Awesome Aussies

TORAH BRIGHT WON THE WOMEN'S HALF PIPE! WOOOHOOO =]  She is from Australia for those who do not know.  I barrack for Torah Bright while I am down under.

So I am getting much more settled since the Orientation at Newman College is done.  Dorms are called colleges here so I was living in a dorm for four nights.  It's nice to be back in my room and not living out of a suitcase anymore.  Plus my roommate is here!  I am enjoying her company and am looking forward to getting to know her better.  She lives about 3 and a half hours away down The Great Ocean Road.  She invited me to her farm, she has sheep, and she is going to have me try meat pies which i heard are really good.  It should be fun!

Yesterday we had our first day of the Uni's (not university or college....just uni so I go to Melbourne Uni which is pronounced Mel-bin) orientation yesterday.  It was a little frustrating because it seems like everyone got to pick their classes except for those in the commerce school.  But since this is a very large school I heard there are no caps on the classes so their is no rush to sign up.  It looks like I will be taking Sport and Education in Australian Society, Business Finance, Management and Leadership in Organizations, and hopefully a fun culture class like Australia Now!  I will know my time table (not schedule) for sure Tuesday night.

After the Uni Orientation we wandered around the Victoria Market for a bit but I did not buy anything there, I went shopping a couple of days ago.  I did however find this little Asian supermarket called mingh pouh or something like that which sells packets or spices for $1!  That is amazing because I did not want to buy the spices at the grocery store because they were $3 each.  So after that bit of excitement I made dinner.  Making dinner has been great here because we buy a lot of stuff from the Victoria Market which is the coolest place ever. It is like a normal farmers market but 10 times bigger.   They sell everything too not just food.  I may have mentioned this before but if I did this place is so great I need to mention it twice.  I got so many fresh fruits and vegetables, it's great. So anyways, two nights ago we made a stir fry with pineapple sweet and sour sauce.  Last night I just had pasta and salad with grandma's dressing (my favorite!).

After dinner we went to this bar that is right next to the village called Turf Club or Turfs.  It was a lot of fun and I am glad it was so close!  Drinks are really expensive here though.  We bought a pitcher of cider, which I had never even heard of before but it is sooooo good.  It was $16 for the pitcher but we split it between 5 girls.  If anyone comes and visits we will go to Turf Club and have cider.

Today is going to be a relaxing day.  I do not have any big plans but we will see where the day takes us.  Tomorrow we are going to St. Kilda's beach.  I guess there are supposed to be a market type thing that is there on Sundays and there is also a restaurant we are going to try.  I do not remember the name of the restaurant but it is a vegetarian place that has a buffet and you pay what you think your meal was worth when you finish.  It should be a good time.  Next week will be extremely busy.  We have two orientations going on at the same time.  One for the village we live in and Melbourne Uni's orientation continues all next week.  i will try to write again soon but it may not be until the weekend.

Hope all is well in the states and for those of you who have snow enjoy it!!!

Zonked

Zonked mean extremely tired, which I am right now.  We got up very early this morning to go surfing again! I love surfing.  When you fall surfing there is no chance of falling on ice like there is when snowboarding.  Although last I checked there are no sharks in the mountains.  The water was really rough and it was hard to catch a wave today but I had fun all the same.  It was beautiful out this afternoon and I got a chance to get some color =] I feel like I am on Vacation! I am not looking forward to the "study" part of study abroad.

We have had orientation the last few days (that is who I went surfing with, my orientation group).  Our first day we we walked around the city and went to the tallest building which had amazing views.  I took a lot of pictures.  We also saw a famous train station which I forget the name of but I will find out.  It is beautiful here.  The next day we went back downtown because there were a few stores that had a lot of deals on clothing.  I bought a new dress, a belt, a shirt, and leggings for $36!  It was awesome.  After that we went to the Melbourne Zoo.  It was only OK.  We didn't get to see the koala =[ he was hiding but I saw a lot of birds and took pictures of them for mom!  I was a platypus too but I did not get to take a picture because ti was too dark but they are kind of ugly.

We had a fancy dinner that night and all got dressed up.  There is another fancy dinner tomorrow night! I love getting dressed up.  Before dinner however, we are going on a cruise along the Yarra River.  After that we are going to some cool outlets with inexpensive clothes to do some more shopping.  I will be sure to take more pictures.

So some more fun words:

Tea = Dinner
Milk Bar = Kind of like a convenience store
Lollies = Candy (not just lollipops)

The beginning

I do not even know where to begin this blog.  Here I am sitting in my bedroom in Australia watching the "idiot box" (the local word for television...makes me feel great for having it on) and eating Thins (Australian potato chips).  I can't believe this is real and I am actually in Australia and over 10,000 miles away from home (I have now turned off the idiot box).  Since I last write a lot has happened.  Photos have been uploaded on my facebook page if anyone is interested.  I went out for my first meal in the city Tuesday night with some of the girls who have turned out to be the ones I am spending the majority of my time with.  The meal was delicious, we picked a great place for our first time out.  I had risotto with sausage, peas, tomatoes, and leak with a glass of kissing bridges red wine.  I was exhausted from the jet lag and we had to be up early the next morning so after dinner I pretty much passed out.

