Crazy prof

So we had a substitute professor in my Animal Biology class cause ours was sick, I think these two lectures were his first. Anyway, we were in our class on Wednesday and class usually gets out at 11:50, at about that time the prof for the next class came in and said "time!". That was a little rude we thought but didn't make anything else out of it, then just a few minutes later (we were running a few minutes late because our prof wanted to finish up the slides for that day as it was his last chance to go over that material) the other professor came in again and said "I need you to leave, I have a class at 12." Well, this, we thought, was very rude as we were only like 3 minutes over time. Our prof very nicely said "we'll just be a few more minutes, we're just finishing up", this other guy then said "no, you need to leave now, I have a class that STARTS at 12!." Our prof calmly stated again that we wouldn't be long, this guy slammed his briefcase down on a table and said "no you need to leave, you're being very unprofessional!" At this point the rest of the class started yelling at him that we would be just a few more minutes and he could wait and that he was the one being unprofessional. He finally backed off, but then started erasing the white board then stood in the corner with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. He also made a point to leave the door open so all of the noise from the hall was coming in. Needless to say it was a very tense last few minutes of class. We couldn't believe how impatient he was and that it mattered that much that he started ON TIME! Apparently, I heard later, someone in our class went to a higher authority and reported his behavior. It was a very interesting day. Anyway, another interesting thing that happened to me that day was that (in that same class) we were informed that a graduate student needed helpers later on in the year with an experiment he's doing on Rosellas and their coloring. He's wondering if there is reasoning behind them having different color schemes in different areas of Victoria amongst other things. So, I have talked to him (he's from Bristol, England) and he said that it would be great if I could come on and help for a bit. The project is from October-January, but of course I couldn't be on the whole time, but I was thinking it would be neat to help out for like a week or two, depending on how much I wanted to work. I really would like to take advantage of this opportunity though cause half of the reason I came to Australia was for the wildlife, and I would love to get to work with some of it before I leave! Also, it would be neat cause I'd get to see some different areas of Victoria that I otherwise wouldn't really get to see. :) I look forward to it!! This is a project that he is advertising in Bristol as well and students from there can come down and help as well. I'll keep you updated on that when I know more; it's still a ways in the future. I also got my classes figured out for next semester, I am taking:
Anatomy & Physiology (2nd half)
Genetics of Populations
Comparative Animal Physiology (online)
Immunology

They all sound very interesting and fun! Oh, and I got my first Australia Today paper back and I got an HD (high distinction) or a 92%. :) It sounds like lots of other people (at least in the one group of friends) got in the 50's according to a girl I'm on soccer with, which made me feel good. ;P

So, we have mice in our house and Heath's dad came over the other day and put poison around (in areas where Terrorist couldn't get to it), so hopefully that helps. They had been pooping in our pantry, which isn't good. It smells like mice in there now too, as well as in a few other places. They've been coming out of holes in the wall by the TV where powerpoints used to be. Anyway, hopefully that situation will be better soon. It was a bit creepy though, two nights ago I was home alone, vacuuming the poo from the pantry and then I walked into the other living room and there I saw this large spider crawling on the wall behind the TV, I took a closer look and it was a white tail!!! I haven't seen one yet, and didn't want to!! These are one of the two spiders I was told to look out for (they don't have funnel web spiders in Victoria), they aren't really that dangerous, just really to kids and stuff, but their bite can still make you pretty sick I hear. It's also a little disconcerting cause these are the ones that like to hide in clothes and in beds!! But, I'm ok, I just hope I don't see another one! That one was exceptionally large for that species too!
I work this whole weekend, I didn't get paid the other day when I should have been, so I told my boss and she said she'll look into it. I booked David's and my trip to Uluru on Thursday!! I am very excited, now I just need to get paid so I can buy the plane tickets and book our places in the hostels we'll be staying in. It should be heaps of fun!

pictures

Hello again all, I really want to put pictures up for you to look at, but it seems no matter what I try there is some problem. This is getting very irritating! Hopefully I can figure something out soon cause I want to be able to show you stuff! If you have Facebook, I have most pics up there. :)

