Another week and another slow start to university, a 2-hour lecture in the afternoon followed by an hour small group seminar. University is quite different in Adelaide; you have your usual lectures, weekly seminars in small groups, small group discoveries and ‘tutes’, so there is more opportunity to talk with small groups you wouldn’t usually speak to in lectures! That evening I came back from uni late and Molly, Ella and myself started booking more hotels for Bali; we’ve decided on visiting Seminyak, Gilli T island and Ubud!
Wednesday was another slow day of lectures – sometimes the days all seem to merge into one when you’re just heading into university for lectures, seminars and tutes! In the evening the girls and I headed to Lindsay and Chloe’s flat to make brownie truffles and banana bread. They were delicious as usual but serious self-control and restraint is needed living here!
Thursday was time again for ESN Thursdays! After a day of lectures and studying in The Hub, it was time to head home and get ready for a night of live music at The Duke. As usual, we were the first dancing and soon after everyone else followed. What seemed to be a great night ended quite suddenly after checking my phone quickly to see I had received and email from my exchange coordinator. It was stating that the marking criteria and conversion of grades had changed from what myself and Phoebe were previously told and that our marks from this semester wouldn’t only count as a pass/fail. To say I was upset would be an understatement, so I headed back home with Molly, stopping off at Lindsay’s and Chloe’s flat for cookie dough, brownie cheesecake bites (umm amazing!!) and rang my mum in tears! My family reassured me that everything would be okay, to get some sleep and send some emails in the morning to get everything clarified. After a few emails back and forth, and what seemed like forever to wait (the time difference really is awkward!) Denis, the psychology coordinator cleared things up for us and stated the conversion of grades from our semester abroad would now in fact count towards our degree, what Phoebe and I initially thought!
I guess this goes to say, anyone thinking of taking a semester aboard please please make sure you communicate with your exchange coordinator and the study abroad team, and if you don’t get answers, ask and ask again! Make sure you keep a record of all the information you are told about the entire exchange (especially conversion of grades) from the initial meeting to the pre-departure!
Friday marked the end of my (short) week at university, so Molly and I headed to Harbour Town, the outlet mall just out of town to find bikini’s for Bali and a dress for my Psychology ball in a week’s time…sadly we both came home empty handed! I met Tiz in town for lunch and we enjoyed the most delicious food at a small café on East Terrace, taking in the sun and planning our trip to Melbourne! I then headed back to uni to start some more work on my practical report, which is driving me insane! That evening we had decided to treat ourselves to a night out at Super California, another club conveniently located just down the road from Urbanest. To say it was hot in there would be an understatement, god knows how we are going to survive when its summer and actually hot!
After getting up very late on Saturday morning, the girls and I headed to Central Market for brunch (I don’t know if it still counts as brunch at 1pm, maybe more lunch but brunch always sounds better!). Phoebe and I collected all the essentials for our roast, as we madly agreed to cook a roast for our flat as our contribution to each member of the flat cooking a food of their culture! Only $20 and 3 roast chickens later, we headed back and prepped everything. I need to get some reading done so Phoebe assured me she had the chicken under control (note to self: don’t let a veggie cook a roast chicken). After Phoebe slightly de-touring from the instructions I gave her, I ran into the kitchen to see nothing but grey smoke, it took us around 10 minutes to fan away all the smoke, whilst majorly freaking out that the smoke alarm would be set off (alongside a pricey $600 fine!). The roast was a success and the Bisto made life so much better!
Sunday morning and we dragged ourselves out of bed to be at university for 9am to set off on the ESN wine tour! We were travelling to Barossa Valley for the Gourmet Weekend. We visited two wineries and what can only be described as a small town fate?! The second wineries, kellermeister, was by far my favourite. It had the most stunning views of rolling hills, great wine and a live band singing Stevie Wonder and Maroon 5, amazing! The afternoon was spent sat on some grass in the middle of a very small South Australian town eating takeaway pizza and drinking wine. It’s safe to say we all took a nap on the coach home and made it into bed very early that night, ready to start another week!
