“Not all those who wander are lost.”- J.R.R. Tolkien

Its June 3^rd. This is a big day!

For one, I am OFFICIALLY DONE WITH CLASSES! I cannot believe it. Its really surreal. I feel like I was just at orientation yesterday getting lost on this giant campus. I’ve grown to love everything about my school and I really do not want to go home just yet. My classes have been some of the most challenging but all of them were so interesting since I was getting an Australian perspective in some of them.  There were days where I wished I could just wave and say hello to people in the great court like I do at BSC, but the experience is a give and take. It made me realize that I love Bridgewater State and cannot wait to see my friends back there.

Now, this is the bigger news! DAN BEALS WILL BE IN AUSTRALIA IN 24 HOURS!!!!! Now, you may have been thinking that I have been waiting for this for 5 months now, but actually, Dan and I have been planning this trip since 2007. This dream is 2 years in the making!! I am beyond excited and I know I wont be able to sleep tonight. I get to see my best friend!

We have big plans for the next two weeks. This weekend we are staying around Brisbane since Dan will have some major jetlag time traveling and all. On Tuesday, we are heading south to Melbourne for 2 days. I’ve wanted to go their all semester and I really only wanted to go with Dan. It seems like its our kind of city. It’s a coffee shop/live music city and I am so excited to explore it with Dan. Since its going to be cold there, we are only staying there for 2 days and then moving north to a semi-warmer environment in Sydney! Yep, back to Sydney! My parents were generous and bought us a hotel room for the weekend.  We are going to be in Sydney from Thursday-Sunday. I’m excited because we can see the city and finally go to Olympic Park were the 2000 Olympic Games were held!

We are heading back to BrisVegas on Sunday because, unfortunately, I do have a final on the 15^th that I need to study for! So that Monday and Tuesday is all study time! It’ll be hard to study since I know that the next morning we leave for Cairns! Tropical Paradise! This is the most exciting adventure since we are finally going to be diving the Great Barrier Reef! I wasn’t able to go before, and this time around we are doing a Live Aboard trip. For 2 days and 1 night we are going to be on a boat in the middle of the reef completing 7 dives including 1 night dive! We are both thrilled! Those are the only plans so far up there, and they are the most important, but then after we have 3 days to do whatever we please. I guess we will figure it out when he gets here!

..wait when did it become june?

"You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give"- Eleanor Roosevelt

I’m sorry, I’ve been really terrible with my blog posts. Many of you many not realize but it take a while for me to actually write everything and post it!
Anyways, I have the time to post again. Why you ask? Well I have currently just finished 3 of my 4 classes in the past week which equals a lot of work! Heres an insight to what my workload was.

1. EVNT2001-Event Proposal & Sponsorship, 6500word group project on the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival in South Bank, QLD in August. Worth 70% of my grade.

2. AUST2000- Australian Popular Culture, 2500word research paper on Surf Lifesaving. That was awesome, I was able to pick my own topic so of course I had to do something with the ocean and the lifeguards! Worth 40% of my grade.

3. MSTU2008-Television and Popular Culture 2000word research paper on television. It was a struggle since I barely watch television at home and here I don’t even have to TV. I picked the question relating to makeover/transformation shows but I still struggled to finish it..but now its done! Worth 40% of my grade.

Now, those are three of my classes, now I still have one final on June 15th at 5:45pm. Its my BIOL2001 class, Australia’s Terrestrial Environment, and that’ll be a difficult one since even of here I suck at science. But I can’t believe I am finally done with 3 out of 4 classes! Yay!

“Home is the place where it feels right to walk around without shoes”

Why Study Abroad?

Everyone has their own answers to this question. Some just go to live in a foreign country, others go just to get away from the reality of home, but for me, I wanted it all. I have been planning studying in Australia since high school and even chose my college around the fact that I wanted to be able to afford to go abroad. I wanted the entire experience. The experience of travelling, living on my own, budgeting my life savings but most importantly, I wanted to see how I would handle moving 16,000 miles away from home, knowing absolutely no one and having no expectations of what would happen next.

