Fieldtrips and wine tasting

Crooked River Winery

Wow - I didn't realize how long it's been since my last post. Everyone says time flies when you abroad but it didn't hit me until this weekend. It's funny to hear about everyone returning to school back in the US when we've been in class for a month now and mid-session exams are coming up. It's also crazy to think that we have 4 weeks until spring break and then only another 4 weeks until the session's over. It also made me realize how little I've done in exploring Australia. But for what I have learnt/seen I will tell you about now...

One classy crew if you ask me!

It's strange the differences in schools here is; at first it seems so similar to back home, but as times go on subtle differences arise. It makes me realize how much I take advantage of back in the US. One such difference is with clubs. There are 20,000 students here, there are 33,000 at CU. That's a big difference, but UOW is still a big school. I assumed that there would be heaps of clubs - interest clubs, clubs for different majors, sports clubs, language clubs, etc., but we found out that there are really that many. I was hoping to join lots of different types of clubs to meet more Aussies, but after the club fair it looks like I'm going to have to change my strategies a bit. One reason could be that a lot of people commute to Uni. Because of that they are only at Uni two or three days a week so it would make it hard to be dedicated to a club.

I did find one club that was interesting and I joined. It's called PINC - professional industry networking club. It's a networking club for all majors, but for women only. I figured it would be interesting to see the professional side of things from a different perspective. I met a lot of Aussies there, but there were also a lot of international students too. They are putting on careers workshops, resume workshops and having professional women come talk about their industry and working in it. I'm excited to get to know more people and learn about the professional Australia.

Running across the Gerringong highway...

One really exciting thing that happened last week was the Census. I thought it was really cool that all us international kids are going to be recorded as living in Australia the day the Census was taken. Some of the questions they asked though were very strange. There was a lot of questions on if you take care of someone that cannot take care of themselves, or if someone was taking care of you. There were questions about how often you clean your house and if you got paid for doing it. The religion question was the one that I was really surprised at - they had a list of about nine religions, including Buddhism and Scientology, but they didn't have Judaism. So it was maybe the strangest, but most exciting Census I've ever filled out.

Fun fact - about 50% of koalas carry chlamydia.

Ok, so I don't like ice cream. Everyone thinks it's weird but it tastes like milk to me. But we have Magnum ice creams at our Caf and everyone was getting them because they have this deal right now that 1 in 6 is a winner for a free Magnum. Everyone was getting them and were saying how delicious they were so I figured I needed to get one. I still don't like ice cream but the chocolate is so delicious that covers the ice cream, especially the almond ones. I've probably gotten about 10...but I just won my 3rd one today! Bad news is that they started carrying them in the US...

Chicken by Crooked River

It's great having a roommate from Australia because she tells us things that we might not necessarily pick up. She told us that Australians are very lazy - not the picture that I had in my head before coming over here. A lot of the laziness can be seen in the language. Everything is abbreviated to end in an O or I/Y. I thought it was just how they talked but they honestly shorten EVERYTHING! For example, Salvation Army is Salvos (it's even how they write it on the sign), Nick turns into Nicko, "yeah, alright" (or something along those lines) is "righto". I'm going to start making a list and I'll make a whole list of Aussie lingo.







The nightlife here is another very different scene than back in the US. We went on a "pub crawl" on Friday, except that it wasn't a pub crawl at all - it was more like club hopping. It's strange because the drinking age is 18 here, so there are buses (called Party Buses) that come and pick you up from Campus to bring you downtown to the clubs. Drinks are so expensive that it's not really worth getting drinks there, they're also much smaller than back in the US. So people drink in on Campus. If you were caught drinking in the dorms it was not a slap on the wrist, here as long as you have less than 9 people in the room and aren't playing drinking games you can drink as much as you like, be as loud as you like and it's no problem.

