Round Two

In my efforts to follow the wisdom of every communications professor I've ever had at BU, I'm starting this up again. They tell us to stay connected. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, a blog. I kept up with it fairly well while I was in Australia, but mostly because there was a lot to write about. Stories are just easier to make blog-worthy when they take place in a world that is foreign to your readers.

So now I'm going at this round two, this time taking place in Boston. It'll be more of a challenge, to make interesting; I can't just spit out every place I visited and every humorous Aussie dialogue I exchanged. It'll be more of a challenge, but I'm up for it.

That's my first reason to keep this blog going. I also realized that writing is a passion of mine, and like many passions, it only gets better with practice. If I don't keep at it on my own time it might fade away and my emails might start lookin lyke dis. Just kidding, that won't happen. But my focus in Advertising isn't on Copywriting, so I need to find some other way to keep the writing up. Blog it is.

My updates won't be as frequent (if you could call my posts from Australia frequent); its pace will rely more on how often I find something blog-worthy than keeping weekly tabs on my life. I'll just work a little harder at finding blog-worthy observations, stories, etc; who knows, it might make me work a little harder at making my life blog-worthy.

I don't know how exactly it'll go, but I can promise I won't write about how much homework I have to do, or what time I ate lunch or anything like that.

To be continued!

Wine and a little politics

Well, I said I would finish my blog update some other time and it turns out that “other time” is roughly 4 hours later. Just one of those days at work where I ask anyone around me if they need help with anything and they answer in a chorus of “no, but I’ll let you know!” Meh, it happens. When I’m not UPDATING MY BLOG (which has only been today), these days usually result in me browsing the New York Times and AdWeek sites because I figure if I’m not doing anything helpful, I might as well be doing something mildly educational. Right?

So I left off at Cairns. For the most part, the past few weeks since Cairns has been kind of uneventful, more or less, with a few highlights. One of these highlights would be last weekend when a few of us took a Saturday to visit Hunter Valley, a renowned vineyard about three hours away from Sydney. It was easily one of my favourite trips in Australia so far.

The day started off rough. And understandably so, since we had to leave the lobby of Unilodge by 5:30 am to catch our train. Which meant I woke up at 4:50 am. And, quite predictably, we made it out late. Like, 5:45-5:50 late. For a 6:05 am train. After anxiously waiting for the last person to make it down, we bolted out of the lobby and caught a cab to get to Central station which would normally take 10-15 minutes to walk. Not ideal.

We started running as soon as we got out of the cab. Keep in mind I was wearing flats that are too big for me so this run was a horrendous effort. We jammed our money into the ticket machines and sprinted to the train, the whole time thinking “shit, we’re not gonna make it...we’re going to miss the trip.”

With the guidance of other passengers around us (“I think the train to Newcastle is over there! Go!”) We found the right train. Right as they were closing the door. If we had arrived a few seconds later we would not have made the train. It was quite a victory as we found seats, panting and very awake for 6:06 in the morning.

Three hours (and one nap) later, we arrived in Newcastle, where our lovely tour guide met us at the train station. She was so nice! Once she picked up all the other vineyard- goers (we were the first of her stops) she asked everyone, “so I assume you have all had nice, hearty breakfasts to prepare yourself for the day, right?”

Keep in mind this is at 9:30 in the morning. We’ve been awake since 4:50 and I had yet to eat anything amidst all the rushing and lack of places to stop for some food. So I thought to myself, crap...this wine tasting is going to be interesting.

We arrived to Hunter Valley around 10 am and it was absolutely breathtaking. The weather was perfect, mild with the sky completely blue. There were hills upon hills with grapevines, and mountains surrounding the place as far as you could see. I’ve never seen anything like it, really. Our first wine tasting began promptly after we arrived at an organic winery. I felt so classy as the wine connoisseur explained to us which wines were oaky, which were dry, and which had just a “hint of passion fruit.”

“Oh, I can TASTE the passion!” Brittany said. Hopefully he had a sense of humour about it.

After trying 15 or so wines, we were all feeling it because of the severe lack of food in our stomachs. So we feasted on bread and oil samples as much as we could before making our way to the next winery called Tempus Two, which was very modern and had a younger feel to it (techno music playing in the background? It somehow seemed to work).

Luckily the next part of the tour was a cheese tasting so that gave us the chance to try stuffing our faces a little more so that we didn’t feel too warm and fuzzy.

After one final winery in a very homey-type place (the log cabin setup actually reminded me of New Hampshire and made me briefly homesick), we finally had lunch at around 2, followed by a chocolate tasting (if you could call it that; we had four tiny slivers of chocolate! I would complain, but the rest of the tour was so amazing it hardly mattered) and a final trip to a liqueur site. Here we tried butterscotch schnapps, coffee schnapps, and a few other liqueurs, including the strangest alcohol I’ve ever heard of or tried: chilli butterscotch schnapps. Yeah...it was weird. There was even a chilli in the bottle. We downed it last, after instructed to take it fast like a shot. It burned my throat and as everyone reached for the water, I got instant hiccups! I have no idea why. But they lasted about 15 minutes before going away. So strange.

After a very satisfying, albeit exhausting day (wine + sun = nap) we took the train back and arrived back in Sydney at around 8 pm. Unfortunately I have no pictures from this trip because my camera has temporarily broken until I can get it fixed under warranty in the US, probably because of something miniscule like a grain of sand. But it was absolutely incredible and, like I said, definitely one of my favourite trips this semester.

Another thing worth mentioning: I was on TV last Monday night! Well, me and my entire Mass Media class. Our professor has ridiculous connections to every aspect of the media industry in Australia, and he pulled some strings to get our entire class to be in the audience for Q&A, a show on the ABC (think the Australian version of PBS) that has a panel of significant political figures and an audience that can ask them anything they want. The whole thing is aired live so there is zero editing, which is a very bold media move on the station’s part. This week was focused on American/Australian politics, with the American ambassador on the panel. It was fascinating and, while I would never feel comfortable/knowledgeable enough to ask a question myself, I loved sitting in the audience and watching other members go at it with very insightful, often controversial questions and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Well that’s pretty much it; I will try to be better about updating my blog before I leave in two weeks! Two weeks left....I still can’t wrap my head around that one.

It's been a while...

So anyone who reads this has probably assumed I’ve dropped off the face of the earth in Australia. I’m sorry! So much has happened between my last post and this post, so this is going to be a novel of an entry. I’m probably going to split it up into two because really...it’s going to be long. Jeez, talk about procrastination.

Let’s see...last time I wrote anything was right after spring break in Fiji. Which was, a very long time ago. The most significant thing to happen after Fiji was undoubtedly the start of my internship at Publicis Mojo, an advertising agency in the Rocks by the harbour—I can see the opera house by stepping outside. The agency is full of young 20-somethings blasting music and clopping around in high heels or throwing foam footballs. It's crazy how professionalism and casual communication can coexist so effortlessly here. One minute they are clamouring (I’m using the computer at work—i.e. Australian spell check) to get a brief out to the client before the 4 pm deadline and the next minute, the Traffic coordinator is going around asking if anyone wants a beer.

I’ve been working in the Account department for over a month now. In the beginning, it was slow going—it seemed that either there was not enough work to give me, or the work they had was too difficult to give an intern. Still, I always have an extreme intolerance for not doing work at internships when I feel like I should be doing something, so I’ve been trying to strike the balance between seeming apathetic, spending time on gchat all day and invading their space as the overly eager intern who needs work to do all the time. This basically means that I remind my department every once in a while that I’m free, as well as let the people around me know that I can help them out with anything if they need it.

