1. Mom's cooking and Dad's bbq-ing
2. Good Internet service that is reasonably priced
3. Good library
4. Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream (or Tillamook, just something good!)
5. Cars driving on the right side of the road (pun intended)
6. Cell phone charges that make sense
7. Good customer service at restaurants and cafes
8. Pizza with legit sauce
9. Hearing only English when you walk places
10. Driving
11. Double Stuff Oreos
12. Cheap(ish) fruit
13. Notecards
14. Printers made after 1990
15. Clean apartments
16. Comforters (they have them here, but I am too cheap to buy one)
17. Grocery stores that are not in the mall
18. Clean air
19. Space
20. Malls that stay open past 5pm
21. Fillet being pronounced fill-a (long a)
22. My personal printer
23. My own room
24. Staplers at more convenient locations
25. School websites that make sense and look pretty
26. More than 5 advertisements on TV
27. Counter space
28. Refigerators with food
29. Built in heating
30. Non-creepy showers
31. No mold on my walls
32. Sports center or ESPN
33. American Football
34. Pacific Time
35. ABC.com
36. My big TV
37. ATT
38. HBO

Things I am going to miss...

1. Cadbury Eyebrow Commercial
2. Tim Tams
3. Attempting to make cookies when they fail
4. Homebrand
5. The word "heaps"
6. Parklands
7. Homebrand Corn Chips
8. Homebrand Garlic Bread
9. Dinner dates with the roomies
10. The MQ Gym
11. The Train
12. Cupcakes
13. Kangaroo pizza
14. Wombats

I am sure I will think of more and add them later!

Note: Thanks to my roomies Dana and Rachel for their input!

Today was the Darling Harbor adventure. I had only been there to see the aquarium and walk through it briefly with Robbie. This time, we went all out. For anyone travelling to the harbor, get off at Town Hall and follow the signs to Darling Harbor. It is so amazingly convenient I was even surprised. If you are down by the Circular Quay area anyways, you may want to take the ferry, which is a nice change of pace from either walking in the city of taking the crowded trains.

Cara, Dana, Kelly and I get off at Town Hall and walked towards Darling Harbor. I had never been in this way and I did not realize that there were so many different paths to get there. It is in kind of an interesting location. You have to go over or under a highway depending which way to go, but it is all very pedestrian friendly and well marked with red and white signs.

We make our way to the nearest Starbucks. I order something different for a change: a tall double skinny white mocha with whip. Bad mistake, it was quite possibly the worst coffee I had ever had. The barista must not have turned the cup on its side when he/she poured it so ALL of the syrup was at the bottom. Dana and Kelly’s were the same way, very disappointing Starbucks.

After that slight debacle, we headed out to go to our main destination for the day: Paddy’s Markets. On our way the best think happened, I looked to my left as I was walking and there was Aubrey Breard, a fellow student from Willamette who is studying abroad in Perth. It turns out she was visiting friends here in Sydney and it was just pure luck that we ran into each other. Anyways, it was a very exciting moment and I did not realize until then just how much I miss everyone back home and my little Willamette bubble.

We then made our way to Paddy’s Market. Dana and I waited outside for a little bit while Kelly and Cara ran to the ATM, during this brief time we saw two couples walk by one of the entrances and the female would see something through the door and say “Oh! Wait a second!” and the guy would give the same exasperated look of resignation. It was very funny.

And then came the experience that is Paddy’s Market. I am going to try to explain this to those who have never been there. It is this big warehouse-like building that is like the exhibition halls they have at county fairs. However, the whole building is packed with stalls selling articles ranging from cell phone covers, souvenirs, roasted nuts, to a $10 “dress.” It also has a very distinct plastic-y smell.

We started on the outside ring and then went row by row. I will try not to give away too much about how much I spent on gifts for people since I bought some for people who read this blog but you can usually find the EXACT same stuff for about a third of the price. For example, one item I bought at Paddy’s was $5 but in the store it was $14.95. Crazy! Anyways, it was a very successful day and I only have two more people to buy for but I have a very specific thing in mind so I am sure that will come eventually.

Next we headed back to the main part of Darling Harbor after having lunch at McDonald’s. For those interested, I had a 6 piece chicken McNugget with a water and a medium fry and I also bought the trivial pursuit game for a dollar. For those interested in my health, I did go the RevMaster, my cycling class, later that night to work off those calories.

Darling Harbor is pretty much the little sister harbor to Circular Quay, almost understated but absolutely gorgeous. It has a young feel to it while Circular Quay and the Rocks have a more rustic, time worn feel. This might be due to the fact that Darling has an IMAX and the state of the art convention centre but it just puts off a very different vibe from its big sister.

Then we stopped in at the mall to check out the more expensive souvenir shops there. I was not about to pay $15AUD for kangaroo jerky so I moved on to look at some other shops. I cam across this really cool store that sells Aboriginal designs and hand painted artefacts, and you know they are real based off of how much they cost. But some of the things they had in there were really unique and beautiful. For example, they had hand made candles and these brooches that were designed and hand crafted by two Aboriginal women. The different symbols meant different aspects of women’s lives from teaching to healing or Mother Earth. They were gorgeous. According to the sign, former President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton received the Women Teaching one on their visit to Australia.

After a long day it was time to head home. We were exhausted and it was beginning to rain. It was another amazing day out in the city, how I love Sydney.

After dinner and a good workout, Dana, Hannah, and I made a wonderful cake for dessert and we sat around singing camp songs. It was very fun and I realize I don’t have the energy to be a camp counsellor. Dana makes all of her camp kids learn “Don’t Stop Believin’” and sing it at a talent show. I have one word for that “Wow.”

As I sit here writing this, waiting to watch Mystic River with Hannah and Dana, I am starting to think I should become a professional blogger. Or write a book, like Carrie Bradshaw. People make money doing that now. As Hannah says, “Maybe you’ll get famous, it happens sometimes.”

First, to get into an Australian university, you take a test, sort of similar to the SAT, but your score is not a “raw” score like it is in the SAT. The score you get is your percentage in relation to how other people did. So if I got a 92% I would have scored higher than 91-2% of the students who took the test in my year. Now, while I see what you Americans reading this are thinking…”We have the same system, you get a percentile rating as well” but what I think is the main difference is that if you don’t score a certain level on this test you cannot get into university at all. Also, different programs require different scores to get in.

From my understanding, the SAT does not limit your college choices. Even if you have a really bad SAT and a bad GPA you can go to some form of higher education whether that means community college or a larger state school. By no means am I saying that only people with bad SATs and bad GPAs go to community college or states schools but that generally those tend to be the only options for people on the lower end of the numerical range. You can also apply to top ranked schools such as USC or Reed (notice the West Coast representation please) and have outstanding recommendations and a great interview and be accepted.

