I'm actually in Australia....

Hi every one! Thank you so much for your comments and emails, I absolutely love getting each one of them! So here is what I have been up to these past few days: Friday (the 18Th) I went to an event called "Rec Crawl", which is put on by the christian group on campus. A group of about 50 of us took a bus down to Surfers Paradise, where we went to this really cool arcade downtown, complete with bumper cars and laser tag (they call it laser skirmish here....weird).

Naturally, our team won at laser tag. After the arcade, we all went to a pizza dinner and then on to...of all places...an indoor ice skating rink. I had no idea that these even existed in Australia. I was pretty skeptical about ice skating, since I had never done it before, and I was determined to not fall. The rink basically looked like a roller rink that they froze over (I felt like I was at a 3rd grade roller rink party all over again). There was also basically a layer of water on top of the ice, which according to the boys from Minnesota, is not ideal. This only added more motivation for me not to fall; being soaking wet and cold did not sound like a good way to end the night. So, went around slowly for a while and eventually got somewhat comfortable with it....and I didn't fall! It was fun to try it, but I don't know that it's something I would suggest doing. I was basically in a state of constant worry about slipping up and eating it. All in all it was a really great, fun night where I got to spend time with some awesome people.

Saturday was another beach day, capped off with finding a Domino's pizza, and eating it while sitting on the curb waiting for the bus. By the way, my biggest frustration with Australia so far is not having a car. There is not much within walking distance of school, so we have to resort to the bus. The bus is less then desirable; slow, expensive, and a huge pain. There are a lot of places we have wanted to go, but transportation is always the problem. If we can't get there on the bus we don't really know how else to get there. It's times like these when I really wish I had a motorized scooter.

Sunday we went to our friend Teri's church, called Surfside. It was a really cool church, and I liked it a lot, but once again, transportation is the problem. There is no way we can take the bus there, so we are trying to figure out if we can get rides there. We'll see how that works out.

This week has mostly consisted of classes, which have been good. On Tuesday I had my first "sex, society, and the movies" class, and I am really excited about it! Each week we learn about a new theme, and then watch a movie about it! This week we watched "Some Like it Hot"; and I officially am now a Marilyn Monroe fan. My goal is to start watching more classic Hollywood movies (which was our topic this week), I really haven't seen very many, so if anyone has any good recommendations - shoot 'em my way!!

Tonight Bond sponsored this free rock climbing thing an an indoor rock climbing place about 10 minutes from school, which Lindsay, Corinne, Suzi, and I went to. I've never been rock climbing before......so I was just going to see how I felt about it. After my first climb I realized that I am, in fact, not a rock climber. Which, I mean, I kinda knew before I went. Here are my issues with it: 1) It really hurts my hands 2) it really hurts my arms 3) whats the point? I'm indoors on a fake wall...I don't see the motivation 4) the feeling of being up high and hanging on for dear life just doesn't spell fun for me 5) maaaaaaaybe if I had more upper body strength I would like it more. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that I will not be rock climbing in my free time.

I have one class tomorrow and then it's the weekend! I don't have any for sure plans yet; we are thinking of doing a girls night out tomorrow night, and possibly taking the train to Brisbane for Saturday/Sunday. Monday is Australia Day (their equivalent to 4th of July), so there is cool stuff going on in all the cities this weekend. Hopefully we will get there.

And just a sidenote.....so far Australian guys are not all they are cracked up to be. I am yet to find that Australian man of my dreams.....the search continues. I'll keep looking for good ones to bring back for you girls too :)

Oh also......if anyone feels like sending me a postcard/letter/care package, that would be just fine with me. I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all alot ofcourse. Much love!

Pictures!!

Alright, so I got my cord and I finally have some pictures!! They are mostly of some animals, our campus, and the beach. I don't have much new news, except that I got sick at some point during the week; sore throat, coughing up gunk, heavy head, stuffy nose. It's no good. I love you all and miss you very much, hope you enjoy the pictures!

First Days of School...

