Camping Trip

Thursday night my friends and I were finally able to have the camping trip we planned. Although the original group of Owen, Kaitlyn, and I changed, the plan to have a canoe trip with a side of camping, and the dates changed, it still happened. Something about a cyclone, a meeting, working at 5 am, and inability to get cheap canoes for the night. Kaitlyn, Liz, Nicole, and I enjoyed a brief camping trip a week after the original dates. Even our plans from that day changed. Since the desired campsite was full of school children we switched to a different camping area. We missed the turn (my fault) and finally just pulled over next to the desired creek and set up our tent.
As we were putting up the borrowed tent by the headlights of the car, three little ducks decided to join us. They spent all night with us and provided lots of entertainment before we let them back into the water in the morning. We ate our sandwiches and got a wonderful fire going. Although Liz (from California) and I had hoped to have smores, the lack of anything resembling graham crackers in Australia made that impossible. We settled for roasted marshmallows while the Kaitlyn and Nicole burnt their marshmallows to a crisp. Finally we stargazed, with the Johnny, Freddy, and George (our ducks), and turned in for the night. Since I had to leave for the conference before 8 in the morning we got up at or before 6:30 to pack up and leave. Although the trip was short it was very cheap and hopefully will be followed by a canoe trip.

Classes, Mail, etc.

This week has been a wonderful week mailwise. I got a package from my parents, a St. Patrick's card, a letter from my grandparents, an ipod, and lots of paperwork/information about my summer job. Stories follow most:
1. Package: Filled with 5 bottles of Sunscreen SPF 60 or 85+ this enables me to spend the time needed in the sun. In Australia the highest SPF is 30+ which isn't quite good enough. However, one small problem occurs with reapplying as I learned today. Scuba diving prevented me from applying for a few hours and now I have bright red lower arms. My body also is covered in more freckles than usual. Around the sunscreen though is wonderful easter candy... mostly American candy. I've shared the Reeses peanut butter eggs with friends since Australia doesn't mix chocolate and peanut butter. They love them. The only other thing I've opened are the sweettarts and shared most of the box with my hall. Everything else I'm rationing for the rest of the year. The poptarts should be a big hit as they are written about in the Twilight books (Twilight is still in the theatres here and many people are reading the books).
2. St. Patrick's Day card: Although short and sweet this card arrived just after a whole youth group focused around St. Patrick's day. We watched the Veggie Tale version of the story, talked about America and the freedoms/stupidities, and wore green. Afterwards games were held which enabled the guys to show their strength and stupidity. Very amusing. Noone here knows the story of St. Patricks day and not much is done to celebrate. I heard that the Irish Pub was very full that night though.
3. Letter: A few questions that others may be asking: Transportation especially to church- I am no longer walking to church. I either grab a ride with Vanessa, Kaitlyn, or Owen depending on my planning and which church I want to go to. Walking is pretty safe around the Uni although I wouldn't walk very far into town, especially not on the South Side (If you want to hear the story let me know and I may email it to you). Caring People/Co-ed Living-Everyone I've met seems very nice here. I've become great friends with many of the people in the hallway and often stop to talk to those with their doors open. Sometimes the other girls and I decide to take pictures of those sleeping with their doors open in the middle of the day, but we all get along well. I've adjusted very well to living with both genders which will be a shock when I return home and begin work at Girl Scout Camp. Overall, the hallway has had many fun times: this week included a hall dinner (formal), baseball/soccer/handball (up and down the hall before we learned no balls can be used inside), uno (in the hallway), and dress-up (with hats, motorcycle stuff, and ties). Movies are often part of the weekly plan.

4. I-pod: For anyone who did not know I misplaced my I-pod somewhere around LAX. Anyway I decided it was time to buy a new one so I could listen to it on my wanders around college. It's awesome, I just need a cover for it.
5. Summer Job- I will be working at the Seven Lakes Girl Scouts camps as a resident camp counselor this summer. My job starts the Saturday after I return home (on Wednesday) and goes until Aug 16 (the day before RA training should start). It should be an awesome time although a very busy summer.

