sooo after breakfast really turned into a couple of days later but what can I say, I have been doing so much and really have not had time to go anywhere near my computer let alone fb, this blog, anything!
Continuing Feb. 14: oh right now looking at the date it was valentine's day, thank god no one in australia cares about the silly holiday. After surfing we were all physically exhausted and it rained towards the end so we were all super excited to get out of the water- went back to base camp and ate a wonderful dinner. The food so far has really been awesome, such fresh fruits and veggies + these people really know how to cook! After dinner we had people from one of the "aboriginal" tribes of Australia come and give a presentation of their culture and do a couple of "tribal dances". It was very convincing until the main guy's cell phone went off mid presentation and then the "paint" they used to cover their bodies in, per ritual, was from target- but details details. and then everyone was extremely tired and just ready to get to Bris-Vegas (official name) the next day that no one really drank, we just played an intense game of catch phrase. I have officially turned pro at catch phrase, god such a good game.
FEB 15: BRISSSSVEGASSSSSS. I arrived finally! And wierdly enough they don't believe in daylight savings time or something so it was an hour behind Sydney.. interesting and questionable I know. From the airport our group all divided up into the separate places we were living and got driven there! First of all let me say the weather here, is like a gift from above after being in NOVA for almost two months and having snow constantly on the ground! 80 ish degrees everyday. A little bit of humidity but not too terrible and usually an afternoon storm will wash it all away anyway! Arrived at wonderful, gorgeous Emmanuel College and fell in love- even though my room is literally the size of a broom closet, I really have not spent too much time in it, so nothing to worry about. I will post photos soon, once I figure out how to upload them to my computer... Emmanuel is so cool, so none of the real people have moved in yet so its just like the people from my program and the "RAs" but the RA's are somewhat different here. They are in charge of the college in general and as like a school we compete against other schools and apparently it gets really intense. They also have already called us (the people from my program) freshies and we are going to get hazed like all the other freshman who are just starting out school. They do this thing called "O-Week" (orientation week) and its a blast, or so everyone says.. We are supposed to get freshie names and get painted blue, (the color of Emmanuel- THANK GOD NOT RED AND WHITE ANYMORE) and gets lots of attire etc. I am super stoked for that, it starts on Saturday! After moving into Emmanuel we all just kinda got settled and then did a couple of walking tours of the campus, and a little of the city- just so we could get oriented to what was happening. Then later that night, paaartaay at the all boys college (named Kings) next door! free alcohol (boxed wine and beer). SPEAKING OF ALCOHOL, since I can legally buy it, I have resorted to either drinking wine or not too expensive beer- hard liquor will be on reserve for only the special special nights. But back to the party, a really fun experience, everyone is super nice and super friendly with wanting to really know "americans" even though they call us seppos as in septic tanks. A little bit insulting if you asked me! They have a really funny tradition with this song called golden phoenix or something very close to that where if the song comes on, which it usually does much later in the night, all the boys at the party have to drop their pants. ... it was an experience to say the least and apparently one that will happen again and again!
FEB 16: dayyy 2- finally truly acclimated with the time change (or at least I thought I was/am!) got up normal time for breakfast, which at the college is from 630-9, lunch is 12-130 and dinner is 5-630. I know, wierd times but it's been good keeping a schedule so far and once classes start we will have to see what kind of madness goes on! Ate a wonderful breakfast vegemite included, then I proceeded to barf, ha just kidding but really the stuff tastes like shit, I don't know how they eat it- it's an acquired taste apparently. Speaking of those, the coffee over here, amazing! I totally can see why people are addicted now, its yummy yummy yummy. Spent the day going around campus again getting my id card, bus card, just trying to get into the groove of things. Finally finished unpacking so of course had to hit up the local mall for supplies that I couldn't bring over like a hair straightener, etc. It will be tough to describe what their local malls are like but I'm going to try. All the stores are either super super expensive, or, they are kmart, target, or the equivalent of a walmart. Soo wierd, I have never seen those kinds of stores in malls before. But it gave us a good experience of riding the bus and we learned all the cool places that "the vill" has to offer. (The place where we get on and off that particular bus). After all that I went for a glorious run, it's super flat here and they have tons of trails so, I ran along the river trail and god the destruction was honestly terrible. The flooding really truly did a number on the school's physical environment and I couldn't believe how high the water actually got! After my run + dinner I set up internet, FINALLY, and then we all went to a pre-drink party (apparently here they do not call it pregaming but predrinking) and just played a huge game of kings with all the people around in the college. They pretty much play it somewhat similar to how we do, which was good!
FEB 16: The Brisbane River is dirtyyy and it smells like shit. All the people from our program, whether they were living in Emmanuel with me, in St. Johns, or in off campus apartments met up for lunch and to go kayaking in the Brisbane River. Which if you can picture the Potomac River make it more polluted x 10, plus bull sharks, plus it felt like warm bath water. But after kayaking for 3 miles I guess you could say I got the hang of it and typing this blog entry is extremely painful! We stopped in the middle of it and played this game where everyone lined their kayak up in a circle, and the main guy counted off us up to 21 twice so that there were two people with the same number on the opposite of the circle. When he then yelled out that number, you had to stand up in your kayak and try to get around the circle faster than the opposite person, and take their remaining seat in their kayak. IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE, I have no balance on the ground let alone floating in water, still fun though and I didn't fall in thank god for reasons stated above. But some people did, yuck. Then came back to Emmanuel for dinner and then headed over to the off campus apartments to hang out with the people I became friendly with during orientation. We drank at their apartment and then the three girls, including myself, went to go meet up with our kayak instructors because during the trip they asked for our numbers. We met them at a local pub and just sat outside and drank on the patio for a while. It was really nice just being able to casually drink and not have to worry about it being illegal. When do I turn 21 again?!! Then we went back to meet up with everyone else in the apartments and took the buses (which are super cheap and convenient) to a bar where people from Emmanuel were meeting and danced the night away. I ended up going to sleep at 5 this morning and then waking up at 9. so needless to say I am exhausted! gooooood night and goood luck world. I shall post soon with your weekly Brisbane update!
(:
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