First Beach Visit

Ayesha, Elsie, and I decided to head to the beach for a little while this afternoon. It was pretty windy so we didn't stay long, but it's only about 10 minutes away so I'm sure we'll make quite a few more trips this semester!

Pictures

Here's some pictures from the last few days:

Sunrise

Sign on the pathway from our apartments to campus.

Another sign on the way from our apartments to campus.

This is right behind our apartments, there's a path that takes you around the lake and onto campus.

First kangaroo sighting! It was quite hot so he was napping in the shade.

One of the many cool looking buildings on campus.

G'Day Mate!

            Posting this Friday morning (6am, still getting used to the time difference here)! Part 1 is about arriving Wednesday and the adventures of our first day here and Part 2 is how yesterday went!

Part One:

Whew. What a day. Or two days, really.

            First thing: as I am writing this my internet connection is not working, so I’m not entirely sure when this will actually be posted. I’ll add something to the beginning of the post so you know, but this is being written at a different time than it is being posted.

            I’ve officially made it through my first day in Australia! It’s only 9pm and I am incredibly tired, but I’m awake still! Between flying all day Monday then overnight and having the big time change we were essentially traveling from Monday morning to Wednesday morning. The three of us that traveled together were able to sleep for about the first 10 hours of the flight from LA into Brisbane so that was refreshing, but when we woke up it was 4am local time. Makes for a long day.

            Although it was long, we made it a productive day! After getting to the airport we found our shuttle and met some of the other international students that we’ll be studying with. After the hour long shuttle ride that included trying to get used to being on the left side of the road with the driver on the right side of the car, discussion on the difference between a mile and a kilometer, finding out that gas prices are by the cent rather than the dollar (155 cents for 1 liter of gas!), getting the low down on where we can find the kangaroos hanging out on campus, and overall awe that we were actually on a different continent and in Australia after months of preparation. Once we arrived at our apartments we checked in and got our keys, agreeing to meet back with the group from our shuttle ride over about 2 hours later to adventure out to a Supermarket and get lunch. I was able to meet one of my roommates, Elsie, who is from a ways away in Australia, when I first got there. We chatted briefly then I went and unpacked a little bit and cleaned/freshened up, which after flying for over 24 hours, was wonderful. Once I felt semi-alive again Elsie and I talked for a little while more before her and I headed out to meet the rest of the group to go on our first adventure.

            We walked about 20 minutes to a Subway (we laughed about the fact that our first meal in a new country was the exact same thing we could get at home – besides the American cheese, that's apparently only a thing in America, who would've thought?) then right across the street to Woolworths, which is the main grocery store. After getting some basics to stock our new kitchens and hopefully be able to cook from for a little bit we called a cab to get back to campus – walking that far in the heat, it was 32̊C with 90% humidity, with that many groceries would have been a really rough trip. We split up again when we got back, taking some time to unpack our groceries and continue to unpack all of our stuff and get a bit more settled, planning to meet down at the pool a few hours later and agreeing not to go to sleep yet so that we could get used to the new time zone.

            When Elsie and I first got back to our apartment one of our other roommates was there. Ayesha (also from Australia) had just gotten back from work and was hanging out with her Swedish friend Christian. I sat and talked with them for about half an hour before getting up to attempt to continue to be productive. I knew if I actually got completely unpacked today things would be a lot easier moving forward. I went back into my room with 2 goals: get my internet working and finish unpacking everything.

            After getting my internet to finally work and having it stop working again, all within about 20 minutes, I decided to finish unpacking and try again later. We had been told that the entire campus had been having issues with the internet earlier in the day so I thought waiting might solve the problem, but as apparent from my lack of ability to post this live 7 hours later, I think there’s more of an issue with just my connection. I’m really hoping I get can it resolved tomorrow. Anyway, Elsie and I headed to the pool and saw a few other people from our group but we didn’t stay in the water long, at this point it was quite windy and it looked like there was a storm rolling in so the water was actually warmer than the air and we got quite cold from the wind.

