Ahhh!!! I'm sorry! School started and then my brain would always be like "well if I have time to blog I have time to do homework" and then neither one would happen... I think I have a better grasp of time management now but who knows if that will still be the case tomorrow.
So O Week was the next week which is also known as orientation week but it's shortened to O week. I've very quickly realized that Australians tend to shorten everything which is both nice because I like it but also really confusing because I don't know what they're saying. It doesn't help that sometimes they talk really quickly too. Anyway that's not the point. O week. Basically it's set up for first years to learn about how to survive university. Well as an international student we figured this would probably be good for us too. They also had different events happening as well. Monday
They had a specific class like thing specific for whether you were going into science, liberal arts, and whatever else you were studying. So I went to that all morning with almost everybody I had met so far because we all seem to be in science. It was really good because we were able to meet the mentors that are students in our field and we can ask them for help if we so desire. Then we met a few of the professors that could be teaching some of our classes which I think I actually met one of mine during that time. We met both lecture professors and the lab coordinator. That lasted most of the morning so they gave us pizza afterwords. We struggled a bit to get pizza at first because we had to wait for the mentors to give them to us at our table and our mentor never gave us one! So we had to go up to them and ask for one which was silly. Then we were going to leave but didn't really have anything to do at that time so we went back and sat down at a table again and then mentors from another group that was now having lunch gave us two pizzas! It was great but we didn't know what to do with them. I think we just left them there and left. After that we went and got our student IDs and a bus pass so that we don't have to pay as much using the bus. The bus is expensive! It will be interesting to see how much I spent on the bus by the end of the semester.
Tuesday
At the botanic gardens =)
Pretty sure I slept in and laid in bed most of the morning. There were more informational sessions that I could have attended but I didn't feel the need to go any of them. In the afternoon they had a tour of Cairns where they got a double decker bus that we rode around town in while they told us where things were. Naturally we went to sit at the top of the bus despite being told that the sun is a lot stronger here than anywhere else (this is a constant theme). We stopped at the botanic gardens and spent about an hour there before we left. It was really pretty as botanical gardens are. Lots of cool flowers and there were signs that explained a lot about how they are used for medicine. Then we got back on the bus to go back. I didn't go to the top of the bus this time because I figured I had been in the sun long enough and I'm not a huge fan of getting sun burnt and getting skin cancer isn't on my bucket list. They had a movie night too and originally we planned on going but it started when dinner at the lodge is so we had dinner and then by the time we were ready to go we figured we had already missed most of the movie and it wasn't worth it so we probably just hung out. Maybe that's when I wrote my first few posts.
Wednesday
This was a long day. We went to get pancakes from the Red Frogs (a Christian group) in the morning and had some half backed pancakes that were slightly unsatisfying but it was free food so I guess I can't complain too much. Then I had to go to the international studies orientation that I originally missed because I was in Byron Bay. They said basically the same stuff that I had already heard before but it was good to get reminded I guess. During lunch they had market day which is where all the clubs set up a table and advertise what they do and stuff. They didn't have as many clubs as I was hoping they would and the clubs sometimes seemed more like an organization ran them then students but that was just what it seemed like to me. I signed up for information for a few of them but I haven't gotten very much information on them still so I guess that didn't work that well. I remember a guy coming up to us at one point and giving us a flyer about a martial arts club (I can't remember exactly which martial arts it was). I was interested and asked a question about where it is and instead of saying where it is he gave me an answer about how they want women who had a bad experience with a man join so they can kind of rehabilitate them (my wording may be terrible on that sorry). Now I think it's great that they want to do that and that it is one of the goals of the club but at the same time I got this feeling at the same time that he didn't want me to join unless that was the case. Which was rather rude because I was really interested and then he just kind of ruined my interest by kind of pushing me away.
After that we hung out till the party of the night occurred. They had a tropical themed party planned where they had a DJ, entertainment, and of course food. I had some ice cream and a snow cone which was probably my favorite part. After the party at the school we got on a party bus and went to a bar. We started at one called Lyquids which was pretty fancy. It was still pretty early in the night so we were the only ones there (this includes everybody on the party bus). With my friends accompanying and ordering for me we got the weakest shot one can get which also happens to be the cheapest (hurray!). It wasn't bad but I don't think I ever want to have more alcohol than that, especially in a public place. After that we danced a bit (me very awkwardly) and then ended up being the last people there. So we left and found a different bar called Woolshed which is a backpackers bar. We stayed there for a long time (longer than I would have preferred). We danced some (a lot) and after a while I was just done. You have to realize that I had been doing stuff nonstop for over a week and my feet needed a good rest still so they hated me and hurt a bunch so I found a random stool and sat next to my circle of friends that continued to dance. It was an interesting experience at this bar because a guy came into our circle of times and would grab one of the girls awkwardly dance with them spin them and then the girl would swiftly make an escape. I'm just glad he didn't try to dance with me because I have no idea how I would have responded. Eventually I went to get some air and since it was cooler outside than inside the bar (which is saying a lot) I decided I would stay there for the whole time. One of my friends joined me outside and then another joined me. Eventually we left but we had to get a taxi because we missed the last bus. Then bed and happiness.
