School, Melbourne, and more school

Oops it’s been a while, I’ve been typing my blog on my computer for a while now so it might not make sense at some parts and I might repeat because I was too lazy to go back and read what I already wrote. This entry is enormous so you might want to make sure you have a lot of time before you sit down to read it….

My test went okay I studied for a majority of the day on Tuesday and then went back to rest before I had to take the test at 6. I met up with Matt, Kyle, and Zach and then after the test matt told me he was going to have people over to his apartment for Cinco de Mayo. A few of us went over there and the guys attempted to make margaritas, not the best. I didn’t drink very much because I had my internship the next day but it was fun just hanging out.

Wednesday I had work all day, it wasn’t too bad, went fairly fast. I found out that I’m invited to go along to the Hero’s Export Awards which is the main event that I’ve been planning. The only problem was that it is on June 3rd and we would be staying overnight until June 4th, not getting back to Sydney till around 10 and Brian flies in that day at like 6am. I found a flight through Virgin Blue for only $65 so I emailed Lisa, my supervisor, and asked her if the company would be willing to pay to have me fly back. She checked with Ian who’s basically the boss and he said they would be able to do that. So I get to go and fly back early so that I’ll be at the airport to meet Brain.

Thursday I was on campus ALL day, I had my Econ tutorial in the morning and then my Marketing presentation that afternoon. The presentation went pretty good, we should be getting our grades sometime this week. I’m interested to see what I get on that, it’s hard to tell because the grade basically depends on what the tutor thought of your presentation and I feel like our tutor doesn’t like me very much, but who knows. Thursday night we were all hanging out upstairs and then a group of us went to UniBar. Rachel has a friend from home visiting so she wanted to take her out and show her the bar on campus. We met up with a bunch of guys from our spring break trip which was a lot of fun. Those guys are always in a good mood and fun to be around.

Friday there was a speaker at noon that everyone that’s doing an internship had to go listen to. He was talking to us about building connections and networking. His presentation was actually pretty interesting considering it was basically a one hour lecture. After that I stayed on campus for a while to use the internet, I was working on figuring out what I want to do when Brian comes to visit. I feel like there’s so much to do it’s going to be hard to fit it all into one week. That night Julie, Cassie, Kevin, Kim and I went to see the school’s production of Cabaret because we knew a few girls who were in it. It was a pretty good show, interesting topic but amusing. I think I’ve been spoiled going to Greendale though because any amateur theater I’ve seen outside of a GHS or GCT Summer performance isn’t even comparable. Just goes to show how awesome Greendale is. The show went until about 11 o’clock so no one was up for going to the city after that, except for Kevin but that didn’t happen.

Saturday I got up early even though I was planning on sleeping in, so I decided to try to be productive. First I finished the book I’ve been reading, Pillars of the Earth, it was really good, not something I would usually read but I liked it. I didn’t feel like walking anywhere to use the internet and didn’t want to read any of my textbooks so I decided to go for a run. While I was out I ran into Rachel and she told me they were planning on going to Bondi Beach and asked if I wanted to go along. It was a pretty nice day out so I decided to go with, it was nice on the beach until the sun started to go down and it got cold and windy. I was rushing to leave and forgot to take a sweatshirt so I wound up wearing Matt and Zach’s sweatpants and sweatshirt. it probably didn’t help that I had a huuuge ice cream cone, but it was delicious so I sacrificed being cold. No one was in the mood for going out that night, some people drank up in the guys apartment above me but I went over to Rachel’s to watch a movie with her and her roommates. We watched Pineapple Express which I’ve never seen, interesting movie, probably wouldn’t watch it again though.

Sunday was another attempt at getting some work done, I went to the library with Marie but didn’t really get anything done. That night Rachel wanted to go into the city to take her friend to Hugo’s which is a really cool club/restaurant that has “Sneaky Sunday’s”. It’s a 5 dollar entry fee but then they have delicious 5 dollar pizzas (which is super cheap here) and 5 dollar drinks. We made it a girls night and there were only a few of us there but it was a lot of fun.

