Today I was again reminded of how one little thing can lead to something wonderful. On two occasions today – one was while making breakfast and the other was while doing my makeup after I had worked out and showered at the gym – I was surprised by the kindness of strangers. Now these two activities are something I’ve grown accustomed to doing by myself and usually I do not have any interaction between people as I do them. However, as I was putting milk on my cereal this morning a guy bounced into the kitchen to make his breakfast and greeted me with a big “Hello mate!” Still groggy from being asleep nearly ten minutes before, I mustered up a rather husky sounding “hey”. I smiled and thought it was nice he acknowledged my existence and thought that would be the end of it. Nope. He started asking questions about what I was up to today and, after he picked up on my accent, he wanted to know all about my home. I became livelier with each answer and we ended up talking for twenty minutes. By now you should all know I usually hate going into that kitchen, but because of how nice this guy was, I secretly hope someone will be in the kitchen the next time I go in. I’ve had plenty of times where people have been in the kitchen and not even responded to me when I say hi, but this positive experience out weighs all the negative ones. And thanks to this morning’s interaction, I started off my day so much happier.

My second surprise interaction today was with a woman who was getting ready at the same counter that I was, and she simply asked me if I was having a good day. It wasn’t one of those typical conversation fillers or questions used to break an awkward moment like “how are you?” with the stereotypical answer “good, you?” Think about the last time you answered that question – “how are you?” – without simply saying “good”. I’m making it a goal of mine to attempt to give more of a genuine answer, because today it led to a five-minute conversation. And even if the person asking doesn’t want a detailed answer, they’ll get it anyway. Be the person that stands out. Today, the two people who stood out to me have no knowledge of how they affected me. But isn’t that cool? Wouldn’t you like to be the reason behind someone’s smile?

A few other positives that have happened in the past couple days:

-       Yesterday, I literally sprinted my fastest 200m to catch the bus, and was matching speed with it as it pulled away from the curb, but right before I gave up the driver happened to look over to see me frantically waving my arms. I looked like an idiot to everyone on the sidewalk as well as on the bus, but hey I got on. Booyah.
-       Another plus from yesterday is I made it through a game of ultimate Frisbee without hurting myself.
-       Today, it only took two rounds in the dryer to get my clothes dry, instead of last week when two rounds didn’t even get them the least bit dry.
-       I’m treating it as a positive, even though I wish I hadn’t finished it so quickly, but I finished my new favorite book, The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom. You all should read it. Oh, and you’re welcome in advance. 
- I also found some sea salt popcorn, something which is my crack back home, and I just treated myself to eating the whole bag. If you haven't tried sea salt popcorn, please do. You're missing out on life until you do so.


Oh also, incase you were wondering what my humble abode for the semester looks like, the picture  attached to this post is it. I know at first glance it might look like a jail cell, but I promise it's better than that - it has carpet.

I’ve gotten into a really good habit here of staying up way later than I need to. For instance, last night I stayed up working on a paper that isn’t due until the end of the semester. A couple of questions might be coming to your mind such as “what is your problem?” and “you worked on your homework on a Saturday night?” Anyone who knows me relatively well knows how anti-procrastination I am. I actually get nauseous if I don’t get to complete my assignments and tasks by when I want to, which on average is about two weeks before they are actually due. Screw the rush a person claims they get by saving everything until the last minute. If I did that, I might implode from anxiety. So because of the rager of a night I had last night, I’m making my bed time in 10:00pm. Call me crazy, but I can also get excited about a good night’s sleep. I realize this paragraph exposes my potentially lame side but to me, anyone who can’t admit to having a quirk or two is holding on a little too tight.

