bonjour de paris

after a few language barrier problems and lack of communication devices we arrived safely in our apartment. i was expecting pretty bad weather, to be honest. friends who traveled here before have said they've ran into rain and cold weather. but I'm happy to say that the sun stayed out for our first day in paris. we got in around nine am local time and tried to stay up to acclimatize to the time zone, but everyone passed out for a few hours due to lack of sleep from the plane.  after a few hours of rest we hit the streets to explore the area around saint louise en i'isle. we're staying right on the river so there were a ton of boats to see. there were quite a few people down by the water eating lunch and hanging out as well. after wondering the streets for a while we ended up at the front doors of notre dame. it isn't as big as i had expected. i guess disney and quasimodo hyped this cathedral up just a tad, but it was still beautiful. we then just wondered around the streets watching street performers do their thing and food vendors cooking up all sorts of delicious meals. we ended up sitting down at the place called sain sev'. food there was delicious and i'm thankful that the serving weren't nearly as big as the ones in america. i started the meal with some escargot, followed by steak, and topped of with some creme brûlée! after dinner we just wondered back home. i knew that one of the love locks bridge in paris had collapsed due to the weight of the locks so i wasn't keeping my eye out for it. surprisingly enough, we stumbled across one on the way home. i can now see why a bridge could crumble under the weight of some locks. there were a ton! a few areas in the bridge were also covered with sheets of wood - where i assume the weight of the locks has caused it to fall. anyway, that was the last stop of the day before we went back home. now it's one in the morning local time and this girl is peacing out. 

xx

a little bit about canberra too.

on our last day in canberra, the group took a tour of the city. we learned a lot about its history and the men and women who fought for it. our tour guide was this nice older gentlemen named john. he was full of little tid bits about the city! he first informed us that the city was designed by two chicagoans by the name of walter burley griffin and marion mahony griffin. they mimicked the design from dc's capital format, which can easily be seen from the front steps of the parliament. we also learned that brothels were not only legal but they were government runner establishments! look at these aussies go. 
our first stop was at mount ainslie lookout point. it is about 850 meter above sea level. unfortunately for us it was really cloudy and rainy that day, so you couldn't really see past about five feet in front of go. after that we made our way to the australian war memorial. there was so much history and memorabilia here. after some self-obtained knowledge about the australian involvement in world war I, world war II, and other wars, we caught some footage on the big screen from the eyes of the australian air force.iI feel that australians often go under appreciated for their war efforts. they give so much and help so much, yet still get little recognition from the rest of the world. next we made our way to the australian parliament house. 

one thing i've definitely noticed is how much australians like their symbolism. right as we walked into the foyer, john informed us that numerous green pillars we saw represented that trees that were cleared out for the construction of canberra. as we visited the house and senate, similar symbol isms were seen. john told us that the house was a green color because the builder wanted the room to represent the color of the eucalyptus tree. this contrasted the red color if the senate, but the meaning behind it was similar. the red hue was to represent the eucalyptus tree in full bloom. this added a little bit of australian flair to the seemingly plain layout. the parliament also has one of the four remaining copier of the magna carta that is present for all to see. that was also something interesting. it seems that australians are very open and friendly because all the places we visited were free of charge!

we soon left the parliament to go to where all the coins are made. did you know that a long long time ago australia had a currency of half a penny? beats me for what it was used for, but i am in australia of course and a lot of the things they do don't make much sense, haha. our last stop on our little city tour was the australian museum. we were all exhausted at this point, but there was a lot of interesting history to learn between the australians now and this aboriginals that still inhabit the land. we learned about the wars, the treaties, and finally the beginning of what will hopefully finally be peace between the two groups. 

i'm not much of a history person, but I definitely gained more respect for the people who inhabit this land today <3

sleep all day, party all night.

well half of that statement was true. I think the trip has finally caught up to me because after a restful eight hours of sleep, I proceeded to sleep through nine of the twelve hours it took to get from canberra to melbourne today. it was a rough day. we all woke up at eight for breakfast and proceeded to go none stop until we got to melbourne. it took us four buses and one train to make it here. everyone was so tired and hungry you could feel all the tension in the air. tomorrow we're going to tour the uni and have our first job shadowing day! i can't believe i'm leaving here at the end of the week. time has flown by ): <3

GO BRUMBIES!!