Monday I had my internship again, Lisa wasn’t there so she left a list of things for me to do. I had to process a bunch of membership forms and put together their packets/certificates which I actually enjoy doing even though it’s kind of busy work. Then I had to finish up work for the Hero’s event, booking the photographer, finishing the slide show, and finding music to play during the dinner and awards. I also had to select a menu for the Export Awards Launch which is next week. That was cool because I got to select six different dishes from an elaborate menu. I actually had to google some of the dishes because I had no idea what they were. Hopefully Lisa likes the things I picked, I was kind of surprised she left the whole choice up to me. I left work early because I’m going back in on Wednesday to discuss some of the stuff with Lisa.

Tuesday I had to go to the morning Econ lecture because I had a global leadership colloquia that night. It was actually kind of interesting, about how to market a better you. Basically telling you how to promote yourself for job interviews and stuff and learning who you really are. Kind of cheesy but not as boring as some of the other ones I’ve been to. Wednesday I went to my internship, I really didn’t feel like being there, it was a long day and I ended up leaving earlier than I planned because I want to get my hours done before June but I was dying of boredom. I basically worked on stuff for the Hero’s event, everything is starting to get finalized. I’m excited that I get to go, it should be a lot of fun and it’s helpful that by going I’ll be at the airport just in time to meet Brain. Wednesday night I packed and got ready for our weekend in Melbourne.

Thursday morning we were picked up by the airport shuttle at 5:30am, not the best start to the day..waking up before the sun. I’m turning into more of a morning person but that is still very early. Our flight was on time we caught the shuttle to the Hostel but check in wasn’t until 11 so we had to wait for about an hour. After we got checked in we walked around the city and had lunch and this really cool place called Tjanabi, it was supposed to be more authentic aboriginal Australian food. They had duck and a lot of seafood, I decided to get the seafood risotto which was delicious, squid, oysters, scallops and fish. Kevin and my meals were taking forever and to make up for it the waiter offered us a free drink which was awesome, so I had a good glass of wine to go with my meal. After lunch we went next door to the Art Museum and walked around to look at some of the work. Everyone was dead tired by that time so we decided to go back to the hostel and take a nap before getting ready for the night. After a nap and shower Rachel, Julie, Cassie and myself headed to Wicked. The show was amazing, I was a little hesitant that the Actors were going to have Australian accents but they didn’t and I’m really glad I went. AT intermission they were selling “ozmopolitans” in these awesome light up martini glasses so of course we all got one, they were delicious. After the show we tried to meet up with the rest of the group but some of them were just drinking in a park with friends that they had met up with from their spring break trip and we didn’t’ want to do that so we went to the bar that was below our hostel and hung out for a bit before heading to bed.

The next morning we woke up early, well some of us, because we had to catch a 9 o’clock train. We ended up running to the station and missed the train by a few minutes. It was the only train that could take us to Philip Island in time to see the penguin march which is the major reason we were planning on going there. Kevin informed us that there was another train that would take us to some city where we could take a ferry over to Philip island and still get there in time. We put our faith in Kevin and tried this option, after arriving in Frankstown, a few stops from where we wanted to be, we found out that the ferry was shut down for the day because of bad weather. We were about to turn around and head back to Melbourne but Kevin was determined to get us to this island. He decided that our best option was to rent a van and drive there ourselves. Long story short, after about an hour and a half we wound up at Thrifty where we got a great deal on an 8 passenger van and were headed for the island. Some of us were hesitant about going but I’m glad we did. The hostel we stayed in, which I found was called the chill house and was basically a house renovated, added onto, and turned into a hostel. there was a courtyard with a pit for bonfires a nice bathroom, living room area and then two bedrooms with bunks. After the penguin march, which really wasn’t as cool as I was expecting, and really cold. We stopped at the grocery store, bought supplies for s’mores, which was hard since they don’t have graham crackers, and some drinks and then headed back to the hostel. The owners built us a fire and we hung out there for a while, went over to a Mexican restaurant because Julie was super excited about the margaritas, which were horrible, I’m not really sure if there was actually any tequila in them. After that we went back to the hostel again which was only about a block away and drank for the rest of the night and hung out with the two guys that ran the place, Mark and Paul who were really cool.

