The Tim Tam Smoore… legendary

I have officially finished my UQ finals! It is a bittersweet feeling actually like, ‘yay! Finals are done’, but then not so much ‘yay!’ because it just flew by!  Anyways, it is a really good feeling to be done with finals and it was funny because whenever I would go on campus to go hand something in or study, the campus had a completely different vibe to it.  It was much more somber and people were in their own little worlds just trying to make it through finals.  Finals time lasts for about 3 weeks, rather than the one week I am used to.  We get a week long study break which was really helpful to be able to focus on just finals without any interruptions… besides study break fiestas with Mexican food and tim tam smoores, which are amazing (see pic below)! Well now that finals are over… now what?

This new found freedom is great and since I only have a few weeks left here in Australia, I will be making the most of it! This week I headed out to Fortitude Valley to see what was going on out there in the daytime.  I had only been out there in the evenings when a group of us were going out, so it was time to check out all the shopping.  They have some fantastic stores out there! Really great clothes and other knick knacks, but it is a bit sketchy, lol.  Otherwise, there is actually quite a bit to do in the valley lots of places to eat and hang out and shop. At night, it is absolutely packed with people dressed emo to looking like they are headed to prom, so you can find any type of club/lounge/pub that you could be looking for.  A couple of friends and I were determined to find a hip hop club out here (since, from what I have come across at least, the music of choice is techno which is something I am very unfamiliar with) but low and behold the valley held a great little club called “Mystique” with some really great hip hop music and a great atmosphere.

Later on in the week my Australian friend took me for a drive into the Brisbane countryside and up the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.  It was absolutely beautiful and unlike any countryside I had ever seen! It was very lush and green, but at the same time very “Australian” too.  I was really hoping to see kangaroos or koalas out there, but unfortunately not this time (my ultimate goal is to see a joey in a kangaroo’s pouch, lol, probable not gonna happen, but u never know!).  We went up to Kilcoy and had a walk around a small little town which is home to the infamous ‘Yowie’… similar to Big Foot or the Yeti.  We continued up to Melaney which is a little bit bigger and had lunch and walked along their main street lined with bookshops, pastry and lolly shops, and clothing shops.  It was really quaint and nice.  At the candy shop it was very exciting to find they had a whole section with America candy and they even had Red Vines! I had been craving Red Vines (a licorice brand) for the longest time and hadn’t found anything very similar to it…and then there they were! I may have overpaid for them a little, but still worth it! Melaney was a really beautiful town, it was quiet and just very picturesque.  We concluded our journey back down to Brisbane and I saw some of the glass mountains on the way where my friend told me (or attempted to tell me as much as she could remember) about the myths and stories from Aboriginal stories behind the glass mountains, which were quite interesting.  Despite Australia being such a young country, it really has such a fascinating history to it.  I definitely recommend reading the book “Down Under” by Bill Bryson for an entertaining and informative read about Australia. It has a lot of little random facts about Oz which just adds to the charm and mystique that it has to foreigners…well at least to this foreigner ;-).

So I am headed off to Noosa tomorrow, hopefully there will be good weather up there because as of right now it is a little rainy.  We will see…. I will post my pics from Noosa as soon as I am back, I hear it is beautiful up there!

I can’t believe I am already coming up to my last few weeks of the semester at UQ. It has gone by so quickly, I really do not know where time has gone.  It is funny, since it is the last week of school, all of UQ has kind of gone into a haze and you can tell that the campus has definitely quieted down since everyone is prepping for finals.  I think it is great that we get a one week study break right before we go into finals.  At my home university, finals week is directly after our last week of actual school, but its nice to actually have a week to settle down and focus on studying and not worrying about going to classes.

