SWOTVAC: holy sh*t

Why hello there... Alright look I'm sorry it's been 2 months, it just becomes extremely hard to type when you have other things to do. Okay so I don't actually do those other things, just mainly surf endlessly the depths of the internet. (On a side note: I do need to stop being on the internet so much, but that's a whole other evil.) But I'm back for this short while to tell you what's been happening with my life.

So when I left off I had just gotten back from North Stradbroke Island, that was actually ages ago. So much has happen since then so this will be a bit of a long read for you, hang in there! Well I'll start from then on, probably the first major thing to happen after this trip was my trip to the Whitsunday Islands for midsem break. And holy crap it was actually the coolest thing ever. We arrived to Long Island, our accommodation for the next 6 days, and the first thing we saw besides the amazingly clear, blue water, not the insane amounts of loud birds, nope it was a wallaby. I just knew we were going to love this place. There were a few speed bumps, like the cost of dinner ($40 um excuse me?!) But we made a trip to Airlie Beach and got food from Woolies, and turned that right around. There were a lot of cool things to do on the island, so we just stayed and made the most of it. But what was really awesome was that we got the chance to go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. Probably one of the greatest things I've done since being here. As relaxing as it was, we did eventually have to come back to reality. (Note: I made a video of my trip and will link it below for you all to watch if you want to!)

Then life went on as normal, went to lecture, or didn't, had some great laughs, cried a few times, just had a good time. Then it was time for Bandfest, and it was held at another college, so we got blue and took a trip to hear the awesome Eman band perform! They were actually so great!

But as fun as Bandfest was, the only thing on everybody's mind was Ball! Ball is the biggest Eman event of the year! We all get gorgeous and have a good time, alright so it's Prom but for college kids. It was honestly so much fun, I danced, laughed, and perhaps got a bit too drunk. But it's not Ball that was so much fun, what was even more fun was Recovery. The following day after we were all boozed up and exhausted, we got dolled up to drink again at 9 am for the craziness that is Recovery. My one friend and I dressed as Mario and Luigi, and when we got to the venue we were given the wonderful Fruity Lexia, and filled it with food dye and started spitting everywhere. If anyone is wondering what Fruity Lexia is, it is goon. And goon is the wonderful divine liquid that comes in a sac that also comes in a box. Alright it's just really cheap, nasty as, boxed wine. But we got to spit that all over everyone, it was so much fun. Right I know what you may be thinking, that's actually the grossest thing ever, you'd be surprised at how much fun it actually is. Here's a picture if you need visual representation of how bad and fun it was!

It was actually so much fun! And it was even better that everyone was in good spirits. (Yeah that's right that was intended, see I can be funny...)

Now that we were actually recovered, the next few weeks went sorta like they all do, fast if you blinked, but then incredibly slow if you were waiting for something. And that thing I was waiting for was the 5 Seconds of Summer show in Brisbane at the Tivoli. (Alright actually this happened the Wednesday before Ball but the post flows better if it's down here. I'm sorry that it's not in chronological order, but you'll get over it.) They were absolutely insane and I'm so glad I got to see them perform in their home country!

What happened next is also extremely exciting. If you didn't know, I was in this years Choralfest for Emmanuel, and we performed on Monday. And... WE GOT SECOND PLACE!!!! Yeah that's right, and John's got fourth, and that means we official are ahead of them in the race for the ICC Cultural Cup!!!! YESSSSSSSS I'm so incredibly happy and proud of us, and just amazed that I even had the opportunity to participate in something that means so much to the college! Here we are in all of our air hostess glory!

And  now we've come to the week we've all been dreading: SWOTVAC. The week were we all hide in our rooms, partly due to Assassin, but definitely due to the pressures of studying and the dreaded 7 we all want. So SWOTVAC stands for Studying Without Teaching Vacation, and it's the final week prior to exams. Yes and because we're in that crucial part of the semester, not only does it mean exams and the end of the semester are near, but Assassin is here as well. And Assassin is a game that is a tradition here. Everyone who wants to play is given a target to "kill", and killing involves hitting the target with a sock. If you get hit with a sock you are out of the round. However, you can't just walk around all willy nilly because there is someone with your name trying to hunt you down, but thank god for the safe zones. And you only have a certain amount of time to kill your target before you are dead. It is all very stressful and intense. Some people never show their faces except to kill their targets, which I guess is a good strategy for making sure that some study gets done. But in reality it's just extra stress that you really don't need during this time, but some people love it. I do have to say however that it is a lot of fun.

