Changing goals

      Studying abroad has absolutely changed me both personally and professionally. Professionally, my internship taught me that I know marketing is the right field for me. This was my first experience in a major marketing department. I’ve had experience in small marketing departments, but this internship focused on the marketing you can’t learn in a classroom. I learned how to do everything from writing a creative brief, plan and execute a budget, how to work across teams, social media marketing, planning a photoshoot and so much more. I never thought I’d be able to have this much experience before even leaving college. Doing all these tasks and working across all these teams assured my decision that marketing is the right field for me. I love the fact that I was always on my feet and constantly interacting with people to get a task done. I’ve learned that you when you have a large business like the Sydney Opera House, having a solid team behind you is essential. As for me personally, I now know that I want to be a world traveler. I never want to be the person who stays in one city the rest of my life. I would love to travel as a part of my career and see all different parts of the world. Studying abroad has given me the travel bug – I’m already planning trips for this summer.

One more week

As my time in Australia is slowly coming to an end, I've done a lot of reflection on these past three months. For one, the time absolutely flew by. Of course, I missed my family and friends - but the new people I've met will forever share the bond of Australia with me. There's a group of about 10 of us who've bonded and clicked from the start. We're basically a family! After spring break, we became a lot closer and went on adventures every weekend together. This past weekend, 7 of us went to this giant waterfall called Kelly-Falls. The website said an "easy hike", we ended up scaling rocks and coming out with a few cuts, bruises, and leeches. It was all worth it to spend the day with some of my best friends and see an incredible waterfall. The water was absolutely freezing, but obviously, we still jumped in. I'm pretty sure my body went into shock when I first jumped in, worth it for the Go Pro video.

Okay - now for the serious reflections. What surprised me most about studying abroad is a common question people ask. I'd say I was most surprised about the different culture. Australia is very Americanized, with American brands, speaking English - I didn't expect to come here and have a completely different culture of people. Everyone here is so laid back and very outdoorsy. I love it! They're all about "good vibes" here and love to live life. Australians value personal relationships and being able to joke with their mates. Also, everyone calls you mate here and I've picked up the habit. I'm trying to bring it back to the States. But, when I first arrived I was so thrown off about the personal attention and interest in my personal life from everyone in school, work, the CAPA staff, and even Australians I'd meet. It's very different from what it's like at home with everyone minding their own business.

One thing I wish I knew before I came to Australia was how fast time actually flies by. We've been here for around 14 weeks, coming here you'd think that's heaps of time! In reality, those weeks went by like days. Some advice I have for people studying abroad or traveling for an extended period of time: know what you want to do, and do it. Making plans for weekend trips and actually following through with plans is what made my trip so fun. I've seen so many people want to do things, yet they never made the plans to actually do them. You're only here for a short period of time - you can sleep when you're home!

This week's finals week and my last week of work - I'll keep you updated on how I finish off the semester! I'm sure I'll be posting more sappy stuff, but until then, talk to you soon, mates!

Another day at the Sydney Opera House

Yes, another day at the Sydney Opera House!

I only have two more working days at the most iconic building in Australia, I'm slightly depressed. These past two weeks have been hectic. Last week I was preparing for my co-worker's leave and this week I'm covering for her leave. I'm doing the regular workload that I would do on a daily basis while covering half of her workload AND managing the April School Holidays!

I'll start with our Well Being campaign. Remember when I told you guys about having to be a yoga model? Well lucky for me, the shoot got rained out so the yoga instructors ended up rescheduling and doing a shoot of their own - no downward dog for me. Our fitness classes are offered 7-8am Monday-Friday. I signed up for this weeks Monday and Wednesday class - Monday I worked to sign people in so I came in an hour early. Turns out, Sunrise at 7, the news program was filming a posed yoga class at 6am as well as the High-Intensity Class at 7am. So, I show up at 6am, ready to work, and turns out I have to join the posed yoga class (front and center, no less) for them to film us and put us on live television! It was actually a really cool experience to see this side of marketing, I've never been a part of a photoshoot or a filming for the news. Wasn't my best angle, but it was still a cool experience!

As for work, my brochures were put on hold because there's a new law in Australia about clarity with pricing. Apparently, Australian Government passed a law to require businesses to be 100% clear with pricing no "starting as low as...". I actually really appreciated this! Being a consumer, having the honest pricing displayed helps me make more informed decisions. But they are to go to print next week, don't worry - my boss said she'll mail me the prints so I can add them to my portfolio :)

My school holidays campaign is going swimmingly. It's my first campaign so I didn't really have an idea how to track the sales, what to do to increase sales, how to manage the website and apparently we're scheduling a photo shoot! I found out this week that the Kid's team wants to have new photos for this school holidays, so there's some last minute planning to schedule a photo shoot for this Saturday (scary because it's already Thursday). Anyway, the campaign is going well, a few bumps but overall I'd label it a success half way through.

