After three years of Uni I finally learned…
… time management. I don’t know HOW it happened, but it did. This week I have three major things due, yet it hasn’t been a stressful week at all. I’ve done a little bit on each assessment every day. And when I say a little bit, I’m talking an hour tops on each assignment. Low and behold, I have free time and I’m not stressed.
I’m very much looking forward to being done with assessments. I’m heading off to Sydney for a night to go see the lights of “Vivid Sydney,” with a couple of mates. Recently I’ve been inducted into a group of Aussies. They invited me to a party this weekend. I’m pumped. Potter Club has a party on Friday. There has been talk about going off to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days during the 12 day gap between having to be responsible and getting to travel. The Aussie group of people has talked about going out to clubs in Sydney, so maybe that’ll happen. We’re going to Luna Park for Katelyn’s birthday. I’m excited to get back to retro night, a night at a club that plays the best music of the 90s and early 00s. Supernova, or Nerdfest, as I often refer to it, is going to be on in Sydney. A group of mates are going, so I might join in just for funsies. Disney on Ice is going on in our stadium. Lord of the Rings Movie Marathon is going to happen before New Zealand. Lots on. In addition, I finally was able to procure Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets which I’m planning on reading. I’m in the middle of listening to “Emma,” which I quite like, but the Emma character really irritates me. I’ve also been watching several movies, but in a text-book way. I’m analyzing them.
What’s weird here is that my American/Canadian friends and I have about 3 weeks left together and half of them have tests. It’s an odd mix of trying to hang-out as much as possible, while also having to study. I feel lucky that I’m not in that group of people who has to study, but still.
A bit of procrastination.
I have three more final assessments to do. They are due in five days. I can’t concentrate for that long. -headdesk- In other news my facebook is set to “Pirate English” so that thar be pleasin’ to me eye. Busy-ish week ahead. BBQ tomorrow with the Potter People who I’m bonding more with every time I see them. Guides on Wednesday. I’m pretty sure there’s a party every on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We’ll see if I go to any. Gotta get going on the homework.
Seldovia, AK
A3 Disney Floor
“Let’s get down to business, to defeat, the huns.”
Not a bad song.
“Hakuna matata, what a wonderful phrase, hakuna matata ain’t no passin craaaze”
Not a bad song, but still…
For the past three days one of our floor mates has been BLASTING Disney music. While normally I wouldn’t have a problem with this, the guy only had like, five songs: Strangers Like Me, Hakuna Matata, I’ll Make a Man Out of You, Can You Feel the Love Tonight?, and Two Worlds. Now, I like Phil Collins, Donny Osmand, and Elton John as much as your average musical theatre/Disney junkie, that this has got to stop.
Last night I ran into the floor mate. “Please take my music,” I told him. He spent about thirty minutes in my room going through my Disney music.
“Pirates of the Caribbean. I want that.”
“Not that one, that’s the ride soundtrack.”
“That’s wild… Why do you have so many more songs on your Tarzan?”
“It’s the musical version.”
It was rather entertaining. Sadly, today’s music selection hasn’t been much broader. We’ve been treated to a song from Lion King 2 and Hercules.
Everyone on our floor got door signs featuring Disney characters. Here’s mine: 
Needless to say, I was pretty happy with the result.
In other news, my leg is healing. Here’s a picture of it at it’s worst.
Update
Life is kind of on stand-still until session break. I have heaps of homework. Right now I’m fighting with this essay I’m writing (more on that later). Just an update on what’s going on in my life.
Friends: I have them. They’re good. Last night we had one of those beautiful dorm nights where you end up stealing each others keys and relocating people’s rooms into your room, all in the spirit of fun. Got to skype with a friend I haven’t talked to since October last night.
Books: Yeah, this is a new category. I’m reading heaps more here, a mix of peer pressure and less internet. Whatever the reason, it’s a good thing. I’m about 100 pages through “The Complete Mary Poppins.” I just finished the Hunger Games series. I hated it. It was too violent and was anti-climactic. In exchange for me reading the Hunger Games, the Canadians agreed to read Harry Potter if I could get them the book. So yesterday I went to the library and checked out the first book. I sat down to work on my homework and ended re-reading the book for the umpteenth time in about three hours. I read the Canadians the first chapter before bed last night. They were really engaged, so that makes me happy.
TV: I didn’t like who won “The Amazing Race,” I haven’t seen the series finale of “Once Upon a Time” yet. I’m eagerly looking forward to what’s going to happen to Rachel in “Glee.” “Degrassi“‘s new episode hasn’t been posted yet. Oh well.
