To start, I ate kangaroo.  Last week we had it in the dining hall for dinner one night.  It was just a kangaroo steak and it tasted a lot like regular steak, but we had it with a berry glaze sauce.  It was surprisingly good!  In the last week, I have also tried sticky date pudding, which is a very common Australian dessert and Tim Tams, which are cookies that are more addicting that Oreo’s. 

 This last weekend got off to a very eventful start.  Wednesday nights are pub nights at college, so pretty much everyone goes out.  I made the mistake of staying out until 3:30 am when I had to get up at 5 am to catch a flight to Sydney.  Needless to say, I over slept and missed my flight.  A few hours of crying to the lady that works at the front desk and a lot of money later, I was on a flight to Sydney. 

Since Allie goes to University of Wollongong, which is about an hour or so from Sydney, I had to then take a train all the way out there.  This meant taking a short train from the airport to Wolli Creek and then an hour long train from Wolli Creek to Fairy Meadow.  By the time I finally got there, I was so excited to Allie and Craig at the train station.  It was like the next best thing to being home.  Sadly, I didn’t get to see much of Fairy Meadow since Thursday night we just went out to dinner and hung out in Allie’s apartment with some friends and Friday we caught the train back into the city. 

In Sydney we checked into our hostel and then went to go see some of the big sites.  We walked to the harbour to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.  We then went into China Town to have dinner, but it was crazy cause all through China Town were people selling things.  This was at night, when it was dark, there were tables of clothes, jewelry, watches, all right down the center between restaurants. 

On Saturday, Craig left to go home around 11 and Allie and I began our adventure.  She has this Lonely Planet travel guide called Walking in Australia with all kinds of hikes throughout Australia.  There is this one hike in Boudi National Park outside of Sydney, in Killcare, that we decided we wanted to do.  We had called to check out the bus times and they said there was only 2 buses heading out that way on Saturday and that there was only one back into the city, but that we could catch a cab or walk a ways to catch a different bus.  So Allie and I took a train to Woy Woy where we got on a bus heading to Killcare.  We asked the bus driver if he went near Putty Beach, where our hike started, and he said he could get us pretty close.  The driver went outside of his normal route to get us close to Putty Beach, but as we were getting off the bus he told us that there were no more buses heading back that day and that a cab would be around $50 and handed us a map of the area.  Allie and I are both thinking that we would get to the entrance to the national park and there would be some sort of information center that would help us figure out a way to get back.  After walking a ways down the beach, we realized that there was no information center and we didn’t have the number for a cab company or anything.  We wandered into a camp grounds and found a sign with some numbers on it and started calling some information numbers trying to find a way back.  At this point, we are both already a bit hungry because it was now 2 o’clock and we hadn’t eaten since 10 am.  We had also assumed there would be some shops or something near the entrance where we could get some food, but again, we were wrong.  After finally calling the non-emergency police number and asking them for the number for a cab, we scheduled a cab pick up at the entrance to the park at 7:30 pm, even though we didn’t exactly know where the entrance was. 

Already a bit hungry, we set out on this hike.  It was a really amazing hike, but it was basically an endless staircase.  There were areas where the stairs were so steep, it was like impossible to get up and some places where it was hard to even see the path.  In one place we lost the path for a little while.  The hike was called the Coastal Walk, which was completely appropriate since every little while the path would take us to the cliffs looking out over the water and then back in to the forest.  One of the places along the hike was called Maitland Bay.  It was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.  It was kind of hidden and seemed as though most of the people there had gotten there by boat. 

It took us 2.5 hours to get to the “end” of the hike.  However, this meant that we then had to walk back the way we came.  We were so hungry and tired that we basically sprinted back.  Somehow, we made it back to the start in 1.5 hours.  We were so hungry at this point and we had over an hour before the cab was coming that we just started walking out towards where we thought the town might be.  We wandered aimlessly through a neighborhood for a while until we ran into a few guys and asked them where the nearest place to eat was.  Luckily, it was just down the street.  At then end of the street was like 2 restaurants, a liquor store (bottle-o as its called here), and a post office.  Both of us ordered a Cajun-chicken burgers.  They were probably the best burgers I have ever had.  It was Cajun-chicken, tomato, lettuce, beets, pineapple, and a ranch type sauce.  I would never have normally tried all those things together, but it was so delicious.  When the cab came to where we were, we were so relieved to find it was only a $27 ride, not $50.  After another hour train ride from Woy Woy to Sydney, we were both so exhausted that showered and basically just went to bed. 

