Helloooo all!
Okay two weeks I know is a long time but I have gotten a little distracted trying to soak up all my time here and a little with school work as well. Due to the fact that some people named sarah thomas lloyd, don't appreciate dialogue blogs, i thought i would not that if you do not appreciate the dialogue, there is the option of not reading any further. that said...
so last i checked we had just gone to brooks and dunn and had a few beach days. well that weekend we had the end of the semester party with club exchange. it was in north sydney... so a short bus ride. because apparently not that many peeps wanted to go, the party was not all that hopping. it was at a hotel and the theme was supposed to be "emergency" but not that many people (including myself) dressed up. it was kind of a hard theme unless you wanted to buy something and i didn't really want to. so we went there and it was fun cause it was probably one of the last time all of our school friends will all be in one place. so it was good to just have everybody there for a little dance party and a good send off. since everyone has lots to do this next month and doing lots of travelling, it is going to be interesting/kinda sad to see how much more we get to see the people we have spent our whole semester with.
saturday we had the laziest day. it was so rainy out and we were tried after a party night, so we decided to order pizza and watch movies. my roommate ryan just got this sweet thing to hook his computer up to the tv and since he has sooo many movies, we can watch lots of different ones. so we watched accepted and notting hill. it was a good day just to bum around.
saturday night, my house threw a party!! now be it that my roommates are not all so much party peeps, this was a first. we had a bunch of ryan's soccer buddies over and some of our other friends from around the village. i was exhausted from the night before so i headed to bed around midnight, but apparently they stayed almost all night long. slept through that. haha.
sunday and monday we had library days. since monday night the village (where we live) was giving away free pancakes, marie and kevin came over after the lib and we ate pancakes and hung around. tuesday was spent in class as usual, but tuesday night i went into the city with kaitlin to stay at the hotel her family was going to be staying/coming to on wednesday!!! because her family was getting in at 6:30am wednesday morning, they got the hotel room for tuesday so we wouldn't be so far from the airport to meet them there. we found the hotel tuesday night- very pretty and good location- and had a nice dinner and went to bed earlier in BIG beds and lots of pillows.
off to the airport at 6am we were kinda cranky but also really excited to finally see some faces from home :). after waiting in the usual meeting place for a while, i walked down to see if i saw some info and found her cousin and her brother! so that was a success. we caught a cab back to the city and although i would have loved to stay and played, i had to head back for class from 10-12. after class i took a nap and then headed over to maries to get ready to go to the city. since it was molly and kerrys (kaitlins cousin/brothers) first night in town, we had planned to go to this bar and meet out with our tour guide from spring break. he had said it was so much fun and they actually race real crabs!! so naturally we went and he was right!! they do crab racing and other sorts of competitions- including hoola hoop (which we realized is not my strong point). one of our crabs one and kerry got a tshirt and meggo got some free beer. all in all it was a really fun/different scene. afterwords we went to scruffy murphys for a little and then marie and i headed home.
thursday- off to gold coast :). deciding to show kerry and molly more than just sydney- we had planned a trip up to the gold coast in queensland. be it that we hadn't been there before we thought it would be fun to check it out with them on board. arrving thursday marie and i headed off to explore some of the city while kaitlin, kerry and molly got some food, worked out, and took naps. marie and i headed towards broadbeach and found some shopping areas and a cute little mall area that we soon discovered was hosting a blues festival this weekend!! so after walking around for a bit we headed back. naps and then showers, we didn't end up heading out to dinner till around 10. we ate at this cute little italian place and decided to call it a night due to some jet lag for the bowens and just tiredness on our parts.
friday we got breakfast and then after a dip in the hot tub, we headed down the other way to surfers paradise and walked along the beach SO PRETTY. this area was a little more hopping and downtown like. we saw some interesting stores and folks and did some shopping before heading back. after showers we went back to this area and got dinner at a seafood place. we then went to a little irish pub and listen to a great live band and danced for a little.
saturday morning it was beautiful out! after breakfast we headed to the pool and although our hotel was apparently hosting a graduation, we got some sun in and relaxed. later we decided we should go check out the blues festival so we walked down and heard some good music while catching a late lunch and happy hour.
saturday night we decided, since we had an early sunday morning (our flight left at 7am this morning and i have been up since 5:15- hence maybe some typos) we should take it easy. we watched "he's just not that into you" and went to bed early.
it was more a relaxing weekend at the gold coast but one we enjoyed. it is fun to have kerry and molly here and to be so close to the beach and the ocean- my favorite. the sun shining was a nice change too since sydney has been kinda rainy lately.
other updates include: the fact that people here walk very slow. marie says it is because we walk too fast with americans always being in a hurry. but still SLOW. also, this is the last week of official classes :(. it is soooo crazy to think that a month from today i will be packing up and heading home. i am soo excited for my mom and teresa and clare to come visit but i also know their time here will fly and then it will pratically be time to come home. this experience has been so great and i really feel like i have learned so much about myself and the world. it will be fun to come back and to apply it to life back at school and such. but weird to embrace the fact that this adventure is almost coming to an end. ill be back sooner than you all know it.
this week we are doing lots of fun touristy things with the bowens and finishing classes, as mentioned before. we have one last hooplah with our spring break program this thursday with a party cruise around the harbour so that should be fun!! ill try to update every week for the last couple. so we will see how that goes.
mish ya all. cheers :)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Brooks and Dunn to Coogee Days
Hello!!
okay so last i checked i haven't written since we went to brooks and dunn!! yes, we were able to find country in australia. very few people knew what we were talking about when we said we were going to see them in concert but we didn't really care. kaitlin and i bought tickets with our tour guide from spring break-meggo. we had bought nose bleeds but didn't really care, we were just excited to go. we caught the train to the city around 4 and headed to meet meggo for happy hour and dinner. when we got there... he told us that if we were interested, one of his friends that was going said we could go with him. thinking this would be fun, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. turns out his friend let us ride in his party bus to the concert and then sit in his box seats!!!! free food and drinks all night long- plus we sold our tickets so we even made some money. needless to say, we were extremely grateful and soooo excited. i couldn't believe what was happening. we met meggos friends- who were awesome- and got to see an amazing concert in awesome seats. although we were probably the loudest in the box seats, we tried to get other people excited. this didn't go so well so we just danced around by ourselves and cheered like crazy for all our favorite songs. afterwards, we sang all the way back in the party bus and tried to go to the casino- but decided against it and just went home.
thursday i had to go to a psych study and spent the rest of the day in the library working on my drugs paper. it was a painful experience. still not accomplishing much i gave up and kaitlin, marie and i watched grey's anatomy and went to bed early. luckily for us, although australia is like a couple months behind in grey's anatomy, we have missed so much of it and been here so long, we are finally catching up!! we are excited about that to say the least.
friday- kaitlin and i hit the library again... allll day long. from 10 -5 we sat, chugging coffee, and plugging away on papers and assignments. after finally finishing my paper i got extra editing help from margaret and my dad and ended up feeling pretty good about it. friday night we stayed in as well and went to bed early after crashing from our caffeine highs.
saturday- we went to ladies day at university of new south whales (UNSW) rugby day!! it was a goregous day out and meggo (our tour guide) was actually playing. so we went at noon and watched him play rugby, drank our free champagne, and kaitlin and marie even got their palms read!! i wanted to but the lady ran out of time. so that was a bums. but a bunch of our friends from spring break were there so that was a lot of fun to see them and catch up. after three games of rugby, the team provided a free shuttle to this hotel where they were having an after party. it was pretty fun but we ended up calling it a pretty early night after being down there all day and in the sun we were ready for bed. we got back to the village about 11 and hit the hay.
sunday it was back to studying and such. the rest of this week was full of days at the library and nights hnging around. getting to the end of the semester is really taking its toll on all of us to get all our assignments in and keep up with school. especially now, since all our friends are done and we are not used to be in school till late june. however, we are continuing to plug through. the end is in sight for me. i have 2 more papers to write- one due friday that i will be dedicated to this week- and then two finals in late june, and then i am done. it is a bittersweet feeling knowing it is all coming to an end. although we still have over a month let, i don't think it will feel that long at all- kinda scary.
although there was a lot of studying this week- we still managed to make time for fun. marie and i decided to head to the city thursday to do a little exploring since it had been a while. we went to paddys market (this ultimate souvenier place) and bought some tshirts and aussy stuff. we bebopped around and saw where my mom and teresa will be staying while they are here!! we also realized that it was darling harbour's 21st birthday and the city had a huge cake on display and were doing fireworks later that night. so that was fun to see. thursday night we caught greys anatomy again and then went to the ubar for pirate night- although none of us dressed as pirates. it was a pretty fun time.
friday we needed a beach day. morgan had been kind enough to say she would drive when she got done with class at noon. so her, kaitlin, marie and i headed off to bondi beach around 12:30! this was our first time to bondi and i am honestly so sad we didn't go sooner. i thought i loved manly... but bondi is goregous!! it is such pretty sand and a beautiful beach. erin and jill and some other parkland folks showed up and we all beached bummed for the rest of the day. we saw another guide from our spring break trip- who is a bondi lifeguard- and caught up with him for a little. once it got a little colder, marie, kaitlin, morgan, and i headed off the beach and up to the little shops. we got some lunch/dinner and found some cute shops. heading back towards campus- marie, kaitlin and i were so happy to be in a car. it is so weird to always be on public transportation for so long we were so grateful to be in morgan's car for a change. it was fast and fun to be driving around with the windows down, blaring girly music, and enjoying sydney. once back, kaitlin and i tried to think of more things to do with our family and then called it a night.
yesterday we went to coogee beach for another reunion with our spring break folks!! it was a beautiful day and coogee is a smaller beach close to bondi that is just as pretty and fun. it was fun to hang around on the beach all day again and see our tour guides and spring break buds. we saw where they live- goregous views- and got dinner down there. we were debating about going out down there but due to the lack of nicer clothes, we headed back to macquarie and went to bed. it was a great day and would have been fun to go out but just wasn't really possible.
today i have been in the library getting not much done. i am supposed to be working on this china in world history paper but just really don't want to. so, i thought i would catch you all up instead. this week we will be mostly plugging away at school. thursday there is an end of the semester party- sad that it is the end- and the rest of the time just occupying our time with probably school and the beach. although it is colder now, we still suck it up and head to the beach at 75 degrees. it is then less crowded and just as much fun.
hope everyone is well. miss you all!
