http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Bethany-S/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Bethany S en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:25:36 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:25:36 +0000 Cambodia makes Thailand look like the Ritz. I didn't expect such poverty and so much begging. The country has definitely had a painful past. I was very glad to have researched my hotel in Phnom Penh before I got there. It was very nice compared to every other building in the city and they even had someone pick me up from the airport. I stayed the night and left early the next morning on a bus http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-415693.html As the title suggests...you haven't seen bad traffic until you've come to Bangkok Seriously this traffic is completely insane I guess thatrsquos why people take scooters around everywhere. I opted for walking for fear of the craziness. Yesterday I took a cooking class. It ended up being a private lesson but I had a lot of fun with the girls who own the restaurant. I cooked all kinds of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-414937.html First of all let me say...I LOVE THAILAND It's by far the best place I've ever been in my whole life by the way sorry in advance if there are misspelling I'm typing fast and on a thai keyboardSo Thailand has been an adventure to say the least. It started out with a flight to Perth then a flight to Malasia 10 hours in the airport and then another flight into Phuket. The good part is tha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-413053.html Well I canrsquot believe my time here in Melbourne is already almost over The time really flew by. Irsquove divided my time here into 3 chunks. The first part summer was great We spent most of the time exploring trying out new restaurants and going to the beach. The second part was the middle of the semester and things seemed to drag on forever. It was a bit of a slump when winter http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-411084.html Poor Gretchen finally got here 5 hours after her originally scheduled arrival after being rerouted to Sydney due to some weather problem that wersquore not really sure of. Anyway she looked surprisingly amazing and awake when she got here which shocked me Sunday morning we all got up extra early to go to Hobart Tasmania. We got there around 8am and not having thought about the fact that i http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Tasmania/blog-407927.html Last weekend I experienced a traditional Melbourne event...Australian Football otherwise known as Footy. It's a big thing in Victoria with multiple teams in the region although there are also teams from other states. The game was at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and was between Hawthorn and Carlton. I think they said there were about 67000 people there It was funny because in the States p http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-397854.html I finally made it through half of the semester and had a week long break Jordan happened to have the same break as me and was able to come down from Samoa to visit for the week. He got here on Saturday morning and we ended up spending the day eating and shopping the 2 things he misses most not being in a big city. It was really fun to watch him get super excited about things like ice cube t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/blog-392258.html This weekend Sergio came down from visiting his brother during the week in Sydney. Friday night we went to the Eureka Sky Deck the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere. It was really beautiful to see the city at night from so high. I was super nervous but Sergio made me go out on the Edge a glass enclosed observation deck that looks straight down 88 stories. I was definitely scared l http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-386409.html So I joined the Melbourne University Chorus last Wednesday. Itrsquos a lot like Emory with about 250 people in it. Wersquore going to be singing Mozartrsquos Requiem for our concert. We started rehearsal last night which sounded awesome. Our director is really young and energetic so itrsquos a fun time. Plus I was able to finally meet some Australians which is actually really hard http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-380468.html So I have no idea how 47000 students fit on campus when there are only 30000 students at UGA and itrsquos a small city whereas Melbournersquos campus is about the size of Georgia Tech. Itrsquos really packed during the day and sometimes yoursquore just being drug along in a sea of people. I have 600 people in my Marketing class which seems insane but itrsquos actually my favorite http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/blog-378391.html So today was the first day of class...it started at 9AM which wasnrsquot that bad except that I live in a dungeon so my internal clock never sets and it makes getting up impossible. Anyway I got to campus early because I was trying to find a ldquoPersonal Response Systemrdquo that we have to use in my physiology class. Itrsquos basically like playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire while http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-378132.html I've decided that everyone here is super nice I mean like surprisingly out of the ordinary nice. If yoursquore looking lost someone random will just come up and help you. Everyone on campus is also ready to help. People are generally in a great mood and arenrsquot too concerned about lifersquos problems. Itrsquos refreshing Even the professors Irsquove emailedtalked to are rea http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-377627.html Wednesday night was a market night again I got some really cool earrings from a designer that makes them out of shells. I opted for Spanish food again Irsquove decided I might need to move to Spain simply for the food I had a humongous chorizo I also went back for another crepe because it was just too hard to pass up. This time I got a strawberry crepe with maple syrup and vanilla ice http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-377114.html Monday was blazing hot I mean wow hot I mainly stayed in and watched the Oscars which was funny because it was on around noon here on Monday clearly not a huge event haha. The commercials here are so funny I donrsquot really get most of them. I am getting used to the accent though because when I hear American English on TV it sounds odd. I also watched So You Think You Can Dance Aust http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-376350.html Sunday was another exploration day. It started out at the Victoria market where I bought fresh tomatoes kiwis and a pineapple. I also checked out some of the aboriginal art. Sundays at the market a lot of things are half price because itrsquos not open Mondays so they want to get the food sold. From there I ventured south which Irsquod never been to before. The scene changed as a wal http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-375980.html Some random things about Australian accentlanguagehellipHere instead of saying ldquohow are you doingrdquo people say ldquohow you goingrdquo Very confusing and Irsquom never really sure how to answer. Irsquom going good sounds horrible wrong so Irsquove resorted to ldquogood yourdquo Also thank you is ldquotardquo here so Irsquove pretty much been walking ar http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-375670.html Wednesday evening was fabulous. A group of us went down to the Queen Victoria Night Market for dinner and shopping. Itrsquos a huge outdoor fairlike thing in the middle of the city that is every Wednesday night all summer. We got there when it started but after about an hour there were thousands of people there. There were tons of vendors ranging from clothes and jewelry to produce and sou http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-375236.html I've been stranded without internet for orientation so I wrote a book...My first impressions of Sydney were that itrsquos definitely not what I expected. The majority of the city is not as modern or pretty as I thought. Near around where I was staying and even when riding the train 2 hours out there wasnrsquot much nice scenery. I know most cities arenrsquot generally ldquonicerdquo http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-374539.html So last night wasnrsquot very eventful but I did go into town looking for dinner and happened on a grocery store and Kmart. The store Coles was almost just like any grocery store in the US complete with Easy Mac Duncan Hines brownies a produce and meat section etc. I got 2 liters of water some juice boxes 2 cans of Campbellrsquos soup and some bagels for about 20. It was cool to se http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Blue-Mountains/blog-372540.html So yesterday ended up very successful My hair dryer worked wonderfully I found an alarm clock and I met a new friend. When I went back to my room in the evening one of my roommates was there. She was a blonde haired blue eyed girl from Sweden 20 years old and had just graduated from their high school equivalent. Shersquos been backpacking Australia for the past 3 months and is leaving http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Blue-Mountains/blog-372182.html