Pictures are up!

Even though my parents did not say please when they demanded more pictures, I took pity on my brother and posted them in a web album so that my parents would not get a facebook. The pics are available here: http://picasaweb.google.com/krazykatiekoala

Pictures... geez

So you know what's funny? I'm not posting any pics with this post, but it's titled pictures, haha. Anywho, I have pictures. Lots of them. I took even more today. And I just got off the phone with mi hermano, Mateo, who told me to get Picasa, which I did, so that I could show y'all (AKA keep mom and dad off facebook). Unfortunately for you all, he had to leave 'cause he's goin' to N'Orleans for Mardi Gras, so I got it, but now I don't know how to share it with you all once I upload pictures to it. Which I'm not doing tonight 'cause it's almost midnight and I want to go to bed.

So... higlights:
1) Saw King's Park/Botanical Gardens
2) Went shopping, met awesome clerk lady whose parents were from S. America and told us that this is pretty much as hot as it gets, and that Aussie girls don't like Aussie boys 'cause they're too much like Crocodile Dundee, but that they like American boys, even though they're full of themselves. Guess it's just the whole foreign accents thing. We talked about accents too. She was pretty cool.
3) It was flipping HOT (upper 30 degrees, so somewhere nearing 100 Fahrenheit).
4) Brooke and I went to Bathers Beach around 5 pm and went for a swim in the Indian Ocean, and it was GLORIOUS. And I float! And we could see straight down to the bottom.

Yep, that's about it. Classes start Monday. Eek!

I saw God today...

For those of you wondering, that's the title of a country song. It's actually about having a baby, but no worries, that is NOT what I did today. :) I'm actually referring to my first trip to the beach since living in Freo. Although there was a lot of seaweed and it was quite windy, we still went in the water, and it was WARM! I guess that would be the Indian Ocean. Yes, it is a lot warmer than the Pacific. And just looking around, it was easy to see what God has made.

As far as the rest of today: Today’s volunteering was…interesting, considering that the bus ride took longer than the actual weed pulling, but hey, at least it’s a start. I liked hearing the bird lady talk about the ravens and how they’re so smart. When the people tried to shoot them, they only got one and haven’t been able to kill any since, because the birds recognize the person, their car, and that what they are carrying is bad. That’s pretty incredible.

We went shopping in the extra time, and I bought a cute top at Valley Girl (still cannot believe I bought a shirt from a place with that name) for about $10. Then Brooke and I went to Target, and I bought another (purple!) super cute top for what I thought was $9.86 (like it said on the tag) but ended up being $7.88. Yes! Academic orientation was pretty scary. Peta scared the heck out of me, and I need to make sure to switch my computer to Australian English spellcheck here pretty quick. Oh, and Mom: did I ever steal anything? I got asked that tonight when I was on "the hot seat" and couldn't think of anything.

For those of you who are wondering:
My schedule (and in Australia, they say it w/out the hard "c" sound, so it's shedule, rather than skedule) is pretty good. I have one class each day, for a total of 3 hours each day, although not necessarily all at the same time. Monday is my metaphyics, History of Philosophy: Medieval. I gotta say, that's the class I'm the least thrilled about (I'm not too big into PHL or medieval stuff), Tuesday has Theories of Communication, Persuasion and Advertising, Wednesday is my UD THE class: Anthropology: Human Be-ing within the Mystery of Christ. I'm super excited for that class, and the description sounds fascinating. Thursday is Print Media Analysis-- I think our class makes a newsletter for campus or something. Friday is our Australian History and Society class, which all the international (mostly American) students take together, so that should be another cool class as well. But anyhow, that's it, so there ya go! :)


I just put up a whole buncha pictures on facebook, and have been at my computer for the last several hours. I'm tired now though (it's about 11 pm) so I will try to add some pictures here soon. Mom, I will need your help identifying a musical instrument unlike anything I've ever seen with a haunting sort of sound. I'll put just that one up, then I'm off to bed. 'Night y'all.