As a result, I’ve gotten more than just requests for creative brief editing and data entering (though I love data entering and editing—I’m not kidding). I’ve gotten work on different projects, from doing competitive analyses on digestive wellness brands and cooking appliances for Proctor & Gamble, to researching everything and anything I can on Broadband in Australia, the UK and the US in preparation for a huge client—the Australian government. While there have been the expected lags that any internship inevitably has from time to time, I can say that I’ve become an expert on travel wholesale companies, medical trends for 2010, Broadband, digestive health, kitchen appliances, and major Australian banks and telecom companies. If anything, I’ve realized from all this research that to get anything done in an advertising agency, you have to know a hell of a lot about countless random topics—in other words, you have to know every single thing about the client, their audience and the challenges they face in marketing.

Still, it hasn’t been just research and data entering. They've been putting me in different departments, so that I'm getting a real sense of how the agency works. Other than busy work and projects at my desk I've gone to three commercial edits and the other week I sat in on a meeting between account and one of their clients, Qantas Holidays. It was my first time sitting in on a boardroom meeting and, I have to say, it was very interesting. A lot of the stuff kind of went over my head—figures and stats and business terms and whatnot, all in Australian (and one very thick French) accents—but I still absorbed a lot about the business aspect of the industry, seeing them discuss how to reach certain targets, how to stand out from other travel ads, etc.

As for the TV commercial edits...that was a crazy experience. The first one that I'd been invited to was in North Sydney at nine in the morning—as in, I had to use my horrible navigation skills find the place myself via bus—and when I got there, it turned out they only had to edit for 2 minutes. One of the Creatives apologized saying that it took him longer to eat his toast than to edit the commercial. Later on that day, though, and the next day I went to editing sessions for a foster care commercial, the client being the New South Wales government. I felt so glamorous. Well, more like I felt like I was in the middle of a heckuva lotta glamour and I was the intern who was jussst a bit out of place, from my lack of knowledge about any aspect of editing whatsoever to my American accent that seemed crude in comparison. We took taxis all over Sydney as they chatted small talk about work, recent engagements, and client gossip/complaining (to them, Citibank is apparently Shittybank—hardy har har).

When we got to a studio, it would always be one of those trendy, industrial/posh combinations where the floors would be cement but there would be leather couches, funky chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, and secretaries greeting you behind their giant computer monitors. And all of that greeting each other by kissing on the cheek business. When we settled into the editing studio, complete with buttons and screens that took up an entire wall and more leather couches, people would pop into the room and ask if we wanted anything—lattes, sparkling water, etc—all for free. When the producer asked, "who wants lunch? Anyone? I'm dying for Japanese. Let's do sushi," I knew just how out of my element I was. But I did a lot of listening and smiling and not a whole lot of talking. Which I'm okay with, because the whole experience was a great look into the editing business when you're working with big name clients that invest a lot in their advertising. Sitting in on TVC edits was definitely the cushier side to my internship; I didn’t really have to do much but take everything in.

I can’t believe that I only have eight work days left; my last day is next Friday. While I’ve been having a great time here, I feel like there is still so much more that I could learn. Still, I’m so happy I’ve gotten the chance to gain some insight into the workings of a full service agency, especially the account sector since I’m pretty sure that’s the area I want to go into once I graduate.

Believe it or not, I’ve been doing things with my time other than going to my internship. For Easter break, my friends and I (and pretty much half of the BU abroad program—not even exaggerating) went to Cairns for the extended weekend. This trip definitely had its positives and negatives. But basically the positives were the amazing activities we took part in. The main negative was that it rained. Hard. The entire time.

When we got to our backpackers resort, “Calypso,” I have to say it was a little disappointing. It was probably due mostly to the rain but the place reminded me of Home Alone when Kevin’s family pulls up to that motel in Florida in the pouring rain. With walls painted yellow, orange and purple and a murky green pool, the place seemed desperate to make itself look brighter than it actually was. Our room was a cinderblock of a room painted orange and dark blue with two bunk beds, an A.C. and a mirror. Needless to say we didn’t spend too much time at the place.

We went white water rafting the first day we were there. I’ve gone before, but it was back in the eighth grade and I hardly remember it, except for the fact that I had to wear a wet suit. Maybe that’s why I don’t remember it—blocked it out, perhaps? Anyway, it was incredible, and pretty much as far as I like to push myself, thrill-seeking-wise. Our guide was ridiculous, pretty much the typical crazy, inappropriate Australian in his mid-twenties who we can’t quite seem to fully understand. I’m starting to see a trend with these guides.

Example number one: we’re on the bus and he’s giving us the run-down. What to wear, what not to wear while we’re out in the rapids. “Alright so for all you guys on the bus. Do you know what a speedo is? You do? Okay, good. Yeah. Don’t wear that. You could get really hurt without the proper coverage. You’ll want something loose like this bloke’s board shorts, that’s right. Okay. Ladies, I recommend you wear something very skimpy because you don’t want anything loose getting caught on rocks or something awful.”

That kind of guy. He was definitely amusing. While we were getting our life jackets and hats on for the water, he came over to our group of six. “Girls, there’s good news and bad news. What do you want first?”
“Bad news.”
“Well good news is I’m your tour guide! Bad news...we need seven of you and there are only six. So,” he said, pointing over to a 300 pound man by himself getting on his gear, “you’re going with that guy.” So yeah, instant awkwardness. How do you deal with this kind of situation? It was ridiculous. Apparently this guy has gone a few times, loves thrills (bungee jumping skydiving, etc) and couldn’t wait to get in the rapids. So we piled into our boat and Nicole was lucky enough to have to sit next to him. And I was lucky enough to try to pull him out of the water when he fell out halfway through. Of course, that failed and the guide had to help me out. As you can imagine the scene was pretty...interesting.
Also about halfway through, we stopped our boat for a bit on the side so our guide could leave to partake in various safety measures along the river. Of course, being the crazy typical Australian guide that he was, he decided to dive into the water on a dare with his friend and swim away from us.
“Where are you going!!” we shouted.
“Follow me!” “What?”
“Really, just follow me! Come on!” he shouted, laughing.
So we did, and yelled at him when he got back on the boat. Well, at least I did. I told him he was fired and he told me to shut up. Typical..
And at one point he made us go BACK into a rapid that we had already gone through, “just ‘cause we can!” Also typical.
Despite my constant screaming/freaking out, the day was really fun. I definitely felt like I faced death coming up to some massive jagged rocks protruding from the water, but that’s the fun of it, right?

The next day, we went to the Queensland tablelands and visited a few rainforest highlights. Aside from the pouring rain and tour guide, Brian, who I’m convinced was afraid of silence, it was worth the experience. Side note: he couldn’t go a 10 seconds without talking into his mic about something completely unimportant: “you know, before we go out there you might want to take water. Unless you’re fit and don’t need water so much. I don’t really need all that much water, unless it’s humid, of course. When it’s humid well that’s a different story. But today is rainy, so you should be fine. Unless you like having water with you all the time and in that case...” He was the first guide I thoroughly did not like.

Queensland is beautiful with deep green, massive rolling hills. The rainy day actually added an attractiveness to it, sort of as I’ve always imagined Ireland’s appeal to be like. Our first stop (after over an hour of Brian drawling to a sleeping tour bus about dairy farming and bananas and Queensland tourism) was at Paronella Park, a site in the middle of the rainforest crafted in the early 1900s by “one man who had a dream.” The place felt unreal; with handmade stairs carved out of stone, a castle with decades of moss growing over it, and pathways through the rainforest with such titles like “Lover’s Lane,” it really did feel like we stepped out of reality for a minute and into some romantic’s imagination. To be honest, I would have enjoyed this part of the trip much more if it hadn’t been so humid. It’s incredibly difficult to enjoy anything when you are unbearably hot/sticky and there are massive mosquitoes biting every exposed part of you. Even with these aggravations, I could still see why it was considered the #1 tourist spot to check out in Queensland.