Thursday
I don't think we really had anything planned and didn't need to go to any of the sessions they had so we may have gone to buy some things at the closest shopping center. In the afternoon the school had a scavenger hunt set up and me and one of my roommates went to do it but it wasn't exactly what we were expecting. The items on the list were kind of weird and we didn't really want to do it after getting the clipboard with the list on it so we left the clipboard on a picnic table outside the building where they had organized it. On the way back to the lodge (which is where we are residing) these people clearly doing the scavenger hunt tried to complete the task of "taking a selfie with someone without them noticing" with us. He was so obvious about it though! He started walking backwards and was clearly taking a selfie. So I pointed it out because he really could have done so much better. I said he could still use it but I'm pretty sure even in the picture you can tell that we knew what he was doing. Pretty sure we just chilled after that too. There wasn't that much going on that day.
Friday
Sadness :'(
We went to a lot of sessions in the morning because we figured they would be useful. They were pretty much how to survive in university and the resources available which we had already heard about a lot but it did clear up some confusion that we had so it was worthwhile. In the afternoon the student association (which is the group of students that organize all the fun things that have been happening on campus) had organized a trip to Palm Cove, a beach. So we took the double decker bus to the beach again. Once we got to the beach it was pretty unfortunate because we couldn't actually swim because of the irukandji. We couldn't even swim in the netted area which was rude. So we sat on the beach and put sunscreen on (because the sun is stronger here than anywhere else) and the student leader made sure we had sunscreen eventually. We really only stayed on the beach until they brought us food. Once we ate or food we left the beach to explore the shops that were by it.
The beach at Palm Cove
We got gelato which was nice and refreshing considering it was really hot. We went into a couple of shops with gelato in hand and then we needed somewhere to throw our cups away but we couldn't find any trashcans (or bins as the say in Australia)! So one girl went up to these people working at a hotel lobby area and asked if she throw her trash away there and the lady just took her trash. So we all did that same. Since we were already in the hotel (which was confusing to me because we never went through a doorway) we ended up going to their pool area. At first I thought we were just going to look at it but we ended up going in. Then I thought we would just sit at the edge of the pool but me and this other girl ended up going into the pool because it was hot and the pool wasn't crowded and why not. So we did and it was really nice. The pool was super nice too! It was like a makeshift beach with sand and everything. Eventually another girl joined us in the pool and we ended up just goofing around in the pool. It was really nice and since we aren't as loud as the other American international students the people working there either didn't care or didn't notice. Eventually we left because we had to get back on the bus and I don't remember what we did in the evening.
Well that's my quick update. Hopefully I will catch up quickly since actual school started shortly after this week and I will really only need to talk about the weekend when I did something exciting.
Hello everybody! Welcome back to my wonderful adventure. This is my third post and I will start where I left off from the last post but before I do that I forgot everything that I could use as a camera so I don't really have any pictures unfortunately. Sorry about that but I hope you enjoy my post anyway. Also It was brought to my attention that in my previous post I mentioned going to the bar and I said something along the lines of "I knew I would be a drinking person" well that's a typo it shouldn't say something like "I knew I would not be a drinking person". Look. I don't edit these. I just type it out and then post it. I don't have time to review stuff and my grammar isn't that great anyway. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down so that I can look back on it in the future...so enjoy this next post!
The Afternoon
So the flight to the city in which my school abides was like three hours. The first two hours were super uneventful just a normal flight of me wondering when the heck the flight is going to end and being bored. I forgot to charge all of my electronic devices (I know I'm super good with technology...) so they were all about to die which meant I was trying to limit my use of them which meant even more boredom. The last part of the flight was a little more awkward because the lady to my left started talking to me and the girl on my left (I was in the middle). Well actually she started talking with the girl on my left and that was awkward because they were talking across me which always causes me confusion because I'm not sure what I should do. Eventually she started conversing with me and I had to try to explain that I was studying abroad which appears to me more confusing to people than I thought it was. I did find out that she was in the top five realtors in Australia or something just as impressive. So she was going back after receiving an award. And I believe the other lady was visiting her boyfriend. Honestly, I was just really happy that they weren't two large men and were nice and friendly even if I did feel awkward. But I always feel awkward so I guess that doesn't mean that much.
