Richy the Rat

February 25

Thursday we went to Sandy Bay beach. It was such an incredibly nice day! The weather was so perfect. There was a little bit of a breeze but it was nice and toasty to lay-out in. …The perfect beach day.

Stacey, Natalie and I walked over there around 11:30 and hung out until a little after 4. We laid-out for a while and then went for a walk down the beach. We found about seven star fish that had washed up onto shore. They were gorgeous yellow and purple. I really wanted to keep one but they were still alive so we threw them back into the ocean.
Some people that we had met at Metz, Julian and Johnny, met us out at the beach. Then Amy, April and Jeff showed up as well.
Not long after they got there we saw a group of dolphins jumping out of the water. They were pretty close to shore so a few people from the group tried to swim out there but the dolphins had them beat.
At the place where we normally go to lay-out there is a nice little dock in the middle of the water. It’s really nice to swim out to and just hang out on. Today it smelled really awful because the seagulls like to use the dock to crack open their clams. Therefore, there is a fair share of bird poop and fish guts on there.
I don’t remember if I mentioned earlier but the water in the bay is SUPER salty. You could probably float because it’s so salty. As long as you don’t get the water in your eyes or mouth all is well!
When we started walking back we decided it’d be cool to walk along the beach rather than just up on the sidewalk. It was much more exciting that way but there were a couple of tricky places where we had to climb rocks or wade out in the water. At one point I think my toe got pinched by a crab…I may just be being dramatic though. :)
In all, today was just about the perfect beach day! I got a little burnt out on there but it’s almost gone already.

When we got back from the beach Stacey, Natalie and I all laid down in my bed and watched A Lot Like Love. I ended up falling asleep and taking a “Nanna Nap” (that’s what my friend told me afternoon naps are called).
Then we went up and used the internet at the library. I really am looking forward to having internet at the house! It will be so much more convenient.

It was our friend Johnny’s last night in town before he had to head back home to Cairns so he and Julian came over to the house and all we hung out.



February 26

Today was wonderful!

I woke up around 9:30 and chatted with Stacey and Natalie for awhile before heading off to the grocery store. Again, I didn’t need to buy anything but I just went so that I’d have something to do!

Once we got back I checked the mail and I had a letter and package from Dad! That was sooo wonderful to get! It was the first piece of mail that I’ve gotten here. I called Dad to let him know that I had received the package. I ended up getting to talk to Dad, Lauren and Nanna! That was an awesome bonus! They were at a movie so I didn’t get to talk with them for long but it was excited none the less.

After that excitement there was still more ahead!

We went up Mount Wellington today. It is the highest mountain around this area. It’s in North Hobart (I believe, it’s hard to keep track of all the suburbs). Thank goodness Jules has a car or else that would’ve been one awful trek. The view from the top of the mountain is extraordinary! You can see for miles and miles. I really like that I live just up the street from Wrest Point, which is a hotel/casino and the tallest building in Sandy Bay, because it makes it easy to spot where my house is. So thanks to Wrest Point I was able to kind of figure out my surroundings. Julian was able to point out some cool beaches and islands to the East and South-East.

We then headed out to Seven Mile Beach. I think it took almost an hour to get out there. It was a really nice beach. There were actually waves out there! It was really breezy which made it pretty cold off the water. We didn’t go swimming at all because the water would have been cold and then to have to drive off in the cool air did not sound appealing! So instead we just relaxed on the beach and people watched a bit. We spent about two hours down there.

When I got home tonight I found out that we have another little friend living in our house…a rat. I am terrified! I don’t know if yall realize just how much I hate rodents but it’s a LOT. I can handle bugs and snakes but rodents gross me out. The other roommates got rat poisoning to set out. Last they saw, the rat was in the kitchen. So we are keeping the door from the living room and kitchen area closed so that hopefully the rat won’t come down to our rooms. Terrifying!?!

On that note, it’s time for bed.
Stacey is sleeping with me tonight to protect me from the nasty rat. Do I have a wonderful roommate or what???
I’m not sure what tomorrow holds but I cannot wait to find out!
Thanks for following.

New Read.

February 23

Day two of school!