Travel: I’m going down to Sydney for another day trip soon. This time I’m going to be meeting up with AJ, a fellow member of the Disney Podcast Network, that lives nearby.
New Zealand: I’m pretty much got Lauren and my trip figured out. There’s a few places we’re not sure if where we’re staying yet, but booking should occur shortly. Activities include: touring Hobbiton, Zorbing, abseiling down into a cave full of glow worms, and black water rafting.
Classes: I have so much homework. Well, not really. I have a lot of essays, and since I care about writing and good grades, they’re taking me a long time to write.
Indigenous Studies: Still not getting better. On Friday I have a presentation due about the Intervention in the Northern Territory of Australia. If you want to learn about some ridiculously racist laws in Australia, look up the Intervention. It will seriously disgust you. Then I can just focus on the 2000 word essay, and be done with it. I just wanted to take an anthro class and this wasn’t it.
Film and History: is starting to be less depressing! We’re no longer watching movies about genocide, which I quite prefer. I’m writing this awesomely interesting essay about Disney’s Pocahontas and Bonnie and Clyde, and how the films sacrificed historical accuracy for box office returns. I’m having some structural issues which I need to work through.
Media, War, and Peace: is winding down. I have one more project left which is based on protest music. I don’t think it will be too hard.
Dramatic Writing: I don’t ever want to leave that class. I love my peers in the class, my teacher is super young (25), so it feels more like he’s a peer than a teacher. He just started working on “The Voice” Australia version, so that’s really exciting. Yesterday in class we did a group exercise where we re-imagined a fairy tale into a film or play. Most of our ideas fell under the realms of “Black Comedies.” “You guys should have all been comic book writers in the seventies,” our teacher joked. As we struggled to catch our breath at one of our classmates ideas of “Little Red Riding hood,” our teacher said, “I’d just like to take a moment to appreciate that this is the only major in which that would fly.” We lost it again. Lectures have been amazing as well. We’ve had a guest lecturer the past two weeks and I find myself hanging on his every word and coming out of the class beaming. If all classes could be like this.
And it’s time to return to work. Wish me luck.
World Showcase Destination: Roadside Virginia
Sometimes I do cool things in cool places
I’m not quite sure what time I fell asleep, but it was incredibly late at night. 6:15am my alarm went off. I turned off my phone and got ready for the bus ride. Wayne, one of our study abroad leaders, showed up at 7:30 as anticipated. We boarded the bus and headed out. I don’t remember much of the bus ride. I drifted in and out of sleep quite a bit.
Our first stop was to the town of Luera, right outside of Blue Mountains National Park. Luera was the Sedona of the Blue Mountains region. I could spend quite a bit of time wondering around the town shopping. We went to a delicious looking bakery and got coffee. Thank goodness. For the first time, I felt like it was autumn. The group walked on the sidewalk as the sun shown through the red leaves. There was a nip in the air.
The nip disappeared as my heartbeat quickened in anticipation of abseiling. We rushed through Katoomba before arriving at our abseiling (propelling) location. This was our view:
Needless to say it was rather spectacular. Like the Grand Canyon but with trees. Then it was time to abseil! We went down a 15 ft, a 45 ft, and a 100 ft cliff. The first cliff was easy and tiny. The second was incredibly nerve wracking, but I got to the point where it was comfortable. The third cliff I was still nervous about.
About five feet down I slip and my leg was caught between the rope and the rock, momentarily hanging upside down. I was surprisingly calm.
“Break!” The guy at the top yelled.
“Okay, what do I do?” I asked.
“Can you get your foot out?”
“Yeah I think so,” and I did. All my nerves were completely gone. Nothing was scary after that.
The best part of the abseiling was the 45 ft of hanging off of the cliff, spinning, and just feeling like I was floating in the middle of the amazing canyon. It could have been the best 10 seconds of my life. Simply amazing.
Afterwards we headed over to the Three Sisters.
It was around 3pm by the time we headed towards lunch. The restaurant looked like we were inside of Frodo’s house.
One more vista stop and we were off back to my college town.
Most people fell asleep on the way home. Those who stayed up were treated to a view of the moonrise that glowed pink.
And that was the day. Wonderful. I love Australia.
Mary’s World Showcase Destination: Hawaii Part 3: Sunsets over Waikiki Beach.
Sydney Weekend
My friend Michelle’s is next week, or, by the time any of you read this, a couple of days ago. She decided that she wanted to go to high tea for her celebration, something I eagerly partook in. I love going to high tea. It’s so classy.
