Old School

The biggest problem with being done with exams is having nothing to do. This has been made much worse by the bank holiday this weekend. Everything is closed till Tuesday, so I'm stuck try to pack my things up a bit. Packing means leaving, and before very long packing starts to bring me down a bit, so I stop.

My solution was to bang my head against a bug in the Mac operating system that makes the vintage game Starcraft (humans and aliens at war, it never gets old) unable to play. Gradually the game becomes less stable, stops being able to save, and then just starts wreaking all kinds of havoc. Once I got the game working I played until about an hour ago. I'd beaten most of the first campaign and had gotten to the really really hard bits. I'm starting to get just a little too hard to tackle the game at that level. Its the kind of scenario where you're totally surrounded etc. etc. Everything is going wrong all at once and such.

The real end to my playing was a knock on my window, which I'd left open to get some fresh air and night breeze in to my room. I took my headphones off and looked up from the screen, wondering if I was going to get the pleasant surprise of a friend passing by, instead I was greeted by a stranger who seemed to be on one substance or another based on his affect. I went over slowly and asked him "who are you looking for man, I don't recognize you." He said he'd just seen my light on and wanted to say hi. Well, fair enough. We shook hands through the crack, and wished each other goodnight. He went unsteadily on his way a few seconds later. I decided I'd close my window and lower the shade though.

I've been mentally inserting "the last time I'll... in Cardiff" in front of things. All good things do come to an end, but I have plenty of wonderful things to look forward to. Though the people may be an ocean away, though the instance and the immediate emotion may fade and memories become hazy, I try to remind myself that experiences never really end. This will be with me for the rest of my life, constantly being rethought and reevaluated, new things will come from it, and in bursts of happy deja vu I'll remember clearly again. When I remind myself of these things, I smile even at my leaving.

So now that I've actually done something today..

I have a bit more worth writing about now that I've gotten out of my desk chair.

First, the weather in Cardiff really stinks today. Its not just the usual grey but an angry churning storming grey. Along with it its raining off and on, not enough to be a true rain but enough to make everything cold and wet. A couple of days ago it was unthinkable that I'd need warm clothes again, but I've got one of my fleece vests on just to keep the chill away.

Second, I should probably add to the list of interesting people I've talked about on the blog. Here's a quick start. I've gone to the Subway up the street from the Talybont complex many times, but I've never really talked to the guys who work there. I've had the same person wait on me more than once, and they always say hello to me with a little more gusto than some of the other customers. I guess I qualify as a regular. I apparently misspoke today while giving my order, so the guy at the counter corrected me. This started off a conversation. He guessed, based on my accent, that I was from "New England" and I correctly ID'd him as Indian. It turned out we were both Cardiff students, the different being that he's here for his MBA. I was a little surprised because his english has always been a little limited, and hindered further by his heavy accent. Regardless of first impressions if he's managed to get in an MBA program he's probably not too shabby. We shook hands and wished each other good luck in our studies.

Done!

My exams are finally over! Marine Conservation was very manageable as expected, and Animal Physiology was very hard. I wrote a beefy essay at least, and included some examples not covered in lecture.

After my exam I ran some errands and had lunch. The afternoon's end found me reading in the park before going to a house party at Taly South 23. It was a nutsy time since most of the party-goers are done or nearly done with exams. I opted not to join everyone at the clubs, which turned out to be a good call. I was treated to a long skype with Erin! I haven't seen her face since January so it was wonderful to catch up with her. I also caught up with a few people on Facebook before turning in.

Today I slept till noon and don't have much more planned for my day than having dinner at some point.

Summer Time!!

Well after a stressful few weeks, my exams are finally over! Don't think I did as well as I would have liked, but at least they are over. Taking exams in rooms of 300-500 people was a very different experience than the go to your classroom and take it with your prof type of thing we're used to. Closest similarity would be the self scheduled, but it's never that packed. John and I were a bit tempted to slam a pint before our marine conservation exam, as we had to go through the Taly Social to get our seating assignments, who knows, it may have gone better? I've only got 2 more weeks here, and I'm getting pretty sad about it. The study group is slowly trickling home or to other countries. I saw my lab partner Jacob for the last time the other day, it's really strange. Walking around Cardiff and just trying to internalize everything. Hard to believe 5 months went by so fast.

