It's rough

Jeff left for America today. I'm sad to see him go, because we had a really great time together. It's also hard because it makes going home seem so real and I'm just not ready yet. I have loved Australia so much and this experience has done so many wonderful things for me. I'm afraid to go back home because I'm worried that I will lose the feeling of being free again. I've been so happy here and I don't want to ever forget the memories I've had. I hate the thought that over time, they will fade. I hate forgetting. I really hope I get a chance to come back some day, although I know it won't be the same.

One more month

I can't believe I only have four more weeks left! I am getting fairly excited for things that are going to be happening back home (classes, shows, moving into a house, etc), but I get sad whenever I think about leaving Australia. I don't know when I'm going to have a chance to come back, although I hope I can someday.

It's been awhile since I last wrote! Class have offical ended. Today I took my final test in my screen studies class. Unfortenently, I don't think I did all that well. It's a lot harder to get motivated to study when I know my grades are only pass/fail and won't even effect my GPA. I know I'll get back to studying like crazy next semester. I think I got fairly high marks in my performance classes and I got good feedback in my interviews. My professors all said I need to let the audience in more and let the other actors effect my actions. Something I will try to take into account in the future.

Third Year class after our Stand-up Night

Last week was our stand-up comedy performance. I actually have a copy of it on DVD if anyone is interested. I was first and extremely nervous but I think it went pretty well. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the show. I was surprised how many people showed up, we had at least 80!

Rehearsal for my stand-up routine

The following week was pretty quiet. I mostly sleep a lot, watched t.v. and had a Lord of the Rings movie marathon with Jeff, Nate and Ken. On Wednesday, a bunch of us went to a dance club in the city called HQ. Wednesday's are themed nights called Flashdance because they play a lot of 80's and 90's music, which of course is right up my alley. Our friend Carissa had a goodbye party for us because Jeff is leaving in a week.

On stage at Flashdance

On Saturday Katie, Diana and I were treated to a surprise party by Angela. She has been planning it for ages and kept everything a big secret. At 7pm I went over to their apartment and we all got dressed up. We had to stay locked in Katie's room while Angela prepared everything. Her surprise was chocolate fondue! She had cut up different types of fruit as well as found our favorite kinds of candy. She made little oreo cheesecakes and a peach champagn drink. It was all extremely delicious. Afterwards we went back to HQ and danced so much we couldn't hardly walk.

In a week the four of us are going to be leaving for Alice Springs. We are taking a tour to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and will be camping in the outback. I'm sure it's going to be freezing, but I'm pretty excited!

Netball, Wine and Comedy

Last week, when I was working out at the gym, I was watching what I thought was a wimpy version of basketball on t.v. The baskets were much lower and whenever someone would go up to shoot, the other team would just stand there with their hands up in the air, seemingly not making much of an effort. The game is actually called netball and although it wasn't very exciting to watch, it's pretty fun to play.

Several people in Drama Centre have formed a team that plays against other Flinders students every week in a social tournament. The other night they were short on players so they asked Jeff, Nate and I if we wanted to play. Seeing as we didn't even know the rules before we started playing, we got crushed pretty badly. I played wing defense, which meant I got to run around after this really tall girl trying to stop her from getting the ball. The one time I finally got my hands on the ball I got so excited I jumped up and down. . . which is illegal. Once you've got the ball you can't take any steps.

Everyone was really nice and the refs kept trying to explain the game and rules to use. The girl I was defending tried to help me from doing illegal stuff. (Haha, At least I think she wasn't feeding me false information!) I don't know if they are going to let us play on their team again.

Last Friday I went to the gym to do a little bit of exercise. Turns out they were doing a photo shoot of some kind and my friend Ken asked if I wanted to be in it. Despite the fact that I had just been working out and was pretty gross and sweaty, I wasn't about to turn down an opportunity! Myself and a few other people had our pictures taken in the cafe, on the bikes, on the treadmills and in the weight room. In a couple of the pictures I was in a pretty prominent position. I guess the photos are for an international brochure they are putting together. I think they will be available online, so when I find them, I'll post the link here!

