Keeping up with RMIT

Keeping up with Melbourne

This week I have not gone on any adventures. :( I was going to go to the pier at the beach and see the penguins, but there is construction going on and we couldn't get to them.

BUT I am going to New Zealand very soon!! I am spending a 10 day trip in the south island of New Zealand!! I am leaving this Thursday (tomorrow) and coming back on Sunday a week later! I will be going bungee jumping, white water rafting, glacier hiking, canyon helicopter riding, and lots more. I will not have access to the internet during the trip so I will not be able to post on the blog until the second Wednseday of September. So look for my blog post then with videos and pictures and stories of my adventures in New Zealand!

I have been focusing on keeping up with the course load here at RMIT this week. Plus, my online class from UNCG started as well. Australian course loads focus much more on the student doing work on their own time and not on the professors class time. It is keeping me pretty busy. I had:

a group project presentation due this week (because we all just love group projects)
a test due this week
a paper due the week I get back
and three chapters of course material of my online class to get through since their due dates are during my time in New Zealand.
and TONS of readings for each class

The good thing is that I only have half a semester left! I can't believe how fast this semster (and this trip) is flying by.

I have also been very focused on home lately. I have been a little homesick and have been missing everyone. It was my nephews birthday this week, my little sister started her first semester of college, and my internet has been creating issues and it makes me wish my dad was here to fix it.

Even with my homesickness this past week, Melbourne (Australia in general) still ceases to amaze me!

You start out walking around the campus area, walking by the library when....

...you wind up walking through the business district area with tall buildings that hold expensive items in them....

...you keep walking and somehow end up in China Town. You walk a little further...

...and find an area full of boutiques and cafes. This all takes place within a 20 minute walk through the city!

And even with the ever changing building structures and cultures, if you keep your eyes open, you may find these little gems throughout the city:

a building that reminds me of the Emerald City in Oz

and another building that makes me think of the Beasts castle in Beauty and the Beast

Or this super adorable bench, one of many unique benches throughout the city

Or this awesome lamp post and this tree!

there is this statement bike (it isn't movement capable. so I am not to sure what is here for) and these beautiful horses pulling a carriage

I constantly have to remind myself:

that everything is backwards (this has caused me to almost run into people on the streets since they almost walk to their left and I naturally walk to my right).
to remember, more often than I thought I would, to say kilo instead of pound or kilometer instead of mile or celcius instead of ferenhite (this one was that one that still freaks me out when people say it will be 5 degrees today!!)
to remember that most people have no clue where NC is in the U.S. I usually have to use NY and FL as references and tell them that I am in between them on the coast.
to remember that almost every word used is abbreviated in some way or has a slang word. Uni is university, lollies are candies, brekkie is breakfast, esky is a cooler. As you can see, some of them you can figure out pretty easily and others...not so much.