: I miss you heaps and love you even more!

>>UPDATE: After I woke up from my nap I ate a lot and played Trivial Pursuit w/my roommates and feel much better. Now I'm on to sweet dreams!

Day 10: Elbow

I just got back from a rather m-m-mindblowing 2 day trip. Let me start exactly where I left off in the last post, however, by saying that the great weather I was telling you about decided not to last for the walking tour. The tour was great, the guide was a typical middle-aged Aussie dude who told us about how Aussies invented boxed wine and the square clothes lines that rotate. And subsequently, they invented this variant of slap the bag where you pin the wine bag to the rotating clothes line while everyone stands under it. You spin the clothes line and whoever the bag lands over has to slap the bag and drink out of it. Anyway, we walked to this chic cafe on Darling Harbor just as it started to rain. I was the first person to ask a question on the tour and won an additional free drink so I had some champagne and ordered a pumpkin feta pizza, which was super delicious. Then like I said, it started raining and it was a total bia trying to get home. My jammies were calling my name so when I made it back I promptly got in bed and read until bed time. Loser, I know.

I woke up early the next morning to go catch a bus for this two day tour. The guide, Matt, is a typical Aussie dude and encourages us to get wasted right from the get-go. He said he would answer any questions granted he was coherent enough to do so. Perhaps you see where this is going.

Our first stop is the reptile park. Someone was late getting to the bus so we only had roundabouts an hour to go through it. It was so great though! I got to pet emus, wombats, and kangaroos. I also saw a giant saltie, koalas, kookaburras, tasmanian devils, wallabies, etc. Australia really does have fabulous flora and fauna. I really thought I had died and gone to heaven touching a wombat. Pictures to come later.

Next we hopped back on the bus and headed to the Hunter Valley, which is Australia's wine country, think Napa. I felt extremely sophisticated swirling wine around in my glass, sniffing it, and all that jazz. It was all extremely delicious and they served it with bread sticks, cheese and crackers, and the like. The Australian wines were very good, but they were a lot more fruity and less dry than what I'm used to. They let us sample a lot of their unique ones, which was really cool. I bought a McGuigan sauvignon blanc at the first winery because it was delicious and I just realized also that it was the first wine I ever fancy wine tasted so perhaps there was some subconscious sentimentalism at work there too. Besides having great wine, the Hunter Valley is stunningly beautiful. It was a magnificent afternoon to say the least.

After that we drove to Port Stephens, which is a cute coastal town to stay the night in. But first we had to stop by the bottle shop, obviously. Matt took up $10 from everyone (adding up to around $330) and said he would make his famous punch for us called elbow, because its stronger than a punch, haa. So he went nuts buying all manner of things in the bottle shop and we're all drinking wine that we bought on the bus too. Matt took my ipod and started playing "The Jams" playlist over the bus' speaker system. Those of you familiar with "The Jams" know that this was undoubtedly a fabulous time and a good break from the weird music the Matt and some of the Europeans had been playing earlier. Everyone on the tour is naturally good friends by this time.

We showed up at our accommodation and after settling in, Matt made elbow (note the elbow vat is half empty in this picture) and massive amounts of Dominoes pizza got delivered. I'm laughing at myself right now thinking back on how much pizza I ate. Really, like in 10 minutes time I ate half a pizza, an additional slice of someone else's pizza, and several pieces of garlic bread that randomly showed up too. I'm dying laughing in this internet cafe reliving this night in my head right now. While the night was still young, Matt organized the most massive game of flip cup I've ever been a part of and as the night aged, other things. Eventually I showered and made it to bed and I want to tell you, it was one of the most fabulous slumbers I could've asked for. My bed was super comfy and warm and it was raining outside.

This morning I got up without consequence, and we got on a boat for a whale watching extravaganza. I was very excited until we got on the boat and the captain said there was potentially going to be 3 meter swells. I didn't know what that meant but got a little worried and asked one of my sophisticated European friends what exactly 3 meters is; and turns out its around 10 feet. I got very worried very fast. Sure enough, we go out into open water onto these massive swells while its still freezing and raining. I ended up at the back of the boat with the rest of the people who are sicker than seadogs getting rained on and trying so hard not to barf my brains out. Luckily, I managed to keep everything down, but oh my goodness I felt so terrible. I did get to see some whales though, a sweet humpback came up and slapped the water with its tail. My seasickness followed its normal course and I got to the point where I was exhausted from being sick and passed out with my head on a table somewhere. I woke up, feeling a little better, in time to see some dolphins and make it back into the calmer bay waters. And then I got a raging appetite. I hunted down some fish n chips after that for a nice lunch. A girl I ate with got barbecued mini-octopi which I thought was very cool. After eating one of this nasty little tentacles though I was absolutely repulsed. Um, gross.

