What is a Bogan Today?

It has come to my attention that there was a lot of confusion as to what a "Bogan" is. I found this definition that may be helpful. Also, I realized that I spelled "Bogan" incorrectly last time I posted. So, forgive me for that!

An excellent question. It is time to bring to the world’s attention the means by which we can keep the world’s bogans happy. The word bogan has had a bad rap of late – still associated with wife beaters, flannelette, VB, utes and mullets. But this conceals the new, modern bogan. The bogan with money. The bogan with aspirations. The bogan with Ed Hardy t-shirts. And this is no mere Australian phenomenon – in the US, you have rednecks, in the UK, chavs. While there are variations, the crux of the discussion remains the same.

The bogan today defies income, class, race, creed, gender or religion. The bogan is defined by what it does, what it says and, most importantly, what it buys. Those who choose to deny the bogan on the basis of their North Shore home, their stockbroking career or their massive trust fund choose not to see the bogan. They merely see old class battles revisited. Likewise, the bogan is no mere ‘tradie’. Even if tradies remained low-income workers, many bogans are affluent. And they set themselves apart by their efforts to stand out by conforming as furiously, and conspicuously, as possible.

Two Posts in One Day!

March 17, Wednesday

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!!!

This morning I made sure to wear green so that I wouldn’t get pinched by everyone I saw. It wasn’t until after I was out and about that I realized that they really don’t care if you wear green or not here. And they sure as heck don’t pinch you for not wearing green!

I went to the Popular Fiction tutorial this morning. It was pretty good. The people in the class were pretty intense about Harry Potter though. You can totally tell that they’re arts majors!
After the tutorial I talked to the professor, Dominic, and told him that I needed him to approve me into the class.

Then I went to the library to waste time until my next class. That’s when I got a call from Dominic saying that I don’t have the right prerequisites needed to be in the class. Ugh.
So then I started looking up other English classes or Arts classes that would count for me back home. There was only one that was offered this semester that would work with my class schedule. I emailed the Professor and asked her if there was any way that I could enrol in her class. She emailed me back saying that it is too late for me to join the class and that the last day I could have joined was at the beginning of the week. GRR to Tech for taking SO long to get back to be about everything and to UTas for not letting me know before I got here that these classes wouldn’t count. Ugh. This is just so frustrating. So, I’ll be staying in Public Relations. And if I want to MAYBE get credit for it, then Tech requires me to write a 25 page paper writing about what I learn from the class. ...Sounds difficult. But I think I’m going to give it a go.

Natalie and I went downtown to find her a sexy outfit for her birthday. We went to this store called Cotton On and they were having a huge sale! I got a shirt, shorts and shoes for $25! Awesome!!! The shirt I got has a leopard on it. RAWR. Natalie ended up getting a leopard shirt at another store!

When I got home I was so tired so I laid down to take a nap. When I woke up I was super grumpy and totally didn’t want to go out for Saint Patrick’s Day. But we had already decided to go out tonight for Natalie’s birthday since we were just staying at home on Friday.

We started out at Metz with Marina, Joey, Jeff, Stacey and Natalie. April and Amy were supposed to meet us but they were running late. Stacey and I tried to get the bartenders at Metz to sing to Natalie but they wouldn’t do it.
One of Joey’s friends was up at Irish Murphy’s who said it was pretty fun there. We went up there and ran into my friend Angelique that I have a couple of classes with.

March 18, Thursday

Marc comes today!!!!!! YAY!!!!

Wow, I really can’t remember what I did during the day. I cleaned my room and did some laundry.

Natalie and I went shopping at Cole’s. I bought stuff to make dinner for Marc.

Around 6:45 I started the walk down into Hobart to meet Marc’s bus. I got there in perfect timing, 7:25. Unfortunately, when I got there I realized that his bus didn’t get in until 8 for some reason. So this black dude and I just sat outside the centre waiting for the bus.
Sure enough, Marc’s bus pulled up at 8!

By the time we got home it was almost 9 and the poor boy was starving. I made him chicken fettuccini alferado and garlic bread. After that he was still hungry so he made some more pasta and then ate a bowl of cereal and ice cream as well. I guess I underestimated how much he’d eat!
While we were eating, we sat around the table with Joey and Marina and talked. Marina seems really happy to have another Swiss around. They’re from different parts of the country but I’m sure it’s still nice just to have that other person who knows about where you’re from. And Marc was able to speak German with her which she liked.

March 19, Friday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL AMAZINGLY AWESOME FRIEND MISS NATALIE LOGUE!!!!

Natalie and I had talked about going to this little bakery for breakfast so I asked if she still wanted to do that but she had already had breakfast before her class. So, we decided to go somewhere for lunch then.
We couldn’t really decide what we wanted to eat. By the time we had gotten dressed and walked down into Sandy Bay it was getting late. So Natalie ended up getting some quiche from the bakery and Marc and I got Subway.

Oh! I almost forgot! I got a package this morning from Dad and Denise!!! J They sent me a beautiful v-neck from Forever 21 (thank you Sissy for picking it out), ranch, GOLDFISH, REESES!, and a sweet note. It was a wonderful surprise!!

After lunch, Natalie and I baked her birthday cupcakes. J There were chocolate ones and carrot cake ones...both with white icing.

Marc and I went up to uni to Skype with Miss Catie Swimm. J It was so wonderful getting to talk to her. Skype has got to be just the most wonderful invention. Props to whoever created it.

Natalie went to pick up Abdel who got in around 7:30 I believe. Right after Tarni dropped Abdel off at the transit centre she decided that she wanted to come too. J YAY! So she drove down for Natalie's birthday!!!

Marc and I got Macer’s for supper. Marc may love getting ice cream from McDonald's even more than Durwood does!!!

When we got back from supper, Tarni was at the house!! Hooray! And not long after, Natalie and Abdel showed up!

We sang to Natalie and she blew out the candles on her cupcakes that I had made for her. The cupcakes were SO YUM by the way.

March 20, Saturday

I woke up at 9:30 this morning and could NOT go back to sleep.

So I went out and got on Skype. I got to talk to Momma. And I also got to Skype with Dad too. Stacey was awake too and was Skyping with her family. She was pretty much yelling…I had to tell her multiple times to be quiet. Haha.

After everyone finally got up this morning and met at our house we went down to the Salamanca Market. The whole group headed down there (Abdel, Natalie, Stacey, Joey, Tarni, Marc and I)! It was SO much better today than it was the last time we went. Last time there was only one fruit/vegetable stand but this time there were so many. I guess last time was just bad timing for the farmers. There was a place that had really cheap strawberries and chocolate dip! Of course I had to buy those! I also got avocados for $0.95! At the grocery store they’re $1.95 each. SCORE. We also found a shop that sells Dr. Pepper. DOUBLE SCORE.

Marc and I walked around for awhile looking at all the stuff that the booths had. I found this cute little whale carving that I really wanted to get for Rachel due to her new found fascination with whales, but it was way expensive. So, I’ll keep my eyes open! 8)

After the market Marc and I walked into town to go to Redline to check about his bus home the next day.
Then Stacey and Tarni met us downtown to do some shopping. Tarni finally got the flip flops that she has been looking for! Marc got some donuts from Donut King because he loves sweets. I don’t think Stacey and I bought anything.

