Australia Update

THE FLIGHT…OR FLIGHTS I SHOULD SAY

The first flight from Chicago to San Francisco went quickly and well. Once I got through security in Chicago and what not and got to my terminal I found out that there was actually six of us traveling together from there, so I was able to meet people right off the bat. The plane was really nice with spacious seating and TV’s in the back of each seat with various free movies playing throughout the flight. I slept through most of the flight, about 4.5hours, waking up pretty much only for a few minutes of the movies, pretzels and a cup of soda. Once we got to San Francisco we all went easily through customs and after a short waiting period we were on our way to Sydney.

The plane from Sydney was huge seating about 350 people. The seats were really close and squished; and just my luck I got to sit next to a heavy set man (weighing about 350lbs) meaning I was left with about half a seat for the entire 14hr flight. Luckily the Dramamine knocked me out pretty well and I slept for most of the flight against the window. Throughout the flight we got two full meals and a sandwich. The first meal I ate was a drink, mashed potatoes, gravy and beef, a bun, some sort of carrot cake bar thing. After a few hours, for a snack, we got some more soda and a turkey sandwich. For our last meal I got apple juice, a spinach and cheese omelet, watermelon and grapes, some banana bread and some really chewy sausage. Besides sleeping I did just a couple word searches and listened to music. On the way down we hit some pretty nasty turbulence, but other then that, the flight went quickly and smoothly.

When we arrived to Sydney it took us about two hours to get through customs, quarantine, get our luggage, (Hannah one of the girls with us, found out her luggage was still in San Fran. And had to wait about four days before she got it. I’m so happy that didn’t happen to me.) and get through security. After that we had about six hours to bum around the airport. Through the travels I met Taryn, another girl from Stout, and we have already become super good friends spending most of our down time and traveling together. At the airport her and I grabbed lunch and went to Dunkin donuts and got donut sundaes which is basically a donut with ice cream on top of it. The ice cream I got was called violet crumble, kind of a Carmel type ice cream that’s all the rage here in Australia. And then headed to the terminal for our last flight to Lismore. This flight was small with only about 30 people. We actually got shuttled to the airplane out on the runway waiting area and got to climb the stairs up into our airplane. This flight was smooth and only about 80min long. Ending finally in Lismore at about 5:00 in the evening.

IMMEADIATE ARRIVAL

When we got to the airport we had a guy from the uni (aka the university) waiting for us and we were taken to our rooms. After about 20 min. he then took us all down to the square (aka the shopping center here, with K-mart, the Big W (their Wal-Mart), grocery stores, and shopping stores in it, where we bought groceries (super expensive like $8 for a box of cereal so I bought a bunch of Raman and cheap food) and all that good stuff. That night I slept soundly but they weren’t lying when they said its cold at night (about 40 degrees—they use Celsius here which is getting hard to adjust to when they say the temp. and without heat, it made for a cold night) So the next day I headed out and bought a blanket asap.

ROOMMATES/PEOPLE

I live with two guys and a girl. Lou is from Australia, and she’s way cool. She’s not around a whole lot because she’s in a lot of on campus activities, but she’s a lot of fun and like all Australians, loves to drink. She is also my CA (college adviser). Then there's Lacky. He's also from Australia and he’s totally crazy! He is the craziest, loudest, always drunk Australian and he’s an absolute blast. He’s always laughing and joking around so it’s a ton of fun living with him as well. When I initially got here, I also had a roommate named Katrin from Norway, but after about a week she moved out to live with some people from her home university so we got a new roommate named Toshi, from Sydney. He’s a bit odd, but friendly enough. We all seem to be compatible and respectful so I’m enjoying my living situation.

Besides my roommates, its been super easy and a ton of fun meeting people, since we all kind of came not knowing anyone. The Australians are great and really know how to show us a good time. I’ve met and become friends with people from literally all over the world! Its crazy but listening and getting used to all the accents has been a good time. Australians overall are very welcoming, warm hearted people and you could easily walk up to someone on the side of the street and spark up a conversation.

