Saying Goodbye

I will be leaving Sydney two weeks from today- what a crazy 5 months it has been! The last couple of days and weeks I have had to say goodbye to all of my new friends here. When I first got to IH I thought oh my goodness, these people are so much younger than me! They are so immature! How in the world will I survive? But we have really gotten close over the last several months seeing each other every day and eating every meal together. It has been hard to say goodbye to them because I don't know when I'll see them next. Some of my American friends like Kerry and Melinda live in DC and Philly so I know I'll see them again soon. It will be much longer before I see people like Pinky and Saeed. But we are lucky it has gotten a lot easier to stay in touch with email, Skype and Facebook.

When I was initially researching Australia and doing study abroad I found this graph below that explains your adjustment abroad and at home. I was thinking about it the other day and I seriously cannot believe how accurante this thing is! A couple of my other friends here have agreed.



It starts out with the honeymoon period where everything is new and exciting, then you hit the culture shock. I found a thing online that said at this point you may be finding faults with your new surroundings and will be contacting family and friends at home more often. It said that "Bear in mind that you seem to reach out to them only during your low points so try to remember to call them when you’re feeling better so they won’t worry"- sound familiar? Hmm... let me think of how many of those phone calls I made!

I think I underestimated going through any of this because Australia is such a developed and advanced country- it's not like I was going to live in Zimbabwe or something. And also they speak English here, so surely it couldn't be that different! I am reading online tonight about cultural adjustment and these are some of the things that now I can relate to:

-Not getting innuendoes.

-Not understanding what people are saying even though they are speaking English.

-Thinking no one likes you.
-Ordering chips and getting fries.

Then you go into adjustment. "Recognize that you are making it through the storm, and revel your successes, new friendships, experiences, travel, etc.! Your survival seems assured!" and finally you reach acceptance where you are able to function in both environments.

I am hoping this graph also comes with an explanation about why you get really awful grades when studying abroad, haha. I studied a lot but still think my grades are probably going to be horrible. Part of that is because my exams in the first half of the semester were atrocious so it was hard to make it up in the end, and the other part is that grading in Australia is really different. Students here don't need to get good grades to get a good job- they just need to pass. So whereas most students in the US aim for an A or B, students here just aim to pass. As a result, the whole grading system is really different and I personally think impossible to adjust to when the US system is so ingrained in you. Or so this is what I'll be telling myself when the final marks are released ;) As long as I graduate next year, I'm not worried too much. In the meantime I'll be enjoying my last few weeks of Australian summertime!

Sarah's Intro to Asia: Malaysia and Singapore Fun!!!

Here are some selected photos from my trip to Malaysia and Singapore. In 9 days, we visited Kuala Lumpur (KL), Cameron Highlands, Georgetown, Langkawi, Singapore and Melaka. It was an amazing trip! Melinda and I took about 1100 photos combined- on No. 900 Daniel started questioning what he was thinking going to Asia with two girls!


I was sooo excited!!!! At the Sydney airport


Cool fountain in Kuala Lumpur- me and Daniel (he's lived in Singapore and Brunei and was our personal tour guide- I don't think we would have survived without him!)

Merdeka Square

Tallest flagpole in the world- I am the little pink dot at the bottom of the pole

At the KL Butterfly Park

Peacocks at the KL Bird Park- we were lucky to be there during mating season so we saw about 10 male peacocks struttin' their stuff! It was really amazing.. that's me behind the bird!

Nightime in KL

View from our room in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands

Day trip to the tea plantations

Daniel, Melinda and Me

View of the valley from a lookout point- it was amazing being above the clouds!

Trekking in the Mossy Forest- a few weeks ago they found an entire tiger family in the highlands which is very rare

Enjoying some afternoon tea at Boh Tea Centre

Beautiful butterfly at Butterfly Farm #2

Hibiscus flowers

Canopy walk on Penang Hill- don't look down!!!

View of Georgetown from Penang Hill

I think I would have made at excellent soldier! At Fort Cornwallis in Georgetown

Riding on the back of Lasah the elephant in Langkawi. It was so awesome!

Feeding Lasah- can I take him home??

We ran across this cute little guy on the side of the road and I got to feed him!

On the ferry going back from Langkawi to Penang

Sunset over the Straights of Malacca- I think this is my favorite photo from the trip

Melinda and I went to Singapore without Daniel. Will we survive??