yesterday was our first/only free day in canberra. if anyone knows anything about canberra then they know that there isn't really much to know about it, haha. canberra was basically put on the map as a common place to meet between sydney and melbourne. there's not too many tourist attractions, therefore not many things to do as a tourist. there is a nice city centre about a half hour bus ride from where we are staying, so that was where most of the group went. there were a ton of cute little shops there that had a bunch of summer clothes on sale because it's starting to become winter here. so i did what i did best - i shopped until i dropped. (: i didn't buy much though, with the crazy prices over here it isn't too difficult to say no. we stopped a little bit for lunch and i was able to grab some sushi cause i was definitely missing a little piece of home. shortly after a few of us made our way back to rest a little.

after dinner the whole group went to go watch a rugby union game at one of the stadiums located on the AIS. it was a pretty interesting match against the brumbies and hurricanes. i'm not quite sure what makes a match a super rugby one versus a regular rugby one but this match was called super rugby. it rained a little, but a match is a match and this girl was definitely missing her rugby boys. the final score was 30-23, so all in all it was a great day <3

netball or basketball? eh, i think they're the same thing?

after breakfast today we had a short presentation on sports psychology by amanda palmer. i just recently took a class on sports psychology last semester so it was all really good review. they do pretty much the same things that we do over in the states which was pretty nice. after lunch we were signed up to play some netball, but i think the higher ups got mixed up because we ended up playing basketball for two hours. i still know just as much about netball as i did before our "lesson", which is pretty much nothing at all. i definitely got my work-out in and at five thirty i am pooped and ready for a nap. canberra is a really quiet town, so i feel like i'm always sleepy. tomorrow we have the day off followed by a brumbies game. it should be really exciting! <3

i suppose you gotta study on a study abroad trip

today was our first full day in canberra and it was filled with lectures! (though i suppose on a study abroad trip, we should be learning something ...) our first lecture was given by alicia norris on "fueling your performance". she spoke on topics regarding how nutrition helps an athlete perform, how we fuel our body, types of fules used for certain intensity and duration of exercise, nutritional requirements, energy balance, and hydration. only 2% of body fluid needs to be loss before performance will be affected, so remember to stay hydrated in the summer heat!

our second lecture was given by damian raper on "injury prevention". he spoke on topics regarding injury risk reduction, acute management of injuries, rehabilitation, injury surveillance, injury risk factors, and prevention strategies. one interesting thing that differs between the states and australia is concussion management. both counties seem to follow the zurich protocol for return to play (RTP), but in rugby union they have this thing called the "head bin". this is about a five minute period where a medic must figure out if an athlete actually has a concussion and if they can go in or not. this is dangerous because symptoms can develop over a few hours and if a concussion is not resolved before RTP a life-threatening injury called second impact could occur.

our third lecture was given by nathan versey on "recovery". he spoke on topics regarding different ways to recover such as sleep, nutrition, periodisation, warm down, stretching, massage, hydrotherapy, compression garments, and relxation techniques. after the lecture we had a lab on hydrotherapy. specifically contrast where you are submerged in cold water for a bit and then warm water. we all tried to stay in the warm tub as long as possible because the cold tub was not pleasant to be in at all! you're supposed to always finish in the cold tub after a contrast treatment and an hour later i'm still trying to warm myself up!

anyway, i think i'm gonna go find myself a nice hot cup of tea to warm up to before dinner. there isn't good wifi here (or more so none at all), so don't be alarm if i'm not responding to emails/texts. i'm trying the best i can! missing everyone at home dearly <3

we made it to cleavage!

apparently canberra has two different meanings behind its name. for the more "official" meaning used by the government and people who don't know the aboriginal language, they believe that canberra stands for "meeting place". on the otherhand, for people who do know the langauge. they say that canberra stands for the hills that the city lies within - which resembles a cleavage. haha, i think that was about the only thing i got out of the short ten minute tour the bus driver gave us from the train station to the australian institute of sport which is where we are staying. since it's fall here, the weather is a little chilly. i'm walking around in jeans and a jacket all day. which is a little weird because i left seattle wearing shorts and a tank top. but canberra is a very nice little city. there isn't much to do here so i've been getting lots of much needed sleep. we also get fed three square meals a day so i've been full since i got here! everything is just so much more expensive here. especially the food. a pint of beer is close to 7-9 dollars while a normal entree is almost 20! i'm definitely going broke over here. but the experience is well worth it <3