So JCU has this intra-college competition (the Fisher Shield) between all of the different residence halls involving most, if not all, sports played here. Yesterday was the Cross Country race, in which halls can earn points for how many of their residents participate/finish and if any of them place within the top 20 (I think it’s 20). It is for this reason we were all woken up at 6am on the Saturday morning following O-week, after only a few hours of sleep, to run a 5k around campus. I might also add that they achieved this through knocking, screaming, whistle-blowing, car horn-honking, and removal of sheets/blankets (the RAs have master keys to our rooms). Mark told me they used to turn on the fire alarms to encourage people to leave their beds, but had to stop after some residents complained (how would you like to be that person). You could run, walk, hop, whatever, you just had to finish. I actually ran, which was pretty impressive given my major concern starting the race was moving (for a start) in a straight line (to be ambitious). Apparently George Roberts (my hall) did very well against our main rivals, University (Uni) Hall.

This is also a great time to bring attention to what appears to be the overriding Australian obsession (with the exception, perhaps, of alcohol): grilling. Aussies LOVE their “barbes” (almost as much as they love to shorten words and add an ‘es’). I have been to almost as many “sausage sizzles” as I have classes so far. I mean, this is fine (who doesn’t love to grill), but aren’t their some situations that don’t necessarily call for the use of a barbe to grill up a sausage (served on a single piece of white bread folded diagonally, with peppers and onions if the occasion calls for them)?? Wouldn’t before AND after a 5 kilometer run be examples of these times, when the appropriateness of sausage just doesn’t seem defensible?? Apparently not. There was sausage and then bacon too. I will admit that it started looking pretty damn good after the race, when my insides were burning with hunger. I did not, however, give in…

Yes, I am a poor blogger – at least I can admit it! Oz is fantastic. Annette’s birthday was a…great success!! (I couldn’t resist sounding like Borat there; sorry) But honestly, we had a lot of fun. Alex, Shay and Kevin got a ton of food and decorated their apartment, which we were all impressed with. Town was of course very fun too, nothing like dancing like idiots to make everyone’s night!

Pretty much everyone has returned to campus, which is a huge relief. There’s so much more going on now then there was when I first arrived. We went to a night market on Friday that was a lot like the weekly Sunday market, but only happens on the first Friday of every month (and is at night, duh). We didn’t buy anything (with the exception of ice cream…mm), but had a good time wandering around anyway.

Last Friday was the Student Association trip to Billabong Sanctuary and Alligator Creek. Both places were reallly cool, but would have been more enjoyable if visited in a small group (of course). Billabong is a massive wildwife sanctuary a short drive away from campus with all kinds of Australian wildlife (obviously). There were koalas and crocs, and dingos, oh my! Alligator Creek was beautiful too, Australia has some AMAZING geology. Something to do with being really old and generally kicking ass, I think. We only got to stay there for maybe 30 minutes, which was a complete bust (kind of a rip off actually, considering what we paid for the trip). Oh well, we’re definitely going to go back someday. >>Check out my Flickr photos! I couldn’t add everything, because I would have gone over my monthly quota (and I’m too cheap to pay for Pro), but there are a few choice pics up.

Last night a bunch of us from GR (my dorm) walked to the Tavern, which is about a 20 minute walk. It took us a little longer due to our inability to follow directions (involving a detour through a tunnel that went under the highway and some wandering around a residential neighborhood before we decided to call for directions). Very crowded – apparently Uni students find any excuse they can to party (this time it was the start of classes today). We stayed for a bit and then walked back. The walk back was much better and we found a path that took us away from the lights and cars so that we could actually see a ton of stars.

The time has finally come to start classes – yuck. However, until the novelty of going back to school has worn off I think I’ll enjoy having something new to do and learn about. While writing this I’m sitting at my desk, which is situated on the wall next to the bigger of my two windows. Since I’m on the first floor and happen to be positioned looking out onto the area reserved for people’s bicycles I have the privilege of being able to watch everyone as they get back from / go to class, etc. Makes me feel like a creeper. Not so much, however, as does the fact that I have watched my roommate (not Mark, but the other one) leave through my window more times than I have actually been face to face with her. Stalker in the making?? Probably not, but feel free to entertain the possibility

My GR friends and I are planning a trip to Maggie Island (Magnetic Island – just off of the Strand, accessible by ferry ride) this weekend, which should be awesome. There is kayaking and biking in my future!

