Lismore Arrival 2/14-2/27

Planting my tree
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I am finally here! Alright I know that I have been struggling to keep in contact with everyone, but here it is. Let me start back 2 weeks to when I left Minnesota. The flight down here was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. When we left the cities we flew to California, then Sydney, then Brisbane, and from Brisbane we took the bus to Lismore. For those of you that I havent talked to let me tell you that this place is beautiful. When we first got here I realized that we really are out in the wilderness. I have experienced my first encounters with cockroaches and giant spiders. After being here for two weeks I am finally just getting used to them (as long as they stay out of my bed). :) Australia is much more hilly and very different then the states.

koala day!
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The area that we live in is surrounded by trees and residential areas. Everything here is so green. We live in apartments that either consist of 4 or 6 people. I am living in one with 3 other people. I have a roomate from China named Jenny. I have another one from Wisconsin named Marshall. Lastly, I have my Aussie roomate Mitch who is awesome. He is the one I always call in to get the bugs out of my room. On our way down here I met a girl that goes to St. Cloud with me named Aimee and when we got down here the two of us met another girl from New York named Kelly. The three of us have been inseperable. I feel like the people I have met here I have known forever. It is nice getting to know a lot of the Aussies. We have made so many connections and are planning some trips with them which will save us money since many of them have homes around Australia.

I wish that I would have started this blog right when I got here. We have been so busy running around that I have not had time. I feel like there is so much to tell, but where to begin. Since we have been down here we have done something new everyday. One day last week we went and visited Byron Bay which was amazing! It is a tourist spot, so there were tons of people and places to eat and shop. We have also visited two other beaches since being here. My roomate Mitch and his friend Mic took us to Bellina one day when they were going surfing. This beach was gorgeous. As soon as we got there the boys jumped into the ocean with their boards and us girls sunbathed for hours. While we were there we also got to see dolphins. It is crazy how close to the shore they get! A few days ago we also went to the zoo and got to see and pet the kangaroos. They all just lay around like dogs in a park. During our visit to the zoo we also ventured around the local area. It was amazing! The beach was only a few blocks aways so we went and ate at a cafe and watched all the surfers.

Australian's are very laid back. Everyone kept telling me before I went that they are all very friendly and the pace of life here is much slower. Now that I am here I realize what they mean. They love to talk to everyone and are always willing to help out. Dont get me wrong, we are still careful about what we do, but as they say here "no worries". We are begining to take up their lingo and learn the ways of the land. Lets see what else have we done... some of the Aussies that we met took us to a place in the woods called "Jump Rock" which is a beautiful 50 foot waterfall that you can jump off of into a little pond in the middle of no where. There were about 15 of us that went there. I took pictures and also video of it. I will try and get the camera working so that I can get the pictures up on here for everyone to see. It is so hard to explain just how different it is here. Lets just say I am more then glad I did this trip.

The past week and a half was our orientation week, so we did a few things that had to do with school, but also went on a lot of adventures. School finally started today and I just had my first class. I have the same teacher for two of my three classes which is nice. The classes are a lot less structured here then back in the states. We sat in class today and decided how we wanted to be graded and what exactly we wanted to do in the class. He gave us the option of doing nothing and just having a final at the end of the semester worth 100% of our grade! That is nuts! We all voted a different way. That is putting to much worth on one thing. Man this journal is getting long! There is just to much to say and I know that I am going to forget most of it. Me and a bunch of people have begun planning for our trips down here. Two Sundays from now we are going to Byron and a bunch of us are going skydiving! I am going to try and take lots of pictures of it.

Anyway once all of the pictures get up and running you will have a better understanding of all my rambling. This is why I need to write every few days. There is to much to say and so much that has been done. Will post pictures soon!

Just updating this... my internatioanl advisor just sent me a few pics from last week. This is a picture of kelly and me planting our Eucalyptus tree (if thats even close to how you spell it). We had a day where we visited the Koalas and then planted the trees that they eat off of. Anyway more to come!