WEATHER/TIME DIFFERENCE

The weather here has been a bit touchy so far. They’re just getting done with their winter so the temperature fluctuates a lot. There have been a few days when it’s about 78 degrees and sunny, we went to the beach and went swimming in the ocean. But for the most part it’s been in the low sixties during the day. The sun is super intense even through its considered their winter here, and always feels good when you’re walking around campus. At night it gets really cold, down to the upper 30’s and the buildings don’t have heat so I’ve definitely gotten my use out of my sweatshirts and jeans already. But I’ve also gotten use of my shorts, tanks, and swim suits as well. Crazy Australian Winter Weather! The time difference is 15 hours. So if its Noon here on Saturday, its really 9pm on Friday by you. Crazy isn’t it?

CAMPUS

The campus is labeled really well and I’ve gotten pretty used to it already. The Southern Cross University is actually split up into 3 living areas. Magellan, Sirius, and Orion. I live in Orion with most of the people my age, and a lot of the exchange students, so its definitely been a lot of fun. Orion is on top of a huge hill and the rest of campus is down in a valley so there’s a sidewalk down. When I say huge I mean HUGE and STEEP!! Through out the day you always have to have your eyes peeled, since many a time a kangaroo, wallaby, or koala might be sitting right off the path. Down on campus are obviously all the buildings, each one with its own letter to identify it. Then there is the Plaza and the Uni Bar. The plaza has a bookstore, travel agent (for easy traveling packages), accommodation office, coffee shops, and little restaurants. The Uni Bar on campus is the university bar, the big bar nights are on Thursdays. However, every other Friday night there they hold themed parties, last week was 80’s Bling, which seem like they’re going to be a ton of fun with everyone getting really into them.

WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO

I’m slowly getting used to the accents here although at times its still super hard to understand what exactly they are saying. Australians seem to be a bit lazy with their language and speaking so many of them just kind of mumble/slur what they are saying which makes it hard to understand. Orientation week was held the first full week and we learned about the campus, got some planners and all the usual orientation kinds of stuff. We learned about the trips we could go on including an Outback trip, Frasier Island, or a Surfing Camp trip. Mica a guy I met from MN, and I signed up asap for the Outback trip asap since only 20 people can go, so hopefully we get in (we find out next week but it was first come first serve and I think we were probably first on a comp. since I had mine there).

I’ve been to three of the major neighboring places so far including Byron Bay, Currumbin, and Bangalow. We also went to Byron Bay, which is about 30min from here where the beach and ocean are. It’s an amazing town with tons of shops and an amazing beach. I’m completely in love with the town, but I know that if I lived there I would spend way too much money. I hit up a bus to the Bangalow last weekend when the Markets were being held as well. Its this traveling market that goes from town to town with all this awesome stuff, from clothes to artworks to crafts, and just a whole mess of fun stuff to look at, check out, and buy. Its crazy the people you see in Australia and in these towns. People here are just so relaxed with their dress and life style, its like they just roll out of bed and throw on what ever is laying around whether it matches or not. Some people wear shoes, but about half of the people walking down the streets, in stores, and restaurants are barefoot. Many of them have dreads and a lot of them hold hippie/gypsy/beach bum combination look.

The other weekend we also went to Currumbin. Here we went to the Currumbin Sanctuary; a huge zoo type thing. It was a blast to walk around and check out all the animals, and there were two huge differences from the zoos at home. The first was that we could hold and get pictures taken with Koala’s, which of course I did. It was such an amazing, unexplainable feeling to be holding a live Koala! The other huge difference is that in our zoos, we have goat petting zoo areas. Well in Australia they have wallaby/kangaroo petting zoo areas!! So I got to pet and touch actual kangaroos and wallabies too! It was crazy!

Besides the small neighboring towns, I plan to get to the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, Whitsunday, New Zealand, and Fiji before I leave.

CONTACT INFORMATION

The calling situation I thought was going to be tough here, but now that I have skype I’m not too worried about it. My cell phone doesn’t work here at all and I’m not sure If Ill be getting one here yet or not. The pay phones here are ridiculous, but I do have an apartment phone that I can’t call externally out of but I can receive external calls from. The number is 6-126-626-9241.

