I'm back in the states now so no more blog!!

The end of my trip was really fun and relaxing, soooo unbelievably sad saying bye though!

Talk to everyone about it really soon!

Hello again,

This past week has been pretty low-key, I finally had my last exam last Monday, which was open book and only took me an hour, and since then I've been doing a lot of relaxing and hanging out. The highlight of my week so far has been eating a chicken parm at Eagle Bar and taking pictures of the campus on one of the sunny days. 

On Thursday, we celebrated the last day of finals with some of the people on our floor and things got a little interesting to say the least. While many of the people on the floor were at the dining hall (me included) the fire alarm got pulled in our building and 2 fire trucks came. The fine for having the fire department here is $2000 to the person who, whether by accident or on purpose, made the alarm go off. However, it is apparently a mystery as to who did it. There is a suspect, who of course denies it, but no one actually saw what happened. This means that we now have to wait to hear back from the person in charge of all the dorm buildings to see what is going to happen with the fine.

Other than that drama, nothing special going on, just enjoying my last weekend in Australia. Wow, my LAST weekend.

New pics on shutterfly!!  http://austdownunder.shutterfly.com/

Since the last entry nothing too exciting has happened. Everyone in our dorm has been studying for finals, so I've mostly just been hanging around and lounging. The weather has been very overcast and rainy so it has been hard to do things outside as well. However, the past couple of days have finally been beautiful out and we actually went to the beach 2 days in a row. It definitely wasn't warm enough to swim but it was nice to hang out and enjoy the spring-like weather.

Yesterday I went with a couple people from our from into the city. We started out at the Queen Victoria Market and spent a good chunk of our day there buying souvenirs! Then Bianca, Dan and I decided that we wanted to try and get tickets for the Australian Rugby game that night so we waited an hour until the ticket windows open. We got tickets and then had to kill another 3 hours before the game started, so we bought some more souvenirs and walked around different parts of the city. The game was fun, but it wasn't as crowded in the stadium as I was expecting it to be. There were only 20,000 people in the stadium that holds 60,000. Also, apparently Australia is pretty good at rugby and Italy isn't so the game was a blowout, 34-12. It was a fun experience since I went in not knowing anything about rugby and left having a slight clue to the point of the game :)

Today the weather went back to overcast and rainy so I just finished up studying for my last final tomorrow at 2! Then I'll be completely done with this semester and officially a senior!

Hi everyone! It's completely Sarah's fault that we haven't written in this in awhile. She was supposed to do this post, but of course kept procrastinating and now that she's left I have to write it.

So, since the last time we've written we have gone on a few exciting adventures. On the 29th we went on our last trip with the Down Under Program to Collingwood Children's Farm. We milked a cow, fed some goats, and saw some huge pigs that they just raise until they are big enough to be sold off for food. That same night we went to Sarah's friend's cousin's house for a real shabbat dinner. There was so much amazing home cooked food-chicken wings, salad, roasted potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin, fresh veggies and fruit and brownies for dessert. It was really nice to get away from the college for a few hours and have a home-cooked meal.

The weekend of the 30th and 31st was pretty uneventful. We worked on our last assignments for our classes and just hung around. It was pretty quiet, but the highlight was our saturday night dinner. We made spinach artichoke dip from scratch with homemade pizza-it was delicious!

That week was also pretty quiet because everyone in our dorm was working on their final assignments and starting to study for finals. On wednesday night we went to Taco Bills-the best mexican food restaurant that Australia has to offer. It was pretty delicious and on tuesdays the meals were half price so that made it even better!

On thursday the 7th we went to our last Eagle Bar (the bar on campus). It was a red party with a live band so that was fun to go and dance with everyone. The last, big party of the semester happens on July 2nd and both of us will have left by then so it was fun to celebrate our last bar night at the college.

This past weekend we went to Rhys' house in the country. His little town only has 50 people and a couple of houses. He literally lives in the middle of nowhere. If you look to one side of his house you won't be able to see another house or anything besides cows and sheep for 50 miles! Friday night we just ate spaghetti bolognese and then went to THE pub by his house. We walked about 2 miles to get to the pub and we only pasted one house in the process-the rest was just flat land with a few trees on it. When we got to the pub we were the only ones there and it was sooo tiny. There wasn't a dance floor or anything, just enough room for a small tv and a pool table.

