Home

The past few days have been long and stressful, but it feels great to be able to say 'i'm home' finally. Well, that may be a premature assumption since i'm currently sitting in a hotel room in LA waiting for my final flight to arrive and fighting a massive amount of jet lag, but at least it's not another 10 hour flight to sit through OR an ash cloud to deal with. 

Leaving Freo was goofy.  I was so anxious to get back to the US that there was not much time for me to be sad about leaving. Obviously it was hard to leave the great friends I had made over the semester, but it didn't really hit me that I was leaving until I was already up in the air. The weirdest part is that I'll probably never go back, and for me, that the part that is really kicking in.  I loved the experience, and I will always love Australia, but it's also made me want to travel to many other places and witness more culture! 

Since I am back in the states, this will probably be my last Blog entry, unless i'm desperately looking for something to do besides my homework at some time next semester. I cannot wait to see you all when I get back to the midwest, and to hear about what everyone has been up to while I've been playing in paradise for the past 5 months. See you soon!

Thailand!

Thailand is such a beautiful country with so much to offer.  Despite its small size, 4 days was not nearly enough time to see everything that Phuket offered, which gives me incredible incentive to go back. My vacation away from vacation was 4 full days of fun travel, relaxation, beautiful scenery, and a great way to begin the end of a tremendous 5 month experience.

After a 2 hour bus ride to the airport, 5 hour red-eye to Singapore, 4 hour layover in Singapore airport, 2 hour flight to phuket, we finally made it! The feeling of making it to another continent was amazing!

The first day we went to a village to eat on the beach (amazing pad thai!), have a few drinks, and shop around. Since it was not the prime tourist season, many of the people expresses their surprise that a large group of Americans showed up. As a result, one lady called in all of her bar staff and opened up her pub for us (it’s 10 AM at this point). Needless to say, we had an excellent time and met some great people to tell us about their culture.

A few hours later, we finally were able to make it to the Marriot. Our resort was the most beautiful hotel/resort I’d ever seen. I could have been perfectly content doing nothing but sitting at the pool the entire week. We were treated like royalty, which was a nice change since the hospitality service in Australia definitely capitalizes on their ‘laid back’ identity being pretty lazy. We had to do a little sneaking around since there were 24 of us and we only had room for 18, but it ended up being no problem. We were all greeted with drinks and lays upon arrival J

The first night, we went into Patong, which is the big city on the island of Phuket. It was a weird feeling because although we were in Asia, I saw more burger kings, Starbucks, American currency, FREE KETCHUP, and American companies that I EVER have in Australia. It was a nice little preview of whats to come in two weeks J We mostly just walked around and explored the city to see what nightlife was like. Since I’d like to get a job at some point in time, I’ll refrain from describing many of the odd sights we saw during our stroll around Patong, but it was clear that the city became a totally different place once night time came along. The following nights we opted to stay at our resort and have fun at the pubs and in our condo instead, for good reasons.

Monday we went back into Patong to do some shopping during the day. It was fun to barter with the shop owners as well as see some Thai Art and crafts. Tuesday was Spa Day! We got massages, took ice baths, sat by the pool, and relaxed all day. Wednesday we went back into patong and played at the Beach. Since we had to get up early to travel back on Thursday and the Thai food was getting the best of us at this point, we were pretty calm all day.

Like I said, it was a very fun and relaxing vacation, but since I still have finals to complete (and pass) I have to get studying! I’ll post pictures as soon as I steal them from the others in the group!

Culture Shock

Today in my consumer behaviour class, we were looking at consumer values. Since there are only 2 Americans in my class, we were asked to list the strongest and weakest attributes to the American culture/identity while the Australians were asked to list theirs as well.

Since being in Australia, we've been asked numerous times to discribe the 'American Identity'. At first, it was hard to answer because the  American identity varies often varies from an individual identity. But after being away from the US for 4 months now, it's quite clear that a few of the stronger values in our country are: status, financial security, education, reputation, happiness, family, and faith. Obviously there are many more, but those are just a few of the bigger ones.

After the Australians gave their response to what they thought their countries strongest values were (which consisted of: mate ship, individualism, non traditional lifestyles,equality, experience), we listed ours - and all was well.

Once our professor asked us to list what we valued least, many of the kids in my class became frustrated with me because I explained that most of what they valued the most would not be ranked that high in American culture. One value in particular, equality, really angered people. I said that while I do believe equality is important, I agree with the statement "to each, their own" and that people should have to work for certain things in life, weather it be happiness, status, success, maintaining relationships, ect. My professor really appreciated my input, and Gavin (the other American) also understood what I was getting at, but the rest of the students in my class were really annoyed with my 'ignorance' as someone whispered.

