You mean I'm here to study?

I realize it has been quite some time since I’ve updated. That’s mostly because nothing too exciting has been going on. After Sydney, I spent the next two weekends in Canberra. One day, I walked around Lake Ginninderra with 2 other exchange friends. I thought it was a very small lake, but turns out...It’s not. It took us about 2 and a half hours to walk around it. We took lunch with us and stopped and had lunch by the lake. We also stopped to play on a zip-line and spider-web thingy. It was a little chilly the day we did that, but it was still fun and it was nice to explore that area. The next weekend I went to a science museum with some friends. It was actually really cool and a lot of fun! Yay for being a nerd on a Saturday. Other than that, those two weekends were full of movie nights and hanging out with friends. 

Pretty Australian sunset

Also during that time, I got to celebrate my birthday for a total of 39 hours. Who out there has had a 39 hour birthday? Yea, probably not many of you. Be jealous. It was weird because I kept getting Facebook notifications until like 2PM the day after my birthday had ended for me since it was still my birthday in the US. I liked it though. :-) The Wednesday night before my birthday, we went out to the Lighty (the bar near campus). Thursday was my actual birthday.  I had class and then when people were done with class, some of us went to get ice cream. I knew my housemates and exchange friends had been planning something for that night, but I wasn’t exactly sure what.  They planned a house party for me, complete with decorations, a country theme, and KFC for dinner because “Kentucky is close enough to Tennessee” in the words of my housemates. It was so much fun! Definitely one of my favorite birthdays I’ve ever had! So, thanks to my housemates and exchange friends who took the time to plan my party! I appreciate it!

Pebbly Beach sunset

Freddie!

This past weekend, I went to Bateman’s Bay with a group of friends. Bateman’s Bay is about 2 from Canberra. It’s on the coast, so it was a beach weekend! We went to Pebbly Beach on Saturday. Pebbly Beach was super pretty, and my Pebbly Beach experience was complete after seeing kangaroos on the beach! When we were leaving, we saw a group of kangaroos, and naturally, we had to take pictures. These kangaroos were really awesome and let you get super close to them! In fact, I had a kangaroo hop to me and get about 2 or 3 feet away from me! I REALLY wanted to touch him, but everyone has told me wild kangaroos are aggressive. I reached my hand out to him, and he started reaching his head out towards my hand. I freaked out when he was like 6 inches away and pulled my hand away. I was afraid he was going to turn all aggressive, and being that close I could see he had some pretty massive claws. We named him Freddie, so I now have a kangaroo friend named Freddie out on Pebbly Beach!

Wimbie Beach

Sunday we got up pretty early and headed to another beach. We kind of just drove around until we found something that we liked, and we ended up on Wimbie Beach. The weather was so great that day. The water was a little chilly, but definitely warmer than at Pebbly. The waves were also much calmer at Wimbie. Overall, it was such a fun weekend. I once again did not want to come back to Canberra. That seems to be a recurring theme. Leave Canberra, and never want to return. Don’t get me wrong, Canberra is great and I love the people I’ve met here, but it’s always so much fun traveling and coming back to Canberra means study time. Ick. Who actually wants to study on their study abroad experience? 

Sunday I will be flying to Cairns for Spring Break! They don’t call it Spring Break here, but it’s Spring and it’s a week long break from school, so I define that as Spring Break. We have everything booked! After staying in Cairns for two nights, we’re doing a tour of the Daintree Rainforest, and that will take us to Cape Tribulation, which is about 2 and a half hours north of Cairns. We’re staying there 3 nights before heading back down to Cairns for 3 more nights. While in Cairns, we’re going snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef!! I am so beyond excited! It’s going to be great! So, my next blog post will include all the details of that trip!

