Best. Day. Ever. Again.

As I'm nearing my near 1 month anniversary of being in Australia it is definitely bitter sweet. I feel as if I'm falling deeper in love with Australia everyday however little things are starting to remind me of home and all of the friends that I am missing and how close I am to having to make "big kid" decisions..yikes! This past week is definitely what I would describe as my ideal Aussie week due to the numerous activities and the ability to step it down a notch as school is starting to pick up.
 I can honestly say that I attended every single one of my classes this week.. except for one but oh well close enough. The way of teaching here is absolutely phenomenal and I think I've retained more in my first few weeks of lectures then I did all last year. The class sizes are smaller and they definitely make the material more applicable to everyday life so it really gets ingrained. The only difficult part of my bioenergetics class is the professors hybrid aussie/french accent that makes words like 'protein' come out 'praw-teen' and tropomyosin come out something that I can't even figure out the phonetics for. But ultimately it makes class way more interesting and keeps you engaged while he's using his stuffed snake he brought to class to demonstrate 'prawteen' folding. I also attended my Sport and Spirituality lecture and tutorial for the first time this week and was blown away. The lecture material itself was rather dry and boring but I had an epiphany in class when we discussed how "life is something that happens after you realize you're inevitably marked for death". It really just kind of all clicks and makes you realize that there's no chance in fighting it really, you're number is already up at some point so you might as well just give up on worrying about things that can't be changed and as cliche as it sounds, live life to the fullest. It's made me kind of put off the idea of nursing school in the fall as I would really like to take the year off and just get up and go. Thanks to a lot of help from Jena Sprau I've been looking into teaching english in South Korea for a year. It seems like the most amazing opportunity and when else will I be able to fully explore Asia? I still plan on applying for nursing schools as a back up plan and just to keep options open, but I plan on throwing a few applications towards Teach for America and also a non-profit group up in Appalachia that I did work with over spring break a few years ago. I figure I have the rest of my life to go to school and work full time, whats the rush? This is the only time when it's socially acceptable to just drop everything and leave. I plan on taking full advantage of it :)
  And this is where slight homesickness starts to kick in. One month in, only 3 more to go. It's so bizarre feeling as if the last thing I want to do is leave here but also I miss my friends back home. It also throws another blow to realize that I when I get back everything will be so different. Thursday night euchre nights and grilling out with Doug, Jesse, and Cole will now be a thing of the past as they all booked it up to Carbondale for school. Amanda and I will have own apartment in Urbana which I'm super pumped for, however it definitely won't be the same without Aly and Sarah and it's weird to think this is the last time Amanda and I will live together. I miss waking up to having random people crashing on our couch, the apartment being in complete shreds, and no one having a clue how our coffee table ended up in 2 pieces. One of the things I'm going to miss most is Summer Sports Fitness Camp with all my best friends. Working with your best friends makes all the difference I could not imagine a worse/better job. There's no way I would've made it through without Sarah  and the cases of beer we have to go through to make it through the summer sane and in one piece. Then there's Stevo. The highlight of everyday during the summer was working the 10 hour days (that feel like 27hrs) and coming home to have a beer on the balcony, throw on some Cage the Elephant, and just mellow out and spill our highlights from the day. This will also be different when I get back seeing as he now has a new roommate (traitor) and neither of us have balconies at our new place. One of my favorite summer memories include when a fire spontaneously combusted in the grill, and yes I realize that's what grills are for, but this a fire of mass proportions that set off the fire alarms in the whole building, also there was the night that we accidentally spilled a huge mug filled with red wine all over his down comforter while watching a movie in the apartment "theater room" aka Aly's old room. I have never seen anyone jump up so fast and the stain actually came out thanks to an immediate washing. Epic Fail. I also miss my mom something fierce. It's great to hear from her about all the updates on moving everyone into the house is going but I wish I could be there to help. I also missed my (hardly) little sister's first day of high school which was tough but I'm sure she won't be suspended or expelled by the time I get back and we can re-enact the moment.
  Enough of the sappy stuff, back to the positive! These past two weeks have been so hectic but so amazing as usual! Last Friday we took off early to go to John Forrest National Park for the day and the mission of the whole trip was the 1) See a wild kangaroo and 2) grill some sausages on the barbie. We had read somewhere that there was an $11 admission fee and all of us are a little on the broke side as can be expected. So our genius idea was to have the bus driver drop us off a little down the road and just walk into the forest there as opposed to through the entrance where we might be slapped with an admission fee and a bag search. So we proceeded to get a little lost but ultimately it was the best. day. ever. We started by following a few tails then ended up being adventurous and just doing extremely "bush walking". On our travels we found an abandoned car, in the middle of the bush, surrounded by lots of trees and shit. We have no idea how it got there, but it looked like it'd been there for awhile so, naturally, we smashed the windshield and popped the trunk to look for dead bodies.. no such luck, still a great find though!