But anyway, onto the good stuff, but still keeping the drinking theme. Last Friday we went on a spur of the moment adventure to a winery. Spur of the moment adventures are by far the best and we had so much fun.

[Sorry about that gap - my computer crashed and lost the rest of the blog and then things got hectic!]

My roommate told me I had 5 minutes to change before leaving for the bus...I was on the phone with the Spaceship people (sneak peak for Spring Break plans!) and didn't really know what was going on. But a group of us got together, jumped on the bus and headed to I-House where our friend Mel lives and where the North Gong train station is. Mel said she heard of a winery in Gerringong and we all just went along for the ride. 

Walking along the highway in Gerringong

We took the first train to Kiama, where we switched to a single track line to Gerringong. We got off at a tiny little train station and there seemed to be nothing around us. Thankfully, there was a lady waiting for a train so we asked her for directions to the winery (we didn't even know what it was called). Turns out we had to walk along the side of the road, with no sidewalk and then along a highway, again with no sidewalk. I'm pretty sure walking along a highway is one of the things they tell you NOT to do when study abroad. We all made it safely, even after running across the highway - don't worry, it was only a 2-lane highway! 

My new favorite tree

The vineyard was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Kent with the rolling hills and the sun shining down on a little town on the other side of the hill. That's where I first saw my tree; a beautiful big tree with no leaves, only red flowers. I have no idea what it's called and I don't know if it doesn't have leaves because it's winter or if that's just the way it is. I think it could be a 'flame tree' but I'm not sure. We took some pictures for a while before heading up the steep road to the main house for our wine tasting session.

When we first walked into the Crooked River Winery there was no one in site and it was completely quiet. However, a lady shortly walked out and seemed a little surprised to see so many of us; there were 9 of us. But she happily introduced herself and started us off with the wines. I've never been very much of a wine taster and thought they pretty much all tasted the same or at least very similar. 

Crooked River Wines

First, we started off with a rose. It was what I thought most wines tasted like, but then we really got into it. We learnt how and why you swirl your glass – on the table with your fingers on the base of the glass. This mixes it while keeping it cool. If you put your hand on the part of the glass where the wine is, it heats it up. The lady then gave us each some white wine which she explained when would be appropriate to drink and with what kind of food to have it with. From there we went up, trying sweet white wines which you can pair with pork (and that was delicious) to some more subtle whites which you can drink with anything. They were delicious and I could really taste the differences with every different wine. After trying about 4 whites, we moved on to the reds. I learnt that I’m not a big fan of red wine, they’re a lot stronger and have a more bitter taste that I wasn’t that fond of. But they were still pretty good.

Deliciousness in a bottle!

She saved the best till last though; port. I’ve never had port before so I had no idea what to expect, but wow, it was delicious! The first we had was a sweet port which was just delicious – a little stronger than I was expecting though (18% alcohol!)! She explained that it’s really good if you put it in the freezer so it gets icy and then you mix it with lemonade! I never wished I’d had a freezer so badly before! Finally, we got to the last one; chocolate port. This was made for Baba and I wish I could have got some to send back, but I’ll just have to try and describe it even though it won’t even start to bring it justice. I wasn’t too sure of it at first when I was looking at it in the glass. I thought it might be kind of thick not really taste like chocolate, but with the first taste my tastebuds exploded. It was thin and cool, and the taste of chocolate was immediate. Delicious, creamy milk chocolate with a little hint of alcohol. Yum! The best part about it was that the taste of chocolate stayed in your mouth for a while after. What you’re supposed to do with it is make a ‘port float’ and put a scoop of ice cream in your glass. I think I would prefer a glass just by itself; it didn’t need anything else.

Can you tell we're tourists?

We took a picture outside and said goodbye, promising we would back again and begun our walk back to the train station. We braved the highway making it back safely, even stopping to take an extremely touristy picture in front of the Gerringong sign. By this time though it was quite late and after drinking a fair amount of wine and port we needed some food, so we stopped in Kiama where we had to change trains. It was a nice little town and little did I know, but I would be right back there the next day. We had a nice Italian meal and headed home. That’s my definition of a successful day.

