The End

Due to the lack of responses, I'm assuming that no one is reading this blog. I'll keep it open for a little while longer in case anyone wants to comment, but if there is still no interest shown after a few weeks I'll close it down. Internet is expensive here, so I don't want to spend it creating a blog that no one is reading. If you'd like to contact me, e-mail me at jmv006@student.usc.edu.au.

Update

The weeks since Easter Break have been the busiest yet. We've started our Wednesday Workplace Learning placements, which impacts our schedule a lot more than I thought it would. I really like the teacher I'm working under, though. And the school, although very different from anything I'm familiar with (as it's a private school) is good. I am largely observing right now, sitting in on Year 8 History, Year 7 SOSE (Geography, History, Sociology), Year 12 English, Year 10 English, and Year 7 Support English. It's a nice variety. When I start my full-time placement my focus will be Year 8 History, Year 7 SOSE, and Year 7 Support English.

I also started a part-time job this week (finally - it's slim pickin's for jobs here). I'll be working at a Swedish stationary shop called kikki.K. I'm pretty in love with this store. I pestered them until they hired me, and I'm actually excited to work there. Check out their website (kikki-k.com). They ship to Canada!

This past weekend was a long one, due to the ANZAC Day holiday (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) and this upcoming weekend is the long Labour Day weekend but it's not as fun as it sounds. School is so busy right now, I don't have much time to spend traveling. We did have an ANZAC Day bbq though (they celebrate it kind of big here. Think May 2-4 in Canada. So our bbq was pretty low key by comparison), and hope to get some beach time in on Labour Day.

Besides that, unfortunately, I can't think of much to report on. I feel badly that I haven't been posting much, so... I was hoping you guys (whoever is actually reading this) could help me with my next post. In the comments section post any questions you might have and I'll post a collection of the answers for my next submission. Ask anything you want: about school, the beaches, my apartment, the animals, the weather, the health of my pale, pasty skin in the Ozone-free sun, whatever tickles your fancy.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Easter Break, Part II

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've either been out of town or in the library finishing assignments. Easter Break is over and we're back into school full force, but I'll fill you in on how I spent the rest of my break.

The casino in Brisbane. Intimidating.

As the previously posted link suggested, I went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane and got to hold a koala! We took a boat tour down the Brisbane River to the sanctuary, where we also saw tons of kangaroos (unlike wild kangaroos they were very gentle and we could go right up to them), wombats, tasmanian devils, dingoes, a platypus, crocodiles, emus, various birds, giant bats, etc, etc, etc. The focus is definitely on koalas, but there are plenty of other animals to see and interact with as well. It was a great day.

Hanging out with a kangaroo. No big deal. (At Lone Pine)

We had Easter dinner on Saturday with our neighbours, followed by an egg hunt. Some of the Australian's were confused as to why we were hiding chocolate around the complex, I guess egg hunts aren't as popular here (I asked an Aussie friend and he said they're not completely unheard of though). It was a great day to just relax with friends and enjoy good food and good company.

Surfers Paradise

Early Wednesday morning my roommate Riley and I met up with some other friends on the train for a trip to Surfers Paradise. It is such a difficult place to explain. It looks like a big city, but operates more like Grand Bend. The focus is on the strip (albeit a much bigger one with much better stores than GB), but there are skyscrapers everywhere too. The ocean was beautiful here though, despite the constant tourist traffic. Australians really respect their beaches and keep them very clean. We spent two nights in Surfers exploring the shops and beach and indulging a little bit in the nightlife (although I'm a bit of a loser so I usually went to bed early while the others stayed out partying). Then on Friday we spent the night in Brisbane before heading home. It was a great way to end the break, and it was nice to get out of Sippy Downs for more than a day.

At a bar in Surfers. They were giving out fake mustaches so obviously I snagged one.

Now, as I said, I'm back to school full on. I have 5 more weeks of classes (full of lesson planning and essay writing), but now I'm spending one day a week in practicum (it starts Wednesday and I'm incredibly nervous). After that I have 5 weeks as a full-time pre-service teacher in practicum. I'm excited about it, but as it gets closer nervousness is definitely the dominant emotion. With everything coming up, I have a feeling the next 10 weeks are going to fly by.