So instead of studying like a good student, I'm procrastinating by typing this blog post for you all, you're very welcome BTW. But I actually do have 4 exams to study for and a lot of lectures to watch, so I'll be going now! And I'll see you very soon with my next update!

Until then: Barramundi. 

xxo,

Freedom (formerly known as Christina) 

Uni, Eman, Exploring, Homework, and Friends oh my!

Right, so seeing as it has been six and a half weeks since my last post, I think it's time to make another one. I was going to post about the rest of orientation, and then the start of my Emmanuel life, but things just kinda got away from me. I can honestly say that I have no idea what happened in Orientation, or O-Week at Eman for that matter. It has been such a short amount of time, but so much has happened. SO much!

I'll try and remember what I can: Orientation in Melbourne was crazy fun, but I wouldn't advise drinking till really early in the morning the night before you're to fly to a new city, because you may just forget your raincoat in the Melbourne airport that has your wallet in it, and obviously more importantly your sunglasses. I got everything back don't worry, though it was a bit of a hassle. Special thanks to Mazz for being so incredibly amazing throughout this entire experience. Brisbane is an amazing city, and I need to explore it more, just walking along South Bank on a Saturday to go to the beach there, was a little snippet of all it could be. And obviously biweekly trips to Queen Street mall, because sometimes Indooroopilly shopping centre doesn't cut it.

But then we arrived at Emmanuel, to experience all that O-Week had to offer, if you'd ask me during, I would have said it was awful, but looking back on it, I had an incredible time and it's helped me make great friends. Emmanuel is crazy awesome, I love it so much! The only bad thing about it is that there is so much to do, that I often have to choose between several things or going to kick-on or staying to do work. Safe to say that I now have many a song to sing when I leave here about farmers and jabbers. I have been becoming very use to the way everyone speaks here, it's starting to become easy... well almost. They'll start speaking really bogan so I'm absolutely clueless as to what they are saying, but I've been understanding. They really do have such a different language over here. And customs too, like who doesn't put salad dressing on salad? AUSSIES, that's who.

I am so amazed at how many people I have met, and how many amazing times I've had already, I can't even regale you with all of the stories, I can't recall many of them. Just loads of board games, chats, and adventures to the city or Indooroopilly on that crazy roller coaster of a bus trip. Classes have been alright, but 26 hours of class is pretty draining on you, especially with 8 ams everyday. But I would be lying if I said I went to them all, I just listen to the recordings online. Pulling a few late nights/early mornings to do assignments isn't really fun but it's all apart of uni life right? I have been away from classes from so long, that it's hard to get back into the rhythm, especially in another country, but I think I've been doing alright, but we'll see come Midsems. Yeah that's right, midsemester is already here. WTF? Where did the time go already? I just keep thinking to myself, I'm so glad that I'm here for the full year! And my friends are too, I always get asked if I'm here for the semester or year and when I say year the response I always get is, "Cool" so I hope that means they don't want to kick me out, yet anyway. And since midsem is here, that means midsem break is here, and apart from studying for a chemistry exam, I'll be enjoying the great barrier reef from the lovely Whitsunday Islands!!! Yeah that's right, Easter on the beach!

Back to college, there are always things to do during the week with Emmanuel, either sports events that we get all blue for, or an Exchange with other colleges, or just cool things to do with my wing(hall) or friends. It gets kinda hectic trying to manage everything and spend enough time with everybody and also remembering to do my work and still try and get out to explore. I have yet to go the the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast, they are the top of my weekend to do list. I need to go to the beach before it gets too cold, but to be honest, it's Autumn and it is still 30 degrees (86 for you imperial folks). So I'm sure I have a few more weeks to enjoy the beach.

And recently I went to a place called North Stradbroke Island, which was amazingly beautiful. I learned so much about the culture of the indigenous and saw amazing scenery and just realized again why I wanted to study here, as if I could have possibly forgotten. I will insert a few of my favorite pictures from the trip here, I hope you like them:

 The sunrise, worth it! 

Beautiful waves off the cliff we were standing on.

Friendssssss

WOO!

Just some kangaroos. #straya

Oh yeah boomerang babes! 

That is basically all of what has happened so far really quickly summarized for you, well as quickly as I could manage. Thank you for reading all the way down here, means a lot! 

Until later adventures from paradise: FREEEDOMMMMMMM 

xxo

Christina 

Sorrento!

So much has happened that I barely have enough time to sleep let alone type. I'm sorry it's taken me a few days, ie 4... It doesn't feel like it's been four whole days, but it has. Four days of just craziness, that I will explain in the next few blog posts!