We caved and ate Western food!!! Sorry Daniel!

Little India in Singapore- we stayed right down the street

At the Singapore Night Safari (don't worry- the crocodile is fake ;)

So much fun!

Back in Malaysia- in Melaka

Apparently I became the tourist attraction...

At the replica of the Sultan's Palace

Petronas Towers- I am the jolly green giant! :)

Passes for walking across the skybridge

Good bye Malaysia- hello Sydney! Taken at 6:30 am this morning outside the airport. We survived! Malaysia, I will back one day! :)

Penang > Singapore > Melaka, Malaysia > Kuala Lumpur

I think this has been the fastest paced trip I have ever done. We knew it would be ambitious seeing half of Malaysia and part of Singapore in 9 days but I didn't realize how exhausting this would be!! Oh well, we are on our last day in KL and are heading back to Sydney on the red eye tonight. We have done too much to list it all so here are some of the highlights!

Saturday/Sunday- flew from Penang to Singapore on Singapore Airlines. Is it bad that one of my favorite parts of Singapore was the airline flight? Haha. It was a really nice flight. We wandered around the city, did the Night Safari at the zoo (highly recommended if you ever go to Singapore!), did some shopping, hit some museums and then took a bus back to Malaysia Sunday night. Daniel met us at the Melaka bus station.

Monday- wandered around Melaka looking at all the colonial buildings, old fort, temples and mosques. Apparently I am also a tourist attraction! I had some Malaysians (very sweet) ask if they could take a picture with me. I found this bizzare but Daniel didn't think it was weird. Melinda also pointed out that all the old Chinese men were staring at me in Singapore. I think it's just the blonde hair :) Then we took the bus to KL! Got some naan and teh tarik

Tuesday- Got up around 7 am, showered (with lizards) and are heading to the Petronus Towers before shopping! We are taking the red eye back to Sydney tonight.

Pictures will be posted soon!

Life is Beautiful

First of all, I should say thank you to everyone that writes comments on my blog! I am hoping that my adventures encourage others to get out there and explore too. But overall it just makes me really happy knowing someone is reading this, haha :)

So I am sitting downstairs of Crystal's Guesthouse in the heart of Chinatown in Georgetown, Penang. We were lucky to find this place- the owner is incredibly nice and it's so clean! A big plus after sleeping with mice our first two nights :) We are packing up and looking up bus schedules trying to figure out how to get to Singapore. But I am avoiding packing and blogging instead!

Today was absolutely amazing. We got up early and took the 3 hour ferry ride over to Langkawi, which is a popular tourist destination near the border of Thailand. Unfortunately we could only the stay the day since we are trying to see half of Malaysia and Singapore in 9 days. Ambitious schedule but so far we are doing it! The ferry ride was beautiful... unfortunately so beautiful that I got caught up in the experience (apparently I do this often- Melinda and Daniel have made comments about me "wandering" too much- oops!) that I didn't put sunscreen on and didn't realize we were outside for over an hour. Now I'm more sunburned than I've ever been in my life! I will pay for this tomorrow...

Anyway, we ran off the ferry, hired a taxi ('hired' = rent in Australian english) and went to ride Lasah the elephant!!! It was WONDERFUL! Life long dream fulfilled for sure. And apparently it is possible to have 2 lifelong dreams fulfilled in one day because then we were walking to the beach, and we just happened to see a man feeding some friendly monkeys. And he gave me some peanuts to *feed the monkeys*. I officially am over the moon. It held my hand and pulled the peanuts of out it. Absolutely amazing.

We wandered around the beach and hung out for about 2 hours. I tried to stay out of the sun but I just love the water too much. Then we wandered over to the marina and tried to get a taxi back to the ferry. Of course, there were no taxis going our direction so just as we were starting the 2 km trek back to the last location we saw cars, a nice man pulled up and gave us a ride! Fortunately I had done this in Costa Rica so I wasn't freaked out- I think Melinda had a mild heart attack but she'll survive :)

To finish off the wonderful day, we were able to watch the sun set over the Straights of Malacca. I don't think I've ever seen the sun set while out in the water before. The only thing that came close was the sun setting in Maui when the family went there several years ago so it brought back good memories.