Train ride in, everyone clearly super pumped

awesome random car in the middle of the nowhere

Maria trying to figure out how to pop the trunk  so we can check for dead bodies

We eventually found our way back to the main road through the park and followed it until we found some awesome rocks to go climb on. About 3 hours in we were starting to get a little disappointed that we hadnt seen any kangaroos or eaten anything seeing as there were no grills just chillin in the middle of the bush. Our friend John was also extremely disappointed that the national park not only had spiders, but wasn't just some big open grassy field to play football in.. he didnt quite grasp the concept of going bush-walking, in an Australian national park.. but we all had a great time regardless. After walking around for about 5 hours we finally found our way back towards the entrance of the park and it was then that magic struck and we found the "recreation area" that had picnic tables, grills, and lots of wide open space for activities. We were quite amused to find out that if we would have just gone through the entrance like normal people, there is only a fee per car (which we didnt have) and that the rec area was literally about 200m past the entrance. They have these great free gas grills to use in parks just so people don't bring their own or burn down the whole forrest so we made sausages (they dont have hot dogs here) and were astounded to see our first wild roo, and then agitated when the guys that made a stop at the tav said there were like 6 roos just hanging around up there. So we ate then headed up to the tav (yes a bar at a national park, amazing concept) and it was there that we saw a whole group of kangaroos just hanging out and being incredibly cute.. definitely going to bring one of those back with me!

not the greatest group effort on the picture, but the park was absolutely gorgeous

Chef Anders on the grill

All the wild roos just hanging out at the tav

 But we stayed at the tav til it was almost time to catch our bus, by this point it was pitch dark out and if we missed our bus it would be another hour before the next one back. Our bus was supposed to pick us up literally on the side of a highway that had no street lights whatsoever, at least 30 mins outside of town, and there's only a small little post marking the spot. When walking up we thought we saw our bus driving by which resulted in a full out sprint to try and catch it, only to realize it wasn't our bus afterall. So then it just turned into a waiting game which turned into one big hypothetical situation of who would get murdered first, I was voted the first to go being the only blonde chick...so great to know. After finally catching the bus, it was about a 30 min ride to the train station where we had to catch a 30-40min train which ended up being one of the most entertaining parts of the whole night. The Aborigine population here is rarely seen in town from my understanding and according to everyone else, when they are in town they are most likely drunk. They have quite the reputation for being violent drunks so we were all quite interested when a clearly drunk Aborigine man, whose name we found out after a guessing game is Nathan, stumbled onto the train as we're all on the verge of exhaustion. He kept us entertained the whole way home as he found out all of the girl's names, asked us where we're all from, licked his lips as he looked at my legs, asked about whether Lindsey and I played sports as he was staring right at our chests, and then proceeded to pull a gram out of his coat pocket to offer to Anders who happens to have dreads to see if he wants it seeing as it looks as if he smokes quite the reefer. It was definitely entertaining and I had tears in my eyes most of the way home from laughing so hard.

