Picture with the Pope

Aussie pronunciation lesson of the day...
             Instead of saying "Z" like.... well "Z" as we do in American, they instead pronounce it "Zed." For example, if you wanted to say "Zebra" it wouldn't sound like it would in the States.  Instead it's pronounced more like "Zeh-brah."

            So Wednesday was Market Day, finally. They had to push it back to this week because of all the torrential rain we had been getting last week.  In between classes a class mate and I dropped in and spend a bit of time walking around and checking out the stalls.  Pretty normal for a school fair as you might expect but obviously with different booths and all.  We got lots of free stuff, mostly papers and such of course, but for some odd reason they were handing out lots of hygiene stuff like shampoo samples, lotions, tooth brushing kits… I wonder what kind of message they were trying to send!

            

            But honestly, there was some really cool stuff there and some very interesting booths. Lots of fun school clubs and places offering cool opportunities to students. They had one of those photo booths where you sit in and make faces at the camera then get your strip printed on the outside.  

Of course Lauren and I had to do that!

            They had lots of free food and of course it was the one day I had brought my own lunch. Figures. A classmate and I also got to take a picture with the pope! That was fun.

            We got some otter pops and candy as well and we also got to pet a baby croc!

            Thursday was a later school day and I spent most of the morning and early afternoon catching up on emails and hanging out at the lodge before heading out to my 2:00 and 3:00 classes.  I must say, the trek from my 2:00 class in the Science and Engineering section to my 3:00 class in the Health section was quite a trek to make in under 10 minutes! But evidently many others had to make it as well and I was far from the last one there. I must say, this campus is quite large.  I’ve been on campus for nearly a week now and I still cannot quite find my way around all the time.  I’m afraid it may take a while to get fully settled and find the best pathways to classes (there are so many!) but at least I can finally read the map displays now so that’s good.  

            Speaking of getting to know campus, that evening was the Northreach young adult “Selfie Chase” as well and that was helpful in orienting on campus a little more. Essentially, we were given a sheet of tasks to do and riddles to solve around campus and we had to do as many tasks as we could in an hour all the while checking in with our tasks three at a time to gain points.

Reading our list of tasks

            There were things like “Go to the Woolies on campus and get the mangers signature” and “Carry a strangers groceries” or “Get change for a $2 coin in 5 cent pieces.” We also had to get a picture on one of the bridges with our whole team only the catch was that we couldn’t get caught by the troll hiding in the woods or we would lose 10 points.

"Go to Woolworths and carry a strangers groceries"

"Get a picture of your team with the crocodile covered in balloons blowing bubbles"

           

            And then there was this big bonus point opportunity where there would be this guy in an orange vest running around campus and if you saw him you had to try to catch him and rip one of the numbered tags off his vest. The number on the tag was how many bonus point you got. We got a lot of running out of that one throughout the game and we finally did catch him by the end.

"Find a poster of something you didn't know anything about then come back and tell us about it"
Yay Blue Mountain Coffee!

            We also had to do other things around campus like taking a picture with someone in uniform or finding a specific book in the library. At one point we had to fit out entire team in the smallest space possible  and then another time we had to recite a poem to a stranger.  And of course for everything we had to document it all with a picture or a video.

"Get a picture of your whole team with a random stranger wearing a blue shirt" Thank you random biker!

            It was loads of fun but I must say by the end we were all quite tired.  We ended it with a trip to MacDonald’s for some hangout time. Which, by the way, they call "Mackers" in traditional Aussie word shortening style.

And Thus it Starts

Aussie term of the day…

“Far out!” – can be said in any number of situations but is often in response to being surprised or amazed. Can be substituted instead of saying “Wow!”,“Holy Cow!”,”That’s awesome!” or can also be used to describe something bizarre or extreme.

            And thus commences my first week of classes in Australia! Much of the classes this far have simply been covering a lot of syllabus stuff and the basics of the course. Rather similar to classes in the states really. 

The Curlew on campus. Apparently they are so sure of their invisibility that
you can almost walk right up to them and pick them up.  Not quite, but close.