Sunday was beach day and I was so excited.  We went for a run and did a little bit of shopping before hand, so we didn’t get to Bondi Beach until after 1pm.  Bondi has to be one of the most crowded beaches I have ever seen, except maybe in Hawaii.  The waves were huge and there were people everywhere.  It looked so much like a movie to me.  There were the lifeguards everywhere and the surfers off on a separate part of the beach.  Allie and I were in the water for a while even though it was freezing cold.  By the end of the day, we were both super exhausted again. After Allie headed back to Fairy Meadow, I pretty much went straight to bed to make sure that I wouldn’t miss my flight in the morning…

I tried vegemite today.   I t was really disgusting.  I felt kind of like I was going to throw up.  My roommate and I made a deal that if I tried vegemite, she would try a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.   So this afternoon she spread some vegemite on a cracker and made me eat it.  It really was very disgusting.   I was told by a few other people that its not a good way to eat it so I reckon I might give it a second chance in the morning.  Tons of people eat a very, very thin spread of it on toast with butter, while other people eat it on toast with the soft boiled eggs they make here for breakfast.  Another girl told me the best way to eat it is with cheese and tomato on toast.  We'll see how many times I'll try it.  It was a pretty bad first experience.

At dinner, I made my roommate eat peanut butter and jelly.  She hated it.  She said it was way to sweet and went around telling other people to try it.  Most people wouldn't and said it was gross, but there were a few people who had tried it before and said they liked it.  It's weird to think that they dont eat pb & j here.  At home everyone has it.  It's like an American staple food as a kid.

I also tried a dim sim today.  They sell these in pretty much every take away restaurant around.  I dont really know what was in them because the girl who let me try hers didn't really know either.  It was similar to an egg roll with meat inside.  It wasn't all that good, but not as bad as vegemite.  I got to talking with some people and I now have a whole list of foods I have to try including:

sticky date pudding

lamington

tim tams 

mars red bar

some sort of noodle thing I can't remember the name of, but from what they said it sounds kind of like our ramen noodles only with sauce instead of broth

meat pie

chilli sauce

there was heaps more, but I can't remember it all right now.  Mostly what I want right now is some regular cheese.  At home, the most standard cheese is either American or cheddar, I think at least.  Here, the only sliced cheese I have seen for sandwiches is this white cheese that I have never had before and they use it for everything.  Its the same cheese that is in all the food, its in the sandwich bar, its used for nachos.  It's pretty good cheese, but I am just used to more variety I guess.  I have not seen any other kind of cheese here other than like more expensive cheese blocks.  I would really like a good grilled cheese sandwich made with American cheese.  The one day we were eating tomato soup with dinner and someone was saying that they liked bread and cheese with heir tomato soup.  Another girl then said that she loved to toast them together and everyone was like "wow, that sounds so good!"  I just laughed and told them that grilled cheese and tomato soup is another American favorite.  

The other thing I have been craving is bacon.  At home I love bacon, but here it is really gross.  It is really fatty and it is always really chewy.  I need mine to be super crispy.  Luckily, I said bacon was my favorite food during a get to know you game in one of my classes last week and some guy told me about this specific bacon that he buys.  He said after he visited the states, this is the only bacon he will eat.  I reckon tomorrow, I might go to the store and get it.

I am officially of legal drinking age in the US.  Not that it will matter much for a while, but it is still pretty cool.  I didn't have the normal 21st birthday either.  Thursday morning Aarika, Lisa, Dan, Jeff, and myself headed to Melbourne for the long weekend ( Monday was a public holiday in Adelaide for a horse race, the Adelaide Cup).  Luckily, its super short flight to Melbourne from Adelaide, only around an hour.  We got to our hostel super early though, so we had to wait around to check in.  It was pretty cold and rainy, so we headed to the Immigration Museum for a while.  The boys hated it, but I though it was pretty interesting.  After we all navigated our way back to the hostel, with only getting slightly lost, we went to this really cool bar to have dinner.  The inside of the bar was dark, but it was lit up by fixtures that had pictures and patterns all over them so they cast a strange glow and one section even had Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling.  Half of the bar was filled with couches and coffee tables and the other half had regular tables and chairs.  The decorations were so crazy.  One wall had doll heads lined up along the top and every wall had random picture frames, knick-knacks, and mirrors.  It was the craziest bar I have ever been to, but also the coolest.  Plus, they had $4 pizzas!