In the past 4 months, I have been successful in this journey. I have kept up my grades, stuck (mostly) to my budget and made friends from around the world.  My grades do not transfer back to Bridgewater State, they only transfer back as Transfer credits, but I do not that I did my usual. Straight A’s and B’s.  I have a 3 more assignments left in the semester and then its over. I made it through my abroad experience alive!

Of course there have been sacrifices along the way, but in the end, like I always say “everything happens for a reason.” I decided to spend my money on trips instead of going out to restaurants and bars.  After doing my finances with my family, I realized this trip is an enormous debt waiting for me to return.  Travelling and experiencing the world is more important to me than spending money on clothes or intangible items.  Senior year of college will be spent commuting from home, working at best buy, and travelling. Ask me 3 years ago about what invisioned my senior year looking like, none of the above things mentioned would be there. It’s a give and take and the money that I have spent on an experience of a lifetime is worth living in a dorm a million times over.

What  conclusion has this brought me to? Easy. I want to travel everywhere.  Before I got here, people had told me “congratulations, if you survive going to Australia, you can go anywhere.” I still don’t understand why I wouldn’t have survived, but I have a feeling its about the distance away from home.  I’ve only missed a few things at home which made me re-evaluate what was really important when I go back home. I miss working, its true I am a work-aholic and I need to be back at Best Buy. Secondly, I miss my family, my immediate family and my best buy family.  But in only 7 weeks I will be returning to New England with a new sense of what “home” really is.  For the second half of 2010, it’ll be very difficult to top the first half, but I have a feeling it’ll be perfect.

"Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things; air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it. " -Cesare Pavese

21. 21 days and my best friend is coming to Australia. 16,114 miles away :-) I am beyond excited. Dan and I are obsessed with traveling, I think once he's here, he is going to catch my travel bug disease. June 4th can't come fast enough!

Heres our first flight to Melbourne, Victoria. I'm ecstatic! 

Cheers!

Tomorrow.

I thought this was really cute, and I've said it to most of my friends whenever I am on skype with them.

"The future of our country is not found in our boardrooms, but in our classrooms."- Michael Milken

Well, my travels have slowed down for the next month. With my blog I’m sure people reading this don’t think I’m doing much in school, but I am. It’s a different school system here, there isn’t weekly homework assignments and small pointless work to do like back home. My classes come in waves, its weird but I like it a lot more. My classes have large assignments that are worth between 30-70% of my grade. 3 of my 4 class do not give marks for participation and they do not take attendance in the lectures. It is up to me to get to class, learn the material and know when my assignments are due. This past week was hell for me. I had 2 lectures to present, a small research paper, and a lab report, each of these were worth 30% of my grade in each class. Now today, I am finished with all of those assignments and I do not have anything due until the 1st week of June.

Hmm wondering how I did on some of my assignments? I received two 6’s, which is ‘Distinction’. Their marking system goes up to 7, so if you get a 6 or a 7, it means an ‘A’ back home. To get a 7, is almost impossible here, unless everything is absolutely perfect, even the Australians say its hard. And no, they are not easy graders AT ALL.

Anyways, like I said nothing else is due until the first week of June and then I’m done with classes, with only 1 final to take. In the next week or so I am going to try and finish 1 of the 2 research final essays that I have. I want to get everything done because well, first , I have the time and secondly, Dan is coming June 4th!!!! So I don’t want to be stressed the first few days that he is here :-).

Plans for the evening? Well, I'm totally making tacos for Cinco de Mayo. I found mozzarella cheese a few days ago, I'm overly excited for mozzarella cheese.


Happy Cinco de Mayo!

"P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney! You asked me where I'm going? OK, I'll tell you: P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney! That's where I'm going! " - Finding Nemo

P.Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way….

…Well I didn’t find nemo, but I did fall in love with Sydney! The past two weeks have been long weekends because of ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) and Memorial Day. So a bunch of us decided that we were going to take advantage and head down to Sydney!

