classes, really?

one week of classes done. twelve to go. my schedule isn't too bad: mondays i have one class, studio drawing(shoot me) from 2-5. tuesdays, outdoor education lecture from 12-12:50, wednesday outdoor education tutorial, 12-1:50, and then the glory day... thursday, sociology from 10-11:50, australia, asia and the world lecture from 12-12:50 then the tutorial from 3-5. ew. and friday im freeee! i got lost about 17 times during this week and looked like a complete douche with a map in my hand going in circles. and let's not forget the pit stains. the great thing about this week was that i walked into sociology and the first thing the teacher says is that class meets fortnightly. it took me about all of class to figure out what that meant. we only meet once every two weeks!! perfection. i just loved how she said fortnightly, and everyone in the class understood right away, except me. cool. studio drawing is probably going to kick my butt, i'm sure you've all seen my incredible drawing skills. they are that of a 7 year old and i'm not so sure that's what the teacher is looking for. I am super excited about outdoor education. we have two field trips planned already and we only have to meet the weeks before trips to plan out food with our groups. our first trip is mid march and i cant wait! i also just got my confirmation email about my spring break trip so i am officially going to central australia, THE OUTBACK!, for 8 days! no shower, no bathroom and sleeping under the stars. wooo!

tuesday night there was mexican food at the uni bar for 5 dollars. my friends and i decided to try it out, wimpy burrito and they didn't even give us seconds. what a bummer. i miss three amigos and el taco so much. thursday night was the rainbow toga party at the uni bar and that was awesome! we all got a different color material and rocked it as a toga. now its decoration for my brick wall of a room. =]

its been pretty rainy here lately but still warm. every time there's even a 20 minute clearing i'm out there trying to get my tan on. i found a good little running loop so i don't become obese due to the non stop eating of candy and drinking goon. this morning we went to the beach with these boys who were going surfing. we went to the coolest little beach that was all secluded and it had the prettiest sand. i loved it! they were telling us that they got stung by these things called blue bottles. that could be the completely wrong name because every time i repeated it to them they laughed at me... haha but they picked one up and showed it to me and it looks like a tiny jellyfish with a little blue tail. weird. its not very harmful just a little sting and somehow i still went in the water after that but i mostly just sat there read my book and took some notes on their technique. ill be a pro surfer in no time. =]

my favorite lingo here so far is heaps. everything is in heaps. ie: thanks heaps, heaps of fun, heaps hot, raining heaps. i love it.

miss you all heaps. =]

best. day. ever.

we went to the currumbin wildlife sanctuary on saturday and it was AMAZING! my goal in life was to hold a koala. check. take a picture with a koala. cheeeeck! i did that within the first 20 minutes of being there and i could not have been happier. you can see it in my big fat cheeser in the picture with the koala. we got to the sanctuary around 10:30 and had until 5 to walk all around and see as many animals as we wanted to. we walked in just as they were doing the lorikeet feeding which is when they all fly around and we held little tins of their food and they were flying all around us and landing on our heads and arms. i loved it and all i could think of was the lady from home alone. the koalas were thee cutest things i have ever seen but they smelled like moldy pee. the koala i held, harry, pooped each time he was handed to someone new for a picture, luckily it did not get on my hands. i was about the 5th person to take a picture with him and im sure he was over it by the 2nd. when the lady handed him to me he wouldn't put his little hand on my shoulder and was just starring at my face. then she says, "harry, calm down. be good." i was like hooooly eff im going to be attacked. all those stories about the mean koala were going to come true and he was going to jump at my face. he didn't and did a great pose for our prom pic. it turned out great. =] i then smelled like moldy pee the rest of the day but it was 110% worth it. next were the kangaroos. legit. they were everywhere and we just got to walk around and hang out with them. they were a lot smaller than i expected but very cute. friendlier than i thought too. except for when one growled at me (didn't know they did that...) then attacked another kangaroo and they both ran away. there was one kangaroo with a little guy in his pouch who was just flopping around half way hanging out and some how they both seemed perfectly ok with it. it looked like the most awkward and uncomfortable thing ever but i guess it was working out for them. we also saw tree kangaroos, crocodiles, an insane amount of birds, snakes, a dingo, an echidna that had been hit by a car and brought to the sanctuary for recovery from a broken leg and will soon be released back into the wild! coool! after we were finished with all the animals at the sanctuary we left the park and walked around the beach just down the street. it was called tugun beach on the gold coast and it was gorgeous! i liked it better than byron bay and the water was warmer. we sat and watched a rowing competition for a while which was super interesting and a lot of fun. it was crazy and intense especially when their boats would flip and they would have to figure out how to get back on or get to shore. haha but super cool and looked so hard!! i got burnt again with awkward tan lines from my tank top and shorts. i look really cool rockin it though so no worries. it was all worth the amazing day!

went to the movies that night with my roommate and some of her friends to see valentines day. wow taylor swift was annoying in that movie but it was pretty good. im glad i went with them because it was just me and four australians! haha so i feel like im branching out and meeting more people which i love. we drove in her friends car too, im still not used to the whole steering wheel being on the opposite side.

did some laundry today and sat out by the pool after it rained. and now classes start tomorrow!

looove.