Kiama

I’m taking a class called ‘rural and urban social geography’. I honestly have no idea what we’re actually supposed to be learning in this class because we seem to be learning all about the Australian dairy farming industry. We got an early start and headed to a dairy farm where we learnt all about the effects of the 2000 milk deregulation in Australia and the impact it had on the farmers. We then headed to an old coop building in the Jamberoo Valley to listen to some ‘tree changers’ people that had moved from the city to a more rural area of Australia to pursue farming and a change of lifestyle. There are also ‘sea changers’ who move out to the cities along the coast. There is a theme to this class but it seems to be all over the place, because we then went into Kiama to survey the shops. I still have no idea how that tied into anything. After some lunch in town, we went back to see another dairy farmer where I learnt that milk is one of the only food products that doesn’t have any preservatives in it. The main point I took from the whole fieldtrip though was if you’re in Australia BUY BRANDED MILK!! Woolies and Coles are buying their own processors and it’s hurting local dairy farmers.

For our second fieldtrip we talked to some people who grew fruits and vegetables, one family sold their food commercially in their own store, and the other family use it as their primary source of food. Farmers markets are so prevalent in the US that it’s weird to think they’re not as popular throughout the rest of the world. It’s another thing that I realize I take for granted back home. After talking to those families we went into Wollondilly in the Picton area to have lunch and take another survey of the shops. Since it’s a small town we had some extra time on our hands so we went to play a little game of touch footie (NRL rules). It’s easy to listen to and understand the rules, but when it comes to actually playing it’s a lot harder to remember everything! Such as not throwing the ball forward, it’s such instinct that it’s hard to get out of the habit. It was a lot of fun though and definitely something I want to do ahead. It also made the fieldtrip as a whole heaps more fun.

Dragons vs. Roosters

The next day we went to another Dragons game. This time was even more fun though because we’ve gotten to know one of the guys that plays for them. The more we go and watch, the more it makes sense and the more fun the games are. Next step is going to a Union game (another sneak peak for Spring Break…kind of). They have completely different rules though, so we might have to take a crash course to understand everything that’s going on!!

Some things I’ve learnt this week…Tim Tams are sold in the US! They’re sold as ‘Arnotts Originals’ at Target and World Market! I can’t believe nobody told me this before!! But I’ve had to take myself off the Tim Tam bandwagon because it got a little out of control. There’s just something about then that’s addicting and once you open the pack, there’s no stopping you until they’re all gone! On a completely different note, going back to the lazy Aussie lingo, they call Americas ‘sepos’. ‘Sepo’ is short for septic tank because Americans are all full of poop. I think it’s kind of funny, some people take offence to it though. 

Beach weather in winter.

Fairy Meadow  Beach

Even though it's the middle of winter here right now, we've had some amazing weather. It's been beautiful, sunny and warm for the past week. It's been so nice that everyday after Uni we've been going to the beach and laying out in the beautiful Australian sun. For me, the water is a bit too cold, but there are always heaps of people swimming and if you're there at the right time of day when the surf is good, there are surfers too. I never really thought of myself as a beach person, and I have absolutely no problem living in Boulder where the closest thing we have to the beach is the Res, but sitting or laying out there on your towel with a book is so relaxing and it makes it so easy to hang out at the beach for hours. It does get warm enough that going in the water up to your shins is perfect and wonderfully refreshing. I finally signed up for surf camp yesterday, so come September (when surf camp is) I'll be joining the surfers at Fairy Meadow beach, hopefully.