Now, this subject came up in our media class because we read the lectures that were given on ABC (Australian not American) by Rupert Murdoch in 2008 on the state of Australia in relation to the world and the coming changes. Murdoch stated that Australia needs to reform its education system to keep up with the changing times. I agree. If you are limiting the number of students who can enter into different programs based on numbers you are seriously denting the educated population. An educated society is a successful society and this is something I truly believe.

However, Australian education is basically free based on the current structure. I like the idea that if you are ‘smart’ enough to get into uni then you won’t have to pay. If more people were accepted into uni, I see how the price would have to go up and extra strain would be put on the government. But one wonders if everyone were given the best chance they could to succeed, whether or not that includes going to uni, wouldn’t we have a wealthier society in the long run who would pay more taxes? I have very limited knowledge on economics and government policy but it does make me wonder and want to learn more.

Now the subject comes up, not everyone can be educated or needs to be for their job. What about them? How would the benefit? What about government funded trade schools or a way to get housing or insurance help if you are apprenticing. While everyone may not want a higher education degree, surely everyone would not mind a little help along the way to improving whatever skills they may posses, no matter the shape or form.

The second wonderful piece of information that I learned yesterday in my media tute was that Australia just got Tivo.

(Dramatic pause.)

No joke. About ¾ of my class had heard of Tivo. I was the only one who had one. Granted, I had one, then Dad upgraded to something better, but still, you get the point. Most of them did not even know how it actually worked.

I was completely confused! For a country that appears to be so modern and forward thinking they are stuck constantly 10 years behind us. I had to explain how it worked in my limited computer/TV lingo, which was cause for concern and laughs. Anyways, it seems that Australia needs to modify both its technology and education systems otherwise the running joke will be no “What will they think of next?” but “What did they already think of in the US or UK?”

References:

Murdoch, Rupert. 2008. “Lecture 1: Aussie Rules: bring back the pioneer”, (Boyer Lectures series broadcast on Radio National, 2nd November, 2008. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/boyerlectures accessed: 27th January 2009.

Chelsea McLennan
Professor Catherine Simpson
MAS 104: Australian Media
28 May 2009
Essay #2: “Imagined Communities”

Talking and Laughing: Radio and Comedy and the Formation of Imagined Communities

In this world, there exists uncountable ways to see difference. Yet the idea of ‘nationalism’ and ‘community’ still exist, represented by bonds between people. Those bonds are based in commonalities and shared social and cultural constructs within a perceived nation. To establish these bonds, individuals look not only to personal communication but also to the media to inform them and share ideas across a wider geographical distance. The power that media has to create a sense of unity in a country as diverse and distant as Australia demands attention. Through expressed intent to share the common elements of everyday life, Australian media creates and sustains an active imagined community, highlighted in the mediums of community radio and comedy.

There is some argument to be made for the ways in which media works against society. At times, media can broadcast the worst of a community or misrepresent the truth. Furthermore, some may argue that the community that media may establish is not a community at all, but a loose structure based on impersonal bonds without all the elements necessary for a community to thrive. However, there is value in acknowledging the share of ideas and content that media allows. In this paper, a brief outline will be given on the term ‘imagined community’ followed by a discussion of how radio and comedy fulfil the requirements to create such a construct. Radio and comedy were chosen to demonstrate that a wide variety of mediums exhibit this phenomenon.

Historically, “’imagined communities’ were product of what [Anderson] calls ‘print capitalism—the convergence of early capitalism economics and the technology of printing” (Craig, 2004:173). This tradition continues by extension with radio and TV. As humans, we now have means to connect with each other beyond the physical, we move towards waves and broadcasted content in order to share in a common knowledge set and obtain information. These new forms of communities that share in a common knowledge source help to define a new set of boundaries. Anderson comments that ‘communities are differentiated not by wether they actually exist or not but, instead, how they are imagined’ (1983:6).

A large part of the imagined community is how one defines the term ‘nation.’ ‘National identity’ and ‘nationalism’ represent a “type of symbolic power which binds people together through a sense of belonging to a specific place and culture” (Craig, 2004:177). Essentially, one must feel both geographically and culturally linked to a group. At its most raw form, “the idea of the nation was produced to a large degree through the reportage of mundane matters” (Craig, 2004:174). Thus the focus is on the average, the day to day and not the extraordinary, which for most people, is what one can identify with. For the purposes of this paper, the term community and nation will be interchangeable, simply signifying a group of any size that has the characteristics described above.

Radio

As a form of media, radio is both diverse and readily available, lending it considerable power. It has developed into one of the most easily accessible forms of media with many styles and diverse content. In Australia, it is “the most pervasive medium” with many local, commercial, and music frequencies (Griffen-Foley, 2006:133). As part of media, radio has “expanded the boundaries of public by bringing the concerns of private life into public life” (Craig, 2004:173). This ability to make the personal public gives rise to identification through the sharing of ideas and opinions, making a larger knowledge base accessible to more people.

In establishing communities, radio has the ability to target a specific audience, recognizing the differences within a larger set and establishing a smaller community. Hendy comments on this unique distinction by saying that “radio—more minutely segmented than other media- provides a more precise reflection of the fragmented communities of modern societies, whether communities are defined by nationality, ethnicity, sex, or simply by patterns of consumption and taste” (2000:214). For example, a metal rock music station would not attract people who buy folk western albums, and thus the listeners possess a bond with each other by having a common taste in music.

Since radio differs from other form of media as relying solely on audio content, the focus on expression gives radio the unique ability to tie people together through language. Most, if not all, stations have some sort of talk element. Foxwell et al discuss the element of talk in radio as having a laidback feel: the “‘ordinary person’ style makes listeners feel as if presenters are ‘one of them’” (2008:11). Thus, listeners identify with not only what is being said, but also who is saying it. They are placing themselves within a group of people who listen and identify with a specific set of content. The ‘ordinary’ style demonstrates how the radio communities rely on common and accepted topics that are not presumptuous and are not based on areas outside of the community’s interests. In fact, radio’s “oral code of communication allows it to tie itself to communities of language which ignore official borders” (Hendy, 2000:215). Thus radio listeners may be part of a community that is not just based geographically, but instead on language and/or culture that is relevant to them.

