Strike a Pose...

Have been pretty busy with school over the past few weeks, not much fun stuff going on.  In addition I have had a pretty bad cold over the past two weeks, that finally subsided a few days ago!  Now I'm feeling much better and will get back to having more fun here!

Sunday 21st August - Thursday 25th August
I was kept pretty busy being sick and doing some hardcore studying.  I did manage to keep playing soccer in moderation though, thank goodness or I would've gone crazy!  On Thursday I played again with the Mauritians in Monash Sport's (the fitness centre) Thursday futsal league.  We won 11-1 and I even scored an amazing goal which really made the other team angry but showed the guys that I can play decently against bad teams.  Overall that was probably the high point of my week :)!

Friday 26th August
Got up 'early' for Fridays (10am) because I don't have class.  Went down to campus to turn in an assignment (on time!) and then went over to Monash Sport to play futsal (indoor soccer with a smaller ball - size 4 I think) for the afternoon.  It was pretty fun, I scored a couple good goals, but it's weird because the guys always clap and cheer when I score like are surprised I can shoot.  I would be embarrassed after 15 years of playing if I couldn't score an occasional goal. After playing for a couple hours I took a break to get some food and wait for people to play soccer on the resident halls pitch. Was a bit tired so it was pretty bad, but I didn't really have anything better to do with my afternoon. I ducked out early and got ready to have dinner and go into the city with some friends from my hall.  We had pizza from a nearby pizza restaurant (Monash Pizza - creative name, I know), and then we grabbed a taxi to go into the city to a pub called Rooftop Bar (which is in fact on top of a building).  It was a fun night and I got to know some of the people I live around a bit better.

Saturday 27th August
Spent the day relaxing and chatting with people on my floor.  In the afternoon I went over to a soccer friend's house for another BBQ (they really like getting people together to eat loads of food or 'heaps' of food as they say it) with a lot of the guys I play soccer with and their respective girlfriends and female friends. It was pretty fun and we ended the evening playing 'Singstar' and that x-box connect dancing game (which I am horrible at - not sure if I can keep a beat).

Sunday 28th August
Played soccer per usual, finished up assignments due on Monday, and then went to go see 'Green Lantern' with some soccer guys and their girlfriends. It was an interesting movie I suppose, but definitely not the best superhero/action flick I've ever seen.  Maybe 'Green Lantern 2' will be better?  Nah, probably not.

Monday 29th August - Thursday 1st September
Spent the week working on assignments and catching up on my studies in preparation for a trip to Broken Hill (a small mining town in the 'outback'). It was a lot of work to get it all done before we left, but I successfully turned in all my assignments early! I of course continued to play soccer any night anyone else was willing to play (usually Wednesdays and Thursdays). Also visited Tommy at the rehab clinic - he's doing really well, starting to participate in activities to get him walking again.  After visiting Tommy I returned to campus for a futsal game - we won 4 or 5 - 2, not too bad, although we were a lot better than the other team (and I should have scored a couple of times... but missed....).

BROKEN HILL TRIP

Friday 2nd September
I had to get up super early (7am) to catch the 8am tour bus for a 5 day trip to Broken Hill.  Unfortunately when we went to pick up other students from another campus a couple french guys had slept through their alarms and weren't waiting for pick-up.  In light of this we had to wait a half hour for them to get to the bus.  It wasn't too bad though - I mostly just slept then!  Our first stop was at a service station on the north side of Melbourne.  It had lovely choices of food for breakfast - McDonalds, KFC, and Subway.  Nothing like KFC to start the morning out right - just kidding I just had a muffin from the coffee shop there instead!  We then hopped back on the bus and drove for a couple hours until we got to a small town called Charlton.  It was a really small town, probably only a few blocks!  We had lunch which was comprised of pretty soggy sandwiches and doughnuts, which was a bit disappointing.

Charlton stop!

