"You want to hear a funny story," PART TWO!!

Hello all! Eeek I know it's been awhile. I've been SUPER busy, as I'm sure you probably already knew.

 So I've been behind on updates. sorry! Now I have to jog my memory to try to tell you of all the crazy stuff that's been happening for the past week! Well to start, last Wednesday, a large group of us from the apartments headed over to the local wed, night hotspot called The Ranch. It was fun, lots of dancing..and sweating...but it's literally right across the street, so no buses, trains or ferries are required, which is really nice! It was fun... but there's been some weird encounters with people this last week or so. Some girl came up to me at The Ranch and told me she LOVED my hair and asked if she could take a picture with me. SO her and this other dude posed for a picture while holding both sides of my hair. Alright, no biggie. So that was wednesday.

Thursday was our international student welcome cruise on the harbour. The theme was 80's and Kelli and I had at first decided against dressing up for the primary reason that we didn't bring anything with us (obviously there was limited space in our suitcases) and that we didn't want to spend the money on it. well we went to the wal-mart equivalent *The Big W* to see if we could snatch anything up real cheap, and jackpot!!! Big tacky colored beaded necklaces marked  down from 13 bucks to 2, some fuschia tights, and bright colored 'hot pants'. It was great... people loved the outfits! Problem was, we were prancing around in them all through the warf to get to the cruise, so that was pretty embarassing. And then a large group of us 80's dressed folk tried to hit a few bars downtown afterwards and some people weren't allowed in because of their attire. They're very picky here. Alot of times, they'll tell someone they can't come in because 'they're too drunk'. It's happened to a couple of my friends already. But usually they aren't drunk, its just that the bouncer doesn't approve of what they're wearing. Other times, they will only let guys in if they have an equal number or more of girls with them. At a certain point in the night, sometimes they won't allow guys in at all. That doesn't make much sense to me... I don't want to dance with a bunch of girls! But I have noticed that it does seem to be more guys than girls wherever we go out. Cool with me! 

Friday Kelli and I decided to make it a beach day. We got kind of a late start and so we decided to pack a night bag and spend the night at Manly beach in a hostel. I was excited because I've never stayed in a hostel before, and also because I thought it would be so much fun to spend the night in a local beach town. The weather was beautiful and as we were just chillin' on the beach, one of the guys I met at the Ranch on Wed. somehow spotted me out of the crowd. He invited Kel and I to our first Barbie in Australia! Later on, our friend from Mizzou, Noel, met us at the warf. He was going to spend the night with us too. We found our way to the hostel and walked in. It was 30 bucks (australian) which was like 20 something bucks US... real cheap. So that was cool.. but as we were signing in and retrieving our bed linens, this 30 something lady comes swiftly into the building screaming, "Do you want to hear a funny story?!" to the reception people. They said hesitantly, "Sure." She replied while still shouting, " Well I went to the ocean to take a swim. I was in there for a long time, and as I came out, I felt a funny feeling in my pubes. So I reached down and found a crab. I have crabs!!!" I was appalled. Then, just as I thought it couldn't go any further, she goes, "Here!! I saved it!!! hahaha SEEE???" AHHHH I was mortified! I was terrified that I would have to spend the night in the same room as Crazy Crab Lady and I wanted to turn around and run out of the place! But luckily, the three of us shared a room with 3 other people, one guy from germany, another guy from IDK where, and I never met the third person. We didn't spend much time in our room.. we made our beds, took showers and headed for the town. 

We stopped into a local pub... called a hotel. Bars here are called hotels. Yep. And then our friend that lives near the beach that we ran into earlier met up with us and took us to the Barbie! We walked up to the house and he said, "Hey guys, I brought some Americans!" I chuckled out loud because it sounded like we were an appetizer at dinner party haha. But we were the only Americans in a crowd of mostly bleach blonde hair, blue eyed people! We were a little nervous, but everyone there was really nice, eager to talk to us, and gorgeous! Girls especially!!! The bbq ended and we headed to a bar. It was fun but then we got to the hostel, and it was a blast too!! When I walked up, there were like 15 people our age just hanging out, having a great time! Turns out, they were from all over the world... Ireland, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland...etc! Some of them invited us up stairs to their balconies, and it was an absolute blast! Yet again, we were the only americans from the crowd and they gave us hell for it. I think the Canadian put it, " We're not making fun of you because you're American. We're just embarrassed for you." Pshhhhh what does he know?! It was all in good fun though. Kel and Noel headed off to bed, I stayed for a bit but lost track of time and before I knew it, it was 5:30 am. I snuck into my bunk bed to get a few hrs of shut eye before we had to get up at 9:30 to check out. Three hours later, we checked out and headed straight to the beach. We didn't stay real long because it started raining off and on. 

