I can’t even believe I just named this blog that! Up until now I have been trying as hard as I can to pretend that I’m not actually leaving this place that I’ve come to call home in a mere five days. It is completely surreal and unbelievable to think that I may never return. And that is all I’m saying on the matter!
Last week was undoubtedly the lamest week since arriving. All I did was study. Or really, attempt to study. I don’t know how to do this whole pre-studying thing; I always do a last minute cram session…so it was a completely new experience for me. I did nothing exciting the entire week.
So as of right now, I’ve completed two of my four exams. My marketing exam was on Friday. Good news: My team won the marketing pitch! There were a total of either 15 or 18 teams, I can’t remember which. It was so nice to be recognised for our hard work. Our average grade between the paper and pitch was an 87% so that was completely lovely! I have my facilities exam yesterday (yes, on a Saturday, is that not completely cruel?!). It was really rough.
Tuesday comes tourism and Wednesday is rooms division management. Those two should be alright and relatively straightforward. A little bit of studying should suffice.
No photos this week…unless you want a picture of me studying diligently in my green and tan cell of a dorm room!
The beginning of the ends has begun. After everything we do, it’s now, “Oh this is the last time we’ll [insert activity here] in Australia,” or “This is our last Sunday in Australia”…etc etc. Two of the American girls already departed this morning, since they were finished with their exams. Goodbyes are not fun!
In short, I am very excited to come home, but not excited to leave. Though I guess I really can’t have one without the other…
It may potentially be a very long time until I post again…maybe sixteen days and from Michigan! Unless I stumble upon an internet café in New Zealand or Fiji or Hawaii…But no worries: I’ll still post one up with all of my traveling adventures!
Until then…Cheers!
MJ
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Week 11...
…my week off from classes! I haven’t had any school-related obligations since this past Wednesday (the 23rd), when I went to my last class. I have turned in all of my major projects and completed the dreaded marketing pitch. The pitch went quite well, as it should have, considering we worked on it for FOREVER. I think I met with my group more than I slept the few days leading up to the presentation. Our teacher and the bar owner really seemed to like what we had to say, so hopefully our grade reflects that.
Friday was Anzac Day, a huge public holiday. (Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps…I think). It’s very similar to a combo of our Memorial Day and Fourth of July. It’s the only day of the entire year a game called Two-Up is legal. Two-up is a gambling game where in all of the pubs, people are gathered in huge circles, with some sort of monetary bill in their hands, either on their forehead or their bum. You find someone with the same bill as you, and a coin is flipped. If it’s heads and you’ve got your money on your forehead, you win! Sounds like a great way to loose money to me…
Anywho, I didn’t play Two-Up. We, the Standard Six, as we’ve been dubbed, (Perri, Kari, Dana, Joanie, Jillian and myself) headed over to the Blue Mountains for the day. We had arranged a 6.30am (yikes!) taxi to pick us up, but it never showed! We started walking down the hill and managed to flag down two taxis to drive us over to Circular Quay to the McDonalds where our tour bus was to pick us up. We got there a little early, so I hightailed it to Starbucks to get a Mocha (my new love). $6 and three sips later, the WonderBus shows up…and Daryl the Driver informs me no coffee on the bus. I was so bummed! We drove around to Central and Museum train stops to pick up the other passengers and were on our way!
The first stop was Featherdale, a wildlife place where you could get up close and personal with koalas and kangaroos! We got a photo with the koalas and then went on to feed and pet the kangaroos. We fed them out of ice cream cones...Random. We spent about an hour playing with the animals, then looked through the souvenir shop, and I got a coffee (this one I got to drink!) We loaded back up on the WonderBus and paid for our trips. We made our way up to Leura, an adorable little town, where we all got lunch. I had the BEST pumpkin soup…for $12. Ouch. Oh well. It really was tasty. Leura was so cute, I wish we would have had time to shop around there. The weather and turning leaves made it feel like a true autumn (not fall…Aussies will laugh) day. We could see our breath!
After lunch, we continued on the bus deeper into the Blue Mountains. It was a little worrisome, because it was still incredibly foggy. We thought we wouldn’t be able to see a thing! We reached a place called Scenic World, and everyone but Perri and myself ventured off on a hike down to the valley. Perri still isn’t feeling that well, and thought it’d be best if she didn’t do the hike, so I went with her on the Big Three: a scenic skyway, cable car and incline railway. We rode the scenic skyway across Jamison Valley, where we were able to see the Katoomba Falls. The waterfall was gorgeous! Then we jumped in the cable car and rode down to the valley. It was crazy. We passed through a level of fog and could see really well! Once down in the valley, we walked through the rain forest to the railway. I made Perri sit right up in the front with me, and the other girls ended up being on the same train. It was crazy, going up backwards at an almost 90 degree angle (okay I don’t know that measurement for sure, but that’s sure what it felt like!). Back up at the top, we met up with Daryl the driver, and I got a good laugh when he lost his coffee…how’s it feel to not get to drink the coffee you wanted!! :)
I’m too mean.
We stopped at another scenic lookout to see the Three Sisters, this cool rock formation which is supposedly the most visited spot in Australia! The next stop was a small family run winery on five acres of grapes where we did a small wine tasting. Then back in the bus to head to Olympic Park, home of the 2000 Olympics. We jumped out for a few minutes to take some photos, then caught a ferry out of the wharf there. Of course, because it is us, we missed the next ferry to Manly…But oh well.
Here are the photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2198584&l=0c98e&id=22414798
Perri and I finally booked our accommodation for the after-trip to New Zealand and Fiji. Hawaii is thankfully being planned and taken care of by Maria G., a fellow GV girl, who is going to be living there this summer! When in New Zealand we’ll be staying in Auckland here: http://www.thequadrant.com And Fiji…we will be proud guests of the Outrigger: http://www.outrigger.com/hotels-resorts/fiji/outrigger-on-the-lagoon-fiji
Now the fun begins. I told myself after I finished this I would start studying…gross! I’ve got one exam this Thursday, one on Saturday, then next Tuesday and Wednesday. At least they are pretty spread out, right?
Hope everyone is well. My time in Australia ends in eleven short days, and I’ll be back in the States in twenty-three!
Cheers!
MJ
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Margaret Jo...Neirman??
Wow, time flies! My time in the land of OZ is beginning to wind down all too quickly. We’re in week 10 of school, and it is the last full week of classes. All of our group projects are due between this week and next week, and finals are looming. It’s been incredibly busy and actually quite stressful, but now I’ve turned in my major facilities management project and my tourism one. On Monday we have our final marketing pitch for the executives of Side Bar. Should be…exciting.
Last week I temporarily changed my surname to Neirman and hung out the entire week with Perri’s parents and sister Paige. We had such a good time, and it was so nice to have a little bit of family time. :) Here are the highlights from our time together: They arrived late on Saturday evening, so on Sunday for breakfast we went out to Pancakes on the Rocks (I had the world’s best Ceasar salad!), and then did a little shopping in the weekend market. We eventually made our way over to Darling Harbour. We went to the PowerHouse Museum…which was really lame. It was supposed to be a really interactive science and design museum, but it ended up being totally boring. The best part was a robot that you could play games against. This thing had attitude! We walked through quick, and then headed over to Paddy’s Market. The first night that they came into Manly, Perri and I took them out to Ribs and Rumps. We had an entrée (which is what you might call an appetizer) of kangaroo, cooked to the recommended medium rare. It was DELICIOUS! Really tender and a little bit sweet.
On Friday, we spent the entire day in the city. I skipped out on my facilities class and Perri and I took an early ferry in and crashed the executive lounge to have a lovely breakfast. We decided to play tourists and went to the Sydney Tower which is the tallest building in Sydney, twice as tall as the Harbour Bridge. After taking a realllly quick elevator up to the top, we had some crazy amazing views. While minding our own business taking pictures, Paige and I realized that this old man was beckoning us towards him. He was a silhouette cutter, and he told us that he’d do ours for a deal. We decided to humour him and as he did his thing, we were all chatting and we discovered that he was born in Detroit! He’s been making silhouettes since he was fifteen (he was born in 1919!) and just loves what he does. Truly a sweet old man. They turned out pretty well, especially Paige’s, but Perri’s kind of looks like she’s four years old!
After we’d soaked in the views, we went back down to do the Oz Trek. The first part is similar to the Carousel of Progress (if you’ve ever been to Disney) and we rotated around a circular theatre to ‘go to’ different areas in Australia: the city, the Outback, the Great Barrier Reef and the rain forest. Then we proceeded into a theatre set up like Universal and did a virtual simulator of going to all of those same places. It was neat but kind of gave us a headache. A little shopping later (who said winter is a bad thing…I bought two bathing suits for a total of $30!), we stopped and had a late lunch at a café along the path by the Opera House. Perri and I said our goodbyes, as her family left on Saturday, and headed back into Manly.
Friday night we had a BBQ at our friend Myles’ house. It was actually a Bandicoot (our school’s rugby team) team BBQ, so it was about twenty guys and then Perri and myself. When I asked one of the guys why we were invited, he looked at me like I was crazy and said “We needed chicks to cook and clean!” Geez Louise…
The 12th, (Saturday) Perri and I were due to go to Hunter Valley to Gallo’s McWilliam’s Vineyards Mt. Pleasant Winery on a level two VIP tour that was arranged through very nice and generous work contacts. Mt. Pleasant was about an hour and a half drive away, but since neither Perri nor myself can actually drive down here, this was our transportation ordeal: We’d have to leave Manly via taxi to get to Central Station, and then ride a train to Newcastle, followed by a bus to somewhere, and another taxi to actually get to the winery. To do all this by 10.00 am, we would have to allow over six hours of travel time…costing well over $120. We decided this simply wasn’t feasible, which was quite disappointing as I had been looking forward to it for quite a long time.
On Sunday, Perri and I decided to continue the fun times in the city by going to the aquarium and to the modern art gallery. When our ferry docked in Sydney it was absolutely pouring down rain. We decided to wait to catch the next ferry over to Darling Harbour rather then walk in the rain. By the time we got there it had pretty much stopped raining. The aquarium was pretty standard…up to the seal and shark tunnels! They were wicked…very very cool. Difficult to get good photographs in, but that’s alright. The modern art gallery was, well, modern. It was quite…interesting. I’m glad it was free. After church at St. Matt’s, I finished up my portion of one of my projects.
This week has been consumed by homework thus far, and will continue to be. But, exciting, I did have real Thai food for the first time yesterday at bible study. Mmm…spicy! I miss spicy food so much!
Speaking of things I miss, these are the order of the trivial things I miss:
1) Ice water (as in water with ICE in it)
2) My car (speaking of which, um, Pops…??)
3) Cooking
4) Spicy food
5) Salads
Silly, I know…
Wish me luck as I continue on through this killer week!
