g'day from straya [IFSA-Butler orientation post]

G’day! Yep. I’m in Australia… pronounced ‘Straya’ by Australians. With an Australian accent of course. (One of our orientation guides/leaders told us that was how to spell it... hehe... I didn’t just make it up myself.)


I’ll start from the beginning… and perhaps include some of the mundane along with the exciting. I left home at 3:00pm last Wednesday and drove to the Oakland airport (actually I was driven… by my entire family). Then I… flew to LAX… changed airports (don’t worry, there was a bus— it was just like changing terminals)… and stood in a line that didn’t move for about 45 minutes. Literally… it didn’t move. The Qantas Airline system was down. So I hung out with some very obnoxious American guys traveling to Griffith University in Australia. Eventually I got my boarding pass and made it to my gate. At that point I still had quite awhile until my flight (which didn’t leave until midnight). I plunked my stuff down and promptly started asking the college students sitting near me where they were headed, and with what program. There were three or four different groups traveling to different universities in Australia, all on the same flight. But everyone was eager to meet others so I quickly found other students headed to Melbourne with IFSA-Butler. I met Andrea who had been in the Los Angeles airport since 3:00pm (a solid nine hours before our flight) and as more and more people accumulated at the gate we became the pair that walked around asking who was part of what group, introducing ourselves and pointing people towards others from their same program.

The flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane was 14 hours. I ate dinner, slept, watched a movie, and ate breakfast. Not bad at all. When we got to the Brisbane airport there were IFSA-Butler reps. standing in various places outside of customs directing us to the buses. I walked outside and found myself in Hawaii weather- hot, humid, and beautifully sunny. I put my bags on the truck and turned right back around to change into shorts and sandals. There were/are 75 of us altogether. As soon as everyone had gathered their stuff, made it through customs, and made it outside we departed for our orientation site. This meant driving on the wrong, ahem… left, side of the road and driving 100 per hour. 100km per hour… I realized, after thinking about it for much too long.

We arrived at our orientation site at around noon on Friday (6:00pm on Thursday California time). So I was in transit for about 27 hours. I think. This whole time thing is extraordinarily confusing to me. I don't really know what time it is anywhere, including here. The very first thing that we saw when we got off our bus? Kangaroos! Tons of them. Just chilling at our resort site. They were like squirrels… just hanging out in the shade under the trees and grazing, all weekend. We've been told all about how kangaroos can be dangerous if they feel threatened but the ones around the resort were quite photogenic. [Please note the baby roo in the pouch!]


We moved in to eight-person bunkers, if you will, for the weekend. I moved in with a woman from Mount Holyoke, and two women from Wellesley (one of whom is from San Francisco)… to be followed by four others when the second bus arrived. Sorry. I realize this is getting rather long-winded. I haven’t really written anything in almost a week (neither for myself nor anyone else) and I’m enjoying jotting it all down. I'll try to make my next post more succinct.

Friday was pretty relaxed. Food… and a walk to the beach. Said beach:


And... an unexpected “hitchhiked” ride back from the beach. Andrea (my lets-meet-people pair) and Sue (Mount Holyoke)) and I left earlier than most to beat the rush to the showers. And a tour bus (with another group of students doing IFSA-Butler but attending a different university) picked us up on the way. (Not very exciting hitchhiking considering it was a group of people doing the same program as us and staying at the same place.) Friday night we had an Australian wilderness person (I dunno… I forget his title… someone who works with native wild animals) bring a bunch of native Australian critters. Mostly amphibians… sorry mum, no koala pictures yet.

Saturday we split into groups and rotated through several different “activities.” I had a surf lesson in the morning, some chill time in the pool at the resort, and an afternoon of meetings. (Information about academics, housing, local Melbourne information, and Aussie culture.) Saturday night we watched an Australia film: “Crackerjack.” Those who stayed awake ‘till 8:00 barely made it through. The jet lag is getting better but we’ve all been passed out cold by 10:00pm and up and ready to go with no problem at 6:00am. Yes, even me. Which is how you know it’s jet lag.

Sunday we spent the entire day at Fraser Island, a World Heritage ranked island (don’t ask me exactly what that means). Except… we actually spent a huge portion of the day traveling by bus and not nearly enough time outside. We drove to down to the beach… and then straight onto the beach… and onto a Ferry. We then drove off the ferry at the other end and proceeded to drive down the beach! Apparently in Australia motor vehicles are allowed on the beach. We’ve been reminded again and again to look both ways when running out of the water as there may be vehicles roaring down the beach. (I asked, the beach speed limit is 80(km).) The beach is called the “pacific highway.” While there is a large part of me that doesn't appreciate this highway action on the beach, if you’re spending a ton of time sitting in a bus… driving down the beach gives you a pretty fucking nice view out the window. On Fraser Island we went to McKenzie lake. It is absolutely the most amazing water I have ever swum in. And you know me, wherever there is water, I’m in it... so that's saying something. It is a freshwater lake in the middle of an island surrounded by seawater and made entirely of sand. (Tons of plants... but no top soil. Only sand and what the plants create themselves, very interesting). Anyway, not only is this lake water fresh water it is exactly the perfect temperature and smooth and soft b/c of it’s acidity level. Beautiful. Incredible. And amazingly easy to sunburn in… perhaps it is a good thing we weren’t there all day. Sunday night we had an Aboriginal song/dance/ask any questions you want to performance. Here's a picture of my trio at the lake! (yay roommates!):


And now it is Monday. And I've just moved into my apartment in Melbourne! I’m about to post a bunch more orientation photos on my Shutterfly site (the “my photos” link on the right)… so check those out if you’re interested! (Perhaps I’ll even get around to giving them titles and labels, so check for some more stories there.) And… another entry will be coming very soon about my apartment in Melbourne!

Random fact: The world’s 10 most poisonous/venomous/deadly snakes are all Australian.

And a random slang word for you: mozzies. (No guarantees about the spelling of that one). Meaning: mosquitoes.