On Saturday, Jeff and I went on a Wine tour with the International Student Services in the Barossa Valley. I thought we were going to get a tour of the wineries but we only got to sample wine. One of my favorites was an apricot desert wine and a Shiraz Rose wine. I think we went to 4 wineries in total. We also go to see a giant tree that a man lived in for FIVE YEARS with his wife and three kids. We stopped at a toy factory with a giant rocking horse. (Apparently South Australia is he home for giant things, I think they also have a crawfish.)

View of Barossa Valley

Our last stop was at a place called the Whispering Wall. It is a dam that was built in such a way that you can hear someone talking to you from the complete opposite side as if they were standing right next to you. It was really cool because you could hear your voice traveling around the edge of the dam if you talked loudly enough.

Whispering Wall

That night I went to the Casino for the first time with Jeff and Felix. I ended up loosing $20 pretty quickly at a game called Casino Wars. At one point I was up $5, but that didn't last too long. I had fun, but loosing money that quickly really isn't something I'm too interested in.


Last night the third years all went out to a comedy club called The Rhino Room. We are going to be putting on a stand-up comedy show on June 2 and our professor wanted us to have a chance to see some live stand-up. We went out for dinner first and I accidentally ordered meat tortellini. Which I decided to eat anyway. It was pretty gross so I think my recent cravings for meat have been cured. I was hoping I could make it a whole year without eating any meat at all, but I think I've done pretty well. The show ended up being pretty good. It was an open mic night and most of the comedians were either first-timers or established comedians trying out new material. I'm not really a huge fan of stand-up comedy, but it's growing on me.

It's crazy, but next week is our last week of classes! I feel like time has just flown by so quickly

Happy Mother's Day and Thank you!

First of all I want to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom, grandma's and aunts. I love you all very much! Thanks for all the advice, little letters, hugs and kisses you've given me over the years. I know I can be an ungrateful pest at times, but I really do appreciate all you've done for me. Also, Happy Mother's Day to all the other mother's out there who have been reading this.

I'd also like to take the time to thank everyone who made this trip possible for me. Especially, my parents. Sending your child to a private school and then half way across the world can get pretty expensive. Also booting her off across the world for five months to study the oh so stable art of film and theatre is no easy feat. Thank you for being so supportive of me and my artistic dreams. (I'll be sure to remember you all when I'm famous!) I've loved every single moment here in Australia. I've had some great new experiences, made new friends, seen beautiful sights, gained a lot of confidence, and learned heaps about myself.

In other news, I've been pretty busy with school. We are working with a woman from Canada on Shakespeare in one of my classes. It's been going really well and I've renewed my appreciation for Shakespeare. The professor is really good at helping us understand the language and I've been reading of Merchant of Venice on my own and I was surprised at how much I was able to grasp.

In my Film Form and Analysis class, we broke into groups and edited some basic footage together. I did most of the work in my group (the others aren't really interested in film and are only taking the class as an elective) and we made a music video out of the clips. I wasn't that happy with the finished product but everyone in our tutorial seemed to like it, which was encouraging. I still haven't given up the idea of editing and I'm considering making a short film for my senior project.

Over half way done! I've got four more weeks of classes and then a month off to travel and enjoy Australia. I hope everyone is doing well at home.

Happy Mother's Day!

Holidays

Today is my first day back at Uni since my two week break. The weather has been a little bit foul lately and today it poured for the first time since I've been here. Of course today is the day I hung my laundry out to dry on our back patio. I'm not sure if being rained upon is really going to make them any cleaner, but they certainly aren't getting any drier.