So now it's Saturday. We came home and got a couple hours of naptime in and headed to this strip of bars and upscale shops called "The Rocks". The place we went into was called the Argyle. It was a nice place, but really crowded, as usual. We ran into someone that Kel met from The Ranch the other night as well ( I swear, for their being 4 mil ppl in this city, it's pretty dang small bc I keep seeing the same ppl over and over again) so we headed to the Harbour with him and some of his buddies. These guys were funny because they kept insisting I looked like Britney Spears... Riiiight. Then they mentioned the idea to one of their roommates, and he said I actually looked like Jamie Lynn Spears! They all enthusiastically agreed... crazy! But anyway, I digress. Darling Harbour is gorgeous! The bars/clubs are surrounded by water and they're half inside/half outside. It would be a great date spot! I'm pretty sure there's an aquarium there too, but I'll save that for a rainy day. So we all hung out into the morning and then Kel and I explored the streets and sights of Northern Sydney before finding our way to the correct bus Sunday morning. 

Sunday afternoon/night was this thing called Trop Fest. It's the largest short film festival in the world. A nice bloke that Kel and I met at the bus stop the other night offered to take us to it, so we were totally down!!! It was amazing!!! For there being thousands of people there, everyone was so civilized--a huge difference than the US. And we couldn't get over how nice their version of "johnny on the spots" were!!! Each one had a toilet that FLUSHED and instant hand sanitizer in every stall! And a mirror!! GEEEZ I could have hung out there all day! Although, I'm glad I didn't. ;) All in all, I'd say it was a great weekend!!

Classes began on Monday. All the Mizzou kids have a Public Relations class at 3 on Monday. So far, so good. The teacher seems really cool, and there's no final! I'm soldddd! Oh and what's really cool about this place is that most of the teachers record their lectures and put them online, so it isn't even necessary for you to go to class! That's what they told us! I'll still go though ;) You must go to the tutorials (labs)though or you'll fail!!  I had my second class today (Thursday) and it's called contemporary children's literature. Eek it's going to be heaps of writing and reading. And today we watched half of a film called Australian Rules. This was the first time I truly knew I was an international student because I couldn't understand half of what they were saying, because their Australian accents were so thick and they spoke so fast. I wasn't sure what was going on throughout the whole movie! I'm going to have to look up a summary of it online before the next class! But again, there's no final-- just a final paper, which means I will have two spare weeks to explore Australia and wherever else I can get to before I have to head back to the states! I'm thinking Thailand??

Update on the internship... Apparently the way it works is that you preference your top 4 but the university internship team takes your first choice and contacts that host organization to see if they would be interested in interviewing you. If all goes as planned, you go, they love you, you get to work there. If not, they move on to your second  choice and repeat. I didn't really like the idea of that because I wanted to be interviewed by at least two companies so that I could compare them. The university internship team said that I had to choose one and go from there. So I went in to meet with them and we all decided that my top choice is ACP magazines. This is the company that owns various titles and where I would be one of 4 in the marketing team of the men's lifestyle segment. The reason I was skeptical of this job at first was because it seemed like it could be a lot of telemarketing and cold calling, but when I told this to the advisors, they said that there are SO many Australians that would KILL for this position and that they think I'd be a great fit for it. They said that I wouldn't be doing a bunch of calling to potential customers, but would instead be negotiating with external advertisers and suppliers that are trying to get ACP's business amongst other things. They assured me it would be a lot of hands on stuff, but basically I will have to be ready to get instructions once and then just roll with it! They said it will be challenging, but as long as I go for it, and try to engage with the employees there, I should eventually fit in. Another bonus is that it is in downtown sydney in what is supposedly a really cool office. But.... I haven't heard any word yet on if they are agreeing to interview me or not. Wish me luck!! 

Woooo finally... I've caught up! I'm sure I've left out a ton of hilarious/awesome/exciting stuff, but I tried to get in as much as I could! This weekend should be fun... the weather is supposed to be really nice so we might just beach it up...Although, I currently resemble a lobster becase of the beach day we had yesterday. They weren't kidding when they said the sun was stronger here, but oh well.. it will turn into tan right??? ( I know you're cringing right now, Dad!) No worries ;)  Some sightseeing might be in order tomorrow, but we'll see! Love and miss you all!!!