cheers mates :)
okay so last i checked i haven't written since we went to brooks and dunn!! yes, we were able to find country in australia. very few people knew what we were talking about when we said we were going to see them in concert but we didn't really care. kaitlin and i bought tickets with our tour guide from spring break-meggo. we had bought nose bleeds but didn't really care, we were just excited to go. we caught the train to the city around 4 and headed to meet meggo for happy hour and dinner. when we got there... he told us that if we were interested, one of his friends that was going said we could go with him. thinking this would be fun, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. turns out his friend let us ride in his party bus to the concert and then sit in his box seats!!!! free food and drinks all night long- plus we sold our tickets so we even made some money. needless to say, we were extremely grateful and soooo excited. i couldn't believe what was happening. we met meggos friends- who were awesome- and got to see an amazing concert in awesome seats. although we were probably the loudest in the box seats, we tried to get other people excited. this didn't go so well so we just danced around by ourselves and cheered like crazy for all our favorite songs. afterwards, we sang all the way back in the party bus and tried to go to the casino- but decided against it and just went home.
thursday i had to go to a psych study and spent the rest of the day in the library working on my drugs paper. it was a painful experience. still not accomplishing much i gave up and kaitlin, marie and i watched grey's anatomy and went to bed early. luckily for us, although australia is like a couple months behind in grey's anatomy, we have missed so much of it and been here so long, we are finally catching up!! we are excited about that to say the least.
friday- kaitlin and i hit the library again... allll day long. from 10 -5 we sat, chugging coffee, and plugging away on papers and assignments. after finally finishing my paper i got extra editing help from margaret and my dad and ended up feeling pretty good about it. friday night we stayed in as well and went to bed early after crashing from our caffeine highs.
saturday- we went to ladies day at university of new south whales (UNSW) rugby day!! it was a goregous day out and meggo (our tour guide) was actually playing. so we went at noon and watched him play rugby, drank our free champagne, and kaitlin and marie even got their palms read!! i wanted to but the lady ran out of time. so that was a bums. but a bunch of our friends from spring break were there so that was a lot of fun to see them and catch up. after three games of rugby, the team provided a free shuttle to this hotel where they were having an after party. it was pretty fun but we ended up calling it a pretty early night after being down there all day and in the sun we were ready for bed. we got back to the village about 11 and hit the hay.
sunday it was back to studying and such. the rest of this week was full of days at the library and nights hnging around. getting to the end of the semester is really taking its toll on all of us to get all our assignments in and keep up with school. especially now, since all our friends are done and we are not used to be in school till late june. however, we are continuing to plug through. the end is in sight for me. i have 2 more papers to write- one due friday that i will be dedicated to this week- and then two finals in late june, and then i am done. it is a bittersweet feeling knowing it is all coming to an end. although we still have over a month let, i don't think it will feel that long at all- kinda scary.
although there was a lot of studying this week- we still managed to make time for fun. marie and i decided to head to the city thursday to do a little exploring since it had been a while. we went to paddys market (this ultimate souvenier place) and bought some tshirts and aussy stuff. we bebopped around and saw where my mom and teresa will be staying while they are here!! we also realized that it was darling harbour's 21st birthday and the city had a huge cake on display and were doing fireworks later that night. so that was fun to see. thursday night we caught greys anatomy again and then went to the ubar for pirate night- although none of us dressed as pirates. it was a pretty fun time.
friday we needed a beach day. morgan had been kind enough to say she would drive when she got done with class at noon. so her, kaitlin, marie and i headed off to bondi beach around 12:30! this was our first time to bondi and i am honestly so sad we didn't go sooner. i thought i loved manly... but bondi is goregous!! it is such pretty sand and a beautiful beach. erin and jill and some other parkland folks showed up and we all beached bummed for the rest of the day. we saw another guide from our spring break trip- who is a bondi lifeguard- and caught up with him for a little. once it got a little colder, marie, kaitlin, morgan, and i headed off the beach and up to the little shops. we got some lunch/dinner and found some cute shops. heading back towards campus- marie, kaitlin and i were so happy to be in a car. it is so weird to always be on public transportation for so long we were so grateful to be in morgan's car for a change. it was fast and fun to be driving around with the windows down, blaring girly music, and enjoying sydney. once back, kaitlin and i tried to think of more things to do with our family and then called it a night.
yesterday we went to coogee beach for another reunion with our spring break folks!! it was a beautiful day and coogee is a smaller beach close to bondi that is just as pretty and fun. it was fun to hang around on the beach all day again and see our tour guides and spring break buds. we saw where they live- goregous views- and got dinner down there. we were debating about going out down there but due to the lack of nicer clothes, we headed back to macquarie and went to bed. it was a great day and would have been fun to go out but just wasn't really possible.
today i have been in the library getting not much done. i am supposed to be working on this china in world history paper but just really don't want to. so, i thought i would catch you all up instead. this week we will be mostly plugging away at school. thursday there is an end of the semester party- sad that it is the end- and the rest of the time just occupying our time with probably school and the beach. although it is colder now, we still suck it up and head to the beach at 75 degrees. it is then less crowded and just as much fun.
hope everyone is well. miss you all!
cheers mates :)
Monday, May 4, 2009
Back to School
Hellooooo!!
okay i know it has once again been a while. but to my credit, my internet has been going extremely slow because it is nearing the month end so yesterday i tried to update and it wouldn't even let me connect.
anyways. life has been hard getting back into the swing of things after spring break. after our big trip up east, we headed north again to new castle to celebrate our friend morgans 18th birthday! since it is like their 21, it is a big deal. but also funny being the oldest there. new castle is this pretty beach town about 2 and a half hours north of sydney and after taking the train up there, we had lunch with morgan and her sister faryn at a small little cafe. we then got a private tour from morgan of all the different beaches and the lay of the land before heading out to her house- about 20 minutes from downtown. their house was precious! and it felt so good to be in a home again. we got to have a home cooked australian bbq and homemade cake! it was delicious. after dinner we headed to the city and went to a few different clubs. we even got to see our friends that we made on our previous spring break trip so that was fun too. we headed back to sydney the next day and to our dismay, the train ahead of us had some weird leak or something... moral of the story it ended up taking us about 5 hours to get home instead of the scheduled 2 and a half. so that was frustrating.
the rest of the weekend we kinda bummed around. it was anzac day on saturday- australia's labor day- but we didn't go out because i was supposed to have a test on monday. so i studied all weekend and then come monday it actually was cancelled because the teacher had a misprint. okay, i was not happy about this to say the least.
the rest of the week i tried to get some stuff done at the library. it is hard here because everything is always due so close together and i am the worst procrastinator... so i try to work ahead but then get bored and such. needless to say, i only have 3 papers and 2 finals until the end of the semester. CRAZY. i cannot believe how time has flown. kinda freaks me out. so still trying to work ahead in order to be all ready for when my mom, bird and clare come!! we will see how that goes.
friday we hung out at my friends joe and kevins place. they live above marie and it was such a gorgeous day that we filled up water balloons and tried to drop them on our friends walking by. we hung out on the balacony and then later went to a party over by my place for a little.
saturday we headed to the city early to celebrate a finnish holiday with our friends from finland. now while they explained it to us many a times, i am still not really sure what it is all about. they say it is like their labor day but they also said everyone wears overalls and different hats to represent their uni. so yeah. we had a pinic by their house which also looks right onto the sydney harbor and flew the kite my mom sent for easter (thanks becs!). soon the rain came though so we headed into their place, watched the movie australia (yes henry, we finally watched australia in australia!)- it was good although my friend simo had already seen it, so he kept distracting us all. afterwards we headed into the city to our favorite german place to meet morgan and her sister and a bunch of other peeps. it was kaitlin's roommates birthday so we hung out with them and danced and sang so much my voice is still a little raspy!
back to school this week. trying to write my drugs across cultures paper about tobacco- with the help of margaret!!- thanks. and so far so good. wednesday we are going to the brooks and dunn concert along with dierks bentley with our tour guide from spring break!! it should be really fun. then more school stuff and maybe a rugby game saturday. should be a good week :).
before i go back to philosophy- some interesting things i have noticed in sydney i thought i would share: 1. now that it is getting a little cooler and their fall season you would think snow is on the ground. aussies do not know the meaning of cold. it is 75 degrees and a beautiful day and they are all walking around in coats and scarves. odd. 2. it is completely normal for someone to ask to share a table you are sitting at- whether this be in the library, at the mall, or even while you are eating lunch. this week i was eating lunch by myself and reading my book and all of a sudden this girl came over to ask if she could sit on the other side. trying to be nice i said yes, but she failed to mention that she had 2 friends with her. so the three of them sat down and started jabbering away. i had to surrender my table and move cause i couldn't even here myself think.
okay that is all for now. hope everyone is well.
cheers mates :)
okay i know it has once again been a while. but to my credit, my internet has been going extremely slow because it is nearing the month end so yesterday i tried to update and it wouldn't even let me connect.
anyways. life has been hard getting back into the swing of things after spring break. after our big trip up east, we headed north again to new castle to celebrate our friend morgans 18th birthday! since it is like their 21, it is a big deal. but also funny being the oldest there. new castle is this pretty beach town about 2 and a half hours north of sydney and after taking the train up there, we had lunch with morgan and her sister faryn at a small little cafe. we then got a private tour from morgan of all the different beaches and the lay of the land before heading out to her house- about 20 minutes from downtown. their house was precious! and it felt so good to be in a home again. we got to have a home cooked australian bbq and homemade cake! it was delicious. after dinner we headed to the city and went to a few different clubs. we even got to see our friends that we made on our previous spring break trip so that was fun too. we headed back to sydney the next day and to our dismay, the train ahead of us had some weird leak or something... moral of the story it ended up taking us about 5 hours to get home instead of the scheduled 2 and a half. so that was frustrating.
the rest of the weekend we kinda bummed around. it was anzac day on saturday- australia's labor day- but we didn't go out because i was supposed to have a test on monday. so i studied all weekend and then come monday it actually was cancelled because the teacher had a misprint. okay, i was not happy about this to say the least.
the rest of the week i tried to get some stuff done at the library. it is hard here because everything is always due so close together and i am the worst procrastinator... so i try to work ahead but then get bored and such. needless to say, i only have 3 papers and 2 finals until the end of the semester. CRAZY. i cannot believe how time has flown. kinda freaks me out. so still trying to work ahead in order to be all ready for when my mom, bird and clare come!! we will see how that goes.
friday we hung out at my friends joe and kevins place. they live above marie and it was such a gorgeous day that we filled up water balloons and tried to drop them on our friends walking by. we hung out on the balacony and then later went to a party over by my place for a little.