YAY FOR INTERNET

So, I hung out with some of the people from the Christian group I'm in yesterday (Sunday). I went to a baptist church with them, it wasn't a normal service though cause there was the choral from Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska who sang most of the time. They were really good, it was kind of funny though cause with them there, me being there with a bunch of Americans and the pastor being American I had to remind myself that I was still in Australia. ;P The church was like this little log house, it was quite cute. After that we went to Burger Inc to each, it was amazing food! Then we went back to the girls place and watched LOST, then went to one of their friends houses on the opposite side of Geelong. We then went to ichurch, where there were 3 different pastors from different places that talked about topics and if you had any questions you could SMS them in and they would answer them. It was an interesting idea, it was good, but I was really tired too, so it was a little hard to pay full attention. I met some really nice people there, it was funny though cause a few of us had to explain what we were doing in Australia numerous times cause we kept meeting new people; we joked that we should make t-shirts. ;P Anyway, I should explain a little, Jessica, Marla, and Kasey are the three girls from CA who are here with Campus Crusade for Christ (Real life in Australia) and they all live together right behind my house. Drew, Dave, and Mike from CA and AZ are the three guys also with the group (they're all working here and have been here for about 1 1/2 years and are leaving in December, some may be coming back) and they all live together close by. So, I went to Jessica, Marla and Kasey's house this morning to call Dad (they said I could use their internet since I didn't have it at the time), after I got done talking with Dad I walked back to my house and found that my bank statement had come in the mail (the only reason I wasn't able to get internet was because my bank statement hadn't come yet) so I went and got internet today! :) That makes me very happy!!! Oh, I went and saw the new Indiana Jones movie on Friday with Loretta and her boyfriend Owen, it was ok. :) I really liked it but it left me wanting something at the same time, it didn't quite live up to the old Indy's in my opinion, but it was ok. :) This week I am going to start putting my and David's plans for a trip to Uluru into action, so wish me luck! ;P Well, that's about it for now.

