Final Days of "O" Week: Part 1

Let me just start off by saying that I feel like I need to update my blog everyday because its so tiring to think of everything I've done the past couple days... wow that made me sound like a snot, haha.

Anyways, this week has been ALOT of fun. Wednesday night I hung out with my housemates and we all went out to this local pub/dance club called The Ranch which is basically Pure Nightclub in Buffalo meets old MyBar at Bonaventure (sorry if you old people dont get the references). It was really fun and another thing I discovered was that the village provides a small van that brings students back and forth from the apartments to The Ranch... kind of like the "drunk bus" at school, but it only fits 13 people at a time, and believe me... if you don't run and push through the insane crowds of students, you are NOT getting on that bus. It's absolutely bonkers but going there is a good time. Apparently Wednesday nights in Australia are like our Thursdays here if you catch my drift.

Friday was the "Tight and Bright Party" so me and a few friends went to the shopping centre to pick up some crazy neon colored outfits.. like these! 

 

 

 

Me, Karee, and our matching skirts!

The party was alot more fun than I expected. I think it's because at Bonaventure, whenever we have theme parties or anything corny like that no one goes to them or goes all out and dresses up for the festivities much (except for Halloween or something like that). But here everyone is so carefree and these people LOVE to go all out for this kind of stuff, which is great!

The Village set up this crazy blow up fighting ring, had a watermelon eating contests, gave away free redbull AND free wine and beer (cheap, but anything free here is a steal!). They also had TONS of free pizza which compared to New York pizza is surprisingly delicious, and I've been craving it ever since.

Yesterday I went to famous Bondi Beach with my friends and it was beautiful! The water was nice and cool and the view was spectacular, the atmosphere was just amazing. It's kind of funny... all week everyone had been telling us to lather up on sunscreen because Australia is right below the hole in the ozone layer. So being from a place where summer lasts 3 months, I didn't take them too seriously. So when I put on sunscreen for the beach I just kind of quickly slapped enough of it on to pass and OH MAN was I naive. Once we got off the beach I had sunburn along my neck and in random blotches all over my body where I had missed putting sunscreen on. It looked so awkward. But for the time being I brushed it off and experienced my first chicken sandwich at this fast food place called Otropo. SO GOOD.

Tomorrow begins the first week of classes and I'm pretty excited. I loved having 3 months off from school, but I kind of miss class (of course I'll be regretting that statement in a week). It also starts "O" Week Part 2 here at Macquarie for everyone. Theres going to be movies and tons of social events, and I can finally sign up for clubs too... my friend Karee told me there's this organization called the Wang Club where all the members just hold wang bbqs. By the way, here "wangs" refer to sausages that you eat, so get your minds out of the gutter people! Haha. 

I'm super pumped for this semester and all the good times ahead. Write more later!

PARTY ROCK IS ON THE BOAT TONIGHTTTTT

I have always dreamed of being able to have a spectacular view of the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera House..

Last night it came true! The University hosted a Welcome Cruise for study abroad students on this amazing boat out on the harbour. It was a party rock theme (from LMFAO) so everyone was dressed up in these crazy neon and LMFAO inspired outfits. I didn't bring a lot of neon clothes with me for some crazy reason (lol) but it was so cool to see everyone go all out.

Me, Mariel, Veronica, and Shawna

The cruise was about 3 hours and that was actually my first time going into the city... and let me say that I am so thankful I met this one girl Mariel because she guided me and some other friends through the train and subway system to Sydney and back. Definitely going to need to learn those routes asap! Honestly though, no words can describe the feeling I had when I stepped onto the boardwalk with the opera house right in front of me. I mean, it's SO GORGEOUS. And I'm telling everyone who reads this to mark SYDNEY HARBOUR CRUISE on their bucket list because its absolutely breathtaking. I really can't wait to go back!

AMAZING

In the meantime, there's a "Tight and Bright" party in the village tonight that I'm going to with some friends. Then classes start Monday and I have no idea where any of my classes are, so Sunday I'm planning to give myself a little tour of campus and plan out a few routes. How exciting!

I also finally got a phone set up AND bought a new camera, which is from Australia obvs so it has Australian prongs which means I'll have to buy another adapter for that before I leave to go home. Btw... Australia is NOT CHEAP by no means. Wanna know why? Maybe its because the locals make $20 an hour minimum wage!! So on that note I need to make a budget plan for myself at some point soon so I can do everything I wanna do anddddd still have money left to use. We'll see how that goes..

Beach tomorrow I hope!

The birdies sound like monkeys!

Yesterday was the day I finally got to Australia and from what I've seen so far, it's beautiful!

