Week 3- Classes and a new bike!

I''m finally starting to settle into a routine here in Australia- classes have started, I've moved into my new house, and today I finally got a bike! My classes have been really good so far- I ended up having to switch out of Coral Reef Geomorphology but instead I am now taking Conserving Marine Wildlife: Sea Birds, Mammals, and Reptiles which has been really interesting. The lecturer has spent 20 years working on sea turtle conservation so he knows a lot about the subject and we are also going to have a number of guest lecturers, namely other professors who have specialized in other marine wildlife including humpback whales, dolphins, and dugongs! Dugongs are sortof like manatees, in case you didn't know (I had never heard of them until last week). It's been hard remembering which classes I have on which days because their schedule here is very random... rather than having MWF or T/TR classes at the same time in the same room each day, the classes here are on totally random days, in different rooms, sometimes on the other side of campus. For example my Australian Vertebrate Fauna class is on Thursday at 2:00pm and Friday at 3:00pm in completely different buildings. Needless to say I spent a good deal of time walking around the campus quite lost. Luckily they have maps posted every couple hundred meters but I still felt freshman all over again. I have at least one St. Mary's student in each of my classes which is kindof funny, but it also makes sense given that 4/5 study abroad students come to JCU for marine biology... I mean there's really no better place in the world for it. In fact in my Marine Conservation class I think nearly half the students are American exchange students. 

My new house is also pretty cool- I live 5 minutes from campus and in a really nice neighborhood right next to a park with a path along the river for running and biking. I am living with an Australian student but he is a bit older and has a 5 year old daughter who sometimes spends the night. The third roommate is a pre-med student from India named Tanya. Both of them are really nice but Adam is a Dad and Tanya is very religious so I think it will be a very different living environment from the one I initially hoped for (a house full of friends my age). Most of my friends don't live too far away, however, although getting around here has definitely been the most frustrating thing in my 3 weeks here. The bus system is not great, especially after dark and on weekends, and taxis are insanely expensive so it is very difficult to hang out with people because figuring out transportation is never simple. Hopefully the bike will help and I also got a job this week!! So that way I will have some extra cash for taxis and whatnot. I will be working at the cafe on campus which I think will be pretty easy and a good way to keep me busy on Wednesday because I don't have any classes that day as well make more friends, especially Australian friends because I am definitely mostly still hanging out with other study abroad students. I also signed up for volleyball which meets every Tuesday, and Ultimate Frisbee, which meets every Wednesday. Many of my St. Mary's friends laughed when I told them that because I am the last person they would have ever expected to play SMUT, but everyone here has says the Ultimate Frisbee club is the best way to have fun and meet new people so I figured I'd give it a try :)

First Week in Townsville

Me touching a Grey Kangaroo at the Billabong Sanctuary!

Koala Bear!

The Strand (the beach in Townsville)

Feeding a Kangaroo!

I am here in Townsville! I apologize for not writing sooner but it's been kindof a crazy week... When I got here I didn't have accommodation figured out so the school arranged for me to stay in a hostel until I found permanent housing. The hostel is fun but it is stressful trying to find a place to live! A lot of students had arrived a couple days earlier than me and so most of the good places for rent (close to school, with other students, air-conditioned, etc) are taken. Nonetheless, there are lots of study abroad students in the same situation as I am staying at the hostel so it is actually kindof fun.. in between scouring the JCU website and gumtree.com.au (their version of craigslist) for a place to live, we've checked out the local Farmer's market on Sunday morning, had a barbeque on the beach and went out to the bars and clubs on  Flinder's street, the home of Townsville's nightlife. The only downside is having to walk or rely on public transportation to go, especially because it is crazy hot and humid. And unfortunately, you can't really swim in the ocean now because it's jellyfish season and there are two types of jellyfish in the water, the box jellyfish and the nearly invisible irukandji jellyfish, both of which can kill you instantly!!  They have set up a net around a small section of ocean for swimming but I still think I'd rather wait until April until they're gone... in the meantime there is a really nice public pool not that far from one of my new Swedish friends' house. There is also a river, but there are potentially killer saltwater crocodiles living in it so I'd rather not swim there either.. although the Aussies don't seem to be too worried because many of them take their boats out and go tubing on it. Actually there a loads of dangerous animals here, including 21 out of the 25 most venomous snakes in the world, which I learned yesterday at the Billabong Sanctuary, a sortof interactive zoo just outside Townsville. Despite all of those snakes and all the other weird and crazy Australian animals that are poisonous (including frogs, spiders, and even snails) our guide told us that  barely anyone dies from these animals. The animal responsible for the most human deaths per year in Australia is can you guess? The horse!! We were all very surprised by this. In addition to the dangerous animals at the Billabong Sanctuary we also got to see really, really cute ones. I got to feed kangaroos and even hold a koala, which are definitely my new favorite animal because they are probably the cutest animals in the whole entire world. I think it was literally the best 2 minutes of my life. They are just sooo adorable, I never wanted to let go of it. Anyways I have to go and organize my stuff for school, which starts tomorrow, but I will try and write again soon, once I figure out my housing situation!

Today is the day!! I can't believe in less than 2 days I'll be in Australia, half way around the world! Of course I've been preparing for it for the last month, but even while I was going through the motions of getting my visa, packing, etc it never really seemed real to me that for four months I would be living in Australia. A semester abroad in Australia wasn't something I've been planning for a long time or even something I knew I was going to be doing last summer. It just sortof fell in my lap as a result of working at the office of International Education. It seemed silly not to do a semester abroad myself after working with so many other students who were in the process of going. Choosing Australia was easy... as an anthropology and biology double major what cooler place could I possibly have chosen? I get excited just thinking about the classes I'm going to be taking. A class on the evolution and morphology of coral reefs that includes field trips to the Great Barrier Reef? Yes!! A class on Australian Vertebrate Fauna, where I will get to learn about the incredibly unique and endemic animals of Australia? Definitely! I can't wait.  I am nervous though. I'm not a stranger to incredibly long flights (I've flown to South Africa twice), but I still have no idea where I'm living or what it's going to be like over there. A few of my classmates left last week and have since posted Facebook statuses talking about how much fun their having, so that is reassuring. But even still! In any case, I don't really have time to be nervous because I have procrastinated packing so much that I still have some things to do, even though I am leaving in an hour. I was actually impressed with how many clothes I could fit into my very own brand new suitcase, a birthday present from my mom, but being the girl that I am, I am still worried that there will be a perfect occasion for the few sweaters or dresses I chose to leave behind, and then I will be in trouble. I'm sure I will be okay though, and all my friends who have been to Australia say it's good to leave room for all the stuff you're going to want to bring back. Anyways, it's about time for me to get serious about finishing packing, so the next time I blog will be over there!