17. Mai

So, first of all, gum trees are coniferous so do not shed their leaves. Also, I got sick this week (for surprisingly the first time since I've been here) and have had not much of a voice the past few days, which made customer service at work interesting. I had a very lovely weekend, and you are going to hear about it! I went to work from 10-1 on Firday and after my shift I took a walk. I walked along the road by the water and went and found the botanical gardens, they are absolutely gorgeous! I spent a while there cause it was just lovely, the weather was perfect and there were only a few people there. After walking around there for a while I headed back down to the water where they have a swimming area built into the ocean; there's a restaurant there too. I walked back and caught the bus back to school where I did a little more interneting, then rode my bike home. That night it poured rain, the whole night (and next day), I was home alone watching TV when a little brown mouse came out from under the couch! It startled me the first time so I did a sharp intake of breath and it ran back under the couch. It did this a few times before it got the courage up to run along the wall to the holes in the wall over by the TV (I thought I heard something scratching around in those holes a month or so ago). It came in and out of the hole a few times during the night, it almost felt like a little pet that was playing around while I was watching TV. I saw another one later do the same thing. I didn't really mind (they're pretty cute!) but it was a little unnerving at the same time. Later on in the evening I saw one in the kitchen, which then ran back towards my room (or that general direction)that was a bit creepy, cause there was one by the hole and in the kitchen at the same time and I felt a bit like I was surrounded. Later that night I thought I heard some moving in my room, but it was ok. Oh, I also caught the last part of a Norwegian movie (how fitting cause the next day was the 17. Mai), it was really weird and grotesque.
I got Preben's phone number from Ingrid (both are international students from Norway) and so he said he'd call me in the morning and they would come get me to go to Melbourne with them. So I got up and got ready, two of them, Marla (from Canada) and Henning (from Norway) picked me up and we drove to the train station. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention they were going to a footy game (they got a bunch of free passes when we were in Lorne and so had a bunch of extras and so gave me one). So, we caught the 11:30 AM train into Melbourne, I got to talk Norsk with Preben and some of the Swedish guys, it was nice (all together we had 3 Norwegians, 3 Canadians, 2 Swedes, 7 Americans [including me] and 1 Hollander). A lot of these people are also in soccer with me by the way. :) We were met by another 4 Americans after a while at the game. I ate some really salty, yet good in a way fries, and a really gross hot dog, but I was hungry. Watching of the game was on and off, there was a lot of talking involved too of course. Henning, from Norway, is so funny! Anyway, the game was Geelong vs. Richmond (a district in Melbourne, the one we were in) and Geelong won 99 to 69! They were losing at first, but came ahead in the end. Alan, from Canada, doesn't like Geelong and so was rooting against them and he got crap from us afterwards when they won. ;P We then took a tram to Flinder's street station, then caught a taxi to the place where the party was. It was raining this whole time by the way. There were Norwegians everywhere, it was great! Before we ate we had some people do some introductions and then we all sang the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker". They sold raffle tickets too, one of the prizes was a viking helmet ;P. All of the money goes towards orphans in Thailand. We then got a starter plate of laks (Salmon), which was delicious, later Chicken and squash came, also delicious, then creme boule (not very Norwegian, but it was ok, pretty sweet though). An of course there was free bar, so beer, champagne, and red/white wine. I actually had a few beers! (I don't like beer). I was a bit of a light weight, and so felt tipsy pretty quick. I caught myself though, I started not really taking in what was going on anymore, and I really wanted to take everything in and remember that night, so I drank some water. I kept drinking, but paced it more. they played all Norwegian music, which I happily danced to, they even had some Odd Nordstoga (one of my favorite singers, I have all of his music on my computer)!! I was ecstatic! I got to talk a lot of Norwegian that night, it was awesome. One of the girls I go to school with, Henrietta, she was really drunk, but kept telling me what a great girl I was and how my Norwegian was awesome and that she loved that I talked dialect... It was funny. I met a Danish guy who's girlfriend was sitting at our table (they came late so couldn't sit together) and we danced to Odd Nordstoga's "Heim till Mor." It was fun. I danced a lot with Matt, one of our group from NJ, he's a nice guy, we talked for a while too cause we sat next to each other at the table. I danced with him a few times, and I did a really nice jitterbug with one of the Swedish guys, he's pretty good, and he thought I was too. :) I talked so much, mainly norsk, and had to talk over music the latter part of the evening that my voice was REALLY suffering by the end. I could barely speak when we got there! So, needless to say, I can't talk much today. Heath and Sam (my room mates) were laughing at me talking to them this morning. ;P They had an after party, but 4 of us from my group decided to split cause the last train into Geelong was at 1 AM, and it was 11:30. So, we caught another taxi to the Southern Cross Train Station. When we got back to Geelong we caught another taxi home, along with this other lady who paid almost our whole fare! She said she remembers what it's like to be a student, it was very nice of her. I got home just a little before 3 AM.

