It's only been one week?

Wow, so much has happened in the last week! We had a week of orientation activities called "Flood Week." It wasa lot of fun and the flood week leaders did a great job of keeping everyone busy and involved. We split up into teams and played all kinds of crazy games, like an Amazing Race all over Wollongong, a trivia night, and rock climbing and competed for points all week. We also went to Kiama, a beautiful coastal town for an afternoon. Kiama is known for this blowhole along the coast where the water sprays up really high on a good day. It was a cool trip made complete by a delicious lunch of fish and chips with chicken salt (there are so many chicken flavored things here!). It was a lot of fun and a great way to get to know everyone. I also got to meet my roommate, Soni. She is really nice andhas been so welcoming. She is really great about inviting me to tag along with her and introducing me to her friends. I really appreciate how great she has been, especially for how easy she is making it for me to break out of the "American bubble," and get to know Aussies.

After an exhausting week of orientation activities, I got to go away for the weekend with CIEE. The CIEE coordinators, Waynne and Nicole (Nic), came and picked Justin, the other student here with the program, and me up on Friday morning. We drove down the coast, stopping at a few beautiful places like Kiama,

and arrived at Merry Beach just in time to see a field of kangaroos along the bea

ch! It was so exciting to see them, and they looked so out of place to me! We never quite figured out what a group of kangaroos is called, but it was cool either way.

The next morning we woke up early and had a quick breakfast before we made our way further down the coast to Tilba Tilba

("windy windy") to hike up a sacred mountain to the Aborinals, called Gulaga. We met an Aboriginal woman named Lynn who was our guide. She explained to us about the history of the Aboriginals and their culture. Part of the Black Duck tribe, Lynn explained about the totems

of each tribe and how each

was responsible for protecting their totem. She also told us about some of the names for the mountains and how important it is to respect nature and the environment. As we made our way up the mountain, about two and a half hours, we would stop occasionally as Lynn would explain something new or if heard a lyre bird or a kookaburra nearby.

Once we made it to the top of the mountain, our leader briefed us on the next part of our hike. We were going to go onto the teaching rocks, where the Aboriginals would go to teach their children and pass down traditions or

perform certain rituals. It was an incredible experience to see the massive rock structures and hear the stories associated with them. Some rocks represented men or women, s

ome represented a sacred animal, and some were more abstract representations. One example was three giant rocks stacked on top of each other that represented the past, present and future. They were understood to represent the interconnectedness and balance of all things. Lynn had so much passion for what she was talking about, and you could hear the deep respect in her voice. After snapping a few pictures, we made our way back down the mountain, thinking about everything we had

just

learned.

The next morning, we woke up and packed to go, but as we were getting ready to leave, we noticed that there were tons of colorful parrots everywhere. We decided to feed them and soon had what seemed like hundreds of birds flocking to us. I held out my hands filled with small pieces of bread, and just like that I had three birds on each hand, one climbing up my leg, and another two perched on my shoulders and head. It was incredible to me how tame theses little guys were, and a really fun way to end the trip.

Monday morning was the start of classes, and everyone else was a bit bummed. But being the nerd I am, I was actually excited to start Uni and see what the school system is like here. I'm taking four classes: Introduction to Indigenous Australia, Graphic Design, International Trade and Economic Theory, and Introduction to Accounting. Now, yes I am an accounting major and don't need to take the accounting course, but only three classes would make me feel a bit lazy and I really want to see what the differences and similarities are between United States and Australian GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and that sort of thing. I've only had two of the classes so far, but they have been really interesting and the teachers seem to be really passionate about their subjects, which always makes a big difference. I can't wait to go to the rest of my classes and see what they're like. I'm sure the "beginning of semester buzz" will wear of soon, but for now I'll just enjoy it. Cheers!

Welcome to Wollongong!

Well, I got here a day later than planned because of a cancelled flight, but I finally made it! The flight took ages, but I did meet a few really interesting people. I sat beside one guy who worked for the Weather Channel in LA. He had lived in Sydney for two years when he was younger and was so excited that I was on my way here. On another flight there was a professor at one of the universities here in Australia.

So I got in at around 6:30 AM and caught the University of Wollongong (UOW) shuttle back to my dorm,

Weerona College. I rode the bus with several other American students, and it was really exci

ting to have other students to talk with who were living in my building. After we arrived we got all checked in, dropped our bags in our rooms (I was relieved to see that everyone brought as much as I did), and had an informal tour of the building. It's got a very homey, comfortable feel to it, and I instantly decided that this will be a great place to live. I haven't met my roommate yet, but she an Australian named Allison but she goes by Soni. She has lots of horseback riding photos on the wall, so hopefully we will have a lot in common! Everyone says she is so, so nice, and I can't wait to meet her!

My CIEE directors came and picked the other student in the program, Justin, and me up and we toured the campus and the town of Wollongong (pronounced wool-ongong). Campus is absolutely gorgeous. I felt like I was going on a nature walk through a park instead of walking around campus. Instead of crows and robins, they have parrots and cockatoos. There are duck ponds all over campus, and countless trees, the Eucalyptus trees smell so good! After touring campus we saw the town. Wollongong is beautiful. It is caught between the mountains and the ocean, and the harbour is especially pretty. The boats and lighthouse against the ocean with the mountains as a background all create such a pretty image.

After picking up a few essentials, I realized that I was

absolutely exhausted. I had hardly slept at all during the past 36 hours, so I pulled the lame-o jet lag cart and opted for an early bedtime. I woke up the morning refreshed, and I am looking forward to going for a run, and continuing to meet all the awesome people in my building. Today (Sunday) starts "Flood Week," a kind of orientation week with activities for our dorm. I have no idea what it entails, but it will be so fun finding out! We start this afternoon with a barbeque in the backyard!

Australia Bound at Last!

I'm sitting in the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport waiting to board the first leg of my flight. After what feels like ages of preparing for this trip, I can hardly believe I'm finally on my way. Last night I packed what felt like every belonging I owned into my two giant suitcases (yes, I will be that American), and this afternoon as my parents dropped me off at the airport it finally hit me that I'm going to AUSTRALIA!

It will take around 20 hours to get there, and I'm sure the flights will be less than thrilling, I am certain that Australia will be absolutely incredible. I'm studying at the University of Wollongong. It's about an hour away from Sydney. Wollongong sits at the base of Mt. Keira and is a short walk from the beach. The description alone sounds incredible, and the pictures I've seen make me feel like I'm headed to a vacation spot instead of school. I can only guess what it will be like, but I'll do my best to blog regularly to keep everyone updated. I'm out for now, but the next time I blog it'll be from Australia! Can't wait!