After the stop we again got back on the bus for a few hour drive to Mildura.  On the way we watched an Australian film with Heath Ledger in it called 'Two Hands.'  It was a bit of a strange movie, or maybe just not what I was expecting, nevertheless it was interesting and kept me from sleeping all the time on the bus! We then stopped in Mildura at the 'Coomealla Memorial Sporting Club League' for dinner.  There we got a full meal - salad, rolls, and chicken schnitzel with vegetables.  It was a decent meal, better than McDonald's or soggy sandwiches. I got back on the bus after and settled in for the three hour drive from Mildura to Broken Hill.  On the way we watched 'Mad Max', which is an Australia movie starring Mel Gibson, which apparently was his breakout role.  It was an ok movie, all about a future where there are oil shortages and bandits who steal oil from the good people. Check it out if you want to see some cool old school explosions and young Mel Gibson!  After the film we watched an Australian serie called 'Summer Heights High'.  It is all about a public school in Australia that has some interesting characters - I'm not a huge fan of reality t.v. though so I wasn't really interested in watching it. We finally arrived in Broken Hill around 9:30pm Broken Hill time.  The only catch is that Broken Hill is a half hour behind Melbourne time - so it was really around 10pm. There was some reason for why it was this way, but I can't remember! Upon our arrival we were given room keys to our hotel rooms at the West Darling Motor Hotel (well just the American students - all the Europeans stayed at another hotel). The hotel was a pretty interesting place - looked like it may have been the scene of a few horror flicks in the past, but I'd rather not think of it that way! On the positive side there was a $2 beer tasting in the bar at the hotel so that was nice I suppose.

This is the hallway of the West Darling Hotel... creepy?

Saturday 3rd September
Woke up early again for a continental breakfast of toast, cereal and orange juice.  It wasn't too bad, but not the best breakfast I've ever had. We then jumped on the bus for a tour of Broken Hill from one of the locals. He lived in Broken Hill his whole life and was a former miner.

Our tour guide!

Broken Hill is actually a pretty sizeable town for being in the middle of nowhere!

Some girls from the UK and me on a lookout over Broken Hill.

 After the tour we went to the Royal Flight Doctors station.  There we got to see a video about all the services they provide and see the hangar with all of the planes.  It is really a cool service, they provide medical and dental attention to people all across the outback by airplane.  It's amazing how many people's lives they can save that way!

After that we were given an hour to find somewhere to eat in the town - didn't really have enough time to go to some of the little cafes so we quick grabbed some Subway (I feel terrible eating from American chains here - it just seems so wrong). Then it was back on the bus to go to an old abandoned silver mine outside of the town called 'Day Dream Silver Mine'.  We first go an above ground tour and then headed into the depths of the mine!  It was cool, although the ceilings were a bit low for me!

The road on the drive to the mine!

Cool tree by the mine - and my effort to make an artistic photo out of it!

Inside the mine - these signs made me feel really safe.

After the mine we went to the 'Outback Sculpture Park' to hike up a sizeable hill to watch the sunset and have some snacks.  It was an absolutely stunning sunset, my photos don't even do it justice!

After the sunset we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner (which was at our were probably the best part of the whole meal - fresh fruit is rather expensive here so I tend not to buy a lot of it. After dinner we went over to a place called 'The Musicians Club' for kareoke.  I didn't participate in the singing, but I still enjoyed listening to the very talent singers that were there.  It was also a competition - $50 prize for the top three singers, and two dutch girls on our trip won with a rendition of Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On.'  Overall it was a fun night, and ended on a high note with everyone on our trip getting on stage to 'sing' Don McClean's 'American Pie'.

Sunday 4th September
Another early wake up call followed by a continental breakfast, but I can't complain too much because I did have a lot of fun on the trip!  We drove to the 'Historic Silverton Ghost Town' and had some time to explore at our leisure (there wasn't all that much there so it didn't take too long).  There were a few ruins. a Mad Max museum, and a number of cool art galleries.

An amazing art gallery by the Artist in Residence - John Dynon!

After exploring the town we drove a short way to have camel rides!  Yes, I know you are all asking, "Are there really camels in Australia????" and the answer would be 'YES'!  Back in the day someone though it would be a great idea to bring camels from Asia and let them hangout in Australia.  I think there is something like 10 million camels in the outback now.  I guess it makes sense that they can survive there though, it is pretty much a red desert.  The camel rides were fun, but a bit weird, I think I much prefer horseback riding. 

Janna and me on a camel (the 2nd one if you don't remember what I look like - I am wearing blue, with my hair up).