Oh yeah - I was able to see one last show last week! Total I've seen 6 shows at the Sydney Opera House in 3 months! How crazy is that? I'm not ready to talk about the fact that I only have 2 work days left...we can talk about that next week. For now, I'm living in the moment and enjoying each day - so I'll think about leaving next week.

Gold Coast

Sorry for going MIA these past two weeks - as you can image, this last month is unbelievably busy. I'm going to split up these next few posts just for your sake so you don't have to read paragraphs on paragraphs.

So, this post is dedicated to my last weekend trip in Australia, the Gold Coast! A few of my friends and I went north a few weekends ago to experience the last bit of Australian summer. Since 1 March, it has been Autumn in Australia, but it felt like summer until around 1 April - the day we left. Since the Gold Coast is up north, it was so warm and beautiful! It was around 85 degrees, which was the perfect temperature to relax on the beach. The town reminded me of Miami, there were large skyscrapers right on the coastline and beaches that lasted for miles.

This city was arguably the most Americanized city I've visited since my time in Australia. It was a clear tourist destination, less locally populated. The main skyscrapers were condos and hotels, not businesses or apartments. Also, the town was very small which reminded of touristy beach towns found along the coast of New Jersey. During this trip, our group mainly just relaxed and enjoyed a low-cost vacation. We had been going away weekend after weekend experiencing new cities, it was nice to travel to a new city but still have a relaxing time. The beaches there all looked relatively similar, which is different than in Syndey. In Sydney, each beach is a different experience with a different atmosphere - while at the Gold Coast, there are literally miles of coastline. The one beach that was my favorite was Burleigh Beach,  the sand was made from seashells near the rock pool! Oh yeah, that's another thing about Australia - there are all these natural rock pools near the beaches. These rocks act as a natural barrier between the ocean and the pool and create this natural ocean water pool. It's safe to say that going back to beaches in the States will be pretty disappointing...

During the trip, we also rented jetskis. I've been jet skiing before, but I've never ACTUALLY gone until then. I went with my friend Andy, and he goes often and we had competitions on who could whip the other off the back. In the wise words of our jet ski instructor, "if you don't fall off you're not going fast enough". I walked away with a few bruises, but it was well worth it.

There weren't many locals at the Gold Coast, but apparently it is referred to as "The Vegas of Brisbane" which is a city about 45 minutes away. It's one of the most popular cities in Queensland, Australia. That's another thing about Australia, there are few cities with dense populations and sparse population in the bush and the outback. For being the same size as the US, Australia has a smaller population than New York state alone - probably because of all the deadly animals! After this weekend, we all settled into a state of slight depression with the realization that we only had three weeks left in Australia (1 1/2 now). The most we can do it take each day on its own and make the most of the rest of our time here.

Melbin Mates!

Over the Easter Holiday weekend, a few of my friends and I head off to Melbourne, Australia for some exploring. We left Friday afternoon, giving us enough time to finish up some last minute homework and came back Monday night. Melbourne (pronounced Melbin in Aussie) and Sydney apparently have this huge rivalry of which city is the best in Australia. Sydney-siders don't pay much attention to this rivalry, because, well they know Sydney is better. But Melbourne, on the other hand, made it very clear that Sydney isn't the better city.

On Friday when we arrived, there was an incredible sunset over the bay in the St. Kilda neighborhood. This was outside of the central business district so it was a cute little area with small alleyways and coffee shops. The sunset was gorgeous, I love a good sunset. We even saw wild penguins off the one pier which was cool because I've never seen one outside of a zoo! The next day the five of us booked a tour for a Great Ocean Road trip to see the 12 Apostles. It was such an awesome day - we got picked up at 7am and had various stops along the way for food, hikes, views, and tours of certain areas. The 12 Apostles are these rock formations off the coast and they are incredible. As a matter of fact - there are only 8 Apostles but the name 12 Apostles sounded more appealing to tourists. On this trip, we were able to go caving and explore inside caves, rainforests and walk on different beaches. Melbourne is a bit cooler than Sydney so it wasn't warm enough to swim but everything was stunning so I didn't mind.
That night the craziest thing happened, we say the travel agent from our hostel in Cairns in Melbourne working as a travel agent for that hostel! What a small world. We got back to the hostel and saw Darrell, the travel agent and he came up to us and we all hugged and he showed us more places to go in the area that many tourists may not be aware of. The next day my friends and I explored CBD and went on our Easter Brunch. We now do the "phone rule" where you put your phones in the middle of the table and the first one to touch their phone has to pay the tip. It's a good way to get us off our phones and talk to each other. But we had Brunch and it was phenom. We went to the Comedy Festival for a bit and explored different areas like the graffiti walls. Melbourne is a very hipster city, to say the least. They love art and appreciate things of that sort which I love. We went to Hosier Lane, famous for graffiti art and I found someone with spraypaint and I wrote my infamous nickname on the wall: "kaymag". Then the group we rented bikes just to see where we could get lost. Olivia was dying the entire ride (because she's soft) but overall we were just messing around having a great time. Our last main adventure was going to the Brighton Bathing Boxes, which are these painted sheds on a beach which are very popular in Melbourne. We went on that Monday before catching our flight.