I have started to keep a list of words I am taking a personal pledge to implement into my daily vocabulary by the time I leave. For your convenience, I created a list for the words as well as their meanings:

- Mate: friend – isn’t that such a wonderful replacement for friends? Say “me and my mates” a couple times, and you’ll love how it sounds.
- “Good on ya”: well done or good for you – usually said with a lot of enthusiasm, which makes you feel even better about yourself!
- “I’d reckon”: instead of saying “I think” or “I figure” – I personally think it makes me sound smarter whenever I say it
- Jumper: sweatshirt – I giggle every time someone refers to “getting their jumper” or something along those lines because I instantly picture overalls
- “Off his face”: “he was really drunk” – obviously this applies to women too, but I think it makes talking about how someone was super crazy the other night even more fun, just because of how cool this phrase sounds  
- Heaps: loads or a lot – it’s a tie between this and mate for the phrase I want to start using the most

Devin’s uncle lives here in Melbourne, so that is who Devin is staying with while we’re here. Having a house to come visit every once in a while makes this whole experience so much more enjoyable. There’s a sense of family, great food, a fridge that doesn’t smell, which are all things that are hard to come by at the village. Needless to say, I am grateful for being able to sneak away from the village to something that mildly resembles home. Plus, I just watched DJ (Devin's burly Irish uncle) and Jinky (DJ's adorable, tiny malaysian wife) give Devin a haircut. You don't get better entertainment than that.

Last night was probably my favorite night I’ve had here in Melbourne so far. A few of us ventured out to the city in search of this vegetarian restaurant. We took a bus to the train, a train to the tram, and the tram to the restaurant – yeah we’ve gotten good with public transportation. The street this restaurant was on instantly reminded me of Fourth Street back in Bloomington. There were so many different kinds of restaurants with different kinds of ethnic foods – we’re already planning our next trip back there. This place was called Vegie Bar, and when we walked up to the restaurant, we could tell we were going to have to wait for a while. Literally packed to the point where you could barely move without accidentally placing your elbow in someone’s food. The five of us made a unanimous decision that since we had made the trek all the way there, we were going to wait it out. Luckily for us it was only thirty minutes, and they had a hip little lounge to go hang out in. Being vegetarian and being a hipster goes hand in hand it seems because everywhere I looked, there was a guy with styled hair, both facial and head, and a girl in combat boots. A guy whose moustache was as long as his hair brought us to our table, and that is when we laid our eyes upon one of the most delicious menus in the history of delicious menus. We went to town on all of our dishes and it was heaven. Luckily for me, I wore my leggings a.k.a expandable waistband. This was also the first restaurant I had been to in Australia where I didn’t have the sensation of crying when handing over my cash to pay the bill.

Today I had my second day in the gym shadowing, and like I expected it rocked. But you want to know the best part?  The trainer I was working with brings his dog to work everyday and she just hangs out in there. After his last client left, we went up to his office so I could see his dog, and as soon as the door open I just melted. This was the first time I’ve petted a dog since I left home and I didn’t ever think I could miss something so much. I got absolutely covered in dog hair but it was so worth it. I honestly could have stayed there the rest of the day just snuggling with the pooch, but I figured I should get to know the guy better before I crawled into his dog’s bed with her.  

If you’re ever looking for a great diet to go on, I have one for you. It’s called living in the student village during winter. I guarantee you’ll lose those love handles you hate. I’m sure you’re asking, “How does it work?” Luckily for you, it’s a very simple process.

See due to the fact it is winter, it’s pretty chilly here in Melbourne at the moment. This means going outside to walk to the kitchen is sometimes the last thing you want to do. So there’s the first part of the diet – the weather – because it makes you stay inside. However, if you somehow make it past the first part, and all the way to the kitchen, don’t worry because there is a failsafe. Because the kitchen smells so horrible, chances are you will bolt right back out the door.  So there you go, you have two factors working against you making your meal. However if by some chance you make it through the cold and through the stench, you will realize that cooking a delicious meal actually takes time. Therefore, you resort to making a microwavable cup of macaroni, with an apple if you remembered to go to the grocery store that day. Living at the student village makes it easy to cut calories, because if the weather does confine you to your room, your dinner is a peanut butter sandwich. Be warned though, down the street there is a Dominos, and Mondays – Wednesdays they sell pizzas for $4.95. Sometimes the unthinkable happens, and you eat a whole pizza. It’s downhill from there because then you can fall prey to that deal, and before you know it, you’ll be staring at an empty pizza box three days out of the week.