Katelyn, Shelby, Lauren, Michelle, Carl, Tash, Pheebs and I headed off to Sydney at around 9:30 for our tea at noon. We had a bit of an adventure finding the hotel. Nothing major, we just couldn’t find the street we were supposed to be on, but we found the street parallel, so it all worked out. Tea was kind of weird. The combination of sitting on lounge chairs, and having two small tables between eight of us made eating a bit awkward. I found myself bent over to reach stuff most of the time. The food was good, but not great. Tea wasn’t served until after we ate all of the tea food. There was no choice of tea. The best part of the whole thing, other than the company, was the champagne. I guess I’m a bit of a high tea snob now.
After tea we headed to The Rocks. The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney, and in my opinion, the coolest. This was my first time I’d been in the area, and the first time I saw the Sydney Opera House and the bridge.
My lovely travel buddies and two people in our college that we can into.
We found a market and headed around it picking up a couple souvenirs for a good price along the way. Afterward, we said goodbye to Pheebs, Shelbs, and Carl, before heading off to the ferry. We timed our ferry ride to Darling Harbour perfectly during sunset.
My friends and I goofed off a bit… Okay, we goofed off a lot.
The sunset was amazing. We had dinner at Black Bird Cafe, right before happy hour ended so we could afford having an adult beverage! The Cafe was odd because it looked a lot like a club, but it was a cafe. The five of us split three pizzas. My favorite was a nacho one which ground beef, cheese, peppers, sour cream and guac. Our goal after dinner was to grab dessert at a Lindt fountain shop. A piece of cake costs $14. We left and found some gelato. That’s when we found the playground. The five of us spent about an hour playing on the swings, playing in the fountains, playing on ropes, etc. We ended up on a big field and shoes were thrown. Not quite sure why, but it happened.
We stayed at Railroad Central YHA. The five of us got a six person room to ourselves. Railroad Central was in the same building as Central Station, making it the perfect spot for travel. The staff wasn’t the best, but the hostel was safe, clean, and well designed. Some of the rooms were old Railroad cars, but we weren’t lucky enough to get one of those rooms. We had a great time in our room. Michelle, Tash, and I did yoga while Katelyn looked on in a “My God you’re so West Coast” way. Lauren taught us some sort of Australian dance. Katelyn found a book in the book swap about trashy paranormal proms. The five of us animately read out loud Meg Cabot’s story. The story was about a vampire and a vampire hunter. It was overly dramatic, and way to obsessed with a fourth period history class.
The next morning we headed out to Pancakes on the Rocks. It took a while to find it, once again. I feel so fortunate that my friends went along with me dragging them to a different area of Sydney rather happily. Pancakes on the Rocks was amazing.
I split from the group and headed to a rugby game. I enjoyed it overall. It was rather interesting and fast paced. I’m not sure if I’d go again though… We’ll see what next semester brings
.
World Showcase Destination: Atlanta, GA
Responsibility
There are a lot of stereotypes I’ve encountered since entering Australia. The main one being that all Americans are loud, obnoxious, religious to a point it’s bad, and conservative.
Last night I was volunteering with the Girl Guides when I faced a different stereotype. “Where’s the trash can?” I asked the leader with a handful of razors covered in shaving cream in my hands. “Oh, we don’t have one. It kept on getting stolen. Most likely from the kids at” then she said the name of my college, which is next door to the Guides hall.
Later on some of my guides were barefoot when we were instructed to go outside. “Can I go barefoot here?” One of them asked. “No.” I responded, “put some shoes on.” Proximity to college meant a high chance of broken beer bottles lying in the grass. “Yeah you’re right —” the fifteen-year-old said the name of my college, “—is right over there.” It saddened me to know that my college that I’ve always enjoyed, has such a bad rep.
I’m glad I’m doing volunteer work to improv are rep. I wish others would consider doing the same. Not necessarily do volunteer work, but take a step towards repairing relationships within our community.
Nerd Fest or my Last Full Day in Melbourne
My last day in Melbourne started early. Kim and I drove to Sarah’s apartment before picking up Shalini and Tristen and heading off to Supernova. Supernova is a large-ish nerd convention that takes place in the major cities of Australia every year. The first two hours we spent were just standing in lines. Lines to register. Lines to get in. Lines to buy stuff. A line to get our picture taken with the Phelps brothers, also known as the Weasley twins. The four of us girls were in wizard cloaks, very excitable. James and Oliver were hugging each person passing through before getting a picture. The supernova person told us “No hugs, just pictures,” right before we went up to get our picture taken. The annoying thing was that James and Oliver were standing there, waiting, as this lady was telling us this. I talked to them a little bit, nothing more past “How are you doing today?” “Enjoy Australia,” that sort of thing. Sarah, who opted to get their autographs instead, had a pleasant chat with them. I’m rather jealous.