 Friday we booked a bus tour of The Great Ocean Road, which is a road that was carved into the sides of the cliffs along the coast east of Melbourne.  The road curves and bends with huge hills and drops while looking out over the ocean.  It was a gorgeous drive, but our bus driver was a little bit crazy.  He drove so fast that every car in front of us would pull over and let us pass by.  We stopped at an Aboriginal Cultural center where we got to listen a guy play the didgeridoo.  A didgeridoo is an Aboriginal instrument created by termites.  Making the instrument is just finding a tree limb that has been hollowed out naturally by termites, cutting the limb off as the desired length.  They’re so cool because each one is different and creates a different sound.  Most of the sound is actually created with the mouth by moving your tongue and having different pressures of air in your cheeks.  Apparently, these can only be played by men and Nicole Kidman recently got in trouble for playing one!  I took videos of the guy who played for us because it sounds so awesome.  It actually doesn’t sound like a wood instrument at all.  It sounded almost electronic.  I really enjoyed it. 

 We had a few other smaller stops along the road including a wildlife park to see koalas and for a rainforest walk.  We also stopped at Bells Beach, which is apparently one of the greatest surf spots in the world.  Too bad I haven’t learned yet…

 One of the main attractions of The Great Ocean Road is seeing the 12 Apostles.  These are limestone stacks that are naturally formed by the ocean.  The waves wear away at the base of the cliff creating a small inlet, until the cliff can’t be supported anymore and a sheet of rock falls.  The directions of the waves have left these stacks disconnected from the mainland.  Eventually, the stacks crumble away which is why there are actually only 9 of the 12 left.  We stopped at Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge, two other natural tourist spots on the coast.  The Loch Ard Gorge is an inlet with caves that has a famous old story of a ship wreck to go along with it.  The London Bridge on the other hand has newer story of a couple getting stuck out on the limestone stack when the bridge collapsed. 

 

On the way back from the tour, we were passing through the city and saw the Crown Casino, which is the largest casino in the southern hemisphere.  We decided to give it a shot.  I have never been to a casino before, so at first I stuck to the slot machines with Lisa.  Unfortunately, I did not do very well on those.  A little while later, Dan decided to show me how to play the Big Wheel and after one bet, I was hooked.  I turned 21 sitting at a table, losing all my money over the next 3 hours.  Despite the fact that I lost, I had a really fun night.  I can honestly say I am much happier that we were there rather than out drinking!

 Aarika, Lisa, and I of course spent the next day shopping.  In the morning, we dragged the guys to Victoria Market, the largest market in Melbourne where I discovered my new favorite food.  Burek.  It’s a Bosnian food which is basically a fried dough filled with cheese or meat.  It reminded me a lot of a pierogi, except much thicker and it more of a pie form.  It is definitely the best thing I have eaten since being here!  Of course, we bought all kinds of other things at the market as well.  The boys decided they were sick of shopping and decided to go to the IMAX while us girls went to shop in Fitzroy, a more bohemian district.  It was a weird combination of expensive stores and thrift shops.  Some places were both in one.  

 The Moomba Festival was going on the whole time we were there, so Saturday night we figured we would check it out.  Strangely, it was an alcohol free event, which just surprised us.  Festivals like that at home always have beer tents and Aussies love drinking a whole lot more.  It was not very exciting, but we did go back on Monday for the water shows, which were really cool.