Here is the latest issue of photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2195287&l=0c21a&id=22414798
See you all in five weeks…Cheers!
MJ
Last week I temporarily changed my surname to Neirman and hung out the entire week with Perri’s parents and sister Paige. We had such a good time, and it was so nice to have a little bit of family time. :) Here are the highlights from our time together: They arrived late on Saturday evening, so on Sunday for breakfast we went out to Pancakes on the Rocks (I had the world’s best Ceasar salad!), and then did a little shopping in the weekend market. We eventually made our way over to Darling Harbour. We went to the PowerHouse Museum…which was really lame. It was supposed to be a really interactive science and design museum, but it ended up being totally boring. The best part was a robot that you could play games against. This thing had attitude! We walked through quick, and then headed over to Paddy’s Market. The first night that they came into Manly, Perri and I took them out to Ribs and Rumps. We had an entrée (which is what you might call an appetizer) of kangaroo, cooked to the recommended medium rare. It was DELICIOUS! Really tender and a little bit sweet.
On Friday, we spent the entire day in the city. I skipped out on my facilities class and Perri and I took an early ferry in and crashed the executive lounge to have a lovely breakfast. We decided to play tourists and went to the Sydney Tower which is the tallest building in Sydney, twice as tall as the Harbour Bridge. After taking a realllly quick elevator up to the top, we had some crazy amazing views. While minding our own business taking pictures, Paige and I realized that this old man was beckoning us towards him. He was a silhouette cutter, and he told us that he’d do ours for a deal. We decided to humour him and as he did his thing, we were all chatting and we discovered that he was born in Detroit! He’s been making silhouettes since he was fifteen (he was born in 1919!) and just loves what he does. Truly a sweet old man. They turned out pretty well, especially Paige’s, but Perri’s kind of looks like she’s four years old!
After we’d soaked in the views, we went back down to do the Oz Trek. The first part is similar to the Carousel of Progress (if you’ve ever been to Disney) and we rotated around a circular theatre to ‘go to’ different areas in Australia: the city, the Outback, the Great Barrier Reef and the rain forest. Then we proceeded into a theatre set up like Universal and did a virtual simulator of going to all of those same places. It was neat but kind of gave us a headache. A little shopping later (who said winter is a bad thing…I bought two bathing suits for a total of $30!), we stopped and had a late lunch at a café along the path by the Opera House. Perri and I said our goodbyes, as her family left on Saturday, and headed back into Manly.
Friday night we had a BBQ at our friend Myles’ house. It was actually a Bandicoot (our school’s rugby team) team BBQ, so it was about twenty guys and then Perri and myself. When I asked one of the guys why we were invited, he looked at me like I was crazy and said “We needed chicks to cook and clean!” Geez Louise…
The 12th, (Saturday) Perri and I were due to go to Hunter Valley to Gallo’s McWilliam’s Vineyards Mt. Pleasant Winery on a level two VIP tour that was arranged through very nice and generous work contacts. Mt. Pleasant was about an hour and a half drive away, but since neither Perri nor myself can actually drive down here, this was our transportation ordeal: We’d have to leave Manly via taxi to get to Central Station, and then ride a train to Newcastle, followed by a bus to somewhere, and another taxi to actually get to the winery. To do all this by 10.00 am, we would have to allow over six hours of travel time…costing well over $120. We decided this simply wasn’t feasible, which was quite disappointing as I had been looking forward to it for quite a long time.
On Sunday, Perri and I decided to continue the fun times in the city by going to the aquarium and to the modern art gallery. When our ferry docked in Sydney it was absolutely pouring down rain. We decided to wait to catch the next ferry over to Darling Harbour rather then walk in the rain. By the time we got there it had pretty much stopped raining. The aquarium was pretty standard…up to the seal and shark tunnels! They were wicked…very very cool. Difficult to get good photographs in, but that’s alright. The modern art gallery was, well, modern. It was quite…interesting. I’m glad it was free. After church at St. Matt’s, I finished up my portion of one of my projects.
This week has been consumed by homework thus far, and will continue to be. But, exciting, I did have real Thai food for the first time yesterday at bible study. Mmm…spicy! I miss spicy food so much!
Speaking of things I miss, these are the order of the trivial things I miss:
1) Ice water (as in water with ICE in it)
2) My car (speaking of which, um, Pops…??)
3) Cooking
4) Spicy food
5) Salads
Silly, I know…
Wish me luck as I continue on through this killer week!
Here is the latest issue of photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2195287&l=0c21a&id=22414798
See you all in five weeks…Cheers!
MJ
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Only seven more weeks...
Hello hello everyone!
To be completely honest, since Easter weekend, I truly haven’t done that much other than school, hence the lack of updates!
It’s week 8 at ICMS and good news-I finally have my entire uniform! I received my pants yesterday…that’s great. They are so terrible. Seriously hardcore not flattering. I’d prefer to not have them! Rumor has it that we might be getting some money refunded for this entire ridiculous fiasco, but I’ll believe that when I have the cash in my hand.
While I’m complaining…cockroaches. Seriously?? That’s disgusting. I can handle the spiders, no big deal. But ROACHES. That’s not even sanitary. I’m tempted to start keeping all the ones I kill in a baggie and then sneaking into the GM’s office one night and sprinkling them all over his desk.
This past weekend, I had been planning on a little excursion up to the Gold Coast. Perri’s parents were due to fly in early on Saturday morning, and Per and I were going to meet them at the airport. We were then going to rent a car and drive up the coast, which is said to be the most beautiful drive in all of Australia. It’s quite lengthy, probably about a 10 hour drive. We would find a fun activity to do on Sunday and then I was flying back early Monday morning so I wouldn’t miss classes.
However…Due to a snow storm in Chicago, the Neirman’s were delayed, causing them to miss their next flight, and when all was said and done they didn’t arrive until later Sunday morning. I decided it was pointless to literally have about eight hours on the coast, and so did Perri, so we bought non-refundable plane tickets that we couldn’t use…I had so been looking forward to it too, but oh well. Not in the cards apparently. The Neirmans will be coming back down to Sydney later this week on Friday or Saturday, so I’m sure I’ll get to hang out with them some this weekend!
I got my midterm exams back. The front office one went quite well, as expected. And the facilities management…Well. They have these things at ICMS called a conditional pass. That’s when you score between a 60-70%, and a regular pass is at least a 70%. I’m not going to tell you my score (ha!) but the average for all of the classes was a 46%. (don’t worry, I got above average). It’s ridiculous-the teacher literally just wants to fail everyone! I don’t think he was hugged enough in his childhood.
Last Monday we had another marketing pitch-this time, for Diesel Jeans. My advertisement turned out really well; we had to create a one page print ad for a glossy magazine. Of course being the over-achiever that I am, I made a four page fold out ad. Really, it was because so many of the photos turned out so well, I couldn’t bear not to use them! My friend Jillian modeled for me down at Manly Beach one morning. Seriously some of my favorite pictures that I’ve ever taken. I don’t have the final ad on this link, but I’ll try to get it up soon! And let you know if we won or not…
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2192661&l=f70a8&id=22414798
Today was a really long beach day for me. Thank goodness…this whole Fall thing was starting to get old! I’m hoping it’s really nice on Friday too, that way I can do it again.
Good news-it’s my half birthday tomorrow! (When I announced this to some Australians they thought I was CRAZY…they never, ever even think about their half birthdays!) Not only that, I only have seven more weeks (to the day) of this journey. Crazy to think that I've been here for longer than that already!
Cheers!
MJ
Fun facts:
Primary, secondary, tertiary: elementary, high school, college
School: primary or secondary (never college…oops! I always say I go to the school on top of the hill…people looked at me like I was strange-but that’s probably because there’s a primary all boys Catholic school across the street from the college…ha!)
College: somewhere you live-I live at the college
Uni: (university) somewhere you go-so when you commute
It took how many weeks before someone actually explained this to me???
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Two very good weekends!
The weekend of March 15 was a weekend filled with adventures in Sydney. On Saturday, Joanie, Kurt, Maria, Chad, Leela, Perri and I went to a Jack Johnson concert! It has been one of my dreams to go see him perform live and I was not let down in the least. We arrived at the venue, Centennial Park, around 3.00, and the gates opened at 4.00. There was no one there! Probably about 50 people were there when we got there, so needless to say we got really good seats. We were about 30 feet from the stage, and we all sat on Joanie’s bed sheet, which she graciously sacrificed for our comfort. The first act was Will Conner, just a two man band, with a guitarist and a percussionist. They were really good! Followed by Matt Costa, also mainly acoustic, slightly folksy. The special guest was next on the stage, and it was G-Love, who is sort of rapper. He collaborated with JJ on the song Rodeo Clowns. During his set, Maria, Joanie and I went and got some food, picking our way through the 30,000 people that had filled the park. I would have been so mad if I’d paid $100 and had to sit as far away as some of the people there were sitting!
Jack played a set for about two wonderful hours. It was seriously amazing. We were so so so close, and Perri got some good photos and videos. He played Taylor, my favorite song, and actually messed up singing one song which was hilarious, because he couldn’t have covered it if he tried. He was cool about it though. After he was finished, it was quite interesting to be herded like sheep out of the park. We walked back to the train station and hopped a train, then another, then took the ferry back across. What a fun concert!
On Sunday, Perri, Dana and I decided to play tourists in Sydney, which was the first time any of us had decided to do so. On the ferry ride across, I started taking pictures and didn’t stop the rest of the trip! Once in the city, we walked to the botanical gardens. They were so beautiful and peaceful, very similar to Central Park (not that I’ve ever been there…) We wondered around, no map, just enjoying. At one point, we saw these people looking up and taking pictures and were quite confused as to what they saw. Then we realized, very rapidly, that there were approximately a MILLION fruit bats/flying foxes above our heads. Perri screamed and ran into the gift shop. :) They were so gross and cool.
After wandering around the gardens, we walked over to Darling Harbour, where the Real World: Sydney was filmed. Not that I'd ever seen the show...but it was cool to see. Shopping was in order after all of this, so we made our way over to Paddy’s Market. First level: flea market. Second level: nice shopping mall. Third level: Outlets! It was strange to be in a “real mall” again. We got some pretty good deals, and got some gifts to bring home to our families.
By this point, we were starving, and tired, as we’d walked a ton of the city, so we got a taxi over to the area of Sydney called the Rocks, and went to Pancakes on the Rocks. It was realllly good: banana pancakes with chocolate chips and walnuts, topped with chocolate syrup, vanilla and chocolate ice cream and more bananas. All for $10.50! They were delicious, but I only ate about a third of them, they were much too sweet.