First Freo update

So... here's a post I wrote on a friend's wall earlier today. It pretty much sums it up. Although, I have to make note of our chaplain, Fr. Gerry. Today, he told us that we could call him "Chappy G," and yesterday, at Mass, he was talking about Jesus being a "good bloke." Oh, I love Australia! But here goes:
Australia is AMAZING! We spent the last week in Sydney doing all the touristy stuff, and just got to Fremantle (Freo) a couple days ago. Today is our first day of orientation, and we spent the morning exploring Perth in our own form of "the amazing race". It was pretty awesome. Sunny and somewhere in the eighties... it is HOT! :) We have our awards ceremony around 4 pm (in about an hour), so then we'll get to see how we did. Umm, I don't know too many of the Portland girls really well, but yeah, I think it's a pretty good group. We also have 5 other girls from different schools living with us--including 2 from France. We also formed groups with kids from the other schools today for the race, so we met some of them--they're pretty cool too. Hmm, yeah, that's about it; probably more than you wanted to know. :) But I will say I'm glad it's all girls here (where we live): we don't have to dress up for the guys, and we get an extra bathroom! :)

Now to bed. We have 4 hours of volunteering starting at 8 am tomorrow!

Less is more... figure it out

Hey all, so I am now in Fremantle at UNDA. We got here today. Orientation starts Monday, then classes start the following week. Below is the last post of our adventures in Sydney. Just note that now that I'm here, the posts will probably become fewer and far between. Nathan, thanks for your support in that aspect, and the comic. :) Pat, talk to Nathan...

Take care guys, and keep me updated!

Friday the 13th (and day before we fly to Freo. Ha! Betcha thought I was going to say V-day):
This morning we slept in a bit. I got up and called my BFF… poor kid, I think it was a shocker and he wasn’t sure what to expect there. After a quick breakfast (muffin, cantaloupe AKA Rock Melon, and apple mango juice), we caught the free bus down to circular quay to go on a tour through the government house and then meet Shona and Brittany for lunch. Well, it started out as a slight rain, and then it DOWNPOURED (like Portland. And it was cold). But Brooke and I made it to the government house, completely soaked (in spite of my hood and umbrella—thanks Mom!) only to find that it was closed due to a formal event. So… we left and kept walking in the rain and wind to get to the café we were meeting them for lunch. When we went inside they were already there, so we ordered drinks to warm up (and by ‘drinks’ I mean they got coffee and I got hot chocolate). There were magazines that we could read while we sipped our drinks, so I picked up one of those gossip rags with all the pictures of celebrities on the front and declared, “I never read this! So I’m going to.” Shona saw what I had and retorted to my comment “The Gay Brigade?” Sure enough, I looked down and saw 2 chicks making out. So, I decided to ditch that magazine and switch to “New Idea,” which is Australia’s version of people magazine. After we ate lunch there, we went to St. Mary’s Cathedral and went to Mass—just because. It was gorgeous inside (and out)! I took pictures of the building, but it felt weird to take pictures inside such a sacred space… so I didn’t. We prayed especially for the victims of the Victoria bush fires. I’m sure you guys have heard about the fires. They’re not affecting us in any way, but our hostess told us that these are the worst fires Australia’s ever seen when she picked us up from the airport. She said that the roads were being treated as crime scenes because they were still finding people dead in their cars along the road. Also, she told us that there was talk of the fires being arson. That was a few days ago, so I think now they have suspects, and hopefully will be able to determine who did it, and charge them with mass murder and put them away for life. It’s really sad, so I donated $4 to the relief fund on the ferry ride to Manly the other day. Also, Mass was super short, and the Eucharist was really sweet. And there was no music. Afterward, we came back to the hostel to change and get out of the rain. We were going to check out Kings Cross, but nixed that plan. I think we’re going to run out and get dinner soon. I think we’ll just bring it back and watch a movie or something. Then I need to pack because we are leaving at 8:30 am tomorrow morning. We had some stuff come up with our shuttle from the Perth airport, but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow, and I think we’ll be okay. All right, gotta go. Next update will be from Freo!

I hate seagulls!