We then went to the 'Eldee Sheep Station' for lunch.  It is a small hotel/bed and breakfast for travelers in the outback and a sheep farm.  Lunch was pretty good, hamburgers with plenty of extras (lettuce, cheese, bacon, etc.), fries and soda.  After lunch we walked over to the small building that they shear sheep in and got to see the guy that works there shear three sheep.  It was a pretty interesting process: he had to first pretty much wrestle the sheep and get it's legs to carry it, then began shearing the sheep and holding it down at the same time.  It was pretty amazing he kept all the wool in one big piece and managed to get it done in only a few minutes.

An old truck at the Eldee Sheep Station!

Once the sheep were all sheared we drove to a dry riverbed to go on a hike to see some ruins of some old homesteads from some families that lived there about 100 years ago.  It was pretty amazing how well made the houses were, although some of the families' stories were sad.  One family of 5 all died of typhoid ('The Black Plague') and were all buried in a small gravesite by their house.  We also got to see a real live scar tree - which is a tree that has had a section of bark cut out by the indigenous people that used to live there to make bowls, canoes, and other things.

After the hour and a half walk we went back to Eldee Station for a tea time snack - juice, muffins and cake.  It was quite delicious and definitely necessary after walking around for so long in the hot sun.  Once I finished up my snack I started the long bush hike to some tall hills/ small mountains near the station to watch the sunrise.  It took a half hour to get up them, and there weren't any paths, but I made it just in time to see the gorgeous sunset - it was even better than the last one!

After the glorious sunset we had dinner - steak with salad, pasta salad, and potatoes!  It was quite good, although the bugs did get really bad after the sunset - I had to eat fast to avoid ingesting too many bugs!

 Then we had a giant bonfire and dessert - apple/raspberry crumble with ice cream and more chocolate cake.  It was quite delicious and for some reason they gave me both a slice of apple crumble and raspberry crumble (needless to say I was quite full as a result!).  We then hopped back on the buses and returned to our hotel in Broken Hill.  I was completely exhausted and more than ready to sleep after a nice shower.

Monday 5th September

6AM wake up call, was a rough morning because I was still exhausted from all the hiking the day before.  I grabbed breakfast and got on the bus for a 4 1/2 hour drive to Lake Mungo Park (which is 1 1/2 hours away from Mildura - the place we stopped on the way to Broken Hill).  The ride was long and bumpy but I made it there ok and I got a little bit of sleep (thankfully). On the way there I also sat next to a guy from France named Thomas, it was nice to talk to someone new and get to know them a bit better (made the drive go a bit faster).  Upon our arrival at Lake Mungo Park we had lunch - sandwiches with chips and water.  Probably the best sandwich I had on the trip, so I was quite happy. We then had a guided tour of the Lunette Sand Dunes at the park by an Aboriginal Custodian (who was actually really interesting - he carried around a painted guitar and sang us some songs).  It was cool to learn about how the lake had dried up thousands of years ago, but that at one point in time many people lived by the lake and saw some of the remains of their fires in the sand dunes. We also go to learn about some edible plants/fruits in the outback - although I'm not sure if the fruits are large enough to actually keep you alive if you get stranded in the outback.

Immediately following the tour we had tea time (but without any tea or drinks...) that consisted of muffins, doughnuts and cookies.  It was nice, but I don't really think I needed to eat anything - oh well, I'm supposed to eat a lot on vacation, right? We then had a goodbye song from the tour guided and then boarded the buses to head back to Mildura for dinner.  Unfortunately we didn't stick around for the sunset which was gorgeous, although I did get to take a few pictures of it out the bus windows.

After a nice shower we went to Pizza Cafe for unlimited pasta and pizza for dinner.  It was quite good, and I had my first slice of pizza with pumpkin on it - maybe a bit peculiar but nevertheless good. Following dinner we went next door to the Mildura Brewery Pub to relax and have a drink.  It was a really cool place, but I unfortunately forgot my camera, so no pictues of it :(.  It was nice to sit and talk to some new people and watch a bit of the U.S. Open (I had completely forgotten that it was going on right now!).

Tuesday 6th September
Finally got to sleep in - didn't have to get up until 9AM!  We left our hotel at 10AM to leave for a surprise activity which turned out to be wine tasting at a local winery in Mildura.  It was interesting to learn about how wine was made, and see some of the old equipment used to make wine. It was also pretty fun to try out a bunch of different kinds of wine (needless to say I am no wine expert, so it was nice to hear all of the different names finally!).