Link

Check out this link: http://i.koala.net/0104105693.htm

A more detailed explanation to come in the following days!

Easter Break

Right now I am on the first week of a two-week break from school. Five weeks of classes are complete, five more weeks remain (with one day a week spent in practicum) and then I have five weeks of full-time practicum and the semester is over. It's flying by and I think it will just go by faster when I'm actually teaching. So I hope to take advantage of my time off and see a bit more of the local area. The weather has been a lot nicer lately and Friday night we went to Mooloolaba Beach to have Thai food and watch some fireworks over the ocean. Saturday we went to an outlet mall outside of Brisbane to find some clothes for teaching (and I got a new bathing suit for $10!). I went to Brisbane on Sunday for a rugby game: Brisbane Broncos versus New Zealand Warriors. It was actually really exciting, even though the Broncos kind of suck. I'm looking forward to going to more games.

Broncos game at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. I'm glad we were sitting in a shaded area.

And Tuesday I saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D:

I liked the glasses.

It was good. I definitely recommend it. The rest of the break will include a boat tour, koala sanctuary, Easter potluck dinner and egg hunt, the Gold Coast, and lots of beach days. I'll post updates and pictures along the way.

Feel free to email me at vanderburgt.jennifer@gmail.com or jmv006@student.usc.edu.au, too. I'd love to hear updates from you as well!

Noosa National Park - Best study break ever

Me, Riley and Allissa by Devil's Kitchen

Today a few friends and I took a USC bus trip to the nearby Noosa National Park. It's a great place for hiking, experiencing wildlife, and taking some amazing photos. Our hike (around the park, therefore along the ocean's edge the entire time) took around 3 hours with much needed breaks to stop and appreciate the scenery. Some of the locations we visited boasted names like "Devil's Kitchen," "Tea Tree Bay," "Granite Bay," and "Hell's Gates."

In front of Hell's Gates (it's much more menacing than this photo suggests)

The waters were pretty rough, which made for some exciting moments and dynamic pictures. There were two spots where there was a break in the cliff, and although we were too high above to see for sure, I'm fairly certain one of those spots is the hiding place of Voldemort's Slytherin horcrux.

Unfortunately we didn't see any dolphin's at "Dolphin's Beach" or "Dolphin Lookout," but we were lucky enough to see a koala! My first one so far!

My first koala!

We also saw some kind of lizard (we didn't have a guide, so I don't know what kind it was) and... a snake! Don't worry, Aunt Becky. It wasn't that big, and it slithered away as soon as we came close.

There was also a surf competition going on and we were able to watch a bit of it from our vantage point on top of the cliffs. It made me both excited and nervous to try surfing. Then we went down to Noosa's Main Beach for a swim and to see the stalls and excitement of the surf comp audience.

We were also lucky enough to finally have good weather! Although it was cloudy at times, there was no rain whatsoever. I think wet season is finally coming to a slow close (although we're getting cyclone warnings instead, so I'm not sure if that's a trade I'd choose to take).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was thirsty.

St. Patrick's Day is definitely not as big here as it is in Canada (even for students, who usually pounce on any excuse to drink). Luckily, I live in an apartment complex with tons of Canadians, so the day was done justice.

My contribution to the potluck (it's a fruit pizza).

We started with a potluck brunch with our neighbours, followed by some games after more friends showed up. Then we headed down to the resort pool where many of the Canadians were playing flip cup. By 4:30 we were on our way to the Irish pub, where there was live music. As the pub filled up throughout the night, we had fun catching up with many of the Canadians we met on the Fraser Island trip, and we even got to hang out with a real Irishman for a while. It was a loooong day, but it was a lot of fun. I am lucky to have some really great friends here that I could celebrate with!