On a different note, things have been pretty laid back here for me at UQ before I go on my big adventures around Australia once the semester is over.  My friend is flying out to visit and she will be here for 3 weeks, so we will be travelling to Cairns and doing the whole Great Barrier Reef thing (you can’t come to Australia and not see the Great Barrier Reef, it is the token Australia landmark besides the opera house), then we will head down to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, and then back up to the Gold Coast.  As far as travelling goes here in Australia, I have learned that it is best to buy your tickets as far in advance as possible to get the best price.  However, Tiger airways is having a great sale right now (Melbourne-Canberra was $35) which was awesome! I am trying to plan a trip for myself as a little celebration for finals being over since I am done on June 15, so I was thinking about heading to Hamilton Island or Hunter Valley.

This past week my roommate and I discovered the caramel Tim Tam…incredible.  Tim Tams are seriously my favorite Australian food, its like a national treasure in a cookie, and although I haven’t been to the Great Barrier Reef, I would assume that Tim Tams are almost at the same caliber of Australian awesomeness as the GBR…they are that good.  However, I did recently hear that Tim Tams were spotted in some grocery stores back in the states, which is very exciting to hear, however I feel that by making them more accessible will take away their elusiveness, thus taking away from the mystique that is part of what makes them so good.  Anyways… there is my thoughts on Tim Tams, lol.

Weather here in Brisbane has been quite rainy lately.  It starts out sunny, but then shortly after gets cloudy and rainy.  It is very odd to have it be June and be wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and carrying around an umbrella considering back home its hot and sunny.  I didn’t think the weather would really bother me, however I didn’t really factor in the opposite seasons part so this cold, rainy weather is something I still have to wrap my brain around.  This week as a nice study break for myself, or I guess not really study break, more like paper writing break since I do not actually have finals, I am planning on going on campus to take pictures of all the random spots I seem to find myself in through the course of the week.  I figure those spots, like classrooms, buildings, and Merlo (the library coffee shop) are the places I am going to remember most when I get back home.  I may also take a picture of the buses as well to remind me how lucky I am to have access to my own car.  But it is things like that I will remember most, the things that made up my everyday routine and those will be the things I will miss the most when I go back home… even the buses.  When I first got hear, I found myself missing the most random things, like the smell of the ocean hanging around campus or studying in the library as I cram for a test.  So since I do not know when the next time I will be back in Brisbane, I figure I will just take pictures of everything.

Well, I am off to bed, but I will have more to come in the next week or so as finals wrap up and I can focus on the REAL reason why I came to Australia… travel and relaxation (and I guess also to have the opportunity to study at UQ!) ☺.

Hey everyone! So UQ just had Easter holiday about a week and a half ago and it was great! I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Melbourne, which was amazing. I stayed at the St. Arnauds Guesthouse which was great because as a single traveller it was a nice place to come back to since it was a bit quieter and even had a tv in the room which is pretty awesome for a hostel.  I did a one day tour of the Great Ocean Road which I highly recommend if you visit Melbourne, it is so beautiful.  The play “Wicked” was also in town and what better place to see it then in such an artsy city? It was well worth the money.  I also pretty much ate my way through Melbourne… there are tons of cafes and restaurants everywhere.  If you go down one alley, there are five other alleys attached to it filled with all of these Parisian style cafes.  They also have tons of chocolate shops, so pretty much when I wasn’t walking around and visiting different museums and shops, then I could usually be found at some restaurant eating the most decadent thing on the menu.  It was great!  The one downside about my trip, however, was the flight back to Brisbane. One thing I HIGHLY recommend is to just spend the money (as long as its not too outrageous) to get to where you need to go. I was trying to be smart and save myself about $20 by flying into the Gold Coast and take the train back to Brisbane.  My flight ended up being late, which caused me to miss the last bus that would take me to the train station so I had to spend extra money to take a cab to the train station.  Essentially, I spent more on flying in to the Gold Coast than it would have been to fly into Brisbane.

