First week of classes

Here, I am eating Kangaroo! 20 australian dollars at the bar, "Little Creatures".. I just had to try it!

It tasted like bad steak basically, and I would never order it again..

Here is the Kangaroo close up.....

The photo of the boats is the view from Little Creatures if you eat outside...

The black and white photo is if you eat inside (Little Creatures is about 3 blocks from where we live)

The pool table is inside the p&o in the commons room

Well, I made it through my first week of classes in Australia... which was totally different from what I thought it would be like! I have three classes that are at 8:30 in the morning, which is rough..but then I am free for basically the whole day.

MONDAYS- Film class

This class is held in a studio, where each student gets their own Mac computer (the biggest ones that Mac makes!) During the course we will be learning how to write scripts, shoot film and edit our videos as well. We each had to go around and introduce ourselves to the class. I was near the end, and right when I began speaking, the entire class looks over at me like I am an alien! It was the weirdest feeling ever to be the only American in a class! They all said they love my "accent" which is hard to understand when theirs is SO cool! After we introduced ourselves, we had to pair up in groups of two and learn how to use a camera and a tripod. We each had to pick a character and interview each other using the camera. At the end of class, we played back our footage and talked about the art of interviewing. I LOVE this class! It is three hours long and is only on Mondays, so we will see how next week goes!

TUESDAYS- Print media

This class is held right below from the P&O, in the same building. Martha and I have every single class together except for one, so we walked there together and went into the classroom. Apparently we got there 30 seconds late and the professor said, "FIRST RULE OF JOURNALISM, NEVER BE LATE" and was totally serious. So we already started off on a bad note. And of course it had to be with my favorite subject! Again, we were the only Americans in the class and I feel like the professor has a grudge against them. He kept comparing Australian media to ours and just didn't have one good thing to say about us! This class will be extremely difficult, having weekly quizzes on Australia news and current events (which we have not a clue of what is going on here) articles due every week-where we have to go and interview people, find our own stories and write the articles.... I have taken many classes like this at home, but it was much easier because I was familiar with who I could contact at CSB/SJU and knew my way around...this will be quite an adventure when I have to write my first one! Basically in this class we learn how to be reporters and analyze Australian media. We will have to see how the second class goes and if he cracks a smile at least once....

Tuesday and Thursday Nights- Senior Seminar

We have senior seminar for two hours on both tuesday and thursday nights each week. This is a class that is required by CSB/SJU to graduate, and you usually take it your senior year unless you are studying abroad. Our instructors (Lynn and Charlie Moore) are basically our chaperones the entire time we are in Australia (other than when we travel at the end). They are retired profs from CSBSJU and are just the nicest couple! We can go to them if we have trouble with anything over here..and it is just very nice to have them around. This class focuses on many different aspects of college, basically tying together everything you have learned. We have 5 novels that we will be reading as well. We also plan events and field trips that we will be taking as a group that CSB/SJU will be paying for.. (YES!) Here are some ideas that we are thinking about:

Surf camp

Biking trip in Rottnest Island

Tours around Fremantle

Haunted Prison Tour

Etc..

So this class is fun because we get to be with students just from CSB/SJU and talk about what we have been doing or have our questions answered if we have any..

THURSDAY- THEOLOGY

We had to go around and introduce ourselves in this class as well, and learned that most of the people in my class are priests, or studying to be theology teachers. YIKES! There are about 8 other international students in the class though, so that makes me feel a little better! My professor is a priest originally from India, which makes me think of Fr. Thad from back home! The class focuses on Faith and Culture.. we haven't gone into much of what we will be learning and I am a little nervous about the class.. I heard that it was graded on a curve, which definitely does not help me out if there are actually priests in the class!! I will see how this goes...

FRIDAYS- AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

This class is with all international students at 830 in the morning.. I really love this class so far! It is not all about history, but just Australia itself. My professor is an archaeologist and is so awesome! We take many field trips in the class.. but we already have a 3000 word paper due in two weeks... All of my classes require a LOT of work... I don't get how people said study abroad classes are a joke.. cause they definitely are not! They are hard!

We found out today the dates of the biggest field trip we will be taking for this class.. We will fly to Broome and then ride for 7 hours in a van to the OUTBACK! We will be living with an aboriginal tribe for a week, with no cell phones or way of contacting anyone. Apparently this is the BEST part of studying abroad in Australia... and everything we do there is a secret! No one from past groups will tell us what they did and we will have to find out on our own... The dates we will be gone are from September 24th- 30th. It will be strictly with students from St. Bens and St. Johns...  I am kind of bummed that it is over those dates because my boyfriend's (hi chris!) 21st birthday is on the 27th of September! It will be so weird to not be able to talk to him on his birthday or anyone else! But the experience will be amazing, and I absolutely can't wait!

