A Crash Course on Townsville, Australia 101

G'day, mates! (jk. Hello, y'all)

As I've tried to stray from the typical travel blogger style of "this is what I did today" (repeated over and over), I have realized that I've neglected to highlight the amazing city that I am in.

So here it is: Townsville, 101. (Remember that I've only been here for a month. This should really read: Amelia's version of Townsville, 101).

•  James Cook University: This is the uni that I attend, which enrolls around 10,000 students each year. A little bit smaller than UNCW, but not much. Here, I am taking Graphic Design for Media Marketing, Indigenous Connections, and Australian History (don't make fun of me, this is technically a victory lap for me, I could have taken anything). 

Nestled between the mountains and the ocean (about a 15 minute bus ride to the beach, with mountains to climb right behind the school), a lot of my friends have said that it reminds them of southern California. It has a medical school, and is one of the leading schools for marine bio studies in the world.
I don't think that I'll ever get over the beauty of the campus-- it still shocks me at least once a day. Here are a few photos that I've taken on my walks to class, just to give you a taste. I haven't taken photos of the buildings, but their architecture is very modern, and very unlike the Georgian-style that I'm used to in Wilmington.

Fun fact: in the midst of all of this beauty, there are 1,500 species of spiders, 6,000 types of flies, 4,000 species of ants & I honestly haven't looked up the numbers on snakes because I just don't want to know. There are also crocs in the river right behind my eating house, and it's a popular local swimming spot. That's all. 

GEORGE ROBERTS HALL-- Here are the photos of my room here-- about the same size as my freshman dorm room, except that I have it to myself, which is nice (But going from the king bed I had last year to this twin is a major downgrade). I've tried to "home" it up as much as possible, but I'm still working on it--- at least you'll get the gist.

Instead of dorms here, we have eating houses, meaning we all have our own dining hall attached to our dorms, and we eat with the people we live with, as well as compete with them in athletic events and spirit events. It's honestly a lot like sorority/fraternity life in the states, except that for us international students, the level of closeness doesn't really happen when you're only here for a semester (most people stay for all four years of their education). What does happen during the semester that we're here? We get hazed, that's what. I won't (and shouldn't) go into any extraordinary detail, but I'll definitely have some good stories for the grandkids one day. One "bonding" event that really did initiate friendships & bonding between our eating house was Fossil-Fresher Tav night. A little background: Freshmen here are "Freshers." Upperclassmen are Fossils. I'm older than most of the "Fossils" here, but still had to pay my respects and am still classified as a Fresher for the remainder of my time here. I take what I can get.

Anyway, Tav night, I pre-gamed with my roommate Michael, which was nice because I hadn't gotten to know him too well yet (remind me to write an entire post about having a male roommate....) and it was fun to meet his Australian friends, as it had been typically only international students on campus up until then. Lesson to America: UP YOUR DRINKING GAMES. A casual pre-game here is more intense than some "raging" I've seen. Don't worry, I'll teach you how to play all of them when I return, but you might not thank me the next morning. Next, we walked to the Tavern, which is about a twenty minute adventure from our eating hall, on foot. I figured I'd be paired with one of the Fossils I pre-gamed with, but I was thrown with one I hadn't met yet-- Myles. We were handcuffed together, and the idea was that the pair that stayed handcuffed together the longest, won. Won what? I never figured that out, but apparently, last semester, two guys stayed cuffed together for two entire days-- through classes, sleeping, showering, eating, everything. I went into it accepting defeat, but Myles and I held down the fort for a pretty good while. The other part of the night is nicknames: I was given a headband that we were supposed to wear all week with these names on them, and mine was "#Merica," imagine that. Myles got jealous and took it, replacing mine with one that read "Hussy" instead. This doesn't have the same connotations that it does in America, per say, but I ended up stealing back the #Merica one by the end of the night so that I wasn't stuck being called "hussy" all week. Overall, it was a great way to meet lots of new people, particularly Australian students who hadn't been around yet.

Cuffed

Other "bonding" activities that were actually eating house sponsored included a toga night, a thriftshop night (outfits from the thriftshop only), drunken mini golf, a carnival in our common area--- all alcohol fueled.

In addition to these, I was also trying to make it out with my international friends too, which proved to do a number on my already mediocre-at-best immune system. For those of you who didn't already know, I was in the hospital diagnosed with mono two days before I was supposed to leave for Australia, and was given doctor's orders not to fly for at least a week longer. I was mortified at first, that I'd get there after everyone else and wouldn't make any friends, but I fell into one of the greatest groups I could ask for! Here's a picture that gets MOST of us, but I'll be writing an entire post about them in the near future, anyway, because "it's not where you are, but who you're with that matters" and these kids have become something like a family-away-from-home for me. 

Downtown/The Strand-
As much as I complain about public transportation, I'm lucky enough to be just a quick bus ride away from the paradise known as The Strand, in downtown Townsville. It's easily one of my favorite places so far-- who wouldn't love these views?

Also, here's my only daytime photo of downtown, Flinders Street, the main stretch of bars that we frequent at night. As to not write an extraordinarily long post, I'll stick to daytime Townsville 101 today, but no worries, a night-life post is coming as well.

The problem with the title of this blog is that it gives the idea that I am already an expert on Townsville, and that I am not.
I can:
-navigate the bus system by myself
-navigate downtown and the strand alone
-get to all of my classes without double checking room numbers
-go grocery shopping via public transportation by myself
-put pushy Australian boys in their place
-somehow get back to GR while blackout (the real test of navigating skills)

I have not, however, seen half of what the town has to offer yet (mostly because I only see what's on the bus route, and then what I can walk to from there). I want to rent a vespa for a day and really explore one day soon, but I'm kind of afraid of dying between the left-hand of the road driving and the billion traffic circles whose rules I still can't figure out. I guess all I'm saying is that you should expect continued Townsville education classes: 105, 110, 200... stay tuned.


& to Reese.... my anchor from 10,000 miles away, know that I'm missing you more than ever.