Photography awareness

So Tuesdays this semester are going to be really straining because i have 3hrs of sociology with a prof. who looks like an older/goofier version of malfoy's father in harrypotter wearing islander clothes. he is going to be a really tough prof and is already requiring us to read 200pgs in the first week ( of textbook and journal acticles). but it is ok, because at the local grocery mart, they have TIM TAM Tuesdays, and sell timtams for halfprice which will make tuesdays wonderful. immediately after sociology, i have photography for 3hrs but i think that will be fun because i will get to play around with the camera for 2 of those hrs. I already learned about aperature and shutter speed and am now aware of what those funny numbers mean on my real camera.

Today, (thurs.) i would normally have class but it was not meeting the first week which gave me a free day to get some errands accomplished. A store in the mall is going out of business so the whole store called Crazy Clarks, was 50% off. I stocked up on the essentials for much less than what they would normally cost, so that was a very successful shopping trip. today we are suppose to have a "social sports" sign up session which was originally set for last week but got moved for some reason. so i am hoping that it actually happens today, because i really want to play some soccer. Saturday i am going on a day trip to several different places in northern queensland so i will have pictures posted from that in the near future.

Not much else to report... Until next time, Cheers!

The Heritage and Fairy Floss

So Saturday night marked the first time that i set foot inside a club, one called the Heritage which was actually kinda nice. they had separate areas from the dance floor and bar that were open air and there was absolutely no smoking, so i appreciated that very much. All i have to say is that it was an interesting experience and that its really not my scene since i don't care to intoxicate myself or meet others who are already intoxicated and wouldnt even remember my name. However, it was quite entertaining from a psychological point of view to watch everyone, which is something i like to do anyway. I deff. will not be making it a habit but i would probably go again just to hang out with my friends and help them if they need it.

This weekend, it was quite gloomy and extremely rainy, which i was told is the sign that we are now in the transition process for the rainy season..oh joy, but today was wonderful again and i appreciated it so much for the first day of classes.

Sunday, i went to night church and it was cafe night, so they served us dominos pizza which tasted so fantastic since it had been a while since having any type of pizza. The service was wonderful to, the message was from I Sam. 7 and the youth director preached. But before church a few of my friends and i were dropped off at the place called DFO which is a big discount factory outlet mall. It was so cool, but we didn't have time to get around to everything since everything closes at 5pm...and not just on sundays ( that has been hard to get used to.) But we came across this store called "American Cargo" and to my surprise, all the clothing in the store was all American Eagle clothes at extremely reduced prices....i just think its soo funny...on the clothes tag where it says "American Eagle" it has been crossed out with sharpee. Anyway, i bought a nice"Jumper"--aussie slang for sweater :) for like 10$ instead of 35$

After the church service they served icecream cones and other wonderful homemade treats that were sooo good. We discovered that they make a "TimTam" icecream cone (Tim Tams are the best Australian Cookie EVER) so i am on a mission to find one.

Afterwards, we all went to one of the guys house to watch "Get Smart". For their type of hangouts, they drink red bull instead of alcohol and eat candy and all sorts of junk food...it was quite refreshing to hangout with such a group of young adults. They thought it was funny that we call cotton candy,"cotton candy" whereas they call it "Fairy Floss" so that's a new one to add to the list of different vocabulary :)

Today was the first day of class, and it went very well. my physics prof. is really nice and kinda in his later years but he deff. is very knowledgeable about the subject and is going to relate alot of stuff to sports which should be interesting. my ecology prof. came in wearing no shoes and very casual clothes. He's a younger guy who seems really laid back but strict at the same time. He said we are going to be doing alot of field work for our labs, so it should be interesting to get to know the surrounding area in a different way. The class rooms are different because the chairs with desks attached to them are not in any organized manner or rows...they are just kinda scattered in a room and that just adds to the class's laid back ambiance.

I'm looking forward to see what my other classes are like, tomorrow i have photography which i am really excited for, and sociology.

Until Later Mate ~ Cheers!

Yorkey's knob and drizzle

Yesterday, Friday, i biked with a friend to Yorkey's Knob which is a cute little residential beach that was not crowded at all. so far this is my favorite beach eventhough it takes about 30min by bike to get there...get your exercise in before and after fun times on the beach. It was a great day because we got our lunches packaged for us which made me feel like someone had made my lunch for school because it included a sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a juice box. nothing like holding on to your youth. After that excursion i was so exhausted from all the sun and biking that i took a really long nap and got up just in time for dinner. then after dinner we watched some local tv which is always interesting and later a "new" episode of so you think you can dance-U.S. came on and it turned out to be about 6 weeks behind the real show. i thought it was really funny because they cut out the part about the numbers for the contestants and they give the results at the end of the show.