Dragons vs. Rabbitohs

Last Sunday we went to a St. George's Illawarra Dragons rugby league game. As we were waiting for the game to start they were playing music which isn't different than anywhere else, but they kept playing "The Saints are Coming". And once the game finally started the crowd was cheering for the "saints". I was really confused because we were watching the Illawarra Dragons so why would they be cheering for the "saints". Turns out that their sponsor, St. George Bank, is a huge part of the Dragons. Go figure. Anyway, I didn't really know what was going on, but eventually the game became easier to understand. It was so much fun; the sun was shining, we were sitting in a great spot on the "standing hill" and it was a really exciting game.

WIN Stadium

WIN Stadium (where the Dragons play) is pretty small so you have a really great view pretty much wherever you sit, but we were right in the middle. Even though the game was great and the Dragons were up at half time, the South Sydney Rabbitohs got the lead and won the game. No worries though, the Dragons are really good and already made it to the NRL cup. The rest of the weekend was filled with beach activities; frisbee, reading and just relaxing.

On one of the cooler days at Fairy Meadow Beach

Tutes (tutorials) started this week, and it's weird to see so many new faces. Turns out people really don't go to lectures, but roll is taken in tutes and you have to attend to pass the class. Lectures are not mandatory and often times students can't even go because of overlapping timetables. People often alternate which lecture they go to if they can make it, miss an hour to go to their tute, or simply get the notes online if they can't make it at all. Since this is a regular occurrence in class, professors often record their lectures and put it online. Group projects and the case study method are uses here so it's similar to CU in that regard. But we'll find out soon how similar the formatting and content specifications are soon.

View from the top of Mt. Keira

This past Saturday I finally made it up Mt. Keira. We had a nice big group of 10 of us and we all went for a nice bushwalk. I didn't realize that bushwalking is the exact same thing as hiking. It seems so much more adventurous and exotic, but it's the same as good ol' hiking. I was expecting the bushwalk to be really similar to hiking Chautuaqua - I was pretty wrong. At first there's a lot of man made wooden steps that make it easier to climb, but oh my gosh - they seemed never ending. It was a great butt workout but they seemed to go up the whole mountain. Finally we got to a bench where we had to make a decision.

Another view from the top

Take the long easy route or take the more direct, more challenging and more adventurous route. Obviously, we took the adventurous route. It started becoming more and more interesting with wildlife all around us. It felt like we could have been in the jungle anywhere in the world; we could just have easily been in an Amazonian rainforest. At one point we needed to use our hands to pull ourselves up over rocks with little streams of running water cascading down to tiny waterfalls (really tiny waterfalls - more like water trickling down rock). It was hard work but definitely worth it. The view at the top was breathtaking. We could see all of Wollongong and the ocean that stretches forever. It was so big I couldn't even capture a fraction of it on my camera (turns out I had the wrong lens with the big zoom - next time I'll get some more impressive pictures). Once you get to the very top there's a lookout area. There are two ways of getting to the peak of Mt. Keira; the fun, exciting way (the bushwalk) and the other way (driving up a nice paved road). So when you get to the peak there are lots of people, cars and a nice restaurant. But because it's a nice area to come in the evenings there's a big metal fence keeping the jungle away from the lookout point.

Wedding locks

There are lots of gold padlocks on the fence which is look really cool. They're for people that come up to Mt. Keira to get married (or have just gotten married), they attach the lock and throw away the key, never to be found; a symbol of their lasting marriage. It's a really cool little ritual and makes looking out to Wollongong really interesting. While we were up at the peak we took a lot of goofy touristy pictures before heading down. We went straight down the way we came up...in 26 minutes. It was a great tricep workout.

Lookout at the top of Mt. Keira

This past week hasn't been very exciting - partially because the weather was so nice that we were at the beach a lot, because tutes started but also because we're starting to plan trips. I'm going to surf camp the second weekend in September and I am so excited!!! For spring break we're going to New Zealand and then for study break we're trying to organize Thailand. In between we also want to discover Australia so we're trying to figure out when and where we can go. I never realized how hard it is to sit down and plan trips. Everyone has different schedules, places they want to go and things they want to do that it's hard to make a plan that satisfies everyone. But sitting down and trying to figure everything out made us realize how much we really do need to start getting our butts into gear to plan the vacations. Also the fact that we all get so excited doesn't help us get plans made.

