Leah's Adventures in Australia: "God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia."-Russell Crowe

(Author's Note: I have been listening to the Hoedown Throwdown while writing this...sorry!)

I have a new favorite Aussie-ism: Macca’s for McDonalds. It makes something I really don’t like sound so much better. I’m still not planning on eating there, but it does sound better somehow. Does that make sense? I hope so.

Hi guys!

It has finally cooled down here. It is now a much more manageable 78 than the awful 105. Yes! This Colorado girl is happy. It’s also raining pretty much every night, which is nice. It cools everything down. And no, all of you Facebooking me and telling me that it’s beautiful where you are is not helping! Haha. Oh well, if it sticks to the 70s, I won’t complain.

So, I have officially started my classes here and love them. I only have class two days a week, so Tuesday and Thursday are busy busy busy, but it gives me time to explore and adventure with 5 day weekends. My classes this semester include “Sport Event Operations,” “Destination Marketing,” “Sustainable Tourism,” and “Tourism, Culture, and Society.” They are all super interesting and very different than what I have come to expect from Rosen. I suppose part of it is talking about this part of the world rather than around the USA. As opposed to talking about how Harry Potter and Mickey Mouse are about to go to war (Which is a horrible comparison, but also kind of entertaining…I’m thinking Harry vs. Mickey from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice—Harry trying to fly on a broom and Mickey making it come to life and carry buckets of water…so much potential!), we’re talking about Movie World and Dream World and how they market against each other and with each other at the same time. Rather than the NFL and team rivalries, I’m currently discussing how the Sunshine Coast is trying to draw people away from the Gold Coast and how it has caused rivalry between the soccer (excuse me, football) teams. And instead of talking about taking off on a cruise to the Caribbean, we talk about heading off to the South Pacific. Or we watch Bid Videos for the Olympics and FIFA World Cup. Just so you all know, Qatar’s video is wonderful—it gave me goose bumps. If Australia seriously thinks they should have had it after that video, they need to get a cat scan. (Australia’s video wasn’t that special...honestly, it was edging on hokey.) It’s not good or bad—it’s just different. And that’s probably a good thing. In all honesty, it has really opened my eyes to what areas I’m missing knowledge in before I actually try and find a career in one of them. I mean, seriously, I would never have thought of Vietnam as a vacation destination, but it’s HUGE here in Oz. Well, really, travel in Australia is huge. There are travel agencies everywhere—literally, everywhere.

Australia is also full of my secret vice: book sales. As I’ve said before, I should never be allowed into a bookstore clearance sale without proper supervision. So far, I have purchased 6 books. I’m forcing myself to finish those before I buy any more. But I have kind of rediscovered books and love it. I’ve also purchased new music and have explored my iPod on random long bus trips/waits (it took me almost an hour and a half to get home tonight) and have found some great new music as well as rediscovered some old favorites. This is not always good, though, because you can end up with “When You Wish Upon A Star” followed by 3OH!3’s “Don’t Trust Me”. Or Josh Groban followed by Ke$ha and occasionally some “Go, Go, Power Rangers” (courtesy of a joke from Kiel Adams). Throw in some of Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried” and you have my iPod mix for the last week. Yup. And if you’re curious, the acoustic iTunes version of “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz is really good. It was an impulse buy and now I have rocked out to it for the last few days.

Oh yeah! So while exploring some of the shops around the area the other day, I wandered in on what I guess is kind of the equivalent of an Alco or something like that—you know, kind of like a dollar store, but everything’s not a dollar and it’s a little bit better, but not much? Yeah, like that—and was looking around the kid toys and, next to the pirate and princess dress-up sets, there was a “Male Stripper Set.” Umm…what? I was really surprised and began laughing out loud in the store. And of course, I had to document it because without a photo to prove it, it didn’t happen. If you look closely, it does say “Not for use in play by children under 14.” Glad we’re watching out for those 7-year-old’s who would rather be a strippers than pirates. Try to explain that costume to you kiddos, moms of the world! But still…I just don’t even know how to feel about it. That’s really something to be proud of, Australia! Haha.

Unfortunately, I have found something that I dislike about Australia. They have an equivalent to our Wal-Mart. Dang. It seemed like such a great place, but then…Sam’s Warehouse. A place that devours dreams and happiness like Roxy devours her dinner. So I’m not too thrilled about that. And then there’s the Internet. This country does not do free/unlimited Internet with near the kind of love the USA does. This is something that is very difficult to deal with when trying to use Skype to call home. Dang. Ugh. Ok, I’m done ranting. But I will figure it out. Because I just have too much awesome to be taken out by something as silly as the Internet. True story.

Australia is an interesting place to be, in all honesty. Even if I'm not out doing something particularly interesting, it's interesting how removed from the rest of the world it seems to be. The news talks about the problems the rest of the world has, but in kind of a distant manner, like, "Well, that's unfortunate for them, but no worries, mate, it's all good down under!" It's pretty interesting. I mean, I guess we don't hear that much about Australia back home either, but it's more obvious to me here.

Well, this week has been surprisingly boring. Sorry about that. However, Chloe the Cat and I have become friends. That is an achievement for me to check off of my “To Do” list! Anyway, the main thing I wanted to post was my photos from the last few weeks. Hopefully you guys like them and they show what I’ve been trying to tell ya’ll about in these posts.

This coming week will be a lot of getting into the swing of things with school and everything education related as well as meeting up with some new friends. There’s also the potential of job-hunting, but it’s kind of frustrating to try and find a job when I know I’m leaving in a few months. Any advice? I’d welcome it. But I’m sure it will all be good.

And then, on March 21^st, (less than 2 weeks!!!) my parents arrive! I’m so stoked for them to come and for all we’re going to do while they’re here. We’re doing pretty much all of the major Australia hot spots in less than 12 days. It’s going to be legen—wait for it—dary.

Anyway, I hope you all are having a great day/week/semester/life! I miss you all and think about you regularly. Please continue to keep in touch—it makes me very happy.

Enjoy the photos! I'm sorry some of them are sideways, I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I'll try again later. It's late and I don't have the patience to deal with it right now!
Love you all!

<3, Leah

PS—There’s a store here called “Colorado.” I went in to feel at home. Haha. So of course, I took a photo. How could I not?!