When we got back into Sandy Bay, Marc and I stopped off at Cole’s to get stuff for supper. Marc cooked fish sticks and Caesar salad for the two of us. It was yum. J

We spent Saturday night not doing much of anything. J Marc and I were total nerds and did homework together. Oh well, I guess that's a good thing!

I'll update again once I get the next couple of posts on my computer. :)
Don't forget to go down and read the previous post...there are two from today.

News!

First of all, I would like to thank Dad for mailing me his camera! How kind of him. He took my new/broken camera to Best Buy to try to see what they can do about it and they had to ship it off. Dad was SO kind to mail me his camera so that I'll have one for my adventures here!

On Wednesday the 31 Natalie, Stacey and I will be traveling to Melbourne for our mid-semester break. :) Please keep us in your prayers! We aren't too sure what we'll be doing while we're there...hopefully checking out some festivals, comedy clubs and street markets. We will be staying with one of our AustraLearn friends for the first part of the week and then in a hostel for the second half. We head back to Hobart on the 8th of April (Thursday).

Another thing to keep in your prayers is that Miss Paisley, my boxer, just had surgery to get fixed. While she was under, they also had to extract her canine teeth because they were broken and infected. Please pray that she has a fast and healthy recovery! I hate that I'm not with her to take care of her but I'm glad that she is in good hands with Curtis and her Granma Ney.

And last, but certainly not least, I'd like to introduce yall to my boyfriend Marc. Marc is 23 and from Lausanne, Switzerland...which means he's French Swiss. Oh well, we all have our faults. Haha. He has been in Launceston, Tasmania for a year and a half now (if I remember correctly). He is studying physical education. Marc also plays basketball for two teams out here. He plans on finishing the two years that he has left here, and then coming to the States to do his Masters.
Before coming out here, I was friends with this guy from Egypt named Abdel. When Abdel came out here he became house mates with Marc. Some friends and I went to visit Abdel and that's how Marc and I met! We first bonded over our love for dogs and basketball!

We've been "hanging out," "dating," "together" or whatever you call it, for a few weeks now.

He seems to be a good balance for me because in times when I get shy, he is super outgoing. At other times when I like to be loud he lets me be. Haha.

On Tuesday at basketball practice he was jumping up onto a box and somehow missed the box and his leg peeled open like a banana. He had to get 9 stitches. We went to the Doctor on Friday to have them check up on it and it seems to be healing well! Unfortunately it put him out for at least 3 weeks. Pray that it continues to heal quickly and fully.

That's all I have for now. I'll try to catch up with my other posts soon.

Cheers!

Three and a Half Stars ???

March 8, Monday

Eight hour day. J Hooray for getting a holiday about only working eight hours a day.

I slept in today until about 10:30.

I called Dad to tell him about my camera. He told me to send it to him and he would take it to Best Buy and see what he can do about it because there must be a warranty on it considering I’ve only had it for about a month.

We were supposed to go to the gorge today but it was raining a lot. L

After talking with Dad, I walked to Chicken Feed with Natalie and Abdel. I bought a spiral notebook so that I could write everything out for my blog while I’m traveling. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such an ugly spiral as the one that I bought but it was the only one in the whole store.

Natalie needed coffee so then we went to Hungry Jack’s to fix that problem!

Malcolm and Abdel then drove Joey, Natalie and I to the bus station. It was a very fun weekend!!! It was nice having a fellow Texan, Abdel, around for awhile.

The bus ride home was pretty boring. Some high school aged girls were listening to country music. After they heard me on the phone saying something about Texas they kept turning around and looking at me. Haha. It was funny.

Back in Hobart we decided to just take the walk home rather than the bus since we’d just been on one for 2 ½ hours.

When we got back to Hobart at 5:30, it was nice and hot! We stopped at Cole’s on the way home. Natalie needed a lot of stuff.

By the time we got back to the Cottage of Nelson Road we were SO tired. It had been a long weekend. Joey made his “famous” burritos for supper. Marina and Stacey weren’t home (we could tell they had at least been there though because their stuff was at home). Natalie made some crazy tofu meal. Dinner was ready just in time for us to sit down and watch our favorite show, My Kitchen Rules! Our favorite team, two best friends from Perth are still in it. Yippy Skippy!

We then watched my favorite movie, 101 Dalmatians. J Marina was worried that I was sick because I had told her that it is my sick movie.

Then I was so incredibly tired so I showered and went to write before bed. Stacey came back and we stayed up talking about our adventures from the weekend until sometime after 1:30.

March 9, Tuesday

Happy birthday cousin Katie!!!

I told Natalie that I would go to her Popular Fiction class with her this morning at 9 AM. This is the class that I am hoping to join and get credit for rather than taking the Public Relations class and not getting credit for it. Nat and I met at the top of The Hill of Pain at 8:30AM. In the lecture today, we talked about Disney movies, Peter Pan, and the symbolism behind the stories. I liked it a lot!

I had an hour break after that class so I mailed my camera off to Dad. It cost $28 because I put insurance on it. It would have only cost $12 otherwise.

Then I went up to the library. I got to Skype with Nanna, Jackson, Durwood, Dad and Denise! That was so exciting! Nanna was so cute; she was wearing a Chinese robe because she was having people over for supper tonight. We got to talk for about 15 minutes before I had to head to class.

The classes I had today were Gender, Power and Change and my tutorial for Journalism, Media and Communications. I have a test in my Journalism class next week...scary!

When I got home I cooked some lunch and got to talk to Momma for a bit on the phone. Oh it was sooo great, I got my green card (Metro Bus System) card in the mail today! I also got cards from Momma, Momma Dos, Bonnie and Britton. It was so kind of all of them to send me mail! I love it. I decorate my room with all the cards and photos that people send me. J

The Telstra (phone service) dude just came out and set up our phone line. So now we REALLY should have internet at the house soon. Thank goodness.

Joey, Marina and I went to Macer’s (McDonalds) to use the free Wi-Fi. It was way slow. So I then walked back up to the library. On my walk, it started raining so it felt so far away!

Its Tuesday so of course that means...pancakes! I love this day. I find myself looking forward to Pancake Tuesdays now.

I was supposed to go rock climbing with Joey and Stacey today but I was still at the library when they went. Natalie and I were trying to plan our mid-semester break. We’d really like to go to the Gold Coast and stay with Steve-o but it is pretty expensive to get there during that break. But we’re keeping our eyes open!!

March 10, Wednesday

Tarni’s coming to HOBART today!!!

I didn’t have my Public Relations tutorial today since we didn’t have the lecture on Monday. I woke up at 9 and just couldn’t go back to sleep. So I went up to the library. I got to tlak to Momma. She is having issues with her trip plans. For some reason the dumb Travel Agent made her flight plans for the 28 rather than the 29. Stupid.

Gender, Power and Change was interesting today. We had the sex talk.

Once I was done with my classes I had a little over an hour before Tarni would get in. I got to work on my photo book a little. Really I just picked out which design I wanted to use. It has been a slow process!

