Goodbye Australia! :-( (2 July 2005)

          My last two weeks in Australia have come and gone.  Right now I´m sitting in LAX (the LA airport), waiting to board my next flight in a couple of hours.  I guess this is a good time to catch up on journal entries from my last days in Australia.

          On Tuesday, June 21^st, my unit mate Leah came back from "prac" in Tamworth, where she´s been the whole 2^nd half of this semester.  She and her friend Amber were only in Newcastle for 2 nights I think, but it was good to see Leah one last time.  That night my block had a Dominoes pizza party.  They have some deal where you buy 2 for the price of 1, so we each just got our own pizza.  It was a really fun night, and we were all just really goofy and ended up playing "Celebrity Heads" after dinner.  In this game, you have the name of someone famous written on paper and taped to the wall behind you so you can´t see it.  Then you have to ask the group questions to try and figure out who you´re supposed to be.  That night there was also a lot of trying to throw or stick ice-cubes down people´s clothes when they weren´t paying attention, and I can´t forget to mention the "How many ice-cubes can you fit in your mouth?" competition between Justyne and Kay.  Haha! :-)

          On Wednesday night I went visiting at International House (IH) with Rachel.  The first people we ran into were Sam, Ori, and Hugh from Reality, so we went into Ori´s unit.  We ended up staying to watch a movie with the boys.  The next day (Thursday), Rachel and I got a ride to Charlestown with another Evatt girl named Mel.  We spent the afternoon looking around the mall and chatting.

          Sadly, Friday was my unit mate Erin´s last day at Evatt for this semester.  She had to be home Friday night to work, so that morning all our unit mates gathered in the lounge room to see her off... or so I thought.  Actually, Kate and Kay had made memory books for Sheany and I since neither of us will be in Newcastle next semester.  There are photos, quotes, and a page for each person to write us a personalized note in the book.  It was such a cool idea and special gift.  Then Sheany and I said goodbye to Erin, and everyone dispersed.  A little later, Rachel came over to say goodbye as well.  She was heading to her grandma´s house that afternoon, then home for the semester break.  It was weird saying goodbye to people a week before I was leaving because it didn´t seem real.  Flick from A 1^st also came by to say goodbye since she was also going home, but once again it didn´t seem that real to me since so many people were still around and I still had one more final to take.  Later Friday afternoon, Shana came strolling out of his room, totally surprising Kate and me.  Shana had been gone on prac for the past week or 2, and no one knew he´d gotten back that morning.  He´d been in his room sleeping, even through all of our really, really loud noise, and had no idea we´d had a little unit goodbye party in the lounge.  Haha, gotta love Shana! :-)

          On Saturday I think I just studied for my Global Poverty & Development final.  Sunday included more studying, and saying goodbye to Kate, who was leaving for her home in Tamworth.  Justyne´s dad is here visiting for the semester break, so Sunday night he bought a bunch of Pizza Hut pizzas to share with the people still left in our unit and some of Justyne´s other Evatt friends.

          I took my very last final exam on Thursday afternoon.  It was 6 short answers and 2 essays, and I feel like it went really well.  It´s always nice to end on a good exam. :-)  That night I just stayed in my unit, packing my bags as I watched the movie Blue Crush on my laptop.

          Tuesday morning I had to say goodbye to Justyne because she was leaving with her dad to travel up the coast for the semester break.  But the rest of Tuesday was awesome because Caryn and I went to Sydney for the day!  I seriously love my daytrips to Sydney! :-)  We took a train down in the morning, and it took about 2.5 hours.  Then we just started walking, stopping at shopping centers, individual souvenir shops, and whatever else looked interesting.  It was kind of a gloomy looking day, but it only rained on us once, and it wasn´t too bad because we were luckily near a building with a big overhang, so we just waited there for the downpour to cease.  We ended up walking to the Sydney Harbor, where we took a ferry under the Harbor Bridge, around to Darling Harbor.  When we got to Darling, we went to the Sydney Aquarium.  Going there was a great idea (cheers, Caryn!) because the displays are just awesome.  They have a couple walkways that go right under the huge tanks filled with giant (and I mean GIANT) manta rays, lots of different sharks, and tons of fish.  The Aquarium has the largest Great Barrier Reef display in the world, and that was cool to see since I didn´t make it up the East coast of Australia this time.  After the Aquarium, it was getting dark, so we went to the Harbourside Markets (a big shopping center) at Darling, and then we started the fairly long walk back to Central Station.  We grabbed our traditional Hungry Jack´s (aka Burger King) meal at the train station and ate our late dinner while we waited for our train back to Newcastle.  It´s funny because at home I basically never eat out, but every time I go to Sydney, me and the people I´m with have to get Hungry Jack´s at the train station before we go back to uni.  Haha :-)

          I think I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday packing, unpacking, and repacking my bags several times haha!  I was trying to get everything to fit, with my carry-ons being as light as possible... I should´ve known that was gonna be impossible, and after all my efforts and creative ideas of new ways to organize things, my carry-ons were still killers. :-)

