Hello 
everyone back home!!
WOW it’s been a busy past two weeks!! I’ve done some traveling, started classes, and had some really fun nights here in Brisbane. Overall the adjustment has been pretty good over the past two weeks. My last grocery shopping trip went well…I’m getting better at buying food I can use to make a variety of things. Since classes have started my days have gotten a little busier which is good! But so far I’m having a hard time adjusting to having so much time where I don’t really have anything to do…unlike back at the U. For those of you who know me well, you know I love to keep busy busy busy…and while I knew I wanted to live a little more relaxed life with school, work, and involvement in other things being in Australia, I am itching to add at least one thing on to my plate to take up a little time on the weekdays. I’ve searched out the QUT Christians group which I have not been able to attend anything yet because of other conflicts, but hope to soon, and I’ve started to casually search for a job that I could work like 10 hours a week. I don’t have any classes on Wednesday or Friday so I figure why not work a few hours and have a little more spending money on the weekends and going out to eat/buying groceries. But I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find anything that will take me for just that.The weekend of July 17th-19th I took a trip to North Stradbroke Island for the International Student Orientation Trip. The island is about an hour outside Brisbane. My friends Danielle and Ben both went on the trip with me. After I arrived we were assigned rooms and I shared a room with a German girl and two Norwegian girls. There are soooooo many German and Norwegian international students it’s crazy. They were pretty nice but it was kinda annoying when they would talk Norwegen together and I just kinda sat there since I couldn’t really join in the conversation. But it was ok I escaped to meet up with Ben and Danielle every chance I got. That day I went on a hike along the rocks on the coast and then at night we had a big beach party with music and a fire which was a blast! I met a girl named Jeanette (who is also German) and I danced with her all night. The next day I went Kayaking which was hilarious….trying to ride the waves in and getting tipped over was so much fun. Then it was the best part…I had surfing lessons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so much fun!! I did really well too; I got up on my second attempt and rode the wave all the way into shore. The teachers didn’t believe I hadn’t done it before. I’m in love and I need to get out more to go surf! That night everyone went to what we thought was a bar pub place and when we got there it was like the Australian version of a VFW but they call them a Bowl Club because they have lots of lawn bowling leagues. There was a live band playing which was interesting and there were definitely some weird interesting people there but we made the best out of it. The next morning I woke up and went on a long run on the beach which was AMAZING!!!! Then I chilled in the sun and we went home. The weekend all in all was a blast! I got to know Ben and Danielle so much better and made a new friend…Jeanette!!
Then it was my first week of classes. So far so good, three of my professors are really cool and really good…the other is for market research and he’s not very easy to listen to..throw the topic on top of that and the fact that it’s Thursday nights from 6-8 after I’ve already had 3 other classes and that equals a really though 2 hour lecture to sit through. Overall the classes are going to be manageable!! Lectures and everything are similar to back home but every class has a discussion small group piece and there are no weekly assignments. Our grade is based on a final exam at the end of the semester and then one big project which may be divided into two parts in the semester. So, while this is nice for traveling and other things I want to do it’s not so good to keep me on task and getting things done. But they definitely do not do homework like Carlson does or like we do back in the states; but Carlson epically! It’s really nice to not be surrounded by people who make you feel guilty for not reading the chapter for the week before you come to class!!
That Friday night I had Ben, Brian, Nicole, Danielle, and Jeanette over to my place for dinner. It was the first time they came over to my place so I was excited! I even cleaned the apartment before they came. I vacuumed the entire place, washed up the table and the countertops and everything! I like where I live and I like most of my roommates but the two that live in the upper level are PIGS!! They don’t do there dishes and when they do they don’t even get them clean all the way so it leaves the three of us who actually live on the kitchen level with the mess to look at and we always end up doing them because we can’t stand it anymore. But all my roommates but Lium went away for the weekend for a big music festival called Splenda so I decided to have my friends over. I ended up making breakfast for dinner..which the Germans thought was CRAZY!!! We made pancakes, eggs, bacon, breakfast potatoes, and OJ. I soon realized why when I moved in my roommates gave me this paranoid speech about how the fire alarms work. The fire alarms in my apartment complex are super sensitive and one is really close to the oven, so it goes off often when you’re cooking things on the stove. There is a button on the wall you have to press if it’s not really a fire so the fire brigade doesn’t come out. If you don’t press it within 30 seconds then they come and if it’s not a real fire you get charged $1000!! Needless to say after the fire alarm went off the second time from all of the bacon we were frying I got super paranoid!! Of course I pushed the button each time but I was in the words of my friends “pretty much freaking out”. We set the alarm off one more time and then I decided bacon cooking was done!! As we sat down to eat I was excited to learn that Nicole (from NY) also dips her bacon in syrup!! We talked about how good it was for a while and Ben (German) responded, “I think I’m going to puke!” It was a new thing for them to put syrup on their pancakes (they usually just put sugar on theirs) let alone put syrup on meat!? Ben claimed he was “sick” for the rest of the night.
