Daily Life Update

Life here in Australia is going GREAT as usual. Classes are running smoothly and in my free time I'm enjoying all that Australia has to offer. Kayaking on the lake, spending time on the beach, trips on the weekends, volleyball tournaments, family dinners every Sunday, and of course working on homework. My favorite part about Australia is the laid back culture of daily life. There is no rush to get things done and I love the no worries motto.

Australian Life and Culture class is still as interesting as ever. This past Monday I had a presentation over Uluru and Kata Tjuta (which I visited over SB). I worked with two other girls and we presented for 20 min discussing the Anangu people (Aborigines in the area), Geography, plant and animal life, and sacred area of both places. I think we did fairly well and had a presentation that interested our classmates. The only thing left in this class, besides turning in our finished portfolio, is to have a final test in the class that is 40 multiple choice and 4 short answers. So paying attention in this class is a MUST! And to be quite honest...in a three hour class its hard to concentrate for that long.

Wildlife biology started out with a weekend field trip that I wrote about in my last blog but the actual lecture part of the class hasn't started yet. We are suppose to have class every Wednesday but this week it was cancelled. Our professor seems pretty cool and has a lot of interesting characteristics which makes him fun to talk to. I think this class is going to be pretty interesting. Our final grade in the class is based on a paper and presentation...the topics are up to us but have a few small guidelines. Doesn't seem to hard!

World Literature is the class I have on Thursdays. At the beginning of the semester I hated this class and the teacher. We were basically thrown into a class where the teacher had a bad image of Ball State students work ethics and gave us no hope in passing the class with a grade above a C. Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of novels (3 all around 300 pages) and other readings (usually 2 each week between 10 and 27 pages) we had to finish each week for the class. (Remember we are here for three months and go on trips each weekend) It was overwhelming and seemed to be an impossible task however, this weeks class proved all of my fears wrong. I actually enjoyed the class for the first time! It was easy for me to relate the topic and book to psychology and give my perspective on the authors intentions through that. The teacher was impressed and liked the fresh views I threw out! He also explained a few things about the class and readings that made everything seem a little more simple. It was refreshing. Now all I have to do for the class, besides read the weekly readings, is to read a novel and do a presentation over it and write the final paper. I'm less stressed about the class and don't feel so overwhelmed about it.

I am pleased with my progress in the classes here and feel like the rest of the time here is going to go by quick! I have already read 2 novels for my Australian Life and Culture class and parts of 2 others for World Literature. I have about 4 weeks left in this dream land and I am already dreading the day I have to say goodbye. I am really excited for my trip to New Zealand at the end of the trip and plan to do as much as possible when I'm there. So far I am looking into skydiving and ice climbing! If I have to end this amazing journey...I'm going out with a bang!!