I'm a freshman again...

After almost 2 weeks of Australian vacation, it was finally time to start class. Since its been about two months since I've been in school, I was a little worried that I had forgotten how to do school, but I picked it right up like a champ. Granted I only have one lecture on Mondays and no class so far Tuesday and Wednesday so my classes aren't so bad. Classes meet once a week here which is pretty swell, cept the lectures are 2 hours long. My attention span doesn't really last over an hour so these 2 and 3 hour lectures are going to be a struggle.

Also I should point out that I'm covered in sweat, because its super hot and humid out and I wandered around like a freshman trying to find my class. I guess I looked pretty disorientated because people asked me if it was my first year. I have to say that despite my lack of height I'm pretty old... I'm just confused because all the buildings are some sort of letter.They break down like this:

E= east buildings
C= central buildings
W= west buildings
X= not sure... maybe extra far away

The buildings have a letter then a number so its like E7B T4... meaning east building 7B theater 4. Since I've been at a small school for the past three years I'm pretty lost and pretty confused. But luckily for me, lectures are online and I only actually have to show up two times a week for tutorial. Because you don't take attendance for a 100 person class... so we'll see how often I make it to class.

Well I'm off to go find a snack... I made some tasty enchiladas last night courtesy of the blog Tacoma Aroma Eats with an Essence of Curry... however my housemates and I had heaps of people over so unfortunately there are no leftovers... but they sure we're tasty :)
Adios!

A whole lot of Sydney

Howdy!

So on Friday we finally made it back to the beach. Ah it was heaven!!! I never really dug lying out, with sunscreen on of course, until I hit junior year of high school. But it was heavenly, also swimming in the water here is like bath water... its great. Except for the fact that we almost had a close encounter with the jelly fish. Right after we got out there was an announcement that a bunch of blue bottles were washing up on shore. Blue bottles are kind of like jellies except not exactly, but they still sting which isn't fun.

We made tacos for dinner, which were bomb, and got dressed for the tight and bright party, that my school supports. My school supports themed parties... its pretty rad... get on it Puge... Unfortunately we got home a little too late and missed the party which is totes fine with me... I dislike wearing things that are both tight and bright.

Today, Saturday, I went into Sydney with Otter and Wisconsin. We met up with Wisconsin's sister and brother in-law and checked out the Westfield tower. Which resembles a golden bucket, and its called the golden bucket by the Aussies. I think its probably better then the Space Needle, but I haven't been to the Needle since I was like 8. We also walked across the Sydney bridge, its a lot longer then it looks. My dress was blowing everywhere... I'm sure several locals got a nice or not so nice view...

That's it... I'm gonna to continue to hide from my housemate... and try to get some sleep.
Ta!

A college kids dream

Its safe to say that the past few days have been pretty mellow... We had orientation on wednesday from 10am to about 3:30... it was AWFUL!! My attention span doesn't really last over like an hour and a half so it was a bit hard to get through. Also this campus is HUGE... it took us about 20 minutes to find the building, beccause this campus is ginormous.. i spelled that word right on the first try... props for me :)

Anyway after orientation we had a scrumptious dinner of frozen pizza... it actually was tasty, so far everything I eat here, even toast tastes better... the big hot spot for the campus is the Ranch which is a bar located a few blocks away... We went danced and I left unimpressed... It made me miss fraternity parties....

Yesterday was an early day... we had to be up and going by 7:20 am... its surprisingly easy to get up early here... maybe cause I wake up at 8 every day anyway... but anyway we went on the longest bus ride to the south coast, because its where a lot of the vineyards are, and dolphin watching tours. But before we got there we stopped at every college kids dream... an ALL YOU CAN EAT buffet... I think I literally was in heaven. Toast, weird hot dogs and frozen pizza don't compare to a buffet... I stuffed my face and had the biggest food baby...

After the buffet we went on a nifty boat to spy some dolphins... we didn't really see any till the very end... and they're really hard to get a picture of... here's my best effort:

Grab a magnifying glass and you'll probably be able to find it....

After the tour we went to a vineyard for some wine tasting... It was a pretty classy affair... I personally enjoyed the cheese, and I think it may still be a few years before I enjoy it...After the wine tasting we drove back down and stopped at a blowhole... supposedly the waves rush up and this thing shoots up water... mother nature wasn't cooperating so there was not a lot to see other then a pretty scene...

