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SYDNEY!

This past weekend I did something that I had yet to do while in Australia - I went somewhere and did something! I WENT TO SYDNEY! The reason I went to Sydney was because there was a group who was offering a bus ride up to Sydney for the weekend in order to experience Sydney and to experience Sydney's Mardi Gras parade. I decided to go because I didn't know when I was going to be able to go to Sydney again and on that cheap of a ticket. (I am going again, by the way, but later on when the family comes to visit.) 

There was about 15 people who went on this trip from my school, so it was nice getting to know some more of them. There was also about 30 other people who were not from my school, and it was nice to get to know them as well. We left Southern Cross Train Station at 8.00pm and ventured out along the Australian adventure soon after. This journey lasted throughout the night, stopping only three times - dinner at Maccas (McDonald's), a gas station, and some random spot - all along the road to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney around 8.00am and were not able to check into our hostel yet, so we had to store all of our precious belongings in a warehouse below the hostel. After storing our bags, we changed clothes, ate breakfast at the nightclub/bar that was attached to the hostel and soon ventured out onto our walking tour of Sydney. By this time, our group had doubled because the second half of the people who had traveled from the North had finally arrived. As we started the walking tour, it started to rain and unfortunately most of the outdoor pictures that were taken consisted of umbrellas. The other unfortunate thing was our tour guides weren't normal tour guides and they didn't tell us much about what we were seeing. So, even if you asked me what it was - I wouldn't be able to tell you. I do know that we walked through the botanical gardens of Sydney and ended up at the backside of the famous Sydney Opera House. Everyone's comments about the opera house were "it's so small" and "that's not what I imagined it looked like", but when we walked around to the front of the opera house we finally saw the full picture. Here's a picture of me with the Sydney Opera House! Look at those beautiful white legs of mine - trying to get some color while standing in the rain. 

After we saw the Sydney Opera House, we were dismissed for lunch. The people I was with in the group ended up finding food in a food court, I had a chicken caesar salad and it was quite delicious. After lunch we worked on our glutes and made our way up to the first pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Originally I thought that meant we were going to climb the bridge, but sadly I was mistaken. We only climbed up the leg of the bridge, but it was still really cool to see a 360 degree view from there. Hopefully I can climb the bridge when I come back later this year. After we trekked up the numerous flights of stairs and found our way down to the ground we were able to tour Sydney by ourselves for a few hours before our cruise in the Sydney Harbour. On the walk back, the group I was with found a unique tourist shop as well as a costume shop which we went in because we needed things to wear for MARDI GRAS! I ended up purchasing a fake Hawaiian lei, a pair of white sunnies (sunglasses) with lines across them, and a blow horn. The blow horn was purchased by all four of us in the group, because we realized how genius it would be to have for future sporting events - not just for Mardi Gras. 

Soon we made our way back to the hostel in order to get dressed up in our finest attire and make our way down to the Sydney Harbour where our harbour cruise was waiting for us. And yes, I know you all are dying to know - it was a free booze cruise. Our main entree for the evening was Pizza Hut pizza which went along with the free beer, wine, and soft drinks quite nicely. The cruise was a nice 2.5 hour adventure passing by the Sydney Opera House and under the Sydney Harbour Bridge several times. While on the cruise I was able to mingle with some of the participants of this adventure. They all had interesting stories and lives and I could tell you all about them and their stories, but let's be honest - you don't really care. You just want to know what I did this weekend. Following the booze cruise, some of the group went on into the night partying away, and as you all know how much of a party animal I am - I went to my room to attempt to charge my phone. My current converter appears to not be working down here, and unfortunately I did not discover that until I went on this trip. So I was without a lot of "Apple juice" on my phone for a while. 