All in all, I loved Melbourne. It's actually the 4th farthest city away from Allentown, PA (sorry mom, dad and grandma). I'd call it a must-see attraction if you're in Australia! I liked the city, it was a very "hipster and good vibes" city however I'd chose Sydney over Melbourne simply because of the iconic nature of Sydney with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and all of those areas.
Since I was away Easter weekend, I obviously missed my Easter dinner at home - but my mom called me when the family was all together celebrating so I still felt part of the tradition! My grandma even sent me an Easter card (and Valentine's Day but I didn't check my mail until yesterday). Thanks, grandma! I'll see you all soon. As for this weekend - I'm headed off to the Gold Coast which is apparently home to the most beautiful beaches in Australia so that'll be relaxing. ~Stay tuned for more adventures of Kelsey~

Glass 1/3 full

                This week marks one month left on my three-month journey to the land down under. The crazy part about it is that it feels like a week ago that I was moving into my 8 people flat with half Pitt and half UMass girls. This week I was hit with the “after midterms now project and paper season”. I’m assigned a paper for each one of my classes and a group project for one class as well as one for my internship credit class. I’m going to Melbourne this weekend so obviously I was stressing to get all the work done in time – and that I did. I stayed on campus after class and came early on the days that I don’t have work before/after and got all my work done. Now I can go to Melbourne with nothing holding me back from having yet another memorable weekend!

                At work, this week was rather hectic. The rebranding collateral that I briefed in was due this week to be printed on 1 April – it was not done. The creative and my team could not agree on what we wanted our brochures to look like. After about a 2-hour meeting of putting both teams’ ideas together, we now have the final look we want. The brochures will go to print next week! Also at work, I was invited to participate in sunrise fitness classes at the House for free. I went on Monday for yoga, while it was tough to wake up, seeing the sunrise and reflect off the SOH sails – that was a pretty unreal feeling. These were the trial classes and will launch to the public in two weeks. I’m helping the campaign manager with this campaign as of this week, and this means I’ll be a “model” for the classes and have to pose for photos to go to print and online. I’m just hoping they don’t take any “downwards dog” photos. But I’ll go down in Sydney Opera House history!

                I’ve been getting closer with my co-workers, going to lunch, happy hours, and allocating 30 minutes after coming into work to chat. Speaking of, this is a cultural norm I’ve noticed about Australia – their work culture is very lax compared to the U.S. Every morning I used to walk into work, ask about everyone’s night/weekend and get to work. Now, I’ve learned that they perceive that as you being “cold” and not wanting to chat, when in my defense, this is how my previous work experience went. Every morning I walk in at 9am, chat with my team and the team that sits next to mine for minimum 30 minutes and then get to work. There is an unsaid rule of no meetings before 9:30am which I find so interesting! Definitely not complaining. Also this week, I saw an opera with my co-workers! It was the opera Turandot which is apparently an internationally renowned opera. It was outdoors with a view of the SOH and fireworks (which made it all worth it). It was drizzling on and off but our spirits were still high and we stayed until the end! Another bonding experience I had was with an Easter egg hunt today. I’m an honorary member of the social committee (because I’m part time), therefore, I went around our office with the other members and hid chocolate eggs. I ate about half in my bag, two hot-crossed-buns, and a giant stomach ache – but it was well worth it. I love how my team is so accepting and wants to include me in their culture, it goes a long way for an intern.

This week I did find time for myself outside of school and work. I went to Palm Beach over the weekend, which is the most northern beach in Sydney. It was a beautiful beach – even though the autumn weather is slowly kicking in. We hiked up to the lighthouse and overlooked the beach and the bay on the sunset. Beautiful view, I always try and catch the sunsets. Also, there was a rugby game hosted by CAPA, my educational program. There were about 30 of us who went to the Bulldogs rugby game which is held in Olympic Park, where the 2000 Summer Olympics were held. CAPA also negotiated us to go on the field and get a picture which was awesome! I had no idea what was going on, but I love the sports atmosphere so I still had a great time. During the week - I went to a cat café with one of my roommates, it was just as amazing as it sounds. For $20 AUD, I got a coffee, cookie and an hour with the cats. I’m honestly considering getting a membership for my last month here because I loved it so much.

                Now I’m off to Melbourne for the Easter weekend with a few of my friends here. Not going to be as good as my Easter meal would be at Grandma’s but it’ll do until I’m home. Happy Easter everyone!