Link to the Sydney photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2190736&l=1ec6e&id=22414798
This past week was midterm week at school. I only had two actual tests, one in Facilities Management, the other in Rooms Division Management. I would have failed the FM one if I wouldn’t have known people in the section that took it before me-it was so hard! It’s a 100-level class and I refuse to get a bad grade in it, but it’s rough. Rooms went fine I’m sure. I really like that class, even though the teacher’s kinda airy. I think my calling is in rooms division :)
Easter weekend! We had Friday-Monday off from school for it, so it called for a road trip somewhere. My friend Jeff invited me out to his family farm in Woodstock, near Cowra. It’s about a 3.5 hour car trip straight west of Sydney. Thursday afternoon, after we’d all finished with our classes, Jeff, Myles, Ally, Perri and myself all loaded into Jeff’s car and made our way out to the Outback! We stopped by Jeff’s house and then went shopping and loaded up on (what else) junk food that required no actual cooking. About two hours into the trip, we girls in the back all fell asleep. On the way, we met Jeff’s friend Mitch who followed us out in his “truck” (explanation later). By the time we made it to the farm, it was almost 1.00 in the morning. His family was already there, staying in the big house, and all of us bunked up in the smaller house.
The next morning, Ally, Perri and I were woken up to Myles coming in and telling us that we were almost out of hot water and that we only had 10 minutes of it left so we had to get up NOW. (This was his feeble attempt to get us moving, as it was already really late in the morning). Unfortunately for him, we were all set on being hicks and not bathing, but we got up anyway. We made brekkie on the barbie-bacon and eggs and toast all barbequed. Yum! There was a HUGE spider in the kitchen, probably four inches wide. Jeff caught it in a glass and threw it outside…Perri was paranoid after that, haha! Then it was time to get down and dirty: time to go dirtbiking. They had five dirtbikes and a quad. Perri and Ally commandeered the quad, and I got to learn how to ride a dirtbike. It was SO much fun. I haven’t had that much good clean (dirty) fun in ages. Don’t get me wrong-I was a little nervous at first and would have preferred to have been on the quad, but once I found my balance, it was a riot. We rode ALL over Jeff’s property (his family’s got over 870 acres!), and it was beautiful. You could see all the divisions of property, the different paddocks fenced off, and tons of sheep and cows. At the highest point on their land, “the top of the world,” you could see so far! I got a little frustrated a few times, my bike didn’t really have the horsepower to make it up the really big mountains (okay hills, but they felt like mountains!) and I would stall out. The bike was a kick start, and apparently I don’t quite have the touch to start them—I claim I don’t weigh enough. So one of the boys would have to come and rescue me, restart my bike and send me on my way. I really don’t like being a girl that can’t do things, so I was getting mad. I eventually got it started by myself, and the boys all reassured me that I wasn’t a dumb girl, because I was riding a dirtbike in the Outback. :) We were riding through all these thorns and I got a nice battle wound on my hand from my bike.
Here’s the story of the trip if you’re ready for it: Ally was a little nervous to be driving the quad and had been riding on the back the whole time, but then decided to try her hand at it, so she began driving and Perri riding. Well, there was this dam surrounding a pond that we had to go over. The boys and myself were ahead of them, as Ally inched along, and so we realize they’re nowhere in sight. I look back to see everyone speeding towards this dam and I immediately thought they stalled or something. However, it was MUCH better than that. We pull up to the dam and see Perri and Ally, completely soaked, quad nowhere in site. On closer inspection, you can see about two inches of the tires sticking out of the dead middle of the pond!! When they tried to cross the dam, they began turning the wrong way and flipped the quad into the water. It floated along to the middle of the pond, held up by the back tires. Since they were both alright, it was hilarious. Jeff and Mitch went to get the truck and a chain to tow it out, and they dove in and we got it out relatively easily. The boys started to drain out the water, while the girls shivered and I laughed. The water had gotten into the engine, so we just towed it back up to the house. It ended up being okay, but Ally and Perri were pretty worried they’d wrecked it!
We ate a lot of brie, avocado and salsa on crackers after that. Sounds weird, but it was delicious. After all that excitement, we decided to take a group nap for an hour. So when we woke up two and a half hours later…ha...Jeff’s entire family, plus some, came over to our house and we had some pre-dinner nachos. I made the mistake of announcing to everyone what Perri and I call trucks like Mitch’s (we call the crucks, because they look like a combo car/truck) and EVERYONE was making so much fun of him. I think they’ll call it that forever. It was so strange looking though, really low rider, with this huge radial antennas on top. Check the photos, there's some of it. We then migrated over to the big house to have a HUGE dinner of steaks, ribs, these things that were like sausage patties, salad, mushrooms, garlic bread, watermelon and cheesecake with ice cream. Whew! We all ate heaps and loved it, not leaving the dinner table until after 10.00. Jeff’s parents and family are so nice and gracious, just welcoming us into their home with no questions asked.
After dinner, Ally, Lydia (Myles’ girlfriend who joined in the fun that afternoon), and Perri went back up to the house and hung out while Mitch, Myles, Jeff, Steve (Jeff’s younger brother) and myself went out shining and shooting. (Which is apparently legal, if you have the proper license). We saw heaps of rabbits and a few roos. It was freezing cold...I had on boots and a big carhart and was still cold. I shot a bunny (don’t yell at me Shannon, and just stop reading right now!) but no roos. Jeff got a roo- a small one. It was really cool, it looks so similar to a deer! One of the guys snapped the neck off a bunny and took the head home to show the girls. Jeff put it in the end of his shirt sleeve, and it totally looked alive and, well, whole. The girls were excited, petting it, and then he just dropped the head on the floor. You should have heard the screams! Hilarious. Perri and I taught the Aussies the joy of s’mores later, except their marshmallows are too sweet, and they don’t have graham crackers. Myles made me promise to send him the real makings of s’mores when we get back to the states.
The next morning, Perri, Mitch, Jeff and I were up before everyone else, so we decided to go horseback riding. There were only three horses, so Mitch didn’t go, but he helped us get all saddled up and ready to go. Jeff worked on a ranch during his gap year between high school and college up in Canada, and Mitch did the same but in Texas. I rode Misty, which is Jeff’s sister’s horse. I loved her. After carrots, saddles and helmets, we were off. It was a much better way to see the land than when on the dirt bikes- you could really appreciate the beauty. It reminded me of Northwestern Italy (random, I know) but just how you could see all the land divisions and everything. I never realized that the outback would be so pretty. Perri’s horse, Cheeky, was so lethargic I though she was going to fall asleep! We went all over the property again, chased the sheep and loved life.
After hosing off the horses and giving them some hay to thank them, we went out into a big empty field for Jeff to teach Ally, Perri and myself how to drive a stick. Except if you call it a stick, you get made fun of-it’s simply a manual. Okay, so not only had I never driven a manual, but the steering wheel was on the right hand side and it didn’t have power steering! The Zuk was a piece (you’ll see in the photos) but perfect to learn on. I actually didn’t stall once! It was pretty enjoyable and I want to do it again and actually get good at it.
Time was ticking before our train was due to leave, so we hightailed it back up to the top of the world, where we’d gone the day before on the bikes. We went up in the Zuk and the other Ute (utility truck). Some of Jeff’s cousins (I think they were his cousins!) who were 12 were there, and they were driving the trucks. The manuals. And they were better than me. Actually, they were better than Jeff-ha! We were driving down a mountain, five people sitting in the back of the truck, and it clicked-I’m riding with a 12 year old down a mountain. Little scary! Actually, he was ridiculously good. Regardless-We took photos for a while up there; I got some hilarious ones of the boys jumping off the Zuk. Take a look at them!
The girls who didn’t go out shining and shooting the night before wanted to see a kangaroo, so we drove over to where they were before. We saw a couple in the distance, but then found the one that we’d shot the night before. So they got to see one close up! As soon as we got back to the house, we packed up as fast as we could, said goodbye to all of the family and friends (Jeff's mom invited us over to dinner at their Sydney house whenever we want a real meal...we're totally taking that offer up!), and Mitch and Jeff took Ally, Perri and myself to the train station. We ended up almost missing the train, because we were buying food and water in the petrol station next door. Leave it to us :) All I had to eat that entire day was crackers and a stick of beef jerky! Lets just say brunch was very welcome on Sunday morning. After the four hour train ride, the second train from Central to Circular Quay, then the ferry back to Manly, and the taxi back up the hill (because there was no way I was walking!) I was exhausted and sore, but in love with the Outback.
Outback photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2190747&l=9fa19&id=22414798
This was, without a doubt, my favorite weekend thus far. I haven’t had good country fun in ages and I’d forgotten how much I loved it. I’ve been a city girl for far too long. I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed Easter. Someone eat some ham and mashed potatoes for me!
Cheers!
MJ
Fun facts:
I learned a proper Aussie accent finally. I hadn’t spent long periods of time with only Aussies, so now I think I’ve got it. Drop any “–er” and add an “a” Follow that by raising the pitch at the end of your sentence if you’re a chick, and you’re golden!
Sholda-Shoulder
Computa-Computer
Finga-Finger
Papa-Paper
etc etc etc
Also, when saying the letter “H” as in HP computers, it’s more like Hache-P. Any word that ends in an “a” (like Idea), an “r” is put on the end, like idear. Strange!
Jack played a set for about two wonderful hours. It was seriously amazing. We were so so so close, and Perri got some good photos and videos. He played Taylor, my favorite song, and actually messed up singing one song which was hilarious, because he couldn’t have covered it if he tried. He was cool about it though. After he was finished, it was quite interesting to be herded like sheep out of the park. We walked back to the train station and hopped a train, then another, then took the ferry back across. What a fun concert!
On Sunday, Perri, Dana and I decided to play tourists in Sydney, which was the first time any of us had decided to do so. On the ferry ride across, I started taking pictures and didn’t stop the rest of the trip! Once in the city, we walked to the botanical gardens. They were so beautiful and peaceful, very similar to Central Park (not that I’ve ever been there…) We wondered around, no map, just enjoying. At one point, we saw these people looking up and taking pictures and were quite confused as to what they saw. Then we realized, very rapidly, that there were approximately a MILLION fruit bats/flying foxes above our heads. Perri screamed and ran into the gift shop. :) They were so gross and cool.
After wandering around the gardens, we walked over to Darling Harbour, where the Real World: Sydney was filmed. Not that I'd ever seen the show...but it was cool to see. Shopping was in order after all of this, so we made our way over to Paddy’s Market. First level: flea market. Second level: nice shopping mall. Third level: Outlets! It was strange to be in a “real mall” again. We got some pretty good deals, and got some gifts to bring home to our families.