My flat is mostly done with exams, or at least revising in spurts. There's been a few funny moments. TC bought a new 42 in flatscreen TV, which is almost larger than I am. I wish I had that sort of money to throw around. They had a small party the other day which resulted in a lot of unfortunate encounters with wax, at least for the guys. There's some amusing photos on facebook, but be warned, there's at least one butt.

I was back in Guildford (and going again tomorrow), for a fun few days, after Tris came to visit me here. We saw Robin Hood with the group, and saw our friend Ed's few lines as an extra, which was exciting. Pregamed a night out with them (which was hilarious), but since we had to be up at 6am, didn't go to the club. Had a good run in on the M4, until we hit Guildford itself, but Tris wasn't too late to class. I got a lot of studying done. The weather has been incredible here the last week or so, so we spent a lot of time outside. I met Brogan and got a tour of some new places.

Saturday night the guys had a soccer game scheduled with some friends. I borrowed shorts from Cathal, and we drove with John, a guy from their course to the park. We met up with Anton, a large German guy and kicked the ball around (while the guys threw around a rubgy ball at the same time). Three more German guys showed up, and soon the Allies v. Germans game started. I was the only girl (some of the Germans had gf's but they sat on a blanket and watched/ignored us). We were playing on a really slippery cricket pitch, with tiny goals and a short field. I haven't played soccer since the game with the mens team when I still did crew, but it came back pretty fast. I even scored a goal, much to the German's embarrassment. We played and hour and a half, till my team finally put in our fifth goal. We all collapsed for a bit. But the Germans weren't about to concede to a team with a girl on it, and said we would have to play to 10. We were all exhausted by then, and hungry, so we eventually agreed on playing to 9. After another HOUR of play, Tris slammed in our teams last goal. So the Germans lost to us twice. They were nice guys though, and it was a lot of fun. I only slipped once (compared to some of the guys falling every few seconds), and got absolutely taken out (though the German tried to catch me as we both fell, and ended up in a heap). He kept apologizing but it was really just funny. Needless to say Sunday morning I could barely move, and am just now really getting the use of all my muscles back.

Monday was my seds test. Sections A and C were ok, and since they made up the majority of the test, I'm sure I at least passed. Tuesday was marine con, and since then I've been puttering around wondering what to do with myself.

John and I had a Betty in Cardiff photo shoot and a nice day in town, though I failed yet again at finding shoes for the ball. Today was mostly writing post cards and running errands. A lot yet to be done before I leave. I don't even want to think about packing...

Stone Animals

Just a few photos from my walk around Bute Park yesterday. Forgive me for some of the more silly effects I added to the photos. Some of them are helpful and some were just me having fun. As always, the url below can be pasted in to your browser's search window. It will take you to a page where you can download the photoset as a zip file.

https://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=8971698f615e6eba6d9f

The Menu Has Changed

Please take a look at the "Links" section in our sidebar, we've added links to three blogs written by some wonderful people. Go take a look! If you like them, let us know so we can pass it along.

The Final's Continue, but Today was a Day Off

Four of my finals are over now. Animal Behavior caught me off guard, but the essay topic played to my strengths so I had some interesting examples to talk about and I think took an angle the Professor won't have been expecting. Animal Cognition was two hours of writing about the evolution of an equation for quantifying learning. It was the definition of dry. The only bummer about that morning was waking up to no hot water.

The other afternoon I had one of the strangest experiences since I've had since coming to Wales. I was walking under North Road (there are tunnels so you don't have to cross all the lanes of traffic) heading back to my apartment from downtown after getting lunch when a street musician playing an accordion really lost his cool. The guy was actually playing really well, and I was about to drop some money in his case, when he threw his accordion to the ground, screamed "f**k" at the top of his lungs, and then started running up to random people in the tunnel and shouting "are you having a motherf**king good day?". I guess he was having a bad one, and I walked out of there pretty quickly. There were some security guards from campus and town hall that went past me heading down in to the tunnel, probably attracted by the noise.

