After our volleyball training we went to the music festival as a part of bondstock this week. It would be the only event we would be attending and the locals talked it up a lot. We got dressed quickly and headed out the door across the quad to Don's for the event. When we got there it looked a lot like the set up for our high school homecoming dances. Minus the fancy dress, awkward smiles, awkward dates, and of course the alcohol. After an immediate trip to the bar and stealing the coolest stubbie holders I have ever seen. We hit the dance floor. We got to the festival around 9, and we left around 10:30 to pre-game before heading off to East for the night.
Around 11, we all gathered in our room to leave for the buses. The Bentley guys were coming up to get us and I had to run downstairs to let them in. As I was leaving I physically almost ran into Kayleen, our house mom, aka Mummy. She looked perplexed and then peeked into our room and let herself in. I ran down the stairs as quickly as possible to get them and took my time as I made my way up the stairs with the guys again. When I got up there Mummy was gone, and Libby looked pissed (angry, not intoxicated). Apparently, we were loud and Libby was trying to talk herself out of the situation. The guys claim that Mummy was going to give us a fine on the spot but Libby argued with her to show that we need to receive a written warning first. Now we were going to have to have a meeting with Mummy and Daddy about tonight's incident. Glass bottles, that is why we were in trouble. Granted, taking a quick scan of the room, there was glass everywhere. Oh well, everyone is going to have a little stint at some point or another. Ours just came sooner rather than later.
We went to East so much as not thinking twice about it and would figure it out in the morning. Everyone had their wobbly boots on at East and loving life. We somehow acquired an ACES hat (Australian Culture Education Society) and we were now using it as a dance hat. If you received the hat, you show off your best moves in the center and then pass it on when it was time for someone else to show off their moves. Who would have thought that someone SO SIMPLE could occupy our time for SO LONG. We had to be one of the last people to leave East that night. We got back to our room and had some people over to hang out. It was close to 5 am when I started getting tired and wanted people to leave. Libby had the same idea as me and passed out on her bed with everyone there. After I ushered everyone out, I was happy to change and get ready for bed. Then Libby sat straight up, jumped out of bed and was ready to go. She wasn't tired at all, just wanted everyone out. I have not laughed that hard in awhile and often think about it now and still laugh. We checked our email before we left and saw that Mummy and Daddy requested to meet with us tomorrow to "talk." Reality came rushing back.
As I stirred to wake up I hear the most obnoxious girl screaming down the hall in front of the elevator. Around the 7th round of screaming I finally scream from my bed to shut up and respect quiet hours. Then I look at the clock. 12:11. Well, so much for quiet hours, but she was still obnoxious. We do our daily chores and workout before our meetings. Quite the busy day includes a meeting with Mummy and Daddy, a meeting with Ryan "pre-Perth departure," quickly followed by a bus and train ride away to go to the Rugby match! Gold Coast Titans vs. Sydney Roosters in the semi-finals for the NRL. If only we survive the meeting.
All day we dread it and really just want it to go away. But once 4:30 rolls around we head down to Mum and Dad's apartment. It is a really nice place for living in a dorm, and makes me a little envious of their apartment. She asks us the worst question. "So what occurred last night", followed by, "and why are you guys in trouble?" blah blah blah blah. Long story short, no glass bottles! It was a giant misunderstanding followed by rash rudeness on Mum's part, from our side at least. We thought it was only beer stubbies not allowed, apparently it is mixed stubbies as well. But the weird part is, is that you can have bottles of wine or hard alcohol, just no stubbies... It is by far the dumbest rule ever created. They explained why the rules were there and how to fix it. Dad, of course, is way nicer than Mum and makes me wonder what in God's name he ever saw in her... But they let us off with a verbal warning. Actually they let us off with the LAST verbal warning ever given in the AC. From now on, it is an immediate $200 fine on the spot, and if it happens again it is a $500 fine and a meeting with the vice-pro-chancellor-provost-really-high-up-there-guy and you are pretty much kicked off living on campus. Not good. So from now on it's bags of goon and bottle of wine for room 4-36 and will stay that way all semester.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA JOE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FATHER! I LOVE YOU AND WISH I COULD SPEND YOUR BIRTHDAY WITH YOU! eat lots of carbonara and cake and make sure mom makes you breakfast in bed!!
love you and miss you!
love you and miss you!
Week 2. I am over school.
For starters, it is only week two in school and I am ready for this whole classes thing to be over. Luckily, We will leave for Perth after this week and I won't have classes until week 4. Waking up is getting harder and harder every day, and those 8 am are taking a toll on me.
Monday was a disaster and a half. We were running around going from one class to class and my to-do list out the door. I was running from the library to the cafe for lunch and off to the post to send my dad's birthday present. I did a LOT of research finding the best Cabernet Sauvignon and dark reds in Australia. A total of 5 different types of wine so that we can rate them and know once and for all which wine is the best in Australia. After a large sum out of my bank account (my actual bank account not my credit card) I brought the bottles of wine to the Post to send home. Do you know what the Post told me? Since 9/11, you are not allowed to ship wine to the United States unless it is through a certified winery and a case is being shipped back. Thank you Osama Bin Laden, you ruined something else for me. Now not only do I have to be thirsty during flights because of the lack of liquids, you just ruined my father's 60th birthday. Score- Bin Laden= 2, Marisa=0. Luckily, we can drink in his honor and take pictures of the label. OR wait until he arrives in the Gold Coast and drink it with him. It is a toss up at this point. For those at home that can find these labels. PLEASE TRY THEM AND LET ME KNOW HOW THEY ARE
1 PepperJack 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (Saltram of Barossa)
2. Penfolds 2009 Thomas Hyland Cabernet Sauvignon (Southern Australia)
3. Rolling 2007 Cabernet Merlot (Central Ranges, Australia)
4. Wynns 2008 53rd Vintage Cabernet Sauvignon (Coonwarra)
5. Wirra Wirra 2008 Church Block Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz Merlot (Mclaren Vale)
On Tuesday, I did not pay attention at all in psych. In fact, my marks (aka grades) might take a toll because of that one. Instead, I found flights to every place we want to visit for cheap prices. In fact, I think it probably more productive than learning (re-learning) about the scientific method and what is considered normal. However that night we planned all of our trips for the semester. I am so excited to start traveling more and seeing all of Australia. My biggest fear is that we aren't going to have enough time and I am not going to see everything. Our attentive schedule looks like this
Week2/3- September 26th- October 3rd- Perth with Australian Games
Week 4- October 5th- October 9th- Surfer's Paradise (Kevin comes into town!)
Week 6- October 21st- October 24th- Whitsunday (Girl's trip!)
Week 7- October 28th- October 31st- Sydney (Halloween!)
Week 8- November 4th- November 7th- Byron Bay
Week 9- November 11th- November 14th- Cairns (Libby and Adam's 21st!)
Week 10- November 18th- November 21st- Melbourne
Week 11- November 25th- November 28th- Brisbane (Thanksgiving!!)
Week 12/13- December 2nd- December 6th- New Zealand
Week 13- December 6th- December 10th- Fiji/Tahiti
AH I CANNOT WAIT TO START TRAVELING :))
Now that school is out of the way for the week I can focus on the fun. I also do not need to think about school work until October 4th when I come back from Perth. Life cannot get better than this. If I haven't said it enough, this place is paradise that just happens to have classes on campus.
Monday was a disaster and a half. We were running around going from one class to class and my to-do list out the door. I was running from the library to the cafe for lunch and off to the post to send my dad's birthday present. I did a LOT of research finding the best Cabernet Sauvignon and dark reds in Australia. A total of 5 different types of wine so that we can rate them and know once and for all which wine is the best in Australia. After a large sum out of my bank account (my actual bank account not my credit card) I brought the bottles of wine to the Post to send home. Do you know what the Post told me? Since 9/11, you are not allowed to ship wine to the United States unless it is through a certified winery and a case is being shipped back. Thank you Osama Bin Laden, you ruined something else for me. Now not only do I have to be thirsty during flights because of the lack of liquids, you just ruined my father's 60th birthday. Score- Bin Laden= 2, Marisa=0. Luckily, we can drink in his honor and take pictures of the label. OR wait until he arrives in the Gold Coast and drink it with him. It is a toss up at this point. For those at home that can find these labels. PLEASE TRY THEM AND LET ME KNOW HOW THEY ARE
1 PepperJack 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (Saltram of Barossa)
2. Penfolds 2009 Thomas Hyland Cabernet Sauvignon (Southern Australia)
3. Rolling 2007 Cabernet Merlot (Central Ranges, Australia)
4. Wynns 2008 53rd Vintage Cabernet Sauvignon (Coonwarra)
5. Wirra Wirra 2008 Church Block Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz Merlot (Mclaren Vale)
On Tuesday, I did not pay attention at all in psych. In fact, my marks (aka grades) might take a toll because of that one. Instead, I found flights to every place we want to visit for cheap prices. In fact, I think it probably more productive than learning (re-learning) about the scientific method and what is considered normal. However that night we planned all of our trips for the semester. I am so excited to start traveling more and seeing all of Australia. My biggest fear is that we aren't going to have enough time and I am not going to see everything. Our attentive schedule looks like this
Week2/3- September 26th- October 3rd- Perth with Australian Games
Week 4- October 5th- October 9th- Surfer's Paradise (Kevin comes into town!)
Week 6- October 21st- October 24th- Whitsunday (Girl's trip!)
Week 7- October 28th- October 31st- Sydney (Halloween!)
Week 8- November 4th- November 7th- Byron Bay
Week 9- November 11th- November 14th- Cairns (Libby and Adam's 21st!)
Week 10- November 18th- November 21st- Melbourne
Week 11- November 25th- November 28th- Brisbane (Thanksgiving!!)
Week 12/13- December 2nd- December 6th- New Zealand
Week 13- December 6th- December 10th- Fiji/Tahiti
AH I CANNOT WAIT TO START TRAVELING :))
Now that school is out of the way for the week I can focus on the fun. I also do not need to think about school work until October 4th when I come back from Perth. Life cannot get better than this. If I haven't said it enough, this place is paradise that just happens to have classes on campus.
Crib Clubbers should have prepared me more...
For those who were unaware, Libby decided to join us up for the Australian University Games in the Mixed 4's Beach Volleyball league. The Australian University Games is equivalent to the Olympic games of all the Uni's. It is a huge deal in Australia and there are only 3 Americans going from Bond for sure, and possibly in the whole tournament. Considering I only playing intermurals last year with the Crib Clubbers, my technique and skills were limited to being hungover and not very good. We would start training twice a week immediately and hopefully improve by the time Perth came along.
The first training session we had went well. My self esteem was up and I figured if I can play with these people I should be fine to play in the games. They also told us that we were D2 so we were not going to be playing the hardest people in the league, but they weren't going to be easy wins. It turned out, the people we played with at first were schoolies (in high school) and that our competition was going to be harder than them. That is when we noticed the girls playing on the other court. They were beast. No tanks. Made for destruction on the court and we were going to be their first victims. I could smell the blood in the air already. We hesitantly questioned our trainer, Robert (who's real name is Glenn by the way... isn't that unusual?), and he calmed our fears immediately. They were on the national tour team but went to Bond. One just got recruited to play in Sweden and the other as a coach in Europe. Thank god. We would never see them in a match and I rejoiced inside.
So when we played beach volleyball on the beach the next day, my self-esteem was high enough to play with all the guys. I should have stayed laying out. I swear I got worse as I played more. It was not a good sign for me.
The next day in training we met our teammates. Benji is from Western Australia and is on our Mixed 4's team with us. He is good and will probably hold his end up and most of mine during these tournaments. We also met Felipe, a guy from Chile who lives in Broadbeach. Felipe is really good but is playing in pairs with Aaron who he claims is "fat around the middle and we are trying to get him to lose it." His words, not mine. There are also some people from Germany who are playing with us, but we cannot figure out if they are coming to Perth, or just want to train in hopes of joining the team next year. It is still to be determined. Robert fixed our form, got us out of the mindset of indoor volleyball and said we were continuing to improve.
We have training twice a week an are getting better every time. Sometimes training is really serious with drills and patterns, and other days there is just enough people to play a game and we have matches instead of training. That is when Robert told us to go to indoors tonight. We figured, eh, we are already sandy, already sweaty, why not? I will NEVER again go to an indoor volleyball session. The ball is a lot harder than I remember, the spikes are that much more intense, and I fear i will break my nose like Ben Stiller does to that poor girl in "Meet the Parents." We played with girls on Griffin University indoor volleyball team. They were trying to set up who would be setter and who would be hitter and so forth. Like I had any idea what that meant. Don't we all do every position at some point based on rotations? This was so different than what I was use to. When we finished our matches, Libby and I made up the first excuse in our heads and high tailed it out of there. My arms were purple the rest of the night from the intensity. I learned very quickly I should stick to beach volleyball, plus I can get a tan that way :).
Practice yesterday was hilarious. It was Libby, Robert, Ben who is in high school, and I. We played pairs the entire time and were taking nothing serious. I kicked every other ball and were throwing them all over the place instead. We make a great team let me tell you. I had a flashback to senior year of high school when obnoxious noises and obscenities were cool. I would make the most random noises out of nowhere when I had to run to the other side of the court. I was the butt of every joke that day.
Needless to say, I am loving playing volleyball. I am meeting so many people I would never have met. I cannot wait for Perth this weekend. It is going be PERTHection
The first training session we had went well. My self esteem was up and I figured if I can play with these people I should be fine to play in the games. They also told us that we were D2 so we were not going to be playing the hardest people in the league, but they weren't going to be easy wins. It turned out, the people we played with at first were schoolies (in high school) and that our competition was going to be harder than them. That is when we noticed the girls playing on the other court. They were beast. No tanks. Made for destruction on the court and we were going to be their first victims. I could smell the blood in the air already. We hesitantly questioned our trainer, Robert (who's real name is Glenn by the way... isn't that unusual?), and he calmed our fears immediately. They were on the national tour team but went to Bond. One just got recruited to play in Sweden and the other as a coach in Europe. Thank god. We would never see them in a match and I rejoiced inside.