Melissa, Kelly and I were all on the same flight heading down, we hopped on VirginBlue for a 9pm flight and we were in Sydney by 10:30! There we met up with 7 others at the Woodduck Inn. Well, it was a hostel and we were prepared to stay there, after all , a hostel at $27 a night is right in a students price range. Unfortunatly, it was beyond gross. First off, it was just a few blocks away from the Red Light District, and my favorite…cockroaches! Everywhere! After all of us brainstormed what to do, we threw out the idea of if anyone has points on a credit card or hotel. Luckly! Colleen and Kyle’s parents both did! Amazingly they were able to get us 3 rooms for 3 nights at the Marriot outside the city.  WE WERE IN HEAVEN. All 10 of us were like 5 year olds, since we were all used to sleeping in terrible hostels and always being weary of other in the room, a hotel was seriously heaven.  Anyways, so yes, we were blessed and were able to stay in a hotel for the weekend, so by Friday afternoon we were all ready to explore.

Friday afternoon began our journey and all of the girls decided that the best thing to do to see all the city at once would be the hop on hop off bus tour with the ticket that was good for 24 hours. We stayed on the bus for the full 90 minute tour, and then decided that the next morning we would stop off at all the locations that we wanted. Overall Friday was a relaxing day, since all morning we had to figure out the hotels and actually getting there. That evening we headed back to Darling Harbor to Sydneys Ice Bar, Minus 5. All 10 of us went and we had a blast! It was very cold and the drinks that we got with our entrance ticket were great. Since of course its in the negatives, we could only stay in there for a little over a half an hour. After we came out, most of us just headed back to the hotel and called in an early night so we could have a full day ahead of us.

Saturday was a busy day! I love being on the go all day! We were up and out by 8:30 and we got on the Hop on Hop off Bus first thing. This morning there were 7 of us and we started out journey around the city. Our first stop was a surprise, there was a little market going on right off of Kings Cross so we stopped and had a look around. It was great since we didn’t have breakfast yet! They were selling the usually fruits and veggies, but they also had a crepe stand and believe it or not a breakfast sandwich stand. Melissa and I split a HUGE bacon and egg sandwich for $6, and it was worth it, it was so good and made right on the spot! Our next stop? The one and only Sydney Opera House!!! We were so excited, we took full advantage of being tourists and taking a million pictures. I think after going through my pictures I have every angle possible of the Opera House. I was so excited, it was one of my goals to see the opera house in the next two years and I was so happy to finally be there. We ended up staying there for over an hour, which was a little ridiculous because there is nothing around but the Opera House.  Our third stop, Darling Harbor. It was so beautiful. We had a great weekend of sun so I feel that the good weather defiantly made everything better.  The Harbor was full of ships,boats, restaurants, bars, and of course the world’s largest IMAX theatre at 7 stories high. We walked around there for a while, which reminded me of the Baltimore Harbor.  After the harbor, we hopped on another bus that took us straight to Manly Beach right outside the city. The beach was huge! Tons of surfers and even though its considered to be Autumn here, there were hundreds of people still on the beach and in the really cold water! (so cold it was like New England water!)  

For that evening since we weren’t all together with the entire group for most of the day, all of us decided that it would be nice to go to a nice dinner on the harbor for the night. There was numerous restaurants varying in very different price ranges, but we found an Italian restaurant that overlooked the harbor. Somehow, we managed to get a reservation for 12 people overlooking the water! The best part that we didn’t know about until we got the reservation? They were having fireworks on the harbor at 8:30! There was no reason for them that I could find, but they were doing 3 installments in the next month of fireworks, and we were able to see the first display! After dinner, we headed to a bar called the Scary Canary that was supposed to have Karaoke was it was cancelled. Melissa, Kelly, Julie and I didn’t want to stay so we ended up just leaving and walking around until we headed back at around 11pm…we didn’t much of a night life because we wanted full days of everything and we really loved our hotel room and TV!