And now, time for the Australian differences section of my blog. I mailed one of my friends a birthday card, and when I bought the envelope, they placed something where I would usually write the return address. I was a little confused, so decided to ask my roommate exactly how to address an envelope. They write the address that it’s going to on the side of the envelope and to left. The return address is written on the back. Who would have thought I would have to ask how to write out an address? Also, they use a different paper size. It’s a little skinnier and then a lot longer than what I’m used to. They also spell things differently, which can be annoying when writing papers. I’ve set my language to Australian English, so that’s definitely helpful. Instead of behavior, it’s behavioUr. Instead of center, it’s centRE. Instead of counseling, it’s counseLLing. Considering the paper I just wrote has each of these words multiple times, it was annoying because I messed them up every single time. All I can say: Struggles of a study abroad student.

It’s crazy to think that when we get back from our Spring Break trip, my time here will be half way up. I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 months since I left. It’s unbelievable. Time is flying by, and in trying to plan so many trips, I’m realizing how few weekends I really have left here. There’s still so much I want to do and so much I want to see.  I’ve booked plane tickets to New Zealand! That’s not until December, but man, I can’t wait! More and more I’m realizing that right now is my time to live it up, go on as many adventures as possible, and do the things I want to do. Sure, there have definitely been some hard times while here, and the past few days have been my hardest days here due to some circumstances at home. However, even with all the stuff going on at home...I know my family wants nothing more than for me to have a great time.

So, as the ending of this blog...I’m dedicating this blog entry to my Aunt Betty. My world has shattered this week, but she would have wanted me to keep enjoying my time here. I’m heartbroken to realize I’ll never be able to share all my pictures with her. I’ll never be able to tell her about my many adventures over here. She was so excited for me before I left, and one of the last things she said to me was that she was so proud of me and that she loved me so much. She was such a great lady and loved seeing everyone happy. She wouldn’t want me to waste the rest of my time here regretting that I’m not there for my family right now. So, I’m pushing on through with the thought that she’s still here with me, and if even physically I will never see her again, she’s in my thoughts and memories. I’m thankful that I have such great memories of her from throughout my life, and that my final memories of her were of her being so happy. So, Aunt Betty...Know that you were and are still so loved by so many people. You touched so many people, and I’m still in disbelief that this is real. I love you, and thanks for being the lady you were! 

It's already been over a month!?!?!

**Warning: This is going to be a REALLY long post. Get ready.**

As of 2 days ago, I have been in Australia for a month. In some ways, I feel like I’ve been here much longer, but in other ways, I feel like I got here maybe a week ago. The past two weeks have just been amazing, and I’m not sure I can make you understand how great they have been just from a blog post, but I will do my best! :-)

2 weekends ago, I stayed in Canberra and hung out with friends a lot.  Friday night I went out downtown (they call it Civic) with my roommates and some other Aussie friends. That was the first night I had gone out in Civic, but it was such a great night! Saturday during the day, I went with a couple exchange friends to the Australian National Museum, which is located in Canberra, and even better--it’s fo’ free! That night, we were celebrating a birthday, so a lot of exchange kids got together and surprised the birthday girl with a little party before some of us headed to Civic for a night out. I originally wasn’t going to go out since I went out the night before, but I am SOO glad I went. It was such a great night with exchange friends! I can’t even really say this night was great for <insert reason here>, it was just great and so much fun for no particular reason. It’s just a lot of fun to hang out with people who are from all over the world...That’s definitely something that always makes things great! Sunday nights, exchange students have been having international dinners, so I went to my first one of those this week. It was Canadian themed, and we had yummy pancakes and then something that was really good, but I don’t remember the name. I am super excited for when we have Tennessee night! There’s another girl from Tennessee here, so we will get to plan together, but we are both thinking fried chicken (of course)! The plan is to have dinner each week with someone different making it each week!

Sydney Opera House!