Classes:
EPL1: This week we learn where we will be placed in the local schools. Many schools exist and from driving by they seem to include lots of smaller buildings. The class has also decided to break in half and change times, which probably means I won't be able to make the workshop once the placements begin. The bright side though is that everyone should have a seat :)
Science: My first assignment is due next week for this class and I'm working hard at finishing it. Classes often include a bit of a science investigation however much of the time is spent learning how to use the curriculum, essential learnings, syllabus, etc. to plan lessons. This won't translate very well into my work at home since I doubt New York is going to adopt Queensland curriculum before they change it (in the next few years) or ever. But I've made friends with some of the "mature" students in the class and Chris (from Boston who was the first person I met cause he arrived on the same plane I did) in the group.
Arts: This week Arts combined with Health and Physical Education to share information about lesson planning. Although everyone (except Dave from Chicago) is in both classes, it was a long day for me. The breaks between lesson planning and the separate lessons were spent at the International Exchange fair. I know can write the lesson plan needed for my Science class. Every week in art we explore a different media and make something to display in my room. I'm not much of an artist but the pieces are very amusing both to make (when I'm with my friends in the class) and analyze. Soon I will start a papel picado of Sydney Harbor Bridge as part of my Arts Journey.
Outdoor Pursuits: Today was spent in the pool learning all of the necessary components of scuba diving. The 6.5 hours resulted in complete exhaustion (cured by a 2 hour rest) and a bit of sunburn. I am now ready to get into the open water. However the class still has a bit of theory left to watch on video, a homework to go over, and a final to take. Thankfully there is no class this week so a few of my Christian friends (including Owen and Kaitlyn) are going canoeing and camping Thursday night instead. Maybe I'll use some of that time to work on my breathing...slow and deep...annoying. That's all for classes.

Upcoming events: Connexions is a retreat for Student Life this weekend at a national Park in Mt. Tamborine. Although I'm not sure who else is going it'll be nice to get away and connect with other Christians for a weekend. I'm looking forward to it. I suppose now I should go plan the rest of the year (classes, etc.) and remember that I need sleep. Either way brekky is at 8:30 and I'm sure I'll be woken up by a friend for it.
If you have any questions feel free to email them to me (gmail or Fredonia) or better yet facebook is checked much more often than the gmail account. :) I'll try to answer your questions.

Randomness... with Owen and Kaitlyn

I just returned from another night of randomness with Owen and Kaitlyn. These happen remarkably often and typically include a trip to some restaurant, like Maccas (Mc Donalds which is open 24 hours a day on the South Side of Rocky). A bit about them: Kaitlyn is a Red Frog so we met at one of the College parties the first week. Red Frogs attend many of the parties, offering a place to talk, freezer pops, and donuts as well as red frog gummies. Their goal is to provide support for those who aren't drinking and are connected with local churches. Although I met her there I had not talked to her until I saw her at church. Owen: He lives three doors down and I met him shortly after he moved in. He joined some of our hallway parties which are held very close to his doorway but I really began to know him after one night's experience. I was wandering the halls about one on a Saturday night not feeling like going to bed when he knocked on the kitchen door to be let in. The front doors close at 10 and although everyone on College's key's open the doors to all buildings, he never carries his. Since he wasn't ready for bed and neither was I, we started talking and I found out he had gone to COP youth group and was planning to go to church in the morning. I asked to go along, before I realized he had a motorcycle, and enjoyed it. We met Kaitlyn there, hung out afterwards and started our random nights. Often they consist of movies (at the College or the cinemas), Maccas, and random other things. Thursday nights have become our night to hang out although Saturdays after youth group and Sundays after evening church also are hang out times. An example of a night: the most recent in my memory...tonight.
Tonight, after church at COP, finished everyone (about 25 youth/Uni students) headed to Nandos. Kaitlyn was nice enough to pick me up since I slept through church. I was very tired from 6.5 hours of scuba diving in the pool and having to use either a regulator or snorkel at all times. Every night about 10:30 and on the weekends the gates to the college lock forcing people to drive through the Uni. Although that sounds like an easy trip it's a bit out of the way and includes 7 speed bumps. However, it's possible to get picked up at the gate which includes walking through a small gulley with a few logs and high grass. Usually it's no problem, however the flashlight on my phone wouldn't turn on so I went through in the dark. My flip-flop fell off leading into a few minute search for it. Finally I arrived at the gate and then at Nandos. Dinner was a chicken wrap and lots of talking. We left at close to decide what the three of us where going to do since everyone else had wandered off. Owen gave me a ride back to College on his motorcycle while Kaitlyn met us there. Usually I wear the black helmet but tonight I got the red one... one slight problem. There is a visor on the red one which catches wind very easily so as we were driving along I felt my helmet rotate up. By the end I learned how to ride with it but I think next time I'm going to steal the black one again :) We arrived back and considered our next plans. Since I had never been to Mount Archer, a mountain about 10 min away from Uni overlooking Rockhampton, we agreed to go up there. The mountain is very beautiful and has a great view of the city. It's very windy so after a while it was time to get steamers.