So when we played beach volleyball on the beach the next day, my self-esteem was high enough to play with all the guys. I should have stayed laying out. I swear I got worse as I played more. It was not a good sign for me.
The next day in training we met our teammates. Benji is from Western Australia and is on our Mixed 4's team with us. He is good and will probably hold his end up and most of mine during these tournaments. We also met Felipe, a guy from Chile who lives in Broadbeach. Felipe is really good but is playing in pairs with Aaron who he claims is "fat around the middle and we are trying to get him to lose it." His words, not mine. There are also some people from Germany who are playing with us, but we cannot figure out if they are coming to Perth, or just want to train in hopes of joining the team next year. It is still to be determined. Robert fixed our form, got us out of the mindset of indoor volleyball and said we were continuing to improve.
We have training twice a week an are getting better every time. Sometimes training is really serious with drills and patterns, and other days there is just enough people to play a game and we have matches instead of training. That is when Robert told us to go to indoors tonight. We figured, eh, we are already sandy, already sweaty, why not? I will NEVER again go to an indoor volleyball session. The ball is a lot harder than I remember, the spikes are that much more intense, and I fear i will break my nose like Ben Stiller does to that poor girl in "Meet the Parents." We played with girls on Griffin University indoor volleyball team. They were trying to set up who would be setter and who would be hitter and so forth. Like I had any idea what that meant. Don't we all do every position at some point based on rotations? This was so different than what I was use to. When we finished our matches, Libby and I made up the first excuse in our heads and high tailed it out of there. My arms were purple the rest of the night from the intensity. I learned very quickly I should stick to beach volleyball, plus I can get a tan that way :).
Practice yesterday was hilarious. It was Libby, Robert, Ben who is in high school, and I. We played pairs the entire time and were taking nothing serious. I kicked every other ball and were throwing them all over the place instead. We make a great team let me tell you. I had a flashback to senior year of high school when obnoxious noises and obscenities were cool. I would make the most random noises out of nowhere when I had to run to the other side of the court. I was the butt of every joke that day.
Needless to say, I am loving playing volleyball. I am meeting so many people I would never have met. I cannot wait for Perth this weekend. It is going be PERTHection
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
What to do on a rainy day?
We woke up after pub crawl to look outside and see it was a not so nice day. We attempted to go to Broadbeach to have some fun and take some photographs for class. It was so windy and cold (aka in the 60's) I wore a sweater on the beach as I read and lounged around.
The following day we planned to go the Wildlife Conservation. We were so excited to hold koalas and pet kangaroos. It was a great disappointment to see it was down pouring outside and it looked like we would not be able to go see some animals. We decided to head to Surfer's Paradise in the daytime and without alcoholic beverages accompanying us. We jumped on the bus and headed somewhere new.
Surfer's Paradise is a lot like Miami, Florida. There are high end shops, boutique, touristy thing, and outdoor cafes. It was so much fun to walk around and shop and have it be okay to look like the tourist we are. Then we find a winery which was the greatest find all day. $6 box of wine and $2.99 bottles of wine. The cheapest wine we have found since arriving and we immediately grab a box and a few bottles as the girls decide they want to go back and into the hot tub. The guys decided to stay and bowl, which is an activity is perfect for my mood.
I buy some snakes (who can bowl without candy?!) and some cruisers, while the guys pick up a case as we bowl. The bowling alley was all in black light and cosmic, and music videos were playing on the big screen. It was kind of like a club, but bowling instead of dancing, and family members instead of drunken idiots. The first game, only one of us broke 100 (way to go Adam), and some of barely broke 50 (keep practicing Stephen). The second game we decide to make team and place a bet on the table. It was Fink, Adam, and I vs. Jeff, Jon, and Stephen. The goal was Fink stay with Stephen, I stay with Jeff, and Adam stays with Jon. Needless to say, we got our ass kicked. And we now owe them a case. Great Job team, I mean we all fell short of our marks. But overall it was great fun and something I hope we do again soon.
The bus ride back it started down pouring again. Right as I got off the bus, my bag ripped open and I dropped my $2.99 bottle of wine. I was actually quite upset because I was intrigued on the taste and quality. It was all you can eat sushi that night, but the horrific downpour kept us from attending. So after a fun rainy afternoon activity, we took it easy on Sunday night and prepared for week 2 classes and what was to come.
The following day we planned to go the Wildlife Conservation. We were so excited to hold koalas and pet kangaroos. It was a great disappointment to see it was down pouring outside and it looked like we would not be able to go see some animals. We decided to head to Surfer's Paradise in the daytime and without alcoholic beverages accompanying us. We jumped on the bus and headed somewhere new.
Surfer's Paradise is a lot like Miami, Florida. There are high end shops, boutique, touristy thing, and outdoor cafes. It was so much fun to walk around and shop and have it be okay to look like the tourist we are. Then we find a winery which was the greatest find all day. $6 box of wine and $2.99 bottles of wine. The cheapest wine we have found since arriving and we immediately grab a box and a few bottles as the girls decide they want to go back and into the hot tub. The guys decided to stay and bowl, which is an activity is perfect for my mood.
I buy some snakes (who can bowl without candy?!) and some cruisers, while the guys pick up a case as we bowl. The bowling alley was all in black light and cosmic, and music videos were playing on the big screen. It was kind of like a club, but bowling instead of dancing, and family members instead of drunken idiots. The first game, only one of us broke 100 (way to go Adam), and some of barely broke 50 (keep practicing Stephen). The second game we decide to make team and place a bet on the table. It was Fink, Adam, and I vs. Jeff, Jon, and Stephen. The goal was Fink stay with Stephen, I stay with Jeff, and Adam stays with Jon. Needless to say, we got our ass kicked. And we now owe them a case. Great Job team, I mean we all fell short of our marks. But overall it was great fun and something I hope we do again soon.
The bus ride back it started down pouring again. Right as I got off the bus, my bag ripped open and I dropped my $2.99 bottle of wine. I was actually quite upset because I was intrigued on the taste and quality. It was all you can eat sushi that night, but the horrific downpour kept us from attending. So after a fun rainy afternoon activity, we took it easy on Sunday night and prepared for week 2 classes and what was to come.
"Bond Behind Bars" aka the longest day of my life.
I have heard nothing about good things about Pub Crawl. From the random waitress in South Beach that told me to go, to local Aussies, even the high schoolies that we train for volleyball with all recommend us to go. The second later Pub Crawl sold out within a few hours and by the time we bought our tickets we got on the 2:30 pm pub crawl. The best part about Pub Crawl is that it is sponsored by BUSA which is the equivalent of SGA at SLU. It is the student government and a huge fundraiser for the school. It was going to be 5 bars, tons of people, lots of drinks, drunken idiots, and hopefully no bodily fluids that didn't reach a toilet on anyone's part.
We grabbed lunch at Bond Cafe before the crawl so that we had some substance in our stomach before a long day of drinking ahead. We jumped on the 2nd bus in front of Don's and headed to the first bar Robina Tavern. When we arrive we notice that there are kids playing in the playground outside. This is not normal. So we hurry inside to hide our shame of day-drinking. We were welcomed into the door with a shot of mixed drinks in hopes of us buying the drink at the bar. We walk to the bar and ask for the specials. The bars are super smart and only allow people to buy pre mixed drinks that do not have a very high alcohol content. Libby and I make a rule that I insist on following for the sake of my reputation and my liver. Absolutely no more than 2 bars per bar and a water bottle at each. So I start out the day with a white wine spritzer called West Coast, a surprising choice on my part that will soon become a go to drink of choice. The guys find the greatest thing ever in their minds. MAN-weisers. For a very low cost of $5.50 a stubbie. That is actually one of the cheapest beers/drinks in the bar and to everyone's embarrassment they stand in a single line saying the pledge of allegiance, happy to not only have an American beer (which it isn't anymore mind you) but a St. Louis beer as well. That is when I spot him. PAULY-D from Jersey Shore. ok ok don't get your panties in a bunch it wasn't the real Pauly-D, but it looked IDENTICAL to him. I knew we would be fast friends, when he falls off his chair. I restate that to, IF he makes it far in the crawl, we will become fast friends. That when the prison-guards blow their whistles and we are bused off to the next bar.
We next head to the ever popular CBD as our second stop on pub crawl. I FINALLY get to meet Pauly-D, who to my disappointment, is actually named Shaun, but I refuse to call him anything but Pauly-D all night. He and his friend Wes start talking to us and buy us the next round. They order a round of shots and I say a silent thank-you that the bar won't serve them. It is only 4 and I should not be taking shots. So I stick to my drink of choice and stay with it all night. We here a bunch of commotion coming from the corner of the bar, and just shake our heads when we see all of our friends from SLU playing Zumie Zumie and flip-cup in the the corner of the bar. We have to go join for a least one round. After a few rounds of Zumie Zumie, Libby and I take a lap to meet new people. We find some girls on our floor and chat for a little when Pauly-D comes up to me again. He wants to dance of course. He being a drunken stumbling idiot, and myself laughing at his stupidity. My response? Sorry, I do not know how to dance I was never taught. Granted, for those who do not know me, is quite possibly the largest lie I could ever tell and just a down-right insult. He claims he will teach me, and I again respond, sorry I've tried and it's an impossible task sorry! And silently think to myself this better not be a persistent thing. I excuse myself to go "smoke," even though I refuse to smoke and hate the smell of cigarettes. Luckily the prison guards blow their whistles shortly after as we leave CBD for the next bar. On the way out they hand out stubbie coolers (coozies, so I grab 3 naturally) and a bottle of water and I run onto the buses.
It feels unnatural to arrive at East when the sun hasn't even set yet. But the familiar bar feels right as the music is pumping. Pauly D continues to try and dance with me, and it gets to the point where I see him on one side of the bar and I RUN to the other side in order to avoid him at all cost. The best part of East was when i saw him being escorted out of East for being entirely too intoxicated. My heart fluttered with excitement as I skipped back to my friends and joined in on the festivities. That is when the great thing in the world happened. The Asian foreign exchange students were taking an obscene amount of pictures together. I knew I had to get into this picture and befriend them all. Yes. I know NONE of the people that are in this picture and yes I am newly found friends with every single one of them. I am only disappointed that the crazy American jumped in our picture. (no not me, the only other one). And as the whistles ring, we jump on the bus to the next bar.
The bus ride to Mermaid Beach Bar and Grill was by far the funniest thing ever. We were screaming chants with all of the South American kids. Classic soccer (or futbol I should say.) chants like OLE OLE OLE OLE and then we started the SLU chants. The SLU fight song is rung throughout our bus as we lead everyone is singing the song that get the half full chafeitz arena every basketball game. Then Jeff leads high school football chants that gets everyone together. I didn't even realize when we arrived at the bar for our next stop. As we were waiting to get into the bar I felt a sudden immediate pain on the 4th toe of my right foot. I look down to see a cigarette, face down, on my toe. My precious 4th toe that is the main victim of anything that happens with my feet. I scream at the top of my lungs at the male who dropped it and demand that he buy me a drink to compensate for my pain. It didn't work. He said sorry and ran away. oops! Mermaid was an interesting bar. The upstairs was full of bondies, but the downstairs is a much older male crowd. And the waitress/shot girls were in just racy lacy underwear. As a female, I was uncomfortable. As someone under the age of 35, I was uncomfortable. As a person that doesn't like to be objectified, I was really uncomfortable. We learned quickly to stay upstairs. We were playing games and having fun and I didn't even notice Shauna grabbed my arm. Apparently some people wanted to meet us. That is where I met these guys who shall remain nameless, that turned out to be stage 6 clingers. I am still dealing with that in hopes to break free of the cycle. I was all okay with heading out to the next bar.
Shooters. The Final Bar. They dropped us off in the middle of Surfer's Paradise, and we had to find our way to the bar. After running through the shopping areas and just trying to stay with the people who were dressed like us, we finally found our way. Shooters was a sweet bar and very efficient to be on their VIP list. There was dancing and craziness and around 11/1130 we all got very tired and tried to find the bus back. The bus was in the most bizarre location and it took around 10 minutes to find it's location. Once we did, the bus driver was not present. So Libby and I got behind the driver seat and honked the horn pretending to drive it. After we finally got his attention, we drove back to Bond in a hopes of getting a great night sleep.
It was finally time to rest my liver, body, and most of all my wallet.
We grabbed lunch at Bond Cafe before the crawl so that we had some substance in our stomach before a long day of drinking ahead. We jumped on the 2nd bus in front of Don's and headed to the first bar Robina Tavern. When we arrive we notice that there are kids playing in the playground outside. This is not normal. So we hurry inside to hide our shame of day-drinking. We were welcomed into the door with a shot of mixed drinks in hopes of us buying the drink at the bar. We walk to the bar and ask for the specials. The bars are super smart and only allow people to buy pre mixed drinks that do not have a very high alcohol content. Libby and I make a rule that I insist on following for the sake of my reputation and my liver. Absolutely no more than 2 bars per bar and a water bottle at each. So I start out the day with a white wine spritzer called West Coast, a surprising choice on my part that will soon become a go to drink of choice. The guys find the greatest thing ever in their minds. MAN-weisers. For a very low cost of $5.50 a stubbie. That is actually one of the cheapest beers/drinks in the bar and to everyone's embarrassment they stand in a single line saying the pledge of allegiance, happy to not only have an American beer (which it isn't anymore mind you) but a St. Louis beer as well. That is when I spot him. PAULY-D from Jersey Shore. ok ok don't get your panties in a bunch it wasn't the real Pauly-D, but it looked IDENTICAL to him. I knew we would be fast friends, when he falls off his chair. I restate that to, IF he makes it far in the crawl, we will become fast friends. That when the prison-guards blow their whistles and we are bused off to the next bar.