In more exciting news, I need a job (ugh). Things here are just too damn expensive and what with all of the traveling I have yet to do (but for which I will need funds) it’s just not going to happen without more money. Apparently starting pay here is something like $11 or more, which is fantastic (once again, the US has some severe shortcomings). I filed for my Tax File Number (TFN) and will be hunting around for something part-time. Wish me luck…

Well that’s all for now! Time to get ready for my 1+ mile hike to class!

And on the 8th day, God gave JCU…AMERICANS!

Ah yes, the American girl...we really are all like this.

That’s right, today was the day when the American study abroad group programs arrived on campus. Although there are now many more people on campus (yes, I do consider 40 more people to be quite a significant increase in the student population), it is not exactly what I was looking forward to. As my friend Brittany (also American, but one of the select few I know who arrived around the time when I did and came independently of a group) put it – Americans are all trying to be the best; they’re all trying to out-do each other and are loud, obnoxious, and poor ambassadors in the process. Annette (Danish) agreed, saying that other countries feel bad for Americans, because of they way they seem to be scrambling to be the best all the time. Brittany and I felt it was too bad that the big groups had to arrive all together, because it just painted us all in a bad light – in our opinion the US should really try to promote itself more positively so that everyone stops hating us and the things we do.

With that said, we did admit to being categorized at least in part by the stereotype we are encountering. Additionally, it just goes back to the whole question of why does everyone seem to hate us and our country so much (in general – not individually), yet embrace our mainstream culture so eagerly? Everywhere we go there are American songs, movies, tv shows, clothing, food, and on and on. Closer to home (or at least to where I am right now), I feel bad for the people who arrived in groups today and who were the subject of our conversation at dinner. If not for the reason that obviously you can’t make individual judgments based on group behavior, than because they were part of a group program and really couldn’t help that they all arrived to a new, different place removed from their friends and homes. It is easy to hang on to other people going through the same things you are (or maybe it’s more fair to say that you drift towards those people) when you are transitioning to something new and unknown – which is why I think for studying abroad at schools like JCU, group programs are inappropriate, because it is hard to really immerse oneself in a culture/setting overrun with people from your own culture/country. I did not know that international students were such a large portion of JCU’s student body and that the majority of these students were American.

Anyway, minor details.

Tomorrow is Annette’s birthday, so we’re doing it up with extra-moist, chocolately-deliciousness in cake-from-a-box fashion. Also in the picture are a couple of bottles of white wine and a night in town, complete with a homemade crown inviting the world to buy her a drink!! (that is, if we get our act together in time…)

The rain has returned…Apparently rain is unusual this time of year, but that hasn’t deterred it in the slightest. Now there’s just really nothing to do. I know I haven’t posted in a while (you know, that’s just how I am with these things), but luckily for you I haven’t done anything spectacularly exciting. Due to the rain, I’ve just been hanging around mostly, sleeping and whatnot. Sunday we went into the city hoping to spend a day relaxing on the beach in the luxurious sunshine. Of course it ended up being extremely overcast, so we ended up sitting outside of a gelato bar…mmm. We also wandered around a bit and happened upon a “Sunday Market,” which was really cool. There were all kinds of farmers with fresh fruit and veggies as well as people selling jewelery, scarves, etc. Definitely worth a second visit. There are a couple of pictures up on Flickr from that little experience.

Last night we all hauled ourselves out into the torrential rains/wind (honestly, I felt like we should have been boarding up windows and buckling down for a hurricane) and onto the 1A bus. We went to some clubs in the city and made fools of ourselves on the dance floor, singing along with all of the bad American pop music. Tuesday nights a lot of the pubs/clubs sell some of their drinks for $2, so it’s a good night to go into town (or at least it would be if there were more people here). Still a pretty good time though.

Now my bad, depressing, awful news: I can’t go scuba diving. Because I have asthma I run the risk of having an attack when diving (some of the typical trigger factors of asthma are present in scuba diving – the compressed, cool air mixture, the salt water, coming back up to the surface, yada yada yada). I went for a diving physical exam today and this is what the doctor told me. He said I could go to the hospital where they do a test that simulates scuba diving with someone on hand who can perform resuscitation in case I almost die while doing it. Yikes. Probably expensive and not worth it. It majorly sucks though. I guess I can still snorkel, but it’s just not the same and I feel like I’m missing out on something big; something that I really wanted to do, and it’s not anything I can help.