I only had one class, Gender, Power and Change. It was an hour long lecture that started at 11. It is a first year class so it’s pretty full. I really enjoyed the class! My professor is this skinny little lady who has a short boy hair cut. I will have lecture twice a week and then tutorial once a week. The tutorial professor is a gay guy with long, curly white hair. When she introduced him he stuck his arm straight up in the air and starting flinging his wrist around wherever it would go. It was hilarious; remind me to demonstrate his wave to yall! I think I’m really going to enjoy that class, it’s an interesting subject.
Oh, and in my class I saw the first “gangsta” black guy that I’ve seen since I’ve been here. He was wearing a tall tee, baggy pants and diamond star earrings. It kind of made me feel back at home. haha.

When I was walking back from class I ran into Amy (AustraLearn girl from Colorado). We went to some expo that they were having for O-Week (orientation week). We got tons of free stuff! I got a t-shirt, hat, candy, VIP card to some club, grocery bags, and a coin purse…and lots of other little stuff. I love free stuff!

After dropping off all of our goodies at Amy’s house we headed downtown to meet up with Natalie and Stacey. We went to the Hobart Museum for a little bit while we waited on Marina to get into town. Once she was there we went to Voda Phone to set up our internet! Yay!

Too bad the lady at Voda Phone was SO RUDE! Marina has a Voda cell phone and when the lady asked if we got service in our house Marina told her that only one time had her phone not worked. The lady then refused to sell the internet to us. We asked if we could buy it and try it out and she wouldn’t allow that. She was going to mark on our account that it wasn’t going to ever work at our house so then if we ever had an issue then they wouldn’t help us or even listen to our problem. I’m glad that she was concerned about it possibly not working in our house but she was incredibly rude about it. She directed us to another place that sold internet services.

We went to that place and talked to a guy about our different options and ended up getting a service where we will have 20GB of internet usage for $60 a month. It was a little more expensive at first but in the end we will get more internet usage for less. They have to mail us the modem so we should have internet in our house starting on Monday. When we were filling out all of the paperwork the guy told us that there was another $13 shipping fee. Jokingly I told him that we didn’t want to pay that fee. His response was “you Americans, you’re always trying to get more than what you’re paying for.” That kind of made us mad. I told him that the difference is that in America you have to work hard for everything that you have.

Aussies like to take stabs at Americans. Amy and Jeff’s roommate, Mark, tried to tell us the other day that if a girl was cold than an Aussie would give him their jacket but an American wouldn’t.

Another thing that we’ve picked up on is that Aussies VERY much so work to live rather than living to work. Most every place closes at 5PM. When I asked someone if they delivered mail on Saturdays they looked at me like I was completely insane. Servers and sales people will not go above and beyond to make the customer happy because regardless of if they make the sale or not they still get paid the exact same amount.

More Aussies than I thought would be are in love with the idea of the “deep South” as they call it. They want to go to Texas and meet the kids from Friday Night Lights and see South Fork Ranch.

Anyways, after setting up the internet we shopped around the mall for a little while before heading back to Sandy Bay. We just hung around the house and didn’t do much of anything that evening. Our Aussie friend Brett came over and taught us some new lingo! I’ll fill you in on that in the next post. J Cheers!

February 24

Words of the day:
Macer’s = McDonald’s
Afsie = afternoon
Arvo = afternoon
“That just went pear shaped” = “That just got awkward.”

This morning I went to breakfast with Brett. We went down to Salamanca and ate at some little restaurant whose name I cannot remember. I was pretty confused by everything on the menu. I ordered hot cakes but instead of the King Island cream (whip cream) that normally comes on them I asked for some good ole maple syrup.

While we were at breakfast we were talking about some of the differences between the States and Australia. Brett mentioned something about the Lawyers wearing wigs. I thought that was the funniest thing that their lawyers have to wear wigs here! I told him that at some point I was going to have to get into trouble just so I could go and see the Judge and Lawyers all in their white curly wigs. Brett told me that right down the road from where we were eating there is a court where we can go and watch trials so that way I won’t have to get in trouble to see the crazy wigs. I was SO excited to go watch! I really wanted to laugh and take pictures but court was in session so of course I couldn’t do that. We watched a trial about some guy who was drunk and beat someone up and then another one where the father had sexually molested his daughters when they were younger. It was intense!

After my exciting morning in court I had to go to class. But it was okay because it was Gender, the class that I love! Today in there we talked about the different ages in which biological sex starts determining the way one acts and is treated. Interesting, yeah?