Post whale watching disaster, I mean adventure, we went down the coast a bit (which is blow-your-everlovin'-mind beautiful) we came to these massive sand dunes. I've never seen anything like them, think Sahara desert. They piled us into 20 passenger off-roading vans, which was a crazy ride. We drove to the top of some dunes to go sandboarding. Sandboarding = awesome. Its like sitting on a snowboard and flying down this huuuge dune feeling like you're going 100mph or kph I guess. I always managed to hit bumps towards the bottom and wipeout. There's a video of it I'm going to put on youtube once I upload it, I'll post the link back on here.

Sadly, we left Port Stephens after that and headed back to Sydney. Of course, we stopped by a place with a bottle shop on the way incase anyone needed more alcohol. I was absolutely appalled by the thought seeing as I'd been seasick a few hours prior and did they really think I was going to put more nasty calories in my body? Mercy. Believe me when I tell you, these Aussies are crazy.

Anyway, now I'm back here. Quite the eventful trip, no? Well I'm sure wiped out. Its 9 o'clock on a Friday and my jammies are once again calling my name. I'll leave you with a few thoughts:
I like roundabouts, I think they're pretty efficient.
I understand countries vary on cultural things and whatnot, but why do we drive on different sides of the road and have different outlets and things?
I'm glad numbers are the same in every country.
The US really should implement the metric system, everyone knows what's going on with meters and things except us American kids.
I've only been here a week and I'm already picking up on Aussie ways of speaking, such as I caught myself saying "heaps" a couple of days ago.
Woah, I'm in Australia.

Day 6: Lessons in "Clubbing"

Before I got here, I was really worried that all they would play here was techno or Australian pop or something that I hate. But I have good news, even as I sit here in this café they’re playing that You Spin My Head Right ‘Round song. Britney even came on a little while ago, it was beautiful. Arin is working on getting us tickets for her concert here in November, the dream of seeing Britney twice in one year on different continents may yet come to be a reality.

I went out for the first time Monday night to this place called Sidebar with Helen, my roommate Violetta, and two kids from Scotland. Prepare to have your mind blown: they serve “jugs” here which are pitchers, not of beer, but of mixed drinks! So I bought a jug of some horribly sweet/weak-sauce drink, and it was awesome. Also mindblowing to me, everyone here drinks wine – in bars. They order wine and it comes in wine glasses and people are walking around with their wine glasses. They don’t have happy hour specials with liquor, or spirits (the more popular name), but rather with beer, wine, and champagne. Yes, champagne. The bar was very clean and the closest thing I can liken it to would be Phillips. It was pleasantly chill and I met a lot of Europeans who I am fascinated by and I’m sure they think I’m very boring, unsophisticated, and don’t have nearly as beautiful hair as they do.

Eventually Helen and Vi got bored and wanted to go down the street to Scubar which apparently is good on Mondays. So walked over there and there was this massive line outside the front door, which I was not about to wait in. Vi went up to the bouncer and asked how long the wait was. Just then, this little woman who was the manager walked out and told us to wait over on the side and she would let us in in 5 minutes. I have no idea why, we weren’t dressed horribly nicely and I for one looked like crap. Could it be the magic of Americana? Who knows. So we got in 5 min later and this place is my idea of NUTS. Really, its absolutely packed, blasting decent music (at first..), flashing lights overload by the dance floor, and to top it off there was a smoke machine. I, being used to the New Orleans bar scene, was somewhat overwhelmed haha. You know, even when you’re going to F&Ms and its clearly a dancing place, its still a bar. These are all out clubs. Fascinating.

So at Scubar, there are plenty of attractive guys around so its only fitting that this unattractive one latches onto me. He pulls up a chair next to me at a table and starts talking to me and I’m like, fine I’ll allow it, but only because he’s Australian. He talks to me awhile and tries to buy me a drink, I say no, but eventually cave under his persistence. Then he tries to get my number. I give him a fake one. That should be the end of it right? No, he calls my phone and sees that it doesn’t ring. Busted. So I’m like, “oohh sorry, I just got the phone, haven’t quite learned my number. “ I switch the digits around and give him the wrong number again. He calls me, AGAIN. And then he’s like, “Here, just give me your phone and I’ll call mine from it.” And I’m kind of seething and yelling “take a stinkin’ hint!” at him in my mind. But he succeeded in getting my digits, so kudos for him I guess. Naturally, I ignored his texts the next day. And, off topic, but I forgot to mention that they started playing techno later, ew.