saturday we headed to the city early to celebrate a finnish holiday with our friends from finland. now while they explained it to us many a times, i am still not really sure what it is all about. they say it is like their labor day but they also said everyone wears overalls and different hats to represent their uni. so yeah. we had a pinic by their house which also looks right onto the sydney harbor and flew the kite my mom sent for easter (thanks becs!). soon the rain came though so we headed into their place, watched the movie australia (yes henry, we finally watched australia in australia!)- it was good although my friend simo had already seen it, so he kept distracting us all. afterwards we headed into the city to our favorite german place to meet morgan and her sister and a bunch of other peeps. it was kaitlin's roommates birthday so we hung out with them and danced and sang so much my voice is still a little raspy!
back to school this week. trying to write my drugs across cultures paper about tobacco- with the help of margaret!!- thanks. and so far so good. wednesday we are going to the brooks and dunn concert along with dierks bentley with our tour guide from spring break!! it should be really fun. then more school stuff and maybe a rugby game saturday. should be a good week :).
before i go back to philosophy- some interesting things i have noticed in sydney i thought i would share: 1. now that it is getting a little cooler and their fall season you would think snow is on the ground. aussies do not know the meaning of cold. it is 75 degrees and a beautiful day and they are all walking around in coats and scarves. odd. 2. it is completely normal for someone to ask to share a table you are sitting at- whether this be in the library, at the mall, or even while you are eating lunch. this week i was eating lunch by myself and reading my book and all of a sudden this girl came over to ask if she could sit on the other side. trying to be nice i said yes, but she failed to mention that she had 2 friends with her. so the three of them sat down and started jabbering away. i had to surrender my table and move cause i couldn't even here myself think.
okay that is all for now. hope everyone is well.
cheers mates :)
Monday, April 20, 2009
Most Amazing 10 Days of My LIFE!
Helloooo everyone:
sorry it has been so long. i meant to write you all a little something before i left on my ten day spring break trip but i forgot. so now here we are and i am about to fill you in on the most amazing experience ever:
let's just start by saying it was a nine day/night night spring break trip (more like ten days) up the east coast of australia. deciding to do this trip was kind of hard because we were debating about going to new zealand and/or fiji for break. but in the end, we decided we are in australia to experience australia so we might as well take advantage of this country while we are here. and let me say, it was the best decision i have ever made. the places we went and the things we saw are so beautiful i felt like it was unreal. this country is soooo pretty and i hate to say it but breathtaking. i hate it when people use that word, but now i truly understand what it means. so here we go...
after arriving in brisbane from sydney, we realized it was good friday. so there was going to be nothing open or to do. since we only had one night in our hostel before our trip started saturday morning, we decided to try to walk around anyways. still finding nothing open, marie, kaitlin, and i decided to go ahead and see a movie since there was nothing else to do. we saw the reader- i thought it was interesting but didn't love it. afterwards we went to bed to prepare for our early departure time of 8:30 to head out on our adventure!
day 1: we headed to where the bus was and was soon surrounded by 60 other american peeps our age studying all over australia. we all headed on a bus with our two tour guides (meggo- 
from australia and mel- originally from new hampshire.) and were off to the australia zoo. now to be honest, i hate the zoo. but it was the first stop and we did get to see some stuff i haven't even seen yet in australia- koalas, kangaroos, and crocidiles!! this was pretty cool to get this close to them and see what is up. kangaroos can't move backwards cause of their tales so that was fun to watch too. we saw a crocidile show hosted by steve irwins wife herself and watched his daughter- bendi- feed a croc for her first time ever!! so that was fun too. after the zoo we headed back to the bus and up the coast of australia to hervey bay. here we got on a boat for a dinner cruise all around the harbour. we all mingled and met the different people on our trip- people from all over the US. which was kinda funny that it was only us from the US but also fun to meet peeps from all over, including- new york, st. louis, minnesota, ohio, illinois, new hampshire, and nebraska. so that was fun. after the boat cruise we had a pool party at our hostel and when to bed.
from australia and mel- originally from new hampshire.) and were off to the australia zoo. now to be honest, i hate the zoo. but it was the first stop and we did get to see some stuff i haven't even seen yet in australia- koalas, kangaroos, and crocidiles!! this was pretty cool to get this close to them and see what is up. kangaroos can't move backwards cause of their tales so that was fun to watch too. we saw a crocidile show hosted by steve irwins wife herself and watched his daughter- bendi- feed a croc for her first time ever!! so that was fun too. after the zoo we headed back to the bus and up the coast of australia to hervey bay. here we got on a boat for a dinner cruise all around the harbour. we all mingled and met the different people on our trip- people from all over the US. which was kinda funny that it was only us from the US but also fun to meet peeps from all over, including- new york, st. louis, minnesota, ohio, illinois, new hampshire, and nebraska. so that was fun. after the boat cruise we had a pool party at our hostel and when to bed. 
day 2: OFF TO FRASER ISLAND! fraser island is the biggest sand island in the world! it was beautiful and the differentest easter experience i have ever had. it was not like any easter i ahve ever had before. after a boat ride across from hervey bay, we realized we would be touring the island on the big buses that drove around on the sand. calling it a bumpy ride would be an understatement. because there is so many of us about 7 of us had to go on a seperate bus and because we realized this late- we had to ride in the very back. at times i definitely felt like i was on a roller coaster. we drove along the beautiful beaches and saw these huge sand dunes that you would think were only in movies. after that we went for a walk in the rainfore
st and saw huge trees and weird animals. we got some lunch provided by the tour and then headed out to lake mackenzie- a fresh water lake in the middle of the island. the sand is so white and the water is so clear it is hard to believe. we sunbathed there for a while and then headed back on a bumpy road to the end of our tour of fraser. after a rainy boat ride back we headed back to our hostel and showered up for our unfornate bus ride of 12 hours up the coast to where we would be stopping in before packing up to go to the whitsundays islands! the bus ride wasn't all that bad. we watched some movies and then slept the rest of the way up the coast.
st and saw huge trees and weird animals. we got some lunch provided by the tour and then headed out to lake mackenzie- a fresh water lake in the middle of the island. the sand is so white and the water is so clear it is hard to believe. we sunbathed there for a while and then headed back on a bumpy road to the end of our tour of fraser. after a rainy boat ride back we headed back to our hostel and showered up for our unfornate bus ride of 12 hours up the coast to where we would be stopping in before packing up to go to the whitsundays islands! the bus ride wasn't all that bad. we watched some movies and then slept the rest of the way up the coast. day 3- whitsundays!! to get to the whitsundays we hopped on this speed racer boat with all our luggage and sped off to south molle island- or adventure island as they call it. after a forty five minute ride off the coast we dropped our bags off at the island and then headed off to see more of the sights of whitsundays. this is where the boat got a little crazy and started doing 360s and such and racing the two other boats in our group. i thought for sure i was going to fall off and have some serious bruises on my legs from being slammed into the side. holding on to dear life to kaitli
n i think i have never laughed so hard. we stopped first at a little place to get our first glimpse of the great barrier reef while snorkeling. throwing on some stinger suits. we hopped in with some noodles and tried to see as many fishies as possible. which we did. but because it was kinda rainy the water was a little foggy and hard to see. but we did our best before hopping back on the boat to go for a little hike up to a look out point of whitehaven beach! this was soo awesome even in the rain. after a quick hike up the road, there was this lookout spot that was perfect to see so much of the beach and the islands that it was hard to believe that it was real. after the viewing spot we headed over to whitehaven to beach and had lunch and were given about 2 hours to play around on the beach. although it started raining pretty bad we decided to stick it out since it was still warm. we played 5oo hundred and football on the beach with our tour guides and new friends. it was the perfect time to play in the rain on the most beautiful beach.
n i think i have never laughed so hard. we stopped first at a little place to get our first glimpse of the great barrier reef while snorkeling. throwing on some stinger suits. we hopped in with some noodles and tried to see as many fishies as possible. which we did. but because it was kinda rainy the water was a little foggy and hard to see. but we did our best before hopping back on the boat to go for a little hike up to a look out point of whitehaven beach! this was soo awesome even in the rain. after a quick hike up the road, there was this lookout spot that was perfect to see so much of the beach and the islands that it was hard to believe that it was real. after the viewing spot we headed over to whitehaven to beach and had lunch and were given about 2 hours to play around on the beach. although it started raining pretty bad we decided to stick it out since it was still warm. we played 5oo hundred and football on the beach with our tour guides and new friends. it was the perfect time to play in the rain on the most beautiful beach. after that we headed back to south molle island and our resort to shower up for dinner. after dinner we had our first party with the group before us. our room (jill, erin, kaitlin, marie and i) decided to throw a party and we had bout 30 people squeezed in mostly from the other group just hanging around. we headed to the club on the resort and danced the night away before calling it an early night- before midnight- because we were all still so exhausted from the bus ride.
day 4: getting up early to enjoy our day on south molle, we had breakfast and then headed out to the pier to watch the fish be fed at 10. we saw huge fishies swim up and fight each other for the food. totally reminded me of feeding the fish at the lake with grandpa and sweeny fam when we were little and the catfish would be fighting for some of those weird little pebbles. it was just like that- but the fish were much bigger. then trying to get excited about our adventure we decided to sign up for parasailing and tubing for our day. our dreams were soon crushed when they told us we could do neither. both the parasail and the boat were apparently broken. while this was a huge let down we decided to make the most of our relaxing day on the island. so we laid by the pool, walked on the beach and hung around even though the occasional shower did force us to move inside. after a great day we showered up and headed off to dinner again. party number two happened in our room with the group behind us and some of our friends from macquarie who were on the tour!! here we learned some people cannot count and then we went back to the club at the resort to dance where we got sooo excited to hear- BORN IN THE USA, and love story. obviously. we then decided it would be a good idea to have a pool party in our clothes after being thrown in by our tour guide. thank goodness my dad got me that water proof camera!!
day 5: it was time to leave whitsundays :(. although we were sad to leave today we got to go yacht sailing all around the islands. here's where my camera died for two days so unfortunately i don't have any pics of that but it was amazing. we stopped at this place that was literally a tiny little sand island in the middle of the ocean. they said when the tide is high it disappears so we jumped off the boat and swam over to play around on it for a while. weird thing was on one side, it seemed warmer than the other. either way it was a goregous day and perfect for sailing around on this sweet ship with our 60 other group people.
