Sport and Bush

G’day!

As promised, my post will begin with a recounting of Duch Bowls. This was a much-hyped event where all the girls in my college dress in white granny outfits and go lawn bowling. The Op-shops were closed, so we ended up having to make a run to K-mart (good thing I came all the way to Australia for that,
huh?). I ended up finding a dress that was kind-of granny like, but at the same time was trying to be trendy in a tragic sort of way. I wore it with my “joggers” (sneakers) and my glasses, and the end result was that I mostly just looked awkward. Of course, the Aussie girls went all out with costumes, as usual, and it was really funny to watch everyone stare at us as we walked through campus on the way to the St. Lucia Lawn Bowling Club. Lawn Bowling turned out to be a lot like Bocce Ball, except that the balls weren’t perfect spheres, so you had to take into account how they would curve. I’m proud to report that I’ve found yet another sport I completely suck at.
All in all it was a successful afternoon, only to be topped by the fact that the entire college went straight from bowling to a night on the city- in costume!


Duch girls in costume.



Claire and I on the walk over.



Stephanie, my bowls partner, in her fabulous outfit drinking $2 wine (classy!).



More duch girls.



The bowlers.



Action shot!



Maybe we need some more practice...


On Friday, Mandy and I decided we wanted to see a rugby game. We were going to go with some Aussie boys who we were going to force to explain the game to us. Suddenly, 8 more people wanted to come- so it turned into quite the party! Of course, the Aussie boys missed the train, but luckily we had some Duch girls with us who knew the ropes. Rugby is a lot like football (“grid iron” here), except with more downs (“tackles”), no forward passing, and no pads. The Australians are especially keen on pointing out how the Rugby players aren’t “wusses” like the Americans since they don’t use helmets, shoulder pads etc. I was especially keen to point out that maybe the Americans had a point, considering the amount of brain damage/injuries rugby players sustain, but nobody really listened to me. We saw the Brisbane Broncos, who are a "Rugby League" team, as opposed to the Queensland Reds who are a "Rubgy Union" team. Apparently, "League" isn't as popular as "Union" is in Brisbane, which explains why our tickets were so cheap. People I've talked to here are very loyal to either "Union" or "League," but when I've asked what the difference is between them, people have been very vague in their answers. I'm not sure if this is because any explanation would be lost on me because I don't understand rugby in general, or because there really isn't much of a difference. It seems suspiciously to me like the difference between the American and National Leagues in baseball (ie. none, as far as I am concerned).
The game turned out to be very exciting- double overtime! Then, we loss. Of course, I had no idea what was going on, so I ended up cheering at then end until somebody pointed out that the other team had scored the goal. Oops.


Suncorp Stadium. Strategically located (I noticed) next to the XXXX beer factory.



Caroline and I in our suprisingly good seats. Nobody is at the stadium yet, because apparently games don't actually start until an hour after the ticket says they will (we missed the memo).



Rugby players not being wusses.


Later this weekend, I went with a friend I made in my Marine Biology class, Casey, to the botanic gardens on Mt. Coot-tha, (only about a 20 min bus ride from the city). It was a really nice day (as usual), and it was nice to go walking in a new area. The gardens were very tree and bush oriented- nothing like the flowery, manicured Chicago Botanic Gardens. They had a really cool Bonsai exhibit which we spent a lot of time in. Also, we saw a lot of wild life including water dragons (lizard-ish creatures) and funny turkey-like birds that ran away every time I tried to take a picture. Mostly, there were just a lot of very strange trees. We saw a “lookout point” labeled on the map and set out for it. 45 minutes of convoluted trails later, we arrived- and wow! We could see the whole skyline of Brisbane! Very cool. Later, while we were waiting for the bus back to campus, we decided to step into the little planetarium near the gardens, where we watched a silent animation of the Mars Rover landing. Thus, the day ended up being a slightly bizarre mixture of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial.


River Dragon Island.



I'm excited because I'm as tall as a tree.



Casey demonstrating the shear monstrosity of the the leaves on the tree.



I picked the biggest tree to hug in the whole forest.



My new favorite plant.



My other new favorite plant.



Overlooking the gardens to Brisbane.


Well, that’s all for the next couple of weeks- I’m off to New Zealand for the Easter Break. Many photos to come. Chag Sameach to all my friends and family!

Love, Anna

Shalom Chaverim, Shalom Chaverim, Shalom, Shalom...

I was just talking to some girls in my dorm that went to an Australian Catholic high school called “Shalom.” I soon discovered that their school song was “Shalom Chaverim,” the song I sang at Beth Emet Preschool! We spent a while singing it together/ comparing lyrics and pronounciations (ex: “chaverim” has been Aussie-fied to “ka-ve-rim” (“rim,” not “reem”). I fear this might be the closest to meeting Australian Jews I’m going to get!



The Shalom College coat of arms (remember college doesn't = university here).
http://www.shalomcollege.com/coatofarms.htm

L’hitraot!

Gold Coast Weekend and Marine Biology Field Trip

G’day!

