Classes and More Adventures

So I finally have my class schedule finalized (I think). I switched out of the History class. It was going to be dull, dull, dull. So, now my schedule goes like this...

Monday: No Class
Tuesday: World Religions (10-1), Marine Bio (1-2)
Wednesday: Aboriginal Studies (10-1), Marine Bio (1-2), Globalization Tutorial (2-3), Globalization Lecture (4-6)
Thursday: Marine Bio (1-2)
Friday: No Class

World Religions is looking pretty interesting. My prof. seems a little nutty, but hopefully that will just make it all the more interesting. I haven't had my Aboriginal Studies class yet, but it's all about the Torres Strait Islander people of Australia. Hopefully, that will be good because I switched into that so I wouldn't have to take the History class. Marine Bio is pretty cool so far. Seems pretty laid back. Globalization seems to be picking up where my last International Business class left off, so I'm happy about that.

All of the classes here are based on very few assignments for the final grade. Most of my classes have a single essay and test and one small assignment to make up the entire 100%. It's a little nerve-wracking having something count for 45% of your final grade. Anyway, that's pretty much all I have regarding school right now.

Jordan and I booked plane tickets to Sydney in a couple of weeks. Definitely looking forward to that. And I paid some money on Flickr so I can have unlimited picture uploads (instead of just 100 MB), so I'll be able to post tons of pictures from that trip. We're also looking into dive trips on the Great Barrier Reef, but that probably won't happen until we get closer to spring break at the end of September.

That's all for now.

Nicole

Koalas and Kangaroos!

I woke up early today (as usual) and worked out, showered, and had breakfast. Talked to Jordan’s parents and then headed off to the library to check email for the first time in several days. It’s so odd not having internet access everywhere I go, 24/7. I’m adjusting. After a couple hours at the library (I never realized how long I can spend online) we had some lunch and went into town to catch the bus to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary! This place was small, but really awesome. There were koalas in open enclosures all over the place. They’re sleepy little creatures. Pretty content to just sit there and eat eucalyptus leaves and snooze. After snapping a few photos, we grabbed some food for the roos. They were so cool! I know people read everywhere that they can kill you and stuff, but these guys were small and very tame. We had a great time feeding and petting them. The enclosure they had for them was very big and we came across a mom and joey after walking around for a while. I managed to snap one picture of them before my camera died on me. Lesson learned: I need to charge it more often.

Anyway, after the kangaroos and wallabies, we went to hold a koala. They make you pay $15 to get a photo taken (even with your own camera), so I forked over some cash. It seemed pretty well worth it. I should be able to get the picture online so I don’t have to scan it onto the computer, but it may take me a day or two to get around to it. I’ll put it on Flickr as soon as I get it. Koalas have very soft, very dense fur and they are just as cute in person as they are in pictures. Such an awesome experience. After holding the koala we walked around the park some more. Came across an enclosure with all the new mothers and their babies. Unfortunately, my camera was dead, so I don’t have any pictures of them. I can assure you that these baby koalas were just about the cutest things ever. It’s the kind of cute that makes you say “I want one!” I bet they’re pretty easy to care for, actually, but I’m sure Denver is not a suitable environment for such an animal (not to mention that whole getting-through-customs thing). We also saw some crocodiles, wombats, echidnas, and various snakes, lizards, and birds. Walked around the gift shop for a bit while waiting for the bus. Resisted a strong urge to buy a very cute t-shirt for a little boy I babysit for (Alane, let the kiddos know I’m thinking about them).

Anyway, so that was basically the end of the weekend. It was a lot of fun, but I’m kind of looking forward to getting back into a routine with classes here. I start on Tuesday and have class from 10 to 2 (World Religions and Marine Biology). Wednesday is 9 to 6 with a couple breaks in between (International Business and Marine Bio plus a history of Nazi Germany class) and Thursday is just a one hour lecture from 1 to 2 for Marine Bio again. So, three days of class a week and lots of 4-day weekends to look forward to. Much more blogging to come and don’t forget to check out the new pictures!

