Wednesday, June 04, 2008, 10:30 pm

So, here I am, like a giant sitting in the valley of some huge mountain range, my clothes piled around me. They’re sorted according to a system that made sense to me as I was packing up my apartment at school, but now that I’ve pulled everything out of the boxes, it all seems pretty random.

Packing for two trips at once is fairly daunting…especially because in the Dominican Republic I have to be able to carry all of my luggage through a rural area. So I need to fit clothes and personal items for 6 months (and two climates) into one big duffel and one backpack. Agghhh!

The good thing about the impossibility of my packing predicament is that it’s keeping me from worrying about other things, like my Spanish, or losing my passport, or failing all my classes in Peru. I guess there’s plenty of time for all that once I get off the runway at Logan in…hmmm 32.5 hours.

Today I went into Boston to get my student visa for Peru. It could have been pretty stressful, except I accidentally did a practice run yesterday, when I made it to the consulate and got called up to the window only to discover that I had brought the wrong letter. The packet from IFSA that contained the letter from PUCP that the consulate wanted also contained a letter from IFSA that said basically the same thing. The PUCP one was in English, and the IFSA one in Spanish. So, silly me, I just assumed that I would want the one in Spanish…after all, the whole visa application was in Spanish, and the letter was from the Spanish-speaking University. But no, I didn’t want the letter in Spanish, I wanted the one in English. Bizarre, yes, but also a problem that could have been easily avoided had I just looked at the big colorful letterhead on either letter. Anyway, today I knew where to go and what to expect, and the process was really easy and low-stress. Also, I got to hear a lot of Peruvian Spanish accents in the little waiting room—it seems pretty easy to understand. I suspect I’ll be pretty grateful for it after spending time in the DR where I’ve heard the accent is extreme. Although maybe after two months I’ll be so used to Spanish with no S’s that I’ll have trouble readjusting…who knows?

I really don’t have time right now to mull over accents. I need to finish doing laundry, figure out what clothes to bring, make a list of other stuff to pack, create an info packet for my dad (itinerary, medical info, contacts, etc.), organize all the stuff I’m not bringing, back up my entire hard drive, write thank you’s from my grad party yesterday, and…maybe…get some sleep. We’ll see about that last one.

After a few traveling complications, I arrived in Brisbane, and met by a Butler leader. The next few days of orientation for the Australia study abroad program were exactly what I needed. They strategically planned events later in the day in order to catch up with the Aussie time change. My California stay really helped with the time change, and I would recommend it for anyone traveling this way. Another recommendation would be to plan on living out of your carry-on luggage. I took Butler’s advice, and had enough clothing to carry me through my 3-4 days without my lost luggage!

Orientation was literally a breath of fresh air – very relaxing, and “jet lag” did not really exist for me. In just a few days, we spent two days on beaches, danced with aboriginals, held some very unique animals, and toured the areas nature parks. Coming from the landlocked state of Indiana, I never really believed that I would get to surf, it seemed to good to be true! It was amazing, and I hope to go again this weekend, in a possible trip to nearby Surfer’s Paradise.

Moving in has been a slight complication, but the excitement is overwhelming! When we arrived, our RAs greeted us with a welcome dinner and drinks. There are about 15 guys living here in King’s residential College, 3 from my IFSA Australia study abroad program, and the others are from Europe and the US. Its been a long haul registering for classes, banking, and supplying our rooms, but there is always time enough for exercise and hanging out with all our new friends. The dorms here trump anything I’ve seen in the US! Our residential hall alone has a gym, Harry-Potter-style dining hall (amazing food), a Rec. room with surround sound, pool and pingpong, and room enough for plenty of friends. Free time is spent watching Aussie rules football and Rugby on the projection screen. My room also has a porch where we like to hang out. I love UQ so far.

I will close with the feelings of:

Shock – everything is so very expensive!

Awe – I wish I was born into this amazing culture!

Anticipation – Everything is so great so far, I wonder what is to come with classes next week…

Eager to leave, I wonder if I’m ready. I try to visualize myself getting off the biggest plane I’ve ever been on, and plunging into a country and culture of pure unfamiliarity. All in all, I would have to say that I am not worried, yet doubts creep up every once in a while as I try to imagine what my Australia study abroad experience will be like.

So far there have not been very few complications. My flight is no longer direct; however, the travel agent is taking good care of us.

The only thing I have to worry about for now is packing. I plan to study in Australia for a year. How much can I or should I bring? My first year of college, at the University of Hartford, I was able to bring a whole SUV full of whatever I needed, and I ended up taking too much. This is very different. When it comes to school, there is a certain comfort found in having all the resources you will need at your fingertips. I will have to learn to succeed with less. This could be a good challenge for me: try not to let expediency of materials effect my performance; rather, planning and organization. I must now fit all I will need into a single bag and a carry-on item; Mōna (my guitar) will have to count as my second luggage, unfortunately.

Let’s just hope that the excitement brought on by the imminent change and challenge will outweigh any negative surprises coming my way.

I will be staying with a college friend in California for three days before I fly out of LA for Brisbane. I’m hoping that the three hour gain will help me begin to adjust to the final 14 hour time change between Indianapolis and Brisbane.

Well the plane ride wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  My plan was to sleep very little the night before my flight (which I accomplished by going out to Scruffy Murphy’s one last time with some of my friends) and to sleep most of the way to LA since I would be landing just before 7AM.  I was exhausted when I got on the plane but only managed to sleep for about an hour after the first meal they served us.  I watched a couple movies and then wanted to sleep again, but I found myself so excited about going home that I just couldn’t.  Unfortunately the plane was delayed about an hour and a half leaving Sydney, and therefore I missed my connecting flight in LA.  There was a plane about half an hour after the one I was supposed to be one, but I ended up having to go to JFK instead of Newark.  My dad wasn’t thrilled about that, but the traffic didn’t end up being that bad.  It did take an hour to get my bags and get out of the airport though.  Also, I slept almost the whole entire trip from LA to JFK.

At this point my sleep schedule was all kinds of messed up as I had only been sleeping for a few hours at a time after random intervals of being awake.  I was tired after dinner, but stayed up until about 12:30 before falling asleep.  Somehow the crazy sleep patterns I got into managed to keep away the jet lag, and I was up and ready to go my first full day of being home.  I was happily surprised about that, especially because I had a lot of errands to take care of when I got home.  I needed my new drivers license, had to get a phone and phone plan (as my # on the family plan was disconnected before I left), tried to find a job, etc.  Also, when I went into my room I realized all of my college stuff from winter term was still scattered about.  I still need to take care of that…

So after a long day of traveling, I found that I was indeed very glad to be home.  Although I would love to visit Australia again, and I will never forget all the people I met and experiences I had there, it was just great to be home.  Especially after I got my new phone and was able to call people again and go out with some friends.  Kudos to the people who actually called my house, I appreciated that.

It’s been really tough trying to find a job because most places already hired their summer help.  I’m going to babysit for my aunt and maybe pick up some shifts at the bar I worked at last year or do some odd jobs for my dad.  I actually applied for a job at McDonalds today.  Desperate times call for desparate measures; my credit card isn’t going to pay itself.  So basically I’m looking at a very broke summer, but at least the beach is free.  I’m actually looking forward to a week long vacation in the Outerbanks this Saturday!!  It’s going to be a blast, especially because pretty much all of my mom’s side of the family is going, but I can’t believe i’m going away so soon after I just got back!!  I feel like this summer and senior year are going to fly by.  Even though all my friends are doing internships this summer, and I couldn’t get one because the semester ends so late in Australia. I believe that my choice to study in Austrailia has been the best college decision I’ve ever made.