The Last Weekend Before Uni

It's Saturday afternoon and I'm relaxing in my bed after another ridiculous night here at St. Mark's. Last night was Fresher's Dinner. We got dressed up in our formal wear and put on our robes (like in Harry Potter) and a had predrinks with the Master and the Dean. Then we proceeded into the dinning hall where we were served wine, champagne, and beer with a full course meal. We had pumpkin soup, chicken and mashed potatoes and veggies and for dessert we had apple crumble pie. AMAZING! Through out the whole dinner groups of people were sung too, like the Freshers, and had to chug their drinks. We ever got to sing the song to the Master!! It was insane. Needless to say, most people were pretty drunk by the time dinner was over and we headed out to the courtyard and had a party! There was a DJ and kegs and everyone was dancing and having a great time.

Today has been pretty lazy Saturday. I went up to the store and bought some notebooks and things for Uni on Monday. I'm getting really excited for it!! It'll just be nice to have set schedule and be going to class and stuff. I'm sure that'll change once Uni starts but for now I'm staying positive about it. Tomorrow we have to attend church for a St. Mark's ceremony, I believe it's a commencement of the semester. We are going to the beautiful cathedral next door. I hope it's as beautiful inside as it is outside.

I've made slide shows of my pictures and put them above the posts, as I'm sure you've already noticed. I'm almost finished uploading the Kangaroo pictures (I know it's taking forever!!) The internet is really slow here, so it always takes me two times to upload the pictures. Soon they will be up and I'll send the link to the website and the slide show will be posted with the other pictures above!! For now, I'm going outside to hang out on the lawn!!

Drop Offs, 7 am techno and the longest week of my life

Well O-week is about to finish and I find myself exhausted but with heaps of new friends and new experiences. It truly was one of the longest weeks of my life. We started out with an all day obstacle course and campus tour, where the showed us what NOT to do. They had parked a car in the wrong spot and so they smashed the car to pieces! We had a slip and slide, a tunnel crawl, and a run where they threw garlic powder, veggie mite, peanut butter and all kinds of gross things at us after we were soaked with water. Needless to say it took me two days to stop smelling like garlic. We also had a pub crawl or pub night every night. So not only do they want us to get drunk at night, they want us to suffer every morning. At 7AM sharp, they played the most atrocious and ear-piercing techno song. They banged on our doors and forced us out of bed to do exercises, milk chugging relays and other ridiculous things. Ugh!! My body still cringes at the thought of that awful techno song. We had a toga party on a boat ride around the river, a quiz night where we could win all kinds of cool prizes (my team didn't do that well, so we didn't win anything). Today we had drop offs. We were dressed up in ridiculous outfits...and I mean ridiculous. Some guys were in dresses with obscene things written on their arms, some girls in hats, bikinis, scuba gear, everything. Then we were paired up, duct taped to our pair, blind folded and dropped off somewhere and had to make it home. We were given an envelope with money and a phone number, for EMERGENCIES only. If you opened it, you were automatically disqualified. I was dressed in a sweatshirt as pants (my legs through the arm holes), and pants taped to my arms. I was duct taped to a guy and he was duct taped to a girl. We were blind folded and dropped off in a junk yard at a the Port. We had quite an adventure getting back involving a drunk bum taking a picture of us with his cellphone, a car full of guy threatening us for the obscene things written on the guy (it was saying something awful about the Port cricket team), and an old lady helping us find a bus station. Thanks to the mercy of the bus driver, who let us ride in the back of the bus for free. We made it back to St. Mark's in one piece and with a great story!! Wooo!!

For the first time since Sunday, I'm going to be able to sleep in without that awful song playing. You have no idea how happy I am, seriously. Uni will be starting on Monday and I have to get myself actually prepared for school!! How crazy!! I've been in Australia for almost 3 weeks and have yet to go to a single class. That will all change on Monday and I'm actually really excited for it. I'm taking the History of Indigenous People, Gender and Race in Australia, and Australian Pop Culture. I'm like really excited!! Tonight should be pretty low key, I think everyone has hit their limit today. We are watching Animal House on the lawn. I'm going to try and put pictures up, now that I have some free time. I'll post the links ASAP!

What??! A Fresher Again??

So I'm writing this blog in the dark at 11:00 at night....Tonight begins the start of Orientation Week, more informally know as O-week. I am once again pushed the bottom of the collegiate social chain and labeled a freshman slash first year slash fresher. And as such, I have to be initiated into the college tomorrow morning. Tonight we had a curfew of 10:00 PM at which point all the upperclassmen ran through the fresher halls and banged on doors and yelled at us to get to bed. They after a bit, they were like trying to coax us out of our rooms, saying it's all alright that it's over now. Those who were dumb enough to go out, go ponded. Being ponded means they pick you up and throw you in the pond. Hilarious. It's over now, I haven't heard them banging on the doors for awhile. Tomorrow is a big day...we are told to wear grungy clothes that we don't mind getting dirty. Rumor has it, we are getting things thrown at us (food, water balloons, ect) and having to crawl through mud. Should be lots of fun!! Haha.

