"But you're American, you HAVE to like NFL!"

3/31/2012

Saturday. Today was the first day back at Service placement for 2 weeks. The past two weeks were canceled due to a women’s conference that Hillsong was putting on.

So I woke up at 7:30. I had wanted to leave by 7:15. Got out the door by 7:38. Made it to central station by 8:05. Although this is impressive, it was not my ideal morning. But I made it and met up with the group and we waited for Druvi (the guy in charge) to come pick us up.

Service today was kind of weird. We usually go and knock on doors and talk to people. But today, we knocked on at least 30, maybe more doors, and we only got to talk to 2 people. It was just not our day. But it was still fun hanging out with my team of Corey, Kenny and a new lady, Violet. One of the women that we did talk to, Marcia, She gave us Easter candy. What a cutie!

After street teams I walked to a place called Paddy’s market. I don’t really know how to describe Paddy’s. It’s a market place that has lots and lots of booths with about everything you could think of. From souvenirs to clothes to toiletries, you can find it at Paddy’s. After that I went home. Ate lunch outside. It was a beautiful day!

Then I got ready and headed back to church. I got there and I ran into Linh. She saved me a seat in the service. After service there was another event happening. I hung out with Molly and Esther, the sisters from Wollongong. They had brought their friend Mel. The whole group took the shuttle bus to central station, then walked to a pub in the city. On the walk I started chatting with a guy from Brazil named Alison. He was embarrassed by his name, because in American and Australia Alison is a girls name. But when he says it with his accent it sounds very masculine. So we talked for a while. He is apparently a huge NFL fan and loves the Philadelphia Eagles. He thought I was so funny for not really being into NFL.

“But you’re AMERICAN! You HAVE to like NFL!”

No Alison. No I don’t. But he was super fun to talk to.

We followed a guy name Leighton to the pub. I ended up talking to him a bit tonight too. He was very silly. He has been several places in the states. From Seattle, to New York to Little Rock, Arkansas. I spent more time with Molly, Esther and Mel. Molly was so sweet and bought me a Lemon-Lime Bitters.

I talked to Allison a bit more and met his friend Rubin who is also from Brazil. We talked about Portuguese and how it is a much prettier language than English. I have to say, coming out of his mouth, it was.

After everyone had finished eating, we broke up into teams. A Campaign that Hillsong is doing is += <3 (but a real cross and a real heart). The event was supposed to be using chalk and writing it around the city. But apparently there was complaints around the city, so we had flyers with += <3 in various forms on them that we hung around the city. My group ended up being Charlie, Alec, and Jane. Jane is from Korea and is also a graphic design student. Alec and Charlie are both from Australia.

I spent most of the time just talking with Charlie. I had met Charlie a few weeks ago, but we didn’t talk all that much. After tonight, I have confirmed that he is probably one of the funniest people I have ever met. I was just thinking to myself  today that I haven’t a good hard laugh here like I usually do when I’m with Natalie or Gina back home (Shout out!).  But Charlie made me laugh harder than I have laughed on this whole trip. We have very similar senses of humor, so we were able to feed off of each other. By the end of the night we had inside jokes. I didn't know it was possible to have inside jokes with someone you've only been talking to for an hour. So yeah, he was great, and I really hope I can hang out with him more often than just Saturdays after church.

Then two of the groups sort of melded together and I met a man from Korea named Julliane. He is 26 and he just moved here 2 weeks ago. He was very nice. He is still learning English so he had to work really hard to talk to me. But he was very sweet. He lives with another Korean boy, Hong, in Strathfield which is really close to me. So the three of us were able to take the train back together. They were so funny. Between the two of them, they were trying to think of the right English words to talk to me. I think we might be getting together in the near future to get food and work on their English. I think they were both exhausted after talking to me. It is a lot of brain power to talk in another language. But they both did fine and we were able to communicate. 

I love meeting people. My roommates get mad at me (not really mad, just pretend mad), when I come home and tell them all the new people I met. People are so fun. If you just throw yourself out there you can meet some really cool people.

I think this has so far been my favorite night since I’ve been here.

Hot Sandwhiches and Watson's Bay

3/30/2012

Friday. Got up rather early and went to school. I had yet to finish my article. So I read on the bus and hand wrote the outline as I went. Writing on the bus is quite a difficult feat. When I got to school, I still wasn’t quite done. I sat in the student centre by Deckland, Blake and Ella (2^nd year Aussies) while I finished.

At 9 I went to class. We watched a documentary on the making of Ten Canoes (the movie we watched a few weeks ago). We also discussed the article that we had to read. Typical class stuff. After that, our afternoon session of class was canceled, so I headed to the library to type out my outline. After that, I ate my lunch with some people in the grassy knoll on campus.

Now, I have recently discovered, that the student centre has a Panini press in the kitchen area. So I was able to warm up my ham and cheese sandwich. Excited does not cover the emotion that I feel about this panini press. I was beginning to get tired of sandwiches, but hot sandwiches, I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of. This has revolutionized how I will eat lunch on campus for the rest of the term. Outstanding.

After eating, a group of us decided to go to Watson’s bay. It was Becky, Ronnie, Erica, Megan, Carly, Sarah and I. We took the 504 bus to circular Quay, then hopped on a ferry. We got there around 2:50. We walked around and headed toward the light house. To get the light house you have to walk past a nude beach. I had forgotten that it was a nude beach, so let’s just say I saw a lot more of Watson at Watson’s Bay than I had bargained for.

Ferry ride

Sydney

From the lighthouse it was a beautiful view. We had hoped to get back on the last ferry out of the bay by 3:50, but we just missed it when we got to the Warf. So we had to figure out how to catch a bus. We found a bus and we had to ride that for about an hour just to get back to the city. Megan passed out on the ride. Mouth open and everything. Oh the life of public transportation. We made it to circular quay, and bought some post cards. Then we hopped on a train home. We ate dinner and from there had a pretty quiet night in.

