I'm Alive

Just checking in blog, don't worry, I'm still here. Things are a little busy lately with school, so once things let up, and I start experiencing the things I have in the hopper here, more posts will follow

Byron Beautiful!

This weekend marked my first getaway to Byron Bay. Just an hour south, it is a gorgeous little beach town, also known as the most easterly point of Australia. Italso has a great lighthouse that still runs at night, filling the town with light.

We got there around 4:30, checked into our hostel, and heading to Aztec for a DELICIOUS, but very long mexican meal. I recommend the cheese dip, it was amazing, but apparently the guacamole was delicious as well. Then we decided to head to a local home, a friend of a friend, to get the details on the nightlife in Byron Bay. But, to get there we had to drive, and since I had opted for just water at dinner, while everyone else had margharitas, I got to drive a car on the Aussie streets (and navigate driving on the wrong side of the road) for the first time. The Outcome: Not as terrifying as I thought it would be, and something I'm looking forward to doing again.

It was a pretty tame night out, I had 1 beer overall, some of my friends had a little more, but we went to Aquarius Backpackers Lodge for a few minutes, then everyone migrated to the Beach Hotel, but, having a few people lagging behind, I waited for them, and by the time we arrived at the Beach, they were no longer letting people in, as they close down at midnight. So, the three of us who missed out stopped by a Dominos for a little pizza, and then after 15 minutes caught up with our crew again. Everyone else was hungry, so we went to the most hilarious kebab shop: Abrakebabra. After that, most of us were pretty exhausted, so we walked back to the hostel for a little shut eye.

Sunday was our day to explore. We had a disappointing breakfast at Fix Coffee, and then looked at all the great shops for a few hours. My friend Alan who was with us confided in us that he is scared of the 'artsy types' that frequent Byron Bay, because they 'creep him out.' That

provided the rest of us with plenty of cannon fodder to make fun of him for the rest of the day. For lunch we stopped in at a little sushi place. It was delicious, and sushi here is so cheap! Must be the proximity, I guess! We spent an hour on the beach relaxing, and then headed to the Lighthouse to check it out.

It was so beautiful, and on the walkway to the most easterly point in Australia, we got the extra special treat of seeing a whole school of wild dolphins swimming in the break.

It was a great weekend getaway, and fantastic to relax as I will be going pretty heavy on the school work for the next couple of weeks.

Let the Learning Begin!

First week of classes done! Only 15 more to go until I am halfway done the school part of this adventure!

This is where the blogs are probably going to get pretty uninteresting, as the exciting things I do become less, and the learning becomes more. But, I'm excited for the learning!

My week was pretty productive, if I do say so myself. I spent Monday reading the first chapters of my textbooks, except for one, as it didn't even arrive in the bookstore until Thursday the 3rd. I don't have any lectures Monday or Wednesday, so I get a 3 day weekend every weekend! And, a whole lot of time to do readings. I have lectures from 1-4 and 6-9 on Tuesdays, 4-7 on Thursday, and 3-6 on Friday. Most of the classes in my program are offered at night, because a lot of people take their Masters part time, so I too will be a night owl.

So far, I am pretty excited by 3 out of 4 of my classes. Branding seems really exciting, and the professor is so passionate! Advanced Consumer Decision Making is right up my alley, as it is a bit of a mix between the psychology and marketing, and I am a huge fan of my professor in that class too. She is the head of the entire Masters of Marketing Program, and already in the first lecture I could tell she has some hilarious stories to tell. My Internal Marketing Professor was also really funny, and had us do a pretty original ice breaker activity that I hadn't seen before. The course material seems a little more dry than the other 2 I've spoken about, but I think if anyone can make it interesting, its this guy. And finally, Strategic Marketing. I hate to say it, but dull! It was just the first class, so I'm sure it will get better once we get into the meat and potatoes of the thing, but I have never had a lecturer in my life who spoke with such a monotone. He seemed like a very nice man, but there was no life to his voice. But, for the next 2 weeks, 3 of my professors, including Strategic Marketing, are gone at worldwide conventions presenting their work, so I will have 3 completely different lecturers for the next 2 weeks, so who knows!?

I have some pretty good groups so far for group projects, a few Canadians, some Finnish people, a girl from China, some Danish people, and a couple people from Germany make up the groups for most of my classes. It'll be great to get some diversity and see how marketing is interpreted through other cultures.

It's been a quiet week here for me. I hurt my knee last Saturday, after making a poor choice to climb my balcony when I was locked out rather than calling security to unlock it. My knee ended up getting infected, so I've pretty much been laid up since then. Now I'm on antibiotics, and the knee is looking, and feeling, much better.

I had a pretty quiet weekend as well. On Friday, a few of the Aussie girls I've met took some of us foreigners to the 'Hogs Breath Cafe' for the 'Best Steak in Australia.' I had the calamari steak, and it was pretty damn good. Now, since I've had so few steaks in Australia, I'm not sure I can claim it was the best YET, but look for this common theme on the blog as the months go by, and by the end of my trip, I will crown a 'Best Steak.'

Saturday was rainy, so I spent to day reading textbooks and setting up formats for my many papers this semester, as did most of my roommates. I think most people around here were feeling the need for relaxation, as the Village itself was pretty quiet all weekend. On Saturday night, a few friends and I went out for some yummy pizza, and saw a movie at the local cinema. Big props to Alana, who has driven me around a few times now, and my car-less self would be lost without her. After the movie, we went back to a friend's apartment and played N64 Mario Kart till 2am. The little things in life!

On Sunday, we went to one of the local themeparks, Dreamworld, and I forgot to bring my camera! So, no pictures of that, BUT, it is cheaper, as a resident, to get an unlimited pass ($60) instead of a day pass ($79), so I can go to Dreamworld, and White Water World as many times as I want until June, so I am sure we will go again, and I will try to remember my camera. It was a great day out, and a nice break from my solitary confinement of Saturday. Had a quiet Sunday night in, and here we are at Monday, another week, and more school to do.

I'm going to Byron Bay this weekend, which we were actually supposed to do this last weekend, but the delightful new friends I've made put it off for a week so I could heal up and be in fine form for beaching (no one wants sand in a cut!) So, I will hopefully have some beautiful pictures and fun stories to tell.

Now, it's been a pleasure, but please excuse me while I get back to studying!