Library Cram Session

Sunday was also a relaxing day…slept in a bit…lounged with everyone by the pool…had a sandwich. After the sun went down around 3:30 [keeps getting later…that is awesome!], I ran into Alex & Sandra who were on their way to the Lismore Showgrounds to work for $12/hour. All they had to do was package books, DVDs, and CDs into cardboard boxes. They asked me if I wanted to come along because Cathy wasn’t planning on going anymore. Lisa was going along too.

At first I wasn’t going to, but I knew I had nothing better to do so I joined the group. The company we worked for were in Lismore for 2 weeks, selling copies of books, DVDs and CDs at discount prices. Most items were a bit older, a few relatively new. They go town to town around Australia setting up shop in a large shed, on fairgrounds to sell their items. Their next stop is Rock Hampton. We worked from 4:00 to 10:00 and had a ½ hour break for dinner at 7:00. We hopped in Alex & Sandra’s car and went for food at Mackers. The time actually went by pretty fast and before you knew it we were getting paid $66 for 5 ½ hours of work…pretty awesome!

Monday I tried starting my day off early at 7:30 am, but that mission was unsuccessful. Instead I shot out of bed around 8:30 went for a good run, swung by the international office to check my mail and found a package waiting for me!! I was so excited! It was pretty heavy, so that’s where my run ended. I also found a letter from my Grandma in there as well…Sweet!

After trucking up Orion Hill with my new arrivals, I tore into them once I got into my room. My awesome Mother had sent me a bunch of little things as well as some DVDs, my newly fixed camera, a recipe book, some photos, a Huge bag of red licorice and socks.

My plan for the day was to shut myself into the library to get a bunch of assignments done and caught back up in my finance class. I hurried through a shower and a breakfast of eggs, raspberry toast, and orange/mango juice. Since Mark made dinner Friday night, I returned the favor and brought breakfast over to him. That may have been a bad idea…keep reading…will explain.

Finally I made it to the library around 10:45…not too bad. However, I did not actually step into the building until noon…I called home and chit-chatted with my Mother for quite some time. Monday mornings are usually a good time for me to call home…my empty morning with no classes and they are home on a Sunday night…nice! I made the library my home until 1:00 when I met Lisa & Mark for lunch in the Plaza. As we were heading down from the library, we saw a huge lizard. I was pretty pumped to have my camera with me and actually be able to take my own photos with my own camera! A Bangkok wrap from Wrap City sounded pretty good, though they are always huge and really messy. Oh well. We had a little bit of Mark’s sushi too; it was actually pretty decent.

The 3 of us finished a bunch of errands around campus…grabbed receipts from the bank, checked our mail, and Mark made a doctor’s appointment cause he wasn’t feeling too good…then went back to the library for some study. I managed to crank out a reflection paper for Outdoor Ed and got a bunch of articles read for class as well. The library was getting the best of us so we took a 20 minute break at 5:00, had a muesli bar to reenergize then went back another time for one last round.

Orion was calling us back at 7:30 for dinner and we were beginning to hate the library so we bolted out of there. We came back to mine for pasta, green beans, oranges with yogurt, and orange/mango juice as well as licorice for dessert! During dinner we listened to the new arrival of a Dane Cook CD and it was hilarious. After dishes were done, I locked myself up in my room to finish even more homework and work on my blog. I ended up getting quite a bit of stuff done…a lot of it was small things here & there, but had been on my to-do list for some time. I also went through a few too many cups of coffee and ended up staying up all night…oh well! While I was busy at work on my stuff, Mark called to say the doctor told him he may have Swine Flu. Great. Hopefully that is not the case….I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

James' 22nd Alphabet Party

This Saturday started off really good. I was able to sleep in for a bit and have yogurt & muesli for breakfast…my favorite. Later Mark grabbed me, Kelly & Lisa to head down to The Square for a coffee. It is pretty awesome that there is a Gloria Jean’s in the Square…a little taste of home. We shopped around for vital components to our outfits for the Alphabet Party later that night. It was our friend, James’ 22^nd Birthday Party. He assigned everyone who planned on attending a letter and you had to dress up as something that began with your letter. I was going to be an angel, Lisa a Fairy, Kelly had U so was going to be an umbrella and we decided Mark should be a Pedophile. Lisa & I found wings for our outfits, Kelly found an umbrella, and Mark found a small doll, candy, and had a newspaper to help him be a bit creepier.

