Beach Day

Katie, Me, and Angela at Glenelg

Yesterday Katie, Diana, Angela and I got on the bus and went down to Glenelg Beach. Diana and Angela are Katie's roommates. Diana is from Pittsburgh and Angela is from Canada. I haven't made many Australian friends yet, but once classes start I'll be around the exchange students less.

After some more trouble trying to figure out the bus system we finally got on our way to the beach. Glenelg is one of the most popular beaches in Adelaide and is about a 20 minute bus ride from Flinders. We walked around the little food and clothing shops and then headed down to the ocean.

The water was wonderful and not too cold, but a little seaweedy. We sunbathed on the beach and I got a milk shake which turned out to be mostly strawberry milk. I used lots of sunscreen, mom! (I only got a little burnt on my nose/shoulders)

Australian money is really colorful! (The little coin on the left is $2)

Two nights ago I got to go into the downtown part of Adelaide. A friend of mine from Butler, Tara, is currently living in Australia. She came on the exchange program two years ago and met an Australian, Merwan. They got married last summer and are both living in Adelaide. They have a car so they drove us into the city. Adelaide is having a huge fringe festival starting sometime this weekend. People from all over the world come to the festival to see theatre shows, bands, dance, and tons of other stuff. In one of the gardens downtown they have set up a something like a mini fair. They had a fairs wheel, a freak show (I think they said it had a two headed calf), and lots of food and drink stands. I got to meet two people in the drama center who I'll probably have some classes with.

Really strange performance by two guys dressed up as clowns doing a whole lot of nothing, except laughing at little toys and lighting things on fire.

I think I am getting a little sick. The air is extremely dry in my room and I keep waking up super early with a dry throat and clogged sinuses.

I'm having a great time so far. I'm super tired all the time but I'm loving Adelaide. I'm excited for my classes to start next week. This weekend we are going to the opening of the Adelaide Fringe with Katie's Australian roommates and I might possibly be learning how to surf!! (I know, scaredy-cat Jessica!)

Hope everyone is doing well at home! Miss you and love you all!

P.S. You can check out more pictures here (Mom, you have to click on the word 'here')

Communication

Hey guys,

I finally got the internet set up in my room. I'm not sure how much credit skype is going to use up so I'm going to look into using the wireless at library to skype. If you want to chat, facebook/email me a time. The time difference is either 14 1/2 hours (Munster/Illinois) or 15 1/2 hours (Indianapolis).

Pictures coming soon :)

Arriving in Adelaide

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope to keep this fairly updated and would love to get your comments/emails.

The Never Ending Flight

Even though it was long (4 hours to LA, 141/2 hours to Sydney, 2 hours to Adelaide) the trip wasn't too horrible. I was glad Katie was with me because it made the waiting go by a lot faster. We ran into a little bit of trouble at the LA airport when we thought the TBIT listed under our gate number was some form of TBA. . . We were actually supposed to be in another building completely. Thomas Bradley International Terminal or something. Luckily we figured it out and had plenty of time to get over there.

Our flight to Sydney was delayed so we missed our flight to Adelaide. Turns out the new flight they put us on was the same one that Jeff and Nate (Butler students) were on.

Adelaide

The weather was HOT when we arrived. I was gross, sweaty and in desperate need of a shower. Luckily we got to move into our rooms as soon as we got on campus.

So far everyone has been incredibly nice. We've mostly met a lot of international students because of the orientations we've been to. So far I've got three other roommates. Jonathan is from Singapore and is completing all of his education at Flinders. I have no idea how to spell the other two girls' names, yet. One is from Japan and is also an international student (doing all her college at Flinders) and the other is an Australian.

The education system here seems very different and a lot more relaxed. Unlike the United States where you tend to just do four years right after high school they spend a lot more time. Depending on your program you may be at school for two-six years or more. I met a girl who got a degree in a school from her home town, then she traveled around for a few years and is now a first year at Flinders getting another degree.

Shopping

Yesterday we decided to go grocery shopping. Jeff, Nate, Katie and I hopped on a bus and rode down to one of the shopping centers. We knew we had two hours before our bus tickets expired so we quickly ate and shopped. When we got back to the bus stopped we tried to read the time table and thought we would be able to catch a bus in a few minutes. Unfortunately we were reading the table completely wrong and no more buses were coming. We asked another bus driver if he knew which buses went back to Flinders and he radioed to another bus. One of the bus drivers, who was actually finished for the day, came and picked us up and dropped us off at the school. He was extremely nice and didn't make us pay even though we were out of the two hour limit and he gave us lots of advice about where to go. He even taught us how to read the time tables!

Settling In

Things have been a little bit frustrating because we've had trouble enrolling into our courses and getting access to the internet. But I really love the school/campus so far. It's a lot bigger than Butler but everything seems to be in walking distance. We can see the beach from where we are (I think it's about a 20 min bus ride) and the view is gorgeous!

The first day I was a little sad because I wanted to be able to contact everyone at home. But aside from the troubles with figuring things out, I'm having a great time so far. I can't wait to get to know people better and explore the city.

Let me know if you have any questions! Hopefully I'll be able to upload some pictures later. I miss you all and I can't wait to hear about how things are going with you.