Well once the flight landed I struggled to get my bag down from the overhead place like short people do. There was an exit at the back of the plane too which was new and caused me to try and move faster but really just panic and fumble around even more. I had to walk outside after that and was met with a large dose of humidity and heat. Luckily I got to go back inside shortly after that. We met the person in charge of us in this new city and went to the actual campus/living area of us new students.
Upon arriving at the student lodge we were told a bit of information about where we were staying and some of the important information that we needed to know so that we wouldn't die while staying here. We were then given our rooms and left to get situated and whatnot. Well my room ended up being on the second floor which is really nice and I can't complain but that meant that I had to carry my luggage up the stairs which was a bit of a struggle but I got it so it's fine. Then I went to my room and met my new roommates! I think I got super lucky because both of my roommates are super friendly and nice. Plus we are all in similar majors and we have one class together! I got to meet a bunch of new people through them and was bombarded with names. I'm pretty terrible with names but I actually put effort into learning them and personally think I did pretty good at learning everyone's name. Sure there are two pairs of girls with the same name but that's beside the point.
We sat outside in the courtyard for a bit and met an actual Australian! Okay I know what you're thinking. "You're in Australia shouldn't you have met an Australian already?" Well, I hadn't met and talked to an Australian student yet because I had met all the other international students and that meant a bunch of people from the States and Canada. After that I unpacked and went to bed.
Saturday
The campus with the forest in the background.
I slept in. I was tired and they don't serve breakfast or lunch on weekends so of course I'd sleep as long as I can. I had to get up somewhat early though because the group I came with had a school tour planned and being told more information about how to survive here. Where the school is located is super cool. It's pretty spread out and surrounded by tropical forest. It's almost like forest grew around the different buildings. There are some small mountains that the forest is part of and it's just really really beautiful. There's also a bungee jump place close to the school so apparently we might hear screams every once in a while because of that. I doubt it will happen but we'll see if I do that or not.
After the tour my roommates invited me to go with them and the group I was introduced to as they went downtown because there was a Chinese New Year celebration happening. So we took the bus and embarked on an adventure in which we constantly lost people and were somewhat lost. But it was fine nothing bad happened and we found our way without losing anybody.
We walked around time first and went into a couple of shops but I didn't buy anything. Then we went to the Lagoon in which they have a free public pool that's outside because you can't really swim in the ocean because of the Irukandji jellyfish (the smallest and most venomous box jellyfish in the world). We sat by the shore and looked across the horizon though which was nice and relaxing. After sitting for a bit we decided to go to the street that was closed for the New Years celebration. Some of us just really wanted to find the food stands so that we could eat some food. Once we found the street, we watched a little bit of a dragon dance that was being performed and then left. We decided to find an actual restaurant to get food from because all of the food we saw people with didn't look very good.
In our search of food we found the night market in which there were different Asian food places where you choose the size of plate you want and then you pick the dishes that you want. It's basically Chinese takeout buffet style. We found fried pineapple that was so good! We might go back there just for the pineapple. After filling our stomachs with the wonderful food that we needed we began to explore the night market which has a lot of nice souvenirs. I will definitely be going back to actually get some souvenirs before I leave.
After exploring the night market for a while it was time to go back to the street with the New Years celebration to see a parade. On our way there we ended up stopping to take pictures of all the flying fox bats that were flying. During the day we could see them in the trees all over the place and basically taking up all the space in the trees as they slept. Well now it was night time which meant they were no longer sleeping. They were all waking up from their slumber and there was basically a parade of bats in the sky. We probably stood there watching them for about ten minutes and they weren't even close to being done. It's probably one of the coolest things I've seen since coming here.
These are the bats during the day (I just found a picture on
google but it's the same thing)
The bats were so mesmerizing that once we were done watching them we went to watch the actual parade that was our goal in the first place. We were probably only five minutes late but when we got there we saw this one gold dragon traveling above the crowd and then it was over. So we missed the actual parade but we got to see a parade of bats. Hopefully I'll see it again but this time with my camera so I can share it with you.
We had heard that there were supposed to be fireworks after the fireworks but those weren't for another hour so the majority of us went to sit along the coast again and find a place to sit and watch the fireworks from. We sat on a bench for a while and then I needed something to lean against so I sat on the ground and leaned against the bench/sitting thing we had been on previously. Shortly after others decided to join me and we had a little pow wow on the ground with some people still on the bench. We got quite a few stares because of this but I didn't really care because I was comfortable. Finally the time for the fireworks arrived! ...and passed. We waited for half an hour before deciding that the fireworks weren't actually going to happen and decided to leave.