As the day went on, we went on an elevated canopy walk, stopped at a giant waterfall, and made a few other stops including a “cruise ride” which actually ended up being another drawling tour guide taking us around a lake in a boat: “now if you look there, you will see some ducks, they are fighting for the bread I toss out as they have become quite accustomed to us feeding them. Oh, and there is a turtle right there. See those trees? They are fighting for the sun. These plants have to be competitive in order to survive...” I would have loved it if I were a 7th grade bio teacher. But I’m not and by then I pretty much had my fill on turtles and ducks.

That day was rainy, but the next day, Easter, was a total downpour. Which was unfortunate, since we were booked to spend the whole morning and afternoon snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef. Of course, there was no possibility of backing out—it was a rain or shine kind of ordeal—so we sucked it up, took some seasickness pills and boarded the boat.

The two-hour ride over was brutal. While the inside of the boat was nice, complete with snack bar and comfortable sitting areas, the waves rocked the boat so violently—and consistently—that half of the passengers got sick. All I have to say is that good thing we took those pills. Once we got there, we were advised to rent sting suits for $7 to avoid jellyfish stings (and who wouldn’t rent one? Really, they should have been free). Turns out the suits were skin tight and freezing cold from being wet. Still, we put them on and transformed ourselves into a band of Aquamen. These suits were absurd, covering us head to toe. As funny as they were, they were cold. It was the greatest relief to jump into the water which, given the wind and cold rain bulleting down on us in our soaked sting suits, felt like hot bath water. It was the biggest relief just to get into the ocean.

Once we were in, it was great. I saw more than I expected to see, from sting rays to fish that were literally neon. We were taken to two spots, one off the shore of a remote island and the other in the middle of the ocean where we just dove in. After finally getting the energy to put the sting suits back on after lunch (I was seriously just considering sitting in for the second site), the second spot was phenomenal, even better than the first. The reef was more complex and vast, spanning farther than I could really see. Of course, it would have been far more colourful if the sun had been beating down and the reef was basically limited to dull shades of red, brown, and green. But it was understandable; Cairns is in its wet season right now so the weather was in no way unexpected.

While the trip to the reef could have been made far better simply with better weather, it was still a memorable experience that I would absolutely love to do again when the weather was better—if I ever manage to make my way to this part of the world again after this semester!

The next day was spent sort of wandering around town aimlessly while Brittany and Sarah went bungee jumping—not my kind of thing, at all. As much as I was happy to have done such incredible things while I was there, I could not wait to get back on the warm, dry plane in dry clothes and make our way back to Unilodge (which at that point seemed like a luxury).

This entry is absurdly long, so I’ll be updating on more recent adventures in another post. Until then, as Australians say in response and conclusion to literally everything, cheers!

Once in a lifetime

So, I just got back from Fiji two days ago and getting back into the normal routine. It's weird to think that the "normal routine" is now what I do day-to-day in Australia. Fijians always warmly called their country "home away from home"...so I guess that means for me it was home away from home away from home? Anyway. Before I get into talking about Fiji I need to talk about the day before Fiji because I'm lazy and have yet to cover the ridiculousness that was my participation in Sydney's Mardi Gras. So, for the sake of writing in logical order, I'll start with that.

After celebrating the end of finals (this semester's divided into two sections, in case that was unclear) at Broadway, our favorite spot to relax (pizza, beer, outdoor seating...you can't get anything better) we started getting ready for the parade around 3. Brittany has an internship with Clover Moore, the mayor of Sydney. Long story short she was invited to walk in the parade, and was welcome to bring friends. So by this indirect lucky connection we were able to participate in a once in a lifetime kind of event. While other people lined the streets for hours waiting for the parade to begin, we were instructed to show up at the park around 4 pm dressed in white tops, black bottoms and anything else we felt inspired to wear.

We had shopped earlier at Bi-Lo for cheap costume jewelry, etc and by the time 3 rolled around, we were ready. After putting on tons of cheap, colorful necklaces, star stickers all over our faces and arms, and rainbow headbands we headed out, meeting up with the rest of our group at the park. We were given wristbands (so VIP) and told by one of our groups' members that it would be a few hours and that we should feel free to relax at a nearby bar until the festivities began.

I should make clear that Mardi Gras in Sydney is not like U.S. Mardi Gras. It's more of a gay pride, LGBT kind of thing. A lot of drag queens, women covered in nothing but gold body paint and men dressed as promiscuous police cops. And as I waited at the bar I looked behind me, my vision blocked by the most extravagant feather getup I've ever seen. Turns out his name was Jacky...figures. He was surrounded by yellow, pink and blue feathers, white poodle wig and all. It was ridiculous and very telling of what the next few hours would be like.

We went back to the line and waited. For a long time. The whole experience was thrilling, though. Every once in a while music would start blasting and the waiting parade members would join in a massive dance party to Bad Romance or Sandstorm. A few times I looked beyond the fenced off area to people on the streets, looking from their windows and realized, I am in the parade. I get to be in the parade, these people are watching us. It was an exhilarating feeling.

Once the parade began we took our positions, grabbed rainbow flags and Clover Moore signs and got ready to start walking/dancing. In front of us was a choreographed dance to Eye of the Tiger and a giant paper mache tiger float. Even with our colorful sashes, rainbow headbands/necklaces and whistles we were probably the most conservative group in the parade.

We had been told prior to marching by one of our groups' members that we should "interact with the crowd as much as possible. They are hear to watch us perform, and that's what we need to do. If you are inspired...if you make eye contact with someone in particular and feel an urge to run up and hug them, do it. Hell...I've been known to kiss random people before. Have fun, let loose."

With these words in mind, we went crazy. We danced, jumping and spinning around, waved at everyone, beaming the whole time. We would sometimes run up to the side and start running, giving everyone a high five along the way. I hugged a few people with outstretched arms. We all agreed that by the end, we felt like celebrities and for no good reason. It was an incredible high. Everyone was out to have a good time and the mood was beyond joyful. Everyone just seemed to love everyone and the atmosphere was contagiously positive.

Still dancing at the end, we were exhausted and still had more to the night ahead of us. Brittany had been told that we were invited to Clover Moore's house for cocktails. So after walking down the streets of suburbs for what seemed like hours, we finally arrived. At the mayor of Sydney's house. Again....a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Her house was surprisingly normal. There was a cozy outdoor patio area, illuminated by dim lights and surrounded by a thick wall of trees and bushes. People helped themselves to wine and champagne in the kitchen. We all seemed absurdly out of place for such a nice home, sweaty and donned in rainbow attire. Of course, everyone looked like this and as a result, it eventually felt normal.

I shook Clover Moore's hand and thanked her for welcoming us to her home. Later on in the evening, she even came over to us to talk for a little bit. Of course, conversation was short as we were all petrified to say anything that risked us sounding like total idiots. After a brief discussion about vegetarianism, she went on to talk to other people she undoubtedly knew better. We left early, not wanting to overstay our welcome and left thinking, "we were just in the mayor of Sydney's house...for cocktails. Incredible.

I suppose to give myself credit, there was not much time between that night and the next morning when I woke up at 5:30 am to blog about Mari Gras. Which brought me to blog about it now. Which leads me to go on about Fiji.

After packing quickly the next morning (I always procrastinate packing until the last minute), we met in the lobby at 6:30 for our 8:15 am flight. We groggily took a taxi, went through security and got on the plane. As soon as I got on I instantly thought, yes. It was a VAustralia plane, part of Virgin Airlines. Remembering Virgin from spring break last year, I knew this would be a cushy flight. Not to suddenly be an advertisement for Virgin Airlines, but they are great. In-flight entertainment including screens on our seats to watch movies and listen to music for free, etc. Not to mention "Party in the USA" was playing as we walked on the plane which, albeit really strange, was hilarious seeing as we've been trying to get bars in Sydney to play the song since we've arrived in Australia. Without luck, anywhere.

Anyway.