We stopped by Cole’s to pick up a few necessity groceries that turned out to be more than necessities. We got lucky and were able to hop on a bus to Orion College for only $1.20. Some of the groceries I picked up were to make a chocolate/peanut butter trail mix. The recipe was from Ford…he had made it when we climbed Mount Warning and it was delicious so I thought I would try it out. It was alright, but the next time I make it I’m gonna use some larger oats. F.Y.I.

Soon it was time to start getting ready. I hopped in the shower, made some avocado, broccoli, and cheese sandwich melts for dinner and grabbed Kelly before heading down to 3 to pick up a black tie for her outfit. She changed her mind from being an umbrella to being Usher/Gangster. It was pretty awesome…she looked like a little gangster in Wellzy’s clothes and shoes…junk grab and all. We went up to grab Lisa & Peta, hung out at 3 for a bit longer playing card games then went over to 15 for the Alphabet Party. It was really fun because a lot of people got into it and dressed up. There were knights, clowns, a pack of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a showgirl, another angel, a Greek goddess, Aphrodite, a rock star, a black cat and many others who I forget, but they were all very good!

We played a few rounds of Flip Cup before heading downtown, wings and all. Dallas drove us down in Peta’s car because he is only 17 [drinking age = 18]. We had a pretty good time dancing at The Standard before heading over to Mary’s. I was afraid we would not get in because after 12 or 12:30 they stop letting people in and it was getting close to that time, but we made it!

While we were standing in line, 2 boys cut in front of us and I started to give them a hard time…one guy was already in, so I said whatever to the second guy and let him go. It was awesome cause once we were in we decided to go up a level to the nightclub inside Mary’s called “The One” and the guy who cut in front of me was going up there as well. Wait a minute…I wasn’t interested…but what was awesome was that he offered to pay for me to get in [$10!] and even bought me a drink. I didn’t talk to him for long though…us girlies headed off for the dance floor…a good escape!

I shared a piece of pizza with Peta before Gord came down to pick us [Rob, Lisa, Kelly, Mark, Peta, Alex and I] up. Being the nice girl that I am, I offered everyone to come back to mine for some really good trail mix, but before the Boys came up top my apartment, it was gone…devoured by Alex, Peta, Lisa, & I…though there wasn’t much to begin with…and it was kinda crummy. So I ended up finding some cheese, ham, and crackers for the Boys to have. Lloyd and Tony ended up joining us for all the fun. I was kinda worried we were being too loud…my roommate Ashley had stayed home and already went to bed & didn’t want to wake her so we went across to Kelly & Tony’s. For some reason Rob was dressed in all white, had a brown suit jacket on and was carrying around a tennis racket. I think he may have changed back into his Alphabet Party getup…guessing he was a tennis star?

Overall, it was a fun night.

Perspectives on Australia

One of my classes, Perspective on Australia, is held on Wednesdays. Basically, we talk about Australia…who is a typical Australian, what are the values & beliefs held by the people, what holidays are celebrated throughout the nation and among the different groups living here. It is difficult trying to define Australia as a whole, mainly because of the conflicting histories of the nation. When James Cook discovered the nation in 1770, he declared it “terra nullis” meaning “empty land.” From that point is when the 2 histories began…that of an Aboriginal and that of a white settler. A brief little insight to our class…sorry it began to turn into a lesson for the day.

Anyways, to get a better understanding of the region around Lismore, called the Rainbow Region we went on a field trip. Friday morning started off a little rough…definitely came too early! We had to be done in front of campus by 9:00 am with a packed lunch. I almost forgot the lunch part…actually I completely forgot about it…good thing Kelly was already on top of it. She packed us a PB & J with a muesli bar for the day.