Anyways, school and work

School is getting super busy. We just had our midterms which went pretty well. Their exams are pretty different from what I’m used to at Pitt. I had one that was all handwritten for my Marketing Communications class. I’ve had essay exams before, but this exam was more qualitative so my grade is up to the subjectivity of my professor. I think I did well, though! My other midterm was an online exam that was taken in class. Now I’m swamped with papers and projects due within the final weeks of my time here. I’m actually taking a homework break now writing this blog! I’ve set up shop in the University next to my apartment complex, this library is a lot nicer and closer than making the 45-minute commute to ACU.

As for work, I’m also very busy! This week was my first week back after a week-long vacation. Of course, I came back to over 200 emails which I had to filter to see which ones actually mattered to me. Monday was mainly catching up with what I missed over the week. The rest of the week I was doing the content scheduling for our social media and eDMs, preparing for school holidays, one creative brief after another, and writing the copy for our advertising pages. I saw my first printed advertisement this week! I’ve been writing in the copy and photographs for a multitude of pages, I just never saw the results. I had to act as a tourist (not that hard, since I am one) and go to the City of Sydney information center to see what collateral there was for the Sydney Opera House. I picked up the magazine that I know we advertise in, and there it was. My two page spread in Where magazine, March edition. It’s exciting to see the work that I’m doing being implemented because I actually feel a part of something more than just another internship. 

Also, the perks are pretty nice too. I saw an opera this week, The Barber of Seville. If you work at the Opera House, you need to see an opera – right? I actually enjoyed it, I went in not really knowing what an opera would be like and I came out a new woman (not really, but you get the idea). I’m also doing sunrise yoga at the House this coming Monday. I’m not much of a morning person, but when offered free yoga and breakfast – I’m in. The other two interns and I signed up together, so we’ll all suffer through the 5:00am alarm together. Apparently, we’re also “models” for the future yoga classes held. So there will be a photographer taking pictures of us that will be posted to social media and for advertisements (hoping for no downwards dog photos, please).

I’m settling in quite nicely here, it’s hard to believe that I’m living in Australia sometimes. I’ll be going about my day as normal, and sometimes I’ll just get hit with a wave of “I can’t believe I’m living in Australia, what the hell.” 

Politics and stuff

Even Trump is the topic of discussion in Australia. Whenever I tell people I’m an American, 9/10 the first question asked is “How do you feel about Trump?” Australians do not have the cultural norm of never talking politics. They’re a very open culture and whatever is on their mind, they say it. I find this so interesting because in America there are so many conversations that are off limits. I actually enjoy being able to speak openly about pretty much anything. Australia has the tongue in cheek culture, where they’ll tease you to show they like you. Americans are apparently notoriously known for not being able to take a joke, but all of my co-workers enjoy the fact that I’ll tease them right back – maybe I should’ve been an Australian this whole time??

At the end of the day, I appreciate the differences between our two cultures. Not going to lie, the food here is 100000000% better and fresher but I do miss Wawa. I looked at a calendar the other day and I can’t believe how quickly my time here has gone. I still have a few weeks left and I’m already sad – I can only image how I’m going to feel those last few days I have in Australia. But for now, I’m not going to think about it, I’m just going to enjoy the time I have now. 

Spring Break

Prepare for a long post everybody.

As you can tell from the lack of posts, I’ve been very busy this month – this post will be dedicated to my Spring Break (the next will be about my “real” life in Sydney. Okay – so I know I say I’ve had “the best time of my life so far” a lot, but this time, I really mean it. Spring Break was easily the best week of my life, ever.

First stop: Cairns, Australia

Cairns is a little town about a 3-hour flight north of Sydney, this is the main town to visit the Great Barrier Reef. First, I’d like to mention the lack of airport security! My group and I got to the airport 2 hours early, expecting long lines to check in, for baggage, and security. I went through check-in, baggage, and security without even showing my ID! Even when boarding the plane, the attendants didn’t ask for an identification from any passengers. I was baffled, how could an airport be so relaxed about this. When going through security, for domestic flights – you don’t need to take your shoes off or remove liquids from your bag. I’m not complaining about the entire process because it was very quick and easy, it just really put the U.S. security into perspective. The moral of the story is, we made it safely Friday morning. In Cairns, our first stop was skydiving. Our flight landed 11.45am Cairns time, we were to skydive at 2.00pm. Unfortunately, our trip was canceled due to rain so we had to wait until Tuesday for the next available timeslot. That day we entered a volleyball tournament through our hostel. We had 12 in our group that were traveling together, made up two teams – we both lost. But as long as we had fun, right? Our hostel was nothing like I expected, it was almost like a resort. There was a bar and restaurant, travel agent, sand volleyball court, lagoon pool and our room had a balcony! Safe to say we had everything we could ever ask for.

