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