          Friday, July 1^st, was my last day in Newcastle.  Unfortunately, no one was really around because Kay left shortly after I woke up.  I spent the afternoon cleaning out my room and washing down my closet and desk and shelves.  Then I vacuumed and folded up my bedding and made sure I had everything on the checkout list completed.  Stevo signed my checkout list before he left for work, and then the unit was pretty much empty.  I think Sheany had gone somewhere for a couple of days, so I didn´t get to see her one last time, but luckily Shana was still around.  His friend James was visiting, so Friday night they came and chatted with me before the bus picked me up at 3:45am.  They also helped me carry my heavy suitcases down the stairs and out to the bus, which my shoulders and arms appreciated very much. :-)  So that was my last goodbye.  I gave Shana a hug, hopped on the shuttle bus, and was on my way to the Sydney airport.

          The shuttle driver, Mark, picked up only 2 more people off-campus, and then we set off for Sydney.  We made one quick bathroom/coffee stop, and arrived at the Sydney airport before 7am.  My flight was scheduled to depart at 9:45am, so I got in the checkout line, which was already really long.  Once I got my boarding pass, I headed for the gate to wait for my plane to leave.  The flight was delayed by a half-hour, but that´s not too bad, and the flight went smoothly.  I hadn´t properly slept for over a day, since I didn´t go to bed before the shuttle bus came at 3:45am, so I had planned on sleeping on the 14-hour flight.  I usually don´t have any troubles sleeping on planes, but for some reason I couldn´t get to sleep and stay asleep on this flight.  It was okay, though, because they play several movies on different channels, and have various TV channels you can watch, too.  I felt bad because I had the aisle seat, and the 2 guys next to me had to literally stand on their seats and step across me on the arm rests to get out.  At first I tried just getting up for them, but with the guy in front of me fully reclined, they still had no room to scoot out.  So they decided walking on the armrests was easier, and perhaps more fun?  Who knows? :-)

          With the time change, we landed in LA around 6:15am, which is 4 hours before we left in Sydney!  Isn´t that weird to think about?!  I got through luggage claim, customs, and security without any problems.  But I was feeling hot and gross and sore from my overloaded laptop backpack and carry-on gym bag.  So the first thing I did after clearing security was find the ladies´ room to wash my face, clean up a bit, and change clothes.  Man does it feel good to be in fresh clothes now!  Haha :-)  I also found a payphone to call home, and as luck would have it, my Grandma and Grandpa K had just gotten to my house, so I got to talk to them as well as my parents.  I guess they´re pretty excited to see me at 9:10pm tonight, when my flight is supposed to land in Cedar Rapids.  Haha :-)

          After calling home, I went to find a currency exchange kiosk to trade in my last $20 Australian bill.  Now I´m just sitting at Gate 48A, waiting to board my plane in another hour and a half.  I´m glad I had to go through customs and such, because it´s made this 6-hour layover in LAX go so much faster.  I had no idea how I was going to stay entertained for 6 hours in an airport, but I can handle an hour & a half (now that I´m done typing this).  I can´t believe my time in Australia is truly, totally over.  I´m back in the States, and I have no idea if or when I´ll return to Australia.  But I´m gonna do my best to make it back someday because I know I´m going to miss the country, the people, and mostly the friends I met while studying abroad!

10:44 PM - Thursday, July 7, 2005 - comments {1} - post comment

Elissa´s Hens Party (aka Bachelorette Party) (20 June 2005)

          Since my physics exam was finished on Thursday, I don´t think I did much on Friday.  Friday night I was just starting to read through lecture notes for Global Poverty & Development when Rachel called.  She wanted to go visiting at IH (International House), so I decided to go with her.  We ended up at Jeram´s unit, and Katie, Alex, and Jason were already there when we arrived.  They were trying to pick a movie to watch, so Rachel and I decided to stay for the movie, but Katie and Alex decided to leave to go to bed because it was getting late.  So, Jeram, Jason, Rachel, and I watched a scary movie and chatted a bit before Rachel and I walked back to Evatt.

          On Saturday I woke up super late, well into the afternoon, but I think it was because I´ve been having pretty bad headaches most nights, and I´d had one the night before.  Usually when I wake up, my head is fine until evening, but on Saturday I started having a slight headache about an hour after waking up.  So I didn´t do much on Saturday either, due to that fact.  On Sunday afternoon Justyne (who´s licensed to give massages) rubbed out my back, neck, and shoulders a bit, so that was awesome.  I love living with a masseuse.  Haha :-)  Sunday night Rachel, Flick, and I went to Unichurch at 7pm.  We chatted with people afterwards, then came back to Evatt.  I watched some TV, waiting to call home for Father´s Day.  Finally around 11pm my time, I checked my computer and Mom was online, so I figured it was almost time to call.  Brandon got online too, and told me to wait until they had things ready for Dad to come into the room.  Then I was supposed to "call" their computer through this program we downloaded called "Skype".  It lets us talk for free over the computer, so we think it´s pretty nifty. :-)  Apparently there was a delay so when we were singing our traditional cheesy "Happy Father´s Day" song, my vocals were delaying a few syllables after Mom and Brandon´s.  The three of them found it hilarious, as I could tell from their hysterical laughing at me. :-)