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well, thank you for the comments, I really appreciate and love reading them! Today, Tuesday, was my second day of classes here at Bond. The system here is really different then US university system. For each class you take a lecture and tutorial portion, each meets at different times throughout the week. The lecture is like a normal class, and the tutorial is a smaller class where the professor discusses the lecture, it's all about participation and comprehension. Also, you call teachers here by their first names; it's going to take some getting used to. Yesterday I had 2 lectures: Organizational Communication & Leadership, and Attitudes, Persuasion, Leadership & Conformity. My other Monday class, Conm Training and Consultancy, does not start until next monday. Both classes were a bit intimidating, they both have a few big projects, which makes me nervous. However, this morning I have my Organizational Comm tutorial, and that made me feel alot better about the class. The teacher went over the assignments in more detail, and we had a class discussion. I like the tutorials alot more then lectures :) I am on a break right now; I will be on my way to my Attitudes tutorial at 3pm. I wish I could just hang out here and not go to classes....but I suppose that is why I came here in the first place. I am just hoping that school work is not too time consuming, and that I can travel and have fun without having to constantly worry about school. Luckily, Australia does not believe in Friday classes, so I am really looking forward to having 3 day weekends!
The weekend before school began was really great. On Saturday we went down to the main tourist beach, Surfers Paradise, which is about a 20 minute bus ride from campus. There is a cool downtown area around the beach consisting of restaurants, tourist shops, and (praise God) STARBUCKS! It was a really cool atmosphere, even though it was pretty tourist-y. We had an awesome day at the beach, much of it spent swimming in the warm water and being taken out by waves. I got my first round of tanning in without burning, which I am pretty excited about :) My plan is to come back crazy tan....we'll see how that goes.
On Sunday we went to the church that the campus chaplin works at, called Hope Chruch. It is only about a 10 minute walk from campus, and it is a pretty cool church. It's always strange to adjust to a new church that does things differently then the church I am used to at home, but I like Hope, we have already met some really nice people there. I'm excited to see how that develops.

I miss you all very much, and I hope all is well at home. I want to know how things are going, so keep me updated!
Molly - please pray for community development, and that I would impact lives during my time here. Thank you so much, you are so missed!!

Also, here is my mailing address here at school. I have no idea how much is costs to send things here, but just incase you need it, here it is:

Katie Davis
Student Accomidation
c/-Mailroom, Building 9
Student Court
BOND UNIVERSITY QLD 4229
Australia

Love you guys, my camera cord is on it's way, so hopefully I will have pictures up for you soon!

Finally at school, finally have internet

Disclaimer: I forgot my camera cord at home....and I'm kicking myself for it right now. I don't have a way currently of getting my pictures onto my computer. I'm going to be asking my parents to mail it to me, so hopefully it will get here within a reasonable time. I'm sorry for the lack of pictures, but there will be alot of them when I get my cord!