Saturday we drove into the closest city to his house (about a 20min drive), where about 1,000 people live. We drove up a dormant volcano and we could see the town and all the farm land. We also walked around the volcano and next to another dormant volcano that is one of the only perfectly cone-shaped mountains in the world. Then we drove another 45min to the biggest town near Rhys' house that has about 5,000 residents. We went to the beach and got lunch, but we didn't stay too long because it was raining. That night we had a aussie bbq with beef sausages, and lamp chops and then just hung around the campfire in his backyard. The drive to his house and back was amazing because 2 hours of the 2.5 hour trip there was absolutely nothing out our window but land and cows- so different from home.

Tuesday night we went out to dinner for Sarah's last night out in Australia and Rhys' 21st birthday. We had these delicious $4 pizzas at a pub and then went to a few cheap bars for drinks. The night was a lot of fun and ended on a really good note because one of our friends here requested Backstreet Boys and it was one of the last songs to play in the pub before it closed. The last song to play, I Don't Wan To Miss a Thing by Aerosmith, was really sad though. Sarah and some of the girls started crying and reminiscing about the trip here, and it just became a reality that she had to leave really soon.

Wednesday everyone just hung around and Sarah packed up all of her room. A couple of the girls gave her little going away presents which was really sweet. At night everyone just sat in one room and we talked about all the hilarious things that had happened over the past few months. It was a cute way to end her trip before going to bed. 

This morning the entire building woke up to say bye to Sarah before she left. She had to leave here at 7am so she could get to the airport with enough time and not be too stressed. Some of the girls started crying and Sarah held herself together right up until she had to get into the car. It was really sad to see her go but everyone was like we're coming to america so we'll see you soon! From what I hear the airport was a little stressful and her carry on bag was too heavy so she had to unpack and repack her things into her checked luggage to meet the requirements. She was apparently very embarrassed because she had to open her suitcases in front of the line of passengers also trying to check in.

I can't believe Sarah already left and I only have 3 more weeks here already! Check out shutterfly for more pics!! http://austdownunder.shutterfly.com/

Tuesday night we went to a restaurant called Mosskito's. We went for our floor dinner and to celebrate Rebecca's 21st as well as another girl Madeleine's 19th birthday on our floor. The restaurant is known for its chicken parm because it is bigger than the plate and also comes with fries and salad. It was enough food for two people to eat. On tuesdays it's also half price cocktails so we had a few drinks after dinner and Rebecca got a couple of free ones! :) After, a few of us went to a bar and spent the night dancing. Everyone was really excited to count down until midnight and celebrate Rebecca's birthday with her!

On Wednesday Rebecca kept running down the hallways and telling everyone that it was her birthday. She got Kelly Clarkson tickets from her bestest friend Sarah, a ring, bracelet and a few other small things from people on the floor, and a new digital camera from the best parents in the world! :) That night we just hung out and went to this college event at night where each dorm building auctioned something off. Our floor auctioned a poker tournament for 6 people and we raised money for a charity.

On Friday we went with Bianca to another AFL game, Geelong vs. Western Bulldogs. We were 7 rows from the field and the tickets were only $35! It was cool to see all the players up so close. We went to the game with the Down Under Program we had signed up for in the beginning of the year and it was a lot of fun.

The weekend was pretty relaxing. On saturday night we went with Bianca to the Pancake Parlour for dinner and to the movies to see Ghost of Girlfriends Past. It was a fun girly night. Sunday we just hung out and finished up an essay due on Monday. 3 more assignments to go before the semester is over already!

On Tuesday we went into the city again to the Queen Victoria Market. It's an outdoor market that is open everyday. There was so much fresh produce, cheap clothing, and a lot of jewelry. It was fun to walk around and don't worry we bought mostly souvenirs for our families so the money was well spent :) After, we went to the beach and sat by the water. It was a nice, autumn day out so it was relaxing to just sit and hang out. Some of our guy friends met up with us a little later so we hung out on the beach at night and had a few drinks.