I got offered the opportunity this month to shadow trainers at our campus gym, and today was my first day. I worked 9-5, and it went by within the blink of an eye. Since it is the beginning of the semester, a lot of new people are coming into the gym wanting guidance on what to do. A person can set up an appointment for an assessment, and then after their assessment they will come back in the following week to be walked through their program. I worked with about six different people today, all of who had different goals, body shapes, and gym experience. They were all either in for program assessments or to be walked through their new program. In other words, there was a lot of opportunity to teach and educate. In the beginning, I was just putting in my two cents whenever there was a pause in the teaching of an exercise, but then about half way through the day, the trainers I was working with let me actually go through and teach the exercises to the clients myself. I can tell I am in the right field because I experience what I can liken to a high when I get to train someone. I get so excited to teach and help people – it’s euphoric. Needless to say, today was awesome and I learned so much in just those eight hours. I go back Friday, and I’m already looking forward to it.

For the past five days now, the days will start off sunny and warm. I always leave my room smiling and happy that I can see blue sky. However, it’s like Mother Nature is on a timer because every day starting at around 4:30, it starts raining. It’s not a nice, refreshing rain either. It’s like the 45-degrees-downpour-that-chills-you-down-to-your-bone rain. At least I have my rain boots – oh wait, no I don’t. They are sitting in my room back at home. I should have taken the “Melbourne gets 4 seasons in a day” more seriously. 

Yesterday I went to my first AFL game. AFL stands for Australian Football League and man, it is one intense game to watch. I went with my roommate from Germany, who is one of the coolest people I have ever met, as well as her two friends that are studying from Malaysia. So there we were, one American, one German, and two Malaysians who had no idea how the game worked, but heck we were determined to find out. I literally had no knowledge of how “footy” – which is what Aussies call it – was played. All I knew was that they ran around in short shorts and tackled each other to the ground without wearing any sort of padding. Luckily for the four of us, the woman in front of us could obviously detect our foreign accents, and turned around to give us a few hints about the game. I could’ve taken up a whole half asking her questions, but lucky for her I had my Aussie mate to text my questions to and bother instead. I’ll break it down for you guys back in the states, so that when you come visit me, you won’t be as lost as I was.

-       Each game consists of 4 quarters.
-       You can kick and throw the footy to your teammate, and the ball is never dead.
-       A clean tackle is considered in between your shoulders and waist, but any hit outside of that will result in a foul.
-       There are four goal posts, which create three areas to score points. The middle area is worth six points, and the two outside areas are worth one point.
-       To score a point, it has to be kicked through any of the goal posts, and a player can get as close as they need to kick the footy through
-       If the footy goes out of play, there are referees in bright yellow jerseys who throw the ball in over their shoulders, behind there head, so they aren’t biased to where they are throwing it into.
-       Time doesn’t stop

To play footy you have to be in awesome shape, because you are constantly reacting and sprinting to wear the footy is going next. It bounces in weird places, and the players always have to be on their toes to be able to pivot to wherever they need to go. Perhaps one of the most amazing things about AFL is how large the field is. It is a huge oval – approximately 164 yards long, 147 yards wide. Can you imagine having to cover all that distance?

Even though the game was awesome, that isn’t what I’m going to remember the most. The thing I will remember from yesterday is the ticket man I dealt with. One of the student coordinators at VU that I’ve become friends with, offered me four free tickets for Sunday’s game, and said she would put them under my name to pick them up. However when I got up to the booth to claim my tickets, the man said there was nothing under my last name. He obviously knew I was American, and I looked helpless because I had no idea what to do. He told me to wait a second, and about a minute later he came back with four tickets. He had printed out new tickets, and gave them to us for free. I mean how wonderful is that? I realize that a lot of variables went into that situation – he could’ve been having a bad day, I could’ve thrown a fit when the tickets weren’t under my name – but instead, that was the outcome. Always try and keep a smile on your face my friends, because you never know what it will bring you. 

Today I went on a field trip with some of the other university students to visit a wildlife sanctuary as well as a winery. I learned an important tip today: always dress a layer too warm, because then if you do in fact get too warm, you can take off a jacket and be fine. The winter wind here in Melbourne takes you by surprise and has taught me that you can always expect it to be about ten degrees colder then you actually think it will be. Needless to say, five hours later, I still feel like my toes are thawing out. Despite the weather being not awesome, I got to see some more Australian wildlife I hadn’t seen before. I saw my first Tasmanian devil, platypus, dingo, and skink. Here’s what I have to say about each animal.