On Saturday, we woke up at 8.00am for breakfast and a day trip to Australia's Grand Canyon. I originally didn't want to go because I knew I wouldn't be able to see anything since once again - it was raining in Sydney. But alas, I did go. The hour and half bus ride there was interesting, a lot of people slept and some watched a movie. When we got to the "Grand Canyon", everyone told me I was right - you couldn't see anything. There was so much fog covering the canyon that we couldn't even see how far down it actually went, let alone see the world famous Blue Mountains which is what we were supposed to be looking at. After that, we took a short drive to another area and then walked to one of the world famous Three Sisters. I'm not quite sure what they're supposed to be, because we only saw the first sister, but it seemed like it was supposed to be three rocks all in a row. Or something like that. On our way to the Three Sisters, our tour guide told the group that we would be able to touch one of the three sisters and of course as immature children we all giggled. When our tour guide said this I was in the front of the pack and he walked behind to make sure that the rest of the group was following. So, basically it was myself and another girl who were leading the group down an unknown path that is until we had to go down a bunch of stairs and then I went first. Because it had been raining all morning, and the stairs that we were stepping on were man made out of the ground, Jaclyn led the pack slow and steady. Yes, I did have images of me falling like at Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, thankfully that didn't happen. The first and only sister that we were able to see was actually pretty cool, it appeared to be a ledge and a lot of the group squished together in order to get a "super rad photo" (think of that in an Australian accent).

After seeing the Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains, we went into a town for lunch. They gave us an hour and half to poke around in the little town because apparently the cafes in the town are slow. The only reason we know that is because the tour guides grew up in the area and love seeing the family homes. After lunch, we returned back to Sydney in order to get ready for MARDI GRAS! We all got dressed in our most outrageous costumes and got ready to start off the night. When we were walking over to Oxford Street (where the parade and the club that we were partying in were located), we got a lot of honks from passing cars. All of whom were in celebration of mardi gras themselves. Every once in a while, my friends and I would blow our blow horns in sync and the entire group of 60+ would cheer. It made us feel awesome. We got to the club at 8.00pm which is when the parade was starting. We were supposed to be able to see the parade from the club, but unfortunately were unable to do so. Even if you went outside to watch the parade, you typically weren't able to see a whole lot because everyone else had stools upon stools in order for them to see over others. Talking about feeling shorter than normal... I was a little disappointed I wasn't able to see the parade, but that's what happened, maybe I'll attend another Mardi Gras in New Orleans and see it there. The club was fun, I enjoyed myself and met more new people. A few of my friends decided that they were going to leave at Midnight, because they had exhausted their club hours earlier on in the night. Most people go to clubs around 10.00-11.00pm and leave around 1.00-2.00am, but since we started at 8.00pm, some of them and their feet got exhausted earlier. 

Originally we were going to take a maxi cab back to the hostel, because there was a lot of us. But a few of us got separated from the group because we had seen GAYTM, which were ATMs bedazzled for the gay and lesbian mardi gras. (Which I don't think I mentioned earlier, we attended the gay and lesbian Sydney mardis gras.) 

Aren't they cool! Since we had stopped for the photo opportunity, we ended up missing the cab ride home and walking the 15 minute walk back to the hostel, which wasn't a bad walk.

On Sunday, we woke up for check out of the hostel and our attempt of a beach day. And by attempt, I do actually mean attempt. We got our swimsuits on before we left hoping for a few hours of sunshine before we headed back home to Melbourne that night. Our walk down to the Sydney Harbour was fine, nothing fantastic but it was fine. While we were on the ferry crossing the harbour, it started to rain. "Oh great!" we all said as we attempted to find our rain jackets or towels to keep ourselves dry. When we arrived at Manly Beach, the rain was still going and our tour guides weren't going to cancel our day at the beach just because of some rain - so they suggested we tour the local tourist shops and enjoy ourselves, because we had three hours there. And that's just what we did. We went in and out of numerous little shops and then we eventually found lunch at a Thai restaurant. I had fried rice and it was delicious. When we made our way back to Manly Wharf, I decided that I wanted some gelato and I got some! It wasn't as amazing as my Italian place,Grom, but not gonna lie - it was a contender. Soon we took the ferry back to the Sydney Harbour and took a short bus trip to another beach for our "walkabout" to a different beach. This "walkabout" was a long and extraneous tekk up some pretty steep hills, steep steps and wet rocks hanging over cliffs. Don't worry, everything was fine and ended up just fine. I just didn't enjoy walking on the wet rocks because I didn't know how my feet would do on them. Surprisingly they did well. After a good 30 minute walkabout, we ended up at Bondi Beach and hung out for an hour and half. In that time, we ate, we drank, we changed out of our beach clothes and got ready to say goodbye to the friends we had made on our adventure.