Cottlesloe Beach 

Tav along the beach aka my dream home

  The  next day was Will's 21st birthday which meant absolutely nothing to him because in England the drinking age is like 12 and here in Australia its 18 so to him it was just another birthday but we made sure to make it a big deal. The guys were all supposed to get surfing lessons in the morning but ended up missing those by getting lost and looking everywhere but the beach for the people that were supposed to be giving them the lessons. So we just ended up making it one big beach day which was amazing. The waves at Cottesloe are gigantic! It's still technically winter here until about the end of November but we all got in the water, which was freezing I might add, and had the time of our lives. The water is super super salty so as soon as we got out you just feel the salt dried to your body. But who else gets to say they went swimming in the ocean in the middle of winter? We ended up staying there for the whole afternoon and we met up with a bunch of other international students that were there and they tried to teach us a little bit of English football and Australian football. After that me and a girl from Canada tried teaching them all how to play American football, once again.. epic fail. We were able to play a few games of it but they quickly got confused and bored and we resorted to soccer. We also found the local tav and had a pint of pear cider which was absolutely delicious and quite possibly one of my new favorites.

Will with his birthday cake :)

   After spending the day at the beach we went back to the Leeds boys' house (the three guys from Leeds Uni  in the UK) to continue with the festivities. We had made Will a birthday cake earlier and got him a cheesy Australian flag that all of us had so 'sincerely' signed. We made some more sausages and some pasta (pronounced 'pah-sta') which got used to make pah-sta toasties the next morning for breakfast. (pah-sta toastie: grilled cheese only with pasta in the middle.. not as good as it might sound). The guys' house is your typical male dwelling. All the furniture in the place was found along the side of the road. It's actually quite impressive really, they have 2 leather couches, a few shitty but nice chairs, beds, mattresses, dressers, a microwave, glasses, pots and pans. In exchange for letting all of us crash at their place all the time we're supposed to help with the cleaning which is a task no one is really daring enough to do but it makes for some really great memories. We ended up finally making it out the bars Saturday night with that being the first time all of us actually made it into a bar together. They're really really strict at the bars here. If you look like you've had too much you get instantly denied, you have to have close toed nice shoes on, if they don't think you're dressed up enough you get the boot which sucks for me since I usually just wear jeans and chucks everywhere. They usually just pull that card with the guys though as you can imagine. A lot of places, especially in the North Bridge area of Perth take your picture upon entering that way if you get in a fight later they can not only permanently ban you but the cops know your name and all your details. They also have iris scanners and fingerprint scanners here just to keep tabs on everyone. If you go the bar and they think you've had too much they'll just give you water and say nothing more. Saturday night we all somehow got in but Tom managed to get asked to leave when he was just standing around doing nothing, fortunately he walked out and to the end of the line and came right back in again.. bizarre. But overall it was a great night. The guys live quite a ways from the city so we had to take a taxi to and from and it costs about $30/car each way. The taxis here are super strict on only 4 people to a car, there's none of the campus awesomeness of fitting like 9 people in a  car so it's only $2/person.