Today I decided to treat myself to taking the whole day off. I slept in really late and had a slow breakfast before cleaning up and heading downtown to send some books home. I did a little bit of shopping before heading towards Bute Park to take some pictures of the stone animals sitting along its outer wall. In doing so I disturbed a group of picnickers, who turned out to be absolutely sloshed. They complimented my camera as they stumbled off, but repeated, with much forceful pointing in my general direction, that they'd take it if I took a picture of them. I still had the lens cap on.

Instead of taking the faster route home through the city I had a leisurely walk in the waning light through the park, enjoying the sights and sounds of students studying and professionals exercising or relaxing after work. I've been chained to my desk so much it was nice to just be outside in the sun and listen to the birds. The park also smelled great since the grass had just been cut the day before. It was nice to enjoy the city and some of my last few weeks in Wales while I had the chance.

2/6 Finals Done!

Population Ecology and Environmental Case Studies are done! As expected case studies wasn't too bad, but population ecology was a bit rough. I've been putting in plenty of study time so it might be I'm just being too hard on myself. After both exams I spoke with classmates and didn't feel like I had had a harder time than anyone else. All the studying has been surprisingly tiring so I'm feeling just a bit beat. Two more exams this week, both of which I'm feeling good about. For at least a little while tonight I'm taking it easy, though there will be some more studying later on. Giving my brain awhile to run on a little less than all its cylinders will probably reenergize me and actually help a bit tomorrow.

We've had great weather, except for a bit of rain this evening, so its been a bummer being inside all the time. If the weather holds overall I'm going to do some walking around town later in the week since I'd like to start getting photos of a few places and I have some shopping to do. Not spending all day taking a test or studying will be great, and since I have a few days before my next test (and its not one of the tough ones) I can afford to enjoy the parks and sunshine a bit.

Last gasps of spring break- Pembrokeshire

Yeah, I never talked about Ireland or Pembrokeshire, I should do that, as much for my benefit as yours.

I took a beautiful train ride out to Haverfordwest passing many a field and beach on the way, plus a few customary castles. Tristan picked me up at the station, and drove us back to Solva. It's a really pretty drive, with this one spot where you come over a hill crest and suddenly everything opens up below you. And by everything I mean Newgale beach, and ocean and sea cliffs on either side. It's truly breathtaking. I couldn't do more than just stare at it all as Tris beamed proudly beside me. We stopped on Newgale and took a VERY windy stroll along the stones. After being blown to bits we headed to his place.

Solva is a really pretty little village, built around a natural harbour, Tristan's house is on top of the hill and the views from pretty much every window in his house is amazing. Nothing but ocean, islands, and cliffs. I met his parents (very nice) and moved into a bedroom. They've recently converted everything into a B&B, so the room was immaculate, with a great view of the stars through the skylight over the bed at night, and a huge stretch of coastline out any window by day.

I had forgotten my raincoat. Since I was to spend the next week in Ireland and Pembrokeshire, some of the rainiest places, that wasn't the best call. It rained most of that first day. Whoops. Ed and Phil showed up to meet me and hang out, and we ended up playing a ridiculous game of scrabble. We bummed around awhile, and eventually the rain let up. We headed down to a beach, and ran around getting wet for at least an hour. The guys through around an Aussie rules rugby ball while I poked around in some sea caves and waded as far as my borrowed boots would let me. It was a lot of fun. Then it was back for an incredible dinner. I think that was the night we went down to the pub. It was a strange night apparently. Half was an 18th birthday party, so it was teeming with highschoolers, the other half a bunch of older men getting their beards shaved off for charity. The bunch of us were jammed awkwardly in the middle with a very drunken lech who kept saying some pretty incredible things. Needless to say, we finished our 1 pint and left, with much apologies from the guys.

