Tropfest

so last night i went to a festival thingy called tropfest. it was put on by sony (at least i think that's who sponsored it). it was a short film festival that started around 7pm. some of the films were really funny and there were a couple of serious ones. one that was kinda morbid was called Lucky. its starts out with this guy tied up in the trunk of a car. he gets himself untied and out of the trunk to find that the car is speeding down a road with no one driving. he somehow manages to get into the drivers seat and gets the car to stop. however a few seconds later the car blows up. like i said this film was a little morbid. another one of the films i thought was really funny (i forget the name of it) involved an animated mouse/rat that was trying to get back an umbrella (all the films had to have an umbrella in them somehow) that a guy took from him. the umbrella was pretty much the mouse's house. film ends with the mouse living inside the guys house and the guy is stuck outside with the umbrella and it starts to rain.

volleyball yesterday was fun, not as many people as last week though. its also going to end up costing more money than i had thought (only $90 more) which is for the recreational league. it would be more to play in any of the other leagues. i'm also happy because my legs are not nearly (if at all) as sore as they were last week after vball (i didn't really stretch this week either which is why i'm happy my legs aren't sore). i figure my legs/muscles were sore last week because i hadn't used them to play vball in a while.

oh yeah i just remembered one of the things i had meant to type about in previous posts. shoes. yup thats the topic. in australia it is acceptable to walk around bare foot if you want to. this includes in the mall, classes, etc. gotta go real fast. cheers

Horse races

so yesterday i went to a race horse thingy. it was pretty fun. the majority of the people dress up (guys in suits, girls in dresses). this meant that i had to find a suit to wear. where else to find a suit but the salvations army (called salvos here). i got a suit and tie for $15 dollars. i got pics of the people i went with (and me) that i'll have to add sometime. i didn't bet any money, but a couple of the people i was with bet (one lost $20 and the other won $6). it was a pretty fun day. and then after races while we were all still dressed up, dan (aussie friend) made chicken schnitzle (not sure if thats spelled right) with broccoli, carrots, and mashed potatos. then we went to mcdonalds for mcflurry's (this is still while we're all dressed up).

there's a group of us that are going to take turns making dinner, which will be nice 'cause i don't tend to eat all that well when its only me i have to feed. plus this way i'll actually be eating good. i think when it's my turn to cook, i'm going to make meat loaf (a couple of aussie friends said i needed to make it). its going to be interesting though 'cause i've never made it before and my mom didn't have an actual recipe. oh well, the worst that can happen is that i make it and then never make it again. i'm not sure of any other "american" type dishes i can make that they don't already have here. so if you know of anything that you think i can make (this limits things a lot) leave a comment or send me an email.

hmmm....what else is there? on the weekend of the 11th i'm going to be going to the tallest "mountain" (or one of the tallest) in australia. its around 2,000 feet or something like that. i suppose from sea level it makes it look a lot bigger. the trip is going to be with the other international students, which is always fun.

not sure what my plans are for the rest of the day, except for i have volleyball from 1-4 and then i need to call barb to wish her a happy b-day (although for me her bday was yesterday). other than that i really don't know. i hope tonight isn't the night i'm suppose to cook. if so i need to get to the store to buy the ingredients 'cause i basically have nothing except for bread, peanut butter, jelly, mayo, butter, couple slices of sandwich meat, and several packages of roman noodles. well its about 1 here, so i better head to volleyball. cheers

few more pics

hey just put 5 more pics in my photo album. there's one of the spider that was in my room, then there are 3 of my room (i was trying to get enough pics so you could see how big/small the room is), and one of the block in university village i live in (i don't think you can see the building i actually live in in the photo).