 On Sunday evening, I saw one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my whole life.  On Phillip Island, near Melbourne, there is a penguin march every evening just after dark.  We got to sit on the beach and watch these mini penguins come in on the waves from the day of eating, to go burrow in the hills.  These tiny penguins would come, a few at a time, out onto the sand only to immediately head back into the water.  After a while, they started coming out and walking up the beach into the hills.  There were boardwalks built right along the paths the penguins take up the hills.  We stood along the boardwalk and watched group after group of tiny penguins waddle up the hill.  We were only a few feet from them which was so incredible.  Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take pictures since the flashing scared the penguins.  I tried to sneak a video of it, but it didn’t come out.  Watching these penguins come out of the ocean and being so close to them, I actually felt like I was in the Planet Earth movies. 

 Overall, Melbourne was great.  The hostel on the other hand, I can’t say the same.  Oh well, it was only for a few days and we didn’t spend much time there luckily.  After 5 days traveling, we were all very exhausted.  This morning I was so glad to be back in Adelaide.  Unfortunately, this means week 2 of classes…

Today was my first day at Uni... ughh!  I only had  one class, but after not being in school since early December my brain is not in school mode.  It is also a huge change for me from U of I.  My class today was lecture with maybe 20-25 students.  The only classes I have that are that small are my labs, lectures are usually over 100.  I am also really used to the huge U of I campus.  Here, University of Adelaide is only like 5 acres or something.  The buildings are all smashed together and you have to go through one building to get to another.  It was a good thing I left early because it took me a really long time to figure out where my only class of the day was.  On top of all that, I am used to engineering classes where we have weekly homework assignments and tests throughout the year.  This semester is going to be a lot more writing for me... I dont know how I feel about that.

It's orientation week this week or "O" Week as its called.  I have it for both Uni and St. Marks College.  College "O" week has been pretty crazy.  On Sunday all the freshers were made to do really stupid things on the lawn for all the committee members.  The made some kids chug milk, or follow someone while fanning them with a giant palm leaf.  The committee did a lot of yelling at everyone, but it is a little bit funnier since I am older than about half of them and have hung out with them for the last week.  For the rest of this week, they make the freshers get up around 6 and they yell and make us do weird games and run laps on the lawn.  It sounds pretty ridiculous, but you really get to know everyone pretty quickly.  At night everyone goes out.  Last night we had a pub crawl, which was heaps fun.  Tonight we have a toga party!  

One of the hardest things to get used to around here is the drinking age.  I am used to drinking, but since the drinking age is 18, it is much more acceptable to drink in the open.  Here at the college, everybody keeps beer in their rooms and people bring a bottle of beer to dinner.  Alcohol is bought by the college and the Master and the Dean are around when everyone is drinking.  Even for Uni "O" week theres beer.  The Uni "O" week is pretty cool.  It is kind of like a huge festival on campus.  There are tents with all of the clubs where you can sign up for them, but there is also free concerts, food, and beer.  Its really weird, but it's pretty cool.  

Sadly, I dont have an accent yet.  I have picked up on some words.  Everyone around here says heaps.  Heaps of fun, heaps of people, heaps of work.  Its a weird word to use so commonly.  I have noticed I've started to say it.  I also have just gotten used to called school Uni.  Here, when you say school people think you are referring to high school.  If you say college, that means the housing, like where I am staying.  So everyone says they have Uni in the morning or have to spend the day at Uni.  Its pretty weird.  They also say cheers to everything.  I have heard it used as a greeting, a thank you, a goodbye, pretty much anything.

Tonight the toga party was supposed to be on a boat that goes down the Torrens River, which runs through Adelaide.  However, about a week before I got here the river had to be drained because it was so polluted.  Its really a shame because my walk to Uni is right along the river.  The water level is so low and it smells a bit in spots, but supposedly it should fill back up in a few weeks.  I cant wait to see it when its full.  I really like Adelaide.  I think that if I could pick up my whole life from back home and put it here, I would be so happy.  Downtown Adelaide is busy all through the week with people shopping on Rundle Street and at the market.  I love being there, it's like being in a mini-city because it is nowhere near the size of Chicago, but still tons of people.  North Adelaide, the suburb where I am actually living, is only about a 20 minute walk from down town and its filled with parks, trees, and the river.  Its the perfect size place to live for one semester.  It is small enough to figure out and not feel like you are lost all the time, but big enough so you aren't bored all the time.  And its about 20 minutes to any of the beaches!!!