Four hours later and two hours ahead of Sydney time Sarah, Brittany and I arrived in Fiji, went through customs and were greeted by a giant "Bula!" sign. The first "Bula!" of many. We waited for a good amount of time for a shuttle before someone informed us that shuttles run few and far in between, and taking a taxi would cost very little. It was only about six Fijian dollars to get to our SkyLodge hotel, which is actually about three U.S. dollars. Side note: that was one of the best aspects of our trip, the way everything was actually half-price in a way.

A few minutes later, we arrived at our hotel, a place for backpackers connecting from Fiji's mainland, Nadi, to the islands. It was nice enough, but nothing too remarkable. The weather didn't help. It was a rainy, humid Sunday, making it hard to get too incredibly excited for the week seeing as there had been monsoon warnings up until our departure.

After dropping off our luggage in our room, we decided to venture out into town to see if there was anything interesting to explore/anywhere to eat. It only cost a dollar to go into town and pretty soon we were on our way.

There ended up not being much to the town, a fairly long strip of low buildings, all closed because it was Sunday evening. We eventually found a restaurant after a little bit of walking, one of the people who worked there standing outside from the lot, beckoning us in. Our waitress was really nice, teaching us not only that Bula meant hello, welcome, and a bunch of other things along that line but that "thank you" is "venaca" and "goodbye" is...something that I don't remember. Then she asked if we had tried Kava before, which ended up being a big ceremonial drink in Fiji.

After we finished our meals, she motioned us to follow her. We crossed the street, up the stairs in an alley and right as we were about to start feeling uneasy we were brought into a shop that sold local artwork and other souveniry-type things. People I'm assuming were her friends welcomed us in, and told us that we had to be welcomed properly to their country. So, sitting down on a mat we waited as one of the people made us Kava in a giant wooden bowl. After clapping and jumping through other ceremonial hoops, we each took turns drinking the stuff. None of us really liked it at all, but it was a nice gesture. Of course, after the man said that the Kava was on him, and after he pulled necklaces from the wall declaring that these were also on him, we knew we had to buy something. Still, I knew I'd have to keep my backbone to keep from getting scammed. Sure enough, he tried to rip us off by offering to carve our names in wooden blocks "for our family" for about $90.00. I said "no, thanks," stuck to a $20.00 jewelry box and, although he was clearly annoyed with me we got out of there and took a taxi back to our place.

The next morning we got up early to catch our bus to the boat docks which led us to the islands. After getting off the bus and reaching into my pockets I realized that I left my phone on the bus, but at that point there was nothing I could do about it. Even though there was no way I would be able to use my phone in Fiji, I had been using it as a way to keep track of time. For the rest of the trip, I really did feel cut off from the rest of society, being without phone, Internet and now, any way of keeping track of time. Despite the frustrations of losing my phone, that aspect was actually really nice.

After getting one last coffee before reaching the islands, we boarded the ferry and got settled for a two and a half hour trip. It was still raining as we left, and the weather seemed to contradict the people seeing us off, singing happily with ukuleles and guitars. Once on the boat, I realized for the first time that I somehow managed to completely disregard the fact that being on an island meant the need to provide entertainment of our own. As in, I neglected to bring any books whatsoever and ended up relying heavily on my iPod on the way over.

Our island, Waya Lailai, was eventually called out and as we "made our way to the back of the vessel" I realized that there was no close island in sight. That's when I looked down to see our luggage being thrown from the ferry to a very small motorboat, rocking in the huge waves being caused by the storm over our heads. My series of thoughts went, "oh, a boat. Crap, we're getting in that boat. Crap, that's a long jump. Crap, that boat is REALLY wet." And once we were sitting on the floor of the boat, getting soaked as the boat jumped over waves and water crashed over us, it became clear that the water was not only soaking us, but the insides of our bags as well. Luckily, the only damage made was to my passport, kind of wrinkling it up/bending it out of shape but nothing beyond that.

Eventually we jumped out of the boat and into water up to our knees, given a hand by people on the island. It was the afternoon by the time we arrived and after given a quick overview of where to put our belongings, when breakfast, lunch and dinner was served, etc, we decided to explore a little and just lay out and relax on the hammocks, despite the weather. By this point, through, the clouds were starting to go away and by dinner the sky was pretty much entirely clear.

Waya Lailai was absolutely beautiful. Facing the ocean, we could see a few other islands in the distance, while we were surrounded by remote grass-roof huts that served as reception, housing, the dining area, etc. Facing the other direction, we saw woods that seemed endless and elevated quickly to a giant mountain-type structure 1,000 feet high. It was my first time on a tropical island and definitely met my expectations.

After dinner, the Fijians of the island went through some ceremonial dance routines, such as the War Dance, the Fire Dance and the Bula Dance. We were encouraged to join in on the Bula Dance which almost everyone did enthusiastically.

The next morning we woke up early for snorkeling. This was the first time I've ever gone and it was incredible. There were tons of fish and coral (I suppose that's what you expect when you go snorkeling, but I was still in awe) and the leaders of the trip laughed as they caught fish and held them out to "friendly" sharks a few feet long. Maybe they were friendly but we decided to keep our distance.

Later on in the day we went on a Summit Walk. I expected this to be a fairly strenuous sightseeing hike. It ended up being an exhausting, straight uphill, sometimes climb where the path was unclear and dangerous. In flip-flops. We were improperly warned and for a lot of the hike I felt nervous, losing my grip on the rock as we climbed up the mountain. Still, the views were breathtaking and definitely not anything I would have seen otherwise.

The top was the bad part, though. We were instructed to put our watter bottles down, needing both hands to climb across a rooftop-shaped rock formation that plummeted straight down on either side. At this point we were 1,000 feet from the bottom and I was absolutely terrified. When it came my turn to cross I was near tears and halfway across, I had a mild panic attack, losing my ability to breathe and began crying and shaking. Still, I made it over and after a moment of recovering I was able to take in the view surrounding us. I am not going to deny that it was astounding. We could see three islands from where we sat, including the one on which Castaway was filmed. The huts that we were staying in looked minuscule from our spot, and the ocean was this amazing, bright turquoise-green-blue. Of course after ten minutes or so here, I had to cross over the rooftop-shaped formation once again, thinking the whole time to myself a combination of "don't die, don't die, don't die" and "what kind of liability concerns does this violate?" Still, we eventually made it down, exhausted and with a pretty good story to tell.

The next day we made our way a half hour out to Korovou where we were, once again, greeted by people singing and playing guitars and ukuleles for us. I instantly saw the pool and thought, "THIS is what I was expecting!"

The rest of the trip was very relaxing. I borrowed a few books from Brittany and Sarah, and we just sat out for two days by the pool, listening to ridiculous reggae/old hip-hop--think Ashanti--blasting from the speakers by the bar.

The second night there, the patio broke out into a giant dance party where everyone clammored to the bar, offering their iPods to the DJ and we danced to everything from Ain't No Mountain High Enough to I Gotta Feeling, with an overload of techno music along the way that some British backpackers seemed to be particularly fond of. It was all perfect: dancing in massive circles together under a completely clear sky with a view of the ocean that seemed to go on forever, surrounded by palm trees and colorful lights.

It was sad to leave but--as anyone who knows me knows--I can only spend so much time relaxing before I go crazy. By the end I was ready to move and do something other than lay out on a towel with my brain turned off. Still, I want to go back at another point in my life though I realize that, like the Mardi Gras parade, it might be another one of those once in a lifetime experiences.

Either way, having to buy a new phone aside, I'm happy to be back in Australia and I can't wait for my internship to start on Wednesday. I'll be sure to update on that as soon as it starts. Until then..

Mostly Melbourne and some other points of interest

So, I've been back from Melbourne for a few days now and just remembered that I haven't updated about it yet. I would have to say it's been a few of my favorite days here in Australia so far. I wish we could have spent more than the four days that we had there because there was clearly just so much to explore there that we had no time to check out. Despite the shortness of the visit, I am so happy that we went.

