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.