G'day and G'night

G’day

I think its about time to bring this baby back to life! I’m sure you’ve all missed me, but rejoice my people, the hiatus is over!

Before me move forward, I want to go back. I give you: My Fourth Year... The Sparksnotes Edition.

I started dating this guy:

His name is Scott. He's pretty cool.

I graduated:

Honours Bachelor of Health Science with Distinction, Honours Specialization Rehabilitation Science

YAY ME

I went on some cool hiking trips.

Killarney

More Killarney

Lions Head

Fall Hike at Lions Head

I got into Grad School! This year I will begin my two year Master of Speech Pathology Studies degree at The University of Queensland (or UQ).

Which leads me to the my current adventure, my life Down Under.

My voyage begins just how you would expect, with many many many tears. I cried saying my goodbyes (my many and multiple goodbyes). I cried at the airport (twice, once when I was dropped at the wrong terminal, then again at the right one). And lastly at luggage check-in where I said goodbye to my baby sister. As I walked through the security checks it hit me: I’m really doing this.

Frankly, I still can’t believe it.

Nothing really exciting happened on my flight. It was far too long, and incredibly nauseating. The food was poor and I got very little sleep. I suppose the only mildly interesting thing that happened was that the elderly gentleman on my left kept getting mini bottles of alcohol throughout the whole trip free of charge. As the fumes of alcohol wafted of him, I couldn’t help but be a little peeved that this guy had consumed about 15 little bottles of spirits/wine for free, but I didn’t so much as get a bag of crisps on my 5 hour flight from Toronto to Vancouver. I really shouldn’t be complaining... it is Air Canada.

2 layovers and 26 hours later, I arrived in Brisbane (or BrisVegas as the Aussies call it). The sky was clear and boy was it hot. My university had arranged a free pick-up service for me. A nice lady met me up at luggage pick up. After we loaded my luggage into the car, I walked up to the right side of the truck (which I assumed to be the passenger side) and sat myself down in the drivers seat. After apologizing, red faced and embarrassed, I moved over to my proper place. Apparently this happens quite often.

I was the only pick up at this time so I had the driver to myself. I took this opportunity to ask questions about Aussie wildlife. As we got onto the subject of spiders she told me “I haven’t seen a big one in years! You probably won’t your entire stay!” I was so relieved!

We arrived in Toowong, my new home. This district is adjacent to St. Lucia where my Uni is (approximately a 5 minute bus ride). My complex is close to all the amenities- mall, transit, grocery store, restaurants. It’s pretty perfect. My house mate Katie is a 25 year old Aussie who works at a travel company in the IT department. It is just her and I in the house. We share a lot of interests, most notably our taste in books. I think we will get along just fine.

I hit the hay early, exhausted after my trip. I actually only managed to get semi unpacked because I was so tired. I think I slept 13 hours.

AND I AWOKE TO THIS BEAST ON MY WALL. I couldn’t believe it, my driver had assured me that there were very  few large spiders here. And behold! This large hairy thing was perched on my bedroom wall. Immediately my mind went to worst case scenario. What if I don’t kill it and it lays eggs in my room and my room is infested with baby spiders? What if it bites me and I have to go to the hospital? I mean I don’t even know where the hospital is! What if I die before school starts? I attempted to identify the breed, but I tell you, there are A LOT of spiders in Australia and google wasn’t giving me any good answers. I texted a picture to Katie, but she was at work and didn’t reply. The friends I was able to get in touch with told me I had to kill it. It was me or the spider. I slowly approached it, running shoe in hand, visions of the spider leaping at my face raced through my head. I mean, spiders here actually do that. SMACK. Spider bits flew everywhere!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. And if you are wondering, yes one of my walls of my bedroom is brick.

It wasn’t until I had flushed the bits that I received a text from Katie informing me that this breed of spider, the Huntsman, while large is harmless. In fact it eats household pests like roaches and Aussies often relocate them rather than killing them. They can get extremely large, and yes, they can leap, but they don’t actually have any venom. My bad.

The next couple of days I focused on unpacking, buying essentials for my room and picking up text books. I did get a chance to take a look around campus when I purchased my books. UQ is huge! The student population on the St. Lucia campus is 45 thousand! The campus has some very interesting architecture. There are also lots of interesting birds flying about. The two  I noticed, the brush turkey and Ibis are both considered pests. They are pretty gutsy, they will fly onto tables and steal food, sometimes right out of peoples hands! Apparently they aren’t very scared of humans. 

Chicks on Campus- Australian Brush Turkey, (top right) Ibis, (below) and my most fabulous self.

I think this building is made of sandstone?

School starts on the 25th. International student orientation is on the 23rd and faculty orientation is on the 27th. I will update you all about school life a bit later.

Tomorrow I am heading to the Gold Coast!  I’m sure I will have something interesting to tell you all. Look forward to pictures of some koalas and kangaroos!

I hope everyone in Canada is well! Miss you all!

G'night