i feel home...

Australia seems just as much like Home as my real Home does. However, there are a few things I miss about the States...
1. hulu.com- the website to watch TV shows if you missed them on TV. I'm falling behind on House... Add netflix to this category as well.
2. pandora internet radio- pandora is perfect for doing homework to, or pretty much anything. However, 8tracks.com is a decent substitute.
3. Cheez-Its- enough said.
4. My car, Patrick the Passat- I miss the freedom of having a car. Even if I didn't go many places, knowing that I could was nice.
5. Free Laundry- DLC laundry is only $1 for the washer and $1 for the dryer, so it's actually not a big deal, but laundry at Marist is FREE.
6. Stick Deodorant- everyone here seems to use spray deodorant and I can't find anything other than that. Spray deodorant tickles me.
7. Skippy Peanut Butter- The main peanut butter brand here is Kraft. Not the same as Skippy. Not even close.
8. Bananas- at 93 cents a pound, bananas are the least expensive fruit in the States. Due to the flooding in Queensland a few years back, bananas are ridiculously expensive and do not taste the same.
9. Cheese- yes, they have cheese here. It's called Tasty Cheese. It is indeed tasty, but I wish I could find some cheddar or mozzarella. I found American Cheese- here it's called "Processed Cheese"....
10. Target- now I know that they do actually have Target here, but it's so very different. It's just a tease.

I absolutely love it here, but I do miss a few things. I guess I also miss my family.

Just call me a GLOBAL LEADER.
Macquarie University has a program called the Global Leadership Program. International students can participate in this program for the time they are here, and leave with a certificate and something nifty to put on their resume.

The program entails attending 5 different colloquium that we get to chose ourselves, and one Distinguished Speaker Service in Sydney. The Distinguished Speaker Service was a few weeks ago. We listened to someone in Australian government talk for a while, when in reality she was just using this as a way to receive votes from the younger population. I stopped listening at that point because I don't vote in Australia and I had no idea what she was talking about.

DLC Presents: The Sound of a Musical
Dunmore Lang College puts on a musical each year. This year was an adaption of The Sound of Music. Our musical, was a musical about DLC putting on a musical. It was really clever and witty. I played the part of a nun. Our nun costumes were large black trash bags and black pillow cases with a little white fabric sewed to the top. Extremely realistic. If I find photographs I will absolutely share them.

Parents and friends showed up to watch the musical. It went off without a problem at all. It was great. Then we had our after party, which was also fantastic. The end.

Coldplay. Music geniuses. 
The new Coldplay album came out last week. It's wonderful. Every single song. Listen to it.

I bought it on iTunes because my iTunes account is the American one, which is way cheaper than the Australian one and any Australian stores. It still hasn't showed up on my bill, so uh, whatever!

Travelling the World...
...at least New Zealand. I am beginning to plan my trip to New Zealand for after exams! Some friends of mine from DLC and I will be leaving for New Zealand on December 2 for about 5 days. I have a rough itinerary planned out, nothing is set in stone though. I'm so excited, if everything works out the way we're planning it I'll get to swim with seals and go bungee jumping! I certainly hope so.

Happy Birthday! ...and Thanksgiving, and anniversary, and Merry Christmas.
I sent my dad's birthday card in a package with almost all of the cards I will need to mail home before I get there. The package included Dad's birthday card, Michael's birthday card, Julia's birthday card, Sara's birthday card, Devon's birthday card, a Thanksgiving Day card and present, an anniversary card for my parents, and a Merry Christmas card! Did you know they add an extra $9 just to send something over 300 grams to the United States? Overall it wasn't as much money as I thought it would be, and it got there quickly, but that just seems silly to me.

Never Going Home.
As many people know, I will not be returning to the states until January. I have started planning my month travelling around Australia and I can't wait to see more of this wonderful place. I only have up to mid December planned out so far, as well as Christmas and New Years. For Christmas I will hopefully be doing Charity work in Sydney with the Wayside Chapel, but I have to sign up on December 5th, and I hear spots get filled quickly!

I will be spending New Years with the one and only, Rhys Alan Hobbs, which will be fun. I think we'll go into the city and see the fireworks that I keep hearing so much about, but it's really up to Rhys what we do.