Can I be Mrs. Brenner?

3/29/2012

Thursday.

Class, lunch, class. Drew naked lady in life drawing. I was able to finish my Indigenous paper. Printed it and turned it in to the assignment box. I went home and grabbed some dinner, then turned around and went back to school to meet up with a group who was going to Max Brenners. I’ll explain what that is in a second, but for the fluidity of the story I’m going to move on.

While waiting at the bus stop I got talked to Ty for a bit. Ty is the ASC assistant. He just graduated from APU last May. So we played the “Do you know” game and listed everyone that we could think of that each other might know from APU. We did in fact know a handful of the same people. We discussed the fact that we probably saw each other around and didn’t know each other. I went to his graduation so I probably saw him walk and didn’t even know it. Crazy. Anyway, it was cool talking to him.

Now, Max Brenners is a wonderful place, where everything as chocolate in it, or on it. It is fantastic. I split a chocolate frappe drink with Megan. Toffee milk chocolate frappe. So good doesn’t begin to describe this drink.

A girl that we went with from Wesley was Rohita. Rohita is originally from Oman, but now lives in Australia. She is a dance major and she works at the library at Wesley. She is too cute, and it was really fun getting to hang out with her. She got something called Italian hot chocolate. Or something like that. It’s basically chocolate soup. Outrageously good. And it comes in a cup called a hug mug. The opening of a hug mug is shaped like an oxygen mask, so when you drink out of it, the top of the mug doesn’t run into your nose. Brilliant.

Some of the girls. Carly, Becky, Megan, Rohita, Me, Sarah

Joel, Ronnie, Becky, Sarah, Ty, Rohita, Carly

We ended up staying there for a while, telling bad jokes and attempting Aussie accents. Ty is insanely good at it. We deemed it his alter Australian ego Bruce. Ty tried to coach me on how to properly pronounce words like ‘no’, ‘go’ or ‘so’ like an Australian, but it is so hard! He kept telling me how I should be moving my tongue. I realized that I have never really been very aware of my tongue or how it moves when I talk. But after that lesson, sometimes I become hyper aware of my tongue and how it moves when I talk. Don’t over think about your tongue people. It will drive you crazy.

I got home later than I would like to say. And I still had an article to read and an outline to write. But it was totally worth it for a night out with the gang.

"You're shorts are too loud"

3/28/2012

Wednesday. Today I pretty much worked on a paper all day. We have a paper due on Friday in my Indigenous History Culture and Identity class. We have to pick an Aboriginal and write about them and how they have influenced Australia culture and how Australians view aboriginals. So that paper took me a while.

While I was at the library, A guy (Aussie) came in wearing a tank top that faded from white to hot pink at the bottom. Then he was wearing shorts that were also hot pink. And his tennis shoes were neon orange. This guy was rocking it. A few minutes later, a girl came in and she apparently knew hot pink shorts man. She accidently bumped into the wall with her bag, causing a little noise. Hot pink shorts name whispered to her: 

“Shh! You’re being too loud!”

To which she responded, “You’re shorts are too loud,”

I thought this was clever, so I laughed a little to what I thought was myself.

Hot pink shorts man said, “That’s not funny,”

And the girl pointed at me and said, “Well she thought it was funny,”

Whoa, lady. Why you gotta drag me into this?

Hot pink shorts man: “Yeah, well she’s American. Of course she thinks it’s funny,”

Whoa, hot pink shorts man, how do you know I’m American? And what do you mean ‘of course she thinks it’s funny,’? I just call ‘em like I see ‘em, bud.

Then doubting himself he said, “wait, you are American right?,”

I considered putting on my worst Aussie accent and pretending that I wasn’t American. Than I thought it would be much less humiliating if I just confirmed my nationality.

My ASC friends Joel and Ronnie were in a play that is showing tonight and tomorrow. They invited me to go, and since I was on campus so late anyway, I just stuck around for it. When I finished at the library, I wasn’t really sure where to go for the play. I knew I needed to buy a ticket but I didn’t know where to do that. I asked a girl, whose name is Lauren (Aussie) if she knew where I needed to go. She showed me where to go and we ended up chatting and then she decided that she wanted to see the play too. When we went up to the theater/classroom that the play was in, I ran into the funny girl from the library. Turns out her name is Faith and she knew Lauren, so they started talking. When Lauren introduced me, Faiths first words were, “You laughed at my joke!”

Yes. Yes I did Faith.

After the play I waited for Ronnie and Joel to change and then we were able to take the bus back together. Long day. But a good day.

Chicken Salt

  3/27/2012

Tuesday. Not too eventful. Tuesdays are my busy days.

Class.

Class.

Class.

During Ad design I went to Lashings with a group. Lashings is a burger place about a block or two from school. I just got fries, or ‘hot chips’ with chicken salt. Remember how I said that they love chicken flavored things here. Yeah. That’s a thing. These chips are crazy addicting, and they give you a lot for your money, I think.

 After that I ended up staying on campus and watching the movie Red Dog with a group of ASC people. This is such a good movie! If you’re into dog movies, watch it. It’s a true story, too! I don’t want to spoil it, but look into it. 

So, like I said, Tuesday’s are generally really boring, so here is when I dip into my secondary topics.

The way people, namely boys, dress here is very interesting. I’m just saying, there’s a lot of thigh out there that probably shouldn’t be. But I’m actually getting kind of used to it. I don’t know if short shorts on men has made it to the states yet, but if it ever gets there I will consider myself acclimated.

I'm #53

3/26/2012

Monday.

