Still Lovin' the Land of Oz!

Hello All!

Sorry we've been MIA in the blogging world lately. First of all, check out the post "videos galore" from February 18th. We added a few videos from Queenstown. They're pretty funny. :-) So much has been happening! We've been busy entertaining visitors. Becky had 3 friends from high school come visit over the course of two weeks for their spring breaks. Becca got to play with her madre and padre when they came to visit for a week as well. Highlights of both of the visits:

1. We both got to see Wicked! It was phenomenal! Becky had seen it in Tulsa and loved it, but the Sydney show was even better! Becca knows all the songs, but had never seen the show.
2. Lots of beach time building sand castles, burying Becca, avoiding blue bottle jellyfish, watching for sharks, attempting to learn to surf, and working on our beautiful tans
3. The Lautens discovered what they claim is the greatest pizza in the entire world. Loved it so much they had dinner there TWICE. It must be good!
4. Harbor cruises and ferry rides that let us see the opera house, harbor bridge, Luna Park, etc. from the water. Gorgeous!
5. Discovered the amazingness that is Pancakes on the Rocks. Becky loved it so much that she went 3 times in 1 week! They have perfected pancakes and serve them with ice cream. It's MAGICAL!
6. Everyone got to see all the cuddly animals they wanted to. Koalas, kangaroos, tasnamian devils, you name it!
7. Mama Lauten brought goodies galore from the States! Mac n cheese, Cheezits, and FREE WILLY ON DVD were some of the prizes we got especially excited about. They just don't know how to do cheese correctly in Australia. Hence the mac n cheese & cheezits. And Becca found Free Willy on DVD for $3 on amazon!!! What a bargain!
8. Went to our favorite night spot in Coogee Beach on our last night having visitors in town. Danced the night away and made it home sometime in the wee hours of the morning. The thing about Coogee is...by the time you get there, public transportation pretty much stops. So you have to wait to take the morning train home. This was just fine and dandy with us because we got to take a walk on the beach and enjoy some Pancakes on the Rocks (see #5)

Bottom line: we are now both experts on every tourist attraction in Sydney. We've got this town figured out! As of late, we've been busy working on that "school" thing. Within the first 2 days of this week, we had our first 3 Australian assignments due. A take home test (that was basically a 1500 word essay) and two esays. Not fun. But we're done! Now we have so much to look forward to. One more day of class tomorrow and then it's already our mid-semseter break! We get two weeks off from school so we've made some big travel plans...

April 3-9: Cairns with IES (our study abroad group)
We'll spend 2 days & 3 nights exploring the Great Barrier Reef on a private chartered boat. It's going to be really rough: snorkeling, sunbathing, eating constantly. Sounds like a hard life, but we're up to the challenge. We'll also get to see the Daintree (the oldes rainforest in the world) where we get to kayak, do a jungle ropes course, and hike through the forest with a guide. Sweet!
April 10-13: Brisbane
Brisbane is north of Sydney in Queensland. We're just going to explore the city and do some touristy things. We're most excited about hugging koala bears at the koala sanctuary!!! Ahhhhh! Holding koalas is illegal in New South Wales, but it isn't in Queensland! Score!
April 13-18: Hervey Bay & Fraser Island
Supposed to be a beautiful area. We'll stay on the mainland at Hervey Bay for a few days then take a ferry over to Fraser Island for our last part of the break. We have absolutely no plans except for being beach bums and playing lots of Bananagrams (our latest obsession; we play for at least an hour every day)

Now you're up to date! We can't wait to share stories about our trip! Hope all is well back home in the U.S.A. Glad to hear it seems to be warming up a bit! We leave you with some pics from the last 2 weeks to enjoy...

Becky & Amanda Vining (visitor #1!) taking in a lovely view of the Opera House

Becky, Emma Sitton, & Sophia Olsen (visitors #2 & 3) playing in the waves at Manly Beach

Steve & Janice Lauten (visitors #5 & 6!) saying hello to Luna Park on a ferry ride around Sydney Harbor

WICKED!!!!