i just remembered something i was going to type about which i had forgotten about until a few seconds ago. the topic is money and such. there are no single cent coins here (ie no pennies). everything gets rounded to 5 cents or 10. for example if your total amount comes to $17.96, you just pay 17.95 or if what you want to buy is 19.99, you pay 20. its nice not having a pocket filled with one cent coins. although i'm still getting use to having coins that are actually worth something (they have $1 and $2 coins). the 2 dollar coin is actually smaller than the 1 dollar coin which i thought was a little different. their 50 cent coin though is bigger than all the coins, but then again the US dime is smaller than the other coins too, so i guess its not all the strange. well i have class soon, and just wanted to let everyone know there's a few more pictures

cheers

Spiders are going to die

so this morning when i was getting ready to go to class (or uni as they say here) i saw a spider. i was glad that it had actually crawled into a plastic sack 'cause this made it easier to kill and throw away. anyways the spider was huge (ok not the biggest ones that they have here, most aussie's would probably call it small, but it was big enough in my book). i took a picture of it before i killed it so eventually i'll add it to my yahoo photo album.

also i've taken some pictures of my room which i'll also be adding. still need to get a pic of the building i'm in though. speaking of the building i'm in, i think i'm the only "new" student in there now, the other one moved out or something. oh well, i usually hang out at a different one anyways.

classes are going good so far, really haven't had anything assigned yet though. my graphic design technology class sounds like its going to be a lot of fun. today we learned more about what digital camera's can do. next week we're going to start taking pictures for our assignments. i need to go get a bigger memory card thing, but the teacher was able to get us a deal at one of the camera stores. for $90 or so we can get a 256 megabyte compact flash memory card and a multicard reader/transferer (for all you non-technical people it something that you stick the memory card in to transfer the pics to the computer).

different note. UC has a different internet server/system for the ressies than it does for the other buildings. the system and such for the other buildings like what i'm using now has the best virus protection and such, but the ressie one doesn't. i only brought this up because the internet in the ressies hasn't been working almost all week and they say its do to a virus someone made or had on their comp. i think the girl in my building is still going to let me use her old computer, but i really haven't asked since she had first mentioned it. should probably mention/ask about it later today 'cause i think this is the weekend she was going home and was going to get it.

oh yeah, last night was lots of fun. i participated in foster a fresher, where a returning student was paired up with a new student (being paired up really didn't matter though). anyways we went a played lazer tag and it was lots of fun and i didn't run into any walls. everyone got to play 3 different games. after the first game i was ranked 22 out of 25, but then in the following 2 games i was ranked 12th and then 13th out of 25. although each game i got shot a lot more times than i shot other people. after lazer tag we went to an ice cream shop, that's is somewhat similar to coldstone. you pick the basic ice cream and then what you want in it. although last night since there was so many of us we only had a choice of 4 different kinds. i ended up getting oreo, didn't feel too adventurist to try the wild berry one or some kind of crunch one (the other kind was m&m mini's).

talking of m&m's made me remember that there are no reese's peanut butter cups in australia. although they do have a lot of other good candy/chocolate. actually there's a cadbury factory somewhere in australia, i want to say its in melbourne, but i'm not sure. oh yeah and they have carmello's (chocolate w/ creamy carmel in the middle), but they're in the shape of little koalas. well i got class soon and there's some other things i need to do, laters

buffy club and classes

k so i did find the buffy club (its angel too), the club itself is called slayers society (not exactly what i would call it, but i didn't make the club). basically they just watch buffy and angel. didn't really say how often they watch it though and who knows if i'm actually going to have time to watch it. i just wanna watch buffy every now and then anyways. they also said they have trivia nights and a dance thing, definately know i'm not going to go to the dance thing. might go to the trivia, but highly doubt it.