I then came home and ate lunch (I’ll give you one guess…a sandwich!) while watching some awful children’s version of Survivor. The television shows here are ridiculous. The Dutch news was on four different channels along with the German and Japanese news on three others. I don’t need to watch the Dutch news…let alone watch it on four different stations! Haha.

At 3 we went up to the Uni for Societies’ day. Societies’ day is HUGE here. All of the different clubs and organizations set up outside of the Union building and try to get you to sign up for their society. A lot of them have offers that if you sign up and pay $10 then you get four free beers or something like that. Pretty much the whole thing was like a bad house party. It was loud, lame and crowded. It wasn’t really our scene so my friends and I didn’t stay too long. The only club that I signed up for was the sailing club and I haven’t paid for that yet, just got added to the email list so that I can get more information. It sounds fun though; they will teach us how to sail and then once we have learned we will get to race and stuff like that!

Once we left there I went to the grocery store with Stacey, Marina and Natalie. I didn’t have to buy anything this time but it was just something to do!

When we got back home I ended up falling asleep for awhile; I guess I had been pretty tired! I woke up around 8 and chilled with the roommates. Around 9:30-10 we went up to Metz to meet up with Jeff, Amy and April. It was SO crowded there tonight! It didn’t stay crowded for long though. Either people were already hammered from society’s day or they moved on to another bar. Stacey, Marina and Natalie bailed kind of early. The rest of us only stayed there for about an hour or so before we went to La Bella’s Pizza place. We saw our friend Danny! He’s awesome…it’s always good to have friends in the food industry!
While we were eating at La Bella’s this super drunk Aussie came in and sat down at our table. His name was Aaron and he was telling us all about how much he loved the “deep south” and how he wanted to go to Louisiana or Mississippi. He told us about his “friend” who plays football for the panthers in Dillon, TX…sounding strangely familiar to the TV show Friday Night Lights. He kept offering us his pizza which he had pretty much slobbered all over. He also kept asking what part of the States we were from and what our favorite bands were. He was so hilarious!

Once Joey and I got back home we stayed up until about 2 AM talking with Stacey. I’m really happy with the roommates that I have and with my living situation. I couldn’t ask for anything better! J

It is now WAY past bedtime! Thank you for your prayers, keep ‘em coming! Cheers mates!

Units!

February 21

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
The last day before school starts. :( It feels so strange to be starting school tomorrow! I have been out of school for over two months now and I just feel like I should never have to go back.

If yesterday was uneventful then I don’t even know what I’d call today!
I guess it was a good way to spend my last day before going back to class. I slept in, made some lunch, sat around and made fun of Aussie cartoons with my roommates…that sort of exciting thing!

The most wonderful part of my day was that I got to talk to BOTH my sisters on skype! Joey and went up to the school to use the internet and the library was closed. But we had brought our computers so we sat outside of the library and stole the internet that way. I got to talk to Rachel and Matt for a little while which was so fantastic! And then Lauren got on after getting home from a babysitting job! I was so happy to get to talk to Lauren! I hadn’t gotten to talk to her since I’ve been here and I am so happy she was up late. I was having a few issues with my connection because I was sitting in this underground tunnel so I didn’t get to chat with them for long but it was still wonderful!

When I got back home our American friend Jeff was over playing cards with the rest of the roommates. Stacey had gone white water rafting today and had an awesome time. Marina was back from her camping trip in Wineglass Bay. It was nice to have everyone back home safe and sound!

Tonight we finished watching Fight Club; and then all pulled out our schedules and maps to try to figure out what tomorrow is going to look like for each of us. My first class is at noon and I won’t be done until around 5. I think I’m going to need to bring a snack!

I had better get to bed. Thanks for all your prayers and support. I truly appreciate them!




February 22

First day of school!!!!!!

Funny things from today:
All of the Aussies say “heaps” instead of “a lot.” It’s pretty funny because it’s on billboards and commercials and everything.
There is a Corona beer advertisement on campus.
I found out that there is a bar on campus. Weird, yeah? Apparently it’s more just so that bands can go and play there but I still find that incredibly strange.
“Unit” = “Class”

Okay, well today was the first day of class!
We had planned on waking up this morning and going into Hobart at 9 to set up the internet but that didn’t happen. Every time we come close to setting it up we get scared and start second guessing ourselves about that the best deal is going to be. The way they do internet here is so strange; we really don’t understand how many gigabytes we are going to need or anything like that. It is hard to find a coverage that doesn’t require a contract and that isn’t too expensive. Today we were finally able to talk to everyone that we wanted to talk to and I really hope that we have decided once and for all the plan that we are going with. …I’ll let you know if we change our minds again!

