Worst Day Ever!

Ugh. I started school on Tuesday. That was not fun. Actually Tuesday wasn’t so bad because all my roommates and me have the same History class so we all go together on Tuesdays but then Nicole Krysti and I have Popular Culture. It sounded really interesting until we actually got to the class and the teacher starts talking as though we have been there all year (we’re starting semester 2). She starts going on about these projects and papers and whatnot then asks us to go around and introduce ourselves. By our accents she could tell us three are American. She supposedly loves Americans so yay for us. Haha we have to lead a class discussion and she is letting the three of us be together. So that was Tuesday. Wednesday was the worst day of my life!! I hate speaking in front of large groups and Nicole and I had Creative Writing. Well the first hour went by ok. We just talked about what the class entailed. Then he reads a short story (which I sort of zoned off through.. apparently Nicole and the girl sitting on the other side of me did too) and tells us to write for 20 minutes with our own version of that story. So Nicole, the girl next to me, and I just write a little bit about books we are reading now. Well with my luck, the teacher decides to pick randoms to read aloud what they had written. The first 3 people were AMAZING! They read poety that they had just whipped out of no where and the stories sounded like they had already been published. Then he picked me. My face was so red and I tried telling him I understood the assignment wrong and mine was just a little journal thing. He made me read it anyways. I read what I had (I barely finished cuz I lost my breath I was so embarrassed). All he said was “oh” but for everyone else it was more of a “that was great!” But that’s not the worst part. After a person was finished reading he asked the class if they had any input on ways it could be critiqued. It’s official, I almost cried on my second day of classes. I didn’t even hear what was said about my writing. I was so embarrassed and too busy trying not to cry that I didn’t hear a word. It was a terrible day and all Wednesdays are going to be like that. Ugh.

But there is one plus side. The campus is really neat. I'll try to take some pictures soon. It's literally a jungle. The campus is huge so it's hard enough to try to find the faculties (that's what they call their buildings..weird) but then add a bunch of trees, bush, and bridges. It's gorgeous tho because there are birds everywhere and i guess one of my roommates saw a possum. We also have really nice restaurants and coffee shops, subway, and lots of options for food. (For those of you who know me, you probably know I was really excited about that). We also have 2 or three bars on campus... needless to say, it's a lot different from good ol' Soup Town. During orientation for the international students there was about 500 or more there (and that's just the ones that decided to go to orienation). Apparently we only make up 10% of the student population. Those of you good at math (Britt) can calculate how big of a campus Newcastle is.

Oh and you can all start leaving comments on any post if you feel like it. I changed the settings so anyone can post (you don't have to register). =]

BBQ!! Yumm

Hey everyone,

I am so surprised at how the Uni works here compared to the US. They throw the biggest parties! For example, next Friday is Autonomy Day in Newcastle. That is where you wake up at 6 am and start drinking (it’s going to be a long day). Then after you pre-game a little bit you catch the train to the uni and they keep serving you alcohol all day. It’s going to be like the all night grad party except for you drink the entire day. They are going to have the big blow up obstacle courses and games going the whole day. The weird part about this is that there is a campus club that is putting this on and it’s being hosted at the school. Nicole and I already decided that we will be passed out by 11 am because we don’t drink very much. I’ll have to let you know on Saturday how it went. But that’s still an entire week away. Also, the last day of finals (November 29th or something?) they are hosting a beach party. They bring in 15 tons of sand and put it in the basketball court. There will be about 15 famous bands playing the entire day. The uni is also putting this party on for the students. They will be serving alcohol there also. Haha.

So yesterday was awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much in my life. We went to Cathrine’s coworkers BBQ. She saw us in Catherine’s office and decided to invite us. That was really neat because most people think Americans are rude. Although, Aussie’s are very forward here. I’ve seen a few of my roommates get hit on at the bars and it’s just awkward because the guys walk right up to them. Anyways, back to the BBQ. Her name is Halena and her husband is Geoff. They have kids and grandkids. Geoff was hilarious and made a ton of food! It was only us 6 (my roommates and I) Geoff, Halena and Halena’s mother. Catherine stopped by for a little bit after we ate lunch. We had grilled sausage, roast beef, chicken kababs, onions, corn on the cob, rice, buns, and more. There was more too but I can’t think of it right now. That was just the main course, oh and there was about 2 dozen of each food too. Then we went for a walk around a lake that they live on. When we got back, we were served fruit like grapes, pears, apples, oranges, kiwi, and bing cherries from the US (Halena was so excited to have cherries from the US). Then after that we were served desert. Lamingtons which is yellow cake covered in chocolate and coconut. I guess that is a traditional Australian dessert. Also pavlova which is basically pure sugar with fruit on it. Its kind of like meringue but soft in the middle. Then we got all the left overs! I couldn’t believe it. It was like going to grandmas house! Haha but not really… I like the food way better at home. I miss moms and grandmas dinners.
Halenas house was beautiful! They have lived in it for 30 some years and it was built in 1910. It was one of those old open houses with really high ceilings. It was gorgeous!