The next day, our travel agent recommended a waterfall tour around the area. We all obliged and went on this daylong tour. We saw a total of 3 waterfalls and 1 freshwater lake. We went jumping off rocks, climbing terrifying trees, swimming in rivers, eating Australian barbecue, sliding on natural rock slides, swimming in the 2^nd deepest lake in Australia, and flipping our hair like the Garnier Fructis girl (see picture for details J). It was absolutely exhausting, but it was an action packed day with good friends – what more can you ask. 

That Sunday, we did the “classic Cairns” and went to the Great Barrier Reef. Yes, I saw one of the 7 Natural Wonders! Snorkeling was first, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful. Look up pictures of the Great Barrier Reef – that’s exactly what I saw. The colors, the fish, and the wildlife were incredible. I also bought the sting-proof suit for $7, somehow still got stung by a jellyfish on my neck and under my goggles. Keep in mind, those were the only two spots on my body that were not covered by the suit! I lived, so no complaints. Next was scuba diving. We had a long tutorial on how basically not to explode, none of us did luckily. Not going to lie, when I first jumped in the water with my 75lbs worth of equipment, I almost had a panic attack. It was such a weird feeling breathing under water, my brain kept telling me “you shouldn’t breathe under water, Kelsey”. But, I calmed down and saw the coolest fish ever! I found Nemo, a sting ray, some people even saw sharks and sea turtles. A few members of our group didn’t equalize their ears properly, so they ran into some issues. The one got a nasty ear infection, and the other two had ringing in their ears for days. My piece of advice, always equalize and always breathe.

Our last main adventure in Cairns was skydiving. I’ve never felt freer. I actually wasn’t scared to jump out of the plane at all. My instructor, Todd, and I hit it off and were just chatting up a storm. He was telling me about his children, I was telling him about my dog (basically my child). Before I knew it, we were 14,000 feet up in the air and the garage door in our plane was open and ready for bodies to free fall out of. Todd was the group leader, so we were last. Obviously I asked him to do crazy flips and he did not disappoint. We jumped out of the plane and I was on top of the world. There’s no better feeling than freefalling looking at such a scenic view. One the parachute was pulled, a sense of calm came over me. There was no wind, no talking, nothing but an uninterrupted view – my favorite. We landed safely, I immediately took my gear off and did a backflip because the adrenaline needed to go somewhere. I bought the video of my experience, I think I’ve watched it easily 50 times. I never want to forget that memory.

Second stop: Queenstown, New Zealand

New Zealand, oh how I love you. In Queenstown, we were surrounded my mountain chains. I’ve never seen anything like it. Each mountain was covered with lush, green life. Queenstown is this quaint little town in the middle of nowhere, basically. The natural life was so untouched and beautiful, I could’ve stared at it for hours.

Our first order of business was the Milford Sound. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s also referred to as “the 8^th Wonder of the World”. This was a 12 hour day via tour bus, so clearly we had a lot invested in this trip. We were about two hours into the trip, just about to stop at our first hike – and our bus driver says we must turn around. There was a tree down in the road and her General Manager notified her that all buses must turn around and head to Queenstown. She was not taking this for an answer; she pulled the bus over, called her manager, argued for a good 20-30 minutes, quit her job, got back on the bus, waited around for about 40 minutes, the tree eventually cleared and she was able to take us. Yes, you read that right – she quit her job! She was so passionate about taking our group to see this Wonder, that she quit her job because she knew the tree would clear shortly after it fell. Eventually, she got her job back but it was one hell of a story to tell. We finally made it to the Milford Sound, we had a boat cruise waiting for us. We toured the Sound and all of its natural beauty. There were over 1,000 waterfalls and rainbows accompanying some. No picture could fully capture the beauty, but I now understand why it is considered the 8^th Wonder of the World.

Next order of business, bungee jumping. Only 4 of us wanted to go bungee jumping (opposed to 8 skydiving). This is what separates the boys from the men, I guess. We did the freestyle bungee so we could do flips and basically anything we wanted. Of course, I did a backflip. I was actually scared before jumping, unlike skydiving. If I didn’t hold onto the cord in the right way it could get wrapped around me and I’d be seriously injured. I held it the right way apparently and made it out fine. It was such a rush and there was such a pretty view, too. From where we jumped I could see the blue lake, the green mountains and the cute little town of Queenstown. Then the group of us did the luge ride that every tourist to Queenstown has to do. Afterwards we did a zip-lining tour. This includes hiking and 6 zip-lines, including the steepest zip-line in the world! This was a nice adventure that I didn’t have to be terrified for my life.

The last day we took a wine tour with our entire group, we pretended to be fancy for a day. That night, the girls and I decided we wanted to do more hikes. Let me tell you, this was the hardest/steepest hike I’ve ever done in my life. It was 1.5 of straight vertical trekking (exaggerating, but still). It was all worth it when we saw the sun setting and the night sky over Queenstown. My favorite part of Queenstown may actually have been a cheeseburger. Fergburger is a famous burger joint with burgers that are to die for and I'm not even exaggerating. I don't even have the right words to describe it. I was sad to leave Queenstown, I definitely need to make my way back there in life so I can travel and see more of the country.