If you have any suggestions on where I should travel or what I should do let me know! I'm up for any adventure I can do.

Cheers, mate!

sorry, i am alive.

What I've been doing instead of updating my blog:
-Uni
-Babysitting
-Conception Day (see description below)
-Spring Break
           -Road Trip! up the coast
           -Cairns!
                  -jumping out of a plane
                  -finding Nemo(s)
-Weekend in the Boonies
           -kangaroos!
-Uni
-Babysitting, for the last time ever, for that family at least.
-Searching for a new job
-Uni

So I mean, I've been pretty busy.

Conception Day: Hello hangover, fancy meeting you at noon?
Conception Day is the day Macquarie University was founded. The Uni has a big music festival with actually well known artists for only $10. It was a lot of fun.

Dunmore Lang College has it's own tradition. On conception day, your RAs wake you up around 5:30 am. And then you start drinking. Heavily. Each floor started out together with their own floor punch, and then we had breakfast, and shortly after the bouncing castles showed up. For lunch there was a BBQ and Beers. Some people took naps after lunch, others headed over to Uni for the music, I had to go to a doctors appointment. That said, I missed out on some of the fun, but not too much! :-).

That weekend started our two week break!
We left college with 10 of us in three cars.

Originally we thought we'd have to squish the three of us in Alison's toy car. Luckily another car found room. But we did miss Jessie :-(

The first day we drove from Sydney to Port Macquarie, about 6 hours north on the coast, and stayed with Craig, on of the drivers on the road trip. His family was so nice. They made us a delicious dinner, that we ate without breathing, and we all had a place to sleep. Interesting fact: a lot of Australian's have random mattresses laying around their house. Convenient when 10 Uni students show up at your house for the evening... 

The next day we spent some time at a beach in Port Macquarie, and then left for our next destination. We stopped at Coffs Harbour, another 2 hours north, to pick up three others who were joining us for the rest of the road trip, and then continued to MacLean. We stayed at Clare's house (again, on mattresses) that night. The next day we went to the Yamba beaches for a little and then left for Byron Bay. Byron was amazing. We saw dolphins in the water, the town was really cute, and the beach was beautiful. We stayed at our first hostel that night, not too bad, but far from the nice home cooked meals of the two nights prior.

After Byron Bay we left for the Gold Coast and checked in at our new hostel. Once again, not glamorous but for $20 a night I'll take it. We were at the Gold Coast for 4 days, so we got to see a lot, even though there really isn't much to see there... I wouldn't go as far as to call it the Jersey Shore of Australia, but definitely a step away from the beaches we had been at the days before. 

There was a ride called the Slingshot at the Gold Coast, here is a video of Jessie and I on it. 

On Sunday we split up into the three groups doing different things for break. One was going back to Sydney, One was going to New Zealand, and Molly, Jessie, Eric, Colin, and I were headed to Cairns Australia. The five of us left Monday morning at 8:10 A.M. I was the only one not sitting with everyone else, and was lucky enough to be in the middle seat in the middle aisle of the plane. Surrounded by strangers. Needless to say, I was glad it was a fairly short flight. 

We checked into our Hostel right when we got there, it was really nice, and air conditioned. That first day we didn't do much, we walked around the city which was very cute, and then went to bed early to prepare ourselves for sky diving the next morning...

14,000 feet. 

Imagine being 14,000 feet in the air. And then imagine jumping to the ground. Well, that's what we did.

Sky diving was the greatest thing I have ever done. It was so much fun. Everyone's first question is "Weren't you scared?" and well, not really. It was nerve wracking. The flight up was a little unnerving, but that was more because we were in a very little plane, not because I was about to jump out of it. The way I saw it was you never talk to someone who just went sky diving who hated it. No one lands thinking, "well, that was a waste of time." So no, I wasn't scared. 

When you jump from 14,000 feet you are in free fall for anywhere between 60 and 75 seconds, and then you float down for around 5 minutes when the parachute opens. The view is unreal. Yeah everyone has seen birds eye views before, but have you ever BEEN the bird? It's completely different way of seeing the world. A way that I cannot wait to see again.

