Study Break

Lectures are over! I went to my last class on Friday morning. And Thursday night I attended the last Club Night at Uni Club. It was Halloween themed but my simple Pebbles Flintstone costume – I put a cardboard bone in my ponytail – didn’t survive the night. Below you can see me with two of my wonderful friends from the water polo team.

Since then, it’s just been a lot of studying. Finals last till November 21, but it’s good we have so much time because most of them are worth about 50% of my grade. For study motivation, it helps a lot that I’m interested in my classes. Tonight as a study break, Marissa and I used my dad’s recipe to make some delicious guacamole and enchiladas – the perfect meal for two Mexican food-deprived southern Californians.


Here’s another cultural tidbit: Before I arrived, I was told that Australian guys are aggressive and treat girls like crap, but I have found that it’s untrue. You encounter the occasional asshole, as you would anywhere, but for the most part everyone is incredibly nice. I do think Australia is more old-fashioned in the sense that I get a lot more special treatment from boys on the water polo court for being a girl, which I find well-intentioned but unnecessary. For example, in a shooting game, it was a rule that guys shoot left-handed when a girl was playing goalie.

Friends have also told me that American girls are more assertive. For example they’ll go after a guy they’re interested in while an Aussie girl would never make the first move. Another interesting remark was that American girls are more interested in AJs (army jerks) than Australians. (Don’t worry about me, Dad, it’s not my type). In general, it seems that gender equality has progressed further in the US than here and while Aussie guys are more chivalrous, American girls are more convicted of the fact that they are equal to guys, including in physical competition.