Martha and I went grocery shopping again today, and got a little more daring.... we got steaks, rice and vegetables, salads.. etc :) I am also contemplating getting a job.. I was offered one at a bar to be a cocktail waitress/barback which would be SO nice to have the extra money... but I have to see if I have enough time with all of this schoolwork! Minimum wage is 15 dollars an hour, and I would be getting 20 dollars an hour at this bar.. which is hard to turn down!

Tomorrow we are waking up at 6 am..taking the train into Perth, catching a bus, riding it for three hours to the Western Australian Pinnacles.. Look them up on google! They are basically rock formations in the earth that look really cool... and we are going hiking around there then coming home!! The trip was about 70 dollars so I hope it is worth it! I will also have time on the bus to get some homework done...

Talk to you soon!

LOVE 

Abbie

City of Perth and Tree planting

Only SOME of the trees we planted!
Some new shades I have been sporting... :)

G'day!

I am finally getting a little more settled in here..the first week was so chaotic! I am used to the time change, where before I would be falling asleep at 6:00 at night and then be wide-awake at 4 in the morning. Classes start tomorrow! I am so excited to see what it is like.. I have Cinema studies at 8:30 in the morning.. we will be writing scripts and making movies! I have always wanted to take a class like so why not do it in Australia :) I am so happy that I have been able to talk to my parents, friends and christopher so much.. I thought it would be difficult but skype is working out great. Martha and I made our first dinner a couple nights ago... We made pasta and salad..the next time we made grilled cheese and soup.. that is pretty much as far as our cooking abilities go. I think a frozen pizza is in store for tonight. The boys in our group look like gourmet chefs compared to us!! They are cooking steaks and putting huge meals together..we usually "test" their food to make sure it is okay ;) Laundry is on the outside deck. It costs 3 dollars per wash and a dollar per dry (you have to dry it three times though!) 

Since I last posted here is what I have been up to!

Still in Orientation week, we were put into groups of 7 or 8 students (From all international schools) and had to do "The Amazing Race Around Perth" - like the t.v. show.

We were given a booklet of clues and had to race around the city of perth finding the answers, once completed we had to run through the finish line. Let me tell you it was NOT easy! Perth is about half an hour away on a train and is the second largest city in Australia! It took us a total of 8 hours to finish the entire race... we were ALL over the city..to every single point! For example, we had to find certain statues and take pictures by them, take a ferry boat to the Perth zoo, go to three music stores and find out how much a certain CD was at each...

So my group was doing great..no problems at all..we thought that we just FLEW through the race. Well, somehow we ended up in DEAD LAST! i guess we weren't as good as we thought! The first prize winners got digeridoo's ( really cool Australian instrument).. for last place we got a key chain ha! After the day-long race, we were SO TIRED. We did end up going out for a night on the town though!

Yesterday-

As part of Orientation week, we were involved in a volunteer project. All of the international students took a bus to a wilderness camp were we planted over 800 baby trees! We were dreading the day but it actually turned out to be really fun! Martha was my planting partner..we got the hang out it pretty quick! After spending the day at the park, we had a few drinks at the Orient with a couple of girls who are also studying abroad..they are from New York and have the best accents!.. we decided to go into Perth that night and find the clubs of the city. There are SO MANY fun clubs! it was fun to be with our whole group and have a night out.. We boarded the train at closing time (2 am) and came home!

Today-

I wish I liked to shop. There are HUNDREDS of little stores all over our town. Clothes are the only thing I cant stand spending money on.. hence my lack of wardrobe. Girls have already bought so many clothes! I might venture out of my box someday haha! 

Another thing I found today- GELATO. Probably the best thing I have ever tasted. It is going to get me in some trouble!! I have only had chocolate so far...but will have to try some other flavors soon. 

I will write again soon!

Love Abbie

The beginning

City of Perth
The streets of Perth
Right down the street from where I live..and a beautiful rainbow to top it off!
First grocery trip.. Notice the "Rice Bubbles"
Balcony outside of my room
This shows how high the ceilings are in my room!