We next head to the ever popular CBD as our second stop on pub crawl. I FINALLY get to meet Pauly-D, who to my disappointment, is actually named Shaun, but I refuse to call him anything but Pauly-D all night. He and his friend Wes start talking to us and buy us the next round. They order a round of shots and I say a silent thank-you that the bar won't serve them. It is only 4 and I should not be taking shots. So I stick to my drink of choice and stay with it all night. We here a bunch of commotion coming from the corner of the bar, and just shake our heads when we see all of our friends from SLU playing Zumie Zumie and flip-cup in the the corner of the bar. We have to go join for a least one round. After a few rounds of Zumie Zumie, Libby and I take a lap to meet new people. We find some girls on our floor and chat for a little when Pauly-D comes up to me again. He wants to dance of course. He being a drunken stumbling idiot, and myself laughing at his stupidity. My response? Sorry, I do not know how to dance I was never taught. Granted, for those who do not know me, is quite possibly the largest lie I could ever tell and just a down-right insult. He claims he will teach me, and I again respond, sorry I've tried and it's an impossible task sorry! And silently think to myself this better not be a persistent thing. I excuse myself to go "smoke," even though I refuse to smoke and hate the smell of cigarettes. Luckily the prison guards blow their whistles shortly after as we leave CBD for the next bar. On the way out they hand out stubbie coolers (coozies, so I grab 3 naturally) and a bottle of water and I run onto the buses.
The bus ride to Mermaid Beach Bar and Grill was by far the funniest thing ever. We were screaming chants with all of the South American kids. Classic soccer (or futbol I should say.) chants like OLE OLE OLE OLE and then we started the SLU chants. The SLU fight song is rung throughout our bus as we lead everyone is singing the song that get the half full chafeitz arena every basketball game. Then Jeff leads high school football chants that gets everyone together. I didn't even realize when we arrived at the bar for our next stop. As we were waiting to get into the bar I felt a sudden immediate pain on the 4th toe of my right foot. I look down to see a cigarette, face down, on my toe. My precious 4th toe that is the main victim of anything that happens with my feet. I scream at the top of my lungs at the male who dropped it and demand that he buy me a drink to compensate for my pain. It didn't work. He said sorry and ran away. oops! Mermaid was an interesting bar. The upstairs was full of bondies, but the downstairs is a much older male crowd. And the waitress/shot girls were in just racy lacy underwear. As a female, I was uncomfortable. As someone under the age of 35, I was uncomfortable. As a person that doesn't like to be objectified, I was really uncomfortable. We learned quickly to stay upstairs. We were playing games and having fun and I didn't even notice Shauna grabbed my arm. Apparently some people wanted to meet us. That is where I met these guys who shall remain nameless, that turned out to be stage 6 clingers. I am still dealing with that in hopes to break free of the cycle. I was all okay with heading out to the next bar.
Shooters. The Final Bar. They dropped us off in the middle of Surfer's Paradise, and we had to find our way to the bar. After running through the shopping areas and just trying to stay with the people who were dressed like us, we finally found our way. Shooters was a sweet bar and very efficient to be on their VIP list. There was dancing and craziness and around 11/1130 we all got very tired and tried to find the bus back. The bus was in the most bizarre location and it took around 10 minutes to find it's location. Once we did, the bus driver was not present. So Libby and I got behind the driver seat and honked the horn pretending to drive it. After we finally got his attention, we drove back to Bond in a hopes of getting a great night sleep.
It was finally time to rest my liver, body, and most of all my wallet.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The parties NEVER stop.
Day: Tuesday
Time: After volleyball
Things to do: Apparently go out.
We bought tickets to "Illegally Bond." A party for the law school students to raise money and fundraise. I could think of no better way to raise money than throw a huge party and sell tickets to kids on campus. All I know is that this would never happen on SLU campus. It is almost taboo to drink (from the viewpoint of the Law School or SGA) let alone have these organizations selling tickets to their parties. Then again that is probably why America has huge underage drinking problem. The more taboo it is, the more kids want to feel included and participate. Anyways... off my soap and back to the party.
The buses were suppose to leave around quarter to 8 for the law party, and of course none of us were ready. The guy were not back from class yet, and I hadn't even jumped in the shower yet. Around 8:15 we decided we didn't want to go and sold all of our tickets to people who were dying to go and be apart of this "illegal" fun. I think it took us all of 5 minutes to sell at least 5 tickets, and we even got all of our money back so it was beneficial for us too! So we stayed in the dorms playing games until it was a more appropriate time to go to CBD's. We even met some new friends tonight! Mallory and Mackenzie heard us playing games and came to join us. And while playing Zumie Zumie, our new friend name Greek heard us playing down the hall and came running to join. Apparently she love this game and was so excited that others knew how to play, she threw away the insecurities of a room with absolutely no one she knew, and joined us immediately. We left for CBD with some pit stops for pictures in front of the fountain that turned out all of us mid-laugh, and quite humorous.
CBD was really fun that night. We got a few tables and were talking and laughing all night long. That is when I noticed it. Stephen walking around outside, by himself, aimlessly, looking way more confused than he should have. I notice this from the table and run outside immediately in my brand new black strappy heels that were not meant for running. He had been asked to leave CBD (well not allowed in would be a better description) and was trying to go home. I open the back door and told him I would meet him inside anyways. Around 20 minutes later, I see the security guard talking to Stephen and he was being escorted out of the door. "Time to go home early I guess," is my first thought. I accompany Stephen back to the AC and start getting ready for bed myself. Then Libby calls me saying come back and it is really fun and I will be missing out if I go to bed now. Knowing very well that I hate to miss out, I make a quick phone call to Kevin to walk me back to the bar since it is around 300 meters away from campus.
When it CBD was closing, we all started to walk back. Kiley grabbed my hand and was like let's take this taxi back Marisa! Thinking to myself, 1. I am lazy. 2. I do not have to pay. 3. Quicker to campus. All signs point to yes of a taxi (even if it was only 300 meters) and I told the others I would meet them at campus and quite literally jumped into the taxi. As I am getting to know my cab-mates, I see the beautiful Bond Uni whiz by me in the taxi. Now really confused where we are going I finally ask my new friends. "Surfer's Paradise Naturally." Oh naturally, was my first thought too. So off to Melba's with Kiley and our new cab-mates, Brennan and shaggy-dog boy.
Melba's was surprisingly fun, even though I didn't want to be there. There were a ton of Bondies there, so it felt like I was there with a ton of people, even though I only went with Kiley. After taking a few laps and meeting some people I feel like I have seen 123093742458x but never met, I was so ready to go home and go to bed. I still had class at nine am, and the time was slowly reaching 2 am. After trying to find Kiley and others, we finally grabbed a taxi back and I finally was able to rest my eyes and get some shut-eye before my nine am.
Thursday night after an intense volleyball day, Libby and I run and get our Don wristbands before the long line so we do not need to wait in line when 10 o'clock rolled around. We get ready to go and the guys get very antsy waiting impatiently for us. We head to Don's where there are too many people as usual as we try and snag a table. There is a man that has to be AT LEAST 45. We quickly name him the professor and as strolls over to talk to us. He claims to be 28 and has to be the most awkward person I have ever met. Pulling the dancing by himself, trying to talk, and look cool all at once moment, I feel uncomfortable in his presence. Slowly we excuse ourselves and head outside to the guys.
While outside we spot from a distance Allie's friend, crazy Aussie from East. He is the one that tried to get his driver to drive us home instead of waiting for the bus like everyone else. Allie is mortified he is there as we all die with laughter as he strolls up to her to try and talk again. It was hilarious to watch and even better that we were snapping pictures as all of this was occurring.
On the other side of things the guys decided to make up their own frat, Beta Rho Omega Sigma, BROS as they call themselves with the symbol of hang loose. I didn't want to be the one to tell them a Rho is actually a P and their symbol looks like BPΩΣ. I mean I am not one to judge. It was all in good fun. After Don's a lot of people went to East, but being so exhausted from the intense school week I had, I had to go to bed early and finally get a good night sleep. After all, Pub Crawl was tomorrow and going to a disaster of a day starting well before 2:30 pm.
Time: After volleyball
Things to do: Apparently go out.
We bought tickets to "Illegally Bond." A party for the law school students to raise money and fundraise. I could think of no better way to raise money than throw a huge party and sell tickets to kids on campus. All I know is that this would never happen on SLU campus. It is almost taboo to drink (from the viewpoint of the Law School or SGA) let alone have these organizations selling tickets to their parties. Then again that is probably why America has huge underage drinking problem. The more taboo it is, the more kids want to feel included and participate. Anyways... off my soap and back to the party.
CBD was really fun that night. We got a few tables and were talking and laughing all night long. That is when I noticed it. Stephen walking around outside, by himself, aimlessly, looking way more confused than he should have. I notice this from the table and run outside immediately in my brand new black strappy heels that were not meant for running. He had been asked to leave CBD (well not allowed in would be a better description) and was trying to go home. I open the back door and told him I would meet him inside anyways. Around 20 minutes later, I see the security guard talking to Stephen and he was being escorted out of the door. "Time to go home early I guess," is my first thought. I accompany Stephen back to the AC and start getting ready for bed myself. Then Libby calls me saying come back and it is really fun and I will be missing out if I go to bed now. Knowing very well that I hate to miss out, I make a quick phone call to Kevin to walk me back to the bar since it is around 300 meters away from campus.
When it CBD was closing, we all started to walk back. Kiley grabbed my hand and was like let's take this taxi back Marisa! Thinking to myself, 1. I am lazy. 2. I do not have to pay. 3. Quicker to campus. All signs point to yes of a taxi (even if it was only 300 meters) and I told the others I would meet them at campus and quite literally jumped into the taxi. As I am getting to know my cab-mates, I see the beautiful Bond Uni whiz by me in the taxi. Now really confused where we are going I finally ask my new friends. "Surfer's Paradise Naturally." Oh naturally, was my first thought too. So off to Melba's with Kiley and our new cab-mates, Brennan and shaggy-dog boy.
Melba's was surprisingly fun, even though I didn't want to be there. There were a ton of Bondies there, so it felt like I was there with a ton of people, even though I only went with Kiley. After taking a few laps and meeting some people I feel like I have seen 123093742458x but never met, I was so ready to go home and go to bed. I still had class at nine am, and the time was slowly reaching 2 am. After trying to find Kiley and others, we finally grabbed a taxi back and I finally was able to rest my eyes and get some shut-eye before my nine am.
Thursday night after an intense volleyball day, Libby and I run and get our Don wristbands before the long line so we do not need to wait in line when 10 o'clock rolled around. We get ready to go and the guys get very antsy waiting impatiently for us. We head to Don's where there are too many people as usual as we try and snag a table. There is a man that has to be AT LEAST 45. We quickly name him the professor and as strolls over to talk to us. He claims to be 28 and has to be the most awkward person I have ever met. Pulling the dancing by himself, trying to talk, and look cool all at once moment, I feel uncomfortable in his presence. Slowly we excuse ourselves and head outside to the guys.
While outside we spot from a distance Allie's friend, crazy Aussie from East. He is the one that tried to get his driver to drive us home instead of waiting for the bus like everyone else. Allie is mortified he is there as we all die with laughter as he strolls up to her to try and talk again. It was hilarious to watch and even better that we were snapping pictures as all of this was occurring.
On the other side of things the guys decided to make up their own frat, Beta Rho Omega Sigma, BROS as they call themselves with the symbol of hang loose. I didn't want to be the one to tell them a Rho is actually a P and their symbol looks like BPΩΣ. I mean I am not one to judge. It was all in good fun. After Don's a lot of people went to East, but being so exhausted from the intense school week I had, I had to go to bed early and finally get a good night sleep. After all, Pub Crawl was tomorrow and going to a disaster of a day starting well before 2:30 pm.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Wait, I actually have to attend classes here?!
Since it was the first day of school, I wake up the most excited I will be all semester to go to class. I shower beforehand and even wear cute clothes to class. I give this mentality one week before I start wearing leggings and v-necks everyday of my life again.
My first class was 8 am Monday morning. Great Narrative Literature. Surprisingly, Libby and I find our classroom relatively easy. Our teacher is an Feminist Atheist and she revolves her class around the Bible. Yes that is correct. A Feminist Atheist who teaches a literature class that takes modern day works and relates them to the Bible. She does not want us to look at the Bible for a theological stand point, but simply as a piece of literature that happens to shape our societies as a whole. The class as a whole should be easy. Write a paper on a book, do a presentation on another, and read the excerpts from each section so we can discuss and find the relationships between them. But as someone who has gone to catholic school my entire life (Actually Bond University is the first school I have gone to that is not Roman Catholic affiliated. But is is private.) I do not know if I can look at the subject objectively. Luckily, I am a good student that does what the teacher asks of me. The only bad part about the class is that it is a TWO HOUR lecture and at 8 am I hope my eyes can stay open long enough to actually learn something.
My 10 am photography is going to be a lot of fun. I am actually extremely interested in the subject and I really hope to become good at it, at least learn something. There is only problem. I know NOTHING about my camera. I cannot focus it, I cannot turn the flash on, and I certainly do not know how make things look artistic. And you can forget about self-timer, especially if I want it to take multiple pictures at once. Our first assignment is to take self-portraits of ourselves. 5 different poses/pictures but 10 pictures printed to bring to class. This is definitely going to be a lot of work for me. Luckily, Libby Kiley and a bunch of other sluzers (people that go to Saint Louis University) are in it with me! Our professor is a twenty-something year old and looks like someone we can party with more than have an intelligent conversation about cameras and lens sizes with. I am looking forward to it and pictures to come from my "works of art." My favorite from this week is shown here. I legitimately took this myself and is a spontaneous laugh!