Sunday we slept in until about 9am and headed into the city. It was the official ANZAC day, so everything was closed until that afternoon. When we got off at Town Hall Station we heard bagpipes and drums, and to our surprise the ANZAC parade was still going on. I was bummed at first because I watched it on TV in the hotel, assuming I missed it since it started at 8am and it was now 11. But it was still going! I was so excited to see these parade, its similar to Veterans Day in the US but this parade was the largest parade I’ve ever seen.  Each division had a flag, and the each division’s infantry had a flag. It was pretty much broken down into so many different sections so everyone was able to be rightfully seen. It was an amazing thing to watch, it was so weird because the uniforms are different and I had  only had a slight idea who was in the air force, marines or army. My favorite part? After about every 10 minutes there was a band of bagpipers playing. It was so wonderful. We stayed for almost an hour and it still wasn’t over. This parade was going on 5 hours long! Once we left we met up with Megan and Katelyn to head back to Darling Harbor. They all went into the aquarium but I ended up people watching. I didn’t want to spend money to go to the Aquarium because the day before I lost my $50 train pass and had to buy a new one. :-( . 

But I loved people watching! It was a great day to do it, because all of the Sailors were around the harbor and families were with their loved ones on their solemn day. I swear I could have sat on that bench all afternoon.  For lunch, they took and break and I met up with them to head to a delicious burger bar. I had the best cheeseburger since I’ve been in Australia and it was cheep! Only $9.90 with fries! It filled all of us up and then since the Aquarium wasn’t really checking tickets, I was able to sneak back in with the girls, which was very nice of them. 

After we were finished at the Sydney Aquarium, we headed over to the Lindt Chocolate Café. I was in heaven..actually all of us girls were. I ended up getting a chocolate milkshake and some type of chocolate lava cake. Note to self:  never do that again. I was on chocolate overload. That evening most of us ended up staying in and watching tv. Yes, we watched tv, but some of you may not realize…I have not seen television since February 11^th. I don’t have a TV here! So what did we watch? Nickelodeon and the movie Stick It. I’d say overall it was a successful night in!

Monday was a relaxing day. We stayed in  our hotel room until we had to check out…at 12. We pretty much just wondered around the city, we took the ferry from one side to the other so we could see the opera house and bridge at another view! We were able to see Luna Park, a permanent amusement park right on the water, and we went back to the cheep burger place on the Harbor. Can you tell the Harbor was our favorite place?  After lunch we ended up go to Paddy’s Markets in Chinatown. Overall it was a glorified Flea Market, so it was fun to look around and it was a great place to pick up touristy t-shirts and souvenirs. Later that evening, a few of us headed to a bookstore to just relax, which was really nice and very unexpected. After relaxing, I was finally able to get a cupcake! After drooling over Cupcakes on Pitt, the final day we all went! They were really delicious but pricy for the size. But to make up for it, they did put it in a cute little lunch box, which I tore right open.  Like I said Monday was relaxing, and that evening we caught our 9pm VirginBlue plane back to Brisbane. 

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

The month of April has flown by over here. Most likely because I have been traveling for 3 of the 4 weeks in the month but still!

Today at the front desk of my apartment, I was asked to do a survey about how living in Urbanest was. The first thing it said was “ You’ve been living here 10 weeks…that’s 70 days!” Well, that hit me, I’ve been here exactly 10 weeks. Time is flying by and I feel like I just stepped of that 14 hour Qantas flight a few days ago! I have the travel bug and I just want to be able to see everything this country has to offer. I’ll be leaving for Sydney tomorrow night for the weekend, and I’m excited to see one of dreams, the Sydney Opera House. The weekend should be great, I’m going to 8 other AustraLearn people and we are sharing a hostel, so for the first time, I won’t be sleeping with strangers! I’m trying to see as many  free things as possible this time around, because I’ll be heading back there when Dan comes down. We have no solid plans, which for me , as most of you know, is a big step. I am a planner! I need everything written down before I do it, and this weekend, my agenda is,well, empty.

As I stated before, I want to see what this country has to offer everywhere. But as I’ve been saying that, it reminded me that Australia is about the same size as the United States, and I was never as excited to just journey around my own country. When I come back, I know I’m going to have a different outlook, since I have so many beautiful things to see in the U.S, why not just explore my own country? My dad asked years ago, why I would want to leave America when there is plenty of things to see there, instead of going to Europe and I didn’t have an answer.  I hope in the next few years I will be able to experience the U.S more then what I have before. Maybe go down south, or Midwest..or everywhere   Thanks Austraila, this experience is giving me a better outlook on not only this country but my own. :-)

Cheers!

Bula! Fiji Part 1

Bula!