The purpose of this isn't to prove that I'm right or wrong with my views on American values, but it did show me that although Americans and Australians look the same, act the same, and speak the same language (mostly), our cultures and values are significantly different.

The good news is that it was the last class session so I don't have to see any of the kids again, but it was interesting to see America's values contrasted with another countries, as well as witness some of attitudes Australians have towards Americans.

?

So today, I found out that the beach we always go to (Cottesloe) was where Heath Ledger's ashes were spread after he was cremated. I'm kind of weirded out, but mostly honored.

Other than that...  not a whole lot else is new. There are only two weeks of school left, and even though I'm anxious to get home i'm starting to get really sad at the thought of leaving.

However, our last few weeks are going to be a TON of fun! To celebrate class being done, we rented a 40 person party bus which will take us around perth and some other suburbs. Our theme is "Prom" so all the guys are going to throw their ties in a bowl and we will draw our dates!

The day after our prom, we head to Thailand. Then Finals. Then home. WEIRD!

That's all for now.

PS... Happy Birthday Mary Beth Retterath and Judy Grady!

Winding Down

Hi all!

I have not been posting lately since nothing too exciting has been happening. I've been getting really anxious to come home since summer is begining and many of the other Study Abroad programs have ended. It's a bittersweet feeling, because I know that home will always be there and Australia will only be here for another 41 days, but being away from everyone for so long has started to get old. I miss you guys! And on top of that, I knew it was definitely time to start getting anxious when I saw an american car (with steering on the left) and thought it looked weird. At least it's nice knowing that most of the other kids on my trip feel the same way.

This past weekend I went on a wine tour in Perth, which included 2 vinyards, a brewery, a coffee roasterie, a chocolate factory, honey factory, a lavender farm, and candy shop. It was a very relaxing day. One of the things I wanted to do while being in OZ was to learn about wine, so it was nice to get to taste and learn about all that goes into the wine process!

One thing I've been having fun learning about is how to make coffee. In many ways, Australians put as much thought into brewing coffee as they do into choosing wine. I ended up getting a job at a cafe in Fremantle, so i've been fortunate enough to learn now to brew coffee and make fancy drinks! However, the coffee drinks here are not like the specialty drinks you would get at starbucks or caribou at home. If you were to ask for a shot of any flavor in a latte here, they would laugh at you. My boss told me that "you wouldn't add sugar to wine, so don't add that flavoring to coffee" It was a hard adjustment at first, but now I really like it! Also, they do not brew normal drip coffee like we do at home. If that's what your interested in, you would ask for a 'long black' which is basically a pure shot of espresso.

We've been getting emails from just about every professor/ study abroad office worker saying that booking a trip to Thailand over study week was the worst possible idea we could have done. We're not to concerned... but that just means I need to get studying now so I don't fail! That said-- i'm going to get started now.

Toodles!

RV Swag

Check out this video (taken by joe smith) of what we looked at for our 40 hour car ride!

What a week it's been! I just returned from an amazing 7 day/2000 mile road trip and as a result I have a new respect for truck drivers after living on the road for seven days. Obviously living in a confided space with 6 other girls had it's up and downs, but overall it was an awesome once in a lifetime experience, and a great way to see the "real" Australian outback and some of Oz's best kept secrets! There were a total of 30 students (mostly from Notre Dame USA and CSBSJU) stuffed into 3 RV's, and one camper van.  In total, we went from Perth (bottom left of the state) up to Tom Price, over to Coral Bay, and back.

Highlights(s) of the week: Having a dance party in the middle of the highway (central Australia is pretty desolate. In our 8 hour car ride from Karijini to Coral Bay, we saw 1 car other than our own), stargazing every night in the middle of the highway, sleeping on top of the RV, and exploring the gorges and jumping of cliffs at karijini.

Low point(s) of the week: getting my credit cards stolen, sleeping on the side of the road and hoping no one ran us over or decided to break into our RV's in the middle of the night, and  not showering for 7 days.


Here's how the week shook down

Day 1 (Saturday): We picked up the RV's bright and early from Perth, and drove 14 hours to Karijini National Park. We slept on the side of the road next to a semi-truck (Desperate times call for desperate measures) 

Day 2 (easter Sunday): We woke up with the sun, and finished the drive to Karijini. We found 2 water pools that were within hiking distance from our campsite, but we decided it would be more fun to cram 20 people into 1 RV and drive there anyway. We cliff jumped and swam in rock pools for the afternoon, and then met up with the campervan at night. The stars were so gorgeous that I decided to sleep on the top of the camper. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but at 4 am when I had to use the restroom and was 12 feet up in the air, it wasn't so much fun.