By this point, we were starving, and tired, as we’d walked a ton of the city, so we got a taxi over to the area of Sydney called the Rocks, and went to Pancakes on the Rocks. It was realllly good: banana pancakes with chocolate chips and walnuts, topped with chocolate syrup, vanilla and chocolate ice cream and more bananas. All for $10.50! They were delicious, but I only ate about a third of them, they were much too sweet.
Link to the Sydney photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2190736&l=1ec6e&id=22414798
This past week was midterm week at school. I only had two actual tests, one in Facilities Management, the other in Rooms Division Management. I would have failed the FM one if I wouldn’t have known people in the section that took it before me-it was so hard! It’s a 100-level class and I refuse to get a bad grade in it, but it’s rough. Rooms went fine I’m sure. I really like that class, even though the teacher’s kinda airy. I think my calling is in rooms division :)
Easter weekend! We had Friday-Monday off from school for it, so it called for a road trip somewhere. My friend Jeff invited me out to his family farm in Woodstock, near Cowra. It’s about a 3.5 hour car trip straight west of Sydney. Thursday afternoon, after we’d all finished with our classes, Jeff, Myles, Ally, Perri and myself all loaded into Jeff’s car and made our way out to the Outback! We stopped by Jeff’s house and then went shopping and loaded up on (what else) junk food that required no actual cooking. About two hours into the trip, we girls in the back all fell asleep. On the way, we met Jeff’s friend Mitch who followed us out in his “truck” (explanation later). By the time we made it to the farm, it was almost 1.00 in the morning. His family was already there, staying in the big house, and all of us bunked up in the smaller house.
The next morning, Ally, Perri and I were woken up to Myles coming in and telling us that we were almost out of hot water and that we only had 10 minutes of it left so we had to get up NOW. (This was his feeble attempt to get us moving, as it was already really late in the morning). Unfortunately for him, we were all set on being hicks and not bathing, but we got up anyway. We made brekkie on the barbie-bacon and eggs and toast all barbequed. Yum! There was a HUGE spider in the kitchen, probably four inches wide. Jeff caught it in a glass and threw it outside…Perri was paranoid after that, haha! Then it was time to get down and dirty: time to go dirtbiking. They had five dirtbikes and a quad. Perri and Ally commandeered the quad, and I got to learn how to ride a dirtbike. It was SO much fun. I haven’t had that much good clean (dirty) fun in ages. Don’t get me wrong-I was a little nervous at first and would have preferred to have been on the quad, but once I found my balance, it was a riot. We rode ALL over Jeff’s property (his family’s got over 870 acres!), and it was beautiful. You could see all the divisions of property, the different paddocks fenced off, and tons of sheep and cows. At the highest point on their land, “the top of the world,” you could see so far! I got a little frustrated a few times, my bike didn’t really have the horsepower to make it up the really big mountains (okay hills, but they felt like mountains!) and I would stall out. The bike was a kick start, and apparently I don’t quite have the touch to start them—I claim I don’t weigh enough. So one of the boys would have to come and rescue me, restart my bike and send me on my way. I really don’t like being a girl that can’t do things, so I was getting mad. I eventually got it started by myself, and the boys all reassured me that I wasn’t a dumb girl, because I was riding a dirtbike in the Outback. :) We were riding through all these thorns and I got a nice battle wound on my hand from my bike.
Here’s the story of the trip if you’re ready for it: Ally was a little nervous to be driving the quad and had been riding on the back the whole time, but then decided to try her hand at it, so she began driving and Perri riding. Well, there was this dam surrounding a pond that we had to go over. The boys and myself were ahead of them, as Ally inched along, and so we realize they’re nowhere in sight. I look back to see everyone speeding towards this dam and I immediately thought they stalled or something. However, it was MUCH better than that. We pull up to the dam and see Perri and Ally, completely soaked, quad nowhere in site. On closer inspection, you can see about two inches of the tires sticking out of the dead middle of the pond!! When they tried to cross the dam, they began turning the wrong way and flipped the quad into the water. It floated along to the middle of the pond, held up by the back tires. Since they were both alright, it was hilarious. Jeff and Mitch went to get the truck and a chain to tow it out, and they dove in and we got it out relatively easily. The boys started to drain out the water, while the girls shivered and I laughed. The water had gotten into the engine, so we just towed it back up to the house. It ended up being okay, but Ally and Perri were pretty worried they’d wrecked it!
We ate a lot of brie, avocado and salsa on crackers after that. Sounds weird, but it was delicious. After all that excitement, we decided to take a group nap for an hour. So when we woke up two and a half hours later…ha...Jeff’s entire family, plus some, came over to our house and we had some pre-dinner nachos. I made the mistake of announcing to everyone what Perri and I call trucks like Mitch’s (we call the crucks, because they look like a combo car/truck) and EVERYONE was making so much fun of him. I think they’ll call it that forever. It was so strange looking though, really low rider, with this huge radial antennas on top. Check the photos, there's some of it. We then migrated over to the big house to have a HUGE dinner of steaks, ribs, these things that were like sausage patties, salad, mushrooms, garlic bread, watermelon and cheesecake with ice cream. Whew! We all ate heaps and loved it, not leaving the dinner table until after 10.00. Jeff’s parents and family are so nice and gracious, just welcoming us into their home with no questions asked.
After dinner, Ally, Lydia (Myles’ girlfriend who joined in the fun that afternoon), and Perri went back up to the house and hung out while Mitch, Myles, Jeff, Steve (Jeff’s younger brother) and myself went out shining and shooting. (Which is apparently legal, if you have the proper license). We saw heaps of rabbits and a few roos. It was freezing cold...I had on boots and a big carhart and was still cold. I shot a bunny (don’t yell at me Shannon, and just stop reading right now!) but no roos. Jeff got a roo- a small one. It was really cool, it looks so similar to a deer! One of the guys snapped the neck off a bunny and took the head home to show the girls. Jeff put it in the end of his shirt sleeve, and it totally looked alive and, well, whole. The girls were excited, petting it, and then he just dropped the head on the floor. You should have heard the screams! Hilarious. Perri and I taught the Aussies the joy of s’mores later, except their marshmallows are too sweet, and they don’t have graham crackers. Myles made me promise to send him the real makings of s’mores when we get back to the states.
The next morning, Perri, Mitch, Jeff and I were up before everyone else, so we decided to go horseback riding. There were only three horses, so Mitch didn’t go, but he helped us get all saddled up and ready to go. Jeff worked on a ranch during his gap year between high school and college up in Canada, and Mitch did the same but in Texas. I rode Misty, which is Jeff’s sister’s horse. I loved her. After carrots, saddles and helmets, we were off. It was a much better way to see the land than when on the dirt bikes- you could really appreciate the beauty. It reminded me of Northwestern Italy (random, I know) but just how you could see all the land divisions and everything. I never realized that the outback would be so pretty. Perri’s horse, Cheeky, was so lethargic I though she was going to fall asleep! We went all over the property again, chased the sheep and loved life.
After hosing off the horses and giving them some hay to thank them, we went out into a big empty field for Jeff to teach Ally, Perri and myself how to drive a stick. Except if you call it a stick, you get made fun of-it’s simply a manual. Okay, so not only had I never driven a manual, but the steering wheel was on the right hand side and it didn’t have power steering! The Zuk was a piece (you’ll see in the photos) but perfect to learn on. I actually didn’t stall once! It was pretty enjoyable and I want to do it again and actually get good at it.
Time was ticking before our train was due to leave, so we hightailed it back up to the top of the world, where we’d gone the day before on the bikes. We went up in the Zuk and the other Ute (utility truck). Some of Jeff’s cousins (I think they were his cousins!) who were 12 were there, and they were driving the trucks. The manuals. And they were better than me. Actually, they were better than Jeff-ha! We were driving down a mountain, five people sitting in the back of the truck, and it clicked-I’m riding with a 12 year old down a mountain. Little scary! Actually, he was ridiculously good. Regardless-We took photos for a while up there; I got some hilarious ones of the boys jumping off the Zuk. Take a look at them!
The girls who didn’t go out shining and shooting the night before wanted to see a kangaroo, so we drove over to where they were before. We saw a couple in the distance, but then found the one that we’d shot the night before. So they got to see one close up! As soon as we got back to the house, we packed up as fast as we could, said goodbye to all of the family and friends (Jeff's mom invited us over to dinner at their Sydney house whenever we want a real meal...we're totally taking that offer up!), and Mitch and Jeff took Ally, Perri and myself to the train station. We ended up almost missing the train, because we were buying food and water in the petrol station next door. Leave it to us :) All I had to eat that entire day was crackers and a stick of beef jerky! Lets just say brunch was very welcome on Sunday morning. After the four hour train ride, the second train from Central to Circular Quay, then the ferry back to Manly, and the taxi back up the hill (because there was no way I was walking!) I was exhausted and sore, but in love with the Outback.
Outback photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2190747&l=9fa19&id=22414798
This was, without a doubt, my favorite weekend thus far. I haven’t had good country fun in ages and I’d forgotten how much I loved it. I’ve been a city girl for far too long. I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed Easter. Someone eat some ham and mashed potatoes for me!
Cheers!
MJ
Fun facts:
I learned a proper Aussie accent finally. I hadn’t spent long periods of time with only Aussies, so now I think I’ve got it. Drop any “–er” and add an “a” Follow that by raising the pitch at the end of your sentence if you’re a chick, and you’re golden!
Sholda-Shoulder
Computa-Computer
Finga-Finger
Papa-Paper
etc etc etc
Also, when saying the letter “H” as in HP computers, it’s more like Hache-P. Any word that ends in an “a” (like Idea), an “r” is put on the end, like idear. Strange!
Saturday, March 8, 2008
GBR, La Boheme & 'Tah Game
(May I apologize in advance for the excessive length!)
Well if Perri and I ever make a trip smoothly, I’ll be impressed! For my main journey of the term, nine of my girlfriends and myself went up to the Whitsunday Coast, on the south tip of the Great Barrier Reef, from 28 Feb thru 4 March.
Our flight was earlier than all the other girls. We walked down the hill, got on the ferry and rode to Circular Quay (pronounced Key) and hopped the train to the domestic part of the airport. We went and checked into the airline and waited to board our flight to Brisbane. And waited. And waited. Of course, it was delayed, which led us to miss our connecting flight from Brisbane up to the coast. That flight was the last one of the day…so we waited around for a few hours and got on a flight to Mackay. After landing, we took a bus for two hours to the airport by the coast, and then rode another half an hour to get to Airlie Beach. So…ferry-train-plane-plane-bus…much too much! And thank goodness we opted not to check any luggage! Our three hour journey turned into three times that much.