wednesday are going to be really boring and long when labs and tutorials (recitation basically). i'll be going from 8:30-12:30 and then 2:30-5:30 and it's all for the same class (3hrs of lab, 3hrs of lecture, and 1hr of tutorial). right now i'm bored out of my mind 'cause the stuff we're going over is a review for me (not sure if it is for the others or not). we're going over line, surface, and volume integrals right now. for the first couple weeks i think its going to be the same as electric and magnetic fields (i think that was the class name) at tech, but then get into whatever class follows e&m fields. the prof that i have for it is kinda entertaining. for the hr lecture yesterday (meaning i have a total of 4hrs of lecture for the class) he was talking about stuff we could and couldn't see and things that we can touch. he said something about not being able to see electricity but we could touch it if we wanted to die (it was really funny especially 'cause he's not australian, or if he is, he's the only prof i've had so far that is kinda hard to understand). he says theta as teta and phi as pi (which makes me wonder how he says pi). oh yeah and z is zed or something like that (and thats how the australians say it too).

well really can't think of anything else to type right now, so laters

laundry day

ok so this is not the first time i've done laundry while i've been here, but its the first time i actually really (and i mean really) needed to. i was starting to run out of clothes (i coulda gone for another couple weeks with all the clothes back home though). i think i need to go buy more shorts or something, get some aussie style clothes, which really isn't all that different (and yes i know this sentence is not gramatically correct). the only diff i've noticed so far is that there are guy capris (or just really long shorts).

today is another market day for the clubs to have a booth set up in the concourse (the center of campus). i really want to see if there's a buffy club. not sure if i'd join it or not, but if there is one i want to know what they do. tv shows that made me think of how they're behind in the OC episodes (have i talked about this already?). i was thinking it would be fun to go to the tv room that a bunch of girls go to to watch the episodes and sit in the back and say stuff like "hey this is when blah blah blah happens" how many people do you think would get pissed off at me? actually there's several people that have the episodes that haven't even been aired yet in australia on their computers (thanks to all the people in the states or whatnot that record it on their comp and put it online, like spork). did i even give spork my blog addy, i forget.

anyways, i think i should go check on my laundry or see if there are any more clubs out in the concourse. cheers

kangaroos out my window

so this was actually something i meant to type in my other post but forgot to. yesterday there were a couple of 'roos sitting outside my window. i was going to take a pic, but my camera was in someone elses room (building for that fact). i tend to spend a lot of time in the ressies that aren't my own, but everyone i really met last week is a new student and there's only me and one other new student in the building i'm in.

went shopping this morning too (9am). i think that's the earliest i've ever gone grocery shopping, but i needed food since all the free bbq's are over. actually there's a free one next monday for the people that want to join the touch footy team (touch rugby, really fast paced and really tiring). oh yeah that made me remember that i played vball for 3 hrs on sunday and my legs are really sore now (it hurts to walk up or down stairs). i need to remember to stretch next time.

other things going on hmmm.....i've been trying to think of things i want to do while i'm here. so far i've come up with i want to go sailing for several days around whitsunday/frazer islands (they're near the great barrier reef i think), go to fiji, and take a multiple day surfing lesson. actually most the stuff i want to do is just to go hang out at a beach to swim, play sand vball, etc.

well i think i'm gonna email some people now, feel free to leave a comment.

cheers

Misc. stuff

so today is the 2nd day of classes for me. actually i have class in about 1/2 an hour so this is going to be pretty short.

shoot, i forget what i was going to type about. hmm....ok i guess i'll start off with the only class i had yesterday. its called graphic design technology. in it we learn how to use adobe photoshop, so i'm hoping it won't be too hard of a class. the only hard part i can think of right now is that we are going to be using apple computers. granted they probably are better for adobe photoshop, but i still don't like using them. the ones UC has in its labs are really new though, at least they look like it. there is no tower or anything. everything plugs into the screen section (including using cd's. also a part that isn't going to be very fun is that we're suppose to have use a digital camera that has at least 4.0 megapixels and the one i have is only 3.1 i talked to the prof though and he said that mine should be fine for the first couple of assignments, and then i'll just have to borrow one from someone or the school (they have a few to lend out).

