Hi! I participated in this thing that Mary (@gypsybug) put together where people bike places and write about it and track it and show how useful bikes are in day to day life. I really liked the idea of this challenge because it required not that much more effort than I usually put into my life haha. And because I think that bikes are very useful and it's good to highlight this. There are only two potential concerns: 1. I did kind of a shoddy job keeping track with pictures. Hopefully my documentation is good enough! and 2. My lighting for the night trips (both dinner journeys, riding home from work) was legal, but subpar - one rear blinky. Someone stole my front light a few weeks ago and I haven't gotten around to replacing it yet :-/ cyclist fail. As a last comment/caveat, my meeting the challenge was also a little bit hindered by a pain in my knee that made it hard for me to bike the last week or so. I have a doctor's appointment on Monday that hopefully will take care of that. 

Aaaanyway, in general, doing this challenge was fun and I'm very grateful to Mary for putting it together. It definitely got me out on my bike a few times when I might otherwise have been too lazy. Also, I was surprised how difficult it sometimes was for me to recall details from the ride for filling out the score card thing, and over the course of doing the challenge this helped me be more present on my rides. Some highlights from the experience include: 

 1. Joe Biden: Okay Joe Biden was totally sitting behind me in church on Ash Wednesday. I know that sounds ridiculous but it was definitely him and we shook hands and said "peace be with you" and it was amazing. He was wearing aviators. This was my first time at church in probably years, so apparently I have good timing.
2. Alexandria ride: Biking to Alexandria for brunch with Rachel was an experience. Google Maps biking directions can sometimes be questionable and once we cross the river neither of us knows enough to know whether that will be the case. We took the Holmes Run trail and several windy paths through back side streets, and it was feeling very adventurous. Sketchy tunnels, steep inclines going in and out of rivers, unexpected dirt sections of the path, portaging our bikes around a closed section. It was fun. 
3. Fort Totten: One of the days I biked up to Ft Totten for something (from where I live in Glover Park), and I pretty rarely use my bike to get me to that part of the city. It was fun to get the different perspective and to see the way bike infrastructure is still evolving across the city (and how good it is near where I live). Also it was just a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning.
4. Bringing Rachel to the pool for the first time was fun. I go pretty regularly but she doesn't usually join.
 

Rachel signaling a turn on our ride to Alexandria

My bike locked up outside Teaism in Dupont

I forgot to take a picture at church but it was Ash Wednesday so the evidence remained on my forehead

I also forgot to take a picture at Pizzeria Paradiso but I totally went there

Biking home from dinner in Bloomingdale. Good thing my bike had its hipster costume on (mustache).

The social safeway, purveyor of baking supplies (and other stuff, I guess)

Dessert selection from Whole Foods : )

Outside the pool at Marie Reed

Biking from Wilson Pool to Georgetown (on the sidewalk due to knee pain, booo)

This is what my bike looks like when it's locked up at work

Another pic of a different bike to work (this is the street my office is on. It's very narrow but always has big trucks).

The Basilica on my way back from Capital Area Food Bank

Picturesss

Pictures of Berlin and Jena can be looked at here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2157839&id=7411880&l=99a5f76ad5

Berlin and Jena

I have been taking my time updating this thing, so I have not one weekend adventure to tell you about today but two. We will start with the weekend before last, during which I had planned to visit Dresden but due to the inability to find a room I found myself taking a day trip to Berlin instead.

I had an absolutely wonderful time - I really do love Berlin. This time I did an Alternative Berlin tour, which is the kind of tour that looks at cultural icons, street art, and things popular among the locals rather than going to monuments. I enjoyed it immensely - I liked seeing another side to Berlin and feeling like I got to know it a bit more. We saw all kinds of really cool street art, and some buildings that had been taken over by artists (featuring some really cool art), some bars (although they weren't super busy because it was midday, it was more like 'you should come here later'), and a lot of other cool things. There was also a protest that was going on that day that they took us to at the end - I think they were protesting gentrification, but the actual act was squatting an old airport. However, at the time I had to leave to catch my train back to Cottbus they had not yet successfully gotten into the airport, so I am afraid I cannot tell you how the story ended. It felt like most of the people there were more spectators than anything else - it was a very laid back protest. But anyway, as I said, I had an absolutely lovely day in Berlin, and before I left I even managed to snap some shots of a few important touristy things. All the pictures from the day can be found on my facebook - I will post the link (which works for non-facebook users also) after I put them up.

