Okay so I lied and didn't take my camera to the Christmas in July dinner. I fully plan on going through Facebook and snagging some different pictures to share though (one girl I've met from Singapore named Nadya is a picture-taking fiend- you see a flash out of the corner of your eye and go "Oh, Nadya must be over there." She's basically documented my entire time here so far haha)

The special dinner on Wednesday was a ton of fun though. There were some pretty ridiculous costumes going on, including a few Christmas trees, some presents (including one guy toting the classic TO: WOMEN FROM: GOD tag), as well as some angels, shepherds, and even a fully pregnant Mary. Luckily, though, most people were boring like me and just in dresses and heels. The table I sat at was almost identical to the people I sat with at the last dinner and we had a blast just sitting there, having wine, getting a delish Christmas buffet, and just a good time overall. One aspect of the evening was a Gift Exchange, so if you brought in a wrapped 5 dollar gift, you could get one back from Santa (which was actually one of the exchange students from England, Marcus). I couldn't really find anything interesting to get so I didn't partake, but after some of the gifts were opened by my tablemates, I realized I really could've gotten anything. One girl opened her package and found two bags of potato chips, another one had some tasty looking chocolate biscuits, and one girl had a back scratcher, but the best gift ever was recieved by Adrial, a guy from Switzerland. His present turned out to be a massive pair of granny panties with a nice embellishment proclaiming "TOUCH ME". It took a little bit of goading, but the entire table managed to persuade him to put on the underwear over his pants which was FANTASTIC. There were pictures taken- by Nadya of course- but she hasn't put them on FB yet sadly enough.

Around a certain point the kitchen staff needed to kick us out of the dining hall and we got our belongings together and headed to a nearby club named The Basement on Broadway. Trinity kids dominated the dance floor even though I found out later that a lot more people had gone to another pub nearby, Captain Stirling's. It was a whole lot of fun, though, and we all left when the place closed. Definitely a good night by my standards.

Unfortunately, things after that night have gone a bit downhill. There's been a flu going around Trinity and when I woke up on Friday, I felt a sore throat coming on along with a cough. I asked some others about it and got the response that I was experiencing the first symptoms to what other people have had. Since I despise getting sick, I forced myself to stay in both nights of the weekend with some Tylenol Cold and Flu. I did leave my room yesterday afternoon, though, to go shopping at a place called Habourtown with a few other girls. It turned out to be sort of like a mall with outlet stores so everything was pretty good and cheap. I wound up getting a pair of sunglasses, a new little purse with a shoulder strap to use when going out (holding and keeping track of a clutch gets a bit annoying at times- now I can just sling on a purse and not have to worry about it!), as well as a nice plaid shirt. There were a few other things that I wanted to find when we were out, like some tights and leggings as well as maybe another pair of flats, but since every store closes at 5, it wasn't a long shopping trip. Another American girl, Michelle, and I also wanted to hit the Salvation Army and Target, but once again, everything closes so early. Oh well, another day, another bus trip to the city!

That's about it for now. I SWEAR this week is going to be Picture Taking Week 2009! I hope tomorrow is a nice day (I think it's supposed to be 70 and Sunny!) and I'm going to go tourist on the campus' ass. I only have two hours of class plus an hour of group work on Mondays, so it's not like I don't have a ton of free time to utilize anyway. In the meantime, I'm going to put a few pictures here that I stole from Nadya.


Me and Nadya at AQWA - an aquarium that they took us new residents to. It was a pretty swell place, but out at the touching pool, it was a bit chilly and windy


The next are all from the Pyjama party from a week ago.


Mario from Germany/Italy, me, and Kristie from Singapore



Michelle from California, Elizabeth from Canada, and Jessica from Canada



Marcus from England...apparently his mother got this dressing gown for him? Fantastic



Let's see...backrow: Ashley from Canada, Mario from Germany/Italy, Steven? Matt? (Identical twins!) from Aussie, Fran from England, and Frank from England. Frontrow: Me (USA), and Pamela, Alice, and James all from England as well.



Clockwise from left...Ian from England, Kristie from Singapore, Jess from Canada, Frank from England, Ceri, Thea from USA, and Elizabeth from Canada.



Chris, Tom from Australia, and me. Fun fact; Tom also has an identical twin brother who did not attend the festivities. Also, today is their birthday!



Mik from Australia who also took this photo, me, and Ashley from Canada. Another fun fact; Mik ALSO has an identical twin sister who lives at Trinity as well.