          Today (Monday) I slept in (yes, again!) since I was up pretty late talking to the family.  Then I got ready quickly and hurried across campus to buy some stamps for more postcards and such before the Post Office closed.  Then I went to the Geography building to pick up my graded major paper for Global Poverty and Development.  I got a good grade, so no worries there (in case you were concerned haha).  I also ran into Brendan, a friend from class and Reality Bible study, so we walked back across campus to Evatt, and then he continued on to Ted´s Hall. 

          When I got back to my unit, everyone was cleaning since it was inspection day, so I did my job for the week and made sure all the other jobs were covered since Leah and Shana were gone.  Everyone else had already finished Leah and Shana´s jobs, so I just waited til they were done in the kitchen, and then I began making brownies.  Yum! :-)  I´d actually bought the box of brownie mix the first week I was in Newcastle, but I still hadn´t found a good occasion to make them.  Haha :-)  But tonight Amy and Bree from Reality were throwing a surprise "Hen´s Party" (aka Bachelorette Party) for Elissa, an American from Reality.  She came here for a semester, already engaged to a guy from home, and already having her whole wedding planned.  She´s getting married July 30^th, and doesn´t fly home til July 2^nd!  What a crazy girl!  But we´re glad she came to Australia this semester anyways! ;-)  The Hen´s Party was a lot of fun, and it was great to see some of the girls one last time.  Now I´m back at Evatt, feeling a bit sick from trying all the baked goodies Pip brought and the brownies I made, and wondering if I should go to bed or continue the packing process.  Hmmm... ;-)

8:58 AM - Monday, June 20, 2005 - comments {1} - post comment

Farewell, Physics!!! (16 June 2005)

          This past Sunday I studied during the afternoon and then went to Unichurch with Rachel.  I found out when I got there that it was Bri´s last time at Unichurch.  She is the girl from Iowa State who I met at the NCS lighthouse walk and ice-cream social during O-week.  I haven´t spent much time with her, other than saying hi at church, but it´s still a bummer to see her go.  It´s amazing how you can just have this underlying connection with other Christians.  I suppose it shouldn´t be surprising, since we´re all a part of the same body, that of Christ.  And saying goodbye to Bri wasn´t terribly hard since she goes to ISU and is from Minnesota, so there´s a chance I´ll see her again when I get home.  When I got back to Evatt after Unichurch, a bunch of people were playing Scattegories in our unit, so I joined in for a couple rounds before holing up in my room with all my physics notes.

          The rest of the week was pretty much spent stuck in C 1^st, cramming my brain full of physics until it was properly overflowing.  Sometimes I´d change things up a bit and bring some physics notes out to the living room to study in front of the TV, but mostly I stayed in my room attempting to concentrate... attempting being the key word. ;-)  Today (Thursday), I took the final exam from 9:15-12:25.  I´ve never taken a 3-hour final exam before, but the time passed rather quickly, as I´m sure you can imagine.  I honestly have no idea how I did since a mere 75% is considered an "A" at home, but I´ve never failed a multiple choice test before, and the first 45 questions were multiple choice.  The last 6 questions were worth 10 points each, and consisted of showing work for problems, explaining equations, and describing theories.  When I got back from my exam, I went to my room and eventually took a 4-hour nap!  Haha!  I´m usually not big on naps, even when I don´t get much sleep at night, but last night I only had 2 hours of sleep before my exam.  I don´t want to get sick, and Gerad already has a head cold and Kay has tonsillitis, so I want to be careful to stay healthy the rest of the time I´m here.  Now that physics is over (yay!), I only have one final left in Global Poverty and Development.  The exam isn´t until June 27^th, though, so I will probably spend much of this weekend and next week cleaning out my room and packing.  I can´t believe it´s already time for me to scrunch my whole life into 2 small suitcases again!  I still remember packing, repacking, and repacking again at the start of this year.  It´s astonishing how time flies, huh?