After meeting the twins, we grabbed some food. It was after eleven by this point. Kim hadn’t eaten anything up until that point, and after getting up at 6:30, I was rather hungry as well. The rest of the afternoons were spent looking at fun merchandise…
… taking goofy pictures
… and people watching
We were originally going to go to pho for dinner; some restaurant was having a free re-grand opening. This ended up not happening after what I can most aptly describe as the group of Chinese Youths decided to go out to a chili restaurant. I had never been to a chili restaurant before. The afternoon was relaxed. Kim and I finished watching Pirates of Penzance. I probably tried to do a bit more homework and promptly failed at it.
Chili restaurants are fun. We had a group of 13 or 14 of us, three of us white, the rest were Chinese Australians from last weekend, ranging in age from 16 to 25. We sat around a giant table with a boiling double bowl of something. We tossed in meats, vegetables, and tofu until the pot had cooked them, then we’d fish the food out with our chopsticks. Now, I’m not a big fan of spicy food, but this was brilliant. I had a great time eating as I talked about politics and religion in the States. Afterwards we found a cafe where I had the best cup of chai I think I’ve ever had.
The next morning Kim and her parents drove me off to the airport. I checked in. The lady at the counter was super sweet to me. She told me that she had backpacked all around the world when she was my age. She suggested learning to make drinks as a way to sustain my travels. Kim’s parents treated Kim and I to a coffee and we sat around talking about traveling and Disney. It was a really nice moment for me. I loved Kim’s family and really hope I get to see them again (and Kim of course!) before I go back to the States.
Juneau, AK—Part 1
**Not all are my photos**
Melbourne Days
The plan on Thursday was to be on the way to Melbourne by 10. At around 11:30 we left. Every morning at Kim’s house went something of the same. I’d wake up first, get brekky, sit down and start working on my homework, when Kim’s dad would get up, and ask me if I wanted some coffee. From that point on, nothing would be achieved. Kim’s dad and I would chat quite a bit as he made coffee. Her dad is starting a foreign coffee selling business so each day I got a different coffee in latte form (yay espresso machine!). Kim’s mom would then come out and we’d chat with her as well. Kim eventually would make her way downstairs and it would be out the door for us.
We headed down to Victoria Market. Lots of shopping. Kim found a set of hand carved wooden Australian animals that I bought, along with “The Boy from Oz,” soundtrack. After the Market, we headed over towards the exhibition hall before going into the museum. We spent most of our time at the museum inside an area that featured dinosaurs, then a huge bug collection, then the biggest room of dead animals I have ever seen. We made our way upstairs towards a very interesting Psychology exhibit. I enjoyed the exhibit, but didn’t learn anything other than Australians were using Asylums as late as 1980. The exhibit also had a fact wrong. We ended up in the section about the history of Melbourne when the museum started to close and the docents kept on reminding us of their closing time.
That night Kim’s parents took us and Kim’s twin Andrew out to the pancake parlour. This, apparently, is a very Melbournian thing to do. We each got a savory pancake (cheese and potato for me), followed by a dessert pancake. Kim and I split a lamington pancake. It came out with a scoop of cream so thick that we weren’t sure if it was ice cream or not. I had the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my life there. They served three different types, all made with homemade fudge.
That night Kim wanted to further my Australian education so we watched “The Dish.” During the middle of the movie, Kim pulled out all her musical programs and we excitedly flipped though them. Once “The Dish” finished we started watching an Imagineering Special. This was followed by some TV special Kim’s family had recorded. “I want to watch Pirates of Penzance,” Kim declared before bringing it down. It was a long night.
Friday didn’t start until a bit later. Kim’s parents took Kim and I to Yum Cha, something similar to Dim Sum but in the morning. We had heaps of Chinese food. It’s nice to get the real, non-westernized stuff. I love bao. From there we headed downtown to part one of the National Gallery where we looked at heaps of Aboriginal paintings. Kim then showed me every theatre in Melbourne. They were extremely pretty. We ended at Crowne, a very snazzy casino, in the food court for dinner.
Back at home, we finished “Pirates of Penzance,” and I continued to try to work on my huge homework assignment. Kim headed out for a game of Mafia with her HG members (Chinese youths from the weekend). I declined, feeling beaten up by lack of sleep, and concerned about home my homework had progressed.
