Some Closing Thoughts

This post is pretty much a direct response to my mother's request that I "please blog at least one more time" before I leave. Which is entirely reasonable considering that it's been months... Whoops!

I'm leaving Australia in just under two weeks. It makes me feel a bit forlorn to think that my day-to-day life for the last twelve months will quickly become yesterday's happenings, and then a pleasant memory, and then a chapter of the storybook that once was my youth (boy does that sound melodramatic). Mostly, however, I'm just overwhelmed that the five months that became a year abroad transformed my life for the better: Made me a more adaptable person, a more independent person, more adult, happier, all sorts of good things. My first post on this blog is funny for me to read, in retrospect... The things that mattered then versus the things that matter now.

I refer to myself as "more adult" mostly because I seriously started being responsible for myself this year, and financially this semester. I was working ~30hours a week with a full class schedule (that's 24 credits, Oregon!), and it was hard but it also enabled me to travel to the Australian outback and New Zealand pretty much of my own financial independence, which is maybe the greatest gift I've ever given myself. As my friend Brittany said to me, "you're always broke because you pick life experiences over savings..." damn straight! This term I:

-Star-gazed the clearest night sky on planet earth, the Australian outback
-Slept in a swag (even when there was a tent available)
-Spent quality time outdoors in an environment that feels completely foreign
-Ate camel meat
-Taught Salime "how to be a hippie"
-Got really good at my hospitality job
-Read ~4 novels a week for class
-Got to know some of the most important people in my life
-Built up the courage to read my poetry in a public place... And was well received!
-Realized that even though I don't feel terribly American all the time, America is ingrained in me and where I come from is part of who I am
-Took off in a camper-van in New Zealand with very little idea of where I was going
-Went zorbing (google it)
-Rafted in underground caves with glow-worms...

I don't fully know what I'm doing when I go back to America, or when I graduate from college, or "with my life"... But for the first time I find the uncertainty exhilarating. I'm going to miss this so much, I already know so, and there are some truly spectacular individuals here whose company I treasure dearly... But maybe, just maybe, I'm just a little bit closer to understanding what matters, and future years will follow suit wherever I am.

Cheers,
Amy

All the Important Things Since September

MY GOODNESS it sure has been a long time since I made an update to this blog. I think part of the reason is that I always feel as though I should include pictures... But I almost never take pictures so then I feel like my words aren't worth posting. So I'm sorry, today you won't have much to look at.

A lot has happened to me in the last few months. In late September I spent a week on the Gold Coast with some close friends. We rented out a little apartment and woke up around noon or 2pm every day and went to the beach and cooked heaps of food (Salime was with us so that meant tacos). And then went to enjoy the Surfer's Paradise night life and go to sleep late and wake up late and do it all over again. It was amazing and I was so tan (sadly I am not anymore... More information on that further into this post). I've only been meaning to post about the Gold Coast for 4 months... Oh well. There's no better way to feel close to the people you love than to travel with them and have crazy stories in common.

For a few weekends after that there were a million fun things to do... The college I live in held a ball and we all dressed up and looked spectacular and went into the city and it was magic, basically. And then it was halloween and even though Australians don't really celebrate halloween I still made sure that all of my friends dressed up and we had a fantastic time. I ended up wearing pieces of about 4 different costumes by the end of the night... Nothing better.

Then came some more school and November was finals month, and I studied very hard and did decently (worse than I ever have in Oregon, but school is different here so what can you do?). And I was becoming increasingly sad because it was the best time of my life and I loved the people around me so much and I'd never felt that strongly about an experience before. So I started the impossible task of reapplying as an exchange student and as an ambassadorial scholarship holder... And I managed to miraculously succeed at both.

And then I went home for six weeks because I already had a plane ticket so why not? My friends back home were as amazing as they ever have been and it was fun and I got to have a cold christmas and meet some truly amazing new people as well. I even saw the beginning of a snow storm before I flew out. Leaving was really tough. Seattle is my city, when it comes down to it.