After the wine tasting we went back into the city of Mildura for lunch before starting the long journey back to Melbourne. There were a couple of nice shops (clothes shops) in Mildura, but I didn't really have enough time or money to really buy anything (although it was still nice to stop and look). On the way back we watched a number of movies: "The Adventures of Prisilla: Queen of the Desert", "Death at a Funeral" and "Mad Max 2" which were all just interesting enough to keep me from sleeping the whole way back (don't worry I did some readings for class as well!).  We also stopped in a small town, Wichyproof for a bathroom break, and Bendigo for dinner.  Thankfully the trip wasn't as long as the way there - we left around 1:30pm and made it back to campus by around 10pm. Overall it was a really fun trip - perhaps a bit tiring, but I am definitely happy that I had the opportunity to go!

NOTE:  The title of this blog post comes from an Australian song (G'day G'day by Rob Fairbairn) that we listened to pretty much every time we were on the bus! Check it out if you're bored!

Essay Writing...

In light of the fact that I have to write a 1000 word essay today that is due tomorrow, I bring to you another (not so exciting) blog post!

Sunday August 14th, 2011
Boring day, slept in late, but got lunch with a couple of people I hung out with before.  A delicious hamburger with everything on it (except onions), it was fantastic, one of the best burgers I've had here yet.  I'm considering going back to that place because it was so good and relatively cheap by meal standards here (only $7.50!!!).  After lunch I got ready to go visit a friend who was unfortunately injured here and in the hospital (don't worry he's on the road to recovery, but it's just going to take some time).  It was nice to see him and meet his parents (who are lovely people).  Afterwards I came back to finish my assignment that was due the following day.  Not a bad day, saw plenty of friends, and avoided doing my assignment for at least 8 hours!

Monday August 15th & Tuesday August 16, 2011
Pretty typical days: Attended class, caught up with some of my studies, and played soccer with the guys.  Actually I'm pretty sure days like these are even typical for back home - it's almost like I've never left, other than the fact that the weather here is bad compared to home right now!

Wednesday August 17th, 2011
Another typical day, but this day ended with a free dinner!   It was a 'dine-in' which basically means that we went to the dining hall in the dorms and got a free meal with people from our hall.  It was 'Moroccan' food I believe, but I'm not really sure what that is, so it just seemed like some bad Asian dishes!  Oh well, it was free, I can't expect it to be amazing.  After dinner we played trivia, much like trivia at Caffrey's on Monday night without the super competitive law students and Triangle Fraternity.  It was fun, but I forgot the name of the bassist of the RHCP (embarrassing).  I knew it started with 'f' but I just couldn't manage to come up with the name 'Flee.'  Needless to say we didn't win, but I do know the first, second and eighth rule of Fight Club, so I guess it wasn't all for nothing.

Thursday August 18th, 2011
Yes, my 22nd birthday.  That's right kids, I'm no longer a fun 21 year old, but a mature and respectable person of 22.  Unfortunately I woke up with an ear infection, pink eye, and an aggravated cold.  Needless to say it was a rough start to my birthday, but nevertheless I made the best of it.  I made an appointment with a doctor at Monash Health Services and was able to get the necessary medications to help me get better.  The rest of the day I spent working on assignments, and resting up for a soccer match.  I am now playing on a team (Undefeated FC) with a bunch of Mauritians, and we had our first game on my birthday.  We play every Thursday evening indoor on court floor - which is hard because everything moves so much faster.  It's a shame we lost 4-1, it would have been nice to win, especially playing on a team called 'Undefeated', haha.  I had fun playing though, it's nice to play competively every once in awhile, I've been too relaxed playing all of these pick-up games.  I need to put my game face back on :)!