Perri and I began walking and found Beaches, our backpackers hostel where we were to stay the first two nights. In our room were five other backpackers-two from Canada and three form England. We didn’t really feel comfortable leaving our things with strangers so we took our cameras, iPods and passports while we waited for the other girls. Once they arrived, some of them freaked out. The rooms really weren’t that nice and clean and we had some Mickey and Minnie friends. We convinced them to stay as we’d already paid. We were all split up into different rooms, and some girls slept three wide to a twin size bed! Our roommates actually ended up being really cool, and we talked to them for quite a bit.
The next morning, the weather was decent, so we laid out for a little bit. We found “The Lagoon,” a manmade saltwater pool, and entertained everyone else there by playing cheerleaders. Bre and I actually got really good (she’s a cheerleader at her college). She could life me straight arm out of the pool. For dinner we went to a Mexican place called Cactus Jack’s—delicious!!
Saturday morning, we got on our boat, Powerplay, around 11.30. It was a Catamaran that could sleep 16. There were the ten of us, two ladies from England and one from Israel. Our crew: Paula “Mom” the skipper, Trish and Cookie, our dive instructors and Damien “Damo”, our host and cook, who had some mad dreadlocks. Perri and I ended up getting a private double room, because no one else had booked it. There were four more doubles separated by curtains for the other girls, and thankfully we all had air con. The crew slept in the open common area on the couches/booths around the dining area.
The toilets were hilarious: about 2x3 feet, with a toilet and the sink. To shower, you could pull the faucet from the sink out and use it as a shower head. When you were done, you just pushed a button and the floor drained out. We each had a minute of water usage each day.
The first 20 minutes or so on the boat were beautiful weather. We were all up in the front, laying on the nets or standing in the front, loving the sun and splashing water. Then it started to rain. And didn’t stop. This forced us all to be inside where it was stuffy, and it caused some killer waves, about 2 to 3 meters high. This combo led everyone feeling a little queasy. One of the British ladies was the only one that got physically sick, but the rest of us felt pretty miserable. Damo said it was the first time he’d ever felt seasick-and he’s worked the boats for three years!
The first place we sailed to was White Haven Beach, the nicest public beach in the world. Good news-we had the entire beach to ourselves. Bad news-it was raining so hard that it felt like hail and we couldn’t see anything. We hiked up to the fifth most photographed sight in the world and couldn’t see anything at all. We went down to the beach, donned I n our stinger suits (really thick wetsuits) and played in the waves, using our bodies to surf and trying our cheerleader moves in the ridiculously huge waves. The sand on the beach is pure white and really fine grains-good for skin exfoliating and jewelry polishing.
Once back on the boat, we all found somewhere to lay and try not to get seasick. The place we ported for the night was reasonably calm. We had a chicken dinner with pasta and potato and Caesar salads and other yummy things. After dinner we watched a slideshow of photographs and videos that Cookie had taken that day. Directly after that, we brushed our teeth out the back of the boat, ‘feeding the fishies’ and went to bed.
Trish woke us up around 8.30 on Sunday morning. We’d already reached our destination and it was brekky time. I hadn’t been sure if I wanted to scuba dive or not because of the extra cost, but decided I had to. Perri, Bre, Jill and I got a quick lesson, suited up into our stinger suits, weights and scuba gear and headed out to the shore’s edge. We did some skills kneeling in the water, with our heads just under. We threw our respirators out of our mouths and had to find them, purge the water and start breathing again. We also had to let some water into our masks and get it all out by tipping our heads back, pressing on our masks and blowing out through our noses.
Then we were on our way- Trish took care of all of our buoyancy underwater. All we had to do was swim, equalize our ears and enjoy! Words simply cannot explain how unbelievably beautiful it was underwater. Trish showed us which coral we could touch-some felt as soft as velvet. There were so many kinds of fish too, it was crazy! They would swim right towards you, not shy at all. We stayed under for about a half an hour and went to about seven or eight meters deep. Cookie was there the whole time, taking pictures for us.
As soon as we came up, we lost our gear and began snorkeling in the rain. Not nearly as cool as diving, but still really great. A lot colder up on the surface of the water than it was when we were completely submerged. After lunch and a location change we went snorkeling again. Way more fish this time. We didn’t stay out too long the second time, we were all pretty cold and tired. For dinner that night, we had some delicious steaks and more of the salads. We ate so much better on this trip than we do at school and probably had more to eat that weekend than we do in a given week normally!
The slideshow that night was a riot, with some videos that I’m going to try (cross your fingers) to upload so you all can see. We went to bed early again, and sailed back to port that morning. We were all glad to be back on steady land (though we were all still moving with the waves!) but were going to miss the crew.
Five of the girls flew out on Monday, and the five of us left spent the next 30 hours kicking ourselves for not doing the same. Perri, Courtney, Kari, Dana and myself decided not to because the Tuesday tickets were about $50 cheaper than the Monday ones. I don’t understand where we thought we’d save money, paying for accommodation and food and everything, but oh well. We went back to Beaches and were checked into an absolutely disgusting dirty nasty room. Courtney said no way, and got an apartment style hotel room that she told us to come stay in with her. It was so nice and clean and wonderful! That evening we had a return party with our crew at Beaches Bar, which was fun. I definitely had KFC for dinner which was absolutely unbelievable. I forgot how much I love that place…even though I did live off of it all last summer!
The next morning we checked out of the hotel at noon, and wasted the next five hours, which CREPT by. It was raining, so we couldn’t lay out in the sun, and Airlie is so small there is literally NOTHING to do if it’s not sunny out. We were pretty miserable. We got a taxi back to the airport, and flew home. On the flight, I sat next to Karin, from Chicago, who was just finishing up an internship, and we talked the whole flight.
By the time we made it back to Manly late Tuesday night, I’d never been so glad. We were all a little Manly-sick and ready for our never-ending vacation to be over. Don’t get me wrong-the good parts were GREAT. However, it was those not-so-good parts that brought us down…
Wednesday morning I had an 8.00 class, then took a nap. That evening, I went to see La Boheme in the Opera House! It was so nice to take a long shower and put on different clothes and be a real human being again. There was a group of ten of us that went, most of the people from MSU-Kristen, Sean, Annie, Catelin, Kirk, Erica, Stephanie-another Stephanie from Texas, and Perri and myself. We rode the ferry over and went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. I had this great seafood fettuccini. Then it was time for the OPERA! It was great---even from the second row in the back. During intermission, we walked down to the front to look up and realized that there were subtitles that we couldn’t see from our seats. I’d been wondering why so many people were laughing and how many knew Italian in the audience. The whole thing lasted about two and a half hours and it was a ball. The lungs on these people were amazing-no mikes, just perfect acoustics. Ridiculous!
Friday night we went to the footy match (rugby game) of the New South Wales Waratahs (the ‘Tahs) vs. the Queensland Brumbies. We had an absolute riot-about 20 of us went together, and lived it up. It was POURING rain for the entire game, and our crappy seat section cleared out for the most part, so we got to go right up to the first row of the “endzone.” We bought our friend Nate, whose birthday it was this past week, a ‘Tah’s jersey, which he loved. I met a girl in the toilet who is a radio personality on 104.5 up in Grand Rapids. What are the chances of that!! When I told her I worked at the J-Dub as restaurant supervisor, we decided when we get home we’d hook each other up, her with concert tickets, me with food! Such a small world. By the end of the game we were all soaked beyond belief, literally able to wring out our clothing. I didn’t mind one bit though, and the ‘Tah’s won the game!
Saturday I had a makeup class (how dumb is that- we get Good Friday and Easter Monday off, but make up the classes on two Saturdays!) then laid out on the beach and soaked up the rays.
Still no book, still no uniform. Still frustrated.
Cheers and happy days!Love, MJ
Message I received from an Aussie friend for your reading enjoyment:
“So bad, defs not a fair dinkum true blue dinky dye ozzy name” And YES I knew what it meant! :)
Powerplay Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2185759&l=d61af&id=22414798
(The name on this album is what we were required to say instead of "Cheese" to take the pictures...)
Opera and Footy Game Photos (Stolen from Perri)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2185583&l=0197b&id=22411794
Well if Perri and I ever make a trip smoothly, I’ll be impressed! For my main journey of the term, nine of my girlfriends and myself went up to the Whitsunday Coast, on the south tip of the Great Barrier Reef, from 28 Feb thru 4 March.
Our flight was earlier than all the other girls. We walked down the hill, got on the ferry and rode to Circular Quay (pronounced Key) and hopped the train to the domestic part of the airport. We went and checked into the airline and waited to board our flight to Brisbane. And waited. And waited. Of course, it was delayed, which led us to miss our connecting flight from Brisbane up to the coast. That flight was the last one of the day…so we waited around for a few hours and got on a flight to Mackay. After landing, we took a bus for two hours to the airport by the coast, and then rode another half an hour to get to Airlie Beach. So…ferry-train-plane-plane-bus…much too much! And thank goodness we opted not to check any luggage! Our three hour journey turned into three times that much.
Perri and I began walking and found Beaches, our backpackers hostel where we were to stay the first two nights. In our room were five other backpackers-two from Canada and three form England. We didn’t really feel comfortable leaving our things with strangers so we took our cameras, iPods and passports while we waited for the other girls. Once they arrived, some of them freaked out. The rooms really weren’t that nice and clean and we had some Mickey and Minnie friends. We convinced them to stay as we’d already paid. We were all split up into different rooms, and some girls slept three wide to a twin size bed! Our roommates actually ended up being really cool, and we talked to them for quite a bit.
The next morning, the weather was decent, so we laid out for a little bit. We found “The Lagoon,” a manmade saltwater pool, and entertained everyone else there by playing cheerleaders. Bre and I actually got really good (she’s a cheerleader at her college). She could life me straight arm out of the pool. For dinner we went to a Mexican place called Cactus Jack’s—delicious!!
Saturday morning, we got on our boat, Powerplay, around 11.30. It was a Catamaran that could sleep 16. There were the ten of us, two ladies from England and one from Israel. Our crew: Paula “Mom” the skipper, Trish and Cookie, our dive instructors and Damien “Damo”, our host and cook, who had some mad dreadlocks. Perri and I ended up getting a private double room, because no one else had booked it. There were four more doubles separated by curtains for the other girls, and thankfully we all had air con. The crew slept in the open common area on the couches/booths around the dining area.
The toilets were hilarious: about 2x3 feet, with a toilet and the sink. To shower, you could pull the faucet from the sink out and use it as a shower head. When you were done, you just pushed a button and the floor drained out. We each had a minute of water usage each day.
The first 20 minutes or so on the boat were beautiful weather. We were all up in the front, laying on the nets or standing in the front, loving the sun and splashing water. Then it started to rain. And didn’t stop. This forced us all to be inside where it was stuffy, and it caused some killer waves, about 2 to 3 meters high. This combo led everyone feeling a little queasy. One of the British ladies was the only one that got physically sick, but the rest of us felt pretty miserable. Damo said it was the first time he’d ever felt seasick-and he’s worked the boats for three years!