We're trying to make everyday productive since our trip is slowly coming to a close. Sarah only has 2 more weeks left already!! :(

talk to everyone soon!

Birchip!

Hi everyone!

This weekend was definitely interesting. We went with some of our guy friends to Olly's house. He lives in a very small country town consisting of only 600 people. There are about 4 streets in  total in the town and you can walk everywhere unless you live on one of the farms a few minutes outside of the main streets. There are 3 pubs in the town, one cafe/diner, and a few local stores. In order to go shopping you would have to travel an hour to find the closest city with chain and franchise stores. On friday night when we got there his mom made us homemade vegetable soup and veggie burgers for dinner! Then we went to the local pub and bought a few beers from the outside drive-thru part. Sarah was like "if this was my town, this store would be robbed at gun point at least 5 times a day" because all the liquor bottles, soda, and beer were just sitting on shelves outside and no one was standing behind the counter to watch them. It's much different than home. The rest of the night we just hung out and played guitar hero.

On saturday we watched a couple of net ball and footy games at the local field. It was funny to watch Olly say hi to everyone as we walked to the field, so different from living in a big city. We watched Olly play in the footy games until he tore  a bunch of ligaments in his ankle and was out for the rest of the game. For dinner we ordered burgers from THE pub in town and then went to a pub at night for a little while. That was interesting as well because there were more adults than teenagers, and all the songs played were ones you'd here at a family party.

On sunday we drove around his town. On 3 sides of his house there were other houses and out the front was about 50 acres of flat land with absolutely nothing on it but a few trees. We went out into a field and shot a 22 rifle and a shotgun! It was really cool to shoot, but Olly had to brace us when we shot the shotgun so we didn't fall over :) The drive was amazing because for at least an hour all we could see out the windows was flat land with nothing on it. We were shocked. The weekend overall though was a lot of fun and definitely a very different experience.

Tonight we are going out to dinner with our building to celebrate Rebecca's birthday, she's turning 21 tomorrow!!! Then wednesday we'll have more celebrations and then nothing special until the AFL football game on friday night. We'll let you know how those events turn out :)

LOVE and MISS you all :)

sorry so delayed, technical issues

Hey everyone.. sorry we haven't written in a while. This site hasn't been letting us log in for some reason. We'll tell you about a few of the exciting things we've done lately. Last Thursday we attended a college night at a local bar which was pretty fun. They had a live band and cheap drinks, and our entire floor went. The band was pretty good, and we danced the night away! On Tuesday night we had an upperclassmen dinner for humanities students. The food was catered by the restaurant on campus and it was delicious! We even got dressed up for the event. We heard speeches from professors encouraging us to pursue our dreams, and had a trivia sheet that we completed with our table. Oh, and they gave us free wine which is always a plus. Last night there was an event called centurion at the conference center on campus. There were 100 pictures, 100 songs, and 100 trivia questions that we answered with our tables. We were also supposed to take 100 shots (of wine, not vodka..!) as each trivia question was asked. 

We only have three assignments left for the semester. Sarah leaves in 28 days! It's going to be really weird to come home and leave all of our friend behind. Hopefully they'll come visit though. 

Fun events coming up: This weekend we're going to our friend Olly's house, which is a few hours away. He lives in a very rural area and owns a farm, so that should be interesting to see. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures! On May 23rd we're going to an Australian rules football game, and on May 29th we have a farm excursion where we get to play with Australian animals!

Special shout out to our moms.. we're sorry we couldn't be there for Mother's Day, but we'll make up for it when we come home! We hope you both had special days even though we weren't there. Love you!

Only 10 more weeks left!

Since we've been back from Sydney, we have mostly been relaxing and concentrating on some homework. We got our first assignments back and whoever said the grading in Australia was easier was extremely wrong. The teachers grade so differently than at home, and we both haven't done as well on our assignments as we figured we would (and it's not because we've been drinking too much!). Apparently they don't have GPA's here and basically as long as you pass your course, that's all that matters-which isn't fair since our grades transfer back and affect our GPA.

