Looong post.

I thought I was going to Brisbane, but I actually went to Caloundra instead. It’s on the Sunshine Coast and A LOT warmer than it is here in Melbourne, although today isn’t too cold.

The hotel we stayed in, The Shearwater, was SO nice. It was on the beach, which was beautiful. The group flight got delayed 29 hours, so there was a group of 13 of us for half of the orientation. I’m happy it happened that way because I got to know the other 12 people really well and we’re going to keep in touch and hopefully meet up with each other in various places on the continent, and hopefully back in the states too eventually. We had a whole morning free while waiting for the rest of the group (45 more people), so we decided to go surfing. It was a bit cold in the water, but so much fun. There were 10 of us who went, we got rash guards, boards & 2 instructors for $25 each. So it was really cheap.

We eventually had a bunch of orientation sessions about boring things that I practically slept through, but other than that the whole weekend was fun. We went to the Australian Zoo (Steve Irwin’s Zoo). It was really cool. I got to pet kangaroos, wallabies, koalas. Saw wombats, Tasmanian devils (which are crazy because they just run around in circles all day long), crocs, tons of weird birds & snakes, a komodo dragon, some other animals. We saw Steve Irwin’s daughter, Bindi. She sang and had grown men dancing behind her. It was really strange, but whatever.

I’m back at school. I’m now a pro at sitting in airports alone and not getting bored.

Classes started today. I thought it would be really hard to make myself go, but I actually ended up getting to class an hour early. All of my classes are on Caulfield campus, which is anywhere from 20-45 minutes by bus from Clayton campus, where I live. The bus ride only took 15 minutes and it turned out the drop off is right in front of the building my classes are in. It was alright though; I got a cup of coffee and explored the student union. I had my glass class today. I’m not actually blowing glass, but it seems cool anyway. And I’m trying to get into the advanced glass blowing class as an independent study or something. I really hope it works out. Tomorrow I have Metals & Jewelry, Wednesday I’ll either have glassblowing or business of illustration, which I’ll probably switch to something else anyway, and then Thursday I have Contemporary Australia. I can already tell I’m not going to want to come home. The studios & facilities are so much nicer here than at Arcadia & probably most of the universities at home. And I’m in Australia.

I signed up to go on a trip to Tasmania through Arcadia, which is awesome because it’s really cheap and I’ll get to see my new friends who are all up north. I just hope I don’t have exams right near there. We have a month long exam period and all of my art classes don’t really do exams, so that leave Contemporary Australia. I could probably go even if I had an exam right before or after because the trip is Friday night to Sunday night, but it might be very stressful and I was thinking I could go a day or two early to explore the town myself.

I also get a free trip through Arcadia. We get to take a bus ride on the Great Ocean Road, which is supposed to be beautiful and something that everyone who goes to Australia needs to do.

I’m hungry, I hope we’re cooking soon! I'll put up more pictures.