Nicole Elizabeth Livingston Under Construction

We (Heather and I) got to Melbourne last night (2/14) at 10:30pm, but I didn't make it to my dorm room until about 1:00am. By the time I showered and unpacked it was pretty late. I'm not really as tired as I should be because I slept a good 3 hours on the plane ride from Fiji.

I left DFW at about 8:30am on Saturday (2/11) and got to LAX around 10:00am. Our layover was 12 hours!!! Heather got in the same exact time I did so we met up, got our bags, and after being confused for several hours figuring out we couldn't check our bags or store them anywhere, we paid for a hotel room for half the day. We dropped our luggage off there and took a free city bus out to a nearby beach for the day. It was pretty fun, we just walked along the beach for a bit (the water was freezing, but people were still swimming in it) and then walked around the city looking at all the pretty [expensive] beach houses.

We got back to the airport with hours to spare, and I spent that entire time feeling miserable. I'd been sick all week and my body decided that it wanted to completely shut down right before I got on my 10 hour plane ride (at 10:00pm Pacific Time 2/11). That was fun. The plane ride was ok. I drugged myself up plenty when I borded and slept through most of it. We got two really good meals and there were plenty of movies to choose from, but I ended up just eating and sleeping. The plane was nice and big (Air Pacific 747) with personal video in each headrest.

We got to Fiji at 5:00am local time on Monday (2/13). To me February 12, 2006, does not exist! The people of Fiji are probably the most friendly, optimistic, upbeat people you will ever meet. Everyone seems to know eachother on the island. A nice guy drove us to our hostel in a free shuttle right after we got our bags and went through customs. The place we stayed was pretty dumpy, but for what we paid it was alright. Thank goodness we booked ahead for one of a few A/C rooms because Fiji is the hottest most humid place in the world. I had to put in my contacts because my glasses kept fogging up! Most of the people at the hostel were 20somethings and were all very friendly and nice. Half of them were passing through before doing study abroad and the other half were doing around the world backpacking tours over the course of a year! It was rainy season, but the weather was nice just for us. It was a rare sunny day for this time of year, and it didn't start raining until we got on our plane to leave because Fiji loves us.

At about 10:00am we got on a shuttle bus to go on a day cruise to an island (about $95 FJD) that we booked through the hostel not too long after arriving. We passed all the nice resorts to pick up more people on the way and were very jealous of them. While we were waiting for a boat a little Fijian boy that was about 4 years old walked by us, waved, and said "Bula!". It was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Everyone you pass by everywhere you go will wave to you and say "Bula!" (which means "hello"). Also, the natives love to sing songs and play guitars and ukeleles all the time. The boat ride out to the island took about an hour, but it was pretty entertaining. Especially when our boat crashed into a bed of coral and threw everyone to the front of the boat. A little 6yr. old asian boy named Aaron from Australia had the biggest mouth on him. He was definately not afriad to tell it like it is and was very confident that he was a ladies man.

The island we went out to was called Malamala and was a deserted island that took only about 10 minutes to walk around. The first thing we did when we got there was have a kava ceremony which is a Fijian tradition. They made a big bowl of kava and we all drank a tiny bit out of coconuts. It was interesting... Then we just did whatever we wanted until lunch where they made us a really really nice meal with barbque chicken, fish, salad, fresh fruit, and some other good stuff. The rest of the day we just laid out on the beach, snorkled a little (there are live coral reefs all around the islands!), got a tour from one of the natives of the island, and went on a glass bottom boat. The coolest thing I saw were neon blue starfishes.

On the boat ride back the crew sang songs from each country represented in the boat. For some reason America's pick was "She'll be comin' around the mountain". I think Heather and I were the only Amercians on the boat. There were people from Fiji, Australia, Japan, England, and the Netherlands.

That night, we got a taxi to downtown Nadi (which was pretty much deserted at 8:00pm), and ate at a Indian place with a New Zealander we met at the Hostel.

On Tuesday (2/14) all we did was check out at 10am and hang around the hostel all day long. There is a place to eat inside and a tiny pool. We met a lot of people there including a group of friends from Ireland that were going on the same plane as us later that evening. The plane ride was great because we got the entire back seat to ourselves (a 4-seater middle row and two 2-seater window aisles). We both just stretched out and slept.

Then we got into Melbourne at about 10:30pm (2/14) as I mentioned above.

Today (Wednesday 2/15) we had orientation from 9:00am - 2:00 pm. It was very boring as expected.

Tonight we are going to Queen Victoria Market! More about that later, and lots and lots of pictures!

The next couple of days I skipped orientation (except for the free food parts!) because it was pointless to sit through 5 hours of speakers telling me where to go for help with my English. I went to a big mall about 10 minutes from campus called Chadstone. I think I heard it's the largest mall in the southern hemisphere? I could be wrong, but it is pretty big. The malls here have grocery stores and pharmacies and craft stores along with the usual shopping mall stores and food places. It wasn't easy shopping for everything I needed in one go, but I bought a big laundry basket to carry my bags in and I made it. I think after this trip I'm going to be able to beat up pretty much anyone with my massive muscles. My favorite new store is called T2 and it's just a really cool chain of tea stores. They have all their teas out for you to smell, and a tea bar for you to test out certain ones. I got this tea called "Turkish Apple" that's really good.

