April 27

I MOVED!!!! I’m so excited about being in my new place! It’s in Bondi Junction which I am quickly becoming obsessed with. And it’s so close to Jenna, that now it only takes me 20 minutes to get to her rather than an hour and 20 minutes! The only downside is that it will take a little longer to get to school but that’s it. I have my own room and my own BIG bed; I love it! The woman I live with is really cool. I think she’s a party girl on the weekends because she doesn’t get up before noon! I’M not even that bad anymore!! But she’s sooo sweet and so nice, and a very eccentric and dynamic person. The guy who lives here is the same age as her and he describes himself as “a little flamboyant.” I have yet to meet him but I’m very excited about it. This sounds like it’s going to be a fun house!!

For mommy and anyone else who might want it, here's the address:
131 Ebley St
Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Australia

Living over here is so convenient. Jenna and I went out last night for a friend’s birthday, we took the train back to the Junction and we were so tired that she was able to just crash at my place. (She is currently still sleeping). It’s really nice to be able to do that. Saves money on transportation too!

Yesterday was the first day in 2 weeks that it didn’t rain! Ya right Australia is in a drought! They say this is the weird year of weather they have ever had… GREAT!! So on this one last day of summer Jenna, Liz and I went to….. THE HORSE RACES!!! It was such a crazy experience. We had to get dressed up in fancy attire at noon. I’m talking high heels, hair-do’s and all. When we got there, they had complementary Clinique makeovers! So we all got our hair done. I felt like a princess. When we finally made our way inside, there were crowds of people placing bets. So the 3 of us, who knew nothing about what we were doing, bet on some horses to make sure we got the full experience! Of course we all lost, but at least we had fun doing it! It was kind of weird to be surrounded by such fancy people at a horse race. I felt like I was in the 1920’s or something. All the women had these huge feathers and hats on their heads and the men were in ridiculous looking striped suits. It was quite the scene. Anyway, I really enjoyed that!

Friday was a national holiday called ANZAC day. It’s kind of like our Memorial or Veterans Day except with a lot more drinking and gambling. It’s the one day out of the year that it is legal to play a gambling game called 2 Up. It’s basically like flipping coins and calling heads or tails but with money. I was too busy moving to see this extravaganza but I hear it’s really crazy. Then they have all different kind of sporting matches throughout the day which is some big tribute to the Army. I had to watch a game for one of my classes but I didn’t find it much different than any other game.

So I got my first paper back the other day… and for the first time in my college career, I got a D!!! If you don’t remember me telling you how impossible it is to get good grades, here is a perfect example coming from a straight A student. Australian universities are highly competitive and only 4% receive high distinction. So the good news is that it would transfer back to UT as only a B but it was still a slap to the face none the less.

I can’t think of anything else noteworthy right now so I should probably go wake Jenna up. I’ll be posting more pictures soon!!!

XOXO

April 20

It’s Sunday morning and I’m delaying the start of my essay writing and test studying. I have my first test on Tuesday and I’m very scared. I’ve heard from endless people that if you’re a straight A student in America, you will get C’s in Australia. The tests and grading system is that much harder. So I’ll let you know how that goes.

This past week has been mostly rainy. The summer is officially gone and my warm clothing has officially come out. You will all be interested to hear that I went to a lyrical class at the Sydney Dance Company studios on Monday. It kicked my ass and reinforced the fact that I’m so incredibly out of shape. I felt the repercussions of it all the way through Thursday. But I bought a 5 class card so I’m going to try to go every week. It felt good to be back in the studio.

On Thursday, I volunteered to speak at an exchange fair to people from Sydney thinking of studying overseas. I decked myself out in Texas gear, whipped out a jersey, and sported my Longhorn bag. I spent the next 4 hours answering questions about the abroad experience and Texas in general. By the end of the day, I was incredibly homesick. I never realized how much I loved Austin.

Last night was Passover and while I was invited by some random Aussie guy to go to his Seder, I felt a little uncomfortable since I had only met him once. So instead, 15 of my friends had a giant feast in honor of Passover. I even left the balcony door open for Elijah figuring he could just as easily fly in. Then I secretly hid an afikomen and laughed while all the guys ran around trying to find it.