Thursday, February 12th, 2009:
Today we woke up at 6:30, left at 7 am, walked an hour to this AMAZING café in the Rocks, where I got a ham and cheese croissant for pretty cheap. It was really yummy. J Then we went to the Opera House, and took our tour, which was INCREDIBLE! The dude who designed actually had no idea had they were going to build the sails. It was built in 1956, so that was pretty incredible for the time. You can also see a lot of the architecture. It was awesome. Afterward, Laura met up with us (she actually came to find me at the Opera House—I felt so special), and she walked with Brooke and I for a bit to the Royal Botanical Gardens. At the end, there’s the Government House, which is pretty much like a palace. Brooke and I are hoping to go there again tomorrow morning and take a guided tour on the inside. We didn’t go too in depth into the gardens, because our feet were killing us, so we cut it short and stopped by a souvenir shop in the Rocks (they sell authentic stuff, like kangaroo scrotums and crocodile jerky. Oh, and Lisa, I almost bought you a man… but then I didn’t) before getting a bite to eat. So… we were starving and wanted something cheap, so we decided to go to McDonald’s (after I bought a chocolate milkshake—definitely worth 4 bucks, tasted pretty much like chocolate milk). I bought a double decker bacon cheeseburger (or something like that) for $1. 95, so I was pretty happy. We went outside, and sat down (again, to rest our feet). I inspected it for pickles (which there were none of, God bless Australia) before I commenced eating. I took a bite and savored the incredible deliciousness of such an unhealthy food produced by a conglomerate company I do not support. As I lifted my burger back up for another bite, a freaking seagull suddenly swooped down, pretty much divebombing my face, and snatched my hamburger right out of my hands… and then proceeded to drop it on me, where it fell to the ground and was gone in about 5 seconds. There was ketchup and mustard on my leg, and on my khaki shorts I had planned (and am still planning) on wearing to Mass tomorrow at St. Mary’s Cathedral (no, it’s not Sunday, we just wanted to experience Mass there). I recall involuntarily screaming, but the whole event is kind of a blur. Yeah, you’re laughing (and apparently some lady walking by did too), but that’s just ‘cause it didn’t happen to you. So then, I had to go back inside (about a minute after I had just gotten my burger) and order another one. That I ate inside. It was then that Brooke and I just decided to go back to the hostel and chill for the rest of the afternoon. Which was really nice. I got on the internet (which is why you can read this), and talked to the padres and abuelos on skype. We had originally bought pizza for dinner, but then we realized that there was no oven for us to cook it in. The owners of the hostel bought it from us, which was really nice, and then we just got Dominos instead (and there were some delicious goods in there, and I’m not just talking about the pizza). ;) We watched some comedy (Jeff Dunham) and I think I’m about to call it a night pretty soon, after I arrange with the other girls to meet up tomorrow night for dinner. Anyways, that’s about it. Hope y’all are doing well, and I’ll try to put up some pictures when we have faster internet (probably in Freo). Take care!

Sydney

So... here's some stuff about the past couple days. More to come later (including the Opera House-- we went there today. Oh, and don't let me forget to tell you about the stupid seagull!)

Day 1: Met a lovely couple at the Boise airport—flying to New Zealand. Actually met the man first, and he said I could watch/join him when he went to the international terminal in San Fran, because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. J The lady at the desk was also very helpful and nice. While I was on the phone with my BFF reminiscing about the Super Bowl, he came over with his wife, and pointed out to her that I was going to Sydney. After I hung up, I decided to go and visit with them, ‘cause hey! I’m a Comm major. *Note, the guy was very clean cut, older, gray hair, kinda looked ex-military. So, when I went over to them, his wife and I started chatting, giving him a reprieve to read his book. J Her name was Sonya (pronounced Sawn-ya), and she was lovely. An ex-schoolteacher. She watched my bags while I made my final potty run, and jokingly said that they got ‘unruly.’ That’s when I knew I was talking to a teacher. J I actually ended up sitting in the row behind them on the plane, but on the opposite side, so we couldn’t chat. They had to run to make their connecting flight though, ‘cause they had about half an hour before their flight for New Zealand left. Hope they made it! As she was deboarding the plane, Sonya turned around and we waved goodbye to each other. So, Sonya and Mr. Sonya’s husband made a lovely start to the trip. When I got off the plane, there were SO MANY PEOPLE! The only place I could find an outlet was in the hallway, so that is where I’m sitting, which is nice because I have all this space to myself and it’s not crowded. J SFO looks pretty big, but I’ll explore it more when Brooke gets here. I had an hour to wait for her, but 20 minutes have gone by writing this, so not too much longer now (I hope). J I don’t want to pay for internet, so you will all get to read this after the fact. Katie Koala, signing off. 7:22 pm Pacific time, 2/8/09.

