Yay money!

My sponsor brought me my scholarship check last night, so the first thing I did today was walk to the bank to deposit it.

Upon leaving my house:


The view down the street:


The view up the street:


Some houses along the way to the bank:


And then, I am almost there!:


Stores in the mall:



At the bank I found out that I can't automatically split the check between my account and the school's account, so that means I have to wait for the check to clear (3-5 days) before I can come back to the bank to have them transfer the money so that I can pay my tuition and fees.

So next I went to the grocery store:

where I restocked on Ramen, frozen pizza, spaghetti-os, and bread =D Now I just need some dishes and maybe even a pot or two.

Another view of the mall:



And then the petrol station on the way home:

My First Rotary Meeting (Sort Of, Anyways)

Today was a pretty nasty day outside - gray and rainy from the time I woke up, and it will probably continue well past the time I go to sleep.

I went to campus regardless, braving the rain, to check out the club sign-on fair that they were having today. I should probably get an umbrella, but the day I do will be the last day of rain for the rest of the year - I know it. So I am putting that off until I can no longer avoid it.

There were lots of students on campus, and lots of loud music, and people handing out fliers for their group, so it was a good time. I made my way through the mess, and went down to the international office (again) to confirm the amount of fees that I need to pay, since Tony has received my scholarship check, and I will be depositing it into the bank tomorrow.

A while later, I headed back home, where I relaxed and dried off, until I needed to get ready for my first Rotary meeting. I found out though, that it was not actually a meeting tonight, but rather we would be touring the Sealy mattress factory as part of a vocational learning opportunity.

Tony and I went to the factory, where the plant manager showed us around for about an hour. I don't think I ever would have assumed that mattresses were that complex! And the machinery that goes into making them!



Amazing! The tour was a little long and very noisy, but overall it was a very interesting experience.




Afterwards, many of the Rotarians met at a local place for some dinner, where I got the chance to introduce myself, and talk to them. It seems like the club is pretty diverse, so I look forward to getting to know everyone.

Brisbane Welcomes International Students!

This event was hosted by the city of Brisbane, and held in the City Hall.

The international center on campus offered bus rides there, so I walked to campus, when lo and behold, I run across this guy just walking along:





I'm not sure you can tell from the pictures, but this monster was about 4 feet long, maybe more. Cool and scary all at the same time!

I hopped on the 9:30am bus, where I got to talking to a couple of other Americans, Lindsey and Eric, as well as a girl from Finland, Jenni, that I had met previously.



Set up inside the building were a multitude of different booths advertising a multitude of things - everything from knowing your rights as a renter, to hostel accommodation in the Gold Coast. The four of us wandered around collecting stamps (if you collected 20, you could enter into a prize raffle) and plenty of informational brochures about the Brisbane city buses, the Wild Dolphin Resort, and even Australian Whip cracking!





There were a couple of bands that performed on stage, as well as some aboriginal dancers, and a whip cracking demonstration, of course, so we were kept pretty busy. Eventually, we wandered out of the main room, and took the lift up to the clock tower.



At one time, this was the highest building in Brisbane, and the sights are still pretty good.







We listened to the bells chime the hour, and then headed back downstairs to wander through the museum, which was featuring an exhibit on the history of the local mental hospital. Eventually, we grabbed some lunch (by this time the line was no longer out the door, and we only had to wait a couple of minutes).

We also checked out this cute guy who was on display as an advertisement for the local koala sanctuary. But he spent the day sleeping.



We couldn't find out if the university offered a bus back to campus, so we had to find the bus stop, and make our own way home, but all in all, a fun day!

Toowoomba and Tweed Heads!

This morning, Tony picked me up, and we headed back to his house, to pick up his daughter and wife. We all packed into the car, and then went for a nice drive to Toowoomba. Tony and his wife looked at a possible house to retire to, and I got to explore a modern Australian home.

I learned that generally things are similar, but they are also enough things to make an American say "huh?" The first thing is that in most homes, the toilet is separate from the shower/sink room. I am not quite sure why this is, and to me, it is a little inconvenient to have to go from one room to another to wash one's hands, but I guess it is a good thing if someone needs to shower.

Another thing that does not seem to be common here at all is a clothes dryer. My house is like this as well, where there is a washer, but then clothes must be hung on the line, or on a rack to dry. Different from home, where it seems like everyone has both a washer and dryer.

