Semester 2, Week 1!

Hey, all!

Not much happened since the last post. Last week, I went and saw the tattoo artist to begin the consultation process to get a new tattoo, but after a design was picked and I asked for price, I found it was way out of mine and my family's budget for the moment. As a result, I won't be getting it here, unfortunately. I am asking the tattoo artist if she would still be willing to draw it up and be paid for it, but I have yet to hear back on that.

Over the passed week, I also ventured out of my apartment and searched for where my classes would be this semester as well as getting a couple books that I would need from the book store. I found quite a few spots that are very quiet and serene and I will be sharing some pictures from that. My pictures probably don't show how nice it is, but I hope you can imagine!

Saturday, I went to a Doctor Who club event that was held on campus. We watched part of the older series: the War Games! It was 10 episodes, each episode being about 25 minutes. It was quite long. Half way through, we stopped watching to order some pizza and play some Cards Against Humanity. It's a pretty fun game, but I'm pretty bad at it haha! We stopped playing that when the pizza came and then we continued watching the rest of the episodes. Afterward, we played a couple rounds of What Do You Meme? and it was fun as well. It's like Cards Against Humanity except with pictures of memes and caption cards.

Today (24 July 2017), classes started. I had two back-to-back classes starting at 9am and ending at 1pm. I was pretty tired by the time classes were over, especially since I didn't get a lot of sleep. My first class was the Japanese 2B one and I am foreseeing some issues since (so far) it's taught in mostly Japanese and I'm not recognizing a lot of the words and verbs, but I'm hoping I can overcome this and get even better at Japanese. The second class was the numerical methods part of my math course. It was amusing for a bit, but it was also a bit boring and hard to figure out some stuff, but I think I will also get used to it.

I looked at all of the course outlines for my classes and wrote down due dates as well as exam dates. My Classical Greece class is going to require another 2200 word essay, so I'm not looking forward to that, but at least it's the only essay and the lecture is online.

I think that's all for now. I will be posting at the end of the week as well recapping how my first week of the second semester went. Until then!

 <<: The view from the back of one of the buildings I do class in.

>>: View from one of the buildings my classes are in.

  << & ^^: a flower and another view from one of the building's entrances.

 >>: A view walking back to my apartment.

<<: Another view walking back to my apartment.

Week Before Semester 2!

Hey, all!

Not a lot has happened since the last post, hence it's been a little longer than I would like since my last post. This post probably won't be very long and I didn't take any new pictures; so I'll just be putting in some pictures from the past few weeks that I haven't posted here yet.

The passed week I've mainly been watching Final Fantasy X and I've gotten pretty close to the end of the main story. I've also been trying to limit the amount of gluten I've been eating since it seems I have hit my max. Not to say I can't eat it, I just can't have it as often as I was having it, I think. This task isn't actually that hard, if I'm eating out (and some grocery stores), since I think Australia has more options for gluten free, especially the restaurants. Chances are better than not that a restaurant will have a gluten free option (that isn't salad), which I am extremely grateful for. I ordered some pre-made meals for this week, but those come in tomorrow, so I've been having to "scrounge" for foods I can eat and weigh the risks.

I didn't make it to the tattoo shop last week, but I did send them an inquiry about booking a consultation and they were quick to respond I will actually be consulting with the tattoo artist in Wednesday. I'm excited for that. Tomorrow, I have the psychiatrist appointment that will see if I need to up the dosage on the medicine I'm on for the adhd or try another medicine.

I skyped with my parents this passed weekend and I saw my 4 year old puppy; my parents gave him the shirt that I gave them with my scent on it and he was super happy about it.

I think that's all for now, I hope to post sooner next time! Until next time!

 

^^: These are pictures I took when my sister was here, all on the way to Lady Bay Beach! The top most one is a picture of a big and twisty pair of trees. Bottom left, a flower. Bottom right, a cannon that no longer works as one. The end/hole was covered.

 

 ^^: Pictures taken with my parents when at Australia Zoo! Top picture is an iguana, I think. Bottom pictures are a Tasmanian Devil and alpacas, respectively.