Tarni got in town around 4:30 and we ate a late lunch at the house.

Tarni wanted to get some panty hose so we made our daily trek to Cole’s. J

In Cole’s, there is a fake yellow lab for people to donate money in and every time we pass it I make sure that I, and whoever I’m with, pet the dog.

Megan Macdonald from La Bella’s had invited us to a house party with her friends so went to that. It was nice to meet Aussies. Most of them went to high school together in Launceston. Because of that, Joey, Natalie, Tarni and I were kind of the odd ones out. We only stayed there for about half an hour. Megan is super sweet though, I hope to hang out with her again!

We walked down to Salamanca next. We were trying hard to show Tarni a good Uni night in the big city of Hobart.

We then went to see Danny at La Bella’s. He let me make a pizza!!! It was so yum.

When we got home and were going to bed, Tarni and I talked for a long time. :) She is such a sweetheart!

March 11, Thursday

Hey weekend, hey!

This morning Tarni and I laid in bed for awhile chatting. We got up around 10:45 to get ready to go to Launceston!

The Koala Bear, aka Stacey, was fulfilling her name. She earned that nickname because she loves sleeping and she’s incredibly slow. She was taking her time lying in bed watching a movie and eating oatmeal while we were waiting on her to leave. Tarni needed to be back in Launy by 2:30 so we needed to leave by 12. We finally got Stacey in the car at 12:30 and we were on the road!

When we got into Launy we got Macers! We then went back to the house and Stacey got to meet everyone. We didn’t do too much that night. We went to Woolworth’s and got stuff for supper. I made some pretty awesome tacos! I made them nice and spicy...they were so wonderful after not having spicy food for a long time.

Malcolm had baked a cake for Tarni’s birthday. It was admittedly better than the one that I had made. It was still chocolate with chocolate but it was much moister. Malcolm had also put smarties (like m&m’s) on the cake. He has to go out of town on Friday for work so the house celebrated her birthday today so that Malcolm could be a part of the festivities.

I love the Launy house because they don’t have a living room or a television so they all just sit in the kitchen and talk with each other. I really enjoy it…its quite cute. J Malcolm has a strange fascination with random laws. He looked up a few about Texas. Apparently if you introduce someone as your husband/wife three times in the state of Texas then it is official. Also, it is illegal to shoot a buffalo from the second story of a building. They didn’t mention anything about the third though so…guns up!

March 12, Friday

Happy birthday Tarni!!!!

I woke up around 10:30 to Stacey and Tarni saying that it was time to open presents! Tarni had gotten a package from her parents that she knew had an ipod in it. And surprise, it also had a camera!!!

Tarni, Stacey and I then went into town to shop. Stacey wanted to look for a camera and I wanted to buy perfume. I ended up being the only successful one of the outing…or maybe it was actually Stacey since she didn’t spend money. I really, really wanted the Viva La Juicy perfume but it was more than I had wanted to spend so I bought (don’t laugh) Mariah Carey’s perfume. It surprisingly smells very good.

We then went home to grab a bite to eat. Marc was home from practice so we heated up the left over taco meat and ate those. After lunch we were ready to head off to the gorge!

The gorge is a huge lake with rocks all around it. You can lay-out on the grass or on the rocks. Since it was a week day it was pretty empty so we were able to lay on the rocks that you cliff-dive off of. The cliff diving wasn’t THAT extreme. It was probably around 20 feet. None of us girls had ever done it before so we were scared and made Marc go first. After we saw that it was safe we were all for it though! The water was SO cold…when you jumped in it kind of took your breath away and made it hard to breathe. It was a really cool experience. We had a lot to do that day so we left the gorge around 3 I believe.

On the way home we stopped by Woolworth’s and K-mart. Marc was looking for “candy apple green” flip flops because that’s "the greatest color in the world." Unfortunately they only had that color in girl’s sizes. Tarni got some nail polish while we were there. Stacey and I found a DVD player for $35 that we’re really tempted to buy! ...Buuut, we didn't.

When we got back to the house we were all pretty tired to we took a nap. Around 5:30 it was time for the girls to start getting ready to go out for Tarni's birthday! Stacey and I were very excited because Tarni has a hair dryer and a straightener so we were going to get to do our hair for the first time in a month and a half!

Marc made me a wonderful chicken burger for lunch! Yummy! Fraser came over for a little bit to eat some cake for Tarni's birthday. He couldn’t go out that night for some reason so he came over early. There was a little bit of Malcolm’s cake left so we put a candle in that and sang to Tarni again.

March 13, Saturday

Stacey wanted to go back to Hobart today because she wanted to go to Bonorong Park on Sunday with the Bushwalking Club. Not too much happened today. We went to Chicken Feed to do a little shopping. Abdel burned some DVDs for Stacey and me…yay, movies! Marc cooked me a chicken burger for lunch…so yum. J

There is a park in Launceston where they have monkeys! They’re so cute. J They are in a little cage but you can watch them play and chase each other. At the same park there is also a huge chess game set up. There was a cute little Asian kid who was playing by himself. The chess pieces were as tall as he was. It was so funny! Stacey decided that she wants to get married at this park…there was a beautiful greenhouse with tons of cool flowers. Malcolm and Abdel stood in as the grooms so we could get a good visual of what she would look like walking down the aisle.

After the park we dropped Stacey off at the bus station.

That night Tarni and I went to watch Marc play basketball! He did really well; his team won soundly. There was one other guy who was pretty good but Marc was for sure the best. He had lots of rebounds and points. J

Saturday night Tarni and I rented 500 Days of Summer. By the time we got home and ate dinner we were too tired to watch it though.

Around 4 AM we heard a car horn and alarm going off. We looked outside and saw a car in the parking lot across the street on fire. We guess a bunch of boagans had stolen the car and then set it on fire to ditch it. It was crazy! Everyone in the house woke up and we all went into Marc’s room to watch it. Who needs movies when you have boagans who set cars on fire?

March 14, Sunday

Tarni and I had planned on going to La Trobe to see the platypus capital of the world. I checked my bank account before we went tough and saw that Myer’s had charged me twice for my perfume. So we decided to the platypus for another day. We went into town because Tarni wanted to buy some flip flops. She showed me some cool stores…Thank goodness!

We then headed out to the gorge. Tarni and I got there around 12:30. Malcolm met us at 1. Marc was at practice still and Abdel had to do homework. We didn’t dive today because there were tons of Jr. High kids there. We just laid-out on the grass and swam in the gorge a bit. It was definitely easier getting into the water when you were jumping into it rather than just swimming out in it. It was way cold. We treaded water for a while, hoping to warm up, but then just ended up going to lie on the grass.

Tarni and I cuddled up in bed and watched the movie “500 Days of Summer” when we got back home. The movie was pretty good…kind of strange. I didn’t like the way that the girl treated the boy, it made me angry.

After the movie it was nap time in the house!

When we woke up it was time for us to head to the bus station to catch my 7:30 PM back to Hobart. Tarni and Marc drove me up there this time. We stopped by Macer’s to get me some supper for the road. I sure do love my pollo nuggets! I said bye to them and then had to wait about 10 minutes to load my bus.