But two days ago I flew back to Melbourne again and it's hot because it's the middle of summer and there are a few friends living here with me over summer and I can't wait for everyone to come back in a month.

So, what does one do with 5 weeks, agenda-free? I'm about to find out. So far I've been writing and reading and sunbathing a lot (I am so pale after winter in Seattle, I look like a ghost next to my friends who have been here for the last two months). And eating ham and cheese sandwiches and drinking milo. Things are coming together, in that strange sense of coming back to home away from home.

Miss everyone back home heaps xx.

Little Things

Brief thoughts:

-I love coffee
-It sure is lucky that APA sets the standard for psychological research so I don't have to learn a new format
-I really really need to get paid so I can buy groceries again
-Adele is so so so good
-Weather is fickle
-Fun things: Birthdays, music, nail polish, magazines, singing, laughing, feeling free, old friends, new friends, fresh flowers, sweets
-I should keep up with American news better
-Spring should hurry up and warm up a bit
-There's nothing better than simple pleasures

Have a beautiful week everyone

Food, Friends, Various...

First of all, huge apologies for not writing in forever... So many things have been happening that this post is going to be fairly sporadic, not necessarily chronological, and definitely not all-encompassing. You've been warned.
Time is moving so quickly! I've almost been here for two months, and while The U.S. does seem very far behind me I also can't believe that time is passing like this. I wish I was going to stay for another semester, I fear I'll blink and have to go home!
School has been... Not a priority, at least in comparison to what it normally is in Eugene. Normally by the end of week 5 I'm losing serious sleep, but this term I'm sleeping soundly and the stress hasn't hit me yet, which could be good or bad. Certainly this is a much needed break, but hopefully my GPA doesn't suffer.
I'm starting a new job soon, waitressing at a new club opening up downtown where the hours will be brutal but I'll be making well over minimum wage and definitely surpassing anything I ever made in the states. And, working in a club, I can feel like my life is finally living up to the standards set by the film Coyote Ugly... Just kidding (small town girl moves to NYC to make it in the music business and ends up bar-tending at a crazy bar, if you're not familiar with it you should probably familiarize yourself, it's a classic weird girl early 2000's movie AND Tyra is in it).
Life has been super fast-moving and fun and busy. I'm going to an Australian Rules Football match tomorrow, hopefully there will be a post to follow (although sports are not usually my thing so we'll see if I have enough to say about it...). My beautiful friends and I have been cooking together a decent amount, I made soup which turned out pretty well even though it was a new recipe and kale basically doesn't exist in this country: http://chezmegane.blogspot.com/2006/11/white-bean-kale-and-sausage-soup.html (try it, so yummy). My friend Juan is from Spain and he made some Spanish omelet for us recently, which was excellent. There have also been a lot of meat-starch-vegetable meals, which I have been told is very American of me... What can I say? I'm pretty much obsessed with cheeseburgers lately.

This feels very long-winded so I'm going to wrap it up. Currently planning a spring break trip to Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast!! It's in late September, I'm very excited.

Student Life

I'm halfway through my first week of classes! So far there's not a whole lot to do, I spend three hours in class per day at the very most and I don't even have class on Wednesdays. And I barely have class on Mondays. So really it could be a whole lot worse, although I wish I understood the grading system here...

I had almost two weeks here before classes started and I did as much as I possibly could fit in that time period! Which mostly means a lot of time with friends, trips to the city, pub visits, etc. I also drove out to the coast with some friends to go pet kangaroos and look at other Australian animals which was fun even though it was really cold and rained a bunch. The weather can be really unpredictable here, much like Seattle.

Overall things are still superb, although I've been told that I'm not allowed to use half my vocabulary because it marks me as a "bloody yank" haha.

This week is regular orientation, which mostly means lots of parties and things. Lots of fun! All the party music here is American, all of my international friends love Katy Perry. Singing American songs with a bunch of people whose first language isn't English is pretty awesome.