^^: Pictures taken when with my parents at Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains. Top picture is of a Christmas tree, which was in our (haunted) hotel. They had quite a few and I think it's common for Australians to put them up during their winter. I know quite a few places constantly (seem to) sell Christmas ornaments. Bottom, a scenic view from on of the decks of the hotel in Katoomba.

 ^^: Left, a larger-than-life-size red panda to commemorate my time feeding and petting a red panda! Right, a cake we had gotten from 85C Cafe to celebrate my belated birthday. We forgot to get matches so I pretended to blow out the candles

 ^^: Left, I wooden escalator! I found this super odd and it was in Sydney. My mom pointed out that someone could get their heel stuck in between the wood pieces, haha! Right, a random picture of a flower I took sometime while my parents were here.

Parents Gone, Break Continues

Hey, all!

It's been a week since my last post, and I was planning on posting the day my parents left, but obviously that didn't happen. I was having a bit of a hard time with them leaving, even harder than when I initially left for Australia. I think it might have been because I had so much fun traveling around Australia with them and we never really do that when I'm home any more, so it was nice to do it again.

Anywho~!

Wednesday (July 5), my mom was feeling better enough to go to Melbourne Zoo and we did that for a bit. Apparently, it was boasted to be The zoo to go to in Australia, or Melbourne, or something. I honestly wasn't that impressed with it since I had gone to the Australia Zoo. I feel like the Australia Zoo is the best zoo I have been to (and I don't think I'm being too biased since that's where I pet and fed a red panda >.> haha). The one thing that made this zoo worth while, to me, was that they had two red pandas and one of them was the most active one I have ever seen. We got there about 30 minutes after the zoo opened and one of them was already laying down to nap throughout the day. The other one, however, was running around his cage and up and down his tree marking everything (I noticed that from the information the zookeeper gave when I pet and fed Ravvi). We were there a good 15 minutes, if not a little more and he was still being relatively active. It was great and I loved it. There was one other thing that made the zoo trip and that was at the end, when we visited the Japanese garden as well as the Siamangs that were near by. They were making such a huge ruckus that we heard them well before we got to them. On the way over, I was trying to figure out if the noise was from a bird, a monkey, a man, or a recording. Found out that it was from a type of monkey called Siamang. They were rather humorous once I knew where it was coming from.

Later that day, after we had left and gotten back to our hotel (my mom was feeling ill again and needed to rest up) and relaxed a bit. My mom and I went out shopping a bit and found some souvenirs.

Thursday, we left Melbourne to go back to Sydney and in the process it was a little hectic between my parents since my mom had planned on doing a straight shot train from Sydney to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, but something happened and it didn't make it's way into my parents' travel folder, so we didn't know exactly what train she was talking about. So we ended up taking a couple of trains to get there. It was about a two and a half hour travel time, but I think it was nice. We spent one night in the Blue Mountains before heading back to Sydney. We didn't do too much in Katoomba as my mom was too sick to travel their hills. We did relax a bit and my dad and I walked around the hotel a little. My mom and I had both picked up a haunted-like sensation, so we suspect there were ghosts there.

I felt better when we left the next day to go back to Sydney. We went to a cake place that I had been to before to get a birthday cake since I still hadn't had any cake with family for my birthday. We ended up getting the Italian Chocolate Mousse cake for me and my mom (and for me to talk back to my apartment- I still have a piece left. I will be eating that tonight), and a Hokkaido Strawberry for my dad. The cafe gave us candles on the house, but we forgot to buy matches and so I just pretended to blow out the candles, haha! It was a fun time and after we had cake and dinner, my mom and I went back out to go souvenir hunting since they were leaving in the morning to go to the airport. We got back to the hotel about 10 pm and I stayed up a bit longer while my parents went to sleep.

Saturday, I still woke up before my mom and after my dad and we had breakfast downstairs while my mom slept in some more. My mom was a bit upset at that, but it had already happened. I guess the lesson for next time would be to briefly wake her to see if she wanted to join us. Will probably try that next time. After finishing packing, we checked out and waited for the shuttle to pick us up downstairs. I helped them navigate the airport a bit to get where they needed to go to check in and get to security, but that's where I left them since I couldn't go with them passed security since I didn't have a boarding pass. That was rough for both my mom and I, but probably more so for her. After getting back to my apartment, I got caught up on anime that I was watching and started watching new TV shows on Netflix.