Pictures will be posted after this week is over, I apologize for the delay, but from what I reckon about this week, I'm gonna need all the extra time I have to sleep. =P

Beach photos!

Okay, so I only had time to make the beach photo album. Here is the link:

http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg136/emilyinaustralia/Beach%20Retreat/

(View the slideshow)


I'll have the pub pictures up soon and hopefully some amazing ones from tomorrow. Enjoy these pictures!!

I'm a slacker and haven't been writing every night. I'm really trying to get in the groove of it, but things keep happening here!! Yesterday we played volleyball!! We found a net and a ball and set it up on the lawn and we had some good games going. At first we played sixes, the two Canadian guys are real good and so is Cliff (another American) and there was one Aussie, Tyson, who was awesome. Jenn and I held our own, but the other Americans and Aussies were...well...they tried...haha. So we decided to play some doubles after awhile, which turned out to be amazing. I was soooo happy to be playing. Jenn and I took on Cliff and Tyson and won!! Woo. Then we took on the Canadians and they whooped our butts. I'm talking in an eight point game, we got 2 points. Pretty pathetic showing. So we wanted a rematch after we had a moment to catch our breaths and we did a bit better (8-6) but they still won. After that we had dinner, which was some curry chicken thing. The food here isn't bad, I like a lot of it and I've tried everything. Be proud everyone, I'm trying new things!!

Well we started "predrinking" at 7:30, which is ridiculously early. We taught the Aussies American drinking games, mainly flip cup. Which got to be a pretty intense game, my team (of course) won. They we took the "gassie" to the pub. The gassie is this old old truck with benches in the back for us to sit in and a roof over top. It seriously was the coolest thing to drive in. Check out the pictures of it, that was a really awful description of it... Speaking of pictures, as I type I'm uploading pictures of the beach trip and of our pub night. So I'll post the links in a separate post and I'll send them out in an email. So if reading my blog doesn't excite you enough, you'll have pictures to drool over too. =P

Okay, back to pub night...did I mention that the night was themed? Yes, themed. Short shorts and long socks. Ridiculous theme and the boys went all out for it. Some of them had short shorts, awful white legs. Anyways, the pub had drink specials (AMAZING) so I got to drink and save money!! Woooo! It was a great night, lots of dancing and good times all around.

Today was a lazy day, I woke up kind of late, which was 9:30. I still haven't been able to sleep in late, but I guess that's a good thing because my classes for uni are at 10 and 11 AM. MY OTHER LUGGAGE BAG CAME TODAY!! HOOORAYY I officially have all of my luggage and I could NOT be happier!! Woooo!!! After lunch today we went to the local beach, a $1.20 tram ride away. It was GORGEOUS. I swear all the beaches here just have crystal clear blue water. I got a little bit of sun on my face, but I've been putting lots of sunscreen on because apparently the Australian sun is very strong slash there's a whole in the ozone layer here. It was a nice afternoon, but I was pretty beat by the end of it. Tonight we watched Juno, which was an AMAZING movie. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, you need to. Tomorrow is a very big day...I get to see, no, I get to PET AND HOLD KANGAROOS AND KOALAS!! EEEEEE I am so excited I can't even contain myself!!! We leave at 8:45 AM and I am so excited that I can't sleep, thus the reason I'm writing this blog at 12 o'clock at night. Wooooo!! Get excited!!!

Reckon some cricket after brekky?

WOO I feel like I have so much to catch up on!! The trip to Francis' beach house was INCREDIBLE. Seriously, words can not even describe the beach, the house, the sunset, the food...only pictures. So check out the new pictures I put up:

http://s247.photobucket.com/albums/gg136/emilyinaustralia/

This album is of the first night in Australia, I'll put the beach pictures up soon!! Click on SLIDESHOW on the right to see the pictures better =)

I feel like I should probably give you an idea of who went on the trip (the pictures will also help too). The Americans are: Me, Jenn, Hannah, Devon, Laura, Cliff and Steve. The Canadians are Jarett and Mark. The Aussies who came with us were Francis, Michael (Hoggy), Jeff, Alice and one Brit named Amy. Got them all down? There'll be a quiz later on. So Francis' parents, Tim and Pam took us to their beach house, which was about two hours away. Tim owns his own vineyard and makes one of Australia's top 100 wines -- Tim Adams is the name of the brand -- and it's labeled the best wine for the best price. It was pretty amazing, he popped a couple of bottles for us when we got to the beach. On the way there, we saw some emus and hopped out of the car for a photo op. WOO Wildlife Encounter #1! Nasty little buggers, they have red eyes, huge claws and sharp beaks. The beach was amazing, I know I already said it, but it really was. We wadded out in the crystal clear water and all swam or stood around. The water was refreshingly cool. Wildlife Encounter #2 came as a sudden surprise in the water...A CROC!!!!


