Arvo (good afternoon, pronounce like avo in avocado)

At the 'Bush Dance'

In McGregor Dining Hall

measuring our heights on Georgie's door!

I have just finished O Week and school starts on Monday! On the last day we had a lesson in Aussie slang. They attempted to teach us some, but saying I’m as ‘mad as a cut snake’ or his ‘kangaroos loose in the top paddock’ doesn’t quiet sound as good in an American accent. O Week was fun, but pretty low key because it was only for international students. On the last night we all got together and played Uno in the common room (who would have thought that Uno was such a worldly game?) and compared cultures.  For example, I found out that the Queen Elizabeth owns every single swan that lives in England, and that apparently most Europeans believe that a swan could kill a person if it really wanted to. (We had many intelligent discussions about things such as swans for the rest of the night, it was hilarious). On Saturday we went to downtown Toowoomba for the first time. Toowoomba is the second largest inland city in Oz, with Canberra, the capital, being the first. Toowoomba's population is only around 100,000. Needless to say, most Australians live by the coast. The town itself is nice, a couple shopping malls and lots of parks everywhere, but it is definitely not like downtown Brissie. Because none of us came here with enough jackets, we all bought USQ hoodies from the school. Unfortunately, there was only one style of hoodie, black with a bright yellow eagle on the back. If it wasn’t easy to spot us already, now we have become a gang of black sweatshirts, the international students. Saturday night we all went to a party at one of the Danes house with a few of the Aussies that returned from holiday early. It was pretty far from campus and my map went walkabout, so finding our way home was an adventure as well. The next night we had a "Bush Dance." I was reminded more of a Hoe Down than I was of an aboriginal tribal dance around a fire pit, which is what I might have been expecting. Wishful thinking :) But I won a free hat and had heaps of fun twirling around with my friends, making total fools of ourselves. I did manage to pull a muscle in my calf and have been gimping around campus for the past couple days. I was about to attribute this embarrassment to my lack of athleticism, but my friend Linn remarked that I had "put the most soul into my dancing." I might go with her perspective instead. Class starts soon, and I am getting excited!!

Birds of Paradise at USQ

Winter in Australia?

Arrived in Toowoomba (great name for a city, yeah?) and it was freezing! Literally. Zero degrees Celsius. My preconception of a year round, everyone’s always at the beach, summer country has proven to be a misconception seeing as how there was frost on the grass this morning and the tragic fact that even if it was warm enough, the beach is over 2 hours away. I did bring two fleece jackets, but as I stand on my tile bathroom floor, with a permanent outdoor air vent in my window, I long for my puffy down jacket. I’m told that this is the coldest it will ever get in Australia, which is apparently why no buildings have central heating, and only a few rooms are extravagant enough to have a shoe box sized space heater in the back corner. The other exchange students are in the same boat though—we all showed up wearing shorts, tank tops, and a hat with the biggest brim we could find. It is really sunny here though (Queensland, the sunshine state), and warms up quite a bit during the day. Right now, the full time Aussie students are on holiday, so the campus is quiet except for the international students. My new friends are from Finland, Germany, Switzerland, England (my roomie!), the US, Malaysia, and Denmark. I definitely impressed the Danes with my words of jordbær (strawberry) and aebleskivers (Danish pancakes), and having heard of Odense. Don’t know what I’ll say to them tomorrow since I’ve exhausted my entire Danish heritage in one day. Orientation has been exciting so far, I feel like I’m starting uni all over again! My campus is pretty, with tropical trees and bushes everywhere, and exotic plants like birds of paradise flowers scattered around campus. Our college (uni is the word for tertiary school, college for the residential buildings) has scheduled morning and evening meal times, so its like we have a family dinner every night. I was invited to a “party" as well, which turned out to consist of four guys sitting around the TV drinking beer. A similar scenario of what you might find in the US except swap out football for rugby. But I went with the Danes, so we said a few jokes, and then made for the exit. Ace day J

Last day in Brissie

Today I climbed the Story Bridge in downtown Brisbane, and it was fantastic!! A great view of the city, a hilarious tour guide, and an exhilarating experience. Story is the last name of some guy who had something to do with the bridge, but I was too distracted by the 240 and some foot high height, and the view around me to pay much attention to historical details. Going up was crazy fun, but walking down was sooo scary. I loved it! Apparently there’s only two other bridge climbs in the world, one in Sydney and one in Auckland. After I found that out I knew I had to do them both. Afterwards I had some Barramundi fish and a stubbie (stubbie= bottle beer?) and both were local and delicious. I have really enjoyed being in Brisbane, and I feel like there’s so much else to do in the city and the surrounding area. But now I’m on to my next adventure in Toowoomba for O Week!