The adventure to find the correct bus stop was a bit of a struggle and we ended up walking in a circle when we could have just crossed the street to begin with but we found it and got back safely which is all that really matters. Then off to bed!
Sunday
I don't think too much happened this day but I do know that we did a bit of running around. We went to the closest mall to us because the stores across from us are expensive since they know they are right across from college students who need stuff suddenly. Well I got an Australian phone because that was a thing I needed and we also got some groceries since we don't have breakfast or lunch on weekends. The most exciting part to me was when we went to Kmart. Now don't go assuming you know what Kmart is like because Kmart is stinking awesome and their clothes are beautiful and soft (although that might just be clothes in Australia in general). You may be thinking that it can't be as good as Target. Well you are wrong. Here in Australia Target it not so good. In my mind in Australia Kmart will probably become my Target in the US.
After that we went to the pool at the lodge and probably won't go swimming in it again because it's rather dirty and surprisingly cold considering we're in the tropics. Then we had dinner and hung out a bit before going to bed. More might have happened but I'm pretty sure I wanted to have a me night because I had been doing stuff nonstop for at least a week and really just needed some time to relax. The majority of us had to wake up early the next morning anyway because orientation week was starting but I'll talk about that in my next post. =)
Day 1
After arriving in Australia I had to go through customs and meet up with my program group. That was pretty boring. I think the most difficult part for me was figuring out which belt/band thing my luggage was coming out on. I couldn't find it! I was walking in a circle trying to figure it out. I would go to one with a bunch of people around it try and see if I recognized anybody that was on my plane (which didn't help) look at the screen realize it wasn't mine, turn around and then repeat the process until I finally found it. Then I had been told to go to the bathroom before going to customs because it was supposed to take a while so I took my huge luggage and walked past a desk with some man staring at me as I struggle in and out of the bathroom. I finally go to customs and they have a wonderful dog walking through the line sniffing everyone's bag and I make it through customs just fine.
After that I have to find the place that I'm supposed to meet all the other people in my program. I had read the instructions on the plane so I knew what I was supposed to do. Basically turn left. So I was thinking in the hall okay turn left. Go to the left. Guess which direction I went. I turned right... way to go me. Well after turning right I quickly come across the store that meant I had gone the wrong way (they also mentioned this in the instructions) and turned around. I went to a meeting area and sat down for a bit and took off my coat because it was freaking hot and humid and I was melting. After a while I decided I would try walking around again because I was pretty sure I was in the right area but I didn't see anyone. Eventually I saw two guys with a bunch of luggage too that were talking to a lady and thought I would ask them if they were in the same program. Lucky for me they were and eventually the lady I was supposed to see when I first walked out came back and we met. I think I arrived earlier than everybody else so I was the first one there. I can't say for sure whether the lady was there or not because I was so focused on turning left that I didn't look at the people greeting people and could have missed the lady with her sign that I should have easily seen.
One of the lizards chilling at the hostel.
Anyway once we got all our people we got on a bus and started to go to our final destination. It took us a couple of hours and I feel like I was definitely falling asleep on the bus ride. Eventually we arrived at the hostel we would be staying at for the next three nights. It was pretty interesting! Apparently it was opened in the 1970s for hippies by hippies and that culture and lifestyle was definitely evident. The people were really nice though and the surroundings were also really beautiful. There were tons of lizards and bush turkeys roaming around too! It was really weird to see turkeys in the trees above us and I'm pretty sure I counted 12 lizards in one very short walk to somebody's cabin thing.
After getting settled and putting all our stuff away at the hostel we went to one of our three sessions of information that we would need to know. This one was really informative and not very exciting.
Once the session was done we got on a bus and went on a quick bus ride to see a lighthouse and too the most easterly point of Australia. The views were gorgeous and the wind very strong. Not to mention the wind was having a blast too.
View from the lighthouse hill.
The most easterly point of Australia and view.
After that we went to dinner and had hamburgers and had an Aboriginal cultures performance. Basically there was a man that played the didgeridoo and another man that did a cool dance. He would kind of do imitations of animals but without sound but the dances looked super similar to the animals and it was really cool. The main guy was the one that was dancing and he had painted his whole face and had even put some paint on his dog (it's fine it isn't toxic and comes out super easily). He started talking about beauty and then had us come up and put some paint on our faces too explaining how the paint increased beauty (I can't really remember what he said because it's been a bit since that day). Basically he put white dots of face around our eyes bit it was still super fun. Once he was done with this he had the guys in our group come up and do a dance with him (all the guys had to go because there weren't very many of them). I think there dance was an imitation of a bird. After that he had some girls come up to join him for a dance and in this dance they were picking plants that their families would be eating. He wanted them to get super into it and watch there hand as they picked it because it makes the dance better but I don't think very many did that because they felt awkward. Once the dancing was finished he started to show us how to make fire with just wood. It take a lot of time and effort because you need to get the temperature up to 300 something degrees in order for it to work. We didn't actually get it to work because the stick we were spinning kept getting dislodged from the one it was rubbing against and it just didn't happen but a couple of times I could smell wood burning so that was a good sign.