Then just this past weekend I went to go visit my cousin Dolores in Jena! I had a great time. Jena is really cute - it is kind of like Cottbus but significantly bigger and surrounded by mountains (or at least hills). For dinner we all climbed up one of them to a restaurant. It was very very foggy, or else I've been told the view would have been lovely. What I could see was very nice though, and dinner was good. I also enjoyed hot chocolate at a cute cafe thing with Dolores in the afternoon, and after dinner we went to an ice cream shop and I FINALLY got a massive ice cream sundae like I have wanted since I got here (pictured on my facebook). It was GREAT. Then on Sunday, Dolores and Michael were having a little birthday party for David's first birthday (!!), so in the morning I helped (er...watched) Dolores prepare for that, and then a bunch of people came, and it was very good fun meeting everyone. I liked it especially because when people speak German to babies it is usually very simple and I can kind of understand. I also liked it because Dolores made a delicious cake. I felt like I had to leave Jena too soon - I had a lot of fun getting to know David for the first time and seeing Dolores and Michael again!

So as you may or may not know I am actually leaving Germany two weeks from tomorrow (Thursday) - good heavens that was quick! In between now and then, I will be spending a weekend in Dresden and 4 days in Heidelberg for a conference for my scholarship. I will update about those things as they come along - I am especially looking forward to the conference. Until then friends, ciaociao! Look at my pictures!

Pictures! Finally...

Pictures of Milan are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2155994&id=7411880&l=1c7c1ccb41

Pictures of Cottbus, here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2155990&id=7411880&l=bd19a1a0b3

Enjoy!

Milano!! (not the cookie).

So last weekend I went to Milan! Despite getting on the wrong train and going 20 minutes in the wrong direction, I still managed to catch my flight and the trip went smoothly from there. I did have some trouble finding my hostel, which made me anxious because I was alone and it was late, but fortunately i utilized my Italian skills (which came easily due to anxiety) to ask for help. A cool old cigarette-smoking italian lady who clearly had no idea where it was either was happy to tag along and have a look helped me out. So then I was officially in Italy!!!! I will say that that was basically the end of my Italian-speaking during the trip. Whenever I tried to speak to order food or anything the Italians heard me speak and switched to English because i was clearly not Italian. They were trying to be helpful but it was slightly disappointing.

Anyway, I mostly spent my time wandering around Milano and taking pictures of EVERYTHING. Especially of the Duomo, because honestly there isn't a lot to see in Milan besides the Duomo. I climbed up to the roof (on the stairs, not like spiderman, silly) and walked around the roof, which was cool. I also went to Castello Sforzesco and wandered around the museums looking at the art to get some culture. I went to the church that the Last Supper hangs out in, but unfortunately I couldn't get in to see it. Apparently you need to book like a month in advance, which I didn't know. I did try to see if there was a cancellation (at the advice of my hostel) but sadly it was not to be. I also spent a fair amount of time walking around looking in the windows of the expensive shops. Two rounds of my favorite game, "guess how much it costs" can be found in the photo album I'll be posting along with this entry : )

In addition to touristing, I also ate a lot of delicious Italian food, especially pizza and gelato. I went to the place that was supposed to have "the best pizza in Milan" (according to google). It was DELICIOUS, but salty and very heavy. On my last night i went to the Naviglia with a girl from my hostel - it's like a canal with a bunch of bars and restaurants around it. They all have happy hour deals where you buy a drink for 7-10 euro (depending on the bar) and you can eat all the aperitifs you want. In this way I got to sample a wide variety of delicious Italian food. You'd think in a situation like that the food would not be good, but it really was delicious, probably because the Italians are so hardcore about food. I read somewhere that Milan is known for its aperitifs, and I don't know if that's true but if it is I could see why.