Today, saturday, was the first rainy day that i have experienced since being in australia. and unfortunately it was kinda depressing..it would rain/ drizzle for a little then stop, then pour down rain for a few minutes and then stopped and it did this pretty much all day. so in the morning i tried to watch a little "kids tv" and then went to the gym for an intense work out to raise the endorphin levels. then a friend biked down from trinity beach and we tried despartely to watch a movie but my computer wouldn't accept the dvds and only played the audio, oh side note, australian dvds are different than american ones and will not play on american computers...i found this out the hard way. anyways, after many attempts of trying to be technologically savy, we gave up and decided to bike back to her apartment where we played rummie for awhile until i biked back. its been along time since i have been biking so im still getting my muscles used to it...i think it will take some time though before i don't feel the burn on the simpliest of rides.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow because we have nite church in the city and it is supposed to be cafe night. Moday i start classes so i suppose that my summer is officially over but i have no classes on fridays so im hoping to have a few trips planned for the future.

thats all for now, i think there is a big Aussie Rules Football game on tonight, so im going to try and watch it and see if i can make sense of it.

~Cheers!

10 things i like...

I like many things, but as requested i shall name 10 in no particular order.
1. Australian Accents!
2. Cairns Tropical Weather for the winter
3. fresh fruit
4. working out
5. the beach...any and every beach.
6.independence
7.talking to my mom
8.TIM TAMS! the best australian cookie ever!
9.photography
10. laughing

Hope this confirms your request...

"please use underpass..."

This is the sign that directs me to go under a potentially sketchy underpass to school in which i have already had to walk through at night twice but it is pretty well lit and there is supposed to be 24hr survelience whether that is true or not.

Today i received subject approval for a photography class and i am extremely excited to take this class. It turns out that the schedule in which i have finally settled on will actually be more beneficial to me back at winthrop than what i had originally intended to take. the final listing of classes that i will be enrolled in is : Ecology, Physics, Photography and Sociology of health and medicine. the first three i actually get credit toward graduating and the last one will prob just end up as an "extra" class that doesn't really count for anything but i think it will still be interesting. Oh and the best part of all is that i do not have any classes on fridays! i have yet has such a schedule that includes no classes on fridays so i hope that i get to take advantage of that and go on some short 2day trips around the area. we shall see.... I went to the student association office today and they have about 5shelves of used textbooks. Luckily i actually found 2 of the three that i need both of which were extremely reduced in price. I am so glad that i found them because originally they were 110 and 80$ each. i'm not sure if they have a used books place online here but im not sure how much shipping would be to get it here.

In other news, I joined an australian gym which is right across the road from my room...i stare at it everymorning and i just couldn't go all semester without taking advantage of the convienence. I went today for my program introduction and the trainer Max, originally from portugal set me up with an intensive work out in which they monitor and add to once it becomes too easy. So i am extremely excited to take advantage of that membership. i wish i was one of those people who were completely self modivated and could go bike 30 miles or run for an hour but i just physically and possible mentally make myself do that. thus i declare that i am a gym rat and am proud of it...though i also intend on biking occasionally but i will rely on the gym as my main means of exercise.

Thats all for now...more to come! ~Cheers!

Sunday Blessings and Monday adventures

Sunday was so wonderful atleast after the bus finally arrived...a friend and i went into the city 13km away and attended cairns pres. church. the people were so nice and im pretty sure we met half the congregation in one morning. we also met an american missionary family who were in australia figuring out their visas and they invited us over for a splendid lunch. after that my friend and i went to walk around the city and later attended the "nite church" which is more geared for young adults who are out of school or going to more school. needless to say we met all of them and i can remember most of their names :) the first song we sang was "grace like rain" and that is one of my most favorite songs so i was extremely thrilled. after the service they all invited us to go get coffee with them and hang out. This is exactly the type of interaction i have been waiting for since i have arrived here. i wanted to meet some local aussies who were christians. I can see God working in so many ways its greatly humbling. several of the kids live near the uni so they offered to take up back to our lodge and even said that they would come pick us up if we needed a ride into church. on tues. they have "Nexus" which is their young adult bible study so i am extremely excited to attend that. So i don't think i have ever had a more fulfilling sunday, atleast not in a long time! when i came back one of my suitemates had arrived that day so i got to meet her. she is from colorado and goes to a christian school in texas so that is promising :)
Monday i got up to eat breakfast with my suitemate and some people that she knew. we all went to palm cove which was another beach about 40min away on the bus. we all had alot fun and got lunch by the beach. i got a cheeseburger and as i was warned there was a heeping slice of a beet on it...which i removed politely...no need to mess up a good cheeseburger...lol . I got to know one of the other girls in the group really well and i suppose she is a christian too because she was really interested in the church i found so that was pretty convincing .
I was anxious before coming about being the lone christian and having to keep up my standards when everyone else seemed to have none but i can see now that God is faithful and though i never truly doubted Him, its nice to know that he provides for my needs and is protecting me in ways that i don't even realize.
tomorrow, (Tuesday) is orientation day and is will be quite busy but i am excited because i get to meet my professors who i will be calling by their first name because they are so laid back here, they just keep everything personal and at a first name basis...should interesting for sure.
until later, Cheers Mate!