On Tuesday at 8 am I have my abnormal psychology class. Otherwise known as Psychopathology to us in Australia. It seems really similar to the American class abnormal psychology and I am hoping around the same time commitment. I love psychology and it is a class that I can actually pay attention in and stay focused throughout the whole two hours. Nothing like learning about the abnormal to justify my craziness as normal. Otherwise I am just as much of a lunatic as I really thought I am! Our professor is a stereotypical professor. An older female that is way too intelligent for her own being. Just my kind of professor.
My favorite class by far this semester is Sex, Society, and the Movies. This class is not for the immature. In fact you have to be 18 years or older in order to even be enrolled in the class. This is going to be a problem for me and Stephen, who is taking it with me. We literally learn about sex and how it is portrayed in films throughout society and how it is changed. We have a two hour lecture, a one hour tutorial, and a 2 and a half hour av screening where we watch the movies. The movies included this semester are: Fight Club, Brokeback Mountain, Eyes Wide Shut, Crash, and my personal favorite Inside Deep Throat. YES THAT IS CORRECT. Inside Deep Throat. A pornographic movie that we are still debating if it is homosexual or heterosexual. Apparently it is legal, and even encouraged to watch movies like this for class in Australia. It shows how porn has changed the sexual ways of film and we need to witness it first hand to understand. Having never seen a porn movie completely before (vomit is emerging from my throat around 30 seconds of being turned on), I can only imagine it will be full of giggle and laughing fits, disgusted faces, and utterly complete embarrassment. Especially since it is a co-ed class and I know a bunch of new male friends in it. I can seriously only imagine what the semester will bring. Our professor is hilarious. First off, she has no idea what she is talking about. She reads everything word for word off of the paper in front of her. She has no idea how to work any piece of technology. Honestly she is worse than my mom with computers (Sorry mom! you know it is true though!) Then, when it came time for our tutorials, it was a complete disaster. She gets side tracked every five minutes and does not understand easy concepts. With 14 people in our tutorial, and groups of two to present, that leaves 7 groups. With 11 movies and 7 groups there are going to be some movies that do not have a group. She quite literally could not grasp the concept that there were less people that movies and demanded that every movie had two people. What should have taken 5 minutes to decide ended up taking 45-50 minutes. If every tutorial is like that, I will have to slowly rip out my hair in order to prevent from strangling her.
Four classes that is it! At two hours per lecture, we only have class once a week. To fulfill the third hour time slot, we have tutorials. Tuts (pronounce toots!) are like labs that break down our lectures and give us more one-on-one time with our professors to ask questions and have little activities. I personally do not like toots (I am sorry I have to spell it like this.) I prefer big lecture classes that requires little participation on my part and even less group activities and projects. Busy work irks me in the wrong way. I prefer the one test a month and quiz me on what I can study for the week before. That is why I started a loving relationship with note cards beginning of freshman year that I am not ready to give up. But at $3.95 a pack of note cards, my relationship will have to be on a little hiatus which means "hasta la bye bye" to my note card holder (ok that is a lie, I'll end up buying the note cards anyways. I love that thing too much and got a new one thanks to K Willie D)
So to sum it up, my semester educational-wise is going to be a real challenge. I actually do not know if I will physically make it. I may have to drop a class or two. It is even worse because I have at least one person from SLU in every one of my classes. Libby alone is in 3 out of 4 classes, and Stephen is in the other. These classes are going to be more of an social hour than classes. Seriously, the only problem is what does my grade transfer back to the states as. They have a differently mentality here and I need to start thinking like it instead of the American way. In America, we start out at 100% and lose points for everything we do wrong. Here, you start out with 0% and gain points for everything you do correct. It is almost impossible to get a 90% or above. Rough translations are 85% and up is High Distinction which is a A+. 75% is Distinction or an A. 65% is a Credit or a B. 50% is Passing or a C. and Anything below a 50% is Failing or an F. This is of course according to our photography professor. And of course, knowing me, I will cry if I get anything below a High Distinction, or even that because it is not what I would normally get in America.
Even though I will try my best. So much for perfection.
My first class was 8 am Monday morning. Great Narrative Literature. Surprisingly, Libby and I find our classroom relatively easy. Our teacher is an Feminist Atheist and she revolves her class around the Bible. Yes that is correct. A Feminist Atheist who teaches a literature class that takes modern day works and relates them to the Bible. She does not want us to look at the Bible for a theological stand point, but simply as a piece of literature that happens to shape our societies as a whole. The class as a whole should be easy. Write a paper on a book, do a presentation on another, and read the excerpts from each section so we can discuss and find the relationships between them. But as someone who has gone to catholic school my entire life (Actually Bond University is the first school I have gone to that is not Roman Catholic affiliated. But is is private.) I do not know if I can look at the subject objectively. Luckily, I am a good student that does what the teacher asks of me. The only bad part about the class is that it is a TWO HOUR lecture and at 8 am I hope my eyes can stay open long enough to actually learn something.
My 10 am photography is going to be a lot of fun. I am actually extremely interested in the subject and I really hope to become good at it, at least learn something. There is only problem. I know NOTHING about my camera. I cannot focus it, I cannot turn the flash on, and I certainly do not know how make things look artistic. And you can forget about self-timer, especially if I want it to take multiple pictures at once. Our first assignment is to take self-portraits of ourselves. 5 different poses/pictures but 10 pictures printed to bring to class. This is definitely going to be a lot of work for me. Luckily, Libby Kiley and a bunch of other sluzers (people that go to Saint Louis University) are in it with me! Our professor is a twenty-something year old and looks like someone we can party with more than have an intelligent conversation about cameras and lens sizes with. I am looking forward to it and pictures to come from my "works of art." My favorite from this week is shown here. I legitimately took this myself and is a spontaneous laugh! On Tuesday at 8 am I have my abnormal psychology class. Otherwise known as Psychopathology to us in Australia. It seems really similar to the American class abnormal psychology and I am hoping around the same time commitment. I love psychology and it is a class that I can actually pay attention in and stay focused throughout the whole two hours. Nothing like learning about the abnormal to justify my craziness as normal. Otherwise I am just as much of a lunatic as I really thought I am! Our professor is a stereotypical professor. An older female that is way too intelligent for her own being. Just my kind of professor.
My favorite class by far this semester is Sex, Society, and the Movies. This class is not for the immature. In fact you have to be 18 years or older in order to even be enrolled in the class. This is going to be a problem for me and Stephen, who is taking it with me. We literally learn about sex and how it is portrayed in films throughout society and how it is changed. We have a two hour lecture, a one hour tutorial, and a 2 and a half hour av screening where we watch the movies. The movies included this semester are: Fight Club, Brokeback Mountain, Eyes Wide Shut, Crash, and my personal favorite Inside Deep Throat. YES THAT IS CORRECT. Inside Deep Throat. A pornographic movie that we are still debating if it is homosexual or heterosexual. Apparently it is legal, and even encouraged to watch movies like this for class in Australia. It shows how porn has changed the sexual ways of film and we need to witness it first hand to understand. Having never seen a porn movie completely before (vomit is emerging from my throat around 30 seconds of being turned on), I can only imagine it will be full of giggle and laughing fits, disgusted faces, and utterly complete embarrassment. Especially since it is a co-ed class and I know a bunch of new male friends in it. I can seriously only imagine what the semester will bring. Our professor is hilarious. First off, she has no idea what she is talking about. She reads everything word for word off of the paper in front of her. She has no idea how to work any piece of technology. Honestly she is worse than my mom with computers (Sorry mom! you know it is true though!) Then, when it came time for our tutorials, it was a complete disaster. She gets side tracked every five minutes and does not understand easy concepts. With 14 people in our tutorial, and groups of two to present, that leaves 7 groups. With 11 movies and 7 groups there are going to be some movies that do not have a group. She quite literally could not grasp the concept that there were less people that movies and demanded that every movie had two people. What should have taken 5 minutes to decide ended up taking 45-50 minutes. If every tutorial is like that, I will have to slowly rip out my hair in order to prevent from strangling her.
Four classes that is it! At two hours per lecture, we only have class once a week. To fulfill the third hour time slot, we have tutorials. Tuts (pronounce toots!) are like labs that break down our lectures and give us more one-on-one time with our professors to ask questions and have little activities. I personally do not like toots (I am sorry I have to spell it like this.) I prefer big lecture classes that requires little participation on my part and even less group activities and projects. Busy work irks me in the wrong way. I prefer the one test a month and quiz me on what I can study for the week before. That is why I started a loving relationship with note cards beginning of freshman year that I am not ready to give up. But at $3.95 a pack of note cards, my relationship will have to be on a little hiatus which means "hasta la bye bye" to my note card holder (ok that is a lie, I'll end up buying the note cards anyways. I love that thing too much and got a new one thanks to K Willie D)
So to sum it up, my semester educational-wise is going to be a real challenge. I actually do not know if I will physically make it. I may have to drop a class or two. It is even worse because I have at least one person from SLU in every one of my classes. Libby alone is in 3 out of 4 classes, and Stephen is in the other. These classes are going to be more of an social hour than classes. Seriously, the only problem is what does my grade transfer back to the states as. They have a differently mentality here and I need to start thinking like it instead of the American way. In America, we start out at 100% and lose points for everything we do wrong. Here, you start out with 0% and gain points for everything you do correct. It is almost impossible to get a 90% or above. Rough translations are 85% and up is High Distinction which is a A+. 75% is Distinction or an A. 65% is a Credit or a B. 50% is Passing or a C. and Anything below a 50% is Failing or an F. This is of course according to our photography professor. And of course, knowing me, I will cry if I get anything below a High Distinction, or even that because it is not what I would normally get in America.
Even though I will try my best. So much for perfection.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Sure, I'll call myself a surfer.
We gathered the troops and our surfboards and walked to the beach. We spent the rest of the day attempting to surf. I stood up successfully on the board once! I knelt successfully on the board twice and literally sat on the board "surfing" the rest of the time. I was probably extremely bad but we were having fun and that is all that matter. The guys were way better. Some got up often, others preferred to lay on the board and sway with the waves. Either way, we were having a blast. The waves peaked at like a foot and a half but it didn't us. We even met a local male who was trying to help us surf. He was giving us tip after tip, but we were all still struggling. We are going to blame it on the lack of "swells," but in reality it is probably our lack of ability. After my lips started turning blue and the water started feeling like it was what the Titanic sunk in, I decided to call it a day. My body was starting to hate me for all the physical activity I was making it endure.
A quick nap on the beach with my surf board proved effective. The guys went surfing again and someone of decided to go exploring Mooloolaba. It is an adorable beach town with cute restaurants and shops surrounding the beach front. I even found an awesome vegan restaurant to buy a veggie and wild rice burger! (ok ok I was excited!) And then we found a sushi place for $2.50 a roll! We were so excited at that prospect that we immediately ordered rolls for all of us. Adam even experienced his first encounter with sushi and I hope it is a relationship he continues to pursue. It was then when we were about to leave that we decided to take a bunch of beautiful pictures on the rocks and scenery of Mooloolaba. We looked like the biggest tourist anyone could look like, and the best part is that we didn't care. Then I remembered that my camera could be completely submerged in water without being injured. I started trying to take pictures of the scenery underneath the water that no one really get to see. I was surprisingly happy how that turned out.
Sea FM Sunshine Coast Half Marathon
5:00 am- My alarm goes off. I have everything laid out so getting ready was a pretty easy part of the morning. I doubled, no triple checked I knew where I was going. La Bulsa Park, La Bulsa Park, La Bulsa Park. I repeated to myself over and over and I ran out the door of the hostel trying to be quiet and trying to find a taxi. I walked to the McDonald's on the corner looking for a taxi. I waited for like 3 minutes before I became impatient and called for one. Right after I hung up with the taxi cab company, I flagged down a taxi. Earl was his name and he was just finishing his shift. I begged for him to take me to La Bulsa Park. He reluctantly agreed and said it would be around $15 dollars. I informed him I had a credit card and $7.50 take his pick. His credit card machine was broken so $7.50 would do. (I will use this technique more often and haggle with taxi cabs since they clearly increase the prices.) Earl and I became fast friends as I told him about my life and the half marathon. He reciprocated and told me about his wife, 2 kids, and their life here in Mooloolaba. What seemed like an eternity later, we arrived at the park.
5:45 am- I walk up to the registration table and told them my name. They had no record for a Marisa Giangrasso to run today. But I named dropped the people I talked to prior to leaving for the Sunshine Coast and they let me re-register and run. I got my running bib pinned into place, my timer strapped around my ankle, my heart rate down to normal again, and started warming up. There were people everywhere and of all ages. Some look like really experienced runners and intimidation started to set in. I realized that people had different color bibs on and asked why. Apparently the course is not that wide and to prevent traffic jams and give us the best time allowed. I was in the dark blue group which was the 3rd out of 5 waves. Even though I have never ran a half before, I so desperately wanted to be in the 1st wave. The competitiveness within me was already showing and I was just stretching. The first two waves start with no problems and I really concentrate on slowing my breathing down before I begin. I won't get very far if I start already out of breath.
