Thursday 30 August 2012






wan·der·lust/: Noun: A strong desire to travel: "a man consumed by wanderlust".

Quirk. Fun. Travel. Experience. Laughter. Redwoods. Friends. Wilderness. Culture. Wildlife. Passion. Insanity. Health. Stress. Life. Wonder. Once-In-A-Lifetime.




At The Beginning...
 
The first week was an interesting mix of muddled-up body clocks, stressed out class enrolment and a whole lot of insane fun. Jet lag, I can safely say, is so many levels of not fun, and as much as I love Melbourne, I really didn't need to be on their time- on the other side of the planet!
Trying to figure out my class schedule was, difficult to say the least.
H.O.P Week in general was interesting.
 
Laurel, in Creekview Apartments, is the International Housing, and we have our happy little international family now. The multitude of people and culture here makes for some very interesting and amusing conversations as we all try to understand each other.
 
The Internationals had a different Orientation Week than the freshman. We got ourselves familiar with the campus, which is beyond anything I have ever seen in Australia. This uni is huge. But I guess that's kinda like everything here; over sized.
 
Everything here is also ridiculously cheap. Organic supermarkets, chain stores, malls; think of prices back home, and halve them. So the fridge is pretty well stocked! There is also a farmers market in the main square of Arcata every Saturday, which is pretty sweet.
 
But besides being over sized and cheap, Humboldt County is also undeniably beautiful. Towering redwood forest surrounds the uni; I walk through it everyday. Went to Prairie Creek Forest with the international group, and the trees there, even though they are young, are bigger than anything I've ever seen. Everything here is so full of vibrancy and life. And the Bumblebees are fuzzy! Rather cute actually.. And then everything looks so very different at night. Went on a night hike, and that was an experience.
 
But then O-Week was done, and now the real work begins...
 
<3
 

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Goodbyes. Airports. Planes. Planes. And More Planes.

 
 
 
 



wan·der·lust/: Noun: A strong desire to travel: "a man consumed by wanderlust".

 Quirk. Fun. Travel. Experience. Laughter. Redwoods. Friends. Wilderness. Culture. Wildlife. Passion. Insanity. Health. Stress. Life. Wonder. Once-In-A-Lifetime.

 
 
Goodbyes. Airports. Planes. Planes. And More Planes.
Saying goodbye was the hardest part of leaving. Mum, Dad, Aunty Chris, Emily, Kaity and Sophie farewelled me onto the plane with many hugs and tears.
 
The flights went perfectally smoothly....until San Fransisco. Safe to say in the next few days, I became VERY familliar with San Fran Airport. Got onto a plane from San Fran to Arcata, my final destination. The plane could not land, due to heavy fog so we were diverted to Cresent City. Cresent City Airport told us they had no way of helping us, so they sent us onto Reading. Reading Airport said the same thing, but informed the passangers that Sacremento Airport would be able to give us accomodation etc etc. So on we flew to Sacremento...
 
But wouldn't you guess it?! Sacremento Airport told us that they couldn't, and had no obligation to help us, and that it was advisable to continue back to San Fraansisco, as that was where our luggage was being sent, whether or not we got off the plane. So, back to San Fransisco I flew.
 
Spent the night at San Fran Airport, sleeping on a couch in the food court. By this stage I was exhausted, stressed and rather upset. I got pushed to standby status for the next flights to Arcata, but nothing came of it; no one really cared what happened to the people from the cancelled flights. I ended up finding the other HSU Exchange students that were stranded in San Fran and got a manager involved to push us through on the next flight. Apparently being a determined Australian really does help!
 
Eventually landed in Arcata, 24hrs after was expected. And got my first glimpse of my new home.


 
 
 
wan·der·lust/: Noun: A strong desire to travel: "a man consumed by wanderlust".
 

Quirk. Fun. Travel. Experience. Laughter. Redwoods. Friends. Wilderness. Culture. Wildlife. Passion. Insanity. Health. Stress. Life. Wonder. Once-In-A-Lifetime.

 
  
 
This is a faithful and complete account of my travels, stumbles, roadblocks, stresses, successes and overall experiences on my globetrotting adventure.
 
Read, laugh and enjoy!
 
 
✌☮✌☮✌☮