All in all, it’s hard to believe my time in Australia is halfway over. I never want to leave! I tried to be as descriptive of my Spring Break as possible, but there are always details that will be missed. Feel free to reach out to me via Facebook/email while I’m here – I love hearing from home!

Who knew grocery shopping could be so stressful?

This past week I finally decided to buckle down and buy real groceries instead of sandwich food and snacks. I made it out okay, but safe to say it was a challenge. I usually did my grocery shopping at Aldi for my basic necessities. This week I decided to try Paddy's Market, the local farmers market. I went in there with my budgeted cash and no game plan. I went midday and it was packed. I had to maneuver through crowds to take a look at vendor's food without knowing what I wanted or needed. It took me a while but I eventually made it out of there with at least three meals for the week much cheaper than I would've at a chain grocer. It may not sound like a big deal, but I was certainly overwhelmed as a foreigner in a place that seemed so native to everyone else. I just took my time and saw what each vendor had to offer and didn't make any spontaneous purchases. My advice for the next person: make a list and go in the morning! 

As for my week, it was another one for the books. I did a free walking tour throughout the Rocks, a suburb of Sydney. I learned a lot more about the history that I had no idea about. I even saw the most popular location for wedding photos in Sydney! I also had a crazy amount of school work to do with midterms next week. I had to write essays for my literature class, study for marketing communications and multicultural communication. While I was busy doing this, I still made time for myself to explore more parts of Sydney. Over the weekend, I went to Featherdale Wildlife Park, which was basically an interactive zoo. I was finally able to pet a koala and kangaroos, so I can check that off the bucket list! It was nice to get out of the City for a bit and discover the nature aspects of Syndey. Then on Sunday, my roommates and I went down to Manly Beach for the Australian Open Surfing Competition - very "Australia" of me. I thought I was shredding waves at Surf Camp a few weekends ago, safe to say I was shown up that day. 

Work this week was nothing out of the ordinary with meetings, writing creative briefs, and a free show. I saw Disney Under the Stars which was basically Disney songs galore. And yes, I did get very emotional during The Lion King.  Oh yeah and I'm running my own campaign at the Syndey Opera House. I didn't believe it when I heard it either. I was in a meeting about School Holidays with the Kids marketing team when my supervisor told me the news. I'm going to own the April School Holidays campaign! School Holiday is the 2-3 week break between quarters Australian students have. I'm going to be personally working with vendors and various marketing teams to pull off a seamless campaign (hopefully). 

This coming week is the one before our Spring Break (Autumn Break in Australia). So this week I'll really have to buckle down and ace these midterms and leave all my I's dotted and T's crossed at work. I'll be very busy but it'll be worth it once I'm in the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns and Queenstown, New Zealand!

Is it too soon to drop the "L" word?

Okay, so posting more often is pretty tough when you're having the time of your life.

This week I had the opportunity to work with a creative team on the renaming of the SOH's restaurants. The location is run by a third party vendor so our marketing team has to work with that team on drafting ideas for the rename. We had a brainstorming session first thing Monday morning and it was such a surreal feeling being at a meeting with marketing managers and directors as an intern. The best part about it was the fact that they valued my input and wanted to hear my ideas and opinions on the rename. I was the only American and newbie in the meeting so I was able to give a more objective opinion.

I also went to an authentic Korean BBQ for my co-worker's birthday. Let me tell you, you've never experienced Korean food until you eat it with Koreans. I learned how to use chopsticks (kinda) and how to eat the food, what to dip in what, and even the traditions on pouring the drinks. It was a great meal with good company, and we have a date set for us to go again. Last thing about SOH for this post (can you tell I'm slightly obsessed), I got to see another show! I went to see Purity Ring with the other interns two weeks ago and this weekend I got two free tickets to see Blanc de Blanc. It was a very scantily clad but it was a fun show to go to.


This week was also exciting for my classes. I got to go on a field trip to Chinatown for my intercultural communications course. It was so cool seeing Chinatown's history and the reasoning behind the different colors and locations of certain things. Specifically, there's one tree in the center of Chinatown which is placed where wind and water will hit it at specific angles bringing good fortune. This tour really tied together my learnings from the course to reality. People from varying cultures have that barrier which separates one's beliefs from the other's and to has successful communication there needs to be a mutual understanding of differences. Being an American in Australia creates a huge cultural gap that is often overlooked simply because we all speak English. Australians have different values than most Americans. Australians value the quality of living over working for more money. They work to live rather than live to work like the American culture. I am often told by my supervisor to leave work on time rather than stay because I need to "experience Sydney". Which of course, I don't turn down.