Then it was free time but we were all pretty exhausted since we landed that day and the flight was ridiculously long and apparently the people who were on the flight from Dallas to Sydney were on the second longest flight (in terms of time) in the world. There flight was 17 hours! I think our original plan was to go to bed but the hostel we were staying at had a talent show going on so we watched that for a while and then went to bed. There were some pretty talented people too. Somehow one of the guys in my program found a way to participate in it. He was obviously much more observant about what was happening at the hostel than I was. The guy that was running it pretty awesome too. His name was Cockatoo Paul (there will be more about him later) and he kept pressuring people who were originally only going to do one song into doing another one even if they weren't prepared or didn't know how to do a full song. Oh! Cockatoo Paul also helped out at the aboriginal dance thing earlier that evening so they had to postpone the talent show because of us. Heehee.
Day 2
Sleeping in was both impossible because we had to get up in the morning and difficult because of jet lag. Hurray for jet lag!! Not really. Well we woke up around 6:40 a.m. but I'm pretty sure the majority of us woke up multiple times in the night and got up before our alarms actually went off. By "we" I mean the people I was sharing a room with which were also in my program. I was sharing a room with two other girls. There was supposed to be another girl with us but she disappeared and stayed in another groups room I'm assuming. A couple of the rooms were really big and could hold like 10 people but we only had six staying in them so I'm sure she found a room in one of those with her friend or something. We got ditched before we could even learn each others name but oh well that just meant we had an extra towel and pillow and bed and room. Although I switched my pillow out with the other one because mine was literally a brick of foam. I kid you not, it was a brick of foam in a pillowcase. Not all the pillows were that way just mine so that's why I traded mine for a pillow that wasn't foam.
We went and had breakfast and then off to learn how to surf! It was so difficult and kind of reaffirmed to me that I'm not much of a water person. Our instructor was super cool. They gave us a bunch of sunscreen because the sun in Australia is super powerful because there's a whole in the ozone layer so a bunch more UV radiation attacks you when you are outside. It made me kinda sad when I learned this fact because I brought sunscreen with me thinking I was super cool and then found out that the sunscreen from the States is pretty much useless and that the sunscreen in Australia is so much better because SPF 30 in Australia is equivalent to SPF 100 in America. So I bought SPF 50 sunscreen in Australia. Anyway our instructor wasn't even wearing normal sunscreen he was wearing this zinc stuff that made his face super white and my first thought after seeing him was that he was going to do an aboriginal dance like the guy the other night because his face was so white. He didn't. He did tell us that 40 people in the U.S. die from falling out of their bed every year in an attempt to make us less afraid of being attacked in the ocean. That's a pretty fun fact, didn't really help if you were afraid of being dragged out into the ocean though. We were out surfing for a while. A lot of people were constantly in the water but I just couldn't do. The current was really strong and the weak little me had no hope of fighting the waves. I did manage to stand up a couple of times though which was exciting. Granted I did fall shortly after stand but that's not the point. According to our instructor surfing is the hardest sport in the world. And let me just tell you. After trying it out I would have to agree. It was so hard! I was so sore the next day! My forearms got a massive work out too just from carrying the board from one place to the other. My hand was shaking afterword from how much I was using my gripping muscles! It wasn't the best.
Right after surfing while the instructors put the surfboards back on their trailer (which the trailer actually fell off on our way there and they had to stop in the middle of the road and get the strong guys to help lift the bus while the put the trailer back on) there was a lake that we would clean off in. The lake was this golden brownish color. The trees surrounding the lake were Tea Trees so the oils would go into the lake and make it that color but the oils are supposed to be super good for your skin so we soaked in that and it felt really nice.
After playing around in the waves with a humongous foam board (we had to go over the waves because we couldn't take our boards through the waves) we went back to lodge to get lunch and shower and whatever else in the hour that we had. Then we had another session the beginning talked about extra excursions which all seemed super fun and then other important information that wasn't as exciting. We had a break in the middle of our session and me and this other girl I met wanted to go to the bathroom. Boy was that an adventure. 1) It was raining pretty hard at that moment 2) the public bathrooms were so interesting! The reminded me a bit of an elevator. You hit a button to go in and the door opens for you and you push the button to close the door. Then this Australian male voice speaks to you saying "Maximum time 10 minutes." They had a limit on how long you could be in the toilet! We aren't sure what happens after those 10 minutes because we had to be back before that but we were seriously wondering what would happen if you stayed in there for more that 10 minutes. Besides having a time limit you also had to push a button to dispense toilet paper. Everything was either automatically operated (like the soap, water, and hand drier) or you had to push a button to get what you wanted!
