Mooloolaba (say it 10x fast)

G'day !

Orientation Week (ie crazy theme party week) has finally ended, but I promised Tanya that I would provide evidence of Punk Party night. So behold:


The hard core punklettes: Me, Meegan and Mandy. I promise never to wear that much eyeliner ever again.

Moving along...
On Friday, I went with the rest of my dorm to Mooloolaba Beach (emphasis goes on the “loo” ). The beach was on one of the two famous Queensland coasts, the Sunshine Coast, which is north of Brisbane. The other famous Queensland coast is the Gold Coast, which is south of Brisbane and harbors Surfer’s Paradise. So, besides Mooloolooba, Aussies seem to have gotten the beach-naming thing down.
Mooloolaba was beautiful with really soft sand, about 5 lifeguards per person and people playing beach cricket. I spent about an hour watching a beach cricket game, and I still have yet to grasp the concept/point. From what I can gather it’s like beach baseball except with a wooden paddle instead of a bat and only one base. And other people running around randomly. And some sticks in the ground that people knock over every once in a while.


Mooloolaba Beach. The flags represent where you can and can't swim. There were about 10 lifeguards in a box in behind the flags yelling orders through the megaphone at the swimmers (BLOKE IN THE RED BOARDIES PLEASE STAY INSIDE THE BLUE FLAG TO AVOID THE RIP OUT TO YOUR RIGHT etc.) I wasn't sure if this made me feel more safe or unsafe.


Yeah, I was at the beach in February.


Not to rub it in, but my life is awesome...

Like all good things, my 2.5 month winter break came to an end today. Today I went to a marine geology class (rocks) and a marine ecology (animals and plants) class. They both sound great! The ecology class has a field trip to the Great Barrier reef in April! I was also supposed to go to another class today, but I pulled a "fresher"- it took me half and hour to find the building, and I when I got there it turned out I had the wrong time anyway. Oops.
One thing I didn't think I'd get to see while I was here was the academy awards, but it was on last night (8hrs later). The Americans took over the television room, and none of the Aussies seemed to be too excited about it. Of course, it was hard for me to get excited about it either when my parents had already emailed me all the results! Haha, oh well.


Here's a picture of my residential college, Duschene, lovingly known as "Duch." (That's right, pronounce it like you hope it's pronounced).


A close up of the very holy east wing where I live.

Well that's all for now!

Here!

After over 24 hours of traveling, I’m here in Brisbane! Right now, I’m settling in to my new dorm, which is essentially a sorority. Highlights have been: not being allowed to go to bed until we learned a dance to the Backstreet Boys, being woken up at 6am to run around campus and perform said Backstreet Boys dance, and attending an “Ugly Party.” I looked quite “smashing” in my blue jumpsuit and painted on “monobrow.” It’s been pretty fun/funny. I think I’ve gotten off easy though, since I’ve seen other groups of girls jogging around the campus with purple shower caps on with people screaming at them and shooting them with water guns…
I’ve had a chance to go into Brisbane, which is along a river, so you can take a ferry from place to place instead of a bus, which is excellent. It was raining when I went, so no good photos yet.
Of course, the most exciting thing so far has been a trip with other Wash U students to the Koala sanctuary. I thought there would just be some koalas in some trees. It was more like hundreds of koalas in hundreds of trees. And- I got to hold one! His name was Orion. He was very soft, very smelly, and very fond of my boobs. Also there was a kangaroo petting zoo (what?) so I got to pet a kangaroo. I also saw crocs, emus, wombats, and cassowaries. Cassowaries are basically like emus but with huge claws that they could slice through your body (cool). I was in Anna heaven.
Other wildlife spottings since I’ve been here have included bats with 2 foot wingspans, ducks with faux-hawks (one tried to attack me because I walked too close to it’s babies), a lizard on my window, and lots of birds that I get excited about but are probably the equivalents to crows or sparrows in America.


Things I’ve discovered so far:

1. Iced coffee = Coffee+ Ice Cream
2. Vegemite= Salty Nastiness
3. Aussies + Theme Parties = True Love


Orion and I.


Kanga and I.


Emu.


This picture is homage to Aaron.


Mandy and I in our ugly attire (before we got attacked with facepaint). Full length shot didn't come out. I'll search for further photo documentation. On second thought, maybe not.

Thousands of dollars in tuition later, the finer points of the English language still elude me

*as my brother and dad have pointed out to me, the phrase "mind as well" does not exist in modern English. I believe I was going for "might as well."

First Post!

Thanks to the talents (and patience) of Seth Flaxman, BrisbanAnna is finally up and running! For those of you who might need some updating, tomorrow I'll be leaving for Brisbane (Australia) armed only with four books, a travel scrabble set and, erm, about seventy pounds of luggage. I'm taking classes in environmental studies at the University of Queensland, and will be living in a dorm on campus with other Australian students.
I'm all ready to go, except for my hiking boots which never seemed to have made it back to Chicago from St. Louis. Luckily, I have three lovely roommates who are attempting to save my butt by overnight shipping them the day before Valentines day in the middle of a huge midwest snowstorm. I'd say odds are on my side.
Well, more updates on my travels (and hiking boots) to come!
Am I supposed to sign these things?

Anna (mind as well)