Day 2 (Feb. 10, 2009): I’m not sure what to write in my gratitude journal for Monday since we seemed to have skipped that day entirely. It is Tuesday, and I have only slept for about 3 hours total (on the plane), and am quite tired, but still have more time before we go to sleep. So far since we have been in Sydney, we got picked up at the airport for free by our hostel (which was awesome, although the wheels on my newest favorite blue swiss company bag are now broken, so I was kinda, well, a lot POed about that), we got to the hostel, discussed what to do, I got pooped on by a bird shortly after arriving, but whatever; we’re overtired anyway and pretty much apathetic. Brooke and I took a shower (we have our own room with Shona and Brittany, complete with our own facilities—that and the ride to and from the airport is totally worth it right there.) We went out to lunch; Shona and Brittany ate at Lindt Café (as in, the chocolate truffles), while Brooke and I ordered from a café next door. I got a homemade beef pie with a salad and chips (fries). It was pretty good. Afterward Shona and Brittany had to go get their stuff, and Brooke and I went to the Sydney Aquarium. I inadvertently forgot my camera in the room, so Brooke has all the pictures. We saw cool stuff like a dugong, a weed sea dragon (or something like that… it’s a pretty goober lookin’ thing), a platypus (those are AWESOME), a picture of a fish that can change sexes (called the Blue Groper), and Penguins (that are actually local to Sydney and live on the sand) among other cool creatures. Brooke and I ended up walking all the way back, so we got quite the workout, which, I guess was cool after an incredibly LONG plane ride. We’ve seen some pretty hot Aussies, but no connections yet. Now we’re gonna go to the supermarket and grab some dinner. We are supposed to have wi-fi available, but my computer can’t find it, so you guys will just get to read all these probably after we get to Perth. Over and out, 6:53 pm Tuesday (for the record it’s 11:53 pm Monday night for all the Portland folk). Now 9 pm (3 am Boise time): forgot to mention that the weather is rainy and blah. Kinda like Portland. Only warmer and humid.

