“Australia is an outdoor country. People only go inside to use the toilet. And that's only a recent development.”

It has been raining here non-stop since Saturday and it isn’t suppose to stop until Sunday. Now, as much as I love rain, I do like some sunny breaks in between. And it is definitely not fun having a week of 24/7 downpours when its your first week of class.

Now that we are on that subject let me tell you how my first week of classes has been going thus far. Monday, I had my film movements and genres class, which I then dropped and joined Television and Pop Culture. The film class just wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, it seemed to be too theoretical for my tastes. I have gone to one TV class and it seems like it will be fun, although I am still hesitant…I will just have to wait and see I guess.

My other three classes are awesome, I love them! I have already signed up for my field trips for the terrestrial environment and the marine environment classes. Some of the places I will be going to include Brisbane Forest Park, Fraser Island (for a 5 day field research excursion), The Australia Zoo (where we get behind the scene tours!) and Morton Island (Where I will be doing more field research.

I really like all my professor…not like I call them Professor…its much more casual here so you call your teachers by their first name. For example, “Steve, I don’t understand, can you explain it again?” OR “Later Angie, what a great lecture!” Here is Australia it is also custom to cuss very frequently. For example, “This shit is really boring so don’t fall asleep.” Yes, one of my professors did say that. All in all it looks like a good semester and I am really excited!

So today I went to a farmers market on Queens St., which is across the river from South bank Parklands, where I live. I got a lot of fruits and veggies...yum. We also went 45 minutes before the markets closed, so we got discounts on everything. I got 4 mangos for $5! I got a cucumber for $1.50 and 10 apples for $5 AND MOOOOORE! Amazeballs!

I haven’t gotten a lot of reading yet, so tonight my roommate Ashley and I are going to start planning our spring break extravaganza!

To cap off this entry here are some fun facts about Brisbane and University of Queensland:

-Due to the laidback atmosphere that exists in Australia, most stores close extremely early around 5 or 6pm. Therefore you need to plan your entire day around what you need. This can get annoying.
-Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday there is a crafts market in South Bank.
-South Bank is also home to the only manmade city beach in all of Australia.
-Here Internet is bought by the mega bite…so you need to monitor your Internet usage very carefully.
-In Australia they drive on the left side of the road…this makes crossing the street super difficult…I’m getting the hang of it though. (and no, I haven’t been able to tell if the toilets flush the other way…screw technology.)
- Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. The UV index can reach to 16…the highest UV index in the US is 8. Don’t worry I use lots of sunscreen mom.
-University of Queensland is one of the top 8 universities in Australia and has been repeatedly listed as one of the top 50 universities in the world.
-University of Queensland is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and has a student population of 40,000!

No Worries,
Melissa