Good news all around (updated)

So it’s been a while. We just got the internet working in out apartment yesterday and it’s extremely slow. I was hoping to be able to use skype while I’m here but it’s going to be difficult with that and the time difference. A lot has happened so far while I’ve been here. I left off last time talking about the first few days in Sydney. Well I met my roommates (4 besides Nicole and me). There is Nate from St. Thomas (he got into the WI program because he’s an engineer major and this trip used to be for engineers only), Krysti from Platteville and Nathan from Platteville, and Sam from Oshkosh. Our apartment is really neat…


We met our onsite program coordinator Catherine the first day and she showed us around Newcastle. It has a population of 300 or 400 thousand people? I can’t quite remember. But the city is basically on a peninsula so there is the Pacific Ocean behind us and in front of us. There are two main beaches (only a 15 minute walk to each) Nobby’s and Newcastle. They are absolutely beautiful!

Nobby's Beach

Newcastle Beach
This week we had orientation. It was really neat in the beginning because they had two aboriginal men playing the Digeridoo. For those of you who don’t know, it’s basically a hollow stick that you blow into and you can make amazing music out of it. I want to bring one back with me but it wont fit in my bag L The other stuff after that happened was soo boring. I hate orientation. So after about 6 hours of sitting there listening to a bunch of people talk (and watching Nicole fall asleep) Nicole Krysti and I decided to go to Newcastle. The waves and sunset was beautiful! (oh and we saw some guy fishing off the rocks and he was wearing a raincoat but looked like he had no pants on.. we thought it was hilarious!)
Krysti, Nicole, Me

Hahaha

Last night (unfortunately I didn’t get pictures) we were invited to catherines house. It was the biggest most beautiful house I have ever seen!! She lives in Merewether which is a suburb of Newcastle and is on a huge hill. Well her house is almost all glass. You look out one side and see the ocean and then look out the other and look over all of Newcastle. The food was amazing also! The food here is similar to the states but oh so different. There ketchup is nasty, they call it tomato sauce. Oh and today at lunch they offered kangaroo, but it was all gone by the time we got to eat.
Speaking of, that leads me into today. We went with the Uni (that’s what they call the university. If you say school that means little kids like elementary then you get made fun of by all the aussies) to Blackbutt reserve. We got to see Kangaroos, Emus, Koalas, Wombats and a bunch of birds! It was fun and the koalas and kangaroos were sooo cute!!


Last but not least, I get to tell you all about the spring break trip I get to go on with my roommates! Its 16 days up the entire east coast. We take a bus then fly back from Cairns to Sydney. We get to go surfing at Byron Bay (take lessons and whatnot) for 2 days, go to Fraser island where we rent some sort of car and drive around the sand dunes and go sand surfing, spend 2 days and 2 nights sailing the whitsundays. I heard that’s amazing! Go to the great barrier reef in Cairns and scuba dive, full day cape tribulation tour ( I googled that and it looks beautiful!), full day of whitewater rafting down the Tully River, and then our very last day I get to go skydiving!! I am SO excited! This trip is going to make memories that will last forever! But that’s all my news for now. Now that I have internet I will try to post every other day or every three days. Hope all is well at home!

Getting Started

I have been in Australia for a week now. A lot has happened since then. The 20 hour travel time was not as terrible as I thought. I slept for about 6 or 7 hours of the 14 hour plane ride. Also Nicole and I got to watch movies (even though we didn't pay for it -- SCORE!) so I basically spent my awak time watching Definitely, Maybe and Two and a Half Men. When we arrived in Sydney is when things started to get interesting. We were supposed to have a shuttle to the apartment complex from the airport but it turns out they didn't have one set up for us when we arrived. We ended up taking a taxi which cost 40 dollars! (Yes they use dollars too but Australian dollars so we still have to exchange -- boo!) We arrived at our hotel/apartment in Bondi Beach (suburb of Sydney) at 7:30 am with no phones and all our luggage only to find out that the office doesn't open until 9:30 on Sundays. Some kind gentleman let us into the square and we sat on the side walk with our luggage until someone came in. Eventually someone came and then we found out there were no available rooms yet because check out is not until 10-noon. She let us put our stuff down in a back room so we could walk around Bondi. It was not a pretty site considering we had just flown for 20 hours and hadn't showered or any of the sort. We walked down about 3 blocks and right in front of us was the most beautiful sight.. Bondi Beach. I will try to figure out how to put pictures on here so you can see. Everything else that day started to get a whole lot better after that. We got into our room and showered then went back down to the beach. I ended up falling asleep on the couch at 5 pm. Haha oops. That of course meant I couldnt sleep in past 4 am on Monday. Later that day Nicole and I went to sydney and saw the bridge and the oh-so-famous Sydney opera house. It was beautiful! We got to walk around the city and do a little shopping. I bought absolutely nothing with the CRAZY prices!!! For example, a box of cereal is $7! It is pretty much the same price to cook a dinner than it is to go out to eat! Also the alcohol is just as bad if not worse. So those of you worried about that now know I cant afford to drink a lot here. A liter of malibu is $45 and a 6 pack of beer is $13 (and that's if you get lucky).The rest of the time Nicole and I just made our way through parts Syndey and looked in all the little shops. Wednesday morning we had to get up at 5:30 to be at the airport at 7 to meet our 4 other roommates and head up to coast to Newcastle (where we will be spending the next 5 months).

Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach again

Sydney Opera House!