school is not cool

Weird things about living in the southern hemisphere:

1. I don't recognize any constellations (this is actually kind of cool).
2. No hot dog buns.
3. $1 and $2 coins instead of paper money
4. They have school in July.

I've had 3 days of class and I'm already ready for spring break (benefit of being here during spring: getting two spring breaks this year). Part of me is ready to blow off all my classes because we only have to pass them to get credit at WashU, and none of the grades transfer. But the other part of me, the nerdy part of me that likes school supplies and partook in math competitions, just can't blow off school. And that is the sad reality of my existence.

In case you're an avid reader and my last post was a bit of a cliffhanger for you, I finally cleaned my room. It was a tool of procrastination to avoid doing homework (vomit), but it was productive and now I can see the floor... all 10 square feet of it. Did I mention that my room is super small? I'm not too needy, but there are about 20 rooms on my floor and 16 of them are spacious and come equipped with a fridge... guess who got one of the lucky 4 other rooms?!

I think I'm going through pop withdrawal. I was drinking a lot of Sunkist and root beer this summer, but now that it costs $3 for a bottle, that habit has been effectively squashed. Perhaps my teeth will thank me.

XXXX

I'm getting used to being here and starting to realize this isn't just a 2 week vacation, but a 4 month stay. As it turns out, my family doesn't seem to be missing me too much as they never call or email me. I'm talking to you, Lisa. I haven't been very homesick yet, and the anticipation for it is probably worse than the actual homesickness will be. 

There are about 45 international students in my college (college = dorm, university = college), most of whom are Americans but some of whom are from cool places like Ghana and Malaysia and Germany. People here are so friendly and outgoing. Australian girls who live on my floor keep popping in and introducing themselves and chatting about life here, which I'm sad to say I would probably never do for a foreigner at WashU. 

I spend a lot of time hanging out/going out with these girls.

We wanted cards but didn't have any. So we made some (twice). How resourceful. 

For the first time in my college career I have a single. It's a new experience, that's for sure. Privacy is nice, I guess, but a bit overrated. It's kind of lonely and I have no one to motivate me to keep my side clean. Thus my room is a certifiable disaster right now. I'm talking trash on the floor, empty peanut butter packets on the desk, clean clothes mixed in with dirty clothes. I've become a monster!

Okay, I just reread that and realized how disgusting this is. Maybe this is the motivation I needed. 

"No one who's sexually active watches cricket"

The group : )

Now, I'm not really one for nature, but I might be by the time I leave here. The plants and animals here are seriously awesome. Yesterday we went to the city gardens and it was lovely. The birds here are kind of extreme and they don't seem to shut up ever, but I'm growing rather fond of their chatter. You just really get the vibe that people here care about the environment. They seem to have the mentality that you should adjust to the world, instead of the American way of adjusting everything else to suit you. I'm fully on board, except they really could use heat. Just a suggestion.

I'm currently in the process of choosing classes for the semester. Here's the deal: the past two semesters, I've had 3 day weekends, so I am basically incapable of going back to a full week. Apparently, this university is down with long weekends, too, because I have yet to find a class that meets on Friday. I told you this place is great. On top of that, I'm planning on having Mondays off, too (I need a day to recover from my 3 day weekend), so helllloooo 4 day weekends. Tuesdays are going to suck, but I've always hated Tuesday anyway.

I had my first going-out-on-a-Sunday experience last night. It's still winter break here, so I suppose days don't matter yet, but Sunday is a big night here. As are Wednesday-Saturday. They like to party here, which I'd be down with if not for the hefty price tag. I mean, $5 for a schooner of beer?! $10 for a mixed drink?! No thanks, mate. (side note: how impressive is my use of Australian vernacular?) 

Harry Potter tonight. Regretting the decision to leave my Gryffindor scarf at home. 

koalas and kangaroos and ferries, oh my

Brisbane is gorgeous. It's like a cleaner, warmer, more beautiful version of an American city. Today we went to a koala sanctuary and holy crap, koalas are adorable. This little baby and his mama are isolated so he can grow up properly. He was fully latched onto his mom and she just climbed up the trees and crawled around and it was precious.

Obviously there were kangaroos. There were a bunch of them and they just chilled out while annoying tourists pet them and took pictures with them. Watching them hop around cracked me up, but for the most part, they seemed to live a pretty lazy life.

We take the ferry to get into the city. It's the middle of winter and we can still take a boat to go downtown. I love this place.

I have many more pics, but I'll put them on facebook later on. I'll try to keep the extreme tourist pictures to a minimum because I tend to hate those, but I had to put the kangaroos and koalas up here because, c'mon, I'm in Australia.

Oh and I have never put pics on here before so I have no idea if I did it right. Oops.

Time to get ready and go out. Being legal here is pretty sweet, I must say. It is going to drain my wallet, but sweet nonetheless.

Apparently the rest of the world uses Celsius.

Somehow it's Thursday afternoon, when last I checked it was Tuesday. Sadly, I lost all of Wednesday. A real bummer.

Basically, my three plane rides were long, uncomfortable, and terrifying, but there were no crashes. And really, what more can you ask for? I tried sleeping on the 13 hour flight, but every time I dozed off, I woke up to extreme turbulence & then frantically wondered who would find my lifeless body at the bottom of the Pacific. The only redeeming quality was the on demand movies (I knew we were gonna be okay as long as I Love You, Man was still playing)

Australia is pretty sweet. It's winter here. When the pilot announced it was a cool 10 degrees here, I had a moment of shock and extreme distress. That's when I remembered they use Celsius. Then I was fine. That's when I remembered I have no idea what 10 degrees Celsius means. For those of you who are straight Fahrenheit, it's like 50 degrees. Which is cold. But not really.

The school is huuuuuuugeee. Like 40,000 students huge. That's quite a jump coming from little WashU where everyone knows everyone. In some areas of campus I feel like I'm in a rainforest with the trees and exotic birds. Oh and the turkeys. At least that's what these creatures appear to be.

I have a little dorm room to myself. Apparently the Aussies don't believe in insulation or heat because it's freezing in my room and it's only mid afternoon. Also, I'm back to community bathrooms, which, let's be real- I'm all for camaraderie and sharing, but they're kinda gross. And fun fact: Australia is perpetually in a drought, so we are limited to 4 minute showers. Yeah right.

It's bizarre thinking of myself as an international student. But here I am, in a place where I have the accent, where the currency is weird (don't get me started on these $2 coins), where I can't even fully understand the temperature. Cheers, mates!

freak out

So apparently I'm a blogger now.

In one week, I'm hopping on a plane (and by "a plane," I mean three) and leaving Kansas for a four month adventure in Brisbane, Australia. I have never been out of the country, have no idea what I'm doing, and am generally unprepared for the situation. Awesome.

If you are reading this, you must be:

A) my mom (hi, Lisa)
B) Eric, whom I will encourage to make witty comments on every post
C) a loyal/bored friend
D) a creeper

I truly don't care which of those four you are. Basically, I have the memory of a carrot and need some way to capture this trip so I can show my grandkids that I was a world traveler at one point.

Looking forward to the day I actually have something interesting to share. Until then, enjoying my last days home on the range.