Every time I get in a vehicle feel like we are going to crash because I forget where I am and suddenly realize we are turning into the "wrong" lane. They have round-abouts here, but mostly just very large intersections. When I was being driven to the dorms from the airport, we went on a toll road which was interesting. They don't have any stop and throw coins in a basket types of things, instead they have these archways over the tollway every few miles with pretty blue lights. Every time a car that has been given a type of toll tag drives through one, the car beeps once telling the driver that money has been taken off of it. If it beeps twice, they are getting low on money. Also there are long tunnels with digital speed limit signs so if they are doing construction or there is a wreck they can tell people to get in a certain lane and slow down.

The crosswalks are different here too, they start beeping when it's OK to cross and a little green man pops up. The exchange rate for the US is decent, but the prices here are really high for everything so it's not that great (a can of coke in a vending machine is $2.20 and a small fry from McDonald's is $2!). As far as brands go, they have a lot of the same stuff the US does except for food. Everywhere we go they play mostly American music and most of their TV shows are American re-runs. Last night we watched SNL, but it was one from like 2000.

The weather changes even more quickly than it does back home. Every day I've been here it looks like it is going to rain one minute, and then the next it is sunny and really hot. The birds sound really different here, and instead of squirrels we have POSSUMS! They like to jump around in the tree outside my window all night long. At least I don't live next door to a person who practices their clarinet for about 10 hours every day like Heather though. We wonder how he doesn't pass out. The dorms are decent, except there is no A/C and I live on the top floor (6th floor) so not only am I getting more sunlight than the lower floors, but all the hot air rises to my room during the day. It is actually cooler outside than inside my room for most of the day. I still need to go get a fan at least.

Friday night we had a Study Abroad fancy dinner in a city about 30 minutes away called St. Kilda in a club called Red Scooter. The transportation and 3 really good courses cost only $20. We had grilled "prawns" and chips for hors d'oeuvres; potato salad, spring mix salad, bread, glazed chicken, sausage, veggie burgers, and corn for the main course; and chocolate and some type of cheese cake for dessert!

Last night we walked to a pizza place about 10 minutes away from campus and that is the cheapest/best food I've had here so far. It was only $5.50 for a decent sized personal pizza. I think I will be eating there a lot. The cafeteria food here is the worst food I've ever had in my entire life (and it's not cheap!). It brings cafeteria food everywhere to a new low.

Today is the beginning of the real O-Week (orientation week). It costs $50, but you get lots of "free" stuff all week including food. Today is the day that all the Australian's move in. Today this place just got 200% more livelier. Tonight we get a free barbecue so that should be fun! I will post pictures when I get a few more taken. This week there will be lots of different guided trips to places like the beach and the city!

A lot has happened since I last typed here. I love Australia. It's everything I thought it would be. The people are great, the weather is perfect (except never as exciting as TX/OK…), the city is huge, and I get to live by a beach! Heather and I have already started begging Dr. Carr and Dr. Karoly to stay a year instead of just a semester. We'll see how that goes.

I started classes yesterday. This semester should be easy because about 50% of the material we've already learned (though, not very well at OU). At least this time around we will learn it the right way! Heather and I held back laughter through all our meteorology lectures because they keep saying all the textbooks we used at OU are too advanced for undergraduate students. If only our professors in the US would realize that! My schedule really isn't that great, but I don't mind. Just being in Australia cancels out any small problems like that.

__________________________________________________________________
Here is my schedule:

M O N D A Y
10-11am -- Large Scale Weather and Climate (Lecture)
3-4pm -- Computational Mathematical methods (Lecture)

T U E S D A Y
10-11am -- Weather Phenomena (Lecture)
12-1pm -- Computational Mathematical Methods (Lecture)
3-4pm -- Climatology (Lecture)

W E D N E S D A Y
12-1pm -- Large Scale Weather and Climate (Lecture)
1-2pm -- Weather Phenomena (Lecture)

T H U R S D A Y
12-1pm -- Weather Phenomena (Lecture)
2-3pm -- Large Scale Weather and Climate (Lecture)
3-4pm -- Climatology (Lecture)

F R I D A Y
9-10am -- Computational Mathematical Methods (Lecture)
2-3pm -- Computational Mathematical Methods (Lab)

Wednesday is my easy day, and Friday is the worst because I have a class at 9am and then another at 2pm. Oh, well. I also have a couple of "support classes" (lecture discussions) and labs that meet irregularly on random days throughout the semester that shouldn't be a big deal!
__________________________________________________________________

I'll try to remember as much as I can from last week, but I know I won't be able to think of it all right now. Last week was "O-Week" (orientation week) for new students. It started on Monday (2/20) and ended on Sunday night (2/26). I did a lot of stuff with O-Week for the first part of the week, and then I kind of went off and did my own thing because I wanted to see more of the city before school started.

On Sunday (2/19) I walked around the campus to try and orient myself, since I kept getting lost. I think I have it down now. All of the Freshman Aussies moved into the dorms on Sunday so that was fun meeting them! Before they came, it didn't feel much like I was in Australia because everyone in the dorms were international students. That night we had a big BBQ outside. Australians eat funny things like sausages on sliced bread (they never use buns)! Also, instead of ketchup they have tomato sauce which is disgusting! There are a lot of vegetarians here so they always have veggie burgers and salad whenever anyone is offering meals. That night I watched "Madagascar" with some of my friends in the halls (1 American, 1 German, and 1 Aussie).