No no, just kidding...it was a sting ray. Which was pretty awesome too!! It swam off rather quickly, didn't want to be bothered by any pesky Americans. After splashing around in the gorgeous water, we headed back on the beach to play some cricket. Tim, who's car I was in the ride over, taught us all about the game of cricket, so we played on the beach. It was alright, but it's rather hard to play seriously with a beer in your hand. =P So Alice, Devon and I decided to cross the desert of dry seaweed and climb the sand dune peak. Beers in hand we trekked up to the top, toasted and chugged out beers as we gazed out at the breathtaking beach. Then we ran, jump and tumbled down the sand dune. The rest of the afternoon consisted of swimming, more sand dune adventures and tanning. We headed back to the beach house for a proper dinner on the barbie (Seriously, Australians talk really weird). Dinner was bbq chicken, ribs and sausage, potatoes and salad. It was ammmazzinnnggg. Around sunset, which I took a pretty sick picture of (drop) we all went back out on the beach and took some ridiculous "jump" pictures. The next morning we had brekky of eggs, bacon and toast. After cleaning up from brekky, we piled in the car and head back to Adelaide...

I'll pull your feathers out!!

Woke up this morning again to the lovely sound of birds....and by lovely I mean, it sounds like the birds are ripping each others' feathers out!! They squawk and scream all morning, which doesn't help my new found sleeping pattern. I go to bed at like midnight and end up waking up at like 6:30 / 7 AM and can't go back to sleep. I'm not sure if this is what jet lag feels like, but how I would love to just sleep in!!

There's still no one on my hall, besides the RA equivalent Jack (they call them Floor Tutors). So it's kinda lonely and quiet...which I think is a blessing right now. Where I live, the Annex, is basically a hallway with rooms on both sides. The walls are paper thin everyone has told me. Awesome. As of now I'll enjoy my quiet, summer camp looking building and hope no one ever moves in.

Time to get some brekky and head to the beach!! I promise to post pictures soon =P

HOT HOT!!

It's about 9 PM here and I'm still uncomfortably hot. Tomorrow and Monday are suppose to be even worse heat. Good thing we are going to the beach tomorrow!! It should be an absolute blast. Today has been pretty laid back. Last night, our first night in Australia we went to a pub called The Cambridge and hung out with the other Americans, one Canadian and the Aussies. It was a lot of fun, but by midnight Jenn and I were exhausted so we called it a night. This morning we slept in until 10ish and then went exploring through Adelaide. We walked to "Uni" (the word for University, Jenn hates it, I embrace it) and had a look around. Unfortunately, every thing is closed on Saturdays and apparently they are worse than Blue States on Sunday. Fantastic. We also explored the beautiful Cathedral that sits on the corner of St. Mark's. It is GORGEOUS. I'm debating of going to service there one Sunday just to see the inside more. It's one of the oldest churches in Adelaide, which we also learned is called the "city of churches." After our adventure, which entirely wiped us out, we lounged around until a meeting about the beach.

THE BEACH!! Wooo! We are going to be leaving tomorrow at 10:30 to travel an hour south to a beach, which Francis (our international student leader) says we will be the only people on this beach. EEEEEE =) We are going to be having a barbie for dinner and then spend the night at Francis' beach house there. It is just going to be all of the international students, so it'll be a good way for us Americans and now 2 Canadians to bond. I'm so excited!!

Well it's ridiculously warm in my room, so I'm going to head over to Jenn's room to enjoys the breeze that sweeps through her room....

Qantas Airline: 3 -- Emily & Jenn: 0

Hello from Australia!! It's been a long trip getting here, an true adventure. Jennifer (who I am traveling with) and I left Dulles and made it to LA. The airport in LA was an adventure in itself. We had to locate the Qantas Airline desk and then go through security all over again. We made it to our gate and boarded the PACKED flight for Sydney. Jenn and I were in different seats, so we didn't get to see each other most of the flight. The flight was loooonnngg, but I slept most of it. They feed us some sketchy looking chicken for dinner and an omelet for breakfast. I watched Michael Clayton, which was a pretty good movie, but that's all I was awake for to watch. Once we landed in Sydney, we made it through customs (even with my Crasins!! We were certain that would take them from me!) We headed to baggage claims...to not find out luggage. We waited and waited, but both our luggage disappeared. We reported the baggage missing and the man at the counter laughed at the irony of my baggage tag -- I Heart Baggage Handlers -- cause clearly they didn't heart me back. We headed to our gate, where we met two British girls who were on an adventure of their own. They laughed at us saying "line" instead of "queue" and were curious if girls at our universities were like those in "Mean Girls." Quite amusing. On our flight to Adelaide we met a couple who had been traveling in South America!! It was fun to talk to someone who had visited Chile as well (though they weren't there very long). They also told us we'd love Adelaide and St. Mark's. We landed in Adelaide and were picked up and taken to St. Mark's with no luggage...but it was gorgeous out and hell WE ARE IN AUSTRALIA so can we really complain?