So Sorrento, I think when I last left you all off, we got off the plane from LAX. Okay pick up, it's still the 19th of February, we all hop on the bus; I still can't believe that I'm actually in Australia, and that it's not covered in two feet of snow. And the sun is shining and it's warm. I was in jeans from the plane and let me just tell you, it was HOT! I was sweating like a turkey on Thanksgiving. We travel out in a pack headed for some tapas at a place called Phamish. We had a little food and drank amazing fizzy lemonade, that I honestly couldn't tell you the name of, and then we were off to explore St. Kilda on foot! We walked around the streets for a bit and then walked back toward the beach. Let me tell you, the streets were so quiet. It was definitely obvious that we were not from the area.

But the beach was awesome! Took some groups photos of all of us new friends, and waded in the water. And that's when I saw them; my ankles had swelled and it was incredibly unsightly. Very traumatic experience to say the least. And we walked around some more, got to know everyone, spoke in accents, made people laugh, and then went to take pictures of creepy Luna Park. Which apparently is a replica of the one on Coney Island. Doesn't make it any less creepy, but there you go.

We then hopped on the bus again, lots of bus travel, and ventured about two hours till we got to our hotel in Sorrento, we unpacked relaxed for a bit then went to the beach. It was fantastic up until it started raining, but we still stayed for a bit to take some artsy shots, then it started to down pour and we left. We had dinner, met up with the rest of the group then went to watch the sunset at the beach because it had cleared up.

It was absolutely beautiful, I can't even tell you how gorgeous it was, it was unreal. The colors just lit up the sky and even turned the typically blue sea water, pink. After we hiked up to a lookout point and took loads of photos, we climbed down a ways to get closer, we tried to go down to the beach, but it was far too windy. The sand was hitting us in the face, so we stayed for a bit, found out everyone had already left, and then left. I could just sit and watch the sky forever. So that was our Wednesday, I'll be posting one about Thursday-now soon, so much is happening, I have barely enough time to type it all, let alone trying to recall what exactly had happened.

Until next adventure: stay classy, be cool, don't be stupid.

xxo
Christina

Landed in the Land Down Undah!

It's happening. I'm actually here. The other side of the world was just a few plane trips away. And yes I'm alive, and yes, this place is UNREAL!

I'll guess I'll start with the flights. So I woke up at 7:30 am on Monday the 17^th, got the the airport for my shuttle at 8:45. The shuttle arrived, said goodbye to my parents, and met a girl who was also going to Australia. (This is a common theme, apparently almost everyone going on study abroad were leaving that day.) We talked about everything. And then before I knew it we were in JFK and arrived at our terminal. It was 1:30 when we had arrived and we were all set to get our bags checked and to go through security, but we had found out that the counter didn't open till 2:45. Cue boring montage of us just sitting outside the bathrooms till 2:45.

Finally 2:45 came and we got our bags checked, mine biggest one was 21.8kg, just .2 under the limit, thank the gods! Security was fine, then we waited some more, I watched Megamind. Fantastically underrated film btw. Then 6:45 came and we were boarding. I was on a flight to LAX, the first stop before the long haul to Melbourne. The only interesting part of that flight was that I had two empty seats next to me, no one was there! Score! So that part ended, got to LAX, first went the wrong way to the gate and then sat for another hour and a half, my flight to Melbourne wasn't until 11:30 pm PST. So I was listening and watching all the people, and then you see all these college students, and they all are studying abroad, and it's all through Arcadia.

So I get seated on the flight and there are 2 girls and a guy that are also in my row. We all start talking because Rob says, “I'm pretty sure everyone in these few rows are with Arcadia.” And he was 100% right. The girls introduced themselves as Tory and shoot now I'm spacing on her name, but she was an Aussie from Adelaide, heading home from 3 weeks of skiing and touring America. She was telling us all about what we need to see in Australia, like Bondi Beach and Byron Bay are musts apparently! And she was just really awesome and it made me even more excited for these months ahead.

Now the flight itself was long. It seems like forever while you're on it, then all of a sudden you're off and have to go through customs. I tried to stay up for as long as I could, to avoid jet lag as much as possible, but I was out within 2 hours. Now the flight was going to be 14 hours and 30 minutes long. And the captain told us that this was fast, and once we had gotten to the end, he said we were 40 minutes early. So in a matter of speaking, we were actually flying.

This flight was a bit of up and down, and no not just from turbulence. Every time I went to sleep I would wake up expecting a lot of time to have passed to only look at the monitor and see that there were 11 and a half hours to go. This happened all the time until we were half way through. Tory was kind enough to give me both Benedryl and Advil, a few minutes later, I was out; and I didn't wake up until there were 2 and a half hours left and it was 7 am Melbourne time. I was out cold, Rob tried to wake me up the use the bathroom, but ended up just climbing over me, and I didn't even know till he told me after I woke up. Yeah it was a good sleep.