On Monday (2/20) there was a Uni Treasure Hunt. I have no idea why I decided to participate in that. It was basically a chance for teams of us new people to walk back and forth over the entire campus, lost, on a very hot summer day, trying to figure out nine cryptic clues to places on campus that we didn't even know existed let alone know where to find them! I did it though, and whatever excitement I had for O-Week quickly disappeared afterwards. Later, the RA's lead a group of us to Chadstone, the big mall about 10 minutes from campus. I got a lot of stuff that I needed like food, hangers, and towels. That night we got a Fish & Chip dinner at the residence halls then we all went to a bar near campus until like 3am because it was "tradition". A lot of traditions here center on drinking, like walking to class at 10am with an open beer... There are seemingly lots of alcoholics in this country (but they are nice people for the most part despite this, so I forgive them)!

On Tuesday (2/21) the RA's ran through the halls at 5:45AM BANGING POTS AND PANS AND YELLING ON THE INTERCOMS. Another tradition was to walk to 30 minutes away to McDonalds after being up until 3am the night before. YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!!!!! If you know me at all, you know someone would have to pay me a million dollars before that would happen with or without the proper amount of sleep. I put on headphones, pulled my pillow over my head, and went back to sleep. Later that morning they went to the city and did another scavenger hunt over the entire downtown area, but I missed out on that because I would rather be sleeping. That afternoon there were “compulsory” meetings, which were really just aimed toward first year university students and were a waste of time. After I went to that, I figured compulsory meant “only for freshman”. There was yet another BBQ that night and then we played games that night (you will know what games we played if you look at my pictures). Basically lots of trivia and eating gross things.

Wednesday (2/22) was the first day of Clubs and Societies day. This is 2 days, which all the clubs set up tables all over the campus and offer you free food, junk, and alcohol to join their clubs. I joined the "Bushwalking Club" and "Monash Weather and Climate Society". I'm not really sure what the bushwalking club is, but from what I was told, I think it's a club where people schedule trips out to the bush (woody areas) to go camping, hiking, biking, climbing, etc. I'm not really much of a camper, but I figured it would be a good chance to see stuff I wouldn't otherwise get to see. The other club I joined is for weather nerds like me. I think today was the day I met up with Chris (one of Melissa Moon's, the girl who came here last year from OU, meteorology friends) and we ate lunch together and he drove me back to Chadstone so that I could get a cell phone and do some more shopping. After that, I met up with a bunch of people at the beach. It was really windy outside and warm so the water felt too chilly to me to go swimming in. I just laid out a towel in the sand and talked to people in my hall. Later that night I'm pretty sure there was yet another BBQ!!

Thursday (2/23) there was another "compulsory" orientation thing that I skipped (and glad I did). Then there was the last Clubs and Societies day so I walked around a bit more. I think today was the day that another one of Melissa's meteorology friends named Les took me to St. Kilda? We timed it right and I got to watch the sun set over the water. I also ate at a place called Spud Bar where they make baked potatoes with anything you want mixed in it! It was pretty good. Then we walked down the beach and went to a night market outside Luna Park.

Friday (2/24) I think was the day I went to get my concessions card validated (so that I get half price public transport for being an exchange student) and I got a little bit lost. I got on a bus and missed my stop, so I ended up going to some city at the end of the line and then had to take the train to downtown. Since I was already there, I spent the rest of the day walking around the city. Later I went back to St. Kilda since I kind of knew my way around from the night before. I went to the beach and actually got in the water since it was over 95F that day, then I had an interesting time getting home. I think it took me almost 2 hours even though I never got lost! By the time I got home I was exhausted so I just went to bed.

Saturday (2/25) Les took me to the USA Foods shop, to eat at a Sushi place called Sushi Sushi, and to that T2 (really good tea) shop. I can't remember what else I did on Saturday. I can remember what I did a week ago, but not Saturday...oh well.

Sunday (2/26) Les, my new official Aussie tour guide, took me to IKEA then took me to Lygon Street in the city. For lunch, I ate Slovaki (which are what we call Gyros) in the park. After that, I went downtown and got a speed tour of things I missed when I went there by myself. There is a huge mall (at Central Train Station) alongside the street I was walking on, but didn't even notice it because it's kind of kind of hidden off the main road. I got a chocolate penguin, saw Dusty the singing dog, walked through yet another market alongside the Yarra River, went inside the Crown Casino to watch the light show, and finished up with the Grand Finale of KOKO Black, the chocoloate cafe. After that I felt pretty disgusting, so I went home and probably laid in bed the rest of the night!

Monday (2/27) classes started, and I think all the walking and sight seeing I did the week before did me in because I ended up going to sleep at about 6pm and staying asleep for most of the night. I was still tired when I woke up at 9am the next day! I swear I could sleep 24 hours and still be tired!

Today, Tuesday (2/28), I had class pretty much all day long. After class I went with some Aussie and American girls to get Coffee and Cake at a nice little cafe 2 minutes walking distance from the residence halls. I was actually more social today than I've been lately and ended up walking to the good pizza place with some of my australian buddies in my hall for dinner. Now I'm writing, later I will sleep again (my favorite thing to do!).