The next day, the rain had cleared, and we walked over to Tris' grandmother's, who is quite the accomplished artist. I really enjoyed looking at her work. We then headed for a walk on the cliff path. All the pictures I had seen from John and the groups hiking trip were accurate of the beauty out there. I saw the shipwreck, the iron age fort (mound of dirt), and rolling hills, thus named for their very soft grass that allows you to throw yourself down them uninjured. We spent awhile clambering over rocks and lounging in the sun, the prefect vacation. Eventually we got a grumpy call from Ed, as we were late for surfing. We headed home to find everyone waiting for us. I borrowed a wetsuit of Zoe's and nervously followed Tris to the car. Honestly, for my first time surfing, I didn't do too badly. I only really wiped out once, and managed to get to my knees most of the time. It was a lot of fun, except that Tris and I got caught up in a rip current/strong longshore current and ended up a bit further offshore than we intended. Not an easy swim back with surf boards in tow. But we made it fine. The guys were freezing by that time (I wasn't), something about the Irish Sea in April I guess, but we called it a day. Rolled a giant tire down the beach which was amusing.

We called it an early night, as we were up in the wee hours to catch our ferry to Rosslare.

Verrückten Kinder...

So, today I was riding the Straßenbahn - the tram here in town - and there was a boy of around 7 years sitting there while I was standing, riding it home to Vauban. He was slapping his face and shouting things. He was also the longest German conversation I had today. We talked for all of five seconds about beards and moustasches. Apparently, he thinks moustasches are evil, and that my hair would fly away because of it. I thought that was kinda interesting... Also, moustasche in German is 'der Schnurrbart,' just so you all know.

One month to go, where is my pause button?

Marathon blog post time? I think it's marathon blog post time. So much has happened in the last few weeks!

The Election: This was a pretty huge deal here, and a lot of fun to watch from the sidelines. Our flat had up to 19 people crammed into our kitchen the night of. It was fully decorated with construction paper with the name of every political party in the UK, and there are some strange ones (Monster Raving Loony Party anyone?). TC made a cracking speech for Labour, followed by support speeches for the other two major parties. We had a late night tesco run, and had quite a few drinks. I lasted till 2:30am or so before giving up (not bad considering I pulled an all nighter for Geier's monstrous paper the night before, thanks to John for keeping me in one piece). Most of my flat partied on watching the results for every district roll in (also funny names: Tooting?!), they went to bed somewhere between 4-7am I think. I woke up to a hung parliament, and a study session with Jacob. Hung parliament means that no one party got a true majority, and they'd have to squabble around and make alliances. It also meant the Prime Minister spot was kind of up in the air. It finally resolved itself today, with Gordon Brown resigning from politics altogether, so David Cameron, the Conservative now is PM. I think Lib Dems may have allied themselves with the party in power, but I'm not sure.

Studying with Jacob was actually productive this time (last time we mostly looked at pictures, listened to music, and he attempted to teach me guitar things, which I failed at naturally). This time, though we did get distracted with election stuff and a comedy show, got through two past exams. It's nice that they post those here, esp. since they recycle questions a lot. Wish they had a key though. But as we ate cookies and discussed the finer points of siliclastic cementation, I realized just how many good friends we'll be leaving behind. My flat mates, people in my building, a few people from class... Not going to make coming home any easier, that's for sure.

I've been down to Guildford a few times in the past few weeks. It's quite pretty there, at least the bits I've seen. Went for a walk in the woods that Tris' college does work in. Saw a lot of cool trees, a badger set (but no badgers sadly), a literal field of blue bells. It was a gorgeous day to just climb tress and poke around. Had dinner at this amazing totally hidden Italian place. Watched a lot of movies and British comedies. Met his house mates, all of which were really nice. It's such a great place to just relax for a bit, and after these past few weeks, I needed it.

A few weekends ago was our last class trip as a study group. And it was EPIC. It was our Dylan Thomas (famous writer/poet) trip. The trip started a bit rockily. Everyone was tired, no one wanted to be there, and a lot of us were worried about getting Geier's paper/other work done. I for one didn't bring any work except reading, and just enjoyed it, it was fine.

