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.