Court down to my birthday T-1.5 days!.. but thats not what this post is about its an update!

HI HI

Count down till I come home is now in the 20’s! I have been pretty busy over here, mostly with schoolwork. The last two weeks I have had 3 papers due and a debate. This week I have a presentation and the next week I have another 3 papers due. Then it’s the end of the semester (July 7^th)! From the end of the semester I have about 10 days to travel until I have an exam. My Australian friend and I will be going back to her hometown to get her car & then road tripping! We will be taking a 9 hour drive to her god fathers avocado farm in Byron Bay and he also owns a place on the beach in gold coast (an hour from Byron Bay). So between the two we will be at each for a couple of nights. I will get back around the 18^th of June then I have around one and ahalf days to study for a final political science exam on the 20^th! Yippy! After the exam I will be celebrating a whole lot because I will be officially done with the semester! So I have from the 20^th-24^th of June to see everything I want to see in Sydney before I head home early on the 25^th of June!

Okay my debate that I had to do was pretty interesting. We got to pick what topics we wanted, but we didn't get to decide which side we were on. So, I randomly picked gay marriage. The topic was "We should legalise gay marriage". I was put on the opposing side and had to fight against that statement. I have to say being on the opposing side was very hard and challenging at points but I have learned so much about civil unions and the rights inside Australian law! So yeah that was cool also when I was giving my 5 min speech I started by stuttering.. then i was fine after a couple seconds of stuttering.. Mind you my hands were not shaking like normal, but half way through my speech my leg started twitching.. soo that was fun! HA and I'm the only american in the class and I know I will never see these people again.. but idk i have never been that nervous before a speech it was weird. 

Also awful news, my birthday is this Tuesday the 28^th and I will no longer be a teenager. That’s right I will be celebrating my 20^th birthday here in Sydney, Australia. Do I have any big plans? Well considering my last birthday night was spent in an emergency room and the two before that were spent being grounded. I would like a calm 20th birthday this year (I can only hope). I will be going to the famous chocolate shop Max Brenners to celebrate! Also going out in the city on the weekend. 

When my brother was here my friend Gab that studied abroad at grand valley but goes to Macquarie took us on a day trip around a nature reserve. We rented a boat and went exploring. We found an island with literally hundreds of crabs with purple, blue and cream bodies. It was so cool! They were scared of us so when we go close they ran away and if we go too close to them they covered themselves under the sand, which was kind creepy to think I might have been walking on them the whole time. We got enough courage to pick them up and take pictures with them. She also took us to a point where the ocean was on one side and an inlet was on the other and there was a very skinny slice of land in between. It was so awesome and I am very appreciative of her doing that for us. 

Also when my brother was here we went to a AFL game (Australian Football) ahhhh this is definitely in my top things to do here. Its quite hard to explain how they play the game because I went to a game and I still don't fully understand it myself. They kick the ball alot and its nothing like soccer or football in the states. The players do not wear any padding or helmets, but they slam into one another as hard as they would in football in the states. A tradition here is to wear scarves of the teams to the games so my brother and I both got scarves and the team we were rooting for, the sydney swans won! WAHOO lol yeah it was fun!

Last weekend I got to go to my australian roommates (Camilla) hometown of Dubbo! It was about a 6.5 hour train ride from central station in Sydney. Camilla has 2 sisters, both younger than her. One is doing an exchange for her year 12 of school in europe. The other was having her 20th birthday while we were in town! Camillas family was so nice and was so welcoming to me while I stayed there for the weekend. The first day friday- Camilla drove me about the town in her car. Showed me where she went to school, where she hung out and her neighbourhood. The second day we went to Australia's biggest zoo which is located right in Dubbo. We actually rode bikes from her house to the zoo because its so close. I got to be a koala up very close. Mind you a koala that was not eating or sleeping which is VERY rare because they sleep for around 21 hours a day and the other time is mostly spent eating eucalyptus trees. ALSO I got to pet a wallaby.. which looks exactly like a kangaroo but smaller. It was so cool and on my facebook there are pictures! That night we celebrated her sisters birthday and went out to a tapas restaurant and then went out in the city of Dubbo. Which has one club! lol it was fun. The next day her family had a gathering with all the aunts, uncles, and grandparents for her sisters birthday, then it was off to the trainstation to head back to Sydney. 

Only being away for one weekend from Sydney and I already missed it. I cant imagine how I am going to feel when I leave for good. I would really say that Sydney feels like my home more than where I go to school (macquarie).. I really can't even explain how much I love being in the city except say that I love being in it. Also when I was away for the whole weekend I was only with Australians which was a change of pace and weird. I'm use to a Pakistani German Austrian or American most the time. 