Our first stop was Swansea, where we aimlessly wandered through the Dylan Thomas center. Not the most exciting place, but Maria and I found an awesome animated version of Under Milk Wood, that was very much not for children. I really should read that at some point. When we got out, five of us just decided we were hungry and went to lunch early. We went under a road in a ped tunnel, which was full of red liquid that we pretended was some sort of fruit juice...on the way back there were a few cops standing by the worst of it, so I'm a little scared to think what me may have just missed. We ended up in a pub called Yate's. Really good food, and lots of deals. And chocolate chip cookie dough cheese cake. Awesome. A demonstration started in the square across the street that we checked out. Communists, and labour parties and unions? It was an interesting group, and it was over after about an hour.

Next stop was 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Dylan's childhood home. This was an experience. The home is now owned by a couple that has restored it to as close to what it would have looked like as possible. Annie, the wife was absolutely nuts. Lots of inappropriate jokes (Geier's kids were amazed), she was wonderful. We were split into groups, one to take the tour, and one to make tea (we later swapped). It wasn't just making tea, it was doing it in formal Edwardian style. Table had to be swept and set just so. Tea had to be made just so, we had warmed fresh Welsh cakes with jam and local cheddar. It then had to be served properly by a luckless Casey E., who got heckled by Annie the whole time. Annie concluded that Casey would never get hired as a servant went on to say she doubted she'd have luck in less reputable professions... The tour itself was interesting, and the husband (with his "gammy" leg) took a lot of pictures of us. Then it was across to the park he used to play in, where Jim Jones, the Welsh professor accompanying us read us some of his poetry. Jim is the current archdruid for the national (I think?) Eistedffod, which is pretty cool, and means he's a very good poet.

We were pretty tired and passed out on the bus after that, until we arrived at Fern Hill, a place where he summered with some relatives. The people who owned it have passed, so it was locked up. We just stopped and listened as Jim read us poetry over the bus microphone and went back to bed. Pretty sweet. (Not the bus ride though, our driver was not that good, and the bus seemed ready to fall apart, and leaked in the solid rain storm we had that day.)

We arrived in St. Davids in Pembrokeshire, which really is one of the prettiest places I have ever seen. We had some time to explore that night before dinner. We checked out the cathedral and Bishop's Palace, and wandered down a lane. We met some gypsy vanners (read small horses that very much resemble cows), and fed one grass for some time. I got stung by a nettle in the back of the thigh and was in a bit of pain the rest of the night. Caroline and I raced dandelion leaf boats in the stream. Dinner was really good at The Bench, but took almost 3 hours to get all of us served all 3 courses. Sadly everyone was tired/wanting to get back to work after that, so I couldn't get anyone to come with me to Solva to meet up with Ed at the pub. So I read and worked on Tris' birthday present until we went to bed.

Morning meant more time to explore, but we had to wait for breakfast (which also took ages). We were headed to St. Non's healing spring and chapel ruins when we saw it. The coolest playground I have ever encountered. As one, the group stopped, looked at each other, and ran screaming into the playground, taking over and playing on every single piece of equipment. It was SO much fun. The Geier's found us, and we played with the kids for awhile before moving on.

We all washed in the spring, and Casey E., Jackie, Stacey and I headed down the cliff path for a walk. It was so pretty. Saw some cool little harbours, and rock climbers, and kayakers. The gorse was in full bloom, as were a bunch of wild flowers. We headed back into town via the main road. We reached Bishop's Palace to see some people waving things at us out one of the ruined windows. It was our study group! WITH WOODEN SWORDS! I don't know if I mentioned it, but it's been one of the groups main goals to have a sword fight in a castle. As soon as we got in they attacked us, streaming out of very good hiding places. We of course bought our own swords on the way out and carried them around with us the rest of the day. We got ice cream before lunch, and it was excellent. Lunch was not that great. A very salty roast that also took too long. Pembrokeshire, besides being pretty, with amazing weather, was the culmination of our group bonding and letting our inner child out. I'm going to miss these guys more than I could have ever predicted.

