One Dollar Doom

Welcome to the happiest blog post of them all. This past week and weekend I have been stressin' pretty hard about an assignment in my social neuroscience class. With 3,000+ words out of the 3500-4000 necessary for the criteria, I began this morning with plans to finish and move on to the latter stages of essay writing. However, a little bird this morning, Safetyduck, reminded me of something I had forgotten about this entire time. The professor had extended the due date, by a week, a long time ago. Although embarrassed I had forgotten, I was so incredibly relieved and happy.

This week has been pretty mild in terms of exciting Australian news. This is generally the point in the semester where people have work to do. However, Thursday was the grand opening of “shop.” It is basically a place to buy cheap junk food at night. We rang in the new semester of shop with Mexicana night where everyone dressed up as their favorite gaucho and drank some tequila and Sol. It was a lot of fun and I had a great time chatting with my corridor friend, Nacho (go figure). Last night, however, I realized that shop will probably be the reason I come back to Dickinson unrecognizably large. A cup of “lollies” (candy) is a $1 and so is basically an entire loaf of garlic bread. I am seriously in line for an arterial clog.

This past Sunday I decided to skip traveling to an unknown destination in order to play frisbee and instead stuck around at Cromwell to play in back to back games of soccer with the Crommie girls. The decision was perfect. I had forgotten how much I love to play soccer, especially with a group of people I have such an amazing time with. A sunny Sunday filled with soccer and good times reminded me of my many years of travel league. They even had orange slices for half time! Only thing missing was my soccer mom (and grandma) on the sidelines, but at least Megan, Natalie, and Leslie were there. I versed Paige, also from Dickinson, who was on the Emmanuel team. Although we lost, we put up a big fight against an undefeated team.

Next weekend is the qualifying tourney for Mixed Nationals for frisbee, so hopefully we will make it through to the next round. I am extra hopeful because I now have to miss Lovefest because it is my ask weekend. If mixed nats is out, then I will not be able to go to any tournaments with the Lovers.

Last night the Cromwell Dickinsonians decided we needed to catch up. We have not seen much of each other the past few weeks, with Phil and his job, me and my frisbee, Megan her sinus infection, and Taylor... We were about to go out to the RE, but then somehow had a change of heart and decided to stay in, play Wii, play some card games, and have our first taste of shop together. I realize we're abroad and should go out and mingle, blah, blah. However, after a weekend of stress and being immobilized by two games of soccer, staying in was awesome. It was also really fun to play card games, like spoons, egyptian ratscrew, and old maid, classic throwbacks.

Good luck to all of my comrades venturing off to their own abroad programs! And to all Dickinsonians, don't even think about posting pictures of the awesome times you are having without me.

Love and Koalas-
Maia