I just wanted to make a point to say how many languages I hear a day. On any given day I will hear german, Arabic, Austrian german (WHICH IS DIFFERENT THAN GERMAN) chinese, or alot of the other times I cannot tell. There is no way I would hear this much diversity on an everyday basis at Grand valley. I like it. I like it alot. Except when I don't know if they are talking about me in their different language. 

I am soooo excited for tomorrow! I am going to go do a beach walk I have been wanting to do for a while now it takes about 2.5 hours to walk it but I'm giving myself 6 hours I might just keep going but I plan to stop whenever I want. I am bringing a bathing suit even though its only going to be 63 degrees tomorrow and books a towel. After I do the walk from the beaches I am going to meet my friend Camilla in the city. Get a bottle of wine and go to the gardens where you can see the opera house and bridge and watch the sun go down between them. It will be a fantastic day that I have been looking forward to for a long time now. Its kind of like a birthday present to myself! 

Vivid Sydney

So I am sure you have seen some stuff from vivid on my Facebook page. Vivid is like Grand Rapids art prize but with only lights and music. So its just like light took a huge vomit on Sydney for 3 weekends straight. There are a lot more tourists here for it and Sydney has been very crowded (more than usual). I wouldn't say that the light shows are spectacular and something to travel over here for but they are pretty cool to see. The opera house is the main "screen" for this event as it has interactive light shows. The Harbor bridge is only lit on one side and you can control the lights yourself at one point in the show. 

I recorded some of the words I heard that people in Dubbo used that were new to me----

skull- chugg

shout- you got the bill

Ute- truck

Mozzie- mosquito

Breakie- breakfast

give it a go- try

lollie- any kind of candy

bloke- australian male

sheila- australian female

mate- buddy or friend

walkabout- long walk 

random list

-no one has guns in australia.. except for the police

-there has not been one thunder storm since I have been here.. only rain

-It is offically colder here than at home

-the sun sets at around 4:50 now and getting earlier

- I got a new roommate her name is Sarah and she is from Bahrain

- I have eatten 2 LARGE chocolate bars in the last week

-I have watched over six movies in the last 3 weeks (all australia related!) soaking up the culture!

-I am horrible at surfing I know for sure now that it is not my thing

-I am working on a day in the life.. just day by day collecting photos!

If you read this far... what do you guys want as souvenirs?!?! -- well I assume I know you if your reading this. 

-&& I am so glad I am studying abroad I am learning so much

Love

ALLY

P.S Enjoy the pictures!

 This is the first night that our new roommate sarah came Umair drove us to a lookout of the city close to where we live

Uncomfortable

Studying abroad can be a very uncomfortable experience. You have everyone telling you before you leave that this is going to be a life changing experience…. but at the time I was thinking, how can this really change my life? Will I actually change the way I have always been when living in the states. Anyway that is the way that I thought about it. As I have been away for 3 months now, I see it in a totally different way.

I have to find things for myself, I have become a lot more self reliant. I felt like I always had friends to go to at home when I was feeling down and they would have something to cheer me up, or of course just go hangout with the boyfriend and I would forget about what I was even sad about. I now feel as if I have to force myself to do things that make me happy. Like to workout, bake, or take pictures because I don’t have friends here that exactly have the same interests as me, where as at home I do.

God has done some weird things over here. Again in my community at home I have a group of friends that I go to church with, people that have the same beliefs as I do. Here I go to church alone, and everyone talks of Christians as being something weird and not heard of. Again, it is just a lot different community here than at home. Uncomfortable

You see your country different you respect and cherish what you have at home. A big thing that I have figured out is that no matter where I am in this world absolutely nothing can compare to my family, friends, and boyfriend that I have at home. I have an amazing community around me at home and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I have fallen in love with Grand Valley all over again. Experiencing a bigger school here with bigger classes is what I found out I actually hate. I love the small classes and the close contact you have with your teachers AND at Grand Valley we never have teachers aids teaching, it’s always an actual professor. Its kind of like I got to transfer to another university for a semester.. but its not called transferring its called studying abroad.

My best friend here and roommate here, her name is Camilla she ended up having to move out this last weekend. This is kind-of a bump in the road, because I spent a lot of time with her, going to the gym, eating, and hanging out at home. I will miss her and our house will not be the same without her.