Ended up going out again last night too even though we did NOT mean to. I was at Arin and Tracey’s we were drinking a bottle of wine and sharing our life stories and that’s all we meant to do. We went back to my apartment, end up at a party next door and then go with the pack when everyone heads to Scruffy Murphys. And bam, I find myself “clubbing” again, haha. On the ground floor was a band covering all kinds of old American pop/rock and down in the basement was this nasty clubby place where we kept getting attacked by drunk sweaty guys, haha. Another successful night. We cab back to UniLodge and then I walk back to my apartment with my new Australian friend, Greer. She is fabulous.

This morning I got up and went to orientation for this internship program I’m hoping to take part in, as its great experience and counts as a class. I should be interviewing for some positions next week and I’m really excited about it. In about half an hour we’re going on a walking tour to Darling Harbor. It couldn’t be a better day for it. Its unusually warm, feels like its in the mid 70s and so sunny. I’m getting more and more comfortable here and absolutely loving it!

Day 4: So Many Accents

I'm not in the second half of orientation right now because this orientation is like every other in that its mostly useless information and particularly boring. I will admit though, the accents of the speakers did hold my attention for awhile. The first part of it wasn't that bad at all actually. The hundreds of international students all met up in The Great Hall, a grand sandstone building which from the outside looks like a building from Harry Potter (my imagination's version) mixed with the Holy Name church at Loyola. The inside also looks like a church complete with stained glass windows and large paintings of all the chancellors lining the walls. The session ended with this adorable woman with a giant fur-lined coat draped over her shoulders calling out the countries everyone was from and people from that country would stand up and we'd all clap for them. America dominated, naturally; although Germany made a relatively comparable showing. After that little ceremony we had a break for morning tea. How adorable, right?

My roommates showed up last night, well most of them. 2 of them are still completely MIA and its weird because some of their stuff has been there since I arrived. One of my roommates is from Jersey and the other from New York and I like them both. I also finally met up with my other friends from Tulane today, which was great. I met a ton of people from all over the world, notably France, Holland, and the Netherlands. People from Europe are so pretty, especially the Scandinavians. They're all pale-blonde and fabulous.

During our lunch break they had the equivalent of the activities expo for us. Except here all the booths were for surf camps, scuba diving and the like. I can't hardly contain myself thinking about surf camp.

I think I'm about to go back to the Village and take a nap. I may actually be up for going out tonight, yet to be determined though. This place is crazy because our on campus apartments and the university itself is throwing events for us all next week starting w/trivia at our apartment's bar followed by a pub crawl on Monday and then there's some party or something every night thereafter. We'll see if I'm up to the challenge.

My roommates and I are considering getting a wireless router and buying internet service for our house that would probably end up being way cheaper than what the uni charges us and much more convenient than relying on internet cafes and things. We're also considering buying a heater. Wouldn't that be lovely.

Day 3: The Case of the Orange Ice Cream Cone

I got my cell phone yesterday. Its so ghetto and adorable! Its a slightly updated Nokia, just like the ones everybody had when cell phones were still kind of a new thing. I love it because it has the beach ringtone on it that my dad had on his Nokia for years. Phone numbers here are the most random things it seems like. In my mind, they all have varying lengths. That can be how it really works though, it just wouldn't make sense. My phone number is 0405832019. I need the practice memorizing it. Also, I neglected to mention my phone has Sudoku puzzles on it. Score.

An update on the bedding I bought: it works! I no longer have to sleep in 7 layers! I slept all the way through the night until my alarm went off this morning at 9:15 and woke up cozy and warm. I have conquered you, jet lag.