By 6.00pm we were on the road, at 6.30pm we dropped our tour guides off on the side of the road as they were headed to Thailand for a 2 week vacation. Soon we were back on the road again to Melbourne. Our first and only stop for the night was at a gas station that had McDonald's next door. Some people went to McDonald's and some went to the gas station. After that stop, we drove all night long finally arriving in Melbourne at the train station we started from at 5.00am. Once again there was going to be a group who were going to take a maxi cab back to The Village because they thought that the trains and trams weren't running yet, but I set them straight. Haha, not at all. I just said that the trams are running, so why not take the tram that we've all already paid for. Everyone else agreed and I was in my bed 45 minutes later. Since I didn't have class Monday morning, I slept in until 11.00 and tried to get up to do things, but I just couldn't. So I stayed in bed for most of the day and then did some homework. 

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend in Sydney - it was one I know I'll never forget - I just wish the weather could have cooperated better that way it would have been more enjoyable. As much fun as playing in the rain is... and as much fun as dying from too much heat... I would have rathered a nice cool, crisp fall day. Which is what we are supposed to be having down here. Maybe that's just my Northern Hemisphere mind talking aloud... but who knows.

Until next time Sydney!

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Some of the many pictures I took from White Night

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The Highlights of Melbourne.

The first two weeks of my Australian adventure have been an adventure within themselves. Since I last posted I have attended international orientation, enrollment, parts of O Week (Orientation Week) and White Night. The international orientation was interesting and allowed for all of us international students to see how many of us there actually were. There is probably about 150-200 international students at Victoria University. Not many of us got to meet each other, but we did talk to some. On my first Friday here, I participated in the start of O Week which is a get to know each other week long thing in the Village. We had Pizza Hut pizza brought to us and were able to meet some of the other people who are living in the same complex/college as we are. After we had some pizza, orientation games were about to start but I suddenly felt sick and was unable to participate in any of the activities. I currently have a cold, and my “bark” of a cough is back - so I’ve excluded myself from many gatherings in order to hopefully get better and to not disturb people. Unfortunately I missed the prime time to meet new people, so I’m trying to play catch up now. The week consisted of sleep, movies, cough drops, tissues, and a book - The Fault is in Our Starts. It also consisted of a few spiders, a leaking ceiling and a bad door. The door to my bedroom wasn't fitted to the door frame well and the top of it rubbed against the ceiling, that eventually got fixed by having someone take my door off and trim the top of the door. I had a No Door Policy going for a few minutes. Hehe. It rained for most of the afternoon and evening on Wednesday, and as I was going to bed Wednesday night I noticed that the whole in my ceiling next to my light was dripping water. That still hasn't been fixed, but as long as it isn't raining I'm not too worried. Now, the best part - the spiders. Earlier on during the week there was a huge spider on the ceiling of my loft's common space. It was big, but as long as it was on the ceiling we did nothing with him. Every day he moved to a new spot on the ceiling and I always enjoyed trying to find him. One day I watched him move infront of my door - not gonna lie, kind of freaked me out watching him. But that's nothing compared to what happened that next morning. I had just woken up for the morning and since I was in the more intense part of my sickness I decided to have some bread with peanut butter on it in my room. So I made myself two slices of bread covered in peanut butter. I put the second one on a plat while I ate the first one. When I picked up the second one I took a bite and then I saw a hair on the other side of the bread. I was about to pick the hair off when I saw it move. So, obviously I threw my bread across the room and watched a spider crawl off of it and under my desk. I do not know if he is still in my room or not, but after that I stopped eating for a couple of meals and had some strange nightmares. The nightmares have now stopped and I am still eating, I just haven't touched the peanut butter or bread in awhile...

On Saturday I was feeling much better, still coughing every few minutes but I got out of the room - second time in a week (first time was a desperate need for cough drops and tissues). I made myself go to High Point because I had received an “Emergency Expense Card” from Qantas which was going to expire on February 28. I decided the best use of the money from Qantas was in pursuit of a new bag that I would be able to use for weekend trips around Australia and to have future use back home in the States. I found one and the best part was that it only cost $19 of my own personal money, which in my opinion was a great deal. After I got my bag, I returned to the Village in pursuit of a nap for the evenings activities. That didn’t happen, but the evenings activities sure did. I went to White Night Melbourne which is a 12 hour FREE event showing off the greatness that is Melbourne. White Night started at 7PM and lasted all night until 7AM. Some have seen my social network sites where I posted something every hour. All of the pictures I took will be available as of this post.