My group had the earlier flight on Sunday morning. That meant I had to leave at 6:15 am while the others left at 7:15. That hour did not make much of a difference, though; we were all pretty exhausted getting on the plane. Still, after a nap and some time to wake up, I wasn't too tired by the time we got off the bus next to our hotel. Melbourne is a beautiful city--in some ways, it was sort of like Boston with its historical buildings. In other ways it was more like Chicago, with the more planned layout of the city. Sydney is the opposite, with modern buildings and no distinguishable layout whatsoever. It was also a little colder in Melbourne. That is, colder being 65-70 instead of 75-80. The weather for those four days was absolutely perfect.

After we dropped off our luggage in a meeting room because our rooms weren't available yet, we were brought in groups over to Victoria Markets (not unlike Paddy's Markets, just outdoors). We spent a few hours there, browsing various clothing, getting lunch and buying souveneirs. I didn't really get anything there, but it was still fun to look around. Just a side note because I just remembered--while we were eating lunch we got to listen to some nearby man with a guitar's lovely renditions of the ABCs. Then, once that was done, Twinkle Twinkle. And when he was done with that..the ABCs again, and then Twinkle Twinkle again. I have no idea what he was doing but we were cracking up.

After an hour nap (completely necessary), we got dressed and made our way over to St. Kilda, a half hour busride away from Melbourne. Program directors had recommended to us that we go because of a festival going on. Unfortunately, we didn't make it in time to see the festivities. We still got dinner at the Spaghetti Bar, a restaurant in the area that was, for being a last-minute decision, really good. We did some exploring afterwards, went bar-hopping a little and caught the last bus (along with a ton of other people in the program) back into the city.

The next morning was another early wakeup for all of us, having an hour-long seminar on the history of Melbourne. Before coming to Melbourne, we had all signed up for two academic tour groups. For those of us who had our first one that day, we met up with our respective groups and headed out for the afternoon. I had signed up for a street/grafitti art tour. Within the first few minutes of the tour, I wasn't quite sure what to expect after our guide said, "I apologize in advance for the general odor of this tour. The nature of what we're looking at will bring us to back alleys and such, so it will be quite smelly."

The first few sites on the tour lived up to this warning a little too well. While the grafitti art was astounding, the garbage smell was absolutely horrible. Every one in a while, in the middle of a lecture on the history of this artist or that mural, a car or garbage truck would start driving slowly down our alley, forcing us to press against the bricks until they went by.

After our third site or so, the spots started getting less smelly and more interesting. By the end, I was in complete awe of the city and all its little hidden spots that you would never even know about unless you decided to explore a little. Unlike Sydney (or any other city I've visited, for that matter), its best spots were not out in the open. There were no big signs showing you where to go. Instead, you turned a corner, walked a little down an alley covered top to bottom in street art, turned another corner and suddenly arrived at a hole in the wall cafe or even, in some cases, a completely hidden street filled with under the radar shops and cafes that seemed to blend in with the graffiti that surrounded it. There were some spots that I just wanted to stop at and just people watch for a few hours. Of course, we would always keep moving, finding ourselves at places like ACDC lane (yes, the band ACDC) and obscure bars that looked more like emergency exits to more high-profile buildings.

What seemed different about Melbourne to me was the fact that it was so impressive with its giant skyscrapers and historic buildings but, at the same time, its more underlying subculture was just as impressive--those back alley spots that you had to make an effort to find. I definitely could have spent more time there without getting bored, and it seemed as though most people on the trip agreed.

The next day, those of us who signed up for the Great Ocean Road tour got up early and embarked on a day-long tour that brought us about an hour and a half away from Melbourne. All I knew when leaving was that we would be brought along the coastline. I had no clue what it would look like, what I would see, anything like that. By the end of the day, my friends and I easily agreed that it was one of, if not the best day spent so far in Australia.

Our tour guide--as some of us called him Andy part II--was eager to make sure we had the best experience during the day, always changing the music and asking for requests to make sure we were all happy. Maybe in his early 30s, he was always asking if we wanted more talk, less music or more music, less talk. I felt bad for him at first because everyone was wiped out in the beginning, recovering from the night before. He even asked me at the first stop what he could do to make the trip better because I was sitting up front and seemed to be one of the only people responding to his questions or laughing when he put on Time After Time. I told him to give it a while, that his music was fine and not to worry. Sure enough, as soon as people started waking up and talking the whole bus ride got livelier and once Red Hot Chili Peppers was playing, he freaked out, driving faster and singing along to the lyrics as if he had had 7 Red Bulls. It was hilarious to watch. It was clear that as soon as we were awake and interacting, the trip went the way he wanted it to. He even made us learn--and sing along to--the Koala Bear song. Twice. It was great.

Not to mention the tour itself. I felt as though I were in a desktop background the entire time. The views were beautiful of the Australian coastline, as well as the portions that brought us through the rainforest and more peaceful rural fields and farmlands. Winding roads would all of a sudden bring us to these breathtaking views that seemed to come out of nowhere. We stopped every once in a while at spots worth stopping at, from the 12 Apostles to the rainforest, to a secluded cove where we could stick our feet in what I called Disney water--that ridiculous blue that seemed way too perfect to be real.

After a variety of stops and singalongs (ending the ride with Livin' on a Prayer), we arrived back at the hotel around 9:30 pm, completely content and exhausted from the day. I took a million pictures and, looking back on them, can hardly believe I was there myself.

The next day was our last day there, where I went on my second academic tour of the Melbourne Architecture. It was a nice complementary tour of the street art one, showing the more conservative side of the city. After the tour a few of us went to the ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), a museum that our Mass Media professor for the next part of the semester recommended all students of his visit while in the city. It was great--all for free, we got to play video games from the early nineties, test out various interactive light, movement and sound areas, have Matrix moves recorded of us, and learn a little about the history of film, television, etc. I even watched a few of my upcoming internship--Publicis Mojo's--past commercials. Overall a very worthwhile experience.

After a quick trip to the top of the highest building in Melbourne, a late arrivial to a group picture that resulted in about 15 of us being in our own sort of group picture of shame (we all had to pretend to look lost and/or out of place), and a 5 pm flight back to Sydney, I was exhausted by the time I got to my bed.

And, because I can't leave it out, an RA-sponsored group of us went to see a play, Optimism (for FREE might I add) at the Sydney Opera House! We all got dressed, had our pictures taken on the steps and took our seats for the 8 pm show. I'm not quite sure what I thought of it--it was very quirky, a little trippy and at some points pretty confusing--but regardless of any personal review, I can now say that yes, while I was in Australia I did see a show at the Opera House. Definitely something I'll remember.

And, as for interesting points go, that brings me up to tonight! After hopefully making my way to the beach tomorrow (I seem to say I'll go far more than I actually end up going), I'll have to start studying for finals. It somehow seemed to slip by me that yes, we DO have finals and yes, they ARE this week. Oh well--I'm not too worried with the free time we have this week. And besides...next week is Spring Break, i.e. our trip to Fiji..which means it's a little hard to let some studying get me down at this point. I suppose my next update will be after Fiji! Until then..let the studying proceed.

Movie Moments

Well, I just finished paper number two of the semester and felt it was time for another post.

While I have been here I have realized it is a very, very good thing that I normally go to school in a cold climate where being outside requires a scarf, mittens, hat and about 17 layers of clothing. If I were to go to school here all the time, surrounded by palm trees and tempted by the hot sun to trek over to the beach, I would never get any work done. Today is my evidence. After getting out of class two hours early because my professor had a seminar to go to, I decided to join Maddie in going to Manly Beach for half the day, even though I plan on going tomorrow and went earlier this week. My train of thought: Paper due tomorrow by 2 pm? Only half of it done? Pssssh no worries I'll just stay in tonight and do it.

Actually, I did do just that so I don't really know what I'm talking about. I'd probably be fine even if I normally went to school but that's besides the point. I would probably just be annoyed more often that professors were forcing me to do work when there was quality vitamin D to be taking in all around me.

