Mare

First of all. We went to the beach yesterday. St. Kilda. We had fun but it was DISGUSTING. We found 3 jellyfish on the shore. One that was the size of my face with tentacles the length of my arms. I threw a rock at it and it jiggled. There were beer bottles floating the water, and glass in the sand and topless girls getting lotion rubbed on them. In a way I felt like I was in a cheap, trashy, porn. Then we went back to the boys' place and watched Good Will Hunting and Seven. Both of with Lindsay hadn't seen. In other news (this is the story that comes after the cute story of the water skiing squirrel, the one about the murders and death and destruction) And so it happened again. We got screwed. Lindsay, Paris and I all woke up today to have a huge study day, only to find out that the internet has been used up. Adam downstairs apparently has been playing internet games like WoW and ALL of our internet is used up. We get 20GB during the day and 40GB from midnight to noon. If we used up our 20GB we lose the 40GB. Adam used a TON of it playing games because Gracia apparently didn't tell him how the internet works. I honestly believe, since the look on his face when we said he can't play games, that he didn't know and that he felt AWFUL. Gracia also switched internet providers in the middle of the month and I think we are all under the impression that our amount was lowered for the month. We are now down to dial up speed. We can't use internet. Gracia told us to go down to campus but the library closes at five and we have to pay for the internet down there. We shouldn't have to pay for EXTRA internet. We're already paying a fortune for internet here. Not to mention we asked Gracia for a new dryer knob 2 weeks ago and it still hasn't arrive and we "aren't allowed to use the drying until the knob gets here or we are liable for damages". And we can't stay IN our house during the day because it heats up to around 110 degrees. No lie. We also had a long conversation with Danny and Paris about how much our rent is compared to them. Paris has a room that is pretty much exactly half our room and she pays $145 a week. Danny has a room that is 3/4 our size and he pays $170 a week. Our room is $361 a week. That is $1,444 a month. That is the price of a GORGEOUS loft apartment in a large city. Even if Gracia charged "everyone the same" like she claimed to us we are being charged $71 extra a month each. Danny was offered this room before we got here for $185 a week. Gracia deliberately cheated us because she knew we were American and scared and didn't have a place to live. We are paying for internet that doesn't work. We are paying for a dryer we can't use. We were told we have air conditioning that we don't have. So we're sweltering hot, air drying our clothes until their crispy and waiting 14 minutes for a page to load (that's how long it took this one). At this rate I'll have all the research done for my paper by next January! I'm just astonished at how easily people here are willing to screw you over. I understand that this could easily happen in the US too but I believe at this point the world should hand us something good. Anything. I'd be happy with finding a two dollar coin on the side walk. It'd at least buy me half of a tram ride. Since I can't do homework I'm going to look at my mom's slides and maybe make her a movie. I'm having a good time and I'm glad I came but guaranteed I'll be so relieved to be home, I'll cry. Please excuse me and pretend it didn't happen if it does. I'm never studying abroad again. You couldn't pay me. I'm still all about traveling the world. I'll go to Sri Lanka and help with the tsunami effort. I'll go to South America and teach English. I'll do all the things I want to if I want to do them and I get the chance, but I'll never STUDY abroad again. There is too much riding on this. I can't risk my grades like this EVER again. I need a good GPA to get a scholarship for grad school. I REFUSE to allow Australia's shitty internet and shitty scamming business people to cost me my grades. I'm VERY glad I know Nick and Danny and Paris and Rob even or I would think all of Australia's people were robbing, scamming, selfish people. But I'm not going to do what they do to me daily in class and bash their country because I know that not everyone and everything is like that in Oz just because of one experience or one special they saw on TV. I won't sit and say that they are all horrible like they sit and say we're all fat and ignorant. You can't judge an entire nation off by a handful of people. Just like you can't judge an entire nation by their leader. Everyone needs to fix themselves. NOT just the United States and NOT just Australia. Australian's have a great sense of optimism about them. Everything is "no worries". People like Danny would throw themselves in front of a bus to protect someone he has only known for a month. People like Paris offer for someone she's known for 3 weeks to come home with her and stay with her family for 4 days. People like Nick let you call them 16 times a month with silly questions like "what's the weather like there?" and "will people like me?" and "what side of the road to they drive on?" and "what does a fortnight REALLY mean?" We could have googled it but he didn't mind answering. People like Rob waste one of their Saturdays and go and drive 45 minutes to take two COMPLETE strangers to the beach because they are a friend of a friends. There's good people here too. I always thought people were so silly for loving home. For finding NO joy in leaving to experience the rest of the world. For saying to themselves "I like Dayton Ohio and this is where I want to stay". But I get it now. I don't love Dayton. I don't think it's the BEST place in the world to live but I understand the importance of a home. The importance of a place that you can count on to stay the same. To know where you can buy a coke. To know where there are public bathrooms. To know the laws that protect you from being conned. To know where your family is and how long it will take to get them. When I come home I want a giant bowl of mac and cheese and a coke made with nasty gross corn syrup that is all horribly bad for me. When I come home I want to find myself a fairly priced apartment and sit on my couch so GENEROUSLY given to me by my grandpa. When I come home I'm going to lie on the couch with my dog and tell her I never really hated dogs. It's not true but she's so silly she'll never know. When I come home I'm going to go to work and make myself feel useful again. When I come home I want to crawl into bed and sleep long and hard. Sleep until I forget that I was in Australia. Sleep until I'm readjusted to the Eastern Time Zone and I stop waking up at 6pm. And then Australia can just be a fond memory instead of something that can't shake. When I come home, I'm going to need the biggest hug in the world. Full stop. "I never realize how much I like being home unless I've been somewhere really different for a while." -Juno