The time has come! I needed to do my laundry. Doing the laundry here kind of sucks. They only have four washers and four dryers. No matter when I try to do my laundry all of them are in use already. They have 22 units with about 16 people in each unit--four washers and dryers is not enough. Then if you get lucky enough to get a load in the wash its always a race to get it in the first dryer available. At least if its not raining we can hang it on the line to dry.
Last Monday was the beginning of classes for most people. My first class was not until Tuesday because I have possibly the best class schedule ever. I have no classes on Monday or on Friday and I only have one three hour class on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It is really nice having four day weekends and it will give me the chance to travel a lot on the weekends. I have not been to class since December 18th so I was not exactly ready to jump back into the routine of going to class but it was not too bad. The classes I took are: Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, Sports Tourism, and Entrepreneurship in Tourism. I was sitting in the room waiting for the professor for my sports tourism class to show up. When he came is he was wearing his “Meet me at the UniBar” shirt so I knew the class would be fun. In reality none of my classes seem as if they will be very challenging. All three classes require a lot of reading and three assignments, but only my sports tourism class has a final exam. Having to buy the text books was the worst part. I am used to Stout where we get free book rental, so having to pay about $200 for books really sucked.
On Thursday we had a big toga party at the UniBar. The official theme was rainbow toga. I did not want to spend the money to buy rainbow colored sheets so I used my grey one and told everyone I was the raincloud and the end of the rainbow. It was a lot of fun having 800 or so people all dressed in togas at the bar. On Friday I spent the day in Byron Bay. Byron Bay is a big tourist town right on the beach; they have a ton of surf shops, cafes, and bars. While I was there I bought a secondhand surfboard. I am basically addicted to surfing, it is all I ever want to do. I know a lot of guys who go almost every day so I will be able to practice a lot. Most of my friends were staying the night in Byron at a hostel but I wanted to save some money so I headed back to Lismore on the bus. My journey to and from Byron was quite the little adventure in itself. Some of my friends were driving past Byron on their way to Tweed Heads for the weekend so they dropped me off. When all my friends went back to their hostel I just stayed at the beach to do some more surfing. When it was time for me to go I walked to the bus stop. It turns out that some girls I know where also taking the bus back to Lismore. While we were on the bus I found out that my ride from the bus station back to campus fell through. I did not want to take a taxi by myself because it would have cost about $17. So I crammed into the taxi with the three girls and my surfboard. They were going to the square to do some shopping so I went there with them. From there I was able to take the free shuttle back to campus. It took me about an hour longer then it should have and I had a ton of funny looks for wandering around town with a surfboard but I made it home all the way from Byron for only $6!
The rest of this weekend will probably be pretty chill. I should start reading and working on my assignments. I am going to try and get them done early so I won’t have to worry about them. I know I say that every semester but here I have so much free time I think I will actually stay on top of it.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The End of an Era…aka O-week
The End of an Era…aka O-week
Today is the last day of O-week here at Southern Cross. O-week here is just a chance for all the international as well as the Aussie students to get used to the surroundings and meet some new people. I was constantly busy this last week—orientation during the day and party at night (don’t worry Mom I was being safe and responsible). There were parties every night of O-week including an alien theme at the UniBar. The best part of it all is that everyone here drinks boxed wine, aka goon, at the parties. They drink a lot of goon because all of the other alcohol here is crazy expensive. To get a slab (a case) of beer is at least like $30 for the cheapest stuff. The cheapest bottle of vodka here is about $35 for only a .75 liter bottle. If you want the good stuff like a bottle of Captain Morgan you better be ready to drop about $50-$75 for one liter. You can get two four liter goons for around $18. It is pretty great with because people still make mixers with the goon. The most popular is goon and juice but everyone also loves a good goon sunrise as well.
The last big event of O-week was a trip to a wild life sanctuary which I went to yesterday. It was basically a giant zoo but the only fences were to separate the different animals. The best area was the kangaroo area. I got to pet, feed and hop around with them. Of course there were fences blocking off the more dangerous animals such as crocodiles and the snakes. One of the best parts was seeing them feed the crocs. It also reinforced the fact that I never want to get anywhere near a croc ever. I also got to see a familiar looking little lizard with a bright blue tongue.
To cap off an excellent first week here at uni I went to the beach today. Some friends and I headed out to a less traveled beach that is more for the locals. It was the most amazing beach I have ever seen. The water was clear and bright blue and the sand was white and soft. Some of my Aussie friends brought their surfboards so I was able to give it a try. After paddling out I was sitting on the board waiting for a good wave and looking around at my surroundings it was hard to believe it was real. Looking back to the beach and the rocks with the waves crashing against them it looked like I was staring at a giant poster. I was not any good on the surf board but they said that I was doing better than most of the Americans they try to teach. I was able to stand up on the board a couple of times but it was only for a quick second or two. I cannot wait to get back out the beach and keep practicing.
I miss everyone! Keep checking for more updates!
Today is the last day of O-week here at Southern Cross. O-week here is just a chance for all the international as well as the Aussie students to get used to the surroundings and meet some new people. I was constantly busy this last week—orientation during the day and party at night (don’t worry Mom I was being safe and responsible). There were parties every night of O-week including an alien theme at the UniBar. The best part of it all is that everyone here drinks boxed wine, aka goon, at the parties. They drink a lot of goon because all of the other alcohol here is crazy expensive. To get a slab (a case) of beer is at least like $30 for the cheapest stuff. The cheapest bottle of vodka here is about $35 for only a .75 liter bottle. If you want the good stuff like a bottle of Captain Morgan you better be ready to drop about $50-$75 for one liter. You can get two four liter goons for around $18. It is pretty great with because people still make mixers with the goon. The most popular is goon and juice but everyone also loves a good goon sunrise as well.
