Assessment Time

     It has been another week devoted to uni.  It rained almost all of last week so I tried to take advantage of this and work on assignments for uni.  Last week I was able to write my entire economics report which took heaps of stress off me.  We rewarded ourselves for having a successful week by going over to our friend Molly's house to celebrate her birthday Friday night.  While we were there we got to see a HUGE Australian spider.  It was a Huntsman I think.  They said that if it bit you, it would hurt, but they aren't poisonous so it would do anything.  They also had some pet birds that just flew around so we played with them for a while.  It was just nice to have a break and hang out with some of our Aussie friends.
     Saturday we wanted to go hike Mt. Warning, but it was still raining so instead we went bowling with a bunch of people to celebrate our friend Sarah's birthday.  We had heaps of fun getting to hang out with everyone.
     Sunday it was finally nice out so we took a little walk down to Brad's house.  While we were there we did some washing, played frisbee, had a little game of rugby, and made birthday cupcakes.
     Monday I had my last Maths lecture!  Also on Monday I had to do my singing and guitar assessments for my music and children class.  They went pretty well I believe.  It was finally sunny out on Monday!! The temperature was 22 degrees!!  We all broke out our shorts and tanks.  Most of the afternoon was spent outside sunbathing.  A little bit of time was devoted to looking over notes for outdoor education.
     Today we had our final class for music and children!  That means I have 1 class down and only 3 to go!  I also had my theory and navigation exams for outdoor education today.  I thought they went pretty well.  Almost everyone said they thought the theory exam was really hard, but Emy and I did not think it was difficult at all.  I guess we will find out when we get our results back.
    Tomorrow I am going to devote my day to writing my essay for outdoor ed.  It is supposed to be 2000 words so I am thinking it will take up a good chunk of my day, but I want to just get it done so I don't have to think about it anymore.
     Thursday I have my last tutorial for Maths.  Then I am finished with that class except for the exam which isn't until Oct 1st.  I wish I could just take the exam to get it over with, but it will be good to have some extra time to look over theories and practical classroom activities.
     Friday morning bright and early we head out for Girraween for our final outdoor ed camping trip.  We are all pretty excited for the trip; however, they are forecasting rain for the entire time we are there.  Hopefully they are wrong so that we can enjoy our time out there.  We will be gone for 4 days on this trip.
     I thought of some more Aussie words that I did not put in last time I jotted down some of their lingo so I thought I would add them on:
Boot= trunk of a car
Petrol= gas for a car
Whinging= complaining
Torch= flashlight
Mum= mom
Arvo= afternoon
Rubbish= trash
Rubbish bin= trash can
Diary= daily planner
Then they use "go" for a lot of things.  They would say "It's your go" instead of "turn" or "How you going?" instead of "How are you doing?"

That is all I can think of for now, but I will add more as I think of them.  It was really like learning a new language coming down here.  However, now it is just come automatically.

Let's Get Work Done

     It has been awhile since I have blogged.  The main reasons for this are we have not done anything too exciting and I have been busy with assignments for school.  The week after study break I spent a good amount of time working on assignments.  Although Saturday the 13th we were able to get out of Lismore for a few hours.  It was Kassie's 21st birthday and she had a party in her home town.  Ryan borrowed a mini bus from his parents and we took the little 2 hour road trip.  The food was absolutely delicious; we had a good time.  There was also a bonfire and sparklers!  It was fun to do sparklers since we missed the 4th of July at home.
     Last week was again devoted to uni.  For my music class I had a presentation that week.  This week we have group ensembles in music and next week is our final singing and guitar assessments.  Then I am completely done with that class.  For my Outdoor Ed class we have our Girraween trip plan due this week and then our big final that is 50% of our grade next week.  Then we have a reflection paper due after our trip and one final essay that might be kind of difficult.  I am ahead of the game with my maths class which is wonderful.  The only thing I have to worry about for that is the final which is not until October 1st.  In Economics I have a big paper due week 13, but I am going to try as hard as I can to get it done this week or next week that way I can work on my Outdoor Ed paper before we go to the Whitsundays.  I have a final exam in Economics on Sept 30, it too is worth 50% of my grade. It seems like all their classes are like that here.  Two assignments and then the huge exam.  I am sort of worried about the exams because I have never taken a test for any of these classes so I don't know what to expect for the final.
     I seem to be ahead of everything so that is helping to keep me less stressed.  It will be nice after week 11 because I will be done with music so that will be an extra 4 hours every Tuesday that I can work on other stuff or learn how to study for finals.
     This weekend we went to Byron for a day to go shopping.  It has been rainy here so we wanted to get out and do something.  I got some more souvenirs for people and a couple of really cute shirts for myself.  We had heaps of fun walking around in the shops looking at everything.  Aussies have such diverse styles, but they are all pretty flowy for the most part and we love it!  I especially love their jewelry.
     We have our trip to the Whitsundays in less than a month which will be perfect.  It is incentive to get everything done before that so I can relax.  We will get back and I will still have over a week to finish studying for final exams and maybe travel a little more.
     It is so odd that I am at the end of the semester here.  Everyone at home is just moving back to college and getting ready to begin class this week.  I'm a little sad that I am not there for the back to school festivities, but then I remember that I am having the time of my life here and learning so much.
     This next weekend we are trying to figure out a way to get up to Mt. Warning so that we can climb it.  As of now we are just not sure how to get there.  Hopefully an Aussie will be keen to go and be able to drive us!