My time adventuring and experiencing Sydney this week was successful, yet again. About 40 people from my program actually decided to rent a boat and explore the Sydney Harbour. We were given a private tour of the Harbour and the captain even anchored the boat and let us jump out for a swim. I also finally did the Coogee to Bondi Beach coastal walk. All of my coworkers were insisting I do this because "Australians love their coastal walks". This was actually incredibly beautiful. We saw 6 beaches total and climbed up countless cliffs (exaggerating?) in order to get from beach to beach. It took us about 5 hours simply because of the photo ops and swimming at every beach / body of water. This weekend was also the end of the Chinese New Year and there were dragon boat races to celebrate. My roommates and I got up early Sunday morning to watch these races and it was absolutely insane. I've never seen a boat with so many people go so fast and the synchronization was beyond impressive. Considering there is a large Chinese population in Sydney, these types of events are very popular and full of good food.

Stay tuned for more updates on my Semester in Sydney!

Alright Australia, calm down.

I can't believe I get to call this place my home.

I swear every day I fall more and more in love with Australia. Yet another week for the books. This week I was able to dive deeper into the Australian culture through my internship and by meeting locals. I had the pleasure of attending multiple meetings for the rebranding of the Sydney Opera House (SOH) and even a marketing team bonding outing at the zoo. My co-workers have really taken me under their wing and have been showing me around local eateries and travel recommendations. However, there are a few language barriers. Yes, we all speak English - but the dialects are certainly confusing. One funny example is my co-worker complaining "I have a blister where my thong sits." As you can imagine, I was very thrown off! She then explained that a thong was another name for a flipflop. This wasn't that big of a miscommunication but when asked to do tasks at work, I almost always need to clarify what I need to do because of the different slang terms. My advice to those who will be working in another country is ask as many questions as you can! No question is a dumb questions. In my experience, people are happy to help. 

Classes are getting busier and busier. I had my first essay due this week, as you can imagine that was painful to write on an 80-degree day. I've been going to a lot of internet cafes and parks with wifi to do my homework so I am out of my flat as much as possible. 

This weekend my roommates and I went to Port Stephens, and I had one of the best weekends of my life. It was about a 4 hour commute via train and bus, which was well worth the trip. We arrived at our hostel Friday at around 1 pm (after being stranded for about an hour in the middle of a highway - but everything's fine). The hostel was bungalow style so it was almost like camping in the rainforest. The host and her husband were two of the nicest people I've ever met in my entire life. They gave us all the key places to visit that aren't as touristy as we found online. We went cliff jumping near Kingsley Beach, which sounds dangerous but it wasn't as bad as you'd think (that means your Grandma). A local showed us where the cliff was, after all, seven of us seemed to Google Maps the wrong location.
He gave us all the pro tips of when it's safe to jump and when it's not which was helpful. We all made it with only a few cuts and bruises...Then we went camel back riding at sunset, because well, Australia. That was absolutely beautiful, I love a good sunset and riding a camel was awesome!

As for Saturday, the girls and I booked a dolphin cruise where we were able to see dolphins and jump off the boat and swim. I thought it was funny how the Aussies were so lax about us jumping off the boat because in America that just screams "liability". Then came paddleboarding, it's a lot harder than it looks. Lastly for the day, we went hiking up Mt. Tomaree! This view was incredible, well worth the blood, sweat and tears on the way up (ok maybe not blood...or tears). The next day we went to One Mile Beach in the morning to enjoy our Valentine's Day together and then made our journey home. We made it home in time to go to the world's largest short film festival, Tropfest! The films had a lot of Australian culture references in them and I actually understood most of them!

Safe to say, this week/weekend was one for the books. I need to start posting more so I don't always have to write these long winded posts - I'll do my best. Stay tuned for more updates from the Australian Eastern Time Zone.

I think I'll stay here for a while...

Australia is incredible.

It's so hard for me to describe everything that we've been doing. For one, classes started and I'm enjoying them! I'm taking three courses, Australian Literature, Marketing Communications, and Cross-Cultural Communication. The other three credits I'm taking go towards my internship. All my classes are going well! We have two hours of face-to-face class and one a half hours of online lecture and activities. I'm not a huge online class fan, so it certainly will take some getting used to. As for my internship, I met Lord Mayor Clover Moore - the Mayor of Sydney!! Okay so let me debrief...I had my first full week last week and it went pretty well. Monday was a lot of research and getting to know the company more, but on Tuesday, I was able to write my first creative brief. This is a lot of responsibility for an intern who's only been working for about 4 days at this point. However, they trusted me and I'm sending over the brief to our creative team this week once we get the budget for the number of prints in. Wednesday was the same type of work, I got another tour of the Sydney Opera House - starstruck every time I walk into that building. So Thursday, I walk into work and my supervisor invited me to the media launch for the City of Sydney kicking off their Chinese New Year celebration. This was such an experience, there were so many reporters, cameramen, employees, entertainers and lots of food! Lord Mayor Clover Moore spoke at the event and I briefly introduced myself before the media swept her away. These types of experiences make me excited to continue my internship!