I honestly didn’t expect to make it until 7AM, but I’m really glad that I did. When I returned to the Village I felt like I had accomplished something that was truly an unusual college experience, but a college experience none the less. I got back to the Village at 8AM and immediately crashed on my bed. I didn’t even hear my noon alarm! Slept right on through to 1PM. But it was good to have a good night’s sleep even if it was during the morning. After waking up, I talked to several of my friends who had gone to White Night and I found out that I had lasted longer than any of them, which was weird to both them and to me. Everyone did tell me that they enjoyed seeing my pictures every hour though. :) After some sleep my neighbor and I went to High Point to get some food for a viewing party we were having later in the night - I got TimTams and Kettle chips, both of which are delicious. Last night’s viewing party was the series premier of Melbourne’s own “The Real Housewives of Melbourne”. As most of us who were watching were American, we were excited to watch something in our new hometown even though we know we would never be able to afford any of the places they go. At least we can window shop someday. The show was interesting to say the least, but we have already precooked the common room for next week in order to watch it then. After a long evening of nothing, TimTams, and Housewives everyone had to go to bed because there was school the next day. Luckily I planned my schedule so that I don’t have classes on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays - the perfect college schedule, I know. My class schedule is: 

I planned it this way so that I can get the most out of my weekends, hopefully exploring this great and amazing new country and for allowing myself to do my online classes. Which are going great by the way. I think the biggest difference between Victoria University and UND is the fact that here we have one two hour lecture followed by a one hour review of what we learned the week before. This will be unusual for me because I’m used to having shorter class sessions but more days of the week. But I think I will like having this layout, and if not - oh well I will have to live with it for the semester.

And for those who don't remember, or are trying to contact me - I am 17 hours ahead of North Dakota, 18 hours ahead of Arizona, 19 hours ahead of the West Coast and 20 hours ahead of Anchorage. From Alaska it is easier to subtract 4 hours from the current day and then add a day, rather than adding 20 hours. Or you can just remember that I'm a day ahead and leave it at that.

In my last post I said I would find out my mailing address incase anyone wanted it. My postal address is:

Jaclyn Ellis Victoria University Student Village PO Box 14428 MELBOURNE, VIC 8001

and my residential address is: Jaclyn Ellis Gate 3 Williamson Road Maribyrnong, 3032

If sending letters/postcards, please send it to the PO Box. If sending packages, please send it to the residential address. Please let me know that I should be expecting something. We have cubbies sorted out by last name in the registration office and they're open during weekdays so it's hard to get mail sometimes. The office is also not near my room, so I do not pass by their enough times to allow myself to check the mail.

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What's Happening So Far...

Hi guys, 

First off, I AM EATING. DO NOT WORRY. JACLYN HAS FED HERSELF A PEANUT BUTTER AND BANANA SANDWICH TODAY FOR LUNCH. It was good. It is currently day four of my Australian adventure and although it's had a rough start, I'm throughly enjoying myself. Because my bags didn't make it from LAX to Melbourne, I had to go to the mall shortly after I arrived at "The Village" (the place that I will be living in for the next 5 months). The mall is about a 10 minute walk away, so not too far but pretty far, especially when carrying things back from the mall to The Village. The mall, Highpoint, is huge. The three stories cover what feels like almost a mile long of shopping experience. Talk about retail therapy. *I should mention that I have received my lost bags, so now I am fully functioning down here in Aus* Highpoint has numerous stores, including a grocery store. Its nice to have a grocery store so close by but its a pain carrying all of the groceries back. Some would be surprised about how many times I have gone to the mall in the past three days because it is just unlike me to go so often. Since arriving on Monday, I have been to the mall four times. Yesterday I went twice because I picked up groceries earlier in the day and then after international student orientation a group of international students went to Highpoint to get passport photos taken so that we could receive a metro pass.

Speaking of the metro, I am starting to get used to riding either the bus or the tram every where I go if I want to go somewhere. Last night almost all of the students who are staying at The Village took a 40+ minutes tram ride down to Victoria Market where we were able to bond over drinks, food, music, entertainment, and local wears as well as mingle with Australians. The Vic Market is every Wednesday until the end of March, so we'll be going again. Lately I have been hanging out with my flatmates and neighbors, and they all seem very nice.

So far The Village is okay, it would be a lot better if I had better Internet, but I'm in a foreign country - I should be exploring not complaining about the Internet. My school, Victoria University has many different campuses throughout Melbourne and so far I have only been to one campus, which is where I will be attending my classes this semester. This campus was the location of the international students first orientation meeting as well as our enrollment meeting. Orientation seemed to fly by pretty fast and the enrollment meeting, although the letter E had to go in the first group, was successful in getting ourselves enrolled in VU and starting to pick out our classes.