Study Week

Last week was study week.  However we found that "study week" is a very inappropriate title; it should be "have the time of your life week."  The first 5 days we were in Byron Bay to get Scuba certified.  This trip was included in my tuition so I did not have to worry about money for the whole trip which was fabulous.  Accommodation, food, transportation, and the course was all included!  We stayed in Safari tents (if you could even call it a tent; there was a sink with running water, actual beds and a separate living room area.  The bathrooms were only a few feet away and the full kitchen was next door) which were located maybe 20 meters from the ocean. That night we had a feast!  The trip coordinator got us kangaroo meat along with a couple other meats and some fresh veggies.  The kangaroo was good.  I guess you would describe it as being a little gamy.  Maybe like deer meat almost.  We ate so well all 5 days!!  The first couple of mornings I got up early to go watch the sun rise over the ocean.  What a sight that was!!  The first morning I was the only person on the whole beach; it was so peaceful.

Saturday and Sunday we had classroom theory and pool training at Sundive.  The days were pretty long, but we all enjoyed it and we had a good instructor so that helped.   Monday and Tuesday we were ready for our 4 ocean dives!  Monday we went out right away in the morning.  Going out into the ocean for the first time was a bit scary not going to lie.  We had to roll in like they do in the movies which was pretty cool.  In the water we all had to swim to a rope that was hooked to the bottom.  We slowing pulled ourselves down using this rope.  Unfortunately I had a hard time equalizing my ears so it took me a while to get down to 5 meters.  Eventually I made it and we started our swim!  It was a perfect day with little current and far visibility.  We saw so many sea creatures including many of the fish from Finding Nemo.  Our instructor was very good about pointing cool stuff out.  On this first dive we saw an eel and sharks!!!  The sharks were Grey Nurse sharks which cannot bite, but they were still cool.  The entire time we could hear the dolphins and whales making noise but didn't see any.  For the first two dives we were only able to go down to about 12 meters which was okay with me since my ears where bothering me so much.  After a bit of swimming around and exploring the sea life, we had to surface.  One of guys with us was going through his air really fast so we weren't able to stay down too long.  Once on the surface we had to do a couple skill tests since it was still part of our certification.  We just got onto the boat and started to go pick up another diver when we saw a HUGE hump back whale!!  The whale literally swam right under the diver who was in the water which was probably 3 meters from the boat.  It was breathtaking.  A few moments later we saw a baby whale.  They guessed it was just born this year.  It was a very active whale and kept doing jumps.  One of the instructors yelled, "Back flip" and sure enough it did a back flip!  The whales were closer and more active on this trip than when we paid to go whale watching.  It was definitely a great first dive.  After we lost the whales, we headed back to shore to change out our tanks and get some lunch.  Half past 12 we went for our second dive.  Again on this dive we had to do more skill tests, but then we were able to go down again.  This time we saw a green turtle and actually got to swim along with it for a while.  It was so interesting to watch everything and how all the fish and everything have to work with the current.  It felt like you swam a foot forward and then got sent back 3 feet.  