O week in aussie town

Well, O week consisted of information sessions that were far too long, walking up and down that dreaded hill, sweating through not only the pits of me shirts, but the back as well, and of course the aussie style of fun, drinking, that starts at 5pm. aubrie and i stuck to bacardi breezers... much like a capri sun in a bottle. haha i think everyone was making fun of us but thats okay. we sat out by the pool a couple of days but its been gloomy and rainy for the last 3 days. i kind of like it because the sweating decreases a little, and i just love the rain in general so i just go run around in it and it feels amazing because it's still warm out, like a tropical rain. we ran down that hill one night soaking wet to get to our event at the uni bar and we got there and everyone was soaked and looked like a mess. it was my type of thing. aubrie and i went for a run and explored the campus. it is a lot bigger and nicer than i expected. there is a koala sanctuary, which is where we saw the koala the first day. we saw the soccer field and explored the main campus. figured out how the library works, got a printing card,rented a movie. successful week i would say. it was my roommates 21st birthday, the one from the states, and we had a party in our room for him. it was a legitimate house party in our dorm room. crazy. haha it was a lot of fun and our room is all decorated. they said they would keep it all up for my birthday woo woo!

there's still huge spiders everywhere. even bigger than the ones we saw before. i asked a local and he cleared things up for me about the bird spiders. there are not actual spider webs that can catch birds buuuuuuuut there are spiders who eat birds. they wait in the birds nest and attack and eat them. whaaaaaat?! my response... so they are going to wait in my nest(bed) and eat and attack me? perfect. everyone makes fun of me because when we are walking around outside i can see a spider web from a mile away. and im just like everyone watch out! haha but seriously though by the end of this im going to a spider whisperer. we did see this huge lizard the other day. and when i mean huge i mean the size of my cat. and if any of you have seen how big either of my cats are, you know that's not even normal so this thing was huge. im not sure what kind it was but it looked pretty cool. i tried to get a picture but it ran into the bushes.

i found a poster about a club soccer team around here, the lady said we can train for free with them sooo frank, i hope you're happy aubrie and i will be working hard! haha it should be fun though im excited for that.

im sure you're all wondering how i have managed to feed myself... well i have cereal and milk so im set on that haha. but the last week they have been giving us free bbq lunches, which means a sausage on bread with either barbecue sauce or ketchup. that was good teh first time maybe twice but got kind of old. i actually went grocery shopping and did surprisingly. aubrie was there telling me what to buy but i think im making progress. i haven't made any of that food we bought yet... pb&j, which i packed in my bag, and grilled cheese have been solid the last couple nights. im hoping to branch out this weekend but we'll see how it goes =] oh and i bought ranch here, it sucks. i have to try out all the different brands but i would have to say thats my biggest disappointment so far. and the fact that bagels are not sold everywhere. bummer.

im obsessed with the nature and bird sounds here. im even okay with them waking me up early every day. weird i know but i love it!

holy spiders.

ok so the spiders are really annoying and they get bigger and bigger. haha i have killed about 8 more in my room and there's still a bunch i shower with everyday. i saw a HUGE web when we were driving and tim was right, they literally catch birds in them. we went to byron bay yesterday and it was AMAZING! i got retardedly burnt, but so did everyone else. apparently they have no ozone soooo we all got fried, though i did reapply about 4 times. maybe its just because im closer to the sun..... (that's for my mom =]) but the water was so clear and the sand is so clean and white. it was a really cute area and we're all planning on going back its about 45 minutes away. i got two more roommates, another australian girl, bianca, who is a first year and a boy, pat, from connecticut. its been super fun with all of them and we get along really well.

we started orientation today it wasn't too bad just a lot of boring info but then we got a bunch of free stuff which was cool. it's so hot here and the walk from our dorm to campus is a huge hill so im constantly sweating, even more than at home which i never thought would be possible. ahha

the stars are absolutely gorgeous here! we walked back to our room one night and i stood in the road starring up at the sky for about 15 minutes. it is soo clear and bright its amazing! orion's belt it beautiful from here, and that is actually the name of my dorm building. Southern Cross is the name of our university but it is also a constellation that is visible in australia and it is amazing how well you can see it! i love the night sky here i could stare at it forever!!!

we have a dinner dance club thing tonight at the university bar so that should be fun and everyone says all of O week is just a big party, sooo im excited for the rest of the week!

KOALA YUMMIES!

sooo i actually made it to the land down under, with a surprisingly incredible experience! didn't lose anything and had my life somewhat together through the whole traveling experience. surprising i know! the plane ride was pretty nice. the plane itself, LEGIT! the first thing i saw when we walked in the plane was a bar with bar stools and neon lights with techno music playing. i literally thought i was walking into a club. soo cool then there was a tv in front of every seat and i watched movies and tv the whole time, enjoyed my two kids meals and my free mixed drinks =] not too shabby for a 14 hour plane ride. i guess it was worth the $1200.... we arrived in brisbane at 6am friday morning and met natalie, our SCU rep, at the gate and had to wait for the rest of our group to fly in before our 3 hour bus ride. i called the mom from the airport and used my australian money for the first time to by a muffin =] our bus ride wasn't too bad pretty nice scenery along the gold coast and got into lismore around 3pm dropped our bags off in our rooms and headed off the the stores to by some food, sheets, a fan because its hot and sweaty as freaking balls, and KOALA YUMMIES!!! i hope you all remember what im talking about because i truly believe that they are and will be the highlight of my trip. delicious koala shaped graham crackers filled with milk chocolate YUUUUUUP. on the way back to the dorms we saw a koala in one of the trees on campus, so freaking cute!got back to the dorms, and got ready for a bbq on the deck of our dorm hall that has an AMAZING view. we had these hot dog like things, more like sausages on bread rather than on buns, decent. it was fun everyone was mingling and drinking and our RAs filled us in on what will be happening the next couple days. its amazing here and everyone is soo nice. i feel like everyday is a party, which i might be ok with. haha my room is not the nicest but i feel like i'm a little spoiled at CLU when it comes to dorm quality. i have killed 4 spiders already, 1 being on my bed, and i took a shower with 2. i may not survive. i have 2 australian roommates so far, sam and claire and we're still waiting for the three others to show up sometime this weekend. i'm excited to see who else we live with! i'm exhausted but it has been a very successful and extremely fun first day and travel day.


loooove.