This morning Helen and I woke up and caught a bus down to central station where the free Hillsong shuttle picks people up to take them to church. Hillsong has its own fleet of city buses for this purpose. It was everything I expected, but on a bit of a smaller scale, it wasn't actually in a stadium. The praise band was fun though, they were like the International Mickey Mouse Club. There were about 7 of them, representing a wide range of nationalities, singing and bouncing around in front of a choir and the band. They showed lots of videos. Much to my dismay they didn't sing Desert Song, haha. After the service I went to one of their gift shops and was floored that they were selling their newest CDs for $30, and also by the sheer number of CDs they've put out. Following the service I got some oriental food (Chinese, Korean, who knows?) and Helen got KFC haha. I went next door to McDonalds after that because I really wanted some ice cream and was THRILLED to see that they only charged 50 cents for cones!! So of course I got one. Let me tell you, that was some strange ice cream. It wasn't very cold. I have a feeling its just like those Frostys my mom used to tell me about that were around when she was a kid. Apparently they didn't melt, this stuff didn't either. And the cone was orange and not sweet. None of it tasted bad, it was just weird. Such is my life right now ha. Also the McDonalds here have McPastry shops/bakeries in them and full service coffee shops.

Orientation starts tomorrow. I'm really excited!!

Day 2: An Overview of the Harbo(u)r

I woke up at 5 this morning freaking out because I was freezing despite the fact I went to bed in a t-shirt, sweatshirt, my warmest sweatpants, a scarf, leg warmers, and socks. My apartment isn't climate controlled and I was determined to make it on the cheapest blanket I could find because I feel guilty about being so expensive. But one of the first things I did this morning was go buy more blankets so we don't have a repeat of last night.

I had some weird "Cheerios" for breakfast. The thing is, they aren't really Cheerios because they're made by Nestle and are oddly thick. Then Helen and I went exploring. I was really awkward ordering coffee again today. After standing around staring at things for 5 minutes I thought I had it down and asked for a tall black. Wrong, its a long black. They had a coffee flavor called Bourbon Street. New Orleans always manages to follow me, but I can't believe it made it all the way to Sydney. And then we went to buy bus passes but ended up buying $3 candy bars instead. So worth it though, they have delicious European chocolate in all the convenience stores.

We kind of guessed and got on a bus that ended up taking us down to Circular Quay and thus, the magnificent harbor! Or harbour, I suppose. The bridge and the opera house were magnificent! And the weather was absolutely beautiful. The air was so crisp and I have yet to see a cloud in the sky. My grandaddy kept telling me how clear the harbor water was. He would go on and on about how its kinda like San Francisco bay, except the bay is gross and the harbor has crystal clear water. He is absolutely right. We also went by the market place at the Rocks. It was quite novel, one shop was selling American license plates for $29 and randomly determined a North Carolina plate was "special edition" and had it priced at $35. Haha. The best part was he also had some license plates with a rebel flag and bald eagle on them. Fabulous really.

We walked around the CBD a bit more and ended up on some steps next to Darling Harbor. These particular steps looked out onto a fountain type thing that had stepping stone platforms through it. We sat there over an hour watching as every child that passed couldn't resist jumping on all of the platforms with their parents chasing behind them. The people watching was great too.

I'm about to go buy a go phone, exciting no? And then go dig in a dumpster for some dinner.

Day 1: I only thought I was poor in nola..

I MADE IT TO AUSTRALIA! In one piece, and I slept so much on the plane (about 9-10 hours) so I'm not even feeling the jet lag, yet anyway. I got a wonderful view of the harbor bridge and opera house in the predawn light as we were descending to the airport.

Wow, I had a really hard day that started around 3am when I finally came out of my coma on the plane. I'm automatically below the poverty line as a half gallon of milk (or its metric kindof equivalent) costs $5, a large box of cereal $7, and a pack of hangers $12. By the way this is at Target and KMart. Helen and I had to trek across campus from our apartments and then lug the stuff back in a laundry basket I bought. Many people stared at us. Sydney Uni, as they call it, charges us by the KB to use the internet and I obviously can't afford that except in emergency situations so I can't use the internet at my apartment or on campus. Instead I bought a membership at this internet cafe in which I currently sit which is also a considerable distance from where I live. I suppose the good news is between not being able to afford food and having to walk 7 miles to a computer, I won't have to worry about gaining weight. I don't have a phone and don't have many prospects on getting one within the next few days as that will cost me dearly as well. Thank God the exchange rate is in our favor. I also couldn't find converters today, the one store that had them was closed by the time I made it there so I can't plug anything in.

My breaking point happened when I went to put sheet on my bed that I brought from home. I was feeling very smug that I did this while in the store as sheets cost around $40 for the cheap ones. Turns out there twin size mattress equivalents are just bigger than ours so that my sheet wouldn't fit on the bed. I had quite the outburst.