Anyway. Paper done, beach tomorrow, Melbourne Sunday. Sounds good to me.

I went to Manly for the first time on Tuesday after hearing nothing but good things about this place. Shannon, Brittany and I woke up early, got ready and, as we walked outside, that rain-on-pavement smell hit me like a wave. And, sure enough, the pavement was spotted with darker grey splotches and it had JUST started raining. The sky was some weird rain-sun combination that is so common here. We thought oh crap, we have no plan B. Plan B is to go despite the rain. So that's what we did. And by the time we reached the ferry about a half hour later, the rain was entirely gone. That's Sydney weather for you.

We boarded the ferry and it was beautiful. As Maddie mentioned today, it reminds her of the ferry to Martha's Vineyard which I could absolutely relate to. I haven't been in a while, but it doesn't take much for that feeling to come back to you. We boarded and instantly I knew I wouldn't be able to sit still inside. So I got up with my ipod, told them I'd be outside if they were looking for me and made my way to the front. It's a great feeling being on a boat when the sky is cloudless and warm wind is blowing around. Not to be corny or anything. It was one of those moments where you think, "Quick! Have to put on the most fitting song for the moment. Have to make this moment perfect." Admit it. You've thought that before, deciding that this is a Movie Moment and you have to make it a Movie Moment! We passed the Opera House which never loses its spectacular quality, no matter how many times I pass it. It's simply stunning.

When we got there the area surprised me. It was one of those pictaresque beach towns, with shops and cafes lined up in a straightaway Main Street-type setup leading you straight to a vast stretch of beach surrounded by cliffs with distant beach homes and pine trees all around. We walked through town to get lunch where two outdoor places competed for our service. It was slightly awkward standing there, deciding as they shouted at you, "discount for take-away!" We picked one and ate outside. Afterwards, we laid out for a good three hours or so before we decided it was time to pack up and leave.

On Wednesday, we took a "field trip" for our Aboriginal Australia module class. I say "field trip" because, as educational as it was, it did not feel as though we were on a real field trip. At all. We all met up at Hyde Park to join our teacher, Jennifer, who is half Aboriginal herself and possibly one of the best, most fascinating speakers I have ever been lucky enough to listen to. Her stories are incredible, both of herself and of Aboriginal culture in general. I knew nothing about Aboriginal society when I first arrived in Sydney and I am so grateful I have been lucky enough to be exposed to that aspect of Australian society while I've been here. We walked to the Art Galley of New South Wales from the park and my first thought upon entering was, why on earth have I not come here already? It hit me that I have not gone to any museums since I've been here. None. And you can't go abroad without going to the city's museums! Luckily this trip solved that.

We walked around, looked at many eras and genres, focusing on the Aboriginal exhibit. The art was beautiful. Once I understood that the hundreds of dots that created patterns of circles, lines and direction did not just represent patterns but instead, stories and maps of their country, I realized something significant. Aborigines of the past and today have a remarkable understanding of the land that many have ignored or taken for granted. This knowledge has been passed from generation to generation, and it comes out beautifully through the meticulous artwork of their culture. From a perspective of someone who has only recently begun to understand the extraordinary dimensions of Aboriginal culture, I can only say that I am entirely grateful I was able to go to this gallery and see more than European oil paintings, abstract modern art and photography, as engaging as those exhibits were as well.

After our trip to the art gallery, we walked through the Domain (a breathtaking garden right by the Opera House) to Darling Harbor where we boarded an Aboriginal boat that took us to Clark Island, where we walked around the remote area with an incredible view of Sydney. We walked up uneven stone steps to a raised grassy area where a man decorated with traditional Aboriginal markings talked to us about how to use a Didgeridoo and how to throw a Boomerang (pssh which CLEARLY I'm already a pro at, after my trip to Royal National Park). Unfortunately, during his demonstration he accidentally threw his boomerang into the ocean. I felt bad but he didn't seem incredibly phased. Oh well, small blip I suppose.

That night, Brittany, Sarah, Nicole and I headed back to Newtown for Thai food--finally! Dinner in Newtown! It was on the pricey side but it was fun and the food was good--not to mention how amusing it was to see Sarah and Nicole "releasing the oxygen" from their wine to take mental notes for their Wine Industry class (yes, that is a class here). Still, I have learned a valuable lesson: no matter how open I try to be with trying new food, Pad Thai simply beats any other Thai food, tenfold. Case in point: Spicy Thai Chicken Salad? That's what I ordered, it was good, but it was no Pad Thai.

Which pretty much brings me to today, since yesterday was too boring to post here. Manly Beach this time around was great once again. Maddie and I headed over by ourselves and, even though we left at 2:30 and didn't get there until 3, it was absolutely worth it. We didn't get much time out on the beach because about an hour and a half in, clouds started rolling in. It was actually a spectacular view, with the sun behind us and dark clouds over our heads and ahead of us. We just sat around watching the distant rain and lightning in front of us before we decided to pack up. We didn't want to leave so soon after getting there, though, so we explored the town a little bit before heading out, getting iced coffee and listening to some live music outside.

All in all, a great week. As mentioned before, I'm going to Manly again tomorrow (I still think this name for a beach is hilarious..the shops are all along the lines of "Manly Massages" "Manly Coffee" "Manly Convenience" and my favorite, "ManlyCycles"). Tomorrow night will probably be low key because we leave for Melbourne at 6:30 am on Sunday. I'm not too thrilled about waking up this early, but it will absolutely be worth it.

Before I forget, I didn't mention in a previous post that on the way to Royal National Park the other week, I saw the most fantastic rainbow I have probably ever seen. It was one of those long, bold, picture book type rainbows that you never see in real life. It was just one of those moments that made me really appreciate where I am right now...a Movie Moment!

That's about it. Next update, Melbourne!

A shorter follow-up post

So apparently there's this whole other side to the Sydney area, Newtown. I had heard a little about it so when Brittany asked if I wanted to go check it out yesterday I was interested. I realized once we got there that I had actually gone running in the area the other day, but just wasn't paying attention to the shops, etc and hadn't realized it would actually be an interesting place to check out.

We took the bus over (which you can do if you want but it's also about a twenty minute walking distance) and when we got off, it felt like we were in some strange Australia version of Allston. I guess that's the best way to put it. Allston, a little bit of Cambridge, just with more incense and ethnic restaurants. We had heard that it was a great people-watching spot and that was certainly a correct statement. It's very scene but almost to the point that it's a little absurd. Lots of multicolored dreadlocks and that sort of thing. We stopped in a number of different shops and I finally brought myself to buy a dress and I'm happy I did; I always have to convince myself it's okay to buy clothes and then convince myself for the rest of the day it's okay that I did. There were a lot of vintage stores and unique clothing.

We stopped at a cafe in the middle of town where I finally discovered how to get a normal iced coffee around here (yeah I'm annoying about this, don't care). Instead of asking for a normal coffee over ice, you have to say a long black over ice. Since coffee here is apparently milk with coffee syrup, or something like that. They came over with my order like, "so you just wanted..a long black, and ice..right?" as if that were the weirdest request they had ever gotten. But it ended up being $2.50 as opposed to their $5.00 for iced coffee, Australian style. So there.

The weather was still bad when we got there and it didn't really get better. It started downpouring for a little bit but we were determined to get dinner in town since we've only heard good things about the ethnic restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, it was about 5 when we were starving and most dinner places didn't open until 6. So we walked back and made dinner, but we're hopefully going to try again within the next few days.

