University of QLD & Uni Nathan, Brisbane

"Excuse me Professor, but can I make a quick announcement about a volunteer abroad meeting this Wednesday?" The usual routine, I approached a friendly, but slightly distracted professor in one of Nathan Uni's large lecture halls. "Oh sure! Just hold on a moment while I pass out these papers and take care of a snake" she responded casually, as if referring to the typical administrative tasks done before beginning a large lecture session.

Take care of a snake? Hmm. Must be some weird Australian slang, I figured. So I ran next door, set up another announcement, came back to the class, did my whole schpiel, and exited five minutes later into a back hallway with a big "EXIT" sign.

...AHHHH what the hell?! I'm running down the hallway, and this three foot grey snake with a lovely diamond head (read: poisonous) was just chilling in the hallway in front of me. The lady wasn't kidding - there was actually a snake, which she'd ushered out the backdoor from her classroom.

On that note, the last two weeks have been a constant adventure, getting back into the routine of recruiting and yelling in classrooms all day, plus adapting to the humidity, "wildlife", and subtle cultural differences in being "The Blonde American  Chick," (as a student so nicely put it on one of our "how did you hear about ISV" forms) living and working in a foreign country.



Most of the buildings were made of sandstone brick, adding an artistic feel to the campus landscape

 Our first week at the University of Queensland went amazing - way better than we expected after seeing the still-noticable remnants of the flood devestation from only a few weeks ago.

The campus was huge - 40,000 students, with nice big lecture halls and frequent applauses, which is always good for the ego. :) The first day back, I made a few really embarrassing slip-ups - the worst saying "OR you can build houses for families in AUSTRALIA! [instead of Thailand]" to a completely full lecture of nursing students. Needless to say, didn't get a very good response from that one. Also continued my trend of tripping/dropping/scattering about 150 green flyers across a walkway while trying to sprint between classrooms. Luckily everyone here is really friendly, and I had about 3 different people helping me collect the papers and pick it all up.

This is what most of the campus looks like!!

Nathan Uni was a completely different beast, but equally fun - a much smaller campus (only 15,000 people) built in the middle of a national park, or "the bush" as Australians like to say. Our first day setting up campus, it was well into the 80s and dripping with humidity. Jake and I were able to scope out the major lecture halls, but only after taking a round-about path down some stairs through the "bush" and around to the maintenance building which also housed the Dean of the University? Insteresting.

The week itself went well - less self-humiliation, alot of "keen" students and a "sausage sizzle" on Tuesday, to celebrate International Women's Day. (Sausage Sizzle: an Australian BBQ, usually for charity, where they cook up thin sausages and put them on pieces of white bread with grilled onions, grated cheese, and either BBQ or "tomato sauce" - otherwise known as ketchup.) Below are a few pictures from the week, to give you a better idea of what the campus vibe was like.

The view outisde of our meeting room

Sign in the bathroom: Please do NOT stand/squat on toilet seat while taking a crap hahahah

Team California Gold, lost in the bush. Completely unposed.