Before we left campus, I remembered to pay for Outback Trip, the last day to sign up so I had to run to the bank on campus quickly. I should have taken a lot longer and accidentally “missed” the bus because the ride ended up being an hour long…on a Very Windy road with a Pothole every ½ mile. Not a very good experience…especially when I get bus sick from a 5 minute bus ride downtown to The Square. We finally arrived to meet Nan Nicholson at Protestor’s Falls, the site where many people had gathered in 1973 to protest the destruction of the rainforest. The people ended up saving a large chunk of the rainforest and Nan was one of the “hippies” who helped save it.

Though I was relieved once I got off the bus, my stomach wasn’t…it kept doing flip-flops. I thought I was good to go, but as I started walking with everyone to a picnic table saliva filled my mouth…I barely made it to the bathrooms before I hucked it. Not good…I felt like I was still on the bumpy bus. I hoped no one heard me, but definitely knew they all did when they watched me walk back up to meet them. Nuts! Oh yeah…the gum I spit out the night before ended up in my hair…I fell asleep holding it and somehow…not sure…but it ended up nestled in my roots…nice.

After a few saltines and water I started feeling better. We walked along a trail to the Falls, which were amazing. We sat on the rocks while Nan read a passage she had prepared about the Falls and what it meant to her & her family. It was interesting to be sitting in a place where so much mayhem had occurred. We could feel the mist coming down from the waterfall and off the rocks it hit below. I had never seen or been that close to a real waterfall…it was really cool.

The next stop on our trip was to Dharmananda, an intentional community established over 30 years ago on 260 acres of farming land at The Channon. The community consists of 16 adults and 6 children. While Ray Flanagan told us about the community we ate our picnic lunch. Rob, our instructor, had brought along a bunch of bananas, apples, Doritos, and vegetable “pull-apart” breads for us to share, which were really good. After we were finished, Ray gave us a short tour of the Community House, Meditation Room, and huge vegetable gardens before we boarded the bus.

The last stop of our trip was to the village of Nimbin, an iconic site of the 1970s counter-cultural movement in Australia. It is a very interesting little place…a lot of hippies and the center of the movement to end marijuana prohibition. We met with Nigel, a lifelong resident of Nimbin, to go over history and phases Nimbin has gone through. Currently, it is becoming a tourist stop. We broke away to do a self-conducted tour of the village for 45 minutes before meeting back up with Nigel to discuss our observations. The strange thing about Nimbin is how open and accepting people are with drugs. For example, we were all walking into Nimbin when a lady asked us if anyone needed cookies. Pretty sure she wasn’t talking about normal cookies either.

Our field trip ended at 4:00 pm when we were dropped off at Orion College. I was definitely relieved and excited to be done with that bus!! Mark decided to teach me how to cook fettuccini carbanara for dinner, Kelly joined us and we all watched Disaster Movie with Lloyd, Wakana, & Emma. After deciding Lloyd and Wakana were not allowed to pick any more movies out to rent, we were all off to bed.

Gypsies, Divas, Tramps, & Thieves

Thursdays are beginning to become pretty routine. Usually I sleep in to recover from the strenuous 2 days of classes, have a light breakfast, go for a long run, shower & get ready for the day, maybe have a little study, hang out for a bit, then head down for beach volleyball. Every now & then UniBar has a Theme Night so we will get dressed up and head down for a while later at night.

This week the theme was Gypsies, Divas, Tramps, & Thieves. There were not many people who got dressed up and went down because it was not a very good theme. People didn’t know what they should dress up as, so it kinda bombed. It had been a while since I went out, so my night began after volleyball. Tony thought it was a good idea to drink goon & lemonade with peaches…similar to Wop. It actually ended up being pretty good.

Once we were finally ready, we went down to 13A to visit with Karoline. She is from Austria and plays on our beach volleyball team. She was not feeling well the weekend before, but thought she was just getting a cold or the flu. However, once Sunday came around, she could hardly move so her roommates took her to the hospital. They admitted her and scheduled her to have surgery the next morning to take out her appendix. She ended up staying in the hospital until Thursday to make sure she had a good chance to fully recover…apparently they do that with all Uni students to make sure they don’t come back and start drinking.

After our visit with Karoline, we continued our journey down to 3 & 4 and eventually down to The Boys’ House. We were not there for too long before we climbed in the 5 taxis Arlo had called to bring us down to The Standard. The night ended up getting quite long…probably too long. Finally I made it home with the help of Rob & Kelly. I was sooo tired…down for the count. Sometime during the night I woke up to spit my gum out, but didn’t want it to be stuck to the carpet so I held onto it. Not one of the best ideas I’ve had.