Wednesday (3/1) there was an event at Chadstone called VIP night to celebrate Melbourne's Fashion Week. It meant the mall was open until 9PM (gasp!) instead of 5PM and all the shops had sales. Very exciting. There were runway shows all over the mall and they were giving out free bottled water. Since bottled water is so expensive here, I made sure to grab at least 6 before they ran out. It was a successful night for me. I ate at a Japanese Restaurant in the mall too, which was really good. They have the best steamed wontons I've ever eaten. Later that night I watched a couple episodes of "Extras" (a British show by the people that came up with "The Office").

Thursday (3/2) I don't remember what I did, but I think I went back to St. Kilda at night again. I really like St. Kilda. There's lots of good restaurants and fun stuff to do there (plus a beach).

Friday (3/4) I think I bought my New Zealand tickets today. I was planning on going to the beach with a bunch of people, but there was a problem so Heather, Danielle (from Penn State), and I had to go back to the STA office twice that afternoon. We are going on Easter Break (a 10 day break) on a guided package tour thing.

Saturday (3/5) I went to the beach again by myself, which is my new favorite thing to do. After a while I walked down the beach a bit and found a big group of exchange students that live in my hall from Loyola Maryland. We went back to the dorms together, but first we stopped at a KFC because they needed their gross American food fix for the week I think. That night I went to the city with a bunch of people in the dorms.

Sunday (3/6) completely forgot what I did besides my laundry!

Monday (3/7) I had class then I went to Chadstone again. Didn't buy anything, I just walked around and looked at magazines at Borders. That night I stayed in the dorms and talked with some of my friends in the halls.

This past week hasn't been that exciting because school started last week. This weekend I might go to see the penguins or something like that. I wanted to go down the Great Ocean Road, but all the hotels along it are filled since it is a 3-day weekend for a lot of people in the country (but not for Monash students). Also, the Commonwealth Games (like the Olympics, but only with countries in the Commonwealth) are coming to Melbourne for the first time ever while I'm here. I might try and get tickets to something. It's a really big deal here, but I've never heard of it before in my life.

I've started writing things down that are different like how I always walk on the "wrong side of the sidewalk". I'm constantly almost running into people, which I guess means it's good that I don't drive a car here. Also, all the kids younger than university-age here wear uniforms. You know who are under 18 because they are always in their uniforms wherever you go. Most of the houses are one-story and have fenced in front yards or "nature strips". A lot of them park their cars in their front yard (but a lot have pretty gardens too)! The telephone ring on the phones is different here. Instead of a dial tone it beeps. There are bike lanes on pretty much all the roads in the suburbs, so it would be easy to get around on a bike. Most bike riders here are very angry people though. The busses stop running at 9 on weekdays, 5 on weekends (which makes it hard to get to the train stations if you want to go to the city or if you are coming home after dusk). Lemonade here is Sprite and Iced Tea only comes in the form of bottled tea (gross...). All of the little cities are built around the train stations. There are tons of gelato shops, chocolate shops, and cafes here. A lot of people have dreadlocks. If a driver is going for his permit, they must display the letter "L" on their car, if the driver has a license but is under 21 they must display a "P". If the driver has an "L" or a "P" then fines are heavier if they get tickets.

OK, that's enough for now.

The Great Ocean Road is a strip along the coastline West of Melbourne with lots of beautiful beaches, surf towns, rock formations, and just really great scenery. It is my favorite thing that I've done so far, and thankfully I went with a friend who had a car so I didn't have to be rushed through the sights in a tour group. There are too many things to see in one day. If I did it again I would take at least a couple days. The drive took 7 hours East to West, then only 3 to get back because there is a shorter way to get home instead of winding through the hills along the coastline. If someone were coming to Australia, I'd tell him or her that this is one of the things they have to see.

Our first stop was at Bells Beach. There were nice waves and pretty rocks all along the beach. Some people were surfing, but there weren't any people on the beach besides that. I got too excited, ran too close towards the water, and got my pants soaked right away. I did think to bring an extra pair of clothes, so I didn't have to walk around all day with wet pants. Every beach I saw the entire day had beautiful, clear turquoise water!

After this we stopped in a surf town off the road to get coffee and look in some shops. Everyone owns dogs in this country! I love it. Lots of the dogs just like to run and jump in the ocean. I don't think Dusty would like to live here.

Our next big stop wasn't until Apollo Bay. We walked down the beach for a few minutes (which was a lot more crowded than Bells Beach, but nowhere as beautiful). There was a nice tourist stop so we went in to get maps and stuff. We did a little more shopping and went through an outdoor craft market. They have lots of markets in this country too! Oh, and this is where we saw public trampolines. You pay money to go into a big caged in area with lots of trampolines.

By this time, we were all getting a little hungry, so we drove to Johanna Beach to eat lunch on it. This was probably my favorite stop because it was a huge, beautiful beach with practically nobody on it. You can't swim in it because the waves are huge and come from every direction. I doubt it would be a good idea to surf at the spot we were at too because of the combination of waves and rocks sticking out of the ocean. There was 1 guy fishing and a couple people sunbathing, but that was it! We walked along the beach after we ate to look for shells. I, of course, got too excited, walked too close to the water, and a big wave crashed into my legs. Luckily this time I was wearing my jean skirt so it dried pretty fast. I found lots of pretty shells there. We walked far along the coast and we even found a cave right on the water.