So, instead of going into town we went up to the library to look up some more options. While we were there I talked on the phone with Westnet to see what they had to offer about home internet. The guy next to us overheard me talking to them and could tell we were totally confused! He helped and told us about how many gigs he thought we would need and such things. Thank you! I think we are kind of starting to understand this crazy awful internet thing.

I had a class at noon which I had to wait around a little bit for.
I called Momma and got to chat with her for a little bit which was wonderful. :) I didn’t really have much to tell her since my weekend had been so uneventful; but it was nice to get to catch up regardless of my boring weekend.

The class that I had today was Public Relations. I liked the class; we just went over what we would be learning, the expected outcomes and what the unit would look like. My teacher, Kate Nash, seems like a really fun and happy person. I’m not sure if I will be staying in this class though because it wasn’t approved by Texas Tech for some reason. I’m working to find out why it wasn’t and to see if there is any way that it can be approved.

After my class I went home and made myself a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.
Marina and I chatted about her weekend and the internet and all that good stuff. The maintenance guys came over to deliver the dresser that I had requested and they gave me the option of having this dinky little dresser or a new armoire. I picked the armoire! I’m sure they hated me because then they had to set it all up and it took about an hour. I sat and talked to them while they put it together. I was either an annoyance or a good distraction; I’m not sure which one. Haha. They told me about some fruit markets that I should check out, yay! And now I have a wonderful cabinet for all of my clothes! I am no longer living out of suitcases. Yippy skippy!!!!!

Once the maintenance men left, Natalie and I went to Cole’s grocery store. I bought some more sandwich stuff since I keep running out so quickly! Natalie and I were talking about how we feel like we are always at the grocery store. But it’s okay because we eat everything that we buy before we go back so it isn’t like we are just super picky. …and we don’t just fill ourselves crazy if we aren’t even hungry. Because we walk so much here we are burning more calories. And I feel like I have to go to the store a lot because back home I normally just eat McAlister’s every day and never have to buy food. I’ve never realized just how much money that actually saves me!!!

There was supposed to be a back to school party up at the school that had free food so of course, we went. It was just about the lamest “party” that I’ve ever been to. There were probably 10 people there. They had “one of Tasmania’s hottest D.J.’s” playing a bunch of techno music. Needless to say, we didn’t stay there long.

We then went over to Jeff and Amy’s house and hung out with them and Mark for a little while before going back home to cook supper. On the way back to our house, Stacey, Natalie and I totally had a “10 Things I Hate About You” moment and broke into song on the concrete bleachers overlooking the cricket field on campus. We had to give our respects to Heath Ledger in his home country!

Natalie made us pasta and it was tasty! We hung around and had roommate talk. I really like that we all sit around and talk. We aren’t all bogged down with homework and classes yet so we just spend our time together. After we did the dishes we played card games. Amy and Jeff came over for awhile because they needed to get out of their house. They stayed until almost 11 and then we decided to be old farts and all go to bed. So that was about all we did today! Tomorrow I am going to a class with Natalie that I am hoping I will be able to get into and have approved for credit. Cross your fingers!

Weekend update

February 18

Today was a craaazy day!

It started off with Stacey and I leaving for a meeting that we had at 10:30AM. I got an email saying that there would be an internet information meeting in the John Fisher Dining Hall. And seeing as we STILL don’t have internet we thought it would be a good idea to go. We trekked ourselves up to John Fisher (University Apartments) and boy was it a long ways up the hills. It was probably almost 2 miles from our house. When we finally got there (a little late) we found out that the meeting was only for people who live ON campus. They asked how we had found out about the meeting so I told the guy from the Uni that I had received an email about it. He did some calling around to try to figure out why and discovered that I have a room waiting for me in John Fisher. So now I have a house and an apartment! He was very kind and told me the whole process that I was going to need to go through in order to get out of my apartment reservation. I went and took care of that and I am just waiting on a call to confirm that I am cleared!

