Two more weeks of class then we get a nice two week Fall Break to relax. In my group there a bunch of people going to Thailand, which the parents weren't too keen on, so I will not be making that trek. Luke V. is going to BluesFest for the first couple days of break, up north near Byron Bay with some of his buddies from back home that are studying in other places in Australia. The Gumalis are going to Melbourne I believe. Which leaves myself and Emily here by ourselves. We're looking into finding stuff to do, maybe Whitsunday Islands or Frasier Island or somewhere with amazing beaches pretty much. Maybe Fiji for a few days, who knows. My vote will be wherever has the cheapest roundtrip airfare.
Julia and I are going to book our New Zealand trip later this week. I'm so incredibly stoked for this, we're going to go in June, since neither of us have final exams because our classes are design classes and we just have final projects that are due before the break, we won't have any studying to do over the three weeks between the end of classes and everyone elses exams. It's really weird, you hear of universities having dead week, a few days between the end of class and exams, but three weeks? Really?! Whatever, doesn't affect me, actually kinda helps it. The plan is to go through Contiki Tours and do a tour of the Southern Island. I wanted to do both Northern and Southern, but again with the empty pockets...so Southern it is, for the main reason that Queenstown is on the South Island, which is considered the Adventure Capital of the world. I'm so excited. There is just so much to do, skydiving, bungee jumping, glacier climbing, amazing scenery, even zorb balling! If you want to check out the itinerary of the trip, go ahead! The link is:
http://contiki.com.au/tours/91-scenic-southern-anti-clockwiseSo I guess I could fill you in on school. Classes are pretty hectic right now. I've already turned in two projects, got decent grades on them. The grading scale here is a little bit different than home, it goes HD (high distinction), D (distinction), C (Credit), P (pass), P+ (very low end of pass), and F (I think you can guess this one). So the conversion is pretty much HD=A+, D=A, C=B, P=C, P+=D, F=F. But HD's are pretty much impossible to get, and even distinction is a reach. For my most recent typography project, our professor said he hasn't had a HD in the past three years of doing the project, and this year of the 70 some kids enrolled in the class (we're split up for our tutorials and workshops to much smaller classes, its just the lecture that we're all together for) only 6 received distinction. So it's actually pretty tough, though they explained that back at orientation, that the highest grade in the class in America is usually somewhere in the 90th percentile, whereas here the highest grade could be low 80s or something of the like. Weird, I know.
My lecturer for typo is most definitely my favorite here. He sounds exactly like Arnold Schwartzenager (I'm guessing I spelled that wrong, but spell check doesn't know it and I'm not taking the time to look it up) and sometimes will do impressions of him. He has really dry humor and half the time I feel like I'm one of the only ones laughing, though it could be because the other kids just don't understand him. Regardless, I think he's hilarious and actually wish lecture was longer than an hour.
My other classes are going alright. They are a lot of weird work, making mock up fruit bowls out of cardboard, creating weird shapes out of cardboard in order to build some sort of object...not really sure what is going on with that project actually. But I'll find out Tuesday. But I've also had a lot of just busy work. Yesterday, a Saturday, Emily and I spent the whole day in my room doing our respective homework while watching season one of The OC. No beach for us even though it was quite nice out yesterday, but we are here to study right?
The weather is starting to cool off though actually. But when I say cool off I mean mid 70s, so I really shouldn't be complaining since my weather widget has informed me that it's snowing in Chicago right now. Sorry guys. I'll try not to get any tanner, though in my opinion, I'm really not dark at all. But it does look as if it's going to rain all week, so maybe that will make you feel better. It's been awhile since we had some rain, early in the week when my visitors were here was the last time that I can recall. Aussie weather is pretty good 90% of the time if you ask me.
Ok so I need to tell you about my newest weird obsession. Biggest Loser Couples. I'm honestly addicted. The fact that it is on every night doesn't help any either. But it's just so good. I've learned to love and hate the contestants, so sad am I. But it's just so intriguing, some of these people have lost over 120 lbs already and it's not even half over yet. How is this possible? I do not know! But I wish that I had a personal trainer to yell at me! But yes, I am obsessed, and Sunday's are the best because Sunday's are weigh-ins. Really keeps ya on the edge of your seat, riveting I tell ya! Oh and my other obsession, fmylife.com. That is a problem because I spend far too much time on there reading about how other people's lives suck. That is not ok, but it's just so addicting!
