Finally! An Update!

Hi All,

I'm so sorry, I've totally sucked at keeping my blog up to date. My excuse is that I didn't have reliable access to internet connection while I was in Quebec, and then once back home was preoccupied with seeing family and getting ready to go to Australia. There is, however, an upside to me not having been a reliable blogger (besides the fact that you have had 2 months off from being jealous of my nomadic, sporadic life), and that's that I have lots of exciting stories and pictures to share with you!

I've been in Australia for nearly two weeks now, and just had my first day of classes today. I am attending Griffith University for a semester. Griffith is located on the Gold Coast about 1.5 hours south of Brisbane. Semesters in Australia run differently than those in Canada because our seasons are reversed, so that's why I've started my semester so early.

In my experience, the first month of exchange can be a little trying as you struggle to make good friends and find activities to participate in. I'm quite excited to have started school because a university campus is always choc-full of activities to participate in and people to make friends with. I'm doing well though, as far as making friends go. Luckily, within my first week in Oz I made friends with three girls who all came from the same uni in Denmark. The girls and I hit it off at the orientation session and have been hanging out every day or two since then. I have also been taken under the wing of an Aussie named Meri, who went to Ireland and Germany on exchange last year and is back at university on the Gold Coast this semester. She knows what it's like to be an exchange student, and has taken it upon herself to be my tour guide. So far she's given me a tour of the city, taken me on a wine-tasting tour on Mount Tambourine (not far out of the Gold Coast city), and helped me search for an apartment.

The Gold Coast is divided into a number of different large sections, which are called suburbs. I'm currently staying with a homestay family in the suburb of Benowa. Benowa is right in between the University and the beach, which sounds like it would be a perfect set-up, but it actually means that I have to take a bus no matter where I want to go. Ideally, I'd like to live in the suburb called Surfers Paradise, which is along the beach and has great bus access to the Griffith campus. My homestay placement hasn't been ideal and I'm currently searching for an apartment in Surfers Paradise to move into.

A full course-load in Australia is four courses and I'm quite excited about the courses I've selected. They are: Australian Literature and History, Contemporary Aboriginal Issues, Islam in the Modern World, and Fame and Celebrity (Sociology). All of these courses fit really well into my overall course requirements, and I will be graduating on-time from St. FX this May. My semester will finish mid-November, and after my exams I'll take about a month to backpack either around Australia, New Zealand, or perhaps Asia, before heading home for Christmas and then back to St. FX in January.

I'm off to a birthday party now, but you can expect to see some photos of Australia and many, many posts about my time in Quebec in the near future!

Summer Adventures

As far as I can remember, this is the first summer I have ever spent entirely away from home. As sad as I am to not have the opportunity to visit for very long with my family in Calgary, I have some amazing adventures in store for me. I’ve resuscitated my travel blog in order to keep all of you updated about my current and forthcoming adventures, so check back every once-in-a-while for updates.

My summer plans thus far include a trip to Montreal, QC to visit my cousin Sarah, five weeks in Trois-Pistoles, QC to participate in a French-immersion program called Explore, and a five month trip to Australia starting July 15^th. I’ll be completing the first semester of my last year of undergrad in Australia, and am really, really excited to be travelling foreign lands again.  

My time in Montreal with cousin Sarah was wonderful. I hadn’t been to Montreal in more than five years, and it was really nice to go back to the big city as an adult who could just roam as desired. While in Montreal I did a lot of biking around the city, caught up with some friends, and ate way more than my share of bagels. The second time I visited St. Viateur bagel shop, I met Wilson, who had been making bagels at St. Viateur for 25 years. When I asked Wilson if I could take some pictures of him making the bagels, he insisted that I get behind the counter and make some bagels myself while he took the photos, saying “I know all the good angles ‘ere”. Wilson was hilarious and as I was about to leave, gave me a t-shirt as a souvenir of our joking-around.

I ate a lot of really great food while in Montreal, including, of course, fabulous poutine. Sarah took me to a restaurant that serves more than 20 kinds of poutine. I ordered poutine with bacon, spicy sausage, and onion on it. Soooo yummy! I also cooked a good old fashioned Nova Scotian lobster dinner during my time with Sarah. I’ve definitely fallen in love with Montreal and will exercise any excuse to go back.

Pictures from Annie's Birthday

One of my best friends, Annie, turned 19 on Saturday. To celebrate we went for a walk around the marina, and then went out to dinner. Here are some pictures from the day:

Some Music Pictures

Here are some pictures from a night that Hillary, Decota and I played some music at an event called Friday Night Live. The last picture is of all my best girlfriends and I at a banquet we recently attended for the program we are all in, the Humanities Colloquium.

BurMAC Hockey

Every February there is a big hockey game between my residence, MacIsaac Hall, and our rival house, Burke. Everyone gets dressed up in their house colors, makes funny signs, and cheers until they can't make any more noice. I made a sign that said "Burke students are so dumb that they try to put their M&Ms in alphabetical order." The hockey game was the best hockey game that I've ever been to, even though my team lost 8-1. Historically, the hockey game has gotten a little out of control every year, but this year people behaved themselves, the signs that people brought to the game were not obscene, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Here are a few pictures from the night:

Jungle Party and Other Random Photos

Two weekends ago, the residence I live in hosted a jungle party. Most people made costumes or wore animal print clothing to the party, but I don't own any clothing that really screams "jungle," so instead I took some lettuce from Meal Hall and pinned it into my hair so that I could tell people that I was some sort of tropical plant and pretend to fit in with everyone else who had actually put some thought into their costumes. My friend Annie is dressed in the zebra print trench coat and my friend Hannah is in the leopard print dress. The last 2 pictures aren't from the jungle party, but I like them so I thought I would include them anyways. The first is a picture of my boyfriend Andrew and I, and the last is a picture of Hillary, me and Maggie. Both Hillary and Maggie will be living with me next year, along with another girl, Katelyn. We have rented a beautiful 4 bedroom house just 8 minutes walking distance from campus.

The Christmas Ball

Decota, me, Hannah, David, Hillary.

Me, Annie, Hillary. Ellen and Me.

My friend Gregor and Me.

My ridiculously good looking friends: Dave, Sara, Annie, Hannah, Stacey.