Shmanda and I 

After a long day at the beach and bars on the roadside mattresses

   Also, everything here closes super super early which includes public transit. There are next to no buses or trains running on the weekends, especially at night which blows my mind. Businesses and shops also close super early and most aren't open at all on Sundays. It makes it really eerie at night walking home because literally nothings open and they don't believe in street lights here. Fortunately Perth feels deserted about 90% of the time so I'm getting used to it. Another weird thing here is the lack of a dollar menu at Mcdonalds! Outrageous... and they call McDonalds "Maccas' (mack-ahs) here so if anyone ever wants to go for a Macca's run.. it's going to be at least $4 for anything.
 This past week we ventured out to the movies finally and we saw Planet of the Apes.. super good! On Tuesdays they have $9 movies which is cheap here for them. They were talking on the news the other night how it now costs about $65 for a family of 4 to go to the movies here, yikes! We decided last minute on Tuesday to go while all of us were at uni and the movie didn't start until 8:30pm so we had some extra time on our hands. Josef, Maria and I were at the tav waiting to go until we remembered that it closes at 6 so we all drank a pitcher and went to Maria's forensic night class.. super interesting actually I think I'm going to start going to her classes with her every week! Then we took a train into the city and stocked up on sweets such as TimTams and gummy bears and went to Maccas. TimTams are the most amazing cookies ever and super popular here, we pretty much bring them everywhere now and usually don't show up at the beach without them. But the movie theater we went to here which is right in the middle of downtown Perth was soo small. It was about 8 seats across and only about 13 rows but it was a really cool experience. Way better than the huge stadium size theaters in the US.
  Next up on the To Do List for the day is to go into Uni to start planning our spring break while we're here. Initially we were thinking Bali but I think we're going to opt for a huge road trip up the West Coast heading north. The distance we're planning on travelling over the course of 10 days is the equivalant of driving from Chicago to LA so it should be quite the experience. We're planning on stopping at Monkey Mia and Karijini and a few other places on the way to stop and camp. Along the way up the coast there's places to stop and see the reefs, dolphins, humpback whales, whale sharks, and so many other cool attractions! Right now we're looking at about a group of 7 going so we're thinking either a minivan or 2 small cars and just going for it. Unfortunately for the rest of mankind I have to drive for quite a bit of it seeing as I'm 21 and have a license. Apparently in England it's not a big deal not to have one so people's lives may be at stake during my driving shifts, this whole drive on the other side of the road and the car thing is tricky! But we've also been warned several times to do absolutely no driving whatsoever around dusk because that's when all the roos are active and will really mess up your car. We thought people were joking with us at first but after talking to Ed and Cathering (the host parents :)) last night they pretty much assured me that especially where we'll be driving through that we really should do absolutely no driving at dusk or even at dusk for that matter so we'll see how that goes!
  Also tonight, we all got tickets to see the final AFL game of the season so I'm super pumped! AFL is absolutely like no other game I've seen and although I've been trying to watch bits and pieces to get ready for tonight I still have generally no clue whats going on but it should be fun! It's a mix of American football and soccer, rugby and a few other things I can't quite put my finger on. But it should be a great time and I'm super pumped! Also coming up is Lindsey's birthday so all of us girls are going to take surfing lessons which hopefully don't end tragically.
  But hopefully I can write again sooner next time so it's not another novel, but here you go mom! Feast your eyes! Love you so much and miss you!!

 PS- please send tomato soup.. don't know how much longer I can last!

When International Drinking Forces Unite

 
 So as week three of officially living down under wraps up I have yet again come to some notice some very important points: 1) Uni (college) here is amazing. 2) Inventive drinking games will exist in any culture and 3) if any stranger asks, I am now from Canada.
  First things first, of course the only reason I'm here... school! ha! I really did try to make a valiant effort to attend most of my classes the first week of school but let's be honest, everyone knows that the first week of school, regardless of culture, is syllabus week in which attendance is optional at best. For the classes I did attend, I was pleasantly surprised not to see a single T.A. and I don't have a class larger than 100! I also have a lab that has a whopping 7 kids in it.. the only time you would see that at the U of I is if the T.A.s go on strike and/or Unofficial. I was slightly discouraged to see that despite the fact that I'm taking mainly health science classes while I'm here, everyone and their mom dresses up to come to school. Girls and guys alike. I look even more like a bum than usual.. so depressing. But oh well, I guess I won't take it personally that the guys here probably spend more time on their wardrobe than I do.. it just makes them that much cuter ;) I was initially pretty scared of my courseload while I'm here but it turns out that I have a rocking schedule (4 day weekends!), my professor for Bioenergetics is absolutely amazing, the class that will fill my 400 level Kines requirement at home is IDENTICAL to a class I just took at the U of I last semester so I already know all the material and the prof rocks, my Anthro Psych class is actually pretty interesting, and I'll let ya know about my other class.. I may or may not have accidentally missed it.. 2 weeks in a row.. oh well, I'm trying to play the international card as long as possible :)
  Now for the real reason I'm here, the people! These past few weeks have definitely been a great mix of friends and family. I have made some amazing friends from all over the place, with a dominant force coming from the UK. A lot of us are commuters to school however and chose to do random housing options all over the place so generally when we go out its safe to assume that we won't be making it home and that we honestly don't know where we're staying. This leads to a lot of floor sleeping and a lot of walk-of-shaming it home in the same clothes from the night before but ultimately some great great memories, however blurry they might be :) The drinking games that result from a room full of international students compiling all the rules is absolutely phenomenal. Last night was the Geeks and Freaks pub crawl which was absolutely amazing. After Maria, Jos, Will, John, and I went exploring the local Salvo (Salvation Army) we went all out which made for some interesting looks when we all arrived separately by bus and train to meet at the pub. I also had the opportunity to go to a tupperware party the night before with my amazing host mum, Catherine, and have an organic soaps and hygienics party tomorrow morning fully equipped with tea and scones. I think it's fair to say I have accrued a nice balance of uni friends as well as the 40+ crowd :)