By the end of my last day I was kind of running out of things to do, and it was seriously hot so I was tired of walking, so I was kind of just hanging out in the city center. All in all I think Milan itself is very cool but not super-interesting to a tourist...but I loved being in Italy in general! I can't really say what I loved so much about it, but I really did. I had a great time and really want to go back and visit the country properly. So overall, good trip! And props to anyone who stayed on and actually read this whole thing : )

Update

So here is an interesting tidbit regarding my last post about the numerous American diners in the area. I mentioned the diners to Annika and she told me that Cottbus, and East Germany in general, has foreign food places (like American and Asian) in abundance because East Germans really embrace foreign culture, in response to not having had access to it for so long. They also travel much more than other Germans do. So I thought that was interesting.

Post about Milan to follow later on today.

American Food

I have a few observations to make here relating to American Food. First of all, within a two block radius (approx) in the town of Cottbus, I have actually found THREE restaurants called some variety of "American Diner." Why? I don't know. I haven't actually tried any of them yet, but if it ever strikes me to do so I'll keep you posted.

I also wanted to point out that there is a brand here called something like "Mcennedy's"(?) that has a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it and sells American food in grocery stores. It really makes me laugh. Things I have seen that they make include cheeseburgers, fully formed including the bun and cheese and vegetables, white bread, buffalo chicken pizza, blueberry muffins, and chocolate chip cookies. I think the reason I am so amused by this is because I never really thought of any food as being particularly American, except maybe apple pie or something.

But then yesterday! I found an entire COOKBOOK in the dollar store dedicated to the art of cooking American cuisine. I briefly flipped through it and found basically all variety of food, including things like caesar salad, cobb salad, bagels, egg sandwiches, doughnuts (come on now Germany, I know you have doughnuts here too), and ribs (which were featured on the cover).

As a concluding and unrelated note, I very nearly bought that cookbook because it was only one euro. I am definitely of the variety of people who should not be allowed anywhere near discount stores - I am always like, "i DEFINITELY need this toy gun with accompanying plastic holster, and also this cookbook that is entirely in german, because look at how cheap it is!!!"

Okay that is enough for now. If anything interesting happens before I go to Italy in ONE WEEK (!!) I will let you know, otherwise I will talk to you then to tell you about my trip : )

Potsdam/Berlin

This weekend I took myself away for a little trip to see some more of Germany. On Saturday I got up (very very early, sadly) and took the train to Potsdam. As far as I can understand, Potsdam is where the kings used to hang out in their spare time, so they built a lot of palaces and gardens there, which I looked at. I'd never been to visit any castles before, so it was an experience. There was a lot of gilded stuff, and a lot of large statues of people, and a lot of fountains in the gardens. I went into the palace called sanssouci (which means without cares, apparently) and it was very nice. Very fancy. It all seems very bizarre to me that people took all this time and energy to build all these fancy fancy places. I mean, there were hundreds of those statues and each of them must have taken a really long time. The town of Potsdam was really cute, but clearly a tourist city. There was a lot of shopping, and it was nice because it was all outdoors and everyone was out and about enjoying the nice weather (before the huge rainstorm that night). There's also an area called the dutch quarter that was apparently built to house dutch workers, and it's all identical red brick houses, that now have shops in them. That was cute too.