Sunday and Monday was much of the same. Monday, I remembered that I needed to rewrite one of my stories to make it more of a children's book format instead of the short story I had originally written it to be, to help collaborate with the artist. I started reading a few children's books I got as well as watching some Final Fantasy X play-through to get an idea of how to write. This is for a club and it will get published into a book/magazine format and sold within the club, maybe a little outside, if there's interest. I'm a little nervous since I've never written a children's book-like story and I haven't written in about six years since I graduated high school. I may be nervous, but hopefully it'll come out fine as most of the material is there, I just ultimately need to shorten it and rewrite it in a way that fits the children's book type.

Today, I watched more of Final Fantasy X and played games on my phone. I also got my grades posted to my UNSW account today. I passed all of them, though one was barely passed and I didn't pass them as much as I would have liked, but that's something I'm learning to let go. I may not have gotten the grades I wanted, but I did the best with what I had even with no idea of how they would actually grade things or what their expectations were. So, unless something unexpected back home happens, I will be spending one more semester here and hopefully this semester, I will have an easier time. I will be taking an engineering course, a math course, a Japanese course, and a Greece history course. I feel like the three former classes better fit how my brain works, but we'll see this semester.

Tomorrow, I will be watching more of the Final Fantasy X and hopefully start (and maybe finish) the first draft to rewriting the story and send that to the artist for her advice.I'm hoping to also make it out to a tattoo shop and see about getting another tattoo before I leave. We'll see how that goes.

I think that's all for now. Until next time!

^^: The Siamangs making noise

^^: Active red panda climbing tree above me. Like, literally above my head.

 ^^: Left, inside a building in Melbourne. It was interesting and artistic to look at. Right, a bunch of wires over a pair of cross streets. I suspect it's for their tram service, but I don't recall seeing trams run in that area.

 ^^: The view from our hotel room in Melbourne.

 ^^: Left, a lion eating breakfast or lunch. Right, a koala!

 

 

 ^^: Above and left, the red panda that was pretty active. Right, a meerkat!

Adelaide and Melbourne!

Hey, all!

It has been a little more calm since my last post, so not a lot has happened, but there's still enough for me to post on, as well as share some pictures!

Friday (June 30, 2017), we left Sunshine Coast and arrived in Adelaide, which has an odd time difference than Melbourne and Sydney: just 30 minutes off. Not even a full hour, which my parents and I found odd, but whatever, I guess! From the airport, we had a little adventure through downtown Adelaide trying to find our hotel, which was supposed to be about an hour and a half drive away. After putting in the correct city in the GPS, we found the correct hotel/cabin and it was indeed about an hour and a half away. It was a quiet drive and my dad  has been getting better about driving in Australia. The time going to and from the Australia Zoo really helped, I think. By the time we got to Victor Harbor, where we were staying, it was evening time (about 4pm) and we hadn't eaten anything since that morning, so we were pretty hungry. Unfortunately, a lot of places were closed for another hour or so, but we managed to find a place to go to and eat at. Afterward, we came back to our cabin and relaxed.

Saturday, we thought we would go for a walk and ended up staying out all day. We bought tickets to do a quick ferry tour thing in the afternoon and while we were waiting for that, we explored the town a bit. We started with Granite Island and walking across the bridge they had between Victor Harbor and the island. We spent some time there, just enjoying the ocean and watching for wildlife. I took quite a few scenic pictures. When we left there, we went back to Victor Harbor to have some lunch before we went on the tour. The tour itself was nice. I was pretty tired and actually was fighting to stay awake when we were moving and didn't really have anything to look at or watch for. We went by Seal Island and one of the seals went in the water to investigate us and we actually had to back the boat up since the boat drivers were worried the seal would hop on the boat. That was pretty funny, but it was cool to see the seals so close. We left them and went by another island and saw some mountain goats and tried looking for some dolphins or whales, but we couldn't see any so we went back to port and got off.