            I have been really surprised by how little time I actually have to spend on campus despite being fully enrolled.  Monday I had a grand total of one class which was only an hour long and today I only had two classes which were each only an hour long.  Granted, I did have a three ish hour break in between that I just sat around for but I’m sure I will happily use that time to study later on. The rest of my week isn't too bad either though a little more packed then it will end up being because I'm still figuring out some classes and scheduling stuff.

            After getting home from school I headed out to the store with Elly to pick up a few minor things and then it was really just hanging out and creating memorable moments with the housemates. I seriously love these guys!  Everything is just so light hearted and we constantly find things to make fun of each other and laugh hysterically about. I honestly think they love having an American around and watching me get utterly confused by some of the things that happen (i.e. the “Lemonade” incident).

            Like this evening. Bec and Blessing were in the kitchen cooking and I walk in and ask what they are cooking.  "Biscuits" they said, and I nodded my head. Alright.  But then Bec pulls out this bag of chocolate chips and starts dumping them into the batter and I lean over to take a closer look thinking, "Those are the weirdest biscuits I have ever seen..."  Apparently what I would normally call a chocolate chip cookie, they call a chocolate chip biscuit. Both sides tried desperately to persuade the other that our term was the accurate one and by the end we were laughing so hard! They still think they are right, of course, but that looks nothing like any biscuit I have ever seen!

 

Cool ducks in the front yard!

            Then there are the utterly oblivious and totally "Julia" moments.  Like today. I really wanted to cook myself some corn on the cob, which by the way I got for 99 cents each… pretty proud of that one! I could NOT find a pot big enough the fit the whole cob in and Bec was sitting there watching me as I dug through our array of pots and pans.  I finally find one that fits and proceed to pull out the biggest pot we have and fill it with water to boil.  She then looks at me seriously and says “You know you could just cut the cob in half?” Before breaking into hilarious laughter.  Genius!

            Michelle and I headed back out towards Uni around sunset because we had heard there were commonly Wallabies at the far end of campus in the mornings and evenings.  And we were not disappointed! The first thing we saw we initially thought was a wallaby but after getting a closer look found out it was in fact a full blown kangaroo!  Not unheard of in these parts but definitely not super common either.  We walked around for a bit and were also able to find one of the smaller greyish wallabies! I can now say I have seen a kangaroo and a wallaby, wild and authentic!

Kangaroo!!

Wallaby!!

            We headed back to the lodge after that and finished off the night with lemon myrtle tea and a two person nail painting party.  Well, actually, it was a one person painting nails and one person studying party as Michelle already has tons of homework.  I know in not so many days from  now that will likely be me!

Market, Lego's, and Scaling a Mountain

Aussie terms of the day…

“Australian Salute” – the act of swiping flies and mosquitoes away from your face.  Boy did I do a lot of that the other day!

“Mossies” - Mosquitoes

            In anticipation of going to the evening church service tonight, Michelle, Blessing, Shane and I headed out earlier in the morning to hit up the farmers market downtown near Flinders Street.  Apparently they do it on a weekly basis and it lasts from about 8:00ish in the morning till around 1:00 pm. 

            It was really fun to just walk around looking at the stalls and talking to the vendors! We got to sample several fruits and jams and also stop by the information center and get a feel for the activities to do around Townsville.  I am seriously considering taking a diving course and getting scuba certified… I guess we’ll have to see how my schedule pans out, but hey! I’ve now got several people willing to take it with me if I decide to do it!

            We stopped by the Lego exhibition down the street as it was the last day of it until they rotate to another exhibition.  That was super cool! Lots of thoroughly impressive Lego sets put together including a gigantic cruise ship, the Death Star, a Millennium Falcon, several buildings, and some smaller ones made of older sets.  

            They had a ton of plaques on the walls circling the room taking you through the history of Lego and how it has changed over the years.  

            They had a number of displays of some of the first Lego sets and then a big room filled with, I kid you not, thousands of Lego pieces for people to play and build with.  It was like a pool of Lego’s!

Any Lego lovers dream!

            After that we headed out and decided to take a slight detour up to the top of Castle Hill.  It was truly gorgeous and you can essentially see the whole of Townsville if you stand at the top and turn about. 

Felix and I taking in the beautiful view of Townsville

            There is apparently a fairly rigorous hiking trail up to the top from the bottom called the “Goats Track” and with all the horror stories I keep hearing of its difficulty I am debating how wise my consideration of traversing it sometime is.