That night I went to Berlin and immediately loved it. Unfortunately as soon as I got to my hostel it started POURING, so I didn't do much that night besides hang out in the bar downstairs in my hostel with some people who were sharing my room. The next day I did a walking tour of Berlin and saw a lot of things. Berlin is weird because they keep destroying important things, and then occasionally rebuilding them, and then sometimes destroying them again. History keeps being rewritten there, and it's weird. But on my walking tour I really learned a lot about the history and the war and so on. I'm glad I went on it because otherwise I wouldn't have had any idea what I was looking at. I did see a piece of the Berlin Wall, and also the site of the book burning, museum island, a bunch of churches, the Brandenburg Gate, the site of Hitler's bunker, Checkpoint Charlie, Reichstag Dome, the memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust (which at first I didn't like but then my tour group talked about it a bit and I changed my mind, but it is weird), and bunch of other stuff. After the tour I walked around more and went back to a few of the things I wanted to see again, and then unfortunately it started POURING again, and anyway I had to catch my train back to Cottbus, so that was the end of my weekend. I really really liked Berlin and would really like to go back and get to know it from the non-historical perspective. We'll see how it goes.

PS. I didn't know what a bunch of the things I listed from Berlin were until I went there, so if you are like me and curious feel free to ask lol.
PPS. I haven't gotten a new camera since I broke mine in Australia, so sadly I have no pictures for you, but hopefully I'll get one soonish to improve future blog entries.

Abrupt Change of Topic: Germany?!

Well I hadn't decided whether or not I wanted to blog about this particular adventure, but today I decided that 6 months from now I will probably regret it if I haven't written anything about it. I am presently in Germany (Cottbus, approx 2-3 hours South and kind of East of Berlin) for an internship that will last from May15 to Jul 16. I got here about 2 and a half weeks ago, and as I said I am here until Jul16. I won some kind of scholarship that pays me to come to Germany (except the plane ticket) and learn some stuff about science by helping out a phd student in a lab. I am working in a soil physics lab, learning about things like water retention curves and hydraulic conductivity. My phd student person is super nice and is called Annika. Another key piece of information here is that I do not by any means speak German. Ok, here we go:

Hallo from Germany!! Cottbus is a nice city in east germany. The architecture at the university (BTU) is super modern and weird, it's all glass and metal and concrete. Lots of gray. Also, the library, it has to be said, is truly horrendous. If you were looking at it from above it would look like an amoeba or something, and its just seven stories straight up in this weird shape, all glass with giant letters, and the inside is enthusiastically decorated in hot pink and lime green. The main feature is a giant spiral staircase and mysterious chain link fences. I'm not sure I understand art. But anyway. The rest of Cottbus is very cute with european-looking buildings and a river (Spree, it's called). Apparently there's a big foresty thing nearby, that I am going to visit at some point I hope. It's not a super exciting city though, it has to be said, so I'm kind of bored as I don't really know people at all. I do know people at work though, and they are very nice and I enjoy going every day. Which is good, because I have to lol. There's an unusual amount of graffiti around - I don't know why or if that's typical. People bike a lot here (as you probably have heard), and do in fact eat a lot of sausage. They also eat something mysteriously white and gooey looking with potatoes. It looks frankly gross. Other things I have noticed since I got here:

1. older german women have a strange tendency to dye their hair a weird shade of very dark red
2. pretty much all male germans have really nice shoes
3. most of the german people i have met have been super friendly and helpful if you talk to them or clearly need help (like when i asked a stranger if he could please translate the cooking directions on my frozen peas), but they mostly don't smile as readily as americans, which sometimes makes me feel like i'm in trouble or something because everyone looks so serious.
4. people biking have these nifty yellow things to keep their pants legs away from their pedals, that are like slap bracelets for their legs
5. putting dogs on leashes when you take them out and about is apparently not such a big deal, and they can follow you onto public transportation it seems. and the dogs never run away or get distracted. interesting.

i think that is enough for now. i am off to explore Potsdam and Berlin this weekend, and will tell you about that when i get back. ciaociao. er...tschüss!

Finals/Being Back

Well today is Thursday and I got home from Australia on Saturday night. So I thought I would put a little post about the end of the semester and the return-home experience. The end of the semester passed fairly uneventfully in a haze of studying and saying goodbye and so on. It is weird to think that I might never see my friends again, or at least for a really long time, and same for Australia in general. However, there is really not much to report from that last week, except for that I had fun and am sad to be gone.