Hi Everyone! I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to get on here and update this thing. We just arrived here at Bond University last night, and received our ID cards, which allow us to get onto the Internet, this morning, followed by multiple meetings. When I first signed on I was totally overwhelmed; I didn't know where to go first (naturally I chose facebook). Anyway, I'm sure what you would really like to be hearing about is what the heck has been going on these past 6 days. I'll give you the rundown...
Our flight left LAX for Sydney last Thursday night, I was already emotional getting on the plane. Having to say goodbye one more time on the phone was NOT easy. Thankfully, I had remembered to pack some NyQuil pills in my backpack, which allowed me to fade in and out of sleep during those 14 LONG hours. We finally arrived at Sydney airport in the morning, and struggled to figure out what we were supposed to do next, and where we were supposed to go. Luckily there was a large group of us, and I was able to pair off with a few girls, and we eventually got it figured out. From Sydney we flew to Cairns, where we would spend the first 3 days of orientation with about 200 other Australearn students that were going to be studying at Bond (I was pretty surprised about how many people there were). The first thing that I learned about Cairns is that it's humid.....really humid. Australearn picked us up from the airport and took us to "Gilligans" a backpacker/hotel where we would be staying. I was staying in a room with 4 other girls, 2 of which happen to be soph's at APU!!! I had never met them before that first day, and did not know who they were, but by pure chance they ended up in my room. Their names are Corinne and Lindsay, and I am so thankful for them. They have been such a blessing to me already; God provides.
That first night I think I feel asleep at 9pm, so exhausted and jet-lagged.
The next day Australearn has scheduled for our group to go visit Rain Forrest Station - an animal park in, guess where, the rainforrest! It was incredible, we saw wallabies, dingo's a MASSIVE crocodile, all kinds of lizards and snakes (which I avoided), and got to feed and pet kangaroo's and take a picture holding a koala! I'm going to do everything I can to bring one back, I love them! We also rode on an army duck, which is a WWII vehicle that drives on land and water, that took us through and rainforrest, showing us all kinda of crazy plants and animals. We also got to see an aboriginal dance show, throw a boomerang (mine almost made it back to me), and watch them throw spears across a football sized field. It was an amazing day!
Day 3 began very rainy, but still very humid. This was bad news because this was the day that my group was set to go snorkel and dive the great barrier reef. The good news is that we still made it there, the bad news is that the 2 hour boat ride out to the reef made just about everyone queasy. Picture a boat full of about 100 seasick college students. No good. It was rainy and stormy and the waves were HUGE. I took 2 seasick pills to make sure I didn't hurl; and it was well worth my money. We arrived at our first location on the reef and jumped in with our snorkel gear as the storm continued to rage on. The reef was BEAUTIFUL, but the only problem was that it was difficult to enjoy it while i was swimming for my life. I felt like I was in the movie, "The prefect storm". The waves were intense and it was pouring down rain, which made it hard to really experience the reef. Thankfully, after lunch we moved locations, where the storm had subsided and the water was very clear. This snorkeling experience was much better, I got to see some awesome fish, a stingray (RIP Steve Irwin), and tons of gorgeous, colorful coral. I was in total awe that this was all natural; creation is truly amazing. The only bummer was that the water was literally infested with jelly fish. We were wearing wet suits, but they were stinging us on every exposed area of skin, you know, like our face and hands. Now I know this sounds really intense, but they were harmless, mostly very small, and the stings only felt like a prick, and then the stinging went away after a few minutes. They were creepy, and constantly stinging us all, but it ended up not being so bad, seeing as we were at the great barrier reef! After that long day we headed back to Gilligans and once again crashed before 10pm.
The next morning, Jan 8th, we woke up, packed up, and headed to Cairns airport to catch our flight to Brisbine. Since it was still storming there were some delays at the little Cairns airport, but we eventually made it to Brisbine, where Bond rep's picked us up with a huge bus, and we drove about an hour to Bond! Let me just say.....this campus is gorgeous (seriously, look it up on google). The buildings are huge and amazing, and there is a river that runs through campus! Our rooms are pretty cool, not very big, but they have everything we need, including a private bathroom, and a balcolny that looks out to the pool! :) However, the part about Bond that I am most excited about so far is this: I am rooming with a girl named Ali from APU, and we had planned to live together, but check this out...Corinne and Lindsay (the other 2 APU girls) are our next door neighbors!! I honestly could not have asked for more, I'm so happy about it. I have been spending alot of time with them, and they are great. We have also connected with a few really cool guys from Bethel university, also a christian school, and we are very excited about having found them. At our first meeting this morning (or i guess yesterday morning now) the campus Chaplin spoke breifly, and afterwards we went up to meet him. He told us about the on campus christian club, the "sober activities" they have organized (really awesome stuff, like a weekend trip to a waterfall), his ministry on campus, and his Church that he is the pastor of close to Bond, that provides transportation to church every Sunday. WOW. We walked away from talking with him soooo pumped up and thankful. One of my biggest fears in coming here was that I would lose that Christian community and be somewhat stranded. But oh man, God is so good. I am so excited to get involved and to have that base that I so love. I am so thankful for the support and community that the APU girls have already provided, and I can't wait to further this growth. God provides no matter where you are.

I am missing you all from home so much already, and I love you all very much. I'm going to try to get on here more often so the updates aren't so massive (sorry about that!). Miss you guys, I'm looking forward to hearing from you :)
Lots of love from halfway around the world, Katie

Goodbye US, hello Australia!

Alright, so here's the deal....for those of you who don't know, I'm studying abroad in Australia next semester at Bond University. I'm setting up this blog as an easy way to keep people updated on what I am up to, without having to send out a million detailed emails. I have no idea if anyone will even read this, but if you do, I hope it is helpful and interesting :) At this point, I really don't know many details about what the next couple weeks are going to look like, including contact info. I'm not going to have my cell phone, so at this point I would say the best way to get a hold of me is either through this blog, direct email (katied6487@aol.com), or of course facebook :) My flight leaves LAX January 3rd at 10:40pm; I am not sure when after that I am going to be able to get on a computer, but hopefully it will not be too long. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years; I am going to miss you all so very much these next few months. Talk to you soon!
~Katie

PS - If you feel so inclined, it's very easy to leave comments to me on here, and I would very much appreciate hearing from you :)