            That was the end of our plans for the day so we headed back down the mountain and back through town.  The rest of the day was mostly just hanging out at the lodge before we all headed off across the lawn to the evening church service. 

Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium

Aussie terms of the day....

 “College” – what they call dormitories or residence halls. If one of your class mates asks what college you’re in, don’t worry, they aren't delusional or lost (at least, I would hope not). They just want to know if you live on campus.  I sure hope they would know what school they were attending…

"Chooks" - another word for chickens!

            Today was another fantastic day! I met another Julia at the Crystal Creek trip yesterday and with the both of us being new to Townsville had decided to explore a bit of the sites of town together for the day.  One of my housemates, Michelle, and her boyfriend, Shane, came along as well, completing our fun and lively group for the day.  Our first stop was to Juliette’s, a gelato and coffee shop on the Strand, where we sat in the shade and looked out over the ocean while eating our ice creams and coffees and talking about childhood memories. 

Julia & Julia at Juliette's!

            When we started to really feel the heat we decided to continue on with our day and made our way down the road to the Reef HQ Great Barrier Reef Aquarium.  Now that was cool!! We go there just in time to jump in on one of the turtle talks and take a tour of the turtle hospital.  That was amazing! They have a number of different species of turtle in there including some Loggerheads, a Green Sea Turtle and a Hawksbill Turtle. Most of them had been turtles battling illnesses or recovering from encounters with human machinery (namely boats) and preparing for reintroduction into the wild.

            After that we spent an hour or two just walking around the aquarium and taking in the amazing sights! I took so many pictures!

You can see a bit of the tunnel there that goes under and
between two of the gigantic tanks

Very cool reef formation

The "Predator Tank"

Feeding time!

            After spending a couple hours there, we left for a short while and went to get lunch at Subway.  I got a seafood sandwich which was awesome and definitely not something I have ever seen at a Subway in the states! We got back to the Aquarium just in time to make it to the feeding show and that was super cool as well.  

Feeding some of the smaller tanks before heading on to the big ones.

Noah the turtle eating his fish.

            Definitely helps you realize just how many fish they have in those tanks as they all school together at the top in anticipation of being fed! Funny how animals always seem to just know... Gosh it was fun getting to spend the day exploring the world's largest living coral reef aquarium! And I got to have some pretty cool people to do it with :). Oh, AND I got in half price because I am now considered a local of Townsville... Imagine that!

Crystal Creek Adventures

Aussie terms of the day….

“Togs” – also called “swimmers,” is what they say instead of “swimsuit.”

“Tea” – can mean anything from simply just tea or coffee to an actual full blown meal. 99% of the time when someone says “Let’s go have tea” assume it’s much more than just a cup of tea.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve even so much as seen a cup of tea here yet…

        Today was the first “travel outside Townsville” day! The Christian Union group on campus had planned a trip to Crystal Creek, a fun place to swim about an hour out of Townsville. We all met on campus earlier in the morning and split into designated cars to begin the trek.  Guess who was also there coming on the trip? All the gals from my team at the O-mazing Race! That was a super cool “You’re here too?!?” moment. I cannot tell you how the drive was, either there or back, because I fell asleep for the better part of both. But hey, we made it back so it must have been great!

            Crystal Creek was gorgeous. Set in a beautiful forested nook not very far changed from its natural state but apparently well visited. The water was a little colder than I was expecting but who am I to complain? At least you can breathe when you jump in unlike the waters in Alaska and most of the time in Oregon! We hung out on the rocks, swam over to the small island,  floated down the "rapids", jumped off a small rock outcropping… Good fun was had by all I think.

Floating down the river

            We headed up to the barbecue pit for a short while to gain some afternoon sustenance before heading down the road to the rock slides. 

Aussie version of a hot dog.  Sausage on a slice of bread with onions, cheese
and choice of ketchup and BBQ sauce. Or both.

            We were stopped a bit short by a flooded road along the way but we didn't let that get in our way as we parked the long row of cars and waded through the waters.

Mostly it was just that the current was super strong as well!