Once our session was over we went on a walk with Cockatoo Paul. It was kinda rushed at first because it was raining on us but after a while we decided that we were already soaked so why not get more wet. This walk was super interesting and he talked about what plants to use and eat and showed us a plant that he uses as a toothbrush and floss. He showed us how to make string and a basket while talking about what we would do if the electricity was shut off for good. Apparently he lives completely off the land and actually makes string and uses plants as toothbrushes. It was super interesting and he holds a camp every once in a while to teach you how to do all sorts of stuff to survive in the wilderness. He kept walking into other peoples yards, grabbing a plant, and then feed it to someone. At one point he took like 3 different plants from someone's front yard and said something along the lines of "They have a freaking first class garden in their front yard!". He was a pretty funny fellow.
After the tour we had dinner and then played trivia which I don't think we did that bad there were 20 questions and we got 11 right and almost got 12 right and I think the winning team got 14 right so we did pretty well. I was super excited because one of the questions I learned the answer to last semester in a class that I greatly disliked was asked. Do you know the answer? Let's find out. The question was "Where do plants get most of their mass from? A. Water B. Air C. Soil. (I will have the answer at the bottom of this post so go look if you're curious and think you know the answer). We were going to explore the town some more but we were pretty tired after that so we went to bed shortly after that.
Day 3
Once again woke up early and had breakfast. The majority of your group got ready to do some sea kayaking which seemed super fun and awesome but I was too slow in saying what I wanted to do that I got my second choice which was another surf lesson. Apparently the sea kayaking was much more extreme than I thought it was going to be because they actually went through the huge waves that were surfing and some people got sea sick. I however was once again bullied by the waves. I got to stand a couple of times again but the current was stronger than it was the day before so I struggled even more than yesterday. It was still fun though which is really all that matters. We had a different instructor this time and they had it set up a little differently for how experienced you are and I feel like I should have stayed at a lower level because our instructor started talking about turning and stuff and I was still trying to stand in the right place on the board.
After that we had a bit of free time until the kayakers came back (they left later than the surfers). We went to town and grabbed some lunch and I got my super powerful Aussie sunscreen! Once everyone was back and fed we had another session that was more fun talking about slang and whatnot. Australians really like to abbreviate something and talk kinda fast so I may be lost for a little while.
Then we walked to the beach to hang out for a bit. Originally there was supposed to be some beach volleyball but we didn't have a net so that didn't happen. We waded in the water a bit and one guy made a sand drip castle which looked pretty cool (PICTURE). The life guard people for the beach were training too and they were like swimming in the waves for a distance and then running on the beach for a distance and doing a bunch of laps! That's so much exercise I can't even believe how good of shape they must be in. Eventually everyone dispersed to explore the town more and we ate dinner and ended up going to a bar for backpackers because this traveling agency store place organized an event where you could drink for free for an hour. So we went to that.
In order to get into the bar we had to show our IDs to prove we were of age to drink to the ridiculously large security guard at the front (as one does). When I got up there and showed him my ID he looked at it real quick looked at me and the says "Man! You're tiny aren't you!" ... I just kinda laughed and was like "yeah I know". I know I'm tiny and I don't really care but the fact that the security guard was so huge probably didn't help the situation. I should have gotten a picture with him! That would have been hilarious. I wonder if he would have gone along with it or not. Well I got into the bar no problem and since it was free decided I might as well get something (mind you I'm a good child and haven't had any alcohol in life yet). I got a cider. It was alright. It was very bubbly. I only drank like an eighth of my glass while a couple of the girls that came with us had at least four glasses. I already figured I would be a drinking person but I just don't understand what is so exciting about it. Oh well I went for the experience. The bar had a couple of events like throwing a football through a target to get a prize. They also had an auction for a couple of trips that are normally on sale and it was ridiculously intense. Originally the purpose was to sell it for a lot less than the original price but the second one only ended up being like 50 dollars less than the original price which is still good but I'm pretty sure the people who were bidding on it were friends just playing around with each other to make the price more expensive. Well once we were finished with the bar we went to get gelato and then headed back to the hostel and then off to bed. We did so much walking that day! My feet still hate me.
Day 4
Woke up, had breakfast, checked out of the hostel, and off to a Wildlife Sanctuary! Finally the fated day has arrived. The day which everyone must do whilst in Australia. The day to hold a koala.
Check out this cool guy.