Friday August 19th, 2011
Woke up early with the intention of playing soccer at 10AM, but alas it is Mauritian time so we didn't start til noon, and of course got kicked out of the gym by registered sports (it was really a shame).  After getting kicked out I met up with two other civil engineers who I did a project with two weeks ago to work on some homework for my stats/probability course.  It was a long assignment, but I'm happy to say that I completely it in about 4 hours, and I'm pretty confident that most of it was right.  When I got back to halls I found a whole bunch of guys play soccer (not surprising at all), so I grabbed a quick dinner and went out to play with them.  It was pretty fun, and I scored a beautiful goal: upper 90 side net from a small angle, perfection - couldn't have hit it any better.  It was a great showing - no one stepped up to defend me on the right side of the goal, so I chose my target and took a shot.  Got to make them nervous, they always assume I'm not that good becaues I'm a girl.  All the guys were surprised and clapped for me, but they don't think I can do it again - I guess I'll have to show them that it's all skill, not luck. Was going to have dinner and hang out with some friends in the city for my birthday, but in light of the fact that I was sick I postponed the birthday fun til the following Friday (which is completely fine with me) and opted to play soccer instead.  After soccer I cleaned up and went to a small gathering of soccer friends and their female friends for a barbeque.  It was pretty good - chicken, sausages, shrimp, garlic bread, mushrooms, onions.  They really went all out for the event.  It was also nice to have a 'home-cooked' meal.

Saturday August 20th, 2011
A day for taking it easy - still wasn't feel completely better so I took the day to relax and sleep, because apparently that's how you get rid of illnesses (not by playing copius amounts of soccer?!?).  A pretty good lazy day, watched Transformers 2, ate some greasy pizza, had some delicious Chinese soup, played Peggle (not in that order exactly, but close enough).  Also went to bed early - it amazing, I'm acting more and more like Sam - haha, but I don't have a couch to fall asleep on here! 

Overall a pretty lazy/down week, but I suppose when I'm sick I need to rest - don't worry more fun adventures to come next week!

Settling In...

This week was pretty typical, classes, soccer, and free food filled up most of my school week (Monday through Thursday).  I've been having a lot of fun playing soccer, met a lot of people that way, and have found it to be a great way to keep fit over here without having to force myself to go for boring runs.  I had to fill out a census form for Australia, which was pretty interesting considering the fact that I had to skip almost all of the questions because I am not a citizen here and don't have a job.  Although my hall gave us free pizza when we turned in our census form!  Yay for free food again!  Don't worry though, I did do some fun stuff this week...

Friday, August 12th 2011
Slept in late, and headed into the city to tour the Royal Botanical Gardens.  It was pretty cool, lots of interesting plants, plenty of opprotunity to take pictures.  I just spent some time walking around by myself snapping some interesting things, haven't done that much lately, so it was really nice!  Also got to tour a WWII memorial/shrine.  It was a really cool building and also provides a great view of the city on a balcony.

The shrine.

After the Royal Botanical Gardens, Shae and I went into the city center and checked out a free museum called the 'Ian Potter Center' which is on Federation Square (Fed Square that I mentioned earlier).  The museum houses plenty of Aboriginal art, and the display rotates every once in awhile, so hopefully I will be able to go again to see new works.

Some artwork at the museum.

It was only disappointing to find out that Cadel Evans, the Australian who just won the Tour de France (and the only Australian to ever win it), was on Fed Square that afternoon - we missed him!  I can't believe I didn't even know about it!  We later found a supermarket (and a Krispy Kreme shop for a snack for Shae) to pick up some plasticware and tim tams for a birthday gathering.  It was the night before Hesmond's 21st birthday, so we had a big surprise dinner for him.  It was really fun, and I finally got to try Asian 'Hot Pot'  (it is essentially a bunch of frozen Asian food, cooked in a hot pot with vegetables).  The meal was pretty good, although they now claim that I need to make them some traditional American food... so I'm going to make burgers or something I guess if they hold me to it.  Will update with pictures, from the birthday celebration as soon as I get them - I only had my nice camera so I didn't take the time to take pictures...

Saturday, August 13th 2011
Laundry day!  I'm really getting the hang of being a normal person that has to do laundry on a weekly basis.  It's not too bad.  Also played soccer again with the Mauritians, although I'm starting to understand what it means when they say 'football at 12:30' - it means we won't start playing til 1:30 at the earliest, haha.  It's nice to have that extra time to get ready (Jules I think you are Mauritian at heart - you run on the same time schedule :P).  After soccer I finished up my laundry, and got ready to hang out with the Mauritians for another person's 21st birthday.  I also got to prove that I am a girl and don't just wear sport gear all the time. It was fun: pizza, tim tams, and learning the 'basics' of Mauritian Creole, which is not much of anything considering I can only remember one word and it just sounds like 'go goat'!  Overall it was a good night, and they actually spoke enough English for me to actually get to know them a bit!

