JCU--TOWNSVILLE..so far

So it has been a week since the last time I decided to blog. Shame shame. But i haven't forgotten, which is a plus because I know how I am with stuff like this.
I have FINALLY made it to James Cook University in Townsville!! Townsville is a small city with only about 150,000 people. But it is gorgeous here. The campus isnt as pretty as I am used to at Spelman, but I think just being here makes it pretty. The weather is much warmer than in Coloundra where Arcadia orientation was held. It has been in the high 70s and low 80s all week.
When we got here we got to go out with Kat to the Strand which is down near the beach... The picture above is what we saw when we were walking up to the beach. I really can't believe how beautiful everything is here. I think I am still in shock that a) I am on the other side of the world and b) I am FINALLY outside of the states.
Needless to say that there is soooo much that I want to do while I am here!... I dont know how I will afford everything that I want to do. I want to get scuba certified, go to the outback and do spring break in FIJI!!.. but we will see about the last one. Plane tickets are really expensive here.
So far I havent really met that many Australians on campus, but we have mostly only had orientation for international students. So I have met people from everywhere. And people seem to be really nice thus far. Of course the group of us that came from Arcadia have been sticking together pretty tight. It is nice to have other Americans around that are going through a lot of the same feelings and things that I am, but I do want to make sure that I allow myself to branch out and meet other people as well. Which I have, but as the saying goes: don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
We have been going out a lot and it has been really fun. We went to the Jupiter Townsville Cup today and it was something else! I knew that people dressed up for horse races, but I think that I definitely underestimated the statement. But we all dressed up and I did the whole nine: satin gloves, hat/hair thingy, heels and a really classy dress. It was a fun affair, but tiring. I think we will probably go out tonite tho. I WILL only live in Oz once.

Will be back later...
Kiara