Aussie Adventures

Pictures

I think anyone who wants to view an album that I made can look at this website!
http://picasaweb.google.com/CalieEck
Hopefully it works

posted by Calie Eck @ 2:56 AM 5 Comments

posted by Calie Eck @ 2:42 AM 0 Comments

Starting to get used to everything!

hey everyone! Sorry it has taken me sooo long to put another post up! My computer crashed!! It was a big pain in the butt and I thought I was going to have to get a new computer! However, I just got a new hard drive so now I am back in business. These past few week have been really crazy. There always seems to be some type of party or place to be. I thought us Wisconsin college kids drank a lot...haha well Aussie are CRAZY! But, don't worry I am doing my fair share of studying! I only have classes on Mon., Tues. and Wed. It is really nice however I usually spend ALL of Sunday doing homework. School is very different around here too. There is a lot more focused on reading on your own and not as many assignments. I hope I can keep up. This past weekend was very low key. The campus was EMPTY and I guess that is how it is going to be every weekend here on out because everyone is traveling. It was very low key thought and I only went out one night. We went to Brisbane on Saturday for Queensland Roar professional soccer game. That was quite an experience! Soccer is not as big as Rugby is, however there were over 17,000 people in attendance at this game! It was great experiencing another type of sporting event other than baseball or football. Hopefully you can see some of the pictures that i took at the game! Other than that things have been pretty chill. It is a lot different not having a TV or anything like that. We have been going to the beach and pool a lot. We have an Olympic size pool and beach v-ball courts! Our recreation center is really cool. I am taking four classes; all of which I really like. I am taking two communications classes, which I am doing for credit. They are not as interesting as the other two classes that I am taking but expected that. I already have to give a presentation to my class this Wed.! It is me and another American boy (Who is ironically from Wisconsin and goes to Carthage college! Small world and I know his brother very well because he is on the UW-L water ski team) We are in a class full of Australian girls who are all very on top of there game. So I am a little nervous about that! I am sure it will be fine. The other two classes I am taking are a little more fun. One is Australian sports in the modern era. We learned how to play cricket during out last class. I have never seen or even know what cricket was....it is quite interesting. I will be teaching everyone when I get home! The last class that I am taking is Sports Management. This class I think will be a little more work than the Australian sports one however it is a VERY interesting class. The teacher is an Olympic medalist in the hammer.....which I have not clue so if anyone knows what that is would you please tell me. We are going to be taking different trips with this class and really learning a lot about Sports management in Australia! So I am very excited about that class and there are a lot of Australians in this class also, so hopefully I can get to know some. I am going to try and put up some of my pictures on here if I can figure it out! I love you and miss you all!

posted by Calie Eck @ 2:09 AM 0 Comments

Mailing address

Here is my address at school and know some people wanted it :)

Calie Eck
Student Accommodation
North Tower 373
Bond University, QLD 4229
Australia

posted by Calie Eck @ 9:03 PM 3 Comments

Over a week into it!

It is hard to believe that less than two weeks ago I was still in the US. Australia is absolutely beautiful! After about 24 hours of traveling me and the rest of the Students who are going to Bond went to our hotel in Canirs. While in Canirs we went snorkeling on the great barrier reef. We took a 2 hour sailboat ride which was VERY choppy (As they say in Florida it was more than a moderate chop! haha) This is a picture of the port we left from! Here we had a chance to scuba dive or snorkel. I really wanted to go scuba diving but because of my asthma I couldn't :( but snorkeling was just as cool. We went to two locations on the reef. One which was on a protected island island that it would be a $6,000 fine if you stepped over this rope, it was very interesting how far they have to go to preserve the Australian environment. One of the coolest things that i saw while on the reef was the sea turtles, they were not that big but they were so amazing! The next part of the reef that we went to was called paradise reef and there was a reason for the name. This reef was a little deeper but it was much more diverse . I thought I was in the movie finding nemo! It was so beautiful! The next day we went to the rain forest. I got to hold a koala bear (they are so cute) and see a 10 foot crocodile named jack the ripper. This thing was cool! The group also pet kangaroos and saw an Aboriginal dance, which was very fun and of course I got volunteered to go up on stage and try to dance like them....it was very funny to say the least. It was hard to believe that are trip in Canirs was over and we were going to our University! We hopped on a plane to Brisbane to start our Journey to Bond University. The traffic was very bad in Brisbane so it took us a very long time to get there, also the anticipation made the trip seem that much longer. When we showed up to our university it was dark, cold and rainy....but even with all of that we could still see how AMAZING Bonds campus was. There are fountains and lakes every where. The main part of campus has 2 large arches which are lit by huge spot lights. I will be posting pictures of my campus and my trip from Carins soon! Since I have been here I have really gotten use to the college like with out a car. The bus system here is very messed up! haha but we soon figured it out. Shopping is not as easy if you don't have a car. A lot of kids that are here at Bond are VERY well off. Some kid are even talking about getting cars! That would be nice...want to spring for one mom and dad? haha JK. My friend and I walked to the beach on Saturday and it was about a 45min walk which I don't think is bad because then maybe I will actually get my work done instead of being a beach bum! The waves are SO huge...it is crazy. The surfers are every where and I am defiantly in heaven! haha Surfers are very cute! Yesterday was my first day of classes and they went great! My professor is (which I have for two classes) is from New York so she is easy to understand and she even uses a lot of US resources for her class. Sorry this was such a long blog post but I will be updating it more so they will be shorter in the future! I miss everyone so much! xoxo

posted by Calie Eck @ 3:01 AM 0 Comments