6:10 am- The 3rd waves gun go off as I push start on my watch and iPod. "Here goes nothing," I say to myself. I start running and pretty soon my mind wanders. Perfect, just what I want so I do not start counting miles as marks on my soon to be grave. It is then I notice the scenery. We are running next to the beach, around a harbor to begin with. There are huge yachts, kayaks, and sailboats all over this harbor. I want to stop and take a picture but that would defeat the purpose of running a half marathon. Then as we round the first turn, my breath is taken away. There is open ocean, beaches, and mountains in the background. This is by far the most beautiful run I have ever been on and it really occurs to me then that I am in Australia, running for fun, at six in the morning. There is no description of how beautiful this place is as I am watching the sun rise over the ocean. I take a deep breath and run a little faster. Once I got over the shock of the beauty of this place I start paying attention to my running and find myself a pacer. Around my 4th pacer, I am finally into stride. My first pacer was a midget around the age of 25, but she didn't last long. My second pacer looked like the girl in dodgeball that took the beaver tranquilizer. I thought she would be perfect for me but her boyfriend who she was running with was slowing me down. My third pacer was a very broad shoulder lady who I thought was around 25 years old, when I passed her though, she was really like 40. My final pacer to the end was a mom around 45 who is in a running league. She ended up being perfect pace and kept me motivated to keep going. The first 10k was normal, I was feeling fine and felt like I could run forever. Around the 18 kilometer (out of 21.2 for those on the American mileage) is when things started becoming a challenge. This was around the max I had run up until this point and I was starting to get tired. At the first moment I really wanted to stop, Dirty Diane came on my iPod. I have become recently obsessed with this song and helped me stay motivated. Then, around the 20th kilometer, I felt dead. All I wanted to do was take a nap. Then, Dream On by Aerosmith came on. It is my favorite song of all time, and a song that motivates my mother. I started thinking, if my mom can get the motivation to run to this song, I can run one more kilometer and finish this race.
6:53 am- I crossed the finish line. :D 1 hour and 53 minutes after the gun. Quickly calculating the pace to around 8:40 a mile is a huge accomplishment for me.
7:05 am- I go to first aid for my knees. Preventative of course. Australian do not understand the concept of preventative treatment and continuously ask questions that I answer to the best of my ability.
7:20 am- I try to find a taxi back. I take the shuttle back to the mall where we were suppose to park our cars in attempt to find civilization and a taxi back to Mooloolaba. There is NO ONE around. I walk to the nearest McDonald's and go up to the nicest looking person I can find. I ask to use her mobile in order to call a taxi and she is immediately confused. Why was I at a McDonald's at 8 in the morning looking for a taxi no where near my actual destination and walking? A brief explanation clears up the confusion. She calls me a taxi and I wait like a homeless person outside. My taxi pulls up and is the nicest man to be driving a taxi at 8:15 am. He asked me about the race and how well I did, and I apologized for the smell that was most likely being emitted from my body. After what seemed like the longest car ride (there was absolutely no way I could walk back, which I contemplated), things started looking familiar.
8:25 am- I arrive back at the hostel and immediately begin banging on everyone's door to wake them up and go surfing. At this moment exhaustion starts to set in but I ignore it, shower, and gather the troops to get our surfboards and hit the beach as soon as humanly possible.
5:45 am- I walk up to the registration table and told them my name. They had no record for a Marisa Giangrasso to run today. But I named dropped the people I talked to prior to leaving for the Sunshine Coast and they let me re-register and run. I got my running bib pinned into place, my timer strapped around my ankle, my heart rate down to normal again, and started warming up. There were people everywhere and of all ages. Some look like really experienced runners and intimidation started to set in. I realized that people had different color bibs on and asked why. Apparently the course is not that wide and to prevent traffic jams and give us the best time allowed. I was in the dark blue group which was the 3rd out of 5 waves. Even though I have never ran a half before, I so desperately wanted to be in the 1st wave. The competitiveness within me was already showing and I was just stretching. The first two waves start with no problems and I really concentrate on slowing my breathing down before I begin. I won't get very far if I start already out of breath.6:10 am- The 3rd waves gun go off as I push start on my watch and iPod. "Here goes nothing," I say to myself. I start running and pretty soon my mind wanders. Perfect, just what I want so I do not start counting miles as marks on my soon to be grave. It is then I notice the scenery. We are running next to the beach, around a harbor to begin with. There are huge yachts, kayaks, and sailboats all over this harbor. I want to stop and take a picture but that would defeat the purpose of running a half marathon. Then as we round the first turn, my breath is taken away. There is open ocean, beaches, and mountains in the background. This is by far the most beautiful run I have ever been on and it really occurs to me then that I am in Australia, running for fun, at six in the morning. There is no description of how beautiful this place is as I am watching the sun rise over the ocean. I take a deep breath and run a little faster. Once I got over the shock of the beauty of this place I start paying attention to my running and find myself a pacer. Around my 4th pacer, I am finally into stride. My first pacer was a midget around the age of 25, but she didn't last long. My second pacer looked like the girl in dodgeball that took the beaver tranquilizer. I thought she would be perfect for me but her boyfriend who she was running with was slowing me down. My third pacer was a very broad shoulder lady who I thought was around 25 years old, when I passed her though, she was really like 40. My final pacer to the end was a mom around 45 who is in a running league. She ended up being perfect pace and kept me motivated to keep going. The first 10k was normal, I was feeling fine and felt like I could run forever. Around the 18 kilometer (out of 21.2 for those on the American mileage) is when things started becoming a challenge. This was around the max I had run up until this point and I was starting to get tired. At the first moment I really wanted to stop, Dirty Diane came on my iPod. I have become recently obsessed with this song and helped me stay motivated. Then, around the 20th kilometer, I felt dead. All I wanted to do was take a nap. Then, Dream On by Aerosmith came on. It is my favorite song of all time, and a song that motivates my mother. I started thinking, if my mom can get the motivation to run to this song, I can run one more kilometer and finish this race.
6:53 am- I crossed the finish line. :D 1 hour and 53 minutes after the gun. Quickly calculating the pace to around 8:40 a mile is a huge accomplishment for me.
7:05 am- I go to first aid for my knees. Preventative of course. Australian do not understand the concept of preventative treatment and continuously ask questions that I answer to the best of my ability.
7:20 am- I try to find a taxi back. I take the shuttle back to the mall where we were suppose to park our cars in attempt to find civilization and a taxi back to Mooloolaba. There is NO ONE around. I walk to the nearest McDonald's and go up to the nicest looking person I can find. I ask to use her mobile in order to call a taxi and she is immediately confused. Why was I at a McDonald's at 8 in the morning looking for a taxi no where near my actual destination and walking? A brief explanation clears up the confusion. She calls me a taxi and I wait like a homeless person outside. My taxi pulls up and is the nicest man to be driving a taxi at 8:15 am. He asked me about the race and how well I did, and I apologized for the smell that was most likely being emitted from my body. After what seemed like the longest car ride (there was absolutely no way I could walk back, which I contemplated), things started looking familiar.
8:25 am- I arrive back at the hostel and immediately begin banging on everyone's door to wake them up and go surfing. At this moment exhaustion starts to set in but I ignore it, shower, and gather the troops to get our surfboards and hit the beach as soon as humanly possible.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
You don't need these speed bumps mate!
We were told to head towards the beach and the good bars would be evident there. We walk up and found a bar with a long line out the door. We knew it was going to be the perfect place for a rowdy bunch of Americans like us. This bar called The Wharf had a casino, a lounge, an outside smoking area, a dance floor, a raging area with black lights and techno music, 3 bars, and an upstairs you had to pay to enter. I knew it was going to an early night for me since I was waking up a 5:00 to go run the half marathon.
Libby and I met some Australian boys who were obsessed with our accents. We decided to milk the American thing for the first time and hoped that it would benefit us. It turns out that a bunch of them were there for a bachelor's party but the groom-to-be and the best man passed out before making to the bar. They were insisting on us joining them, but we wanted our guy friends to hang with us as well. They welcomed them with open arms and started ordering shots for everyone and a mixed drink to go along with it. They started chanting that everyone needed to chug their drinks. Jon happily grabbed his drink when the Australian took it from his hands. He took out the ice cubes of drinks and said to Jon, "you don't need these speed bumps mate! now chug!" It was possibly one of the funniest things to witness. Since I was not drinking that night, 1:00 am rolled around and I walked back to the hostel with Stephen. Everyone stayed at the bar until 2:30 am.
My night after the bar consisted of freezing my butt off in the hostel, and only sleeping in 20 minute increments. Between my phone going off every other minute, the rest of the clan coming into the hostel, and others being loud, I didn't really fall asleep until around 3 am. That is when our new friends from the bar decided to call me to sleep in our hostel. I was not going to let a bachelor party sleep in our hostel. It was already crammed in there, not to mention we didn't even know these guys. And I had to wake up in two hours at this moment. Kiley got overly hyper at this moment when I was trying to talk these guys into buying a hotel room. She started pelting us with crispy M&M's which proceeded to cover our room. It was then that Libby chose to share the best piece of information from the entire night. "Oh the guys got their tab at the end of the night. It was $1483." FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS spent at a bar, which I did not have one drink of. FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS which not one of us paid a penny for. This might be the greatest country I have ever been to.
Libby and I met some Australian boys who were obsessed with our accents. We decided to milk the American thing for the first time and hoped that it would benefit us. It turns out that a bunch of them were there for a bachelor's party but the groom-to-be and the best man passed out before making to the bar. They were insisting on us joining them, but we wanted our guy friends to hang with us as well. They welcomed them with open arms and started ordering shots for everyone and a mixed drink to go along with it. They started chanting that everyone needed to chug their drinks. Jon happily grabbed his drink when the Australian took it from his hands. He took out the ice cubes of drinks and said to Jon, "you don't need these speed bumps mate! now chug!" It was possibly one of the funniest things to witness. Since I was not drinking that night, 1:00 am rolled around and I walked back to the hostel with Stephen. Everyone stayed at the bar until 2:30 am.
My night after the bar consisted of freezing my butt off in the hostel, and only sleeping in 20 minute increments. Between my phone going off every other minute, the rest of the clan coming into the hostel, and others being loud, I didn't really fall asleep until around 3 am. That is when our new friends from the bar decided to call me to sleep in our hostel. I was not going to let a bachelor party sleep in our hostel. It was already crammed in there, not to mention we didn't even know these guys. And I had to wake up in two hours at this moment. Kiley got overly hyper at this moment when I was trying to talk these guys into buying a hotel room. She started pelting us with crispy M&M's which proceeded to cover our room. It was then that Libby chose to share the best piece of information from the entire night. "Oh the guys got their tab at the end of the night. It was $1483." FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS spent at a bar, which I did not have one drink of. FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS which not one of us paid a penny for. This might be the greatest country I have ever been to.
Marisa, Do you REALLY know where you are going?
I talked a bunch of people into coming to the Sunshine coast (Mooloolabab specifically) with me for the weekend. I figured they would go out and have fun, we would stay in a hostel 2 blocks from the Mooloolaba beach, go to the Australian Zoo, go to the beach, learn how to surf, and come back Sunday Night in time for Monday morning classes. The whole purpose of this trip was so that I could run the half marathon, a personal goal I have had for a while now. I planned it out so well. I found the hostel which had free surf boards, bikes, and shuttles to the Australian Zoo for under $30 a night (that is less than a 30 pack of beer for the guys) and a bus/train/train/bus ride for around $30 as well. It was going to be a great time.
We had an orientation week beach party through Bond and decided to leave at 3:55 pm right after. The beach was pretty and we watched Australian boys play cricket, American Boys play football, and a mixture of people playing Beach Volleyball. To be a girl at this moment, surrounded by beautiful buff boys playing sports in every direction your turned was a great thing. Where else could this kind of testosterone level be acceptable besides on ESPN SportCenter. The twelve of us (4 girls, 8 guys) that were going could not stop talking about the trip, completely excited for the weekend ahead of us. We quickly squeezed onto the bus and got ready for what should have been the 3 hour/ 3 and a half hour trip.
We had to get food for the trip so we ran to Bond Cafe, which of course was closed. Half of us ran to subway, some ran back to the room to get food, and I was already stressing out think we were going to be late. I had emailed our itinerary to Stephen and Libby thinking it would be the only thing we needed along with my computer in case we encountered some technical difficulties. First thing that went wrong. It was about 3:50 and 4 of us were not waiting at the bus station. What was going to happen if they missed the first leg of the trip? Would we leave them behind? Or would they have to met up with us in Mooloolaba? Luckily, everyone showed up at 3:54 where we continued to wait for our bus for another 10 minutes. Looking at our itinerary, I knew it was going to be a close call to catch the train and praying that we would make it.
We arrive at the train station to see our train had arrived and was leaving in one minute. We ran up to the counter and I informed the male working behind the plexi glass that we wanted to go to the Brisbane Central Train Station but wanted an all day pass to ride the translink trains and buses all day. He did not understand my concept and was staring at me awkwardly because I was 1) an American 2) a female and 3) clearly had no idea what I was talking about. He said that was unavailable and it was going to 28 dollars to the airport and I could only get a round trip for 60. I even showed him the itinerary of what we hoped to accomplish to get to Mooloolaba which he proceeded to push back at me still confused. Finally Jon stepped in and explained what I was trying to say without success. "We want to go to Landsborough Train Station." "Oh why didn't she say so? $6.60 with a student id" and then everyone paid. By this point, the man who I claim was sexist and thought of himself way better looking than myself, had made us miss our train. The next one was to arrive in 23 minutes, sounds perfect.
We caught the next train and ended up in Brisbane Central. Now time for leg #3 of our trip. We tried to read the screens and figure out which line was the green line. I decided to read closely and saw that none of the stops on the green line went to Landsborough. After to talking to multiple workers there, it seems as if we missed our train and we were going to have to wait until 8:40 to catch the next train to Landsborough, or go a completely different route with two more trains and more opportunities to get lost and possibly even wait longer. I look at my watch. It was 6:00. At this point everyone was asking me questions like I had the answer and I became very overwhelmed very quickly. Stephen had to question every decision I made and double check himself, Fink really wanted to go outside, the girls jsut really wanted to open a bottle of wine (which is completely illegal here and can be issued a $150 ticket for open alcohol on the train), and I jsut wanted to go to bed. After figuring everything out we knew we had to wait the hour 40 minutes and decided to sit. The boys went outside for some fresh air and the girls and Stephen sat on the floor of the train station people watching. People are so crazy and ridiculous that it is prime people watching. The guys called us and said they found a pub with $10 pints and a steak meal (and fish and chips for me) that was up to our American size stomachs. Realizing our stomachs were growling at this point we jumped on the chance for a good meal and rushed over.
