#<-little guy who sends me shark pics that I deeply enjoy

[orbitfalls]

@sleepinginmygrave

mutuals to be in an underwater ecosystem with 🐟🐠🦀🐙🐬🐳🐡🦑🦈🦭🦦🐋🦞🦐

[postcards-to-home]

Aussies Are Wild

2/14/17

How funny it was I thought, to be outside at sunset wearing evening wear, holding champagne and laughing with all my friends while we celebrated the beginning of the rest of the term. ICMS throws a celebratory cocktail party every term in Honor of the new students. Picture live music with “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran playing by some surfer hipster kid, a classic aussie stereotype while people pose for pictures in ritzy dresses, wine drunk just living our best lives.They were handing out  FREE BOOZE like water. What a step up from the slums of Plattsburgh. I have absolutely no shame in talking shit about my home university as it really is completely outdated. Anyways I personally spent most of the night meeting and engaging with all sorts of individuals from across the globe. I met Aussies who wanted to know what a real frat party was like, I had  to tell them it was a bit less than everything you see in the movies and more nitty gritty. I met people from Switzerland, France, Germany, India and even a guy who said he moved from Canada to play Ice hockey in sydney. What a wild world we live in. In Particular one German Girl prompted me with the question, ‘Why do Americans love my home country so much, its nothing special?” I had to laugh and I said it the best I could in that Americans are deeply infatuated with the idea of war, as it is so much apart of our culture even if we try to shy away from it. I think she was really taken aback by that because she didn’t really say anything for a few minutes after that. The Vietnamese girl to the left of her was a bit shocked I think, but of course I had to inform her I thought her country was lovely, ( Even if it did scar me), and she just beamed with joy. The people of Asian culures have such a hard time assimilating with the English speaking and I feel for them. I am just impressed they know two and even three languages while we only know English. It really has me thinking about how weak our education system is.

Later that night four, maybe five glass of wine deep we just kept sending it, down to courso, which is like a plaza that holds all the bars, particularly the shark Bar, an ICMS staple. It ended with my roommate and I traveling the mile hike back up to the castle, One I deeply regret every single time I have to do it. No exaggeration either it is actually a mile. My phone has been tracking my steps and the past three days I’ve had record breaking 8 mile hikes.

2/15/17

Today I was thrown out of a restaurant, or more politely asked to leave. Why you might ask? The guy across from me was wearing no shirt, no shoes and was still getting service and here I was just sipping water and told me I couldnt be there. Apparently it’s against the law to serve anyone anything if youre under 18 and I happened to forget my ID in my room. My apologies to my friends since we had to take our already ordered food and eat it on a park bench outside.

So I was royally pissed off. But the day did get better.

I am happy to Announce I received an internship with a company in the suburbs which is a short bus ride from school and a bit of a walk. I won’t say exactly what company yet but it includes a logistics position with an events ware company. I am very excited to start in the coming weeks and grow my knowledge on the industry. Between an internship and class only two days a week I am very excited to find time to travel and enjoy the beach.

The rest the day was sort of comical. The girls, Sabrina , Kay and Alexis had been so kind enough to travel with me to the internship interview. The mall was just across from it so on the way home we decided to take bus 139 instead of 169. Well that ended up being a really cool mistake because instead of taking the express bus we took the residential bus. It stopped at the local schools and drove through the areas where people lived and it even drove along the coast. So far out along the coast we could see our little home away from home sticking out like a sore thumb on the crest of the hill. It honestly looked entirely too surreal.

2/16/17

The following day, Friday, was the big day on campus where all the students came together to do student activities and continue to meet students. In reality my squad just went for the free food and free bar drink vouchers down in the Corso. As students it’s important for us to remember our budgets, and nothing makes me happier knowing my friends are cheap fucks too, in the best way possible.

There were a few activities that we all skipped but the best that we actually went to had to be the color run. Nothing beats getting disgustingly dirty in the dead heat of summer, no sarcasm there. It was a good laugh and we definately had a blast.