I spent the first week of the holidays partying and hanging out in Adelaide. Katie turned 22 on April 17th so a bunch of us went into the city to go dancing. Unfortunately Thursday isn't a very big night downtown so we ended up back at a bar near Flinders. Despite our lack of success finding an open club we had a good time dancing at the bar and eating homemade cheesecake. The next night I celebrated my friend Tara's birthday at a hotel on the beach. We ended up staying awake all night long dancing, star gazing and relaxing in the hot tub/sauna.

Me with Katie, Tara and Cameron (All who had birthday's that weekend)

On Wednesday of the second week Katie, her roommates (Angela, Diana, and Cameron) and I woke up at five in the morning to catch a 10 hr train to Melbourne. Jeff and Nate decided to fly and met us in the city later that night. The train was really spacious and pretty comfortable. Katie and I packed enough food to feed everyone on that train and I ended up sleeping for almost the whole trip.

Traveling across South Australia into Victoria. Lots of brown and flat lands.

While we were in Melbourne we stayed at one of the hostels in the city. I had never stayed in a hostel before and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The girls in our room weren't very friendly but the place was fairly clean and there was a rooftop patio which had a spectacular view of the skyline. Melbourne reminded me a lot of Chicago, but it was much cleaner and more open. We saw a lot of really interesting architecture and walked through some gardens.

We woke up early Thursday morning and spent heaps of money at the Victoria Market. I got almost all of my souvenir and gift shopping done. That afternoon Katie, Jeff, Nate and I went on a tour of Carlton Brew House. We got to walk through the buildings where they make the beer and then watch the bottling process. This Brewery churns out over 2 million liters of beer a day (At least, I'm pretty sure that's what she said). They provide the majority of the beer for the southern half of Australia. Afterwards we got to sample four different kinds of beer. Carlton Mid, Fosters (which isn't very popular in Australia), Carlton Black and Pure Blonde. I had never really realized how different the different kinds of beer taste before.

Nate, Jeff and Katie on round one

On Friday we decided to wander around the city and ended up in the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, because it's approaching winter the gardens weren't in full bloom. We did visit the Shrine of Remembrance, which honors all the Victorian people who have served in the forces. A kind old man helped explain a bunch of Australian history and gave us a mini tour of the shrine.

Katie and I at the top of the Shrine of Remembrance with the skyline of Melbourne behind us.

While we were on the tram, on our way to lunch, a woman asked us where in the US we were from. She had heard our American accents and said she was from Ohio. We chatted for a bit and then we asked if she knew any place good for lunch. She immediately responded enthusiastically, saying she was on her way to meet her husband for lunch at an Irish pub and asked us to join her. She ended up paying for all of our meals and we all had a really good time. Terry and her husband Jeff (who is English) work for rival engineering company's and have only been in Australia for a couple of years. Their jobs had them traveling all over the world, such as Abu Dhabi.

Saturday morning we woke up early and got on a bus to drive down the Great Ocean Road. The weather was terrible, but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm or hinder our experience. The tour ended up being really great and the scenery we saw was beautiful. The Great Ocean Road was built after one of the World Wars to give jobs to the returning soldiers. The government has tried to keep it as underdeveloped as possible so real estate is not only limited but extremely expensive. (Between $5-7 million) There aren't any gift shops or hokey tourist attractions along the way. The road main follows the coast, but also goes through some jungle areas. We took a bare foot walk through the jungle and saw kolas sleeping high up in the trees.

The start of the Great Ocean Road. Katie, me, Jeff and Nate

We also stopped at a couple of famous places such as the Twelve Apostles and the London Bridge. Unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs and we were all drenched.

Katie and I at the Twelve Apostles before the rain really started to come down.

The next morning we went for about a three mile walk up a huge rocky mountain to the very top. It was one of the highlights of the trip. The view from the top was gorgeous and the climb was interesting, if not a little dangerous due to the slippery rocks. Finally we stoped at some waterfalls and everyone sat down and put their bare feet in the freeing waters.

Later I climbed up on the that big rock to my left.