College Trivia Night

Wednesday started out with my Perspectives on Australia lecture at 10:00. At first it was interesting learning about Australia and trying to define the culture, but now it is beginning to get pretty long. The beginning of class is usually pretty interesting; starting a new topic and discussion, but every week we go through the same routine. We will begin class on the hour and get into the PowerPoint slides, but once someone comes in late, Rob tries to “catch them up with us” and quickly go over the things we just covered. It would not be too bad if it happened every now & then, but every week…it never fails…the same guy is late…and not just by a little bit…he is usually 15-20 minutes late and tries to sneak in…unsuccessfully. I think the next time he comes in late, I’m gonna pop him in the face. Just kidding…but really, I would like to.

Finally, class was done and I was off to the library to do some study. It was a success…I checked Facebook…talked to some friends…wrote out a few postcards…the usual business. Oh yeah…I posted some discussion commentaries for my finance class and read the textbook. Gotcha! I’m sure my Mother was beginning to freak out a bit. I can hear her telling me to stop my procrastinating…but I don’t think procrastination ever leaves you.

Tonight soccer was at quarter to 5. In the beginning of the semester, the international office held a bowling night for all the new students. I bowled with Kayla, Michael and a girl from China…can’t remember her name. Anyways, I saw Michael around campus a few days ago and he asked if I would play on his soccer team because they needed more girls, so I told him to sign me up!

Later, in our Perspectives tute, I got a text from Wilko asking if any of us girls would be able to play on his team, so Lisa & Kelly signed up with him. We would be pushing it again…soccer would be done around 5:30 and we were supposed to play on a team for College Trivia Night at UniBar at 6:00. We brought some extra clothes down to change into, but ended up getting a whole lot sweatier than planned on so grabbed a ride with Alex up to Orion to shower & get ready.

We made it to Trivia just in time…I think we ran down Orion Hill in about 5 minutes! Everyone was able to get free drinks and nibblets for a bit because the new owners of the accommodation on campus were hosting Trivia Night. They even had bought Domino’s Pizza for everyone.

Our team was called Todd’s Ladies and consisted of Todd the American & Todd the Aussie, and Kelly, Lisa and me as their Ladies. We had 3 sheets to be filled out naming all of the 50 States…easy-peasy, Sites of Olympic Games…kinda hard, but Aussie Todd used a sports book for help, and Film of the Year which was really hard. We filled those out as we waited for everyone to get done with their food and sit down. There were 6 categories, each with 10 questions to answer.

Some of the questions were frustrating because someone would say the correct answer, but we usually ended up going with a different one that someone had said. The music category was a let down as well. It was kinda bad that we didn’t know a few of the country songs…we recognized them, but had no idea who sang them…we even missed a Garth Brooks song! After a while it started to get pretty long because the mike wasn’t working and people were talking loud, but overall it was pretty fun. A nice break from the usual hanging out at Orion, watching movies and cooking dinner. Someone said we ended up coming in 4^th out of 20 teams, but I am pretty sure that is not right….maybe 14^th out of 20.

Late Night Beach Exploration

Tuesday was another full day of classes. I got a lot of work done in the library between my lectures and tutorials, so that was pretty awesome. Before leaving I saw Mark, who needed another girl to play on their basketball team, so I signed on right away. I was pretty pumped because I was originally supposed to play, but thought the team was full. It was going to be a bit of a hassle though…I got tickets to go to a NAIDOC [National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committe] dinner at 7:00 with the Girls and the game was from 6-6:30. Oh well…I really wanted to play!

Basketball was really fun…the girls on the other team were kinda girly and not that good, so I schooled them. Someone had to do it. Though I felt kinda bad stealing the ball from them and massively blocking one of their lay-ups…but it was awesome! We ended up beating The Boys’ team…by a lot. Wilko ended up getting a pretty sweet black eye from Hoarey’s elbow.

