Busy Day & Busy Weekend 2-10

This morning we went to the grocery store at 8:10. Instead of Coles, we went to Alde's, which has slim selections but basics and pretty cheap. There were still little things that we needed from larger grocery stores, so went to Coles & Kmart right after. I don't remember if i mentioned this but in Australia you are charged for plastic bags and there are no paper bags when you shop. THey charge 10 cents or so and sometimes even charge for shopping carts. Note to self & anyone else, always bring "green" bags with you! After the grocery, I went to World Literature, which I feel is going to be a rough class. We spend the class finding out the incredible amount of reading expected- cause we don't have any other classes or things to do, and explaining our grading system versus the Australian grading system. Last semester, all the World Lit students received a final grade of a C, which is not good for us. The Australian grading system is a HD (highly distinguished 85%+), D (Distinguished 75-84%), C (Credit 65-74%), P (Pass 50-64%), and F(same as Am.). Have to admit that I am less than excited for that.. But on the bright side, Events Management was great! The teacher is extremely sarcastic and fun, her gets his stuff done and will take us to different sporting events. We will set up a intramural sports events for our group and a end of the semester dinner and will be able to volunteer at rugby tournaments. It should be a really exciting class! The rest of the day we hung out, cleaned our cabin, ate and worked on homework!

Tomorrow 6 of us leave for Byron Bay to work on our pool course of the Open Water Diving Certification. We should arrive in Byron by 7:30 and be done with our course at 3:30ish. It should be a long day and know that I will be exhausted! Saturday & Sunday we will complete our scuba certification/Open Water course in the ocean. The next three days will drain me but will be really exciting too!!

Oreo's don't taste the same!

After Marketing class we all just hung out in our cottages doing homework. Jessica, Jake & I went to town and bought stamps, notebooks and a few grocery items. Because it rained almost all day, we got soaked while riding our bikes. I bought oreo's at the store due to major craving but found out that they do not taste the same. They are not as sweet which makes them taste like a bland biscuit. After the Oreo disappointment I worked on my Music History online class.

Marketing Class

This morning I had marketing class with the BSU director that is with us, Dr Avila. When we have classes we have class for 3 hours once a week. Monday's we have the Australian Life & Culture, Tuesday is Marketing 200/300, Wed is the marine/wildlife Biology, and Thursday is World Literature and Events Management. In marketing we talked about some differences and similarities in commercials and advertising from Australia to America and how marketing intertwines through our lives. It was really interesting, especially being able to compare Australia to America. There isn't as much advertising here, for example, work vans don't really have advertising on them, and commercials different. There was a cancer/anti-smoking commercial of father coughing blood into a hanky and a McDonald's commercial that showed a hamburger for a period of time then the McDonald's logo with no music, just plain. It's just a little off here. Overall the first class was really interesting and I think the field trips we will take for it will be interesting. One of the field trips we are taking is to John Deer and Brisbane to talk to the senator and other government officials. Should be fun.
Now we are going into town to get stamps and a few things from the grocery.

1st Day of Class

We had Australian Life and Culture class this morning at 8:30. We began by talking about current events in Australia- the mass fires and cyclone. Then we talked about what we are going to do and talk about in class- similarities/ differences between America & Australia, history, etc. We are going to do a variety of field trips for this class to different places. Today, after class the professor took us to Dorroughby FSC about an hour away from Lennox. We ate kangaroo, crocodile, salad, bread, macadamias, and teas. The kangaroo was really good, it was made in a meatball form with special sauces made by the cook. The crocodile tasted & looked like chicken but had the texture of a very tough steak. The fresh salad & breads were amazing. This facility that we went to specializes on building up and "correcting" the rain forest. The guide had so much knowledge of the plants and food chains surrounding him- along with how they are or were being affected by past events or new animals. After we ate we took a short hike to a waterfall. After crawling across the waterfall we played in the water for a while and enjoyed the amazing view.

After the waterfall we drove to a park that had thousands and thousands of fruit bats. The bats were in the trees and flying around and looked like big birds with the body of a large rat. We then drove back to camp to relax for a while before we had hotdogs off the grill, mac & cheese, chips & fruit while watching the taped superbowl. The guys had a really hard time not checking he scores online but seemed to be pretty excited to watch it finally.

Tomorrow I had marketing 200/300 at 9:00. After class I hope to work on my online class finally..

Byron Bay- Surfing Lesson & Diving Training

Friday morning we took a bus from Lennox to Byron Bay for surfing lessons with Surf Byron Bay at 11:00. THe Surfing Lessons were a lot of fun, we all got up on the board and caught a few dives. After surfing we went to a restaurant called The Rail, that had HUGE burgers. Then we checked into our Hostel- not like the movies. We had a room with 5 twin beds in it & our room was all the BSU students. We relaxed for a while before we all went out for the night at a local club.
This morning we woke up at 7:15 and went to breakfast then went to out Scuba Lesson (to be licensed), and stayed until 4 before heading back to Lennox Head. We had pizza and just relaxed after an exhausting weekend away! Tomorrow is the first day of class. The Australian culture class is tomorrow and we are going on a field trip to a waterfall and eating kangaroo & crocodile. Will update tomorrow!