Last Thursday there was a rave (fluorescent themed) on campus. Everyone dressed up in fluorescent colors and watched our dorm buildings play the other buildings in tennis. Then we went to the bar on campus for dancing. There are so many themed parties here which are fun, but it's getting so expensive to buy costumes! 

This past weekend Rebecca went to Bendigo to her friend Jenna's house with some girls off her floor. Jenna's family, and especially her sister, loved her american accent and kept showing rebecca off to her friends. American pronunciations are different and her favorite words that Rebecca said were aluminum, oregano, and parmesan (You can look up on youtube how Australians say them if you're curious). Jenna's parents also cooked for the girls Friday and Saturday night. It was so delicious-they had steak, homemade hamburgers, and fried rice! :) The weekend was really relaxing and a lot of fun to see the countryside more and get to know the girls better. Below is a picture of the countryside! THERE"S NOTHING OUTSIDE OF THE CITIES-it's so strange!

Sarah stayed at La Trobe for the weekend and hung out with some of the boys who also didn't go home. She went to another Australian Rules Football game and to one of their friend's birthday parties. She played a lot of video games like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero (she's such a boy) and had fun getting to know the guys a little better. It was relaxing since not a lot of people were around.

This week we've just been working on some more assignments and hanging out around the campus. It's been raining a lot here so hopefully there will be a few more warm days before the winter season starts!

SYDNEY!

hey everyone! here's a day by day account of our spring break trip to sydney!

day 1- our flight got in around 7:45 pm so we first went to our hostel to check in. it seemed really cool cause people were outside hanging out and drinking and everyone was really friendly. our room had one bunk bed, and the bottom bed was a double. rebecca and bianca slept on that one, and sarah got the top one. anyway, so we unpacked a little and then went out to explore the area that we were staying in called kings cross. kings cross happens to be the red light district of sydney, which we didn't know before booking the hostel. so when we left to explore, we saw a bunch of hookers and strip clubs and stuff like that. it was pretty cool. we were all craving mexican food for some reason, so we ate at this one place that had a special $11 for a quesadilla and beer. YUM! then we went to this outdoor bar/cafe to drink some more and we ran into this american girl beth who lives in menzies. seriously, what are the chances that we would see a girl who is 1 american and 2 from not just la trobe, but menzies. sooo weird. so then we got some drinks and ice cream, and we went back to the hostel.


day 2- in the morning we decided to walk around the area and do some touristy things, so we stopped by some outdoor markets and this house called the elizabeth house which is a colonial house that's now a museum. the architecture of the house was beautifullll. then we did some shopping, and took a walk to see the sydney football stadium where they play footy and cricket. that night we went out to some restaurants/bars/pubs around the area and had a fun girls night out.

day 3- we left the first hostel and checked into our second hostel, which was in bondi beach. bondi is sydney's most popular/famous beach. we spent the wholeeeee day on the beach. at night we went around to a bunch of different bars. they were right on the water and it had greattt views. sooo then this was the night that sarah got sick and woke up with horrible stomach pains. we ended up calling an ambulance because we didn't know what else to do! after 4 hours in the emergency room, sarah finally saw a doctor and got diagnosed with a UTI. she's on antibiotics now and is feeling much better!


day 4- well the majority of the day was spent in the hospital. after rebecca and sarah left the hospital we met bianca at the next hostel which is in the area where the opera house is. we spent the evening walking around this huge mall nearby (which was sort of difficult for sarah since it was painful to walk) and then decided to see a movie (17 again starring zac efron) since sarah couldn't exactly go out anywhere.

day 5- we walked around the whole day and saw a lot of things! we went to a famous cathedral called st. catherine's and the anzac memorial (for this war that the aussies had against the aboriginals) and the sydney observatory (AMAZINGGGG views) and the sydney aquarium. it was a really really busy day, but we got a lot of good pictures. at night we went to a pub for dinner and dancing. it was fun, but we left sort of early because creepy guys kept coming up to rebecca!

day 6- we spent the morning in this park and just laid on the grass and talked. then we went to this barracks museum and saw where convicts used to be held hundreds of years ago. that was really cool. then we walked to the opera house and the harbour bridge. we took a tour of the opera house and got to see the inside even though we couldn't afford tickets to see an actual show. then we sat in a park and watched the sun set over the harbour. it was soo nice and relaxing. at night, bianca and rebecca went out to some bars while sarah stayed at the hostel and slept since her stomach was bothering her.