Laura, I got your card!  Thank you so much for the (early) birthday wishes!  I'm so happy it made it here without a problem.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends...

Sunday, July 31^st 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 1^st, 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 2^nd, 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 3^rd 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 4^th 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 20^th birthday.  It was fun to hang out with a bunch of new people, and make some new friends.

Friday, August 5^th 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!

New friends!

Saturday, August 6^th 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!

On a Walk...

I’ve been keeping busy, but I finally found some spare time to explore nature around campus (yes, that means I did take out the dslr, and snapped some ‘artsy’ pictures of flower, plants, and any sort of wildlife I could get in focus).  From strange looking plants, to obnoxious birds, and giant possums it really is quite an adventure when I step outside my hall.  Here’s just a taste of some of the things I see here on a daily basis… even though I really have no idea as to what any of it really is.  Feel free to give me your expert opinion as to what all these things are!

Pretty flowers!



No idea.

It's alive?

Baby apples?

Some sort of alien creature?

A day in the life....

Saturday, July 23^rd, 2011

Today I went on a field trip to the Healsville Sanctuary with about 50 other study abroad/exchange students.  The sanctuary is pretty much a zoo that only houses animals that were rescued in the wild (hurt, abandoned, etc.).  Therefore the sanctuary is home to many of the big name Australian animals!  I used this trip to more or less satisfy my need to see some kangaroos and koalas.  I couldn’t live with myself if I went all the way to Australia and never saw the wildlife (aside from the huge possums that seem to live all over in Melbourne).  Hung out with two girls during the trip – Shae (S. Korea) and Susi (American) – it was pretty fun, and we got to see just about everything in the park including a bird show.  The show was actually really interesting and gave us up close views of some amazing birds – the only problem I had with it was that it only consisted of about 8 different bird species, and I’m pretty sure that Australia has way more bird species than that. It was a fun trip, although it did get super cold near the end of the day, which really did not make being in an outdoor zoo any fun!

Lazy kangaroos - definitely had the right idea...

Scary emu...

Adventurers Down Under anyone?!?! Frank the frill-necked lizard!

It's a wallaby!

Sunday, July 24^th, 2011

Official Laundry Day!  That’s right everyone I actually did my own laundry, all by myself, in a strange dormitory situation!  On the positive side I didn’t have to pay to use the washer and dryer, yay!  Also I did manage to get everything washed in two loads!  I’m sure you are all brimming with pride now that you know that I can truly survive on my own!  I also attended my hall’s (Farrer Hall) weekly event – snack and chat.  Every Sunday night the hall provides a free snack in an effort to bring a bunch of the residents together to have a snack and chat.  It’s actually fun, and a good way to meet people!

Monday, July 25^th, 2011

First day of classes – now I know that no one that is reading this is jealous of the fact that I had lectures in the middle of July.  It’s almost like summer classes, but it’s going to be for a whole semester!  I had one lecture at 9AM for two hours all about statistics and probability in relation to civil engineering – super boring, pretty sure that the professor spent approximately an hour of that time showing us different types of graphs one could use to display data.  Keep in mind that he was using the excel graph function for most of them so it was pretty self explanatory. Then I stopped by the Monash University International Student Services (MUISS) to grab a free breakfast.  That’s right the breakfast started in the middle of my class (10AM) which really made me feel like I was up way too early for class. Although they have free breakfast for every weekday in the next two weeks, so I will be sure to take advantage of the free food! My second class of the day was ‘Australian Idol’ (peculiar name, not really sure what relation it has to the subject matter but I guess it sounds good).  The course is pretty much a course on Australian culture, which is quite helpful considering I’ll be living in Australian culture for the next few months.  The course also offers a nice collection of free field trips (including a tour of Sydney, a footy game, and various museum visits), and emphasizes getting out and experiencing Australian culture for ourselves.  While this course might be a bit of work, I am really excited for it!  My last course of the day is called “Ancient Civilizations.’  This course consists of a study of, you guessed it, ancient cultures including Greek, Macedonian, and some other cultures I can’t remember right now.  Lecture was boring, just about Ancient Egypt and stuff.  After class wrapped up around 4pm I went back to my hall and tried to figure out where I was supposed to go to pick up a key for the ‘bike share’ program. To explain; the bike share program is a cool program here on campus where there are a number of bikes owned by the university that can be unlocked by residents with keys and ridden around campus for free!  Unfortunately I didn’t get a key yet but they are making more keys in the next week or so – hopefully I’ll get one then. Later there was a free dinner in my hall – International Meal Night.  It was pretty good, although I would like to make the argument that the meal was more or less just Asian, which is fine, but not exactly my definition of international.  I was looking for some nachos, or tacos, so I was sorely disappointed.