Special interest is given to the community radio sector. While a specific radio station may have syndicated content, “for most listeners…radio is not an international medium, but rather a national or, especially, a local one” (Hendy, 2000:23). Community radio recognizes this feeling and uses this power to establish itself as a news and culture provider. As a media entity, community radio seeks to empower: “empowerment refers to the role of community radio and television in enhancing broader societal concepts such as citizenship, democracy, and the public sphere” (Foxwell et al, 2008:19). Thus, local radio programs that focus on issues that are pertinent to its listeners have a much more active role in the structure of a group. They can create bonds through the use of audio and constitute venues in which people can share in an experience. In the extreme case, for new geographical and cultural communities, “community radio takes on a central communicative role, providing a more important source of ‘community glue’” (Foxwell et al, 2008:16). As one community radio listener says: community radio “make sit easier for people to, to settle knowing that they are not really total strangers” (Foxwell et al, 2008:15). This ‘glue’ signifies the bonds that come from a shared part of daily life and help to form the imagined community between people.

With community radio, individuals posses the power to dictate the content and further establish themselves in relation to each other. Deutsch, quoted in Schlesinger, states that “membership in a people consists of a wide complementarily of social communication. It consists in the ability to communicate more efficiently, and over a wider range of subjects, with members of one large group than with outsiders” (1991:157). The process of developing content for community radio comes largely from the community itself: “communities are active in the representation, production, and maintenance of themselves” (Foxwell et al, 2008:10). Thus members of the community take an active role in not only forming groups, but also defining exactly who they are and how they want to represent themselves to the larger public. Furthermore, radio empowers ordinary people to share and sustain conversation and activities that people within the group value. Although most people in a community defined by radio may never even meet, they know that someone like them is dictating the content and sharing with them.

Comedy

There are many reasons why people laugh. A situation or a unique way of looking at a commonly accepted value or cultural construct can be particularly hilarious. Yet, an essential element to any joke is finding the appropriate content that the audience can relate to and understand enough to find funny. In the past, comedy was “the most appropriate genre for representing the lives… of the ‘middle’ and ‘lower’ orders of society” (Neale and Krutnik, 1991:11). The same is arguably true in modern Australian culture in satire and the mocking of the everyday.

As a form of comedy, satire aims to re-present the society in which it is based in order to elicit laughs from an audience that shares the same societal construct in order to criticise. Because satire uses elements of society, it takes parts of the reality and re-presents it to the audience, drawing upon parody. Bowles notes that “representation as a form of display towards theories of discourse as a way of sharing in, and contributing to, the ways in which our cultural and language group undertakes its particular repackaging of the real” (Bowles, 2006:75). Thus by aiming to make the content funny, producers and writers are acknowledging that their representation of the real will appeal to a certain target group, or community, that share the same context as the people in the production.

A prime example of satire used to critique society is the Australian comedy “Summer Heights High,” a TV show that plays with the perceived discrepancies between private and public schools. Here we see a producer, using what he sees as reality, to hold up a mirror to society and dramatize it. As a comedic form, “satire works to mock and attack. It uses the norms within its province as a basis against which to measure deviations” (Neale and Krutnik, 1991:19). Applied, when Ja’mie comments on the number of Asian students at her private high school or how boring public school appears to be , it is intended to make individuals who share a similar experience in Australian high school laugh. High school constitutes an everyday, common concept and when put into the context of “Summer Heights High,” the audience is expected to identify with the characters and content. Therefore, the viewers would have to have a pre-conceived notion of what Australian high school is in order to fully understand the comical and socio-political connotations.

As demonstrated by “Summer Heights High,” one can see how comedy uses aspects of society to create a humorous situation that only a certain group could comprehend. In addition, the straightforward content makes a simple classroom situation or a high school kid’s thoughts comical. An individual watching would notice these aspects and possibly relate to them; O’Hara addresses this issue and states that the content is a “hilarious and accurate picture of a lot of what happens in schools today” (2007:72). Once a person recognizes that other people are laughing as well, he/she would begin to realize that the experience is not uncommon, and that other people share in the enjoyment of that show. “Summer Heights High” is a particularly strong example since there are “character types who are recognizable, irritating and yet often able to elicit sympathy” (O’Hara, 2007:70). Because there exists a division between those who would find “Summer Heights High” funny, or at least relate to the stories presented, and those who would not, the comedic show’s followers demonstrate how a comedy can produce an imagined community of people who are aware of the implications of the content. Furthermore, “Australia’s changing tastes in humour are indicative of the cultural changes over the last several decades,” placing the community established by comedy not only geographically different, but temporally as well (Bosanquet, 2006:92). So not only can we see comedy forms a group, but it also is indicative of a wider culture base where one can actively mark how the nation has changed as a whole.

As seen by community radio and comedy, Australian media forms imagined communities, based around the sharing of everyday occurrences. In a world that grows smaller every day due to technology, the term ‘community’ becomes more difficult to describe. Rupert Murdoch, in his lectures on ABC, rightly states “internationalism means both opportunity and competition…It also means being clearer about the nature of Australia’s identity, its qualities and its collective character” (Murdoch, 2008). That is why media, as comedy and radio do, should continue to address issues that are pertinent to their audience and aim to form the bonds that sustain a closer community. It is through recognizing the Australianness that permeates everyday life that we can become a stronger community and face the changes and challenges that come.

Bibliography

Anderson, Benedict. 2006. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Verso, London & New York, pp. 1-7.

Bosanquet, Tim. 2006. “Don’t Fence Me In: Australian TV Comedy – The Next Wave” in Metro #149, pp. 90-95.

Bowles, Kate. 2006. “Representation” in Cunngingham, Stuart and Turner, Graeme (eds) The Media and Communications in Australia (2nd edition), Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, pp. 64-77.

Craig, Geoffrey. 2004. “The nation and national identity” in The Media, Politics and Public Life, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, pp. 171-191.

Foxwell, Kerrie et al. 2008. “Sounds like a whisper: Australian community broadcasting hosts a quiet revolution”, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, vol.5, no.1, pp. 5-24.

Griffen-Foley, Bridget. 2006. “Radio” in Cunningham, Stuart and Turner, Graeme (eds) The Media and Communications in Australia (2nd edition), Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, pp. 133-153.

Hendy, David. 2000. “Radio in the Global Age,” Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.

Murdoch, Rupert. 2008. “Lecture 1: Aussie Rules: bring back the pioneer”, (Boyer Lectures series broadcast on Radio National, 2nd November, 2008. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/boyerlectures accessed: 27th January 2009.

Neale, Steve, and Krutnik, Frank. 1991. “Definitions, genres, and forms” in Popular Film and Television Comedy, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 10-25.

O’Hara, Marguerite. 2007. “School’s Out There: Summer Heights High” in Metro #155, pp. 68-73.

