Savoring Every Bit

When I was in Sydney, I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't going to be there to study, and in however many days I would be leaving and going to the Gold Coast. Whenever I had to remind myself that, a little part of me would droop down and rethink my plans of studying in a smaller city. I now kick myself for saying that.

The beach is a 15 minute bus ride and most of my friends are conveniently located two blocks from there. The weather has been nothing short of perfect with mid 70s and only getting warmer. I've gotten some of my tan back after losing it a little from not being at work! We have an olympic-size pool on campus, which is also the view from my balcony (yes, I have a balcony), that has some great lounge chairs I will be occupying during "study" breaks. However, that is also where I endured my first encounter with biting insects. I was with three other girls and we all got bit by who knows what. It started stinging and then really hurting, then swelling and leaving a mark. My pain was gone after about five minutes but my friends' bites lasted for about two hours! Something is not happy that we were getting our tans on. Needless to say, every bug that lands on me I go into a chaotic, arms-flailing frenzy.

My campus is utopian wonderland. Everything is clean. We have a canal in the middle of campus that connects with the ocean and so there are bull sharks swimming in it. My dorm room has a balcony and a bathroom. There's "thinking" stairs that are purposely designed at an unusual depth and width to remind us to not get so bogged down on worrying about studies and stressful things; sometimes you can just think about pointless things. During that specific time you're walking down those stairs, you can just think about how awkward and strange the stairs are. Like, who thinks of this kind of stuff?! (haven't snapped a picture of them yet--I'll get back to you.)

The food--despite the chips and guac situation-- hasn't been horrible. I have to get used to the different kind of meat because nothing tastes like it does at home. Slowly but surely I'll acclimate myself to it but for now, I'm sticking with some vegetarian options along with pancakes and smoothies. There's also these cookies called TimTams that I'm helping keep in business with my consumption. When in Australia, right? I'll worry about the health and fitness schedule when I get snapped back to reality once school starts but for right now, I'm enjoying my vacation.

Orientation week has been full of new, exotic and memorable things. On Tuesday, I experienced my first hypnosis show and I'm forever changed. Me, being the adventure seeking and spontaneous person I've come to be, voluntarily went on stage to see if this Mark Anthony guy could hypnotize me. I really was open to it. And I can't describe the feeling I had when I really did feel like I was falling asleep after he touched my forehead. I couldn't undo my hands but I could open my eyes. (When you're in the process of trying to get hypnotized you have to squeeze both of those things so tight while only focusing on the hypnotist's voice)  Once the first task was given out, my subconscious didn't follow along so I could finally undo my hands and go to my seat. About ten were successful and they put on quite a show. In the end, I was actually glad I didn't get hypnotized because the ten did some embarrassing things...and they don't remember any of it.

At this point, the hypnotist said that "he had their noses."

(The video isn't uploading for some reason. If I get it to work, it'll be randomly in another post!)

Thursday night marked the start of Thursday Night at Don's, the tavern on campus. It was the Tight and Bright Party, the idea being to dress in neon/bright colors. As all of you know, I'm not big on the drinks, but I do like to dance so I would say that I had more fun completely sober than all the drinking peeps out there combined did.

It ended at midnight and had I not made my promise hours prior to attend the after party, my dancing butt would have danced right to bed but a promise is a promise and so I hopped on the party bus and headed to one of the nightclubs in Surfer's Paradise. We were all in for a surprise when no more than ten minutes into the bar, a little dance show ensued that involved two men, I hope I don't need to say more! Check another thing off my bucket list!

Hey, let's just all be glad I didn't get picked out of the audience! 

We danced some more and were home by 2:30am. I love living on campus but I do sometimes wish I was a little closer to the nightlife so that I wouldn't have to take a taxi back from being out, because the buses stop running after 11pm. It's really like a win some, lose some relationship here. But I'm definitely winning a lot more so.

Today was a little more up my alley since it pertained to the beach, travel plans and new tastings! It was Bondies at the Beach day where a lot of the Bond students hopped on the bus to go to the beach for a beautiful day of about 75 degrees. A couple of my friends and I walked up and down the beach instead of baking in the sun and it was just a nice leisure walk that allowed me to be thankful yet again for the opportunity to be here. (Auntie Dawn, I have yet to grab the perfect rock but no worries, I'm still on the lookout! The seashells sure outnumber the rocks.) I'm keeping up, as always, with my sunscreen. One of the chancellors here told us, in one of his speeches, that in a couple weeks the sun exposure will be so strong that you can get sunburn within 20 minutes and after 40 minutes, be sent to the hospital for sun poisoning/dehydration. I've got 45spf Neutrogena and 45spf Coppertone Sport so folks, I am all set! But don't doubt my ability to still get tan. You all saw me this summer. 

After the beach, we ignored the fact that we are going to be in bikinis for the next three months and splurged on some gelato and as a first taster here, I am forever changed. Can't believe there's stuff this good on Earth! Naturally, I got the caramel one and then also a cookies 'n cream since I couldn't just have one flavor.

After I got back on campus, I visited the travel agent here--in addition to the one in a mall (like, how do they expect us to study?!) and left with a stack of brochures and pamphlets of everything I want to do. I had my first strike of reality when I realized I won't get to do everything. I have to really sit down and weigh my options. I want to get so much out of this trip but I'm also not made of money. All of you have helped me infinitely more than I ever thought I was deserving of and it's because of you that I'm even able to do any of these trips (because Lord knows my minimum wage job would barely get me out of the airport). To say that your gifts before I left are well appreciated would be the understatement of my life. I jokingly said to all when I was leaving that I was going to go away more often because I liked the get togethers and chats we all had. I liked the feeling that I was an only child or something--dinner dates, chatting for hours, or some driving hours to say their farewells. So every time I get that gelato, or swipe my card for the bus, or plan my reasonable trips, you're all there with me; I think of you all; thank you all every night before bed and every morning when I still get to wake up in this beautiful country.

I won't do all my travel spots and through writing this post and sitting here and thinking about it, I'm okay with it. I've seen and experienced more cultured things in these past two weeks than I have in my 20 years of life. I have to appreciate whatever I can do because it's always more than what I would've been able to do had I never even come here. I have stories and enough pictures to last me a very, very long time. It's this whole notion of studying abroad that I'm grateful for; that I was able to pack up and leave home for four months and rely solely on the trust in myself to do it all. I'll fit some pretty cool things in within the next couple months but nothing can be as cool as saying that I spent my fall semester of junior year in Australia. That, in of itself, is priceless.

"We are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known."