            It was probably a twenty to thirty minute walk to our destination and all I can say was that I am super glad I had put on a good amount of bug spray.  Unfortunately though it is rather difficult to put said repellent up your nose and on your eyes… But I would say it was completely worth it.  The scenery was gorgeous! 

            We decided it was too dangerous to get in the rapids due to the unusually high water levels but it was still loads of fun sitting on the rocks, watching the water cascade down the falls, and getting to know some of the people a little better.  

            The way back home we took a short detour to the “Frosty Mango” for some ice cream and fruit before we continued back to the Uni.  Back at home a bunch of us gals at the lodge ended the night with a little movie night of our own where we huddled together with a computer and watched the Life of Pi. Good times :) . 

They also sold a bunch of different types of fruit there; Jackfruit, Breadfruit, Soursop, Carambola...
I got a couple mangoes which were completely unparalleled in taste! Nothing tastes quite like and Aussie mango and once you have one, you will never really want to settle for the ones in the States again.

Ice Cream and the O-mazing Race

Aussie terms of the day…

“Jocks” – basically another word for underwear….In context you could say “It was raining so hard that in the time it took me to race the 20 meters from class to my car I was soaking wet all the way down to my jocks!”

“Severs” – another term for gas stations

            If you ever want to make instant friends with 99% of the Aussies you meet, bring along a bucket of snow.  I am not kidding you. Snow is incredibly fascinating. I hadn’t really thought about it before but a lot of the Aussies I’ve met have never once seen snow and one of their dreams is to actually see it fall and walk all over it. Oh, and try describing it! The feeling, the sound, what it looks like… That’s a fun one.  I usually start with asking if they know what a snow cone is and going from there.

            Wednesday was really just an uneventful yet good and fun day.  Market day on campus was cancelled (to all my OSU friends, think of the Beaver Fair in the Quad) due to the excessive amount of rain so a lot of us just stayed at the lodge all day.  Several of us raced out to the store in the late morning during the downpour, grabbed a couple cartons of ice cream, then spent the remainder of the afternoon consuming insane amounts of melting ice cream and watching the Princess Bride and Wolverine.

            Today, Thursday, I actually had some stuff planned and was able to get Elly to take me in to Uni around 12:00 for the beginnings of the “O-mazing Race.” I enjoyed it thoroughly and it was a fantastic way to get to know new people and get to know more of Townsville a bit better! It's basically like the Amazing Race where your team is given a pack of clues and you run around trying to complete as many tasks as fast as you can, yet on a smaller scale and based in Townsville... obviously. :)

Getting on the bus and heading out to begin the O-maxing Race!

            We started off at the “Stockies” shopping center where we were given our first packet of clues and released into the overwhelming hugeness of the shopping center.  We were given 20 minutes to run around and complete as many tasks as possible that included “How many tables are there outside this coffee shop”, “Which store sells fancy stationary”, “How many sushi restaurants are there in the mall”, “Take a picture of your whole team in front of a pajamas shop” and a good many other ridiculous tasks.  That was fun and I think near the end of that phase we started to kind of figure out the swing of things.

            The second stop was at “Flinders Street” which is basically where all the clubs are as well as a number of restaurants, markets, and trinket shops.  It honestly was a very cool little street; very vintage in some ways with a number of restored colonial buildings.  Cool architecture to walk around and see I must say!

            The third and final stop was at the Strand which is more or less the beach front.  There are a good number of little shops and restaurants littering the strip there and again. Very cool and unique area to walk through. 

 

Walking down the Strand

"Take a picture of your whole team going down a kids slide."

            Another thing you will notice is that there are designated areas that you can swim in namely the sections of water roped off with Jelly Nets.  Swim outside those life saving barriers and you run the risk of death by jellyfish.  They take things like that very seriously here.

Jelly Nets!

            After the race I hitched a ride back to the lodge and shortly thereafter headed out once more with some of the lodgees to attend a Christian Union beginning of the year dinner. Christian Union is a sort of club on campus if you will that does weekly Bible studies and a number of fun activities all throughout the school year. It was fantastic to get to meet a bunch of new people, play some fun games, study a short section of scripture in a small group, and enjoy some awesome and free food!