Schlesinger, Philip. 1991. “Media, State and Nation,” SAGE Publications, London, UK.

- I am enjoying my internship. I only have two weeks left. I am learning a lot and, once again, have no clue what I am doing with my life.

- It is fall time in Sydney and it has been rainy and windy. Not necessarily cold which is kind of annoying because I hate feeling like the humidity under my rain hood is 123%.

- Classes are going well. I am writing a paper on how media creates imagined communities and another one on how vocality distinguishes different types of music. I also have an assignment due in math tomorrow. Yay!

- Spring break was amazing and I wish I had blogged during the trip so I could share more about it. It was great to see the family (minus kyle ☹) and Carrie and I loved getting to see New Zealand together.

- I did the bridge climb when the parents were here and I am SO glad I did. It was an amazing experience that I will remember forever. For anyone afraid of heights, just do it! Sorry to draw on Nike for inspiration, but it is definitely not as scary as you may think it is.

- Gloria Jeans is still my coffee place. I get coffee every morning still and it is my main expenditure, which is a little depressing but oh well.

- It is weird to look at my countdown on Facebook and see that I only have 30ish days left. It feel like time has flown yet not. I am ready to come home, I miss America, my family, and Robbie.

- There are weird commercials here. Seriously, you watch them and go “WTF!!!!” They make no sense. Some are funny, some are just weird. For a funny example, look up “Cadbury eyebrow commercial.” That one is good. For a not so funny one, try “Bushnell’s Australian Breakfast Tea.”

- I have a new favorite TV show. Master Chef Australia. It is on almost every night of the week and it makes time fly. Sunday night is the fun night to watch so all the roomies will get together in the living room and watch. So much fun!

- Our dishwasher is still sitting in the corner of our dining room. Don’t ask.

- Our oven was fixed yesterday. Don’t ask.

- There is a problem with our dryer. Don’t ask.

- The mailmen deliver the mail on little motorized bikes. It is funny to watch them come down the street delivering the mail. They don’t walk but then again, I am not sure how we deliver mail in the city in the US. Us country folk get it via a Jeep. Haha, it sounds so much more rough than it really is.

- I have found that if I go to Starbucks after work as well and drink my coffee mildly quickly I can catch the train to Wyong, which is SO much nicer than the other trains, and there are usually ‘fewer’ people.

- Rachel went skydiving today. I hope she is okay, still haven’t heard from her.

- Grey’s Anatomy has caught up here to where it was when we left the states! Yay! (Anybody who watches Grey’s will see how I made the connection between this comment and the previous one).

- ‘Jai Ho’ is now on my playlist.

- Rove is my new favorite TV host.

- I don’t like spelling organization ‘organisation’.

- People don’t pick up their garbage here. It is very weird. You are at a coffee shop that has a garbage ON THE WAY OUT and they still leave there cups on the table. I am sitting next to this lady who just sat down at a table where these people did that and she took their garbage, put it on the bar, not in the garbage, and went to get her coffee. Where you pick up your coffee is right next to another garbage. People are weird or rude. I have not decided yet.

- I went to see “17 Again.” Zac Efron should not be allowed to take his shirt off. People get distracted. Really good movie though!

- I miss the Woodburn Outlet malls.

- We have found that Australians refuse to say French words without saying them the way they would be pronounced in English. For example, fillet (like a fillet of fish) is pronounced fill-it. Yeah, explain that one. Not that the word advertisement is French, but the pronounce it ad-vert-is-ment. The ‘is’ in the middle is pronounced like the verb would be. Very interesting.

- I also find it quite disturbing that most Australians do not know their own national anthem. I have heard the US anthem on TV but not the Australian. Kind of weird. I would hope that about 75% of the US citizens would know the anthem. Maybe that figure is a little high, but perhaps not.

- Kevin Rudd is the prime minister of Australia. I only know this because I watch Rove. Sad.

- In my Australian media class we were talking about “Summer Heights High,” which is possibly the most FUNNY show ever made, and my LECTURER said that Americans would not find it funny because we don’t know the public/private high school construct. My lecturer said that! Are you kidding! We have the same problems with how the private and public high schools work. Personally, I think Australia needs to stop comparing itself to Britain and the US and just bask in their own glory for a little bit. They have a great and diverse country but for some reason they always feel the need to draw comparisons.

- I met a girl from Greece in the library the other day. She was super nice. She grew up outside of Corinth and I was super jealous. She moved to Australia ten years ago to get a better education. Interesting.

- Australia has no bill of rights protecting basic freedoms. But they have a form of rights that allows them to do things that the bill of rights does for the US. But they can be revoked more easily. I found that surprising.

- “Poker Face” is quite possibly my new favorite song.

- This guy sitting next to me at the coffee shop has a piece of paper that has the words “Hillary Duff Yesterdays” written on it. I wonder…

- I have been getting good use out of my gym membership. Carrie and I go a lot together and we enjoy the time. Our favorite class is Ab Blaster with Liesal. I now have the strongest abs I have ever had. Grr! (Insert mean face here)

Before I continue, I should probably explain a little bit about Mardi Gras here in Sydney. The big parade is at the end of a two-week festival that is put on/supported by the Gay and Lesbian communities of Australia. The festival began as a political statement and in recent years has been more of just a festival. This year, according to their website, the aim was to make it once again a political statement. The motto was “Nations United” and the parade was to begin at 7:45pm with ‘foreplay’ at 5:30pm.

We got down there around 3ish and wandered over to Oxford Street to find a place to sit. I was surprised at how much room there still was to sit. We ended up sitting on the shady side of the road (thank goodness) in front of the Columbian Hotel, which included a gay bar.

The people next to us were gay and a hoot. They seemed to know everyone. So we popped a squat. We ended up sitting there for about three hours before anything really started happening. We moved the barricade forward, more into the street, and then waited. Then, suddenly, there were very few people pressed in very close. There were probably only five layers of people but during the parade it felt as though the whole universe was pressing me against the barricade.

Something else that may have inhibited my experience was the presence of smokers all around me. I probably smoked two whole cigarettes just from second hand smoke. There were these two girls behind us that would roll one about every ten minutes and with the wind blowing in my direction, I thought I might die of smoke inhalation.

The floats were not that amazing. There were some impressive ones with drag queens in extravagant costumes and the lifeguards of Bondi did a good dance number. Overall, the floats were nothing like what we would normally see in the rose parade or something similar.

I did like how there was a political message and how coordinated it was. There were tons of volunteers and they all had really cool t-shirts that were different colours to tell you exactly what type of volunteer they were.