There's so many identical twins it's ridiculous.

So that's about it. Good times.

Piiiiictures.

First, a few shots of my packing explosion all over the guest bedroom...







Here are some pictures of my gigantic wardrobe...








My desk and sink...the shelves are full of stuff now and the desk is a whole lot messier haha.




This is my door to go out onto my balcony...




And the balcony itself...complete with a little bench thing




The view from my balcony straight out into the courtyard made by the Cook wing/Conference accommodation building (across), South wing (to the left), Hull wing (mine), and the sports center (to the right).




...And looking straight down...




And Skype is fun.




More pictures to come. We have a special dinner this Wednesday to celebrate "Christmas in July" and I am DEFINITELY going to bring my camera this time!

I've been terrible at updating this sucker. I suppose it's because I often think of stuff I want to share, but only at times when I'm away from the computer. When I return to my room, everything that I thought of while in class or whatnot just disappears from my mind and I'm left staring at a blank screen. I'll try and re-cap everything from the past like...week and a half? as best as I can recall. I left off at Orientation/Registration I think.

Some social highlights between then and now include a special dinner for all of the new students this semester here at Trinity (including us internationals as well as locals that just didn't start until this term). Apparently there was something ridiculous like 70 of us beginning this semester living here which turned out to be a record I believe. It was a fun time since everyone got very dressed up; the boys were in sweaters, ties, and dress shirts, and the girls were rocking the formal dresses, tights and heels. The food they fed us this time was also pretty decent, but that could possibly be attributed to the fact that we got to serve ourselves and determine our OWN portions. Something interesting was this pumpkin mash which looked like orange mashed potatoes. For a person like me who isn't the biggest fan of other pumpkin foods, particularly pumpkin pie, I really enjoyed it. At all the tables they also gave us a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red wine. Of course, it was ultra cheap stuff that is referred to by the Aussies as "goon" since it's so nasty, particularly the red wine. Nobody at my table was drinking any of it but me and another girl, Jess, so we were forced to pander some of it out to the other tables since we, as two girls, could clearly not finish two full bottles of nasty tasting wine. Waste not, want not.

After dinner we ventured out to a club and had a swell time. I'm learning the ropes of going out to these clubs finally, including where they are, how to get there and back on the buses, hailing cabs, budgeting my money since drinks are far too expensive, and what to wear. Going out here calls for much fancier dress than at home, where I would throw on jeans, flip flops, and a tank top. Girls here go all out with their clothing, whether it's for a night on the town or merely going to class. There are a lot of shiny dresses, skirts, tights, leggings, and boots. Needless to say, it's a difficult adjustment due to my affinity for converse sneakers, jeans, and t-shirts.

Classes started a week ago, so I already have a full five days of lessons under my belt. The units here are a lot different than both what I expected and what I am used to. There are no "discussions" but rather "tutorials" and the two labs that I had assigned on my time table are not labs at all, but times set aside where we can meet with groups for projects. It's kind of frustrating since I'm honestly not a group project kind of girl, but rather, an individual. I like to get things done on my own time and that's that, not...working together. It's a skill that I am going to have to develop to survive these courses and it's probably for the best. There aren't many or any career options in the real world that allow one to work by themselves only.

The courses I am taking are Animal Ethics and Welfare, Zoophysiology, Behaviourial Ecology, and Aquaculture. So far I don't have a favorite, but one positive aspect of these classes is that there is really a minimum of both class time and busy work. In all of these units, there is basically a couple of really important assignments (debates, research projects, group presentations, papers, or exams) and that's that. On one hand, I have a lot more free time than what I'm used to, but on the other, I don't know how to utilize it since the majority of these projects and such have due dates in Septemeber and October or cannot be worked on yet since I haven't met with my lit group yet/done my field work day yet/gotten assigned my debates yet etc etc.

But enough about class.

This past Friday, the residential club of Trinity put on a pajama party for everyone who wanted to come which turned out to be a heck of a lot of fun. They put cushions and pillows all over the room if you wanted a nap and had music playing for dancing. It was also hilarious to see what people decided to wear for their "pajamas". A few got creative and went out and bought full pajamas or nightgowns, some like me just threw on some flannel shorts and a tshirt, and others were lame and wore normal clothes. It also felt like it was a flash fest since everyone was taking a million pictures of each other. I've yet to bring my camera to a social function because I fear for its safety. What can I say, it's a brand new camera that I bought with my own money. It's more valuable to me for that reason and given my history, I don't want anything to happen to it!