                                         

                                               -Me and Lindsey rocking our geek gear

                                               - Aaron and Hazel helping to make scones :)
 Now, last but not least. For all travel intensive purposes, I am Canadian. I rely on the bus and train practically everyday for travel so that makes for quite the commute and quite the increased incident rate to talk to people. Generally I LOVE talking to random people and gaining lots of tid bits of info and really just love the company. However, it never fails, as soon as someone starts talking to me they instantly want to know when I'm from. Naturally, I say Chicago because who the hell knows where Champaign is? The next 5-10 minutes are almost guaranteed to be filled with the first question of "how do you like it here so far" followed by something along the lines of "so you guys are pretty fucked up over there, eh?". One guy I met on the bus carried on for about 5 minutes telling me how ignorant Americans are, it's our fault we're so broke and thought we were strong enough to go through 2 wars within a 10 year period, we're ruthless for denying people chemo due to lack of health insurance, and our work force is treated like shit based on our low minimum wage and lack of holidays. After this five minute period of tearing down my homeland, he proceeded to ask me out to dinner sometime.. naturally I wrote down a random 10 digit number and flipped him the bird while exiting the bus. Unfortunately, convos such as these happen on a quite frequently. As soon as my accent gives away that I'm American, a comment regarding Bush's idiocracy, our extreme debt, or a question asking what I think about Obama is soon to follow. I don't like talking about Obama in the states, and I def don't like talking about him here. For some reason, people assume that I was the one that decided to drive the nation into debt and I single handedly elected Obama and advised him to go against all his empty promises. I have found that the best way to prevent situations such as these is to wear head phones at all times (unless a cute Aussie wanders my way) or to simply ask them how they feel about the Carbon Tax that's about to imposed here. My next game plan is to claim Canadian heritage and hope for the best. It is most certainly not the case that everyone here is like that. For the most part everyone here has been so welcoming, so utterly amazing words can't describe. But of course, every now and then you get stuck to someone on the bus that wants to inform you how they'll never fly domestically in the US due to a documentary they saw here about how all US pilots make $12,000 so surely can't be trusted with our safety.
 But that's my rant of the day.. So far the time here has been absolutely amazing and I can't to see whats in store :)

PS- Mom I miss you! Please send soup...

One Week Down.. Not Nearly Enough to Go

So as today marks the anniversary of it being exactly one week since my arrival I have concluded three very important things: 1) I was born in the wrong country 2) I'm not coming home and 3) I do not like Vegemite.

 It's honestly amazing to me that I have only been here a week because I already feel so at home and like I have learned so much! I would attribute my sense of feeling at home to my amazing host family that has made this huge transition seem practically seamless. They have made me feel as if I am another family member and have helped me so much words can't even describe. I feel as if I have already experienced so much and can't even fathom all that is to come in the next few months! But enough with all this "feelings" business.. time to touch on a few things that I've learned in my short time here and some similarities and differences I've noticed and a little bit about my wonderful host family.

   The Living Options: I could not have picked a better living arrangement if I tried. When I first started planning to study abroad I felt extremely torn on what I should do as far as living goes. There were several options to choose from with all of them having their own pros and cons. One option that is the most popular would be to stay in their dorms, or colleges as they call them. This option offers living right on campus with other students as well as all of your meals. This option is a great way to meet people however a major con would be the price and the fact that you're thrown back to freshman year all over again.. these socializing hot spots cost a whopping $330-$390/wk on top of the $200 application fee and $95 airport pickup service.. yes thats right, pricing here goes by week!! Great option but waaay out of my budget.  The next would be off campus student housing, this option allows you to live with other international students fairly close to campus with the distance ranging from right next to campus or 20 minutes away. This is also another great way to meet people and the price is a little bit more affordable with it ranging from $180-$240/wk which doesn't include utilities, meals or linens plus the fee for placement and airport pickup. The school could also place you in a homestay with families that have registered with them and been cleared for about the same price and all the same fees.The option that I took was to take my chances and use the good ol' internet and find my own thing. I really wanted to try and find the cheapest thing I could and focus all of my money towards travelling as I'm not sure of the next time I'll ever be on this side of the world again. I was homeless literally up until the week before I left but I really hit the jackpot and found an amazing family for $180/wk which includes my dinner, utilities, linens, laundry, basically everything that I could ask for.