Anne (Berlin), Shannon (Ottawa), Allissa (Tavistock), Riley (Kenora), and me

Fraser Island

The Education Department generously treated the Canadian Graduate Diploma in Education students to a trip to Fraser Island on the weekend. There are 79 Canadian students in my program, and I think 35 of us took advantage of this opportunity, along with 5 of the Education Department staff. We were picked up at the University at 5:45am and took the four-wheel-drive Fraser Island Adventure Tour buses all the way to Rainbow Beach, where we ferried across to the island (and saw a dolphin swimming not too far away!). The approximately two and a half hour drive went by very quickly.

Fraser is the largest sand island in the world, and is fairly uninterrupted by civilization. There is a small resort, and some stores for basic supplies but they are clustered together and take up a small portion of the island. There are no paved roads and the beach itself is a marked freeway (80km/h) and there are paths throughout the bush just wide enough for one vehicle at a time. We took a short (but very bumpy) trip deeper into the island, where a tour guide who looked like Rod Stewart took us on a hike through the rain forest (there is a sub-tropical rain forest on the island). It was a great walk, though not always an easy one, and we saw some amazing trees and vegetation, but no animals.

One of the many ginormous trees in the rain forest.

After about 45 minutes we met up with the buses again and they took us to one of the many fresh water lakes on the Island: Lake Mackenzie. It’s one of those very picturesque places with the clearest water I’ve ever seen and 98% pure silica sand. It was rainy and grey, but beautiful nonetheless. We all went swimming, and a friend's underwater camera made for a fun hour before we had to get back for lunch.

The tour company spoiled us with steaks, fish, chicken, and tons of fresh salads, fruit and vegetables. Another bumpy ride through the bush and we were at Dilli Village: our home for the night. My University actually owns Dilli Village and uses it as an “Environmental Education Facility” but it basically looks like a summer camp: a bunch of cabins with just enough room for two single beds and a giant mess hall for group activities. The rest of the day was dedicated to introducing us (as International students) to Australian culture and schools. We played some games, did some activities, and got to know each other better as well. Another great meal, some cultural trivia (both Australian and Canadian) and it was off to bed around midnight.

Sunday after an early breakfast, we were lucky enough to have decent weather (still cloudy, but not raining) so we went down to the beach for some beach safety lessons and a game of cricket. We had to swim across a creek to get there, which was interesting. We learned about different waves, rips, tides, and how to handle them (things all Australians are ingrained with from birth), as well as checking out some of the critters. We dug for pippies (clams, essentially) and then had a race to see whose pippies would burrow back into the sand the fastest. Some people ate their pippies (not totally uncommon here), which they said tasted kind of like raw asparagus. We also saw crabs and tons of blue bottle jellyfish. I don’t have pictures of these because I didn’t want to risk swimming the creek with my camera. After the nature lesson we played cricket. It was funny to see everyone trying to understand it in baseball terms, but it’s really very different. We eventually got the hang of it though, and had quite an exciting game. We were playing on the ocean beach, which as I said, is also a freeway so we had to occasionally pause the game to let the traffic pass (kind of like road hockey, except the passing cars were going nearly 100km/h).

From on top of the canyon looking at the ocean.

On our way back to the ferry, we stopped at a place called Red Canyon, where the natural metals in the sand oxidize and turn a rust colour. It was a quick stop but made for some good pictures. We finally got home around 6:30 or 7pm. It was a great weekend, despite the weather. We got to see a lot more of the Australian wildlife (Fraser Island is the only place in the world that still has purebred dingoes), meet more Canadians, and get to know the staff on a more personal level. Besides that, it was also just great to get away from Sippy Downs and do something new (I had forgotten how monotonous student life can be!). It was a quick trip, but Blair and I are planning to camp on Fraser Island in June/July, so I am excited to see the island from a different perspective (and hopefully with some sunshine, too!)

A dingo eating a turtle on the beach.

A monitor lizard soaking up some heat on a roof at Dilli Village.

"Sunshine" Coast?

