Sunday, July 31st 2011
The term ‘Lazy Sundays’ does apply. Spent the day relaxing, and then met Victoria at Chadstone Shopping Center after her Lacrosse game (she’s a goalie on a club team here). We got groceries and I bought some cute boots and a spring jacket. Afterwards I came home and made pizza with Eliza. I hadn’t seen her for a couple weeks so I was intrigued to hear about her many adventures. The pizza wasn’t half bad, although I think Sam and I have made better J. After dinner Eliza left and I went to ‘Snack and Chat’ for some free ice cream and conversation with other Farrer Hall residents. It was nice to see some other people, and have a little treat! The only problem with the evening is that I was coerced to go for a run with Sean (the kid I met in the airport who is from NY and goes to Cornell). Actually it wasn’t that bad, quite nice to get out and run with someone who keeps a good pace and conversation even though it was just a short run around campus.
Monday, August 1st, 2011
Back to school – Mondays are long with four lectures, but I suppose it’s worth it for Fridays off! It was all ok though, because I had fun plans for the evening (although it took forever to get into the city on the train). I went to a bar in the city called Spleen that was having a free comedy night. It was an amateur night, but it was still pretty fun – I had a good time. The jokes were pretty funny, and the company was good. I went with a number of exchange students. Afterwards, we walked around the city, saw a cute rooftop bar/restaurant and finally ended up at Flinders Station to go home. Everyone was really hungry, so we went to buy food at a stand that was closing, and got so much free food (she was about to throw it away). Someone took a picture of all of us with a ton of food, but I don’t really think anyone needs to see it. I suppose free food is just one of the benefits of hanging out with people that have ‘cool foreign accents’ (I have been told that mine is cool, but I don’t really get it – I’m pretty sure that the Wisconsin accent is one of the lamest accents ever!). Didn’t get back till late, but it was a fun night so I can’t complain!
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
Sleep in late, mostly because I was on skype very late, but I suppose I should be trying to keep in contact with all of you guys! I miss you all a lot, but I really am having fun! Class was boring again, but the weather was really nice so I spent my time in between classes enjoying the sunshine and catching up on some reading for my classes. I already have a project/big group assignment though for my probability and statistics unit. It’s really lame, just making a bunch of analyzing graphs/charts, and explaining them in a technical report – so I get to spend my Friday working on it with my group. I am really not looking forward to it – it has been too long since I have been in school, I am not sure if I know how to do homework anymore, haha. After we worked on the project for a bit I walked back to the halls (dorms), and found a bunch of Americans playing soccer on the residential field. I was so excited to see people I knew playing, and even a couple of girls (I only ever see guys playing, and when I stop by to ask if I can join up after I change, they look at me like I’m a little crazy). I played with them and a few ‘local’ students for awhile, but then about half of them left to do other things, such as go to a bar or watch a movie. I decided to stick around and play with a bunch of guys (most of which are from Mauritius, but are full-time international students here – not exchange students. Not that it really matters, but they were speaking different languages sometimes and I had no idea as to what they were saying – eh, I could still play soccer with them which is all that really matters). It was a ton of fun, I scored some goals and got an excellent workout. The downside – someone stepped on my foot and broke my toenail, which was pretty gross (I won’t post pictures of it, but I do have a bloody sock now). I had to come back to the hall afterwards and search out some antiseptic, but the girl that lives across the hall from me, who is also a medical student, helped me clean it out and wrap it. On the positive side, the guys I played with were impressed with my playing and invited me to play with them on the weekends, and play in a tournament organized by Monash University International Student Services (MUISS) with them! I am super excited, a way to stay in shape and play soccer!
Wednesday, August 3rd 2011
Woke up and had some great free breakfast, and followed it up with meeting over coffee with my exchange advisor, Sarah, and a few other exchange students from America. It was fun to just relax and chat about being in Australia, and meet a few more students from the US. A short day of classes, only two hours, which was nice so I could relax and catch up on Skype with some of you back in the states! After class I played soccer again with the kids from Mauritius. It’s really fun to get out and play, but still so strange to play with people speaking different languages. Thankfully soccer (or football) is the same no matter the language, so I can still have a pretty good time. After playing for a bit I went to teach Shae and Ante how to play Texas Hold’em. It was pretty fun to play teacher, although I’m pretty sure they think I’m a big gambler(which is completely untrue, I just like playing games). I think we may start up a weekly poker game to just get some people together and relax – it should be fun, and a good way to get rid of the useless coins I have all over the place. After a bit of poker Shae and I made an effort to play some ping pong, but alas I am still terrible at games that require hand-eye coordination so the game was pretty bad. Ventured back outside to find the Mauritian boys still playing, so I joined back up, only to mess my toe up a bit more (don’t worry it’s feeling much better now, so I can still play!). Thought about going to do something fun in the evening, but decided to stay in and ‘study’ or more accurately watch movies.
Thursday, August 4th 2011
Happy Birthday Mom J! I miss you so much! Slept late, and when to class, learned about some depressing Australian history and legislation, not a very fun day of class, but my weekend started at 1PM! It’s really nice to be done so early in the week! Plus there was a free BBQ going on, so I of course snagged a free sausage! Afterwards I again relaxed and caught up with people on Skype (sorry if I missed you!). Spent the evening hanging out with some girls that live on my floor, we went to Cole’s supermarket to pick up some groceries and then went to Nando’s (a restaurant that is mainly just chicken with different levels of spicy sauces you can put on it, similar to Buffalo Wild Wings, but not as many sauce choices). It was a fun night, I got to finally meet the infamous Hawaiian who lives on my floor and finally got in after her flight was delayed a couple days. It’s nice to have another American here I guess, but she’s going to Uni here for her whole degree, not on exchange. After dinner we all got ready to go to a nearby bar to celebrate someone’s 20th birthday. It was fun to hang out with a bunch of new people, and make some new friends.
Friday, August 5th 2011
A boring day, worked on that project with my group for a few hours, and once we all started to fall asleep we called it quits and split up the rest of the work – typical engineering students. On the way back to the halls I saw the boys playing soccer again, so of course I grabbed my gear and joined up for a bit. Haha, it sounds like all I do is go to class and play soccer, but I suppose that’s pretty much what I do during the week. It’s a good schedule though, save the fun stuff for the weekends! After soccer I hung out with a bunch a people who were continuing the birthday celebration from Thursday night. It was fun to meet some more new people, listen to some familiar music, and get dressed up a bit. Afterwards I ran into some other exchange students that live in my hall and played some ping pong, it was pretty fun, got to meet a couple new people, and talk about all sorts of funny things. Overall it was a good night, made some new Facebook friends, haha!
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| New friends! |
Saturday, August 6th 2011
Went to my first footy match – Carlton vs. Melbourne – with a bunch of exchange students! Took the train to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG) for the game, and got a free ticket from one of my professors, Rob, who is also a Carlton fan. It wasn’t a very good game, Carlton destroyed Melbourne, but all the same it was interesting to watch. It’s pretty violent, and the pitch is huge, but it’s exciting to watch the fighting and scoring. It was also really cold so it was hard to watch the match comfortably – nevertheless I stayed for the whole match, although I missed all the cool t-shirt and toy freebies! On the positive side Shae kept buying food to eat when she was cold, but never could finish it, so she gave me half a sandwich and half a meat pie – FREE lunch, so I can’t complain!
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