My Home Away From Home: One of my big selling points on choosing a homestay option as opposed to living on campus was my wanting to really get the Australian experience and I figured the best way to do that was to live with an Australian family. However, neither Catherine or Ed is Australian and neither is their family but I would have it no other way, I just like to look at it as a 3 for 1 deal. Not only am I getting to know all about the Australian culture, but I am living with a "mum" that is originally from New Zealand and grew up in England and a dad that is originally from England but grew up in New Zealand. A mug with the queen sits above the sink, pictures from their tea party that they had to celebrate the royal wedding are hanging on the fridge, the kids Aaron,2, and Hazel, 4, dress up as the prince and princess and take their royal strolls through the house. Ed and Catherine are able to fill me in on everything related to the Australian way of life, as well as the Kiwi (New Zealander) and the English way of life as well.

                                             The Princess and Prince.. and their royal exit :)

 Every morning I wake up around 7ish (my sleep schedule is still off but getting better) to hearing the kids playing and running around and I could not imagine a better start to the day. I have switched from coffee in the morning to tea and usually just grab a piece of toast. I hit the jackpot food wise as Catherine buys all organic foods and everything is super healthy. There is no shower door in the bathroom and it's amazing, I'll have to take pictures later to explain.The toilet is also in a separate room from the bathroom which from what I've seen is quite popular. It also took me awhile to realize that to flush the toilet the button is conveniently on top of the toilet. They have what they call the typical Aussie house. The master bedroom is at the front of the house followed by a corridor that leads to the living room area and the other bedrooms. People really don't have dryers here since the weather is amazing and so everything is put out on the clothes line to dry which is my absolutely most favorite thing. Life is so simple here and its utterly beautiful. I also lucked out and have a regional park right down the street which makes for an amazing path to go running around that wraps around the lake and is full of amazing plants and birds. I am also in love with the form of parenting here. From what I've seen it's very much a "let your child loose in the backyard" type deal instead of the structured detailed planned out day that I see a lot in America. It's amazing to see the difference at a park here versus a park at home. For instance, one child had been going down the slide face first for quite awhile and finally managed to face plant and completely wipe out, instead of the "mum" running over to instantly check the kid out and file a report with the city about the danger of the slide, she calmly told the kid to move out of the way of the other kids trying to go down the slide and move on. After reading an article from the New York Times about our playgrounds being too safe due to incessant complaints from parents, I've been hyperaware I feel like to those kids with overbearing parents. After dealing with parent complaints all summer while being the assistant director at the U of I's youth sports fitness camp, it's amazingly refreshing to see parents that understand that yes, your child will fall down or hear a bad word but no, it is most certainly NOT the end of the world. Sorry, thats my one rant for the day, but moving on!
  The Differences: One of the biggest differences that I am having trouble with would be the whole driving on the other side of the road ordeal. One of Hazel's favorite stories to tell people is how I tried to drive home from the airport. My flight had come in earlier than planned and I didn't have a phone coming here so I was already nervous about whether or not I would be able to find Catherine or not but fortunately she was there waiting by the baggage claim with Hazel who was holding a sign with my name on it that she had made herself.. quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. But once we got out to Catherine's car and I had my bags in the trunk, I walked around to get in the car and sat down in the driver seat completely forgetting that they drive on the other side of the car as well as drive on the other side of the road. I'm pretty sure I look like I'm having a seizure everytime I cross the road because I constantly forget which way traffic is going to be coming from so I'm constantly looking left and right. The whole driving on the opposite side of the street also applies to walking on the street, up and down stairs, and bike lanes. Instead of walking on the right side of the sidewalk, you have to walk to the left of the sidewalk otherwise you are completely going against the grain and might as well stamp American on your forehead. I almost died my second night here when I was out running around the regional park. I was running to the right of the sidewalk around a curvy part and a bicyclist coming from the opposite direction almost took me out as I was technically on his side of the sidewalk.