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks! I’ve been settling into life at “Uni”- I actually had to read some stuff this week, and I’ve already spent an evening in the library (gasp!). But don’t worry, nothing too straining…

Two weekends ago, I went with some American friends to the Gold Coast. This is the big, built up coast south of Brisbane. I’d say it reminded me of Miami, but I’ve never been to Miami. So I guess the Gold Coast reminded me of what I imagine
Miami would look like. Anyway… the first night we stayed in Surfer’s Paradise. This was a “must do” for all tourists in the Brisbane area, according to the Aussies I talked to. It was very campy and touristy, but had a really nice beach and was easy to get to. We stayed in a hostel called the “Sleeping Inn.” Additional perks to getting to stay at a place with such a clever name as the “Sleeping Inn” included a $5 dinner off the “barbie,” and free entrance into a chic and trendy club called “The Bedroom.” For those of you Sex in the City watchers out there, yes, it was like that one episode- there really were beds that people were sitting on. Except it was in Australia. The night was especially fun we spent it with Anne Gavin and her friends, who we had randomly bumped into earlier in the day. Anne is a friend who I went to elementary school with. We randomly bumped into each other in the LA airport bathroom before we both boarded the same plane to Brisbane. Turns out we’re both at UQ together! (queue: “It’s a Small World”)


Beach at Surfer's Paradise. Anybody been to Miami who could back me up?


Caroline and Anne, my long lost buddy at The Bedroom.


Me and Fabulous Fabian, who we met at the hostel. He was from Germany. Take notice of the bed posts. Also, take notice of the cute new dress I'm wearing ($15!). Well, the strap of the cute new dress.

The next day we went to the beach, which was excellent, though a little crowded between the flags. Then we got on the bus and headed towards our next stop, Coolangatta. Coolangatta is more of a family area, though it’s famous for its good surfing. We were heading there because we had already booked beds at a hostel, planning to watch some big surfing competition that was being held there. There seems to be some dispute over the details but one of two things happened: either 1) we had gotten the weekend wrong, or 2) the competition, which had ended earlier in the week, had ended “early.” (Do surfing competitions do that?). Well, it didn’t really matter because we had an excellent fishy dinner, and the next day the hostel let me take a boogie board out all day- for free! I pretty much got destroyed, (waves good for surfing usually mean death and destruction for all people not on a proper surf board) but all in all it was another happy day on the beach.


Site of our yummy fishy dinner.


One of the two trains and three buses we took to get back to school.

Last weekend, I went on a field trip with my Marine Biology class. They took us up to a research station on Northern Stradbroke Island (lovingly referred to here as “Straddie.”). The island is an hour by ferry off the coast, and is made entirely of sand, except for some big rocky cliffs on the northern most part. On Saturday I spent most of the day working on a project about hermit crabs. This involved running around the beach, looking underneath rocks for hermit crabs, and measuring the shells they live in. Needless to say, I had a blast. Then, on Sunday, they took us to the famous Lookout Point (the rocky cliff part). It was AMAZING. We saw a manta ray (!), two turtles (!!), and a pod of dolphins (!!!). The water was so clear that we could make them out really well, even from a cliff. Then we went worm hunting by using rotting fish as bait to lure 8-foot long worms out of the sand. I couldn’t decide how much of me was disgusted and how much of me thought it was cool. I think “cool” won out in the end.


Ferry to "Straddie."


Hermit crab territory.


Some other students doing something. Taken from a sandbar we walked to all the way to from the mainland.


Me holding a probably unhappy soldier crab (not a hermit crab). All of a sudden billions of them crawled out of the sandbar and went crazy. There were so many of them, you could hear the collective clicks on the sand of them scurrying around.


Awesome view of the beach at Stradbroke from the hike to Lookout Point.


Lookout Point.


The dolphins are behind me (just pretend you can see them)!

So, that’s the big stuff that’s been happening the last couple of weeks. This weekend, I’m looking forward to “Duch Bowls,” which is where everyone in my college dresses up in white granny outfits and goes lawn bowling. My Aussie friends are taking me “op-shopping” (thrifting) this weekend for an outfit. That’s all until next time!

Cheers!

Harry Potter!

Every month, my dorm holds Formal Dinner, where you must wear your academic robes and write letters of apology to the principal if you are unable to attend. This Thursday we had our first one. It was just like Harry Potter! Everyone was wearing the same black robe, there was a head table for all of the administration people, and in the middle of the dinner the principal gave a speech. Unfortunately, it wasn't about mysterious happenings in the wizard world, but instead was primarily about fire safety proceedures. Close enough!


Hermione Granger


Meagan and I at the Queensland museum (we're Animagi). We were looking for a photography exhibit, but it turns out that it was at the BRISBANE museum. The QUEENSLAND museum is a dinosaur and animal museum for little kids. Silly us. I'd say it was probably more fun in the end.


The bird that lives outside my window and likes to remind me of it's presence with frequent squakings of death. Particularly at 5:30 am. Voldemort is certainly lurking about...

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."