Pre-Fresher Spread

Surprisingly, I seem to be acclimating myself quickly to being abroad. Perhaps I have gotten comfortable quickly because I am in a English speaking country and with people that I was at least familiar with before this semester. I'm picking up the public transportation system and, more importantly, how to order drinks! "A Schooner of Fourex Bitter, please." And if I wanted a mixed drink I would just say, “No Maia, are you kidding? That costs $7.” We did a test run of the two local bars on Tuesday so we could locate them, know how to get back, and get a feel for them before the popular nights started. No, not even Australians party hard on Tuesdays. Don't worry Mom, I'm being responsible and learning about Australian culture as well as having a good time!

After I first arrived in Brisbane, I was pleased. The weather was great, my college was nice, and the area was pretty cool. However, today really took it to the next level. We took a City Cat into the city of Brisbane (UQ is in the burbs). We went into the downtown-ish areas with all the night clubs and bars. We saw the historic sights of Brisbane. We traveled up to the top of Mt. Coot-thy, which is named after the honey bees that used to live at the top of the mountain and has a great view. My favorite part was going to South Beach which was the amazing coffee shop/restaurant/home made beach/garden place. There were grills set up in the park area where you could bring food and cook with friends. Sweet idea.

Another highlight of my trip so far was our trip to Lone Pine. We woke up, caught a bus, and met up with our tour guide Josh before heading to Lone Pine. Once we got there a few of us scurried ahead to see the koalas. It was not hard to find them. They were everywhere. In the center of Lone Pine, Hannah, Megan, and I got our picture taken with the koalas. It was an experience, most certainly. (Did I mention I got pooped on?) We were instructed to act like a tree and then the koala was set in our hands and its arms draped over us. To look down and see a koala and feel it in your arms is amazing, like holding a baby alien that you weren't scared of. Did that make sense? The koalas were sweet but then I went into the kangaroo area where we were able to buy bags of food for a dollar and feed the kangaroos. It was not like a petting zoo where you had to reach through bars to feed the animals. You went right into the kangaroo pen and could walk up to the kangaroos and feed, pet, and take pictures of them. Definitely one of the cooler things I have ever experienced. One downside is that there were also emus in the pen along with the kangaroos and nothing keeping them from creepily stalking you and your food. Also, one of the turkey-chicken-like animals pecked a hole through my bag. Not happy.

Our adventure to Brisbane began after Lone Pine and we did a scavenger hunt that took us to several of the popular bars so we knew where they were located and to different land marks to do funny things. Some of the embarrassing things we had to do were to wheel barrow across a bridge and conga line across another. We had to sing the national anthem on the steps of a bus stop. We had to stage a nasty public break-up. Throughout the tour (pub-crawl for our tour guide) Josh (said tour guide) got pretty wasted. One moment I was standing on a street corner looking confused and the next Josh was breaking up with me for being an unfaithful tramp. Alas, I am not an actress and spent the next 3 minutes or so struggling for air as all I could do was laugh and hit him with a pitiful punch. My favorite part though was singing in the public square with the group until someone put money in a hat we had. We sang American classics like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears. The boys of our group were especially thrilled about the choices.

Today we took a tour of Fourex (XXXX) brewery and had a marvelous time with our four free beers at the end of the trip. Tomorrow starts our boring UQ orientation. I have come to know the lay of the land pretty well, especially the area around my college. Crommies are slowly filtering back. We've met the Med students and the QUT (Tech School) students who live at Cromwell and begin earlier than the UQ students. Next weekend should bring the whole lot of them back and bring some fun times. I will be dubbed a new nickname and most likely hazed a bit seeing as though I am a fresher crommie. I am a little nervous to meet all these new people, but I gather from the people I have met already that I will get on just fine with everyone. Check out my pics on facebook, I'm too lazy to choose some to add.

Cheers?
Maia

P.S. Freshmen fifteen = Fresher Spread in Australia. I thought it was funny..