you know how i mentioned that we're allowed to bring the trolleys (shopping carts) back to campus, well there are now 3 of them in a tree (top that andy). and no i wasn't one of the people that put them up there.

things are actually slowing down now that classes have begun. although tomorrow night my ressie is doing a thing called "foster a freshie" and its where a freshmen/new student gets paired w/ a returning student or whatnot. anyways i forget exactly what we're going to do except i know we are going to be playing lazer tag for some of it (i'll have to see if they have signs that say no running, and if they do try not to run into any walls like i have before, right ashley?)

one thing here that everyone is talking/complaining about right now is that everyone is suppose to take all their electrical devices to have them checked out for fire safety or something like that. meaning that they have to take their computers, tvs, stereos, etc to make sure they run correctly. for once i'm glad i don't have any of those things. i just have my phone charger, iPod charger, cd player ac adapter, and camera charger. i don't think i'm gonna take them down to get checked out. they had left a message that things that haven't been checked can be confiscated (did i spell that right?), but they can't just go into our rooms without reason (this is also true in australia). and i figure that i can fit everything into a drawer when i'm not using it.

anyways i think i want to go find were my next class is at, i know the building, but not the classroom. cheers

paranoid

i'm a little paranoid right now. as i was walking to the comp lab, i felt something on my neck. turns out it was a bug of some kind (really didn't pay too much attention before it got smashed). coulda been a spider or coulda just been some harmless insect. either way its dead now.

anyways, i'm amazed that this is like the 3rd day in a row (i think its been 3, the days are all running together) that i've been at a computer. ooooo, and one of the girls that lives in the same ressie (dorm) as me has an old laptop comp at home that she said i could use. this means i'll have a comp in my room and will be able to IM (instant message) people. i was so excited when she said that, especially 'cause i was going to go to the cashier's office or whatnot to get rid of the internet in my room (to get $60 back).

hmmm....what else is there. i've been living off of the free bbq's for the past week. it's a good thing i like the sausages they have 'cause all the bbqs are the same. tonight though there's free pasta somewhere. and then on sunday the v-ball club has a free bbq and games. next week is going to be weird when i actually have to start cooking for myself. gonna have to borrow pots and pans from other people though. oooo, that just made me remember that another person in the ressie i'm in had califlower (is that spelled right?) cooked in some sort of spicy sauce. it was really good.

yesterday was a lot of fun. went and got coffee with a couple of aussie's (belinda and dan), and then walked around the mall trying to find a b-day present for a girl that lives on belinda's floor. i don't know how long we spent in toys r us, but it was quite a while. belinda ended up getting a magic 8 ball (she wasn't sure if she was going to but then she asked it if she should and it said yes definately). oh yeah and getting there was really fun too, mostly because it was the first time i was in a car (not a bus) riding on the left side of the street. it was even weirder 'cause i was sitting shotgun so i felt like i should have the steering wheel in front of me.

continuing on, last night it was trivia night at the uc bar (it was comedy night wed night). my team ended up coming in 5th place or something like that. it was fun, especially when they said the topic of one of the rounds. the topic was the OC. me and another guy (forgot his name, but i think it starts with an R) on my team knew all the answers (as did all the other teams 'cause i think every team got all the answers right). also aussies have this one game where there are several gifts wrapped together in different layers. like you wrap one of the items, then put the next item next to it and wrap both of them together, etc. anyways, then they play music and you pass the package around and when the music stops the person holding it onwraps one of the layers and gets that gift.

after the trivia went to a club for a while. dancing is really tiring (i'm surprised i was "dancing"). after the club went to a place called checkers (fast food place). i got a grog bog (i think that's how you spell it, its not actually on the menu), a grog bog is a sandwich thing. you have the bun/roll and then you fill it with fries and bacon and cover it with cheese (i think there was also bbq sauce in it). it was really good, so unhealthy but really good. also split a "bucket of death" (i think thats what it was called, i know it envolved death) with a couple people. the bucket of death is just fries covered in gravy.

