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 :)
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