One other thing that I think is an excellent idea:



Many houses have these tanks outside, usually hidden towards the back, where rainwater is captured, filtered, and stored for later use. For some houses, this is the only source of water, but some are also connected to the city's water supply. Also, water from the city is free here, unless your household consumes more water than the average for your area. Then you are charged, but I am not sure how much.

After a while, we got back in the car, and drove south to Tweeds Head.



We got stuck in traffic, so it probably took close to an hour. an hour and a half to get there. We walked around the mall for a while, had some coffee, and eventually headed back to Brisbane.

That night, Amelia and I hung out with some of her friends at one of their houses. I had a good deal of fun listening to everyone playing the karaoke video game on the PS2, which apparently comes in an Australian music version, because there were artists on it that I had never even heard of!

Some more settling in...

This morning, Tony, my Rotary sponsor, met me bright and early outside my house. It was definitely nice to finally get to know him! We went to Sunnybank Plaza, so that I could finish setting up my bank account, but they were not open yet, so we went into the mall for a bit. Tony gave me his old mobile phone to use, so we stopped in one of the stores where I bought a SIM card, and I now have a working mobile phone!



(I am not sure how it works, but it does, somehow!) =D



We stopped to get a cup of coffee, and chat for a bit, and then we went back to the bank. So now I have a bank account as well! Hopefully, my scholarship money should be arriving soon, and I will be able to pay my tuition, and thus, enroll for classes and get my student ID card.

We accomplished our missions, so Tony dropped me back off, with a very nice invitation to hang out with him and his family tomorrow, which I accepted.

Later on in the day, I walked to campus to try to find out exactly how I could pay my tuition and fees. I went to the cashier, who told me that I had a couple of options: BPAY, where I pay the tuition through the universities website, a credit card or bank card, cash, or direct deposit from my bank to the school's bank.

Well, I didn't think that cash was a good idea, and all my credit cards are in American dollars (so they would have charged me a foreign transaction fee, boo), and I definitely didn't think I could make a $9,000 payment on my debit card, so that only left me two options. Next, the cashier directed me to the Student Admin center, to figure out how I could get online to the school's website so I could pay it that way. Eventually, I found out that this is not possible for several different reasons.

Well, that makes things easy. Direct deposit it is! And hopefully soon!

Sunnybank Plaza is a......... MALL!

And today I went there!

Its maybe a 25 minute walk to there from my house, uphill, of course, like everything else around here. But it was some good exercise, and some pretty houses and flowers along the way, so with my Ipod, I was set.

The mall wasn't too different than anything at home - a little smaller, but still with a food court at one end, a couple of electronics and games stores, a bunch of clothes stores, and more mobile phone stores than you could possibly want. The one thing that was awesome though, and I will have to take pictures of, is that in the middle are set up maybe 5 different saltwater fish tanks, about 75 gallons each, except for the last one, which was probably closer to 500 gallons *drool*.

Of course I stopped and stared for a nice long while. At each one. =D I was a little disappointed though that the contents of the tanks were exactly the same as what I would find at home, but they were still beautiful, and all but one of the smaller ones was well maintained (and that one had horrible hair algae!) very similar to this:



They had some of these yellow tangs:


As well as one or two hippo tangs:


And of course, some false percs:


So overall, it was very well done. I was very tempted to peak under the hood and see what kind of lighting they were running (one of the tanks had a hugeeee clam in it), and look under the stand to see what kind of filtration system they were using, but I resisted.

After the mall, I went to the ANZ bank, and started opening a bank account. But because I did not have a student ID and forgot to bring my letter of offer from the school, I couldn't finish opening it, so I will have to go back shortly. But they did give me a piggy bank:



I stopped on my way out to buy some groceries at Coles, and bought lots of the Cup of Noodles and a frozen pizza, feeling very much like a college kid. =D

I make the journey back to my place, and checked my email, where there was a letter from my host Rotarian. We corresponded back and forth for a little while, and I learned that he did not forget me, but rather had the wrong house, so I was a little relieved!

I <3 the library!

I may be a big nerd, but when I have nothing else to do, I love to read. I had only brought one book with me (the third book in the Well World series), and finished it mostly while on the planes, so I definitely needed to acquire something else to read. I was very happy to learn that a Brisbane library was within walking distance to my house.

