Two Months In

You heard it here first kiddos, the two month mark has come and gone. I know that I say this a lot, but I really can not believe that it has gone by so quickly. And now that things are picking up with school and travels and just being more settled in general, I know that the rest of my time here will fly by. In less than three months I will be back in the good old US of A sitting in the cold and snow. Granted the snow and skiing will be excellent, the cold air and lack of palm trees and beaches will not be as welcomed.

Not too many things to report this time, classes are going well. I am starting to find out that I have to actually do some work though, which is really cramping my style. I really do enjoy my classes though, which makes things a whole lot better. In my performance class we just finished our Shakespeare unit and are now moving onto Brecht. Colonialism in the Asia- Pacific is going well, its a little bit of a snooze session at times but thats of. In dance we are getting ready for our funk exam. I never thought in a million years that I could dance hip-hop, and I am not very good but I am enjoying myself. And last is fashion. This is probably my most favorite class. We work to publish a full fledged fashion magazine called Frock Paper Scissors. There is a managerial team that work as the leaders and the rest of the class. The rest of us write feature articles, work on photo shoots and make up the content of the magazine.

Just this past week we were in our tutorial and our professor told us we had ten minutes to write a short article about the magazine and then we had to read the article to the class. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but the lecturer was very impressed by my article and said that she wanted to publish it as PR and marketing for the upcoming issue. I was completely surprised by this and very excited. I'll be bringing back issues of the magazine for sure. My short little article is below:

Frock beats Paper, Paper beats Scissors and Scissors beats Frock? Not in this case. For the 2010 magazine, Frock Paper Scissors, all three elements are coming together under one roof. This year the Frock Paper Scissors managerial team has started things off with a bang focusing mainly on the hometown of Brisbane. One can expect to see loads of articles about fashion, beauty, lifestyle and for the first time, a men’s section of the magazine. Since the magazine started in 2007 it has grown into a much-anticipated magazine that the students of QUT and the city of Brisbane look forward to. The magazine can be seen in local hair salons, boutiques, and favorite food spots and in the hot little hands of the readers. There are some seventy students of journalism and fashion background that work for the semester to produce a full-fledged fashion magazine. There are local stories, features about the city, and high-end fashion photo shoots. This year the theme is all about Brisbane. “We want this year’s mag to be about the place that we live and the place that we love,” said one of the Co-Editors. “We are looking for fun fresh and new ideas from our team". Along with the magazine, students work to create a website as well. Blogs, articles, photos and profiles will leap off of the site and into the minds of the readers. Readers will learn where to go for cheap threads, good eats and fun times. The website, with the magazine, will be around for the next year until Frock Paper Scissors 2011 makes its entrance. At the launch of the magazine in November all hats will be off to the team, the sponsors, advertisers and workers that made the magazine possible. The magazine will hit stands after that and Southeast Queensland will go into a reading fashion frenzy. It will only be up to you to find a copy, and join the party.

As for classes going well, the next big event that happened since the last time I posted was that I went to see MAMMA MIA! It was either the twelfth or thirteenth time for me... I think more like the thirteenth. It reminded me a lot of the soundtrack because of the accents. It was very well done and by the end of the show everyone was up and dancing just as they should be. I did miss not going with my family, but when an opportunity like this came up, I just had to take it.

So tomorrow starts week 7 of school. This upcoming weekend is the kick off of the Brisbane Festival with Riverfire and then the following weekend we head to Sydney to find P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way. Stay tuned!

One For The Books

This past week was full of horse races, carnivals, shopping trips and social outings. Last Wednesday (the 11th) was a public holiday for the Exhibition Horse Races. So no classes and instead we went to the races. Thinking it was going to be a casual race day like in America we went down there wearing jeans and nice tops. We'll say it was dressy casual. Also, we had general admission tickets and on the website it said that denim was allowed for general admission. Well, we first started to notice that we were the "odd ones out" on the bus. Everyone kept on getting on in cute cocktail dresses and the men were all in suits and ties. And the hair accessories were crazy. There were feathers and bows and flowers and netting like you had never seen. They weren't small either. They were the kind that you see in Forever 21 and kinda laugh to yourself and say, "Who would ever wear this?". Almost every girl had one.

As we got closer to the race course we saw that we were clearly not dressed for the event. So when the bus stopped, we did not enter into the Race Club. We instead got back on the bus, and went back to change our clothes.

Take 2: After changing, and putting a few frills in our hair (no where near what everyone else had, but we tried) we arrived back at the course. It was slightly gloomy that day but the sun did make a few appearances throughout the day. The rest of the day was fabulous. We saw several horse races and lots more hair frills and a few drunken shenanigans. Some of the people who attended started kicking back the alcohol a little early and had a little bit too much fun. Back in the states I call the hair frills "Pashwangas" (I coined the word). Here they are called "Fascinators". And let me say, the first ones that we saw and thought they were crazy were the normal ones of the day. They kept on getting bigger and bigger. I managed to take a few snaps of some of my favorites.