4:31 AM - Thursday, June 16, 2005 - comments {0} - post comment

Only 3 Weeks Left... (11 June 2005)

          On Wednesday the 8^th, I had my last Aboriginal Studies tutorial.  Then my afternoon and evening were free to study... but I can´t actually remember if I did any studying.  Haha :-)  I know that night I read through all of the Aboriginal lectures since the final exam was Thursday morning.  But the test was really easy, just 10 short answer questions over main ideas of the history of Indigenous Australians and the tolls colonization has taken on their lives and culture.  It´s actually quite sad because even as late as 1969, the Australian government removed Aboriginal children from their parents for any reason (meaning, for no good reason).  These children and the generations before are known as the "Stolen Generations", and I have never heard of anything like it.  Basically, at the start of the European colonization of Australian, the white people wanted to be rid of the Indigenous peoples.  So they figured they would remove all lighter skinned Aboriginal children and "half-castes" from their homes and force them into white "boarding schools".  They hoped to train them to live more like the white people.  They also wanted to "breed out" the dark skin so their children would become lighter and lighter, eventually exterminating all "black blood" from Australia.  The Stolen Generations were never reunited with their families.  Today, many Aboriginal people come from that shameful era (1969 wasn´t that long ago), and they still have no idea who their family are or where they come from.  Anyways, I didn´t mean to get on this tangent, but I think it´s a shame that I was never taught about any other country´s Indigenous peoples back home.  It´s also sad that Americans have no idea the bad situation that Aboriginals still face in Australia.  This is the only Westernized country that hasn´t made any form of treaty with its Indigenous people, and many of them live in poverty that's as bad or worse than in 3^rd World countries.  I´ve never even seen one Aboriginal person on any of the Australian TV programs, reality TV shows, news shows, or anything.  How sad. :-(

          Sorry, back to my week. :-)  So, Thursday morning was the Aboriginal test.  Then Caryn and I went back to International House and Evatt House to make ourselves lunch before catching a bus to Charlestown.  We decided that we needed to go shopping at Charlie´s to celebrate the end of our time in Aboriginal Studies. ;-)  Neither of us really bought much, but it was fun to wander around the big shopping mall, just browsing in the stores.  And since we each only bought one thing, we decided we could splurge at Gloria Jean´s.  So we were each going to get a Tim-Tam Iced Chocolate, but then I saw this Oreo Cheesecake. :-)  I´m not even a big fan of cheesecake, but I accidentally convinced Caryn that it looked irresistible, so for a minute we thought we´d each get a slice of the Oreo Cheesecake AND an Iced Tim-Tam.  However, I knew I´d be forever sick if I ate that much, so Caryn suggested we just split one piece of the cheesecake... and of course still each get our Iced Tim-Tam.  Haha!  Wow, that was the richest combination ever!  I hope I never do that again, but I suppose it was a fun (or funny?) ending to our day at Charlie´s! :-)  So then we went outside to wait for the 226 bus to take us back to Newcastle.  After waiting at the wrong bus stop for 45 minutes, we figured out that we needed to go around the corner.  So we waited another 15 minutes or so, and finally the 226 arrived.  We decided to hop off in Jesmond, to run into Blockbuster for Caryn and the mall to check hair salon prices for me.  Then we hopped on the Thursday night free bus back to campus.

          Friday began my physics cramming.  I have until next Thursday, June 16^th to learn a semester´s worth of information.  It actually might be possible, if I can get myself studying a little more quickly than the past 2 days.  Haha!  I also went on a short run and walk on Friday as a study break.  It was amazingly warm outside, which was odd because it was really chilly for several weeks, and it´s officially winter here I guess.  But I´m not going to complain because I definitely am enjoying the unexpected warm(er) spell.  Don´t get me wrong, it´s not incredibly warm, and it´s definitely not hot, but at least I´m not feeling the need to wear 3 layers and have my room heater on these past couple of days. :-)  After I showered, I took Kay up on her offer to cut my hair since the hair salons were too expensive.  Don't worry, she just trimmed up the shabby ends for me, nothing drastic this time. ;-)

          Today (Saturday), I studied for a good part of the afternoon and early evening.  Then a group of people were going to watch a couple of movies in CAT Room, so I decided that sounded like much more fun that working out physics problems.  Can you blame me? :-)  Plus, I realized I now have less than 3 weeks with these people before I leave for the States.  And in all reality, I probably won´t see them ever again, so I figure I better spend as much time with them while I still have the chance.  I think it´s going to be a lot harder to leave than I ever imagined.  The closer it comes to my departure, the more I miss here, which is weird since I haven´t left yet.  But I guess that´s to be expected, and everyone has warned us International students that going home will be a reverse culture shock, and we´ll probably be down for awhile.  So, I guess I just want to warn everyone at home that if I´m homesick for Australia, it´s not because I don´t miss and love all of you!  I promise! :-)  I definitely miss home very much, but since I´ve been here for a whole semester on my own, this has become my surrogate home and surrogate family in a way.  And knowing that I probably can´t come back soon enough to see these same people again makes it even harder to leave.  But I will be thrilled to see all my family and friends when I come home in July, have no doubt about that! ;-)

10:41 AM - Saturday, June 11, 2005 - comments {0} - post comment

Reality Bible Study Farewell (7 June 2005)

