A lot has happened since I last wrote. I moved out of Queens College (leaving behind all of my newly found Melbourne Welcome friends) and into Whitley, where I have now settled for the duration of the semester. Whitley College is affectionately known as the donut due to the fact that the entirety of the college is encompassed in an ugly, round brick building with a palm-tree filled courtyard. Needless to say, it's no Bryn Mawr, but it will serve as home for the next few months. It's pretty quiet now because not everyone is back for the semester yet, but hopefully once they all arrive I will be able to adjust better to living here. It is thankfully not dry and there is no curfew, two rules that I had read about and had initially feared would be true. The people are nice, just very involved in their own activities, and the few Americans here all became friends through another program, leaving me pretty much on my own.
Luckily, I have made a couple very good friends in the very close, next door International House. Sophie, Katie, Todd, Lisa, and Nick have all been wonderful, especially Sophie who has listened to my mid-day crisis for the entire week. It has been really nice to see them, and when I'm with them I don't feel quite so alone. The other day we went to see Harry Potter, which made me REALLY nostalgic for Bryn Mawr (and home), but it was just really nice to spend a day with the girls.
Today I attempted to register for my subjects, which went all kinds of wrong. Hopefully, if my one class gets approved tomorrow, I should be taking Australia and America, Art/Pornography/Blasphemy (etc) in Literature, Social Theory and Psychoanalysis with C. Cash's pop, and Exploring Central Australia, which, if all works out, will serve both as a history credit and a field trip to the middle of Australia.
Travel is another thing I'm starting to work out. I am currently scheduled to go to Phillip Island, the Great Ocean Road, and Baw Baw National Park. I will hopefully be able to stay with Rafal in Sydney and hike up to Cairnes and the Great Barrier Reef after the semester. I also really want to go to New Zealand during my spring break, except I've realized that Silverchair is playing on the Tuesday of that week, making it difficult for me to plan a longer trip. I may do some sort of six day tour, but I'm not quite sure yet. If I can pull that all off, that will mainly leave Western Australia unexplored, which wouldn't be too bad.
This evening Sophie and I attended a "Bush Dance" run by one of the overseas student organizations. It was a RIDICULOUS amount of fun, because it was really corny and I had no shame. I played the didgeridoo, cracked the whip, and was selected as the Best Kangaroo during the bush dancing. I have decided that I want to hire the band to play for my 21st and have them teach all of my friends how to do Australian country dancing and basically have an Australian/American hoe-down. I'm pretty excited. Here is a picture of me in the Ned Kelly helmet cracking the whip:
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