Bondi Beach

This past weekend, I went back to Sydney with a group of exchange friends. It was such a fantastic trip! I did not want to come back to Canberra at all. I had originally planned to come back Sunday night, but that changed to Monday because I was having fun and didn’t want to miss out on Sunday. When we got there on Friday, we just kind of explored around the area our hostel was located. We went to a place called The World Bar that night, and they served their drinks in teapots, which was really cool. I don’t remember the name of the drink I had, but it was soo good. Saturday we all got up and headed out to find Bondi Beach. It was sooo beautiful. Looking back at pictures, there are some that don’t even look real to me because it was so pretty there. We hung out on the beach for a while and got lunch while there. After the beach, our group split up to do different things. I went to see the opera house again, and then we explored the botanic gardens. That night, we went out for a little while, but ended up back at our hostel just hanging out. It was a fun day and night! Sunday, some of us decided to head to shops called Paddy’s Market. You can find all kinds of stuff there for super cheap! After shopping, a couple of us were going to go take a tour of the government house, but that turned into let’s go take a picture in front of it so we could catch an earlier ferry to head to Manly. We got to Manly, got lunch, and ate while by the ocean (always a good plan), and then walked to an area called Shelley Beach, where we eventually met up with everyone from our group. We laid out, read, played frisbee and threw a football around with some guys we met on the beach, took a dip in the ocean (it was really cold!), and just had a great time! We watched the sunset from the beach and just hung out for a while even after it was dark. We stayed in Manly for dinner, then took a ferry back to Sydney and headed back to our hostel.  

Manly at Shelley Beach

I left on the 10AM bus Monday morning to make it back for class. It’s such a sad moment when I realize I’m in Australia to go to school and not just on a 5 month vacation. The weekend was sooo good, and I kept forgetting that when I went back to Canberra, I would be the typical college student who needs to do homework, write papers, and go to class. I should be doing something school related right now, but this sounded better. :-) I really feel like when I type out what I’ve been up to, it doesn’t sound that great. But seriously, this past weekend in Sydney was one of the best weekends of my life! 

So, that is what I’ve been up to the past two weeks. It has all just been so great! When I think of all the things I’ve done, all the people I’ve met, and all the friends I’ve already made, I absolutely cannot believe I’ve only been here a little over a month! I’ve had my moments of homesickness, but I feel like that is just normal. Seeing all the pictures from UT is so weird, and now that it’s football season, I feel as if my Saturdays should be spent tailgating and going to games. I miss my mom, my friends, my cat, my car...There are so many things I miss, but I would not trade my decision to come here for anything! On the bus ride back to Canberra yesterday, I was looking out the window and thinking how many people never get to experience something like this, and it made me sad to think that! I was looking at all the native Australian trees and plants, the animal life, and the scenery and thinking how it’s still crazy to think that I’m actually here living this life! 

Of course, I have some Australian differences to mention. I think all my blogs will have to contain some culture lesson, so that maybe people will actually get something out of reading them. Haha So, here’s the culture lesson: Australian’s add the letter ‘r’ to the end of words and take out the r from other words. So, here’s some Australian words: idea(r), pasta(r), Australia(r), usually words ending in an ‘a’, they pronounce with an ‘r’. But, when talking about Melbourne or Cairns, you leave those r’s out. So, you end up with what sounds like Melbin and Cans. Silly Australians and their r’s. Also, I brought some notebooks with me, and I needed a 3-ring binder to put everything in. I went to the school bookstore, and could only find 2-ring binders. I looked at some peoples paper in my classes later that day, and noticed their paper has like 7 holes instead of 3. Who would have thought things like that would change in a different country? Also, I’m trying to get used to walking on the left side of sidewalks, which is challenging. I guess you just go to the side that you would drive on, but since that is backwards for me, I get confused. I also still freak out when I’m in a car and we turn into the wrong lane in my head. I always think I’m about to be in a head-on collision!

Almost done! I am officially going to Cairns for our Spring Break! They don’t call it Spring Break here, they just call it the Week 8 break, but it’s Spring and a break from school, so I’m calling it Spring Break. I booked plane tickets with 4 exchange friends a couple days ago, and I AM SO EXCITED! If you don’t know what Cairns means, it means the Great Barrier Reef, rainforests, and beaches! Seriously, just so excited!

And last, but not least, I will give you all my address in case you feel the urge to write me a letter! I would love to get mail, and I’ll write you back if you want!

Brook Beasley 

LPO Box 5264

University of Canberra

Bruce ACT 2617

Australia

PS-My birthday is next week. :-)