1.     Tasmanian devils look adorable, but they sound awful. They completely transform when they open their mouths to reveal their teeth. They go from, “I could definitely cuddle with that” to “oh my gosh, get me away!” in about two seconds. With the two we saw today, I think we caught them in the middle of an argument or something, because they sounded like they were having a heated discussion. 

2.     I’m stealing Devin’s description of what a platypus looks like: an otter that got a beak smashed on the front of its face. I was under the impression that platypuses were actually quite large, but they are actually about foot or so long. They are also nocturnal, so to see them we had to go in a dimly lit cave and take the zoo guide’s word that the platypuses were there. However, at the last second, one little guy dove into the water and started swimming in circles. He seemed pretty content with swimming laps, and I was totally content watching him for however long, but alas we had to move on. Another interesting fact about the platypus though is that they are one of three animals that lay eggs, but feed their children milk.

3.     The dingo is a half wolf, half dog breed, native to Australia. Again, you have the gut reaction of wanting to snuggle with them, yet they are pretty vicious hunters in the wild. The three we saw today definitely didn’t care that we were there and just pretended to sleep. I say pretended because at one point, one raised its head, but as soon as I reached for my camera it went back to not paying attention to me.

4.     Skink – not skunk – is a little lizard. I got to see one because we were visiting the animal infirmary when one was getting its little bandages taken off his feet and tail. Skinks are a very group orientated species; therefore they usually get along pretty well, as they generally like everyone in their group. However, the skink we saw today had gotten beaten up by the others in its group and deemed an outcast. How sad is that? They can’t release him back to that same group because he would just get torn to pieces all over again. It was so peculiar to see a lizard, no bigger than an iPhone, have little bandages made small enough for his wounds. However, there is hope for the little injured one because sometimes outcasts from different groups form their own groups. With that said, the zookeeper in charge of handling the skink’s wounds sounded determined to set him up with a female who had been voted off her island to help ease the pain.

Something incredible that I forgot to share before is how marsupials are born. What makes marsupials unique is how the female carry their young in their pouches. Whether it is a koala or kangaroo, the little embryo that is born is no larger than a jellybean. It has no feet and no eyesight, only little arms, and somehow has to make it into the mom’s pouch on its own. The mom helps out the process by licking a path in her fur to help direct her joey into her pouch. After the mom makes the trail, it is up to the joey to make the journey. And that folks, is one of the reasons Mother Nature is so incredible.

The zoos and sanctuaries here in Australia have this campaign called “Wipe for Wildlife”. It sounds weird, but hear me out. Before I had heard about this campaign, I had never even considered the impact I was having on wildlife with my toilet paper choices. They now make 100% recycled toilet paper, and what it does is help stop deforestation. So next time when you’re shopping for toilet paper, think of me telling you to buy recycled toilet paper. And then smile, because you realize how much you miss me.

Since I got here, I had wondered how my first purchase of alcohol would go. Would the cashier demand to see my ID? Would I start sweating from being so nervous, even though I’m of legal age here? Well, it was pretty anticlimactic. Compared to how getting into the club last week went for me, it was a breeze. Quick side story:

Before I got here, it was recommended I buy a passport card, that way I wouldn’t have to carry my passport around with me for being identified as of age. Well last week when we went out, I brought my card with me. The bouncer told me “he’d let it slide this time” but for me to bring my passport next time. I was offended he didn’t even think I was actually over the age of 18. So rude.

Anyway, so when I went to get my drink of choice the other night, I was ready to stand my ground. No need – with a smile, the cashier just scanned the bottle and told me how much I owed him. I got all hyped up on adrenaline for nothing. And yes, you can obviously tell I’m not much of a thrill seeker if that kind of situation is what gets my blood pumping. 