Throughout the day, we stopped at various lookout points to see the pretty rock formations and things like that. Practically anywhere along this coast is guaranteed to be picture perfect. Sarah and I said "wow" a lot that day, and we found lots of houses we wouldn't be too disappointed to live in! Les made a good tour guide since he'd driven this before.

Later, we stopped at Otway Fly Tree Top Walk over a "rainforest". It was really neat because you start off on a trail and then walk up this long metal bridge that takes you 20-37 meters (about 121 feet) high. It would have been a lot cooler if the bridge were made of rope and wood, if I'd actually seen any animals, and if there weren't golf carts carrying people around in the "rainforest"! It was fun to see all the tall, skinny trees up from their tops though!

After we left, I drove Les's car for a little bit! I am very proud of myself because not only was I driving on the wrong (LEFT) side of the road, but also his car was a manual so I had to drive a stick with my left hand! No living creatures or inanimate objects were harmed during this experiment, so I think I did pretty well for being American. I didn't even have to use the signs that said "DRIVE LEFT IN AUSTRALIA" which are scattered along the Great Ocean Road because so many people driving are foreigners!

Our next and what turned out to be our final big stop was the Port Campbell National Park. This is where we saw the 12 Apostles, which is one of the biggest icons of Australia! There aren't really 12 "apostles" left because they have been collapsing over time due to erosion. They are only about 20 million years old! The last one that fell over did so the day before Melissa went last year. After that, we looked at a few more extremely famous rock formations and historical sites further along the coast in the park such as Loch Ard Gorge, Island Arch, and the Blowhole (which sounded like a giant whale).

Our last stop of the day was to a nearby town to eat dinner. We were originally going to try and find a place with 'Roo Burgers on their menu (which are somewhat popular here), but settled on the first place we found when the time came to eat. It was delicious and we got to eat outside near a beach. We were all completely exhausted by this point as you could imagine!

On our way home I was completely unconscious once it got dark enough and my chances of seeing a kangaroo weren't as great. I saw enough signs for them throughout the day, but never actually saw one!!! Apparently when I go camping for my mandatory atmospheric sciences field trip, there will be kangaroos bouncing all over the place. Hopefully I will make it to the animal sanctuary by then (or go bushwalking with my really cool new club).

It was fun to go out to Bendigo. I rode up in Bree's car and ate dinner (tea as they call it) with her and another Aussie girl from my hall named Kat. That night we all stayed at another Australian from my hall Raf's home with Heather (OU), Sarah (Marquette in Chicago), Shaun (my RA from Malaysia), and Frank (from Penn State). We didn't do much but swim and watch movies. I'm already back at Clayton and it's only 4pm Saturday, but we had fun. It was good to get away for a while and see a different town. Tonight a huge group of us are going to the city to celebrate Frank's 21st Birthday.

Last week I went to the city with Sarah and Les to eat in Chinatown. We got a ton of food and it only cost us $25 all together. They had really good steamed wontons. After we ate dinner, we went back to Koko Black where Sarah and I shared a Chocolate Mousse Martini. I think next time I will try to find a third person to split it with. You look at it and think you can eat at least two by yourself because it's so light and creamy looking, but it's way too rich!

I started going to a fruit market and have discovered my new favorite snack there: fresh cinnamon roasted macadamia nuts! They are yummy!

On Thursday I went downtown to see if I could make it to IKEA by myself, and I made it in about 2 hours! It's a little East of the city (in a town called Richmond), so there isn't really a way to get directly to it. I have to take 1 bus, 2 trains, and 2 trams to get there, but it was worth it to get cheap stuff I needed. Plus it is in a nice shopping mall so it wasn't like I did all that for just IKEA.

Next time I get the chance I'm going to go to some shops I read about in one of my travel books a little South of Richmond. I am so glad I brought all of my Australia books I've been collecting. I would be so lost without them! I always carry one about Melbourne around with me since it has detailed maps of all the bus, train, and tram lines. It's very helpful.

The longer I stay here the more I fall in love with this country. I wish I lived either closer to the beach or city center right now though. Having a car and an apartment wouldn't be so bad either! I'm getting all kinds of muscles from lugging around tons of groceries, laundry, and other junk though.

Its 7:50am here right now with the new time change. I am only awake because my allergies decided they'd make me feel miserable again today. I'm either allergic to something outside or someone in the dorms. It's probably the outdoors because my A/C is my window that's never been closed since I've gotten here.

Last Thursday I went shopping in a suburb south of the Yarra River on Chapel Street and then in the city center by myself. Chapel Street has tons of boutiques and interesting shops. I went to an antique mall called Chapel Street Bazaar where I found an awesome old Quantas flight bag for a really cheap price. I love it! After a while of shopping I got tired, so I went inside the Victoria State Library and looked around for a couple hours. It's really pretty inside, but it felt like I was in a museum more than a library.

Last night I went to a Monash basketball game with some people in my hall. I was that bored. Plus it was free. When it finished, I walked to a 24-hour gas station down the street with Catia and Roxane (the French exchange girls) to get Tim Tams. I don't know if I've written about Tim Tams yet, but they are the best cookies in the entire world. Everyone in my hall is addicted to them. They are like the Oreos of Australia. I will take a picture of a box later.