If the only the traveling had been as beautiful.. don't get me wrong, my first two flights from Syracuse to Chicago to LA were alright but of course the flight with the longest travel time would be the most hectic. Let me fill you in on this wonderful time! So Alexis and I landed in LA right on time and headed over to the terminals to start boarding our plane. It was a 747 so it was HUGE, like literally there were probably hundreds of people on that thing. Anyways, our flight was booked to leave at 10:15PM on the 19th and get to Sydney around 8:00AM on the 21st (I still have no idea what was going on February 20th because I was apparently in some weird time warp).

So we get on the plane, and everyone is settled and all of sudden the captains come on the loud speaker and says "sorry but the navigation unit in this plane isn't working and we have to bring in a part from San Francisco.. we'll be delayed about 2 hours" At this point my friend and I were beyond exhausted and I was already ticked from having to sit in front of a Canadian woman who was beyond drunk (yet she kept ordering Pinot Grigios anyway) so we decided to get off the plane for the time being and rest in the terminal. We finally took off at 12:30AM and even though I did sleep on and off for about 5 hours that was a pretty tedious flight. Also, airplane food is gross, always.

Once we landed and got our bags, we got picked up by a shuttle to head over to Macquarie Village. I was hoping to pass through the city but I did see the skyline which was amazing! When I got there I was able to go check out my new apartment. I'll be honest, it's not as nice as my townhouse at Bonaventure and not completely worth $250 a week BUT I do have a nice sized room and my own bathroom. I have 4 other roommates and still have only met 2, Alex and Ben. Apparently there are 2 girls living here as well but I haven't seen them yet so who knows! I'll have pictures to follow soon on my tumblr site imgointoaustrliamate.tumblr.com!

I was so exhausted from traveling the past two days but went and explored the insanely large campus with a friend. We also stopped to get some food at the campus supermarket, which Alex later told me was way too expensive so that was wonderful. That's another thing... out of the five of us in this house only two of us are exchange students so it's nice to get advice from the locals. Everyone here is SUPER laid back as well. There's this super carefree attitude in the air and it's really relaxing. I'm just interested to see what happens when classes start next Monday.

I have my main orientation today from 10-4 so that's pretty exciting. Until then I'm enjoying a nice bowl of Rice Bubbles (which thank goodness taste the same as Rice Krispies lol)

Now I know how Carrie Bradshaw would feel...

I have two suitcases, two.

I also have every necessary clothing item I think I'm going to need (aka half of my closet) as well as bedding, bath stuff, towels, etc. OH and 8 pairs of shoes... can't blame a girl for wanting to look good.

A few more pairs wouldn't hurt... right?

Needless to say packing is a pain but I'm really excited. I have one full day left to get everything in order so with my friends from Bonaventure coming to visit, seeing family last minute, and getting everything finalized I'm going to be running around like a nutcase, but it'll all be worth it :)

Two days.

T-Minus 3 Days to Take Off

As of right now I'm sitting on top of a mountain of clothes, eating a three cheese burrito from mighty taco (my favorite) and watching House Hunters. Sure, I'm leaving the country for five months on Sunday and I still have a ton of preparing and packing to do....so HELLO why not start writing my blog now, right?

Me inside my suitcase... clearly ready for take off.

But really, I've been staring at my open suitcase for a couple hours now and haven't moved (HGTV kills me).

So why don't we start with a little history about how my crazy old self got here? WELL, last year, 3 of my good friends from Bonaventure studied abroad together in Perugia, Italy and were having such a good time. I wasn't interested in going to Europe, but I was pretty jealous of the good times they were having, even though me and my roommate Jenna had just as much fun eating goodies and watching Sex & the City everyday in our dorm room (ahem). In that light, I decided that I wanted to study abroad too, in Australia.

I had always wanted to visit the country since I watched Mary Kate and Ashley have an adventure there in the classic movie "Our Lips are Sealed" (if you haven't seen it, watch it and you'll understand). So I thought to myself, what a great time to make my 11 year old dream come true! It also proved to be an amazing opportunity to gain some international experience in the marketing field... ultimately making me an even more amazing prospective employee to my dream employer, Mickey Mouse. Yes it's my dream to work for the Disney corporation but that's another blog, another story.

ANYWAYS, so yeah, Australia, huge experience, huge international university, oh and did I mention the huge loans I had to take out for this trip? LIVING. IN. AUSTRALIA. IS. NOT. CHEAP. and I'm not even there yet! But on the bright side I'm absolutely determined to make this a completely worthwhile experience and when I become a successful businesswoman, I'll be sure to put the loan payments to rest, no worries ;).

Aside from going to Canada once or twice when I was a kid, I have never traveled outside the country so this experience is totally new. Don't get me wrong, I just danced around my room in excitement, but I'm terrified of my 13 hour plane ride from LA to Sydney. I've flown a million times before but flying over the ocean is whole different story for me... tips for traveling are MORE than welcome. Really.

After working like a maniac for the past two months, I am finally 3 days away from leaving and still not packed. So I'm going to end this post and get to work.

Stay tuned for more updates!!