Sunday, was a more calm day and we just went to some shops for souvenirs and had a nice chat with one of the shop owners. Learned that wild kangaroos can be quite mean, especially the male ones. They can live through being hit by a car and can still fight afterward. I found that interesting, but I also asked about koalas and they can also be pretty mean, especially if you get between their them and their food. We had lunch at a cafe that the shop owner had recommended and then spent quite a bit of time on the beach collecting some shells. We then decided to try and go to another spot nearby to try and spot some whales and found some more shells. There was also a lot of crab and clam remains from the sea gulls eating them. It made me sad every time I saw a crab corpse or claw. We didn't find or see any whales, but we saw a couple dolphins. It was beginning to get dark when we decided to head back to town and get some dinner.

Monday, we left Victor Harbor early in the morning and left for Adelaide to make the plane on time to Melbourne. My mom started getting sick and we tried getting it ahead of time by giving her some medicine from the airport pharmacy. When we got to Melbourne, it was a bit chaotic in trying to find our way to our hotel since we weren't going to be renting a car and weren't sure how the public transit would work. It turned out to be okay though, even though my mom was worrying a lot. The hotel is very nice, even though there were a lot of problems in the beginning, like the internet not working, not having a phone, and not having pots and pans to go with the kitchen. The reception was very helpful and did all they could to make things right. I would definitely recommend this place, if you stay in Melbourne. It's called Little Collins Apartment Hotel. The internet is slow and you have to reconnect often, but it is included with the room, whereas previous hotels it was not included. We ate out at a Greek restaurant and then went to the grocery store to get food for the morning. We relaxed back at the hotel when we got back.

Today, my mom felt worse when she got up and she urged us to go to Melbourne Zoo without her, but since she really wanted to go, we decided that we would wait until tomorrow to try that. Instead, my dad and I went and explored the area a bit while my mom rested up a bit in the hotel. We got clothes that fit better, since I have gained weight since coming to Australia. I will be trying to work on getting the weight off when they leave Sydney, but in all likelihood, it will most likely happen when I return to America and am back on a restricted diet. After getting the clothes from Target, we decided to wander about a little longer and found a mall. It was about six stories tall and seemed to have infinite amount of levels to go up. It even had another mall connected to it at higher levels. By the time we reached the top, where more food was, it was about lunch time and I had some Vietnamese pho while my dad tried a Mexican burrito. My pho was really good, but my dad said the burrito was very bland and didn't have any spices at all. We went to the grocery store again and got my mom soup to have for lunch. When she finished, my mom and I left to go to the same mall and get a pedicure. It wasn't what my mom was expecting as they pretty much did the bare minimum that a pedicure requires. At least, that's how we felt coming from Arizona where we had found a nail salon that we liked to frequent. We relaxed more when we got back and then my dad and I fetched dinner (Hot and Sour soup for my mom and Seafood Fried Rice for me. My dad was still full from his lunch). My dad asked about movie theatres and seeing Wonder Woman, so I looked around and found a place and my dad and I went and saw that while my mom stayed in the hotel to head to bed early.

Tomorrow, we are planning on going to the Melbourne Zoo as well as to the National Gallery of Victoria where there is one of the world's largest stained glass ceilings. We might go shopping some more, if my mom feels up to it. I hope she feels better and that the medicine, soup, and rest has helped her get better since whatever has her seems to have hit her hard and I would like her to feel better with her last few days in Australia.

I think that's it for now! Until next time!!

 

^^: Some flowers that were near the cabin we stayed at in Victor Harbor!

 

 

^^: The sunrises and sunsets in Victor Harbor were really pretty.

 ^^: Left, my mom and I posing next to one of the horses they use for horse drawn tram to Granite Island! Right, a resting sea gull!

 ^^: Left, a seal in the water. Right, a spongy coral we picked up from one of the beaches near Victor Harbor and my mom hopes to take back to the states!

^^: One of the panoramic and scenic pictures I took!

^^: I found it funny and cute that there is a restaurant in Melbourne called Rice Paper Scizzors.