Day 3: We decided to stay longer at Karijini and explore the park's gorges since that is what it was famous for. This was my favorite day of the trip. We found some of the coolest waterfalls and rock pools i'd ever seen both in person and on TV. I felt like I was living in an episode of Planet Earth. There is a stream that goes probably two miles long, and people can swim, climb, crawl, and jump the majority of it. There is a spot where guests are advised not to go any further, but being the adventurous kids that we are,  we decided to walk about another half mile only to find another amazing rock pool to jump into (although clearly marked a bad idea) and a few of us walked even further to find a 100 foot waterfall into the most amazing meadow hiddin in the gorges. While watching the waterfall, I had never been so scared and amazed at the same time in my life. Had i walked 5 feet further, I would have walked straight of a cliff and died. It was awesome. One of my friends brought a waterproof HD camera so I got some of it on footage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrnBgWkT3tA

After we played in the gorges for the day, we left for Coral Bay, which was an 8 hour car ride. We were strongly advised not to drive at night since kangaroos and cows tend to hop out on the road, but we figured it would make the experience even cooler if we saw some wild animals. This was the night we pulled over and had a giant dance party in the middle of the highway. It was a blast :)

Day 4: We left for Coral Bay, which is part of the Ningaloo reef. It was nice to relax at the beach and get out of the car for a few days. it's a pretty touristy area, so I kind of felt like I was in Mexico for a bit. We ended up meeting other students from Minnesota, which was extremely ironic. Unfortunately, my credit cards got stolen at the beach which put a slight damper on the rest of the week, but thanks to good friends and a collect call home to Dad the situation ended up being ok. 

Day 5: More snorkeling, diving, and coral bay shenanigans. We drove halfway to Calberry national park at night.

Day 6: Midweek RV clean, rock climbing, and more beach stuff!

Day 7: We made it to Calberry National park, and played on some sand dunes. By this time we were all ready to go home and take a shower and eat something besides peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. 

Day 8: We woke up early to see the Pinnacles and take the RV's back to freo for a good cleaning before we returned them. The Pinnacles of Western Australia (WA) were allegedly supposed to be one of the coolest parts of the trip. Similar to Mt. Rushmore in USA, the Pinnacles are a big tourist attraction and something that you cannot go to WA and not see. However, in real life, they are really dumb, about 1/5 of the size people portray them as, and we only stopped because our friends here told us that "they're too dumb not to see". So, we stopped for 5 minutes, snapped a picture, and left. 

We finally Returned to Freo in one piece, cleaned out the RVs, and brought them back. It was a week that I'll never forget!

THis video is of Joe snorkeling at Coral Bay

This video is of the view from the top of the gorges at Karijini.

This is a video of us looking like bums on the side of the road!

these are some of the waves we played in at Calberry national Park (sorry for the language)

Next up is a month of straight class and studying before Thailand and Finals! I can't believe how fast the trip is going, and that I have less than two months left! What an experience it's been so far.... and I can't wait to see what the last few weeks have in store for me as well :)

If you have a few minutes to spare, check out one of the beautiful sunsets we got to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZdykVNLpwY

PS thanks to Joe Smith for all the videos :)

More Pictures from Broome

We went to a Japanese Cemetary that mostly consisted of people affected by the White Australia Policy, which forbid any non-anglo European person from entering the country for over 70 years. 

These are the fish we caught and the bread we made for lunch one day!

Brad caught a baby shark. No joke.

Driving through the Red Dirt Road

<3

This is Evil, the Morgan's truck. He's been through some pretty amazing rivers.

I just thought this was funny because we had a 70's love bus pick us up from the Airport.

Jaclyn, Katie, myself, and Heather at our last sunset at Cable Beach

Another magnificent sunset at Cable Beach

Gone Fishin

This is the beach where we went crabbing and played for the day. It was a fun beach to get to which involved a few hours of off roading and driving through 6 feet tall mudrivers, but it's a pretty special place! Totally worth it :)

When we arrived at this beach, the tide was extremely low. By the time we left, I would have been completely underwater if I stood in the same place. 

Tony with two Aboriginal Elders we hung out with for the day

Perfection

THis is me Trying to spear a target. I was horrible.