Tuesday we had our final 2 dives which we went down to 18 meters max.  Again I had trouble with my ears.  Normally I would just deal with the pain and keep going, but there was a good chance I would burst my ear drums if I went down further so for the first dive of the day I had to stay at least a meter or two higher than everyone else.  This was fine though since the water was pretty clear and I was still able to see everything.  On this dive we had to do some of our harder skill tests including removing our mask and then replacing it.  This was my least favorite one to do.  We also had to pretend like we were out of air.  Although I would much rather have to take my regulator out of my mouth than have to take my mask off.  Again we saw some amazing creatures.  We saw another Green turtle and a Loggerhead turtle.  The Loggerhead was so large!! The second dive that day was our last dive, but I think it was one of my favorites.  After we got past 12 meters my ears seemed to be okay so I was able to go down to 18 meters which was great.  Also on this dive we were in the Grey Nurse nursery so we were seriously swimming with probably 15-20 sharks.  They were pretty big and look so scary but it was so neat.  One of the little ones actually followed us for a while.  It was a bit frightening looking back and seeing a shark follow you even though we knew that they could not bite.  Tuesday night our instructors took us out for a graduation beer.  I am officially scuba certified and can dive anywhere in the world for the rest of my life!! Yay I am so excited.  However, if I do not find a way to equalize my ears, I am going to have to switch to snorkeling.  It has been 4 days since my last dive and my ears are still plugged. :(

Tuesday night we met some people at the hostel we stayed at and went to a club in town to celebrate our certification.  Wednesday we had the whole day free to do absolutely nothing but sit on the beach.  We went with Nicole to get here tattoo at 3 but other than that we literally spent the entire day soaking up the sun.  Once the sun went down we went back to our hostel to make some dinner and then watched a movie to pass time while we waited for our bus.  We got on the bus for Gold Coast a little after 8 and arrived in Gold Coast a little after 10.  By this time we were all pretty tired so we checked into our hostel and went straight to bed.

Thursday morning we walked around Gold Coast.  The view was quite different from what we are used to.  Gold Coast in along the coast like the name suggests, but it is a huge city with skyscrapers.  While none of us are really city people it was fun to look at the buildings and experience the city life a little bit.  We looked around shops for a while.  Nicole and Garrett wanted to do a lot of the touristy things so Emy and I just walked around and people watched while they did their thing.  Eventually we made our way to the beach, but it go chilly pretty fast with all the tall buildings blocking the sun.  The next day was going to be a big day so we headed back to the hostel on the way back we stopped for a late lunch and tried crocodile meat!  It was delicious.  As a group we described it as a cross between chicken and seafood.  It was wonderful, but expensive so it was a one time thing.  We picked up some groceries for dinner so that it would be a little cheaper.  At the hostel we just had a pretty chill night.  Played some cards and read a little and then went to bed.  

Friday morning we had to get up bright and early.  We had a day trip to the Hinterlands planned and the bus was to pick us up at 7:40.  The bus arrived and we went to get on it and it was seriously all old people.  We just had to laugh.  It was a great trip though.  It took us to O'Reilly Mountain where we went on an awesome rain forest walk.  There were bridges connecting the trees so we were honestly up in the canopy walking around.  The guide told a neat story about this tree.  It is called a Strangling Ficus.  Unlike a normal tree, the Ficus grows from the top down.  What happens is a bird will poop its seed on another tree.  The Strangling Ficus will start to grow and the roots will grow down the sides of the host tree.  After hundreds of years the ficus will completely cover the host tree and the host tree will rot away.  I stuck my head in a 300 year old one and it was literally hollow where the host tree used to be.  This is by far my new favorite tree.  One this walk we also had some wild bird come sit on our heads.  They are quite used to people.  There was a big long story about the people who used to live on this mountain which was quite interesting.  Later we headed over to another mountain and had lunch.  After lunch we got to go on a little wine tasting.  My favorite thing we tried was a chocolate port.  Very delicious.  Then it was time to head back to town.  We got back to our hostel around 4:30 and had to start getting ready to go out.  The day before Emy and I found a great deal on a club crawl.  The tickets are usually $60 a person, but he must of liked us so he said that if we bought two he would give us two free.  This made them only $30 a person.  The club crawl started at 5, but we didn't get there until a little after 5:30.  We went to 5 different clubs to experience going out in a big city.  It was good to do it once, but I don't think I would be keen to go out like that all the time.  Eventually we made it back to the hostel and went to bed.

Saturday was our last day.  Nicole, Emy and I spent it on the beach just hanging out.  We aren't really sure what Garrett went off to do, but he burns pretty easily so he didn't want to sit around on the beach.  We had to catch our bus at 4 which took us to Byron.  From Byron our friend picked us up and brought us back to Lismore.  It was a great week, but it feels good to be back.  This week will mark the half way point of the semester.  I am having such mixed emotions about this.  I am excited to come home and see everyone, but I am going to miss the people here!

It was such an enjoyable week, but I am going to have to buckle down again in order to get assignments done so that I can enjoy the rest of my time here.  It is just so hard to believe that I have already been here two months and only have two months until I leave!