Owen had never had one and Kaitlyn had only tried mine from a few days ago. Here steamers aren't common things so although the McCafes can make them, I have to explain how to. The price also changes based on who is working. Tonight they counted as teas at A$3.10 each but last time it was A$2.50 and the first time it was only 60 cents. Either way they are very tasty and get weird looks from the cashiers. We each ordered a different flavor but of course we had to try them all. Near the end of our exchange to try to tell which flavor we liked best and if we could tell the difference, the workers were starting to look at us a bit funny. Needless to say, we did switch about 10 times each before picking a flavor to drink. In the end, Owen ended up finishing all of the drinks though on the way back to College. Since Kaitlyn was tired and needed to wake up before driving home we looked at the stars. They were much brighter than last night which was the first time I had seen the Southern Cross. Unfortunately, the Southern Cross and sometimes Orion's belt are the only constellations they know and the Dippers aren't visible. I decided it would be fun to play the haha game. We played it at Student Life (the Christian group at Uni) but one small piece was missing. It's important to play the game whenever you are close to tired, often done at sleepovers. We were tonight so we arranged ourselves on the ground as best as we could with our heads on each others stomachs. The game is much easier with 4 people or more cause a triangle is hard to form with bodies and leaves arms awkwardly in the middle. Either way, we played a few rounds of the game which is very enjoyable to wake Kaitlyn up. Then it was off to bed for her, study for Owen, and blogging for me. That's the end of another night for the three of us. Next on the roster: camping and canoeing on Thursday with a few additional people added. Well I'm off to shower and make sure I don't have any tics on me (apparently Owen had one from the grass somewhere). More to come soon.

Girl Guiding

I've finally been formally introduced to Girl Guiding Australia. Although I'm pretty sure this was supposed to happen before I contacted them, no one told me until the local Girl Guide Head did. Due to class conflicts I can only work with the Guide group. Guides are age 10-13 and are about Junior age. Once they start secondary they move into Ranger Guides. This week 12 of the 15 girls were there while next week I believe five Brownie scouts move up. The North Rockhampton region has about 65 scouts which is many more than the South Rockhampton region.
Before the Meeting:
After contacting Girl Guides, I received an email from the assistant leader. We met for lunch the day before the meeting at the Uni where she is one of the travel agents. (Yes we have travel agents on campus, and a hair dresser, and a bank.) She introduced me to some of the ideas of Girl Guiding. They have a very girl led troop which is the ideal for all scouts. Right now they are preparing for a weekend camp in May so the meetings are focused around cooking and other needed skills. I was also alerted that each leader has a traditional tribe name that the girls call them. I'm going to see if I can get one so I won't have to think up a camp name once I return to the States and begin working as a resident camp counselor in Seven Lakes.
The Meeting:
All meetings occur in a hut on a small piece of Girl Guide Property. The hut includes space for storage and meetings, while two sheds, a flag pole, and a fire pit are outside. The meeting started with a horseshoe flag ceremony but the flags were missing so it was very abbreviated. (You can't salute a flag that's not there). Afterward the girls began the meeting with the challenge to introduce themselves to me throughout the night and tell me their favorite part of guides. The focus of the meeting was cooking on the fire. The four patrols paired up and made either tacos or wraps based on their previous decision. After gathering firewood, trying to light the fire, and appointing patrol leaders the fire was finally lit. The leaders let the girls do the vast majority of the work with guidance as needed. This is why the fire took over an hour to light and the meeting ran long. As the girls get better at building fires, it will become faster. In the end the food was good and a horseshoe closing was done. The wrap-up included information about a canoeing day this coming weekend for the guides to get their level three certification. This allows them to be on the water with an instructor in sight but not necessarily on the water. Other upcoming events are the centennial which is a 48 hour celebration which is poorly designed and happening in September and a fundraising event for the council. Throughout the two hour meeting one girl approached me to introduce herself while another few introduced themselves at the dinner table.
Upcoming:
As a leader the canoeing and kayaking trip is a two day training event. It'll be filled with theory and then a trip down a creek at the end. I'm looking forward to it and the camp as well. I still need to get my blue card to be allowed to work with children and check the insurance of everything but hopefully it will all work out. In May, the traveling store should be coming so I hope to get a uniform to take back home and wear for the remainder of the time. The girls all have sashes that they place their rectangular or diamond shaped badges on but everyone wears a polo shirt in yellow, green, and purple (I think). Overall many similarities exist as with most of Australian life but the differences are what makes life interesting and a great learning experience.

