still livin'

here i am again! im trying to stay on a once a week blog schedule so i dont fall behind! the past week was nothing really special just filled with classes and studying :( i guess they werent kidding when they said we ahve to do some school work here! im just going to talk about random things i find interesting/exciting/different here that i am still getting used to! first off the accents...i mean we all have heard australian accents and i know it was my goal to pick up on it while i was here but i think that goal is going to be a fail..i mean literally some of the slang and things they say here are just crazy! for starters they shorten most words for example relatives is "rellies" mosquitoes are "mossies" university is "uni" just crazy terms that i am not ever quite sure of. as well, the professors all seem to have their own dialect in that they say some terms and i just sit there in my chair thinking what in the world are they talking about?! the other day i was in sociology class and the lecturer was talking about some australian comedy and naming all these characters and how thier personalities show x,y, and z qualities and everyone was saying quotes from tv shows and whatnot and us americans in the front row were looking around thinking "it would be nice to know what they are talking about!" some of the terms they use are just outragous like i actually got into a debate today with a group of guys because they call it "maths" class instead of "math" class and we were debating about how it is a singluar class so you should not add the "s" and they disagreed and it was just funny to see how depending upon where you grow up you adapt to the culture and just do what others do! this story is somewhat important cuz i just completed my first real assignment (crazy i know!) and i turned it in and the first thing the teacher said was "you must be an american student" and at first i thought i was introuble or something but come to find out he just knew becuase of the way i spell certain words. for instance they dont use "z" here so they spell origanization like origanisation. well im my essay i of course used american spelling and i guess when he was grading it was just laughing at the changes. (i wasnt penalized or anything just a sidenote ha). it just really shows how each language is set in stone on each country--very hard to get used to but we are all trying hard! i am really trying to use their slang and say tomato sauce instead of ketchup or heaps instead of lots. just random words that have different meanings. enough about that rant tho!
i guess there has been a lot of flooding south of us here in cairns but there has not been anything really major. that said...i was walking to class today in the POURING rain and literally i kid you not there were puddles up to my midcalf. the rain here comes down so fast and hard the ground cannot absorb it fast enough and it just makes puddles! the cars/buses slip on the roads the rivers have intense currents and us walkers are stuck with walking through literally foot-foot and a half height puddles. always makes for a good enterance to class with dripping clothes and make up running down my face...at least im not the only one so it mkaeas me feel better!
my roommates and i invested in a toaster the other day and had quite a time setting it up...to inform you first we were warned upon moving in that if the smoke alarms go off the room has to pay $800 cuz i guess the fire department comes no matter what. well we were simply trying to make toast for a bedtime snack (because bread and peanut butter is all i can afford!) and all of a sudden the toaster started smoking. so we ran it into the bathroom shut the door and started fanning it out the window--now im sure you are asking yourself why didnt we just open the main door and bring it outside well we did not think of that at the minute and i as well had it as an afterthought! so while we are fanning out the smoke from the toaster the bread gets stuck and starts burning making the smell ten times worse and the whole situation that much more skeptical! fear not we managed to get it to stop smoking and the alarm did not go off so all is well...apparently here you are supposed too run the toaster 2-3 times alone with no food in it to like burn the plastic and get the things warmed up..well us americans didnt of course read the instructions to get this information so theres the story to prove it! just another way to make a good conversation starter!
i know i am skipping around randomly here but thats how my brain works...now i know the drinking age is 18 here but it is the funniest thing seeing an open bar and people drinking during mid-day. today my friend sarah and i were at the main lobby place just hanging out for a bit between classes and the place where you can buy food and coffee is as well a bar and low and behold you have people just sitting there with a pitcher of beer enjoying thier leisure book just shooting the breeze with people. it is so weird to see happening! i gave in and got my first coffee today (a small for $5.80!!!) but i had to do it. i was feeling deprived and had to have the taste in my mouth. but back to the point...having the availabilty to drink at any time of the day is one of the biggest changes academic wise--no need to worry i have not purchased any..during the school day at least!
on the topic of purchasing things and spending money if you ever want to go on a diet and fast for a length of time come here! i kid you not i have one meal a day and the rest of the day munch on dry cereal, carrots, and rarely i will have an apple or PB&J. the food is so expensive here! i cant even afford to but milk to add to my cereal so i just eat cocoa bombs straight out of the box...rough living. i guess i am making it sound worse that it actually is but for real i eat a HUGE dinner becuase i know the next time i will get an actual meal again is the next day at 6 pm..us americans favorite time of day is 6pm because that is when dinner is served!
last random thought for this blog...the "gym" on campus. now i kept hearing about the luxuries our gym had to offer and the awesome physical trainers that would help you with your work out and how accessibly it is and what not. well i found out last week where this "fine work out facility is"...the trailer i walk by every day. literally a trailer like in a trailer park, only smaller and smellier. i was walking back from class and heard music coming from the shack so i walked over to investiage and saw someone pumping the iron. now when i think of gym i think of treadmills free weights tons of machines tvs and all this room to do what ya gotta do. no. not here. one treadmill one lat pulldown machine and one rack of free weights. now of course the worker person saw me and was like "hi are you here to work out"...all i did was take one look around shake my head no and return back to my walk back. i have never been so shocked in my life! it is actually really funny looking back on it but talk about a way to false advertise something! it was insane! needless to say i have not been to the gym since i have been here and dont plan on it unless i need to seek shelter from one of my daunting walks back after class or feel the need to do a couple reps on the lat machine...
thats all for now! ill put a couple random pics up from the beach and other places i have been
hope all is well for you back home! i hear its getting nice (60s!) back there so thats exciting!
peace and blessings :)