About an hour and a half into the parade, we decided to leave and start heading home. I have never seen so many people on the streets. We literally had to push through this group of about 150 people on this one sidewalk. I was glad there was a somewhat larger group of us to kind of push through and hold on to. We finally made it away from the parade route and found the QVB (Queen Victoria Building). From here, we knew both where our bus stop was and the McDonalds. We ate dinner at 10pm at McDonalds. I had six chicken McNuggets, small fry, and a 30 cent ice cream cone. It was great!

We then all got on the bus and headed home. I am forever grateful that there is a bus stop right outside of our flat. It makes coming home that much easier. We then got home and ate Oreos and went to bed. One more exciting day in Sydney!

Well, Wednesday was an interesting day. It is my long day of class. I started off the day with a nice coffee and workout with Carrie and then got ready for my long day. First was my Australian Media tutorial. I am loving this class! We have so much fun. We talked about establishing the idea of nationhood. We also got into groups for the lead the discussion exercise and I was paired with two people I had met before and we got the first week of presentations. Our topic is Australian Cinema. Problem: I have NEVER seen an Australian movie. Solution: I must watch ten in the next two weeks to be prepared. This is going to be fun!

I decided that I did not want to rush to my music tutorial so I went to the second tutorial of the day, which was an hour later. In the gap, I checked my e-mail and lo and behold I got an interview at Asgard Wealth Management Solutions for 4pm the next day! I was so excited you have no clue! So after I got that all figured out I went to my next tutorial.

This one was for my reading contemporary music class. We listened to three songs and had to guess if they were popular or fine art music. I got them all correct. Then we had a mini debate on the argument posed by fine art/traditional musicologists that popular music is not art. I, unfortunately, got stuck arguing that popular music is not art. It is a very fun class and the professor kind of has a hippie vibe, but not overly earthy.

Next was another one hour break followed by my lovely three hour math class. This time we learned about conditional probability and then we had our first tutorial. I think this is the class I will have the most work for but I hope that the work does not get overly hard. We shall see.

So then I headed back home and we had a little 90’s dance party back in good old Parklands and then I went to bed excited for my interview the next day.

On Thursday I slept in, got my coffee and then got ready for my interview. I decided on my black skirt, my white blouse, and my black heels. I did my hair pulled back into a low ponytail, simple make-up.

Sydney is not a heel-friendly city. I about killed myself ten times walking through the train station and over the cracks in the sidewalks. I must remember to bring flip flops in my bad so I can walk up the hill when I get home.

I ended up leaving a little too early to get to my interview so after I got off the train I had bout 40 minutes to kill. I found 400 George Street and then wandered around. The Stranden (spelling) Building was right next door so I stopped in and looked at some of the Australian shops and sat on a bench to watch people, business men/women and tourists alike, wander through the unique building.

Then it was that fated time to head into the very large office building and enter into my first experience of a corporate interview. You walk into the ground floor and you have the stereotypical security guard. Then there is the high ceiling and the comfy looking couches next to a bistro. Then you hit the two sets of elevators that divide the building into express zones. I take the first set and get in with this guy who had just bought his lunch. He was very nice for an elevator companion.

I got out and enter an office building, complete with reception area and a secretary. Wow. It was gorgeous and completely intimidating. I sat between the boardroom (which was labelled “boardroom”) and the front desk. I had to wait for my interviewers to get out of a meeting and it was the longest five and a half minutes of my life.

Antionette finally met me and brought me into one of their few meeting rooms. She then went on to explain exactly what it is that they do and what events were coming up. Chantelle joined us shortly after. The event production side that they were describing was really exciting. I think I am going to learn a lot about what it means to put on an event on such a large scale (and with so much money at stake). They were super enthusiastic about having an intern and that in turn made me excited.

They asked me the standard questions about what I hoped to learn, my experience, why I chose liberal arts, etc. At the end they said “when can you start” and I said whenever you need me. My first day is this next Thursday.

The only awkward part of this whole experience was the end. There was another meeting scheduled in my interview room at 4:30pm so they had to rush me out and then they stopped right in front of the elevators and I kept trying to shake their hand to say thank you and then walk myself out but that did not really work. Ugh. I am glad they had already offered me the job because I am afraid that my hesitancy might have come across as an inability to take initiative. Anyways, I made it out of the building just fine after that.

I was so ecstatic that I called home right away and told mom and dad and I bought myself some good Australian chocolate for the ride home on the train. The only bad part of the whole day: wearing heels.

Friday was relaxing. I will just say a few words about it because not much happened. Dana and I went to Chatswood to look for the Starbucks there. We got there on the train and we tried to find the Starbucks but couldn’t and so we asked someone about it. They closed. I was very sad to learn this.

We then shopped for a little bit, I got a new shirt and Dana got a dress for the Opera House. I still got coffee but at Gloria Jean’s. By then Kelly and Allison had arrived and we had lunch with them. Lunch was not very good, but hey, we ate. Then I was not feeling well and went home. The next day was Mardi Gras so I wanted to make sure I was well rested.

Let me explain a little bit about the printing process here. You get on a computer in the library, hit print and whatever settings you want. It then sends the document to the network. You find a networked computer that is hooked up to a computer. You then hit refresh and look for the number of the computer you sent your document from. Then you click on the document you want to print, swipe your card (which you previously put money on), and wait for what seems like hours for your document to print. The printers and computers are somewhat old and it slows down the process like none other. To make matters worse, it costs 11 cents per page, even if you double side it (so essentially double sided printing costs you 22c per page.). I miss my Willamette printing allowance.

Another thing that is kind of weird about the technology on campus is the wireless internet. They only have two wireless networks for the whole campus. One is based in the library and the other one stretches the length of the campus. The main one is so slow it is like pulling teach with two forks. The library network is so much better but you have to be either right outside the library or in it to really get a good connection. It is just so weird for a campus with 30,000 students!

I have been able to talk to Tati, Emma, and Rachael a lot though which has been nice. I am not sure how much of my internet I have used. I look at the statistics on the little box that pops up (I know, descriptive) and I cannot figure it out. I guess when I run out I purchase more!

I have been getting really excited about my Australian Media class. I have really enjoyed the course content so far. I am only worried about the fact that I will be writing about what it means to be Australian as portrayed through the media and I know nothing about what it even means to be an Australian! If I do it correctly though, I think this could actually help me. I have chosen my final essay question:

How does Australian media construct an ‘imagined community’? Is it through content, form of address, or through other means? Illustrate your argument using at least two or three examples.