The best part of the day wasn’t until the sun fell below the sea. It wasn’t in any of our plans to venture across the harbor into Sydney after dark but when an Aussie invites you out its hard to say no. Our group of four girls linked with six other new friends, some funny enough are from New York State too, and we decided to take the ferry from Manly to Sydney. For those of you that don’t know Manly suburbs is on a peninsular sort of that is a bit of the ways away from the actual city of Sydney. So in order to get to the bar we had to cross the harbor, a first for some of us. I will be honest I was extremely surprised that no one was as shocked to see the Sydney Opera house at night as I was as if it was just casually something we drove past.Keep in mind I only had two beers max from the campus bar by the time we passed it and it was one of the coolest things I ‘ve ever saw. It’s one of those far out things your teachers tell you about in elementary school that you think you’ll never actually see in your life. When I was little I had this postcard from Australia from my mom’s friend’s sister who went there,(Darcy or Nadina if youre reading this  you are the ones that inspired me to come to Australia all those years ago) and ever since that moment I just kept telling myself one day I’ll be big and smart enough or whatever enough to go there and see that place. Soon enough I’ll pose in front of it but instead here is what we got..

Some of us are planning on seeing a concert or two here at some point.. more news to come on that..

Sydney from what I saw at night was oddly clean and similar to the big apple but again I was stuck with the  feeling I was in a parallel universe of sorts. Everything was so much cleaner here than at home, the metro was even tidier than that in the states.What surprised me more was that the navigation to and from our destination was easy as hell. My 15 year old self could of done it no problem. Our group was just lucky to have a guy who lived here and wanted to show us around. Our destination for the night was the Scary Canary Bar/club. I won’t go into details but that was easily one of the best places I’ve been and that doesn't say much since the only thing I can compare it to is downtown Albany and Plattsburgh Fraternity houses. The youth culture emits this really unique energy thats just a good time. People are so much happier here. Sure not everything here is awesome but the the aussies know how to have good time.

This was probably the best drink I’ve had so far. Probably not the most alcoholic but we all downed them like water. Side note I ripped this picture off the internet but I figured it was important to show you these jars. Lots of the popular places serve drinks in jars its kind of just their thing. I almost regret not taking any pictures here but it was probably best to just live in the moment.

To round off the nights festivities we took a classic uber ride home to skip the bus since the ferry closes at 1145, ( thank you Kay for convincing us to do this).The whole of the city no longer swallowed us as we venture out of the city’s limits to our home away from home once again.

Lastly heres a pic of the goon squad messing around on the ferry.

2/17/18

Many of you are probably wondering what the beach is like. There are two main beaches near me , Manly beach and Shelly Beach. Alexis, Kay Sabrina and I decided to hit both today. Everyday the weather has been fairly similar with high winds of 10-20 mph and tempaturetes ranging from 70-85 degrees through out the day. Manly beach is the largest one with  roughly a ½ mile of coastline. Here one can spot an abundances of curley, ultra tan long haired surfer guys who look and sound like every stereo typical Aussie man a girl would dream up, (Don’t worry jay no funny business here). This is the beach that straddles the corso or plaza with lots of shops and cafes. I personally prefer  Shelley beach because its in a sort of cove where theres no waves, the beach is made of shells and its perfectly a-ok to swim in. For the first time in light years they saw a shark out in the bay and the life guards were literally screaming at people along the shore line to get the hell out. Mind you we found this information out after we had already started our pursuit back up the hill, through the forest to the castle. But anyways shelly beach is the beach that sits beneath this large hill that overlooks the entire bay and surrounding area. Its breathtaking to hike the trail and watch the trees thin to the ocean’s cliffs. Soon I shall take a decent picture but again I forgot to.

I wish my thoughts were more organized to put out more depth to these posts.It truly is an information overload on the daily. Part of me just turns off a lot of my brain and just absorbs all the information with out processing it until I lay up at night at some random time remembering things I forgot to say or how i should of worded this or that differently. If there is anything anyone want s to know specifically please feel free to ask away, I love answering things and hearing suggestions.

Peace, Love and Enjoy the Adventure xoxo