Our last stop of the day was Laugharne (pronounced Laan, weird), where Dylan lived for quite some time. We saw his home "The Boathouse" which overlooks an amazing beach. And his writing shack. We walked by his father's apt. and his old pub (now closed, shame) and then visited his grave. Jim read us a poem he wrote a few weeks after Dylan's death, which was pretty moving actually, and very good. Back on the bus to Cardiff, where we had another group dinner at a really good Indian place. I ended up sitting next to Jim and his wife and found out that they have been to St. Louis several times, as Jim has a colleague there who he exchanges work with regularly. This guy runs a pub called Dressel's and I have been sent on a mission to find it, and have been promised drinks on the house. Small world guys.

We've had a few other group meals, one at North Star, and a dessert binge at Blackwier, but now the group has scattered to all sorts of places. It's weird that we won't be together as a whole until the reunion at Geier's sometime next spring. Sad really.

This weekend was another fun one. I met up with Casey G. and Margaret in London after a boring but productive bus ride. We ended up in a gorgeous apt. just off of Hyde park of Margaret's mom's friends. They had designer cats. I was afraid to touch anything. They took us to an amazing Lebanese place and bought us dinner. We then legged it (well tubed it too) across town to THE GLOBE THEATER!!! Ahhh! We saw Macbeth, and it was mind blowing. They pulled out all the stops while keeping it pretty simplistic. We were groundlings, meaning we stood in front of the stage for the full 3 hours of the show. It was tiring, but worth it. As a twist they had us all under a big black cloth tarp, with just our heads sticking up, as they sprayed us with things often (usually water, but I almost got stage blood on me, because I was standing right behind a spot where actors regularly would pop up). It also meant that actors could run unseen around your ankles which scared a lot of people. The show was so gory, but so amazing to watch. An incredible experience.

So it's just down to 3 exams. Four final papers submitted. One back so far, Geier's back on Thursday, right before my first exam. I'm not going to look at it till the exam is over. Terrestrial Ecology is going to kill me regardless.

Time rushes on.

Networks

** I wrote this about two weeks ago and intended to do more with it, but, I'll put it up now and move on to more things shortly **

As most of you are probably aware, the strangest things bring strong memories to mind. I was just playing with my wireless to try and connect to a finnicky network, and brought up the list of networks my computer has information stored about. Right now, they span 3 continents (if you count Europe and Asia separately, and I'm going to), and run from ColgateStudents and Rostra (4 months ago) to Novenstern (3 months), BBUser and Beppu3f (2 months) and IES 3.Stock (7 days ago). That's Colgate, home, Sarah's apartment, the hostel in Beppu, and finally this building here on Erbprinzenstraße in Freiburg. It's a nice reminder of how far I've come these last few months (quite literally) and that maybe I have enough ground to be a bit stressed out by it all. So many new places in the last 3 months, so many new things.

Today I attended my first Übung - exercise, which apparently means a small group of students take turns showing other students how to do problems. I haven't done math in the last four months, pretty much, since around the last time I was using Rostra and ColgateStudents as network connections, so, that was another pearl of experience on the necklace of embarrassing foreign experiences. Apparently, I haven't been taught all that much rigorous math at Colgate. There is a lot of linear algebra that I just do not have right now, and I'm going to have to learn some night soon. Preferably before Sarah comes on Thursday!

Revision

Sick as a dog this past weekend, physically had the consistency of half-hardened jello. That's put me behind in my studying a bit but I'm catching up. I had done some right along so I'm not caught totally flat footed. It's daunting, as I think I've said, since our exams count for so much of our grade, or rather, they basically are our grade. Now that I'm a bit better I've got all my errands settled and have spent a good portion of my time going through my notes class by class. Eventhough we do have more time to study than at Colgate I'm going to be happy when things get started and I can start ticking off exams.

Oh right, I have a blog to write. And Oz slang

So I'm about a week past the midpoint.

Since coming back from Kangaroo Island, it's been a lot of work. Physics, a DE midterm, two big presentations and my half semester physics experiment due. And you guys back home are done with classes, hell, you start finals later today!

Not much happened in these two weeks, obviously because of all the work, but a few interesting things did happen. The Wednesday after break, all the Colgate kids came out and apparently none of us remember what happened that night. I was told that I was a dancing machine, and I have pictures to prove how crazy the night was.

