The "Study" in Study Abroad

Hi everyone! I hope all is well in the States. This post doesn't have any pictures and probably won't be very exciting. I got really, really sick last week and had to go to an emergency care clinic. I had a pharyngal virus in my throat and I've been on penicillin since last Thursday. I basically feel like I've been in a coma and haven't seen anyone! I quarantined myself in my room for three days, and only left when I went to my internship on Friday. Unfortunately, I was at my sickest then, so Friday was a rough day. After sleeping for three days, I've been getting better every day since Saturday. I finish my penicillin tomorrow, so hopefully I won't be getting sick again after this! Being sick anywhere isn't fun, but being sick on the other side of the world when you've only been there for two weeks REALLY isn't fun.

I'm really excited for my internship, however. Everyone seems really nice and laid back, pretty much just like everyone in Australia. I made the mistake of wearing heels on my first day- no one wears heels here. Needless to say, I will be investing in a pair of flats before I go back. I don't really even remember too many details about going there on Friday because I was so sick and I could only think about crawling back into my bed.

Yesterday was our first day of classes at ACU! I had Environmental Studies from 9-12, so we had to leave our apartment at 7:20. Traveling to and from school is the biggest pain because it takes so long. Trains come at random times and the ACU shuttle schedule seems to be even more random. There were only 11 people in this class, including the 5 of us from Fairfield. I asked one of the Australian kids in the class if professors ever let you out early, and he said no. The longest classes we ever have at Fairfield are 2 and a half hours, and mine have always gotten out early, so I was dying by the end of the three hours. We played with play-doh to build a makeshift dam, though, so it wasn't too mentally draining. We're going on a field trip to Moreton Island for a weekend in April, which should be fun! 

Nicole, Kai, and I had a gap from 12-4, during which we just hung out on campus. In Australia, most universities (or "unis") don't have dorms, and everyone commutes. A lot of the students hang out on campus during the day, so campus is usually pretty lively- and also it's 80 degrees outside. Our second class was Religion in Australian Culture from 4-6. To our surprise, this class is entirely online, so we never meet our professor. We are also taking this class with people all over Australia. The professor was on a live video stream on our ACU accounts and there is a chat box where students can type to him and each other. The "class" only meets every two weeks, with a short 400 word essay due every class. It's very different for us; I'm not sure if I'm going to like it or not!

Today was the second day of classes and there was also something called UniFest. Basically, it was like Fairfield's activities fair on acid. There was a DJ bumping club music, a mechanical bull, and tents set up for different student organizations with free stuff. I had my history class, Australia to 1900, from 3-6. There were a lot more people in this class. I don't know anything about Australian history, so I'm hoping it will be very interesting. Classes here really don't seem very hard... I hope I'm not jinxing myself. 

I've been meeting so many nice people everywhere I go! They ask questions about America and how I'm adjusting to life in Australia and are genuinely interested in how I'm doing here. Not that people aren't nice in America, it's just very different here. People aren't always in a rush to get from point A to point B and everyone is very laid back.

I also realized I haven't written anything about my apartment building! I'm living in a place called Urbanest, a building of apartments for international students. At first, we thought it would be really cool to be in a building with people our age from all over the world. It is really cool... but they aren't very friendly. A lot of them hang out on the back outside area of the building and smoke cigarettes. A lot of cigarettes. We have been making more friends with local people than the people in our building. We also have to pay for everything. Laundry, which is included at Fairfield, is $4 per wash and $4 per dry here. I've spent $24 on laundry in the past week. We also only get a certain amount of data per month, and after that, we have to pay for more.

The women who run my internship are away this week, so I don't start until next week. It's Tuesday night now and is officially my weekend! All of the other girls still have classes and internships, so I'll be doing errands, catching up on sleep, and going to the beach until this weekend. If you've made it to this point I am very impressed and I thank you for reading because this has probably been really boring. Hopefully my Australian adventures will have pictures to go along with them for my next post!

Kangaroos and the Gold Coast

Hi everyone! It's been about a week since my last post and so much has happened. I can't even comprehend what will happen over the next four months because so much has happened in the week and a half that I've been here. It's been a roller coaster of emotions in the best possible way!

The highlight of my trip so far was on Thursday when we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I'm normally not the biggest fan of zoos but this was entirely different. I got to hold a koala! Yes, she was cranky and scratched me a little, but it was so cool. My favorite part was definitely feeding the kangaroos. We paid $2 for food to feed them and just walked right into the field where there were probably 20 kangaroos just hanging out. I had heard that kangaroos can be aggressive, but they were so nice! My hand was completely covered in kangaroo slobber but it was so worth it. We hung out there for a while and made ourselves look like idiots as we attempted to get the perfect kangaroo selfie. Not to brag, but I got some pretty good ones. There was this one kangaroo that we called the hulk of the kangaroos. He was straight up MASSIVE. And quite terrifying. His forearms were really muscular... it was pretty creepy.