Becca making friends at the Zoo

Cuties at the Capitol Theater in the city ready to see Wicked!

1 Month Anniversary!

Well, it has officially been one month since we have left the states...and to celebrate the milestone we have come up with a list of what we have noticed, however, not gotten used to, in the land down under.

WARNING: Some of these differences may seem shocking, in need of the fashion police, or just plain disgusting. We have been taught to react by saying "it's not wrong, it's different".

Observations on Australian Life:

--Jean skirts are in style again for grown women

--People don’t jaywalk; they actually stick to the pedestrian crossings…AND cars stop to let you pass!
--No courtesy wave when you cross the street

--You don’t have to tip. Ever.

--There are lots of Asians here and they all carry umbrellas…rain or shine they’re out protecting from the elements.

--Australians really like Thai food & kebabs.

--No one knows what an enchilada is...tragic.

--Mostly all uni students live off campus with their parents or grandparents

--It’s completely normal to refer to your professor by his or her first name

--Movies are reallllly expensive. As in $18 a piece.

--Baked beans and spaghetti are normal breakfast dishes. Yum.

--Each class we are enrolled in only meets twice a week for one hour. We have a lecture portion where a lecturer stands at the front of the room and prattles on with a slideshow. Then we have a tutorial portion with a smaller group of people that is more interactive and usually involved group work.

Aussie Words:

--Brekkie = breakfast

--Dodgy = sketchy

--S’arvo = this afternoon

--Cheers = goodbye

--Pash = make out

--Root = have sex

--Dag = adorably nerdy

--Olds = parents

--Mob = cell phone

--Uni = university

--Shel’ll be all right = it’s OK

--sms = text message

--whats doing= what are you doing

As for our lives...

We have settled into our dorms and decorated the space as creatively as possible using as little money as possible. This means our decorations for themed parties (such as wings) hang above our beds, and wrapping paper adds color to our bulletin board. Thanks to Becky's perfectionism, we both have hearts on our walls made out of pictures of our adventures and of back home. In case you were wondering, we do have pictures of Chipotle burrito bowls developed and on our wall.

We have learned that if we expect horrible food, then we tend to be pleasantly surprised with what we are eating at our dorm. Our favorite dessert night is ice cream sundaes because it's pretty much impossible to mess that up.

School is going well...lectures are basic and we are expected to do a lot of reading for each class. We are thankful that our grades are more determined on essays rather than tests. We don't get bored in class thanks to the casual relationship between teachers and students. Our favorite examples would be our teacher constantly snapping at us (the whole class) to focus and a student blaming a teacher for saying something that he didn't.

We are both really looking forward to the constant flow of visitors coming up in the next few weeks! Amanda will be arriving on Sunday, Becca's parents arrive on Friday, and Emma and Sophie will be getting here on Saturday! We have been mentally preparing for lots of fun.

Besides school, we have filled our free time with cupcake making, painting to fill rainy days, and some movie watching. This past weekend, we decided to go to the biggest Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in the world, simply because, this is the only time in our lives to see it. We went there with a group of friends that are also here from the states. We got to Mardi Gras about 3:30 and the parade wasn't until 7:45. We filled our time by enjoying a glass of wine while people watching (there was plenty of it). There was lots of boas, glitter, and bright colors, and it was all on the opposite sex than you would expect. We were pretty exhausted (people watching wears you out) by the start of the parade and figured that if we saw one float, then we would be happy. We had a long walk back to the train station since a lot of the closer stations were impossible to get to because of closed streets for the parade. We made it back and were both in bed by 9:30 pm.

That is about all that is new in our lives! We talk about you and miss you all everyday! We love to hear from you so keep emailing us, and skyping us!

Lots of love from your aussie girls!

Picture hearts by Becky Long! Aren't they amazing?!

Sunday was a rainy day, which called for a trip to the dollar store. We found these paint kits and had a relaxing afternoon of painting...Becky found paint in Becca's hair the next day...a sign that it went really well

Becky and Becca at the Macquarie train stop getting mentally prepared for Mardi Gras...of course we brought out crowns, and they were a huge hit.