Well this past week
went by fast. This week was filled with plenty of fun things with all
of the studying and working on papers throughout the week to fill the
gaps.
On Monday night, we had a Halloween dress up party to see who could come
up with the most interesting costumes. We had people dressing up from
the different seasons, robin hood, the family of the incredibles, an
even a clown fish!
I also then got to conquer one of my fears on Tuesday night with the help of my Church St. family: I got up on stage and played live music (including singing) for the first time in years. It was an interesting night to say the least and whenever I got up to the stage, all sorts of thoughts were running through my head. From the last words the last player said to me, "Just picture everyone naked"... to one my German roommates saying that he was going to press his thumbs for me. The first words I got out were, "Hey everyone, I'm going to sing you a song that I love, because I'm American, and I love pie!" I then commenced to playing songs including: "American Pie", "Time of your life", "Picture" , and more. It felt amazing though having people dancing around while I was singing and watching their reactions to the playing.
Let's see... after that I had a paper that I worked on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that ended up being somewhere in the range of ~6500 words for my project management course. I think this course has probably been my favorite learning a lot of the ins and outs of entrepreneurship and how to work with managing projects. I then had the project management final on Friday and it was the EXACT same final that he had handed to us a week prior to study, so that was a relief that I studied the right thing! :)
I then have planned a last-minute trip with the Mountaineering Club from the University to camp at Glenrock Beach... I am not sure if I have mentioned it in a prior post, but it has probably been one of the most rewarding and involved clubs that I have worked with. There have been so many new things I have tried and completed that have helped build up plenty of self-confidence because I never knew I had it in me between the white-water kayaking, slack-lining, and rock-climbing. Speaking of which, I have planned out one of the next big trips in which we are heading to Australia's Blue Mountains.
I also then got to conquer one of my fears on Tuesday night with the help of my Church St. family: I got up on stage and played live music (including singing) for the first time in years. It was an interesting night to say the least and whenever I got up to the stage, all sorts of thoughts were running through my head. From the last words the last player said to me, "Just picture everyone naked"... to one my German roommates saying that he was going to press his thumbs for me. The first words I got out were, "Hey everyone, I'm going to sing you a song that I love, because I'm American, and I love pie!" I then commenced to playing songs including: "American Pie", "Time of your life", "Picture" , and more. It felt amazing though having people dancing around while I was singing and watching their reactions to the playing.
Let's see... after that I had a paper that I worked on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that ended up being somewhere in the range of ~6500 words for my project management course. I think this course has probably been my favorite learning a lot of the ins and outs of entrepreneurship and how to work with managing projects. I then had the project management final on Friday and it was the EXACT same final that he had handed to us a week prior to study, so that was a relief that I studied the right thing! :)
I then have planned a last-minute trip with the Mountaineering Club from the University to camp at Glenrock Beach... I am not sure if I have mentioned it in a prior post, but it has probably been one of the most rewarding and involved clubs that I have worked with. There have been so many new things I have tried and completed that have helped build up plenty of self-confidence because I never knew I had it in me between the white-water kayaking, slack-lining, and rock-climbing. Speaking of which, I have planned out one of the next big trips in which we are heading to Australia's Blue Mountains.
The highlight of the event is
going to be the climb Sweet Dreams in which you climb well over the tree
top levels and up to the top of a cliff from which you can see over
all the Blue Mountains. Many photos will be taken and good stories will
likely be made in this trip... Anyways back to the Glenrock trip. We
started off at our place eating a LOT of fried rice because I went to
ALDI hungry and ended up impulse buying a lot of food to cook. It ended
up being pretty good if I do say so myself. We then left with a full
stomach to Glenrock State Conservation Area. My roommate and I had found
it the weekend before on a mountain bike ride and thought we had to
show this to people.
We couldn't think of any better way than to have
people come out and go camping. So by the time we made it to the
campsite, it was already dark and we had to have a bit of a bushwalk in
the dark. It was nothing we couldn't handle though. We ended up not
even setting up the tents and just slept under the stars in our
sleeping bags. It was a clear night and probably only got down in the
50's, but it was definitely nice to have the sleeping bag. I woke up in
the morning to the sky painted so many different colors and the sun
was just starting to crest over the ocean. It was an amazing sight and I
didn't have the camera at the time. We decided we would do it again
though since it was only an hour walk from our place and it was such a
fantastic night for not having to leave very far from Newcastle.
And then that brings me back to Sunday! We decided to walk back instead of going in the car and had a few dips in the beach as we walked a couple miles of beach line back to Newcastle beach. It was a good time and now I'm working at studying for my next final!
And then that brings me back to Sunday! We decided to walk back instead of going in the car and had a few dips in the beach as we walked a couple miles of beach line back to Newcastle beach. It was a good time and now I'm working at studying for my next final!
About Nathan Bearden, the author, in 2011: I am a senior chemical engineering student from the University of
Arkansas. I am studying chemical engineering at the University of
Newcastle right now and will be here for the remainder of the semester
(long enough to see just a little bit more of the outback!!!). I am
enrolled in four great classes that I have been enjoying, but even more
so have been enjoying the mix of people I have met.
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Don't miss out on your opportunity to study abroad!
Find out more about the University of Newcastle exchange at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/exchange/newcastle