My flight was (thankfully) uneventful, if almost unbearably long. The second leg from LAX to JFK was delayed a bit due to rampaging storms in New York, but it wasn't too bad and apparently I missed some even bigger scarier storms right after I left Brisbane, so all is well. My dad picked me up and when we got home I had good food which was excellent. The next few days I unpacked and shopped and was really really jetlagged. I am still a bit jetlagged now but I think I am starting to get over it. Hopefully it doesn't last too much longer it's really inconvenient getting super-sleepy at weird times of day. As for reverse culture shock, when I first got back it was kind of weird - like things that were different stuck out at me (like the way the moon looks and the ketchup saying ketchup instead of tomato sauce), and I kept going to do things I had to do in Australia but not here, like switch my outlets on and off. But I pretty much got over it after about a day. It wasn't that hard of a transition I guess because this is where I lived my whole life, haha. Now I am in DC back at AU for a couple of days, which I am really excited about and am enjoying and am happy to see everyone. Michael came as a surprise and that was exciting.

So I guess this will be the end of my blog because I am back from Australia. I feel like I should put down some profound final thoughts, but I'm not really a profound kind of person. Maybe I will say this: there is a lot of talk in Australia about whether or not their culture is being swallowed up by our culture. I mean, they watch our TV and our movies and listen to our music, etc etc. And I have to say, once I stopped thinking about how convenient the quality coverage of the American election was, I started thinking that really it was kind of weird. I mean, how much do we know about Australian politics? But really, I'm pretty sure Australian culture still exists in full force. If you go there from here you can just tell. Even though they have a lot of our stuff it isn't like little America over there. At least, I don't think so. Maybe people can comment on the influence of American culture in the countries that they are in. It would be interesting.

Okay that is all.

Moreton/Gold Coast/Exams

My first exam is tomorrow, so I have been studying pretty much constantly for a few days now. However, UQ allows a whole week for studying that I put to much better use traveling about. The first weekend of SWOTVAC (read: study week) I went to Moreton Island, and that was really fun. We went sandboarding (like sledding, but on sand), and I got to climb on some giant sand cliffs, and the beaches were beautiful, and we did a bit of snorkeling also. It was an overnight trip, so we camped out that night and I went out to the beach and looked at all the stars. There were many. It was a nice weekend.

Later in the week I went to the Gold Coast for a night with Kailey and Kimberly, and Lauren was with us for a little while also. We stayed in Surfer's Paradise and it was really nice. The Gold Coast is basically your standard touristy city, but the beach that it is on is amazing. It's just huge, with white sand and nice waves. I enjoyed it immensely, even though I am now a teeny bit sunburned. One other downside is that the skyscrapers make shadows in the beach as soon as the sun starts going down. Unfortunate. In the night we went to this thing called Infinity, which was also pretty cool. It was like a maze of different rooms that was all based around lights and lasers and mirrors to make all kinds of weird illusions. It was really trippy and really fun. We explored some other aspects of the city too, but the beach was definitely the best part.

You may be interested to know that the Women's College is now decorated for Christmas, and we had Christmas dinner the other day (on Halloween, oddly enough). At first I thought I was really weirded out by all the Christmas stuff just because it was so early (I never realized how important Halloween and Thanksgiving were in limiting the length of the Christmas season). However, now I realize it's especially weird because it is so hot out. It is pretty much summer here. I can't quite believe I will be home in two weeks, or that it will be cold when I get there.

I have two things to say in closing: one is to ask Jenelle's Mom, who I know occasionally reads my blog, where she gets her secret American supply of TimTams from?

The second is to tell everyone to make sure they VOTE on Tuesday!!!!!!!!

PS

PS I got to hold a baby wombat today! hurray!!!

Halloween

I've been getting this question a lot lately, so I thought I would put it in here. The question is: what do Australians do for halloween?

Basically, the Aussies don't do halloween as kids, its not a part of their culture or anything. But they are aware of it as something the Americans do, and they appreciate the excuse to put on costumes and go to a party. So halloween parties are around among people our age, although they aren't nearly as common as in the US. Also costumes are a bit harder to come by and substantially more expensive. As a final note, the lack of 'halloween' as a holiday means that the halloween party doesn't follow strict guidelines regarding date. I have seen three happen since I got here, spread out over the last few months. So there you go.