Tuesday, July 26^th, 2011

Another school day – but only 2 hours of lecture on possibly the most boring subject ever, that does not require any knowledge of civil engineering!  Transport and Traffic Engineering focusing specifically on different types of INTERSECTIONS!  Imagine two fun filled hours of going over different types of intersections – stop controlled, signalized, unsignalized, roundabouts, and more!  The only interesting few minutes came during a discussion on the recently invented ‘Magic Roundabouts’ that have been put in at some intersections in the UK.  If you don’t know what they are do a little Google search and be amazed and confused!  My practical was cancelled for statistics, so it was a pretty relaxing day.  In the evening I went into the city with Ante (Norwegian) and Susi (American) to see a prescreening of a movie – ‘The Beaver.’  Unfortunately we were late, and did not really know where the theatre was located so instead we got some dinner at a healthy burger place called ‘Grill’d.’  It was pretty cool because on Tuesdays they have a student special – a free drink with any burger purchase!  Yay for freebies!   Afterwards we met up with some other foreigners at a delicious coffee/confectionary/all around awesome shop on Melbourne University’s campus (I must say their campus is cooler than the campus here at Monash, also it is actually in the middle of the city).  It was nice to meet some more new people and socialize, although I skipped a ‘fun’ hall event to do so.  Oh well there are supposed to be plenty of fun hall events during the semester.  A nice relaxing day, I hope that I’ll always be able to find time to do fun things while I’m here.

Wednesday, July 27^th, 2011

Got up at a decent hour and went to the Campus Centre (like the AMU or Unions at schools back home) to get some free breakfast again from MUISS.  They had already put away all the food when I arrived at 10:30AM, but a nice volunteer got what they had left out for me to eat – bread with Nutella, cornflakes, and biscuits.  It wasn’t too bad for another free meal!  Then I attended my first Tutorial (discussion) section for my Ancient Civilizations course.  It wasn’t too bad, just an overview of the course structure and assignments. After that finally bought the course notes for the class, and a notebook, because I am in school this semester, not just having fun touring Australia.  I do have to pass all my courses – traveling is not an excuse. I also picked up a ‘culture card’ which is a nifty card provided by the Victorian Government that provides international students assistance and notifies them of events being held in the state.  There is supposed to be a cool event this weekend that I plan on going to with a couple of friends.  Right after I picked up the card, I was bombarded with messages from Hesmond and Ida to meet them at a free BBQ and Silent Disco that was being held on the lawn outside of the Student Centre.  The food was delicious and free!  Then we joined in the Silent Disco.  For those of you who have never heard of a Silent Disco, it is a dance party in which there are multiple DJs who each play different things on a different station.  Each person there gets headphones that they can use to tune into the different stations – there were only two at this event, but we have plans to go to a real silent disco with tons of DJs.  It was pretty fun, and funny, to see so many people dancing without music, and knowing that they might not even be dancing to the same music!  Had class after the Silent Disco, which was interesting, but not very easy to follow – the lecturer enjoys discussing historical events slightly out of order, which is super unhelpful.  I know nothing about Ancient Civilizations – I hope I can pass this class and do all the traveling I want to do!  Later that evening I helped Shae install VLC Player on her computer so she can stream the free public television offered by our Uni.  The only problem was that her computer is in Korean, and almost impossible for me to figure out how to set it up – eventually we just had to change the computer settings to English – but we did succeed!  After that I crashed her hall’s free dinner session (which I apparently wasn’t supposed to do, but I didn’t know where to go for my hall’s free dinner).  It was pretty delicious pasta, so I’m not really complaining about the choice.  Afterwards I went back to my hall to hang out with people that live on my floor.  They are relatively social but usually only later at night.  They ended up taking me to an Irish pub called Dooley’s.  It was pretty fun to get to know them better, although it ended up being a late night of dancing (which I am terrible at!).