I am starting to get a stomachache from all the crazy food Daniel has been making me eat. Last night's Indian food (slightly different than the traditional Thanksgiving dinner!) was probably what put me over the edge. I guess it's something about being foreign and blonde in Little India that gets you 5 waiters and eventually with enough help we figured out something to eat. In general though, I noticed people are really friendly here, always smiling. Anyway, Daniel has been trying to get Melinda and I to eat from the food stalls outside and tonight he finally succeeded. I didn't eat too much because the squid hanging outside was a bit unappetizing but I did have the satay chicken, coconut milk (from a coconut) and I tried the ice cream/ bean/ jello/ ice combination before deciding my stomach is not going to hold out any longer. Tomorrow just Melinda and I are going to Singapore (leaving Daniel for the day in KL) and we will be running to pizza! The first thing I am eating in the States is a burrito! I can smell those black beans and salsa from here ;) More stories to come soon!

Happy Thanksgiving from Malaysia!

I am sitting here in an internet cafe in Penang, which is a small island off the coast of the Malaysia. We got here around 8 pm last night and were able to quickly find a room. Our room searching abilities are getting better and better! The last night in Cameron Highlands we got a triple for 35 ringgit- that's $10!!! Last night we got an even cleaner and bigger one with a tv for 43 ringgit-- I think that's like $13. I love Malaysia :) The weirdest thing we are dealing with so far is the joint toilet/shower. Yes, you literally take a shower next to the toilet. Very odd but we are getting used to it. That's along with no toilet paper, periodically having to squat in holes to use the bathroom and using lots and lots of hand sanitizer! Despite all this I'm having a great time. Yesterday we went to a tea plantation, trekking through a mossy forest and to another butterfly park in the Cameron Highlands. Then we took a bus for about 5 hours to get here to Penang. Today we are going up to Penang Hill and then will be doing all the touristy stuff around Penang. Tomorrow we are trying to go to Langkawi, another island, but it's more like a resort.

They don't have turkey here but maybe we will try to have some chicken for a mini-Thanksgiving :) I have been thinking a lot lately about how fortunate I am to be having such amazing experiences. A year ago I never imagined that I would be jumping off mountains in New Zealand or trekking around the rainforest of Malaysia. I think this trip is proof that if you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The last few months have really opened my eyes to all the opportunities out there. I certainly have a million things to be thankful for- my family, my friends in the US, all the new friends I have made here in the Asia Pacific. I couldn't have gotten here without the support of each and every one of you. That's what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving!! I will be back in the States soon... only about 3 more weeks. Can't wait to give all of you big hugs! (can you believe that I actually want to hug people now? that should say something about how much i've changed ;) hehe)

That's all for now.. more updates will be soon!

A Day at the Sydney Aquarium

Me, Pinky (my roomie!), Saeed and Kerry making scary faces in the shark tank


Yours truly

SHARK! This thing was probably 5 feet long...

Pinky and I at Darling Harbour on a beautiful Friday afternoon

Final Exams, Exploring Sydney and Malaysia!

It's been quite a while since I've updated this because I was studying non-stop the last two weeks. Exams went okay- I was mainly just happy to be done! Then as soon as I was done, we started exploring a bit more during the last 48 hours with all of my friends. It was a whirlwind going to the aquarium, symphony at the Opera House, bush walking through Kuringai National Park (and finding our own private beaches!) and clubbing Sydney-style (probably one of my favorite things about Sydney). I think only I slept about 18 hours in 4 days :) A few of my friends will still be in Sydney the next month but most people are going home for semester break (which by the way, I cannot get over seeing Christmas decorations when it's warm outside!)

Then Sunday morning we had to say good-bye to everyone at IH (it was incredibly hard to say goodbye to Pinky, my roomie) and then it was off to Malaysia!! I am here with Melinda and Daniel, two friends I met at IH. We spent 2 days exploring Kuala Lumpur going to the Butterfly Park (Daniel showed me how to hold a butterfly!), getting face to face with peacocks and eating more Chinese food than you can imagine. It is hot, muggy and smelly but I love it! So much character to this place. Today we got on the bus to the Cameron Highlands. Most of today was spent on the bus and then indoors because it has been raining all day. But that's okay- I'm pretty tired after trekking all weekend so it's nice to relax a bit. Tomorrow we are doing some jungle hiking and going to a tea plantation before we head to Penang! I am sooo glad Daniel came on this trip- he has lived in Singapore and Brunei and has been to Malaysia several times. Melinda and I just kind of follow him around... I think she and I would still be wandering around Kuala Lumpur if it wasn't for him! I think the weirdest thing so far is that the toilets and showers are in the same stall... literally right next to each other. Bizzare but I'll get used to it :) That's all for now!

