Studying? Abroad

Unfortunately, my lack of blogging over the last few weeks came in part to my work in other areas, like studying and my new job at a café. I did also, occasionally, find time to hit the mean streets of Newcastle. It was too bad to realize that I wasn’t just abroad, but actually part of a “study abroad” program, which meant that a few papers and a multiple choice exam were also part of the trip over here, right after the nights partying and trips to the most beautiful places in the world. I also started to receive more hours at the job I obtained at an on-campus café. Basically, people order food and/or coffee, and then I bring it out to them, clean tables and dishes, and then other random jobs that I’m asked to do. Overall I really enjoy it, service is service, but the people who manage it and work there are very nice and enjoy having a non-Australian around to lighten the mood, it’s not like I take it very serious but I do a good job. The crazy part is starting to have a relationship with customers, and I’ve been amazed and the amount of regulars there are. People literally come in everyday; Creatures of Habit. After a few last minute nights of cramming for a midterm, I was off on a trip all over, encompassing my two week break, that comes with the overall vacation this whole trip has basically been.

A quick story about my midterm, after getting my itineraries and finally getting all the dates set for my big trip, I was laying in bed a week prior to leaving and realized that my flight to New Zealand was an hour before my midterm in Intro to Finance class. This is a microcosm for the importance of school in the mind of us “students” abroad. However, I ended up passing the exam, and I’ll end up obtaining all the appropriate credit for my major, so this will not be a wasted semester.

Now about the trip: A few weeks after arriving some friends and I decided that we should spend the two weeks of our break driving down the east coast of Australia. Other trips other “students” were going on included Thailand, the West coast of Australia, Figi, New Zealand and a couple other random ones. Very cool what people have the ability to do, since I believe that Australia gets a bad rap for its ability to travel once you are here. Unfortunately, the original trip started to fall apart piece by piece, and I really began leaning towards possibly traveling the south island of New Zealand with friends from Iowa. This possible agenda also fell apart since their insurance with the camper they rented stipulated that there could only be four passengers. Basically, I was left a few weeks before with some question marks and no set plan, but sometimes this is the way things work out.

Fortunately, a family friend of ours who recently acquired more free time than he knew what to do with decided to possibly make the journey out here for a couple weeks. At first, as I siphoned through the list of plans which weren’t coming to pass, the idea didn’t seem to fit. Nevertheless, as the agendas dissipated it seemed more likely that this would actually be the appropriate measure for a long break. We came to an agreement on a trip throughout New Zealand and then to the top of Australia, making our way back to Sydney.