The first place we sailed to was White Haven Beach, the nicest public beach in the world. Good news-we had the entire beach to ourselves. Bad news-it was raining so hard that it felt like hail and we couldn’t see anything. We hiked up to the fifth most photographed sight in the world and couldn’t see anything at all. We went down to the beach, donned I n our stinger suits (really thick wetsuits) and played in the waves, using our bodies to surf and trying our cheerleader moves in the ridiculously huge waves. The sand on the beach is pure white and really fine grains-good for skin exfoliating and jewelry polishing.
Once back on the boat, we all found somewhere to lay and try not to get seasick. The place we ported for the night was reasonably calm. We had a chicken dinner with pasta and potato and Caesar salads and other yummy things. After dinner we watched a slideshow of photographs and videos that Cookie had taken that day. Directly after that, we brushed our teeth out the back of the boat, ‘feeding the fishies’ and went to bed.
Trish woke us up around 8.30 on Sunday morning. We’d already reached our destination and it was brekky time. I hadn’t been sure if I wanted to scuba dive or not because of the extra cost, but decided I had to. Perri, Bre, Jill and I got a quick lesson, suited up into our stinger suits, weights and scuba gear and headed out to the shore’s edge. We did some skills kneeling in the water, with our heads just under. We threw our respirators out of our mouths and had to find them, purge the water and start breathing again. We also had to let some water into our masks and get it all out by tipping our heads back, pressing on our masks and blowing out through our noses.
Then we were on our way- Trish took care of all of our buoyancy underwater. All we had to do was swim, equalize our ears and enjoy! Words simply cannot explain how unbelievably beautiful it was underwater. Trish showed us which coral we could touch-some felt as soft as velvet. There were so many kinds of fish too, it was crazy! They would swim right towards you, not shy at all. We stayed under for about a half an hour and went to about seven or eight meters deep. Cookie was there the whole time, taking pictures for us.
As soon as we came up, we lost our gear and began snorkeling in the rain. Not nearly as cool as diving, but still really great. A lot colder up on the surface of the water than it was when we were completely submerged. After lunch and a location change we went snorkeling again. Way more fish this time. We didn’t stay out too long the second time, we were all pretty cold and tired. For dinner that night, we had some delicious steaks and more of the salads. We ate so much better on this trip than we do at school and probably had more to eat that weekend than we do in a given week normally!
The slideshow that night was a riot, with some videos that I’m going to try (cross your fingers) to upload so you all can see. We went to bed early again, and sailed back to port that morning. We were all glad to be back on steady land (though we were all still moving with the waves!) but were going to miss the crew.
Five of the girls flew out on Monday, and the five of us left spent the next 30 hours kicking ourselves for not doing the same. Perri, Courtney, Kari, Dana and myself decided not to because the Tuesday tickets were about $50 cheaper than the Monday ones. I don’t understand where we thought we’d save money, paying for accommodation and food and everything, but oh well. We went back to Beaches and were checked into an absolutely disgusting dirty nasty room. Courtney said no way, and got an apartment style hotel room that she told us to come stay in with her. It was so nice and clean and wonderful! That evening we had a return party with our crew at Beaches Bar, which was fun. I definitely had KFC for dinner which was absolutely unbelievable. I forgot how much I love that place…even though I did live off of it all last summer!
The next morning we checked out of the hotel at noon, and wasted the next five hours, which CREPT by. It was raining, so we couldn’t lay out in the sun, and Airlie is so small there is literally NOTHING to do if it’s not sunny out. We were pretty miserable. We got a taxi back to the airport, and flew home. On the flight, I sat next to Karin, from Chicago, who was just finishing up an internship, and we talked the whole flight.
By the time we made it back to Manly late Tuesday night, I’d never been so glad. We were all a little Manly-sick and ready for our never-ending vacation to be over. Don’t get me wrong-the good parts were GREAT. However, it was those not-so-good parts that brought us down…
Wednesday morning I had an 8.00 class, then took a nap. That evening, I went to see La Boheme in the Opera House! It was so nice to take a long shower and put on different clothes and be a real human being again. There was a group of ten of us that went, most of the people from MSU-Kristen, Sean, Annie, Catelin, Kirk, Erica, Stephanie-another Stephanie from Texas, and Perri and myself. We rode the ferry over and went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. I had this great seafood fettuccini. Then it was time for the OPERA! It was great---even from the second row in the back. During intermission, we walked down to the front to look up and realized that there were subtitles that we couldn’t see from our seats. I’d been wondering why so many people were laughing and how many knew Italian in the audience. The whole thing lasted about two and a half hours and it was a ball. The lungs on these people were amazing-no mikes, just perfect acoustics. Ridiculous!
Friday night we went to the footy match (rugby game) of the New South Wales Waratahs (the ‘Tahs) vs. the Queensland Brumbies. We had an absolute riot-about 20 of us went together, and lived it up. It was POURING rain for the entire game, and our crappy seat section cleared out for the most part, so we got to go right up to the first row of the “endzone.” We bought our friend Nate, whose birthday it was this past week, a ‘Tah’s jersey, which he loved. I met a girl in the toilet who is a radio personality on 104.5 up in Grand Rapids. What are the chances of that!! When I told her I worked at the J-Dub as restaurant supervisor, we decided when we get home we’d hook each other up, her with concert tickets, me with food! Such a small world. By the end of the game we were all soaked beyond belief, literally able to wring out our clothing. I didn’t mind one bit though, and the ‘Tah’s won the game!
Saturday I had a makeup class (how dumb is that- we get Good Friday and Easter Monday off, but make up the classes on two Saturdays!) then laid out on the beach and soaked up the rays.
Still no book, still no uniform. Still frustrated.
Cheers and happy days!Love, MJ
Message I received from an Aussie friend for your reading enjoyment:
“So bad, defs not a fair dinkum true blue dinky dye ozzy name” And YES I knew what it meant! :)
Powerplay Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2185759&l=d61af&id=22414798
(The name on this album is what we were required to say instead of "Cheese" to take the pictures...)
Opera and Footy Game Photos (Stolen from Perri)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2185583&l=0197b&id=22411794
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Photographs galore!
Well, things have most definitely gotten a little busier down here, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! Another week of class is done, and the third is underway. I still don’t have my books or my uniform. I’ve pretty much given up hope! If they try to give me my uniform in the sixth week, like they did for someone last term, I will say no thank you, I will take my thousand dollars you made me pay for a really ugly suit!
http://gvsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2182835&l=9ed8c&id=22414798
We got an interesting project in my marketing class last week: our marketing teams had to create a new toy for Mattel and pitch it to our teacher. My group of seven students ended up making Stackos, which we based off of those large cardboard bricks that used to be in the nursery at church (if you know what I’m talking about). We modified them into basically giant legos made out of stress-ball material. Our presentation went quite well, one other girl and myself did the pitch. I’ll let you know in the next post if my group won or not!
The rest of my classes were mediocre-my facilities management class we got an hour and a half to read in class. Wow, I don’t think I’ve had that since about 8th grade. It was absolutely ridiculous and a complete waste of time. Some of these people would simply die in school in
On Tuesday evening I went to a small home group with some of the people that I met at church the Sunday before. It was nice to meet some people not from school and share our views with each other. We had dinner, did some bible study and took impromptu communion using champagne and white bread. (Our hearts were in the right place!) I think I’ll go back tonight.
Wednesday was the best beach day I’ve seen so far. It was ridiculously hot, and the waves were huge! I went down after my only class that day, from 8-10, and laid our and swam from about 10:30 until 3:30. That’s a really long time when it’s that hot out! It was pure bliss.
This weekend consisted of tons of sun! We went to the beach on Saturday and coerced the Australian guys to watch a chick flick with all us girls that night, binging on chips and salsa, hazelnut chocolate bars and Tim-Tams, my new favorite cookie.
Sunday was the ZOO! We left really early (okay, around 8:45) to catch a ferry and then another ferry to get to Taronga Zoo in
There were originally near 25 of us that ended up meeting up at the zoo, so we broke off. After some miscommunication and waiting around, Perri, Kari (she’s from Central) and I decided to hop the next ferry. We were supposed to all have lunch at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks, (cheap and really good food), but we didn’t know if they would be there or not, and none of us knew where the restaurant was, so we headed back to Manly. Pear and I got some ice cream, and just had dinner at school. Church was at 6:30, then I met up with my marketing group to finalize our presentation that we had to give the following day.
All of Monday I was high on life. I had caffeine in the morning, which helped exceptionally, but I knew what I had to look forward to that night…a Motion City Soundtrack concert!! It was to be my fourth time seeing them. Opening for them were Mae, Sugarcult and Cartel…three more of my favorite bands. I knew it was going to be the show of a lifetime. It started at 6:00, and I had class until 4:30. As soon as I got out, my friends
As soon as we scarfed the food, we caught a cab to take us to the Metro, where the show was. What we didn’t take into account was the time, and it was almost 6:00. The traffic was horrendous. We rode about two blocks in 10 minutes and I was freaking out because we were missing Mae. I convinced the boys to get out and run the rest of the way. Dumb idea on my part…running about 12 city blocks with two rather fit and in shape guys…I was quite grateful when we got stopped at a crosswalk! We made it there in record time, dodging business men the entire time, and run inside and upstairs to find that a local band was playing before any of the big acts! Thank goodness we didn’t miss them. Celebratory libations were in order, then we walked right up to the second row on the floor-the place was pretty empty. I think we were among the oldest people there, most were about 16 year old kids. After the local band was done, Mae came up and rocked, followed by Sugarcult, who are getting so old and fat that it’s hilarious. One of the guitarists surfed into the crowd right by us and stole
After catching the very last ferry out of
http://gvsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2183932&l=0de64&id=22414798
Cheers and enjoy the photos!
MJ
Fun facts:
True blue=through and through or to the core
Mobile=cell phone
Full on=right on
Reckon=they say it all the time!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Here's what's crackin...
The first week of classes are officially over. I’ve got four classes, twice a week for two hours apiece. But in traditional, lazy (they say it, not me!) behavior, we get a 15-20 minute break during each class. My first class, principles of marketing, is a little bit intimidating. Though the name of the class would lead one to believe it, this is not an introductory class…We were split into groups and have to create a marketing plan for a bar in Sydney. It’s a fierce competition, and we have to do our final pitch to the owners of the bar. They choose their favorite and the winning pitch is sent in to Donald Trump. Much of the class is based off “The Apprentice,” so the school had to get permission from Trump. He took it an interest and wants the winning tape!
