Schedule!

Alright... this is tentative schedule.. AND I'm a whole day ahead down here... not to mention a few hours ;)
Monday: 12-5pm In Class
Tues: No Class
Wed: 12-4pm Class
4-6pm Intramural Soccer

Thurs: 12-1 Yoga
Friday: 10-12pm Class

TADA!!! yup not very exciting... but classes will pick up and I'll be having LOADS of homework .. no worries! LOVE YOU!! ~Yvonne

Update :)

Hi all!
Sorry it's been a while but really, nothing has happened. The biggest thing that's happened is the Sunday Aussie Lunch. Four of us were invited to eat over at a local families house we had the Averys. Lynn and Ken are in their late 60s and are too adorable. They've had plenty of study abroad students stay in their home for a year/semester and love it. They've primarily had girls from Asia as their home stay but have been volunteering for the Lunch since it started (apparently that was only last year!) At around 11:45am, Lynn picked us up from school (Liz, Heather, Dani and myself) She's a short lady with curly hair and the nicest smile, very chatty and so kind. She tried to talk almost the whole way to her house, sometimes to herself lol. She lives about 10minutes from the Uni in a beautiful home. If you've ever seen the movies and the grandmas house is very cluttery but homey and warm? This was Lynn and Kens house. Speaking of Ken he arrived a little late because he stayed for the full church sermon. We all sat down had "barbecue" which here means more sausage, salad and garlic bread. The best part was the homemade apple crumble cake with custard!! yeah! It's like their whip cream here. They put it on almost all deserts and mmmm it's good. I thought of my grandma when I was with the Averys, she would have loved this house. The parrots sit on the veranda and wait for Lynn to feed them. There are a few that would eat right out of her hand. My grandma would love to do that. :) Ken tried to explain a little bit of Rugby to us, impossible but it was so cute to see him try. In all it was so nice! Dani and I have a thank you card for them we'll be sending once the other girls sign it. Also nice ladies today I met TINA! everyone in Uni talks about this lady. She lives right down the street and has all the veggies and fruit you might need... ALL right out of her garden! Dani and I decided to check it out and it's so quaint! She's Italian, very old and so adorable! When we introduced ourselves she just held our hands and smiled and talked away! I'll definitely be stopping by later! Alrighty! That's all for now! Gnite! Yvonne

YAY!

HOORAY!! The weather has finally cleared! and it's BEAUTIFUL! a little chilly but much better than pouring rain! Dani, Sarah and I are going downtown (early this time) to check it out, grab a coffee or something. I want to wish my dad a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you very much!!! MUAH! catch yall laters! Cheers ~Yvonne

still raining...

Oy.. still raining, power went out again. One class tomorrow then the WEEKEND! :) THANK YOU SO MUCH MEGS AND GRANDPARENTS FOR YOUR LETTERS! They FINALLY CAME IN!! :) Gnite! Yvonne

Rain Rain Go away.....

Hi!
I went to bible study last night with Dani and it was great! we meet two people from Papa New Guinea and for the third time we were introduced to pastor Rob. If you've ever seen Narnia (the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe) He looked like Mr. Tomnas when he came into the room. He had a big scarf wrapped around him, curly hair and a bit shy :) (didn't have the goat feet though) It was going along well, introductions and what we wanted to do throughout the semester when around 7:30 the power went out! And of course the threat of rain we'd had all day finally came down... hard! no thunder or lightning just monsoon rain. All through the night and it looks like all through today. None the less it was the best night I've had at SCU. Since there was no TV or computer we decided to play cards in the Rec room (kind of like our Lounge) by "we" I mean Dani, Kay, Sean and I. I had to teach the Canadians how to play war, they didn't like it because they couldn't win :) so we moved on to Rumy! I haven't laughed that much simply by playing cards! we played for nearly 3 hours! then it was time for bed. No heater but still a great night! The power just came back about 15 min. ago so I thought I would take advantage may it go out again. :/ With love from Australia! Yvonne

Outdoor Education... ADVENTURE TIME!

Alright so far I like all my classes. In PDHPE (or simply PE) we'll be doing a lot of kid activities and sports. In CAPA (or Creative Arts) I have to make drama productions that include music, dance, art.. you name it.. it's in there. Today I had my first outdoor ed class... to give you an idea on what it's going to be like I'm posting a little quote from the lecture "The philosophy of Outdoor Ed"..