I think this one will be perfect coming from an American. Of course, there is another question I could answer that pertains to US film critics’ use of the word ‘quirky’ to describe Australian cinema but I think I would have too much of a bias.

I met up with Carrie at the mall because she was having a bad day and we tried Boost Juice. Boost is very similar to Jamba Juice but Jamba is much better. I don’t think I will be going back to Boost.

Class today was fun. The lectures go by really quickly and I went to the RevMaster cycling class after my lectures. I then went home and made my normal dinner, sat down and…SURPRISE!!! An NCIS episode I had not seen before! And that is where and how my day ended.

Sunny day! Not much new happened today but we did take the Ferry to Manly beach instead of trying to get there via the bus system. It was so much easier taking a train then the Ferry! We ended up buying a day pass that is good on the bus, trains, and ferries. They don’t give concessions (discounted priced tickets) on the day pass but the lady was super nice and gave me a child’s ticket in place of a concession ticket! I get concession because I am an exchange student, not a study abroad student. So the day pass costs $17 but I got it for $8.60.

We did stop at Starbuck’s before we got on the Ferry, which was very nice. We then loaded the Ferry and sat down on the second deck inside. The Ferry ride was about 25 minutes and very smooth, minus some minor rocking.

Once we got to the beach, I was surprised at how busy yet how not busy it was. Manly is definitely big enough to accommodate all the people who want to go there for a day. We ended up sitting at about the halfway point. We did apply sunscreen (I did SPF30). I looked around for Rachel because she was supposed to be there and it turns out she was only a few feet to our right diagonal.

We layed out for about three hours and then the sun went behind the trees that were behind us and we got cold. We then decided to head up to the corso and get some ice cream from Copenhagen’s. Once again, it was delicious. We went back out to the beach and hung out with Rachel and her friends for a little bit.

Towards the end of our stay, there was a public announcement regarding Blue Bottles. Blue bottles look like jellyfish, but they really aren’t, I tried to figure it out on Wikipedia, but it was slightly confusing. There more common name is the Portuguese Man o’ War. The announcement said that there is no immediate cure for stings and the only effective way to even help it a little bit was to remove the stinger and rinse with fresh water. However, I checked on Wikipedia and it said that washing it with fresh water actually made it worse. I am not about to experiment.

Apparently, the blue bottles were washing up on shore quite frequently. There was a onshore wind that aided in that and the surf was going out. We saw about three people get stung. It did not look fun.

Around 5 o’clock we headed back via the fair and train. We were so tired and just went right back to my apartment and made dinner. During dinner we watched “Kiss the Girls” with Morgan Freeman. It was kinda scary but not too freaky. Carrie then went home around 10pm and I crashed.

What an exciting day! Carrie, Dana, Hannah, and I all went into Sydney. We took the free train line from Macquarie University to Chatswood to transfer over to Western line to get to Wynard Station. However, when we go to Wyndard station, we did not have a ticket since we boarded on the free line. Oops! So we made Dana talk to the rail security guy and he let us through the gate. Well, we learned.

The trains on the new Chatswood to Epping line are really nice. They, like all the trains in Sydney, are double deckers and the seats flip around so you can either sit facing each other or it can be traditional row seating. You might just have to see it. I am not sure if I am explaining that well enough. Anyways, since the line was new, the trains was super comfy and smooth. The train stations were also new and very nice. The Macquarie University one reminded me of a theatre or concert hall. It is very big.

So we got into Sydney and then it was time to hunt down a Starbucks for my mug. We walked down George Street until we got to the Wharf and turned right. There it was. My first Australian Starbucks. Thank goodness! I splurged and ordered an iced mocha (skim milk of course). However, they did not have the Starbuck’s city mugs. I asked the guy at the counter and he said they were very hard to find, so if I did find one, I should definitely buy it. We resolved to try and find another one later.

Carrie ordered a white mocha frappucino, it was so good! The barista suggested getting the whip cream blended in, I think that sounds fantastic! We then walked down along the street that Starbucks was on and found a souvenir shop that sold Australian Uggs. Now, Australian Uggs have a different tag on them but they cost the same and are apparently made by the same people. Later that day we also found a “traditional” Ugg store and boy was it amazing!

We then had lunch at this café on the same street. I had this really good chicken sandwhich on Turkish bread (which is pretty much an obsession here) and it came with a small salad. The sun started to come out about this time and it started to warm up.

After lunch, we headed down to McDonalds to get 30 cent ice cream. Yep, it is the cheapest dessert you can buy in Australia, I am pretty positive. They actually give you a pretty good amount of ice cream for how much you pay! I was extremely happy.

We then went to the opera house. Oh my gosh, the first time I saw it was running by it trying to catch a cruise. It was nice to take in the site and revel in the moment. The building is gorgeous in its own artistic sense and it was great to walk up the steps and get close to it. We went in to see if we could get tickets for a show. The box office lady was really nice and we ended up getting tickets for the 21st of March to see “The Best of the West Side” which is a compilation of songs played by the Sydney Orchestra from famous musicals. It should be very fun. We have the last row however, but at least it is just music and it only cost us $35AUD! I will let you know how it goes.

We then continued on our walk and went back up George Street. We basically just wandered until we found a street that looked somewhat interesting and then turned up it. By chance, we found the shopping district so we stopped in at Tiffany’s, Chanel, and George Jones (? a kind of Australian Saks).

Next, we came across this park that had a really cool mythical fountain in the middle (see Facebook album soon) and a church off to the side. We walked around the park for a little bit and then went into the church, St. Mary’s. It was absolutely gorgeous. The rafters were gorgeously cut and styled wood and it was styled in true Catholic fashion. The outside was made of what I believe is sandstone and it was so pristine that I could not believe my eyes.

At this point, we picked another street to walk up and ended up walking past the hospital, which was in this older style building, it looked like a very scary hospital. We also found two museums and the banking district.

So, we headed back to George Street after awhile and tried to find the next Starbucks,. Little did we know that it was way up this huge hill directly across form the next train station. It was a very long walk. So we went into that Starbucks and I was able to find the Sydney city mugs. They also had an Australian one, but I figured I could buy that one if I ever went to a city that did not have their own city mug. So I picked up two and then we headed back to the train station to go home.

Along the way we crossed this enormous amount of people waiting outside of this theatre. On the scrolling screen above them it said that McFly was showing/coming that day. I have no clue who this is, I will do some research. They were all teenage looking and carrying signs or wearing t-shirts that said McFly.

The train ride home was not bad at all, I am so happy that we have the line that connects to Macquarie now, it is cheaper and much more comfortable. Once we arrived back at the station, Dana, Carrie and I went to the store to pick up some stuff while Hannah went to go on her run. After a long day it was nice to relax and watch some tv.