The next morning we all met on campus at 7:45am to go for a day trip to the Gold Coast with the International Student Group again. This time Ben, Brian, Nicole, Danielle, Jeanette, and another new friend Lucy, all went. I also met Jens who I have Global Business with and Thyge and Christophe. We took a bus to an animal sanctuary where I got to play with kangaroos and see Koalas!! Then we went to a surf life saving club to eat lunch where I had really good beer battered fish and chips! There we had an introduction to what the rules are at the beaches in Australia for swimming and surfing and we got to see what the surf lifeguards wear and what they look like. We chilled at the beach nearby then headed to Surfers Paradise. My group of friends booked a hostel for the night but the rest of the group went back to Brisbane. It was my first time staying in a hostel but it was fun because we got a room for 6 and we were all in the same room. That night we went out on this Backpackers pub/club crawl which was sooooo much fun! It is a big bus filled with all the people staying at the hostels in the area and they bring you around to the best clubs in the area. The night was so much fun! I quickly learned that Jeannette is my new dance buddy; she loves to dance as much as I do and we danced all night together. The next day we hung out on the beach all day…but it was really cold and I spent most of my time in a sweatshirt. Then we left around dinner time to go home and I got to ride on my first train. The Germans couldn’t believe I hadn’t been on one before.
Then it was back to reality and another week of classes. Monday I went with Ben to the rock climbers club, a student group on campus that rock climbs on the rocks just opposite the river of campus. This is for real rock climbing…no plastic climbing helpers here!! Ben has all of his own climbing stuff so he’s serious and I just went along because I thought it would be fun! I had to do it barefoot and it was fun but I didn’t get very far. I thought it was hard to do the indoor rock climbing walls but this is sooo much harder! It was fun to do though because you do it along the river at night with the city line in the background and the lights shine up at the rocks which makes a really pretty setting. It’s free your first time but then after that you can pay $60 for the semester to do it every Monday and Wednesday. It was fun….but I don’t think I’ll be joining anytime soon.
This past weekend was pretty chill. Friday night we went to see Public Enemies here at the cinema on Southbank which is super cheap to see movies…just $6.50 for students…and that’s Australian dollars so it’s even cheaper for me!! Then we woke up early Saturday and went for the day to a beach in Sandgate. The beach wasn’t very nice…really small…but it was really nice weather so I laid out in the sun for a while. The best part was we had a barbeque (you don’t say grilled in Australia which I learned from my roommates) on the beach. They have built in electric barbeques at most beaches in Australia. We did chicken, shrimp, and tofu (for Danielle) kebabs with peppers onion and pineapple. They were sooooo good and so much fun to make. We all stood around the grill and talked and ate in the sun…could you ask for a better time?!
This week I have another week of classes…some homework to do since I have a short 5 min. presentation for my e-marketing class to do next Monday about the company I’m going to do an e-marketing plan for; I’m doing Feed My Starving Children. Then on the weekend we’re going to Noosa, which is on the sunshine coast north of Brisbane about an hour and a half train ride. We rented an apartment holiday unit for 10, me, Ben, Danielle, Nicole, Brian, Nick, Jens, Jeanette and Lucy are going. We’re going to barbeque again since they have a grill at our place…play some cards and hang out at night since we have our own kitchen and living room, and during the day go to the beach and SURF!!!! It should be a fun weekend!!
Sorry for the book!! I’m gonna work on updates more often!! But I hope you are all well back in the states!! I miss you all and can’t wait to keep you posted about Down Under!! I’d love to hear updates about what’s going on back home too, e-mail me if you’d like darst006@umn.edu.
Cheers to a good week!!
Mallory