For those of you who haven't heard, Australia's East Coast has been under tsunami warnings as a result of the earthquake in Chile. It hasn't really affected daily life as I'm about 15 minutes inland. (I'm just not planning any beach days this week.) I wish I'd brought my rain boots with me, though. It's "wet season" here until about April, but apparently it's the wettest they've had in six years. Usually it's sunny most of the day and rains a bit later on, but it has been non-stop full-on rain for two whole days now.

When it rains, we're stuck. We go to school and we come home (the 10 minute walk each way has gone from enjoyable to pain-in-the-ass very quickly). Normally, I don't mind the rain. I sometimes even enjoy it. But I hope this lets up soon. The up-side: plenty of time to get ahead in my readings.

The down-side: tonight is cheap night at the pizza place and I'm going to miss out. $5 for a medium pizza is a good deal but not if the pizza is soaked from the rain by the time you get it home!

P.S. But at least it's not snowing.

Mail!

I got mail from home for the first time today! Not just mail, but a package:

It was from Aunt Linda. Some Olympic memorabilia just in time for the hockey finals! (We have been lucky and most of the Canadian men's hockey games have been aired here)

Now I'm well-dressed to go watch Canada kick some Slovakian ass:

GO CANADA GO!

P.S. Thanks Aunt Linda!

P.P.S. Many people have been asking for my mailing address, so here it is:

36/3 Varsity Apartments

8 Varsity View Court

Sippy Downs, QLD

Australia 4556

Orientation

I want to start this week by thanking everyone for their comments. I was really surprised by the response, but grateful to have so much support. I enjoy reading the comments and hope my posts will continue to interest you. It’s comforting to know that although I am on the other side of the world, I can remain connect to family and friends back home. Here are some photos from my first week:

My swollen feet on Thursday (this is over 24 hours after arriving, and still no ankles to be seen).

My chariot. Note the second level of windows. There was a staircase but I wasn't ballsy enough to explore what was up there.

Breakfast. Sorry, I didn't think to take a picture of dinner.

My first glimpse of the Australian coast. This was around 6am Brisbane time.

Orientation began this week. Monday consisted of International student orientation, beginning with getting our student IDs, followed by an official welcome, free pizza, a session for full-time degree/diploma students, a tour of the athletic facilities, and another barbecue. The welcome started the day well, as a member of the local aboriginal tribe greeted us with a musical welcome. With an instrument similar to a didgeridoo he created so many tones and sounds that I couldn’t believe it was all coming from one place. I would like to say I captured a photo or better yet a video, but I was too caught up in the performance to think about getting out my camera. Unfortunately, the rest of the session was mostly downhill from there. The information discussed (at this mandatory meeting) was largely irrelevant, or review of the steps we took to get here (ex: “How to Apply for a Student Visa,” which we had to have completed in order to enter Australia). The lunch was a highlight of the day (mostly because it was free and food here is fairly expensive), and because it was unlimited pizza. The international students were then separated into those seeking degrees or diplomas (as I am) or those seeking credits (namely Study Abroad or Exchange Students). I think this session was designed more for students who struggle with English, which was unfortunate because at least 85% were fluent in English. However, another free meal followed shortly after, with a quick tour of the sporting facilities in the meantime.

My IDs: for my apartment complex and the University. (Not a good sign when your passport photo is preferable to these.)

Today was the second day of Orientation and it included a session for all Graduate Diploma in Education students. The Education staff seems to be very enthusiastic and dedicated to providing a strong support system for their students. It was a quick meeting but a good introduction to the program. I am getting more and more excited for classes to start next week.
Today was also Market Stall, where various clubs, faculties, and local businesses set up booths around campus for students to learn about what is available to them. Here you could find information on everything from travel to intramural sports to opening accounts at local banks. The best part about Market Stall (as with any O-week vendor fair) is the free stuff.