The bar was a hole in the wall and perfect for the budget we were on. Our meal were delicious and this quickly became the highlight of our trip so far. I was sitting in the middle of the table surrounded by my friends, so I found it surprising when locals came up to me only and asked if I wanted to play pool because he was losing badly. They were in the army for Australia and claimed that it was the equivalent to West Point at home. I was slightly impressed until he informed me that between the 2 man and the guy in the wheelchair, they had 6 tee shirts to share between them. I quickly stopped believing anything they said after that. But after our lost at pool we had to go and catch our next train. We were already majorly delayed and didn't want to miss another train.
I often forget that I am not in America and that people sooner or later are going to start to hate me. I see a peculiar male dressed funny, dancing in odd ways waiting for the train. I was dared to start a dance off with him, which I, naturally, cannot turn down. We did some feet pounding, air piano-ing, rock finger shaking, and head banging. It was highly entertaining for everyone involved or jsut so happened to be watching. I cannot figure out if he was flattered or offended, but either way it was hilarious to watch.
Our next train was slow and we entertain ourselves with riddles, puzzles, and mind aggravating games like "green glass door" "paint a picture" and so forth. It wasn't until security came around to our car that we realized we weren't the only ones on the train. They knew we were American and were asking us questions about American history. You never really know how little you pay attention in class than when you are asked to repeat it out of the blue. I had no idea any of the answer and most of us could only give educated guesses. Apparently it is not normal to not know the history of your country. The security guard's name was Jimmy and we are now facebook friends. I told him if he ever came to America he could stay with us or his relatives in Aurora, whichever he preferred. He later told us what bus to get on after the train so that we wouldn't get even more lost.
So around 11 we finally made it to the hostel. 7 hours later, we put down our bags and decided where to go out for the night. It wasn't for a few minutes where we took in our surroundings of the hostel. It was quite literally a pair of bunk beds, a locked cabinet for our things, a toilet/shower combination thing, and sink. Luckily we were only paying $30 a night. It was all part of the fun I suppose, and knew it was going to be a good night. It was just a matter of what local bar is the best on the beach.
We had an orientation week beach party through Bond and decided to leave at 3:55 pm right after. The beach was pretty and we watched Australian boys play cricket, American Boys play football, and a mixture of people playing Beach Volleyball. To be a girl at this moment, surrounded by beautiful buff boys playing sports in every direction your turned was a great thing. Where else could this kind of testosterone level be acceptable besides on ESPN SportCenter. The twelve of us (4 girls, 8 guys) that were going could not stop talking about the trip, completely excited for the weekend ahead of us. We quickly squeezed onto the bus and got ready for what should have been the 3 hour/ 3 and a half hour trip.
We arrive at the train station to see our train had arrived and was leaving in one minute. We ran up to the counter and I informed the male working behind the plexi glass that we wanted to go to the Brisbane Central Train Station but wanted an all day pass to ride the translink trains and buses all day. He did not understand my concept and was staring at me awkwardly because I was 1) an American 2) a female and 3) clearly had no idea what I was talking about. He said that was unavailable and it was going to 28 dollars to the airport and I could only get a round trip for 60. I even showed him the itinerary of what we hoped to accomplish to get to Mooloolaba which he proceeded to push back at me still confused. Finally Jon stepped in and explained what I was trying to say without success. "We want to go to Landsborough Train Station." "Oh why didn't she say so? $6.60 with a student id" and then everyone paid. By this point, the man who I claim was sexist and thought of himself way better looking than myself, had made us miss our train. The next one was to arrive in 23 minutes, sounds perfect.
We caught the next train and ended up in Brisbane Central. Now time for leg #3 of our trip. We tried to read the screens and figure out which line was the green line. I decided to read closely and saw that none of the stops on the green line went to Landsborough. After to talking to multiple workers there, it seems as if we missed our train and we were going to have to wait until 8:40 to catch the next train to Landsborough, or go a completely different route with two more trains and more opportunities to get lost and possibly even wait longer. I look at my watch. It was 6:00. At this point everyone was asking me questions like I had the answer and I became very overwhelmed very quickly. Stephen had to question every decision I made and double check himself, Fink really wanted to go outside, the girls jsut really wanted to open a bottle of wine (which is completely illegal here and can be issued a $150 ticket for open alcohol on the train), and I jsut wanted to go to bed. After figuring everything out we knew we had to wait the hour 40 minutes and decided to sit. The boys went outside for some fresh air and the girls and Stephen sat on the floor of the train station people watching. People are so crazy and ridiculous that it is prime people watching. The guys called us and said they found a pub with $10 pints and a steak meal (and fish and chips for me) that was up to our American size stomachs. Realizing our stomachs were growling at this point we jumped on the chance for a good meal and rushed over.
I often forget that I am not in America and that people sooner or later are going to start to hate me. I see a peculiar male dressed funny, dancing in odd ways waiting for the train. I was dared to start a dance off with him, which I, naturally, cannot turn down. We did some feet pounding, air piano-ing, rock finger shaking, and head banging. It was highly entertaining for everyone involved or jsut so happened to be watching. I cannot figure out if he was flattered or offended, but either way it was hilarious to watch.
Our next train was slow and we entertain ourselves with riddles, puzzles, and mind aggravating games like "green glass door" "paint a picture" and so forth. It wasn't until security came around to our car that we realized we weren't the only ones on the train. They knew we were American and were asking us questions about American history. You never really know how little you pay attention in class than when you are asked to repeat it out of the blue. I had no idea any of the answer and most of us could only give educated guesses. Apparently it is not normal to not know the history of your country. The security guard's name was Jimmy and we are now facebook friends. I told him if he ever came to America he could stay with us or his relatives in Aurora, whichever he preferred. He later told us what bus to get on after the train so that we wouldn't get even more lost.
So around 11 we finally made it to the hostel. 7 hours later, we put down our bags and decided where to go out for the night. It wasn't for a few minutes where we took in our surroundings of the hostel. It was quite literally a pair of bunk beds, a locked cabinet for our things, a toilet/shower combination thing, and sink. Luckily we were only paying $30 a night. It was all part of the fun I suppose, and knew it was going to be a good night. It was just a matter of what local bar is the best on the beach.
A night of sobriety
The next day was a very lazy day indeed. I finally skype'd with my parents and showed them around my place. I was feeling fine the night before, and the next morning, but I found it appealing to stay in bed until 1 pm. We finally went to cafe bond for lunch, and found it absolutely vital to workout.
Once it became dark outside, the guys Libby and I decided to go to Broadbeach to sight see and check out the scene on our own. We were going to the mall in Pacific Fair, but it was closed for the night. We decided that it was the greatest idea to go play on the beach at 7:30 at night. We took lots of pictures jumping on the beach and other ridiculous things that only tourist do. It was great to have good 'ole fashion fun playing on the beach. We took jumping pictures, and handstands, and everything else full of fun. After our fun on the beach, we decided to walk around and found an amazing playground. If playgrounds were like this is America, no child nor adult would ever be obese. There was a train that rolled around over the edge and we raced around trying to catch one another.
From there we found a local bar called Liars where we watched the rugby game and played some pokies. Pokies is a term that means slot machines. We found this out by being the most American we could and asking the bartenders flat out what it was. There was even a band that played local music and older American songs. Nothing like a bunch of Americans trying to act Australian in a local tavern watching rugby.
I am completely obsessed with rugby now. It is one of the coolest sports and so complicated that I love it. I really want to go to a live match and see it in action. Not to mention that rugby boys are adorable and look so cute in their uniforms :)
Once it became dark outside, the guys Libby and I decided to go to Broadbeach to sight see and check out the scene on our own. We were going to the mall in Pacific Fair, but it was closed for the night. We decided that it was the greatest idea to go play on the beach at 7:30 at night. We took lots of pictures jumping on the beach and other ridiculous things that only tourist do. It was great to have good 'ole fashion fun playing on the beach. We took jumping pictures, and handstands, and everything else full of fun. After our fun on the beach, we decided to walk around and found an amazing playground. If playgrounds were like this is America, no child nor adult would ever be obese. There was a train that rolled around over the edge and we raced around trying to catch one another.
I am completely obsessed with rugby now. It is one of the coolest sports and so complicated that I love it. I really want to go to a live match and see it in action. Not to mention that rugby boys are adorable and look so cute in their uniforms :)
If I end up like really drunk girl at Don's... TAKE ME HOME
To clarify the title of this post. Not one of my friends needed to be escorted home due to highly intoxication conditions. There is a specific girl named Drunk Girl on campus who only has two states of mind. Drunk and So Far Beyond Belligerent Please God Someone Take Her Home. We made a pack between the clan (the sluzer and our new friends) that if anyone of us were close to becoming that intoxicated we were to immediately take them home regardless of who they were talking to. It could be the Prince William of England or Carrie Underwood, it was to happen immediately. We have been fortunate enough to never experience this (taking someone home, not meeting the Prince of England) and pray we never do.
The bus ride home consisted of sing-a-long tunes such as Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys, "If I could walk 500 miles an hour." You know you are on a bus completely full of Americans when "I want it that way" is screamed at the top of the lungs by both men and women alike. I have never felt so patriotic before in my life. The best part of the evening was when Libby and I were getting ready for bed. She was skyping with her mom at 4 am our time, 1 pm Central time zone. Libby lost her voice that night and her mom advised her to get lots of sleep and drink plenty of fluids. Her response? "Oh trust me Mom, I have drank LOTS of fluids this week."
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Unplanned Trip #1
We wake up early and realize that it is a GORGEOUS day outside. That only means one thing in our minds. To the beach! We gather the troops and decide to take the 2:17 bus to same beach where everyone else on our floor is heading towards. Looking back on it, I am pretty sure we meant to go to Surfers Paradise but you can never be too sure. So we are running to the bus stop when we see a bunch of people with swimwear and towels get onto the bus. Not thinking where the bus may be heading we jump on and ask the bus driver if this bus heads to the beach. Of course it heads to the beach... we are in Australia... everything heads to the beach...
About an hour bus ride later we are getting very anxious to arrive. Turns out we ended up in Burleigh Heads. A beautiful little surfer spot with gorgeous beaches and other Bondies that made the same mistake we did. We laid out, played a little football/frisbee (ok the guys did, not me.), and walked around to get the lay of the land! There are the cutest shops and dining areas that are extremely local. We started looking for surf boards to buy, but at $400-500 a board, we decided it might be better to share and even bum one off locals. Another thing that scared me horrifically is that a pair of Mizuno tennies are $250!! I guess that means I have to protect my running shoes even more heavily I did that when I was at home considering I will not be replacing them. I even ordered my first taste of real fish and chips! A meal I can tell will become my go to whenever we are eating out. So we spent the day on beautiful Burleigh Heads and I guarantee you it will not be our last time there, minus the fact the bus ride was torture.
Libby and I forgot we had volleyball practice (again) and had to catch an early bus back to Bond Uni to get our toes in the sand quickly. Let me tell you, the bus ride back was about as much fun and getting your eyebrows threaded (or waxed.. your preference). In order to pass the time, the bunch of 20/21 year olds played telephone to pass the time. We were super mature about the game and made sure to make things as inappropriate as possible.
We made it to volleyball practice in time, however we were not dressed properly. Since we had to run from the bus stop straight to practice, we played in sundresses and bikinis. I am talking very official and very legitimate uniforms here. I'm sure our coaches Shanon and Ryan both think we are just a bunch of stupid American girls. Surprisingly, we are not as bad as we thought we were going to be! We followed along with some drills and we held our own for sure. Perth is not going to know what hit it. After volleyball we had to run and get ready for themed party #2 at Bond... Tight and Bright party
We made it to volleyball practice in time, however we were not dressed properly. Since we had to run from the bus stop straight to practice, we played in sundresses and bikinis. I am talking very official and very legitimate uniforms here. I'm sure our coaches Shanon and Ryan both think we are just a bunch of stupid American girls. Surprisingly, we are not as bad as we thought we were going to be! We followed along with some drills and we held our own for sure. Perth is not going to know what hit it. After volleyball we had to run and get ready for themed party #2 at Bond... Tight and Bright party
Friday, September 10, 2010
Run Away! Run Away!
It has been a goal of mine for quite some time now to run a half marathon, and then hopefully followed by a marathon in the near future. I thought that Australia would be the perfect place to obtain these goals. With so much scenery around, it is so easy to get distracted by the beauty of what's around me and forget the mileage on the podometer. (Ok I don't own one but I am looking into buying one...) So I signed myself up for the Sunshine Coast Half Marathon this weekend in Mooloolaba. I gathered a bunch of friends and we will take the train up the hour north of Brisbane so I can pay someone to let me run and get a running bib.
I have been training for a half all summer but decided I still really need to run while here unless I plan on passing out at mile 3. I found myself a beautiful route through neighborhoods where I get lost in the architecture and landscape with mountains in the background. I truly forget how far I run. At home, I have this vivid daydreams while running that I like to call "Scenario of the Day" My first Scenario of the Day was quite amusing and I found myself laughing out loud while running by an old man cutting his lawn. Needless to say I probably looked like a freak as he mumbled underneath his breath about Americans. The scenario was it started to downpour immensely while I was just at the peak of my run. I would have to go into the mall all sweaty and ask the Apple store if I can use their computer. My piece of plastic called a telephone is too large to go running with, so I would have to leave Libby a facebook message to come get me at the mall and bring money for the bus ride home. Otherwise I would walk around aimlessly until the rain stopped which would not happen until my fatigue set in naturally. I can only hope my scenarios get better than that nightmare.