Love,

Nicole

Noosa (the Sunshine Coast)

It’s been a pretty exciting weekend. We went to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast from Thursday to Saturday and the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary today (Sunday).

Noosa was just a small town on the coast. It seems to be one of those towns that people visit. Nobody really lives there. Anyway, we got in on Thursday afternoon and went to get some groceries for meals for the next day. We went up to Hastings Street after to get some dinner and walk around. We sat down in a pizza place called Zachary’s and got drinks and an appetizer. We were lured in by a drink on their menu called liquid cocaine. This was also the site of my very first legal drink. Pretty exciting stuff, people. I ordered a “Berry Sexy” which consisted of muddled raspberries and strawberries with mint, lime, raspberry infused vodka, and club soda. Not bad at all. There’s a picture of me enjoying said drink on Flickr. After Zachary’s we headed further down the street to a sidewalk restaurant. Can’t recall the name of it. Had another drink there- a Mr. Tea- and some fried calamari. My drink had green tea liqueur, peppermint tea, lime, mint, sugar. I know there was more in it, but can’t recall everything. This is not due to my level of sobriety, which, I assure you, was just fine. Got some gelato after dinner and headed back to the hotel.

Friday morning we ate breakfast and went for a run on the path along the beach. Jordan joined me, though not with any kind of enthusiasm. He was a trooper for someone who doesn’t like to run, though. After our run we packed some lunch and grabbed the bus to get to the National Park. Saw a koala in the eucalyptus tree right at the front of the park. Very cool. After staring at the koala for a little while Jordan and I headed off on one of the trails through the rainforest. The end of that trail spit us out on the coast line and we followed that trail back to the entrance to the park. The beaches were absolutely stunning- my pictures really can’t do it justice. There are pictures of Hell’s Gates on Flickr. This was an inlet on the path we were walking. Again, pictures really can’t do it justice. The cliffs were so steep and no guard rails in sight. It was really just indescribable. We headed back into town after our hike and had lunch and more gelato. This place (Mossimo’s) was fantastic. Grapefruit and mango sorbets. They both tasted exactly like the fruits, I even found a couple of seeds in the grapefruit. Went back to the hotel after that and hung out for a while. Leslie and Lauryn got back fairly soon after us. Made spaghetti for dinner and spent a pretty enjoyable evening just chatting. Watched School of Rock on TV after all of that and went to bed.

Jordan and I booked a tennis court down the street for 10 AM Saturday morning, so after breakfast we headed off to do that. Jordan was inspired after watching Wimbledon. I am not good at tennis. My right forearm hurts. This is probably not something I’ll be picking up. That was pretty much it for Saturday. We headed back to Brisbane right after tennis and got back around 6.

So, that was Noosa. Pretty cool trip.

Love,
Nicole

Rainy Days and Fun Travels

We were supposed to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary today, but it was kind of rainy and cold. Not such a great time to hold koala bears and feed kangaroos. I'm hoping well be able to do this on Saturday or Sunday.

Jordan, Leslie, Lauryn, and I will be heading to Noosa, near the Sunshine Coast, tomorrow and staying Thursday and Friday night. More posts to come after what looks to be a pretty fun weekend.

Also, there's no turning back now... I just booked my spring break ticket to Christchurch, New Zealand. Should be a blast! :)

Nicole

Life in Brisbane

Hi! It is now Monday evening and I have been in Brisbane for a full three days now. I’m going to try to do a recap of each day and then add a few comments on adjusting to life in a new country.

Day 1:

After the plane landed, we went through customs and picked up our luggage. There were little beagles all over with their handlers sniffing for fruit and other prohibited items. I met with the UQ arrival people just outside baggage claim and got a ride to my apartment complex.

