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Published: August 5th 2007
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Rainbows
The rainbows outside right before the storm came through I've decided to keep a daily (or as close to daily as I can) blog on here so I can keep track of my daily adventures and the pictures that go along with them. I am much more of a computer type girl than I am a write it down on paper kind of girl, so this is my attempt at keeping my memories in one place from this adventure of mine!
Well, today has been pretty exciting as my first full day in Aussie Land. (The picture is of a double rainbow that came through with the storms today). I woke up this morning feeling rested and VERY awake! This is to be expected as it was 6 pm back at home...so my body was thinking it was night time. I talked to mom, dad and grandma on Skype (pretty cool to do a big conference call) for a while and then got off to get ready for my day. Then, I headed off to the Welcome Hour Session over in the Education Abroad Office where I met some of the other exchange/international students (I now know that I'm an exchange student not international). We talked about what is going to happen during orientation next week, where to go to get our ID cards, how to get a concession card for the trains (a much cheaper way for us to ride the trains- 50% off), and where to come to get information on touring around the country.
After that little meeting, I headed down to the Student Info Center to pay for the Healesville trip that we are taking on Friday. Healesville Sanctuary is a zoo, but it is totally open and we will be able to pet all the crazy Australian animals (as Xenia put it- the Australian version of Hannah Holler). Then, Theresa (who is also a student from BU but moved here with her family in January) went to the market with me so she could show me which brands I was likely to like the best. So, I got a few more groceries to get me through the next few weeks. Then we headed down Glenferrie road looking at all the shops and got some passport photos taken for our concession card for the trains. And now, I'm back here in my room trying desperately to stay away, but struggling at it.
I have decided that I love it here in Australia. The people are SO NICE. When we were out at Glenferrie road, we went to cross the street and if you walk in front of a car and don't make it across before they reach you, they just slow down and DON'T honk! Common courtesy...I could get used to that. Plus, the way campus is, I have immediate access to everything. It's like being surrounded on all corners by a billion Bardstown roads. Everything is within walking distance and the way I've heard it from a lot of the local Aussie's, it's perfectly normal and safe to be out alone, even at night. I was explaining to Dacil (my roommate) that in the US we don't do that....how some of my friends FREAKED out the night I went for a walk down bardstown road and BU is even in a nice part of town. It gets dark so early here - 6 pm that it's just crazy to think that I wouldn't be out by myself when it's dark (don't freak out mom!).
Plus, the lingo- the title of the post- is awesome! They shorten everything. Here is the Australian lingo that I have picked up on so far:
Uni- University
Barbie- Barbeque
Take a think about it- Go think it over
How you going- How you doing?
Open week- when local high school seniors go to all the local colleges and check them out to pick which one they want to attend
No worry- Don't worry about it
AND, even though I can't seem to remember it and get looks everytime I say it, Melbourne is pronounced Melburn...I have got to get that through my head.
One last interesting note for the day: they have a 3 day trip scheduled through the Education Abroad Office that is called Trip to the Snow. Want to guess what that is? It's LITERALLY a trip scheduled to go see the snow. I guess I am so used to just seeing snow all the time that I forgot how rare that is. So, it's a 3 day trip to the mountains in Australia to see the snow at the top. Crazy right- part of me wanted to laugh when they told me that today, but at the same time, I realized how cool that was...and here I am complaining back at home about how annoying it can be when it snows...here they take trips to go see some snow! That's all for now...more tomorrow! Good day, mates!
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