And today I ventured there. I thought there might be so trouble in getting a library card, since I neither have a student ID yet, nor something that says my address, but the woman was very nice, and gave me one anyways, while asking me to bring in a paper next time or a piece of mail that says where I live.

This library may be even smaller and less well stacked than the North Miami Beach library, but they do have some books, and they will check them out to me, so I can't complain too much. The disappointing thing was that they tended to have one book from the middle of a series, one book from the end of a different series, and a whole mishmash of things you can't read because you don't have all the books. (I was looking specifically for the books by Terry Goodkind, R.A. Salvatore, maybe Terry Brooks, etc)

I was able to find a good amount of the Acorna series by Anne McCaffrey so that made me very happy!




Eventually, I came home and started getting ready to go to my first Rotary meeting! I was super excited about finally getting to meet my sponsor, after all the communication problems we had been having.

The meeting was at 6pm, so I took a shower, got dressed up all nice, grabbed my new book, and at 5:20pm, I went outside, where I sat and waited by the front gate. 5:30 comes and goes, my landlord shows up at 5:36 telling me how nice I look.... I continue waiting, until 6pm, when I figure out that he is not going to show up, and I went back inside.

=(

I have not had very much luck so far. I guess I need to get a phone soon.

I have taken up mountain climbing for pain sport

Today I had an orientation for international students at 10 am, so about 9 o'clock I got ready, and left my place, which gave me plenty of time to get lost, just in case. The walk to campus is really only a couple of blocks, not bad at all.



However.... once you get to campus, you have to take this mountain trail up to get to all the buildings (there might be another way, but this was the most direct route). So I get halfway up the hill, and my calves are burning, and I am out of breath! and this old man in front of me just keeps climbing and climbing. It was highly embarrassing to say the least, but at least no one saw me! =D



I'm from Florida! What do I know about hills?!

Oh! And there were plenty of stairs!



But I managed to make it to the top, where I wandered around campus for a while, before heading to the theatre for the session. The orientation was slightly informative, but mostly it was very general information, and the main thing they told us was "If you need help, or need someone to talk to, come see us at the International Center"

Two hours later and we were out of there, on our way to the International Center, so that everyone could pick up their enrollment packs. Except for me. After the very nice woman called around, she finally found out why I didn't get one: because my tuition fees are not yet paid. But she told me not to worry, I would still be able to get into the classes I need, so that was very good!

I wandered down to the library and made a copy of my passport for my landlord, and then tried to get on the school's computers to print off a copy of my visa. No go. My student number isnt recognized by the computer. So the woman at the library help desk sent me to the Student Admin building, where I waited in line for them to send me back to the International Office. Where I waited in line again. For them to tell me that there was nothing they could do until my fees were paid. Which I can't do yet, because I haven't received my scholarship check.

However, the very nice woman did print me out a copy of my visa, and allow me the use of her phone so that I could try to call my Rotary host counselor here.

And contact was made! This was the first time that I have actually communicated with him! I had actually emailed him repeatedly over the past 2 months, and every time, the email was bounced back to me, saying this his mailbox was too full. (Which was stressful and frustrating to say the least!) But we made plans for him to pick me up for my first Rotary meeting here, which is tomorrow (Tuesday) night.

All is well! And I left campus after wandering around some more with a sense of purpose and accomplishment!

Saturday and Sunday

My schedule is still pretty screwed up, but as of yet, I haven't had too much reason to fix it.

The weather has been rainy and gloomy, which has discouraged a lot of exploring, so I stayed inside for the most part, and talked to some of my housemates.

My bed is absolutely awful - as hard as if I was sleeping on the tile floor. I'm hoping I am going to adjust to it, but at this point, I have no idea how the guy who lived here before me managed. If it doesn't get better, I might end up sleeping on the couch that's in my room =P





Also, there is no air conditioning, which I thought might be uncomfortable, but has turned out to not even be an issue. With the windows open, night gets cool enough, that I haven't even had to use the fan. What a change from how hot and sticky it can be in Florida at night!


I finished the book I was reading, so my next goal is to find the local library, and convince them to let me check out some books, even though I don't have a student ID card yet.

Helllo Fiji!

It was an 11 hour flight from Los Angeles to Nadi, Fiji, and it actually wasn't so horrible, except for the 'food' they served. I watched Martian Child, which was a cute movie, and then slept for the remainder of the time.

