break is over

i started classes yesterday. crazy, right?

it definitely sucked at first--realizing i wasn't only in australia to vacation and have a great time, but in the end, to go to school was the reason i came here.

in australia, you take three 'units'. for each unit, there is a lecture (with 100+ students) and a workshop (with 30+ students).

my units are 'learning through the arts', 'principles of language and literature', and 'enviromental biology'.

yesterday (monday), i had two lectures. my 'learning through the arts' lectures was pretty cool. i sat next to an australian girl named naomi who didn't even realize i was from the states until i told her (did she not hear my obnoxious accent?)

the next class, my 'principles of lang. and lit' lecture, was slightly awkward. it was only 45 minutes long, but i couldn't hear ANYTHING. i don't think my unit coordinator (professor) knew how to talk into the microphone. it was also slightly overwhelming being in a classroom with over 150 people--that lecture hall was full. at bridgewater, my biggest class is 30 students.

today, i had my 'principles of language and literature' workshop at 10:30. I, being extremely smart of course, woke up at 8:30 thinking my class was at 9:30. It gave me time to go to the bookstore and get all my books, though, so some good came out of it. The workshop went a lot better than the lecture. I am the only international student in the class. all the rest are australian, which is awesome, because they seem pretty interested in obama and the states in general.

they also seem interested on why i don't spell color like colour or favorite like favourite. organization or organisation? enroll or enrol?

it will definitely take some getting used too, but i absolutely love this place!

my roommates are stellar! i have two roommates from singapore named angel and lynn, kaylie from massachusetts (who's boyfriend is from the town next to mine--small world), and laura from finland.

alright, i should get going--i've got some reading to do. sucks to be in school, eh?