Today I had Photo class. We just worked on our projects. But only after the teacher talked for over half of the time. So I didn’t actually get a chance to shoot anything because I was helping other people and then class ended. So that stinks. And then the teacher had the nerve to get mad at us for not having our shots done. Maybe it’s because you talked trough most of our shooting time, sir.

When class got out, it was pouring down rain. So I decided to stay and eat my lunch in the classroom. Which worked out, because by the time I was done eating, it had stopped raining and it was time to go to counseling.

After counseling, I went to the design lab. I talked to Richard and Steve. We had a good conversation about American accents. Both of them, whenever they try to do an American accent, instantly do a southern accent. Then around 3:20, my friends from some of my classes (Courtney, Krystal and Jennica), got out of their class and the four of us went to go see The Hunger Games! IT WAS SO GOOD! I was so glad I got to go see it. And it was super fun to go with Aussies.

The theater that we went to was very nice. It had leather seats, wood paneled cup holders, (I’m sure it was all fake, but it looked nice), and CARPET FLOORS! What if I spill?! Too much trust. So yeah, it was nice. Courtney gave me a ride home after the movie.

Today was Michelle’s birthday. My roommates and I all went in on a nice bouquet of flowers. We signed the card from student 51, 52, 53, and 54, because we are the 51^st-54^th American student that they have hosted. She thought that was very funny. We also wrote her a nice card. All of the kids came home and we all ate dinner and dessert together. Dessert was this delicious ice-cream cake, the top layer was hazelnut and the bottom was chocolate. And the whole thing was covered in chocolate and fruit.  After that, the roommates and I returned to the granny flat so we could give Michelle time at with her children.

Death Wish

3/25/2012

Woke up very early on Sunday with my feet rather damp in the bottom of my sleeping bag. It had rained the night before and all along the edges of the tent were wet.  Elise and I decided, since we were up, to go watch the sunrise on the beach.

 On the walk down it was pitch black. So black, that I ran, chest first, into spider web. This was no ordinary spider web. This was the stickiest spider web I have ever encountered. And I was convinced that there was a giant spider on me. Elise assured me that there wasn’t. But it took a bit before a believed her. She  was a champ and helped me brush off the remaining web parts, even though it was so sticky I don’t think we got it all.

Even though it was raining and we couldn’t see anything, it was still pretty. We got to see dolphins taking a leisurely morning swim. No one was on the beach yet, it was so beautiful and peaceful. We walked over to another little cove, (walked into another spider web, much less sticky than the first. I clearly have a death wish. I let Elise lead from then on.)

 We spent a good hour down on the beach. Didn’t really talk, just took I the scenery:

Then we went back up, had breakfast. Tore down camp. Had a little debrief over what we had seen yesterday. While we were talking a Wallaby came into our site. It was the first Australian animal I’ve seen! It was so cute. It looked like a baby kangaroo.

When we were all done and packed up, we got on bus, and I sat by Tam. Went to another part of the area and walked down to another super pretty beach. Here Joe and Paul met us and we heard some last words from them. We had to leave really quickly because our bus driver had places to be. So we hoped on the bus and drove. Tam and I chatted all aobut our future lives and ideal occupations. We stopped at drivers house to drop of gear we had borrowed. He lives in country and we saw pack of wild Kangaroo in his yard. First kangaroo I’ve seen ever!!! They were pretty big too:

 Then we went father and stopped at Kiama for lunch (Subway platter = best thing ever).  Took more pictures.

Back on the road, I played a game with Tam, Ty, Michelle and Jennifer. First, we went through the alphabet and had to take turns naming a different country starting with that letter. That was an interesting game. That evolved into another game where someone would start with the name of a country, and the next person had to say a country that started with the last letter of the previous country. We quickly realized that a lot of places end in ‘a’. From there we decided to do states (from any country) as well as countries. Then that got too hard, so we added capitol cities to the list. That was an interesting game. I thought that I knew some stuff about geography, but not after playing with those people. Ty kept naming countries that I’ve never even heard of before. It was crazy. We did this for like, 2 hours. No exaggeration.

Finally got back to school. Unloaded everything, then had to take the city bus back. There was about 20 of us who had to take the same bus. Us and all of our gear, climbing onto a city bus. It was a sight. Everyone hated us. But we made it home and I got to shower!

"You know who you are"

3.24.2012

Saturday. This weekend went to Jervis Bay! We had to be at school bright and early (7am). Michelle drove us thankfully. We got to school by 7:15. We waited in the Student center for a while until the charter bus came. I sat next to Ronnie on the bus. We chatted and slept most of the way down. We stopped at view point for a bathroom break. Then the second half of the ride the entire back of the bus played riddle games. Like, in "the land of odd there are trees but no leaves". And the riddle is you have to figure out why there are trees but not leaves. Or beef but no cows. Or football but no golf. There were several other games like that too.

Once we got there, we broke up into tent groups of three. We set up the tents. They were army style canvas tents. I tented with Alina and Elise.  Once we were done setting up we ate lunch and sat around for a while waiting for the next thing. Three Aboriginal men met up with us and were our guides. Paul, Bernie, Joe.  They took us to an indigenous botanical gardens that they run. Joe played the didgeridoo. They showed us real boomerangs and how they made knives and spears. We learned about aboriginal beliefs. We learned a lot about plants and animals. They showed us a lemon scented tea tree. The leaves, when crushed up, smell like citrus. It can be used to help sore throats and as bug repellent. I took quite a bit and rubbed it all over me. Anything I can do to not be eaten alive! (not that it really worked). After that we walked around and saw lots of things. There are lots of plants that are only there in that particular garden, which makes me nervous. We would walk by a tree and Joe would say, “that is the last tree of it’s kind,”.

