My Aussie kitty!

One night when Adam and I were pulling into his parking spot at the apartment we spotted a kitty sitting nearby. Me being a lover of all things furry and cuddly I quickly ran over to pet the sweet kitty. A sweet kitty it was, it let me sit and pet him until Adam made me come inside. I was dying, this cat was awesome. It would jump up on its hind legs to get to my hand and everything.

After that first night we would see the cat every now and then. We would be walking up to the apartment, and all of a sudden we would hear meow! Adam sees him more than I do, because he is out cat’n around early in the morning when Adam leaves for work.

I was lying in bed reading a book on Sunday night when Adam came and told me he had a surprise for me. He had been outside putting clothes on the line when the kitty came up to him. Adam coaxed the cat to follow him up the stairs to our apartment door where I found him. Needless to say, I was a happy kitty!

Sunday Drive with Adsy

On Sunday, Adsy and I went shopping for items that he needs to put together a helmet cam for his new fancy camera. He wants to be able to take it into the surf with him and make cool videos from his videos. On our way home, I was telling Adam about how on Sundays we used to take a Sunday drives.

In the Rossmann family this was almost a Sunday tradition to have Dad drive us around the neighbourhoods on our way home from church. I never understood why we did it. I guess it was just nice to have that extra time together before pulling into the driveway, with us kids jumping out of the car, running up the stairs, and plopping ourselves on the couch to sit and watch TV for the rest of the day.

It was such a nice day on Sunday and we did not have anything else to do so I asked Adam to take me on a Sunday drive. We drove along Maroubra beach and then got out to go walk along the beach. It ended up being really cold and windy so we just stopped and looked at the water for a bit. Good thing Adam had his camera with him to capture the fun moment.

I was sitting on this post and I looked down and this was carved right where I was sitting. Pretty funny!

Semester half way point

Six weeks of school have gone by already and I cannot believe it. We are now to the half way point for the semester. This past week of classes was my last before a two week break in the semester. The first week is considered a COFA research week so not everyone at UNSW has it. The second week is the university wide mid-semester break.

Some of the girls I was with last weekend were all talking about what they were going to do for the break. When they asked me what I was doing I realized I had not even thought about it. Now that I have been thinking about it, I probably still won’t do much besides work on all of the papers I have due when we get back. That first week back from break I have two major papers and a presentation due. Boo, no fun!

I was thinking I could also continue playing the part of the tourist by going on some tours or just taking the time to explore random parts of Sydney more. If anyone has any ideas of what I could do on my two week break, I am totally open to suggestions. I wish Adam didn’t have to work so he could go and play with me, but he is a busy bee!

Everyone knows communication is the key

This morning I was woken up by a phone call from my Dad. It was good that he called because it was 9am, I kind of slept in a little today. Anyway, as I was laying in bed talking to my dad on the phone I realized I was laying in bed in Australia, talking to my dad in America. How crazy is that? I found it amazing and natural to be talking when we are miles and time differences away from each other.

It got me thinking, thank goodness for the amount of technology we have these days to keep in contact with each other. Cell phones, email, gchat, Skype, Facebook, and all the others I have forgotten or have yet to be invented. Since being here, I have thought a lot about explorers who left their countries and families to go discover new lands. What it would have been like for them and their families to have no idea what is going on between the two. I cannot imagine. I am no explorer and I do not think I could have done it. Even coming here let’s say 15 years ago would have been hard. I would definitely be a lot more homesick than I am now. Not to say I don’t get homesick, but I don’t get it too bad because I feel like I am still instantly connected with everyone back home. It makes a huge difference.

With this, I must also add it is no fun when our great technology acts up. This morning I also tried to talk to my sister on Skype, but it was malfunctioning and not allowing me to call her. As much as I praise it when it works, I curse it just as bad or more when technology does not work. Overall though, I am thankful for it because I get to stay in contact with all of you and to me that is very important, especially for my mental health.

Videos from the koala park sanctuary

Did you know cockatoos can talk? Neither did I. Listen carefully as this polite bird asks us if we would like a cracker.

This koala was searching for the perfect leaf to munch on. Did you know koalas can smell the different levels of toxins in each leaf. They won't eat leaves with a high toxin level. Interesting.

Adsy goes to the snow, Becca plays a tourist

Adam went to the snow this weekend. He’s been dying to go all season. I think I’ve heard about how much he wanted to go a million times. Finally, the stars aligned for him and he left at 1am this morning to drive 7 hours to the snow. (This amongst other reasons is why I didn’t want to go.) Instead, I hugged and fed kangaroos and koalas, no big deal. Three other girls and I ventured out to the Koala Park Sanctuary to see all of Australia's creatures. It is amazing how many places around Sydney offer this opportunity. Off the top of my head I can think of four, Taranga Zoo, the reptile park, Koala Park sanctuary, and some wild life adventure park. I’ve been to all of them except the adventure park. I have seen most of these animals in the wild already so I think I’ve had my fill of paying to see Australia’s wildlife. Plus, it took us two hours even get to this place so I think it is safe to say I won’t be going there again.