          Monday was my last Physics lab here at the University of Newcastle!  I´m so excited to be done with that lab, although my partner and I actually did really well on most of our lab reports, and I did well on my own lab notebook write-ups.  The Physics lecture is another story, though... let´s just say I´m definitely not looking forward to the cumulative final next week!  Haha :-)  Monday night was pretty uneventful, so I began to think about packing to fly home.  There are some clothes and flip-flops that I´m planning on throwing away when I leave, but I´m still not sure how I ever fit all my stuff into two small suitcases on the way here!  Haha :-)

          Today (Tuesday), I went for a good walk, then came back to Evatt to get ready for the day.  Sheany took me to Jezzo to go grocery shopping, and then we stopped into Gloria Jean´s Coffee to use my "Buy one, get one free" coupon.  I got a Tim-Tam Iced Chocolate, which was so wonderful!  It was like eating an ice-creamy liquid Tim-Tam.  To those of you who´ve never had a Tim-Tam, you don´t know what you´re missing! :-)  After a long chat, Sheany and I came back to Evatt.  I had some dinner, and then headed to Reality.  This week was the last Reality meeting of the semester, which means it was my last Reality ever! :-(  To make it special, we just had a social night in the city.  We went to a little café place for coffees, mochas, hot chocolates, ice-cream, and bakery treats.  I was still full from Gloria Jean´s, so I actually didn´t get anything.  But it was good to just have a chat with everyone and take pictures.  I´m so bummed to be leaving all of these wonderful people!  I think it´s harder to leave people here because I know I may never see them again, at least not in this world.  But maybe if I´m lucky, some of the Australians will be able to visit the States.  And I sincerely hope that someday I´ll be able to come back to Australia! :-)

10:09 AM - Tuesday, June 7, 2005 - comments {0} - post comment

Back From Melbourne (5 June 2005)

          On Wednesday, May 25^th, I had my Aboriginal tutorial from 1-3pm, and then I spent the rest of the day studying for my Physics Progressive Assessment and writing my Global Poverty & Development paper.  On Thursday I was done with my Physics Assessment at 1:00, and then I came back to Evatt to finish the Bibliography for my paper before walking it across campus to put it in the class assignment box.   Thursday night I was waiting to take the free bus to Jezzo, but from 6pm til 8pm, we never saw it drive up in front of Evatt.  I was bummed because I wanted to get some groceries, and I didn´t know why the free bus wasn´t showing up like usual.  But thankfully around 8 pm I finally saw the bus out the window, so I took the next bus at 8:15.  I did the fastest shop ever, in hopes of catching the very next bus back to Evatt, but since I ran into some friends from Reality at the grocery store, I ended up missing the next bus by about 20 seconds.  That meant I had to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus, and since it was the last free bus for the night, we had to wait until 9:10pm for the last people to board.  Oh well, I tried. :-)

          I honestly can´t remember if I did anything on Friday, but on Saturday morning I went to Prue´s room in Ted´s Hall for a goodbye pancake brunch for Britton.  She is the girlfriend of Chris from my Bible study, who was visiting him from South Carolina.  Chris made banana pancakes, which he and Britton highly recommended, and which I enjoyed very much. :-)  After the goodbye brunch, I decided to go on a really long walk.  It was a gorgeous day, so I headed out from Evatt and started off on my normal route.  But instead of turning and circling around campus, I decided to take the sidewalk under the road to see where it led.  After following that sidewalk to its end, I headed back to campus and walked through campus, taking pictures.  Then I walked off the other side of campus, past the train station, to the pond I used to jog around.  I took more pictures there, and then walked back to Evatt, finishing my walk after a total of about 2 hours.  That walk was the best idea I´ve had in a long time!  It was such a beautiful day, and it felt so good to be out in the fresh air for so long, just walking and enjoying God´s creation and listening for Him.

          That night Rachel and I worked at a 21^st birthday party for 2 girls from church, Elissa and Prue (not from Bible study).  Our job was to take food out of the oven, arrange it on trays, and keep the punch, water, and coffee full for the guests.  We were there for about 6 hours I think, but it was actually a pretty good time.  Lots of the guests were our friends from Unichurch or Reality, so some of them came in to the kitchen to chat every now and then.  And there was SO much food!  I honestly can´t describe how much food Prue and Elissa´s families had prepared for their party!  First we set out all of the savories, then after the first set of games and speeches we set out the desserts, and after the second set of games and speeches we set out supper (which means an after-dinner snack in Australia).  And for each course there were massive amounts of food, and tons of variety.  For example, the desserts included several kinds of cheese cakes, chocolate, vanilla, and caramel cakes, several trays of apple danish, about 5 pans of apple crumble, 3 big bowls of chocolate mouse, 2 big fruit trays, and more!  Many of it was never set out because people weren´t eating all that was on the tables, and of the things we did set out, much of it was still left over at the end of the night!  They had so much food left over, no one knew how they´d finish it all off in the next couple of days since the girls´ families were leaving for home on Sunday.  But Rachel and I agreed to help them out when they offered us one of the little chocolate cakes to take back to Evatt. ;-)