Option B: when Option A fails.

On Wednesday we went snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef! We started the day off bright and early and took a two hour boat ride out to the first Reef location. Anyone that has ever gone on a Whale Watch with me (sorry family) knows I don't do too well on boats. I took Option A: the ginger tablets as soon as I got on the boat and spend the majority of the first two hours laying down on the front of the boat. I did very well, and couldn't wait to get into the water and off of that miserable boat. I threw my flippers and mask on and embraced the water. I was amazing. The coral, the fish, everything. We say a sting ray! And the most fantastic colored fish in the world.

...And then all of a sudden I wasn't feeling too hot. Eric and I were going to go back to the boat to have some water, so he went to tell the others where we were going. At that point there was no denying it, I was going to need Option B: the barf bag. Unfortunately, there was not enough time. Eric was coming back over to go to the boat and I quickly told him to stay away, and puked while still in the water. For those of you who are wondering, yes it is very difficult to tread water and throw up at the same time, and no, I did not throw up into my snorkel. Eric and I then went back, avoiding the "puke area", I grabbed a real Option B and took up camp back on the front of the boat. Covered in everyone's towels.

After that I was feeling much better and once again embraced the water when we arrived at the second Reef location. I might be biased, but I think this one was MUCH better. 

See, look how happy I am!

At this location I even found Nemo! A couple of him, actually.

Unfortunately, our time in Cairns came to an end and we headed back to Sydney.

The Boonies

Jessie and I traveled out to the Boonies. One of her friends parents live here! They were unbelievably nice! Home cooked meals for another three days, and they had two cats to play with! We went to the Blue Mountains the first day we were there and went for a little hike. The second day we went to a Wildlife Park and then for a drive down the South Coast. The Wildlife Parks are always my favorite. We got to feed kangaroos, and play with koalas! 

This goose bit me. Rude.

After our weekend in the Boonies Jessie and I came back to college and I'm pretty sure I slept for two days straight.

I had an amazing Spring Break with amazing people. I'm lucky to have such great friends.

Coconut Shampoo

The family I babysat for has moved, and I couldn't be happier. When I first started babysitting for them, the kids were great and I thought I was lucky. After a week or two I realized I was horribly wrong. The kids were dirty, the house was dirty, the kids were mean, I could go on. What really did it for me was when they all had lice. All three children had lice. I was very clearly disgusted. Remembering a trick from summer camp, I bought coconut shampoo and conditioner, because according to urban myth or something, lice don't like coconut oil. This was preventative measures for me, and I'm proud to say I am still lice free. 

Although I miss the weekly income, I wouldn't go back to that family. Lucky for me they liked me though! And she was able to get me another job with the family right next door. I haven't met them yet, but I have high hopes for these kids being better. Cleaner, at least. 

I'll update far more frequently!

Cheers, mate!

i'm sure you could spare a kangaroo or two for me, no?

Common Misconceptions about Australia:
1. Everyone drinks Fosters. In fact, no one drinks Fosters.
2. The toilets flush the other way. When you flush the toilet the water just kind of collapses into the bowl. However, when you drain water from a sink or tub it does go the other way. Thrilling.
3. Australia is small enough to see everything in one trip. False. Australia is pretty much the size of the States.
4. Everywhere is walking distance to a beach. See above, Australia is quite large. There are a lot of beaches, but just like everywhere else, there is also mainland.
5. Kangaroos are everywhere. Kangaroos do not hop around downtown Sydney and go out to the Cross with you. They just don't.

Do we look like tourists? Yes.
On Sunday morning a few of us from DLC woke up at 6am (not fun) to go on a trip to the Blue Mountains (fun). We went with a tour group with about 19 people total on it, seven of them from DLC. It was probably the greatest day of my life.

We started off at Featherdale Wildlife Park. We got to pet a Koala Bear, feed Kangaroos and Wallabies, and see tons of animals. We were only there for a little over an hour but I could have easily stayed there the entire day. It was magnificent.

Koalas look like the cutest old men in the world. He could not have been happier to just sit there eating eucalyptus while the tourists fawned over him. 