More foodstuffs I've discovered is they call raisins sultanas here. Instead of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, I got Kellogg’s Sultana Bran. Also, Aussies think American cheese (like Kraft individually wrapped slices) is the most disgusting cheese in the world. Instead they have tasty cheese, which is a little harder. Instead of wheat bread they have wholemeal bread. They don't refrigerate their eggs! I've only bought eggs once, but they are brown instead of white and most are from "free range" or "vegetarian fed" hens! The strangest thing is that places make you PAY for condiments! KFC charged me 30 cents for a tiny thing of ketchup!! If that happened in America, I think there would probably be riots and someone would end up getting hurt.

I've been writing down lots of other stuff I find funny. They pronounce the letter "H" hay-ch and "Z" zed (like the Brits). They also say par-ME-zien instead of Parmesan and Car-knee-gee instead of Carnige. I hear "No Worries" (don't worry) and "How ya goin?" (how are you doing?) 500 times a day.

Sunglasses = Sunnies, Trash Cans = Bins, Flip Flops = Thongs, Dinner = Tea, Parking Lots = Car Parks, Trunk of the car = Boot of the car, Trucks = Utes, Comforter (as in the cozy blanket for your bed) = Doona, Showing up to something = Rocking up to something, Open Field = Paddock, Pharmacy = Chemist, Candy = Lollies, Gyros = Slovaki, Granola Bars = Muesli Bars.

Phone numbers are written like 5323-4930 instead of 403-2393. They have 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, and $2 coins. Bills only come in $5, $10, $20, $50, and probably higher but I wouldn't know! The most popular cereal (I think) is WeetBix. You "barrack" for a sports team instead of "rooting" for them. Rooting is a bad word here, and if you say you root for a team Aussies will laugh at you!

Stores won't bag your purchases unless you request it to be. Some places even charge you for bags. Most people carry around cloth totes when grocery shopping. Local phone calls cost money! When I go to Borders Bookstore, I am always amazed at how much prettier their book covers are than the ones at home. Most books have different covers than the same ones in the US.

Many toilets have 2 flushes: 1 called a half-flush and the other a full flush. The light switches here look different. Movie tickets are expensive (about $12) except for on Tuesdays when it is only about $8 for a student ticket. I can't rent or buy any movies because the DVD region here is different from the US, so I can't play any of them on my computer or on my DVD player back home. Also, the rating system is, of course, different. Instead of G, PG, PG-13, and R, they have G, PG, M, MA15+ (Persons Under 15 Must be accompanied by a parent or guardian), and MA18+ (Restricted to Adults 18 Years and Over).

Instead of calling professors by their last name (Prof. so-and-so or Dr. so-and-so), it is more normal to call them by first names here. Clothing sizes are different. I'm not 100% sure, but I think a women's size 8 is like a small in the US. I haven't tried anything on yet though. The Aussies play a game called Handball (like basketball but with really weird rules like no dribbling).

Malls here have everything. Grocery stores, Chemists, Food Courts, KMarts, Targets, Borders, Movie Theaters, Department stores, Clothing Stores, Arts + Crafts stores, fruit markets, butchers, travel agencies, etc... There are tiny shops all over the place outside of malls called "Milk Bars". From what I can tell they are just tiny convenience stores. They also have 7-11's scattered about without gas stations attached. Some city busses run on Ethanol instead of gas and there are many places that sell ethanol instead of regular petrol.

Last (for now), and one of my favorites, is that tax is always included in the price. If something says it's $2.20, then it's going to be $2.20 when you pay. That makes life so much easier, and getting through the checkout so much faster!!!

Sunday morning we started our tour of the South Island. New Zealand is the most beautiful place I've ever been! Every place you look seems like it should be in a movie. We stopped at Fox Glacier last night and I hiked up the glacier this morning (8:30-noon). I am really glad I did it, but I would never do something like that again! It rained the entire time we were out there, so not only were we all cold, but soaked through about 5 layers of clothes. The hiking boots they gave us weighed about 50lbs. (not including the water that pooled up in them! We ended the hike by walking through a huge crevass. The ice was an amazing shade of blue. I have tons of great pictures, but I can't put them up until I get back to Australia.

The rest of the day we drove to Queenstown (west coast), and we arrived at about 7:00pm. I just ate and walked around the town with some american girls I've made friends with (1 from Boston with a really thick accent and 2 from New Jersey) and now I'm here!

Tomorrow I'm going on a "Ride of the Rings" tour which is riding a horse to different sites in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I only saw the first one, and fell asleep less than 30 mins. into the second, but I know the scenery is pretty and I won't have to walk!!! Most people are doing crazy stuff like bungee jumping and jumping out of airplanes. You couldn't pay me enough to do something like that...

I left off talking about my horse ride in Glenorchy/Paradise, New Zealand. I was picked up from the front of my Hostel at 8am, and then they picked up people from other hotels. The weirdest thing happened that day. There was a family of three that got in the van after me, and I noticed they had American accents. I didn't talk to them at first because there were tons of people in the van. When we got to Glenorchy (about 45 minutes away from Queenstown), everyone got out, paid, got cool hats and rubber boots, and were divided into two groups. One group, consisting of most of the people in the van, stayed in Glenorchy for their river ride (where they were taken through cold water on horses for 2 hours...suckers!). My group got into a jeep and was taken about 15 minutes away to Paradise for our Ride of the Rings tour.