ok, needless to say yesterday was heaps of fun, i'm still tired so i think i'm gonna go take a nap before the free pasta and karaoke tonight at the uc bar (i don't plan on singing, but i'm pretty sure i'll end up singing). i'm going to be so glad when classes start and i can get into a routine. cheers (aussie way of saying laters).

pictures

http://photos.yahoo.com/sdbrak18
so that's the page, some of the pics aren't very good (like the first one). and you may find that some are just signs (if i see a sign i think is funny i take a picture of it). the last 2 are from cairns, when i got to hold the koala and when i was scuba diving. well i have some other stuff to do know, but have fun.

Pictures

g'day mates, so i'm actually at a computer again (2 days in a row, its amazing). not too much has changed since yesterday though. there was something i was going to type about but once again i forgot, oh well. so i wasn't able to get the pictures online, at least not yet, i'm trying to figure that out still (actually going back and forth between my blog and figuring it out).

k i think i got it figured out, its just taking a while 'cause i can only add one pic at a time 'cause the school comp won't let me download the program or whatnot yahoo has to add several pics at once. anyways i'm gonna get back to transferring pics. i'll send the addy of where the pics can be found in an email or maybe i'll just put a link on my blog, who knows.

Finally another entry

sorry to everyone for not getting an entry typed sooner, but i've been pretty busy (and when i'm not the labs don't seem to be open, mostly because classes haven't started yet). i guess i'll start off with what i did this weekend. i went on a trip with other international students (mostly american or canadian) to a beach (7 mile beach or something like that). the city we were in was called gerroa. anyways on monday we had surfing lessons if we wanted to and of course i tried to surf (notice the tried). i wasn't able to stand on the board for more than a couple of seconds before falling. i've decided though that i can't come back to the states without learning to surf (for more than a couple seconds). i think i wanna live near the ocean it was just awesome (my feet and back of my legs got kinda burnt though). also the international orientation people set it up so a footy team (one of the kinds of rugby, there's 3 don't ask me what the diff is though)would teach us how to play touch footy on the beach. this was also really awesome.

after surfing, laying on the beach, playing touch footy, we had a bbq. i wonder if i'm going to get tired of all the free bbq's (i doubt it although they all have the same food, sausages). there was a free one last night and i think there's another one today too. anyways back to the one from the weekend. it was a girls 21st b-day so there was cake (actually it was more like a big brownie, that's how thick/rich it was). a couple pieces of it ended up on the orientation leaders faces, shirt, in their hair, etc. it was pretty funny. oh yeah and then we partied back at the hostel we were at. i have some pictures (not any of me "surfing" but some of the beach and such, i'll try to figure out how to get those online).

since this is Oweek now (orientation week) i think there's going to be more partying since everyone is coming back (and i thought last week was heaps (aussie for a lot) of partying. there's lots of things going on today. right now there's market day, which it looks like a garage sale type thing, but also the different clubs are suppose to have the own little table and such. guess what i also found out. someone said that there was a buffy club, how funny is that? i'm not really sure if they just sit and watch episodes or what, but i think i'm definately going to check it out. i missed the oc last night, but they haven't even started the new season yet so i haven't really missed anything. hmmm.....what else to talk about. can't really think of anything else right now, i know there was a whole bunch of things i wanted to type, but i didn't write it down so i don't remember. actually i think i'm going to try to figure out the picture stuff. hope everyone is doing good and email me if you want (might take a while to respond)

University life

hey everyone, sorry its been a couple of days, but i just got my student id number and such yesterday.

anyways i'm having a lot of fun so far (minus having to go and listen to people talk about the school and where things are, just like when we all were freshmen). lets see what should i type about? there's so many things in my mind that i'm sure i'm going to forget to type some of them.

