Togas and Technology

There are certain things we take for granted. Many of those things that I am struggling to cope with as I learn to eat, sleep, and breathe Australian culture. First of all, there is a limit on how many downloads you can access over the internet. I'm not talking about iTunes or YouTube, either. It means each and every webpage you pull up is counted as a download. After a certain amount of gigabytes, there is a glitch, and the internet goes back to dial-up speed. Currently I am technically on dial-up which is extremely frustrating (I was told this will be fixed by Sunday!). I was not aware how outdated Lismore seems to be. Along with that, many of the houses here do not have dryers. They hang their clothes on clothes lines and rarely do the dryers get put to use. I found this very shocking especially since you hang each shirt or pair of undies with a clothespin- so time consuming! Dryer, if you're listening... I miss you. And there's more! No dishwasher. Yes, you have to individually wash, rinse, dry, and put away all the dishes you use. I believe not having the dishwasher or dryer cuts back on energy/water costs but I miss those machines all the same. Technology keeps advancing yet Lismore has a long way to go.

Going back to primitive ways can be an advantage especially if you like to dress primitively! Unibar hosted Hawaiian Toga party last night complete with floral printed sheets tied at the shoulder. When in Lismore- dress as the Hawaiians did and wear a toga (it made no sense to me either but what the heck I'll join in). Below, Mike, me, Rhiannan and Amy- all of us roomies!

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

We made our way to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and was able to see some of Australia's most prestigious animals. Kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, and venomous snakes were all on display. We even got to pet the kangaroos as you can see in my video. They are extremely friendly and are looking for handouts every chance they get.

Uni starts on Monday officially and with the contract through K-State's study abroad program I am able to take 4 classes. I am taking an Outdoor Education class which includes two field trips to the Outback! I cannot wait for more travels through Australia to capture all of its entirety. In the pics below, me petting the kangaroo, my roommate and fellow K-Stater Mike with a lizard and those sleepy koalas!

Koalas at the Uni

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The first koala is Brendan. He is a resident at Uni because he got hit by a car and is now blind. He was happily munching on the leaves shown in the picture. No worries! The koala sitting in the tree had no clue I was standing underneath him. He kept scratching himself and finally looked over his shoulder at me. There are koalas that literally live at the Uni! Don't you wish you had these cute koalas on your campus?

Byron Bay

Conversations with an Australian, Pt. 1

Australian: "So, are you Canadian?"
Me: "No, I'm American."
Australian: "Oh... is Sarah Palin really that stupid?"

A Lesson in Australian-English

You would think going to another country where the dominant language is English wouldn't be so difficult, right? Wrong. For the three short days that I've been here, I have found it challenging to come up with the correct word or phrase. I was told it would be around 24 degrees today and I looked like an idiot trying to come up with the correct temperature in Farenheit. Among their many words, these are what I have found difficult to say during a normal conversation:

biscuit= cookie
chips= french fries
Uni (pronounced "you-nee")= university/campus
shopping centre= mall
shops= stores
no worries= it's okay/not a problem
brilliant= awesome
bloke= guy

heaps= a lot/tons

Will post more vocab as time progesses but for now, I wanted to share some pictures of the beautiful flora and fauna that is so abundant in Lismore! Keep in mind that Lismore is based around an inactive volcano, just sitting on of it's outer ring.

The First Day

Woke up to the hum of cicadas and strange bird-like noises. What is this strange land? After getting used to the fact that I'll wake up to that every morning for the next 4 months, my host mom Anne and I took a trip down to the Uni (this is Aussie talk for college/university). The buildings are all situated in and among huge palm trees and flowers. It reminded me of my Girl Scout camping days being tucked back in the woods. The plaza at Uni is a lot like the Student Union at K-State though the bookstore, icecream shop, etc are all located around the center pavilion. It was blazing hot the whole time we were walking around (rule #1- always bring a bottle of water when on campus). Next we went to the bank to set up a bank account to easily access throughout my trip. The bank is downtown and it has a whole bunch of shops to walk through. We stopped into a pub to have a drink which was much needed after walking around everywhere. Went to the grocery store which is about the same as U.S. grocery stores, they even had Campbells soup and Oreos! My new friend Patrick who is a kiwi (from New Zealand) helped with the groceries and made us all spaghetti back at the house. Midway through cooking we decided to go swimming at a friends house in a saltwater pool. I was told most pools are not saltwater but you get what you get. Was having a 4X to drink when these huge birds were flying around everywhere. "Wow, look at those birds!" Anne says, "Those aren't birds, those are bats." Walking around the porch, 100's of bats were swarming as the sun was setting, some getting as close as 20 feet away from us. The wingspan on these monsters is about 3 feet- these things are HUGE! I was a little freaked out by all of the bats flying around that I wanted to get back into the car. Went home, ate, showered, and before I knew it I passed out due to the jetlag! All in all, still getting used to my surroundings and the other student from K-State will be here in 3 days which I am SO excited about. Until then, keep reading and feel free to post a comment (you do not need a gmail account to post a comment, check the box that says anonymous and you should be able to comment). I miss all of you!