Well, that's it for now. Once I have a mailing address, I will post that incase anyone would like to mail me something. ;)

[jaclyntraveladventures-blog]

At least I stole a blanket…

A travel adventure never starts out the way you would like. Nothing goes the way you want. Something always changes, something WILL go wrong. As of this moment, on the final flight to Melbourne, I have been traveling for 30+ hours, overlapping a couple of days and two important, invisible lines. My journey started in Anchorage on Saturday morning enjoying my last moments with family. The first flight started the trip off perfectly and gave me great expectations for my three other flights. I had a four hour layover in Seattle, which was unfortunate but it gave me time to complete my homework assignment which was due Sunday night. Thank to my homework and Netflix, the four hour layover flew by quickly and soon I was boarding my plane to Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles airport is an adventure within itself. I have flown through LAX a few times, but mostly on the same carrier, so transferring between terminals on my own was an adventure and a half. I arrived in the Alaska Airlines terminal 6, and had to get to Qantas’ terminal 4, so I took the shuttle. The bus driver told me that I was supposed to get off at the international terminal, assuming the driver knew best and I got off. I tried to get through security and they told me that I was at the wrong terminal. My first thought was “Are you kidding me?!” and my second thought was “My plane is about to board. Now I have to run. Great…” Great it was as I scurried over to the next terminal in order to catch my flight. Going through the correct security, I wondered if I was going to make my flight on time, but thankfully my gate was the first gate out of security. I had only a few moments to catch my breath before I filled my water bottle, called my mom and dad and boarded my plane.

When I got on the plane, I took my seat at the window before my neighbor arrived. My neighbor and I talked for quite a bit in the beginning of the flight, he works in Brisbane but is from Denver and came back to the States to watch the Super Bowl in New York/New Jersey. The guy was interesting to talk to, and provided me with some good information about other destinations in Australia and tips on surviving long flights. After the plane took off, I watched “Cast Away” which is not a movie one should watch when traveling over the same flight path as Tom Hanks in the film. Thankfully we didn’t have to reenact Tom Hanks’ journey for survival. Throughout the 14 hours, I slept on and off while watching a few films in-between. I thoroughly enjoyed the pillows and blankets Qantas provided for us. I enjoyed them so much that I wanted to take the pillow to Melbourne with me. Since there was none sitting in the middle seat, I took that blanket instead. And I’m glad that I did. Perhaps I jinxed myself, but I would rather think I jinxed myself than be miserable without a blanket.

After standing in line for Customs, a customs agent saw my passport and said that I was able to use the fast pass customs which allowed me to go through much faster. I probably shaved 10 minutes from standing in line by doing the fast pass. Every time you go to a foreign country, you have to reclaim your bags after customs and then proceed to your destination. Unfortunately, my luck ran out by that time. After standing around looking for my bags on the carousel and seeing that mine had not come out even though the carousel had stopped, I start to panic. By this time I had only 30 minutes until my plane to Melbourne boarded. Apparently my bags from Alaska Airlines never made it onto my Qantas flight, so yes they’re still in America.

After talking to the baggage services agent, I was informed of how often this happens with Alaska Airlines and Qantas and was told to make my lost baggage claim. Unfortunately I don’t have a working cell phone down here so I was unable to finish the claim properly. The agent told me to go to the baggage services when I arrived in Melbourne and fill out the rest there. This agent also told me that I would have reschedule my flight because it was boarding in 10 minutes and I wouldn’t be able to make it to the domestic terminal in time. She then directed me to the domestic terminal and when I got there I found a lobby coordinator and explained my situation to her. I asked if I could make the flight or if I needed to reschedule, she said since my gate was right at the top of the escalator outside of security that I would have plenty of time. So far my experience with Australian security has been very nice. When I got to the gate, they were doing final boarding, so I had made it just in time. The pilot of the aircraft was standing in the galley and was looking at everyone’s boarding pass so that he could inform them of there they were sitting. He looked at my Alaska Airlines boarding pass amazed and said he had never seen one before. The pilot was even more surprised that it came all the way from Alaska too. So, that’s it for now… I’m currently on the flight to Melbourne, watching Last Vegas, and trying to figure out what I’m going to do without clothes or anything else that I packed into my two bags. Well, at least I stole a blanket…