The last big event of O-week was a trip to a wild life sanctuary which I went to yesterday. It was basically a giant zoo but the only fences were to separate the different animals. The best area was the kangaroo area. I got to pet, feed and hop around with them. Of course there were fences blocking off the more dangerous animals such as crocodiles and the snakes. One of the best parts was seeing them feed the crocs. It also reinforced the fact that I never want to get anywhere near a croc ever. I also got to see a familiar looking little lizard with a bright blue tongue.
To cap off an excellent first week here at uni I went to the beach today. Some friends and I headed out to a less traveled beach that is more for the locals. It was the most amazing beach I have ever seen. The water was clear and bright blue and the sand was white and soft. Some of my Aussie friends brought their surfboards so I was able to give it a try. After paddling out I was sitting on the board waiting for a good wave and looking around at my surroundings it was hard to believe it was real. Looking back to the beach and the rocks with the waves crashing against them it looked like I was staring at a giant poster. I was not any good on the surf board but they said that I was doing better than most of the Americans they try to teach. I was able to stand up on the board a couple of times but it was only for a quick second or two. I cannot wait to get back out the beach and keep practicing.
I miss everyone! Keep checking for more updates!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The first week.
Everyone wanted me to get a blog so here we go....
First things first the weather here is amazing! Sorry I just had to let you know. Anyways the flight down here went smoth. Only the flight from Milwaukee to Chicago was a little bit late. Other then that all was good. I landed in Sydney at about 7:30am last Wednesday. I felt like a lost puppy in the airport. Trying to exchange American money, buying a phone, and finding the right shuttle to the hostel. When i finaly made it to the hostel I got to settle in a bit then go exploring Sydney. Sydney has some amazing parks and of course I got to see the Sydney Opera House. It was not untill I seen the opera house did it finaly hit me, "Holy shit I'm in Australia!" That night in the hostel I went to the bar in the basment with some people from Canada and Holland. It was cool that I was able to drink at the bar but I was so tired from the flight that I left at like 9:30pm to go to bed. The Next day Kate met me at the hostel and we went exploring together. We then jumped on the train that brought us to campus.
We arrived at 4:30am on Friday, we were standing in the carpark of our dorm without a clue where to go or what to do. We got a hold of the RAs and they got us into our room. Since then I have been busy everyday. We got to go to the beach for the day where I got really sunburn. I guess they have a really thin ozone layer in Australia. We have heaps of oriantation stuff every day, it gets a little boring but they give us free snags (sausages) at the BBQs so its not too bad. Everyone here is really nice. The Aussies are great and there are a lot of awsome people from the states here as well. Suprisingly there are a lot of WI and MN kids here. So far I live with one girl from Eau Claire and one Aussie girl. I am still waiting from my last roommate. Rumer has it is that he will be a guy, it will be nice to have another guy roommate. The colleges, or dorms, here are appartment style so we have four bedrooms, a big bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. Overall they are pretty nice.
Today I got to see a aboriginal dance. I even got to play the didgeridoo!!! I wasn't any good at it but it was fun giving it a try. Just more oriantation stuff today. I signed up to do a scuba class. It includes 4 open ocean dives and I will get internationaly certified in scuba so that will be really cool. Plus this way when I make it to the great barrier reef later in my trip I will be able to do a complete dive insted of just snorkling. Tonight we have trivia night at the unibar so hopefully I will win some good prizes.
I will try to keep updating the blog as much as I can.
First things first the weather here is amazing! Sorry I just had to let you know. Anyways the flight down here went smoth. Only the flight from Milwaukee to Chicago was a little bit late. Other then that all was good. I landed in Sydney at about 7:30am last Wednesday. I felt like a lost puppy in the airport. Trying to exchange American money, buying a phone, and finding the right shuttle to the hostel. When i finaly made it to the hostel I got to settle in a bit then go exploring Sydney. Sydney has some amazing parks and of course I got to see the Sydney Opera House. It was not untill I seen the opera house did it finaly hit me, "Holy shit I'm in Australia!" That night in the hostel I went to the bar in the basment with some people from Canada and Holland. It was cool that I was able to drink at the bar but I was so tired from the flight that I left at like 9:30pm to go to bed. The Next day Kate met me at the hostel and we went exploring together. We then jumped on the train that brought us to campus.
We arrived at 4:30am on Friday, we were standing in the carpark of our dorm without a clue where to go or what to do. We got a hold of the RAs and they got us into our room. Since then I have been busy everyday. We got to go to the beach for the day where I got really sunburn. I guess they have a really thin ozone layer in Australia. We have heaps of oriantation stuff every day, it gets a little boring but they give us free snags (sausages) at the BBQs so its not too bad. Everyone here is really nice. The Aussies are great and there are a lot of awsome people from the states here as well. Suprisingly there are a lot of WI and MN kids here. So far I live with one girl from Eau Claire and one Aussie girl. I am still waiting from my last roommate. Rumer has it is that he will be a guy, it will be nice to have another guy roommate. The colleges, or dorms, here are appartment style so we have four bedrooms, a big bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. Overall they are pretty nice.
Today I got to see a aboriginal dance. I even got to play the didgeridoo!!! I wasn't any good at it but it was fun giving it a try. Just more oriantation stuff today. I signed up to do a scuba class. It includes 4 open ocean dives and I will get internationaly certified in scuba so that will be really cool. Plus this way when I make it to the great barrier reef later in my trip I will be able to do a complete dive insted of just snorkling. Tonight we have trivia night at the unibar so hopefully I will win some good prizes.
I will try to keep updating the blog as much as I can.
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