Canberra and my internship- Round 3

So this week is my third trip to Canberra for my internship and it went so much better than the last 2 visits! I'm feeling much more comfortable here, and we finally narrowed down what I'm working on. I've been kind of wandering aimlessly and was concerned that what I was doing wasn't adding any value to the organisation. But it sounds like I'm on the right path so I feel a lot better. I'll be coming back in a month for a week to interview some more people and wrap things up!

One of the really cool things about the organisation is they have a lot of government contacts. So today I got to go to the debate between the environmental ministers! Election here is in 2 weeks and climate change is a pretty heated topic. The debate was at the fancy National Press Club and was televised although I doubt it will show up anywhere in the US :) It was really interesting though. Unfortunately I think everyone thinks I'm an idiot because I don't understand all the intricacies of the political system and ask the dumbest questions. They also always ask me for my opinion and it basically ends up being "they were really good public speakers" because I don't know enough about the topics to make an opinion. And actually, any opinion I have ends up sounding terrible so I'm trying to keep my mouth shut! :) But all in all, it has been really great to get exposed to all these different facets of the government and country.

Next week I am taking my finals (ah!) and then I'm done for the semester!!

LakE Wanaka and Queenstown Airport

My last two days in New Zealand were spent in Wanaka and Queenstown.

Laka Wanaka after a rainstorm


Hand of Trust, I think

Walking around the lake

The Purple Cow, where I stayed for the night. I shared the room with a nice girl from Austria

And I woke up to THIS on Thursday morning. Un-freakin-believable

Signs at the Queenstown airport. Home is a long, long ways away

View from the Queenstown airport

Bye New Zealand! I will definitely be back one day :)

South Island of New Zealand- Queenstown, the Remarkables and Milford Road

It's hard to put into words how absolutely AMAZING New Zealand is. I met Lisa (from high school) and Amy (her friend) over on the south island for the last 6 days. If you have never been before, GO! You will not regret it. It is actually more beautiful than the Lord of the Rings, which was filmed there. Pictures do not do it justice. I took a couple of videos which I will figure out how to upload. For now, here is my photo diary!

View of the north island from the plane


Huge mountain on the south island

We decided it would be fun to go hang gliding! (yep, that's me!)

It's a lot scarier than it looks

View of the Remarkables from the gondola

Amy, Lisa, Me

We liked the Remarkables so much we decided to drive up them! Probably should of had a 4 wheel drive...!

Laka Watakipu

Lisa and Amy bungee jumped off this bridge!

Arrowtown- they filmed some of the Lord of the Rings movies around here (obviously not in the town... :)

Driving on the other side of the road! We split up the driving. Poor Amy got stuck with all the horrible winding roads

Mirror Lake

The beginning of our climb to Lake Marian. We thought it would be a nice stoll in the woods

But it was really like climbing a mountain... literally!

We had to climb OVER this tree

But it was SO WORTH IT!

Avalanche!!

Paradise

Me attempting to walk around the lake before I gave up

Finally making it down the mountain!



Too bad we didn't see the edited sign before we started up. We thought it would take 3 hours total- more like 4-5!

Continuing on Milford Road

Going through Homer Tunnel

Only to find THIS on the other side!

The road closed the next day because of avalanches- yikes!

We were really excited to be there :)

Do we have to go?

Walk to Manapouri

The 12 km hike was worth it :)

The little shop in Te Anau where I found margarita mix! More exciting than you can imagine after not having proper margaritas for almost 4 months!

We made fajitas- can you tell I was excited?!?

Drive Wednesday morning from Te Anau to Queenstown. We were treated with a rainbow after the rain!

SHEEP! I think there are about 20 million of these around NZ

Trying to drive to Rainbow Reach. You'd think this would be sufficient warning to turn around

MOO! These were in the middle of the road

Rainy day but still ridiculously beautiful

Maybe this was what the warning was for!