Specifically, welcome to the Sunshine Coast. Until tomorrow, I'll be here in warm Caloundra (cull-AOUN-druh), about an hour north of Brisbane on the east coast of Australia. As it is the middle of winter on this part of the planet, the weather is high 70s and sunny.
We arrived in Australia around 5:30 AM on Saturday after a 14-hour flight from Los Angeles. I was fortunate to overhear a couple of people talking about Arcadia in the airport terminal at our gate, so got to talk to some fellow study abroad travellers before it started. This included a guy who was sitting in the row behind me and agreed to trade his aisle seat for my window seat. His beneficience made the flight infinitely more wonderful. It was still very long.
Though the flight was a group flight, we weren't all seated together so I didn't get to meet other Arcadia-study-abroaders until we landed in Brisbane. A few of us found each other and waited for luggage together then cleared customs and met up with the rest of the group. Cam, one of our fearless leaders, met us at the airport with a smile and a great accent. We met Lyndon, our other fearless leader, a few minutes later.
We had to wait about 30 minutes for our bus, but dropped half of our bags with the storage company which will be watching them until tomorrow then got to meet lots of people. (It's times like this that I'm glad I'm fairly good with names.) We then hopped on our bus and drove to Caloundra. The day was filled with fun activities like Vegemite tasting in town (much better than I'd remembered it from camp), playing cricket on the beach before dinner (a delicious 'bundle' of fish and chips), and Australia trivia designed to keep us awake long enough to start getting on the right time zone. We also had a couple of information sessions, but they keep them short and painless, which is wonderful. (This morning, Stewart not only did not read slides aloud, deeming them important but obvious, but
also told us lots of good stories about keeping coal in the bathtub of the Scottish hovel in which he grew up and such.)
Thanks to jetlag, I woke up early on Sunday (I thought 7 AM breakfast would be hideously early, but many of us were up by 6:15 or even much earlier) and got to see the sun rise over the Pacific. I took this sunrise picture on the beach about 30 meters outside of our resort hotel.
In the afternoon, we went to the Australia Zoo, which was owned
by Steve and Terri Irwin. We took a zoo bus over which had 'Crikey' in big letters on the side with a picture of Steve, the infamous Crocodile Hunter, holding some dangerous animal in an enthusiastic manner. I was thinking, "Oh zoo, cool," but thought it might be rather low-key as I'd seen most of the animals before. We got to do lots of fun new things though.
I saw cassowaries wandering around, enclosed but not separated off by glass or big fences. They have beautiful necks, a patchwork of vibrant blues, greens, reds, and oranges. This one, viewed from above, is displaying his lovely curl on top of his head.
I got to pat a koala.
They had a big kangaroo enclosure, where we could wander around with and feed the kangaroos. Here I am offering a kangaroo some tasty food pellets.
A group of us wandered through the zoo together. (In total, there are about 30 of us here in Caloundra for training, all headed to U. of Melbourne or UNSW - University of New South Wales - outside Sydney as other Arcadia schools have their orientations on other weekends depending on when school starts.) Here we are with a kangaroo (L to R: me, Sophia, Kristen, Mendissa, Sophie, and Cassandra (my future UC - University College - roomie)).
Today has been another laid-back day thus far. After another sunrise (possibly my last in my time here, especially as it will only get earlier as we move into summer) and breakfast, we had an information session on culture and safety followed by a great couple of hours learning from an Aboriginal guy who lives in the area. He and another guy showed us some Aboriginal dances and we learned a few cool terms. For your edification, 'wanye' (WAN-yuh) means welcome in Gubbi Gubbi (GUH-bee GUH-bee), the area Aboriginal language. (There are over 600 different Aboriginal languages across Australia.) It functions rather like 'aloha' in that it can also mean goodbye.
We also got to see him play a really cool musical instrument which they create by testing small trees for internal termite damage. He showed us some Aboriginal art and explained the meaning behind the design. For example, a U-shape represents a person in Outback art, because the U mimics the shape left behind when a person stands up after sitting cross-legged in the sand. We got to try our hand at spear-throwing and instrument-playing before our lunch break.
This afternoon, we head down to the beach for surf safety with a lifeguard and an opportunity to swim in the Pacific (reminder: yes, it is the middle of winter). Tomorrow, we fly to Melbourne for three - yes, three - more orientations before we start classes in a couple of weeks.
G'day!
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