The office was closed so I just went up to Jordan’s room to put down all of my bags. After everything was settled there, we went out for breakfast. Food is ridiculously expensive here. We finally found a little place and got breakfast sandwiches for about $5 each. After breakfast we just walked around the city a lot. Downtown is just across the bridge from our apartments, so it’s a pretty easy walk. The city is beautiful- lots of really interesting new plants and birds and a unique mix of architecture. After our walk we came back and just laid around for a while. I was pretty exhausted.

Later, we went to the library, which is just across the street, to use the internet. It’s about $70 a month for internet usage at the apartments, so we’ll be making a little trip to the library anytime we want to get online (free wi-fi there). We met up with Leslie and my new roommate Lauryn (also from DU) while we were there. More lying around at the apartment after the library. Australian commercials are weird! Some are pretty provocative, others are just plain odd.

It gets really dark very early here. Around 3 the sun starts to kind of go down and it just gets increasingly dark until about 6. So, it had been dark for a little while by the time we went to get dinner. We met up with Leslie and Lauryn at The Parklands, which is a stretch of restaurants, bars, and shops. It runs along the river and there’s a little man-made beach between all of the buildings and the sidewalk that runs by the river. The cheapest place we could find to eat was about $20 a plate, so that’s what we went with.

After dinner we came back to the apartments and hung out for a little while. I went to bed around 9, which I’ve been told is pretty good. Most everyone passed out by about 8 on the first night.

So, that’s about all for Day 1. My room is pretty small, but it’s nice that I don’t have to share it with anyone. Besides Lauryn, I have two other suitemates. Gavin is from England, but has lived in Brisbane for a while now and goes to Griffith U. and his girlfriend Chisa (not sure about spelling, sounds like Cheesuh) is from Tokyo and goes to UQ (University of Queensland) like me. They’re both pretty cool, but I don’t think they liked how loud we were being when we came back to the apartment after dinner.

Day 2:

Jordan’s window looks out onto the pool and gym area of the apartment, so after waking up around 7 I went outside to wake him up by throwing rocks on his window.

After breakfast we charged up my camera and got ready for the day. I took a few pictures and we did some more walking around. We brought our backpacks so we could go to the grocery store. The cheaper store is a little bit of a walk. I think next time we’ll bring a rolling suitcase. We got a lot of groceries though, which is a lot cheaper than eating out.

When we got back from grocery shopping we ate lunch and then went to take the bus over to UQ. The bus stop is just a couple blocks from the apartments and then it’s about a 10 minute bus ride to the Uni (as they like to call it here). The campus is just gorgeous. Lots of trees and buildings made out of sandstone. The law school seems to be the biggest building on campus, but I think it houses the arts building as well. The campus is just enormous. Turns out this school has 37,000 undergrad and 7,300 international students. If you’d like a comparison, DU is 5,000 undergrad. It’s a pretty big change for me. Classes should be interesting with that many students.

We took the City Cat ferry back to town. This ferry runs up and down the river that splits Brisbane in half. If you look at a map, you’ll see what I mean. The river runs in kind of an S-shape through the middle of the city.

When we got back to the apartments we had dinner and then it was another early night for me. Went to bed around 9:30 this time.

I keep getting messed up with the whole driving on the left side thing. I never really realized it at home, but when you are walking toward someone you always go right to move out of their way. Here, you are supposed to move to the left. I keep running into people. I’m sure they think I’m such an idiot. The escalators are also opposite. I think that’s pretty much it for Day 2.

Day 3:

Woke up around 7 again and left for orientation at UQ with James (one of Jordan’s suitemates) around 8. Orientation was pretty boring except for the speaker about Australian culture. He was pretty hilarious.

We broke for lunch around 1 pm. They served us hotdogs in white bread. No hotdog buns… Not really sure what’s up with that. Becca, Beth, Claire (All DU kids) and I were still hungry so we went to one of the cafes on campus and got milkshakes. The consistency of a milkshake here is like a melted one at home, or like chocolate milk. Kind of odd, tasted good though. After our snack, we headed back to the lecture hall for one more orientation thing. We met up with a couple other girls on our way over. One of whom is from Austin and goes to UT. She grew up with the Chapman brothers, who I went to high school with. Brian Chapman is dating one of my best friends’ cousins, who I also know well. Small world, indeed!