pay days are wonderful

It's been a while since I wrote, but a lot has happened in that time. So, first of all, the people I was getting internet from got a password, so I have been without internet, but I haven't minded. I have just been coming to school and doing my stuff here, the downside is that I haven't been able to talk to David or anyone else, but it's been ok. That's probably for the best anyway cause David had finals week and was writing heaps of papers! I got paid, it was a bit of a hassle because I (somehow) gave my bosses the wrong number for direct deposit, so I didn't get my money right away. I don't know what I did, but then I gave them the number again and it was a completely different number than I gave them the first time; oh well, it's fixed now. So, I was supposed to get paid on Wednesday and I got paid on Tuesday of the next week. So, I used that money to pay my utility bill (comes every 3 months) and to fix my phone, which happily only cost me $25!! It was just a loose connection in the phone that was making my screen not show up. I also put my camera in to get fixed (finally), that ended up costing more than I expected, $130, but my camera is all better and I think it should stay that way for a long time. The problem was that the leaves on the lens had come loose (when I bought the camera off of Amazon.com, it came like that, but it was never a big problem until recently). I also of course had to buy groceries. So, between all of that an finding a really good deal on a nice jacket and buying a shirt and going to a movie with some friends, that was all of my pay check. This next one (this Wednesday) is going to go fast too cause I have to pay rent as well as (if there's enough) get internet. I luckily found a place that didn't have a 2 year contract internet plan. I just have to buy the portable modem for $199, then it's just $15/month for 1 GB internet (I can get more if I want later if I think that's not enough, but I mainly just talk on Skype and email, so I think it should be good). It'll be nice to not have to rely on shaky internet, that's for sure. I do feel a little bad for using that free internet, but I didn't have money to get any and it was there, so I used it. Anyway, so work's going well, I go in today after class again. I bought a ticket to 17. Mai (syttende Mai = May 17th) shindig in Melbourne! For those of you who don't know May 17th is the Norwegian national holiday, and there are quite a number of Norwegians here! ANSA (Australia Norwegian Students Abroad) are putting this thing one, that was another thing my pay check went to. The ticket was $65 (a little pricey I know) but the money goes to a project in Thailand for orphans. It includes a 3 course meal, transport to the affair from Melbourne, and an open bar. It should be a lot of fun! I asked one of the Norwegian girls who goes to soccer practice with me if I could go with her and whoever she was going with, so I will. :) I am looking forward to it! Well, fall is here! We've had some pretty cold weather followed by some really nice weather, it's pretty warm today! The trees have almost lost all of their leaves, but the gum trees still have their leaves, I wonder if they'll fall off or not? Quite a few flowers are still in bloom too, so in many ways it doesn't LOOK like fall. It was really neat, I walked to school the other day to go on the internet and saw a bunch of bright pink things (from a tree) on the ground around the trees, I looked up and saw parrots with red heads and gray bodies picking at these and dropping what they didn't eat on the ground. It was really neat to watch. I called the Werribee zoo again today to see if they would have any volunteer projects I could get involved in, and they said they were full up now, but were going to make more later in the year, so I was told to call back around August to see what's new. I hope something works out cause most of the reason I came down here was for the wildlife. :) Ok, I should stop talking now. :)

WINNER... not

So, while I was sitting in the library today I decided to check the messages on my phone in case my bosses left any messages for me. I know how to do that without the screen, so I checked, I had one message. Now, before I go on, a little follow up. While I was in Melbourne on Sunday I couldn't tell whether my phone was on or off cause it was too light to see if the lights on the keys were lit up, and too loud to hear the beeping of the keys, so I just wasn't sure. The message I had on my phone was from Sunday at about 3:45 (while I was still there), it was from a guy from the international student federation or something, and he said that he had tried calling me once before and couldn't get a hold of me. He said I was the regional winner and that if I didn't pick up his next call he would have to draw another name. Well, obviously I didn't pick up cause I'm sure my phone was off or I didn't hear it. So, the only thing I can think that it might have been was this thing I signed up for to win a portable DVD player. That really sucks!!! I never really win anything big, and the one time I do I don't get the message because my bloody phone is on the fritz!! That made me really sad today. Another bad thing that happened today was this: I had $5 left in my wallet (along with a bit of change), and that's all I really have until I get a pay check. I had to print out an assignment due tomorrow and printing is $0.09 per page, so I had a $0.18 document to print (the school printers are my only source of printing). Just then was when I ran out of money on my card, and the machines that take money to put onto one's card take no less than $5. So, just so I could hand in my assignment tomorrow I had to spend my last $5! Now I don't even have enough money to take a bus trip. I was hoping I would get paid today, but I didn't so I called my boss (I found out how to locate their number on my phone thankfully) and left a message asking when I worked next as well as when we got paid. I hope it's soon. Dad sent me a $50 international money order that I went to the bank with today, the good news is the can take it, the bad news is there's a $10 fee and I can't access that money for up to 6 weeks! So, that doesn't help much right now. I am really just hanging on until I get a pay check. Having no money is really stressful, but at the same time I have been without it so often that I'm getting used to it. It's not stressing me out as much right now (probably because I know I have money on the way), but it still isn't a good feeling. I just hope I can get paid the whole amount of what I've earned cause I have just only applied for a tax file number today and they say that without one my employers have to withhold like 46% or something! I just hope that I can get that back once I get my TFN! I don't know, we'll see. Also, I found that there's a Norwegian May 17th shindig (on May 17th of course) in Melbourne, I really want to go, but tickets are $65, so I don't know if that'll be possible. Even if I get paid by May 9th (the last day to buy tickets) I don't know if I should spent that much on something like that, but I would really love to go! My internet keeps going in and out, so it's not reliable, but I just use it at school when it's not working, the worst part is just not being able to use Skype when it goes out to talk to David, but we deal with it ok. :) I've joined a Christian group on campus, they are mostly from the US (CA) but it's good, they're all really nice. They are big on evangelism, which I'm not so much on (I feel like it's better to show than go up and pressure). I don't think they're really about pressuring though, just talking, and I know why, they are trying to get the group to be student run and you can't do that without people, but I am still a little uncomfortable about it and I know that's just a me thing. ;P Naw, it's good.