after arriving back on the mainland we had to get showered up for our last big bus ride of 6 hours up the coast to mission beach. because there was so many of us at this small hostel, showers were limited. marie, erin, and i wanted to just get it over with so we decided to shower in our swim suits together. off to explore where to find a shower we found one that no one else was in but that was also inhabited by the sickest and hugest bugs we have ever seen. sucking it up, we took the fastest shower ever and ran back to the bus to ride to mission beach. when we got there we were put in a hostel room at 1am and told we would be awoken at 6:30am to go white water rafting. now while you would think we would have been exhausted and fallen immediately asleep- there were HUGE bugs in this hostel as well. plus i discovered my feet were taking a huge beating from this trip and literally the bottoms were black. it was gross and would not go away. so we laughed for a while about that and tried to sleep the best we could while smacking the bugs away.
day 6: WHITE WATER RAFTING!! an early wake up call and a half an our bus ride to our starting place we jumped on the boat to go rafting on a number 4. apparently this means the rapids are big. the scale only goes from 1 to 6. this made me a little freaked out. we put on our life jackets, helmets, and grabbed our paddles and hopped in our boat with our new guide- johnny. luckily johnny was the main guide so he knew what he was doing which made me feel a little safer. as we paddled down the tully river and in the oldest rainforest in the world, i could not believe where we were. it was beautiful. we got tossed in the water a few times and went under a couple water falls before coming to the end and wanting to do it all over again. instead we hopped on the bus and headed up to cairns. arriving in cairns we put our stuff in the nicest hostel EVER. literally, this place was like a resort- with fresh towels, a swimming pool, balconies, and clean sheets. we were all in heaven.
we all got settled in and showered and then headed over to the woolshed where we got a free meal off the menu and RIBS of course was the obvious choice. it was also ladies night so we all got free champagne and after dinner the whole place started dancing on the tables! it was so much fun!
day 7: today was our day to just hang our cairns and see what we could find. so naturally, we found a mall. we shopped around a little and then walked around more. cairns is a beautiful city with mountains all around it but also a big beach feel. it kinda reminded me of san diego. that night we had a bungy party. now while i thought i could go bungee jumping, i was very mistaken. i don't know what happened to me but i had a huge panic/asthma attack right before and could not go for the life of me. it totally freaked me out seeing everyone just jumping off. so instead, i watched from the ground. i did do the hackett swing with kaitlin and meggo after freaking out some more, but i have to admit it was fun even though i was glad to have my feet back on the ground. after that we went out for a little bit, back to the woolshed but then went to bed to get ready for scuba diving!!
day 8: now here is where my dreams were crushed. because of the asthma/panic attack i had the night before, kaitlin and i thought it would be a good idea to mark my medical sheet that i had asthma. little did i know, this meant they wouldn't let me go scuba diving. i was soooo mad! i was so looking forward to scuba diving on the great barrier reef. but they said it was just not possible. so me and my friend jessie who also wasn't allowed spent the rest of the day snorkeling which was pretty cool. the great barrier reef is beautiful and we saw so many fish including 2 sting rays!! the boat we were on to was huge sail boat and while it was a little rocky it was also sweet to see so much of the ocean and be surrounded by some of australias mountains and such.
coming back from a great day, we all got showered and had a pub crawl on this huge party bus. we hopped from bar to bar and danced all night long. we got free pizza and saw some of the top places to be in carins.
day 9: our last day :(. sad day. we headed back on the party bus- one of those big ones with the top open to go to a beach. the weather was perfect and we were jamming to kings of leon and jack johnson while driving down the pretty streets of cairns. it was a awesome day! we played at the beach for a while and then headed off to the rainforest where some peeps went cliff jumping into this huge waterfall and we walked along for a while taking it all in.
heading back on the bus we all got excited/sad for our last night together and decided to meet in our tour guides room before we headed to our farewell party. at our farewell party they gave speeches and awards to some people and then we all just hung around and danced until it was time to say goodbye.
leaving cairns was bittersweet. it is good to be back to not living out of a suitcase and in a bed i know has no bugs, but at the same time it was such a great trip and i already miss everyone we met. luckily most of the people go to school in sydney so we exchanged numbers/facebook and plan to hang out soon. i had no idea i could love australia anymore than i already did, but after this trip i do!! it is such a great beautiful country and such nice people.
tomorrow we are off to new castle to celebrate our neighbors 18th, yes 18th, birthday. i know this seems pretty young- but here it is huge because it is like turning 21. new castle is about 3 hours from sydney and a smaller beachy town- i think. we actually met some peeps from the trip who live there so we are going to try to see them again as well. we are only staying for a night but i am excited to stay at a real aussie house and see what it is all about. so ill let you know how that goes.
cheers mates :)
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Luna Park Lovin
After the big test wednesday this week kind of slowed down a bit. i still have to write two papers before the end of this week, and before our spring break!!, but i think i can handle it. wednesday night kaitlin and i sat around eating ice cream and watching "the farmer wants a wife"- an interesting show here kinda simliar to dating shows, but we were highly entertained to say the least.
thursday i tried to get some work done on these papers but with the library here (not as good as marquettes library), i was not very successful. instead i went for a run in the rain and marie came over and we all made dinner. we decided to go to the ubar on campus and walked over to find a "bad taste" party. i see my friend chris there and notice that his shirt looks very familiar. he was wearing one of my shirts over a tshirt! his roomate, a girl, had borrowed it for st. patricks day and so he put it on! it was hilarious.
friday i worked some more on my papers and went to the mall with kaitlin and marie. we didn't get much but just shopped around looking for stuff for spring break! after that kaitlin left for adventure weekend and i headed off to maries to get ready for luna park! we headed there around five and it was amazing. it is like this little carnival area and kinda similar to coney island. lots of carnival rides and weird side games. so we did it all! it is right on the harbour by the bridge and the opera house so the view is gorgeous. we did a weird little roller coaster that makes you feel like you are going right into the water, the bumper cars (my personal favorite), a weird spinning one that made my head hurt, and the huge slide ones that you ride down in a sack. we got hot dogs and popcorn- lots of good carnival food- and saw tap dancers and guys on stilts. we did the ferris wheel last and the view of the city was amazing at night! perfect way to end a friday. i finally figured out photos for this so here is some from luna...
saturday i decided i need to be serious about these papers and went to the library. i was actually being productive when this little asian girl came in and snatched up the last outlet so my computer died! i was soo annoyed. so i left with erin and jill and headed to the mall. after that we went down to anna's and simos again- right near the city- and then went out at our favorite new bar- lowenbrau! it is this fun german place that plays lots of good music. last night also was the end of sydney's daylight savings meaning we are now even weirder times. all i know is i add nine hours to the time it is now and that is the time it is at home minus one day. haha if that makes any sense. all our norway and finland friends! :
this week i have to finish my papers and then we have spring break for two weeks! i am soo sad i am missing easter and sarah coming home and the wedding but i hope it is the best for all of you! plus instead i will be travelling all up the coast of australia to brisbane, fraser island, whitsundays islands, and cairns. so that should be amazing!
hope you all are well. welcome to the newest member of our family- amanda mei! from china. and tom, it was another solid week :) (compliments of julie.) miss you all!
cheers mates :)
thursday i tried to get some work done on these papers but with the library here (not as good as marquettes library), i was not very successful. instead i went for a run in the rain and marie came over and we all made dinner. we decided to go to the ubar on campus and walked over to find a "bad taste" party. i see my friend chris there and notice that his shirt looks very familiar. he was wearing one of my shirts over a tshirt! his roomate, a girl, had borrowed it for st. patricks day and so he put it on! it was hilarious.
friday i worked some more on my papers and went to the mall with kaitlin and marie. we didn't get much but just shopped around looking for stuff for spring break! after that kaitlin left for adventure weekend and i headed off to maries to get ready for luna park! we headed there around five and it was amazing. it is like this little carnival area and kinda similar to coney island. lots of carnival rides and weird side games. so we did it all! it is right on the harbour by the bridge and the opera house so the view is gorgeous. we did a weird little roller coaster that makes you feel like you are going right into the water, the bumper cars (my personal favorite), a weird spinning one that made my head hurt, and the huge slide ones that you ride down in a sack. we got hot dogs and popcorn- lots of good carnival food- and saw tap dancers and guys on stilts. we did the ferris wheel last and the view of the city was amazing at night! perfect way to end a friday. i finally figured out photos for this so here is some from luna...
saturday i decided i need to be serious about these papers and went to the library. i was actually being productive when this little asian girl came in and snatched up the last outlet so my computer died! i was soo annoyed. so i left with erin and jill and headed to the mall. after that we went down to anna's and simos again- right near the city- and then went out at our favorite new bar- lowenbrau! it is this fun german place that plays lots of good music. last night also was the end of sydney's daylight savings meaning we are now even weirder times. all i know is i add nine hours to the time it is now and that is the time it is at home minus one day. haha if that makes any sense. all our norway and finland friends! :
this week i have to finish my papers and then we have spring break for two weeks! i am soo sad i am missing easter and sarah coming home and the wedding but i hope it is the best for all of you! plus instead i will be travelling all up the coast of australia to brisbane, fraser island, whitsundays islands, and cairns. so that should be amazing!
hope you all are well. welcome to the newest member of our family- amanda mei! from china. and tom, it was another solid week :) (compliments of julie.) miss you all!
cheers mates :)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Beach Days :)
So this past week has been pretty low key. I had a huge test yesterday in my cognitive psych class that was worth 35% of my grade! It was nuts. I have never had something count for so much. But marie and i got together and studied bunches. After all the studying, I think it actually paid off. It wasn't too hard... one of the essays was a little confusing, but i think overall it went very well.
last wednesday i went on this 70s love boat cruise our housing area had put together. it was interesting to say the least. i went with my friend nicola and we had a good time. it was a little nuts though with everybody packed on there and dancing the night away. but it was a nice break from all the studying i had been doing.
thursday we just took it easy and friday we were going to go to the beach but it rained. instead we went grocery shopping and i finished my notecards for the test. friday night we headed down to our friend's from finland, Simo and Anna's, place to have a pre-party before we went out. Anna's brother was in town so that was fun. There place is gorgeous! It looks right down onto the harbor and you can see the bridge and the opera house easily. It was awesome! After getting lost in north sydney for a while trying to find it, the ending factor was definitely worth it. from there, we jumped on a ferry across the harbour and went out in darling harbor. we also went to this bar called the ivy- which is supposed to be one of the best clubs in sydney. it was a pretty cool club but it was packed and really not as exciting as it was made out to be. but we still had a good time.