After that chaos we went to talk to the people at T.U.U. (Tasmania University Union) to request a dresser for my room. The man was hilarious! I just love Aussies! Stacey and I talked to him for a good 30 minutes about tons of different stuff. I asked him if I could light a fire in my fireplace and he said that I’m not allowed to. :( Sad! But hey, it still looks cool! Haha. He told us that one of the reasons there was so much confusion with Natalie and April’s housing is because Rebecca had emailed him the night before we came in town and told him that Stacey and I wanted to live together. I feel bad that we caused some issues for him but I’m really glad that she and I are living together! It really is perfect; I love my house and roommates!

We went and got some free lunch at a thing that they were having for all the international students. All us AustraLearn people plus Alex (friend from Italy) ate together and chatted for awhile before all going our separate ways. Stacey, Joey and I headed home after that to get our leases to take up to campus and turn them in. That whole process went smoothly…whew!

Next we went up to the library to skype a little bit! I was so happy to get to skype! I had talked to Momma once on skype before but it was just like a telephone call because we didn’t use the video. I got to talk to Dad, Mom, Catie and Garrett. It absolutely made my day! I was so happy to get to SEE everyone. It made me a little homesick but more so just happy. Catie and Garrett are so goofy and it was good to get to chat with them for awhile. I miss home a lot. I stay busy so I don’t think about it often but little things remind me of it. But when I get sad I simply remind myself that I LIVE in Australia and that I need to make the most of my time. No worries.

Ugh, can I just say that getting internet here is a pain in the rear!?! We called Telstra (like their AT&T) and asked them if there was a phone line set up for our house. They told us that they didn’t have anything on record. Bad news! If there isn’t a phone line installed in the house then we have to pay $300 to get one installed and that just doesn’t seem worth it to us. We found a phone line in our house so it obviously seems that there has been a phone there at one point or another. Telstra wants to charge us $125 to send out a guy to check and see if we have the capability. If not, then we have to pay the $300 in addition to whatever else needs to happen. We are pretty frustrated with everything. We want the internet at our house but we just can’t figure out what is going to be the best thing for us to do. It’s very frustrating when you don’t really understand the way things work and are only going to be here for 5 months and therefore don’t want to sign a contract. What a mess. We are going up to the library tomorrow to look for some good internet options in Tassie.

February 19

Today we woke up and bummed around for a little bit. …I’m starting to see a theme here!

Once we finally got up and going we went up to the library to research some internet options. We were there for about an hour and got some good information. Then we went to free lunch up at the Tasmania University Union building. We’ve had the same lunch I think every day this week; but hey, free is always good!

After lunch Stacey, Natalie, Joey, Amy and I took the bus into Hobart. We went to talk to Telstra and then to Vodaphone. Vodaphone sounds like it is going to be the best bet for us. With that one we don’t have to buy a phone line, just a modem and router and then however many gigs we may need. We are going on Monday to buy it. We have to wait for Marina to get back into town before we make any definite decisions.
After we looked into the internet stuff we did a little shopping. The other girls bought a lot of stuff but I only bought hangers. Hopefully all of my stuff will fit on these hangers now!!!
We met up with Amy’s roommate Mark and he took us to the art building downtown so that Stacey could see where her class is. He’s a really nice guy, a little awkward though. I find that a lot of Aussies are kind of awkward. Mark thinks that Stacey and I are intimidating though so maybe the other Aussies think the same thing. I don’t get it, Stacey and I are pretty much the kindest people ever…we laugh at everything!

Once we made it back home we ate dinner and bummed around for awhile and watched a movie.

February 20

Word/Terms of the Day:
“Trailer for Hire” = “Trailer for Rent”
“Trading Hours” = “Store Hours”
“My Shout” = “I’ll buy”

Today was a pretty uneventful day.

We woke up and went to the Salamanca Market. We were really looking forward to getting a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables like we did at Rusty’s Market in Cairns. This market was more like a trade day. It was still cool though. There were lots of people playing music and tons of cool little stands set up. There were only a couple of booths that sold fruit and veggies and they were a little expensive. I bought a wallet because I forgot to bring one and had been looking for one forever! I also bought some tasty fudge that was made in Tasmania.
Australia is really big on the whole “Australia Made” thing. They don’t let many products into the country and they also don’t allow preservatives so most everything is made here. I have only seen Pepsi in one store and the only Frito-Lays chips that they sell are Doritos…sorry Dad!