French doors leading outside to the balcony

Martha, Micah and I @ the Orient..a bar right below from where we live

So much has been going on in the past four days, but I finally found a time to actually sit down and write what I have been doing! Hopefully when I start getting a normal routine and schedule I will write more often :) I also need to download all of my first pictures still but I will need another break from orientation..but then I will add them in!

WHERE DO I START?!

Plane to Sydney:

After San Francisco, it was time for the 15 hour flight to Sydney. We boarded the plane (double decker, which I have never seen before) and went back to aisle 63.. I swear these seats were more cramped than a regular plane and I got really nervous for the long flight! Martha had the window, Micah the aisle, and I graciously volunteered myself to have the middle seat. I watched a movie, had dinner and then nodded off ( We got a free eye mask, socks, blanket and pillow!) The next thing I knew, I woke up and we only had THREE hours left..it was a miracle really. The flight went by so fast!! After listening to my ipod and watching one more movie, we landed in Sydney! We had about two hours to catch our next flight. After making sure everyone in the group had all of their luggage, we went to check in with Virgin Blue for the next flight.

Plane to Perth:

I was the first person in line to check in because everyone got held up in security. Apparently Virgin Blue does not let you have two suitcases to check in.. only one..which we didn't even know, and would not have even been possible! "You owe $210" I literally just stared at the girl with my mouth open and was speechless.. There was no way I was blowing this much money on such a stupid thing! After about 5 minutes she goes, well, I will just let you go this time.. I TOTALLY lucked out.. because every single person in our group had to pay the fine! But I figure, somewhere in the next 5 months I wont be so lucky!

We got on the plane to Perth and we all decided it was the LONGEST plane ride of our life. It was 6 hours long but felt like an entire day... Martha and I had three seats to ourselves so we tried to make a bed out of it with my cheetah blanket. FINALLY we arrived in Perth!

Hostel "Backpacker's Inn": 

When we arrived in Perth it was pouring rain and quite funny trying to find our shuttle. The whole front of the bus was packed with our luggage and we rode in silence for 30 min to our hostel..all taking it in..We made it to the town of Fremantle and it is sooo pretty. I can't wait to show you pictures on here! We checked into our hostel (two rooms for 18 people) and met up with our instructors, Lynn and Charlie. They were so glad we had made it in one piece! They have a apartment just down the road from where we will be living and will have us over for dinner! They will also be teaching our CSBSJU senior seminar class. The hostel was very different from what I thought it would be! The showers felt AMAZING after the long flights, and we got ready to go explore our new town. We went to Bar Orient, which is right below the P & 0 Hotel where we live. (We couldn't move into that because we were there a day too soon). Since it was our first night in Australia, the bartenders gave us free beer (too bad I don't like it!) and we met some australians who lived in the town. Everyone was quite tired from traveling the past two days so we came home early and went to bed at 9!!! The time change was hard to adjust to! We are exactly 13 hours ahead of Minnesota.

Right away in the morning we moved our luggage down the street to the P& O hotel, where we will be living!!

P&0:

I have really been lucking out so far in this trip because I got the biggest room! Pretty much everyone has a roomate (even though we were told we would get singles) My roomate is Micah and Martha is right next to us. My room has a fireplace (that we can't use, but it looks pretty!) and french doors that open to a wrap around deck. It is SO awesome in the morning...we wake up, open the doors and hang out outside! It overlooks the town which is so cool. We have a bed, desk, closet (TINY) drawer, and a mirror in our room. It seems so empty but we really didnt have room to bring things to decorate with!! Right next to my desk I have a HUUUGE list of things I want to accomplish while I am here- things to do, places to visit etc. I can't wait to start checking them off! We unpacked our room, got our wireless internet working (after a looong day at IT services in the library) and explored the hotel. Downstairs there is a HUGE industrial kitchen where we each have fridge space, freezer space, and a locker to store food. There is a commons room with pool, a tv, computers and couches as well. After a long day of adjusting, we had our first community dinner. We will have one every Monday night with a meeting to follow. We are placed in groups of four students and we make dinner for the whole group! We had pasta the first night with ice cream for dessert! Besides St. Ben's and St. John's students, we have other students living in our halls as well. There are two boys from Australia that live across from me, and a couple girls from Tanzania as well. It is really fun getting to know them! We have two R.A's in our building- Tara and Anna. They are both very nice and easy to talk to.