saturday because it was soo nice out we headed to the beach early. we played around with the volleyball, got kebabs and ice cream, did some shopping, and saw weird fishes swept up. the rip was nuts that day so we weren't allowed to swim much of the lifegaurds went nuts. but we decided to make a whole day of it and stayed down there until sunset. joe tried to go surfing for his first time ever which was entertaining and then we got dinner and caught the bus back. it was sooo fun to just hang at the beach all day and the weather was perfect! favorite day at the beach by far...
sunday we took it easy and tried to study a bunch. as for other interesting news- henry won president of marquette. shoutouts belong to kovac and camille and lars is going home soon!
i think that is all. these next couple weeks have to be low key before spring break!! miss you all!
cheers :)
last wednesday i went on this 70s love boat cruise our housing area had put together. it was interesting to say the least. i went with my friend nicola and we had a good time. it was a little nuts though with everybody packed on there and dancing the night away. but it was a nice break from all the studying i had been doing.
thursday we just took it easy and friday we were going to go to the beach but it rained. instead we went grocery shopping and i finished my notecards for the test. friday night we headed down to our friend's from finland, Simo and Anna's, place to have a pre-party before we went out. Anna's brother was in town so that was fun. There place is gorgeous! It looks right down onto the harbor and you can see the bridge and the opera house easily. It was awesome! After getting lost in north sydney for a while trying to find it, the ending factor was definitely worth it. from there, we jumped on a ferry across the harbour and went out in darling harbor. we also went to this bar called the ivy- which is supposed to be one of the best clubs in sydney. it was a pretty cool club but it was packed and really not as exciting as it was made out to be. but we still had a good time.
saturday because it was soo nice out we headed to the beach early. we played around with the volleyball, got kebabs and ice cream, did some shopping, and saw weird fishes swept up. the rip was nuts that day so we weren't allowed to swim much of the lifegaurds went nuts. but we decided to make a whole day of it and stayed down there until sunset. joe tried to go surfing for his first time ever which was entertaining and then we got dinner and caught the bus back. it was sooo fun to just hang at the beach all day and the weather was perfect! favorite day at the beach by far...
sunday we took it easy and tried to study a bunch. as for other interesting news- henry won president of marquette. shoutouts belong to kovac and camille and lars is going home soon!
i think that is all. these next couple weeks have to be low key before spring break!! miss you all!
cheers :)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
St. Patricks Day and Melbourne!
Heyooo!
Okay sorry it has taken me soo long for this one. I wrote this lonnnggg one on saturday and it all got erased some how. so i was really frustrated. but i have decided to try again.
soo last week was st. pattys day! yay! unfortunately, it is not that big here. it was funny because on campus it was obvious to see who the american's were because we were the only ones in green. nevertheless we did our best to keep the tradition alive. after class we got ready and headed to the city. there was a little more green there. we hit up a few irish pubs and then went home earlier for class the next day. obvious highlight of the day was getting to talk to grammsies turner to wish her a happy birthday and to talk to paul about the updates at home! it was sooo great to hear some familiar voices and to make complete sure grandma was the star of the parade.
wednesday i played it low key and got some homework done. i hung out over at maries for a while and then went home to pack!
thursday was the big day... off to melbourne here we come! that excitement was unfortunately very short lived because when we got to the airport we learned our flight had been delayed 5 hours! now these flights were very very cheap, so we really couldn't complain but it was definitely a huge let down. we were meeting in melbourne a bunch of our friends who had left earlier that day and all had zero problems. so marie, kaitlin, erin and myself got stuck with the lousy flight and had to entertain ourselves at the airport for 5 hours. so naturally when they gave us our free food vouchers, we stocked up on red bull and some cookies and had ourselves a sugar high.
by the time we got to melbourne it was almost midnight. so we went to check in at our hostel and instead of the six person room we requested they had put us in the fourteen person room! now i will not go in to too much detail about this room but let's just say included many a naked boys, a couple that never left, erin's flip flops being stolen, and one guy who seemed to be detoxing off of some kind of drug. not necessarily your ideal room for the four of us girls. so instead of hiding in our beds scared, we decided to go meet up with our friends at the casino! i have never been to a casino before and it was nuts! it was still going strong at about 2 in the morning and marie ended up winning 175 dollars! kaitlin made about 50, i only made five, but erin lost so i still felt pretty good about myself.
after a long night at the casino we headed home and went to bed. up and at em early the next morning we set off to explore melbourne. being the shopping capital, we hit up the victoria markets (great place for food and aussy things) and explored all the many back alleys of funky little shops and places to try to get a real taste of melbourne. friday night we met up with all our friends, including ones from finland and norway, and had a night on the town! we had dinner at this little pizza place and then went to a bunch of different clubs. overall it was a lot of fun. be it that there were 12 of us in all, we were a little worried about everyone gettting along but it all worked perfect! erin did get clobbered on the dance floor a few times, but besides that we all had the best night!
the following morning we got up early again to go see what else was out there. i got to talk to pauls friend who lives in melbourne who told us some fun places to see and i was bummed we wouldn't be there longer to see more. we decided to go see the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and ended up getting the most magnificent view of the city! it was amazing. although marie held on for dear life out on the terrace, it was so cool to look down over the whole city and see all the different things it has to offer. after that we jumped on a bus to find the boys at some park. just our luck, the bus driver just happens to mention an hour and a half into the ride that he will in fact be skipping the stop we wanted because of some unknown reason. extremely bummed and exhausted, we decided to give up looking for the park and headed back to the city for some lunch and to pack up for home.
the plane ride home was suprisingly on time. we were travelling with a lot more people so they must have better luck. interesting thing about the planes here- they never check your id once. literally, this is no joke. it really kind of made me feel uneasy because i am so used to someone staring me down at the airports at home. it was nuts how quick and fast their system is. so after slamming a few tim tams (tim tam= kind of like an australian cookie/oreo/but soooo much better- dipped in coffee), we headed on the plane home to sydney!
overall melbourne is awesome! it is so much different than sydney although being victoria's capital and the second largest city in australia. it is much more wide open and there are fields and cows and such- made me miss home. it is more spread out and therefore loses some of the hustle and bustle that sydney always seems to have and minus all the crazy set backs we had we also had a hilarious time and one of the best weekends here by far!
this week- not much. tomorrow we have a 70s cruise with the place we live and the rest of the weekend i have to study study study. before midterm break i have one midterm and two papers i gots to get working on.
miss you all! cheers :)
Okay sorry it has taken me soo long for this one. I wrote this lonnnggg one on saturday and it all got erased some how. so i was really frustrated. but i have decided to try again.
soo last week was st. pattys day! yay! unfortunately, it is not that big here. it was funny because on campus it was obvious to see who the american's were because we were the only ones in green. nevertheless we did our best to keep the tradition alive. after class we got ready and headed to the city. there was a little more green there. we hit up a few irish pubs and then went home earlier for class the next day. obvious highlight of the day was getting to talk to grammsies turner to wish her a happy birthday and to talk to paul about the updates at home! it was sooo great to hear some familiar voices and to make complete sure grandma was the star of the parade.
wednesday i played it low key and got some homework done. i hung out over at maries for a while and then went home to pack!
thursday was the big day... off to melbourne here we come! that excitement was unfortunately very short lived because when we got to the airport we learned our flight had been delayed 5 hours! now these flights were very very cheap, so we really couldn't complain but it was definitely a huge let down. we were meeting in melbourne a bunch of our friends who had left earlier that day and all had zero problems. so marie, kaitlin, erin and myself got stuck with the lousy flight and had to entertain ourselves at the airport for 5 hours. so naturally when they gave us our free food vouchers, we stocked up on red bull and some cookies and had ourselves a sugar high.
by the time we got to melbourne it was almost midnight. so we went to check in at our hostel and instead of the six person room we requested they had put us in the fourteen person room! now i will not go in to too much detail about this room but let's just say included many a naked boys, a couple that never left, erin's flip flops being stolen, and one guy who seemed to be detoxing off of some kind of drug. not necessarily your ideal room for the four of us girls. so instead of hiding in our beds scared, we decided to go meet up with our friends at the casino! i have never been to a casino before and it was nuts! it was still going strong at about 2 in the morning and marie ended up winning 175 dollars! kaitlin made about 50, i only made five, but erin lost so i still felt pretty good about myself.
after a long night at the casino we headed home and went to bed. up and at em early the next morning we set off to explore melbourne. being the shopping capital, we hit up the victoria markets (great place for food and aussy things) and explored all the many back alleys of funky little shops and places to try to get a real taste of melbourne. friday night we met up with all our friends, including ones from finland and norway, and had a night on the town! we had dinner at this little pizza place and then went to a bunch of different clubs. overall it was a lot of fun. be it that there were 12 of us in all, we were a little worried about everyone gettting along but it all worked perfect! erin did get clobbered on the dance floor a few times, but besides that we all had the best night!
the following morning we got up early again to go see what else was out there. i got to talk to pauls friend who lives in melbourne who told us some fun places to see and i was bummed we wouldn't be there longer to see more. we decided to go see the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and ended up getting the most magnificent view of the city! it was amazing. although marie held on for dear life out on the terrace, it was so cool to look down over the whole city and see all the different things it has to offer. after that we jumped on a bus to find the boys at some park. just our luck, the bus driver just happens to mention an hour and a half into the ride that he will in fact be skipping the stop we wanted because of some unknown reason. extremely bummed and exhausted, we decided to give up looking for the park and headed back to the city for some lunch and to pack up for home.
the plane ride home was suprisingly on time. we were travelling with a lot more people so they must have better luck. interesting thing about the planes here- they never check your id once. literally, this is no joke. it really kind of made me feel uneasy because i am so used to someone staring me down at the airports at home. it was nuts how quick and fast their system is. so after slamming a few tim tams (tim tam= kind of like an australian cookie/oreo/but soooo much better- dipped in coffee), we headed on the plane home to sydney!
overall melbourne is awesome! it is so much different than sydney although being victoria's capital and the second largest city in australia. it is much more wide open and there are fields and cows and such- made me miss home. it is more spread out and therefore loses some of the hustle and bustle that sydney always seems to have and minus all the crazy set backs we had we also had a hilarious time and one of the best weekends here by far!
this week- not much. tomorrow we have a 70s cruise with the place we live and the rest of the weekend i have to study study study. before midterm break i have one midterm and two papers i gots to get working on.
miss you all! cheers :)
Saturday, March 14, 2009
heaps of fun!