day 7- we woke up lateish and then went on a walk across the bridge. rebecca and bianca were going to spend like $150 to climb it, but neither of them brought sneakers with them so they couldn't! we got some good pictures on the walk since we were pretty high up. then we did some shopping, and pretttttty much did nothing the rest of the day except relax in the park. it was really nice not walking around the entire day, and we did a lot of girly bonding!

day 8- we left the hostel and spent our last day on a beach nearby the city called manly beach. we got our 2 friends who drove us to/from the airport picture frames and then we printed pictures of the 3 of us and put them in it. they appreciated the gifts i think. at night we sat by the harbour bridge which is now our new favorite spot in australia. we were really sad to be leaving! we went back to the hostel to get our things, and headed to the airport. we expected the international airport to be open 24 hours, but when we got there we discovered the terminals were all closed until 4 am! we had 4 hours to kill, so we sat in this sketchy room with other people who were waiting for the terminals to open as well. bianca fell asleep, but rebecca and sarah were too nervous to close their eyes. finally 4 am rolled around, and we took a cab to our terminal. the plane ride was very smooth since we all fell asleep, and we landed in melbourne before we knew it!

this week we don't have that many plans. we have a press and society quiz tomorrow, and on thursday night is an event called rave where everyone wears bright colors and dances. it should be fun. we miss everyone!

don't forget to check out our pictures from the trip! http://austdownunder.shutterfly.com/468?size=All&startIndex=0

good'ay mates! :)

Nothing interesting happened this week. We just did work before mid-semester break.  We're off to Sydney on friday so we'll post about our trip when we return!

love and miss you!

helloooo!

Last saturday we watched our dorm buildings compete against the two other buildings in australian rules football (footy) It's such a different sport than american football so it was fun to watch.  After our college girls and boys both won, we went to the bar on campus to celebrate!

On monday we did a lot of reading and essay writing because on tuesday we had to take a quiz in the class that gives out impossible quizzes. BUT our quiz went MUCH better this week and we both got above a 90 so hopefully the quizzes will stay easier from now on.  After the quiz we took the tram into the city and had a very touristy day.  We just walked up and down the city streets without much of a plan as to wear we were going.  

Of course we bought some jewelry and accessories, but we also went on a behind the scenes tour of popular movies (The Shining, The Matrix, Australia, and The Terminal to name a few).  We saw all the planning that goes into producing a film and how they use the special effects.  They had a living room set from the movie Australia and the actual model from the movie The Terminal.  The models were probably the coolest part because they were so detailed.  We were proud of ourselves for doing something educational as well as shopping!  For dinner in the city we ate Subway because we both were craving turkey and when we were sitting on these steps outside to eat it a pigeon flew down, hit Rebecca's sandwich, and stole a tomato from it! Since she was starving she ate the rest of the sandwich anyway, but that was one greedy bird!

On wednesday we helped out at the exchange fair on campus and told a bunch of people about Ithaca.  Of course Ithaca didn't send us enough brochures so we only stayed for half the time because we ran out.  We did it with this Australian girl who studied at Ithaca for a year so it was cool to talk about her experience in the states.  That night we also went to a reptile show.  This man showed us the 5 deadliest snakes in the world that are all in Australia and we got to hold some pythons, lizards and frogs which was fun.

Thursday we went to a bar off campus with a bunch of people from our dorm building. Everyone got dressed up and there was a live band, dancing, and free transp

ortation which was a lot of fun! Beers were only $2.50 a glass which was finally cheap here!

 

This weekend is full of homework because next week is the week before break and we have 2 essays due and some reading so we're trying to get that finished while people are gone and the building is semi quiet.

talk to you all soon!

Ok so we know that we aren't keeping up with this very well, but we'll try to post more. no promises though. :) The weekend of the 21st was again quiet.  It's hard getting used to the fact that most people go home on the weekends.  We just hung around friday night, but went to a friend's 21st on saturday.  We met the birthday boy the first week we were here on the international cruise.  He works for the international office and studied in the U.S. for a year at La Crosse University in Wisconsin.