The bus ride felt really long for some reason! I slept for the first hour of the trip. After that I just couldn’t do anything. There was a girl sitting in the seat next to me so I felt pretty confined. By the time I got back to Hobart I was real happy to be off of the bus.

When I got back into Hobart I made the 45 minute walk back into Sandy Bay. It felt weird coming home after being gone for so long! Stacey and Joey told me all of the stories about Saturday’s occurrences.

Apparently we have at least two rats, Earl and Richie. They say that the rats have gotten really brave and will just sit there and look at you if you walk into the room. Also, one of them must have gotten sick from the poison and spat blood all over the kitchen floor. Because of this our kitchen smelled RANCID. GROSS. Ugh, I cannot even express how thankful I am that I missed all of this. Marina is going to go talk to the Tasmania University Union, who we rent the house from, tomorrow to see what can be done about this little situation. Needless to say, I will be avoiding the kitchen for the next few days.

I was pretty tired from all of my traveling so I went to bed not long after getting home. Joey and I tried to watch Twilight New Moon, one of the DVDs Abdel had burned for me, but it didn’t work on my computer so we watched another one instead. I passed out not far into the movie!

March 15, Monday

Back in Hobart and back to class.

Because I am going to drop my Public Relations class, I didn’t have class today until 3.

I woke up around 9 and laid in bed debating what I should do until 3. Natalie called and asked if I wanted to go to Cole’s with her. …What kind of question is that? Of course I want to go to Cole’s!

Friday is Natalie’s birthday so I bought stuff to make cupcakes for that! Hip-Hip Hooray! They’re going to be chocolate with white icing.

After the store we came home, ate and discussed our mid-semester break plans. It’s in two weeks!!! Can you believe that? I went to the library to look up flights and Natalie went home to do the same and to put her groceries away.

Natalie and I found flights to Melbourne for pretty cheap! Our roundtrip total was $195. We will be there for eight days (March 31 – April 8). I’m SO excited! I had really wanted to go to the Gold Coast but those flights were super expensive. We have worked out to stay with one of our friends from Austra Learn, Lee. His dad and brother are coming in on the 3 thought so after that we can either stay with one of his friends or go to a hostile. We’re probably just going to play that part by ear.

I then had to go to class. It was Journalism, Media and Communication. That lecture is two hours long and it is just killer! Plus, I think that they’ve decided that because it is autumn they don’t have to turn the air conditioning on anymore. Hah, they’re wrong!

I have a test tomorrow in that class so I spent tonight studying for that. I’m not too worried about it because it is just over this week’s readings. I’ll let yall know how it goes!

Cheers!

March 16, Tuesday

I had to wake up SO early this morning…8:15. It’s crazy how 9 AM seems so late but the 8 AM hour is just a whole different story.

I went to Popular Fiction this morning. Today we talked about Harry Potter. J I like this class. I went and met with the Professor, who reminds me of one of my friends, after class and told him that I’m enrolling in his class and asked what I needed to do to catch up. He was really kind and told me the contact information for James, who I needed to talk to for advice about enrolling late.

I then went to the library to use the internet and contact the guy who my Professor, Dominic, had told me to. I did that. I had also gotten a response from my advisor to my e-mail asking about adding/dropping classes. I sent one back asking how I go about dropping a class…you know, considering I’m a new student here I may not know these things. The response that I got said this and only this: “Dear Sara, You draw a horizontal line through the class.” …Thank you kind advisor woman. Ugh. I knew what sheet she was talking about but I didn’t know where I was supposed to turn that sheet in or if there was a way to do it online. I was so angry with the response that I got from her though. She is the international advisor, she may have to deal with stupid questions every now and then from students who aren’t used to their system here! Grr.

Anyways, I believe I figured out how to take care of it on my own. I’m going to go and meet with the James guy who my English Professor told me about and have him double check that I did everything correctly.

At 11 I had my Gender, Power and Change class. We have our first paper due on Monday so all this week we are solely talking about the paper. It was totally exciting. We learned how to answer an essay question and how to set up an introduction, body and conclusion.

Next, I had my Journalism, Media and Communications tutorial. It was test day! We had 10 minutes to take a 10 question short answer test. It was pretty easy! I know I didn’t get a 100…probably an 80 or 90. There is always that one question that just kills you! The one that got me was asking for the names of the researchers on one of the statistics that was in our book. Bummer.

After class that crazy guy followed me to Uni Print and back home again. It is SO bazaar. Thankfully he didn’t stay long though today because he had to grab food before his next class.

Marina got home around 2ish; she and I decided that it was a good beach day. We walked down Sandy Bay to the dock that we normally swim at. When we got there it was all nice and sunny. But for some reason we have super bad luck or timing. The sun decided to hide behind a ton of clouds. It kind of looked like it was going to rain off in the distance. We left the beach a little earlier than we had hoped.

I went into town to withdraw some cash from the bank. I went to Blockbuster to ask if they had “Night at the Roxbury” and they don’t. Sad. Anyone want to send it to me?? J Then I went to Chicken Feed. We needed dish soap and toilet paper.

Have I told yall about our Chores List that we have on the refrigerator? Each time you: Buy Toilet Paper, Clean the Dishes, Take out the Trash, or Buy Cleaning Supplies you get a mark next to your name. It helps to keep track of who all is spending time/money on things. We also have another one with each week we are here. It rotates who gets to clean what that week. The rotations are: Kitchen, Living room, Entry way, and Bathroom. So far it is working out well I think!

After Chicken Feed I dropped my stuff off at the house and went to the library. Natalie met me up there and, can I just say, that her mom is my absolute most favorite person of the day (and possibly longer)!?!?!? She sent me GOLDFISH!!! “Goldfish: The snack that smiles back until you bite their heads off.” (I’ve always thought that that was the strangest jingle). Oh but that made me so happy!

Furthermore, it’s Tuesday…and that means: Pancake Tuesday!

Natalie cooked her awesome pancakes tonight. They were so tasty. J Stacey and I keep getting so hungry though, it’s like we’re full but we’re never nourished. I think we determined that it is because we don’t have a lot of meat in our diet here. Back home we eat tons of it and our body gets tons of protein that way. But here, we generally eat pastas or something like that. If we have meat then it is just a little bit on a sandwich probably once a day. We are going to try to change that! We are going to go to Cole’s tomorrow and shop for some good food for us.

After eating tons of awesome pancakes I was tired! So I took a shower and now I’m fixing to head to bed…before midnight. How crazy.

As always, thanks for reading my posts! I know some are definitely more exciting than others…maybe I should start a point system and put it in the blog title. Something like: “5 Star Blog: MUST READ!” or “2 Star Blog: Only Read if you’re Bored and Trying to Avoid Work.” That way if you have other things that you need to be doing then you can be like “Eh, today is just a 3 star blog; I’ll just wait and catch her on a 5 star day.”

Yeah? Let me know what you think! J

Here are some photos to reward you for that long read!!!

Malcolm, Me, Tarni, Abdel and Stacey at the Park in Launceston. We joke that this photo makes us look like we are on the Real World television show.