This week classes were good. I am starting to really like my philosophy class and my teacher is awesome. We talked about these two artists who did a survey and put together the most wanted and least wanted paintings for a bunch of different countries based on the results. It was very interesting and if you want to check it out the website is: http://www.diacenter.org/km/. So that was fun. My history class touched on daoism; in psychology we did an experiment testing our short-term memory; and in my drugs class we heard all about tobacco's use in aboriginal australia and the sacredness it has come to represent in some of these areas. overall, all good.
i also discovered my love for australian kebabs this week. they aren't like kebabs at home- they are more like a wrap that they cook that usually comes with chicken, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and hummus. delicious! we are obsessed and you can get them everywhere so that is a plus. the hummus here is delicious by itself too, so we enjoy that as well.
wednesday i got a package from home! so that was exciting. teresa made me this video with songs and pictures of us growing up for my birthday. it is awesome. i got my peanut butter fix and chex mix, plus lots of candy. thanks family!!
after classes this week, i decided to get some studying done. thursday i went to this little park down the road to read some and hang around. it was a gorgeous day so it was good to be outside and i actually went back today! thursday night we went on a pub crawl with this club exchange. we got to meet a lot of new study abroad students and enjoy some of sydney's best pubs!
friday we were planning on going to bondi, but because of the rain we had to cancel. instead, kaitlin, marie and i decided to go explore downtown some more. we ended up going to this huge market area in sydney's chinatown. talk about a perfect place to get souvies and such. anything you could need was there. so we bopped around down there for a while and had lunch.
saturday was our big day of the week!! a bunch of us had bought tickets to go to this concert to raise money for the wildfires and floods that have been happening in australia. it was at the sydney olympic stadium and started at 11. once we got there, the line was endless. so we waited in line for about half an hour to get in and got in right in time for coldplay! we had bought tickets kinda late so we were on the floor of the stadium but in the back oval. it wasn't bad seats, you just had to push your way towards the front. and push we did! but coldplay was amazing. i am not the biggest fan and i absolutely loved it. they also on their last song ran through the crowd which got everybody going... so that was fun too.
after coldplay, we walked around and listened to the other bands as well. the place was packed! the whole front side of the stage was filled with people to the top of the stadium and the floor was packed with people like us trying to get a glimpse of whatever we could. finally at around 4:30 we started working our way to the front of the second oval so that we could be in the front for TAYLOR SWIFT!! as we finally got to the front and were waiting.. out of nowhere it starting pouring rain. huge downpour. lucky for us, we found a random pancho and all huddle underneath it waiting for taylor because we are true fans. also, as everybody ran to get outta the rain we were able to get better spots towards the front. after about 10 minutes of getting soaked, the rain passed and the sun came out again and taylor came on!! now the hilarious thing about this rainfall though was that because it was mas chaos, everybody started jumping the second oval fence to get closer to the stage. as we watched tons of people throw themselves over, one guy actually got tackled and handcuffed by the cops. but those that got away just cheered and ran through the crowd. it was nuts.
after taylor's amazing performance!... we decided we had enough and left the concert to find some food. we hung around downtown for the rest of the night going anywhere that would let us in with our wet smelly selves. we ended the night just chilling on the harbour looking at the opera house and talking about the day. overall it was amazing!
today i am just trying to get some homework done but procrastinating by writing this blog... but it's okay! this week we have st. patricks day- which we are going to go to the city for. then thursday we leave for melbourne!! turns out a bunch of our friends from finland and norway are going as well and we all booked the same hostel! so that should be awesome. i think all together there will be close to 10 of us taking on melbourne. so i am sure it will be a good time.
hope you all are doing well and happy early st. patty's day!
i also discovered my love for australian kebabs this week. they aren't like kebabs at home- they are more like a wrap that they cook that usually comes with chicken, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and hummus. delicious! we are obsessed and you can get them everywhere so that is a plus. the hummus here is delicious by itself too, so we enjoy that as well.
wednesday i got a package from home! so that was exciting. teresa made me this video with songs and pictures of us growing up for my birthday. it is awesome. i got my peanut butter fix and chex mix, plus lots of candy. thanks family!!
after classes this week, i decided to get some studying done. thursday i went to this little park down the road to read some and hang around. it was a gorgeous day so it was good to be outside and i actually went back today! thursday night we went on a pub crawl with this club exchange. we got to meet a lot of new study abroad students and enjoy some of sydney's best pubs!
friday we were planning on going to bondi, but because of the rain we had to cancel. instead, kaitlin, marie and i decided to go explore downtown some more. we ended up going to this huge market area in sydney's chinatown. talk about a perfect place to get souvies and such. anything you could need was there. so we bopped around down there for a while and had lunch.
saturday was our big day of the week!! a bunch of us had bought tickets to go to this concert to raise money for the wildfires and floods that have been happening in australia. it was at the sydney olympic stadium and started at 11. once we got there, the line was endless. so we waited in line for about half an hour to get in and got in right in time for coldplay! we had bought tickets kinda late so we were on the floor of the stadium but in the back oval. it wasn't bad seats, you just had to push your way towards the front. and push we did! but coldplay was amazing. i am not the biggest fan and i absolutely loved it. they also on their last song ran through the crowd which got everybody going... so that was fun too.
after coldplay, we walked around and listened to the other bands as well. the place was packed! the whole front side of the stage was filled with people to the top of the stadium and the floor was packed with people like us trying to get a glimpse of whatever we could. finally at around 4:30 we started working our way to the front of the second oval so that we could be in the front for TAYLOR SWIFT!! as we finally got to the front and were waiting.. out of nowhere it starting pouring rain. huge downpour. lucky for us, we found a random pancho and all huddle underneath it waiting for taylor because we are true fans. also, as everybody ran to get outta the rain we were able to get better spots towards the front. after about 10 minutes of getting soaked, the rain passed and the sun came out again and taylor came on!! now the hilarious thing about this rainfall though was that because it was mas chaos, everybody started jumping the second oval fence to get closer to the stage. as we watched tons of people throw themselves over, one guy actually got tackled and handcuffed by the cops. but those that got away just cheered and ran through the crowd. it was nuts.
after taylor's amazing performance!... we decided we had enough and left the concert to find some food. we hung around downtown for the rest of the night going anywhere that would let us in with our wet smelly selves. we ended the night just chilling on the harbour looking at the opera house and talking about the day. overall it was amazing!
today i am just trying to get some homework done but procrastinating by writing this blog... but it's okay! this week we have st. patricks day- which we are going to go to the city for. then thursday we leave for melbourne!! turns out a bunch of our friends from finland and norway are going as well and we all booked the same hostel! so that should be awesome. i think all together there will be close to 10 of us taking on melbourne. so i am sure it will be a good time.
hope you all are doing well and happy early st. patty's day!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
mardi gras weekend!
So today i decided to get some coffee since i have been going through some serious withdrawal of caffenine. i headed over to this little coffee place right by where we live and since it was a hot day, i asked for iced coffee. to my suprise... the guy whips out the ice cream, puts a scoop in with a shot of coffee. apparently "iced coffee" here means coffee flavored ice cream. it was odd, delicious, but odd.
since bumming around sydeny there are other australian habits that are a bit odd. here are some more words we have learned since being here... "heaps, mate, ducking up (which means heading over), jumper (as opposed to a hoodie), and oy! (to get someone's attention). it is definitely different but a lot of fun to try to incorporate into everyday talk.
okay now for updates from the week!
class this week was good. i had my first china in world history class and i am the only american! after my teacher found this out, he felt compelled to call on me more... which got a little old... it was also pretty interesting and i think going to be a good class. i also found out that ian thorpe (who apparently is the Australian michael phelps) is in my drugs across cultures class! so i think tomorrow i am going to try to sit by him. some of my new aussie friends say they are going to come to my class just to get a glimpse of him. haha.
thursday, marie, kaitlin, and i sat down and put together our first trip! we are going to melbourne in less than two weeks! it is, i believe, australia's second biggest city and according to lots of australians, a ton of fun. we are only going to go for two nights to save our money and such but i think it will be quite the adventure. can't wait!
friday, we went back to manly beach. it is honestly gorgeous there. i tried my first phalafel kebab because i was not eating meat because of friday, and it was sooo gross. i couldn't even get any of the boys to eat it. the kebabs here are delicious too, so it was a huge let down. we also did a little shopping around the area and marie and jill both got new posters! friday night, we all went over to beth's apartment for a party. everyone had partners and dressed as a theme- kaitlin and i did spanish theme, marie and erin were surfer girls, beth and kim were a tree and a tree hugger... etc. it was hilarious and a good time!
saturday was our main event!! mardi gras in the city!! the mardi gras parade here is the gay pride theme and quite the sights. they estimated about half a million people there and they were not messing around. the parade didn't start until 7:45 at night but because of the big crowd, we left around 3:30 to get down there. even then we still had trouble seeing the parade and tried to climb a tree but failed ... so instead, thanks to marie's pushing, we got up front enough to be able to see when the parade finally started. and thank god we did! all the floats and the people were nothing like the parades in the US... there was no shame. people were dancing and all in all we had a blast! we went with our new australian friends, nicola and morgan, who were also going to the parade for the first time. we all had so much fun dancing and singing along in the crowd that by the time it was over it was definitely time for bed.
all in all it was a solid week. i can't believe on tuesday we will have been here for a whole month!! the time is honestly FLYING by and we are lovin every minute of it. i am hoping as school picks up it will start to slow down a little but for the time being, we are just soaking it all in!
this week= we are doing bondi beach on friday (no worries, we will avoid the sharks) and maybe the blue mountains!