Then we went back to camp. Michelle (director michelle) asked for volunteers to hep set up dinner. I didn’t volunteer but when she counted out as many as she needed, she was about to go to write down their names, but then she said “Okay, you know who you are. Just come find me when you get off the bus,”. I had a rather long existential conversation in my head about her use of the phrase ‘You know who you are,’

Do I? Do I really know who I am? Does anyone know who they are?

That didn’t last too long, because I wanted to get down to the beach! It was beautiful! I took at least 200 pictures. Here is a sample:

 Later, we went back to the campsite for dinner. Dinner wasn’t quite ready, so we had to wait a while. We ha  burgers that were actually sausage. Overall, not the best dinner I’ve had. But hey, it’s camping. I survived.

After dinner, Joe, Paul and Bernie came back with some of their family and they showed us a traditional dance ceremony. They were all painted up and everything. They showed us several dances and sung lots of songs.

Afterward, had “s’mores”.  That’s in quotes because it wasn’t real s’mores. They don’t really have the right fixings here. They have very strange marshmallows and they only have crackers that resemble graham crackers.

Then I played several card games with Sarah, Megan M. Ronnie, Carly and Elise. It was super fun. I learned a few new games from Megan and Sarah. Megan is a master at card games. She says it’s because she lives with her grandma. I believe her.

Finally, it started to rain so we decided it was time to go to bed. I ended up staying up for another hour or so chatting with my tent mates. When I did go to sleep I slept like a rock. Until I woke up and found my feet to be soaking wet…

"I Kind Of Forget You're American"

3/23/2012

Friday. I got to school rather early. We had to meet for our group presentation today. But in between practicing for that and actually going to class, I sat with my 2^nd year friends for a while.

They were talking about candy. Actually, they were talking about how weird the word 'candy' is. They call candy lollis. Like a lollipop, except everything is a lolli. They were saying that they word candy just “sounds so America”. To which I said “What’s wrong with being American?” Then Blako turns to me and says,

“Oh yeah… You know, I kind of forget that you’re American,”

“…………….thhhhhhaaaannnnkkkkkk yyyyooouuu???”

I wasn’t sure how to take it. But then I decided it was a good thing. That just means that I am blending into Australian culture so well that he wasn’t even seeing me as just an American. So SCORE!

After that, group presentations took up a majority of the day. I think our group did alright, but Kimberly is a notoriously hard grader. So we shall see. After that, Carly, Erica and I (and some other people) went to the concord library to do some research for an upcoming paper we have. Nothing says Friday night like good ol' research!

To top it off, once the library closed, I went home and read articles out of our reading guide. I’m on fire people. You can’t stop me! We did take a break to go to the servo and get Magnums. I also picked up an Ice Coffee thing for tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we’re going camping at the south coast, Jervis bay. It’s supposed to be very pretty. Thus concludes my wile Friday night.

Blako Malfoy

3/22/2012

Thursday. Today, I woke up late. Typical. Ended up working out alright.  I had thought class started at 9 but it didn’t start until 9:30. And I got to school around 8. So I hung out, talked to my (Aussie) friend Blake for a while. Blake recently dyed his hair bleach blond. This kid has super dark hair naturally. He did it to support his friend who has leukemia. You can either shave your head or dye it a ridiculous color. And somehow there is some benefits that can go toward a fund. I think it makes him look like Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. So now I call him Blako Malfoy. He liked the nick name.  

Went to servo together so I could go to ATM to pay Becky. Ran into Brigette and Peter. After I got my money, I went back up to school, paid Becky. Went to class, ate lunch, went to drawing class. Today we worked with ink and paint brushes. That was fun and different. Had another naked lady. This week was a little more awk because she wasn’t as comfortable. I feel like she was new to the whole ‘nude model’ thing.

In other exciting news, toady I asked Percy if I looked Australian. He said yes and told me I had good style. That. Was. AMAZING!!! Percy is a super fashionisto. For him to tell me I had good style meant a lot. He also told me I have long eyelashes. He was just full of compliments today. And I loved it.

I came home worked on oral presentation. While working, I killed a mosquito! Success!

Rachel: 1

Mosquitoes: …a lot more

Ninja Mosquitos

3/21/2012

Wednesday. Pretty boring day. Went to school. Did work. Went to The Gathering. That wasn’t that great. Worship was good though.

After that I went on an adventure to find an ATM. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but I’m going to the Great Barrier Reef in June. I’m going with a handful of friends from ASC. And to keep it simple, we had Becky pay for all of the flights together and we are all going to pay her back. So I needed to get to an ATM.

I found an ATM and went to use my travel card with the special account that doesn’t have all of my money, but only a little bit. Well when I got that card I had to make a new pin. And seeing as how that was a long time ago, my brain has temporarily misplaced the file that holds that pin. So I couldn’t get any money out of the ATM. But don’t worry, I had a plan. I still have my regular card, but it was back at the house. So I went back home and fished out my other card. Then I went to the ATM that is in the Servo just a few blocks away.

 I was able to get some money, but not as much as I needed, because the ATM RAN OUT OF MONEY! I didn’t even know that could happen! Now that seems silly that I didn’t think about it. I guess I figured it wouldn’t happen to me. But it would happen in the particular time that I need money to pay someone back. Becky will just have to wait another day.

I went home. Becky came over for dinner and stayed to work on our group project. After all was said and done, I watched an episode of the Simpsons with Braedon. Then went to bed. Actually, I went to the flat and fought to get a fly out of the house for about 30 minutes before I decided it was futile and just locked it in the bathroom.

