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