It was only me, a woman from Japan, and the family of 3 from America. I talked to them on the way to Paradise (that sounds funny, but it's true in more ways than one) and found out that they were living in Sydney for two years for work. I asked where in the US they were from, and they said Texas. That was surprising enough because I have not met anyone from Texas down here yet. All the Americans traveling to this part of the world seem to be from the Northeast. I asked where in Texas. They said Dallas. When I asked where in Dallas they were from, they said Coppell! What are the chances of that? Plus their little girl (who is 7) was named Nicole too. They apparently live close to Town Center and are leasing their home until they go back next fall. How strange is that? Meeting someone that lives only a few blocks away from home half way around the world.

My horse's name was Presley, and he liked to run me into bushes and prickly tree branches. Some of the company's horses I went on the tour with were used in the Lord of the Rings movies, but not mine. They told me he was "pretty civilized" and would listen to my command of "walk" (and if not, a light kick in the side would do the trick). Yeah right! I tried a harder kick and...nothing. I tried turning him...nothing. All he did was follow other horses, walk when I didn't want him to places I didn't want him to, and eat grass (nearly flipping me off over his front end several times because I kept a short rein on him when stopped like I was instructed).

Anyways, I had fun that day. I was exhausted and fell asleep on the car ride home though. I got back around 1pm I think and took a shower to get the horse smell out. I remember my butt was sore and my legs felt really weak! I spent the rest of the day shopping in Queenstown. I also remember eating lunch at Subway (for my weekly dose of American culture). I love how all Subways look, taste, and smell the same.

That night after dinner a lot of us from the tour group went to an ice bar in Queenstown called -5 Degrees Celsius. It was $20NZ for proper clothing, 30 minutes inside, and a cocktail. First we paid, got dressed up in heavy jackets, boots, and gloves, then we were escorted into the actual ice bar. Everything inside was made of ice: the chairs, the walls, the tables, the bar, and the glasses. When you got done with your cocktail you smashed the ice glass in the garbage bin. It was kind of stupid and overpriced, but how many people can say they've been to an ice bar?

We left Queenstown the next day super early as always. Queenstown was the longest we stayed in one place (2 nights and 1 day). I really liked it, and if I ever went back to New Zealand and could only visit one city, it would probably be Queenstown. It is amazing how small the populations of these “big cities” are. I think they told us that the population of Queenstown was not even 10,000! To give a little perspective, I looked it up and Coppell (the "tiny" suburb my parents live in of Dallas) has about 35,000!

We drove the rest of that day and arrived before dusk at Milford Sound. It isn't actually a sound but a fjord. A fjord is an inlet of the sea carved out by glaciers whereas a sound is not carved by glaciers. We boarded a ship around dusk and set sail after the safety briefing. Immediately after this briefing, the guy giving the speech slipped down a flight of stairs in front of everyone...ouch, irony.

Before it got dark, we had a short tour of the “sound”, and were offered canoe rides. I declined because it was cold and rainy that night, and I’d already had enough of that at the glaciers. Instead, the rest of the night I was nice and cozy drinking all the hot tea, coffee, and chocolate milk I could while playing card games (most of which were ridiculous and made up). Some of them even caught on like a game we named “Forehead”. The only other thing to do in a boat in the Middle-of-Nowhere was play board games which had 75% of the pieces missing (Clue, Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit without that many pieces just takes too much imagination for me).

The next morning we woke up before sunrise and ate breakfast. The rest of the morning we all just looked out at the sound as they took us out to the Tasman Sea and back to shore. It was really pretty watching the sunrise out there. I think I took enough pictures of it.

This day we spent driving a long ways to our next destination, Lake Ohau. We watched a depressing movie about rock climbing (Vertical Limit) on the bus because it was filmed where we were driving. I didn’t watch. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but the weirdest thing about driving in New Zealand is most of their bridges are one lane. You have to stop before you get on a bridge to make sure nobody wants to get through coming the other way, then go. There is even an extremely long one-lane tunnel with NO lights that we went through twice. It was completely carved out of the rock by hand during the depression era. You have to wait for the green light outside it to go through, and then pray nobody stupid is coming in the opposite direction! We already almost hit one idiot driving in the wrong lane near the mirror lakes stop. Everyone in the bus blamed it on Americans, but then decided it couldn’t be an American because they weren’t driving a hummer or a gigantic SUV.

The lodge we stayed at was REALLY in the middle of nowhere. I have never seen the stars like I did that night. It seemed like you could see the entire universe out there, and the mountains across the lake were beautiful as well. After a great dinner (mostly because the dessert was a hot fudge brownie sundae), a group of us American girls, some Germans, and a couple French girls went out for a walk with 2 flashlights in the pitch black. Before we got out of the driveway, we met a big sweet dog (that belonged to the lodge) that we named Cujo. After he said "hi" to us he walked on like he wanted us to follow him, so we just went along with it and trusted him. He was an excellent tour guide because he led us straight to the edge of the lake where we were trying to go anyway. He jumped in for a quick swim, and I think he wanted us to come with him. It was only about 50 degrees too cold for me. Sorry Cujo! After that, he led us home because he is a good dog.