The bugs here are awful. Especially mosquitoes. Honestly, I will be sitting at the table doing homework, and I will have 5 new bug bites. But I have never seen one actually land on me. They are like ninjas! And I have seen them flying around. They are HUGE! So why can I never feel them land on me? NINJAS

Movies and Chips

3/20/2012

Tuesday. A funny thing happened today. A girl named Mary in my ASC class told me that she had yet to know everyone’s last names in our group. And seeing as there are 3 Rachel’s, this can be problematic. So she said that when she was talking with someone, I came up for some reason, but she could not figure out which Rachel the other person was talking about. So she asked said person: “Rachel… the one who has all the scarves?” Yup. That’s me. The Rachel with the scarves. I’ll take it!

In The View class, we watched an Australian movie titled Galipoli. It is basically a telling of the story of the battle of Galipoli in WWI where many Australians died. It was a really interesting movie. It had young Mel Gibson in it. You could definitely tell it was made in the 80s. The sound track alone was a dead give away. Through this movie we learned about Australian endings vs. American endings. Most American movies end on a happy note with the whole story wrapped up into a neat package. Australian movies do not. A lot of the time their movies end on a really sad note or end in defeat. So that was a downer. But a good movie all the same. 

After that I had a few more classes. In Ad Design, during our break, my friends took me down to the servo to pick out something new to eat. They introduced me to Red Rock Deli chips. And when I say chips, I mean chips. Not fries. Anyway, these chips are delicious! I got the Honey Soy Chicken flavor. (There’s a lot of chicken flavored things here). And it really did taste like chicken, in a good way. The texture was totally different of course. But I thought they were really good. 

When I got home I ended up watching another Australian movie with Erica and my host brother Kieran. We watched a movie called The Black Balloon. This was sort of a depressing, independent type film. It’s about a 15 year old boy, Thomas, who has an older brother with severe autism, Charlie. Charlie is always causing Thomas grief and making his life more complicated. The whole movie is following Thomas and his ability to find some sort of normality in life despite his families special circumstances. It didn’t really have a happy ending. Nothing was concluded. The movie just sort of ended. I still liked it, it was just thoroughly un-American. 

"When did we meet?"

3/19/2012

Monday. Woke up super late. Typical. Woke up at 7:15. I had intended to leave at 7:15. So that wasn’t happening. But even with that large setback, I still managed to get out the door by 7:45 and made it to school by 8:30 for a class that starts at 9. So that was awesome.

In photo class we started shooting photos using lighting (with my newly bought attachment!). I got some cool pictures. But I need to some up with 3 more objects to shoot (we’re supposed to have 6 total, I just don’t have anything with me that is cool to photograph).

When I was done I helped some other people with their shoots. I helped Allison by pouring red liquid into a clear class. This proved to be harder than it looks. To pour at the exact right time and not spill it everywhere. I ended up making quite a mess, which was a drag because you have to clean it up between each shot. I mean, she eventually got a good shot, but I don’t know if Alison will be hiring me as an assistant any time soon.

After class I had another counseling session with Merridee. It went well. I’d tell you what we talked about, but that’s confidential. After that I did work on campus in the design lab. There were lots of kids from my class there who were working on the same thing. They were chatting about Australian T.V. shows and one guy (whom I met the first week of school) wanted to know if American’s got Australian T.V. shows. He was sort of just wondering it aloud. But when he realized I was in the room, he turns to me and says:

“American!”

Oh heck no. I will not be referred to as ‘American’. So I called him out

“Do you know my name?”

“….uhh…no…”

“Would you like to?”

“…Yes.” (good answer)

“Rachel”

“Okay, Rachel. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Anthony”

“Oh, I know your name.”

“How do you know my name?!”

“Because you told it to me….when we met”

“We’ve met before?! When did we meet?”

“On the first day of class…”

Clearly I made an impression on this kid. This may actually be the story of my life. I ALWAYS REMEMBER PEOPLE’S NAMES AND THEY NEVER REMEMBER MINE!

I didn’t take it personally. It’s not like we hang out. I’m just freakishly good at remembering names. I mean, have you seen how many names I drop in this blog?!

Anyway, he won’t be forgetting my name now that I made a spectacle of it. So after I finished that I met up with Carly and we walked to the bus stop. Saw a bus drive by but we were too far even to run for it. So we stood at bus stop like chumps. Then, on the horizon, we saw a car that resembled Neil’s. We both thought, ‘hey is that Neil? Wouldn’t it be nice if it was and he saw us and picked us up and took us home so we wouldn’t have to stand at this bus stop?’

Turns out it was Neil, but he didn’t see us. So we did not get a ride home from school. Which actually ended up being okay because by the time we got home dinner was ready. But we did not hesitate to rag on him when we got home for not stopping to pick us up. He felt bad, and told us next time to flag him down and he would absolutely take us.

After dinner, the girls and I plus Braedon walked down to the servo a couple blocks away and picked up some ice cream bars. Magnums to be specific. And these are, hands down, the best ice cream bars in the world. They are kind of pricey at the servo, but they are worth every cent! I couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up a Monday night.

Things I Miss

3/18/2012

Sunday was quite uneventful. I slept in, did homework, went to the library and did some work on a group project. I ended up posting a lot of blogs and pictures and such. I really can’t think of anything outstanding to say about today. I got a lot done I suppose.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Gosh, that is a really boring day. Why are you even taking the time to write about it?” I will tell you why. Because I want to! You probably did the exact same thing today but since I did it in Australia it is ten times more exciting.

Anyway, because I feel the pressure to give the people what they want, I have a list of back up topics to blog about, incase I should have an off day where nothing notable happens.

Today I will talk about some things that I miss about America. I’m not going to list any friends or family, because that is obvious. So don’t get all offended if your name isn’t on the list of things I miss.

(pssst. Hey you. Yeah, I’m talking to you, not any of the other readers. I miss you the most. Don’t let anyone else know it, okay?)