We got in at like 8:30... I made myself a sammy and then went to bed like a grandma.
Today is a beach day! So I'm gonna go get my tan on :)

12 hour shit show

Warning this isn't parent friendly....

So I don't start class till monday... so there's not a whole lot to do other then drink and be social. So that's exactly what my housemates and I decided to do. We walked down the road to our friend patches house... in his back yard he had essentially made a goon garden. There were goon bags hanging from the terrace... it was beautiful...we went over at 2 and I didn't leave till 5... where I went home to take a nap and woke up at 8 still drunk... waking up drunk is the worst cause you wake up insanely confused, its quite uncomfortable...I grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed out into the night again...there's not really an open container law in Australia so I just left with my bottle and headed back to the goon garden....

Whether or not the goon garden was empty I'm still not sure of but the party got shut down quite quickly, it was kinda like being at the Puge all over again... we retreated to the Admin deck and launched a huge game of pong... I hate pong so I made friends instead. The cops showed up to the deck too and we got booted... I got in argument with my friend T about where to go next... it ended up w/ me losing my flip flop and both of us falling over... in which the cops yelled at me and were very insistent about me getting up... Thankfully this is only my 2nd cop encounter the first being in 1st grade... ya I started being a "G" at a young age..

After getting dragged around the east village I eventually made it back to my bed at 2am and after having some sweet pillow talk w/ my housemates and went to bed...

Some things to note...
Aussie cops are nicer then American ones
I did get my shoe back
I have no idea where any of my beverages went
And one of my housemates gave me a piggy back ride
Always make sure to practice moderation and eat and drink lots of water when consuming alcohol
Lata!

Mother Nature Always Wins

The weekend has been pretty chill... today we went to Tropfest in Sydney. We got lost for hours!! Taking away the iphone is the worst thing... we finally made it to the festival... and we came at an awkward gap where there weren't any movies for several hours... excellent time to sun bathe right? No...

I laid out, and apparently didn't put enough SPF on cause I got fried... I literally look like a lobster. If your chilly cuddle up to me, cause I'm toasty... I also decided to hide my lobster trollness by spending the night in with my roomies... hopefully my burn will fade soon, cause I'm off to the beach tomorrow.

That's all :)

Bio Hazard...

So I've been settling into Macquaire for the past few days... I bought some necessities such as a hair straightener which doesn't really straighten anything... I live in a flat, which is more like a condo with 4 other housemates. Two girls from my program an Australian guy and an Egyptian guy, whose French girlfriend is apparently staying with him so its more like I have 5 housemates. My flat is pretty sweet, I get my own room and bathroom. Its a double plus... and my bed is even bigger then those crappy extra long twins in America.

Since I've been at Macquarie, which I can't say without an Aussie accent, I haven't been doing anything particularly interesting, unless you count raging with Australians and getting lost on the trains back from Sydney interesting. I've also been slowly picking up on the lingo... a goon refers to really cheap wine, heaps keen means I'm totes down, and takin a piss means I'm just messing with ya. Lets just say that the local men quite enjoy taking a piss on me... its alright cause they're rather fine...

Anyways so my house is good except for the kitchen... it was ABSOLUTELY disgusting. The people before us left all their shit in like the cabinets... it was soo gross! There was like moldy debris all over the counters and fridge and cabinets. The three ladies of the house grabbed some gloves and went at it. We tackled the bio hazard and now the kitchen is safe and we can move in all our groceries.

Yesterday my friend from the program, Colgate, visited from U tech Sydney. Her name isn't actually Colgate but the Aussies had an issue with her name so they just call her Colgate. We had a grand night partying with the Aussies over in the east village... lets just say that the Americans can in fact keep up with the Australians.

Thats all for now :)

New Found Paradise!!!

After an incredibly boring 15 hour flight... I finally landed in Sydney. The postcards don't do the city justice. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I went from rainy low 40s Seattle, to a sunny high 70s Sydney. The long flight was completely worth it.

For the first few days we stayed in a hostel for orientation. The hostel was pretty sweet. If your interested in heading down under, you should hit up the YHA hostel on the rocks, it was super nice. Orientation started the minute we touched down. We were given an hour to freshen up and then it was off on a 3 hour walking tour of Sydney, sunscreen and comfy shoes are mandatory. Australian history is rich with crazy convicts and a lot of tries and fails. Alcohol also plays a large part in their history. Did you know they have a hospital that was built by rum traders? Part of it currently serves as the Parliament building.

