I Can Make Pasta and Chicken!

It's been two weeks since I left Chicago, which is strange because I feel like I've been here forever. Not in a bad way. I'm just used to it. Not that I don't miss home either, because I definitely do, but things here are good.

I do mourn the end of my responsibility free life. From December 21 until today, I basically went wherever I wanted and did whatever I wanted and it was the most fabulous two months of my life. But today was the first day of classes, so the fun has officially come to an end. I have class for my internship on Mondays from 9:30am-12:30pm and have to go into the office two days a week, but that part doesn't start for another two weeks. As of right now, I'm taking another class as well, but I'm thinking about dropping it. I'm pretty sure I will be busy enough between my internship and working on my research report and scheduling that around another class is going to be annoying, but we'll see.

I still have plenty to do before I start my internship. On Wednesday we are having a tour of the private areas of Parliament, on Friday we have an all-day seminar there, and on Monday we are having a seminar with the Syrian ambassador at the embassy and getting free lunch.

Also, I'm learning to cook. Sort of.

I need to take more pictures...

Kangaroo Sighting

The O-Week schedule for Wednesday said "7-9am Breakfast on Black Mountain" but last night we didn't hear any details about it. It turns out, that is because the details were given to us at 6am when we had a delightful fire drill that required us to stand outside in our pjs in the (relative) cold for half an hour.

So everyone was up and we hiked up the mountain and had breakfast. On the way back down I saw my first kangaroo. I only saw it for a second, but it was exciting.

This afternoon I went to the grocery store and got some food that I will actually have to cook. We'll see how that goes. My friend drove there and I still cannot get used to the whole driving on the opposite side of the road thing. Also, here it is not illegal to listen to your iPod while driving. Kind of scary.

I Miss 1600grand

This morning a friend and I left our building at 9:20am to enroll in our classes for the semester. It took over 3 hours. According to the information I was given on International Orientation Day, I needed to have with me my passport, my visa, my letter of acceptance, and an up-to-date transcript from my home university. I had my letter of acceptance in my email, but I could not print it out because I can not log onto any of the computers in the labs without my email and password, which you only get once you enroll. An up-to-date transcript from Macalester? Yeah, I don't carry any of those around with me. You have to formally request one and they mail it to you, so that would take awhile. I went to the international office to see if they had a printer I could use, but they did not. Luckily the student working at the front desk was nice enough to let me illegally do it.

Did I end up needing any of these documents? No.

First I had to wait in line for them to print out my enrollment form. Domestic students all had this mailed to them, so they got to skip this part. Next, I had to get my visa checked and they only had one person doing it and it took forever. Then I had to wait in line to enroll and the College of Arts and Social Science of course had the most ridiculously long line. Then I waited in another line, the purpose of which I never figured out, before being sent over to the library where I waited in another long line for a computer where I actually enrolled online, and finally I waited to get my student ID card.

Apparently it is only like this for first-years, but it was terrible. I love you Macalester. Even you , 1600grand. You may be a retarded system, but you only take 5 minutes and I can register from the comfort of my bed.

Things I Have Discovered

1) There is a bar in my dorm.

2) Australians really love sausages. Like really love them.

3) I dislike the awkward forced socialization ritual known as orientation. Good thing today was just day 1 of 7.

Street Art

The Birds Here are Very Loud

Today was International Orientation Day. As I surmised, it was minimally useful. It was from 9am-12pm followed by free lunch. I really had to come here FOUR DAYS EARLIER for three hours of information sessions? We couldn't fit those three hours in sometime next week, during the ENTIRE WEEK of orientation? The lunch was decent, but still, not worth being here FOUR DAYS EARLY.

After that I decided to go to the mall to buy some stuff I needed. Apparently I think I'm hot shit, because I didn't even bring my map with me into Canberra. After wandering around for like half an hour, I made it. I went to Target and Borders...ooOOOoooo how exotic! Australian Target is totally lame though. Not at all the same. I guess I was feeling all cocky because I found the mall sans assistance, so I decided to take a short cut back to school...only it wasn't actually a shortcut so much as me walking in the opposite direction I should've been. But I made it back to my dorm eventually too, obviously. Take that, map! I don't need you!

I also decided I am better than jet lag. It's going well.

I finally ran into someone else that lives on my floor. I forgot her name, but she was nice. Tomorrow I'm going to a BBQ and tea with traditional Australian foods. Hopefully that will be more exciting than today.

I keep wanting to talk in a British accent. I have no idea why. Also, why isn't Project Runway on YouTube yet? I am bored and want to use up all my prepaid internet to watch it, mmkay thanks.

Honest to Blog

Hey dudes. So this is my Australia blog, where I will update you about my life (only the interesting parts) so I don’t have to email all you fuckers individually and say the same thing, because guess what. I have to pay for the Internet. BLASPHEMY! Plus, there will be pictures.

So if you talked to me in the past month or so, you probably experienced some whining about my leaving, specifically regarding the 21-hours-on-a-plane part of the whole thing. I’m pleased to report that it ended up being the best flying experience of my life, mostly thanks to my parents using their miles to upgrade me to business class. During my 5-hour layover in San Francisco, I got to hang out in United’s Red Carpet Club (not to be confused with The Red Carpet in St. Cloud, where I also spent many hours before my last flight from Minneapolis to Chicago. However, that flight was incredibly unplesant as I only got three hours of sleep, was still drunk, and the lady sitting next to me threw up). Here there were millions of comfy leather chairs, free food, free coffee, and free booze. You could definitely tell that I did not belong in such a place as the moment I spied individually wrapped crackers and cheese, I filled my purse with them in hopes to make a meal out of them and save myself approximately $5 on dinner.

Then I got to pre-board on the biggest plane I have ever been on, sit in a comfy chair, and be served delicious food and more free booze. Well, the filet was a bit rare for my taste…but I can’t really complain. I slept for about half of the 15.5 hour flight and spent the rest of the time listening to my iPod, editing photos on my laptop, watching the end of “Lars and the Real Girl”, and playing spider solitaire.

When I got to Sydney, stealing all those cheese and crackers came back to haunt me as I realized in the middle of the customs line that I had checked that I had no food on the form. The lady asked if I had any snacks from the flight and I said yes, a Rice Krispie treat. This was an understatement as I had at least 8 Rice Krispie treats, many granola bars, and the cheese and crackers. She pointed me straight ahead to a giant table where I was sure they were going to open all my belongings, find said food, and send me back to the United States in coach. But no, for some reason I got to skip the part where they opened my bags and entered the country with my illegal individually wrapped cheeses.

Then I flew to Canberra, yadda yadda yadda, I’ll skip the boring stuff. Now I am sitting in my dorm room with everything unpacked. Even though I am here, I still don’t really believe it. I was walking through the kitchen earlier listening to two accented boys talk to each other, which isn’t unusual for me, I go to Mac. All of a sudden I realized “Holy crap, I’m in a different country on the opposite side of the world from everything I know and love.” It’s weird.