Overall, I have to say Sydney is a really easy town to get around. I really enjoyed just wandering because eventually you will get tired of walking up a hill or you will hit the water. Makes it easy for navigation and horrible map-readers like myself! I think the next trip into the city will have to be to the Botanical gardens. I might make a day of it and take a nice book! I might also have to explore some of the museums but I think I will save that more for the rainy days that I am sure are to come.

Tomorrow is Manly beach again! Talk to you soon!

Today was the day I had nothing to do but go to the gym and make dinner. I have no class today so I got up around 10am after my night out and went to get coffee. I then proceeded to sit outside of McDonald’s using their internet. I checked my e-mail and stalked people on Facebook. Oh yeah, it was productive. Wait! It was! I did do my probability quiz minus the last three questions which looked scary.

After all of this

OMG! I just saw a cockroach! I am all alone in the sitting room and it ran across the floor! Ah! I threw my post it note carrier that Tati gave me (which I am using!) at it. It ran under the couch. Ew ew ew.

Anyways, after all of the internet time at McDonalds, I went to Woolworth’s, got more Turkey and an onion bagel and headed back to the apartment to make my lunch. During lunch and for about 2 hours afterwards, I watched tv and surfed the internet. I did not feel very productive. However!!!! I did get to talk to Emma, Tati, and Robbie either on gmail or skype, which was very nice; I needed a little dose of back-home friendship.

Around 5:30 I went to the gym to meet up with Carrie. We did Cardio for about an hour and then went up to the group fitness room and did the Ab Blaster class. Liesal as teaching it, she taught the body step class that nearly killed me. It was a very nice class.

On the way back, I stopped at the Co-op bookstore and bought all my books for the semester. Thank goodness for only three classes! It only came to $130AUD! Not bad for a semester of books! It helped that my probability class does not have a book, just lecture notes we have to print off.

I then came home, made my usual dinner, and then watched a very old episode of Grey’s Anatomy that was labelled new for here. I am now sitting here doing next week’s homework and listening to Kanye West.

Tomorrow Carrie, Hannah, and I are going to Sydney to check for a Starbuck’s mug. We are taking the new train line to Chatswood because it is free for the first 100 days, and then we are going into the town. We might go to the beach afterwards if it is nice. If not, Saturday is supposed to be gorgeous so we might wait until then.

Goodnight everyone and I will talk to you soon!

P.S. No news on the internship yet. Sad day.

The second day of classes came with somewhat of a scare. I got up, got coffee, went to the gym and walked home. When I got home, I had a lovely e-mail sitting in my inbox about my transfer credits. I got the dreaded .75 credits. I literally went into panic mode because if I could not take my internship I might just loose it.

So I started collecting information and unite outlines and sent the registrar and Stacy West, the international advisor at my home institution. The very long e-mail detailed pretty much everything about the courses I am taking, I have to say it was pretty impressive. I then Facebooked Ildi, who was here two semesters ago, about how many credits she got hers to transfer as, which of course was a full Willamette credit.

After I e-mailed all of this off I got an auto-reply message that the head registrar would be out of the office until Monday. Why is this a problem you may ask? The add/drop deadline is this Friday. I then called mom, because my phone would not let me call the registrar for some reason, and asked her to call them when they opened up. Hopefully this will all get worked out.

Anyways, good news, my internship application got sent off yesterday morning! I should hopefully hear back soon. Also, Carrie agreed to go get Tim Tams at the mall because she had to pick up the pictures from her underwater camera that she used in Cairns. I, unfortunately, forgot my wallet so Carrie spotted me the $3 I needed to buy my stress-relieving Tim Tams. I will buy her the next coffee we have together in exchange.

Oh! I forgot to mention my first tutorial. It was pointless. It was for Australian Media and we did not have our regular tutor there, it was, instead, a grad student doing his dissertation on Turkish theatre. He read from the unit outline in a monotone, slightly choppy, voice. This torture came after he made us talk to the person next to us and then introduce them. The whole class put me right back in high school. I sat next to Elise who is from the North Beaches, has lived in Sydney her whole life, and she has an orange cat named George. There.

I have also officially memorized my MQ student ID number. It is not as cool as my Willamette ID number though they do share some things in common:

1. They consist of only number.
2. A lot of those numbers repeat.
3. I use that number for identification purposes.
4. The ID card that has my ID number on it has cash behind it.

I have yet to figure out the printing situation on campus. I say this because my probability class requires that I print off the lecture notes before each class. I will have to do that soon.
More on my probability class, the lecture is pretty big. There are grad students there who have to take the lectures for another statistics course they are taking but I am not the only girl, thank goodness. The lecturer, which they call conveners here, is probably around 30 and is foreign as well. He wore a purple headband/scarf thing to keep his very nice hair back. The lecture was a little bit elementary and the content was easy to understand. I hope the rest of the lectures are like that because the final is worth 60% of my grade. Ah!

I have been asked to explain the difference between tutorials and lectures. Here it is:

Tutorials: this is a smaller class where you discuss topics that were mentioned in lecture and get your assignments. You are assigned a tutor who leads these discussions and clarifies any question about the class. Sometimes the tutor is the convener or lecturer but not always. It can be a grad student. You also do any presentations for the class during the tutorials. You usually only have one tutorial a week for about an hour.

Lecture: these are usually held in a larger room or lecture hall (called theatres here) and can range anywhere from 50-500 people. These are usually not a forum to ask questions but more of a time to simply listen and learn.

After my lectures were over, I went home and my roommates were getting ready to go over to the Ranch. For those who do not know what the Ranch is, imagine a bar/club style place in a hotel. Wednesday is Uni night so all university students get in for free or something like that and then between 8 and 11 the drinks are cheaper.

I decided, since I don’t have class tomorrow, to go out with them and some of the friends that they had made in the Parklands, wehre I live. It was tons of fun and lot of the girls came over to our apartment to get ready and hang out beforehand. It has been great getting to know some of them. It is also interesting to go into other peoples’ apartments and see the differences. Some of them are a little bit nicer than others… Rachel, Dana, and I decided ours was somewhere in the middle due to the ants in the bathroom.

Anyways, I buddy-ed up with Dana because she has class tomorrow and we set a time limit to be home by 12:30am. Everything went well, there were two dance floors, lots of people and an outside patio that was packed but nice mainly because of the breeze.

I then came home, had water, milk, and oreos (not all at once) and then finally headed to bed. All in all, it was a pretty good day. I am not sure what I am going to do tomorrow considering I have no classes but I think I will find something.