Marc and I at the gorge.

Me jumping at the gorge. And yes, I am holding my nose! :)

Stacey, Me and Tarni at the gorge!

INTERNET!!!

GUESS WHAT GUYS...

I HAVE INTERNET AT MY HOUSE NOW!!!

YIPPY SKIPPY. :)

First Launceston Weekend

March 6, Saturday

Another INSANE day!

Natalie, Joey and I all woke up fairly early to get to the bus stop so we could hit the road to good ole Launceston. The bus from Sandy Bay to Hobart was running late. Once we got into Hobart we needed to find Brisbane Street. We asked multiple people and no one knew where it was! Finally, the fourth person we asked was able to tell us where to go. We hurried off that way and made it to the bus station 5 minutes after were needed to check in (10:05 AM). We had left our house at 9 AM…so that just shows how far away this bus station was! It was up in North Hobart again. Ugh. When we went to check in the lady told us that we weren’t booked on the bus. It ends up that the address that we had been given on our confirmation was for Tassielink rather than Redline.
So we jogged our happy little butts back basically to where we had just come from. We had made a HUGE circle. We made it to the bus station at 10:18 AM…3 minutes too late. The bus had left at 10:15 AM. UGH. Thankfully the people let us transfer our tickets to the next bus that was leaving at 3 PM.

We now had a couple of hours to waste. We went to the Short Black Café and Take Away and got some breakfast there. We went to a few shops around town. I wanted to find a spiral notebook but I guess they don’t believe in them in Hobart.
We went to the Hobart Museum. I really like that place! The first time I went I thought it was super small but this time I found a lot more rooms. There is an exhibit about Antarctica and penguins. Penguins are just so cute! It was sad thought because there were a lot of stuffed ones and it made me sad that they had died. L Poor babies.
After the museum we went to KFC! YUM. It was so strange, I asked for mashed potatoes with no gravy and they told me they couldn’t do that…? Oh well.

We got back to the bus station around 2…with plenty of time to spare! The bus left at 3, right on time. There wasn’t too much to look at along the drive besides fields and sheep. As exciting as that was, I fell asleep.

We got into Launy at 5:30 PM. Abdel and his roommates had gone to Cradle Mountain so we hand to hang around town for a bit while we waited on them to get back into town.
While we were in town, Joey tried to tell us that Launceston is bigger than Hobart…dumb, it’s not. When we got into town there weren’t any people on the streets. We didn’t know where everyone was! We later found out that the whole town was either at the movies or at Mortey’s, a big food court area.

Abdel and one of his roommates, Malcolm, a British Bloke, came to pick us up around 7:30 or so. Abdel is nice! He kind of reminds me of Cousin Matt. Malcolm has a car, yay! So we drove over to their house. They live right next door to a Chicken Feed. How lucky are they!?

There are four people living in the house: Abdel, Malcolm, Marc and Tarni. Marc is French Swiss and he is here for Uni and playing basketball. Marc is from the other part of Switzerland than Marina (Fight! Fight! Fight!). He’s a cool guy. We bonded while talking about our dogs and about basketball. We had a heart to heart and he opened up and told me about losing his dad this past year and everything that he’s been through. Tarni (pronounced Tawny) is from Coff’s Harbor on the mainland. She is a first year nursing major; she doesn’t know a lot of people here yet so she is still pretty shy.

Anyways, when we got to Abdel’s we just sat around and chatted for a bit. It had been a long day for all of us so we called it an early night!

March 7, Sunday

Sunday Funday! Woot woot! J

Today was festival day in Devonport! Marc had basketball practice this morning so he couldn’t come. Around “half ten” aka 10:30 AM we headed to Devonport which is about an hour or so away from Launy. The boys (Abdel, Joey and Malcolm) were in one car and the girls (Tarni, Natalie and I) were in the other car. On the trip there Natalie fell asleep and Tarni and I had a nice little chat. The night before she had been super quiet because she was tired and pretty shy, but I got her to open. I found out that she has never lived with guys so it can be a little awkward for her at times, especially because they are all from different cultures and have different limits on things.

When we got to the festival we walked around for awhile before deciding how we wanted to spend our money. There was a bunch of food and drinks. Oh, the festival was the “Taste the Harvest” festival. There were two stages set up; one was the main stage and the other was the acoustic stage. The music was pretty good…lots of cover songs of course.
Regardless of the fact that it was a wine festival, we actually didn’t get any wine while we were there. I tasted some strawberry wine which I thought was pretty gross. I had a baked potato and then some ice cream. J
We got to play with some dogs while we were there. They had a dog show where they did tricks and obedience stuff. We missed the show but I was just happy that I got to play with the dogs. They make me so happy! And there was a boxer there…she was fawn colored, not as beautiful as Miss Paisley.

We stayed at the festival for a couple hours and then went to the beach. It was a little overcast but we went anyways! There were a bunch of big rocks that we girls climbed on while the boys went for a swim in the ocean. We got to see the Tasmanian Sea rather than just the bay. On the way back to Launy I took photos of some of the funny road signs that they have. Such as:
“Drowsy Drivers Die.”
“110. It’s the Limit. Not a Challenge.”
“Keep Left Unless Overtaking.”
“May Become Slippery When Frosty.”
“Rest. Survive the Drive.”

When we got back to the house I went and talked to Marc for awhile.
Then we went over to Hungry Jack’s for some supper. They have free refills there!!! Natalie and I were so happy because we just love coke. We kept sipping down our drink real fast so we could get as much coke as we could handle haha.

Malcolm and I backed a cake, without a box! Can you believe that??? It was chocolate with chocolate icing. Marc couldn’t believe that I let the Brit boss me around in the kitchen about how to bake a cake. It turned out to be a wonderful cake! Everyone loved it. :)

A Couple of Posts!

March 4, Thursday

Hello weekend!!! J I got to sleep in today because I’m done with my classes for the week!

At 11:30 Julian came to pick me up to go scuba diving! We had to go and pick up the tanks and equipment from the shop that they store all of their gear at. Then we headed out to a beach a little past Kingston. On the way we stopped at another place that Julian likes to dive at. It had a lot of rocks and cliffs. He said there was a lot of cool stuff to see down there but it wasn’t an ideal spot for me to learn in so we headed off to the other place.

The place where we went is a beach/marine reservation. When we got there we realized that only one of the tanks had been filled. Julian said he would just snorkel alongside me as a scuba dove. Because my lesson had kind of been thrown together I didn’t have a lot of the right gear. The vest, goggles and flippers were way too big and I didn’t have enough weights to pull me down. So, we tried real hard but it just wasn’t working for me. I kept swimming to the side because the tank would always shift to my right. It was pretty funny…I felt a little bit like how Nemo must have felt with his little gimp fin. I decided that I would rather just snorkel so I told Jules he could use the scuba tank. He is fixing to start giving lessons in town and is going to take his students to that spot for their first marine dive. There is an underwater trail that you can follow that will lead you to a bunch of cool things to see so he wanted to try and scope that out.
While I was snorkeling I saw a lot of huge fish. I also saw a sting ray!!! It was pretty big! I really wanted to touch it but I wasn’t willing to risk being Steve Irwin-ed so I decided that that wasn’t the greatest idea. I found someone’s lost diving flipper and I tried to go down and get it because it reminded me of Finding Nemo (“P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way Sydney…”). But I wasn’t able to dive down and get it because my wet suit kept me pretty buoyant.