Got off the plane, went through customs which was super easy, then just got my luggage, told them I had nothing to declare, and I was out. I was actually in Australia. And the first thing I saw when I stepped outside was the sunshine. THE SUN! Going from negative degrees back home to this is just amazing! So warm, and it was a mild day, which I am very thankful for. All I needed was to get out of the jeans I had been wearing since 8 am 2 days ago, yeah I time traveled in a plane, kind of a big deal.

I was just so ready to go. And I am just so excited for the next few days in Melbourne and Sorrento! I'll post another blog with those few days on it as soon as I can! And just as an FYI, it's already becoming my favorite place, the beaches... alright well I'll talk to you later, it's breakfast time!

xxo

Christina

How to Stay Sane While the Countdown Clock is Creeping to Zero

Alright, this is it. Twenty days till this adventure starts, and I've been worried for a while now. The countdown is nearing closer to zero, and I'm not sure if I'm ready. I have all of these questions about my life that I won't have answered till I'm in country. And I have a long butt plane ride to just think about this. This crazy adventure that's exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Will I make friends? Will I survive school? How am I going to get the full Australia experience? What about drinking? Did I pack my suitcase right? What if I forget something? Will my family miss me? Why did I think this was a good idea? Why does travel have to be so expensive? I could go on and on about all of the dumb questions I have, but that won't help me, I'm only making my self more upset right? I should stop this right?

RIGHT!

I need to stop worrying about the negatives of what could go wrong and start focusing on enjoying the time I have left in America, seeing as I won't be here for a long time. Speaking of a long time, 9 months is a long time. I've never been away for that long. Never traveled alone by myself either. I know how to travel in an airport, and how to keep myself occupied on long flights, never thought I'd be doing it at 19 years old. If you are in the same boat as I am, don't let anyone tell you that this isn't incredibly scary. Oh dear lord is it. But maybe after reading this post, you'll be able to relax about your approaching flight(s).

In order to feel less anxious, the first thing you have to do is to run through all of your worrying thoughts all at once. Sounds crazy but it's not. As soon as you push past all these defeatist questions, you'll feel better. Maybe not at first, you've got to give yourself time to cope with the fact that you're actually jumping on a plane and leaving. Sayonara, au revior, adios, arrivaderci, hasta la vista, see ya later.  This is actually nuts! And you are quite literally the bravest person I know. I know how much guts it takes to do this. You're incredible. Can we be friends? Who doesn't need more crazy awesome friends who have traveled the world and are willing to share all of the best stories with you?

I know it's hard to think of now that you're worried about the flights and school work and such... Maybe you're one of the greats who isn't worried about any of this at all and are just reading this because you like to waste time on the internet, oh I do too!... But when you first hear the language, or smell the great food (or the not so great sewage), you'll know that this is only the beginning, and all of the questions you've had before were pointless. You'll figure this out as you go! And that's the greatest adventure anyone can have!

xxo,
Christina

Steps to Study Abroad

So this whole blogging thing, I'm really going to stick to it! (Two weeks later...) Here I am!!! Back from the recesses of the rest of the internet and here to talk with you all about how to study abroad, the steps you can take to figure it all out!

The first steps to figuring out whether or not you really want to study abroad can be a little daunting. Don't worry, I'm here to help you out! I've come up with some steps that will help you figure out what to do to figure it all out. And here they are: (really wanted to use a colon)
   
1) Does your school offer it?

You have to figure out whether your school offers a study abroad experience, and it may come in many different types. For example, a semester, an academic year, a spring break, a January term, or a summer program. If your school doesn't offer it, but you are capable of going through another school, like I know my home university does, that's the way to do it. My advice is to simply search the schools website and find out what you are most interested in. 

2) Talk to your advisor. 

Mainly to talk with you about what semester(s) would be best for you to study abroad. 

3) Go to a study abroad meeting, or talk to a SA advisor, or both!
  See, and fill out, all necessary paperwork and learn the basics about study abroad. Like cost, term length,  health and safety, accommodation, and so forth. These meetings also tend to be beneficial because they     usually have someone who went abroad but has come back to answer any right away specific questions.

4) Where are you going? 

It's really important that you nail down where you want to go. And it can be hard to think of all the places they offer and just select one, maybe you want to go a full year and select two places. It's all up to you! Hints: think about weather, and cultures, and how far away from the rest of the world you want to be (cough Australia cough) 

5) Pick your university.