This past week I returned home ( to Brisbane) after an amazing experience in Fiji. It wasn’t your typical tropical destination that most people would do when going to Fiji. I, on the other hand like to do more things than just drink and sit by the ocean all day. I found a tour company that was suggested by one of my roommates whos friends went a few months earlier. The tour company was called The FeeJee Experience. There had been nothing but good reviews and the fact that I would be able to see the main island of Fiji in a different light made me intrigued. Each day was filled with new activities, culture, and experiences that I know I would have never been able to experience without this company.

Getting to Fiji was pretty easy, besides all the customs stuff that you have to do, it was smooth sailing from Brisbane! It was only a 3 ½ hour flight to get there and a 4 ½ coming back. I took Air Pacific with my friends Melissa and Kelly and we began our journey at 6am on Easter Morning! I loved Air Pacific, I will recommend it to anyone! With a 3 ½ hour flight we received a delicious full meal and movie. It’s funny because Air Pacific is the sister airline to Qantas, which I would NEVER recommend to them, because their service is horrible. Anyways, the three of us arrived in Nadi International Airport at 5pm local time to be greated with “Bula!... Bula! …Bula!” In every direction.  We met up with Tourist Transport and they set our accommodations for us for the rest of the trip! The first night was interesting, for the first time, I experienced culture shock.  I didn’t realize that Fiji was a third-world country, and that was a big shock. The first day I felt terrible about being there, and how sad it must be…but I soon realized as the days went on, that the Fijians were happy, content, and didn’t want to change anything. Needless to say, the experiences that I am about to share really helped.

Feejee Experience Day 1:

Our guide and driver picked the 3 of us up at our hostel at 8:15am. We travelled from Nadi to Mango Bay, Coral Coast. Our first stop was in the Nadi Town markets to buy water and food for our BBQ lunch. We stayed there for minimum time because a lot of the shops were closed because of Easter Monday. After driving for a while, we stopped at a famous beach, Natadola Beach. It was absolutely beautiful! The water had to have been 84 degrees and it was so clear! We stopped there for a few hours, because our guide Ruben, told us lunch would be ready…when it was ready. About an hour  and a half later, BBQ was served. It took so long because, the local Fijians were out in the ocean catching fish for us to eat! Talk about catch of the day! Since I don’t eat fish, I had some delicious chicken instead, but the fact that we literally watched them catch our fish was awesome! 

Right after lunch, about 8 locals came and set up their jewellery that they make for a living. There were only 2 adult women, and the rest were young Fijian boys under the age of 12. A very different way of life but I was able to talk to some of the boys and they all make the jewellery by hand and with a small hand machine to sell for a profit. I ended up buying a coconut bracelet that was really different and I felt good, since the little boy I bought it from made it himself.  After lunch, our group went to Malomalo Village to visit and learn the traditional customs of a Fijian Village. It was so eye opening and a great experience. These people have housing, but there is nothing in the houses, it is just a protective area for them. Each village has a church and you must wear a Surong, that covers your knees and your shoulders cannot be shown. From there, we made our way to the Coral Coast and went sand boarding down the Sigatoka Sand Dunes! It was so scary! The hill was so steep and I was just thinking “am I really going to go face first on a boogie board here?”..well of course I did!  While everyone was becoming exhausted, the night was not over! We finally made our way to Mango Bay, a beautiful hostel with a beautiful view! That evening we watched crab racing, and participated in our first Kava ceremony. Kava ceremonies are held when new visitors come in, it’s a welcome ceremony and it is held in villages and hostel in Fiji went new guest arrive. The Kava was well, DISGUSTING. It isn’t alchol, but after a few cups of it, it makes you go numb. They call it Groggy. The Kava comes from a root and it harvested after 5-7 years. After that, I was ready for bed! Our hostels were nice! About 16 people per room, but we had misquote nets around our bunks so it was like everyone had their own cocoon!