We finished up around 4 and then headed off to get some lunch at Subway in Kingston. We took our food down to eat on the beach. There was quite the breeze though so we ate quick and then headed off towards home.

When I got home Natalie was over watching a movie. I ended up falling asleep for a little “Nanna Nap.” Marina came home and cooked us supper at 6. It was so tasty. I love having home cooked meals after having oh so many sandwiches!!!

After dinner, Stacey, Natalie and I went up to use the internet at the Library. While we were there I went and checked out the movie selections that they have. I rented “Chocolate” because, after buying chocolate-chili flavored fudge, Natalie kept telling us how great that movie is. We then had to go over to Amy and Jeff’s so Stacey could pick up her back packet for their camping trip tomorrow. After that we did the one thing that had been missing from our day…we went to Cole’s. J Then over to Natalie’s to watch the movie! Stacey has been working on a photo book for her boyfriend’s birthday. While the rest of us watched the movie, she used Natalie’s internet to finish it up so that she can get it ordered and shipped so that it will make it in time for his birthday. It took a long time for that to get finished. We didn’t leave Natalie’s until around 3 AM. It’s a good thing I don’t have class tomorrow!!! J

Tomorrow I am going to go up to the library and use the internet. I’m thinking that I am going to go ahead and start working on a photo book of my trip here. If I work on it now I think it will be easier for me to put captions and remember what was going on during each photo.

We worked out that this weekend Natalie, Joey and I are going to go to Launceston and stay with my friend Abdel. We are leaving Saturday morning and then coming home on Monday. There is some festival going on Sunday…I’m pretty excited about it!!!

Thanks for your all of your thoughts and prayers! Cheers.

P.S. I would like nothing more right now than a fourth meal from Taco Bell!!!

March 5, Friday

This morning Stacey, Amy, April and Jeff all headed off to Wineglass Bay. Marina went to Bay of Fires.

I woke up when Natalie came over and we went up to the library for the internet (what else?). I decided I should go ahead and start working on a snapfish book of my Aussie adventures. If I work on it now then it will be easier in the end. J I unfortunately didn’t get much done on it.

I went over to chat with our neighbors for a bit when I got home. I wanted to borrow a broom but I figured it’d be good to make from friendly banter first. In the house to the right there is a kind old man, Allen, and his tiny Asian wife, Aurora, living there. We talked for a little bit about the States and what I was studying here. Allen started singing “All My Exes Live in Texas” when I told him that’s where I’m from. Haha. I told them that we would all be out of town this weekend and that we would appreciate it if they kept an eye on the house for us. They had no clue what I was talking about. I told them just to keep an eye open for any suspicious activity. Allen asked what he was supposed to do if something did happen. Haha, hmm…maybe call 000 (their equivalent to 911). But I didn’t want to freak him out by saying that anything bad could possibly happen in the cute little neighborhood so I just gave them my phone number and told them to contact me if they ever needed anything.
I don’t think that I have mentioned that we named our house “The Cottage of Nelson Road.” We thought it was a cute named for a white picket fence home. J

Someone had told Natalie about this cool place to go and listen to music called Alley Cats. Natalie, Joey and I headed down to Hobart about 9. We walked into town because we didn’t want to wait on the bus. Can we say LONGEST WALK EVER!?!?! We had looked up that the bar was on Elizabeth Street. Unfortunately it was something like 385 Elizabeth so it was way out in North Hobart. It felt like it took four years to make it out there. Once we finally arrived it looked relatively lame. And it had a cover charge. That is never a good combination. I’m not so sure I’m okay with paying a cover to listen to a band that I don’t know at a place that could quite possibly suck. So, we ditched that plan. We started our journey back into Hobart.

On the way home we went to La Bella’s Pizza place, it is so yum! We made friends with a guy Danny, who works there.

After the most delicious pizza ever we went back home. I packed, updated Steve Wonder and then watched 10 Things I Hate About You.

Off to Launceston in the morning!

Launceston / Devonport

Hey yall!

I'm sorry that it has been so incredibly long since I last posted! I have been traveling!

The past two weekends I have gone to Launceston. For those of you who don't know, Launceston is in North Central Tasmania. It is a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Hobart.

Last weekend we had a long weekend so Joey, Natalie and I went there to get out of Hobart for a bit. We stayed with at my friend Abdel's house and made friends with all of this roommates (Malcolm, Marc and Tarni). And this past weekend was Tarni's birthday so I told her I would come back up for that! These photos are from the first weekend up there. My camera broke at the end of that trip! :( SADDEST DAY EVER! But I have already gotten it in the mail and Dad is seeing what he can do about it for me. I am SO thankful to have people back in the States that I can rely on. :)

This photo is from a festival that we went to in Devonport. Devonport is an hour North of Launy (what the locals call Launceston). The festival was for wine season I believe? It was called Taste the Harvest. I tried some wine but I was nasty so I decided to stick with ice cream after that! :) The girl in the middle is Tarni (pronounced Tawny).

The Hungry Jack's (aka Burger King) in Launy had free refills on their drinks! We were STOKED!

My friend Malcolm and I getting our guns up for Texas Tech! I told him to get his guns up, assuming that everyone should know what that means, and he was pretty confused. Haha.

This is at the beach in Devonport after the festival. I'll list everyones names and where they are from. Abdel (Alexandria, Egypt), Joey (Colorado), Malcolm (somewhere in Britian), Me (TEXAS!), Natalie (Georgia) and Tarni (Coff's Harbor, New South Wales).

Natalie and I climbing on the rocks! The water was too cold so us girls just climbed the rocks while the boys went for a swim. :)

That's all I have for now! I wish I could tell you there would be more photos soon but I don't know if that'll happen. I'll try to bum off photos from my friends. :) Thanks for reading!

Love from Oz! (The Australians fondly call Australia their Oz...I like the sound of it, it's very quint.)

Longest Post EVER!

February 27, Saturday

Word of the day:
Boot = trunk of the car

Today everyone but Natalie and I went up to Mount Wellington. Natalie wasn’t feeling the hike and I had been there yesterday so we decided to just stay at home.

Natalie came over around 11. We tried to decide what we would do today but the weather was pretty yucky so we were limited. I had wanted to go to Launy (Launceston) today but everyone else was going hiking so I figured that could wait for another day. Natalie and I made some delicious lunch and were extra loud to be sure that Richie the Rat wouldn’t come around. We then went up to the library to use the computers.

Then we headed over to the grocery store (we LOVE Coles!). I finally needed to buy groceries. I bought kind of a lot of stuff so I was SO thankful that Natalie was with me to help me carry all of it. We always take reusable shopping bags with us and when we were walking home one of them broke. Luckily it only had some plastic juice bottles in it but it was still difficult carrying all that stuff home.