Cheers!
since bumming around sydeny there are other australian habits that are a bit odd. here are some more words we have learned since being here... "heaps, mate, ducking up (which means heading over), jumper (as opposed to a hoodie), and oy! (to get someone's attention). it is definitely different but a lot of fun to try to incorporate into everyday talk.
okay now for updates from the week!
class this week was good. i had my first china in world history class and i am the only american! after my teacher found this out, he felt compelled to call on me more... which got a little old... it was also pretty interesting and i think going to be a good class. i also found out that ian thorpe (who apparently is the Australian michael phelps) is in my drugs across cultures class! so i think tomorrow i am going to try to sit by him. some of my new aussie friends say they are going to come to my class just to get a glimpse of him. haha.
thursday, marie, kaitlin, and i sat down and put together our first trip! we are going to melbourne in less than two weeks! it is, i believe, australia's second biggest city and according to lots of australians, a ton of fun. we are only going to go for two nights to save our money and such but i think it will be quite the adventure. can't wait!
friday, we went back to manly beach. it is honestly gorgeous there. i tried my first phalafel kebab because i was not eating meat because of friday, and it was sooo gross. i couldn't even get any of the boys to eat it. the kebabs here are delicious too, so it was a huge let down. we also did a little shopping around the area and marie and jill both got new posters! friday night, we all went over to beth's apartment for a party. everyone had partners and dressed as a theme- kaitlin and i did spanish theme, marie and erin were surfer girls, beth and kim were a tree and a tree hugger... etc. it was hilarious and a good time!
saturday was our main event!! mardi gras in the city!! the mardi gras parade here is the gay pride theme and quite the sights. they estimated about half a million people there and they were not messing around. the parade didn't start until 7:45 at night but because of the big crowd, we left around 3:30 to get down there. even then we still had trouble seeing the parade and tried to climb a tree but failed ... so instead, thanks to marie's pushing, we got up front enough to be able to see when the parade finally started. and thank god we did! all the floats and the people were nothing like the parades in the US... there was no shame. people were dancing and all in all we had a blast! we went with our new australian friends, nicola and morgan, who were also going to the parade for the first time. we all had so much fun dancing and singing along in the crowd that by the time it was over it was definitely time for bed.
all in all it was a solid week. i can't believe on tuesday we will have been here for a whole month!! the time is honestly FLYING by and we are lovin every minute of it. i am hoping as school picks up it will start to slow down a little but for the time being, we are just soaking it all in!
this week= we are doing bondi beach on friday (no worries, we will avoid the sharks) and maybe the blue mountains!
Cheers!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Finally 21!
G-day peeps!
So our first week of classes is over and the second is about to begin!! I guess for me though, it is technically not a week- only three days. Even though it is only three days, it is a packed three days. I am taking four classes and everyday i am in class for about five hours or so. So no worries, there is still plenty of studying to be done. The classes I am taking are:
1. China in World History- not really sure why but it was the only history credit I could get marquette to count.
2. Cognitive Process- class seems pretty interesting and we have to participate in studies to get credit so i think that will make it kinda fun!
3. Drugs Across Cultures- very interesting. almost every class we have a different lecturer!
4. Philosophy of Art and Beauty- seems okay. my teacher is real hippy like so i think it will end up being a good class.
Overall, no complaints here. The first three days were good and we start all over again tomorrow!
Since I had thursday and friday off, I got some work done on thursday and Friday we headed off to Manly beach! It is one of sydney's big beaches and it is absolutely beautiful! The water was so clear and the sand almost white. Also, it is in this little area with a bunch of cute shops and such. It took us about 2 hours to get there because after we got on the wrong bus, we then took the ferry across the harbour, which was actually a lot of fun! It takes about forty minutes on the ferry but it goes fast because there is so much to look at! Once there we met up with some other friends, played in the water, and sunbathed. By the time we got back to school, we were exhausted. But we rested up and then hit up the town to meet up with our friends from uni of sydney to ring in my birthday at midnight!
After a big beach day friday and party planning for saturday night, we took it easy saturday day. Kaitlin, Marie, and I got a pedicure and did some birthday shopping and then laid out for a bit to just relax. For the night, we made tacos, and had some people over to kaitlins for a little party. My roommates Soo and Crystal got me this little circular tin and a coin purse for my birthday! It was really sweet. and then kaitlin whipped out a shot book she had gotten everyone to help! I was so happy and so glad to get to see all the people I love in one book and to have gotten notes from you all. So if you were in that, thank you because you really helped make my birthday!!
We headed down to the city after dinner and went to Sydney's oldest pub where Marie convinced the live band to sing happy birthday and sweet caroline to me! Then we went to this other club called arglye that was a little bit more techno and such. Although we took the bus back- which for some reason was freezing- we got back and hit the hay. It was the most marvelous birthday and as my friend ryan kept reminding me- I WAS IN AUSTRALIA AND TURNING TWENTY ONE!! haha what more could i have wanted??
So our first week of classes is over and the second is about to begin!! I guess for me though, it is technically not a week- only three days. Even though it is only three days, it is a packed three days. I am taking four classes and everyday i am in class for about five hours or so. So no worries, there is still plenty of studying to be done. The classes I am taking are:
1. China in World History- not really sure why but it was the only history credit I could get marquette to count.
2. Cognitive Process- class seems pretty interesting and we have to participate in studies to get credit so i think that will make it kinda fun!
3. Drugs Across Cultures- very interesting. almost every class we have a different lecturer!
4. Philosophy of Art and Beauty- seems okay. my teacher is real hippy like so i think it will end up being a good class.
Overall, no complaints here. The first three days were good and we start all over again tomorrow!
Since I had thursday and friday off, I got some work done on thursday and Friday we headed off to Manly beach! It is one of sydney's big beaches and it is absolutely beautiful! The water was so clear and the sand almost white. Also, it is in this little area with a bunch of cute shops and such. It took us about 2 hours to get there because after we got on the wrong bus, we then took the ferry across the harbour, which was actually a lot of fun! It takes about forty minutes on the ferry but it goes fast because there is so much to look at! Once there we met up with some other friends, played in the water, and sunbathed. By the time we got back to school, we were exhausted. But we rested up and then hit up the town to meet up with our friends from uni of sydney to ring in my birthday at midnight!
After a big beach day friday and party planning for saturday night, we took it easy saturday day. Kaitlin, Marie, and I got a pedicure and did some birthday shopping and then laid out for a bit to just relax. For the night, we made tacos, and had some people over to kaitlins for a little party. My roommates Soo and Crystal got me this little circular tin and a coin purse for my birthday! It was really sweet. and then kaitlin whipped out a shot book she had gotten everyone to help! I was so happy and so glad to get to see all the people I love in one book and to have gotten notes from you all. So if you were in that, thank you because you really helped make my birthday!!
We headed down to the city after dinner and went to Sydney's oldest pub where Marie convinced the live band to sing happy birthday and sweet caroline to me! Then we went to this other club called arglye that was a little bit more techno and such. Although we took the bus back- which for some reason was freezing- we got back and hit the hay. It was the most marvelous birthday and as my friend ryan kept reminding me- I WAS IN AUSTRALIA AND TURNING TWENTY ONE!! haha what more could i have wanted??
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Cruise, Surf Camp, and First Day of Class!
Hellooooo all!
okay sorry it has been a while and now there is sooo much to share. for starters, life is going great. sorry dad that i was MIA for the past weekend but we were on our surf camp and i had zero service. the weather has been beautiful lately and there is soooo much to do and see now that i can't believe it has already been two weeks! time is flying.
so last week we had orientation last week that was kinda long but overall pretty well. we learned a lot about how to register for classes and such and i think i finally figured out my schedule. now get this, i only have class monday, tuesday, wednesday!! woooooo. that would never happen at marquette. although those three days are going to be very long and tiring, i am really excited to have my weekends free to hopefully travel and such!
thursday we hung around during the day and did laundry and such. thursday night we had a welcome cruise around the harbor that was 80s themed! after a quick dash to the bus stop, we hopped on the boat that picked us up right next to the opera house. it was all for the exchange and international students and it was free! it was a lot of fun. we bought some funky tank tops and rocked the side pony and danced the night away. we met some different people from all over and afterwards just ended up coming back to campus because there was no way we would have gotten to go out in these ridiculous outfits.
friday i got some stuff together for classes and then headed off to surf camp! we didn't exactly know what we were getting ourselves into and when we showed up at the bus stop the bus didn't come for an hour. apparently the macquarie people told the bus to pick us up at the wrong place... well the advisor felt so bad that we all got travel 10 bus passes for free! (saving us about 40 australian dollars.) then we weren't so mad about the bus being late. once we got on the bus we were then told it was a 6 hour bus ride. okay this, i was not ready for. i thought 3 hours tops... but no 6 hours!! so that was interesting but ended up being well worth it.
because the bus was late getting us, we didn't get to camp until about 2 am. that was pretty brutal. but on the bus ride we watched girl next door and school of rock (SHOUT OUT TO BIRD... math is a really cool thing). so it ended up going pretty fast and once we got there we just went straight to bed because we were exhausted.
saturday day the surf guys woke us up at 6:30 to get ready to go surfing, very early. once we got down to the beach we had a quick lesson on the sand and then into the water! the place we were at was called cresent beach and it was beautiful! words cannot even describe how pretty the sand and water were. it was also a very remote location so our 100 or some surfers were the only ones there. however, cause there was a lot of us we were split into two groups. so our group went surfing from 8am- 10am. then the other group came and went from 10am-12pm. during that time we had the option of going back or just hanging around on the beach. so we stayed and played on the beach. one of the guys offered to take us for a hike. so we followed him down the beach and up this huge cliff that looked all down over the ocean. it was sooo pretty and you could see for days. because some of us didn't have our cameras we did the same hike later during the day. hopefully ill get to post pics soon!
after lunch we had another surf lesson from 2-4. after that we headed back to camp, napped, showered and had dinner. then all the surf instructors took us up to this little hut and threw a beach party. it was awesome and later on we walked down to the ocean again to see it at night cause it was rainy and the lightening looked so great reflected off of the ocean.
because we were the early group the day before, we got to sleep in a little on sunday. so we headed down to the beach around 10 for our last lesson and then had lunch and peaced outta there. overall it was a wonderful weekend. i had soooo much fun and made some new friends from marquette, ireland, canada, and australia! yes, i did get up once all by myself and multiple times with my instructor pushing my board into the waves. all the guys were so nice and are literally living the dream. they just hang out and surf and really gave us a taste of the aussie experience. their lifestlye is so chill and they really know how to have a good time. plus, because of the location- kinda like a camp grounds experience- we even saw some wild kangaroos! and wallabies! it was by far the best weekend here so far and i smile just thinking about it!
unfortunately, we had to come back to reality and started school today. i only had one class today because i hadn't gotten all of them figured out yet. but it was from 11-1pm and then i got lunch with kaitlin and marie. the class is huge. i think the teacher said close to 300 people are enrolled in the class. a little different than marquette. but it was good. it is my drugs across culture class. the teacher was really funny and i am hoping it will not be too hard. the scary thing about the classes here are that they don't have a bunch of little work. my grade in the drugs across cultures class rests on only three assignments! that makes me a little nerville, but hopefully it will all be fine. tomorrow i have a psych class and the drugs across cultures class again. i also start my philsophy class. so it will end up being a pretty full load.