So I guess that’s where I’m at right now. Scuba diving’s a bummer, but there are plenty of other great things I can do here instead, so it’s not the end of the world.

Cheers, everyone!

Well I’ve started a blog…just a way for everyone to check up with what I’m doing in sunny Australia (Oz as it’s called here)! I’m not promising any strokes of genius here, and I’m especially not promising to maintain this…given the graveyard of journals/diaries in my room I think it would be wise to expect me to lose interest in this after a while, but we’ll see…

With that disclaimer, a note about my blog: To “spin a yarn” in Aussie-speak is to tell a story, especially a long or fabulous tale. I think it has more nautical connotations, but I kind of liked it anyway

Anyway, I have been in Australia (which has not been so sunny thus far) now for almost a week now. Getting here was an extreme hassle and I was absolutely delusional by the end of my 40+ hour-long trip. Some idiot brought a dog to the gate, ready to board, the flight I was on from LA to Auckland…which is not allowed by New Zealand customs/quarantine. Personally I would have checked that out prior to 30 minutes before my flight departs. I’m not sure if they boarded the flight sans-dog or not. Similarly ridiculous is that my luggage wasn’t put on my next flight in LA…apparently 10 hours isn’t long enough to get it off of one plane and onto another. Thankfully it arrived Friday morning and I could put the two t-shirts I had been alternating wear of into the wash. Pretty annoying, they should have put it on a flight to Brisbane right away, but I guess that’s how airlines work…

Australia is AMAZING so far, it’s just another world altogether. Campus is really REALLY dead right now, as it’s just a handful of international students who arrived early and Uni (University) students who are here doing intensives (like I was supposed to be doing) or working on there thesis. I’ve met an unusually large number of engineering students, which was not something I was expecting. Thursday and Friday some other Americans / international students and I went into town to the pubs. Thursday we went to the Strand first, which is the stretch of stores and such along the beach, but had very little luck locating a place to get some beer. There were definitely many more people out on Friday night than on Thursday, but generally it seems dead everywhere right now with the absence of all of the Uni students. It’s also very expensive here for everything, especially alcohol and the bus fare (which would be half as expensive if we had our tertiary student cards already). I was able to sample some of the local brews while we were out though, which were very good.

Mostly I’ve just been walking around a ton and embarking on plenty of adventures. We tried to make s’mores, but no one here knows what they are or even what a graham cracker is, so it was kind of a failure. Additionally, coconuts are not easy to open (see the picture of me hacking away at the outer shell with a butter knife – needless to say we weren’t very well equipped) and unless they’re ripe, they don’t taste good at all. Equally as disappointing has been the rain, which was here the first few days I was and is back again today for a week – thoroughly ruining our plans for scuba diving this week….bummer.

People drive some interesting cars around here too. There are these bizarre short trucks that make me think of Mexican immigrant workers. Apparently they’re called UTEs (pronounced as it appears) and my roommate, Mark, has a bright neon green one that I guess is really nice (I still think they’re kind of funny looking). Mark also taught me the rules and finer details of cricket last night, because there was a game on and I had absolutely no clue what was going on. He claims it’s like baseball, but I’m still not sold.

Vocabulary I’ve learned so far:
G’day mate – a greeting (as you’d expect)
bloke – a guy
UTE – Mexican immigrant truck
sculling – chugging, as in beer
goon (sp?) – boxed wine
pissed – drunk
wicket (sp?) – an out in cricket

Reflections:
I’m really not as far away from home as I thought. Pretty much all of the music I’ve heard in stores, etc. has been American; everyone here watches American TV and movies. There are McDonalds McCafe, Dominos, KFC, and Pizza Hut restaurants as well as a Blockbusters. For all of the hate that gets put on the United States it sure is embraced into culture in Australia, for one. I guess it wasn’t sensible to think I would be getting away from it by coming here, but I guess I expected a bit more of a break.

>>Check out the few pictures I’ve uploaded to Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/skleinschmidt/)!

Cheers!