General Update

Okay guys. Sorry I haven’t written since I’ve been in Oz, but between settling in, meeting people, doing touristy stuff, and trying to get my phone/internet set up, blogging has been sort of on hold. But here I am now!

On the plane, I met this guy who goes to UQ; he was finishing up his vacation. He was really nice and told me about the city and we talked just about life and stuff. The plane ride just from LA to Brisbane was about 15 hours long, but it went by much faster than I thought. Between talking to this guy, James, all the music and movies on the plane, and sleeping, I’d say it was as pleasant of an experience as flying nonstop over the Pacific Ocean for half a day could be. Unless I was in first class of course. (Take Back Sunday and the bassist that plays for Red Hot Chili Peppers were on the flight, which was cool.)

Anyway, so being here so far has been fascinating. The place where I live reminds me of an American summer camp. There are nine towers in my college (that is, residential college) and four people on each floor. I share a bathroom with two guys (and another girl), something I haven’t done since I was like, twelve, but it’s cool though. No embarrassing run-ins (yet!) So yeah, being like summer camp. There’s no air conditioning in the towers and everyone has two sets of windows that pretty much stay open all the time, but there are no screens on the windows, so bugs often fly in. Oh and each floor has these old-fashioned speakers like they have in the stereotypical summer camp to make announcements for the whole college to hear. And we have set meal times, at roughly 8am, noon, and 6pm. So I’d say it’s quite like summer camp.

Also, because there are no fraternities here and because most of the 38,000 UQ students are commuters, the college is more than just a place to sleep. It’s kind of like your frat or your family. Everything on campus pretty much shuts down after most classes are over and the commuters go home, so the college is pretty much all of your on-campus social life. I think of it as the typical freshman-floor mindset, where you don’t know anyone else so you hang around others who live with you. And there is apparently some sort of hazing process that goes on. But as I understand it, it’s all in fun and definitely not like being hazed in America. But I heard some stories about making the freshers (first years) take shots at night then get up at 5am and go running. Ha. I’d rather be deported ;o)

If you can’t tell, I’m not complaining, I think it’s amazing here. I’m sure that if I had known that I’d be in this type of environment, I would have most certainly chosen somewhere else. I think it’s me speaking it into existence every day that I’m glad to be here and I like this type of atmosphere There are trees everywhere, the foliage is soooo green. It rains randomly, which is really nice. We’re surrounded on three sides by the river, and it seems that every time I’m feeling hot and muggy and sticky and sweaty, either a really wonderful breeze or a few moments of rainfall seem to come at the right moment. And the smells!!! When my window is open, on the breeze I catch a very distinct, pleasant, flowery scent, almost like honeysuckle, but I don't think that's it. I'll find out and let you know.

We went into the city yesterday and the day before. Brisbane is very hilly and the roads are very curvy, which makes for an interesting bus ride. The buildings tend to be very colorful and there’s a point outside of the city called Mt-Cootha where you can see the entire city and it’s pretty beautiful. Unfortunately I don’t have my camera at the moment because I inadvertently left it in St. Louis :) So everybody make sure that Erica sends it to me!! I pet/fed some baby kangaroos. They are so cute and sweet!!! I do have pics, just gotta wait for people to put them up on Facebook.

Oh yeah, I met another guy named Trent, from central Queensland. He told me he likes rap and hip hop and apparently thinks all Americans do or should listen to R.Kelly. lol.

I wanted to just catch you up on some of the basics of life in Australia but I have more thoughtful things to write about later on, like my apparent lack of an "American" accent, US imperialism, smh, and having an identity that is not used to identify me. HA!

Well, it’s lunch time, they just said over the loudspeakers.

Cheers!