Day 2:

This I decided to be my typical, relax on the beach and drink day. The tour was going to be heading into the rainforest to see waterfalls and experience the outdoors, but the past few weeks in rainforest had done me in! That wasn’t the only fact, our tour guide said that our shoes will be ruined on this trek and we will be walking up to our thighs in water…im adventurous, but I didn’t want to ruin my $100 Nikes for another rainforest. So I ended up going straight to Uprising Beach Resort. When I got there, a few of us were there before breakfast ended, so we ate another breakfast. Anything we could get for free, we would take full advantage of it! But the morning got better! Since we went though this tour company we were able to get full body massages for an hour! For $35 Fijian Dollars! ( our money is worth double there) 
So, needless to say, I took full advantage and then spent the rest of the morning hanging out. The rest of the group got back at around 1pm so we had  a group lunch and the rest of the day/night off. It was so relaxing! But by the time we had to go to bed, it was not as fun! We were in the “tree house” dorms, which sounds great…but in reality it was a big room with 28 beds, and 2 toilets and 2 showers. Awesome. So that night was a terrible nights sleep, but that’s okay, it was about the experience! Haha.

Day 3...continued in post below!

Fiji: Part 2

Day 3:

From Pacific Harbour, we headed out early in the morning because we had a lot of driving to do! We were heading to Volivoli Beach! But before we got there, we had a few more stops to make that were just as exciting as days prior! Our first stop of the morning was to go to Wailouta village to meet the chief and for our group to participate in a real sevu-sevu ceremony (Kava Ceremony!). We made sure our knees and shoulders were covered and we began our journey. The ceremony wasn’t like anything I’ve seen before. There was about a 5 minute prayer that was in Fijian before we could start and all women have their feet to their left or right, while all men sit cross legged. We were able to have Kava again, but this time it was not as strong, and I actually semi didn’t mind it. Once the ceremony was over, we were split up and I went with the chief’s wife. There we learned how to make bracelets out of Bandana leaves. We were able to keep the ones that we made, which was really cool, because now I have a bracelet that I made myself! 

Once we were done at the village, we then went to the local school. This was the most rewarding, because of course; children just instantly make your day. This school had 3 teachers, 3 classrooms and 6 different grades. Grades 1-2 were together, 3-4 together, and 5-6 together. It was amazing to me, grade 1 hasn’t learned English, grade 3 understands English and Fijian, and by grade 6 they are fluent in both Fijian and English, and are then learning Hindu.  Very different school system but the children were so happy with so little. That was probably one of the highlights of my trip.

During that day we also drove by Suva, Fijis capital city and we were able to stop at their “white house” and take a picture with the guard. After a full day of this, we found ourselves at a BEAUTIFUL resort called Volivoli beach. It was what you would imagine Fiji was like! It had a pool, sand, great rooms with only 8 people in them, amazing views of the sunset and sunrise..just amazing!

Day 4:

This was our last full day in Fiji, and as a group :-( . We started late that day, so that morning, the girls and I woke up early for the sunrise, went back to bed, and then woke up and hung out around the pool for the rest of the morning. We headed west to complete our circle of the main island and our first stop of the day was lunch. In Fiji the second largest population there is Indian. We were able to stop in Ba Town for a traditional Indian curry lunch. It was all about the Indo-Fijian culture and it was diffinatly different but I loved it! I never really ate curry before, and I feel in love with it. I also was able to make my own tortilla and everything! After a delicious experience in Ba Town, we headed to the Sabeto Valley mud pools and hot springs. It was a select few from the group that decided to strip down and go into what looked like a black hole, but don’t worry, I of course was the first one in :-). It was really gross at first but then a lot of fun. 

Who wouldn’t have fun in the mud! I didn’t wear my bathing suit in because I heard that mud pools could ruin it, so I decided to wear a sports bra so I could just throw it away afterwards. Once we were done with that, our adventure was pretty much over. We met for dinner in the town center of Nadi and we were able to have another traditional Fijian meal for our final dinner together.  The girls and I called it an early night though because we had to be at the airport at 6am.

Overall, this trip was 100% worth it. If I had the time and the money I would have loved to stay longer, but reality had to hit me and we had to go back to school. The FeeJee experience was worth the money, the places they took us, was so unique and I was able to learn so much about the culture and the Fijian way of life. I’d recommend it to anyone :-) 

Bula! (means hello and goodbye!)