When we got home we put all the groceries away and watched some awesome Aussie television. I ended up falling asleep until around 5. Then I went back up to the library to get online so I could talk to my wonderful best friend Catie. J We didn’t get to talk long because the library was closing soon. Oh, have I mentioned the obnoxious music that plays at the library when it’s about to close? The music starts playing and then a voice comes on that says “The library will be closing in 30 minutes. If you are working on a computer, come to a stopping point and save your work now. If you would like to check out any books go to the desk now.” And then it keeps reminding you every 10 minutes and the messages get longer and longer about what you need to do before you leave. It’s pretty annoying.

By the time I got back home Stacey and Joey were back from their hiking adventure. They had had a long day so I cooked dinner for everyone. I made spaghetti and garlic bread and then cookies for dessert. We are pretty limited on what we can cook because of the cooking supplies that we have. I told Jules that I am going to borrow his kitchen one day so I can make Nanna’s chicken enchiladas! Everyone said that dinner was delicious. It’s nice having a real home cooked meal after so many sandwiches. We think we are going to try to take turns once a week where we will cook for everyone else.

After supper we watched movies. We were going to watch television but the stations that play normal TV shows stopped airing stuff until 6AM. At first I thought that it was maybe the kid’s station so that the kids wouldn’t stay up late watching TV but that was the normal ABC type of station. Bazaar!? Where are the infomercials!?! Since we couldn’t watch TV, we watched movies. First we watched Zoolander and then Hitch. After Hitch I was going completely stir-crazy!

Natalie, Joey and I walked down to Coles just to get out of the house for a bit. On the way down there Joey got egged! Some car drove by and threw something at us. None of us really knew what was going on…I saw that they had thrown something but I wasn’t sure what. It wasn’t until after they had driven off that Joey told us that he had gotten hit with an egg in the middle of his back. Good thing he had two shirts on so he was just able to take the egged on off. He was just glad that they had hit him instead of one of us girls or else he would’ve been super mad. Poor Joey!

When we got back from the store Natalie headed back to her place. Joey and I stayed up and watched Wedding Crashers. Right as that movie was ending Stacey woke up so now I’m lying in her bed writing this as she is uploading photos from her day.

Stacey and I just figured out how incredibly expensive the gas is here. There are 3.79 Liters in a Gallon and at the price of $1.70 a Liter it would cost me $90 to fill up my 14 Gallon tank. HOLY SMOKES!!!! No wonder there are so many people walking or using the bus system!!!
There is a political group here called The Greens. They’re all about keeping Tassie natural and, go figure, green. I’m not sure what the other political parties are but that’s a huge one around here. All around town you see stuff supporting The Greens.

It’s way past bedtime. Tomorrow we are going to try to go to the Botanical Gardens! The issue could be finding a way to get there. But we will surely try our hardest! Cheers!

February 28, Sunday

What a boring Sunday! They always seem to be that way!

Today we all slept in and just woke up on our own timing. I had gotten a text at 4 AM asking if a tsunami was coming my way. Obviously since I was asleep I had NO earthly idea what was going on. It wasn’t until Natalie came over and told me about getting a phone call from her grandma at the same time in the morning that I knew about the earthquake in the ocean that was causing a lot of tsunamis. I believe we are a lot farther south than where the bad weather is headed. It was pretty rainy here today though. It would be sunny yet raining at the same time. It was bazaar.

Marina got back from her camping trip at Brunei Island. It’s always SO good when she makes it back home. J

After bumming around the house and watching movies, Stacey, Joey and I walked down to the Chicken Feed which is basically a Dollar General. Stacey needed to buy some paint for the painting class that she is taking. They were closing in two minutes so we had to be super quick. Next we went to Woolworth’s (we have nicknamed it Wool-Worthless and Dub-Dubs). I found the movie Step Brothers there for super cheap so I bought it. We like to all watch movies together and we were running out of them pretty quickly. After Wool-Worthless we went to our favorite store, Coles. Coles has got to be our favorite place in Sandy Bay, beside La Bella’s Pizza that is. We always joke around that we feel at home as soon as we walk into Coles.

When we got back to the house I made a potato soup packet that I had bought. It was pretty gross. It was water and soup powder…yum. I tried to eat that but I ended up passing it off to Joey (it’s so nice having a disposal, I mean boy, around the house).

Julian came over tonight and we all watched Step Brothers. Marina, Natalie and Julian all hadn’t seen it…it’s always fun watching a funny movie with someone for the first time. After the movie was over Julian headed home and Marina went to bed. Stacey, Natalie, Joey and I all cuddled up in Stacey’s bed and played some word game that she has on her itouch. I think we almost beat the game. But we decided to put a pause on it for tonight since we all have class in the morning.

That’s pretty much all that happened today! Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit more exciting!

March 1, Monday

Words of the Day:
Supper = Meal/snack after dinner. Kind of like their fourth meal.
– I refuse to follow this rule. Supper = Dinner in my book.

Today is the first day of autumn. It’s kind of bittersweet. I generally love autumn when I’m in Texas because its football season and the weather turns to be nice instead of just being unruly hot and dry. But here, I wish summer would stay forever. It was a good first day of autumn though. It was a whopping 24 degrees…Celsius that is. Remember the conversion? Double the number and add 30…so, it was 78 degrees Fahrenheit today. Not too shabby, yeah?

This morning Natalie came and woke me. We walked down into Sandy Bay and went to a nice little pastry shop. We got lemon tarts, read the newspaper and talked about “grown up” stuff. It was such a cute way to start our morning. J

We then headed up to the library so that I could email some advisors back home. I was feeling too toasty with my long sleeve shirt and jacket so I walked back home to change clothes.

At noon I had my Public Relations class. I made a friend! YAY! Her name is Maja (pronounced Maya). She has lived here for 10 years but is originally from Serbia (shout out to Darko!). That class was pretty good. Nothing too special happened in it; we discussed the different people involved with public relations and the differences between marketing and P.R.. The professor didn’t have minty’s candy to pass out like she did last week…bummer.

Next I headed home! I had a package from Momma waiting for me when I got there. J Hooray! Today was supposed to be when we were getting all of our stuff for the internet in the mail. And that sure wasn’t in the mail. UGH! This afternoon Marina got a call from the company AGAIN saying that they were missing part of the information that they needed. So we called Essentially Mobile (the store who set it up for us) AGAIN to tell them to send it AGAIN. We’re starting to get pretty annoyed with this dang internet business.
When I got home I started some laundry and made a sandwich. I ate outside because it was SO incredibly beautiful today. I hate having class on beautiful days like this one. I really wanted to just go and sit at the beach and read all day long.

Regardless of how desperately bad I wanted to go to the beach, I went to my next class at 3. This one is Journalism, Media, and Communications. Today we talked all about the newspaper. The main professor wasn’t the one lecturing, it was some other lady who I have no idea who she is. But whoever she was, she was going SUPER fast. It was hard to keep up with my note taking. Thankfully the notes are online so I will be able to pick up what I missed. The class is two hours long and I was writing the whole time!
For this class the professor assigned us a time for our tutorial. Most always you can select which tutorial you want to go to but for some reason she likes to assign your time. So after class I had to go back to the library and try to figure out when mine was. However, I wasn’t on the list! I emailed her and asked her if I could go to one on Tuesday so hopefully she will have emailed me back by in the morning.