Now time for pictures!!

We got to feed and hug on the kangaroos!!

Hello Mr. Wombat

The dingo ate your baby!!

Cassowary!!

Jack talk Thai, Jack talk Thai real well

This post may need to come with a disclaimer, I in no way intend for it to come across as mean or racist. As with all blog posts, I am merely informing those who read them of my time spent here. So if any feel uncomfortable with my choice of words, just pretend you didn’t read it.

Many people have had their experiences with Spanglish, but what about Chinglish? I have spent pretty much this whole week in a Chinglish mess. It’s been funny at times, but also very very frustrating.

In my Management and Organization class our first assignment is a group project where we have to come up with a project and fill out a grant proposal to fund said project. My partner is a nice Taiwanese girl who was pretty much forced upon me. Not a big deal. This project has been a major pain in the ass, not because of my partner, but because the project guidelines are so vague and the teacher provides no help. It’s almost over, and I am counting down the hours until I get to hand it in.

My partner and I have met several times at the good old campus library to discuss the workings of the project. The last couple of times I left frustrated and mad, again mainly because of the project itself, but also the language barrier crept in and made it hard.

Example conversation between my partner and myself:

Me: Do you think it should be this way or that way?
Partner: Yes
Me: No, which one?
Partner: Uh huh
Me: Okay this is not working……

Today I found myself spending the day going through and correcting Chinglish grammar for our project proposal. My partner and I split up the work to try and make the project go faster, and we sent each other our parts after we were done. I won’t give any specific details of what I had to read, try and figure out the meaning to, and then fix because that would be mean. All I know is I spent a good amount of time just sitting and reading a sentence over many times before I realized what she was trying to convey in the message.

I must say, I have to give the girl credit, because it definitely has to be hard for her. I do not think I could go to China and take classes in Chinese and expect to make good grades. This has for sure been a learning experience, and I am happy this project is almost over-did I mention that already? Me love you long time (said in Chinese accent of course)

Happy 2 month anniversary to me!!

Today is my 2 month anniversary of living down under. Can you believe it? I can’t. The time has flown by. This little milestone has got thinking, what have I been doing for the past two months?

I decided to list some of the things I have done since arriving in Sydney two months ago (not in any particular order)

• I arrived in Sydney (I really did!)
• Went to Canberra (we all know how that went)
• Tobogganing and playing in a little snow
• Traveled by train to Bathurst to visit Bonnie
• Port Macquarie to watch Adam surf
• International student orientation
• Sydney Biennale
• Start school
• Sculpture by the Sea Internship
• Numerous Monday night bowling adventures with Adsy
• Aroma festival at the Rocks
• Mexican food
• 1st Uni party
• Getting lost on the bus
• Indoor soccer
• Making friends or trying to at least
• Class, class and more class
• And many other little things that I cannot think of………

Obviously, there is so much to do here and I have not even begun to experience it all. Good thing I am here for another 16 months! If only school and studying did not get in the way for me to just go have fun all day long. I recognize that I need to be better about getting out and about especially on the weekends. P.S. I am open to suggestions about things to do. If anyone sees something they think I should check out just let me know!

I plan on celebrating my two month anniversary by going to dinner with Adam, my Uncle Hari, his partner Christine, and his kids tonight. I am super excited to see all of them, and I’ll let you know how it goes!

D is for Distinction

The grading scale at UNSW is completely different to how it is done in the States. There are no GPAs or ABCDF grades that compute into numbers. In fact, when I said the word GPA to a fellow Australian classmate I was met with a totally blank look. Instead, you have HD=High Distinction, D=Distinction, CR=Credit, and PS=Pass. Under the description it does give a “mark range” from 50-100, but I do not find this to mean anything since you don’t get a number grade back, only one of the four letters.

Again, I’m not really sure what happens from here. Your grade doesn’t ever get averaged into a number grade so I have no idea how they compute your final grade. According to one classmate, you either pass or you don’t. I got a “D” on my first graded assignment so I was happy, even though I still have no idea what it means.

This is how UNSW breaks down the letter grades

Grade Description
HD
High Distinction
An outstanding performance; mark range 85 - 100. Indicates that the student has produced outstanding work, and has demonstrated a high level of understanding across the entire content of the course.