Model of the Five Islands

Everyday on the bus we pass a fruit market and because all we can get at the caf is apples and oranges, it was so hard to go past this fruit market everyday and not go. But we finally went and it was amazing! Fruit is so cheap and looks so bright and fresh and juicy! Being fruit deprived for almost 3 weeks now has not been easy but it was hard to not go crazy and buy heaps of fruit and veggies because we don't have a fridge. But I did get some delicious apples, oranges, kiwis and carrots. I'm still looking for peaches and nectarines, but no luck so far. All the fruit is from Australia and New Zealand. Another fruit I'll be craving when I get back to the US is bananas. Because of a cyclone that hit wherever the bananas are grown, bananas are $15/kilo. They don't import most fruit and vegetables because of their strict contamination laws, so that means no bananas for us!

Being tourists!

More that I've learnt about Australia is that they have very strict adoption laws. Surrogacy is illegal, so people often go to the US for a while to use surrogate mothers because to adopt a child in Australia usually takes about 10 years before you can get a child. I guess because adoption is so common in the US, but it was weird to think that adoption laws are so different here. The more I'm here and the more I learn about Australia the more I can see the differences between Australia and the US. As I learn more, I will tell you more. But for now that's it!

First day of school.

It's weird to think that I'm in Australia to study. There's so much to do and see that today felt out of the ordinary. Classes are extremely different to ones back in the US. We only have lecture once a week, for 2 hours and a tutorial (like CU's recitations) or practical/lab. I only had one class today and it may just have been this class in particular, but there are 51 kids registered for the class, but less than 20 showed up. Apparently this is the norm, which I could understand because the professor had a 98 slide presentation that we went through and all he talked about was straight from the slides. Attendance is taking in tutorials so everyone has to show up for them and that's where we do the majority of the work (from my understanding).

One thing I still can't get over is how it's always cold - wherever you are. Everyone says it's colder than you expect, so I was prepared to wear jackets and jeans outside. What I didn't expect was that there wasn't any heating, anywhere. My hands are constantly cold and I can't sleep without thick socks, a jumper and my face completely under the covers (my nose gets really cold). So Wendy and I went on a hunt for a heater/fan combo we'd heard about. Turns out there aren't any in all of Wollongong (or so it seems). We spent about 2 hours looking for heaters and we figured we'd get dinner while we were out too. Around 4.45pm-5pm ish we couldn't find heaters and figured we'd take a break and go get some food because there are food places all over the mall. We were getting really confused when every food place was taking away the food and cleaning - it was only 5pm. Turns out the mall closes at 5.30pm - major culture shock. By this time we were tired, hungry and worn out from searching for the heater so we decided to head home and look for a Macca's (McDonald's).

Everyone says that McDonald's is different in Australia so we thought that yes it wasn't very adventurous but we were going to have to try it at some point so why not now. It was very clean when we walked in and the menu is a little bit different. The food tasted a little different, mainly because it wasn't so greasy. So it wasn't a huge difference, but then we saw the McCafe part. It looked like a little bakery inside the restaurant. We weren't having a great afternoon so we decided to splurge and got a chocolate muffin. It was delicious, more like chocolate cake in the shape of a muffin, but so good. So we ended the day with a little discovery and will look for more heaters!

First day in Sydney

Yes, this is a giant UGG boot

I woke up so excited this morning - we were going to Sydney. Our campus (dorm) hosts lots of events for both the Aussie students and international students. One event was a tour of Sydney. Turns out it wasn't much of a tour at all. We all thought that we would be getting on a bus outside Campus East and head to Sydney to see the sights. In actuality, we walked over to the train station (about a 5 minute walk from campus) and bought our tickets. At least now we know how to get tickets to Sydney. It's about an hour car ride from Sydney to Wollongong, so I thought that's about how long the train would be - maybe even more like half an hour with all the stops, turns out it's more like 2 hours.