My other classes include a tourism class, rooms division management, and facilities management. They should all be pretty straight forward. My facilities management is a 100-level course, so I’m in the class with a bunch of first years…during our tutorial, the professor read a definition, and had to repeat himself three times so everyone could get it down-obnoxious! He said everyone needed to learn to write faster. That must be a skill you learn quickly, because we older students all had to sit and be bored. There’s a kid in my class who is always making smart comments, and so my professor finally told him to go up to the front and teach the next PowerPoint slide. The kid did alright, then my professor asked me to do it, so of course I completely owned it :) After I got done and the next student was up, someone asked if I have done teaching before! Probably half of my class taught a slide, and at the end of the class he mentioned that he hoped by the end of the semester that everyone could portray the equivalent of my charisma and confidence. (!) Pretty cool, huh?
I’m a little bit frustrated with the school right now on the matters of books. They knew how many students were going to be taking each course, but they failed to order enough books. It’s really irritating-I can’t read for any of my classes, and they won’t be in until next Wednesday or maybe even as late as Friday! I really like to read for my classes so I can be on top of my game, but it’s just not possible right now.
After recovering from a mysterious 24-hour bug that had me miserable in bed all day Wednesday, I went out to a place called Beaches Pizza on Valentines Day with Perri and my new Aussie friend Scotty (who I definitely think is the little brother I never had. He’s completely taken me under his wing to teach me how to speak what he calls English and I call Ozzie. I think I’m doing well, but he tells me I enunciate too much and need to stop saying my r’s). This place is always packed and they have the best pizza. We got a garlic and herb (emphasis on the H, they definitely pronounce it) and a pumpkin, chicken and spinach one. They were fabulous, along with our three dollar champagne.
Friday was my first official beach day! It was great. The sun is so hot down here, it’s unbelievable. Before we went to soak up the rays, Perri and I went to book our accommodations for Whitsundays, a cluster of 75 islands in the Great Barrier Reef. We’re going from Feb 28-March 4. So far there’s about 13 girls on our boat. We fly up and spend three days and two nights on our own boat, cruising through the islands, snorkeling and porting at a different island each night. Should be amaaaazing! (Just don’t think of the amount of class we’re missing…) That night, we had our icebreaker party at school, though we’ve already been here for so long. It was fun, they cleared out all the tables from the inside part of the cafeteria and had a really decent DJ. We met new people and danced the night away.
This morning (that’s Saturday), I went down to Manly to get a muffin and coffee, because it sounded amazing. There’s a market set up on the Corso (basically a strip mall) and in a school yard. Some stuff was thrifty and flea markety, but there was some really great stuff if you looked hard enough-especially the clothing! This afternoon was deemed another beach day, and it was gorgeous again. We walked up to North Head, a park/scenic outlook with stunning views, then headed to the beach. We were about 20 Americans all laying in the same area…we’re ridiculous. It ended up getting cloudy so we came to school, had a mini-BBQ and then dinner.
I’m attempting to upload pictures…if I don’t have any internet left and you don’t hear from me until March, I’m blaming everyone who keeps badgering me! :) This is the link…http://gvsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2181908&l=9cb61&id=22414798
Happy days,
MJ
Fun facts:
How’re ya goin=how are you
Sarvo=this afternoon (yeah…)
D’n’M= deep and meaningful (as in a conversation)
What's crackin=what's up?
Blow in=when somebody butts into a conversation
Right-o buddy=self explanatory
My other classes include a tourism class, rooms division management, and facilities management. They should all be pretty straight forward. My facilities management is a 100-level course, so I’m in the class with a bunch of first years…during our tutorial, the professor read a definition, and had to repeat himself three times so everyone could get it down-obnoxious! He said everyone needed to learn to write faster. That must be a skill you learn quickly, because we older students all had to sit and be bored. There’s a kid in my class who is always making smart comments, and so my professor finally told him to go up to the front and teach the next PowerPoint slide. The kid did alright, then my professor asked me to do it, so of course I completely owned it :) After I got done and the next student was up, someone asked if I have done teaching before! Probably half of my class taught a slide, and at the end of the class he mentioned that he hoped by the end of the semester that everyone could portray the equivalent of my charisma and confidence. (!) Pretty cool, huh?
I’m a little bit frustrated with the school right now on the matters of books. They knew how many students were going to be taking each course, but they failed to order enough books. It’s really irritating-I can’t read for any of my classes, and they won’t be in until next Wednesday or maybe even as late as Friday! I really like to read for my classes so I can be on top of my game, but it’s just not possible right now.
After recovering from a mysterious 24-hour bug that had me miserable in bed all day Wednesday, I went out to a place called Beaches Pizza on Valentines Day with Perri and my new Aussie friend Scotty (who I definitely think is the little brother I never had. He’s completely taken me under his wing to teach me how to speak what he calls English and I call Ozzie. I think I’m doing well, but he tells me I enunciate too much and need to stop saying my r’s). This place is always packed and they have the best pizza. We got a garlic and herb (emphasis on the H, they definitely pronounce it) and a pumpkin, chicken and spinach one. They were fabulous, along with our three dollar champagne.
Friday was my first official beach day! It was great. The sun is so hot down here, it’s unbelievable. Before we went to soak up the rays, Perri and I went to book our accommodations for Whitsundays, a cluster of 75 islands in the Great Barrier Reef. We’re going from Feb 28-March 4. So far there’s about 13 girls on our boat. We fly up and spend three days and two nights on our own boat, cruising through the islands, snorkeling and porting at a different island each night. Should be amaaaazing! (Just don’t think of the amount of class we’re missing…) That night, we had our icebreaker party at school, though we’ve already been here for so long. It was fun, they cleared out all the tables from the inside part of the cafeteria and had a really decent DJ. We met new people and danced the night away.
This morning (that’s Saturday), I went down to Manly to get a muffin and coffee, because it sounded amazing. There’s a market set up on the Corso (basically a strip mall) and in a school yard. Some stuff was thrifty and flea markety, but there was some really great stuff if you looked hard enough-especially the clothing! This afternoon was deemed another beach day, and it was gorgeous again. We walked up to North Head, a park/scenic outlook with stunning views, then headed to the beach. We were about 20 Americans all laying in the same area…we’re ridiculous. It ended up getting cloudy so we came to school, had a mini-BBQ and then dinner.
I’m attempting to upload pictures…if I don’t have any internet left and you don’t hear from me until March, I’m blaming everyone who keeps badgering me! :) This is the link…http://gvsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2181908&l=9cb61&id=22414798
Happy days,
MJ
Fun facts:
How’re ya goin=how are you
Sarvo=this afternoon (yeah…)
D’n’M= deep and meaningful (as in a conversation)
What's crackin=what's up?
Blow in=when somebody butts into a conversation
Right-o buddy=self explanatory
Monday, February 11, 2008
First day of classes!
The last two days of O-Week were mainly surf safety and team building. On Thursday I participated in surf safety in the middle of what most of us would consider quite a severe thunderstorm. Maybe it’s just me…but shouldn’t a surf safety class include not going into a large body of water in the middle of a thunderstorm? Hmm… We walked down to Manly Beach and by the time we’d gotten there, we looked like we had already been swimming with our clothes on-we were completely soaked. It was such a cold rain, so we were all pretty grumpy. We listened to a beach safety talk…For instance you should always swim where the waves are. The calm areas are where the rips are and they will pull you away from the shore.
When they announced we were getting in the water we thought they were joking. It was still raining, but the thunder was more distant. Donning our red wet shirts, we walked down to the harbor carrying foam surfboards. Manly Beach itself was closed as the sewer plant had overflowed and the water was polluted. The harbor was completely calm, and we did relay races by country, practicing running into the water, jumping belly-first onto our boards and paddling around. Let’s just say that the Australians beat everyone from the States, but that we definitely killed the Scandinavians. It was pretty hard to get balanced and stay on the boards, but it was easy once I got the hang of it. Most people fell off, but I never did :)
There was an optional wine and cheese event at sunset. It was supposed to be outside, but it was of course raining, so we held it on one of the balconies in front of the school. Everyone dressed up and there was gorgeous back lighting for all of my photographs.
Friday morning, some of us did a scavenger hunt (a ‘scavie’) around Manly. We divided into groups of four and had to find the most random things in the town: a Thai restaurant with a take-away menu, the post office, getting a photograph with 10 strangers all at once, etc, etc. The hardest one was getting a parking ticket at exactly 11:44. The way you were to do it was all stand on the spot in front of the parking ramp so that your weight would register as being as heavy as a car. However, my group didn’t get it to work, so one of the guys had the idea of going to the police station and asking them to issue us a fake parking ticket. I couldn’t believe it-but it worked! They totally gave us one, and my team ended up winning the scavie, and got 10 free tickets to the cinema in Manly, which run about $15AU apiece, so it was a really good prize!
That afternoon, I had teambuilding. We divided up (by making animal noises…strange Aussies…I was a cow) and began competing. It was the cows against the sheep. We did random events including tug of war, a blowup obstacle course that was completely filled with water and mud inside, big-ball-volleyball (using a huge red ball that was probably 6 feet in diameter), and another which I can’t even begin to explain. It was loads of fun, and the cows won every event! It was great.
Friday night we discovered exactly how outrageous prices could be in Manly. We went to a place called Henry Africa’s (a really swanky lounge) and all of the girls decided to get cosmos…which ended up being $17 AU each!!! Absolutely ridiculous. That kind of killed the evening, to say the least.
Saturday morning we had a tour of Sydney. In the rain. Everyone is so sick of the rain! We were on a bus, but it would have been great if we’d actually been able to get pictures of things. We saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and went through Kings’ Cross and Chinatown. That night, we got news that we could all claim some money for the hassle of our lost baggage. Good news! We decided to go early Sunday morning.
We went to get ice cream to celebrate. Copenhagen ice cream is AMAZING, just as you said it would be Tom. I think I’m fully addicted.
Our taxi came at 8:15 that morning to take us to the airport. After enough complaining and bartering, we all got $350! It felt great to have some unexpected extra money that I’ve decided to save to travel with. Well…except the money I spent to buy a muffin and coffee. Speaking of coffee, I’ve been forced to quit caffeine cold-turkey. Going from a pot of coffee a day to absolutely not a drop wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The headaches have ended :)
After brunch on Sunday (my new favorite meal!) we went down into Manly to buy some school supplies. We went to church that night at St. Matt’s, at the 18:30 service which is a contemporary service for young adults. It was quite good. The chaplin for our college plays the bass in the band, and I was talking to two blokes during the “G-day time” and it turns out they both listen every week to the services at Mars Hill where I go to church every Sunday. What a small world!
This morning we had an all-student assembly for all the new students at 8am. It was probably the most boring thing that we’ve done yet. We had a woman named Shane something-or-other as one of our speakers who was apparently a huge swimmer back in the seventies, winning all sorts of Olympic medals.