Day 3 (Wednesday, February 11, 2009):
So… today was a big day. We did a LOT of stuff, and I got a lot to write about. First off, I slept really well last night. The hostel provides linens and a pillow, so I just slept with that (they’re clean), and was really comfortable just lying there with the comforter over me. Then, around 7 am, there were these 2 guys speaking in a language that I could not even decipher (meaning that I don’t even know what language it was). We went back to sleep… until the construction workers started working on pipes and sawing stuff outside our window at 8 am on the dot. We laid around for a bit more and finally got up around 8:30 after an excellent night sleep (we went to bed around 10:30 pm). We ate breakfast food that we bought at Coles (the supermarket corporation), and I had my apple mango juice and a blueberry muffin. Mmmmmm. J Then we left and caught the free bus to Circular Quay (I know, it looks like Kway, but it’s actually pronounced Key), where we took a ferry through the Sydney Harbor to Manly Beach—about ½ an hour away. Yesterday was pretty rainy and chilly, but when we were at Manly, the sun came out and it was incredible! We walked along the beach and enjoyed the soft sand (nothing at all like the rocky sand on the Oregon Coast!) We ate lunch at a little kebab place. Australian kebabs are more in the spirit of the style of chicken wraps; I actually had a piece of barbeque chicken pizza. Oh yeah, and when Brooke and I bought our daytripper passes to take the ferry, it was $17 AUD. I didn’t have a 20, so I stuck in a $50, and got $33 change—all in $2 gold coins (with one $1 gold coin for those of you who are mathematically minded). On the way back, Brooke and I sat on the top deck of the ferry—outside—and it was incredible! We also took about a bazillion pictures of the Opera House when we passed by it (but we’ll see it again tomorrow; we have a tour at 10 am tomorrow). The we split up, and Brooke and I went to the Rocks (an old part of town). We went to C—something, which was an old house of some prisoner dude guy. It had some old stuff, and I was pretty fascinated. Then we wandered around some more, and came across the Rocks Museum. It was pretty cool too. We went to a souvenir shop place and wandered into this store that has Aborigine stuff. We probably spent about ½ an hour there while a guy explained quality digeriedoos to us. I think Brooke may have been bored out of her mind, but I was absolutely riveted. Mom, I tried to get you one, but it’ll be about $200 US, +$80 to ship it anywhere in the world in 5 days. There’s no way I’m fitting one of those on the plane. You want to get one that is in the key of C sharp, D, or E. And they are completely natural—the termites do the work, and it’s made from a eucalyptus tree. The aborigines find them, and kind of carve out the bottom a little bit; you want it to be as thin as possible—that’s what makes the good tone. Also, sometimes they coat them in beeswax, and that makes it so that your spit and stuff travels through and doesn’t get stuck in the middle. He also told us that there’s 3 things you use to play the digeridoo: vocal chords, tongue, and ….? I forget. Lips maybe? And try to do circular breathing. The Aborigines created the instrument; it’s completely Aboriginal. The we caught the bus to Paddington, and got lost there for a bit. Oh yeah, and we randomly met up with Mollie Allers—twice. The first time we saw her, she had already met a guy who was hanging out with her, and she just got here at 8 am this morning! Then we came back, made spaghetti and Caesar salad, and now we’re watching Step Up, and we need to watch it on my computer, so I gotta go. Oh, and we’re also all sitting on the top bunk. Hopefully we won’t fall through! Then it’s off to bed ‘cause we gotta leave at 7 am! Oh, and we got a little sun today (as in sunburnt). Oh, and I bought a miniature boomerang from the guy that showed us digeridoos. Oh, and at the Rocks Museum, there was this recording that kept saying ‘Allo Sailor! And we also passed a guy today at Manly that said G’day. It was awesome! Okay, I really gotta go now. Laters!

Update, schmupdate

So... there's really nothing new. However, due to threats of consequences should I not keep up the blog (*cough*PAT*cough*), I figured I would write a lil somethin'. Mostly we are just waiting... in more ways than one. No, I'm not explaining. And a lot of you requested lots of pictures, so, just to let you know, I got a new digital camera yesterday. Yay! Now I just have to figure out how to use it. But I can take over a 1000 pictures (isn't that ridiculous?) so you shall have your pictures.

Umm, let's see, other stuff. Brooke and I have a tour scheduled with two other girls in our group to go see the Opera House next Thursday, and I am VERY excited! Sarah, I don't think it's going to work out to see the great barrier reef. :( Also, I'm kinda bummed because I have always wanted to HOLD a koala, and it is now illegal to do so in New South Wales (where Sydney is). In order to actually hold a koala, I would have to go to Queensland, and I would have to fly there, so that's kind of out of the picture as well. Oh well, I'll still get to see one and take a picture next to it.

Lisa (can I call you that?), I will see what I can do to bring you back an Australian husband. You know, I've actually had a number of requests for that commodity. Maybe I can start a business... but I need to find one for me first! And although I will share everything with you when I get back, that is one thing I might not share. ;) Uncle Bob, I guess I'll study... just since you asked me too. :) I think I can stay away from Keith Urban. Russell Crowe is pretty cool though. And Mel Gibson, he's not even Australian! (I just looked it up; his mom was, but he was born in New York. However he moved to NSW and lived there for a while. I'm not sure if he's still there or not). But no promises there; if I see Mel Gibson, and he looks amiable, I'm totally gonna chat it up.

And Laura, what was the 3rd place you were going to be?

4 more days!
Love,
Katie:)