Ta ta for now! Mwah!

Today was my first day of classes! There was nothing major that really happened. I went to my first class, International Communication Campaigns, and this was the one class that I was not registered for the lecture. There were so many people in the lecture and I stayed afterwards to talk to the professor. She sounded as though she was not willing to accommodate me and I had a hard time getting the point across that I wanted to be in the class and could not change anything due to my Study Abroad status.

Anyways, the tutorial was not compulsory this week but I went to the tutorial that I want to see if I could schmooze my way into that tutorial. I finally explained the situation without a whole bunch of people around and got the TA to take down my name and ID number. Hopefully it all works out, I think I will drop this class if I don’t get the Tuesday tutorial and I get my internship. We shall see.

I then went to the mall with Carrie to do some grocery shopping. I resisted the temptation to buy Tim Tams but did get a bottle of Fuze. Now Fuze is different than the Fuze in the states. IT is 99% fruit juice with bubbles. It is so good. I have the passionfruit one. Carrie suggested them to me and I think I might have biceps of steel after carrying them up the hill to my apartment.

Afterwards, I got to talk to Mom and Dad for a little bit, with a brief hello from Kyle. It was good to talk to them after such a stressful morning trying to figure out my class.

Lets see…then I went to my next class, Australian Media. I think I am going to enjoy this class. It sounds exactly like Persuasion, Media, and Propoganda, a class that is offered at WU. It was so funny though. The professor asked how many of us had just been in Australia for a week, about 40 of us raised are hands and there was this slight sound of brief astonishment. I guess it is not that surprising because it is a 100 level class and most, if not all, the Australians there are freshmen. I am excited for the section on Americanisation it should be interesting! Oh, did I mention that there are 500 in that class!?

The next class was right across the way. It was Introduction to Reading Contemporary Music. I sat next to this really nice Australian girl and she asked me my age and after I replied she said “Wow, you are a lot older than me!” Yeah, that made me feel good. What are you? 15? Oh well.

The first thing the professor did was have us listen to 11 contemporary songs and try and name the song and artist. I sucked. I guessed part of a remix/blend of Destiny’s Child’s “Bootylicious,” a Beetle’s song, and a Beach Boys’ song. I think that earned me about 2 points which was slightly below the average. There was one song by the Carter family and another by Bob Dylan. I failed.

Furthermore, in my last two classes we got a hand out called a course outline. It was printed all nice and had the MQ logo. It had the syllabus in it and everything. It will be very nice to take back to the registrar at Willamette. It also had the books and suggested readings. My plan is to go early in the morning on Thursday or Friday and get all of my books. They only have one small store for all 30,000 students. I will also be trying to share a book with my roommates for one of my classes!

Overall, my classes were pretty fun. I hope the music class is not too challenging and that being an American does not hinder me too much in my Australian media class.

After my music class, I went to a Revmaster (cycling) class with Carrie at the Gym. Wow. I have been to some hard cycling classes and this one was right up there. We had to do jumps (sitting for four, standing for four) through an entire song. I thought I was going to die. I just have to keep reminding myself: “Legs of steel, legs of steel.”

Next it was home for a well-deserved dinner of pasta, spicy sauce, and half a chicken burger. I am now obsessed with chicken burgers. They taste so good and are very filling. Although I do cook them in olive oil on the stove…

Well, tomorrow is another day. I have my first math class and an Australian Media tutorial. I have an awkward 3-hour break in between them tomorrow since I don’t have my music tutorial.

I would be completely happy if I never had to see another hill again! Between walking all over campus and going to the gym for hard cardio workouts, I think that my legs just might actually fall off.

Monday I have no classes so I pretty much had to fill my day with nothing. However, I did have an internship orientation meeting at 9am. I went with my roommate Rachel and we got there just in time to get the comfy seats. I don’t think anything starts on time here. But that is beside the point.

The meeting was fine, I didn’t really learn anything I did not know but I am excited to see if I get an interview at my #1 choice. I should hopefully find out early this week. After the meeting, my next scheduled appointment was never. So, I went and got coffee and was fortunate enough to talk to Emma and Tati while using the free WiFi at McDonald's. It was so good to see them and make fun of their adventures! I then sauntered back to my apartment so I could watch the Oscars and have lunch.

It was pretty nice to be on this side of Australia! We got to watch the Oscars live from Hollywood at noon our time, before even the west coast could. It seemed like they were slightly obsessed with the Oscars because Hugh Jackman was hosting and Heath was up for an Oscar. Way to go Australia!

After that, I met Carrie outside of the gym to walk to the pond on campus. We laid out there for about an hour (with plenty of sunscreen) and then went back to her place. We then watched the end of the Oscars and headed to the gym for our 4:30pm BodyStep class.

I don’t think I have every worked so hard in a step class before. Yikes! I about died! I really did not think I was going to make it up the hill to my apartment! But I did. Then it was pasta and chicken burgers for dinner followed by a dessert of Tim Tams. And don’t forget the results show of “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Tomorrow school begins, finally. I am ready to start exercising my brain and not just my legs! I hope I can find the third floor of W6B!

I will let you know how it goes!

Today was not a very exciting day so I might actually get to write a short blog entry! I first went to the mall a little early this morning to get coffee but first I went looking for Yoga pants and a sweat towel. I ended up just going to Target and getting a fun colored hand towel hoping it works fine and to Big W for the sweat pants. At least I won’t have to worry about those things now.

I then had lunch and went ot the gym to meet up with Carrie at 2:30pm. Three days in a row! Here we go! I like the gym here, it is big enough for me and they offer tons of amazing and free classes.

At the end of my workout, I try to go and open my locker and it says I have the wrong pin. I always use the same one so I know this could not be true. I then went to the front desk to ask for help. As it turns out, I had the one locker that does not work. Oh well, at least I know it was not my fault!

After the gym I came home, took a shower, and watched the end of Fight Club which is a movie I am going to have to watch again to make sure I get all of the finer details. After that I was getting really bored because I have absolutely nothing to do and no one who I can call. So I turn on the television and “Biggest Loser: Couples” and “So You Think You Can Dance” are both on. Of course they are the Australian versions, but the set up is the same.

On “SYTYCD” they have the same style host with blond hair, tall, and fashion forward. They were all pretty good dancers. It is at this time that I learned that the Oscars would be shown live from Hollywood here in Australia at noon my time! Yay! Something to do tomorrow afternoon since I have nothing better to do!

I have an internship meeting tomorrow so I will let you know how that goes.

Anyways, ta ta for now!