The holiday wasn’t long enough as it would seem, as I came home to a bunch of assignments and midterms that I thought would do themselves if I left them alone.  Unfortunately, this was not the case, lol.  I have spent the past week working on two big assignments that were both due on the same day, so that was fun.  The weather has been quite nice here in Brisbane too, so it is hard to be stuck inside writing papers when I want to be outside.  However, I did get somewhat of a break when I went to West End with a few friend.  West End is really neat, it has tons of great food and shopping.  Afterwards, we walked over to South Bank (about a 10 minute walk) and got some Cold Rock and sat by the man made beach.  Cold Rock has some of the best ice cream I have ever had.  It was such a beautiful night in South Bank too… there was live music going on at one of the local bars  he sky was just filled with stars, throw in some Cold Rock and it really doesn’t get much better than that. One of these days I will remember to bring my camera to South Bank and take pictures to post them up.

Sadly, my favorite Australian show, So You Think You Can Dance Australia has ended.  It was a great show and if you haven’t seen it, definitely check it out.  One of the reasons I stayed at St. Arnauds Guesthouse in Melbourne was because they had the tv in the rooms so I could watch it. Yes…it was THAT good. Check it out on Youtube.

Well, that’s about it for now, nothing too exciting this week since I was writing papers mostly, but I have posted some pictures up of my trip to Melbourne.
Be back soon!!

-Sam ☺

Hello everyone! I am really excited to be UQ’s international student blogger and share my experience abroad. A little bit about me… My name is Samantha and I am from a town right outside of Los Angeles called Westlake Village and I go to school at the University of California, San Diego. I am a communications major and a writing minor. If someone would have told me at the beginning of starting UCSD that I would be studying in Australia for a year I probably would not have believed them. The opportunity to study abroad came up randomly while I was talking to a friend who studied in Adelaide and from then on everything fell into place and I was off to Brisbane before I knew it. I could not be happier with the decision I made to come here. After being here for only 2 months I have already discovered so much about Brisbane, about UQ, and about myself.

I left LAX on February 3rd and arrived in Sydney on February 5th . The exchange program I am on met in Sydney for 3 days to do orientation and then we would be off to our host universities to begin our adventure. I decided to arrive a day earlier to get settled in and try to get over the jet lag. Upon my arrival in Sydney, not only was I exhausted from the 18 hour plane ride, but I also had no idea where I was and all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but it was about 11am. I am amazed how I got through that day still…haha. The first thing I wanted to do was to call my family and let them know I had gotten there okay. Now, I come from a country that has free wireless internet pretty much anywhere you could possibly need it and so I just assumed it would be like that in Australia as well. Not so much. The hotel I was at only had wireless internet in a certain section of the hotel, cost $25 for a day, and conveniently enough the internet connection in my room was not working. After having a mini melt down over the 30 minute I-can’t-believe-they-don’t-have-wireless-in-the-room-and-the-internet-cablecord-isn’t-working fiasco I trudged down stairs to the wireless area and began contacting my family and friends. Shortly thereafter, I tucked myself into bed (at approximately 4pm Sydney time) and slept until the next day. From then on Sydney, I was able to enjoy Sydney much more after getting over the first day and the realization of “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I am actually here”. It was incredible to see the Opera House in person and layout on the beautiful Bondi Beach. Soon enough, our orientation had ended and I was off to Brisbane!