In case you are interested, I myself will be going to a halloween party thrown by one of my Canadian friends (Canadians do celebrate halloween, in case you're wondering). She's going pretty all out, and I'm pretty excited. I'll let you know how it goes.

Spring Break

Hi peopleee

Sorry for the lack of post-spring break update, I was kind of hoping to put pictures up along with the entry, so I was waiting to see if I could get my camera fixed (it broke on the second to last day of the trip), but as that is not looking like it is going to happen any time soon I thought I would go ahead and update anyway.

I had an AWESOME time. I started in Sydney, where I spent the day by myself hitting up the major tourist attractions and just generally exploring and getting a feel for the city. Parts of it reminded me a lot of New York City, which is a pretty high compliment in my book. Also, the water was actually blue, which I was totally surprised by (I was expecting that brownishgrey color that is way more typical of high-traffic water). Possibly my favorite part of Sydney was at busy intersections, where it said on the ground "LOOK RIGHT" with an arrow pointing right, for poor people like me who get confused with the traffic coming from the other direction. It was quite funny. I also met a couple of very nice people at my hostel and had some fun with them too.

The next day I departed on a three day bus trip (during which we spent over 20 hours inside of a bus...ugh) that was really fun. Along the way we stopped in a lot of really small towns for bathroom/snack breaks, and most of the way we avoided the big highways and took back roads, so I feel like I saw a lot of Australia this way. Or at least, a lot of the area between Sydney and Melbourne, which is a really really big area, but Australia is really, really, really big. Anyway, we started off going to Canberra (the capital of Australia), which is very pretty and quiet and has lots of trees. Honestly, though, it isn't that interesting of a city lol. I have a picture of Parliament House that I will share with you one of these days. Then that night we went to Jindabyne, which is a little town up in the Snowy Mountains, and could rent stuff for going up into the mountains the next day (ie ski stuff, sleds, or bikes). There wasn't going to be much snow, so most people opted for biking or hiking rather than the skiing. I went biking, and right after we got our bikes we rode around the lake by our accomodation, which was nice. The biking the next day was really really nice (despite the fact that it was WINDY and quite uphill). The views were gorgeous. I swear I have nice pictures lol. And at the top we got to play in the snow.

Sometime in early afternoon we were off again, going down to the coast along a very pretty road. So we had a morning in the mountains, and that night we had a fire on the beach. It was really fun, and there were a lot of stars - I saw the southern cross! (I think). So that night was basically spent hanging out down on the beach, and then the next day we were off AGAIN to go to the southern most point in continental Australia for a hike around some really big rocks (big rocks are my FAVORITE). At this point my camera was already broken, which was disappointing, but I am hoping to acquire some pictures from facebook friends one of these days. Then it started raining while we were eating lunch on the beach, so we were off again to Melbourne, which was where the trip ended.

I spent my night in Melbourne at a bar with some other people from the trip, and the next day the four of us who were staying in the city just went around and explored Melbourne. Okay, people don't really talk about Melbourne much outside of Australia, but it is a seriously cool city. If you are going to be around this end of the earth anytime soon, make sure you hit that up. Its just a really nice city, with some really cool architecture, and some really nice areas along the river, and a really big market, and some other things. I had a really great day there and wish I could have stayed longer.

Overall I had a great break, and met a lot of really cool people, and am utterly exasperated that I have no pictures to share with you lol.

Sorry that was so long.

At this point I have two weeks of classes left, then a week off, then it is finals time, and then I leave. I am going to Moreton Island in approx 10 days, and am hoping to get some other traveling wedged in there too before I leave. Yay.

