Olympics

The rain is making me crazy!!! It also made me sick. :( I had to go to the doctor and get medicine… weird using an international insurance card.

I’ve been watching the Olympics a bit. It’s really odd being in a foreign country with other foreigners watching. First of all, half of the time the Australians reporting on the games really don’t know what they’re talking about. And they never interview the winners, unless they’re Australian. If an Australian comes in 3rd or even 8th, they’ll interview that person and not whatever country came in 1st. It makes me feel sort of disconnected. It’s weird too, knowing who to route for. Obviously the US, then Australia, then whoever I’m watching with- Holland, or Britain, or Denmark, whoever.

It’s also really interesting because for a long time Australia had a really strict immigration policy, mainly to keep Asians out. Since Australia is an isolated country it has always feared being taken over or something like that. So there’s a lot of tension here towards the Olympics being in China. (I’ve heard that there’s tension in America too because it’s very likely that China will soon be the world leader, not America. Is this true??? It’s hard for me to keep up with news here, especially foreign.) It’s really a strange thing because now there are so many people here from China, Malaysia, Singapore, other Asian countries. I don’t really know if I explained this very well…

Anyway, I’m going to an Olympic party tomorrow night for the exchange/study abroad students. We have to dress Olympic-like. I know people wearing togas, a group of people going as the rings. Two of my friends & I are going patriotic. I’m wearing a blue dress, red scarf & white leggings, an American flag pin & painting something red white & blue on my face. They’re both Dutch so they’re wearing orange because that’s Holland’s national color, and red, white & blue because that’s the color of their flag & painting their faces too. It should be really fun.

Oh! Does anyone have really easy, yummy, nonmeat, cheap, healthy recipes??? I’ve been making chili a lot, and Mexican casserole (my Mexican friend hates that we call our Mexican food Mexican), and grilled cheese. My friends & I are still cooking together, so I need to stop cooking the same thing again and again.

tons & tons of flights

Sorry it’s been so long! I’ve been so busy!

I can’t believe I’ve been here for over a month. It’s crazy. I feel like i’ve been here forever and only a week at the same time. I’m surprised at how comfortable I am here, getting from campus to campus and going into the city on my own. The first semester at Arcadia I never did anything alone, now I don’t mind doing things alone at all… it’s nice.

I booked my flight for my Tasmania trip. I’m staying a night myself and then meeting the rest of the Arcadia people for 2 nights. I’m excited, but hopefully I can borrow a lot of stuff for that, like a rain coat or pants or anything that would be expensive and very hard to take home on a plane. I also booked a flight with my friend Sarah to Alice Springs, which is the outback, and we’re going to take a tour from there to Uluru (Ayers Rock). So we’ll probably stay in Alice Springs one night then go to Uluru and stay in hostels or camp there for 3 nights, and then go back to Alice Springs for a night and catch our flight home. That’s the weekend before I leave, and the Tasmania trip is the weekend before that… It’s going to be very busy!! I’m also planning on meeting some of the people I met at Arcadia’s orientation in Sydney sometime in September, otherwise I’ll probably go myself. I’m so excited about traveling. It’s crazy though, I’ve never spent this much money in my life! But, all of this might be a once in a lifetime chance.

Nothing too exciting is going on here… just classes and going into the city. I had a field trip on Friday to the Botanical Gardens. We had an aboriginal talk & tour. It was really interesting but it got really cold and miserable out so I wanted to leave as fast as possible.