Out and About:

The first couple of days we ate out quite a bit because we hadn't had time to go grocery shopping yet. Average lunch price would be around $11 australian dollars. Martha and I decided we can not do that everyday! They have a lot of similar foods, but many different things as well. One place down the street even has shark! I will try it soon but not yet! :) There are clothing stores ALL OVER our town. Everywhere you go there are cute little shops-the Australian style is SO cute. Even though I hate shopping..I could get in trouble here! I dont know.. we will see!! Martha and I went grocery shopping yesterday and it was really fun to see all of the different types of food that they have! We tried to be very healthy too but we will see how long that lasts :) Break, milk, juice, pasta, sauce, fruits, lettuce, salad dressing, and maybe some chocolate..that I already ate.. were on our list. We split the bill which was only about 70 australian dollars! We will see how our cooking skills work out this week :)

Today we went to the train station and bought a pass for 15 dollars. This is what we use to go into the city of Perth and to get around town.

Right now we are in Orientation week. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we are in all sorts of meetings and tours for our new school, the University of Notre Dame Australia. I can't wait for classes to start but it might be hard to concentrate!

I have class everyday except for Wednesdays.. here are my classes..

Cinema Studies

Media Analysis

Theology

Australian History

Senior Seminar

Each are around 3 hours each... I can't wait to see how they are different from American classes! I will start classes on Monday.

Other than the P&0, there are two other hotels where "international" students live (its so weird that I am an international student!) I have meet MANY students from Notre Dame in America and they are all so nice! We go out to the bars with them and are really starting to get to know them. 

Tomorrow we are going into the city of Perth to explore!! I feel like I am still missing so much I wanted to tell everyone but I just wrote a novel! :)

I will write ASAP and add pictures too!

Love,

Abbie

Hello from San Fran!

Leaving Minnesota, my family, my friends, my boyfriend was SO WEIRD and just surreal! Packing was not as overwhelming as I thought it would be..thanks to my mom! I said my goodbyes and got on a plane to San Francisco, with a layover in Denver. Both flights seemed super short because I just watched TV the entire time :) After getting off the plane we got a free shuttle to our hotel, The Embassy Suites. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the four of us carrying our luggage everywhere. Between the HUGE suitcases, carry-ons, purses and backpacks (AND a cheetah blanket from my mom) it was hysterical going from place to place. Once in our hotel room, we ordered pizza and called it a night! The next morning we woke up, free breakfast! and took a taxi into downtown San Francisco. We first went to fisherman's warf, walked around and took pictures. There were a lot of street performers and amazing views of the bay. We then decided to take a city tour (20 dollars for an hour) that tooks us all over the city. We had the funniest driver who made the experience even better. We saw ChinaTown, Lumbard street (the famous zig-zag street), Alcatraz, famous shops, and other fun places. After the tour we got something to eat, walked around more and then decided we wanted to go to the Golden Gate Bridge. We jumped in a taxi, and 20 dollars later we got there..to see NOTHING!! There was so much fog, that you literally couldn't see any part of the bridge :( We were very sad about that! I wish we had more than one day because I really wanted to get a tour of Alcatraz! It was also very spendy..We then headed back to our hotel and we are now waiting to catch a shuttle back to the airport to fly to SYDNEY! 18 of our classmates will meet us at the airport.

I will post pictures of San Fran soon! :)
Love,
Abbie

I leave in a WEEK!

Hello everyone!
I leave for Australia in one week.. I can't even believe it! I feel like I have so much to do before then! I made this blog so my friends and family can see what I am up to when I am Down Under and also to use it as a diary so I can look back on my adventures down the road. Here is my set schedule-
I am traveling there with 3 Bennies.. Martha, Micah and Simone
July 16th = leave Minnesota and fly to San Fransisco (Layover in Denver)
Spend one day in San Fransisco to see the sights because I have never been there! Staying at the Embassy Suites.
July 17th= Fly to Sydney, Australia..This flight is with about 15 Bennies and Johnnies. Once I get there it will be July 19th because of the time change and the loooong flight! Then I fly across Australia to the opposite coast and land in Perth. From here we all take a shuttle to the city of Fremantle! The first night we are not allowed in our dorms yet so 15 of us will be staying at a backpacker's hostel.
July 20th= Move into the P & O hotel where we will be living for four months! I have posted a picture above
After the four months of studying at the University of Notre Dame Australia, we will be traveling to New Zealand and other locations we have not yet decided on. My ticket back to the USA is on December 15th, so I will be gone for 5 months!
I hope to write often and thank you for visiting my blog! Can't wait to see what is up ahead!

LOVE, Abbie