  Another difference would be the language and use of words. Living with my family I'm sometimes completely lost in conversations as I have no idea what they're talking about even though they're speaking plain english. I have also made a lot of friends from the UK so I'm picking up all these great terms left and right and get quite a kick out of hearing new terms. I was completely dumbfounded the first time Aaron asked me if I could help him "put on his nappy for none-eyes". Diapers are calling "nappies" and "none-eyes" means a nap or just sleeping in general. If someone wants to meet at "half six to go get some chips" they actually want to meet at 6:30 to go get fries... potato chips are called "crisps".. if it's cold you grab a "jumper" (sweatshirt), you throw your "rubbish" away, people will throw 'but' on the end of the sentence and thats literally the end of the sentence, no need to wait for the thought to finish..you put your "knickers" on before your trousers.. meeting at a certain spot for "pre-lush" aka pre-gaming.. just lots of little stuff that I get quite a kick out of.
  The Food:  The tomato soup is NOT the same! I knew when I was packing that I should not have listened to my mother and should have just gone ahead and used up my valuable suitcase space for the eight cans of  miracle substance that I had stocked up on in anticipation for this trip. If anyone is reading this, please please please send soup! Other than that, the food here is amazing! After being on my own as far as cooking goes for the past three years, having something other than beer and/or oatmeal or soup is absolutely phenomenal. Usually Ed gets home fairly late so Catherine and I will eat around 7ish after the kids have been put to bed and usually eat in the living room with a glass of wine and just chat and watch TV. The markets and shops are full of meat pies and quiches however there are McDonalds (aka Mackies), Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and your normal American food but it all just tastes so different. The food is also quite expensive, if you have a hankering for a banana you better be prepared to pay the $15 for the bunch. The banana farmers took a huge hit with all the flooding and Australia won't import bananas in order to stay loyal to their own farmers so the prices have been jacked way up.
  The Prices: I have never been so glad not to smoke in my life. If you ever wanna quit, come here and the $20 a pack will surely help. Covergirl foundation is a solid twenty bucks and hair spray is around ten or fifteen. Needless to say I'll be looking pretty rough after my makeup from home runs out. Before coming here I was warned about the cost of living being absurdly high and so I tried to pack all my necessities in preparation so that I wouldn't have to shell out once I got here. One thing that I was surprised about was how affordable it was to travel. After never going away on a spring break trip my whole college career with the exception of a mission trip to Appalachia, I think I have earned myself the trip to Bali for their spring break here with a bunch of my new friends.. can't wait for that one :) I also need to figure out how to send all my luggage home ahead of time so I can just backpack across Australia for my last weeks here.. if anyone is reading this and has suggestions please let me know :) One of my least favorite price differences is the amount of money it would cost to support my drinking habits from home. I can't tell you how much I miss the cases of beer Stevo and I would split for the week, I'm fairly certain I would give my first born in order to not pay the minimum $7 it costs to get a drink in a bar. If you go to a bar here you won't be slapped with cover, but you'll be beaten down by the $10 it costs for a shot of whiskey with coke or better yet, the $12 it costs for one can of Smirnoff Ice (it comes in a can.. weird right?)
 and last but not least...
  The People: I am completely blown away by all the people that I have met since I've been here. Just from taking the bus to and from the train station I have met sooo many interesting people that said they could tell just by the looks of me that I wasn't from around here and gave infinite words of wisdom. I now know which parts of town to stay away from, which bars to go to, which markets have the best prices, what to do if I see a snake or a spider (everything is deadly here apparently so the answer is to run away) and countless other random facts that have made for great conversation. I have also made so many new friends just from the international exchange bunch that I've been going to orientation and registration with for the past week. I've met people from literally everywhere in the world and all of them have been nothing shy of amazing. I've learned about all the great bars that I need to go to all around the world and picked up so many new drinking games that I can't wait to make everyone from home try out.

