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 ;)