          I was so exhausted from the busy school week and working at the birthday party that I accidentally slept through morning church.  Unichurch is always at 7pm, but on this Sunday they combined morning church and Unichurch, so I was supposed to go at 10am with Rachel and Fiona.  I must have really needed the sleep, though, because I ended up sleeping well into the afternoon.  That night I did a little school work, then watched the extended version of Lord of the Rings II in CAT Room with Gerad, Gus, Brendan, and maybe some other guys.  I probably should have gone to bed early, but who can resist the chance to see new scenes from LOTR?  Haha! ;-)

          On Monday morning my block woke up at 6am to go watch the sunrise at the beach.  It was kind of cloudy, so we were afraid we wouldn´t be able to see the sunrise.  But it turned out that not only did we see the sun crest the horizon, we also saw it rise above the line of clouds.  So it was pretty much like seeing two sunrises within 10 minutes.  Afterwards we stopped at McDonald´s (a.k.a. Mackers), for some breakfast.  Then we drove back to Evatt, where I had to finish my Physics lab prep and then clean the living room and hallways for Monday inspection.  That afternoon, my second-to-last Physics lab went really good.  Then that night I watched the extended version of Lord of the Rings III in CAT Room with Gus.  Once again, I probably should´ve been sleeping, but I couldn´t turn down more new scenes in LOTR!  :-)

          On Tuesday I went to my Global Poverty & Development lecture, then I took a nap during the afternoon to make up for the sleep I missed watching LOTR.  Haha :-)  That night I went to Reality, where they had a cake for Liz´s birthday.  They also sang to me and said the cake was for me since my birthday was on Thursday that week.  After Reality, I walked back to Evatt to discover that my unit mates had the yummiest, gooiest chocolate frosted cake waiting for me.  So after they sang Happy Birthday to me, we all shared the cake.  Then we went to CAT Room with Gus and some others to watch Remember the Titans. 

          On Wednesday I went to my Physics tutorial and my Aboriginal tutorial.  Then I went back to Evatt to finish packing for Melbourne.  Around 4:00, Corina (a girl from Rachel´s unit) drove us two girls to Newcastle airport.  And we were off to Melbourne!!

          In Melbourne, Jessi´s friend Jayson drove Jessi and their friend Annie to pick up Rachel and me from Tullamarine Airport.  Then we headed straight for the biggest shopping center in the Southern Hemisphere!  There was a big sale, so the mall was open late, til 11:00pm.  I was a good girl, and only bought one sweater. ;-)

          Thursday was my birthday, so after showering and getting ready, I opened birthday cards that my family had sent me the week before.  I was also finally able to open the parcel my Mama had sent me!  Thanks again Mom & Dad! :-)  After a quick breakfast of toast, Rachel and I set out across the Monash University campus to find the bus stop.  The bus took us to Huntingdale train station, where we caught a train to Flinders Street Station in Melbourne.  Then we basically walked straight up Swanston Street from the train station to go to all the shops, boutiques, and souvenir shops we could find.  Melbourne has a lot of cool buildings, and is basically known for its shopping and culture.  I found a cute sweater top at a boutique and some more souvenirs for friends and family back home.  So, it was a good and successful 22^nd birthday for me. ;-)

          On Friday, Rachel and I didn´t do too much.  Jess, Rachel, and I walked to Monash Pizza for a late lunch, and then we walked to a cheap cinema to watch a movie.  Later that night we went back to the cinema with some of Jessi´s friends to watch another movie, followed by a late dinner at Subway.  Jess and her friends are all really cool and really friendly.  Rachel and I loved being around them, and it was hilarious listening to all their stories about each other and life on their campus.

          On Saturday I was really excited because Rachel and I were going to Phillip Island to see the Penguin Parade! :-)  We booked a ride with Duck Truck Tours, which picked us up at 12:15pm outside St. Paul´s Cathedral, across from Flinders Street Station.  Then we drove the 1 or 2 hours to a Wildlife Park.  The park rescues injured Australian animals, and tries to reintroduce them to the wild after nurturing them back to health.  We saw and pet wombats, then we fed wallabies and Eastern Grey kangaroos, and took pictures of adorable koalas.  We also saw a freshwater croc, Tasmanian Devils, dingoes, emus, a Shetland pony, and a bunch of big Red kangaroos.  A couple of the Red kangaroos had joeys in their pouches, so we got to see the joeys poking their heads or feet out from time-to-time.

