Craziness!

It's August 3rd, and I already had school. What!!!??? At least I get out earlier. I didn't have any classes today, but I have five yesterday. All of my classes meet several times per week. One meets six times. Another meets three. My other class meets five times. Plus I'm interning. I will definitely be busy this semester! But I will have my weekends :) I really think I will really enjoy the classes I am taking here too.

Philip already has two jobs. Yup, that's my Philip :) He loves to work. He works on campus and takes notes for a deaf student. Then he works in a completely different city an hour away by train two days a week at a solar energy company. It sounds like it really suits him well. He will be making a few hundred dollars working less than 20 hours. Oh how I love the minimum wage in Australia!!

I don't know if I will be able to get a job. The only times I have available would be weekends because of my intense school schedule. I have Fridays off of school, but I will be interning on this day. I have a half of a day off on Thursday but I will be interning again. I want to have fun in Australia, not just work and study. Who knows. Maybe I can be a note taker too. I could probably make time for that.

Today I saw a Kookaburra! What a beautiful (and NOISY) bird! It was outside of my apartment and I wouldn't have seen it except it was screaming! It is so loud! I really enjoyed watching it though and I was sad when it flew away.

I also saw a Purple Swamphen today. At first I didn't know what it was because I didn't have my bird book, so I just called it the "what the heck bird." I think mine is a better description. It's not even purple! It's blue... and red... and brown...see?! What the heck. Here is a picture of it.



A "WTF" bird might even be appropriate, but I won't go there. Look at it's feat and face!

Today was free donut day. I thought about my sisters. They love donuts, and these donuts were pretty good. I would do anything to be able to have my family here with me. I want them to see what I'm seeing so badly! The pictures help, but I can't take pictures of everything I see. And pictures can't show how something tastes or smells.

I am understanding how things work... finally! I can navigate myself around Sydney on a train. I can find nearly anything on campus now. I know where to buy what and where is cheaper. I have new favorite foods here. Everything tastes different here. I get really excited when I see something we have in America, then I taste it. Not as good. So I stick to things I don't eat much in the U.S. so I don't have expectations. I really like pitas here. Panetta Fruits (the store) has a pack of 8 large ones for a dollar. I eat these at nearly every meal. For breakfast, I either have toast or put peanut butter on a pita. For Lunch, I put stir fry on a pita. (I am a stir fry queen now. I can make a mean stir fry!) For snack I eat a pita with hummus... which is amazing here! And for dinner I let Philip make barbeque stirfry and we put it on a pita. I also eat fruit with nearly every meal. We don't use oil or anything for stirfry either. I let the veggies warm up and soak in each others juices :) It's so good. My favorite veggies here are broccoli, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, and peas. I love salad, but I haven't found a good dressing here yet. I miss my jalapeno ranch :( But all the food is fresh, so the fruits and veggies go bad in a week, and the packaged stuff goes bad 3 days after you open it. I like this because it's so much better for you. And I want to live to be 100.

Today I finally bought stamps. They have koalas on them :) I love them. Will someone who gets a postcard save it for me? I want to scrapbook it :)

Tomorrow I have a meeting with my professor to see if I can get into my BIOL 847 class. It's a graduate level class, but I hope I can convince her to let me take it. I really think I could do it. It would be a lot of work, but I'm interested in the subject and I would work hard at it. Plus, I'm a pretty good student in the U.S. and you have to get a 55% here to get a C. That is so doable. I think I could get a 75% and get an A! Lets hope I can convince her of that.

As you might have known, I got really sick last Friday. It was sad because the doctor office that is free with my insurance was closed all weekend so I had to wait until Monday. It turns out I had a massive infection due to dehydration. I didn't drink much water in Fiji because even the bottled water tasted bad. When the doctor did tests on me, she said she was surprised I was still walking being that dehydrated. (Two weeks nearly on the equator with no water... probably a bad idea.) So I'm on medicine now and I already feel a lot better. I need to drink a lot more water though!

Do you guys have my address? I would like some mail! I don't think it's more than a dollar or two to send a letter to me. Don't send a package though- it's hundreds of dollars! I would love to get mail from anyone and everyone!

Brittaney Klocek
c/o Macquarie University Village
9/122 Culloden Road
Marsfield NSW 2122
Australia

DO IT!!! :) That way I can tell who even reads this thing. Probably no one. It's probably just Teddy who reads it :) Oh how I miss that little guy.

Or you could just come visit me. This is a more expensive option, but I would love it! Just go to the airport, say you would like a ticket to Sydney, front a couple grand, take a taxi to the address above, and I will let you stay with me for as long as you want :) Haha... but really. Yes. I would.

Well I need to get off the computer. I am long winded on this thing. If you actually finished reading this post, thank you and I miss you. I can't wait to be back in the states eating Jiff and cuddling Teddy. Four and a half more months.

Love, Brittaney