These kids were so funny, although the picture may suggest differently. They hung out with us for a day and taught us how to fish and build sand castles. They also taught us that putting mud on your skin would keep the bugs from biting you. They asked a lot of questions about American culture, especially about the movies and how accurate they were to real american live. One of them told us that her favorite movie was "American Gangster"-- interesting.

This is another picture from Cable Beach. This beach has the 2nd largest tide in the world, next to one in the states.

THis photo was taken after we played in the rain at Cable Beach for an afternoon. Such a fun day.

My attempt at playing the Didgeridoo, an aboriginal instrument. 

When we went mud crabbing, parts of the mud were so deep that we would sink down to our knees.  One of the girls on our trip broke her foot, so we tried to carry her around so she could try crabbing. We ended up getting stuck and falling in the mud many times. I even lost my shoe for a good potion of the time. It was extremely funny though, and we all came out looking like good balls.

Throughts from Broome

Due to my inconsistent blogging habits, this entry may be rather long with lots of pictures. Sorry If I bore anyone to tears.

            Much has occurred in the past two weeks, including the survival of both my first round of exams and the tail end of a cyclone (more on that one later).Last Thursday marked the completion of my midterm exams, which called for a necessary night of celebration before we headed to Broome at 4am. It was an excellent night which led to an interesting morning, but I did to see my first Australian sunrise! It looks strikingly similar to the Australian sunset, so I’ll probably just stick to watching those instead of being up at 5am again.

            Anyway, the trip to Broome was nothing less than amazing. I returned from my magical trip to the Outback about a week ago, and there are SO many parts of my experience that I want to talk about! I’ll focus of only a few for the sake of time, but trying to pick only a few to talk about is extremely difficult. 

Friends at Cable Beach sunet!

Before the trip started, I was advised not to hold any expectations, but to be prepared to have a life changing experience. To me, that demand is completely contradictive, since something that will allegedly change my life automatically suggests a certain sense of high expectation. Nonetheless,  I tried really hard not to hold any potential hopes of achieving or doing certain things; and this was partially because of the mysterious aspect of the trip and also because I did not want to be let down when I came home not having any huge life revelations. So, when 4am came along and I boarded my flight with a few changes of clothes and a journal, I was not sure what I was getting myself into

            I purposely decided to wait to write about my time in Broome until after I let the experience resonate within me for a few days. In my Critical Ethnography class taught by our director, Aric Putnam, I’ve learned that to be critical about an experience is not to under appreciate the moment, but merely to seek a better understanding of its importance. In being critical about the trip, I was able to recognized the significant opportunity for personal growth I had been given, but above all, I found myself thinking  quite a lot about the experience, especially in terms of how culture, community, and change effects my everyday routine. That said, Broome had two really significant outcomes for me: realizing the power of community, and inspiring me to improve the way I embrace culture and experience.

Bennies at cable beach!

Colin Morgan and I

            Throughout the week, I got to experience some truly amazing things. We stayed with an aboriginal family in the city of Broome which is in the northern part of Western Australia in a part of the outback called the Kimberly. Throughout the week, Colin and Maria Morgan told us about their culture and growing up in an indigenous environment. It was an honor to get to know Colin and Maria and spend the week with them, as they are very well known and respected within the Kimberly. Aside from my own father, Colin is one of the wisest people I’ve ever given the opportunity to talk to. The aboriginal culture is so intriguing, and hearing the story of their heritage was mind blowing.  One of the most impactful stories we heard was Colin’s moms’ experience being affected by Stolen Generation, which was a period in time when the government took all aboriginal children from their families and put them in western civilized schools. It’s a tragic story in Australia’s history, and unfortunately is not even taught in the Australian education system so very little of the population is aware of the situation. It was amazing to hear stories of the impact if had on Colin’s mom and the way he was raised. 

            Besides being with the Morgans, it was great to bond with the group of kids from CSBSJU. Although we all live together, we rarely all get together to hang out. The first day we were in Broome was probably my favorite of all, and possibly of my entire semester. We spent the day at Cable Beach and Gantheaume Point, which is one of Australia’s most well known public beaches for its beauty and also very sacred land for the Aboriginal Culture. It poured due to a cyclone that had just been passing through, but it ended up being a great day to play in the rain! Unfortunately, we got blown off by a group of camels  that we had arranged to ride, but we were content with just playing games in the rain instead. We ended up riding them the next day. Some of the other things we did  throughout the week was make and throw spears, bake bread, fish for salmon, meet the Elders of an aboriginal community, go crabbing in knee deep mud, visit AMAZING beaches, and explore the HUGE Australian Outback.