The best part of my run that day was when I was less than a kilometer away from school. I was finally in the homestretch when I noticed birds circling over my head. Next thing I know I got smacked in the back of the head. When I looked up I saw a huge bird circling around and coming directly at my face. I ducked and sprinted the other direction with a blood curdling scream only heard when my mom gets frightened (which is often). Luckily the bird flew up and perched itself on a light pole cawing at me. I have never had a good relationship with birds, and frankly they kinda scare me. But being attacked by a bird while running?! I feel as if that is just unheard of. After much collaboration with friends and family, we came to the conclusion that the uni-french braid I normal rock while on runs must have resembled an animal that is satisfactory its digestive tract. All I know is that next time I will try to punt it if it comes near me again. :)
I have been training for a half all summer but decided I still really need to run while here unless I plan on passing out at mile 3. I found myself a beautiful route through neighborhoods where I get lost in the architecture and landscape with mountains in the background. I truly forget how far I run. At home, I have this vivid daydreams while running that I like to call "Scenario of the Day" My first Scenario of the Day was quite amusing and I found myself laughing out loud while running by an old man cutting his lawn. Needless to say I probably looked like a freak as he mumbled underneath his breath about Americans. The scenario was it started to downpour immensely while I was just at the peak of my run. I would have to go into the mall all sweaty and ask the Apple store if I can use their computer. My piece of plastic called a telephone is too large to go running with, so I would have to leave Libby a facebook message to come get me at the mall and bring money for the bus ride home. Otherwise I would walk around aimlessly until the rain stopped which would not happen until my fatigue set in naturally. I can only hope my scenarios get better than that nightmare.
The best part of my run that day was when I was less than a kilometer away from school. I was finally in the homestretch when I noticed birds circling over my head. Next thing I know I got smacked in the back of the head. When I looked up I saw a huge bird circling around and coming directly at my face. I ducked and sprinted the other direction with a blood curdling scream only heard when my mom gets frightened (which is often). Luckily the bird flew up and perched itself on a light pole cawing at me. I have never had a good relationship with birds, and frankly they kinda scare me. But being attacked by a bird while running?! I feel as if that is just unheard of. After much collaboration with friends and family, we came to the conclusion that the uni-french braid I normal rock while on runs must have resembled an animal that is satisfactory its digestive tract. All I know is that next time I will try to punt it if it comes near me again. :)
My first bad encounter...
I knew that it had to happen eventually. This place is just too good to be true to not have any negative aspects about it. It is definitely not the people, not the food, not the night life. It is public transportation. I should have figured its would have been transportation. In America, those people are always so rude and whatever stick is up their butt is turned sideways.
We had to venture Broadbeach to retrieve Kiley's wallet that she left at East and planned on getting the 2:17 bus into Broadbeach. So we walk up to the bus stop a little early and see a bus drive up. We assume we are late and run following some local who tell us we can get to Broadbeach on this bus. We so get on holding my id card and a 20 note (dollar bill Mom...) and inform the driver we want to go to Broadbeach. His response was, "This entire line is Broadbeach... which part?" Clearly looking like foreigners and idiots not knowing what part, we look to the locals who told us to get on the bus. Now angry the bus driver starts raising his voice saying he is already ten minutes late and we need to get going. We quickly say Pacific Fair and hand him the 20 note. He is now livid and starts screaming at us saying we need to study our monies and have the right change and stop ready BEFORE entering the bus. But hands Libby her change and it is my turn. I say same and hand him the 20 note. He sighs so loudly that he tells (well yells) at Kiley, Allie, and I to just get on the bus and forget paying. I think i would consider that a bad encounter at home where everyone persons has an attitude and is not afraid to tell you as well.
Luckily, we make it to Broadbeach where it reminds me of Miami or South Florida somewhere. There are adorable bistros, bars, and shops all over surrounded by skyscrapers and condominiums. The best part about Broadbeach is the architecture! Every building is unique and has something that makes it stick out above the others. Some are funky angles, others awesome painting, one has blue and green glass tiles all over it like a mosaic. This is definitely where my parents will be staying when they visit.
We thought it would be a lot harder to find East, especially in the daytime and the fact we only had a street address and a tourist map of shops to guide us. But after talking to some locals we found our way relatively easy. We stroll up to East in a back alley what can only look like we are there as a favor to the mafia or a drug deal/bust situation. After ringing the doorbell a bunch of times we locate the office building and get Kiley's wallet with everything in it! No stolen cash, no missing credit cards, and her id was there. Just shows you how nice everyone is here because that would have been so long gone in the United States like New York or Chicago.
From East we head back to Pacific Fair to do a little shopping and pick up grocercies. DID YOU KNOW?! Australians do not refridgerate their eggs. I REPEAT. do NOT refidgerate their eggs. That is one of the grossest things I have every heard. Eggs are menat to be cold and not room temperature. I am appalled enough to not eat eggs... but then again I already do not eat them... I had to pick up my essentials in order to survive (i.e carrots and hummus, pretzels and salsa, and the most important, peanut butter.) I also found the cutest Fruit Market where I bought native organic Australian fruit! i bought a PAW PAW (an australian papaya) which was so delicious I ate a half of one in one sitting. I also bought also essential fruits like strawberries, naners, and apples. The most shocking part was that a kilo of grapes with $18.50 and a kilo of cherries is $24.99. That is so far past my comprehension I had to buy what was in my hand and leave the store. So much for eating cherries everyday and in one sitting like I do at home!
We had to venture Broadbeach to retrieve Kiley's wallet that she left at East and planned on getting the 2:17 bus into Broadbeach. So we walk up to the bus stop a little early and see a bus drive up. We assume we are late and run following some local who tell us we can get to Broadbeach on this bus. We so get on holding my id card and a 20 note (dollar bill Mom...) and inform the driver we want to go to Broadbeach. His response was, "This entire line is Broadbeach... which part?" Clearly looking like foreigners and idiots not knowing what part, we look to the locals who told us to get on the bus. Now angry the bus driver starts raising his voice saying he is already ten minutes late and we need to get going. We quickly say Pacific Fair and hand him the 20 note. He is now livid and starts screaming at us saying we need to study our monies and have the right change and stop ready BEFORE entering the bus. But hands Libby her change and it is my turn. I say same and hand him the 20 note. He sighs so loudly that he tells (well yells) at Kiley, Allie, and I to just get on the bus and forget paying. I think i would consider that a bad encounter at home where everyone persons has an attitude and is not afraid to tell you as well.
We thought it would be a lot harder to find East, especially in the daytime and the fact we only had a street address and a tourist map of shops to guide us. But after talking to some locals we found our way relatively easy. We stroll up to East in a back alley what can only look like we are there as a favor to the mafia or a drug deal/bust situation. After ringing the doorbell a bunch of times we locate the office building and get Kiley's wallet with everything in it! No stolen cash, no missing credit cards, and her id was there. Just shows you how nice everyone is here because that would have been so long gone in the United States like New York or Chicago.
From East we head back to Pacific Fair to do a little shopping and pick up grocercies. DID YOU KNOW?! Australians do not refridgerate their eggs. I REPEAT. do NOT refidgerate their eggs. That is one of the grossest things I have every heard. Eggs are menat to be cold and not room temperature. I am appalled enough to not eat eggs... but then again I already do not eat them... I had to pick up my essentials in order to survive (i.e carrots and hummus, pretzels and salsa, and the most important, peanut butter.) I also found the cutest Fruit Market where I bought native organic Australian fruit! i bought a PAW PAW (an australian papaya) which was so delicious I ate a half of one in one sitting. I also bought also essential fruits like strawberries, naners, and apples. The most shocking part was that a kilo of grapes with $18.50 and a kilo of cherries is $24.99. That is so far past my comprehension I had to buy what was in my hand and leave the store. So much for eating cherries everyday and in one sitting like I do at home!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
The most embarrassing moment.... for someone else (warning: rated PG-13)
After a day of laying out at pool and resting, the guys and I decided to go to the next orientation activity of Hypnotizing. They tried to convince me to go down there and be hypnotized, and it was the best decision to not go up there. You know how in the movies you cringe when the star of the movie embarrasses themselves? It was like that, but 10,000 times worse.
They had to do so many sexual things that was highly entertaining and hilarious as an audience member to watch, but if I had performed those actions, and then not remember them... I would have quite literally died of embarrassment.
For example, they had to go into the audience and when a song came on they had to act like kangaroos in mating season. Needless to say there was straddling and mating season happening in the auditorium. Another example was that they were "watching" an erotic film and it is was interactive. From there people were performing not so classy moments on the stage and one guy actually stuck his hands down his pants. These are not actions I would perform in the privacy of my own home let alone on stage and unable to control my actions. One guy actually started swearing at the Hypnotist.
This was so entertaining to watch as an audience member but I am sure humiliating to every single person on stage.
Kudos Bond Uni for fun orientation week activities, SLU should take notes.
They had to do so many sexual things that was highly entertaining and hilarious as an audience member to watch, but if I had performed those actions, and then not remember them... I would have quite literally died of embarrassment.
For example, they had to go into the audience and when a song came on they had to act like kangaroos in mating season. Needless to say there was straddling and mating season happening in the auditorium. Another example was that they were "watching" an erotic film and it is was interactive. From there people were performing not so classy moments on the stage and one guy actually stuck his hands down his pants. These are not actions I would perform in the privacy of my own home let alone on stage and unable to control my actions. One guy actually started swearing at the Hypnotist.
This was so entertaining to watch as an audience member but I am sure humiliating to every single person on stage.
Kudos Bond Uni for fun orientation week activities, SLU should take notes.
And By Night...
I think it is only fair to say what my expectation of night life was here before I even begin to describe it. I thought it was going to be very similar to home. We wouldn't go out until like 11, stay at a bar that is pretty crummy (or not very nice to say the least), I wouldn't go crazy but have fun and be in bed before 3. I knew the drinking age was 18 so everyone was legal, but it cannot be different than SLU and laclede's. I was completely wrong...
We went to the alcohol store to be flabbergasted at the prices. Apparently first moment besides the accent that screams to the locals I AM AN AMERICAN AND PROUD OF IT. $26 dollars for a pint of Smirnoff. $18 for a 6 pack of beer. Cheap beer is still $30 for a 30 pack. All of our wallets were going to be in huge trouble. Luckily wine is a specialty here and for my taste buds. Just like wine back home they range in prices but with $5 house special, I think I might survive.
There is a bar on campus called Don's that is where everyone starts at for the night. The first night was the BBQ at Don's and a non-alcoholic event that only lasted until 10. As we were walking in we decided to look at the times of the bar. The latest Don's stays open is 11 on Friday's and 12 and Saturday's. We met a local outside, Flannel Metro Guy. (I am horrible with names and only refer to people as description to protect those spoken about and for lack of a memory). He informed us that CBD's (a local hotel bar) is where everyone was heading once this was over. Perfect. We grab our quick forming clan since arriving here and headed there for the night.
CBD's is not a hotel bar. Well, technically it is a hotel's bar and attached. But it is more accurately described as a lounge. There are nice couches and chairs and tables all over. It is decorated trendy and has TV screen playing music and other videos on them. We meet people from everywhere at this point. Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, South Africa and of course Americans. Not one person is even remotely close to unpleasant and this is only a good sign of what is to come. Since we get there super early and we have been up since before 6:30 due to traveling, 10 o'clock rolls around and we head in having a successful first night at Bond Uni.
Since the majority of people on campus are legal, drinking events on campus are very acceptable and encouraged by all. TOGA NIGHT was the next event during orientation week, and a night that will be hard to live up to all semester. With our togas securely fastened and pinned with everything covered up we headed to don's really early as usual since the line was out the door to get in. I would be terrified to even consider using a fake id around here they card to hard. They truly scruntize your id, some ask for second forms, and then take a picture of your id so the same one doesn't return that night AND if you get thrown out you are banned for the rest of the semester. At least it is safe. We walked in to see the place is packed with all Bond Uni students, a bunch we have met the night before. Did you know long island iced teas are only an American drink? Well not an Australian drink at least. My new friend Marco Warco from NY quizzed me on how to order as a joke before it was my turn. Little did I know I was going to make a fool of myself either way. The Bartender stared like I was a three eyed monster when attempting to order.
After Don's we all got bused to Broachbeach for an after party at some bar. "Bar" does not describe this place. It is a trendy- asian infused- buddhas every where- night club. I am talking that the place is called EAST in all japanese/chinese letters. There are buddhas everywhere, interesting asian art on the ceilings, 3 bars in two levels, Bond Uni kids, music, and really nice bartenders. Apparently if you do not say please and thank you at the bar, the bartenders have every right to not serve you. It is their biggest pet peeve and consider it a tip, since they do accept tips in money form. They almost get mad if you tip them (but only at bars, restaurants love tips!) But who can blame him with a wicked rat tail like this bartender had. I made a new friend Canada. He is from Montreal, or Ontario, maybe Quebec? It is very loud in East and let's face it I do not have the best memory. He was an extremely nice guy getting his MBA here. Around 3 am when the buses finally came to get us we headed back to our humble abode to go to bed. Kiley met a friend, Homeless Boy, who came back to hang out with us before going to bed. Luckily the common rooms are large enough to fit everyone, otherwise we would be crammed in our rooms. Around 5 am it was vital that I get some sleep considering I was still jet lagged. However, since we are not allowed to have guests in the building, we had to get Homeless Boy to go home. Here is where his name came from. HE WOULD NOT LEAVE. Kiley left her wallet at the bar and he had already helped her get her wallet back. And since he was the only one of us with a Australian cell phone, We couldn't necessarily be mean to him. The next morning we go back into the common room to collaborate for the day and Homeless Boy is sleeping in our common room. Still here. Never left.