Last tuesday we were "sick" from classes and went to Philip Island.  Rebecca fed a bunch of kangaroos, a donkey, and a goat.  We saw a joey in the mom's pouch! It was so cool! It wasn't like in winnie the poo when roo just sticks his head out of the pouch as the mom walks. haha The joey's legs and head at one point were sticking out just a little, it seemed like a very uncomfortable position.  We sat on the beach at Philip Island for awhile and watched a "penguin parade".  At night the smallest penguins in the world come out of the ocean to sleep in their little houses in the grass.  When they feel comfortable enough one swims out of the water and waits for its friends to follow.  Then they walk as fast as they can up the beach to their houses.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures so you'll just have to imagine what we saw.  On the walk back to the parking lot, you could hear the penguins in the grass, they sounded like ducks quacking.  It was so cute to see the little penguins walk right past our feet.

On thursday some of the aussie guys on our floor took us to an australian rules football game.  It's like football (kinda) without pads.  100,000 people fit in the stadium and apparently the game we went to see was supposed to be a really big game of the season (and the season opener) but the team that our friends wanted to win ended up losing by 100 points.  It was awesome to go to though because "footy" is a big deal here. If you click on this link, the youtube video shows how the game is played, it's a little blurry though. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-PFRrJQtew

On saturday we went to our friend's country football game.  It was cool to watch someone we know play and the game was so much different since it wasn't professional.  For dinner we finally got to eat what americans call "cheese" pizza! Australians love to put as many veggies and meat on their pizza as possible so it was especially delicious to have plain :)

Last week we also booked our flight and hostel to sydney for our spring break so that was really exciting!

We're still not in the school mode, but we have officially completed 2 essays for 2 different classes and we have a quiz on tuesday that we are actually reading and studying for! So yes, we're being studios here, sort of :)

We added a lot of new pics to our web site so check that out too! 

http://austdownunder.shutterfly.com/

Hi everyone! I know we're getting a bit lazy with the blogging but we haven't gone on too many interesting adventures lately. It isn't summer here anymore so the weather isn't hot enough to go to the beach everyday. We went to this party with all the girls that live in the buildings around us and the theme was tourism. We made shirts that said "yes, we're from the U.S. and no we're not obese" and "yes, we're from the U.S. and no I'm not a cheerleader". Half of the people there we're dressed in hawaiian clothing so it was more of an American themed night than anything.

Last weekend we went with our building and our sister building to Apollo Bay and to camp out. Of course the entire weekend we were there it rained the most it has in 3 years! The first night wasn't too bad and the storms stopped with enough time to walk along the beach and go for a freezing swim. The rest of the day was spent in 2 pubs in town since we had to get out of the wet weather. The second night of sleeping was horrendous. Before we went to sleep our blankets, pillows, and all of our clothes were wet so by the morning our tents were filled with water and a moat had formed around where we were sleeping. It was pretty miserable. However, we brought back a lot of funny stories from the trip due to the rain and the scavenger hunt we had to complete on the ride there. We took a picture with roadkill and stole a street sign.

Last Wednesday we went wine tasting at the vineyard on campus. Students learn how to make wine and it is sold at the bar on campus. We tasted 8 different bottles of wine and the director laughed at us for taking such generous pours from the bottle. We're now expert wine drinkers! We also saw our first kangaroo that lives in the grass next to the vineyard!

Our classes are going pretty well. We have to actually start doing work because we have two papers due next week. We're still not in the school mode but we haven't skipped any classes yet. :)

That's it for now. We'll let you know when we have more interesting stories for you to be jealous of :)

Hey guys!

Since last week was the first week of classes, we've slowed down on the partying (kind of). We've been relaxing with the people in our building, and making a lot of good friends. On Wednesday night there was a back-to-school party at our bar, which not a whole lot of people showed up to. It was still pretty fun though cause everyone from our building dressed up. On Thursday (which is a big party night here) after classes, we went to the main bar on campus along with everyone else who goes to school here. Despite the crowd, there was music and dancing which always makes for a fun night. 

