The Beginning of the End

Yay! Time to blog! Well the past week I’ve been really busy. I had my last final Thursday and I’ve relaxed a lot since then. I think I did pretty good on the final but I won’t find out my grade until a week after I even get back in the States! The teachers here have 3 weeks to grade exams and get the grades finalized. That’s crazy because in the US they only have a week from the time finals end. Then again, there their semesters are spread further apart so that could be why. It was my last and only final though and you could really feel the intensity in the room. The room I has it in was their gymnasium so it’s definitely the biggest room I’ve ever taken a test in. It was strange too because filling the whole room was hundreds of small tables. Four classes took our tests together in the same room so there were roughly 300 students all in the room. We had two hours of testing time and ten minutes of reading time. It was weird because for the first ten minutes you were allowed to read your test and take notes but you weren’t allowed to open you booklet to write anything. Only after ten minutes has passed were you allowed. Well there is no such thing as reading time at OSU so I had no idea what was going on. I tried looking around at the other students but then I realized they might think I’m cheating. Really, though, how could I be? It’s only reading time and the whole test was written. Plus the tables were pretty far away from each other. Eventually I figured it out though and everything was ok. You, also, aren’t allowed to leave the room a hour after it starts or fifteen minutes before it ends. You has to raise you hand when you were finished and they had to come get your test from you. They were stricter than in the States, well Ohio State anyways, and it completely surprised me. It was intense because with hundreds of people in the room it was DEAD quiet. You could definitely feel the anxiety in the air. Glad it’s over.

 

            But ok more about Bali! Well Molly and I had a nice relaxing time on the beach.  Outside of the beach though we did a lot of shopping. We went to Kuta, which is where the bombing memorial is. So of course we took pictures with the memorial. The memorial is probably the nicest part of the area. It really doesn’t even look like it belongs there. It’s really nice and new and shiny and the rest is just shops that are open all day with people sitting at the edges (because there are only three walls to these shops since they get so many people walking along the streets shopping) asking you to come in and look at their stuff. One shop we went into the girl told us that we were her first customers all day so far and it was like 1:30 in the afternoon. I’m pretty sure she meant someone who bought something but I’m not sure. We might have been the only ones who went in to look. But because people were so persistent on you going into their store when you didn’t want to, you had to learn to walk by, look no one in the eye, and ignore people who talk to you. Sad but it had to be done or you would spend your whole time there just declining people.  Everything there was extremely cheap. I mean DIRT cheap. Molly and I went to a nice Italian restaurant and I got a large pizza for $5 and that was good. The most expensive meal I found there was $12ish. Really I mean it’s all very cheap. A tax ride for half an hour was roughly $7.50. I mean things were priced realllly good. Our hotel for a full week was $175 and it was a great room with a free breakfast every morning!  You can tell it’s a poor country because they have sidewalks with huge slabs taken out and no caution signs or anything to warn you. If you weren’t watching where you were walking you probably would have fallen into a hole up to your chest… well my chest. So like four feet.  And it’s not just one or two here and there. It’s about ever 15 feet.

 

            The last day Molly and I decided to go to the Safari and Marine Park. It was probably one of the best parts of the trip. I got to watch Elephants give a performance on how humans were taking over their habitat and we need to be nicer to them. The elephants did cute tricks like walk on three legs, play dead, and one elephant even put leis on a couple of people. It was a really cute show. After the show we got to feed an elephant!! There was even a baby there and we took lots and lots of pictures. The elephant was actually so gentle that when I fed it a carrot it took my hands in its mouth with it but I didn’t notice because I was getting my picture taken. That’s how gentle it was!! Isn’t the so cute. Or maybe I took my hand out in time but I’m pretty sure it was fully in its mouth haha. Then after that I got my picture taken with a orang-utan.  It was really nice. It was taking pictures all day long and it would climb all over you and hold on to your neck and shoulders. Such a cute animal. Then I went and got my picture taken with baby tigers. They were ADORABLE. Mostly they were sleeping but I didn’t care because I got my picture taken with them hehe. After that we went on a safari tour and saw animals like tigers, lions, rhinos, apes, zebras, and just a whole bunch of animals. No kangaroos at this park :( That’s ok though.

 

            OH I almost forgot. My friends and I went out to dinner Friday night and I ordered the Kangaroo, Crocodile and Emu dish. The kangaroo was kind of tough and the crocodile wasn’t too bad but the Emu was delicious!! Here in Australia they put pumpkin in so many things too. I realized I don’t like pumpkin except in a pie. :) But I like pumpkin flavored things like coffee drinks too. Weird. This restaurant also didn’t let you take leftovers home, which baffled me.

 

            That’s all I got for now. I have to decide what I am going to pack. I am sending a package home that’s going to take up to 3 months to get home and I have to decide what I can live without for that long. This packing business is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I don’t know where I accumulated so much stuff. I mean I have a lot of extra stuff that I definitely didn’t come here with! Oh well, it’s all worth it :) I had to say goodbye to my friend Patrick today too, and Chris. It was such a bummer. It’s like my family here is separating. They literally have become like a family because we were around each other so much and all we had were each other. Chris though is the Australian and he wants to come study in the States next year, like 6 months away because he would come for summer. And I think he might even spend a couple of quarters at Ohio State!! That would be so exciting to have my Aussie friend come and study at my school. Oh my roommate Laura was also thinking about coming and studying in the States and I told her that Ohio State was a good school, so she’s considering going there too. I swear, Ohio State should be paying me for all the recruiting I’m doing! Whelp, that’s all I got for now. I can’t stare at a computer screen much longer. Love you all <3