And now I’m sitting here having just called everyone to say hello and I’m dreading having to start studying. So I guess that means today really isn’t different than any other day…

April 14

It’s weird that I have been here for 2 months now. Sometimes it feels like it’s been forever. But I have 3 more months to go and lots to do! This weekend I went to an AFL game (Australian Rules football). But don’t let that fool you because it’s NOTHING like football. It’s more like a violent soccer if you ask me. But it was really cool to watch. The game was at Olympic Park which was where the Sydney Olympics were held. The place was huge! It was also nice because I went with 2 Aussie boys so they could explain everything to me!

The biggest news of the week is that I’m moving to a new place! It’s not that I don’t like it here because I do- the people are really nice. But it’s really out of the way from where my friends are and I end up spending so much time traveling and money on cabs at night. Plus I hate the owners of this place. They impose rules that make me feel like I’m 12 again. (No eating in your room, no guests past 11). So I’m happy to be going in less than 2 weeks! The place I’m moving into is more of like a home stay because it’s an actual house. I’ll be living with a 29 year old woman and a 33 year old gay guy. I get my own room finally and big bed, wahoo!! So I think this is going to give me a whole new experience and I can’t wait.

I’m also looking forward to my trip to Brisbane! I just booked it for the end of May. I’m going to visit one of my best friends from high school who is studying there. Hopefully we’re going to make a day trip to the Gold Coast where there is some good scuba diving!!

I have to say, I’m very jealous of Europe because I walked around the entire city of Sydney today trying to get wireless internet and there’s no such thing. The closest thing I got was in a Starbucks- you could connect but for $6 for half an hour! Absurd. So I’m jealous of all my friends in Europe who can go to any café for internet.

Other than that, nothing too exciting is going on. Hopefully that’ll change soon though. Stay posted :)

April 3

New Zealand is amazing. There isn’t one part of the country that isn’t stunning. Jenna and I went on a 6 day tour of the south island. Our favorite place was Queenstown. It’s known as the adrenaline capital of the world and most of the kids went skydiving and bungee jumping. I choose to go hang gliding which was soooo cool! You basically just run off a mountain and take flight with a massive kite attached to your back. The guide even let me steer. I felt like I was on top of the world. Jenna and I also took a gondola up a mountain and then took a luge ride back down. All I could think of was the movie Cool Runnings. That night in Queenstown, our trip leaders took us to a bar called Minus 5. It’s a bar made 100% of ice. They give you big jackets and boots and gloves. The walls, tables, chairs, cups, everything was made of ice. I had never seen anything like that so it was definitely a cool experience. Speaking of ice, another one of my favorite moments was hiking on a glacier. I always heard in school about that thing called the ice age but it was pretty neat to actually be walking on one.

I would also like to redeem my reputation by saying that I won a hula-hoop competition at a club one night and got a free sweatshirt!!! Those bar and bat mitzvahs really do pay off.

The only downside of the trip was that most of it was spent on a bus. They packed so much into the days that we were constantly on the road. I was up to see the sunrise almost every day. On one of the drives, they took us to see where Lord of the Rings was filmed.

After our tour, Jenna and I went to Wellington to stay with 2 friends from UT who are studying there. We had such a good time together and it was so good seeing them. But it made me really homesick for the first time. :( Speaking of home, what are the chances that I walk onto the tour bus on the first day of the trip and 3 faces from Wilmette are staring back at me. It was such a weird feeling to know someone in the middle of New Zealand let alone kids I went to elementary through high school with! These 3 guys are studying at another university in Australia and booked the exact same trip as me. And I also ran into another Wilmette girl in Queenstown. SMALL WORLD!

Oh yeah, cool story I almost forgot… Jenna and I arrive into NZ and are going through customs when we see this group of old, ugly guys with long hair, a body guard, and hot girlfriends. We immediately knew something was up. So Jenna asks one of them “are you guys like a band or something?” And the guy turns around and shows us his shirt. We look at it blankly not knowing what the hell it meant. Seeing the empty stare, he goes, “we’re Alice Cooper… you know, the one’s playing with Ozzy Ozbourne and Kiss tonight.” It was straight out of a movie. Yet Jenna and I being the young ignorant generation we are, still didn’t recognize them. So Jenna continues with one of the stupidest questions she can think of and says. “oh cool, so do you like what you do?” And his response was, “it’s ok; it’s a job”. So then a minute later we all walk out of baggage claim behind them and all the fans are yelling and taking pictures and asking for autographs. I felt like a celebrity. And also slightly idiotic for still not knowing who they were. We had to go home and google them. Anyway, that was our 5 mins of fame.

Other than that, I can’t think of any other good stories. It was a great trip and now it’s back to the books. Hope to hear from you all soon!