Okay. Things I miss from America:

1.     Disneyland

I really miss going to Disneyland. Having a pass and just rolling in whenever I feel like it. I really hope I can get a pass for senior year. Even if it’s the lowest possible pass, I just want to get back there

2.     My curling iron

Okay, yes they have curling irons here. But they are expensive and I don’t feel like spending the money on a device that will do me no good after 3 months.

3.     Topanga, my car

Most days I’m really over the bus. I would love to have my car. Miss you Topanga!

Progressively Happier and Notably Louder

3/17/2012

Saturday.

Today, my service placement was canceled. I was supposed to go to Featherdale wild life park with another girl from my service placement. This is basically a zoo where you can pet the animals and feed them and stuff. All I wanted was to pet a kangaroo. But alas, it was raining, and we decided we wanted to save it for a nice day. Instead I slept in, did some homework, painted my toenails. You know, big stuff. Then I got ready and went to church. I met a girl named Ara on the shuttle bus there. She’s from South Korea and is a translator for that particular service.

After the service I made sure to find Linh, a girl I had met last week. There was another event sort of thing going on after service but I already had plans to go out that night with Braedon and my roommates. So I told her I couldn’t stick around. On the shuttle bus back I saw my Brazilian friend Michelle. We got to chatting and she said that her and her friends might be going to the aquarium at some point this week and invited me to go. I’m not sure if that is going to pan out, but the invite was nice.

Then, on the train home, I got on, got my seat, and who should get on that same car, but Ara, the South Korean girl I met earlier! She went to sit in front of me, then did a triple take and realized that she knew who I was. She sat down by me and we chatted all the way to my stop.

When I got home the gang was waiting and ready to go. I ate a quick dinner and off we went. We went to The Pine Inn with Braedon and his friends Richard, Emma, Jose, and Isabella. This inn is about 2 blocks away from home, which makes it perfect for Braedon to stumble on home from after a night out. Apparently he usually stays out until well past 3 or 4 in the morning. I wasn’t really game to stay that long. But we had lots of fun chatting and watching Braedon get progressively happier and notably louder as the night went on. We heard some interesting stories of Braedon's drunken adventures trying to stumble back home.

 I ended up leaving around 2:45. Overall it was a really fun night.

Beaches, Birthdays and Broken Trains

3/16/2012

FRIDAY! Got to talk to my school girl friend, Gabby. We chatted at the bus stop about her weekend plans. Then the bus came so we hoped on. At school, I was a littler early for class so I sat by some of my second year Australian friends. I now feel like I’m at the level of, if I see them sitting on the couches in the student center I can go sit with them and it’s not weird. So I chatted with Deckland, Blake and Sam (I have several classes with them). Also with a guy named Caleb who I met a few weeks ago.

Then I went to aboriginal class and we learned about their beliefs on how the earth and people were made. We also learned about clan relationships and what the rules are for marrying. A man has to marry someone who is in the opposite clan. And then there are all sorts of rules surrounding what clan their children belong into. It was complicated, but interesting.

After that, I ended up going to the beach with Becky, Joel, Carly and Erica. I wasn’t planning on going to the beach, so I was rather unprepared. But we were just going to do a walk along the coast, so I tagged along anyway. I didn’t have any other plans. So we took a bus, a train, and another bus, and then we where there! Bondi Beach! It is so incredibly beautiful! Too bad I wasn’t prepared for the beach at all. 

We waited a little bit after arriving for a few other people to join us. Then we did a 6k walk along the coast, passing through heaps of beaches, everyone of them was gorgeous! Here is some photographic evidence:

Looking back at Bondi

Tamarama Beach

 

The walk ended at Coogee beach. At this point, Erica carly and I split from the group. Today was Erica’s birthday, and Michelle had said we would have a birthday dinner for her. It was around 4:30 so we had to head out to get home on time for dinner. 

So began our 3.5 hour journey home.

You’re probably thinking, ‘there’s probably a really long and exasperated story to go along with that last comment’. If you thought that, you are correct. 

Here is the tale of how we returned home Friday evening: We figured out how to get back to the train station. That was easy. We called Michelle to let her know that we had made it to the train station and should be home somewhat soon. Once we got on a train and sat down, there was an announcement saying that there was some emergency track work being done on that line and the train wasn’t leaving and they didn’t know how long it would be. There were buses upstairs if we wanted to take them, or we could just wait. I was a little over the bus and above ground traffic, so we determined that we would just wait…like the suckers we are.

 After 35 minutes, we were just deciding whether or not to figure out the bus, when an announcement came on saying “The train on the other platform will be leaving before us. If you want to catch that train, you better run,”

Really? That seems unprofessional. But it worked. We ran.

 We made it to the other train, (along with everyone else in Bondi). We were pretty packed in there. We rode the train 1 whole stop, and then it stopped working again. We stood there for about 20 minutes deciding whether we should get off or keep the faith. Then we saw Becky, Joe and Ronnie getting off another car. These are the same people we had parted ways with OVER AN HOUR AGO! But we caught up with them in hopes that all of us together could figure out how to get home. We went up to where it seemed all the buses were going to. We tried to figure out which one would take us to Circular Quay, another train station. This would have been much easier if there were more signs.

Finally we figured out that we needed the 324 to get to circular quay. We could see the bus driver of the 324 taking a break just across the street. Finally he got in his bus and drove into the stop. When we got on, we asked to make sure he was going to circular quay. To which he replied, “No, I’m going to Watson’s Bay”

What do you mean you’re going to Watson’s freaking Bay?! How am I supposed to get to Circular Quay? Well according to him we needed to take the 327, which had left a few minutes ago. Awesome. Then another 327 pulled in, and we went to them and asked if THEY were going to Circular Quay. Nope. They sure were not. Turns out we were on the wrong spot to be catching buses in that direction.

