It's funny because I feel like I need to wait weeks to write to come up with interesting things to say, as most adventures happen on the weekend but according to Arianna (her first blog shout out!!) a boring weekend here for me is still better than an "exciting" weekend back home.
That being said, last weekend was pretty low key, filled with two birthday parties and a trip to a small Italian restaurant and pub along the ocean. Sunday was a day that felt a little bit more like being back home, attending the Royal Queensland Show, or Ekka. The best way to describe it was a lot like the Minnesota State Fair except not as good (because really what is?). But they did have racing and diving pigs so it almost evens out. The rest of the night we explored a bit more of the city, including city hall and watching the sun set over the river and Victoria Bridge from a ferris wheel along the riverbank.
As far as classes go, as the weather is finally rising, it's getting more difficult to motivate myself to go to classes when I could be lying on a beach just a short drive away. Finally this week we got some rain (!!!) It only lasted for about 30 minutes but I could justify sitting and having a short Netflix binge while it was going on. The only really interesting or new thing about one of my classes is that in one of my labs, there are only five students. As weird as that is to begin with, the really intriguing part is that all five of us are from different countries! It's so cool to be able to approach a subject that deals with world geography when you have inputs from America, Australia, Italy, Germany, and England.
This past weekend was spent completely isolated from the rest of the world, with no cell phone service or internet for three full days. For a class "field trip" we drove a few hours north to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world and one of the few hundred Natural World Heritage sites. To get to the island, you have to take a barge across a small bay (the 10 minute barge trip costs $110 each way per car and more with trailers and such) and drove a massive 4WD tour bus that was triple as tall as me! On the island, there are close to no paved roads so you bounce along on the beach and soft sand roads inland. The first day we visited Lake McKenzie, a freshwater lake that is crystal clear and an ocean-like aqua blue. It easily became one of my favorite lakes I've been to (except for my sacred Pike Lake obviously). Barely any of the Australians braved the "cold" water, even though it was warmer than most of our 10,000 lakes will get during the summertimes. We stayed at an almost summer camp looking compound, fenced in of course to keep the dingos out. Day two was filled with school projects which I won't bore you all with regardless of how interesting they were to my inner science nerd. That night was spent around a very homey fire, and I had the pleasure of playing story teller to a circle of Australians, mesmerized by the idea of snow close to all year, guns easily accessible to hunt animals strapped to the hood of a jacked up truck (a stereotype they were all disappointed wasn't 100% true), and the concept that a sport other than rugby or soccer could be the main athletic focus. On day three, we took a trip up 75 Mile Beach to visit the Maheno Shipwreck, which has an awesome story behind it if you're interested, and finished with a swim in Eli Creek, a freshwater stream as clear as the lake we saw days before. It was all rounded up with a few dolphin and whale sitings just off the shore. Of course when I saw them, I shot straight across the bus and had my nose pushed up against the glass while everyone else gave me weird, non-interested, this is no big deal, looks.
All in all, the weeks are filled with friends and lots of laughs, while the weekends are completed with breathtaking views and sleepless nights. I've gotten through my first spells of homesickness with the help of some amazing people and an endless amount of things to do. The weeks keep flying my and I know in a blink of an eye I'll be on a plane back to the tundra, somethings that gets more bittersweet as the weeks go on.
Also, tried kangaroo burgers and vegemite. The kangaroo is pretty tasty if you don't think about the cute fluffy creature you're eating. Vegemite on the other hand, I'll be bringing some home for you all to try but you can bet I won't be giving it a go again anytime soon.
(Sorry no new words for you all, saving them for another time!)
To all my friends back home, have fun going back to school for another year and if you're tempted to complain, just remember I've been in school for almost a month now so shut it. Hold down the fort at UND for me especially. Til next time,
Sioux yeah yeah
Sunday 16 August 2015
Wednesday 5 August 2015
Kangaroos, Vegemite, and Lots of Sand
G'day mates! As we're coming towards the end of week 2, I'm pretty much just blogging to procrastinate doing my homework that is already starting to pile up (that didn't take very long I know). Quick shout out to my lovely parents, siblings, and of course my amazing friends that I miss dearly for supporting me from across the globe and giving me such an amazing opportunity to travel to another piece of our huge world like I've always dreamed of doing. I'm so so blessed to have such wonderful humans to eventually come home to. So thanks guys.
As far as school goes, the way they run things here is very different than in North Dakota. Here, you have a 2 hour lecture and 1 hour tutorial once a week for each class. I'm taking 4 classes (Governance and Spatial Planning, Intro to Indigenous Australia, History of Australian Pop Culture, and Human Geographies), so that leaves me with about 12 hours in a classroom each week. The lectures aren't too bad considering you get a 10 minute break in the middle to go grab a coffee or food. As far as assignments go, there aren't really that many. For each class, you generally have two really big essays or an essay and a presentation and a final test at the end of the semester. So with so many points riding on just a few things, if you mess up on one you're pretty much screwed. With the few assignments comes a lot of reading outside of class which is not my forte.
And of course the other big difference is the language. You guys are probably like "Alyssa, you're so stupid, they speak English there too!" Um yes and no. The words and phrases that they use to describe some things are completely foreign to me which makes school more difficult. Serious props to anyone who's studied in a country that speaks a completely different language. People in my classes joke that they can translate for me if need be. Some of the phrases are pretty cool though and I'm going to try and use them as much as possible while working on my Aussie accent before I come home.