Alright, it’s time for me to go get some lunch and go to my first class. I’ve got marketing and ecotourism today, rooms division management tomorrow, ecotourism on Wednesday, operations management, marketing and rooms division management on Thursday and then operations management on Friday. Whew. Should be fun!
I’ll keep you posted!
Cheers,
MJ
Fun facts:
Happy days=good times
No worries=you’re welcome
Sunnies=sunglasses
Unnie=university
Trekkies=tennis shoes
Trackies=sweatpants
When they announced we were getting in the water we thought they were joking. It was still raining, but the thunder was more distant. Donning our red wet shirts, we walked down to the harbor carrying foam surfboards. Manly Beach itself was closed as the sewer plant had overflowed and the water was polluted. The harbor was completely calm, and we did relay races by country, practicing running into the water, jumping belly-first onto our boards and paddling around. Let’s just say that the Australians beat everyone from the States, but that we definitely killed the Scandinavians. It was pretty hard to get balanced and stay on the boards, but it was easy once I got the hang of it. Most people fell off, but I never did :)
There was an optional wine and cheese event at sunset. It was supposed to be outside, but it was of course raining, so we held it on one of the balconies in front of the school. Everyone dressed up and there was gorgeous back lighting for all of my photographs.
Friday morning, some of us did a scavenger hunt (a ‘scavie’) around Manly. We divided into groups of four and had to find the most random things in the town: a Thai restaurant with a take-away menu, the post office, getting a photograph with 10 strangers all at once, etc, etc. The hardest one was getting a parking ticket at exactly 11:44. The way you were to do it was all stand on the spot in front of the parking ramp so that your weight would register as being as heavy as a car. However, my group didn’t get it to work, so one of the guys had the idea of going to the police station and asking them to issue us a fake parking ticket. I couldn’t believe it-but it worked! They totally gave us one, and my team ended up winning the scavie, and got 10 free tickets to the cinema in Manly, which run about $15AU apiece, so it was a really good prize!
That afternoon, I had teambuilding. We divided up (by making animal noises…strange Aussies…I was a cow) and began competing. It was the cows against the sheep. We did random events including tug of war, a blowup obstacle course that was completely filled with water and mud inside, big-ball-volleyball (using a huge red ball that was probably 6 feet in diameter), and another which I can’t even begin to explain. It was loads of fun, and the cows won every event! It was great.
Friday night we discovered exactly how outrageous prices could be in Manly. We went to a place called Henry Africa’s (a really swanky lounge) and all of the girls decided to get cosmos…which ended up being $17 AU each!!! Absolutely ridiculous. That kind of killed the evening, to say the least.
Saturday morning we had a tour of Sydney. In the rain. Everyone is so sick of the rain! We were on a bus, but it would have been great if we’d actually been able to get pictures of things. We saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and went through Kings’ Cross and Chinatown. That night, we got news that we could all claim some money for the hassle of our lost baggage. Good news! We decided to go early Sunday morning.
We went to get ice cream to celebrate. Copenhagen ice cream is AMAZING, just as you said it would be Tom. I think I’m fully addicted.
Our taxi came at 8:15 that morning to take us to the airport. After enough complaining and bartering, we all got $350! It felt great to have some unexpected extra money that I’ve decided to save to travel with. Well…except the money I spent to buy a muffin and coffee. Speaking of coffee, I’ve been forced to quit caffeine cold-turkey. Going from a pot of coffee a day to absolutely not a drop wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The headaches have ended :)
After brunch on Sunday (my new favorite meal!) we went down into Manly to buy some school supplies. We went to church that night at St. Matt’s, at the 18:30 service which is a contemporary service for young adults. It was quite good. The chaplin for our college plays the bass in the band, and I was talking to two blokes during the “G-day time” and it turns out they both listen every week to the services at Mars Hill where I go to church every Sunday. What a small world!
This morning we had an all-student assembly for all the new students at 8am. It was probably the most boring thing that we’ve done yet. We had a woman named Shane something-or-other as one of our speakers who was apparently a huge swimmer back in the seventies, winning all sorts of Olympic medals.
Alright, it’s time for me to go get some lunch and go to my first class. I’ve got marketing and ecotourism today, rooms division management tomorrow, ecotourism on Wednesday, operations management, marketing and rooms division management on Thursday and then operations management on Friday. Whew. Should be fun!
I’ll keep you posted!
Cheers,
MJ
Fun facts:
Happy days=good times
No worries=you’re welcome
Sunnies=sunglasses
Unnie=university
Trekkies=tennis shoes
Trackies=sweatpants
Friday, February 8, 2008
Address
Just in case anyone wanted to send me any packages or love notes, my address is:
MJ Makay #14109
ICMS Room # 318
151 Darley Road
Manly, NSW 2095
Australia
MJ Makay #14109
ICMS Room # 318
151 Darley Road
Manly, NSW 2095
Australia
Thursday, February 7, 2008
G'day!
Well everybody, I’ve made it down under! And based on the adventures we had just getting down here, I’m positive there won’t be a dull moment this entire trip.
The flight from Grand Rapids to Dallas was scheduled to leave at 3:35 on Saturday February 2nd. Perri and I said goodbye to all of our friends and family and waited to board our flight. We met Jillian and Joanie, two other girls originally from Grand Rapids who go to school out in LA. They were also heading out to ICMS. Their flight had been delayed, which was leaving from our gate, hence ours was delayed.
After boarding our for our flight finally began, we were patiently waiting to hear “group 3” to board. The intercom clicked on and instead we hear “Will passengers Makay and Neirman please board the plane; the gate is closing in one minute.” Oops! Once the plane was de-iced, we were on our way.
Now, when we first booked our flights, we only had a 50 minute layover in Dallas, so by the time we landed, we literally had seven minutes to make our way across the entire airport...After being told the wrong gate number, we figured it out, jumped on a tram and crossed our fingers. Our gate was completely empty by the time we got there, and we asked the desk clerk if we’d missed our flight. She radioed out to the plane, but they’d given our seats away. But she found us two seats, so we ran on and started looking for them. We realized very rapidly that we’d been bumped to first class.
I sat on the window, enjoying the absolutely delicious complimentary food and drinks. (Did you know that they charge for food now in economy on domestic flights? Three dollars for a bag of cashews. Reeeediculous.) My seat folded down all the way into a bed, so after dinner I just slept, since Perri was on the other side of the plane.
Once in LA, we met up with about 20 of our new friends, all flying out to ICMS. We were scheduled to take off around 10:20; once again we were delayed, then sat in the plane on the runway for quite a while. I slept well for parts of the night, and watched movies on my in-seat TV. We had some crazy turbulence in the night; turns out we were on the edge of a cyclone. After about 14 hours in the air, we landed in a very rainy Sydney at 8:20 in the morning on February 4th.
Then began the wait. The wait for our luggage. (The wait that ended up lasting THREE days.) About half of the people from our group of about 22 had their luggage, so we told them t ogo and tell our bus driver what was happening.
It became pretty apparent our luggage wasn’t coming through as we watched the same six pieces go in a circle. So we went to fill out our lost baggage claim tickets. There was another flight coming in from LA so we decided to wait for it to see if our luggage was on it. But...it wasn’t. We did however find two other girls from Grand Valley who were going to ICMS as well. Out of the seven girls from Grand Valley, six of us lost all of our luggage! We must have a curse. After we deemed our luggage a lost cause we went out to find our bus—Which had left us! We got in contact with the university, which told us we would have to find our own way.
A nice airport shuttle said he’d take us. We’re hoping (but doubting) that the school will reimburse us. Our driver was great though, as we zipped along on the opposite side of the road, for 45 minute until we got to Manly, he told us fun facts and even gave us some watermelon that could potentially rival Doc’s!
We checked in at school, got our room numbers (I’m in 318 in the castle if you wanted to come visit!) and ate a much needed lunch. The school is beautiful, though everyone refers to it as “Harry Potter’s Castle.” The bedrooms are...quaint, maybe would be the nicest word I could use, though sparce and depressing are much more apt.
We took a bus into Manly to buy some essentials, since so many of us had absolutely nothing. We had to bum and share things as much as possible. Manly is a beautiful little town, lots of stores and interesting restaurants.
After returning to school and taking the world’ most amazing (and probably most needed) showers, we had dinner and listened to an acoustic guitar player. Bed time ended up being about 8:00.
Tuesday and Wednesday have been filled with Orientation activities. Last night we had our cocktail reception as our official welcome to school, and then all went down to Manly that night. Today I had some down time and walked down the hill to Manly and did a little more shopping. It was finally sunny today and it was wonderful. So many of the girls got really sunburnt. (No, not me). We had a traditional Aussie party, so for dinner we had all the normal barbeque foods: lamb, prawns, chicken skewers and more. It was fabulous. Then we watched some Aboriginals traditional dancing, and had a reptile specialist (read: crazy Steve Irwin wannabe) come in a do a presentation.
We were in the middle of watching the dancing when we got the glorious news that our luggage was there! It’s just such a relief to actually have my own belongings. Everything is damp like they left it sitting out in the rain, but as long as we have it, that is fine with me.
That’s about it; sorry it got so lengthy. Until next time...
Love, MJ
Fun facts: Aussies do not only drive on the opposite side of the road, they walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk. It’s not a pitcher of beer; it’s a jug. Contrary to popular belief, kangaroos are not hopping around everywhere. A magpie bird sounds like a cross between a dying child and a sick goat-and they start singing very early every morning.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Test
I've never made a blog before, but I was thinking that perhaps it would be easier than emailing everyone all the time. That way if you are bored, you can pop in and see what I've been up to, but if not, I won't be bombarding you with unwanted emails all the time.
The countdown is to four days until I leave. I'll be flying out of Grand Rapids on Feb. 2nd with my friend Perri, and I'm getting very excited! I'll be studying at the International College of Management for 13 weeks, then traveling with three of my friends to New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii. I'll be arriving back in Grand Rapids on May 21st. Whew...that's a long time!
I'll update this periodically with all of my adventures. If you want to write to me personally, feel free to either leave a comment on here or write me at makaym@student.gvsu.edu, which I will be checking frequently.
Thanks for reading and I'll be writing again once I'm down under!
The countdown is to four days until I leave. I'll be flying out of Grand Rapids on Feb. 2nd with my friend Perri, and I'm getting very excited! I'll be studying at the International College of Management for 13 weeks, then traveling with three of my friends to New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii. I'll be arriving back in Grand Rapids on May 21st. Whew...that's a long time!
I'll update this periodically with all of my adventures. If you want to write to me personally, feel free to either leave a comment on here or write me at makaym@student.gvsu.edu, which I will be checking frequently.
Thanks for reading and I'll be writing again once I'm down under!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