Out group playing in the Rain on our first day 

Cable Beach camel rides

Me standing at Gantheaume Point

This was my favorite picture of the trip

Red Rocks- Stunning

  After coming home from Broome, I realized that the hardest part about going somewhere is coming back and enduring the change that occurred. I say enduring, because trying to explain the emotions I had while being in Broome is truly frustrating - however eloquent and descriptive I am, the story I attempt to tell cannot do the emotions I felt  justice. That said, it is easiest to sum up my experience by saying that Colin and Maria’s impact on my view of culture and community is something I will hold dear to my heart for years to come. In many ways, what I experienced in Broome is a small taste of what I should be experiencing in Australia as a whole: inspiration to make improvements that will stick with me while I’m here but more importantly when I return home. As goofy as it sounds, I’m excited to go home and put by lessons into practice where they really matter: in my home community, in my family, and any other ambiguous situations I find myself in throughout my lifetime.  I hope that when I am home, I can inspire one person in the same way that Broome inspired me J

           

                       

           

Happy!

Sunset on Leeuwin II.

Last week was a goofy week. I think I went through my first ever phase of homesickness. There were a couple days where I didn't really feel like doing anything but sleeping and sitting inside, which was weird and I totally feel guilty about it now.  I guess it's fair to say that the 'honeymoon' period of being in Australia was done, the school work started piling up, and homesickness really kicked in. But,  besides the fact that I do miss all my friends and family terrible, this place is SO beautiful and being sad is just a waste of time. Time is flying by so fast, and I'll be home before I know it. Until then, it's important that I try to do as many things as possible and take advantage of everything I can :) Looking ahead at the rest of my time here, I realized I only have a handful of weekends left that activities are not planned, and there is still so much I want to do! It's somewhat overwhelming, but if I don't get everything accomplished then it will give me an excuse to come back. 

One of the best parts of the trip so far has been living at the P&O. I hardly knew any people going on this trip but now I can't imagine being with a better group of kids! We have all  bonded very well, and I've made some great friends that I would have never expected to! There is never a dull moment around here!


We have gone on some great excursions in the past two weeks! One was to a farm full of Australian animals. Dingos, kangaroos, chickens, llamas, camels, pigs, birds, joeys, Koalas, alligators, snakes, and peacocks were running/flying around everywhere! I got to play with the Kangaroos and hold a koala! If I could sneak a Kangaroo home, I totally would because they were awesome. 

Yesterday we went on a sunset boat tour which was also a great time! It looked like a giant pirate ship, but it was a giant sailboat called the Leeuwin II. We got to help pull the ropes and draw the sails which was a neat experience. To be honest, it was weird being on a boat and not listening to Jimmy Buffet and drinking Coors light, but it was still a great time! I got to steer the boat for awhile! Dad, you would have been proud! Unfortunately, my camera broke about an hour before we left for the boat so hopefully I'll be able to get that fixed soon! This afternoon I caught the train to Perth to try and get it fixed but the repair shop was closed, so  I'll be making another trip in soon! I still managed to sneak a few pictures on other people's cameras thankfully. 

Dad, you would have loved this boat!

The Boat

Testing my Orienteering skills

I climbed that net!

Freo Docks at night!

The rest of march and April are going to be filled with some very exciting activities! In two weeks, we head up to Broome, where we will spend 5 days in the Kimberly living with the Aborigines. Many people who have done this trip say their trip to the Kimberly was the highlight of studying abroad. It's a very unique and special experience that kids who have previously gone don't  talk about, just to keep it special for everyone else. The only thing I have been told is to bring sunscreen, a water bottle, and a hat as it's on average over 110 degrees. We'll be camping the entire time, and rumor has it we have to hunt and kill all of our own food.  I'm extremely excited for this trip and can't wait to tell you a little bit about it at least.


Shortly after we return from Broome, we will be going on our Spring break road trip.  We still only have 3 people who know how to drive a manual RV, so I'll be devoting a few hours of my beach time to reading and googling how to drive a manual RV on the left side of the road. Should be an interesting week, to say the least. 


I also booked a trip to Thailand over our study week in June! I'll be spending 5 days in Phuket, Thailand with 30 people from Notre Dame and CSB/SJU. We managed to luck out with our reservations and score 3 ten person villas at a 5 star Marriott next to the beach in Phuket thanks to a friend's Time Share (Rebecca if you read this, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!) It's going to be our last big hooray before we all head home since once we get back it's final exam time then sadly time to leave :( 


I also learned how to jazz up my blog! It's kinda fun :)