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Published: August 6th 2007
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Scavenger Hunt Team
My scavenger hunt team...Jorai, Anja, Annika, Theresa and Me. HELLO! Long time no entries...I know. Unfortunately, they lost a few of my blogs and I had not saved them on my hard drive yet, but no worries, I've got that all taken care of now and we'll start back over with what we have and go from there!
Well, let's see....where did I leave off last? I think it was somewhere around the middle of last week! Well, on Wednesday and Thursday, I had orientation here on campus. There were different sessions on the services offered here, what to expect academically, free lunches, etc. The best part of all though (and the one that makes me laugh the most) is that for each session that we attended, we got a free drink bracelet. And no, I'm not just talking about soft drinks, I'm talking about alcoholic beverages! Nothing like saying...welcome to the country, you're legal now! So, how could I turn down some free drinks? So, those two days, we would go to orientation during the morning/early afternoon and then in the early evening, we'd head down to the bar where these bracelets were good and we'd get our share of the drinks until the $1000 tab ran out
First Drink
Me with my first drink in Australia...a Carlton Draught beer! each day. It was pretty cool and a great way to just hang out and get to know more people. We, of course, played some pool while we were there too...because well, that's what we do!
Then, on Friday, we all headed out to Healesville Sanctuary to see all the unique Australian animals. So, I got to see kangaroos, wombats, enchindas, a wallaby, dingoes, koalas and more! It was a pretty cool experience even tho the roos would not come near us and all the koalas were sleeping...but it was still cool to see them in person, nevertheless. After the sanctuary (like a zoo), we headed to the Rochford winery and did some wine tasting. From there, we made the 90 min trip back to campus and about 15 of us headed out for some pizza at pizza works where we got a large pizza (about the size of our medium) for $5! Beat that! Gotta love college student discounts. From there, we were all pretty wiped out from the long day of adventure and we all zonked out pretty early. I spent some time that evening hanging out with my roomates Ayako and Berrak and getting to know
A Kangaroo
One of the boring kangaroos at Healesville them a little better. Then, I headed to bed around 2 am or so.
On Saturday, about 10 of us met up to play some basketball and some footy (Aussie Rules Football) for a few hours in the afternoon. We played until it was beyond dark (around 6:30 pm) and we could no longer see the ball. We walked back toward campus and caught some Subway for dinner. Then we all went back and got dressed up for our big night out on the town. We caught the train downtown and went to check out the Crown Casino. None of us ended up betting money and we just walked around downtown for the evening. We did see two pretty cool things. The first was these towers that light up with fire a few times every evening...they're these HUGE fire balls and we could feel the heat from them on the bridge we were watching from. The second is a place called Lord of the Fries. Here, you can get a cone or box of fries and then top it with different "international" toppings. Some of the toppings we got included the American which was BBQ sauce, the Indian which
Wallaby
This is the last picture I got to take before my camera died. This a wallaby that just gets to wander around the sanctuary..I did eventually get my picture taken while petting the wallaby, but that's on a different camera. was curry sauce, the Italian which was marinara sauce and shredded cheese, etc. Tom, Craig and I ended up catching the last train back to campus. This is where we quickly learned that you are NOT allowed to put your feet up on the seats! Tom put his feet up for like 2 seconds and all of a sudden these two guys come up to us and pull out their badges and ask for our train tickets and IDs. It was crazy! One of them was really nice and he ended up letting Tom go (it's an offense to put your feet on the seat and usually gets you a fine) without a fine because we were from out of the country and had only been here for like 10 days. CRAZY.
Yesterday, I slept in a bit, talked to mom and dad for a little while and then spent most of the day just lounging around in my trackies (sweat pants) and watching footy on TV. I needed that considering my entire body was sore from all the athletic activity the day before! Then, Dacil and I went to Mass last night (she's my roommate). It was pretty
At the Park
At the park like a bunch of kids playing on the see-saw. cool to experience Mass here and realize how EXACT the Mass is to the way it is back at home- truly universal, I guess. The church is really pretty inside but really old school as well. The pews are basically just two pieces of wood nailed together to make a pew, nothing fancy. While this was slightly uncomfortable, it really made you appreciate why you were there to begin with...it showed me that I go to church to experience the Mass...not to see how comfortable the pews are. Plus, the readings for yesterday were fabulous...all about how it's more important to look rich in the eyes of God than in the eyes of men. There was one line the priest said in his homily that really hit home with me, "The type of riches you have in the eyes of God are shown through the decisions you make each day. Your final judgement is not based on one day's worth of mistakes, it's based on a lifetime of decisions and riches." I loved that! Then, last night, after Mass was the beginning of Australian Idol, so I watched that for a while with the roomies before uploading some pictures and
Fire Balls
The fire ball flames downtown going to bed.
Today, I woke up to a lovely little present in my inbox! I got some pictures of my FAVORITE little ones from Heather! Crazy what 3 weeks will do to little babies-- change them so much. Crazy to think that Jack is 5 months today!!! Classes officially begin for me tomorrow and so I have some reading I have to do today before I go to my first lectures tomorrow.
Well, I think that brings us completely up-to-date for now. I hope you've enjoyed reading...I've enjoyed re-living it all through words! Well, until tomorrow, G'day Mates!
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