I quickly came up with an idea. Considering that out of all of us, Fink would be the first to get admitted into a hospital, I ran into the common room in a panic saying the Fink was in the hospital and that all 8 of us need to go to the hospital in order to release him (you know, since we are foreigners). Since only one of us had a cell phone we all needed to go. Kiley was extremely confused since Fink was in the common room not long before that and considering we forgot to fill her in on this side of the story. I literally grabbed Homeless Boy by the arm and dragged him outside and collect the information from East.
If all night life is like the past two days, it is going to take a toll on my wallet and my liver.
We went to the alcohol store to be flabbergasted at the prices. Apparently first moment besides the accent that screams to the locals I AM AN AMERICAN AND PROUD OF IT. $26 dollars for a pint of Smirnoff. $18 for a 6 pack of beer. Cheap beer is still $30 for a 30 pack. All of our wallets were going to be in huge trouble. Luckily wine is a specialty here and for my taste buds. Just like wine back home they range in prices but with $5 house special, I think I might survive.
There is a bar on campus called Don's that is where everyone starts at for the night. The first night was the BBQ at Don's and a non-alcoholic event that only lasted until 10. As we were walking in we decided to look at the times of the bar. The latest Don's stays open is 11 on Friday's and 12 and Saturday's. We met a local outside, Flannel Metro Guy. (I am horrible with names and only refer to people as description to protect those spoken about and for lack of a memory). He informed us that CBD's (a local hotel bar) is where everyone was heading once this was over. Perfect. We grab our quick forming clan since arriving here and headed there for the night.
CBD's is not a hotel bar. Well, technically it is a hotel's bar and attached. But it is more accurately described as a lounge. There are nice couches and chairs and tables all over. It is decorated trendy and has TV screen playing music and other videos on them. We meet people from everywhere at this point. Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, South Africa and of course Americans. Not one person is even remotely close to unpleasant and this is only a good sign of what is to come. Since we get there super early and we have been up since before 6:30 due to traveling, 10 o'clock rolls around and we head in having a successful first night at Bond Uni.
Since the majority of people on campus are legal, drinking events on campus are very acceptable and encouraged by all. TOGA NIGHT was the next event during orientation week, and a night that will be hard to live up to all semester. With our togas securely fastened and pinned with everything covered up we headed to don's really early as usual since the line was out the door to get in. I would be terrified to even consider using a fake id around here they card to hard. They truly scruntize your id, some ask for second forms, and then take a picture of your id so the same one doesn't return that night AND if you get thrown out you are banned for the rest of the semester. At least it is safe. We walked in to see the place is packed with all Bond Uni students, a bunch we have met the night before. Did you know long island iced teas are only an American drink? Well not an Australian drink at least. My new friend Marco Warco from NY quizzed me on how to order as a joke before it was my turn. Little did I know I was going to make a fool of myself either way. The Bartender stared like I was a three eyed monster when attempting to order.
After Don's we all got bused to Broachbeach for an after party at some bar. "Bar" does not describe this place. It is a trendy- asian infused- buddhas every where- night club. I am talking that the place is called EAST in all japanese/chinese letters. There are buddhas everywhere, interesting asian art on the ceilings, 3 bars in two levels, Bond Uni kids, music, and really nice bartenders. Apparently if you do not say please and thank you at the bar, the bartenders have every right to not serve you. It is their biggest pet peeve and consider it a tip, since they do accept tips in money form. They almost get mad if you tip them (but only at bars, restaurants love tips!) But who can blame him with a wicked rat tail like this bartender had. I made a new friend Canada. He is from Montreal, or Ontario, maybe Quebec? It is very loud in East and let's face it I do not have the best memory. He was an extremely nice guy getting his MBA here. Around 3 am when the buses finally came to get us we headed back to our humble abode to go to bed. Kiley met a friend, Homeless Boy, who came back to hang out with us before going to bed. Luckily the common rooms are large enough to fit everyone, otherwise we would be crammed in our rooms. Around 5 am it was vital that I get some sleep considering I was still jet lagged. However, since we are not allowed to have guests in the building, we had to get Homeless Boy to go home. Here is where his name came from. HE WOULD NOT LEAVE. Kiley left her wallet at the bar and he had already helped her get her wallet back. And since he was the only one of us with a Australian cell phone, We couldn't necessarily be mean to him. The next morning we go back into the common room to collaborate for the day and Homeless Boy is sleeping in our common room. Still here. Never left.I quickly came up with an idea. Considering that out of all of us, Fink would be the first to get admitted into a hospital, I ran into the common room in a panic saying the Fink was in the hospital and that all 8 of us need to go to the hospital in order to release him (you know, since we are foreigners). Since only one of us had a cell phone we all needed to go. Kiley was extremely confused since Fink was in the common room not long before that and considering we forgot to fill her in on this side of the story. I literally grabbed Homeless Boy by the arm and dragged him outside and collect the information from East.
If all night life is like the past two days, it is going to take a toll on my wallet and my liver.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
By Day....
I forgot how many things there are to do when first arriving at a new campus. All the paperwork and IT people will drive you crazy as it is. Since technology hates me in every form, it takes me about an extra half day to get my internet working. But when I leave the library I really can take the campus in as I finally open my eyes past my computer screen.
The lake in the middle of campus is BEAUTIFUL. Connects to the ocean and it is the center point of everything around campus. I had to ask a local what would happen if I took a dip in it one night. His response? Oh a shark will probably bite you considering baby ones live in there. Well that answers that question.... The buildings are beautiful! And there is a tent that is shape like a pair of boobies (for you Kelsey Dunn) and it is literally referred to as the boob tent by everyone... This place is not a college. It is truly paradise and still so surreal that I go here.
We decided to walk around and find some convenience stores to buy the little details when we found Varsity Lakes. It is a little marketplace with some adorable shops, salons, coffee shops, bars, and anything else we need at a moments notice without going to the town centre. Perfect place to have near!
We had to make it back for our hall meeting with our house parents and RA's. They are quite possibly the best people for the job. Kayleen and Robin are their names and they are a 65 year old couple that lives directly two floors below us. They have only two strict rules and guidelines to live by 1. no guests spending the night. 2. If you wake her up at night, she will be livid 3. Go out, meet people, have the time of your life.... We are quick and life long friends. Afterwards, we hit up the BBQ at don's the local bar on campus to mingle and meet new friends before a night on the town!
Our other day activities include: laying out at the pool directly behind our building. Going for run with amazing scenery and gorgeous houses (comparable to the homes in Fort Lauderdale on the back roads from the airport... jsut breath taking) meeting as many people as possible. and taking random adventures around Robina.
Figuring I am pretty good with directions we decide to walk to 4.2 km to the nearest mall for Target Kmart and finally... a cell phone. I looked up directions and lead the pack through neighborhoods and winding roads. I only got us lost once! and after a nice man told us the mall was on the other side of the street I no longer doubt my abilities to find things in a different country anymore. The town centre as they call it down here is really really nice. The K-mart is better than Target (something I thought I would NEVER say) and Libby (the rooms) and I bought adorable decorations to make this seem more like home. Everything seems to be $10 which is just awesome for my wallet (and my parents...) It takes us 5 minutes to realize we will most definitely be taking the bus back and not walking again. But hey! Gotta try everything at least once....
For those who know me better than I know myself, my biggest worry about coming to Australia was the fact I didn't know if they would have swedish fish here. My favorite candy. I CANNOT study or survive without them. Well.... they have no idea what they are here. I almost cried. BUT HAVE NO FEAR! they have something equally delicious and probably just as bad for you. Snakes. very simples gummy treats that are do scrumptious to my taste buds that I can see myself crying over them when heading home to the States for fear of never having snakes again in my life.
Somethings never changes no matter what country you current reside in...
We decided to walk around and find some convenience stores to buy the little details when we found Varsity Lakes. It is a little marketplace with some adorable shops, salons, coffee shops, bars, and anything else we need at a moments notice without going to the town centre. Perfect place to have near!
We had to make it back for our hall meeting with our house parents and RA's. They are quite possibly the best people for the job. Kayleen and Robin are their names and they are a 65 year old couple that lives directly two floors below us. They have only two strict rules and guidelines to live by 1. no guests spending the night. 2. If you wake her up at night, she will be livid 3. Go out, meet people, have the time of your life.... We are quick and life long friends. Afterwards, we hit up the BBQ at don's the local bar on campus to mingle and meet new friends before a night on the town!
Our other day activities include: laying out at the pool directly behind our building. Going for run with amazing scenery and gorgeous houses (comparable to the homes in Fort Lauderdale on the back roads from the airport... jsut breath taking) meeting as many people as possible. and taking random adventures around Robina.
Figuring I am pretty good with directions we decide to walk to 4.2 km to the nearest mall for Target Kmart and finally... a cell phone. I looked up directions and lead the pack through neighborhoods and winding roads. I only got us lost once! and after a nice man told us the mall was on the other side of the street I no longer doubt my abilities to find things in a different country anymore. The town centre as they call it down here is really really nice. The K-mart is better than Target (something I thought I would NEVER say) and Libby (the rooms) and I bought adorable decorations to make this seem more like home. Everything seems to be $10 which is just awesome for my wallet (and my parents...) It takes us 5 minutes to realize we will most definitely be taking the bus back and not walking again. But hey! Gotta try everything at least once....
For those who know me better than I know myself, my biggest worry about coming to Australia was the fact I didn't know if they would have swedish fish here. My favorite candy. I CANNOT study or survive without them. Well.... they have no idea what they are here. I almost cried. BUT HAVE NO FEAR! they have something equally delicious and probably just as bad for you. Snakes. very simples gummy treats that are do scrumptious to my taste buds that I can see myself crying over them when heading home to the States for fear of never having snakes again in my life.
Somethings never changes no matter what country you current reside in...
Now walk around every 15 minutes to not lose circulation...
So after months and months of anticipation and packing I finally get to the airport. Lugging around two suitcase weighing 62.5 lbs and 64.5 lbs, a duffle bag, tote, and my purse I shuffle my way through lines. Did you know that if you bring ground coffee in an airport it needs to go in a separate bin like a laptop? Well neither did I... Apparently if I decide to smuggle cocaine or other illegal drugs it would be out in the open like that.
The second I get to the gate I realized that my 6:50 flight was delayed until 9:30. Now considering that I only had a two hour layover to catch my flight in LAX, I was most definitely going to miss the only flight to Brisbane and be stuck in LA. This can only be a bad sign of what was to come... Then it was brought to my attention my bags would now be late. So i walked up to the desk and talked to Raul about my dilemma. I told him that it was vital I have my bags accompany me on my trip because even though they are relaxed in Australia... I think professors frown upon coming to class naked. But then again I am not too sure considering I haven't been there yet. So he did the best to assure me but it was still a coin toss whether they would be there in Brisbane.
So 20 hours of flight time later we landed in Brisbane. The plane ride was not nearly as bad as I though it was going to be. I sat next to a woman that had to be at least 350 lbs. She could not bring the tray table in front of her down. I knew that who ever sat on the other side of me and I were going to become fast and long friends. So together we prayed that no one would enter our aisle. And then celebrated when the door closed so we could have some room. At least we stretched out and had a little more room between my obscene amount of luggage and her. Between the meals, sleeping, our own personal tv's and netflix queue I had very few minutes of unentertaining times. And at 6:30 am. our landing gear touched down!
Customs wasn't horrible BUT did you know? You cannot bring raw nuts into Australia and you cannot bring dried fruit unless it has been infused with sugar? Something about disease but I couldn't really understand the lady and was being too distracted by all new things to look at.
After a short bus ride and paperwork I got into my room! It is an adorable dorm with two desks, two beds, two night stands, two closets, our own fridge and mini pantry as we declared it. We also have our own bathroom! My favorite part of my new room is that it overlooks the lake that sits in the middle of campus with a large fountain! I can see it from my bed and my desk which is going to be even more distracting if I ever decide to do a little studying :)
The second I get to the gate I realized that my 6:50 flight was delayed until 9:30. Now considering that I only had a two hour layover to catch my flight in LAX, I was most definitely going to miss the only flight to Brisbane and be stuck in LA. This can only be a bad sign of what was to come... Then it was brought to my attention my bags would now be late. So i walked up to the desk and talked to Raul about my dilemma. I told him that it was vital I have my bags accompany me on my trip because even though they are relaxed in Australia... I think professors frown upon coming to class naked. But then again I am not too sure considering I haven't been there yet. So he did the best to assure me but it was still a coin toss whether they would be there in Brisbane.
So 20 hours of flight time later we landed in Brisbane. The plane ride was not nearly as bad as I though it was going to be. I sat next to a woman that had to be at least 350 lbs. She could not bring the tray table in front of her down. I knew that who ever sat on the other side of me and I were going to become fast and long friends. So together we prayed that no one would enter our aisle. And then celebrated when the door closed so we could have some room. At least we stretched out and had a little more room between my obscene amount of luggage and her. Between the meals, sleeping, our own personal tv's and netflix queue I had very few minutes of unentertaining times. And at 6:30 am. our landing gear touched down!
Customs wasn't horrible BUT did you know? You cannot bring raw nuts into Australia and you cannot bring dried fruit unless it has been infused with sugar? Something about disease but I couldn't really understand the lady and was being too distracted by all new things to look at.
After a short bus ride and paperwork I got into my room! It is an adorable dorm with two desks, two beds, two night stands, two closets, our own fridge and mini pantry as we declared it. We also have our own bathroom! My favorite part of my new room is that it overlooks the lake that sits in the middle of campus with a large fountain! I can see it from my bed and my desk which is going to be even more distracting if I ever decide to do a little studying :)
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