Sweet outfit, yeah?

Koalas and 'Roos

Another fantastic day! I went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and saw basically every animal I had seen in all those Aussie films I’ve been watching: sheep, cassowaries, Tasmanian devils, wombats (which are surprising cute), platypus (surprisingly small), freshwater crocodile, dingoes, wallabies, and of COURSE kangaroos and koalas. See the picture below? Yep, I KUDDLED A KOALA! That’s right, it simply jumped out of the trees and into my loving arms, really. It was such a cool experience. Koalas just look so cute as they scrunch up into little balls in the crooks of trees. When the koala put his arms around me, I just about squealed. The koala’s fur felt so much thicker than I had imagined, and it really did hold on to me like I was a tree. The zookeeper fed it some eucalyptus leaves while I held it, prolly to keep it from trying to climb me. Apparently, Billy or Bilgert or Billiam or whatever its name was likes to climb on top of little kids heads. It’s a “height thing” the lady told me, but apparently I was tall enough! I also got to pet tons of kangaroos. There was a huge field where about 70 of them were in and all hopping about. Kangaroos are amazingly soft. I followed them around for about an hour and petted every one that would tolerate it. A woman and her little girl eventually came up to me and said, “We have some extra food, would you like to feed one? I saw you lay down on the ground next to one, and thought, ‘This girl must LOVE those 'roos.’” Haha, so I got to feed the ‘roos too. I am in LOVE with kangaroos—the way they hop, their tails, their tiny little hands, the weird way they lay down, their ears, and how soft their fur is. I saw a pregnant ‘roo laying down, and I could see her pouch moving all around, a little joey fidgeting inside. I rode the bus back into town and went to a museum and the Queensland Cultural Center which had some really beautiful Aboriginal art. I ended the day with a ride on the ferris wheel. Later I tried out the bar underneath my hostel, which was fun, but I get tired around 8 o’clock (and keep waking up at 6:30 AM!) with the jet lag and went to bed pretty early. 

Crazy cool trees everywhere!

AHHHHHH

Sheared in less than 10 min

SOOOO cute!

Me and joey :)

July 8th - First Day in Australia!

It’s 11:30 AM and man, I am tired. But excited. But nervous. But ready.

After a 14 ½  hour plane ride from San Fran to Sydney, I am ready to crash into a comfy bed. I can’t though, because I am now in Brissie, and have a city to explore! I check into my hostel and realize how truthful my guidebook is. Base Central Hostel is:

• Cleanliness – somewhat clean
• Furnishings – bed, broken safe
• Bathrooms – somewhat tolerable
• Location – PARTY CENTRAL  

The hostel happens to be located right above Bar XXXX (a type of weak Australia ale, like a bud light), and is just about in the dead center of downtown Brisbane. Perfect. Walking through the hallway is like being in an International Dorm, except that instead of high fiving your fellow friend and floormate, you avert eye contact when the greasy Slovanian kid gives you the eyebrow raise as you clutch your towel tighter to your chest, pretending you haven’t seen the previews of Hostel. I went on a tour bus around the city. A bit lame, but it was a great way to get oriented and be able to find my way around the city. The city is beautiful, an unusual mix between skyscrapers and tropical trees, lining a wide river that cuts right through the center of town. I met a kiwi girl, Robyn, on the bus and she invited me to eat dinner with her and her friends! We took the ferry up and down the river and then walked along ‘South Bank,’ a nighttime open-air market before dinner. Robyn and her friends were nice, funny, and had hilarious accents. By the time I made it back to my hostel, it was 7:30 PM. (I guess that's 19:30). I don’t think I have ever been more exhausted in my whole life. I passed out instantly.

Today felt a bit like the first time I moved away from home. Alone in an unfamiliar city, having no obligations, no plans, and no one to know when you come or go—an experience of freedom so new, yet almost incapacitating. I had a great day, and met some new friends. I'm getting my bearings as a lone traveler, but I am constantly reminding myself to push the boundaries of my comfort zone, to really experience another culture, country, continent.