Finally we found where we were supposed to be. With lots of other people who wanted to be on the trains but were forced to take the buses. People were tired and cranky. Myself included. There was even a woman eating icecream straight out of a tub. With a fork mind you. She had her ipod in and was just going to town on that chocolate ice cream. Probably listening to Adele 'Someone Like You'

So after a few buses came and went that filled up before we could get on them, we finally got on a bus. Just as we got on the bus there was announcement that the trains were working again. They had fooled me too many times. I wasn’t going to trust that line. So we stayed on the bus and took it to Circular Quay and got on a train there. Eventually we made it home, 3.5 hours later. We ate tacos, sung happy birthday to Erica, ate cake and the world was right again. 

Michelle was super sweet and not mad at all at us for being so late. She didn’t really care actually. She just laughed at the situation of us running all over Sydney trying to get home. The cake turned out really well. It looked kind of weird. But it tasted awesome. And after that commute, chocolate was just the ticket.

We capped the night by watching Sweet Home Alabama.

Two Sticks?

3/15/2012

Thursday. Today, I got up early so I could get to class and not have to fight school girls for the bus. My timing was just right this morning. Just as I got off my first bus, the 492 bus was right there! Zero waiting time. That NEVER happens! (#winning). I saw my school girl friend Gabby in passing but my bus was there so I didn’t get to chat (She takes the 490. I can take either the 490 or the 492).

When I got on the bus, Percy was on it. I didn’t even know he took the bus. (Percy is a guy who goes to Wesley. He was one of the people who helps welcome everyone at orientation. He also came to the airport to get the ASC students. He’s one of those people who just gets to know everyone).

I hadn’t really talked to him much. To be honest I had never really planned on getting to know him that well. Those people who just know everyone are too hard to keep up with. Too flippant. But I sat by him and we chatted all the was to school. It was actually really nice to get to talk to him. We talked about past ASC groups and he was saying how every group has their own dynamic. He described our group as being “very genuine”. I’ll take it. He also talked about how hard it is at the end of the semester when the ASC students leave. I thought that was really cool of him, despite knowing that we’re all going to leave, to still put himself out there and want to get to know us.

So anyway, I got to school 1.5 hours early. Then when I did go to class, found out that it was canceled! I could have slept so much longer! But I was there already so I took opportunity to get some breakfast at the Bakehouse with Sophie. I had ham and cheese croissant (So good!) and another iced coffee. Afterward we walked to a paint shop down the street to get paint chips for our project concept board. By the time we got back to campus we had only managed to kill an hour and I still had quite sometime before my next class. I should have done some work, but instead, I got on the internet and Facebook chatted with Gina and Natalie for a while. It may seem like a waste of time, but it was actually really great to get to talk to them. I needed some good chatting time with them. So I consider it to be a good use of my time.

Then I went to drawing class. Today we had a naked model. So that was different. But surprisingly, it wasn’t weird. She was comfortable and professional. The whole thing was just not a big deal. Sure didn’t do anything like that last time I took drawing.

Afterward, my friend Julian was so great and drove me to a camera store to pick up my attachment that I need for class. He was seriously a life savor. I had looked up directions and seen that it would take me over an hour to get there by bus and train. And that was just one way. We were able to drive there in about 15- 20 minutes. He had done some studying in Burbank last winter and he was saying how much it meant to him when people would drive him places when he knew it would take him four times as long to get there via public transit. So when he can do the same favor for someone else he is glad to. What a great guy. Then, he drove me home since I had no need to go back to campus.

Once I got home I talked to Carly for a bit. Then ate dinner, watched the biggest loser. Then when Michelle came home, Carly, Braedon and me made a cake for Ericas birthday tomorrow. That was an experience. Baking in Australia was quite interesting. Not only is it not my kitchen (which is also difficult), we had to deal with converting measurements. When Michelle was helping us pull ingredients, the recipe called for 2 sticks of butter. That meant nothing to her. 

“How much is two sticks?”  Then she pulled out the butter that she had, and it was a 250g brick of butter. So we had to do some online searching to figure out how many grams are in a stick. Then we needed 12oz of chocolate chips. So we had to use their scale thing to figure out what 12 oz looks like. 

 It’s Erica's 21st birthday. And since we can’t drink alcohol, I wanted to make a white Russian cake (With Kahlua and vodka in it). But we didn’t have Kahlua. So that really changed the game. We substituted Butterscotch Schnapps for the Kahlua. Michelle was so funny. When we suggested putting alcohol in the cake she thought it was a great idea and took me straight to the liqueur cabinet to see if they had what we needed. She was the one to suggest the Butterscotch Schnapps. 

Have I mentioned I'm in the best home stay ever? 

The batter tasted like salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks, so I’m hoping the finished cake will taste just as good.

All in all it was really fun. The whole process probably took longer than it should have, but we got it done. But not before Erica came home from her night class. Luckily she was totally oblivious to the baking cake in the oven and we got her to go to the flat while we glazed the cake once it cooled.

I'm excited to taste it tomorrow!

"Why is she staring at me?"

3/14/2012

Wednesday. No classes. But I attempted to get stuff done. I went to the library with Carly. We were supposed to be doing research for our group project on immigration, but that didn’t really happen. So we ended up just heading to school for the gathering. When we got to the bus stop, we met up with Janae and Emily, and Rachel and Kaela were already on the bus. So we were sitting and chatting, but we were all a little pre occupied by a baby that was in a stroller on the bus.

We weren’t preoccupied for all the right reasons though. We were all transfixed on this baby because she was giving me a DEATH STARE! Okay she wasn’t really a baby baby. She was probably about 2. But she was mean muggin me. Hard core. I honestly felt ashamed of myself. Like I had done something wrong and she was reprimanding me. It’s like she was staring into my soul. I’m not being dramatic either, the other girls noticed it too. It was too much. I had to move seats. When I moved she decided to stare at one of the other girls for a while. They too felt the cold wrath of the baby stare.