Today I slept in way too long..about 12:45 to Brittany asking if I was coming or not to Cheers to watch the Super Bowl. A few of us were planning to go together to watch the game at maybe one of the only sports bars showing the game for us Americans. By the time I got there it was the last 20 minutes or so of the fourth quarter, so I didn't see much. But it was really nice when I got there anyway..a corner of the bar was taken over by BU students watching the game together. Unfortunately I know nothing about football...which is why I wasn't too depressed to get there late. Apparently a great play was made, and everyone jumped up cheering and I just sat there like, wait, what happened? I'm oblivious. Oh well, I hardly even knew that the game had ended. Still, it was nice to be there and kind of be in the middle of some American-ness for a bit.

Tomorrow we're going to Manly Beach, which is a ferry ride away from the harbor. I'm really looking forward to it; it's supposedly beautiful, and the ride is supposed to be half the fun.

And next weekend we're going on a week-long academic trip to Melbourne, flights paid for by the program. That should be fascinating and I'll be sure to update once I actually have something to update on.

And the weather's getting better! There you go, Sydney.

"Let's have a chin wag, then"

Last week consisted entirely of writing my paper. 3,000 words is a lot when you have nothing really to talk about. After we handed it in on Friday, I could finally start really looking forward to the weekend. I was planning on going back to Paddy's with my friends to do some more shopping/exploring, but then I realized that I really wanted to get a run in that day. So I covered myself in sunscreen and headed out. Halfway through the run it started downpouring--so much for that sunscreen. It cut my run short and was an adequate indicator of what the rest of the weekend was about to be like.

The whole weekend I've been thinking, come on Sydney? Where's that sun everyone's always bragging about. Our Saturday plans were pretty much set in stone, though. A few of us had signed up to go to Royal National Park, which we discovered on Friday had a cancellation fee--we still would have had to pay half of the $119 if we were to cancel because of the rain. With that in mind, I decided to suck it up and go regardless of the weather, which I'm pretty sure everyone else also decided.

Somehow my phone died through the night and I woke up 20 minutes before we were supposed to go. So I scrambled around, got ready in a far smaller window of time than I would have preferred, and ran downstairs. Only to find that the bus was late and I actually could have taken 40 more minutes to get myself out of bed and ready. Not a big deal though--the bus (which ended up being this ridiculous van) eventually came, and our tour guide, probably in his early twenties, jumped out of the driver's seat, beaming.

"Hi everyone! Sorry for a bit of a wait, hope everyone had breakfast? Yeah? Cool!"

This guy was ridiclous. The side of the van had a tiny sign that read something along the lines of, "You're wilderness and wildlife escape!" Very worth being some sort of Failblog post. We all clamored into the van where some people were already sitting in the front. I made my way to the back, stepping carefully over spears that reminded me of my track days where javolins took up the entire aisle, leaving us to perform crazy sidestep acts. Once settled, our tour guide, Andy, started talking to us through his microphone that all tour guides keep as a necessity.

"Hey guys! Hmm..does anyone here speak French? Heh, heh because we have French people on this van. These guys, up here. No one? Hm. Okay. Okay well I'm Andy, are you all from America? Cool. Cool okay well.."

I don't even know how to describe how hilarious this guy was. The entire trip felt like we were being guided around by a seven-year-old who thought that nature rocks. At first I thought, Oh god what have I gotten myself into. He has no idea what he's talking about.

"Seems to be raining a bit, yeah? Well are you guys, is everyone wearing swimsuits? Okay, cool, so you don't mind the rain. Heh"

After everything he said he would laugh awkwardly and apruptly, there would be a short pause, and we would all start cracking up. Halfway through the hour long trip we were saying "who IS this guy?"

Anyway, once we got to the first site, Andy explained to us that we would have a "big of a chin wag" before making our way. At that point we were all like, "wait, what? huh?"

"What? You don't say chin wag? It's you know, like, when you talk....your chin wags? Yeah."

Again, another point where we would burst out laughing. We had our chin wag about the site, the trees, the birds, some Aboriginal history, filled our water bottles and got back into the van where we started our trip through Royal National Park.

Even in the rain, the place was beautiful. A large portion of preserved wildlife, the park was filled with strange exotic plants, birds, and beautiful views of secluded, untouched ocean surrounded by looming cliffs, forest, and rocks protruding from the water. The waves were massive, and every time the hit the rocks the waves would explode around them, Little Mermaid style. We hiked through forest, along the way being guided by Andy who would explain different plantlife to us. Turns out that even though he had the excitement of a 7 year old--at one point he literally crouched by a puddle, splashed his face, leaped up and kept going as though nothing had happened--he definitely knew what he was talking about and it was clear that Australian nature was his life. He brought us to some amazing views where we had time to take pictures, and he would take pictures of us, which have been promised to soon arrive to each of us via email.

At one point, as we were travelling from one spot to the next, Andy crashed his van into a few boulders. Yelling "Ahhhhh fuck shit ugh!" we all started cracking up thinking, "is this really happening?" Of course, I was in the very back and, as I predicted he looked into his rearview mirror with his microphone and said, "You uh, Mandy?" "Jackie." "Jackie! Yeah, can you uh, just open your window a bit to tell me if I can back out okay?" "YUP." Anyone who knows my driving capabilities knows that I am horrible with backing out of anything. So I reluctantly poked my head out the window in the pouring rain to tell him, "left, left, a little left, yeah you're good WHOA SLOW DOWN PLEASE." Did not know that my trip to Royal National Park would include me guiding our tour guide out of a tight spot. It was great.

After a long walk we got back in the van to go to a new site for lunch, where there was a sheltered picnic area. We all pitched in to make lunch, provided with lunch meat, vegetables and weird condiments ranging from corn relish to spicy chilly philly cream cheese. Starving, we scarfed down sandwiches that were quite makeshift, combining random things to see how they would be. Of course, a few of us were at the French table, where conversation with them was limited to "can you please pass the sundried tomatoes? The sundried..those. There." After lunch we took turns in groups learning how to throw spears and boomerangs, another surpising area of expertise of Andy's.

Those boomerangs were scary. I kept freaking out after every throw anyone made until Andy got so amused he decided to record me freaking out, saying in a very jolly manner that this will "definitely make it's way to the website." After the boomerang/spear session we got back under the shelter where he explained more about the boomerang and its history.

"Actually....you could even hit one of those seagulls," he said, pointing behind him where some seagulls were just hanging out innocently.

"Do it!" Someone challenged him.

He looked at them with an unmistakeable glimmer in his eye. "Aw, don't tempt me now."

"Do it!" More people chimed in.

"Um, would anyone object to this? Raise your hand if you don't want me to throw a boomerang at a seagull. No one? Really? No? Well, if anyone finds out about this you are all share the blame."

He snuck over to a flock of them by the beach, looking back at us every once in a while, me thinking the whole time, he IS seven. And praying he wouldn't hit it. He didn't, thank God, though I seemed to be the only person hoping he didn't. Instead he lost his boomerang in a marsh. "Aw, there it goes, oh well," he shrugged.

Our trip continued with coffee and Tim-Tams (best. thing. ever.), and some more sight-seeing after the more daring decided to go into the freezing, high wave ocean near our sheltered picnic area.

Exhausted we finally made our way back, rewarded on the bus with boomerangs for each of us and a thank you for "being good spirits despite the rain and not dying in the ocean..aheh.."

Despite the rain, it was definitely worth it. I saw some great views, learned a little more about the wildlife here, threw a spear and boomerang, and had a ridiculous tour guide that entertained us the whole way.

I was going to write more about the weekend but I'll save it for another post since this is already absurdly long. More to come!

And the detailed posts begin..

So I'm updating..again. I'm going to try to get used to regularly updating since I've never been the blogger/journal keeper/diary writer type. I really don't think I'll be updating EVERY day but this weekend has been slow so here it is!

A lot of people went to surf camp this weekend, but I initially missed the signup because I wasn't feeling well. Close to the weekend the opportunity rose to go after all, but I decided I would instead use this weekend to catch up on everything: start the blog, revise my cover letter, connect with people back home, do some laundry and actually start my paper. I was able to do all but the last. Oh well, I'll just do it later. But that's boring. I'll share what I actually did this weekend to make up for that.