After playing with the Koalas we went to play with the Kangaroos and Wallabies. For one dollar we got an ice cream come full of food to give them. It was probably the greatest dollar I ever spent. 

What a model..

Baby Kangaroo still in the pouch! I got to feed the little guy!

Penguin, I want you.

Eager much?

He was my favorite I think.

After Featherdale we left for the Blue Mountains. We got to see beautiful views and go on some "Bush Walks" as they say.

Jessie and I, still a bit tired.

The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze from the evaporating eucalyptus. Who knew?

The three sisters. There are many different versions of the Aboriginal story of the three sisters. The most commonly known is that there were three sisters from the Katoomba tribe. They fell in love with three men from a neighboring tribe, which was not allowed. The three men tried to capture the sisters because they too loved the girls. This caused an epic battle between the tribes. An elder witch doctor turned the sisters into stone so they could survive the battle. However the witch doctor died in the battle, leaving the three sisters trapped in stone until another witch doctor can turn them back into the three beautiful Aboriginal daughters.

Three sisters, eh? There are three sisters in my family...

Lindsey, Michelle, Jessie, and I on our way to the base of Katoomba Falls.

Andrea, Kathryn, Lindsey, Jessie, me, Lucy, and Michelle- The seven from DLC brave enough to wake up at 6am on a Sunday morning.

Me and Lucy! Most adorable person in the world.

The trip to the Blue Mountains was so much fun, I can't even describe it. I got a stuffed Koala bear at the gift shop who I named Cooper, he's precious. 

Babysitter of the Year.

My babysitting job has its drawbacks, but I honestly do enjoy it. Sometimes the kids are difficult to handle and they enjoy pushing my buttons, but at the end of the day they are truly good kids.

Ryan age 9, Jade age 5, and Tara age 7

As much as I complain about them sometimes I will really miss them when we have to say goodbye. They also are huge fans of my pizza, and that's always a confidence booster.

You know it's Wednesday when...

Aly me and Jessie. Perfect.

Even though Rhys was not able to make it to DLC this Wednesday, we still have a good time. His presence was missed though. At the end of the night at least 5 people had taken my camera to take pictures, DLC students spent the majority of the night dancing on stage, and there were 195 pictures on my camera, all similar to this one. Doesn't get much better. Unless, of course, Rhys shows up...

Why cats hate kids:

The family I babysit for has two cats, Tiger and Zee. Tiger is, without a doubt, the most apathetic cat in the world. The kids torture these animals and Tiger takes it all in. I have a few examples of why cats hate kids.

"Look! I can make Tiger smile!"

Tiger on the Tire Swing...

Stay tuned for more "Why cats hate Kids", I'm sure there will be plenty.

Uni:

Classes are going well, not much to report. I have a couple assignments due this coming week, so I'll be hard at work... 

Spring Break... In September?

Our two week spring break is coming up! Two weeks from today is when it starts. We're starting to plan everything out and it's getting so exciting! More news to come.

Irene:

I hope all the damage done by Irene is able to be fixed easily, I looked at pictures of camp and it looks pretty bad. Glad my house has power again, I'm sure the cats were getting concerned.

Well that's it! Cheers, mate!

take a lesson from down under...

Here's a short list of things that Australia does better than home:
1. The drinking age is 18. Enough said.
2. There are no pennies. Your total gets rounded either down or up to the closest 5 cents.
3. The money is made with plastic so it lasts longer. Their bills are also colorful.
4. All lectures are recorded. You know, in case you want to listen to it again, or something...
5. Tax is included in all prices. The price written on the tag is the price you pay.
6. They use the metric system. It's a little pathetic that we don't yet in the States.
7. TimTams. The greatest cookies in the entire world.
8. Minimum wage is around $16 an hour.
9. Public transportation is much more accessible and easy to understand.
10. AFL. Aussie rules football is much more entertaining than American football.
           10a. The USA has an AFL team... and we beat South Africa last week. Who knew?

Wednesday Already?
The most precious picture of the night award goes to:

Me and Lindsay. Too adorable.

Dunmore Lang College gets Classy... Kind of.