Send me emails, I would love to hear some news from home : )

Pretty Flowers

I have been accumulating pictures of cool flowers I have seen around campus, and I have posted them up to facebook. Also, Heather and one of her friends from uni down in Wollongong are up to spend a bit of their spring break in Brisbane, so we went up Mt. Coot-tha, which is a mountain from which you can see all of Brisbane, and to the Botanical Gardens at the bottom of Mt. Coot-tha, which are really pretty. So there isn't a whole lot to say about any of these things, but you can look at some sweet pictures I took.

Pictures of flowers on campus are at the end of this album:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112188&l=f2626&id=7411880

Pictures of Mt. Coot-tha and the Botanic Gardens are at the end of this album:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118707&l=01639&id=7411880


I am off on my Spring Break trip tomorrow (hurray!!!) and will tell you all about it when I get back!!

American Dinner

You may recall me mentioning that every Tuesday we have formal dinner, which the entire college attends wearing academic robes and involves some kind of presentation. Well this week was American Dinner, at which the 7 Americans staying at college got to select the menu and present a little bit of their culture to the Aussies. Well, we decided to go with a Thanksgiving theme, so we asked for turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, cornbread for the bread and pumpkin pie for dessert. As a bonus, we go to ask for Coke and Sprite (7up) on the tables, which was excellent. We also asked for pigs in a blanket and chips and salsa for appetizers. Then we did a presentation about Thanksgiving and a little bit about each of our hometowns. Here are the amusing parts of the evening:

-Curly fries and salsa, because chips are french fries here. Possibly the hardest I have laughed since I got to this country.
-Pigs in a blanket were mini hot dogs wedged into dinner rolls. Almost as funny as the chips and salsa.
-Stuffing: more or less, croutons.
-The principal of the college surprising us by having everyone stand with their hand on their heart for our national anthem.
-Mini-cornucopias on every table full of lollies. Apparently America is associated with candy.
-Oreos served after the meal. Not amusing but really exciting (you don't really come across oreos every day here). hurray!!!!!!!!
-Listening to girls in sororities try and explain differences between their sororities and the show Greek.
-The Aussies unexpected fascination with the Amish.

Unrelated: we just did the film unit in my Australian Pop culture class. Movie I didn't know was Australian: Moulin Rouge.

Stradbroke and more Cricket

Yesterday I took a semi-spontaneous trip to Stradbroke Island with two other Americans. It took all eternity to get there (well, about 3.5 hours, but thats a long way to go for a day trip) but it was totally worth it. We walked on some trails and took pictures (link below) of the waves crashing into the giant rocks, and we saw a group of dolphins, which I tried desperately to get a picture of but it was kind of hard. After we walked along the beach for a bit, went swimming, and then laid down for a while before beginning the 3 hour hike back (not literally a hike, it was a bus to a ferry to a bus to a train to a bus).

As it turns out I DID make the cricket team, mostly as an extra but I still went to the matches and played a little. I did some research on wikipedia to find out how to play, and I have learned that it is a very bizarre game and a very slow game. I learned the slow part even more today. It is kind of like baseball in that there is a lot of standing around in a hot field involved. I bowled one over, and found out that I am a really terrible bowler, but I am not too stressed out about it. Anyway it was fun to go and watch and we won both games we played, so that was good. Hurray!

Pictures:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2118707&l=01639&id=7411880

Horses and Cricketers

hello friends and family!

Sorry it has been so long since an update, I haven't really been up to much. School has actually gotten a little busy so its just been uni, uni, uni. Last weekend I did find time to go on a horse-riding adventure that I booked when I first got to Australia with a couple of my friends, and that was really fun (picture of me and my horse, nugget, are below). We had billy tea and damper, which are Australian words for tea and bread cooked on an open fire. I bonded with my horse nugget, who was fidgety like me and very old and stubborn, but unfortunately I don't think he bonded back with me. We got to trot a little, which I had never done before and was great fun. We went through the forest and the mountains and even through some water. It was a good day.