After orientation I came back to the apartments and got my phone line all set up. Jordan and I went over to the library to check email again and then went over to Big W (same thing as Wal-Mart) to look at camping stuff for when we make weekend trips to the beaches and islands.

So, now you’re all caught up. We had dinner and now I’m writing this post.

Other thoughts about Australia so far… Avocados are cheap. The bus drivers are super nice and friendly. Most Australians are also super nice. Accents are cool and it’s fun to hear little kids talk here. It’s about 50 to 60 degrees in the mornings and evening here (gets up to about 80 during the day) and everyone seems to think they’re going to die. We keep seeing all of these Australian people bundled up in winter coats and scarves. The lady on the ferry yesterday actually said to me, “It’s too cold out there to snow.” Anyway, apparently we would have a bunch of dead Australians if they visited Colorado in our winter. Oh, and it’s winter here, in case anyone was confused about that.

We’ll probably be going to the koala sanctuary on Wednesday as well as going on a weekend trip to the Sunshine Coast. Look forward to posts and pictures about that. I’ve also added pictures from this week to Flickr, so check that out.

E-mail is still a great way to keep in touch, but of you want to call me you need to dial 0011 61 7 30136850. The extension is 3103, but I’m not sure if you actually need that. My address here is:

310/7 Hope Street
South Brisbane 4101
QLD, Australia

Hope all is well with everyone.

Love,
Nicole

On My Way

So, I started my trip to Brisbane around 8:00 am Central Time on Thursday. It is now 11:00 am Central Time on Friday. Long trip, for sure. We have about four more hours on the plane until we touch down in Australia.

The trip has been fairly uneventful so far. The flight from Austin to LA was pretty good. I slept and read the entire time. It took me about half an hour to figure out which terminal to go to after I arrived in LA. The LA airport is kind of scary. Police with machine guns plus seeing two people get arrested does not equal calm nerves. In any case, my 12-hour layover was pretty uneventful and seemed much shorter than it actually was. I met a guy going to Griffith University for the semester. It was nice to find someone to talk to during that time. Two more DU students (Becca and Beth) arrived around 8 and we were able to get someone to switch seats on the plane so we could sit together.

The crowds for World Youth Day are still pretty crazy and there is a very big group on our flight. I’m assuming they’re connecting to Sydney once we land in Brisbane.

There was a problem with the plane once we had boarded, so it took an extra hour to get that worked out. The captain says we should still arrive in Brisbane on time. They served dinner about an hour into the flight. Not the best meal ever, but certainly not bad. I slept for about 6 or 7 hours off and on. According to my calculations (and by that I mean the clock I have set to Brisbane time on my computer) we should be landing in about 4 hours. Hopefully, they’ll be serving breakfast soon. I’m starting to get pretty hungry and I’m very glad I stayed awake for dinner.

We’ll see if I can get a picture up for this post. My camera was out of battery power (Jordan is almost certainly making fun of me for this). Becca took a few though and I’ll probably just steal one from her.

It’s really starting to hit me that I’m going to be in Australia when this plane lands! Lots of nerves and excitement all rolled together.

Not much else to report here. I just got finished watching a movie, so my computer is about out of battery life. Hopefully I’ll be able to fall back asleep for a little while. Hope all is well with everyone. More posts later this weekend.

Nicole

Update: I arrived in Brisbane safely and am getting all settled in.

Welcome!

Hello, all! This is the blog I'll be posting on during my time in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I'm hoping to do one post every week accompanied by my favorite picture from that week. I'll set up photo albums on my Flickr account for every week as well. There is a link to the Flickr account on the left side of this page under the 'Pictures' heading. I hope you all enjoy reading about my adventures. Please feel free to leave comments on here or send me emails. I would love to keep in touch with all of you. My email is nicole.hand@du.edu.

Nicole