It LOOKS cute...

This meme is courtesy of Kiel Adams. That’s actually a red panda, which is not native to Australia, but it gives a good idea of the “cuteness” vs. “dangerousness” balance of this continent.

Red Panda...not Australian.

Hello Friends!

Firstly, I just have to say: you’ve gotta love a country that’s newspapers quote people saying things like “I don't have a problem with people enjoying sci-fi, but church isn't the place to encourage escapism and fancy dress. We really ought to get our theology and world view from the Bible, not Frodo Baggins - as cool as he is." If you don’t believe me, I’ll send you the link. Also on this page were articles about time-travel themed shows being banned in China (apparently they are unrealistic and use far fetched ideas—so I guess that means that “Back to the Future” isn’t a documentary) and the new revelation that many dinosaurs were likely nocturnal, specifically raptors. Where else can you get such different pieces of information all in one place—and have them all be real, quotable sources?!

Welcome to Church...Australia Style

This week has been kind of slow. I think I’m just getting excited to leave on my trip south. Tuesday was all classes and so was Wednesday, but they included a midterm exam. Hope those went well. Oh! And I finally got an explanation of the grading system here. 85-100% is a High Distinction (like an A in the States), 75-84% is a Distinction (akin to a B), 65-74% is a Credit (a C), and 50-64% is a Pass (about a D). Anything below 49% is a Fail. There’s also something called “Conceded Fail,” where you get credit after the fact, but I don’t understand it at all, so I ignore it. I’m reasonably confident I won’t have to worry about that! So, with that in mind, I really hope I did well on my exams. J  Honestly, though, school days kind of blur together when I’m there all day for two days in a row, so sorry to tell you that I have next to nothing to tell you about those days.

Gold Coast Library

Oh! Except for that Tuesday was the Exchange Fair, so they asked any Griffith student who had studied abroad or who was on exchange to come rand represent their school. Plus, they offered free lunch. So, you mean to tell me that they’re going to give me free lunch and a drink PLUS a package of TimTams (delicious Aussie cookie or “biscuit” as they call them) to talk about why Rosen is a good school? Hot Dog! Sign me up! So I spent my break between classes that day telling Australians to come to Florida. It was lots of fun.

Thursday was my catch-up day. I cleaned my room, did homework, and Skyped with my Mom and Dad as well as Kyle. So much fun. Once Lachlan (Merle’s Grandson) came home, we essentially played a game of “What Is Different In US and Australian Schools.” After hearing about how strict their uniform standards are, Mountain View’s dress code is nothing! He also couldn’t believe that we had 50 states and that I could name them all, so he and Merle tried to name them all. They got pretty stuck on the Ms. I can’t blame them—we have more states that start with the letter M than Australia has states period. And they guessed a lot of major cities as states. Lachlan’s only response to me listing them all was: “I’m glad I don’t have to go to American school. I couldn’t list all of those!” Haha.

Speaking of Geography and the USA, I had someone ask me if I was surprised at how little many Australians knew about US geography. Honestly, I’m not at all. As far as Australia goes, my geographic knowledge was that Perth was on one side, Sydney was on the other, the reef was on the northeastern coast, Tasmania was directly below (and I thought Tasmania was a country until about 6 months before I arrived), and New Zealand was East, though it’s a lot farther than I realized it was. Most Australians know where Hawaii is and Alaska is (because they’re not part of the continent), and then where Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, DC, and Miami are, and that’s about it unless they’ve been there. I’ve just ended up telling people that I live in Colorado, which is the middle mountainous region. A few have asked, “In Denver?” and I just say that it’s pretty close. Australian distance perception is a lot like Colorado distance perception: if it’s under 4 hours by car, it’s fairly close.

Friday was ROCK CLIMBING AGAIN!!! Woot! And we weren’t rained out! Kangaroo Point is so much fun. There are heaps of climbing routes and there is a river right to the side and live music in the park across the river. It’s glorious. I was only able to climb once this week, but that was OK because we ended up having to leave early. There were also not enough belay-ers there, so it was difficult to get everyone to go a fair number of times. Next time we go, I’m going to try and get my belay card, I think, so that I can belay people on my own.

I was back at the Turf Club on Saturday for training and work in the Skyline Restaurant. Training was mostly in the bar area and then serving I was on drinks again. Highlight of the day: I didn’t spill anything the entire day! And one of the more experienced waiters did, so I felt better because it does happen to everyone. (People tell you that, but it’s kind of nice to see it affirmed in person.) Due to low numbers, I ended up getting off early, which I was ok with because it meant that I could take the bus home rather than a cab. Most days, I will take the bus down to the races and then Merle will pick me up because the bus doesn’t run after 5:00PM. However, Merle was out of town this weekend, so if I was on until closing, I would have had to find a ride or take a cab or something. So that evening was spent with me and Chloe hanging out and watching CSI, CSI: Miami, and CSI: New York all in a row.

Gold Coast Turf Club. I work in the Glass Box right to the right of the blue seats. No, I didn't take this photo.

The next morning Bertina (Merle’s friend) picked me up for church and brought me home again. I also got to to Skype with my almost-sister, Lindsey Pru, and that made me really happy. After we finished talking, I wasn’t really planning on doing anything more (a nap was looking likely) but then I got a call from my Canadian friend Michelle who it turns out, lives 13 minutes away by bike. She wanted to see what I was up to and invited me over to make dinner and watch a movie. Well, that certainly sounded like a much better plan than sitting with Chloe, so I hopped on my bike and made my way over. We made a really good vegetarian stir-fry and watched “He’s Just Not That Into You.” It was fun to watch it with Michelle and her roommate, an Aussie, because we kept discussing small differences of phrasing between our three countries that all have English as their main language. It was interesting to see what each of us picked up on from each other’s country-variant of English. We also talked about what the overall view of each other’s country was from our home country. My best description of how the US views Australia came out as: “If the world is a classroom and the US likes to think that they’re the popular kid, Australia is the smart, nice, outdoorsy kid that everyone likes but doesn’t talk about because they don’t do anything wrong or scandalous.”

Today, Monday, has been very ho-hum. I slept in, which was lovely, and woke to find a completely gray sky and lots of rain. Boo. But, some small voice inside of me kept saying, “Leah, today would be a great day to start running again. You’ve been slacking, my friend!” I grumbled, but am fully aware that I have not been running in far too long and that if I didn’t start soon I would be in really rough shape when I return to camp this summer. So, I finally gave in and got dressed and went out for a 30-min run in the rain. It was really nice—kind of cold, but I still enjoyed it. I wore my old running shoes and good thing, too. They are SOAKED. Lots of puddles to jump in along the way. J I think running in the rain may be one of my new favorites.

The rain in front of Merle's house.

Well, I think that’s about all for this time. Not that thrilling, I know, but hopefully, the next two will be much more interesting. Keep being wonderful and I’d love to hear from you!

Love Leah.