In other news, I have tried out for my college's cricket team for a tournament this upcoming weekend. I am mostly trying out for a laugh, since (a) I have little to no hand/eye coordination (b) I don't have the slightest idea how to play cricket. However, just appearing at the trials appears to have given me a relatively high chance of getting on the team, so you never know. Also, they never actually asked whether or not I knew how to play lol. So I'll keep you informed. Things I have learned about cricket:

1. the ball is made of red leather, and it is very heavy and hurts a lot when it slams into your body.
2. games can get really really long (based on the fact that games in the tournament are being limited to two hours)
3. the bowler (ie pitcher) can't bend their arm when they throw the ball
4. the bowler is trying to hit the wicket (i think); the batter is trying to get them to not hit it...and at some point the batter gets to run...I haven't figured that part out yet.
5. there are only two bases.

My spring break is about a week and a half away. I have booked myself on a sort of hiking adventure type trip that starts in Sydney and ends in Melbourne, as well as an extra night in both Sydney and Melbourne so I can hopefully get out and see the cities a little bit. The trip also goes through Canberra, which is (believe it or not) the capital of Australia, so I will get to see that too. I am really excited.

In Australian popular culture class we just did the music unit, so as a final note I leave you with a list of bands I (sadly) had no idea were from Australia:
AC/DC
Maroon 5
Savage Garden
INXS
Jet

Interesting Cultural Tidbits

In Australia, jell-o is called jelly. Jelly as we know it (ie grape jelly) is called jam. As a result of this confusion, the concept of 'peanut butter and jelly,' when first conceived, is repulsive to most Aussies. I haven't actually encountered this revulsion because most people I know have figured out the jam/jelly connection long ago. I just thought it was interesting. Also, peanut butter and jam is not that common of a thing to eat here either. Peanut butter and honey is much more common. There is also one girl in my college who eats banana, butter (not peanut butter, regular butter), and sugar sandwiches, but I think she's just weird.

Another tidbit I want to share is recovery. I came to Australia during ball season (each of the colleges has a ball - my college had theirs last week). Although I haven't actually attended any balls, as the tickets run about $100 plus I would have to get a pretty nice dress somehow, I have heard the basic outline of the event. Basically you all go to the ball and then you get bused to the afterball event, and then everyone goes home and the next day they have recovery (ie drink more to recover from your hangover from the night before). The cost is a part of the ticket, and it is basically a barbecue. The interesting part is that as far as I can tell everyone dresses up in funny outfits (think 80s workout outfits) and brings food dye (this is the interesting bit). The food dye goes in the beer, and then everyone spits beer at each other all day, and everyone comes back blue. Bizarre much?

Classes

It is springtime at UQ!

The weather is pretty much the same, but I can tell it is spring because all of the birds have gone crazy. Plus, ducklings!


Anyway, it is hard to believe but I am just about halfway through my semester abroad (already??). I thought I would take a minute to reflect on my classes thus far. Although not so much on microeconomics because micro is pretty much micro, wherever you happen to be.

Australian Popular Culture: This course has proven to be fairly interesting. We did a unit on 'Sport' during the Olympics, and we learned about how Aussies have a tendency to identify themselves as being naturally good athletes and how representing themselves that way to to the rest of the world during the Olympics is really important to them. We've also had units on the beach and the bush and tourism and the way that these things factor into the Australian identity (Austrialanness, a word I still cannot pronounce). Downside of this class is that it's one of those classes that encourages you to think critically of common ideas, to the point that you tend to focus a LOT on the less-common view of things and pay little or no attention to the more common perspective. That kind of thing makes me crazy.

Ecotourism: This class is pretty educational but a little intense and a little circular (because there is only limited literature about ecotourism available). I know more about tourism than I ever wanted to know, and I am developing a fantastic guilt complex about any tourism that I ever have taken or will take part in, ever. Not to say that I don't like the class though lol, it is one of my favorites.

Developmental Psychology: ...is pretty much what you would expect, but I just wanted to point out that I think the study of pyschology in Australia is much more focused on looking at empirical research studies, and also more directed towards students who are going to become research psychologists. This is only in my very, very limited experience though.

As a final note I want everyone to know that I ate kangaroo for dinner last night. It pretty much tastes like steak, but a little chewier. That is all.