On another note, here we get a mid semester break from classes, a week off at the end of September/beginning of October. Just yesterday I booked flights to Sydney and Cairns, where the Great Barrier Reef is located. && I'm working on some trips to Fraser Island (The largest sand island in the world and also where my Governance class is taking a field trip to next weekend!), Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin, and hopefully New Zealand and Tasmania. No idea when I'll be able to fit all these excursions in with school and everything but I'll find time somewhere.
The other downside about Australia is how expensive living here is. I was definitely not expecting to pay as much for food as I have (I hate being an adult and need my mother to grocery shop for me desperately). Plus grocery shopping itself is stressful because they name their foods weird things and don't have normal brands here (But seriously where is my Skippy Peanut Butter or Tostito chips and queso?) They do have vegemite but I've yet to venture into that territory yet. A meal at a lower end restaurant will set you back a minimum of $20, even if you order a water. Oh and free refills? Nope, not usually. Want 6 bottles of Corona from a liquor store? A solid $25. Feel like just sticking to cans of soda? Yep they're like $3 a can. Oh and the best part is that Wifi isn't free or unlimited. At our apartments, it costs $36 a month for 15 gigabytes. To put that into perspective, 1 episode of Netflix uses about 1 gig (sadly this means I will be going on a forced Netflix cleanse.....)
The last week or so has just been filled with adjustments to classes, lots of walking along the many beautiful beaches, and mainly becoming more of a local. Unfortunately after three weeks here you're expected to walk past a kangaroo without taking 385900 pictures or looking at the many maps to find your classes. We did manage to play tourist for one more day by making a day trip to Tea Tree Bay in Noosa on Saturday to check out the waves and Noosa National Park and beach. I've seen more of the ocean in the last few weeks combined than in my entire life yet it continues to take my breath away. Oh and the sunsets. Lets just say you've never seen a true sunset until you've seen one from an Australia beach.
More strange words:
Countertops = benches
Flip flops = thongs (learned this after listening to a very confusing (at first) conversation between my roommates about their love/need for them)
Sketchy = dodgy
Grocery store carts = trolley
Pharmacist = Chemist
Bogan = kind of like rednecks or trailer trash is what I'm told
Also, they constantly tell you Cheers, which is kind of like thanks? I think...
So friends, until next time, Cheers!
As far as school goes, the way they run things here is very different than in North Dakota. Here, you have a 2 hour lecture and 1 hour tutorial once a week for each class. I'm taking 4 classes (Governance and Spatial Planning, Intro to Indigenous Australia, History of Australian Pop Culture, and Human Geographies), so that leaves me with about 12 hours in a classroom each week. The lectures aren't too bad considering you get a 10 minute break in the middle to go grab a coffee or food. As far as assignments go, there aren't really that many. For each class, you generally have two really big essays or an essay and a presentation and a final test at the end of the semester. So with so many points riding on just a few things, if you mess up on one you're pretty much screwed. With the few assignments comes a lot of reading outside of class which is not my forte.
And of course the other big difference is the language. You guys are probably like "Alyssa, you're so stupid, they speak English there too!" Um yes and no. The words and phrases that they use to describe some things are completely foreign to me which makes school more difficult. Serious props to anyone who's studied in a country that speaks a completely different language. People in my classes joke that they can translate for me if need be. Some of the phrases are pretty cool though and I'm going to try and use them as much as possible while working on my Aussie accent before I come home.
On another note, here we get a mid semester break from classes, a week off at the end of September/beginning of October. Just yesterday I booked flights to Sydney and Cairns, where the Great Barrier Reef is located. && I'm working on some trips to Fraser Island (The largest sand island in the world and also where my Governance class is taking a field trip to next weekend!), Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin, and hopefully New Zealand and Tasmania. No idea when I'll be able to fit all these excursions in with school and everything but I'll find time somewhere.
The other downside about Australia is how expensive living here is. I was definitely not expecting to pay as much for food as I have (I hate being an adult and need my mother to grocery shop for me desperately). Plus grocery shopping itself is stressful because they name their foods weird things and don't have normal brands here (But seriously where is my Skippy Peanut Butter or Tostito chips and queso?) They do have vegemite but I've yet to venture into that territory yet. A meal at a lower end restaurant will set you back a minimum of $20, even if you order a water. Oh and free refills? Nope, not usually. Want 6 bottles of Corona from a liquor store? A solid $25. Feel like just sticking to cans of soda? Yep they're like $3 a can. Oh and the best part is that Wifi isn't free or unlimited. At our apartments, it costs $36 a month for 15 gigabytes. To put that into perspective, 1 episode of Netflix uses about 1 gig (sadly this means I will be going on a forced Netflix cleanse.....)
The last week or so has just been filled with adjustments to classes, lots of walking along the many beautiful beaches, and mainly becoming more of a local. Unfortunately after three weeks here you're expected to walk past a kangaroo without taking 385900 pictures or looking at the many maps to find your classes. We did manage to play tourist for one more day by making a day trip to Tea Tree Bay in Noosa on Saturday to check out the waves and Noosa National Park and beach. I've seen more of the ocean in the last few weeks combined than in my entire life yet it continues to take my breath away. Oh and the sunsets. Lets just say you've never seen a true sunset until you've seen one from an Australia beach.
Countertops = benches
Flip flops = thongs (learned this after listening to a very confusing (at first) conversation between my roommates about their love/need for them)
Sketchy = dodgy
Grocery store carts = trolley
Pharmacist = Chemist
Bogan = kind of like rednecks or trailer trash is what I'm told
Also, they constantly tell you Cheers, which is kind of like thanks? I think...
So friends, until next time, Cheers!
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