Pretty self explanatory, if you have choices, like I did for Australia, weigh the pros and cons of each and then pick the one that's right for you. Take into account that you'll need a university that has your specific course offerings. It's just like selecting your uni that you study at at home. Do you want to be in a city, the country, large school, small school? Really get down to what you want out of your university experience.

6) Fill out paperwork and pick your courses! 

This was the most stressful part for me. Mainly because I left campus for a week and when I got back the papers were due the next day, and my advisor wouldn't get back to me, even though I was emailing her almost everyday. (STRESSFUL!) But pick up and fill out paperwork, it sucks, but you wanna study abroad right? So suck it up and get it done! 

7) Where is this money going to come from? 

A big question that should be thought of as soon as you know the exact costs of living abroad, WHO'S GUNNA PAY FOR DIS? (Pardon the terrible grammar, it was used simply for effect.) Are you going to take out loans? Apply for scholarships? Work as much as possible? Do you have any saved? Planning on going into more debt? (This one is my personal favorite.) Figure out your plan from the start to avoid any unnecessary money crunching, although having a budget is very handy. 

8) Book your flights! 

Again, self explanatory, but your flights could be booked through your school and you may even get discounts on group flights, I know I got about $300 off the flight because I was booking through the school. Don't be afraid to work a deal! 

9) WHAT AM I NUTS?! 

You may start thinking to yourself, whoa, am I nucking futs? Who is this crazy awesome person who's decided to leave all comforts and make a complete jump into another culture? Am I going to be scared? What if the plane crashes? All of these questions, some crazier and more irrational then others, are all completely normal. It's okay if you have some worries, and it's okay if you're totally confident and just want to leave already! If you're worried, talk it out to anyone. A good friend is always there to listen and help you to relive some of your anxieties. You can also contact one of your team in country to see if they have any helpful tips to help calm you down as well. Don't contain it all if you're worrying, it can make it worse. If you're not afraid at all, good for you! I was like that my first go around, leaving for Stirling freshman year. But I don't know what it is about this time around, that just has me more worried and freaked than the last time. Maybe it's because I don't know anyone that I'll be going to UQ with, or maybe it's that Australia is so far away and I have to take the 24 hour trek there alone. Who knows? I just know that I'm going to do research about Brisbane and get pumped! 

10) Research the city/ town you'll be visiting.

Read up on some cool places to hang out, or go dancing, grab a bite to eat, so that when you arrive you can have something to explore and discover! I know that for Brisbane the two main things I'm interested in are the XXXX Brewery Tour (http://www.xxxxalehouse.com.au/brewery-tour) and the Lone Pine Koala Santuary (http://www.koala.net/). Look around, search Trip Advisor, and see what is cool about where you're going to be studying! 

11) Pack your bags and jet! 

It's that time, so pack your bags, carefully I might add, and hop on that plane (maybe to LAX, maybe not), and go! See you in a bit! (My next blog post will be all about packing, the dos and don'ts! Make sure you hang around for that, hopefully coming by the end of the week!) Check luggage restrictions for your airline, and make sure you print out all your important documents, that your passport is good 6 months after you leave from study abroad, your visa is in order and on your person, and have the most incredible time!

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it, it really is a cinch to write when it's about something that interests you. So if you guys want, you can leave a comment below telling be all about where you're planning to study abroad, what stage of planning you're in, what your current emotions are about it, and any questions you have for me! Thank you so much, and I'm glad you've read this entire thing! You're going to have an amazing time!

OH! I almost forgot! Here's my youtube video where I talk about this if you would prefer that! Although, I personally like this better, I was more in depth! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SUR4QCT7f0

xxo,

Christina

Introduction to the Madness

So, I guess I should introduce myself, right that's a thing that gets done first, I don't know, I'm new at this. My name's Christina and I'm going to be studying abroad in Australia at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Queensland.

I'm so freaking unbelievably excited for this new adventure. And I just figured starting a blog would be the best way for me to get down everything that happens as it happens. They're not going to be particularly long posts, but they will be full of stuff.

I also have a YouTube channel that you can find me at, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkppddgcnLjgTJFj53SDQgg. This blog will be exploring the same topics that I talk about in my videos, so if you want to catch up on my videos, there are currently four, I'm not the best at uploading regularly, you can find them at the link. Feel free to subscribe so that when I upload a video you will get a notification when you sign onto YouTube! If you're not on YT I will post links after my blog post so that you can see the newest one I've done.

This is going to be one HELL of a ride! Are you ready?

xxo,
Christina