After that though, I really couldn't help but laugh at myself and this day. I really am happy to be here although I realize its going to take a lot of getting used to. I never thought I'd say that I miss Walmart and all of its wonderfully low prices. All the Australians are wonderfully sweet people. I haven't really met many my age, but I've bothered adults basically as often as possible and they've all been very helpful and pleasant.

I'm sure you're wondering how my gimpy toe is doing. Well, not so great. And its kind of making me look like a tool bag wearing flip-flops around in the winter. I guess if I'm being honest though, I usually do that anyway.

(the picture is me on the "trampscalator" with my shopping cart full of over-priced goods. you can bring one shopping cart all over the mall w/you via the trampscalators. ok that's not the real name but I can't remember what is, and I feel like that's close.)

Pre-Flight Misadventures

Let me tell you about my day now that my blood pressure seems to be back to a reasonable level. I woke up this morning and was like, "Woah, its July 15; a date that has only existed in various conversations and date books of mine. It wasn't supposed to actually get here." I continued packing and then met Dad for lunch at Commander's. Weepy Kathryn was out in full force and I felt myself getting misty eyed over all the nice things Dad kept saying about how proud he was of me. He was acting erratically all day, I'm not sure he's entirely thrilled to be sending his daughter off to Australia for a long time by herself. Where are Mom and Claire you ask? They're at Disney World. Yea.

So after lunch, we're loading the car and while Dad's rolling my purple suitcase down the stairs, he manages to pop one of the legs off of it. Now my suitcase is severely handicapped and can't stand up. Shortly after this, I stubbed my left baby toe thereby handicapping myself. I just felt so bad for the suitcase I guess. So now I can't wear closed toed shoes (its winter) and I kind of gimp around.

Around 3:30 we go to the Boot for a goodbye drink when Dad gets this idea and calls a Delta rep. They proceed to inform him that one needs to be at the airport 2 hours before take-off for international flights to check luggage. It appears we're going to miss that boat, but not without a fight. So we get in Shitsky and Dad Speed Racers out of that place. The drive isn't free and clear so we're all tense. I turned the radio on to enjoy some crappy pop/hip-hop for the last time. The last song I heard on the radio was Boom Boom Pow. Excellent.

We pay someone to haul all my crap 20 yards to the counter and I hug Dad goodbye and get all teary. He's not loving it either. And then he's out the door. I wait in line for what seems like forever before I realize I left my new jacket in Shitsky. I hit the panic button and call Dad who promptly turns around and comes back to the airport. He's right on time for the jerklady behind the counter to finally check my bags and charges me TWO HUNDRED dollars to check one small extra rolling suitcase and ONE HUNDRED FIFTY dollars to check Godzilla, my lovely overweight suitcase (66 pounds). I also have in tow my new monogrammed duffle bag that weighs what feels like 50 pounds. So Dad and I share a second tear-uppy goodbye and I'm off!

After walking halfway to my gate I feel like my shoulder is being ripped off by the a fore mentioned duffle and my gimp isn't made cuter by the Hello Kitty bandaid on my pinkie toe. I'm feeling the stress so I sit down for a little facebook therapy and can't connect to the stinkin' internet! It was pretty chilly in the airport though, so I got to wear my new jacket. Its really soft, so when I pet my arm I feel a little better. I boarded the plane and as we were taking off from New Orleans, I actually let a few tears fall. I really do love that place.

On the plane ate a cheese and fruit dinner that they charged me $6 for and I didn't get my free cookie. Dude, what happened to free dinner? AND they try to cheat me out of a cookie after I paid $350 to get my bags on the plane? Oh well, I also watched the Man v. Wild with Will Farrell on it. I also found out there's a new series on Discovery called Ice Loggers.

So I'm just hanging out now, waiting for Helen to get here. When she does, I fully plan on going to McD and getting a McFlurry. If I wasn't about to board a trans-Pacific flight I would go for a McGangBang, you know how that goes. I have Benedryl ready to go and am hoping they'll sell me a cocktail since its an international flight in order to guarantee I'm unconscious for a very large part of this flight. Hopefully I won't wake up 'til Friday at 6am when we're about to land. Although I'm quite tired from this whole ordeal, I'm getting so excited! I still have an ocean to cross though. Think of me tonight when you're laying down all cozy in your flat bed.