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

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

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???