I don’t think I would have realized what I have so far if I had not gotten out of the US. It is so interesting in my classes when we talk about USA and how our government, politics, and television is different from what they have here in Australia. I often find myself shy because of the fact that I am American. In Australia they talk of the US as something that has survived the wars and have strived every since. They talk about city’s I’ve never been to, laws I never knew existed, and that most people out of the US think that there is two types of Americans. (thank god I get labeled the nice one)

I just wonder if I am putting too much pressure on coming home. I think about it everyday. I think about the joy I will have seeing all my friends, boyfriend and family again. I don’t think I looked forward to something so much before. Yes you would have thought I would have been looking forward to coming here more than going home.. I was excited to come here don’t get me wrong but, I was coming into the unexpected. I had no idea who my roommates where, how my day-to-day life was going to be like these next 4 and a half months. Going home is the exact opposite and that’s why I think I’m looking forward to it so much. I know what I have at home and I know what my day-to-day is going to be like (hopefully). I just don’t want to put myself in a position where I am just glorifying the day that I am coming home that I get preoccupied and don’t enjoy every last second I have here.

All I can end with is that I know where my home is.

Holiday 2013

Less than 2 months left!

In Australia "Holiday" is like USA's "Spring break", but in Australia they have 2 weeks and in the US you usually only have a week. Most people know this but US doesn't have that much holiday time compared to most other countries. ANYWAY for my spring break of two week my whole family came to visit me down under!
What went on:
Parents arrived and we stayed in Sydney for 5 days, then my brother made the 22 hour trek to Australia we met him in the airport and then headed to the south island of New Zealand, we were there for 5 days, then came back to Sydney with the whole family for 3 nights!

My parents and I ventured around the City, the first two days were spent at the two famous beaches of Bondi, and Manly because it was the hottest weather. The next day we went on a 10k hike on the waters edge by manly with amazing sights! That night we went out to Macquarie for my parents to see my place and meet my roommates! My german roommate made us curry! The Last day we spent in the botanical gardens by the harbour, saw the opera house and just hung in the city!

The whole family in New Zealand was amazing. We stayed in Queenstown, NZ at the most stunning hotel room that I have ever been in. Best part: was just being in Queenstown, the town had hiking, biking, a gondola, luge course, & lots of bars and places to eat. Worst part- not being able to go skydiving :(. We tried for two days straight. when sky diving it has to be almost perfect weather, little to no clouds and sunshine! Which our whole trip the weather was the exact opposite, sadly. We would get peaks of sunshine here and there but nothing to make a 4 hour trip to go skydiving worth while.
One of our day trips in New Zealand included going to Milford sound. When I first saw a brochure about it I thought that it was literally a sound but when really its just like a big inlet from the ocean. There are massive mountains on each side that accompany the inlet. Water falls were at various points in the mountains. At one of the tallest waterfalls the boat went right up close to it and even went underneath it!
Back in SYDNEY with the fam was boring.... JK it was pretty cool... JK it was AWESOME we got to do the bridge climb, meet up with my moms friend from HS that moved to Australia, got to go to the anzac parade and festivities, the famous taronga zoo and see roos and kolas.

BRIDGE CLIMB- was really awesome I got to see the city I've been living by from the past 2 months with a new perspective. I'm not going to lie it was scary at one part when climbing above traffic and then lower than that was water.. but once you go on the real arch of the bridge it was fine because you couldn't see though the actual bridge. It was just my mom, brother and I. My dad was a bit too scared but I think he could have! We got to do pictures at the bottom and at the top. We also got to take a video which we ... well I chose to do a shout out to my one and only wonderful boyfriend RANDAL. It was either that or calling my dad a wussy for not being up there with us. On the trip with us there was about 15 other people with included a women which I would say was in her late 70's or 80's which had a little problem at the top and we thought we were going to have a medical emergency, but everything ended up all right. I wouldn't really pay money to do it again, but it was a one in a life time opportunity to climb such an amazing bridge and to look over the city and opera house. I'm so grateful that I had my mom and brother to do this with me.

ANZAC DAY- Anzac day is a day to remember those from Australia and New Zealand that have died in all the wars but mostly in Gallipoli were 8,587 Australian lives were lost. We got back the day before ANZAC day and got to wake up early and go to one of the parades which was really fun to see in a different country. To see how much pride they have from their military, navy, and all others that help our in armed forces. My dad kept commenting on how we would never have this much pride or people at a parade for a thing such as memorial day. We also got to celebrate by seeing a game that is only legal on ANZAC day called two-up. Two- up is a betting game in which two quarters are used and you with many others are in a circle surrounding the two quarters. You hold up how much money you want to bet in your hand and you find someone with the same amount of money who you want to go "against". Who ever takes heads takes the money and holds on to it. If both quarters land on tails then the all the money is given to the other person if its both heads then the person keeps the money. If one is heads and other tails then its a re-draw. Aussies get REALLY into this game. It was a really fun atmosphere to see. Also on ANZAC day there is drinking and lots of it people come out old and young to celebrate.