We hung out at the Market until around 1 and then we headed back into Sandy Bay. We had planned on going to the beach but the weather was a little overcast so we decided to walk across the street from out house and watch a cricket match instead. It was pretty interesting but we just wish we understood the rules better!

We came back home and dropped of our beach stuff and then headed off to the grocery store. Instead of Woolworths we found a better grocery store, Coles! We love it. The prices are so much better and it’s less overwhelming than Woolworths. I got chicken nuggets. Oh! I can’t remember if I already wrote about this is not but they don’t have orange cheese here…it’s all white. But I was at Coles and I found orange cheese! It was such a happy moment. I made grilled cheese. I am eating a ton of sandwiches that it’s kind of ridiculous. But it’s the cheapest thing to make! They don’t have hot pockets or any of that other wonderful food like we do at home. We have a 24 hour McDonald’s right down the street from my house but we have only been there once…pretty impressive huh?
Natalie and Stacey cooked quiche for dinner…I tried it and it was okay, nothing fantastic (sorry girls!). So I ended up making a sandwich, yet again haha.

Natalie pretty much lives at our house. She’s our fifth roommate. She first lived in this super crappy nasty house…it looked like a creepy seventy’s horror movie. Now she lives in this really nice house but she doesn’t really feel comfortable there yet because everyone else already knows each other. But we love having her here. It’s so lonely when she isn’t here!

We also found an apple and plum tree in our backyard! How exciting is that? I’m not sure if we should eat them though…I’m a little scared to try them.

After dinner we had a nice little night of watching movies. We watched Never Been Kissed and then part of Fight Club. It was storming tonight and it was a little scary at first because there was something hitting against the front of our house but I found out this morning that Stacey had her window open so it was just the blinds. No worries!

Photos

My House!


Backyard


Kitchen


Living room


Hall way (view from the front door. My room is directly on the right.)


My room! So pretty.


My desk.


My bed


My lovely fireplace that I can't use. Oh, and the black and white photo is a Ralph Lauren model that I met on the plane from LA to Brisbane.


Koala! He was so very kind.

I hope you're ready for a novel b/c this post is long!

February 14

On the flight from Melbourne to Hobart we had the sweetest flight attendant named Mandy. We were all asking her questions about Hobart because she told us that she lived there. We told her how we didn’t know where we were living or anything like that and she was terribly worried about us! She gave us all juice, water, pretzels, wine, candy, and cups…pretty much anything she could snag for us so that we would have a little something when we made it to our houses. We all gave her huge hugs when we got off the plane!
When we walked in there were a lady and high school aged girl waiting for us with a UTas sign. The lady’s husband had a big van with a trailer so he and the girl took us to our houses. First we dropped off Amy and Jeff and then it was my turn!!!

WOW!!! I LOVE MY HOUSE! Yes, I said house. I am in a four bedroom, one bath with my friend Stacey (yay!), an AustraLearn guy named Joey, and a girl from Switzerland named Marina. The house is precious! We have a white picket fence with rose bushes out front, glass double doors, beautiful bedroom doors, and a HUGE backyard with some kind of fruit tree. And, in my room I have a fireplace!!! How cool is that? I’m really excited. We don’t have “air con” but we really don’t need it. If it gets a little warm then we just open our windows and there’s a nice breeze.
Stacey is my friend from Kentucky who I had talked to on facebook before I came out here. I am so happy that we are living together!! Joey is from Colorado and goes to Colorado State University. Our other roommate Marina is really sweet. She seems a little shy and unsure of her English but she is doing well.
In my room I have a full size bed, bedside table and a desk. AustraLearn had provided us with sheets, blankets, towels, two desk lamps and some kitchen stuff. That was a great surprise! I don’t have a closet though which is kind of strange. I have a rod to hang clothes on though which is good considering I normally hang up all my clothes anyways! However, I still don’t have hangers so my clothes get to say in my bags a little while longer. After I made my bed I passed out!!!

February 15

Word of the day:
Uni = University.
The Aussies like to shorten words as much as possible. Ex: I had breakie with my rellies on Chrissie before opening pressies.
Taking the piss = giving someone a hard time or poking fun at a person.
Stuffed = tired.
Drop Bears = Smaller koala like bears that will drop down from the trees and claw you. Sounds crazy huh? That’s because it’s not true. The Aussies find it funny to convince the Americans that they have these drop bears that we should be absolutely terrified of.
Another thing that I really like is that the Aussies always say “no worries.” This is the absolute best way to describe the people here. They have no worries…and I love it.