First Week of Uni

This week I started Uni classes. Each week I have about 8.5 hours of scheduled classes. Here classes come in four varieties: lectures, tutorials (tutes), workshops, and labs. Since I decided not to take Chemistry here I only have tutorials and a workshop. Each class is worth 4 credits (USA system) but not many will count toward my needed classes. I'm primarily a first year education student here but they all have the same schedule just with classes switched based on group A or B. I'm group B and so are three of my friends.

My Schedule:
Monday: Nothing scheduled although I have a scuba diving physical and probably some open water dives during the first few weeks. Starting week 7 I will have practical experience in a local school district. Many Mondays are also public holidays which I think is why not too many classes are scheduled then. However, this week students in EPL 1 received emails saying that there was class in the morning so a few of us showed up. Then we learned it was only the Bundaberg campus and had the rest of the day free. (Thomas was stranded on campus so he watched a movie in my room after getting the video player to work.)
Tuesday: Embedded Professional Learning 1- This Workshop teaches all of the first year education students how to be professional and the field experiences are for this class. The first years aren't actually registered for this class until next semester because it's a full year class. Since I'm only in Australia for one term I am condensing the field experiences. That means I have 28 full days in a classroom starting week 7. Although the rest of the students will go on Wednesdays I have class until week 11 so I will be at the schools Mondays and Tuesdays and finals week. Thankfully the professor is really flexible and willing to work with me. I arrived to this class with my three friends (Rhiannon, Sarah, and Thomas) who thankfully learned of the change of venue in their earlier class. We arrived to the pool room classroom on time but late enough that there were no more seats. I got to sit indian style in the very front and center. A bit awkward to be a foot from the professor (who had grass on his sock all of class) but next time we'll try to get a seat. Thankfully the 1 hour workshop isn't compulsory so attendance should go down.
Wednesday: Science Curriculum and Pedagogy- This is a second year education class so I don't know anyone in it. However the classroom was very nice and the topic is interesting. It meets 2.5 hours a week for 10 weeks. Lots of reading for this class and I ended up buying some units following the Queensland curriculum.
Thursday: The Arts- Another first year class so the four of us arrived to a similar situation. This time there just weren't four seats in a group so we ended up sharing desks during the lecture portion of the tutorial. Afterward we were given tissue paper, glue, and paper to make a project out of. I made a wonderful campfire which now hangs on my board. Quite interesting and project intensive.
Friday: Today was Outdoor Pursuits: Aquatics for three hours. It was a long time to sit in a room with too much air conditioning. It should be cool and for more info check out the international student post.
Tonight is the Scholar's Inn Party where the bar in the Junior Common Room is open and everyone at College gets to hang out. It has a Superhero theme so my friends and I are going as the Sailor Scouts. We are hoping to win best dressed. Thats all about that for now :)