I caught a ride up with Dario, Mark, & Alana to Orion, had a 5 minute shower and ran down Orion Hill to the Zest Function Room at UniBar for the dinner. I was just in time! They were just beginning to serve the entrée...fresh damper served with cherry tomatoes, camembert cheese and grilled mushrooms and onions. I didn’t think it was too appetizing…kinda slimy. The main course was really, really good. On the menu was Mixed Vegetables (squash, pumpkin, etc), Crocodile & Potato soup in a tortilla shell, Roo Diane: a kangaroo steak served with a creamy mushroom & onion sauce, Grilled Barramundi: a type of fish covered in plum blossom sauce, a Vegetable Bake with grilled polenta and macadamia pesto and cold pasta salads with onions, tomatoes, and carrots. Dessert was a tropical fruit salad served with wattle seed ice cream over the top. Everything was really good, especially the Barramundi. There also had coffee and tea for everyone…I definitely took advantage of the coffee. Lately, I have had quite the obsession with the drink…just can’t get enough coffee…with heaps of sugar and cream of course! They also had an indigenous art exposition, an auction of donated items, a raffle, door prizes, and live bands after dinner.

We checked out before the bands started. Bowzer, James, Sam, and Gemma picked Kelly, Lisa, & I up at the bus stop in front of UniBar. We were off on a late-night beach exploration. First we had to pick up Jimmy before heading to the first location. All the roads around Lismore are quite curvy, but the people around here show no mercy…they keep on the gas…and kill my stomach at the same time! Bowzer & Company are always off on these crazy adventures, finding secluded beaches or laying out on air mattresses on lakes watching the stars and hanging out. May sound kinda creepy, but we have hung out with Bowzer before & he checked out alright. The Girls and I had planned to go out with them a few different times, but it never ended up working out until now.

The first place was in Murwillumbah. It was a caravan park (camping grounds) that was along the beach. We followed a trail up to a lookout point, where we laid against the side of the hill, looking at stars. Since we were not near a city, the stars were really bright! I think I saw about 20 shooting stars while we were there. It was kinda scary though because if you fell down the hill, you would drop off into a lot of rocks and eventually into the ocean. Out in the water you could see The Three Sisters’ Rocks, a group of 3 massive rocks. We tried taking a few pictures before heading farther down along the narrow, narrow path. It took us to a quarry of flat rocks that jutted out into the ocean. It was really awesome standing there, having the ocean on three sides of you and being able to feel the water mist up onto your face. It started getting cold so we hiked back to the cars and onto the second stop of the night.

The next mission was to try floating an air mattress on the lake in Lennox Heads to look out at the stars. We were also going to try fitting all 8 of us on 2 air mattresses. Before we left Uni, we packed a bag with a change of clothes in case we fell in. The first one started sinking after Bowzer, James, Kelly, and Gemma were on because there was a hole in the side. Bowzer was determined to make this operation work so we went back to the car, filled the hole with a patch and pumped up the second air mattress. We didn’t end up using both mattresses cause it was getting really cold and windy and a few of us were too chicken to try it out. Maybe another time when it was warmer and you could actually see the area around you.

It was hard work trying to get everything to work out, so before heading home we made a third and final stop at Mackers [McDonald’s] for some food. We ended up getting home to Orion sometime around 3:30 am…probably didn’t actually fall asleep until sometime around 4:00. I was real excited and looking forward to class at 9:00 am…Not!

A Low-Key Weekend

This weekend was pretty boring. Not very much was going on…I attempted to get caught up on homework…mission was aborted. Friday consisted of sleeping in, calling home, cleaning my room, and going for a run…nothing overly exciting. However, for dinner, Lisa, Kelly, & Sam (Lisa’s Aussie roommate) came over to make tomato, avocado, & cheese sandwiches…that was pretty exciting. Saturday was pretty low-key as well…it seemed like Orion was empty because most people were gone for Splendor in the Grass.

Splendor is very similar to Country Fest or Rock Fest. It is held in fields just outside Byron Bay, but instead of one main stage there are probably 6 or 7 different stages throughout the festival grounds. Tickets have been sold out for a while and originally cost something around $240. A lot of our friends who did not have tickets were going to attempt getting in by 1) jumping the fence, 2) sharing wristbands, or 3) paying the volunteer security guards to let them in. We were thinking about taking our chances to try to get in sometime over the weekend as well, so Saturday night we came up with the Perfect Plan.

