Blogs from St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Day 1, Tues Feb 17- The flight over here wasn’t too bad in general. I was able to sleep for about 7 of the 14 hr flight to Brisbane. It was a little bumpy at times but nothing to really complain about. I sat next to a friend of mine Dave Munn, and another kid I had known through Badminton gym class named James Doyle. It was really luck of the draw with seats and needless to say I lucked out. When we got off the plane we had to get through the Australian customs which took FOREVER. One girl’s luggage was lost and as of Friday still hadn’t arrived. To borrow one of Mike Tomlin’s favorite lines it was a classic case of “You reap what you sow” and needless to say Karma caught up ... read more

The General Makeshift Itinerary Hello friends, foes and shrugworthies. Below is a general list of where I plan to be going on this 3 month stint in South America. In case you need to alert the authorities. "Hold on!"I hear you cry, "Joni you told us you were going all over the world, did you lie?". Well no I did not, and stop shouting. This is the only part of my trip that is set in stone along with my arrival in Canada. As to what the rest of the future holds...I shall wait with bated breath. I don't know what "bated breath" means. Wiki that. Sep 16-20 Santiago - the Chileans will celebrate Independence Day and Armed forced day on Sept 18&19. I have it on good advice to stay in Santiago and party. ... read more

Whew! I'm a little exhausted... Taking five classes is not really a problem, until it comes to finals. I always seem to forget that part, and am continually taking 5 classes at a clip each semester. You'd think I'd learn. However, UQ is really nice in that you've got a study week to prepare for finals. I was initially hoping to get lots of travel done during SWOT-VAC, but no such luck. I figured I couldn't well go off on holiday having to write three major papers and prepare for two exams. I wrote lots during my study week. I was wondering why I was so tired all the time, but Nell figured I wrote 5 pages a day (I really didn't do much work on 2 of my study days--too burned out), which doesn't even ... read more

Classes have been OK thus far, still getting used to the giant class thing... I had Art this morning as well (Australian Indigenous Art). The class is smaller than my other courses, but not as small as I was expecting. The teacher also gave us a short Australian history, focusing on the Aboriginal people. It's quite interesting... we then had a 15 minute break (the course is once a week, a three hour lecture), and after break met at UQ's art museum (Yes, there's a full sized art gallery here). The art museum curator talked with us, and gave us a behind the scenes tour of the gallery's storage of paintings and art objects (it's amazing to see all the racks and racks of paintings, which are spaced close together and evidently go back a total ... read more

Hallo! Nachdem wir uns 6 Wohnungen angesehen haben, die alle eigentlich recht ok waren, jedoch meistens irgendwas nicht passte (wie zb die Mietdauer oder die Entfernung zur Uni), haben wir eine zwischen Auchenflower und Toowong gefunden. Dies liegt genau in der Mitte von der Uni und der City. Wir werden morgen einziehen und wohnen mit einem Australier, der "Intelligenz" studiert und fuer die Regierung arbeitet zusammen. Das Haus ist total cool, neben einem schoenen Park und wir haben jeder ein Zimmer, mit Internetanschluss (nur leider haben wir keinen PC mit, aber vielleicht mieten wir einen) und es gibt einen Gemeinschaftsraum und Kueche und Waschmoeglichkeit usw. Falls jemand vor hat uns zu besuchen: im Haus gibt es ein Gaestezimmer, dass wir benuetzen duerfen - - - also fuer eine Unterkunft waere schon gesorgt! Haut alles super hin. ... read more