On Friday night, we took it easy since we woke up at 7 am on Saturday. We went with an association on campus for a tour of the Great Ocean Road. We saw the lighthouse at Anglesea, saw koalas and fed birds at Kennett River, and saw the 12 apostles. 

On the bus ride home we've never seen so many farms. It's true that there is nothing to do away from Australia's coast. We saw more sheep and cows then we could count, and we only past small towns and local shops. It was so much different than driving on highways at home. We got back here around 8:30 and were exhausted! It's too bad that it took about 3 hours to get there, because it'd be nice to be able return back there on our own. It was a fun day being a tourist! 

We have class bright and early (10 am) tomorrow, so we probably won't be doing a whole lot for the rest of the day besides enjoying the nic

e weather and reading for class. We're still trying to get used to everyone going home on the weekends. It's weird with half of the building gone, but we've gotten closer with the select few who stay here.

We've updated the picture site, so be sure to check out all of the amazing pictures! (and try not to be toooo jealous).

xoxo,
Sar and Rebs

sorry we haven't written in a while, we've been super busy!

here are a few pictures from this past week's activities!

last wednesday night we had a retro-sports themed party with one of the other dorms. there were so many people there, and we ran into someone else who goes to ithaca! it was a lot of fun seeing everyone dressed up in their 80's sports costumes.

on thursday we went to the infamous eagle bar. someone said there was about 1,000 students there. every thursday is student night, so it's always packed with people. it was fun though. there was live music and lots of dancing.

friday morning we had to wake up early and went lawn bowling with the people in our dorm (it's similar to bocce ball). we started drinking there around noon (!) and around 3:00 the guys and girls split up to do their own pub crawls around melbourne. we went to 3 different bars, and then met back up at the 4th one. it was fun walking around the streets chanting our school's made-up theme song. by the end of the week, everyone was absolutely exhausted. saturday and sunday were strictly lounging around days. a lot of people in the building went home, so we really had nothing to do. it was good finally getting sleep.

yesterday we finally started our first day of classes. i know you all probably thought we forgot about going to class! we had press and society, which is all about australian media. our professor was wearing a skirt, which we thought was sort of odd. the lecture was made up of about 100 people so we'll probably meet a lot of new friends. the class seems like it's going to be pretty interesting. tomorrow we have sex, gender, and identity which is a sociology class. then on thursday, we have discover australia, which is all about australian history and culture.

if you want to see more pictures from our trip, click this link: http://austdownunder.shutterfly.com/

we have to end now, since we're trying to be healthy and attempting to go to the gym every day. we'll see how long that lasts. :)

O-Week Fun

Hi everyone!

Friday all the aussie first years moved in so we just hung around to meet them. At night we had a themed party in the campus bar, The Toad. Our floors theme was 80's Glam Rock. We all dressed up in the most ridiculous, flashy costumes we could find at Savers, a secondhand store like Salvation Army. The next morning we were all rudely awaken to pots and pans being banged together and a guitar plugged into an amp at 6am. The leaders told us to get out of bed and line up outside of our building. No one knew what was going on. The leaders made us walk around campus and collect a fork, knife, cup and plate. Rebecca was barefoot and it was drizzling. We were finally led to an area where they were serving us breakfast of eggs and barely cooked bacon. We were heading back to bed when they stopped us and said everyone get together so we can take a picture. They crammed us into a corner and dumped water and flour all over us. Rebecca didn't get it that bad but it took Sarah a few days to fully get it our of her hair and her clothes got thrown out by the cleaning lady because they were so disgusting.

Later that night we had a rubix cube party. Our floor's (dorm building) color was pink. The object of the party was to trade clothes with other people so by the end of the night you weren't wearing your floor's color anymore. This was probably one of the most fun parties we've been too so far and it was a really good way to meet other people.

Sunday night was a barnyard themed party. They brought in a live band that taught us country line dances which was actually a lot of fun.