  My first week has been absolutely amazing and filled with trips to the zoo, checking out the bar scene naturally, locating all the coffee shops on campus, exploring the shops in Perth with a couple of guys that doubled as our own personal tour guides, runs through the regional park, playing with Hazel and Aaron, and making lots of friends and memories. I can't wait to see what the first week of classes brings and what these next months have in store. As amazing as this place is, I've been feeling the pressure to figure out what exactly I'm supposed to do with my life after this next semester assuming I graduate on time. The option I'm currently leaning towards is to extend my stay here and take up an au pair job that I've been looking into and let the rest fall into place, but time will tell :) Well I think I've basically written a short novel so this should feed your curiosity for awhile mom and I expect gobs of tomato soup to be delivered within the upcoming week. Much love!

3 Beers and a Can of Tomato Soup Later...

When asked about my choice to study abroad and why the hell I would purposely try and incorporate this much stress and uncertainty into my senior year of college, there is really only one night that comes to mind and can fully explain my reasoning. While I have had the most amazing college career of my life, I can attribute most of my best times to my amazing roommates that I have been fortunate to have for the past few years. We have had the most amazing experiences and I would never trade them for the world! However, occasionally they do go home for the weekend leaving me to fend for myself in the empty apartment. To say that I had had a rough sophomore year of college with all the changes in my personal life, family structure, and the uncertainty of my future would be a severe understatement and first semester junior year was one that I dedicated to putting my life  back together essentially. I have always wanted to go a non-profit route with my career and have always dreamed of doing the PeaceCorp or Doctor's Without Borders, however, I have never had the luxury of being able to afford travelling or doing mission trips. Fortunately, all that changed first semester of my junior year when my winner of a dad who had effectively been holding out on child support for the better part of ten years was finally caught up to and I started to receive what I referred to as "karma in a small sum" twice a month. I went from being completely financially independent which meant living on what I made working at O'Charleys on the weekends and tearing down weddings until 2am, a strict diet of beer and tomato soup, and the regular sob-fest the week before rent was due... to having an extra $200 a month to use at my discretion. I immediately took that money and ran straight to the first mission trip I found and one that changed my life. I was able to spend the most amazing weeks of my life in the Dominican Republic with the most amazing people ever and was able to see how possible it actually was to get out of Champaign Country.

 As soon as I returned home and back to my beer and tomato soup diet, I was greeted by a drastic change in my financial aid and grants from the state due to some "family restructuring" and was also informed that I had received one of the scholarships that I had applied for. I took that to be one big sign saying "Jenna get the hell out of here".. and I'm not one to turn down fate. After reviewing my bank statements over a few Blue Moons and some tomato soup, I immediately made an appointment with the study abroad office and was signed up the first week returning to school :) I was also fortunate enough to have my best friend Amanda invest in my endeavor and decide to tag along with making this officially the best trip ever. It took months of planning and preparing but a Visa and a plane ticket later here we are and ready for the best adventure to date :)

 I can honestly say that when I started preparing for this trip my intentions for the most part were to go far far away and never look back and leave Champaign County behind for good but after having the most amazing summer of my life I can say that I was actually surprisingly upset to leave. Words cannot express the complete 180 my life took after it was only Amanda and I in the apartment and with no stress from school. Although my summer was comprised of 70-80 hour work weeks up until the day I left, I cannot remember ever feeling tired or worn down due to the constant high I received from spending time with my best friends all summer. Stevo and Sarah might as well have been honorary roomies with how much time we all spent together and of course we were blessed with the frequent visits of Miss Aleah who is our chef extraordinaire and alllwways welcome to visit, as well as a much needed visit from Aly who I still can't believe I will never be able to live with again :( Every single day of summer was just the most amazing experience ever with it being only Amanda and I in the apartment (with the exception any one of our friends crashing on our couch or in the guest rooms any given night). It was a summer full of Amanda and I breaking out into MJ and T-Swift dance parties in our living room at all hours of the day and night, 8th Grade night at Joes with all my Rantoul friends, euchre nights, much needed beers on the balcony with Stevo after an 11 hour day of calling parents and answering random questions from kids, spending said 11 hour days with my best fran Sarah without whom those days would have been certain death, skinny dipping at the most amazing couple's wedding, going to the courthouse to witness my mother marry the man of her dreams and one of the greatest guys I've ever known, and even unexpectedly meeting an amazing guy a few weeks before I leave for four months (of course). So while I'm ecstatic to be long gone, I can honestly say that I miss my friends and family that I'm leaving behind but also look forward to spending these next four months with my new family and friends here :)