After the walking tour we got some R and R time... and had tried some interesting pizza. I had kangaroo pizza... it tasted exactly like chicken. And it was pretty tasty. Since most of the Americans in the group are under 21, we were all excited about being able to go out for the first time... legally that is... We all got on our best party outfits and headed out to Scubar. There are some important differences to take into consideration when you go out... one that Australians actually look at you when they dance and they don't just grab from behind like Americans. Also the drinks are extremely expensive and are very tiny. Supposedly the alcohol content is higher but so far this hasn't proven to be the case. Another important thing to note is that the men don't generally buy girls drinks, so ladies its all on you. At the bar we went to, there was crab racing... I didn't really get it but the Aussies went CRAZY over it. Maybe one day I'll understand...

The second day started bright and early... we headed out on an all day adventure. I thought we were just going hiking but that wasn't the case. Our first stop was at a zoo... Australian zoos and American zoos are very different in that you can actually pet some of the animals. I petted a kangaroo! It was a little weird because I ate one the night before... but I figured he'd understand. I also got to pet a koala!! They're super soft... I would cuddle with one if they weren't super aggressive.... I also saw some ferry penguins/little penguins. They were SUPER adorable!! You can buy them as a pet... so I don't really see why you wouldn't especially when they look like this:

I plan on bringing one home with me. After the zoo we went to go hike in the blue mountains. The blue mountains aren't really blue they just look like it. Also they're not really mountains when compared with American standards. But we went on a really scary train ride that has the steepest descent in at least all of Australia. We went on a hike that ended in climbing 1,000 steps to get back to the top. I think I'll have some great looking legs by the end of the trip...After we went and learned a little about the aboriginal culture, painted boomerangs, got our faces painted and learned some Aboriginal dances. It was pretty sweet.

Tuesday was also Valentine's day, which unfortunately for us single people is also celebrated in Australia. Some of the girls and I headed out to a pub and got some tasty fish and chips and I still owe the bartender 10 cents, he didn't seem to mind that he got shorted. The currency here is still a little confusing. Being in a new city, is a bit like being a freshmen in college, you don't know where any of the parties are and you feel weird about following upper class-men around, at least you should feel weird... We wandered around the city looking for a place that wasn't dominated by couples. We found a latin dance club and learned a little bit of salsaing. It was creepy when the older men hit on you but all in all it was a ball of fun, much better then the night before.

Day 3 was the best day ever. It was a day at the beach! Manly beach is beautiful!! I plan on going at least once a week, until it gets cold. The pictures don't do it justice... the men were also beautiful! I'm not going back to the states.... I picked up an awesome tan line from the beach... It was our last night of orientation so we wrapped it up on a fancy boat for dinner. It was a huge sailboat! Sydney is beautiful at night! Someone told me there would be free booze, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. The night ended with my english getting corrected by some natives. Apparently I say certain words incorrectly.

Today we finally got to school. Getting some necessities was a struggle... but it was a learning experience for sure. Tonight we're pretending its my birthday and testing the uni's night life... So thats all for now...

Taa!

Tomorrow is like Christmas!!!

Tomorrow, Saturday February 11th, I FINALLY take off to the beautiful Sydney Australia. I'm SO excited!!! Its been a long week of getting all my shiz together, believe it or not a bikini, towel and sunscreen are not adequate for 5 months down under. I have a grand total of two carry on bags and two checked bags. I'm hopin TSA doesn't flag me for overweight baggage cause its all comin!

I packed early so I made a quick escapade down to Puget Sound, for some last minute good byes and free food. It should be noted that the best way to bribe me is probably with food. Tomorrow I'll be reunited with my bestie in LA and we're meeting up with my homie who goes to USC for some tasty dinner before we embark on our 14 hour plane ride to Sydney... I hope we can find enough to talk about...

While I'll miss all my homies at the Puge, my fams and my besties from Chi-town... beaches, sun and surfers await me and I can't wait!!! I probs won't be sleeping much tonight...

Test Post

I leave for the beautiful Sydney in just 4 days!!! So far my suitcase still has items from moving home from college in December. Lots of packing and laundry stands between myself and Sydney... here's hoping all goes smoothly.