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 :)

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!

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!

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!