Update

So I'm pretty behind on the blog considering the last entry was when I got back from Sydney....
Not much has happened here though in the past couple of weeks. Its midterm time so a couple of papers and today is my first and last mid-semester exam (in Australian Marine Biology).

After Sydney I realized that I hadn't even explored Brisbane, the city that I live in, as much as I had explored Sydney. So I've decided that I'm making that one of my goals for this next month. As soon as I got back I visited the South Bank cultural centre area for the art museums. There was an EXCELLENT Andy Warhol exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art which I'm so glad I didn't miss. The GoMA and the Queensland Art Gallery aren't huge museums but seem to draw some pretty big exhibits and have lots of talks, movies, etc so I'm happy. Plus the Australian Art scene, especially the Indigenous art community, is so small that I already recognize (and in a few cases have seen talks by) some of the curators, artists, critics, etc.

I also had to register for classes for next semester at UVA this month. I turned down my offer to join the Curry Education school at UVA and decided to continue studying Art History and Spanish/Latin American Studies. This way I get to look forward to going to my classes and enjoy what I do. (I'll worry about the job part later.)

The college sports season has gotten in full swing here now so Fresher Rugby (the under 19s) every Wednesday night. Tonight we are playing our rival college (and our next door neighbors) the all boys Kings College, so it should be a good time. Rugby games take the place of football games in my life here but they are more on the level of high school soccer games than University football games. The Universities dont have big college sports the same way we do. All the sports at UQ are more on what is the "club" level at unis in the states.

So one of the big changes in my College life is that I've started rowing for Emmanuel. I didn't even properly try out because I didn't want to have early practices and not be able to travel on weekends. I let myself get sucked in though and am somehow now on the third four. So there are 5 girls boats (of four each) and I ended up replacing someone on the third, which is probably where I belong seeing as that I haven't rowed in like 5 years. It has been a lot of fun so far and is pretty relaxed with only 2 practices a week. I'm still developing blisters and I'm sore all the time right now in spite of lots of yoga and stretching. Our first regatta is on Sunday!

This past Saturday and Sunday I finally made it down to the Gold Coast! The Gold Coast (aka goldie or GC) is a big touristy area with great beaches, some of the only amusement parks in Australia, and is also pretty close to Brisbane (45 minute drive, or 2.5 hour bus-train-bus ride). The main beach area there is Surfer's Paradise, which is where Kim and I went this weekend. We stayed overnight in a hostel and met up with one of Kim's fellow Kiwis. Saturday it rained the whole time so we saw a movie, which was actually really nice, and just walked around the town a bit and explored. Sunday was beautiful so we hung around the beach area and watched the surfing festival that was going on, before coming back to Emmanuel. Surfer's has lots of high rise buildings right along the beach and lots of 70s style architecture, which contributes to its reputation as extremely tacky and touristy. But the beach is beautiful and the waves are great. I really want to go back some other weekend (or with rowing it might have to be on a Monday, Tuesday).

So this weekend is Anzac Day on Friday, our first regatta on Saturday, and Fresha pub crawl on Sunday so it should be a good one!
Back to studying,
Nik