I am officially in Australia.  Yesterday, we went on this bus trip to a place called Victor Harbour.  It was really boring, but I had delicious fish and chips.  After spending 2 boring hours there, we went to Umbirra Wildlife park and I got to see koalas and kangaroos!!!!  There were so many kangaroos, it was a little crazy.  They were everywhere and we bought food for them.  Since they are in this park, they are very docile and everyone just walks around with them and pet and feed them.  If you held your hand too high for them to reach the food, they would stand up and put their front arms onto your hand and hold on to you.  Their arms are so strong and their claws so big that it kind of hurt, but made for a really cool picture!  I even saw a joey in the pouch of a big kangaroo.  It was funny though because I always thought that joeys sat upwards with their heads sticking out of the pouch, but apparently that isnt true.  For most of the time just the long, back feet and the tail were sticking out of the pouch.  When the head would pop out it would be right between the feet which looked really funny!!  The koalas weren't as exciting.  They were very cute, but you couldn't feed them and they mostly just sat there while you pet them a few times.  We saw some other animals like crocodiles and wombats.  I dont think the crocodiles were real though because we stood there for like 15 minutes waiting for one of them to move and none of them did.  Well they moved their eye lids but still!!!  It was a really cool trip and I got lots of pictures.  I am having trouble getting my pictures to upload to shutterfly and then facebook wouldnt let me do it either.  Im going to try a few more times and I will let everyone know as soon as they are up!

We decided to try out a new beach yesterday.  Aarika and I took the bus, with her British roommate Harry, her neighbor Eli, and a few other people.  The bus here is cheap.  I bought a 10 trip interpeak pass which works between 9am and 3pm for around $7.50.  The new beach is called Henley.  Its only a few miles up from Glenelg beach, where we have been the last 2 times, but it is completely different.  The water was so incredibly clear and there were fairly big fish in the shallow water.  It was so calm, with hardly any people or waves.  I loved it.  We swam out pretty far to a sand bar.  The current out there was really strong.  We all ended up quite a ways from our stuff!  The guys were teaching me how to throw an Australian Rules Football ball.  They throw it from their side and kind of roll it.  They made fun of me a lot because I was TERRIBLE!

After the beach, I went out to dinner with people from St. Marks college.  Wednesday apparently are International Pub night at a bar near here.  We all dressed up in short shorts and tall socks and went to dinner at the Oxford.  The Oxford is St. Marks' "place".  The owner give the students good deals on drinks and food and has St. Marks shirts hanging out the walls.  They said they go there every Wednesday night.  The students were telling me about how the other colleges try to go into the Oxford and all the rivalries.  Apparently, there is this big sports competition and everyone gets really into it.  They said they need more swimmers, so I'm in.  I will probably try something else too.  Maybe cricket event though I have no idea how to play.  One girl said that if I have played softball I will probably be decent.  

So far, every single person has told me to be excited for what is called "O" week or orientation week.  Its next week.  Basically what it is, is games and fun things in the mornings and lots of partying at night.  Everyone has said it is the best week of college and you meet so many new people.  I think it will be really great.  The only problem is that I have "O" week for both my Uni (haha the schools are Uni and where I am living is called college) and college the same week.  So I will have to figure out how to do both of those.  Last night, they told me to rest today and tomorrow because next week will be very crazy and tiring.  I can't rest too much because I already signed up through Uni to do a tour of Victor Harbour tomorrow for the whole day and Sunday is a trip to Port Adelaide and a dolphin cruise.  Busy already!

I think I made a really good choice staying in St. Mark's college.  It is like a mix between the dorms and Greek life.  It has the living style and co-ed sense of the dorms, with older students living with the new ones, but it has the social aspect of a sorority or fraternity.  I suppose that dorms might be like this at smaller schools.  I just really like how involved everyone is with the new students.  I walk around and when I see someone I dont know, they usually know who I am.   If they dont know right away, they ask if I'm a new student and as soon as I say I am a study abroad student they know.  I dont know if I would have liked it at home, but here is makes me feel so much more comfortable.  I'm also happy because I have been told that sometimes international students tend to only hang out with other international students because those are the only people they really get to meet.  Here I know I will get to hang out with TONS of Australians, since there are only 3 or 4 international students.  

Anyways, so far so good!

I tried posting pictures, but I am having trouble.

There will be some really soon!