The next morning we got up early, drove off to see the nobies which is where there are supposed to be an abundance of seals but with our luck we didn’t see any, however the scenery was beautiful and it was free so still worth it. The island was pretty cold, and extremely windy so that made me a bit crabby but overall it was a lot of fun. We had to have the car returned by 1 so after that we left, took the car back and then caught the train back to Melbourne where we checked back into the hostel we had stayed in two days before. After that we had some time to kill so we took the free tram that takes you around the city and points out all of the “tourist” attractions. It kind of reminded me of the trolley tour in Milwaukee. After walking around one of the parks and part of the city we went back to the hostel where we hung out and then started to get ready. We were planning on going on a ghost tour at the prison in Melbourne however it was sold out so only 4 of us had tickets. The girls that didn’t have tickets, which included me decided to get ready and then go out to dinner in little Italy. We walked there and started looking at menus along the street of all the different restaurants. We got to one where there was a host sitting outside who pulled us over and gave us a 5 minute talk about why we should eat at his restaurant. Part of the “presentation” included that we would receive free garlic bread and a free glass of wine. We felt bad turning him down so we decided to stay. This guy was a real ham, kind of annoying but we gave him credit for being so persistent. The food was actually really good and so was the wine, also it was all a pretty good price so even though it was an awkward situation with him constantly talking to us and making sure we had everything we needed/pushing more wine it was worth it. After dinner we met up with the rest of our group who were done with their ghost tour and at a rooftop bar in the city. We hung out there for a while before returning to the Hostel to rest before our 6:40 bus to the airport.

Surprisingly we were all up and ready in time to catch the bus that took us to the airport. We had a van reserved at Avis which we were going to rent to drive the great ocean road. When we got there we were told that the van had engine problems and would not be available for us to drive. The guy tried to tell us that he could get us two cars instead but that’s not what we wanted and we only had one person who was really willing to drive. There were other car rental companies there so we tried checking with them but they had nothing available. We returned to Avis where we planned on demanding a great deal on two smaller cars because of the inconvenience. After about a half hour of talking we found out that they actually didn’t’ have two cars, one of the ones were manual and none of us could drive that and the other was a Rav 4 which apparently you can’t rent to someone under 25. Our next plan was to rent one car from Europcar and one from Hertz but we had to wait for the one from Hertz to come back which was supposed to be at 10:30. While waiting the guy from Thrifty came over and asked us if we were still looking for a van because he had found a set of keys in the drawer to a van that he had forgotten about and thought was being rented. We filled out the paperwork and left by about 10:30, after sitting in the airport for close to 3 hours. We were finally on our way thanks again to Thrifty. On the way out we stopped at Bells beach and a few other lookout points which provided amazing views of the ocean. There was a marathon being run from Lorne to Apollo Bay so we had to take a windy detour through the woods to get there. It was actually pretty cool and I don’t’ think it was much longer than the original route. We got into Apollo Bay around 3:00, checking into our Hostel, got some food, and then headed on down the road because we wanted to get to the Twelve Apostles before sundown. Unfortunately it was cloudy, we got there right as the sun was starting to set and the view would have been even cooler if there would have been clear skies, but it was still really pretty. After a few minutes there we got back in the car to return to our hostel. We all decided we were sick of eating out and spending money so we bought stuff to make a stir fry in the kitchen at the hostel. After that we just hung out and went to bed, ready to get up for another fun day of driving and traveling.

Monday we got up, loaded the car and headed for the airport. We really didn’t have time to stop anywhere because people had flights to catch and we had to have the rental car back by 11. Between all of us we were on three different flights so some of us had to wait in the airport for a few hours before coming back to Sydney. The flight went super fast and thankfully Rachel had schedules a shuttle to take us back to our apartment so we didn’t have to deal with taking the train. I was back here by about 5 o’clock, showered, ate dinner and then watched TV with the girls upstairs before passing out. It’s weird, both of the “vacations” I’ve been on here made me more tired than staying in Sydney. I guess that proves that there’s a lot to see and do here.

Tuesday I had a GLP colloquia which was one of the most boring things ever. It was about intelligence, basically we talked about the CIA and different agencies for 3 hours. Then after that I had an econ lecture which thankfully ended early. Now the rest of this week I’ll probably be living in the library since I have a huge paper due next Tuesday and then a test on Thrusday. I can’t believe how fast the time is going, Brian will be here in about two weeks, I have finals, and then before I know it I’ll be home. (Which I’m super excited for because I miss you all and it’s starting to get cool here so I want summer weather back!)

Love you,
Steph