Okay I do really need to start snapping more photos. I promise it'll happen soon. For now, however, I'll stick a few right here that I took of my room when I first got here. It looks a bit different now since it's actually been lived in for 2 and a half weeks, but eh, it'll do. I'll put those on after lunch since it's taking AGES to upload into photobucket. Everything takes forever to upload and download...

Oh! One last fun fact. I've booked my plane tickets to take my semester break (which I suppose is basically spring break here) to Bali! There are several groups of us internationals who are planning on vacationing there during this week, but at different times. Some are going from Friday to Monday, some from Friday to Saturday, and some from Sunday to Thursday. Personally I, along with one other girl, Jess, have gotten my tickets to leave Sunday the 6th of September and return Saturday the 12th. We are planning on finding some hostels to stay at and it should be an amazing time.

P.S. I have a Skype name (shenannaigans) with a webcam or just a mic if anyone cared to know.

Cheers.

This update is going to be considerably more cheerful than the first one for a few good reasons. These include the fact that I am on a fairly normalized sleep schedule finally as well as it no longer being the time of the month. As you can see, no sleep and hoards of hormones can really muck with you mind and make Anna craaaanky.

So. Australia. It's pretty swell.

This week began orientation and on Monday, we went for an all day snoozefest that was completely mandatory. Even though they served us some delicious breakfast, SUBWAY for lunch (wtf, good to know I come 11,000 miles and still be given Subway) and some interesting pizza and beer at the campus tavern (yes, they have a full-fledged tavern on campus- awesome I know) it was the longest and most boring day everrr. Sure, some of the speakers were fairly interesting and a little helpful, such as the guys who talked about clubs including Perth International club for all us foreigners, and this one guy who made us all complete a typical Perthian conversation to each other which goes about like this:

A: Howyagoin?
B: Good.
A: ____'s me name.
B: ____.

...and then something ridiculous about rain since I can't remember.

Anyway, the rest of the day was boring, from 8am right to 5pm. I didn't really care about somebody saying how to fill tax forms or about how you don't want to walk around campus at night time (duh). Therefore, I was bored.

Later that night a few of us hit the bottleshop in preparation for going out, even though we never made it out that evening. The boys who came with us got waylaid when a massive soccer outbreak occurred. And let me tell you, boys are nuts about sports. Not only that but these were primarily EUROPEAN boys. Playing SOCCER. Do the math. They were INSANE. It was super, super entertaining to watch since it was vicious and very fast-paced, but they were playing in this small basketball court with low fences and you had to watch out that the ball didn't come flying over and smacking you in the face. After some time, 4 of us girls got bored and decided we wanted in on the action and changed into some trainers. They put 2 boys and 2 girls on a team and just let us go. They were mostly really patient with us and it was a rule that only girls could score but what it really taught me was that I'm super out of shape. We played again Tuesday night but it was freezing cold- and apparently the coldest day on RECORD IN PERTH- so it was clearly not as much fun as the first night.

Tuesday was a boring day and I did absolutely nothing. Literally.

Today was registration which was full of long lines. My time to register was between 10:30 and 11:30, so I arrived promptly at the correct time. However, due to congestion, I finally finished at 2:30. It's been a very long day. However, apparently Wednesdays are the big nights to go out, and particularly since there's nothing on the slate tomorrow for any of us, we as a college are going out big tonight. Half priced drinks I heard. Sounds muy good. I know, my grammar is superb. Anyway I took an adventure down this one road in hunt of a proper grocery store and finally found one. I bought soup, EasyMac, WEIRD tasting BBQ chips, and Mountain Dew, as well as detergent, a bowl, and plastic cups. Then I meant to get a small pack of each spoons, forks, and knives and came home to realize I had bought 2 spoon packs and one knife pack. I am displeased. Also, my feet hurt.

I've met so many people from so many different countries and starting tomorrow, all the Aussies who live in Trinity are going to start to trickle in. It's kind of lame but I like our little (well...there's like 40 of us but still) group of foreigners. Here's all the countries I've met people from:

Great Britain
Canada
Australia
USA
Italy
Spain
Singapore
China
Norway
Switzerland
South Africa
Sweden
Germany
Zimbabwe

...That's all I can remember right now. Ridic, though, right?

Time to shower. Oh, and there's a little sign in our shower that says "PLEASE LIMIT SHOWER TO 3 MINUTES." It's IMPOSSIBLE.