Fiji is warm! And this was my plane:



We arrived about 30 minutes early, and then waited in the immigration line for a good two hours. Meh.



But I talked to some nice girls from Wisconsin, who were on there way to study abroad in Lisborn. Eventually we were through the line, and had to wait another hour to start boarding the next flight. On the way to get on the plane, you can see this:



And another four hour flight and I was in Australia!

I collected my bags, loaded up the cart! and after exiting the baggage claim, I saw the most fantastic thing ever: the airport reception service offered by the University!



Paul loaded up a bunch of us into the van, and then dropped us at our respective houses, which was fantastic.

I met my landlord, Ben, and he seems very nice, so that is a good thing. After being there for a couple of minutes, he offered to drop me off at the local shopping center, so that I could buy some things that I needed, like sheets and pillows for the bed, some hangars, and food! The shopping went alright, but it was a very long walk back in an unfamiliar place, so by the time I got home, I was hot, tired, cranky, and slightly overwhelmed by everything - all of that caused by lack of sleep. So, I went immediately to sleep. At 3:30 in the afternoon. And slept until 3:30 the next morning.

This was a great thing for my body, and for my mental health, but not so much for my schedule. =)

I lost Valentine's Day...

over the International Date Line!

I am looking forward to the day someone invents teleportation!

This morning, Cassandra and I took all her bottles to the recycling center, while we were waiting on Peter to arrive. For every bottle you recycle, they pay you 5 cents. Doesn't sound like a whole lot, except that we received almost 11 dollars back! =O It was a whole lot of bottles!

After that, we picked up Peter, and drove into downtown to have lunch at Pizzeria Uno's. And since it was Cass's birthday, all the servers sang to her, and hopefully embarrassed her.





After lunch, Cass took me over to the Amtrak station, where I picked up my ticket, and we proceeded to wait for about an hour.



At that time, we learned that the train was running late. In fact, close to an hour and a half late! And since Cassandra is so wonderful, and we didn't want to chance me missing my flight out of LAX, we dropped Peter off, and had a mini roadtrip to LA!



I arrived with plenty of time to spare, so we grabbed some ice cream from McDonald's and waited a bit. Then, I was dropped off at the airport!

Can't go to San Deigo without a bit of shopping!

Another gorgeous day!

Cassandra and I got up kinda early and went over the the military base to run some errands, and hang out with Peter for a while. Eventually, he had to go back to work, so us girls headed over to the Viejas Casino and Outlet Shopping Center.





Cassandra bought a pretty pair of boots there several months ago, and since I saw them, I wanted a similar pair. We got there, and were joking about different stores being closed, and lo and behold, the shoe store was gone. So no boots for me, which is probably a good thing, since I could barely fit them in my suitcase anyways.

We did have a fantastic lunch of Coldstone's ice cream, and we walked around some more. I bought a pair of warmup pants (I <3 warmup pants) for five bucks, and then we came back to the apartment.

Peter came over after work, and we had some leftovers for dinner. Hung out for a while, then Peter left, and Cassandra and I made a 9pm run to Vons for some more food. And that was it!

Monday's Adventures

After sleeping in pretty late (9am!), Cassandra and I had a leisurely breakfast, got showered and dressed, and then headed out for a fun-filled day! We went down to Seaport Village, which is exactly what it sounds like, a whole little village of cute shops at the port of San Diego. We walked around for a couple hours, went in some different places, and generally enjoyed the sunshine and salty air. The weather has been pretty great - highs of 70 degrees, and lows of 50, so its comfortable in the sun, and you need a jacket if you're standing in the shade!




All that walking made us hungry, so we got in the car, and headed to the grocery store near Cassandra's apartment. We bought a lot of food (Andrea: Von's doubles coupons, and it was amazing! You'd be jealous!) and then came back and made macaroni and cheese, with a hot dog for me, and a bbq pork sandwich for Cass. Yummy! After that, we hung around for a bit, and then picked up John, and went to Mount Helix to watch the sun set.




Pretty!

Back to the apartment again, with a stop for some eggs (with some fillers) at CVS. Peter came over and we made pizza for dinner, and double chocolate chunk cookies for dessert! (And breakfast this morning!) We all hung around and talked for awhile, until we kicked Peter out, because he had to get up for work the next morning, unlike us. ^_^