TARONGA ZOO- The most amazing zoo I've ever been to by far. We saw elephants, tigers, monkeys, sea lions, kolas, kangaroos, pelicans and much more. My favourite was defiantly the pelicans. I like to refer everything I see in Sydney to the movie nemo so really... I got to see a character from the movie! We also got there around feeding time. They would throw fish up in the air and they would catch it in the mouths.... yeah pretty cool. We took the ferry over from Sydney so you could the city from various points within the zoo which was cool too. We also got to take a gondola over the zoo! It was a pretty busy day at the zoo but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day!

School-
Ok honestly time! My grades I have received back so far 45%, 60%, 62%, 72%... sooo not the best. I do have to get above a 50% in each class to pass.. So all my grades transfer over as credit or no credit. Let hope I get credit.. JK I will I am really going to buckle down after my brother leaves.. kinda. BUT listen to this when I was in class this friday my Big History Tutorial teacher which is from and went to college in the states, he said that if he got a 60% on his first paper he would be very happy with it. He explained to us the the first paper that teachers grade in a class are suppose to be a "punch" to the students, and then they grade easier from then on out.. lets hope this is true. Anywho grading is alot tougher here I feel if I turned any of those papers into Grand Valley I would have got a least a B..
I'm not only adjusting to being abroad and away from everything, but also trying to learn to study in a new environment also. && with that comes bad grades right??.. they will get better. My mom threaten me that I will have to pay all my classes in full if I fail... So i will not fail :)

CATCH-UP WITH SOME LOWELLIANS!
So theres this boy named Chase that I have been friends with since like middle school. He was in the same graduating class as me. Now he is also at Grand Valley getting his degree in business. So as it turns out his sister (Breanna) graduated from UofM last spring and right after not finding a job right out of school she headed to Melbourne, Australia with a year work visa last October! SO after Chase got done with exams at GV he came to visit his sister and they were in Sydney for a night that my brother and I were here too! So all four of us lowell Graduates were in Sydney Australia for a night! Pretty cool, two siblings, both us girls live in australia, Breanna graduated from UofM and my brother being at UofM at the moment and Chase and I both at Grand Valley. It was really cool to see and meet up with them! We got dinner on a roof top deck overlooking the opera house, it was a beautiful night!

MY BROTHERS STILL HERE
wait... what?? Yeah so my parents left last week saturday (& my moms still jet lagged parentally lol) my brother stayed with me for 4 days then traveled off to Hobart, in Tasmaina (an island off of australia) to do some hiking and exploring by himself. Now, just recently like and hour ago.. came back! He will be staying with me for another 4 days before departing back to the USA! We will be going on a party bus tonight, going to an AFL (super rugby) game tomorrow and hopefully surfing another day.. yeah I know doesnt sound like buckling down and studying.. but when is the next time I will be in Australia with my brother?! Anyway it will be a fun few days before he heads back and trys to find a job for the summer! Good luck CHAR CHAR.

List
-I would say about 70% of clubs/ bars have slot machines and places to gamble right inside of it. Its usually in a room off to the side, but I don't think you would find this a lot in america.
- M mature movies kids can watch them at 15 years old here
-Drinking age is 18
-To get into a casino in New Zealand you have to be 20... so i couldnt go in.. yet but its my birthday month!
- Toilets DO NOT flush the other way here.. they don't really flush any way.. a bunch of water just kinda gushes from every which way and wala its flushed
- Parents let there children run naked on beaches.. and its not a big deal. like lots of naked children
-there is like no free wifi here.. even in starbucks you have to purchase a drink to get a code and that code only lets you have wifi for 30 min... to say the least its very limited.
-My dad thinks the train stations are used as bomb shelters here lol
- Its been really nice weather here for there so called "winter" but ive heard ive just been lucky and it will get worse
- I want to go sailing before I leave
-I only have one final exam and I will be traveling for about 11 days before it... not sure yet tho.. alice springs? Broome? Western Australia?
- I AM OFFICIALLY COMING HOME JUNE 25th!!! get excited.

So a lot of people have asked me if I am an alcoholic over here.. honest to god NO. lol just think its legal over here for me to drink so I don't mind having pictures taken with me hold "OH NO" like a beer or something.. I am still planning to do "a day in the live of study abroad in sydney australia" and it will not ... well maybe it will include drinking but not obsessive amounts. My parents drank alot more over here than I did.. if thats any comparison..

Just wanted to write how grateful and thankful I am for having my parents here.. and brother. Not many parents would follow them half way around the world to visit where ever I chose to study abroad! But my above and beyond wonderful parents did, so thank you mom and dad for everything! I will always remember this once in a lifetime opportunity you took to come visit me while I was living in Australia! Thanks char for tagging along too!

LOVE YALL MISS YALL,
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
ally jo