Let me start by saying that Hobart/Sandy Bay is the quaintest little town I have ever seen! There are tons of hills, it reminds me of San Francisco, and my calves are already feeling it. There are mountains in the background. And then if you walk not even 5 minutes down my street you run into the bay that is full of boats. There is a cricket field directly across from our house. All of the buildings are pretty old and beautiful. I haven’t even had much time to explore all the parts of Hobart but from what I’ve seen I’m in love.

Today started off with orientation at the Uni. We got a lot of information that was incredibly boring. We then went to an Aussie BBQ and a place where we could go around and talk to a number of different people who would be able to help us (such as with the bus system, taxes, churches, job searches, etc.).

After we left orientation we went back to our house and bummed around for a bit. It’s so nice to have a place that I can just go to relax and know that it’s my room in my house. For the first time in over a week I am able to have some alone time!

We went to do some shopping at a grocery store called Woolworth. The prices here seem to be better than the ones that were in Cairns but it’s still a little pricey. I had my first mini culture shock while shopping. I was looking for the Kraft macaroni and cheese and I was able to find the easy mac but not the real stuff. I was in an awful mood for about half an hour. At the end of my shopping I decided to suck it up and get the easy mac. And then, as a turned down the aisle I saw it in the corner of the very bottom shelf…KRAFT MACARONI AND CHEESE!!! It was absolutely magical. One strange this about Australia is that they don’t have orange cheese, all of their cheese is white and it’s just kind of weird.

Once we made the trek back to our house with all of our groceries I made some macaroni and cheese (of course) and we watched Full House. We hung around and talked with our roommate and just had a nice relaxing evening.

February 16

Happy birthday Sissy!!!! And Kendall and Kelton! Yay!

Today we had to go to another orientation session but thankfully this one was much shorter. We were given our class schedule. I will be taking three classes which is a full load here; I haven’t decided which ones I want to take yet. I went and talked to Yasmin about my internship and she told me that the internship classes are only offered in the second semester and that she didn’t have anything set up for me. :/ bummer. She gave me the number to a lady that I can contact in the English/Journalism department but I honestly don’t think I will end up doing that because I was really looking forward to the Media Broadcasting internship so that I could know if that would be something I want to pursue or not. Oh well, it would’ve been nice for that to work out but life is good and it moves on.

After orientation I came home and did laundry. It was so nice to get to wash my clothes that were so nasty from the Cairns humidity!! We don’t have a dryer so I had to hang my clothes on the line for them to dry. How cute is that?? I loved it, I felt so eco friendly. Wow I sound like a hippie.

This afternoon we went to the beach that is closest to our house. It is about 10-15 minutes away. The best part is that it’s a dog beach!!! I cannot tell you how happy I was to get there and see tons of dogs running around and playing. I met some little friends named Finley, Darcy and Rover…those were my favorites. It was good to get my dog fix in. There is a house two doors down from us and the first time we walked by there was a dog out in the yard so now every single time I walk by I call for him but he’s never there.

After the dog beach we went home and showered and were planning on going into Hobart with our friends but it was taking them forever and a day to get ready so after 2 hours we decided to just walk down and get pizza. So we still haven’t gone into Hobart but we are planning on doing that soon! I finally got some hangers so I was able to hang up some of my clothes but not all of them. It’s a work in progress!

February 17

No orientation today!! Yay!

We got to sleep in and that was wonderful! My room is starting to feel like it’s lived in. I woke up around 10 and then went into Stacey’s room where we chatted and looked at photos.

Once the other roommates were up we ate lunch together and headed out to the beach. It’s about a 15 minute walk to Sandy Bay beach. The weather was perfect…nice and warm but there was a breeze to keep you cool. We laid out across from where there was a dock in the middle of the water so once we got nice and hot we decided it would be a good idea to swim out there. Holy smokes, the water was cold!!! But we made it to the platform and felt so proud of ourselves!

Now we are all up at the library using the internet because we STILL don’t have it at our house. We are going to a meeting tomorrow to learn some different options of what we can get.

I’m not sure what we are planning on doing tonight but I’ll be sure to fill you in. Thanks for reading this super long blog! Sorry I haven’t been able to update until now. Love yall.