i guess i'll start with the mall that's within walking distance from campus (like a 10-15 min walk). the mall has everything in it (like food, clothing, kmart, deli, everything) and it has 3 levels, all with stores and such. i don't think its as big as the mall of america, but it is still big. oooo and this is the best part about the mall. you would think that since you walk there that you really can't buy all the much, but you can and you don't have to worry about carrying it back either. you can just take the shopping cart back to campus and then sometime during the week someone on campus or something goes around and collects all the carts to take them back. i thought this was completely awesome. it's entertaining (at least for me) that i have to walk up a hill to get to my ressie (dorm room), its kinda like walking up to connolly from surbeck for all you that know the SDSM&T campus, but anyways back to shopping carts. it was fun trying to push this almost full shopping cart up this hill just so i could unload it.

last night was a blast. and that's all i'm gonna say about that. actually classes haven't started yet, so it really doesn't matter what i do at night. so last night there was a punch party (a party were they serve punch, not very strong punch at least i didn't think so) which started at 7pm. it had started off kinda slow (ie me not really knowing anyone there). well i guess i knew some other exchange students, but i don't want to just always hang around them. anyways back to the party. when you entered you got a name tag (not your own name) and you were suppose to find the person that had a name tag that went along with what you got. the name i had was paul. it turned out that i was supposed to find someone with the name izzy. paul and izzy are the names of a couple people on an aussie tv show called neighbors (or something like that). it really didn't matter if you found your person or not though. guess what other names i saw. i saw the names from the OC. so it turns out they have it here too. the show is on tuesday nights. i found this out 'cause i was talking to this girl (don't remember her name) and she said her friends all ditched her for an hour so they could go watch OC.

well there's still more stuff i wanna type, but i have to go and sign up for the classes that i had gotten pre-approved. i'll try to write more later today, but i'm not sure (i think there's another party tonight too, and right now its just the new students that are on campus, so i'm kinda scared of what the parties are going to be like when everyone is here). anyways, talk to you later.

great barrier reef

k, so this is probably going to be short again (only have 10 minutes left on the internet card thing i have).

so last night i ended up not eating sushi, but i think i will sometime this trip. went to a bar place where we had to get up to order the food (we could order the drinks at the table though) and then they gave us the buzzer thingies that you get when you are on a wait list or whatnot at chili's or similar place. then they would buzz when the food was done and you'd go pick it up. a drink that seems kinda popular (at least to me) is vodka and red bull. i had never mixed the 2 together before (had them mixed with other things but not each other).

anyways, today we went to the great barrier reef. it was awesome. i took an intro to scuba diving thing which lasted 1/2 an hour. got lots of pictures, wish i would seen a shark or a sea turtle though. oh well maybe next time. when snorkeling or diving they advised that we should wear stinger suits (to protect against possible jellyfish). only saw one while in the water, which i think the deadly ones are ones that you really can't see. anyways, it was a blast, think i got a sunburn (it was like 100 yesterday and was probably at least 90 today). tonight we're all going to party, one of the leaders is going to go with us. tomorrow is a pretty boring day, lots of listening and then we fly to the city which we're going to be living for the next 5 months.

well my time is about to run out, but hopefully in a couple days i'll have time to get to a comp lab that i don't have to pay for it. so talk to everyone sometime (either by phone or email). laters

Cairns

K this is going to be a quick little entry, 'cause going to be going to eat sushi shortly. anyways heres some fun stuff i've done so far (sorry to all you where its cold).

the flight over was pretty good and did you know that on international flights alcohol beverages are free and that you only have to be 18. i didn't that is until my flight. a lot of us were taking advantage of the freeness of it all. flew into sydney and then waited on the plan to head to cairns for about 45 minutes (it was taking a while for them to transfer all of the luggage from our previous flight to the new/next one). got thru customs fine, didn't get anything confiscated.