The next morning is when the real adventure began.  We left the city at about 9:30am and went maybe 2hrs down the coast to a boy scout camp.  There we dropped off our things, changed and repacked our bags for our surfing excursion.  It took us a little while to find the beach where our lesson was located but at the first beach we stopped at some of the girls and I played cricket with some Aussies.  It is the weirdest game I have ever played by far.  You are at bat until you get out and I had to resist the urge to run around the bases after I hit the ball.  It was an interesting experience though and something I knew I wanted to do seeing as I am a sport management major!  Later, when we finally arrived at the right beach, we put on our wet suits and got a mini on land tutorial to surfing before we strapped on our leash and jumped into the ocean.  Surfing was so much fun.  I feel like I picked it up fairly quickly and I actually stood up a few times.  Some of the girls and I plan to go again over our spring break.  the girls that I am hanging out with all really want to travel around a lot while they are here, as do I, so I am glad I met them!

After surfing we went on a hike before dinner.  Right in the beginning of our hike we had our second kangaroo spotting and this time we tried to get close.  They are such fascinating animals.  I really want to pet one.  Anyways, we found a narrow trail that lead down the mountain.  We eventually hopped a fence off the side of the trail and found some amazing views of cliffs breaking off into the Pacific Ocean/ Tasman Sea.  It literally felt like we were at the end of the .  I had a great time.  

Later that night as everyone was splitting off into their own cabins we had our first spider siting! It was very large and very scary looking.  This boy Matt (who ironically goes to Ithaca) got it out of the cabin for the girls that lived there.  When we went back to our cabin the girls and I did a quick search not finding anything but I was still pretty nervous!  I slept with my shoes and coat on!  When I woke up the next morning I lifted the curtain next to my top bunk to see what the weather was doing and as I was putting the curtain back down I saw a HUGE spider right there, 2 feet away.  I freaked out and jumped out of my bed and then took a picture.  I am OK with not camping there again.

Today was a pretty exciting day.  we had a meeting this morning which was uneventful.  After the meeting the fgirls (Emily, Ali, Chelsea, and Brittany) went to the Victorian Market.  It is this huge open air market that sells everything from fresh fruits and veggies to leather jackets, to live chickens (which Emily knows how to kill and cook) to souvenirs etc.  Basically anything you want you can buy.  It was amazing.  So we did a little shopping and then headed back to the village.  Tonight will be our first night going out with a bunch of people.  I am pretty excited!  We are going to have some "goone" I think that is how it is spelled but either way it is boxed wine =]  It should be an exciting night on the town!

I decided to end each blog with a few new words that I have learned seeing as there is a slang word for everything you can ever imagine.  It is almost like a different language and when people talk fast I can't always understand them. I have heard so many I don't even remember most of them but anyways, here are a few:

Serv-o = gas station

Doona = comforter 

No worries = thank you/ it's ok

Off his/her face = drunk ex: lainie was off her face at the bar last night

Sunnies = sunglasses

Barrack = to cheer for ex: I barrack the NY Giants

Officially Down Under.

I boarded the plane at JFK at about 6:45 PM on Sunday February 7th and about 25 hours, 4 movies, 10 episodes of 30 rock, and a hand-full of word searches later it was 9:20 AM February 9th and I had arrived in Melbourne Australia.Yes I traveled through time. I am thoroughly exhausted but I managed to unpack most of my things and shower before our first IES meeting at 4 PM.  So far I love this place. The city is so cute and I see myself fitting in here.  It is not too big but not small.  There are trolleys! A few people have compared the area to southern California.  I wouldn't know I was in Cali for the first time last night and that didn't last too long seeing as I was in LAX for about 30 minutes total (Btw I did not "hop off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigan", because I didn't have a cardigan...damn it.).  I have met a few cool people so far and a few of us plan on buying a cheap bike to travel around with! I love it.  Pictures will come as soon as my camera is charged. I miss everyone already but I am definitely excited for all that is in store for me!

3 Days 16 hours

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." Lao Tzu


So I guess I am going to have to take ten steps because I am going just over ten thousand miles?


I am writing today because I am getting very excited and anxious to leave.  I figured I would post one more entry before I left and I will write again as soon as I am able to.  I know when I arrive I have quite a busy schedule seeing as I have 3 orientations!  For the first orientation I know we will be going to a beach, it's a hard life I live, I know.  


I started my packing today and I am pleased to report I have had no trouble fitting my things.  I even am going to have room to bring things back!  Also just to let anyone who cares to know, I did not end up losing my "To Pack" list (YAY!) =] and now I pretty much finished packing which is good thing because I do not have much time over the next few days.  I am keeping busy until Sunday at 6:30 when my flight takes off to LAX and then it's off to Australia!!! 


I promise that the entires will get more exciting when I arrive in Melbourne :) Goodnight!

25 days.

I leave in 25 days.  I made my "To Pack" list already.  I even started packing some of the things on the list.  I am never this far ahead of schedule.  I will probably lose my list within the next week if I am being completely truthful.  I mean I have wanted to clean my room for 3 days now and have yet to start that project.  So why am I so far ahead of schedule and totally NOT procrastinating my packing for Australia?  I guess you could say I am excited.


I will not have too much to say until it is closer to my departure and I will have a LOT to say once I arrive in Melbourne, Australia.  So for now I leave you with a quote from Mark Jenkins:


 “Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white."