These blog posts are definitely going to be pretty sporadic throughout the term, I've been awfully busy and I don't know if things are ever going to die down enough for me to spend a whole lot of time online, which is probably a good thing. I'm just job hunting and trying to settle into my classes, but it's all fantastic! I couldn't ask for more so far.

Melbourne Tidbits

Where do I begin?

I've been in Melbourne for four days and it basically rocks. There's probably a more eloquent way to put that, but it rocks, it really does. I'm having a blast in so many ways. Right now it is mainly international students on campus because the Australian students are on winter holiday, but I've made many new friends from all over the world and I have a feeling it is only going to get better.

Australia is similar to the United States in many ways, but I've really noticed a few specific differences over the last few days. For instance, there are birds everywhere (they're very vocal and very colorful and have funny feathers sticking out of their heads and backs and wherever), but Australia has no squirrels. They only have possums, which are really cute actually. Also, the ducks look different and have spotted bellies. Trees are totally different from in Seattle, and there's not an evergreen in sight. It's winter but it's pretty warm for winter and the sun comes out all the time. Also, things are really really expensive. Grocery shopping is a bit painful. that being said, many things taste a lot better as corn syrup isn't used here and real sugar makes everything awesome.

I take the tram just about any time I want to go off campus. It's 3.80$ for a two-hour pass and 7.00$ for a full day pass, but prices will be cut down a bit once I get my student card and can start getting tram fare for concession price. I take the tram to the grocery store, either Coles or Safeway. I don't think that Safeway is owned by the same company as American Safeway but I'm not completely sure. I also take the tram into the city. The city is magnificent and the tram takes awhile but is actually pretty convenient. Shopping is amazing because Melbourne has excellent fashions, though expensive. I can dream, right?

Australians are lighthearted and fun people. No one is rude, which makes interactions considerably more enjoyable. I love this school and my dorm so far :).

Pre-Departure

I am about to study abroad in Melbourne, Australia. I leave tomorrow (yikes), which is July 11th, 2011, and I will be returning on November 26th, 2011. Nearly five months living on the other side of the world, which is really pretty amazing and I'm quite excited about the whole thing.

I'm going to be a direct exchange student at La Trobe University, which means that I go to the university and take classes and my credits transfer over directly. It also means that I have an exchange scholarship that makes my tuition free! La Trobe University is in the suburb of Bundoora, which is a 20 minute drive outside of central Melbourne. Melbourne has approximately 3.6 million people (much larger than Seattle) and is the second largest city on Australia. I went there once before (on a Northwest Girlchoir tour in June 2009) and I adore it. It's known as the cultural center of Australia.

Beyond that, I don't know a whole lot about my program. Stay tuned!

I have no major reservations so far, but I've decided to make a pro/con list about leaving Seattle.

Pro
- I'm ready for an adventure away from the city/country I grew up in
- I get to start buying my own groceries again, which means I'm going to buy juice
- My car is out of gas and now I don't have to fill it
-My wonderful boyfriend John is in Melbourne, not Seattle
- I get to avoid that awkward time in September when I start feeling like there's nothing left for me to do in Seattle and I'd really like to go back to school
- I get to pretend I'm 21 for five months
- Seattle doesn't really have muesli in grocery stores...

Con
- I will miss my friends and family and my cat
- No more Than Brother's Pho
- I'm leaving summer behind
- Most of my wardrobe has to stay at home
- My brother Nick has to continue driving lessons without me (although it's partially his fault that my car is out of gas)

Everything I'm taking for the next five months is in one suitcase, which is currently 54.5lbs. It needs to lose 4.5lbs so that I don't get charged anything extra. My total travel time (one way) is going to be 27.5 hours. I fly from Seattle to LA, have a two hour layover, and then make the 22.5 hour flight to Melbourne.
Don't worry... I have three novels in my carry-on bag.

AHH EXCITING. See you after Thanksgiving, America.