And then there was ANZAC Day. Australia and New Zealand Army Corps Day. It's Australia's Memorial day, and boy are they patriotic. In America you have tons of people going barbecuing and going to the beach. Here, even the uni kids go to the ANZAC Day memorial service. At 5AM. Yep, it's a dawn service. I stayed up with the Australians until 4AM. We played a few LAN games. Eventually we all got hungry, so we gathered $50 in change (mostly the freaking huge 50 cent coins), put them in a plastic bag and had one dude go to maccas to buy 20something bacon cheeseburgers. at 2AM. A few of us had 5 bacon cheeseburgers and holy shit was it a lot. I barely finished. When 4AM hit, The Aussies started blasting Australian music, most notably the song "Land Down Under", and knocking on everyone's door to wake them up. The RA of A1 (building A, floor 1 which is like 80% American) got two huge speakers out into the hallway and was blasting terrible music to get people to wake up. Needless to say, not a single American from Weerona got up except me, but I was already up. One guy said the morning after that the music was so loud that his bed frame was shaking. After the Aussies went to their service, I went to bed and woke up at like 1PM.

Two days ago (Saturday) we went to go play basketball, but found that there are literally no free basketball courts in the city, and the only one that was near us that was free was fenced off. The closest one was in a nearby gym but it was $3 per person. Didn't matter anyway, they had a team about to play a game so we had to come back 5 hours later if we did want to play a game. So instead, we climbed a mountain.

Mount Keira is a short walk up the road from uni, so we decided to just go there. The very start of it was super steep, and eventually we got up to the parking lot where the actual trail starts. We went up the trail and came to a T-road, so we made a left...big mistake. We ended up coming to a dead end, so instead of turning back, we did what any sane-minded person would do. We climbed the side of the mountain to the top. Steep as hell and being scared of heights didn't help it. Just don't look down. We eventually got to a small area where you could see all of Wollongong which was amazing. We also found a random plastic sword, so one of the girls jammed it into a rock, King Author style. We still had more to go, and our makeshift path wasn't that easy. Right past that area we climbed a little more and met two random girls who were sorta lost. We ended up climbing up some rocks and after passing through heaps of bushes, we got to the other side of the gate from the big parkish area on the top. Going through the gate we found a big park area with a restaurant and a road leading down. Needless to say, we were all exhausted.

To make up for all the lost time, I've been keeping a list of Australian terms I've heard while here. Y'know, just whatever I remember to write down. These are all very common phrases.

American - Australian

how are you - how it goin'
Thank you - cheers
Thank you - ta
no problem - no worries
McDonalds - Maccas
Flip flops - thongs
class - subject
homework - assessment
major - course
lab - practical
friend - mate
enthusiastic - keen
awesome - sweet as
it's okay - she'll be right
football - footy
bbq - barbie
the outback or anyplace that isn't town - bush
breakfast - brekkie
really drunk - pissed
root - sexual action (thus you never "root" for your team in sports)
Nothingness in the outback: GAFA (Great Australian Fuck All)
party - rage
exclamation - strewth (Guy 1: I just found $20 Guy 2: Strewth!)
swagman - hobo
xxxx - four x, brand of beer

And other random things:
Ugg boots - Australian sheepskin boots WORN BY SURFERS since at least the 1960s to keep warm while out of the water. Also worn by airmen during WW1 and WW2 because of the need to maintain warmth in non-pressurized planes at high altitudes.
aussie salute - brushing flies away from your face
our ham - their bacon. They don't have American crispy bacon.
nesquick - milo, although they still haev nesquick here. It's just not nearly as popular
all candy tastes better except they don't have reeses or hersheys
baby - joey (people i've heard pretty much use it for all baby animals)
Native Americans - Indigenous Australians
Tim Tams - awesome chocolate wafers that almost make up for the absence of reeses
zero - nought (was really weird the first week of math/physics)
z - zed (like Dragon Ball Zed)

Here's a big dictionary of Oz slang, some of which you may here in places other than New South Wales. http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html