DN Distinction
A superior performance; mark range 75 - 84. Indicates that the student has demonstrated superior ability to consider the course and its assessment requirements from a number of perspectives and to explore their interrelation.

CR Credit
A good performance; mark range 65 - 74. Indicates that the student has demonstrated the ability to think analytically, and contextually about the course and its assessment requirements, and to understand/present alternative points of view/perspectives and supporting evidence.

PS Pass
An acceptable level of performance; mark range 50 - 64. Indicates that the student has addressed the assessment requirements of the course and has demonstrated an acceptable understanding of the issues entailed.

It's the little things in life....

Right now I really should be working on an assignment that I have due next week, but a little voice keeps saying, “don’t worry you have time, its not due until next week.” I wish I could easily squash this voice and get to work on my assignment. Instead, I decided that I have not been blogging enough lately and I would write a totally worthless post for all of you back home. I should not say worthless because I found enjoyment over today’s choice of topic, but all of you might find it hard to relate or more accurately put, care about what I am writing.

Don’t you just love when little things make you happy? I do, and little things like office supplies always creates excitement and happiness for me. For as long as I can remember I have loved having/playing with office supplies. The best time of year for me was shopping for back to school items; not clothes like a normal girl, but school supplies. We would go, buy all of the new things, and then I would sit for hours arranging and rearranging all my new things in my new backpack. Oh what simple bliss that was.

Yesterday, I was actually working on school work when I decided I didn’t have everything I needed to help me out this semester. I have a bunch of papers for each class (course outlines, readings, etc.) that I didn’t have anywhere to put or a way to keep them nice. For the past three weeks I have been stuffing them inside my spirals and everyday the edges of those papers get more and more frayed and torn. Not happy about that. I decided I need folders for each class for my papers to be kept nice.

Adam and I went to the grocery store to do our weekly run, and there I found not only the folders I needed, but they were color coordinating to the spirals I had. Jackpot! The only color they didn’t have to perfectly match my spirals was green, so I was forced to get a clear one for that class. So now I would have to say I am totally set to make straight A’s this semester. Like I said, it’s the little things in life.

P.S. I will add that Adam already knows what a total nerd I am and my excitement over my purchase last night only confirmed what he already knew; that I am a huge dork.

Mexican's in Australia?

I’m not going to lie, when Adam told me we were going to a Mexican food restaurant for his friend Howzy’s birthday I got a little nervous. After eating the most disgusting Mexican food I have ever had in my life while visiting my grandma in Atlantic, IA., I made a vow to never eat Mexican food unless it was found in Mexico or a border state. (i.e. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California)

We went to Poco Cantina located in “the spot” in Randwick. The Spot has pretty much every type of food you could imagine and want. It is pretty awesome. When I walked into Pocos I was hit in the face with that delicious Mexican smell, the smell of fresh chips made in the back. This excited me; maybe there were REAL Mexicans in the back making authentic Mexican food.

The décor looked legit for a Mexican food place. The wall colors had a nice red and white color with brick arches. They had those flag things strung along the ceiling. There was even a map of Mexico on one of the walls. Not too bad of a job.

After we sat down the waiter took our drink orders and I ordered a strawberry margarita. Supposedly they had regular margaritas, but I didn’t notice until after I had ordered; also the regular margaritas were in a small martini glass and looked more like a not good Mexican martini. Disappointing. My strawberry margarita came and was actually pretty delicious. I enjoyed it enough to have two!

The menus were handwritten and were pretty funny. They had everything on there from buffalo wings to Mexibread? to chimichangas. They menu also had a glossary on the inside explaining what a chimichanga was. The glossary also told me what burritos, tostadas, and what enchiladas were. Thank you for being so helpful menu. Obviously, I’m being mean because I have grown up with these items and know what they are. Clearly people who haven’t grown up with them wouldn’t know and need the glossary. I still found it funny enough to mention.

After waiting over an hour our food came. I ordered two beef enchiladas, which came with rice and beans. It cost about $19. It turned out to be not too bad. I have to mention that I was starving at this point and anything would have tasted good to me, so keep that in mind. The only thing that was off about these enchiladas was the sauce on top. Everyone knows the sauce I’m talking about. Now imagine enchiladas with a marinara sauce and cheese. This is what I ate. It wasn’t horrible but it was weird. I felt like I was eating some sort of enchilada/beef parmesan/pizza thing. Weird, but like I said I was starving and ate the whole thing. The rice and beans were normal and don’t need any mention.

Overall it was a good experience and I would maybe go back there again. Next time I would get the fajitas to see there take on them. I never did see and real live Mexican, but maybe I just wasn’t looking hard enough.


Mexibread, whatever that is....

Notice the red marinara sauce