Friday night was the night of the Ball! We left college at around 5:30 to our unknown destination. We took a ferry to get to the venue for dinner. It was beautiful, and it had an open bar. We had a delicious three course dinner and then the most spectacular desert in the entire world.

Our table! Goal of the night: Finish the drinks on the table before they bring you refills. More difficult than you would imagine...

Me and Andrea on the ferry to the Ball. Excuse the red eyes...

There was also a photo booth with the classic strip of printed pictures. There were some excellent ones taken, I'll be sure to get copies of them. 

After the Ball we had our after party at the Cargo Bar in the city. This is where the classy level seemed to drop a bit, but we still had a fun time. In fact, some of us might have had too much fun...

Eric, Saturday afternoon, still in his suit after sleeping in the common room. 

USA Australian Football League Team?

On Sunday Aly, Jessie, Tom, Collin, Jarryd, and I went to a Sydney Swans footy game. The game was at the arena the Olympics were held in. So unbelievably awesome. When we walked in a different game was ending. After about 30 seconds we realized it was USA versus South Africa. USA has an AFL team? apparently, and they're good. well, they beat South Africa. After the game we got to take a picture with one of the players on the US team.

However, we think he might not really be American... Pretty sure he had an Aussie accent.

The Olympic stadium was beautiful. And giant, even though it has been slightly remodeled after the Olympics and many of the seats have been removed. The Swans were behind for the majority of the game, but they pulled through and beat the Saints!

Me Jessie Jarryd Collin Tom and Aly

Adorable.

Academia. 

BBE101- Evolution and Human Behavior.

Three hours of lectures and a two hour practical. But it's interesting. 

ENGL106- Literature and the Screen

We watch movies and then talk about them. Sometimes we read. I like it.

ANTH140- Myth in the Ancient World

According to one myth, Zeus ate his wife to prevent her from having children that may or may not try to overthrow him, but then he felt guilty and gave birth to Athena, the goddess of thought, from his head...

PHIS131- Mind, Meaning, and Metaphysics

A class on thinking. Thrilling. But actually, I like it a lot.

the metric system...

This past week has been amazing. It started on Sunday with my 20th birthday! It was a fairly laid back birthday but one of the best, it lasted about 38 hours (24 hours in a day + 14 hour time difference).

Hanne brought be a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a box of TimTams, and a bag of Twistys! 

Elliott sent me tulips, a bottle of wine, and a fantastic Teddy bear. It was VERY nice to walk out of reception carrying my flowers and gift.

Australian to American translation of Hanne's gifts:

TimTams- The most delicious cookies you will ever eat. 

Twistys- Similar to Cheetos, but better, obviously.

My birthday is always my favorite day of the year, but this year it was particularly extraordinary. The friends I have made here have already become some of my closest friends and they made sure I had a wonderful day.  I went to get my mail and left with five birthday cards from back home, one from a family friend, one from my parents, one from my sisters, one from Andrew, and one from Kelly! In true Glassman family tradition, all of the cards were cat cards.

Overall, my birthday was, and still is, my favorite day of the year.

THERE IS SAND IN MY MOUTH. Wednesday night.

Rhys Alan Hobbs graced the residents of Dunmore Lang College on Wednesday night with his presence. As usual, he was the life of the party- until he got lost and then I got lost and eventually we each went to our separate homes, unaware of where each other were. However, before we lost each other it was an extremely enjoyable evening, with some winning photographs to prove it.

This one is cute, but my personal favorite:

The winning text message of the night goes to "There is sand in my mouth." sent by me to Aly. That was all it said, no explanation, nothing. Just making her aware that there was, in fact, sand in my mouth. For those of you who haven't heard the story (Mom and Dad), don't worry, I only fell face first jumping over a fence that I didn't actually need to jump over, and into a pit of dirt and sand. Moral of the story: I'm not coordinated.

TOGA NIGHT. Ubar Thursday night.