Friday (the 13th... ooo...) we took a trip to Ekka. Ekka is basically a big giant carnival. Think of a State Fair times two or three. There are rides, vendors, animals and carnival games. The big thing are showbags. These are basically a bag containing a bunch of goodies that are based on themes. So for example there are candy showbags where you get a bunch of one brand of candy. Or there is the Hello Kitty Showbag, or the Disney Princess Showbag, or the Australian Soccer Showbag, etc. They are very popular.

It is a lot of fun to just walk around the grounds and see everything. Then at night there is a show put on in the main arena. The show consisted of a flag ride on horseback, Horse Jumping, Woodchopping, Jousting, Toyota Hilux Tricks, Car Drift, Monster Truck, Motorcyle Tricks and finally the Firework and Laser show.

The woodchopping, motorcycles and fireworks were my favorite. Queensland won the woodchopping competition against New South Wales. But this is no ordinary woodchopping. It's a relay of chopping wood in all different ways-- very fun to watch. The motorcylists were extremely talented and I held my breath every time they went off the ramp, hoping that they land their flips... and not on their heads. And of course the firework show was fabulous. Set to the tune of the "Waltz of the Flowers", it worked very well. I love fireworks. Being Friday the 13th I kept on waiting for something bad to happen, but luckily nothing ever did.

Saturday was just a shopping day, and Saturday night was a social night. Then Monday brought the start of week five. I can't believe how fast it has gone. And it just keeps on going. I am in the process of planning out some more weekend trips and also looking into trips for our Mid-Semester Break. It's starting to settle in more and more that I am here and not back at home, especially with most people back home starting school again.

For the Creighton kids, I miss you! Make sure to have fun during welcome week and somebody please go to the Foam Party for me! For all the college kids (and high schoolers too) have a great first semester! Study hard :)

Oh, and if anyone knows how to send some really good mexican food my way that would be great. I have yet to find a good mexican restaurant here and once in a while I really do crave it. All I need are some corn tortilla tacos.

Other than that, I truly can't complain. Life is bliss over here on the other side of the world. If anyone wants to come see for themselves, I am totally up for visitors.

Until next time!

Punched In The Face, Pi Phis & Pub Crawls

I realize that I have been neglecting the blog, I'm sorry. I promise to do better in the future... maybe.

To address the title of the post-- yes all of those things have happened. However, to build suspense I will save the punching story for last.

First, Pub Crawls:

They are quite big here and a lot of fun. I have been on two already and it is a great way to spend your evening and also meet a lot of new people. The bar scene is really fun here and no you do not have to get smashed always. So I hope that those continue.

Second, Gold Coast:

I realize that this was not a part of the title but it didn't fit in with my "P" theme. Last weekend we took a trip to the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise. All you have to do is hop on a train and it takes about forty-five minutes and then you switch to a bus that takes you right to the boardwalk. We didn't have the greatest weather so another trip when the sun is shinning is in the works. So after the clouds rolled in we packed up our beach stuff and just roamed around town. Surfers is a very touristy town but the shops were fun to go into and we all had a good time.

Third, Pi Phis:

Of course there is always the sorority story. I do have one sister, the lovely Ashley Swift, studying abroad in Brisbane with me. She goes to University Of Queensland in St. Lucia. However, we were graced with the presence of the lovely Aurora Driscoll this past Thursday. She was having her own Australia adventure for the past five weeks and then took another week to come down to the Gold Coast and Brisbane. There is another Creighton alum, Conor Mannix, who is living on the Gold Coast right now so he came along too. We had a great dinner and I am sure that we scared a few Aussies away with all of our Greekness. There were a lot of pictures taken, and Pi Phi arrows shot.

Finally, the Punched In The Face story:

This past Friday night we all went to the Cromwell Bunker "Made In Australia" party at University of Queensland. Basically think of a big giant rave/frat party with like 2,000 people there. It was a dress up party so we saw people dressed up as Vegimite, kangaroos, local beers, boxed wines, and lots else. I wanted to put cotton balls all over and say that I was the inside of an Ugg boot but no one would do it with me. So instead, we went for the classic Aussie flags.

There were so many people there that shoulder to shoulder doesn't even compare. People are really on top of each other and if you want to move everyone ends up being pushed around and falling over. So in the mix of all of this while our group was trying to get out and find some more room somehow a fist or elbow or something collided with my head. It hurt/ still hurts A LOT. This was a forceful blow and yet I hardly have anything to show for it. There is a picture up on facebook but it hardly does any justice at all. Basically there was no black eye, just a swollen temple and bruise next to my eye. It's still pretty sore but I expect to make a full recovery.

It does make for a pretty great story.

So I leave you with that epic story. Lots of new pictures are up on facebook. Coming up are trips to Sydney and maybe Fiji, as well as Ekka 2010 and Fashion Week. I will try to stay more on top of things. Oh, and the picture is pre- Bunker party. Just showing off our TEMPORARY Southern Cross tattoos.

Cheers!