When I got home everyone else was here so we hung around and chatted like always. I made some delicious mac and cheese for supper. Jeff and Amy came over a little while later just to get out of their house. We didn’t do much of anything…just hung out and tried to decide what to do this weekend.

Natalie, Joey and I walked down to Cole’s. There is a sign at Cole’s that says “I Live at Cole’s.” It’s talking about the shopping baskets and asking people to bring them back if they see them around town or anything. However I would really love to have that poster. We NEED it. We go to Cole’s at least once a day. We joke around that we are going to know everyone’s names by the time we leave. We will be their American friends!

Every time we walk somewhere one of us most likely has our ipod so we rock out to music. Even if we don’t have an ipod we always sing. We sing the craziest stuff too. Tonight’s walk consisted of music from the Backstreet Boys, Little Mermaid, Taking Back Sunday and others. I guess when you walk as much as we do you have got to stay entertained somehow.

This next weekend we have a holiday! Monday is Eight Hours Day which is basically their Labor Day. It represents the eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep…and some other things that I don’t remember. Amy, Jeff, April, Stacey and Joey are talking about going out to Wineglass Bay from Friday to Monday. Natalie and I may go on a couple of mini trips. We haven’t decided yet.

March 2, Tuesday

Here is my class schedule (as of now). This could be changing depending on when I hear back from Tech about classes being approved or not.

Monday:
Public Relations à 12 – 1
Journalism, Media and Communications à 3 – 5
Tuesday:
Gender, Power and Change à 11 – 12
Journalism, Media and Communications Tutorial à 12 – 1
Wednesday:
Public Relations Tutorial à 9 – 10:30
Gender, Power and Change à 12 – 1
Gender, Power and Change Tutorial à 1 – 2

This morning I had class at 11. I went up to the library a little before class to check and see if I had gotten any emails from Tech about my classes, and of course I hadn’t. Grr.

I had my first tutorial today! Exciting! It was for Journalism, Media and Communications. I believe that this is going to be my least favorite class. I don’t think that I want to go into the writing aspect of the communications field so it isn’t exactly my passion. I think it will be a rewarding class to have however because it is always good to understand what goes into the fields surrounding your own.
In my tutorial I realized just how much people talk about America. The Aussies are very interested and opinionated about our politics. They all love Obama! I just keep my mouth shut when politics come up. J One time when we had gone out this one guy found out that I am from Texas and started going off on me about George W. That was a bit awkward.

We found out today that not only has our paperwork for our internet STILL not gone through but now they are saying that there is a problem with our phone line so it is going to be another $125 to get that fixed. This stupid internet is turning into so much of a hassle!!! Someone is coming out next Tuesday to fix our phone line. I don’t know if that means we will have internet starting on Tuesday or if it is going to take a bit longer after that. I have decided that I need to just stop speculating about when we will be getting the internet at the house because it never happens when it’s supposed to.

Natalie and I walked down to Cole’s to get stuff for dinner. Julian had told me that he would bring over a casserole dish so that I could make Nanna’s chicken enchiladas. Even though chicken enchiladas are a really simple recipe, it was a little difficult to find everything that I needed. The cheese here is different, they don’t have corn tortillas and they don’t have canned green chilies. What kind of place is this??? I think I was able to find alternatives that would make do though.

April and Amy came over around 7 and brought some dip and then ice cream for dessert. Julian was helping roof his friend’s house today and was supposed to be done around dark so I was waiting on him to get done before I could start cooking. We sat around for quite awhile eating guacamole that I had made and watching our favorite Aussie television show “My Kitchen Rules.” It was starting to get kind of late and we were all pretty hungry so we decided to make quesadillas instead of waiting any longer on Julian to arrive with the dish. They were tasty!

I ended up hearing from Julian around 10. Apparently when he said they would work until dark that meant until after 9. He didn’t have phone service out where his friend lives so he wasn’t able to call me and let me know.

Before bed we continued our little ritual of playing the word game on Stacey’s itouch. J

March 3, Wednesday

I woke up in a wonderful mood today. J

At 9 I had my first Public Relations Tutorial. The Public Relations class is the one that I am currently enrolled in that isn’t supposed to count towards my credits back home. It’s a shame because I really enjoyed the tutorial today. To begin, we paired up and had to find out how our partner would like to be introduced and portrayed to the class. I was paired up with a girl named Kate who has lived in Hobart her whole life. She was really sweet. She talked to me a lot about the different things that I need to do while I’m here.
I was the topic of discussion in that class. The professor wanted to know what I thought was the biggest difference between Australia and America. I told them that the food and customer service were the main difference that I had noticed. After I said that though I decided I should have mentioned the fashion here! Hello 80s!!! (I have never seen so many white washed jeans in my life!)

I then had a little bit of a break so I went to the library to check if I had heard from Tech about my classes…once again, nothing. It’s very frustrating to get here and find out that only two classes have been approved by UTas (the university that I do not even need the credits to count at) and then to not be able to get a response from Tech.
That is the one complaint I have about AustraLearn. I don’t think they have very much experience dealing with UTas. There were communication errors with my internship, housing and classes. I don’t know if it is UTas or AustraLearn at fault but the communication needs to be improved.

At 12 I went to my Gender, Power and Change class followed by my tutorial at 1. The tutorial for that class is really interesting because we are able to discuss what we feel gender means and determines. One point that was brought up is how it is strange that even children to have the desire to determine a person’s biological gender in order to know how to treat that person. Why is that?

All that thinking got me hungry! After class I went home and ate lunch…grilled ham and cheese. Natalie came over because we were ready to kick off our weekend by going shopping in Hobart.

Natalie didn’t bring a sweatshirt or anything so we were on a mission to find her a jacket. I don’t like shopping, but I have never had a more difficult time shopping, or even finding stuff that I thought was cute, than I did today. You really just have two options of what you can shop for here: cheap 80s clothes or overpriced going out attire. We walked around Hobart and the mall for over two hours and didn’t find anything we liked. Finally, just as we were about to give up we found the Surf Shop which is basically a huge Pac Sun. We found the one and only store we will be shopping at for the next 4 months. Of course it was still expensive but at least in those clothes you wouldn’t look like you had been attacked by bleach and/or bad floral print drapes.
Natalie couldn’t decide on which sweatshirt to get so neither of us ended up buying anything but we at least know where to go now! We headed back home around 5:30.

Shopping had made me so tired so I laid down on the couch for awhile. Stacey had made a friend in one of her classes today. The girl had invited us to go out with her and her friends. I was really tired to I decided just to stay at home tonight. Joey went out with her though. Marina, Natalie and I watched some French movie before heading off to bed. It is now time to sleep! I don’t have school for the rest of the week so hopefully I will get to sleep in tomorrow. Julian is taking me out to teach me how to scuba sometime tomorrow. J Hopefully he won’t wake me up too early!

Oh and good news, I haven’t heard Richie at all today!