Most of my free stuff: keychains, candy, frisbee, shoulder bags, piggy bank, and heaps of pamphlets. Not pictured are the many snacks I devoured on campus. (And yes, Paul, you can have the hat when I get home)

Every Thursday night here is Uni Night which is when the university students are allowed free bus service to the neighbouring towns housing popular bars (on-campus pubs are largely unheard of here and there are no bars in the immediate area). This Thursday we also have a pre-party (or pre copa as my Mexican roommate has taught me) at my apartment complex, with the theme “Dress as Your National Identity.” I, unfortunately, did not bring any Canadian paraphernalia; not a shirt, not a Mountie costume, not a face tattoo. The best I can do is dress in red and white. It should be fun nonetheless, and sum up the week’s unofficial theme, which is meeting new people.

My First Post: This feels awkward

Hi everyone! So this is my inaugural blog post. I hope your expectations are not too high. I’ve never been much of a writer so please bear with me. I wanted to start this blog – hmm… I might call it a website instead; that sounds better to me – I wanted to start this website so I would have a way to share my time in Australia with people back home. The Internet usage here is a little different than in Canada so it may take me a couple of weeks to get used to it and develop a routine for updating the site, but my intentions are to post at least once a week. I will post some pictures here, but the bulk of my pictures will probably be uploaded to another site. I’ve yet to decide where (maybe Flickr, maybe Facebook. If you have any suggestions let me know!), but I will add a link on this site once I get that set up. One more administrative item before I move on to telling you about my trip so far: Please feel free to leave comments. I would love to hear from you. I don’t expect anything extensive, but there is a comment feature available if you feel so compelled.
Alright. So... I’m in Australia. Weird, eh? It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m not sure if it will. But the journey here was pretty smooth. Lines were relatively quick in all airports and my baggage came out quickly and undamaged. I flew from Toronto to Los Angeles, leaving around 7pm and arriving around midnight (these times are all Ontario times – because that’s what time it felt like to me even if it wasn’t the actual time in my geographical location). Flying into LA at night was incredible. The lights seemed infinite, truly spanning as far as I could see. The number of highways weaving through the city is ridiculous, but quite beautiful from thousands of feet above. The stopover was only about two hours. We were not fed on the plane from Toronto, and food was my first priority. Unfortunately, my only food options in the area of my gate were Chili’s, some other Mexican restaurant, or Burger King. I decided Burger King to be the lesser of three evils.
It was around 2:30am when I got on my plane to Brisbane. I had been pretty wakeful throughout the process so far, but with a proposed 16 hours of flight ahead of me I started to get sleepy. Meals were presented pretty early on (I had chicken, which was gross, but I didn’t think I could stomach Mahi Mahi after the Whopper), so I was finally able to attempt sleep around 4:30am, and dozed off and on (peppered with occasional movie watching) until about 2pm. There was breakfast (frittata and fruit – much better than the chicken) and then it was time to land. I arrived a bit early in Australia, finally stepping off the plane (and into the humidity) by 4:30pm Tuesday (again that time is for Ontario, it was 7:30am Wednesday here).
About ten of us continued on from that flight to the same residence, so we rode the shuttle together (about an hour with twelve of us and all our luggage packed in a very hot van). The longest line I encountered was registering for my apartment (with three office employees, each restricted to certain tasks, they are not properly equipped for quick and easy processing of so many residents at once). Luckily I didn’t have far to bring my bags as my apartment is literally right above the office. One roommate was here when I arrived: another Canadian by the name of Riley. She didn’t stay long as she was just setting up her room amid vacationing the coast with her parents. There is another roommate here, Samantha who I think is from New Zealand, but I have yet to actually meet her as she works most of the day and came and went while I was in bed. Although I am not as tired as I expected to be, I did go to bed quite early last night. I think it’s the heat that wears me out more than the travel did.
So now I’m here. There is not much to report on that part yet. I’ve set up my room (which feels very impersonal. I wish I brought something to hang up: photos or posters or whatever else is used to make dorm rooms feel more like one’s own– feel free to send me anything you think might give the place some life!) and visited the local grocery store. I will try to keep my posts short and concise (but no promises), so I’ll save telling you about the shops and local area for another post. The same goes for campus. Orientation starts Monday, so I’ll have more to say after that. Until then…