At Dooley's with some friends from my floor.

Thursday, July 28^th 2011

Had class once again at 10am, which isn’t too bad, although it was Traffic and Transport Engineering, so another painfully boring hour about flow, volume, time mean speed, space mean speed, etc. (for all you Civils out there).  Followed that class up by hanging out with another girl from America who is in my class (her name is Erin and she goes to school in Michigan), and met another guy from America who is from California (all not really important).  Then I had to go to my Tutorial (called ‘Tuts’ by some Australians) for the Australia Idol (pretty much Australian culture course).  It was pretty simple, talked to someone in the class and then introduced them to the class, and found out that we do in fact have to give a 15 minute presentation sometime during the semester.  Overall it was a short day of class because my Practical for Traffic and Transport Engineering was canceled (I’m not complaining).  After my tutorial I found out there was a free barbeque right outside of the Student Centre – so of course I helped myself to some delicious food, and free drinks, and basked in the start of my weekend!  Spent the majority of the afternoon talking to Corey on Skype, and relaxing.  Later that evening my floor had a dinner – ‘Pizza and Glowsticks’ – so essentially we ate pizza in the dark and played with glowsticks, haha.  I got a pepperoni pizza and it was actually pretty good – can’t complain, although they put a lot less sauce on their pizzas.  Afterwards everyone got ready for Thursday evening – apparently it is a big social night at a pub a few blocks away.  It was fun to go there and see all the other exchange students and meet some new people!  And it was a fun start to my weekend!

Friday, July 29^th 2011

NO CLASSSSS!  After four years of University, I finally get a day off during the week – I only have to travel halfway across the world to do so!  Woke up late, and met up with Hesmond and his roommate Calvin to work out in the gym (called Monash Sport).  Took it easy on the recumbent bike, and did some reading for my Ancient  Civilizations class.  When I got back from the gym I found out that there was a hall dodgeball competition, that had a free barbeque for all participants and supports.  With the promise of more free food I of course showed up and was coerced to actually play a couple of rounds for Farrer Hall.  After I played a few rounds I got cold, and decided it was time to clean up and shower – too bad when I got back for the barbeque I was coerced into playing again (in completely incorrect attire).  It was funny, made things more interesting, and my hall won the whole tournament anyway!  Afterwards I just relaxed in my room – chatted with a few new friends on Facebook chat.

Saturday, July 30^th 2011

Woke up early for a weekend, around 10am, to get ready to go into the city with some other exchange students for the ‘Melbourne Open House.’  This is a weekend in which cool buildings in Melbourne are open to the public for free tours.  Unfortunately I was unaware that in order to see most of the buildings you needed to make reservations for tours, which we didn’t make, so we didn’t get to see too many cool buildings – only the Treasury.

Melbourne Central Station - a building in a building, an interesting place.

My frail attempt at some 'artistic' street photography.



Gold bricks in the Treasury building and the corner of the buliding below.

As a direct result of the impossibility of seeing too much cool stuff, Victoria (a sweet girl from Norway) and I went shopping at some of the cool shops in the city.  It was a lot of fun, but I didn’t really find anything that I really loved, but she got a super cute jacket!  Afterwards we got dinner and met up with Niklas (from Finland) and a new friend, Janis (from Germany).  Victoria went home, and I stayed with the guys to meet up with some other people from Sweden who live in the city.  We met them at one of their houses that is near Melbourne Uni which is actually pretty close to the city center.  I hung out there for a little while and met four guys from Sweden, and a few girls from Australia.  It was pretty fun just to relax and talk to people (and see how easy it is to be social with people from all over the world).   Afterwards we split and met up with some Americans at a pub called ‘Elephant and Wheelbarrow’.  It was an interesting place, but it did have a live band (although they only did covers).

That's all for last week - keep tuned for next week's update!  Sorry this one is so late!