            After we were done we went to meet up with Eric and Jillian (two of my classmates from BW) to see what they wanted to do for dinner, we had grabbed a pamphlet for a local pizza place earlier so we were considering going with that. After chatting with some of the people that Eric and Jillian had met during the day Elsie, Eric, and I headed out to get pizza. We ended up at a Domino’s (which we laughed at again, definitely getting a feel for the local cuisine right away) and grabbed a couple pizzas then headed to the beach to eat. One of the pizzas was BBQ Meat Lovers, which was pretty comparable to what we could get at home, but the second pizza was BBQ Prawn, which we quickly learned from Elsie is what we consider shrimp. So we got pizza with shrimp on it, which was new for us and so very delicious. From the beach, where it was quite windy and actually felt a bit chilly, we decided to head back to campus as Eric and I were starting to get drowsy again.

            After a day full of adventure and meeting a lot of really great people I’m calling it a night. It has been an incredible first day in an amazing new place and I’m ready to crash. Hopefully I’ll be back online tomorrow and be able to post this! 

Part Two:

Day two began early again… woke up at 5:30 and could not fall back to sleep. Hopefully getting up early won’t be as rough as it was yesterday since I actually got a solid 8+ hours of sleep without waking up last night, unlike on the plane on the way over where I was waking up every hour or so.

When I first got up I tried to go back to sleep – I knew that if I could get just a couple more hours in it would make adjusting a bit easier but it just wasn’t happening. I noticed the sun was rising so I decided to take my camera and go exploring! Everything about this place is beautiful so I was hoping to get some good shots and I felt I did! (note: Right now I'm still having internet issues so although I am able to post this the pictures are taking ages to upload so once I get a better connection I'll post them!)

I wasn't able to get my full internet connection up and running yesterday but I have managed to get a little bit of a connection so I'm hoping that's something I can get taken care of today. 

The rest of yesterday (Thursday) was amazing though! Elsie, Eric, and I went exploring around the University's campus and it is gorgeous! The architecture is so cool, every building is really modern and really different from every other building. I'll post pictures when I can! The most exciting part of our trip was definitely my first kangaroo sighting! There was a big one just lying in the shade of one of the tents that they have set up for Orientation week next week! The campus is actually a wildlife preserve so there is a group of them that lives on campus that you see around regularly. 

When we got back to our apartment we saw that our final roommate had arrived! Her name is Ana and she's from Japan! She is really friendly and outgoing and I think all 4 of us are going to have an awesome semester living together!

The rest of the day was kind of low key. It was really hot (about 90F with 90% humidity again) so we stayed inside with the fans and tried to beat the heat a little bit. Ayesha and I talked and got to know each other for a few hours then the four of us and Eric all had dinner together which was awesome! I made chicken alfredo and pasta and we watched the Olympics and ate together. 

So far it's been amazing and I'm really excited for the rest of the semester! Orientation (or O-Week as it's referred to here) starts Monday then classes start the Monday after! Once my internet is functioning a bit better I'll post some pictures. Talk to everyone soon! 

Getting Ready...

Less than a week until I leave for Australia! My extra-long Winter Break has gone by very quickly and before I know it I'll be boarding a plane that will take me on to a great big adventure!

We leave Monday afternoon (our time) and get there Wednesday morning (Brisbane time). It's going to be a longgggg day and a half of travel (we'll be in the air for over 20 hours!) but I'm hoping I'll be able to sleep through most of the flying, that way I can stay awake and begin to adjust to the time difference once we get there. It's 15 hours! It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to adjust. Luckily we have 5 days before orientation to get adjusted, that way we can be awake when we're learning how to navigate the campus that will be our home for the next 4 months!

I still have quite a bit to do before I leave and I'm hoping to get a little bit done every day so this weekend isn't too stressful.

I'm not sure how often I'll be blogging once I'm settled, but I plan to keep it updated with stories and pictures so check back often (or just put in your email address in the widget to the right to be notified by email when I post something new). I'm off to start packing!

-Heather