          After the Wildlife Park we drove the rest of the way to Phillip Island.  Our driver took us to Woolamai Beach, and then we ate an early dinner at Amaroo Park, where Duck Truck Tours is based.  Dinner was awesome, with chicken parmesan, baked potatoes, cooked veggies, bread & butter, and custard with peaches for dessert.  The custard was pretty tasteless, but the rest of the food was amazing!  After dinner we drove to Point Grant to look across Bass Straight towards the Nobbies and Seal Rocks.  We also saw a few fairy penguins hiding under the boardwalk.  Then we headed to Phillip Island Nature Park for the Penguin Parade.  Our tour group got to sit in the Penguin Plus viewing area to watch the Fairy Penguins come out of the ocean and walk up the beach.  It was so cool to see the flocks of penguins surfing up onto the beach.  And when they waddled past our viewing area, their little bodies just wiggled all over the place!  Haha, they were so cute!  I think watching penguins trying to hurry up a sandy beach is the funniest thing ever!  Unfortunately, we weren´t allowed to take any pictures or videos because camera flashes can harm the penguins´ sensitive eyes.  But hopefully I´ll be able to remember what they looked like for a long time.

          After watching a couple big groups of penguins walk up the beach, I headed back to the huge penguin souvenir shop.  There was so much cool stuff that I had a hard time picking out what to buy, and what I really didn´t need.  Haha :-)  Around 7pm we headed back for Melbourne.  Rachel and I said we were supposed to be dropped off at St. Paul´s again, but as we were driving back, I thought we passed Monash University.  I didn´t think it was Jessi´s campus since there are multiple Monash campuses, but then Rachel saw a sign for Clayton (the suburb Jessi´s campus is in).  So Rachel walked to the front of the van and asked the driver if we were by the Clayton campus.  He said we´d just passed it, so we decided to hop of the van right there on the side of the road.  We figured walking back to campus from there was a lot better than driving another half-hour to St. Paul´s, then making the hour-long train ride to Clayton Station, where we´d have to find and pay a taxi to drive us to campus.  When we got back to Jessi´s building, we ate a late dinner, which ended up being the ice-cream I´d bought on Friday.  Haha, how healthy! :-)  Then we just chatted with Jessi and her friends, Chrissi and Marty.  Later we made an Alfredo pasta packet, so I guess we had our dinner and dessert backwards for the night. :-) 

          It was a really late night, since it was our last day in Melbourne, so Rachel and I were both really tired when we called for a taxi to the airport at 6am.  The taxi came around 6:45am, and we got into Tullamarine Airport around 7:40am.  We were on separate flights out of Melbourne, since it was cheaper for me to fly Jetstar, whereas Rachel had a voucher for a VirginBlue flight.  Since our flights were only 15 minutes apart, it wasn´t a big deal, and my unit mate, Kate said she could pick us up from Newcastle Airport a little after 10am.

          When we got back to Evatt, I unpacked and headed for bed.  Other than my Physics lab and Aboriginal tutorial this week, all I have left are my 3 final exams.  So, I figured sleeping away my Sunday afternoon really wouldn´t matter, and frankly I was exhausted from the excitement and lack of sleep from our trip to Melbourne.  I woke up a little before 5pm, showered, and ate some dinner.  Now, I´m obviously working on this massive journal update while watching TV.  Tomorrow is my last Physics lab in Newcastle!  Yay! :-)  Wednesday I have a review session in my Aboriginal tutorial, and Thursday I take my Aboriginal final exam.  I´m positive it´s going to be really easy since it´s just 10 short-answer questions over the basic information we´ve learned this semester.  After that test I will have to cram for my Physics final, which is going to be killer the next week.  Then I will have over a week before my last exam, so I will probably spend that week packing to come home and taking another daytrip to Sydney.  I can´t believe I have less than a month left in Australia!!!

6:02 AM - Sunday, June 5, 2005 - comments {0} - post comment

I´m Officially NOT a Fan of Physics! :-) (24 May 2005)

          This past weekend I spent most of my free time attempting to study for Physics.  The second Progressive Assessment test is this week, on Thursday, and I am definitely not feeling prepared.  I know it´s my fault, and I should´ve been taking this class more seriously all semester.  But honestly, I most likely don´t really need this type of physics for my future, not to mention that I´m in a foreign country, attempting to travel and see as much as I can while I still have the chance.  So, I guess something had to suffer, and it looks like it might be my Physics grade! :-) 

          The only other memorable thing from this weekend was when Erin discovered we had ants crawling all over our kitchen sink and counters!  Our kitchen is always feral, but getting any kind of living bug or critter is just the straw to break the camel´s back!  So Erin and I began washing up a bunch of dirty dishes, then Sheany came in to help, so we three girls scrubbed the whole kitchen clean.  About the time we were finishing, Stevo came in and realized what we´d just done.  Thankfully, he thinks the kitchen situation is out of control as well, so he´s calling a block meeting tonight.  Hopefully whoever is leaving dirty messes will keep their dishes washed up for the last few weeks of the semester!  If you want to see my attempt at capturing our feral kitchen on film, check out my photo log at http://linzykinz83.fotopages.com.  I´m surprised we haven´t had more problems with bugs because the grossness of the kitchen this weekend wasn´t nearly as bad as it usually gets!  But life goes on, and at least we didn´t find any cockroaches or mice! Haha! :-)