The next morning, Monday, we woke up early to head into the city for an all day scavenger hunt. It wasn't a typical hunt however, because at each station we had to do semi-embarrassing tasks. For example: drink river water, eat anchovies, crawl around on the ground like sheep, take our clothes off and get into a pyramid in the middle of a busy shopping area, eat chocolate sauce out of a diaper that was placed into a trash bin, they put ketchup on a pad and stuck it to the back of a girls shorts and she had to walk around and act like she didn't know it was there, and someone had to walk up to a stranger and ask what the bottle of KY Jelly was and how to use it, just to name a few. Everyone was dead after this so we had a movie night.

Today, Tuesday, we have a toga party at night. We're just going to spray paint our bed sheets and ask the cleaning lady for a new set in the morning.

Nothing else interesting for now!

Love Sar and Bec

Hellooo everyone!

On Tuesday, we went to a local mall and explored the shops there. We only had an hour there, so we definitely have to go back and do some real shopping. Nothing else too exciting happened except some pointless study abroad sessions that we had to attend.

On Wednesday we again attended more useless sessions, but our nighttime activity made up for the boring afternoon. Around dinner time, we headed over to the Yarra River for a dinner cruise with other international students. We met a bunch of people, and spent the night cruising the river and buying $2 beers (by the way, that's about $1.60 in US dollars for brands like Corona).




Today we went back to St Kilda Beach with our friend Bianca and spent a couple hours laying out on the beach. We then ventured to the heart of Melbourne, and walked around the city. We went to an observation deck that was 55 stories high, and got to see a great view of the whole city from all different angles. We got a brochure for an ice bar that's in the city, so we're definitely going to check that out ;).




We made plans with an organization on campus to go see the 12 apostles and some koalas on March 7th, so we're really looking forward to that trip. We're also planning on snorkeling with dolphins and seals, and a day trip to see penguins who only come out at dusk. Hopefully we'll sign up for these soon!

Well we have to go celebrate someone's birthday outside in the courtyard so we have to go. We have a bunch of themed parties coming up next week for orientation week, so we're sure you'll be hearing from us again soon.

Love everyone!
-Sar and Becs

The Start of Our Australian Adventure!

Hiii everyone! In case anyone cares about we're up to down under, keep checking our blog :) First of all, the plane ride here was AMAZING! Sarah ordered her first legal alcoholic beverage an hour into the flight. We only slept for half of the flight so we could play checkers, battleship, connect four, and tetris against each other on the screens in front of us. It was probably a bad idea to wear sweatshirts and uggs because when we got off the plane we were sweating trying to maneuver our huge bags through the airport. When we first got to the campus it wasn't really what we were expecting at all. Australia is in the middle of a drought right now so all of the grass is completely dead. The school did a good job marketing their school to us.

We happened to meet a really nice man who works for res life and he made sure we were put in the same building. Sarah lives on the first floor and Rebecca lives on the second floor. We ran into someone else who goes to Ithaca and we explored the campus. Then we took our first tram ride to the shopping. By the time we figured out how to pay with the Australian coins we had missed our stop and had to walk to the stores from one stop too far. We have to look both ways multiple times before crossing since we don't know which way the cars are coming from (Everything is opposite, from the side of the road you drive on to side you walk up stairs, not to mention distance, temperature, and measurements).

At night we hung out with some Australians who hold leadership positions on campus. We had our first taste of Australian wine and discovered we don't like red wine. The residence director and an RA told us this elaborate story about a "drop bear" that lives in trees and drops down to attack people for no reason. Apparently we looked scared so he told us that is was just a myth they make up and tell all international students.

Our second day here we went with all the international students to Frankston. The beach water was aqua, nothing like the east coast. We also went to a sand sculpture exhibit and saw amazing dinosaur sculptures made by the best sculptors in the world. When we came back we bought our first legal bottle of wine! We didn't do anything that night because we were so exhausted.

Today we got up early again and took a bus into the city of Melbourne. We went to the beach at St. Kilda and spent the day lounging around, taking pictures, and exploring the shops and restaurants. This beach was only 30 minutes away (unlike the 1.5 hour ride the day before) so we plan on visiting often.

So far we've met really friendly Australians, some annoying Americans, and some cool internationals from various countries.

If we aren't friends on Skype already, look us up so we can chat!

More to come. We miss everyone, sort of ;)