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!