"Youth is not a period of time. It is a state of mind, a result of the will, a quality of the imagination, a victory of courage over timidity, of the taste for adventure over the love of comfort. A person does not grow old because they have lived a certain amount of years. A person grows old when they have deserted their ideals. The years may wrinkle the skin, but deserting their ideals wrinkles the soul" Source Unknown.

It's going to be great! The intro lecture even brought up God and Religion! That's almost taboo in public schools back home unless it's a religion/spirituality course! So it's neat to see. :) We have two scheduled field trips one to Meebunn-bia the other to Girraween... For Meebunn-bia info go here: http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.meebunnbia.com.au/images/general/run.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.meebunnbia.com.au/outcomes.html&h=250&w=200&sz=22&hl=en&start=2&sig2=RpgN0DzxVeYndQbjI76JEQ&tbnid=vqZejpKM4cOSZM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=89&ei=Rt6GSIu7CYWmpATomcX7BA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmeebunn-bia%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

What the website says is exactly what I'll be doing and in Girraween we're pretty much dropped off with a compass and map and have to find our way back! (this is of course AFTER we have passed all our navigation exams) Here's a pic of Girraween National Park! Alrighty have a great day everyone! Catch you later! ~ Yvonne

Ps. Jenny wish you were here for this class, since we are EXPERTS at adventure! lol ;)

Answered Prayers

Hey everyone!
I've been a bit.. oh I dunno a little disappointed so far with how everything has been going over here in Australia. With my classes not being available, money issues, friends and weather change it's been a bit rough. The first day of classes wasn't much since all we're doing is introductory stuff anyways. I must say though in my creative arts class we sang for about 15 minutes! that was fun. If you have taken Drama in the Classroom with Dr. Mac, I think this course is going to be a lot like that. :) LOADS OF FUN ACTIVITIES!! so looking forward to that! Today I didn't have any classes but no way was I staying in my room another whole day, so I went down to the Plaza (kind of CLUs SUB) and took a yoga class, very nice! Then I realized I had to climb the mountain again ... good thing I had properly stretched this time.
We had a "Commencement Dinner" for all the international students tonight, not only from this semester but those that stayed from last as well. It was semi-formal but people went as casual as going to the park or as formal as going to prom! I was in the middle of that :) Around 6pm the bus picked us up to go to downtown Lismore where our event took place. As you can see it's a pretty large room and the food was decent (by that I mean no sausages or pizza!) Then the best part! I met someone from CALIFORNIA! ARCADIA! yup yup her name is Ali and she was soo stoked I wasn't from WisCOnsin or Minnesota (most of the US kids are from there) and then I met Sarah! She's from Ohio and of course Dani was excited about that since she was an Au Pair in Ohio for a year! Sarah came back to our place and we had about a two hour convo on boyfriends, religion.. and the rest and it was sooo great!! We're planning to go to the bible study tomorrow night and I'm soo excited! ok that's WAY more than anyone needs but I was a little excited! :) Toodles! Yvonne

School Starts Tomorrow

So... school starts tomorrow, I'm nervous! I haven't been nervous about school since high school! You know, the feeling of wearing the perfect outfit and the right hair do and make-up and whatnot so that you're cool? I kind of have that but obviously not to that extreme, just anxious to meet people. This weekend (Sat and Sun) was a little uneventful. Friday of course was the Wild Animal Park and as you see was a lot of fun. Saturday Dani and I decided to head into town, well it turned out the buses weren't running but we got lucky since a taxi was dropping off some other students right as we were about to give up. $9 for 3 miles! uggh. Then guess what? Lismore down town closes at 1:00pm with the random CD shop open until 2:00 pm. We got there around 1:30pm. We salvaged the day however since we spotted a small cafe called "Sweet Pea". It's a vegetarian place and luckily I didn't ask for a sub or anything. We had Quiche instead and they were delicious! All the veggies you know of were in this thing. Peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, pumpkin, squash EVERYTHING! best serving of vegetables I've had in a while. Much better than Pizza and Franks too. My heater went out today, a little bummed since I'm a little sick and all but I'll be ok. MISS EVERYONE VERY MUCH! What's everyone doing? ~Toodles, Yvonne

Currumbin Wild Animal Park

So CUTE!