Skype is basically an Internet calling system. I can call landlines and cell phones from it for $15 for 9hrs worth of calling so its super cheap. So it’s kind of like an online cell phone I guess. And, if other people have skype, you can call each other through the computers and use it like a cell phone for free (computer to computer) or use it as a chatting system. What’s nice about going computer to computer is that web cams come into play and you can see each other as you talk and catch up.

My address here is:

Rebecca Meyer c/o International Office

Southern Cross University

P.O. Box 157

Lismore, NSW 2480 Australia

CLASSES

While in Australia I am taking three classes. I have Drawing III, Photography II, and Outdoor Education. My first day of class was a disaster. It was my Drawing III class and since I’m right handed, and my right arm was in a sling, I obviously couldn’t exactly draw. So our teacher wanted us to draw a portrait of the person sitting next to us, and since I couldn’t draw with my right hand, she made me do it with my left hand. Lol I can barely right my name with my left hand much less draw a portrait of someone!! And then to make matters worst, she had us hang all our drawings up on the wall for the entire class to see!! Lol it was terrible. Besides that first class, it seems like it’ll be all right.

I’m super excited for my other two classes. My photography class should be a real treat since when I come back to the States, Ill have all my pictures from Australia which will be a great addition to my portfolio. My teacher is super laid back, and seems like he’ll be fun to work with. For my last class, I signed up for Outdoor Education. We get to go on two camping excursions in the rain forest and bush. Which I’m sure will be amazing. It sounds intense, like we'll be backpacking it, for three days and nights each time, but I’m sure it will be a good time.

TRANSPORTATION

From Campus to our flats, we walk obviously. Southern Cross University is composed of 3 colleges (more like living areas) and I live in Orion. It’s a ton of fun, but the thing that sucks about it is that it’s literally at the top of a gigantic hill that’s super steep and covered in steps. The hill is 311meters just to Orion, but the rest of campus is down hill as well, so I don’t even want to know how far it is. Its kinda like the entire campus is in a valley, and we're at the top looking down. Lets just say my legs are going to be in the best shape of my life after I’m done with the semester lol.

Then to get into town/shopping square for groceries and what not, there is either a city bus that runs during the day, or a free campus shuttle that runs starting at 6. The free shuttle is nice, except for most of the stores close here at 5, so if you want to get to them before hand, you have to pay a couple bucks.

Then to get to and from the bars and things on the weekends, we have to call taxis which add up quickly, but in Australia you don’t tip, cabs, restaurants or anything like that so its not too bad. It was definitely weird getting used to not tipping for stuff like that, but hey whatever works I guess.

MY DISASTERS

And of course, since my name is Becky Meyer, disasters and mishaps just naturally follow me around on a day-to-day basis. So far on my trip I’ve had three major things happen to me, which haven’t been all that great.

My first was that I went to Byron Bay for a surfing weekend type thing. We got to stay the weekend in Byron, have accommodation through a surf school, and got surfing lessons and all access to wetsuits and surfboards for the entire weekend. We got in Friday night, (it was 10 of us girls) went out, then Saturday were to get up for our first surfing lesson, and free surfing/beach time all day; then go out for dinner and to the bars for the night, then all day free surfing again on Sunday. It was a ton of fun; except for the first hour into our first lesson on sat. I dislocated my shoulder and I couldn’t surf for the rest of the weekend and I prolly wont be surfing for at least a month at all :)! I was so bummed. Its, of course, my third time dislocating my shoulder (shoulder surgery has be set for January when I get back) and I was stuck in a sling for a week. O well though, I had a blast just beaching it and hanging with the girls.

My second happening was that I got super super sick. I literally went to bed on Tuesday night and slept until Friday; day in and night out, just getting up to go to the bathroom. I am feeling a bit better now, but I still have a stuffy nose and a nasty cough.

And lastly, I was at the ATM, and it ate my card! So now I have 5$ in coins and I have to wait for at least a week to get a new card and have no way of getting cash until then. Lol between my shoulder, getting sick, and the ATM this its been a pretty intense start to my Australia experience. So for this weekend, Ill probably just be hanging out around here unless I get my card before then.