Welcome to Brisbane!

We finally arrived in St. Lucia, the suburb of Brisbane where UQ is. It was a little awkward at first. We were dropped off on the curbside, in a place we didn't know, with people we also didn't know. And we were going to be stuck there for the next several months. My living arrangements turned out well, though. I was roomed with Maria and Carrie. Maria is from Ohio and goes to Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Carrie is from North Carolina and goes (guess where?) to UVA, also. I think we both found it a little strange that our program roomed us together, since we are studying abroad to get away from UVA. But what are you gonna do?

We had a few days to kill before classes started. So, I used them up by exploring the UQ campus and Brisbane. UQ definitely has one of the prettiest campuses I've seen (not quite as nice as UVA, but that's some tough competition). Most of my classes are centered on the Great Court, the "lawn" of UQ (in the picture). I really like how close my apartment and school are to the city. The Brisbane River runs right past campus and into central Brisbane. The Citycat Ferry (in my opinion the best way to get around) gets you to the city in 10 minutes. Brisbane seems like a very laid back, accessible, and clean city. I've been to the Queen Street Mall, a huge pedestrian mall in the center of the city with more stores than you would ever need. Just across the river is South Bank, with lots of restaurants, museums, parklands, and the lagoon - a manmade beach with palm trees!

Orientation at Noosa

After the incredibly long flight to Australia, and a bus ride (with mechanical problems), we finally made it to our "resort" on the Sunshine Coast for orientation. The resort was more like an upscale summer camp, but was fine for the couple of days that we were there. Wild kangaroos and peacocks roamed around outside our cabins. You could get closer to them than I had ever imagined!

One day we took a trip up to Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world. We had to take a ferry to get to the island and got around in 4WD buses that could drive on the beach. I found out that there are lots of beaches around Australia that are used as highways. So if you are a swimmer, that means you need to look both ways when you come out of the water! Fraser Island was really pretty, but unfortunately we spent most of our time there driving in the bus. We did get to stop for an hour at Lake Mackenzie, one of the freshwater lakes in the middle of the island. The water was a beautiful, clear bright blue and the sand was the whitest I've ever seen. We also got to stop in the small rainforest on the island. I drank straight from the stream in the rainforest (the one in the picture)!

Before leaving orientation for Brisbane, we did get to try one more thing - surfing!!!! I loved it! I' definitely have to go again before I leave Australia. We had to watch out for jellyfish the whole time. Half a dozen people in my orientation group got stung pretty badly. Luckily, I didn't. We played cricket on the beach for a while, too. I should really learn the rules to the game - it's pretty big here. Finally, it was time to head south to Brisbane, our home base for the next couple of months.