i think that is it for now. i am having the bestest time and am now just counting down the days until my birthday (feb. 28th, for those who forgot!). i think we are going to go to this beach party and hang around. it should be good. hope everybody is well!
cheers :)
okay sorry it has been a while and now there is sooo much to share. for starters, life is going great. sorry dad that i was MIA for the past weekend but we were on our surf camp and i had zero service. the weather has been beautiful lately and there is soooo much to do and see now that i can't believe it has already been two weeks! time is flying.
so last week we had orientation last week that was kinda long but overall pretty well. we learned a lot about how to register for classes and such and i think i finally figured out my schedule. now get this, i only have class monday, tuesday, wednesday!! woooooo. that would never happen at marquette. although those three days are going to be very long and tiring, i am really excited to have my weekends free to hopefully travel and such!
thursday we hung around during the day and did laundry and such. thursday night we had a welcome cruise around the harbor that was 80s themed! after a quick dash to the bus stop, we hopped on the boat that picked us up right next to the opera house. it was all for the exchange and international students and it was free! it was a lot of fun. we bought some funky tank tops and rocked the side pony and danced the night away. we met some different people from all over and afterwards just ended up coming back to campus because there was no way we would have gotten to go out in these ridiculous outfits.
friday i got some stuff together for classes and then headed off to surf camp! we didn't exactly know what we were getting ourselves into and when we showed up at the bus stop the bus didn't come for an hour. apparently the macquarie people told the bus to pick us up at the wrong place... well the advisor felt so bad that we all got travel 10 bus passes for free! (saving us about 40 australian dollars.) then we weren't so mad about the bus being late. once we got on the bus we were then told it was a 6 hour bus ride. okay this, i was not ready for. i thought 3 hours tops... but no 6 hours!! so that was interesting but ended up being well worth it.
because the bus was late getting us, we didn't get to camp until about 2 am. that was pretty brutal. but on the bus ride we watched girl next door and school of rock (SHOUT OUT TO BIRD... math is a really cool thing). so it ended up going pretty fast and once we got there we just went straight to bed because we were exhausted.
saturday day the surf guys woke us up at 6:30 to get ready to go surfing, very early. once we got down to the beach we had a quick lesson on the sand and then into the water! the place we were at was called cresent beach and it was beautiful! words cannot even describe how pretty the sand and water were. it was also a very remote location so our 100 or some surfers were the only ones there. however, cause there was a lot of us we were split into two groups. so our group went surfing from 8am- 10am. then the other group came and went from 10am-12pm. during that time we had the option of going back or just hanging around on the beach. so we stayed and played on the beach. one of the guys offered to take us for a hike. so we followed him down the beach and up this huge cliff that looked all down over the ocean. it was sooo pretty and you could see for days. because some of us didn't have our cameras we did the same hike later during the day. hopefully ill get to post pics soon!
after lunch we had another surf lesson from 2-4. after that we headed back to camp, napped, showered and had dinner. then all the surf instructors took us up to this little hut and threw a beach party. it was awesome and later on we walked down to the ocean again to see it at night cause it was rainy and the lightening looked so great reflected off of the ocean.
because we were the early group the day before, we got to sleep in a little on sunday. so we headed down to the beach around 10 for our last lesson and then had lunch and peaced outta there. overall it was a wonderful weekend. i had soooo much fun and made some new friends from marquette, ireland, canada, and australia! yes, i did get up once all by myself and multiple times with my instructor pushing my board into the waves. all the guys were so nice and are literally living the dream. they just hang out and surf and really gave us a taste of the aussie experience. their lifestlye is so chill and they really know how to have a good time. plus, because of the location- kinda like a camp grounds experience- we even saw some wild kangaroos! and wallabies! it was by far the best weekend here so far and i smile just thinking about it!
unfortunately, we had to come back to reality and started school today. i only had one class today because i hadn't gotten all of them figured out yet. but it was from 11-1pm and then i got lunch with kaitlin and marie. the class is huge. i think the teacher said close to 300 people are enrolled in the class. a little different than marquette. but it was good. it is my drugs across culture class. the teacher was really funny and i am hoping it will not be too hard. the scary thing about the classes here are that they don't have a bunch of little work. my grade in the drugs across cultures class rests on only three assignments! that makes me a little nerville, but hopefully it will all be fine. tomorrow i have a psych class and the drugs across cultures class again. i also start my philsophy class. so it will end up being a pretty full load.
i think that is it for now. i am having the bestest time and am now just counting down the days until my birthday (feb. 28th, for those who forgot!). i think we are going to go to this beach party and hang around. it should be good. hope everybody is well!
cheers :)
Monday, February 16, 2009
Already been a week!
I cannot believe we have already been here a week! The time has flown by and minus the rainy weather I am lovin every minute of it. Everybody is super nice and the final two roomies have moved in. One is a girl from Korea and a guy from Turkey. Both are super nice and overall I think the five of us are going to get along great.
So Friday night we went into the city with this Australian guy that we met. He was super nice and showed us how to get to the bus stop and how to get downtown and such. It was about a 45 minute bus ride into the city, so not to shabby. The city was nuts! There was so many people and we ended up going to this place called bungalow 8. It was very fun and crowded. I talked to a few Australians and we danced around.
Saturday for the big valentines day we went down to Uni of Sydney to have dinner with some people we met on the plane/ were at Kaitlins orientation. There was about 12 of us and we went to this little cafe place for dinner. They were all super fun/nice and overall it was a good time.
Sunday was pretty rainy so we hit up the mall and hung around for a bit. Monday we were determined to explore so me, Kaitlin, Corey, Ryan, and Marie hopped on the bus and headed downtown. We walked around the Harbor a while and had lunch right on the water. It was sunny in the morning so we had a lot of fun and a really nice day. When it started to rain we decided to walk to the casino- HUGE casino- and check it out. It is called Star City and it really is it's own little city. Because Kaitlin, Marie, and I were wearing flip flops we weren't allowed in (their big on shoes here.) So the boys went in and we walked around a bit more. Corey ended up winning 50 bucks! Solid day.
Today it was all rainy again so we just grocery shopped and hung around. Tomorrow is orientation so hopefully then I will know my schedule and have figured it all out!! I am ready to get the show on the road.
Cheers mates!
So Friday night we went into the city with this Australian guy that we met. He was super nice and showed us how to get to the bus stop and how to get downtown and such. It was about a 45 minute bus ride into the city, so not to shabby. The city was nuts! There was so many people and we ended up going to this place called bungalow 8. It was very fun and crowded. I talked to a few Australians and we danced around.
Saturday for the big valentines day we went down to Uni of Sydney to have dinner with some people we met on the plane/ were at Kaitlins orientation. There was about 12 of us and we went to this little cafe place for dinner. They were all super fun/nice and overall it was a good time.
Sunday was pretty rainy so we hit up the mall and hung around for a bit. Monday we were determined to explore so me, Kaitlin, Corey, Ryan, and Marie hopped on the bus and headed downtown. We walked around the Harbor a while and had lunch right on the water. It was sunny in the morning so we had a lot of fun and a really nice day. When it started to rain we decided to walk to the casino- HUGE casino- and check it out. It is called Star City and it really is it's own little city. Because Kaitlin, Marie, and I were wearing flip flops we weren't allowed in (their big on shoes here.) So the boys went in and we walked around a bit more. Corey ended up winning 50 bucks! Solid day.
Today it was all rainy again so we just grocery shopped and hung around. Tomorrow is orientation so hopefully then I will know my schedule and have figured it all out!! I am ready to get the show on the road.
Cheers mates!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Rainy Days
Hello my three followers :)
So today Kaitlin moved in!! Yay! Not with me but right down the road so that is good. It will be a good way for us to meet other peeps and still be close. So we decided to hit up the mall for the essentials. It was quite the trip and it about a twenty minute walk to the mall so we had to cab it back! haha a little lazy but we had a lot of stuff.
The bad news is that it continues to rain :(. Because of that the surf trip I was supposed to go on this weekend got pushed back to next weekend. That is kinda a bummer cause I was looking forward to having something set to do. Oh well, just something to look forward to! But as the rain continues we are kinda restricted on what to do. It is supposed to get nicer next week so we will wait!
Tonight we are going to try to go down into the city and check out the night scene. It is a little less than an hour on the bus. It sounds worse than it is and will be quite the experience since not very many of us know where we are going! We will figure it out I am sure.
That's all for now. Hope you all are well!
LOVES!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
City Tour!
Helloooo everybody!
Today is my second official day in sydney and ready to see the city we decided to go on a city bus tour! It was great. Corey, Marie and I along with two Australian students/tour guides, two students from Finland, and one Germany girl all went on a downtown open bus top tour- real touristy I know! But it was great. We saw the Sydney harbor bridge, the Opera House, hit up the rocks, and even saw the Red Light District- also known as Kings Cross. It was marvelous. I still feel like I should have done it 18 more times to really get a good feel, but it was a good first day.
We stopped to have lunch at a little fun place. I tried some squid and had a chicken roll- some chicken wrapped in a weird pastry substance- for lunch. It was delicious.
The Australian students we were with were super nice and fun. They told us all the important things we should known and how to avoid what animals will kill us. They also filled us in on the fact that lollies means candy and fosters isn't really a main beer here. All in all, a great day!
Thats all for now. I am still a little jet lagged but I am having a great time already! Ill write more tomorrow when I am a little more awake. Love and miss you all and as they say in Sydney- Cheers!
Today is my second official day in sydney and ready to see the city we decided to go on a city bus tour! It was great. Corey, Marie and I along with two Australian students/tour guides, two students from Finland, and one Germany girl all went on a downtown open bus top tour- real touristy I know! But it was great. We saw the Sydney harbor bridge, the Opera House, hit up the rocks, and even saw the Red Light District- also known as Kings Cross. It was marvelous. I still feel like I should have done it 18 more times to really get a good feel, but it was a good first day.
We stopped to have lunch at a little fun place. I tried some squid and had a chicken roll- some chicken wrapped in a weird pastry substance- for lunch. It was delicious.
The Australian students we were with were super nice and fun. They told us all the important things we should known and how to avoid what animals will kill us. They also filled us in on the fact that lollies means candy and fosters isn't really a main beer here. All in all, a great day!
Thats all for now. I am still a little jet lagged but I am having a great time already! Ill write more tomorrow when I am a little more awake. Love and miss you all and as they say in Sydney- Cheers!
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