St. Andrew's Cathedral 

We got off at the City Hall train stop and walked up to the streets of Sydney.  By the time we all emerged from the underground train stop it was about 12.45pm. We were all starving so our 'tour guide' (one of the RAs) told us to go find lunch somewhere around the stop and meet back at 2pm. We stopped and ate kebabs and pizza (after discovering that Pizza Hut in Sydney is really expensive), and the friends I was with tried Turkish Delights - they weren't big fans. But we were in Sydney and we were about to be shown the sights. Or so we thought.

Ceiling inside the Queen Victoria Building

When everyone had gathered after lunch our guide told us that there were some things to see along the road we were on and if we just stay on it, it would bring us to the Harbour. So we all started walking together as a group towards the Harbour. We walked through the Queen Victoria building which was really beautiful. And then while we were stopped at a light when we got distracted by a parade, so we figured that we were in Sydney - so why not check it out. It was a parade to free Cyrus. There were a lot of older people and some people dressed in what I think is traditional dress. It was a pretty unexpected sight, but it was interesting. But we also lost the group we were with, so we decided to venture off on our own - we knew our end destination was the Harbour Bridge so we started to make our way through the outdoor mall.

Being tourists

When we got to the Harbour it was surreal. We were in Sydney. We walked along the Harbour and got to the perfect spot between the Bridge and the Opera House. So obviously we all pulled out our cameras and turned into complete tourists. None of us could believe that we were actually there - that close to the Opera House. We walked up to the building (thinking that it was just one building), but turns out its made up of different sections. In my mind it was one huge building with a grand entrance, but I guess you can never really know a place until you go there. The color also threw me off. It always looks so beautiful and glistening white, but up close it looks kind of dirty (it's made of copper). When you go up even closer you can see all the detailed tile - not at all what I was expecting. But we were at the Opera House, and it was still so surreal - so we had to touch it.

Opera House at night

We walked around for a while and then stopped in a some souvenir shops before getting dinner. We didn't want to leave until we saw the Opera House at night, so we just explored around the Harbour. After having a really fast dinner at an Italian restaurant we went back and saw how beautiful the Opera House looks all lit up - it was absolutely beautiful. But it was cold and we still had a 2 hour train ride home so we headed back.




Tomorrow is the first day of classes. It's so weird to think that I'm actually here for school when there's so many things I want to do and so many places I want to visit. The more I learn about what there is to do in Australia, the longer my list grows and now I just need to figure out how I'm going to be able to make time to visit all these places (good think I only have classes on Monday and Wednesday!).

List of places to go/Things to do

This is the preliminary list of things that I want to do here and places I would like to visit. If you have any ideas of suggests please feel free to comment as I would love to go everywhere and anywhere possible!

Sydney:
- opera house
- Darling Harbor Bridge (bridge climb)
- Toranga Zoo
- Bondi beach
- aquarium
- Center Point Tower tour
- Featherdale wildlife park
- Royal Botanic Gardens
- King's Cross
- Paddy's Market
- Symbio Zoo

Other:
- Blue Mountains
- Mt. Kiera
- Fraiser Islands
- Uluru/Ayers Rock
- Whitsunday Islands
- Jervis Bay
- Cairns
- Byron Bay
- Melbourne
- Brisbane
- Nan Tien Temple (Wollongong)

To do:
- pet a kangaroo
- hold a koala
- learn how to surf

My first week.

View from my room

I've been in Wollongong for a week now, but today was the first day I was able to take pictures. They took my big hiking pack with all my cameras at the airport and made it checked baggage. It was supposed to be my carry on, but the bag was really awkwardly shaped so I had to give it up. I thought that was fine - I'll see it in Sydney when I arrive. I thought wrong. I arrived in Sydney with my bag with clothes and essentials - but not the one with my camera. So I've been slacking with the pictures but I was finally able to take some today - I was a little snappy happy!