The Little BABY!

Haha Dani with the Sugar Glider
There were supposed to be 102 students for their presentation, instead only Dani and I showed up, Their loss! We got a private tour!
This is a BIRD! loks like an owl/hawk. It can turn its head 170 *

Kangaroo!
Wallabi




AHH! HELP!

Planting Koala Food

Byron Bay Pics and Video

There's a lighthouse in the back Funny Bird



These little crabs were everywhere! cute, but Dani didn't liket them... Sun is BRIGHT down here





Byron Bay Town

On the way there..

First Night out!

I just got back from my first night out in Australia! It was fun! Aussies do know how to party. I didn't join in on much but lots of dancing! We had a trivia night at the Uni Bar where all the international students played for prizes etc. Then we hit a club called "The Standard" very clean and nice place. Tomorrow we're supposed to plant trees, supposedly for the Koalas, then the NAIDOC festivities or Aboriginal festival, should be lots of fun! Pics to come, just haven't uploaded them yet. Miss everyone very much wish you could see and enjoy what I'm going through! Love, Yvonne

Football... oy

I just played about an hour of football (soccer) and I am dead. First day of orientation, very long but very informational. I saw Christine today, she's the lady that came out to Cal Lu and made a presentation in Pederson. She was very happy to see me and so nice. We learned pretty much the same things I learned at our Orientation week freshman year. (Less activities of course) Dani and I signed up to plant a tree on Thursday, go to the Wild Animal park on Friday and on the 14th of August go on a Rain forest walk !:) I have realized that all we are being fed is pizza and sausage! It's crazy! Also have I mentioned that my apartment is UPHILL!! I mean REALLY UPHILL! Think a hill on San Francisco or Megs that one street in Laguna we went down on like a roller coaster. That's the hill I'm going to have to make every day! Alright, G'day mates! ~Yvonne

Byron Bay

Hi!
Just got back from Byron Bay! Quaint little beach town about an hour north of Lismore. Unfortunately I woke up today with a huge headache and the left side of my neck feels like it was punched by football !.:( But I made it through... bought some cute leather sandals made locally, two "fisherman's pants" and a few surprises for friends "shhh". The beach was gorgeous! and for being winter the water was nice! I can't wait for summer! My travel buddy for the day was Dani... I felt bad because I didn't make much conversation through our little trip but I warned her. She's so cute and funny! We're already jokingly making plans of me seeing her in Austria and her coming to Cali. (hopefully that can come to pass because it would be AWESOME!) Anyway... Australia is EXPENSIVE! especially with the dollar being about even now. I haven't had a culture shock as much as I am noticing the fact that I am 7,500 miles away from home with a crowd of international students that only seem to want to party (not really my scene)... reminds me a lot of the freshmen I had to deal with last year. Once school starts I know that'll change. More pics to come! Toodles Yvonne

More Pics!

ADDRESS!! and other tid bits

Cheers!
Address here is:
Orion College
13/60 Ross St Lismore Heights 2480 NSW, Australia.

Today I saw the school for the first time. Pat gave me a personal tour, the school is about a quarter mile from the college or hall and is down hill. Needless to say coming back up the hill is really hard! But I saw a parrot today! took a gazillion pictures and embarrassed Pat, I was "such a tourist" in a loving way of course. They have a neat library here, three levels. On the way back I saw a wallaby!!!!!!!!!!!!! two of them actually and they were too cute! Took a few pics of them as well. We have another flatmate come in. She was actually supposed to be across but ended up with us. Her name is Dani and she's from Austria. Funny story actually, she told me where she was from and I thought of "The Sound of Music" and said "oooh!" very excitedly and she looked at me and said "do you know where it is?" and I said "no" lol she laughed and said she's had that same reaction from a lot of people but then she explained where it was. She also mentioned no one in Austria really knows of the movie!! funny ... anyways...there was a pizza dinner tonight and was able to see the rest of the girls from CLU! Joy, Steph and Jessica. I'm posting a few pics up till now. The airport, the view from my living room window and a few more! ENJOY! miss you!