We hung out at Canada House for a bit, perfecting our Rock Band skills. Canada House consists of Rob, Gordon, Chris, and Brandon, who are all Canadian and live in a house just off-campus. Brandon had actually just left the week before to head back to Canada.

Back to the Plan…we decided to leave Lismore around 7 pm, once Gord was done with work at The Square on Sunday night, and attempt to jump the fence. We found some cushions & a piece of carpet to put over the fence [the top was supposedly barbed-wire] and were ready to go.

Sunday was spent catching up on homework and taking a little snoozer. We got ready and headed to Canada House around 6 to keep working on the Rock Bank skills, but when it came time to leave for Byron, I backed out. I decided not to go because it didn’t seem very likely that we would be able to get in. I also heard a lot of horror stories about people getting caught while jumping and getting slapped with a fine for a couple hundred dollars…didn’t want to sign up for that!

Lisa & Kelly ended up going with Rob & Gord and got in! Their first attempt over the fence didn’t go so well…they got kicked out…but ended up sneaking in through the fence a little way down and made it just in time to see the second half of the last act. I’m sure they had a good time, but I was content watching Ocean’s 13 and getting to bed early.

The Richmond

Last night was one of the best sleeps I have had since arriving. I was so wiped out from camping that I just fell into bed after supper. I tried sleeping in as best as I could, but was up around 8:00, rip-roaring, ready to go! This was definitely a good thing because I was able to pop down to the laundry room to wash all my smelly, dirty clothes before anyone else got to the machines. People like to throw the wet clothes from the washers to the tops of the dryer as soon as the machine stops so they can get their clothes in. Very Annoying. But not today…I was able to get in, get my clothes clean, and get out before anyone came around. Success! The rest of the day was spent going for a run, hanging out, and reading some online articles for my finance class.

Since today was Thursday, we had a beach volleyball game down at the Oval. It is part of the social sports on campus and is coed. Our team, The Baywatchers, includes me, Lisa (Stout), Shawn (Scranton), Vera (Norway), Cathy (Norway), Jay (Aussie), Karoline (Austria), Jess (Canadian), Emily (Aussie), and Todd (Boston). All of us on the team live on Orion College, which makes it pretty easy to round everyone up for our games which are usually from 4-6 pm. After we won our game tonight [we are currently 2-0], I hurried back up to Orion to shower and get ready to go out.

For dinner, a bunch of us [Brandon, Alana, Jackie, Sabrina, Lisa, Becca, Kelly, Katrina, Todd, & Karoline] were heading downtown to meet up with Tobin at The Richmond. Though we were a little late (15 minutes) getting down there on the Campus Safety Shuttle, Tobin was never showed up. [Later we found out his list of excuses…oh well] We had a pretty fun dinner though…it was nice to talk and continue getting to know everyone from the Meebunn-bia trip. Since we didn’t have a reservation, we ended up sitting outside on the patio…it was a bit chilly, but there was a warm fireplace next to our table that helped warm us up. I ordered a chai latte with wedges to share with everyone. It’s strange because the wedges were served with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. The chili sauce is used on almost anything you order…Aussies eat it like Americans eat ketchup. We hung around for a while talking before calling up a Maxi Taxi to carry us home. It fit all 11 of us and cost about $1/person.

When we got back the Rec Deck was full of people. There was a Going Away Party for a couple of British girls who were finally going home from Semester One. It was awesome because I met up with Sarah from UWEC who is here for 3 weeks visiting her Aussie boyfriend, Arlo. We didn’t hang up there too long though because Joshy, a College Assistant (CA), came to kick all of us out. There is a 10:00pm curfew for parties in case other students are studying or trying to go to sleep.

Lisa, Kelly, & I went back to 13C to hang out and chit chat for a bit before heading to bed. We were trying to figure out a plan for Splendor in the Grass, a music festival in Byron Bay, which was this coming weekend. Lisa had an urge for pop and chocolate, so we ended up driving to a petro station to fill her cravings. Peta, Lisa’s Aussie roommate, came with and let her drive downtown, which actually went pretty well.

I’m still alive...and heading to bed!