International Student Life

Life as an international student is wonderful although it does present challenges. We each received a free backpack, trips are planned just for us, even a class is offered only for international students. During Uni O Week the international students travelled over to Dreamtime Cultural Center for the afternoon. We learned about the indigenous people, the Torres Strait Islanders, and the customs of the area. Everyone had the chance to learn to throw a boomerang. I need to put more effort into my throwing but it goes up and circles most of the way back. I plan to practice with the right handed boomerang I bought: leaving the left-handed one for Greg. Boomerangs have handles carved into them so you can tell which boomerang is which. We also heard the different sounds of a didgeridoo.
Last weekend my friends and I decided to go to the local zoo in Rockhampton. It is a very small zoo and is free to get into. Since there were six people we split into two cars: Bec and Little Bec. Since noone got detailed directions we drove around town for a long time trying to caravan. However 15 U-turns later (most of them were done in round-abouts which sprinkle the city), Little Bec's car lost the other one. Bec decided to give up and turned her car back to College while Little Bec, Kyle, and I made it to the zoo. I think we spent about as much time at the zoo as we did trying to get there but Kyle and I were able to see koalas, birds, and other animals that don't exist in North America. Little Bec had been at the zoo enough times that she was bored with the animals, except the gorillas, but us internationals found the other creatures much better. Since these two trips were days after each other they are combined in an International fun album on facebook. But here is one of the pictures of the koalas.

Later this semester the College has planned trips to the Crocodile Farm and a few other places. I know the most about the croc farm cause I received a voicemail about it moments ago. I missed the meeting due to short notice where the rest of the events were announced.
Class: CQUni offers Outdoor Pursuits: Aquatics for non-award students. Pretty much only international students who aren't going for their whole degree (like most of the Japanese are) can take it. It's filled with 10 Americans, one Japanese, one Mexican, and two Canadians. The first six weeks were are learning to scuba dive and receiving our open water certification. Hopefully a group of us will travel up north the the bulk of the great barrier reef once we get our certification to scuba. After scuba we move on to sailing for 6 weeks and we will have a canoe/kayak trip to the rainforest. Since I already know how to canoe and kayak I'm able to pay a bit more to get a certification of my skills.
During weekends and break a group of International students are traveling around. I'm hoping to join in on some of the trip although I'm not quite sure which ones yet.
Challanges:
I learned at dinner that some of the Aussies speak faster to Americans then they do normally. Since they like to slur their words anyway intentionally speaking fast makes it very hard to understand them.
I'm still getting used to the different words and have learned that many American words makes sense while the Aussies make up words. Pacer for a mechanical pencil, popper for juice box.
Drinking is very common on here both for people to drink legally and illegally. I've noticed that the rules are much less strict then in America.
There are others but I can't remember them right now.

Friends and Dorm Life

As my Leader article will eventually say, I love life at the College. I've become good friends with the majority of the girls in my hall and a few in other halls. The five of us spend significant amounts of time together chilling, watching movies from the network, and making Maccas {McDonalds} runs. Everyone in my hall is quite amazing and everyone who leaves their room (if your name is Jarrod or Jarod apparently you are confined to your room) gets along. Many of us have a tendancy to leave our doors open while we are inside so we can see who is walking by. It's quite interesting when I wander from Bec's room (4) to Rhiannon's room (17) or to my room (8) and walk multiple times by Milko's door. His door is commonly open but the downstairs Hutton Hillbillies are pretty much open to each other. Since Hutton has the largest rooms my friends (I'll call them Sailor Scouts since that's what superhero we are dressing as for the party tonight) hang out in my hall. Sadly, we don't have a foyer so we have continued to take over the hallway with other neighbors joining us for late night chats. Soon we will need to start spending more time on our studies but this is just the first week of classes.
Earlier today I had my door open which was like an opening for craziness. Both Josh and Owen wandered in to see my famed art from The Arts class. We were given tissue paper, paper, and glue with directions to make whatever we wanted. My mind was on campfires since I only had red and orange flames. Although I still am not a very good artist if you look at my art correctly you can tell it's a campfire with 10 people sitting around it. However they decided it was a Cyclopes if you turned it upside down. Hearing their explanations for every thing like the different colors was quite amusing. Apparently an australian tv show for kids called Mr. Squiggles (a little bit of it is on youtube) worked on figuring out different interpretations of art. Very amusing show that I encourage you to watch the few clips.
I finally decorated my room to add more color to the walls. As Owen and Josh pointed out I have seven different calendars on my wall with three different months showing. At the shopping centre the calendars were 60 cents each and include amazing pictures of Australia that I plan to frame once I return home. I'm just too lazy to stand on the table/sink to fix the months. I also bought boomerangs which are displayed in my room. My posters are still to be made because I have yet to pick the verse of the semester although I will take suggestions.