I’m taking this ultimate Frisbee thing pretty seriously. I think by the bruises and marks I have on my body from practicing, it should be pretty apparent I mean business. The picture I posted is of my arm after practicing throwing and catching. See what I mean? Turns out, the six times I played played ultimate, I had no idea what I was doing when I went to throw or catch a Frisbee. So today consisted of breaking down all my bad habits, and my forearm taking a beating. But it’s all going to be worth it, because this team participates in what is called the Uni Games. University sports are different here, in that you don’t go to school as a college athlete. There are specific schools designated for players who want an education in their sport. So, for people who are going to Victoria University, which is the school where I’m studying at, you play your sport through club teams. The Uni Games is where university club teams from all over Australia travel to the Gold Coast to compete for a week. From what I’ve been told, the teams of course want to win, but it’s not a super hostile atmosphere. What I mean by that is that at the end of the week no matter how poorly you do, you still party hard with everyone. Our advisor here said an exchange student last year compared the Uni Games to how spring break in Cancun might be, but only 10x more intense. The games take place over their spring break, so at the end of September. It’s a goal of mine to try and keep the amount of times I get hit in the face with a Frisbee to one until then.

The kitchen here at the village is pretty sub par, but the smell is probably the worst part of it. Thanks to people who have never learned about food safety or how to clean the counters after spilling something, there is a permanent stench that just hangs in the air every time I open the door. Because I’m only here for a short while, I don’t think buying a fridge is very cost effective, which means I have to use the community one in the kitchen. Every time I open the fridge door, I get greeted with a new smell. It absolutely disgusts me that people leave things like raw meat uncovered on the top shelf or their cream of mushroom sauce just hanging out without saran wrap covering it. I have claimed a little drawer in the bottom right corner of the fridge for my stuff, attempting to make all my food farthest away from all the possible cross contamination that could happen. Now I’m not a germaphobe, like if I drop something on the ground, I’ll run it under some water and eat it. Therefore, I don’t have ridiculous standards for what a clean kitchen or fridge should look like, I’m just saying that people should realize Tupperware containers have lids for a reason.

I know I talked about boy’s pants a while back, but now it's about their shorts. It really struck me how common shorter shorts are for guys this morning, because while I was working out, a guy was literally wearing the exact same pair of shorts I was. For the most part, boys’ shorts seem to all come to rest about mid thigh. It always catches me off guard, but I guess that’s just because I was raised in a culture where guys aren’t brave enough to show off their thighs. Instead, it’s just the women worrying about their jiggly thighs, while guys get to hide under their extra inches of material.

Last night, I played the most intense ultimate Frisbee game of my life. So intense in fact, I split my chin. Now to all you rookies out there, don’t make the same rookie mistake I did and try and catch a Frisbee with your face, or you’ll get hurt. Want to know the best part of the experience though? Devin was the one who through the Frisbee. It cut straight through the air, right through the hands of another teammate. And there I was – realizing my opportunity to live in the spotlight – when sooner than I realized, I made contact with it. However, instead of it being with my hands or even my arm or a bigger body part, it hit my chin. Now because I’m so tough, I didn’t let it slow me down. However, at the end of that round my teammates came over to me, asking if I knew I had blood dripping down my chin. So there you have it – my first real experience with ultimate. I do have to say that even though my chin looks a little rough, the team is awesome and I am so excited to be a part of it.

Now, if I was asked to choose the more dangerous object between a Frisbee and a boomerang, I would totally choose the boomerang. Strangely though, I didn’t get hurt throwing it. Devin has become obsessed with going out into the field by the student village and throwing his boomerang. Mind you, there are trees, cars, and houses to potentially hit or lose your boomerang to, but that doesn’t stop him. Twice I’ve had to get up on his shoulders to retrieve his boomerang from a throw gone astray. The last time he went out to practice throwing, I went with him to try it out. I couldn’t get it to come all the way back to me, but it was still super cool. There are different flight patterns a boomerang can take and Devin bought one that makes two loops before it comes back to you. He’s gotten it to come all the way back to him multiple times, which makes him turn into a little boy – huge grin on his face and jumping up and down, while clapping his hands. Me on the other hand, I got it about one and half loops around before it landed a little ways away. Practice makes perfect though! Luckily I think I’ll have enough time here to perfect my throwing before I come home.

In class yesterday, my biomechanics teacher was explaining various equations about things like velocity and acceleration, and to complete those equations you use signs like “theta” and “omega”. Not very entertaining stuff, except when you have an Australian pronouncing those words. To my teacher, theta is theet-a and omega is oh-meh-gah, with the emphasis on the gah. Devin and I giggled every time he said them. Say it out loud, and I promise you will giggle too.