          Other than that, I am trying to stay focused on preparing for my Physics Progressive Assessment.  I also have a paper due in Global Poverty & Development that same day, but I´ve already written half of it, so I should finish that in plenty of time.  After those two things are finished, all I have to worry about are my 3 final exams.  I have my Aboriginal Studies exam on June 9^th, before finals week actually begins.  Then I will have about a week to study for my cumulative Physics exam that´s on June 16^th.  My last exam is in Global Poverty & Development on June 27^th.  Then I will have just 5 days to finish packing and to say all my goodbyes before flying back to the States.  I can´t believe I only have about 40 days left in Australia!  I´m definitely ready to see my family and friends, and I´m fully ready for some big bear-hugs, haha!  But I will definitely miss Newcastle and all of the wonderful people I´ve met here.  It´s so weird to think that I might never again see my friends from Australia.   Missing people I´ve met here is definitely going to be the hardest thing to deal with once I´m home.  But I´m not surprised because people are the only thing I´ve truly missed from home, too.

7:44 AM - Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - comments {0} - post comment

I Got A Plane Ticket Home! (20 May 2005)

          Last weekend was fairly uneventful, if I remember correctly.  I believe on Friday night, Rachel and I headed to Ted´s Hall to watch movies with church and Reality people.  But there was a huge group of guys watching footy (rugby), so we ended up watching the movies at IH (International House) in Alex´s unit (she´s also American).  Then Saturday night, half of my unit was gone, either out of town or at work, so the rest of us decided to have a night in.  Erin, Shana, Justyne, and I convinced Sheany to drive us in to Jezzo so we could get some junk food, then we came back to Evatt to watch a movie.  Since we no longer have a DVD player (ours broke and we think that the one we "borrowed" from C Ground was perhaps reclaimed), we thought we´d try watching a movie on Sheany´s computer.  So, she brought her laptop into the living room, and Shana hooked it up to his larger computer monitor that he also brought into the living room.  After a big hassle, they finally got it working, and we were able to watch a movie from Sheany´s laptop on Shana´s big monitor... isn´t technology cool? :-)  After the movie I hung around with Justyne and Sheany as they fiddled around on Sheany´s guitar, and then we went to CAT Room so Sheany could play piano. 

          Sunday night I went to Unichurch, of course, and Pastor Greg gave another talk on Exodus.  It´s pretty neat how applicable the Old Testament is to our lives today.  I love how Greg parallels God forgiving the Israelites to God forgiving us; however, we´re blessed enough to have Jesus as our blood offering, so we don´t have to do all the things the Israelites had to do.  On Tuesday night I had another good talk about the Bible in Reality.  We went through Ephesians 5:22-6:9, which is the section on wives, husbands, children, slaves, and masters.  It´s always good to look at every relationship we have on earth in terms of Christ´s relationship with us.  It´s amazing how much Christ has done for us, and we should really let His love shine in every area of our life, towards everyone we meet, whether it´s a family member, a friend, a boss, an employee, or someone else.  So yeah, I just wanted you all to know what we´ve been talking about at church and Bible study! :-)

          The rest of this week I´ve just been working on a paper and studying for Physics, although probably not as much as I should have!  Haha :-)  I have another Progressive Assessment test this week in Physics, so hopefully I can stay dedicated to studying this weekend!

          Now for the EXCITING part of this week... I talked to my parents, and we decided that it will be easiest if I leave my return flight from Sydney to LA as it was originally scheduled.  Therefore, my flight should leave Sydney at 9:45am on Saturday, July 2^nd, and after a 13+ hour flight, land in LA at 6:10am the same day.  Yes, that´s right... I will arrive in LA 3 hours before I ever left Sydney, after a 13+ hour flight!  Haha, this time zone thing is crazy!  Then I will have about 6 hours to explore LAX airport before flying to Dallas, where I have about 2 hours to explore.  Finally, I will fly into Cedar Rapids a little after 9:00pm on Saturday, July 2^nd!!!  Yay!  I will be really sad to leave this wonderful place, and all the terrific people I´ve met, but I am definitely looking forward to seeing my family and friends again! :-)

          Today is Friday, and I´m just glad it´s not raining!  The rain has come down in torrents over the past week, and I was getting so bummed out, always being soaking wet and muddy and cold.  My jeans and sweatshirts never had time to fully dry before I´d have to go back out in the rain.  But God must´ve known I needed a break from the rain because this is the 2^nd day in a row without a downpour!  Woo-hoo!  I was seriously about to cry walking home from class the last time it rained, I was just so cold and wet since I never bought an umbrella here.  And I don´t wanna waste my money now, since I´ll be home in a month and a half!  Haha!  So praise God for sunshine today!  Let´s hope it continues until July!  :-)

1:17 AM - Friday, May 20, 2005 - comments {0} - post comment