ACU arranged for us to have a trip to the Gold Coast this past weekend. We were all excited to spend our Valentine's Day there, as shockingly we haven't found Australian husbands yet. The Gold Coast is about an hour south of Brisbane. Most people from Australia prefer the Sunshine Coast, which is north of Brisbane. The Gold Coast is very touristy, especially now because it is the end of summer here. We stayed in a hotel/apartment complex that was a 5-10 minute walk to the beach. We were all super excited to see a real Australian beach because the beach near our apartment in Brisbane is man-made. On our way to the beach, a young girl stopped us and asked if we were planning on going out that night. She persuaded us to drop $50 and sign up for a pub crawl that night. If you're ever at the Gold Coast and someone tries to convince you to sign up for a pub crawl, here's some advice: DON'T DO IT. We had to start at 5:30 and it was awful. The "drinks" they promised us barely had any alcohol, which did not help when it came to having to tolerate the weird people on the crawl. When we got home, at like 11, stone cold sober, Shannon and I found a lizard in our apartment. A real lizard. He was harmless and just stayed on the ceiling, but it was not comforting to go to sleep knowing he was there. When we turned on the air conditioning, a huge bug fell out of it and I had to kill it with a spatula, guts flying everywhere. We were definitely homesick for Brisbane on Friday night.

On Saturday, ACU had arranged for us to go to an amusement park (which the Gold Coast is known for), but we decided to ditch and go to the beach instead. How often is it that you can swim in the massive waves of the South Pacific ocean?! Skipping the amusement park was a great call, as we had a really nice beach day. The waves here are really strong, and you have to swim in between the flags in order to stay safe. At first I was reluctant to go in the water as there are sharks everywhere, but I'm still alive so it was worth it! The ocean is basically turquoise here too, it's so beautiful. We also all got really tan. Australia's sun is so strong. Wanna know why? There is a hole in the ozone layer above Australia, which I did not know before coming here.

The city is literally right on the sand!

Saturday night we did our own thing and it was a million times more fun. Today we went to the beach again and left at 3. We were all really excited to leave the Gold Coast and get back to good old Brizzy. The beach at the Gold Coast was amazing, but that was pretty much it. I think we all had really high expectations and it was just too touristy for me. Plus, I really don't like the whole club scene, and that's what the Gold Coast is all about. I'm really happy to be back in Brisbane. We have this week off and start classes next Monday. I'm exhausted after taking a vacation from my vacation. I'm just going to lay low this week and try not to spend money. Everything is SO expensive here! Their minimum wage is a lot higher, and essentially everything is two and a half times as expensive as it is in America. Thinking about money is really overwhelming, so I've just accepted that I'm going to be poor. The only other negative about Australia is the time difference. Every time I want to talk to people from home, they're all sleeping. Being 15 hours ahead is really weird because it seems like I'm behind. I wake up in the morning and it's night time in America, but I'm actually a day ahead instead of behind. The whole time difference is annoying, but at least I'm tan now. I think that's all for now!

Is this real life?

It's currently Monday night... we've been here since Thursday morning but we left home Tuesday afternoon. If time was already a confusing concept it has reached a whole new level of confusion. We are 15 hours ahead of Boston and my whole mind has been out of whack since we left. The plane ride seems like a distant dream. It actually wasn't that bad considering the flight from Boston to Dallas was 4.5 hours, then a 3 hour layover, then a 16.5 hour flight from Dallas to Brisbane. I got to watch Modern Family and drink free wine on the longer flight and that's when I decided that I love Australia.

I never really prepared myself for the culture shock because I just assumed that Australia was going to be very similar to America. WRONG. This is my first time leaving the US and I feel like I am on Mars. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but still, there are a ton of differences. They have this crazy slang and it sounds like they're slurring their words all the time. We don't go to "school" or "college", we go to "uni". If you order a chocolate milkshake, you will just get a big cup of chocolate milk (we learned the hard way- you have to order a "thickshake" instead). Also, no one is fat here. Seriously, no one. And they're all beautiful. The men, the women, the kids, the old people- all gorgeous. And SO NICE. People actually look you in the eyes when they walk past you and smile. No one is just walking around with their face glued to their phone; it's so refreshing. 

The nightlife is totally different too. Instead of a townhouse party, we are at these crazy bars and clubs in the middle of the city. Having the city so close is awesome. We live in South Bank, which is the south part of Brisbane, but can easily walk 10 minutes and be in the middle of the city. Taking the train is quicker, but we have to pay. We have to pay for EVERYTHING. Luckily, we've already mastered the art of getting guys to pay for our drinks. 

To get to ACU (Australian Catholic University), we have to take the train and then a school shuttle. The whole process takes about an hour each way which is a pain in the ass. Luckily, I only have class on Mondays and Tuesdays. Caroline and I are both doing a marketing internship at ACU, so we'll have to be there other days of the week, too. We don't start class for another two weeks. We're going to the gold coast this weekend and have no idea what we're doing. We basically never have any idea what we're doing. It's terrifying and awesome at the same time.