correct photo linkage

this should be the right links to see photo albums:
http://picasaweb.google.com/eaglchk/20090718NatureWalk?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ2jkMHF-JDT1AE&feat=directlink


http://picasaweb.google.com/eaglchk/20090717TrinityBeach?feat=directlink

First friday and Sat in Cairns

Yesterday, friday, a group of us went to kmart by bus to by cheap bicycles and we put them together outside in the parking lot of kmart. quite an adventure. luckily, one of my new friends was on the cyclist team at phiffer uni in charlotte so he basically put all the bikes together for us of which i am extremely thankful for because i am about 100% sure that i would not be able to do that myself. So after we completed all the set up and pumping of tires, we bikes 5miles to the beach which was way to cold to swim in and it was extremely windy, nevertheless the sunshine felt amazing and it was absolutely wonderful. i had to bike back to my lodge which was about 3miles back and rushed to catch a bus into town at which point i had to find the movie theater because we were all going to see harry potter. thankfully i road on the bus with a fellow JCU student and she pretty much took it upon herself to be my tourguide for the duration of finding the theater. So nice and helpful especially when i had no clue as to wear i was really going...not always a fun fact. in the end we all got to see the movie which ok in my opinion. the tickets were 15.50 a piece and i had to go save seats for everyone since i got there first and the theater was packed. i had to ask these to guys from belgium to save my seats while i went to go get them into the theater and they said they would only do it if i gave them chocolate of which i had none to give so i offered gum which apparently is not the same in ranking...they gave me a really hard time for being "Southern" which i have already have happen several times...the customs people in sydney gave me a hard time about that (especially since i was really tired and my accent was a bit more exaggerated) so i just played up the "dumb american" and it seems to work everytime.
Anyways, back on to the real track... biking was cool but my butt hurts because the seat is aweful and i am going to have to get a cover or a different seat entirely...since that will be my main way of transport here which i am excited about.
Today i woke up leisurely and got to skype with my entire family which was fun! im thankful for that technology and i know my grandparents got a trip out it! such a foreign concept to talk to someone for free and see them too half way across the world.
I am having to change some of the classes i will be taking here because i unknowingly signed up for some really hard courses in which i am not prepared to work that hard for, so instead i am going to be taking the originally planned physics and ecology and the other two were changed to photography and sociology of health and medicine. with these classes i wont have any schedules for fridays which is wonderful in the case that i decided to travel for the weekend! a big bonus!
im actually really excited about taking this photography class, ive always been kinda interested but never put the effort in taking a class...so hopefully i can get in. ....with photography on my mind i decide to take my ipod playing sufjan stevens and go on a nature walk around the area which turned out not to be too great of a distance but there was plenty to photograph.
If you are interested in looking at pictures of trinity beach and my nature walk go to this link: http://picasaweb.google.com/home
Well, thats about all for now...until next time, Cheers!

FootPrints Student Lodge

Im all moved in and it is such a cute little place. the aministration is very nice and helpful and though it is not a 5 star hotel or anything, i am directly across the street from the campus which is wonderful. My suitemates are not here yet so that makes me think that they will be australia which makes me really excited! today we had our international orientation and that was filled with lots of information and mostly went over my head because i am still trying to get over the jetlag/post scubadiving head pressure...i never had such an intese and long lasting headache as i have after scubadiving...but i don't regret it at all! i was something i will always remember. i kinda wish i had more knowledge about all the different coral and their history but im sure i will get a little of that this semester. I realized that i was super addicted to having internet access at my disposal....fortunately, i got my school id and password so i can use theirs but even still i have a internet quota which i promise i will go way over....but its worth it especially when i am trying to keep in contact with everyone at home.
I had an adventure tonight as a small group of us went to the local mall to get somethings which turned out to be ALOT more for them than they expected so we had to call a taxi to come pick us up instead of using a bus. I am planning on getting a bike tomorrow because i think that it will be much much eaiser and cheaper inthe long run if i can just bike places. plus hopefully that will get me in really good shape. The food here is kinda different but in a indescribable way. They don't use corn syrup so in soda they sugar instead which makes it taste weird so i don't think i will be drinking much of that, and right now all their fruit in is season and there are fresh produce markets everywhere! so im hoping that i will be eating really healthy and excerising alot.
Unfortunately items for purchase here are really expensive because their minimum wage is so high to begin with. i got a small cup of coffee for the first time since being here, ( Talk about a caffine withdrawel and it was literally like a detox...maybe that's where all my headaches came from) but that small coffee which was about half the size of a Tall at starbucks was 4$....so im thinking im not going to be getting too much of that!
Im posting a link to an online web album with all the pictures that i have taken thus far...please look at them and see the wonderful things that i have gotten to see myself! http://picasaweb.google.com.au/eaglchk/20090714AustralearnOrientation?authkey=Gv1sRgCO_Q5Z-AwY--6QE#
Until next time~ Cheers mate

IM IN AUSTRALIA!