Wendy

I moved into my 3 room dorm-room where I met my roommate Wendy from California. Our other roommate is Kathryn who's from about 2 hours away from Wollongong (she just arrived today). I was lucky because Wendy came as part of an AustraLearn group and they had just gotten back from a week in Cairns where she met a lot of other people studying at the University of Wollongong (UOW), most of who live in Campus East with us. There are over 600 people living in Campus East, 200 of which are Americans. There are different sections of Campus East - Slums (where we live), Trenchtown, Hospital, the Yard, Alcatraz and the self-catered section. Each section is unique. The caf is in the main building where we have some limited food choices. They have a separate little section that you can get ice cream, tea, coffee and this really good pear and raspberry bread which they toast for you. There aren't any glasses so you have to bring you own Nalgene, and right now more often than not I get my food, sit down and realize I left my Nalgene in my room. Hopefully I'll start remembering it more as the session goes on.

Mt. Kiera

This past week has been O-Week here at UOW, so they had lots of activities for us. They were all really fun - we went out to nightclubs for Disney and Cowboy and Indian themed parties. I was Lilo from the movie Lilo and Stitch for the Disney party and obviously a cowgirl for the second party. The music is very different here as they listen to Dubstep everywhere. It was kind of hard to get used to the different type of music but we had fun none-the-less. We were supposed to go for a hike at Mt. Kiera, which is here in Wollongong, however it was raining and the hike was cancelled. We're going to Sydney tomorrow which I am so excited for! Hopefully the sun stays and tomorrow will be perfect!

We've had awful rains the past 4 days, so although we all really wanted to go and explore we were stuck in our rooms, but at least we got to know each other through movie nights and card games. When it first started raining we were up at Uni doing an orientation for all the international kids. We got pretty wet. And it's really cold - there doesn't seem to be any heated buildings so you really have to layer up. Uni is beautiful though, it's much smaller than I was expecting but it's still really confusing to get around. There are trees everywhere and so many interesting, beautiful and colorful birds - I wish I could record the sounds they make because they are just extraordinary!

Because the rain finally ceased today Wendy and I wanted to get out and be productive! Even though we have a meal plan here, we decided to check out Aldi's the grocery store right over the bridge from Campus East. Our mission was to find TimTams as I ate my entire package that I bought yesterday. As I write this, I'm already more than half way through my second package so I don't think I'll be buying more any time soon. Our second quest of the day was going to the beach. We went earlier in the beach and it was beautiful. The water was calm and the beach was huge. Today, however, it looked like a completely different place. It's been pretty windy so the waves were huge and there was hardly even a beach! We saw some people get unexpectedly wet from the tide coming in really far. We've been learning a lot about surf awareness and rips so we tried to look for rips but the water was just too rough. It was so calming and relaxing to just sit and watch the waves roll in. I saw real sea foam for the first time - I never realized it was like actual foam! Before we left we saw a rainbow over downtown Wollongong, it was so beautiful and made me so excited that I get to live here for the next six months!

Road to the beach

SEA FOAM!

This is my first post, so I have a lot to write and I'm still not sure how everything works. I will try to put pictures up and I will work on the format for the next entry. For those of you that will follow this thank you and I hope you enjoy reading! I know my thoughts can be very scattered, but it's because I'm so excited and I have so much to write about. Also please look at my pictures on Facebook as I will put them up constantly. I also have a check list of places to go and things to do, so please comment if you have any suggestions as I hope to get the most out of this adventure I'm about to embark on. I can't wait to explore Australia and meet the people that get to live here!

PS - we also have lots of really interesting plants here too. Because of all the rain, the landscape looks really beautiful right now.