Well first we had to take an hour bus ride there but then we got to hold a koala! That was the first thing we did in order to make sure that we got our pictures before we had to leave in the next two and a half hours. The wildlife sanctuary was really cool. Before we even got inside they had this wheel for the birds with nectar or water in it (not really sure) and the birds would land and make the wheel move. It was a similar concept as a water mill only powered by birds. We walked around for a while and saw lots of cool animals including wallabies, baby koalas, Tasmanian devils, and many more. They had a large open area with a bunch of kangaroos in it that you could pet and take pictures. I don't recommend doing this with wild kangaroos or really any kangaroos unless a professional says its okay. We could have fed them as well but we didn't see where we could find food until we were leaving but it didn't make much of a difference because they were still super friendly with us and would sometimes assume we had food. There were so many and they were so fascinating! Probably my favorite part but maybe I'm biased since I'm a wildlife major.
This is a wallaby :)
A koala family included little koala joeys.
Then we had to leave the wonderful sanctuary and get on our planes going to all of our different campuses. The plane ride wasn't too bad but I'm going to end the post here since it's already super long.
Trivia Question Answer: B. Air
Here's a video of some of the scenery and animals I saw!
Right now I am sitting on a couch in a country half way around the world from where I would normally be. I can still hear people screaming and cheering in the courtyard outside my room as they play some drinking game that I'm sure wouldn't be nearly as fun as if they were sober. Due to this grand adventure I will (hopefully) be recording what is going on and my thoughts during the whole adventure here so that I can look back at it and others can look at it and know what I'm up to. Today I will record my thoughts on the first few days of this adventure (Warning: it's going to be long).
First flight: Got a window seat! Hurray! A lady sat next to me. The plane didn't have any TV screens originally on the backs of the seats or that come down from the section above your heads (I'm not sure what they're called). This made me very upset at first because I wasn't sure how the heck I was supposed to entertain myself! However shortly after the flight began I discovered that they had WiFi on the plane and that they seem to assume that you would just use your mobile device to stream movies and stuff. We could also use our electronic devices during take off and landing as long as they were on flight mode. I'm used to them forcing us to turn off all electronic devices. I felt like an old lady being amazed by the technology on planes nowadays.
Second flight: Got a window seat again! Hurray! This time a guy sat next to me. He was from Puerto Rico (I know this not because I talked to him but because I sneaked a look at his passport and it was a Puerto Rico passport). I didn't like him as much because he was larger than the lady last time and he kept moving around and bumping me. The entertainment setup for this plane was the same as the last plane I took but the stupid internet wouldn't work for me!
Between flights: I got off my second flight and was super happy to discover that my next flight was right across from me so I knew where I needed to go and had time to get food. Super exciting. Well I went and got food and have now decided that LAX is stupid because the food was stupidly expensive. Never again. I also didn't know what half the food places were. After eating my crumby food (crumby as in "not the best" not crumby as in "leaves a bunch of crumbs") I went to my terminal and was shortly told that we would be taking a bus to our plane 30 minutes before we were supposed to take off. At the time I didn't understand why the heck the plane wasn't coming to us if that was the terminal I was supposed to be at. I now understand that I was in the domestic airport and the bus would take me to the international airport where the plane would be leaving (why you have to be so confusing airports??). As I was waiting for the bus two other men came and were waiting on the bus. Since I didn't have anything better to do I eavesdropped on the conversation which happened to be about long plane rides. They must have traveled a lot because one of the guys was talking about how if you go on a specific flight to Africa then you need to be in this row because of this and all sorts of other stuff that made me feel like an amateur. When we finally got on the bus one of these men asked me if I had been on a long flight before. After saying no he asked if I could fall asleep on planes. I warily said yes and he said I would be fine. I hoped he was right. After reaching our destination by bus the five of us walked into the airport again and started following some man that worked there that said to follow him to our plane and assured us it wasn't that far. I don't know what he considers to be far but I sure don't want to experience that because I was huffing and panting by the time we got to our plane. We were the last ones to board but at least we made it.