The trip here to Australia was, in one word, ridiculous. Even though it began almost a week ago, it feels like forever ago since I just really want to put it out of my mind. Apparently the travel gods weren't shining down upon us since everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Well, mostly. In the way of times, at least. Out of the three flights that we had (Chicago to LA- 4 hours, LA to Brisbane, - 13 hours and Brisbane to Perth- 5 hours) two of them were late leaving (aka the first two). The one that we wanted to leave late so we could not miss it, left promptly on time, thus causing us to miss it and wait around the airport for 3 hours for the next one. Go figure.

I had been mostly dreading the flight from LA to Brisbane since that was the longest one but I think that was the least bad one. I don't know why, but the two shorter flights were torture. It could have been that I was stuck in the middle seat for both of those, but man, they sucked. I'm not saying that the long one didn't suck though- it did. 13 hours and I slept for maybe 1.5-2 of them. I ended up watching 3 movies and that barely put a dent in my need to waste time. I will say, however, Qantas is very good about feeding you and the food was honestly not as bad as airplane food usually is. Well, that or I was completely starving since I was on a plane for 10 hours with nothing but Sour Patch kids and a weird-tasting trail mix.

Trust me. It was a long trip. I was in O'Hare at around 2pm Tuesday the 7th and we got to the university at around 4pm? on Thursday the 9th. We should've gotten in around noon instead, but had to get a new flight since going through customs took ages. Plus when we got into Perth, we tried to see if our ride from the university was there, but we couldn't find them. We tried to call all these numbers they gave us in case of a situation like this, but none of them worked. It ended up that the numbers that were given were all wrong and we had to take a $35 AUD taxi to the uni. That was annoying.

That night I managed to unpack everything and put up a few pictures before passing out around 7pm. I'd like to say that my sleeping patterns have improved and reached normal-ness but...yeah they haven't. I've gotten into the habit of getting exhausted around 4pm, taking a nap, and then waking up at 7pm just in time to miss dinner. And then I'm bored and hungry and drowsy and just fall asleep again anyway, waking up between 4-6am and being wide awake. It's a vicious cycle and I need to RESIST the nappage today. It's already calling for me and it's not even 3pm. I think it might be because I haven't had a single bit of caffeine since Thursday and I am a coffee and Diet Coke fiend most of the time. Hmm. I ought to seek some out.

I've met a few other international students and a couple of Aussies too. I'm sucky with names though so it's kind of hard to remember them all. There's been a bunch of British girls, a British guy or two, I think a guy from Scotland, a guy from Germany, a guy from South Africa, a girl from Canada, and a guy from the US that I can vaguely recall from off the top of my head. Basically you sit down at a table in the dining hall and say "Hi, I'm Anna, I'm from the US, what about all of you?", listen to everyone say, and then vainly attempt to keep them all correct in your head. Some people may be very good at this, but I'm...not. It's terrible haha.

There really hasn't been much to do which probably has been affecting my tendencies to sit in my room and read all for the past few days. I explored the campus a little bit and today went for a walk in another direction in a hunt for food (found a grocery, woohoo). Friday night, one of the RAs in a different building from mine, took pity on some of his newbs and took us to the city for a night at a club which was interesting. A vodka and lemonade cost $8 AUD which would be around $6.30 USD which I found absolutely ridiculous. A glass of wine was only $6 AUD, not like that's much better. I ran out of money pretty quickly and one of the British girls that had come out with us kept trying to give me her drinks which was nice of her, but I kept refusing since I didn't want to take her money haha. It was an interesting experience and so like and unlike the bars we have in Champaign. There was very loud techno music instead of rap music and everyone was extremely well-dressed. Also, I was told that grinding is extremely unacceptable. Sorry, Gen.

Tomorrow I have orientation and then registration on Wednesday. It's sad to say but I'm really looking forward to having stuff to DO. I've been getting rather bored. Trying to keep up with the lingo has been interesting though. I really like saying the phrase "Car Park" even though it just means parking lot. It's just fun to say. Chips are crisps and fries are chips. There are more but I can't remember right now. Oh, and I was told that since I'm American, I would be getting a lot of crap for it. I'm not very surprised.

I really want to get internet in my room but I think I have to have someone set it up for me, which is impossible on a Sunday. I am getting very tired of this computer lab!

Time to avoid sleeping somehow. Cheers.

Woo