the rest of yesterday was pretty uneventful. just went to the hostile we're staying at for 3 or 4 days or however long i'm here in cairns. today we went to a zoo and i got to hold a baby/small koala and no it didn't poop on me (it did to a couple other people though). then after the zoo we went to an aboriginal park, which was also fun. learned to throw a boomerang (i actually got it to come back to me, i decided to duck though instead of trying to catch it) and attempted to throw spears (this didn't go nearly as well as the boomerang, but was equally entertaining).

tomorrow we head to the great barrier reef for a full day of snorkeling and whatnot. anyways think we're leaving now (i'm kinda scared of sushi, but thats ok). hope everyones doing well, laters

Hyper-Active

so today is the day i leave, and i've been running around my house all day trying to make sure i have everything, and trying to fit things that i forgot into the bags that are already basically full. i think i finally have everything ready to go unless i remember something else. i seem to always work more efficiently at the last moment, which is what i always tend to do, plus it gives the heart a good ol workout too :)

right now what running thru my mind is that my bags aren't too heavy that i'll end up having to pay a fee or whatnot, but i don't think they are. i think my heaviest bag is around 40lbs. i'm not too sure with american airlines what their weight limit on checked bags are but with qantas its 70lbs (which is like 1/2 my weight). if i had the 2 bags that weighed the full 70lbs it would be like carrying myself around. just a weird thought that ran thru my mind.

well my mind is still racing and i feel like i should still be running around looking like a chicken with its head cut off. there are a couple more things i still need to do, like write down the phone numbers/addresses of friends and family. so if you want to make sure that i have the correct info send me an email (brak_18@hotmail.com) also my stomach is telling me its time to eat one of my last "american" meals for 5 months.

the next time i write i'll be in oz (short term for australia). laterz

1 day

so i have one day left until i'm going to be on a plane for a little 20 hours (den to lax to syd to cns). cns is cairns for all you not in the airline business. i used to laugh at my mom when she would just use the 3 letter code or whatnot for the cities and now i'm doing it, imagine that.

anyways, today i spent some time do some last minute things (which i didn't complete, at least not all of them). i had to get a transcript sent to a company that i have a scholarship from to renew the scholarship (the postmark deadline was today, imagine that, i procrastinated/forgot). i got travelers checks. went and got miscellaneous other things for australia, but forgot to get another (a cheap) pair of sunglasses, 'cause i don't think i want to take the ones i have since they're kinda pricey (at least in my opinion).

some things i gotta make sure i do tomorrow is to clean out my car, which i could still do tonight, but nah, clean my room/basement, find any more pictures of friends/family that i want to take, finish making song playlists for my ipod (i've gotten to the bands that start w/ M), burn mp3 cds (since my ipod battery isn't going to last nearly as long as my flights), and decide what else i want to take in my carry on bag.

bags, that made me think of how hard it was to pack. i mean i have a hard time packing for like a 3 day trip let alone one that's going to last 5 months. although i get to take more stuff than i would for a 3 day trip, but trying to "travel light" makes it a little harder. a hint they gave was to pack so you could mix and match outfits, but when you're packing for 5 months its really hard to not pack stuff that you can mix and match. my method of traveling light is that after i packed my bags (until they really couldn't hold any more) i unpacked everything and went over what i really wanted to take and what really didn't matter. i actually ended up doing this like 3 times. i'm glad i still have some room in the bags though, 'cause i have a couple small loads of laundry to do. and the plus side to having space in my bags is that on the trip back i can bring back lots of stuff (hopefully not exceeding the weight limit).

well i really can't think of anything else to type right now, but i'm almost positive i'm going to be writing another entry sometime later tonight, since i've had a hard time sleeping the last couple nights 'cause my mind wouldn't shut up, and now its the night before i leave, so i think i'm pretty safe to say its gonna be non-stop thoughts of australia and what it'll be like, what scenarios am i going to be put in, etc. wow that's a long sentence, not sure if its grammatically correct though, but i'm not an english major or anything close to one. anyways, laters