O-mazing race team at the end.  Amazing and fun group of gals :)

Torrential Rain and Ridiculous Mexican Accents

Aussie term of the day…

“That’s OK:” kind of means “Yeah, no problem” or sometimes “You’re Welcome”

For example: One of my housemates wrote me a belated birthday card and when I thanked her for it she responded with “That’s OK.”

            Monday was super laid back though I did get up super early before my alarm again… Thank you jet lag! I had a makeup international student welcome session planned for later in the afternoon in lieu of the one I missed on Friday and one of my housemates offered to take me with her to campus around noon. The welcome session was oh so fun, as those sorts of things usually are, and I also got to try and figure out what my upcoming class schedule looked like.  I will tell you now that the online format for that is one of the most confusing and daunting things you will ever look at when you first see it.  Seriously, it’s just a gigantic blot of blue! They do things a little bit differently here in that instead of having you register for just one lab (or as they would call them “tutorials” and “practicals”) they display ALL of them on your schedule and at first you think “I have to go to ALL of those??!” No, no you don’t. But they are a little bit more lenient on which ones you decide to go to.  They may make you choose one on particular that you would prefer to go to later on but I think in general it’s up to you which one want to you take in any given day.

            I ended off the day with going to one of the “Northreach Alternative” activities put on by the churches college group during O-week (i.e. “Orientation Week”). Another thing about Australia is that they like to shorten everything.  For example, they never say “University,” it’s always “Uni.” We (several house mates and I) drove together and did get a tad lost along the way… I guess you could say we took the long scenic route around Townsville. Twice… We finally did make it to the pool party where we played in the outdoor pool a while then made it under the covered pool and watched Nacho Libre. Golden J.

            Oh and sometime around late afternoon the rains came back, with a vengeance! Holy cow was the rain coming down! Torrential downpour! Seriously.  One thing I noticed as well is that the rain was WARM! I was honestly not expecting that.  I walked outside into one of the puddles after one of the downpours had ended and it was shockingly warm. You really never get cold unless you walk inside and into air conditioning. Figure that one out.

Esther jumping out to play in the rain!

            That brings me into today and the rains are still here. They were dumping and drenching all night long, sometimes violently so, and they continued on with consistent strength throughout the day.

Blessing and I hopping out during one of the not-so-torrential spells

            I had my “faculty orientation” today (basically for your major or field of study) which normally is geared towards first years to get them introduced to campus but it’s really helpful for internationals as well.  You usually are in a group of people in your same major and are taken through some of the common lectures halls and rooms you will likely be seeing during your studies.  We did a number of “activities” as well such as a Biology Bingo in one classroom and an introduction into Physics with some awesome experiments thrown in, in another.

Playing a game of "Dodge the Raindrops"

            After the provided lunch I headed back to the student center to try and resolve a schedule clash I had found while typing out my schedule last night then headed to the library to get an ID card.  I got a lovely… very lovely… picture for my ID card (thank you rain and humidity) and called my ride to let him know I was finished for the day.

            Again the day was ended with another fantastic activity put on by the college group.  They are doing an activity every day this week in response to O-week activities to give students an alternative option to the sometimes questionable activities that can transpire on campus. Today was a Mexican style dinner and fun night at Cactus Jacks, a popular restaurant no two minutes away from the student lodge I am staying at.  

            It was crazy fun really, the guy leading everything was insane and hilarious and he always frolicked about the room making us get up and dance when we won a game or speaking in the most ridiculous Mexican accent you can think of.

I would highly recommend those chocolate nachos!
Delicious! Then again, you can never go wrong with chocolate :)

            We did a lot of really silly games like passing a jelly bean all the way up and down the table using only a straw or being given a small cup of Jell-O with a gummy worm in the bottom and the goal was to get everything out, but then return the gummy worm to the cup unharmed and in one piece.  That was a whole lot harder than it sounds! And of course they had to bring out a piñata… 

P.S. If you order "lemonade" in Australia, what you will get is basically a Sprite. If you want a "Lemonade" lemonade then you ask for a Solo, which will sometimes be called a Lift.  Basically, you go up and say "I would like to order a Solo which I know is sometimes called a Lift which tastes like a Lemonade which is really in fact a Sprite." Wrap your head around that one!

And in case you wanted to hear the rain and some of the 

night sounds I have been hearing outside my window these past nights...