Treasure Hunt

So, Friday I went into Geelong and am glad I did cause I was scheduled to work at 3:00-9:30 PM. I also worked the next day 8:30-6:00 PM. Allie, one of my bosses, asked me if I could work on Sunday from 1-5 (and if not that was ok) and I said that I had some plans, but that I might be able to come in around 3, so he said that was fine.

My plans were this: I got up early and rode my bike into Geelong to catch the 8 AM train with Loretta, Irene (from Italy) and her boyfriend Sam (who just got in to Aussie that week). We went to this big treasure hunt that was being put on for the international students in Melbourne. We got there a bit early and so ate some muffins that I brought from work. Once we got in and got our stuff a Dutch girl came over to us and asked if she could join us since she was alone, we of course were happy to have her. Her name is Renske, and is really nice; she's over here for a semester doing some research for her masters. This really enthusiastic guy got on stage and asked where everyone was from by calling out countries. It looked as if I was the only American (surprising) and so he had me stand up, and the two Italians with us were the only ones so they too stood up; he didn't call Switzerland or the Netherlands) then he did a little raffle (most of the prizes were either Optus [large mobile phone company here] pre-paid minutes/phones and footy [Aussie rule football] tickets) for an Optus phone. Then he asked for some volunteers who could win prizes. I was surprised no one put their hand up right away, so I did. :) I got called up along with a guy, who turned out to be another American (from NJ) who was just overlooked in the country thing. ;P Anyway, we were sent backstage where I had to dress up as a crocodile and he as a kangaroo. It was so funny! We the went back on stage and were asked Aussie questions, both of us answered all right, so he left it to applause to see which one of us would be the big winner; it was me!!! So, he got some Optus stuff (phone card...) and I got two footy tickets to see Melbourne vs. Northern Melbourne! We stayed in our costumes till after and got pictures taken with the Lord Mayor, it was neat. The best part about the footy game is that it's July 27th, so David can come with me to it!!!

By the way, for those of you who don't know, David's coming to visit me July 18th-August 2nd (he has to be in Ecuador on the 3rd); I am so excited! I just hope we can pile most of the stuff we want to do into two weeks! He was coming until the 9th, but found out he had to be in Ecuador earlier than anticipated. Oh, this is a bit random, but I have to mention it cause I thought it was strange and hilarious! I was this kid in the mall I work in, he was probably 3 or 4 and his dad was with him. He was wearing a t-shirt that said "lock up your daughters." I nearly lost it! ;P

Back to today's venture, before the 4 of us left to the train station we saw a ferris wheel and had to take a ride, so we did. It made us late for the 5:00 train, so we had to wait until 6:00, but it was fun and worth it. When we got back into Geelong we walked back to Irene's house, Loretta got her bike (she had stayed the night there that night) and we biked back to Waurn Ponds together. I was glad to get home. It was actually quite cold out today, but luckily it was nice out. :) Our house is very cold right now and I can't figure out the heater. Oh well. :) Well, I will wrap it up for now.