Third Flight: Window seat!! Woohoo...except because I was so slow at boarding the airplane and ended up making a small scene because I had to make the two people sitting next to me move and then ask someone to help me put my carry-on in the over head bin because I am much to short to reach it on that humongous plane. After getting situated I discovered that this plane had individual TV screens on the back of the seats and had a remote underneath. This was pretty freaking cool. You could select a movie, TV Show, TV channel, Radio Station, CD, and all sorts of other things. Not to mention you could play games on it! If you flipped the remote over it was a game console thing so you could play a game. I don't know about you but I think that's pretty stinking cool. They also had a chat function where you could specifically chat with another person on the plane using their seat number or you could go in the chat room and talk to random people on the plane. The only bummer was that it didn't have WiFi. I don't know about you but that confused me but whatever they had a ton of other ways for you to entertain yourself. As for the person sitting next to me. He was also a student going to study abroad except he was going to New Zealand. I believe his major had something to do with Forestry which I thought was cool and we could have some good conversations because we have similar majors. Now then, how do I know all this about him? Obviously because I talked to him right? Wrong. I was eavesdropping on his conversation with the other person that was sitting next to him. He completely ignored me the whole flight. Why? Because there was a "gorgeous Australian" sitting next to him (mind you those are his words and he did say that to the girl sitting next to him at one point. Before he started his conversation with his new best friend he looked at me and then looked at her and started a conversation with her. This started at the beginning of the flight and I didn't put any earbuds or start listening to music or anything for a while because I thought "We're all around the same age. We are going to be on a super long flight together. He already started a conversation with the person next to him surely they make ask me a question just out of courtesy. Nope. Completely ignored. Well whatever. Also I realized later that even if I had wanted to listen to music I wouldn't have been able to because this plane actually made you turn off your electronic devices. These two were having lovely conversations about their lives and whatever else you talk about when you flirt but some of this conversation occurred while safety explanation thing was being done that they always do on flights. I personally thought it took the flight attendant to do anything about it because they were talking through most of it but she did end up talking to them so they had to be quiet after that and I may have been too happy about that happening. Other than being ignored the flight was fine. I got two meals which I wasn't expecting (dinner and breakfast). They also had the plane ride set up so that you would eat dinner and then sleep and the eat breakfast and then we were there in the morning. It was super awesome and I think it helped with jet lag a lot. So I slept for most of the flight. After getting of the plane I saw the two "love birds" hugging and parting ways like they had become the closest of friends when realistically they probably only talked to each other for about 5 hours at the most. I don't understand.
There you go lovelies. That was my adventure getting to Australia. The next post will hopefully be more exciting with actual pictures of stuff happening but I shall leave it at that for now.
Most the time my points are pretty silly and just here to hopefully entertain but today I'm going to try and be inspirational/motivating. I kinda doubt those are the right words that describe it but I wanted to talk about it anyway and I think it's kinda inspirational/motivating...then again I'm biased. Anyway here we go!
This is James Maslow...I want his puppy
So I was watching the last three weeks of Dancing with the Stars when it was on mainly because James Maslow was on it...and because for some reason I became obsessed with dancing and yeah. Anyway James got 4th (he should have gotten 3rd in my opinion but whatever) and when that happened I immediately thought how I would feel about it. Through my thought process I immediately hoped that if I were on the show I would do my best but not care if I won or not. Weird reasoning, yes, but here's why: It's all about the journey. I'm sure you've heard the saying "It's about the journey, not the destination" or something like that (for some reason my I'm having a major brain fart and can't remember what exactly it was but that's close enough). Well I decided that the destination is what motivates you and the journey is what you remember.
We will use Dancing with the Stars as an example. What motivates each contestant is winning the mirror ball that's where they want to end up, their destination they want to reach. The journey is all the weeks they fought to stay in the contest. All of those dances, the reactions, the hard work, that's what they are going to remember. Even if they didn't make it to the finals or even the 5th week, they are going to remember what they learned and the excitement, pain, and everything else they experienced. To me that is so much better.
If you don't get to a certain destination or goal that you were really fighting for don't give up. Look back on everything you went through and experienced on your journey. I'm sure there is something there that will make it worth it even if you didn't make it to the end destination. Did you learn something? Did you meet someone new? Did you do something you never would have done?
Well there you go. That's my attempt at being inspirational/motivating. It sounded a lot cooler in my head (which happens way too often for my own good). I hope you enjoyed it. Stay classy and remember the journey not the fact that you didn't reach your destination.
The other day I was thinking about cats and dogs. Why? I can't remember. I think it had to do with me thinking about the constant debate people have over whether cats or dogs are better and I was thinking of my argument and my annoyance at this constant debate. I wanted to find a way to relate each animal in a way that people could understand them better. Or at least how I see them and this is what I decided.
When comparing dogs to humans they are like small children. Why? Well because they always want to play and openly show that. They also tend to show their love to you more openly and their need for you as well.
When comparing cats to humans they are like teenagers. Cats tend to be more independent and ignore you unless they really want something. They also sleep constantly which is a common occurrence for many teens.
So that's my short little comparison. I hope it makes sense but I don't really want to elaborate on it more because I doubt it would really help and would probably just confuse you more. Oh! If you want to hear my honest opinion on the whole cat vs. dog debate let me know.
Stay classy and remember that both animals have good and bad qualities and one may be better for a certain person but not necessarily better as a whole.