I have heaps more pictures but I'm getting pretty tired and I'm running out of battery. Hopefully tomorrow I'll provide a link to the rest of the pictures I took. (My cameras both died during the trip so most of the pictures are on Katie's camera, we took over 700!) Hopefully now that uni is starting back up I'll post more often and about my classes. Good luck to everyone who is approaching finals!!

Check out the pictures I took here and here. (These are just the ones from my camera. Katie should be posting her soon and I'll link them as well.)

Happy Easter!

Cleaning up after dinner

Yesterday, for Easter, Katie and her roommates invited me over for an Easter dinner. I was extremely proud of us because we actually pulled together a very nice meal. We had ham, broccoli cassarole, mashed potatoes and deviled eggs. It was all really delicious. Our mothers have taught us well!

Since the holidays have started we've all been taking it pretty easy. On Thursday we went to a party with the Drama Centre crowd and had a really great time. On Saturday we went over a to a friend's house and hung out in his hot tub.

I'm trying to organize a trip down to Barossa Valley, where they make wine. I'm also hoping to make it into the city again sometime this week.

I hope everyone had a great Easter! It was weird not being at home.

Funny Girl

Just two more days until the holidays!! I've only got a vocal warmup tomorrow morning and then my clowning class until 1:00 and I am home free. It's hard to believe we already have a break because it feels like we just got started!

My classes have been going really great. In acro yesterday I actually stood up on someone's sholders! It was terrifying and I wanted to come down but they made me stand up and put my hands on my hips. I had forgotten how much I hate wobbly heights. I'm getting better at my handstand, though. I can almost do one without using a wall.

For the past two weeks we have been learning about clowing from a man named Andrew. Although stand-up comedy is a lot more exhausting and scarier, I like it better than clowning. It's not really my kind of humor. Tomorrow we are putting on a show for the fourth years. I'm wearing a HUGE yellow shirt, bright green shorts, pink tights and pink leg warmers. Also a red nose. For the first part of the showing I am one of the ushers. We are going to make everyone shuffle around in their seats blow whistles at them for being too loud and pretend that one of them is a reviewer so we'll suck up to them a lot. For the next sequence I play the innocent/lower status clown who doesn't understand that her boss wants her to move a table. We go back and forth with her pointing to where she wants the table to me mimicing her actions. Finally she moves the table herself and I move it back. I'm very proud of myself :) We also run around with a sheet on our heads thinking the other one is a ghost. Silliness.

Clowning is actually pretty hard. I don't really get it. Clowns get into a lot of stupidness and my brain stubbornly remains too attached and logical. I think I'm better at stand-up. Last week we had an extra session. We each performed a bit about something tabboo. I talked about my experiences with being a minister's daughter. I think I'm going to expand on the bit for my five mintue routine that we'll be presenting in a few weeks. Anyone got any good stories?

Yesterday during my Video Tech class I asked one of the professors what he knew about film editing. He said that he would be willing to teach me some stuff about the programs editors use. I did a lot of research later that night and I'm really excited to learn more. I am going to be takinga video editing class next semester so hopefully I'll be able to figure out if it's something I want to pursue.

In my Video Tech class we would watch a scene from a TV show called Neighbors (Australia's soap opera) and then recreate the scene with the equipment in the studio. I've had a chance to run a camera, act, and be floor manager. We also did a "free-style" recording where we through out the cuts in the script and I got to "edit" the scene on the fly. It was hard because it was pretty fast paced and I only had a chance to run through the scene once, but it turned out pretty good.

After class I went to the movies with Jeff, Nate and some other friends. We saw Gran Torino, which I didn't think I would like very much but was pleasantly surprised.

Tomorrow the Drama Centre is having a First Year/Fourth Year party and we've been invited as honorary first years. It'll be fun to hang out with them outside of class. Last weekend we went to our friend Sara's birthday party. Jeff drove and we got lost about three times. Streets aren't always marked very clearly. It took us about two hours to get there. . . she only lives about 45 mins away.

Happy Easter everyone!