Monday afternoon, Devin and I found something wonderful. Fievel: An American Tale and Fievel Goes West – two childhood movies for $8! Oh my gosh, we watched An American Tale last night and it made us feel back at home instantly. Hopefully you can share our love for these movies too. If you haven’t seen either of them, then I’m sorry but you didn’t have a childhood. 

Despite how homesick I still am, it’s crazy how fast time is flying. It’s weird to think that the second week of classes starts tomorrow. I can honestly say I have only done about 30 minutes of studying outside of class, and that wasn’t even required. Now don’t worry mom or dad, or any other concerned adult, I will eventually have work to do – my class syllabi showed me that – but for now I’m relaxing without the schoolwork. However, all this free time has almost been too much. I’m craving to get a routine down because I think that is what is going to save me, because whenever I’m not with Devin or my friends, I have time to think about home and everything associated with it. I applied to shadow at the campus gym, I applied to be a student volunteer, and I could be joining the university’s ultimate Frisbee team. So I have a bunch of potential things to take up my time, but nothing has taken off yet. Another reason why I need a structured schedule with things to do is I need to actually start remembering the date. Since I still feel like I’m on vacation, I’m not paying attention to the date and now it’s almost August and I’m just like, “huh?”

After two late nights out Thursday and Friday, I decided Saturday and Sunday should be little lower key. So what did Devin and I decide to do? Well today we went to the Melbourne aquarium! We saw all kinds of aquatic life, like baby penguins, pregnant seahorses, and shark rays as big as my car. Here is a fun fact you can share with everyone for your Sunday: daddy seahorses are the ones who carry around the little ones in their tummy. Speaking of fun facts, I learned something else that is really interesting in my sports psychology class last week. We were talking about how even something as simple as colors can set someone off into a feeling a certain way, and then we got onto to the topic of fast food restaurants. My teacher shared with us that there was a study done that linked the color red with hunger. So think about all the fast food restaurants you know, and try and think of one that doesn’t have red in its logo. The only one I could think of was White Castle. Isn’t that crazy?

I posted a picture I snapped of a manta ray today. I love this picture because look how it’s smiling! Hopefully it made you smile too. It’s these little things, like this picture or the sweet song a bird chirps as it flies over my head, that keep my spirits uplifted while I’m here and still missing everything so badly back home. I’m not at all regretting my decision being here, it’s making me grow every single day already. The biggest lesson I’ve learned, and I know it’s so cliché, is not taking for granted the simple, little things. For everyone back home, it’s some of the best advice I can give, even if you’ve heard it a billion times. Go hug your mom and dad, or snuggle with your pooch. And if you’re in Bloomington, you could even go hug my parents and snuggle with my dog for me. Remember, it’s only weird if you make it weird. 

Many wonderful things happened last night, the first being that my Aussie mate, who actually studied at IU last fall, told me he loves and listens to Wagon Wheel regularly. To cope with the waves of homesickness, Devin and I have been listening to country music as well as Jimmy Buffet. Last night some of the Aussies we were hanging out with asked us to play a “real American song”. When I picked Wagon Wheel, not only did Devin squeal in excitement, Cam, my Aussie mate, did as well. 

The paint part of the paint party was pretty weak last night. The first problem was that they were balloons filled mostly with water and only a few drops of paint. Therefore, if you got hit, you mostly just became soaked and instantly freezing because the water that filled the balloons was cold. The other problem for me was since the water was cold, I felt bad intentionally throwing it a balloon at someone. I took a hit on my leg and that was good enough for me to bow out of the balloon throwing early. I uploaded a picture of the shoes to just to show how dirty I got – notice the lack of paint. If you look really closely though on my left shoe you can see a faint blood spot on the inside. Anyone who has been to a party with me knows how much I love to dance, and now as a result of that fact, I have a little scrap on my ankle to help me remember my first night out in Australia. It was crazy how closely the place we went to last night resembled a fraternity party. The music was the same, and so were the slick floors and stages. All I had to do was close my eyes and I felt like I was back at IU.

In case you don’t know, Hugh Jackman is Australian. This means everyone in Australia is super psyched about the new wolverine movie that is coming out. Hugh Jackman is literally everywhere – on TV, on poster boards on busses and in malls, and on every single Australian magazine cover. No matter where you look, you can’t escape a picture of Hugh with his shirt off, flexing and screaming.