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.

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 rainforest 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 kaitlin 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 :)

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 :)