As for personally, this week was also awesome. It was my roommate's birthday this week so we went out to Darling Harbor and at and looked out at the water. This city is so beautiful, it's so easy to fall in love with. On Friday, I saw the sun (not) rise on Bondi Beach. I woke up at 5 am and made the commute, however, it was very cloudy so no sunrise for Kelsey. I was still glad I went because it was a pretty site, next time I'll check the weather before! This weekend, two of my roommates and me went to Surf Camp Australia! It was easily one of the best weekends I've had in a while. We arrived at 7 Mile Beach (which is about 2 hours away) Friday night and star gazed at the beach. I've never seen such clear skies at night. There was a group of about 20 that went to the beach with us out of the 100 campers. We saw the Milkyway, Big Dipper, Little Dipper - you name a star and we saw it. Forever I'll have that memory and I hope to have more nights like that. Saturday we went surfing and I was actually really good! The instructor kept giving me little challenges on how to make surfing a bit harder than the last wave. After many wipeouts, I did a 360 on the board and surfed backwards. I was super sore today considering I don't ever use those muscles that I use to surf but it was just as fun of a day. We had an authentic Australian cookout both days and I want to go back sometime soon!

Tomorrow's the Super Bowl but I'll be working so I won't follow it. It's Chinese New Year and the Sydney Opera House has big events that will be keeping me busy. As for this week, no set plans yet but I always seem to find something to do!

Getting in the swing of things

 So I've been here for a little over a week and it's finally hitting me that I'm in Australia. At first, it felt like a vacation, but now I feel semi-acclimated. Our apartment is finally all moved into. We live in a complex called Urbanest, which is similar to on-campus apartments back at Pitt. We share a room and a bathroom with one other person and a shared living space for all 8 girls. We're in the neighborhood Ultimo which is only a 10-minute walk from most bus stops and the train station which is convenient to get around.

 This week was a busy week for us! It was Australia day on Tuesday which was awesome. We went to Bondi Beach, the most well-known beach in Australia, to celebrate. There were a bunch of us in our program that went, and of course, we all took pictures with the Australian flag. Classes and internships also started this week! I had my intercultural communication and marketing communications classes, they for the Sydney Opera House in their marketing department. I've only worked two days so far but I love it. My supervisor and co-worker are teaching me Australian slang slowly but surely so I'm trying to act like a real Aussie. I've started to say "arvo" for afternoon, "biscuit" for cookie, and "toilet" for bathroom. I'm so happy I'm doing an internship because I really feel like I'm immersing myself in the Australian culture.
oth seem interesting. I hate that we have to pay for printing here because usually I print out the slides and write notes on them but now I just hand-write all the notes. I'll get used to it soon enough. As for my internship, it's incredible!!! I'm working

It's finally the weekend and we're planning on going to the beach and going on the free walking tours and museums. I love how much stuff there is to do here!

Aussie baby

These past few days have been insane - this is actually the first chance I've had to sit down and open my computer (only for about 10 minutes).

Well, I've landed safely and the flights weren't terrible. The first day we landed we had a BBQ (Aussie style) and then a tour around our neighborhood. We had free time later in the day and me and my 7 other roommates hit the beach with 8 of our guy friends on the trip. We went to Bondi Beach and ate at some Brazilian place near the beach. We were all so jetlagged, we all crashed as soon as we got back from the beach.

We also had our student orientation at the Australian Catholic University, it's hard to believe I have to take classes next week :( We got lunch at this cute little eatery market in North Sydney and then went to the beach again.

Today we had a scavenger hunt and I learned more places in Sydney and where I want to travel. Also, CAPA, which is our study abroad program, planned a cruise around Sydney Harbor which was beautiful.

Honestly, I've only been here for three days and I love it. There is such a variety of cultures here and the people are so friendly. I'm noticing differences in our culture compared to theirs and it will definitely take some getting used to. I just can't get the hang of driving on the left side of the road and walking to the left in crowds. Also, everyone dresses up here! No one wears jeans, women always seem to be wearing dresses and men in button ups.
I'm off to the grocery store, I'll post when I have time!

And so it begins

Today's the day - I'm starting my journey to Sydney, Australia. Currently, I'm sitting in Gate 136 in Newark waiting for board my first flight to LAX. My parents walked to me to check my luggage in and to security, it was such a bitter sweet feeling. Both of them teared up as I gave them the rocker hand and stuck my tongue out as a final "see ya soon". Words can't describe how excited I am for this semester, who knows what lies ahead. 

I'll be landing in LA at 7:30 Pacific Time Zone, and leaving for my 15 hour flight to Syndey at around 11pm. Definitely not looking forward to the jet lag, but it'll be worth it! For those of you who'd like to contact me, feel free to reach out via Facebook. Stay tuned for updates on my Semester in Syndey 😁