G'Day ALL! im officially in Australia and exhausted but have already had tons of fun!
Got to walk around cairns the first night...very cool little city. Today we went out to the reef and i got to scubadive and snorkel and saw lots of God's amazing creatures! Humpbackwhales and lots of fish and coral and birds...got to hold a nemo fish and saw stingrays! tomorrow we got a rainforrest station where we get to take a picture with a koala and feed kangaroos, FUN TIMES! have met lots of interesting people and heard amazing accents! unfortunately, i have limited time on the internet right now but once i get to my uni i will be able to type more details of my adventures! until then ~Cheers mate!

Bring on the Jetlag!

July 11th...the day i thought would never get here! I traveled so much in the short amount of summer that i did have that im pretty sure this day came much faster than anticipated. But i am all packed and hope that the main suitcase is under 50lbs as i worked very hard last night to balance it out among two pieces of luggage...yes, i bit the bullet and am taking two checked bags..hopefully i will have enough strength by the time i get there to drag it all around with me :), assuming that they both make it to my destination...*fingers crossed*
I feel like i should go around my house and say goodbye to everything, but that would be silly....haha though i did say goodbye to my bedroom and bathroom...i know the bathroom with be taken over by my brother with all his smelly guy stuff and he will probably rejoice when he doesn't see hair in the sink anymore...but my bedroom, as far as i know, will be left vacant. I just hope my family opens the closet door everyonce in a while...i have alot of shoes and some of them stink up the closet very easily.
anyways, the next time i get to use the internet for blogging purposes will be when i am officially in Australia and probably in my new room for the next 5 months....so until then, ~Cheers Mate!

New Beginnings

So its one day till i leave and i did a test run of packing...the good news is that i got everything to fit into my one suitcase ( a miracle I know) the bad news is that it weighs way more than 50lbs, which happens to be the airports limit on luggage. I have the option of checking two bags but i really really don't want to have to lug both around! anyways tomorrow im going to sort through it all again and take the stuff that is completely not necessary ( which i think it all is...) and see if i can lower the weight. if worst comes to worst i think i will just pay the excess weight fee...assuming that it isn't too much.
so its off on a new adventure down under and all loose ends are tied up and bundled together and left in the USA especially since im trying to travel with a minimalist approach....not working out so well but im still trying! I've already had contact with several people that iwill be meeting up with in LA who are all on the group flight so that gives me confidence and makes me really excited to see some "familiar" faces from facebook..haha thats kinda ironic!
I'm only looking forward and can't wait to experience what lies before me!

Final Count Down

This is the final count down, officially 3days till i depart the US of A for an extended amount of time and my nerves are getting the better of me at this point. I want to say that i am completely bursting with excitement but because i am going by myself which means i will be responsible for everything (the airports, flights, customs. arrival, etc.) i find myself more consumed with keeping track of everything instead of allowing myself to get too excited. also i don't want to rub it in anymore than the mere fact that i am leaving to the rest of my family by announcing my level of excitement and thus keeping that level to a minimum, atleast externally. i predict that once i get onto the plane my excitement will be more present....atleast i hope so.

I really hope that my luggage doesn't get lost but with the amount of layovers i have i would say that the chance is pretty high and am almost expecting it to happen...

Happy Fourth~

Happy 4th of July to all my fellow americans who share the freedoms in which i take for granted everyday! I think "Freedom" is an interesting concept....we celebrate our independence day on july 4th symbolizing the time in which we broke away from English dominance....and though that specific freedom is still in effect to this day, i do not think we are as "free" as people think we are....specifically, in a moral sense i believe we still have to fight against our sinful natures and that we are not free to do what ever crosses our way. Sure, we may have the freedom of speech and religion and many other things but at the same time...how many times have we monitored what we have said in fear that we may be judged or out-casted for the beliefs we hold. If we are so free than why can't we express that without any reprecusions or consequences? to be "Free" would be to not worry about the consequences of our actions and our shared words. Ultimately, we will never be free until the day the Lord returns, thus freeing us from our sinful bodies and worldly environment.

On another note, I appreciate whole heartedly the hard work and dilligence of the people who have dedicated their lives to ensuring our country's "Freedom". They sacrifice more than people realize and i am not just saying this because i am of a biased party.