I had arranged to live in Altitude Apartments a few months before I left. It was great because I didn’t have to worry about getting furniture, linens, kitchenware, or anything like that because it was all included. They even put me together with a roommate whom I had e-mailed a few times before I left to see how everything was. As the UQ driver was driving me from the airport to my new place, everything looked so unfamiliar and so….different. I kept thinking, “How am I going to get used to this?” After the 30 minute drive, I arrived at the apartment and was greeted by the very friendly managers of the place and my roommate came to get me. It was so great to finally meet her in person and she was so welcoming! The apartment was exactly what I was looking for and more. I even have my own balcony off my room (as well as off the living room) that overlooks the city. It is quite spectacular. I was starving, so the first thing I needed to do was locate food and conveniently enough there was a Hungry Jack’s down the street. Hungry Jack’s was interesting, haha. I suppose because I do not eat meat and only got the veggie burger with fries (aka chips) I may not have a legitimate opinion of the place, but all I will say is that…well I am not sure what to say about it, but definitely one should try it to say they ate at Hungry Jacks ☺. The next day my roommate introduced me to the wonders of public transportation, something that was extremely foreign to me back in California. People took trains, used buses, and even used a ferry to get to campus! I was excited to know that before long I too would be one of those people who understood what the different numbers meant on the buses and what side of the platform to wait on to board the train. When we arrived at Coles, the local grocery store, I learned quickly that things were based on kilograms rather than pounds, kilojoules rather than calories (mostly), and that they do not have cool whip. It was great to finally buy groceries again and to feel like I was beginning to turn this place into a home rather than a hotel. I spent the first few weeks adjusting to life in Brisbane… finding the nearest malls and movie theaters, going out into the city, figuring out how to get to school and then figuring out where I was on campus, finding different eateries, joining a local gym, etc. It was all very exciting and new, but it also had its downsides. With having to rely on public transportation to get anywhere, it meant waiting around… a lot. If it was late…there was nothing I could do about it besides wait. But I could never be late because, unlike me, public transportation does not wait…for anybody. Example…. I was running late to get to ultimate Frisbee practice and the bus driver saw me running to the bus stop to make the bus, but instead of waiting for me to run the 40 ft I had left to make it on the bus…the driver decided to leave and I ended up having a nice jog to school because the next bus didn’t come for another half an hour.

Things are expensive in Australia. And the number in my bank account was growing smaller by the day (however, I must say it is quite convenient that the US dollar is worth slightly more right now). However, because tax is included in all the prices and minimum wage is significantly higher than California, I was positive once I found a job that would cover my food, transportation, and phone expenses. I began the hunt for a job but it was much harder than I thought it would be. After turning my resume into numerous places I finally found the perfect job in the perfect place. I had heard a little bit about South Bank but not very much besides that it had markets and a man made beach. I had a free day to go venture around and so I thought this would be the perfect place. South Bank is my favorite place in Brisbane. It is so wonderful….the man made beach is the next best thing to real beaches, they have some of the best restaurants over there, and they have an incredible movie theater. I was lucky enough to find a job at an optometrists office in South Bank as well, Madonna Rigney Optometry. I had about 2 years experience as an optician back in California so it was great that I could transfer those skills over here. The people and atmosphere are wonderful and it’s everything and more I could want in a part time job. Another great thing about it… the most amazing cupcake shop is located right across the street from it, My Sweetopia. I have never seen a cupcake shop before, so I felt it was necessary to explore more about this little slice of heaven I had encountered. That place can do no wrong in my eyes… it is the sun on a cloudy day, finding a forgotten $5 bill in your pocket, finding out that the shirt you want to buy is on sale. It is that good.

School finally began after a month of being here. The great thing about UQ is that they have O week for all the international students before school starts. This helps out immensely with introducing students to what life is like on campus. It exposes students to different clubs and organizations on campus so that we can get involved right off the bat. A few of my friends and I joined the ultimate Frisbee team which, I am sad to say, am no longer on due to a recent medical issue with my foot. However, I met some really great and fun people for just being on it for a few weeks. That is the cool thing about Australians, they are so friendly and open. When I go to class and sit down next to someone I don’t know, they always say hi and start up a conversation, it is very refreshing. One thing about classes that I did not think about before coming was that everything is taught in the context of Australia. After going to school for 18 years in the US and learning from that point of view, it was different to now be looking at it from an outsiders perspective and to be learning about things that are relevant to Australia (like TV shows, authors, famous personalities, etc.). Classes are great though, the discussions are very productive and the tutorials encourage class participation rather than having a teacher up there talking. And they are fun too…well, as fun as classes can get, lol. It may be different for me because my classes are classes like Television and Popular Culture and Creative writing, but even talking to science students they also seem to be enjoying their classes as well.

Well, since I have written about 3 pages, I think I will end here. If anyone has any questions about being an international student at UQ, I would love to try to answer them for you so please feel free to e-mail me anytime (s4190289@student.uq.edu.au). Thanks for reading and I will be posting some more stuff up soon!

XO,
Sam

Me (with blonde hair) and the Sydney Opera house