That night we all sat around and talked. I got to know some of the other people on the tour better. I luckily made good friends with some of the Australians this night that are hooking me up with free AFL tickets at the MCG in really good seats! Some of the American girls were watching “How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days”…surprising! I watched the end in honor of you, Mom.

This was the last night on the tour and I was happy and sad. I was happy because I could get away and do my own thing and not live out of a bus and suitcase soon, but sad because I was having lots of fun traveling to a new place every day and meeting lots of interesting new people. I actually liked the bus tour thing, but would never do it for more than a week at a time. Some of the people were doing it for two weeks and some had done other tours for fifty days at one time! They said two weeks are enough.

I met lots of people on that tour. I think the oldest person on our tour was 35. He was a bit mentally unstable, never took baths or changed clothes, was from South Korea, and knew only a few words of English. Everyone embraced him anyways (except when we could no longer stand the smell of him, yikes!) and by the end of the tour he knew how to say a whole sentence (“I am from a for-ee-geen coun-tar-ee”)! He earned the nickname Trolley early on because that was one of the only English words he knew at the beginning for some reason and nobody could pronounce his real name. If you were nice to him he would even invite you back to his home in South Korea! The people I hung around the most were the other 3 American girls who were studying abroad in Australia. We got along pretty well. I met 2 French girls who spoke English, though not very fluently, and would try to help them when they didn’t understand a word by naming off synonyms. There was a group of four 18-year-old Irish boys that kept the bus pretty entertained! Our bus driver and tour guide were a couple years older than me and were fun, nice people too. There was also a married couple in their late 20’s and a guy in his late 20’s traveling alone all from Melbourne and 2 girls in their mid-20’s from NSW and QLD that I got along with well. There were lots of German and British girls as well on the tour, but I didn’t get a chance to really talk to them much. It wasn’t a bad tour group, it was pretty balanced and, of course, a very interesting mix of people.

The last day we drove more than we did the entire trip all the way back to Christchurch. We got in around 5pm I think and I immediately showered, re-packed, and went around Queenstown one last time. That night, a group of some of the people from the tour got back together to eat one last dinner in Queenstown. I stayed out until about 1am with everyone, then went back and played around on the internet until my shuttle to the airport arrived at 3:30am! Our flight left at 6am that morning and was the bumpiest ride of my life. I tried to sleep on it, but I kept either being jerked awake or being woken up by the pilot announcing that everyone go back to their seats and fasten their seatbelts because of the turbulence. After hearing that a few times, it was especially hard to sleep for fear of my life, but I managed to squeeze in a couple hours of broken sleep during that flight because I was so tired.

All-in-all I had a great time in New Zealand and I plan on visiting it sometime again, hopefully. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I was never disappointed in any place we stopped or drove past. It was the cleanest, greenest place I’ve ever been (I think that is their motto too). If anyone reading this ever gets a chance to visit, DO IT!!! You won’t be disappointed.

Now I've been back in Melbourne for a week and since I've been sleeping lots! I went out with people from my dorms a couple times. On Tuesday night (ANZAC Day) I went to the city with 3 nice Australian girls as well as Roxane and Catia for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It is a big deal and lasts about a month. I don't really know most of the comedians here, except for a couple of Americans. It's a really interesting thing to see. There are tons of people (though not as many as there were during the Commonwealth Games) lined up along the sidewalks to get into all sorts of venues for various shows. There are even people out on the streets doing their own free performances...some of which even made me laugh a little. We were going to some Australian act at first, but it was sold out so we went to the only show that wasn't sold out that night (The Best of Edinburgh Festival...though none of the 4 comedians were even slightly Scottish). It was alright, I laughed and it was nice to get out of Clayton! Afterwards, we walked around the city for a while (though everything was closed) and ate yummy cheesecake at a 24 hour cafe!

I didn't get any pictures of the kangaroos, but I did take a short video of one with my camera which I will try to put up sometime. I tried to catch it for my friend Michelle, but he was too fast for me. I liked the signs too. I still need to find the elderly crossing sign I saw in Clayton and the handicap (i.e. stick man with leg missing) sign on the busses again and take pictures for you all. Australian signs are funny, and kind of violent...

Mom and Dad are coming on Saturday, and we will do the Great Ocean Road (again) and go up to Sydney together.

Shopping did pay off though, because a sales lady told us where to go off the main road to find wild koalas and kangaroos. We saw some. And then almost got arrested. Just kidding.

We went to downtown Melbourne, ate along Southbank for lunch one freakishly warm and sunny day. Walked along Swanston Street and through Melbourne Central. Later that night we went to St. Kilda to look around.

Mom and Dad went shopping lots. We ate at TGI Fridays one night because it is one of the only places in Melbourne that has real ketchup for free. Real, free ketchup makes Dad happy.

Later on in the week we went back to the city of Torquay at the start of the Great Ocean Road so that we could see it and Bells Beach in the daytime.

We saw more wild kangaroos.

We ate Italian food and KOKO Black on Lygon Street the night before we left for Sydney.

In Sydney we stayed in The Rocks next to the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. We did lots of sightseeing and shopping. We ate lots of food. We saw Bondi Beach and Darling Harbor and a giant dog. We went on a ferry at night.

From Sydney I went back to Melbourne and my parents flew into LA.