I've been curious to see what surrounds Unilodge (where we're staying) other than George St. which leads to the harbor, so I decided to venture out and go on some long runs out to the more suburban areas. Lots of palm trees and great outdoor weather, but it turns out that beyond the quaint suburbs that lie JUST outside this area, there's not much more than roads of gas stations, low buildings and fast food restaurants. Oh well, looks like Syndey's strong point really is further within the city.

That said, I still wanted to do some more exploring with the free time this weekend so instead of writing my paper (...) I walked to Paddy's Markets, about a half hour away from Unilodge into Sydney. It was absolutely worth it. It was a giant indoor marketplace filled with small booth setups of jewelry, clothing, sunglasses and souvenirs, all for very low bargain prices. Then on the other end of the market, they had fresh produce for even cheaper. I ended up getting some great fruit for next to nothing cost: 4 apples for a dollar, 3 nectarines for 65 cents, etc. All in all a great place to have explored and I'm looking forward to going back again.

I have yet to master the art of finding the right places to get true Amurrrican iced coffee here. I'm determined though, because I KNOW it's out there somewhere for under $3.50 or $4.00. At least that's what I like to tell myself. Still, today's attempt in finding good iced coffee was a fail. After being denied by three stores, I finally found a place that said they did in fact serve regular coffee with ice ("so, not blended, right? just with...ice floating in it?" "YUP!") and it ended up being like a coffee milkshake with ice in it. for $4.50. A small. I wasn't thrilled. Still I have not given up hope. I should just make a blog dedicated to this venture. Well maybe not. That might be as boring as me going on about a paper that's due in a blog that's supposed to be about my wild Australian adventures.

ANYWAY. Now that everyone is back from surf camp, I just got back from meeting up with my friends at Scubar, a backpacker's bar about a twenty minute walk from here that they always bring the surf campers to after the weekend. It was nice to see people again after my Weekend of Independence (that's my twist on it!) and I'm looking forward to next weekend where we are planning to take a ferry trip out to Manly Beach which is supposedly absolutely beautiful.

And because I've been thinking about it today, here is a list I have thought of so far about things that are different here from back home (inspired by Thais's inclinations toward mentioning things that are different in London). Not at all close to complete, I'll continue to add just for kicks:

1) The cars here drive on the opposite side of the road, which I probably shouldn't have been surprised about coming here since it seems as though the U.S. is the only country to do it the way we do. So it's NOT just Europe!

2) Speaking of U.S. always having to be different, the measurements are different here (again, obvious) but I still have no idea when I ask someone how far away _____ is from where I am and they say, "oh, only a few kilometers from here!" ....oh, okay thanks.

3) Of course I would notice this, but the ads here have potential to be ridiculous sometimes. The billboards are way more racy. Example: right outside my window there is an ad for a..love enhancer where the copy reads: "Making love? Do it..longer!" Hmm..what is P.C.? But it's great.

4) Professors are so much more laid back here. Innuendos left and right. And when our Australian Culture professor was telling us when we should come to take our test, we could "come in any time really between 5 and 6. No worries."

5) They say "no worries." I mean the U.S. does too, but here any time you say "thanks" it is answered with "no worries!" It's actually a little refreshing.

6) A bottle of Diet Coke here is $3.50. I am not happy about this.

7) The accents. Given.

8) A pitcher of beer here is a jug. I still say pitcher and I get laughed at. And french fries are chips. And chips are....crisps I think?

9) This is something not everyone agrees with me on it's seemed so far, but the Australian pride here seems much stronger and, dare I say acceptable that it is in the U.S. For example, it is not uncommon to see someone with Australian flags flapping from their cars or someone wearing a hat with the flag on the front at the beach..but in the U.S, if you were to wear an American flag shirt people would pin you as a hick, an Amurrrican. At least, that is my personal observation. Feel free to disagree. But my guess would be that it has to do with the controversy coupled with American politics that doesn't seem to occur quite as strongly here.

10) THE ICED COFFEE IS NOT ICED COFFEE. But I've ranted about that enough that I'm starting to annoy myself with it.

11) They eat kangaroo. 'Nuff said. I refuse to do though, because I think I would just feel so guilty afterwards.

Enough for now!

-Jackie

Finally..

So before I left for Sydney, I decided I would keep a blog. And it's taken me over two weeks here to commit to that decision. Regardless, I am writing now, true to my self-promise. At least now, I have more to update on! I'll try to remember as much as I can to report.

Needless to say the flight here was the longest flight I've ever taken, by far. With a day-long layover in L.A., Nicole and I spent the day with Katelyn visiting the city's finest tourism spots including Chik-fil-A and Huntington Beach (okay well that one is legitimate). At around midnight, we boarded the Qantas flight to Brisbane, and then to Sydney.

When we walked out of the airport, it felt as though we'd been dropped off in Puerto Rico by accident. Surrounded by palm trees, humid climate and blue sky, it was shocking even though I had known what to expect. After having our luggage collectively postponed for most of the day, we settled in as much as we could without the necessities--shampoo, fresh change of clothes, etc. Our first day in Sydney started off with a BBQ (rain and all, awesome) on the roof, a visit to the Australian Youth Hostel (for some of us, at least) and a great night's sleep.

The jet lag was horrible. I think it hit some people worse than others. It took me about five days to adjust, regain my appetite and reduce the sudden inclinations toward nausea. I survived though, obviously and eventually adjusted to the time change.

These past few weeks in Syndey has included: a free program cruise from Darling Harbour passing the Opera House, etc etc (BEAUTIFUL weather), two trips to Bondi Beach (pictures to come up soon..it was practially indescribable, including a cliff walk overlooking a vast stretch of turquoise water, white sand, and--as Shannon put it--"tricky" sun that seems to burn you in the most random places), a field trip for our Australian Culture class through Sydney stopping at most of the historical spots, a visit to a wildlife park an hour and a half away that included walking around and basically chilling with koalas, wallabees, and emus (again, pictures to come), an energetic and extremely hot Australia Day with fireworks, live music and great food, and some overall very interesting encounters with REAL. AUSTRALIANS. And no, they don't say "g'day mate" after everything and definitely don't say "throw some shrimp on the barbie"..at all but I have heard g'day mate uttered twice and both times, I probably got way more excited than was merited.

As for classes. Painful. We are only taking two but one (Australian Culture and Society) is three times a week for three hours and a time, and the other (Brand Advertising and Promotion) is four hours, twice a week. Needless to say it is often difficult to stay awake past the first hour or two. Still, I have difficulty remembering that I am, in fact, in school right now and here for an ed-jee-cayshun. Truth be told the real reason for me FINALLY updating is to put off a 3,000 word paper for Brand Advertising. Ohh procrastination.

As prices start to jack up for vacations, some of us booked our spring and easter break trips this past week. For spring break I'm going to Fiji and for easter break, Cairns. Fiji doesn't have much planned beyond the expected complete paradise-like lounging around, but in Cairns we have planned white water rafting, a trip through the rainforest, and snorkeling. Needless to say I CANNOT wait for both!

While I'm having a great time here, it's hard not to feel homesick from time to time. I'm always missing BU, from the runs through the esplanade, to Dunkin Donuts (the iced coffee here is extremely strong coffee with vanilla ice cream..most of the time you have to ask for hot coffee on ice and most places don't even do it) to, yes, even the cold weather. And obviously friends and Chris. But I am absolutely happy that I am taking this semester to discover one more chunk of the world and this will only expand within the next few months as I become increasingly accustomed to my surroundings, explore new places, and start my internship.

I suppose the rest is just details, and as I post more I will probably be able to talk more in depth about things as they happen, since this one was just an attempted recap of the past few weeks.

Hope whoever is reading this is having a great semester, new year, etc and I will try my hardest to keep this blog up to date!


-Jackie