Something that still baffles my mind- there is a bar ON CAMPUS. The Ubar (University Bar) is so very conveniently located on campus, I can see it from some of my tutorials. Last Thursday night was Toga Night at Ubar, so those of us who wanted to go dressed ourselves in bed sheets and walked to campus. Twenty minutes later we walked back to College because it was really crowded at Ubar and we weren't having that much fun. Besides, hanging out in the common room in my pajamas is much more fun than wearing a bed sheet. However, Aly, Jessie, and I looked quite good in our Togas: 

Me, Aly, and Jessie

ALUMINUM VS. ALUMINIUM. Saturday night babysitting.

I got myself a job as a nanny for a family who lives a few train stops away. There are three kids, Ryan, 9, Tara, 7, and Jade, 5. These kids are fantastic, and they are so amazed that I am American. Every question the first time I met them was about America and if we had certain things and how we said certain things. I brought each of them a one dollar American bill because in Australia there are no dollar bills, just dollar coins (and two dollar coins, which I find strange). They could not have been more excited to have a piece of American money. They held onto them all night and before bed put them some place special. 

I will be their Nanny on Monday and Tuesday afternoons from 3:00-6:00ish. I have to take the 2:08 train to Artarmon, and I will normally take the 6:41 train back, so it's a bit longer but I don't care, the kids are great, and so is their mom. They also have two cats, and I mean, can't get much better than that...

14k, NOT IN MY WAY. Sunday 14 August, 2011. 

The City2Surf race in Sydney is one of the biggest fundraising races around the globe. It is a race that starts in Sydney (CITY) and ends at Bondi Beach (SURF). The race totals 14k, for those of us not on the metric system yet it's about 8.6 miles. A few of us from DLC decided to go in the walking group, which we were told had 20,000 people entered in it- and that was JUST the walking group. 

The sea of people while coming down the hill at Kings Cross.

14k's later we were done! Walking from Sydney to Bondi was an excellent way to see more of Sydney than I had seen thus far.

Clare, Collin, Drew, Jessie, and I after we finished!

We all got medals for completing it!

The line to get on the bus to get on the train to then switch trains to get home. It took us longer to get home using public transportation than it did to walk to Bondi.

SUPER NANNY, MY IDOL.

I started my Nanny job for real on Monday and went back on Tuesday for day two. The kids are fantastic! Since I wasn't able to go to camp this year, taking care of kids is something I really missed, and these three are the best I could have asked for, I got very lucky. And it doesn't hurt that minimum wage here is close to $20 an hour.....

AB BLAST.

A couple of us from DLC went to the ab blast class at the gym tonight. I hurt. End of story.

I am having more fun here then I could have imagined. Next post I might even talk about my classes at uni. Maybe. 

old versus new experiences

Over the past two weeks I have noticed that my old experiences have come in handy with some of the things that I do here... just with a twist. Here are some examples.

1. OLD- waking up at 9:22 for a 9:30 class. NEW- breakfast at DLC ends at 9:30.
2. OLD- leaving the gas tank empty when Dad would be driving the car next. NEW- somehow managing a free bus ride from the city to the entrance of Dunmore Lang College, even though the bus wasn't planning on going to North Ryde.
3. OLD- clipping coupons to go grocery shopping. NEW- printing free drink vouchers every Wednesday night.
4. OLD- being able to take super quick showers because hot water runs out at camp. NEW- our showers have four minute timers.
and lastly, my personal favorite:
5. OLD- chasing the cats back inside. NEW- chasing a bird out of our dorm....

So it's pretty easy to see how the talents that I mastered from life back in the States have helped me on my Australian adventure.
Cheers, mate!

unreal. absolutely unreal.

These past two weeks have been nothing less that spectacular. The first few days I was lucky enough to stay with my friend from Marist, Rhys. It was an excellent way to ease into life in Australia. Then I arrived at Dunmore Lang College, where I am living while attending Macquarie University.

Orientation Week at DLC was full of fun and alcohol. On Tuesday we also had a scavenger hunt in the city of Sydney. The dares and challenges were really funny and some of them really embarrassing... At the end of the week we went on a pub crawl in Sydney to four different pubs.

Some of us went to Toranga Zoo on Saturday:

Just a snapshot of how fantastic this place is. My birthday is this Sunday 7 August! My address here is:
Hallie Glassman

Dunmore Lang College

130-134 Herring Road

North Ryde, NSW 2113

Australia

Cheers!