Finally we got to school and went to the gathering. The gathering today was basically the heads of the departments giving out awards for the past academic year. I kind of wished I had skipped. After that I headed home, stopped in to the shopping centre to pick up a few supplies for my art classes. exacto (scalpel) sketch pad, bulldog clips etc.

All in all, completely unproductive day.

New Friends

3/13/2012

Today in our Australia class we had a panel of Australian’s come in and answer questions. It was interesting to hear some of what they had to say about Australian’s and their culture. One interesting thing that they talked about was voice inflection. Australians tend to end their sentences on and up, as if asking approval for their thought or idea. Americans tend to end sentences on a down, making things more of a statement. So without even realizing it, Australians can deem us arrogant just by the way we change our voice. When we end on a down it makes things seem like it has been decided and there is no more discussion.

After class I had some time to kill before my next class. I went to a little café called The Bakehouse with a few Aussie girls, Rahil, Vicki Julie, Hannah, and others. Rahil was one of the first girls I met at orientation. We’re kind of buds now. I had already packed a lunch but I wanted to get a drink so I went and I got an Iced Coffee. Not what I was expecting. It was more like a milkshake, with lots of heavy whipped cream, very little coffee, and no iced involved. It was bizarre. But I’ve come to notice that everything here is just thicker and richer than in America. It was really delicious but I do NOT want to know how many calories are in it.

Sarah had brought her guitar to school today so we ate lunch and sang random songs acoustically. Then I went to class and hung out with the people in there. The following class was canceled so I got to go home early. And on my way home I did the unthinkable:

I befriended a school girl! 

There is a handful of girls that I see at the bus stop everyday and I have started recognizing them. Anyway, I sort of struck up a conversation with one and she was delightful. Her name is Gabby, and I got to hear a little bit about her life before I had to hop on the bus home. 

After talking to Gabby I was feeling pretty good. I saw a guy who was wearing a Lakers hat and a Lakers dog tag necklace, so I figured he was familiar with L.A. I decided I was going to try to talk to him. I mean, I just made friends with a school girl. I was on fire. 

The conversation went a little something like this:

Me: “Oh, are you a Lakers fan?”

Random guy: “What?”

Me: “The Lakers, are you a fan?”

Random guy: “Oh…uh…hmm mumble mumble"

And that was the end of that. He basically just looked at me all confused. Which made me confused. If you’re going to wear the merch., you best be able to talk about it brah. 

The Lakers thing was really my only talking point and since he wasn't having any of it, we just sort of sat awkwardly across from each other for the remainder of the ride. Luckily my stop wasn't very far. But it was a pretty uncomfortable 4 minutes.

Bird or Baby?

3/12/2012

Monday was really uneventful. I went to Photo class. We took photos using my lectures Medium Format film camera. It looks like this:

It produces awesome pictures! I want one. I mean, they are crazy expensive and the film pretty much doesn’t exist anymore, but the pictures it produces are insane!

After that I went to my first counseling appointment. At APU they have 10 free sessions of counseling per semester. I had always wanted to try but never got around to it. Well, they have the same deal at Wesley. I signed up a little over a week and a half ago and today was my first appointment. Hopefully it will be a good experience.

After that I went to the library and did homework/ putzed around on the internet until I got a bus home with Carly around 6:00. We came home, ate a delicious dinner by Neil (Potatoes with beef stew stuff). And the sweets tonight was probably the best tasting brownie I’ve ever had as well as the creamiest ice cream (Seriously, best home stay ever!).

Unrelated topic: The birds here are weird. Very exotic. I mean, they have pigeons and stuff too. But there are these birds with these huge beaks! They almost look like herons, or cranes. I think it's called an idis. Anyway, they are rather large and they are everywhere! They look mean, and like they would charge you if you got too close.

There’s also cockatoos everywhere. I’ve only seen them in pet stores, so it’s weird that they are just wild here. And all of the birds make such loud/ strange noises. They sound like cats, or babies. It’s bizarre.

So the new joke in our house is, “Is that a bird or a baby?”

Lazy Sunday

3/11/2012

Today was rather low key. A lot of people from the ASC program were going to go to the blue mountains today. However, I decided that I wanted to sleep in today. I just wanted one day to not wake up to an alarm clock. And let me tell you, WORTH IT!

I slept in until the ripe hour of 9:30! Look at me go!

I then got to skype the fam at 10. The rest of my day was filled with cleaning, Kimberly work (work for Kimberly’s class), and laundry. I also went to an evening church service. We are required to visit several different types of churches. Last week I visited a Catholic church, and this week I visited an Anglican.

In my post “Humble Pie” I talked about walking around for hours trying to find a church, that is the church that I went to. It’s called Church By The Bridge. I found it alright this time. But I guess you could say I had already familiarized myself with the area…

Before the service even started, several people came up and started chatting with me. It was a smaller church and I had obviously not been around before, so people were curious. They were even more curious when I started talking and they realized that I was American. If people didn’t make me talk all the time I could totally blend in here.

The service itself was interesting. It started with worship. Then there was a time for people from the congregation to come up and share something that God had done or is doing in their life. I was surprised at how many people wanted to get up and share.

Then half way through, they had a coffee break, or as they call it, supper.  Everyone goes to the back and proceeds to eat and drink and chat for 10-15 minutes before the sermon starts. I helped myself to a delightful cheese biscuit and a hand full of grapes. Consequently, the service did last a little longer than I thought it would. But I guess that’s what happens when you take an intermission.

On a completely unrelated note, people take the weirdest things on public transportation. In one day I saw a woman with a floor lamp and a man with a power drill. I mean I totally get it. You gotta do what you gotta do. I just hope I never have to take anything that cumbersome with me on the bus/train.