What else what else. I'm starting to get worried that I have yet to find some sort of American pub here in Sydney. Opening Day is creeping up on us and I dont know of anywhere that I'm going to be able to watch my Cubbies play. I'm not happy about it. They hate baseball in this country, all about the cricket, so it's gonna be tough to find somewhere broadcasting it. And especially with the time difference, I mean night games shouldn't be a problem if I find a place, but any day games are gonna be tough to catch. I may just designate someone to leave their Skype on in front of a television so that I can watch that way. Always gotta have a backup plan. That's mine.
Ooh ok so something important to talk about. On April 25th, I'll be participating in a worldwide activity. This activity is called The Rescue. It is through Invisible Children, which is a group raising money and awareness about the ongoing war in Uganda, here's a brief synopsis:
For 23 years, the government of Uganda and a rebel group called the Lords Resistance Army, led by a man named Joseph Kony, has engaged in Africa’s longest war. In recent years, peace was seemingly within reach, largely due to the Juba Peace Talks that began in July 2006. However, despite a ceasefire signed between the LRA and Ugandan government, efforts toward peace through the Juba Peace Talks were stalled on several occasions by Kony’s refusal to sign the final peace agreement. Kony’s absence at the peace agreement signing on November 29, 2008 proved his promises to be futile and ultimately disabled the peace talks. Furthermore, the ICC has obtained evidence that Kony used the ceasefire during the peace talks to regroup, regain strength and resume child abductions. Joseph Kony is the world’s first individual indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Since September 2008, hostility in the Orientale province in DR Congo and Western Equatoria in South Sudan has reached a feverish pitch. In apparent desperation and a renewed will to spread terror to DR Congo, the LRA murdered over six hundred and abducted more than one hundred and sixty children to fight amongst its ranks. More than 104,000 Congolese have been displaced since Christmas in attempts to escape the LRA forces. A civil war, originally contained within Uganda’s borders, has now evolved into a widespread regional crisis. Invisible Children, in concert with other policy organizations including Resolve Uganda, The Enough Project, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, now believes an international effort to apprehend Kony and rescue his child soldiers is the most viable way to end the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today.
So what The Rescue is, is in 100 cities across 10 countries, all on April 25th, thousands, if not tens, it not hundreds of thousands of kids are going to be "abducting themselves for the abducted". What this means is that, in these 100 cities, kids will meet up together at a predetermined meeting place, leave pictures of themselves with friends and families to symbolize their abduction, then walk single file 3 miles to a campground where they will wait to be "rescued". A successful "rescue" consists of two things: a media outlet from the city must show up and cover the event, and secondly you must have a "rescuer" come to rescue you. This "rescuer' can be a political or cultural leader from the area. So it's the kids jobs to contact these people, explain to them what is going on, and get them to show up at the campsite. They can also be well-known celebrities, like here, Ricky Ponting could show up, (for those who don't know him, he is an outstanding, world-renowned cricketer) or maybe even Russell Crowe. But it takes effort, people need to writes letters, make phone calls, and the likes. As for celebs, Invisible Children is recommending that we make videos and post them on youtube asking for the celebs to come to The Rescue. I'm so excited about this. I'm in the process of trying to get the two shirts for the event, but they're super backordered and ship from San Diego, so we'll see, apparently they're bulk shipping them over here and we can pick them up somewhere, haven't figured out where. But you're supposed to wear the two shirts the entire month to raise awareness for the event. I could do that, less work in the dressing department, though more laundry... Anyways, super stoked about it. So any of my friends reading this that are in school, find out the closest city to you that is involved and sign-up now, the more people involved, the bigger of an impact this will make.
Ok that's all I've got. Nothing exciting has happened this week, with the exception of signing up for The Rescue, nothing to write home about at least. So this is what you're left with. Boring day to day details of my Sydney-rific life. But honestly, even the most boring day in Sydney is a day in Sydney, which is better than a great day at home. Not to say I'm not missing Chicago, because I'm starting to, just a little bit. Though with this word about snow, not so much anymore.
PS, our mailbox keys finally came in, so I want to check my mail yesterday. None. Well a nice flyer for some restaurant and an overseas health insurance card. Soooooo if anyone wants to send me anything my address is:
Apt 3024
185-211 Broadway
Ultimo, NSW 2007
Australia
Love and miss you all! xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment