Being Home

I've been home for 3 weeks now. It hasn't been a terrible adjustment. I do find myself becoming terribly homesick for Brisbane alot of the time though. I will start flipping through photos and I can perfectly envision walking home from uni, sitting at Gloria Jean's, the Regatta...I get sad.

But then I pick myself up with things that I don't miss too terribly much:
- every trolly (cart) at the store has to move sideways in order to roll forward.
- timing my schedule around the bus or city cat time tables (but then I still miss city cats)
- leaving for class 30-40 minutes beforehand to get there on time (but I still miss the beautiful walk)
- fighting for space on a overpopulated bus. especially next to a guy that just worked out. ew.
- every coffee costing $3+.
- every single store closing by 5 or just being totally closed for the entire weekend BUT being open late (until 9!) on Thursdays (why Thursdays??)
- the numerous internet problems
- and of course...there's no hollis chappell (just for you :P)

yea...i can't think of much else. the list isn't long and most of it makes me laugh more than anything. and to be honest, i even miss some of those silly things too. i miss the accents alot. i'm still getting used to hearing american (and especially southern) accents all over the place. driving came back really easily, though i have to admit there were a couple left turns that i've made where i've wanted to enter the left side of the road...don't worry, my brain was faster than my actions. haha. i miss my roommates and my apartment like crazy. and i miss my friends more than words can express. so i'm still in the adjustment period, but having been up to pc to see friends and sharing my stories and photos to basically anyone who will listen (literally) has really helped. i've taught my family the amazingness of a tim tam slam. i've facebooked oz and kids from nz every other day. and i have a few more weeks before i have to get back to uni. that'll be rough. i'm interested to see how it'll all pan out. i'll keep you updated! no worries mate! till then, cheers.

G'day from New Zealand!

Kia Ora! I am currently (this was written on Monday but this is the first time I have internet since) sitting on my laptop in the cozy lounge room of Tasman Bay Backpackers in Nelson, which is on the North coast of the South Island. So far, my time in New Zealand has, I think, been well spent. I left Brisbane with a broken heart but was soon uplifted by a very kind and funny old man sitting next to me on the plane to Auckland. He lives on the gold coast and is spending some time on the North Island for business. Lets just say after three bottles of airplane wine, this guy was funny. What else could I expect from someone on the Gold Coast but a relaxed and entertaining personality. We left Brisbane early, which meant we got into Auckland earlier than expected. Going through customs I claimed my food items just in case; when I sheepishly muttered that they were Tim Tams, my customs officer just chuckled, said, “Enjoy those, I’m jealous,” and stamped me through.

My first couple nights in NZ I was pampered in a hotel thanks to my parents and their parental-ness of having their only daughter traveling alone in a foreign country. I couldn’t complain. I got in, checked out my room, turned on the tele (yes!!), made a cup of hot drinking chocolate (mmm…), and sat on the bed catching up on the news. I could get used to that :P The next morning grabbed the airbus from the airport into town to check out the grand city of Auckland. I started at the Sky Tower, which is in the center of the city and went to check on how much tickets were. I walked down and I saw a movie on the history of Auckland to my left…with two very familiar faces watching intently. I couldn’t believe that I got to run into Butler kids while there!! Joe and Laura were still in Auckland and had a 5 o’clock flight out to Christchurch. They were just as excited to see me, so I tagged along with them for the rest of the afternoon going to lunch, walking through gardens and then alongside the harbour. They left me around 330, and I went exploring some more, but I had seen all I wanted to of Auckland and headed back to the hotel after another couple hours of wandering. I spent the evening in the hotel and watched Heroes and Mythbusters before going to bed pretty early. The next morning I woke up with the sun and headed down to the airport to catch my flight to Nelson.

I checked in and saw that I was sitting at 8B. Middle seat. But atleast it was near the front. I make my way down to the “gate” aka the runway where this little propellor plane stood. Row 8 was 8 out of 12. I got quite a kick out of this; I have never been on a plane that small before! I sat next to this really nice Kiwi named Chris, who was from Nelson and we chatted it up for the 1 ½ hour flight over tea. It’s always nice to have a good seat mate. I grabbed my luggage after landing (the baggage claim was the airport hanger) then was picked up by a guy named Stu, my paragliding instructor! We drove through the beautiful grassy mountains up to the top and then just went higher still in the glider. It was amazing. The chute went up in the air, Stu said, “keep walking, keep walking” (towards a cliff, mind you) and then before I even reached the end, I was in the air. I wriggled into my harness, which when standing, makes you look like you have a turtle shell, and then grabbed the straps as if in a swing. We swirled higher and higher catching the hot air as it rose, and we were soon soaring with the birds above Nelson. I felt like I was one of them! I could see all the way to the gold sand beaches of Abel Tasman Park and down below the other girls were waving and snapping photos. “Welcome to the South Island, Kelly!” Stu yells in my ear. I’d say that’s a pretty good welcome, hey?

Well, we landed, and I lay in the grass on top of this beautiful mountain as the other two girls went up in the air. Stu dropped me off at my hostel around 2 and I dropped my stuff off before heading to town. Nelson slightly reminds me of a mix between Asheville and Black Mountain. I’d say that’s pretty darn awesome. Surrounded by mountains of 4 National Parks and then to the North, the ocean, all the while being a crafty town (they had a whole brochure just on Nelson pottery). I was in love. I explored the galleries of various artisans and trekked around the entire town. After that, I returned to the hostel to ask the owner, Georgie, where a good hike was. She gave me directions to the centre of New Zealand, so of course I couldn’t pass up the chance to be right in the middle of the country! The first half of the hike was really steep inclines, but it flattened out at the sheep fields. These lucky sheep had a kick ass view…if only they knew it. Their grazing area looked over all of Nelson and the Tasman Bay. Yes, I was jealous of sheep. At the end of the hike there was a 360 lookout and a monument for the centre of New Zealand. Needless to say, it was quite beautiful. If I had left an hour later, I would’ve been able to watch the sunset, but I was quite happy with the result I got.

I climbed back down just in time for….free homemade pudding and icecream at the hostel!! Yummmm. That was the perfect way to watch the sun go down, a bowl of pudding in hand and all fulfilled from my hike. I spent the night inside reading and chatting with this nice guy from France who had been traveling around New Zealand for the past month. Then his French friends came in and started speaking French, so I took my cue and went up to bed. I’m about to leave for Greymouth in the next 30 minutes or so. I’m excited to be moving on down the West coast, and this was the perfect way to start off the trip. It was beautiful and cozy and friendly and exciting. I can only imagine the rest of the week will be the same. Love to you all!!

Crikey! Ain’t She a Beaute?!...I'll Bet on Whatever Katie Does!

Well, for the last week, it has been amazing. Tuesday I went to the wonderful Australia Zoo for the day. For those of you that don’t know, that’s Steve Irwin’s zoo (Steve Irwin Day was on the 15th.) and he was there all over the zoo. Wow, it was awesome. I saw everything: koalas (I got to pet them and see a little joey!), red and gray roos, echidnas, wallabies, snakes, wombats, tons of birds (including a stare off with an emu), gators, galapagos turtles, baby tigers, elephants, dingos, tasmanian devils (no, they don’t look like Taz), and, of course, crocs! Crikey! I got to participate in the croc show we saw, and I won a picture of Steve Irwin. Good times. It was totally worth the long train ride out there. It was a great day. I absolutely loved it.

To top it off, that night Bree, John, and Katie came to pick me up, and we drove up to the top of Mount Coot-tha around 10:30 PM. 360 degrees of city lights shimmering under the lights in the southern sky. B-E-A-U-Tiful! Did you know that you can see Orion down here? Except he’s upside down! ha! Bree and I were having the hardest time locating the Southern Cross until she discovered a compass in the ground, so we found south and with it, the Southern Cross! The lights of the city were beautiful, and we all sat up there for about an hour. I don’t think I could’ve asked for much more than that.

Wednesday night was the last night at the Regatta :( it was definitely a good night. Great music (instead of all techno) all night and dancing with my Butler girls and some frisbee boys. It was sad to have it be the last night since it was such a normal Wednesday thing, but it was a good time from the first to the last week of the semester! Thursday was the last night at UJ's (I these couple days packing and cleaning with breaks in the city or at the pool. nothing to highlight). We had Laura's good bye party at her place before going down to the city. UJ's to start followed by Friday's. I'd never been there ($10 cover usually!!) but I'm sad cause it was really fun once we got inside. I was there with frisbee folk, Dan, Jay, Katie, Peter, Chris. Overall, very good night.

Friday I spent with Jess as it was her last day in Brissie. City for some shopping, I went to uni to print off plane tickets, then we went to the pizzeria formerly known as Castelli's in Toowong. Yummy pizza was eaten, fun times were had, the end was near. We said our goodbyes the next morning as she took a taxi in the rain to Toowong Station. I got back to the apartment to realize that I was the last one at Sandford St! Joe left shortly after Jess, and it was sad to realize almost everyone was gone. I finished my packing that morning and went down to Katie's around 5 to hang out. We were having a good bye party that night with all the frisbee folk, and I went over to help set up/chat. John showed up around 6 by climbing over the balcony ("It was talked about all semester! Figured I might as well check it off the list!") Everyone else started showing up around 9ish. Good times that night. Kings, horse races, high or low...Julian, Dan, Terk, Jay, Katie, Bree, Brett, Johnny, Chris, myself. It ended up with an angry dan ("look what I found, a bag of goon!"), a late night macca's run, 230 am good byes (more like see you later's) and Johnny and Jules sleeping over so as not to drive home at 3am. I said good bye to John and Jules in the morning, and ate the last of my sultana bran. I went to see Amy, text Shamiso, hugged Ashton, and walked to uni once more. My last morning was sunny and beautiful just as it has been every day (it rained when Deb and Jess left so I was relieved to see it was nice).

I about lost it every 5 minutes. I didn't want to go. I still want to be back there. It was harder to leave than I thought it would be. I guess because I was getting excited about home and Christmas that I thought it'd be easy. It was not easy by any definition. I miss my apartment, the purple flowers, UQ, City Cats, the Regatta, my professors (haha Debbie). I miss seeing my friends, hanging out with Jess and Deb, hearing what funny thing Debbie will say next. I will never forget the movie nights, the 4am SBS movies, the late night disc golf, all the nights out, the trip to Cairns, my friends in Sydney, the surfing in Byron, diving on Moreton Bay, frisbee at Coolongatta, the numerous Starbucks dates...I could go on.

I do realize one huge thing though. As much as I will miss my friends and the people I spent time with, if I went back and none of them were there, I would still enjoy myself. I fell in love with more than just the people and the experience. I fell in love with that city. Brisbane was the perfect place to study abroad, and I could not have asked to change anything about this semester. Even the blunders, the sad times, and the rainy days added something unique to my experience that was worth learning from, experiencing, and making my own. I will go back. There is no doubt in my mind. I dont know when, why, or how long, but that was not the last time forever that I will see the beautiful Brisbane skyline. It may be in a different way and in many years, but Brisbane has not seen the last of me.

Well, now I'm in New Zealand and am finishing up my first day on the South Island, and tomorrow I will hopefully post about this. I don't know when I will have internet as I am changing location everyday, but I promise to post once more (atleast) before home. Home. Is it actually here? Good thing? SUCH a good thing I didn't fly straight home from Brisbane. I would have been depressed and frustrated at the fact that I was no longer in Brisbane. Yea, I'm sad I'm not there, but this is easier to travel by myself for a week and reflect before I peace out of the Southern Hemisphere for a while. Alright, kids, it's been real. I'm gonna go take a hike to "the Middle of New Zealand." Be jealous. Love to you all!

Wow, it's been a while.

So it's been some time since I've written in here. Sorry guys!

the past few weeks have been full of adventure and excitement. We had our Farewell dinner with Butler the last week of October which meant the beginning of the end. Swotvac was spent in rainy Brisbane, but it was a great week with Halloween and a dive trip on Moreton Bay! Okay, so they really don't celebrate Halloween here, but of course, we as Americans needed to show them how it should be done. Halloween night was spent at the Regatta with a mix of Butler and Frisbee kids. The night was full of dancing, laughing, and walking.

Diving the first Saturday of November was AMAZING. Best diving I've seen in a while. And I was the only American on the boat for a change! It was a large boat, small dive group, great crew, and beautiful scenery. The water was "Australia Blue" as I call it. There's Caribbean Blue, but that's a totally different shade and tint. I'm telling you, it's all on its own. Anywho, the first dive location was a reef dive off the coast of Moreton Island where we dove with HUGE sea turtles! They swam right by us and they were the biggest I'd ever seen. beautiful. The visability was great on there and the coral had amazing color. The second dive was a 4 boat wreck. I love diving wrecks and my dive buddy was very enthusiastic which made for a great 40 minutes in the water. The vis wasn't as great, but the wreck was awesome; the fish used the railings as underwater road ways which was quite funny, and the fish that hung out beneath the boats were lined with a glow-in-the-dark purple colour. that was a great day.

This past week I spent alot of time in the city wandering around and slowly studying for my one final on Friday. Thank goodness that's all done and I can properly enjoy my last week! Debbie left Saturday morning, so we went out Friday night in celebration of finishing uni and as a good bye party. Saturday I went shopping in Brisbane with Jess then over to my friend, Jonathan Potts's, house. He's moving to Sydney in the next week and threw a good bye party. Let's just sum it up with 1AM tennis, push ups, hiding in the bushes, and getting to bed at 6AM. Good times. Sunday I spent sleeping in the afternoon and then Johnny came over that evening to play some guitar and chill. We shared Christmas Traditions and swapped crazy stories till the early morning.

Man, I'm gonna miss this place. This time next week I'll be in New Zealand? Far out.
I'll get in atleast one more post before I get there, and then maybe one after New Zealand before I get home.

Peace out friends!

Christmas Music and Australian Trivia

1) never leave Jess, Debbie, and I in the apartment to all write papers when Jess starts playing Christmas music on her laptop.
2) never send Brett, John, Katie, Bree, and myself to pick out a movie. Even between the 5 of us, we can't find a single video in Blockbuster to rent.
3) never place me in an Australian trivia competition. I would lose.

To start with the first bullet...just a reminder of how lucky I am to have the roommates I do. :) Jess, who has been listening to Christmas music for the past month, decided to play us her favorite Christmas song: White Christmas. I'm usually not one to listen to Christmas music until December, but this of course is a special occasion that I could not pass up because Debbie started "harmonizing" aka making up her own backup vocals to Bing Crosby followed by standing up in her underwear in the middle of the living room doing motions to the words. Soon, the three of us were singing and dancing to Rockin Around the Christmas Tree and laughing so hard I had stitches. Remember, that we have floor to ceiling windows in our apartment...if there was anyone in the park across the river or on a boat, they must've thought that we were either crazy or just a really funny side show to their evening. Potentially both. Times like that really make me enjoy staying in at night; laughing that hard has to be good for you.

bullet number two...last night, Bree pulled up in front of my building with the other three inside to head over to Jonathan Potts' (Pottsy) house for some food and games. We stopped to order pizza, and while it was baking, we ran over to Blockbuster to rent a movie. We spent an hour trying to pick out a movie. What did we finally end up with? Pods, popcorn, and our pizza. No movie. It's kind of impressive actually, that 5 people can spend that much time in a movie store and not find a single film to rent. Pottsy was a little confused and slightly annoyed we showed up an hour late to his place with luke warm pizza and no movie. haha. No movie needed! What could provide many more hours of entertainment and much more thinking than a movie?? None other than a 10 year old Australian edition of Trivial Pursuit!

bullet number three...three and a half hours, 200 roll agains, and a bag of pods later, my team won the last pie piece and triumphantly took the title of Trivial Pursuit masters for the night. Being a religion major and an American, I could tell you information about Israel and Colin Powell, but when that silly game asked questions about what state held the highest percentage of the people in the 1992 strike, I slowly turned my dumb expression to John, my Ozzie team member, and just let him "far out" and "bugger" his way into his answer. Those phrases were uttered many a time by John, especially in the circumstances where 1990's Australian Politics was the category.

So the past two night have been great, and although I have been sitting here (attempting) to finish this silly religion paper all evening, there have been some great chats and hilarious jokes passed between Debbie and me. I have loved the past few months here, and I know it's going to be a very sad departing come November 18th. but not to dwell on that now! I have 4 more weeks in this grand country, and they are not going to be spent sulking about my departure! So look forward to my next few posts of my last weeks in Australia and my adventure in New Zealand to follow!

Bucko, you were so wrong.

One last night in the Beach House after we got back to Cairns went by quickly, and we checked out early to take our stuff to Gilligans and go shopping. Okay, Gilligans is apparently the number 1 hostel in Australia. Not #5 to Beach House. It's the nicest place I have stayed yet here, and it definitely made my last night in Cairns enjoyable. Jess, Deb, and I spent the day wandering around the City Center peeking in the various shops, cafes, and gelati stores. I eventually ended up at the pool back at the hostel for the last couple hours of sunlight, and Debbie left to spend the night with her friend and her friend's mom up on one of the Northern Beaches. Jess and I made dinner in the kitchen on our level and shared a bottle of wine on our balcony with Michael Buble seranading us as we talked. There were some guys in the room next door that hopped on the roof and came to chat for a while with us. They go to Colgate back in the states and are studying down at Wollongong for the semester. Soon enough, Jess and I were being summoned by the other Butler kids to come out for the night, so we said bye to our new friends and went downstairs to the bar. It was a great night had by all, including some table top dancing by Jess haha. classic.

The next morning Jess and I spent in a cute cafe on the water sipping coffee, eating muffins, and, well, recovering haha. Now, let me tell you about iced coffees here in Australia. What do you think of when you think "iced coffee"? You probably envision a plastic cup with your chilled coffee, ice cubes, and milk or cream if you desire. Ha, such a silly drink. Yea, the Australians are serious about their iced coffee. Two espresso shots blended with cream and ice with a scoop of actual ice cream on top followed by whipped cream and chocolate shavings. That's three types of cream you got goin on there. That's not a coffee. It's a freakin dessert. And it was the best thing I've ever had. If there was a Tim Tam sticking out of it, I'd have been in heaven haha. Needless to say, I'm hunting those down in cafes in Brisbane now; especially now that it's spring and hot. We went out for lunch after that, and then wandered some more, but this time, we were in search of gelati. Yes, I ate extremely healthy food on this trip :P.

Well, we found some great gelati at this cute little place owned by an older couple. I had the best hazelnut and chocolate gelati while Jess savoured the mint chocolate chip. Lets just say it was the perfect last purchase in Cairns before we had to go back to Gilligans to claim our bags and hail a cab to the airport. The flight home was not as exciting as the one down with my little friend Curt, but I doodled in my moleskine and made a few playlists on my ipod. One of Debbie's friends from Oz was really really nice and came to pick us up from the airport rather than us trying to take the train back to Toowong and then walk the rest of the way home. Dean, Debbie's friend, is also a hopeless romantic with a great sense of humor. He tried to make our trip home like a limo service, complete with crackers and spread and champagne. I thought it was hilarious. There was candy hidden in the esky as well and we dug into that instead.

Now it's a week later. This week got off to a rocky start with papers and news and stress, but it's smoothed out since then for the most part. This weekend has been great. Wednesday I went out with a bunch of frisbee goers to the Regatta, which was the best night out I've had in a while. Great company, great conversation, some good laughs. Thursday I caught a movie with Katie and Sarah, again two girls I play frisbee with. Friday was my day to myself. I needed to clear my head and get out of the apartment. I grabbed my ipod, moleskin, camera, and purse, and I caught the next City Cat to South Bank. I mozied along the boardwalk taking in the sights and sounds of this great city. I found a life drawing drop-in class that I will be attending on Tuesday. I searched the market. I ate some good sushi and people watched from my table. As the sun started to set, I grabbed the City Cat across the river and walked around the CBD for a while before heading back to the apartment. It was a great day.

Yesterday I spent with John and Katie over at John's house in Yuronga. After the 45 minute walk there, we jumped straight into his pool for a swim then dried off and caught a lift over to Kulgun Park north of the city where there was a outdoor showing of Hitchcock's Rear Window. A picnic dinner in the park, watching the clouds make images, a great movie with suspense, stargazing afterwards. Yes, a great night. The three of us went back to John's for the night to watch the footy world cup quarter finals. England beat Australia in a close match. They pulled ahead in the 2nd half and that was the end. We ended the night with some stand up comedy before hitting the sack. Katie and I got to sleep in a soft fluffy queen size bed for the night over at John's place. It was sooo comfortable haha. Brekkie this morning and then Katie and I headed home. Now I'm here. Writing this blog. Yep.

Actually, I'm getting ready to leave to go to the market in the CBD on the river followed by church at the anglican cathedral i found a few weeks ago. :) Just another great weekend in Brissie.

Cape Tribulation...why so depressing?? you're beautiful!

Yea, my roommate, Debbie, pointed out the depressing name and was just like "but you're so pretty! don't be so sad and troubled!" I thought it was funny.

Anyways, so to continue on my spring break adventures...

We checked out of Bucko's Dream Hostel early Sunday morning to take our bus tour up the coast to Cape Tribulation. Our tour guide, Cindi, was probably the best tour guide I'd had for anything. First of all, she nicknamed be kel right away and frequently referred to me as beautiful. That never hurt anyone, haha.

We drove all the way to Cape Tribulation on the coast. It was gorgeous. Long stretches of beach with miles of water to the right and steep hills of tropical green trees to the left. Huge rocks on some of the shore and campgrounds along the way. We stopped on the way up for a walk through the bush. A magnificent 150 million year old forest surrounded me. The huge bright green umbrella tree leaves gave me shelter while the butress roots gave me trouble walking, but they were so cool. Hundreds of mangroves all over the place, and so many ants all over the place. Ha, our guide said that if you licked one, they secreted a sour, tangy liquid. Naturally, we all scamper over to a tree where a nest of the green ants were to each grab one of the poor little guys. Yes, it was sour. kinda like a sour patch kid? That was an experience.

We only drove a little further to reach our destination after that. The Cape Trib Beach House came into view, and I was so excited when we saw our 4 person room in the middle of the rainforest. Just a two minute walk down the way and the trees opened up to the beach. Soft sand wriggled into the spaces between my toes, and the ocean was the perfect temperature (no swimming too far out though...crocs!) Debbie, Jess, and I took a walk down the beach that took up the afternoon. Dinner at the outdoor kitchen was had with a visit by a wild boar. Sweet. We stayed up laughing at the dinner table then watched the Holiday on my computer (LOVE that movie haha). Time for bed, diving in the morning!

I got up for the sunrise the next morning at 5. Sunrises over the ocean are magical. Give me a sunrise at the beach and a sunset over the mountains. ahh, life is beautiful. So I'm taking these pictures of the sun, the clouds, the little sailboat going out early, the waves crashing into me...I was a happy camper. Until on my way back to the room, I turn my camera on to review my pictures and on the screen flashes up three words. "Memory card error." Three worst words put together I could've heard this trip. I had already taken 200 pictures. I had 4 more days to go. This does not put me on the right foot to start off the day...I tried not to worry about it, and left it in the room for the day. i grab my towel, mask, dive card, dive log, and some anti fog goo for the day. oh, and of course sunscreen, but that's kinda a given down here. I was so excited about going out to see the reef. so we get on the boat, and all the certified divers have to fill out med forms. then one of the guys glances at my form, looks at my dive card, whispers to another crewmen, then says "i'm sorry, love, but you're not going to be able to dive." i think my heart dropped to my feet. basically the one thing i had been looking forward to the entire trip was scuba diving the great barrier reef. i can't do it? why? asthema. but i've dived in queensland before? i'm sorry, i can't let you.

okay, no more dwelling on that. i couldn't dive, but it ended up being great. the divers said the winter water was still cold, there were too many divers to be comfortable, and the snorkeling was better. and i can't say i was disappointed with the snorkeling. it was low tide, meaning that all the reef was at the surface and eye level. 8 different species of parrotfish (my favorite! you can hear them crunching at the coral), bright blue star fish everywhere, gigantic sea cucumbers, hundreds of types and colors of coral, blue spotted sting rays, sea turtles, rainbow colored wrasses. i was more than happy with the diversity of the reef. so after a rocky start, the day ended wonderfully with a sunset as we came back over the rainforest mountains. our last night was spent around the table outside the kitchen at the hostel talking and laughing followed by an early bed time.

the next day we spent the morning on the beach after checking out. 1 o'clock came around and we hopped back on the tour bus with cindi who gave us each a pat on the back as we climbed on. we stopped at mossman gorge for a swim and port douglas for shopping on the way back. we only stayed 30 minutes at each place and i wish we could've stayed longer because they were both so uniquely beautiful. i was so sad to leave the rainforest. i could have easily spent the entire trip up there. i also could have stayed a night or two in port douglas. it was a cute little community that was so different than everything i've found here. so we got back to cairns for one last night in the stinky beach house hostel (do you feel the love?), and were ready to move out the next morning to gilligans.

part three. coming to kelly's blog later this week. don't miss it!

Spring Break 2k7....Aussie Style

So mid-semester break was split up into 3 sections for me: cairns, cape tribulation, back to cairns. This quick entry will encompass section 1. And by quick I mean that you may not want to read all of this. It could turn out to be quite long, but this blog is also a journal for me, and I want to remember all of it. so there. :P

Debbie and I left for Cairns at 5:15 from Brisbane (Jess caught an earlier flight), which we were barely on time for. The trains were running late; silly public transportation…anyways, after agreeing to swap seats with this woman, who wanted to sit next to her boyfriend, I got to share the ride with a cute little 10-year-old, Curt, from outside Brisbane. He was flying for the first time by himself to see his older brother and cousins who live in Cairns. Lets just say sitting next to little Curt made the 2 1/2 hour plane ride very enjoyable. It made for a good start to the break.

Arriving in Cairns around 7:45, I said farewell to my plane buddy, caught up with Debbie, and we caught the shuttle to our hostel, Cairns Beach House. Now, let me preface the hostel with this: our travel agent, whose name is “Bucko,” told us that this was the place to be. Number one hostel in Cairns. Gilligans, where we wanted to stay, was 5th in line. Ahem, excuse me, BUCKO! Debbie and I get our keys to the room, the tile floors are wet, there is a whole in the cement wall, there are bugs all over the place, and then the shower would stop while you were still soapy. Let’s just say we were less than okay with this. Keeping the fact in mind that we were not going to be in the hostel 24/7 or for the whole week, we put up with it, then wrote Bucko an email the next morning. Debbie and I hit the sack pretty early in our cosy little hostel in order to rest up for white water rafting the next morning at 6AM!

6AM came all too quickly, but Debbie and I stumbled out of bed and down to the parking lot to drive down to the Tully river. Debbie had never been rafting before, so I was really excited to be doing this with her and see her reaction to it all. Since the river is low, the rapids ranged from 1-4. During the wet season, it’s supposedly crazy. I’d like to see that…but crazy or not, this was a great day full of rapids, waterfalls, rock jumping, swimming, and beautiful scenery. All around us mountains of 150 million year old rainforest gazed down on our little boat. Our guide pointed out the lava rock formations, the trees with berries that get parrots drunk, and informed us of each crazy rapid name.

We returned to the hostel that night, showered, went out for dinner, and hit the hay early from exaustion. The next day Debbie and I ventured down to the lagoon that Cairns had to offer for a little sun bathing and shopping. Oh, before that, I spent a few hours at a café down the road from the hostel and bought a coffee. Let me tell you about Australian iced coffee. It is not just coffee with ice. No no. It is coffee with cream and ice cream and whipped cream. Yes, lots of cream. I was not expecting this when I ordered my iced coffee, but I was plesantly surprised with the Geroge Clooney look alike waitor presented me with this milkshake of a coffee. It made my morning quite enjoyable. Anyways, after a few hours of the lagoon, we met up with the other girls from our program to go sign up for a pub crawl that night around Cairns. The pub crawl that night was so much fun! Dinner at Rhino Bar, 6 different bars, and pizza at the last bar. Each had its own feel, and you could always catch a different footy game that was on (rugby world cup coming up!) The next morning we were finally leaving the less than satisfactory accomodations so pushed upon us. We were headed to stay on Cape Tribulation for two nights in the middle of the rainforest!

This is the end of track one. Cape Tribulation coming shortly.

I heart the beach

So sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated! Good news though…Pictures are up! Not nearly all, but there are many more to look at.

So the past couple weeks have been full of assignments and frisbee with friends. Nothing too exciting that needs to be reported, but lets just say that I’m still enjoying myself.

This past Saturday my phone spoke to me at 5:30, “The time is 5:30, it’s time to get up.” It makes me wake with a laugh for the fact that my phone talks, but then I realized the time it told me and groaned. I stepped out on to the balcony quickly with my camera to catch the sunrise over the river. Purple and Pink. No joke, check the photos. After standing on the balcony with my mouth hanging open for a few minutes, I had to ready myself for the day ahead. I dressed, packed, ate, and hurried on down to the bus stop on campus with Jess and Debbie. We were on our way to Byron Bay for the day with Butler!

I sat next to Debbie and Christi, our Student Services Coordinator, for the 2 hour drive down to Byron freezing our butts off cause the driver wouldn’t turn down the A/C. It was sooo cold. We arrived in Byron and defrosted before heading onto another bus: the Mojosurf Bus. Mojosurf was the company we went surfing and kayaking through aka the surf bums we hung out with all day that provided equipment. They were really fun guys, but I mean, they were my age and just loved surfing and this was a way to get paid for it. The nine of us that decided to go surfing that morning hopped in a small bus to head down to the little beach we would get lessons at with Seanno, our surf instructor, who goes to uni at Southern Cross. A 5 second lesson once we got on the beach, then into the water! I stood up on just about every wave but only for about 5 seconds before I lost my balance. Nat, one of the instructors, just told me to bend my legs and I’d be surfing like a pro. I’ll have to remember that…Basically I loved surfing, and I’m going back with Debbie in October and maybe with Katie in November. Heck yes.

After a couple hours or so of surfing, we piled back in the van to head back for kayaking. I was paired up in my kayak with the female instructor, who is a dive master for the area. We had a lot to talk about during kayaking between diving, rowing, and physio. After kayaking, we helped bring the gear in with the guys from mojo. Now, when I say we helped, I mean they had the stuff in the van, and the nine of us surfers drove to Seanno’s house so he could grab his skateboard, to some random house to drop off the kayaks, and back to Seanno’s to grab his shirt. Yea, that was an experience. haha, I laugh now just thinking about it just because they were so chill the whole time. We talked to the guys about meeting them out that night, as the majority of us stayed the night, then they dropped us off in Byron. I met up with Piper and we checked into our hostel, showered, and went out for dinner.

A friend of mine from home suggested a little pizza place called Earth n’ Sea (I found one just down the street in Taringa back in Brisbane, which I am very happy about) so we went for pizza down there. It was so good! I recommend the BBQ/Satay Chicken pizza with the restaurant’s home brewed beer. That makes for a great dinner expecially after a long day of sport. The rest of the night was spent out at a couple bars where we did end up meeting the surf bums, which ended up being a really great night out.

The next day Piper and I checked out of our hostel and headed down with all our bags to the beach. One smoothie and a chocolate croissant later, we were on the beach. Another reason that made me want to come back; the beaches are absolutely beautiful with crystal clear waters and surrounded by mountains. Beach and mountains? Together? I don’t think I could ask for more! A few hours soaking up sun on the beach (yes, I wore sunscreen…) and we went to walk up to the most eastern point in Australia. Gorgeous views, and lots of sun! Soon enough, it was time to get on the shuttle to go back to Brisbane. The weekend was more than I could’ve asked for, and I can’t wait to make it back to the surf and sun of Byron soon!

Weak Sauce to BBQ Sauce!...Hammer or You're Nothing!

So yesterday I spent the entire day at the beach. I woke up at 7 to get dressed and meet Al, Dan, and Katie waiting for me in Al's car to drive down to Coolongatta on the Gold Coast. As we were driving, we pointed out the cloudless sky, and we rolled the windows down to take in the perfect warm weather. It was going to be a good day.

Now, not only were we going to be on the beach. We played in a frisbee tournament on the beach. Barefoot. In the sand. Near the ocean. Amazing. We're one of the first cars there, so Katie and I decide to take a dip in the ocean before games started while the two guys threw the frisbee around a bit. The water was a bit chilly, but we got used to it; it is their winter still. More people started showing up, and pretty soon it was time to play. The cones set up, the teams color coordinated (thanks to Johnny and his extra pink shirts), and the sun above our heads, we were ready to play. It was alot different playing in the sand and alot more tiring. After each game we went for a swim, threw the frisbee, and jumped through the waves.

Pretty soon, we had played two games, and it was about 2, so we headed up to the beach club to have some lunch. Steak sandwiches (which are NOT like cheeseburgers, Brett) and chips followed by a hot sticky date pudding wrapped up the parts of my lunch. Brett, smart enough not to realize that chips came with the sandwich, ordered an entire bowl of them on top of the ones that came with it. So along came the dare...Brett enjoys smothering his chips in bbq sauce. We enjoy laughing at how much he puts on there. Pottsy finally said, "I'll give you a $10 note if you finish that whole bottle of sauce." Of course, Brett's in. After 3/4 of the bowl of fries, a couple shots, and one huge gulp of the bbq sauce, he was only half way. Johnny puts in another $10, but Brett gives in. Weak. Sauce. ha.

We then realized that we just spent about an entire hour up at the club, so we mozied on back down to the beach. We still had more frisbee to play! Although we were tired and full, we played some more. The disc flew in all directions; flicks, hammers, and other various passes zipped past defenses and into the hands of a player parallel to the ground. A few other layouts were less lucky, as in, they got a mouth full of sand but no disc as a reward. The sun was setting on the final couple games, and we all laid on the beach and admired the scene. Feeling that my face definitely received more sun than the rest of me, a group of us decided to head up to the club deck for a drink and the sunset. Pretty soon, everyone was up there and we were laughing at nicknames, southern belles, bbq sauce, and sunburns.

Driving back in Al's car, we got back to the city to drive right through riverfire, the massive fireworks display brisbane puts on every year the first week of september. I must say that we had one of the best views. It was pretty sweet. Overall, the day was perfect. Beach, sun, friends, frisbee, fireworks...lets do it again next weekend!

Yah, mon.

So yesterday after spending seriously all day doing some form of school work from writing papers, lectures, prewriting, etc., my friend Ben from Minesota called me up and asked if I wanted to accompany him to West End to hear some music. We'd been trying to plan this for two weeks now, and it finally worked out where both of us weren't busy on a Monday night.

We met up at Guyatt Park to take the city cat all the way over to West End (it's just across the river--you can see the stop from Guyatt). West End is the "Asheville" of Brisbane. Ecclectic, good music, diverse people, quirky shops. I can see myself liking it; this was the first time I had made it over there. We took the bus into the town from the city cat, and then walked up to our music venue: The Shire. Ha, this place was awesome. It was all outside with blankets and towels laid out, a table with pillows to sit on, a tree with a solitary leaf on it and a disco ball revolving, dreds in every direction, good tea, and great music all the time. They played everything from Bob Marley to Duke Ellington on guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, banjos, etc. Ben introduced me to some of his girl friends that were there, and we chilled listening to music under the starry sky and disco ball. Perfect night for friends and good music.

Tonight is the lunar eclipse with the red color, which I am about to leave to go observe. I'm kind of excited about it. So I'll update again this week. Sorry pictures still aren't up! I know I'm really behind on that, but I promise I have them...alot of them, so they'll be there soon! Look for a Sydney album, a Minmore farms album, and an update on the Brisvegas album soon!

Much love to all of you.

G'day from Minmore!

This weekend was spent out in the bushland in a town called Kingroy Farms on Minmore Farm. Myself and four other girls from my program stayed with a nice grandma/grandpa couple on their 15000 acre cattle farm. Let me start by saying my grandparents own a farm in North Carolina on the border near Danville, VA. Not only did this place look like the farm, but it had that same old farm house smell. It made me feel so at home even though I’m on the other side of the globe. A very comforting and happy feeling came over me; especially when we had beef stew (minmore beef, of course) and veggies for dinner followed by a yummy warm dessert (date cupcake with ice cream and carmel sauce). I automatically felt Dionne’s grandmother touch when she told me to go get seconds, haha. Graham’s grandfather-ness came out when he began telling stories of the farm and of his childhood. We arrived at Minmore by 6:00 that night, so after dinner we spent time playing cards, mancala, and chinese checkers with Dionne while Graham gave us tea and told jokes. It had been raining all night, and I fell asleep to the rain pattering on the tin roof along with the sound of the possums (much cuter than in the US) running across the porch.

Saturday morning, Dionne woke us up at 8 for breakfast: cereal, yogurt, bacon, egg, and toast. There must be a universal grandma law that you don’t let guests go hungry in the slightest; I’m totally okay with this. Their son, Graham, came by after we finished breakfast, and he and his father took us around the farm in the back of the trucks to check all the water pumps for the cows. Lucky for us, Saturday decided to stay beautiful and dry unlike the entire past week full of wind and rain. Their land was beautiful full of eucalyptus trees, these prehistoric palm trees, huge ant mounds (really funny looking), and plenty of cows. After rolling through all the dirt roads in the farm, we came back to the house for lunch. Sandwiches on the veranda with the cats and dogs at our feet, and afternoon tea to finish it off. Okay, so after lunch, young Graham announced to us that he had brought his dirt bike on the back of his truck for us to learn to ride if we wanted! Um, yes! While everyone else took their turn at the motorbike, older Graham taught me how to crack a whip. It took me a while, and my arm now is pretty sore, but I finally broke the speed of sound with that whip! Ha, it was too cool; all the birds of the near by tree flew away.

Another couple games of chinese checkers with older Graham and Shamiso went by before young Graham asked whose turn it was on the bike. I laced up my tennis shoes, grabbed the helmet, and got on behind him to get down the road a ways. “Here’s the clutch, here’s the gear pedal, here’s the gas, the hand break, the foot break…push this, pull that, ease off this, and you’re good.” Uhhh, right. So with Graham now behind me on the bike, I push the pedal down to first gear, ease off the clutch, give the engine a rev, and off I went! I hobbled my way for a bit, but I caught on really quick and switched to second, third, fourth gear. Graham complimented me by asking if I had ever rode a bike before or knew someone who did because I caught on so fast. He directed me to a field where I could practice driving, where I manuvered around those big ant piles and cow maneuer. Then he had me go back out to the road and work on going over bridges and up hills. I had the best time riding that thing (I was only going about 50km/hr…fast enough for me!)

We eased back to the house, where I met up with Dionne, Martha, and Shamiso to go on a walk to the boulders on the land. We met Zach, the blind bull, who was wondering aimlessly next to the road. Dionne took us up a hill where these massive rocks leaned on one another; her daughter used to take her books up to the top and study. I wish I had that kind of retreat for studying. Of course, the three of us decide to climb up, and the view was beautiful; we could see so much of their land as well as the Bunya Mountains, which have sub tropical rainforests on the tops of them.

When we got back to the farm, Graham was once again offering rides on the motorbike, but this time, by yourself on the bike. I immediately asked to go, and he told me that as his best pupil of the day that I could go straight away! I pulled on the helmet and started the bike up. With Graham next to me on another bike, we zoomed off down the road away from the house. It was so much fun riding next to Graham and zipping over bridges and around turns. Well, it felt like zipping; 45km/hr = 30mi/hr. That’s right, I’m a speed demon. Dinner soon followed after with a roast, white and sweet potatoes, onions, broccoli, and peas. Yum. Followed by…drumroll…apple cobbler and custard. Heck. Yes. I really couldn’t help myself when my hand reached for the spoon to get a second helping. I was helpless to the power of its sweetness. We all kept joking that we should’ve brought tupperware from Brisbane to help them take care of the many left overs that they surely would accumulate. Evening tea and trivial pursuit along with a showing of You’ve Got Mail ended the evening with Dionne and Graham.

As I walked down the porch to my room, I looked at the sky only to see the clouds have finally cleared after a week to reveal so many stars that I stood there with my mouth gaping for a good minute. First off, I love stargazing, and any PCer knows the meaning behind a warm blanket, a dark field, and loads of stars. This sky was absolutely spectacular, ineffable. With that, I crawled into my warm bed and sadly realized that I’d be leaving my haven in the morning. Breakfast at 7:30, pack up, then time to go. A hug and kiss from my Australian grandparent figures before I hopped on the bus with my sack lunch in hand.

You didn't tell me you had PASTA!?!

Sunday was a great day, let me tell you. Went to my first rugby game; Brissy lost, but they were missing most of their starters and it was still fun to be there! We had great seats and all the Butler kids sat together. The roommates and I matched, unintentionally and embarassingly haha. same color shirt, three different sleeve lengths; oh, it was cute. The game was really fun to watch and I got some tips on everything from Christi's, our ifsa rep, boyfriend. Useful since there are still a few things I obviously don't understand. There were the big dressed up broncos that were waving from the sidelines, and the cheerleaders with their gigantic pompoms came and did dances to...no music. We laughed and cheered and then sighed when we knew it was over. That took up a big chunk of the afternoon, and we got back in time to eat dinner before I realized I needed to head over to campus. Brett, one of the guys from frisbee, invited me to a christian worship meeting...kinda like CO? Those who know me at school know that I'm not exactly a CO person...but this was a bit different, which was good. Enjoyable, met some cool people, the talk was alright. "Store your treasures in heaven." We had a discussion, and I met the leader, Rich, who had been working there for 7 years now.

Afterwards, Brett, John, Bree and myself decided to find food. Subway #1 was closed, went to the one in Toowong, and John and I decided to be cheap and make pasta back at my apartment. Brett, not being in on the discussion, got all upset that we did not include him in this free and tasty alternative to a footlong sub. We drove back to my place, put on the pasta, and they got to meet Debbie and Jess. Finally, my two worlds that I have here collide, and it was great. Non stop laughter, thanks mostly to Deb, and pesto to go all around. Yum. After a bit of time here, John, Brett, and I went back to Brett's place to watch tv, and chat. Midnight came around and time to head back. I kind of had class the next day that I needed to get ready for...

Classes still going well! I love my tutorials alot; great discussion and the people are nice. I really like my world religions tute; this week we made up our own religions that had to line up with Ninian Smith's 7 Demensions of Religion. Ours was chocolate. Our diety was Willy Wonka, and we had all aspects of a religion; even a pilgrimage to the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory! We enjoyed that, and our tutor said he just might convert. Belief and Unbelief tute was better this week than last; there was actual discussion! Thank goodness! I met a guy, Ben, from frisbee who is in that class, and he might be switching to my tute, so that'll be nice to have someone I know in there.

Today I had lunch with Rich, the leader from Unimpact, which went great. We went to the Subway that I attempted to go to on Sunday. We talked about our background, why I'm here, what's possibly in store next. It was great, and I hope to be able to have more talks as I go along. I love one on one chats, so it was nice. I spent an hour getting to know him before I had to head back to campus for my one class of the day. I about an hour I'm getting ready to leave for Sydney until Sunday morning where I'll fly out around 8 am. I'm really excited about the 3 full days I get to play tourist down in Sydney and visit with friends from the Butler orientation up at Noosa that is already a month in history. wow, it's been so long already! So be on the lookout for another entry when I get home to update on the trip!

Peace and love.

Southbank is my new weekend hangout.

It seems I cannot spend a weekend in Brissie without ending up in Southbank at one point. Last night, I met up with some ultimate disc kids for a movie and ice cream. License to Wed, pretty good movie. Even better with Aussies whispering jokes up and down the row with you, haha. Ice cream at a place called Cold Rock, ironically alot like Cold STONE or Marble Slab, but you know...they don't have cadbury chocolate to put in your ice cream at home. oh yea. stayed there for about two hours talking about frisbee, trips to take, things to do, when someone came up with the bright idea of going to play disc golf back at campus. when? right now. 11:30. i'm for it!

We all hopped in cars and met back up at one of the residential colleges where one of the guys lives to pick up jumpers (sweatshirts) and a few discs. We wound all through campus hitting various poles, trees, bins, signs, between and under poles, etc, etc, etc. It was great. I won a couple holes, but I definitely could improve a few of my throws, haha. The course that they made up a few months ago ended back up at Cromwell College, where we started. It had gotten pretty chilly, and it was about 2 in the morning by the time we finished the game, so heading back to Brett's room sounded like a good idea. The group of us sat around eating tim tams and watching this terrible, yet extremely funny, old Asian Horror film about a flying head chasing this group around an old hotel. It was 4 am before all of us left. Lets just say, it was the end to a good day.

Earlier in the day, Debbie and I went into the valley to look around. There was a market down there, so we tried on funky sunglasses and dresses and enjoyed the warm day. Debbie was on a mission for a printer which we tracked down, and I bought a capo for my new little guitar that I bought for only $60. It's pretty sweet. I like it. It's cute. :) The capo is pretty and gold, and the guys I bought it from enjoyed making fun of my accent and me saying, "Do YA'LL have any capos for acoustic guitars?" One replyed, "Now there's an accent, where are you from missy?" It was enjoyable.

The day before--Friday--Jess, Piper, and myself decided to take a tour of the XXXX brewery, which is the beer made in Queensland. Each state has its beer, apparently. NSW - Tooheys, Victoria - Victoria Bitter, Western Australia - Little Creatures, Southern Australia - Coopers...yea okay, well the tour was actually fun and kinda funny. they put some animation stuff into it which was really goofy, and they showed us old commericals. oh, aussie humor...haha. Seeing the production lines was pretty cool. At the end we got to sample. very enjoyable. I also picked up my guitar on friday. that was a trek. ugh. too many train changes. but i got it so it was worth it.

Today is a beautiful cloudless, warm, sunny day, and I'm gearing up for the Bronco's game that's in an hour! Brisbane Broncos are playing the Manly Sea Eagles over at Suncorp Stadium off of Milton Avenue. I'm pretty excited to go! Tonight i'm meeting up w/the frisbee kids once again for church on campus. Then believe it or not I actually have work to get done for school. ick. not too much thankfully, but it still has to happen. More pictures will be up tonight/tomorrow! Oh, and for those who didn't pick up on it, my new pictures are going in older albums...the Brisbane album will be getting updated frequently, I'm sure, and there's new orientation pictures! Next weekend there will be a Sydney album to look out for! :)

Much love!

Tim Tam SLAM

So many things to say, not enough time to say it. This past week has been awesome. I've started classes. We'll start with that...

Classes are done not too differently from PC. Powerpoints are big down here. And for some reason, they LOVE to use YouTube for lectures. I think it's great. Then we build discussion off whatever clip they may have found. All the classes are Blackboard based. All the readings, the lecture notes, discussion questions, assigments, etc are all done on blackboard. Since classes are bigger, tutorials are set up during the week. Basically, we have small group discussions once a week on the lecture and actually discuss the reading for that week. Whoever our tutor is grades our assessments as well. So far, so good. My lecturers are great, lots of fun, and I've met some people in class as well.

Last weekend a bunch of us went down to Southbank again, but this weekend there was a dance...thing...going on. There were 5 stages set up on the street, and at 6 there were belly dancers, break dancers, hip hop dancers, tap dancers, latin, salsa, swing, etc, etc, etc. They had performances as well as workshops. Debbie and I learned an amazing hip hop dance; we're basically professionals now. Earlier that day we checked out the Gallery of Modern Art. Awesome exhibitions, lots of color, big balloons. yep.

This week has been the free week at the gym before you have to start paying for classes, so we've all been trying out different classes and sports and stuff. I went out to check out the Ultimate Disc Club here; let me say, they're amazing. It's soo much fun! We played for 2 1/2 hours Wednesday night, then went out to dinner afterwards down the road. They do lots of tournaments, including a week long tournament at the Gold Coast at the end of September. Lots of Aussies and Americans, and I met alot of cool people last night with similar interests as myself, so needless to say i'm going back haha.

I have not yet told the home crowd about the title of this post. Tim. Tam. Slam. First off, amazing cookie chocolate thing that needs to make its way to the states; that's a tim tam. to layers of cookie with chocolate in the middle. then covered once, sometimes twice, in chocolate. it's heaven on it's own let me tell you. Then you add the slam. Obtain for yourself a beverage. Preferably hot, like coffee, tea, hot chocolate. I've also done it with milk. yum. Bite off two opposite corners of the tim tam, stick one in the beverage of choice and the other end in your mouth. Start sucking like a straw. Soon your cookie will be full of your coffee with the taste of chocolate...eventually, the cookie loses stability and collapses, which is when you shove the whole thing in your mouth. Probably the best thing anyone can do with their life right there. The end. Nuff said. Go online and ship yourselves some tim tams now. I'm sure I'll be writing about "Pods" later which I have not yet tried but have been advised to buy immediately and eat many of them.

This weekend could quite possibly be filled with koala hugs, shopping in the city, and rugby. Be on the lookout for an update soon! PS - new pictures up! check it out!

Much love to all.

City Cats on the loose

Sunday the roommates and I decided to head over to the weekend market on Southbank. Southbank is...well...located on the south bank of the river. These Aussies are so clever... Every weekend they hold a market that goes from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. There's live music, local artists, clothes, food, and it's all Aussie made of course. They're big on the "Made in Oz" thing.

Best part is that I got my first experience on the City Cat. The City Cat is a really fast ferry that runs up and down the Brisbane River. It scoots by my apartment I want to say hundreds of times a day both directions from 6 in the morning until midnight. I just love the name too...city cat? awesome. We sat up front for the view--so cool. Zooming by our apartment, Toowong, The city....I think that I found my new main mode of transportation. Right when we hopped off at Southbank, we could hear music playing and smell some amazing food cooking. The architecture is very modern and had some yummy looking restaurants that Jess, Debbie and I knew we'd be back to sample.

We spent half of the afteroon wandering around the different tents, everything from bellydancing clothes, to produce, to tarot card readings. We made our way down the boardwalk towards the man made beach (the only beach they have in Brisbane) only to find out that it was closed. It was actually kind of funny; lots and lots of sand...but no water to actually make it a beach. It just looked like a big sand box. Needlessto say we were disappointed, so we kept walking till we saw a sign for QAG and QPAC, aka the Queensland Art Gallery and the Queensland Performing Arts Center. One of the exhibitions going on until September was the history of Australian art dating from before the 1700's to present; another was British Pop Art to the 1990's. It was great. I found some Australian Artists I want to look more into from the Modern Art Pd. as well as some British Pop that attracted me. There was also an Australian/Asian Ceramic Exhibition, and all who know me would know that I was enthralled with this section of the gallery.

After we all made it through the gallery, we hiked over to the QPAC and got info on some plays to go see later. Alice in Wonderland is the next ballet coming! :P The rest of the night was spent at home with Debbie's cooking and Josh Hartnett in Wicker Park. I love my roommates haha.

Pictures are up!

Okay everyone, I now have updated my photo website! If you look at the links on the right side of the page there is one called "Australia Photos!" Click that and it should take you to my picasa page. you can leave comments there and also download photos if you so desire. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Enjoying the Holiday - Exploring QLD

Well I just got back on Saturday the 14th from a wonderful 4 day trip in Airlie Beach on the Great Barrier Reef near the Whitsunday Islands. After a very delayed flight (we were in the airport for 5 extra hours…not exactly my idea of fun, but we kept busy), we finally arrived in Procerpine, which is about a 40 minute bus ride from Airlie Beach. The setting sun was on the horizon as we pulled up to our hostel. The girls and I settled into our dorm before getting ready to get dinner and go out for the evening. We met up with the guys and went to McDonalds — don’t judge. After dinner we walked down to the bar down the street, shared a couple of pitchers, and watched footie league on the big screen with live music in the background. It was a great night. I also got to see highlights from the Tour, which made me happy because I was afraid I’d miss it all!

The next morning we got some groceries for our meals to keep in the dorm, made sandwiches to take on the beach and then walked down to the beach. Okay, to start off, I love sailboats. I love how they look, I love being on them, and I love when they’re all together. With that said, this beach was amazing for me because just beyond the waist deep water, there were about 50 sailboats of all different sizes sitting out there. The sun was overhead, and I had a pb&j in by hand with a big bottle of water next to me. Life is good. After a few hours of reading and playing on the beach, we decided to explore what made Airlie Beach unique. That night, we had cheese and crackers and pb&j for dinner. Livin it up, I know. After dinner, Jessica, Piper, and myself went down to a bar down the way and met up with the other Butler kids. We came back home early for sleep because the next day had much in store for all.

We got up early on Thursday morning to pack a bag and head over to catch a 7:30 bus to the marina. We booked a day trip out to the islands that included a dive on the lower reef! The boat was totally booked, which meant that there were 60 other people on this boat with us. Not everyone was diving but still a lot of people on a small boat. The boat made three stops: a bush walk to an overlook of Whitehaven beach, actually to Whitehaven, then the snorkel/dive spot. The bush walk was not very strenuous at all, but the end was absolutely breath taking. Snow white sand, shades of blue and green in the water that hadn’t been named, cloudless sky. I couldn’t really ask for a more beautiful day. Of course after spending time admiring all that beauty, one tends to get hungry. Lucky for us, the boat prepared lunch while we were off! Sandwiches and fresh fruit were prepared as we got back to the deck.

We ate as the boat sailed away from Whitehaven and around the island to our scuba site. Jessica and I slipped on our wetsuits and hobbled back to the back deck where we picked up weight belts and flippers then proceeded to slide into our BCDs. Turn on the air. Reg? check. Buddy air? Check. BCD? Check. Gauge? Check. Everything was in place except me, so I sat down put on my flippers and my mask; I was ready to enter the water. We reached the site, and one of the deck hands helped me up to the edge of the deck. One hand on the weight belt, the other on my mask and regulator in my mouth. On the count of three, take one big step off: One, Two….Three. SPLOOSH! ::darth vader breathing:: I was in. I was back. It was great. It’d been a whole two years since I last dove. The rest of the group took the giant step off the back and joined me in the water, then we started the descent. BCD tube up, let the air out, and down we go. I remembered slow steady breathing as I sunk deeper and equalized my ears every few feet. We made it to the bottom, and it was another world. The fish nibbled at my flippers as I came close, and the coral swayed with the current. Our instructor gave us some signals to follow and off we went. It was quite chilly, but so much fun. Sea turtles came close enough to touch, and little fish swam right in front of my mask. Pretty soon my gague read that I only had 50 bar left in the tank, which means it was time to ascend. I can’t wait for more diving even further up coast!

The rest of the week was pretty much the same as before. Lots of beach, plenty of pb&j, and great friends to chat and laugh with. Sadly, we had to come back Saturday. We flew out of the smallest airport I have ever been to; I sat next to a nice local couple, who is sailing for the week off the coast of Sydney. Back in Brisbane, Debbie, Jessica, and I cooked up dinner and watched a movie. Great roommate bonding, I know. Orientation is happening this week and then classes start Monday the 23rd. Crazy it’s already been two weeks! Keep the emails coming, I will respond to everyone. I love getting news from home, and I don’t mind sharing my news at all! I hope all is well back in the states; more from me next week!

Much love.

Gday! Welcome to Brissie!

Well I’ve been down here almost a week now, and I must say that I could easily live here. The plane landed at 7:00 in the morning on July fourth — that’s 5:00 PM on July third for all you east coasters. We hopped off the plane, had to go through immigration, baggage claim, and finally customs. I was on the flight with atleast 30 other students from IFSA both going to UQ and USydney, which made the flight and the airport time more exciting and entertaining. We directly got on busses to take us an 1 ½ north of Brisbane to Noosa. We stayed at this resort in apartments of 6 people where the kangaroos lounged right outside and the kookaburras laughed all afternoon! A group of us went down to the beach for the first day and decided to play a game of tag footie (touch rugby) and to test the water for our surf lesson the next day. Rugby was absolutly hilarious because none of us had played before and our orientation leaders just laughed as they watched and tried to yell rules at us from the side. Oh, by the way, the beaches down here? They’re national highways. Yep. Highways. So if during our rugby game a FWD happened to come down the beach, WE needed to move. Just makes me think of that scene in Wayne’s World, “Car!”…“Game On!”

The beach was much wider than any I have seen in the states, and the water was that carribbean blue; it was breathtaking, especially when the sun started to set over the hills in the distance. That night we enjoyed taco dinner followed by some orientation presentations. We all passed out by about 9 that night. I mean we had been up since like 4 in the morning (atleast that’s the local time when I woke up on the plane).

The next morning we got a wake up call at 7:00 from Guy and Steve, two of our orientation leaders, to get brekkie and ready ourselves for surfing! I’ve never surfed before, and I’ve always wanted to so I was really excited along with everyone else. My surf instructor was from Brisie (Brisbane) in his mid 30’s and extremely funny. We had one guy in our group to learn, Joe, so he always gave Joe the hard time as we learned. I got up three times and rode all the way in! It was incredible. We had morning tea on the beach – they really take their tea seriously down here – before we left to go back to the resort.

The rest of the day was spent lounging at the pool, walking on the beach, and drinking tea. After dinner, we had a presentation of wildlife from Australia. Two different Pythons, a Red-bellied Black Snake, a Goanna, a Freshie Croc, and some marsupials and birds. All extremely cool and beautiful in their own way. I got to hold both pythons and pet the croc and a bird. Again after the presentation, we stayed up about an hour, then passed out to get sleep before the next day!

Friday morning, we woke up at 6:30 to get ready to go to Frasier Island for the day! It was a 3 hour bus ride there and back. I was getting tired of busses…but this one was totally worth it. Frasier Island is the longest sand island in the world, 120 km, and we took the beach highway all the way up to Lake McKensie. Lake McKensie is a natural freshwater white sand lake in the middle of this sand island surrounded by subtrobical forests. B-E-A-U-TIFUL. The lake was this Royal Blue color with a ring of white sand all the way around. Absolutely breath taking. Pictures will be up soon, but they won’t do it justice.

After spending an hour on the lake, we took a hike through the rainforest next to the fresh water sand bottom creek. The canopy above us was all of ferns and palms, and the floor was a silent sand bed creek. That night we had the indiginous people of the Brisbane area come dance and talk to us. They also taught us dances of their own, which was very hard but a lot of fun! That night we all stayed up and talked till the late hour of 11:30. Yep, we’re crazy.

Saturday morning we left for Brisbane and arrived in St. Lucia around lunch time. As the bus pulled up to my apartment complex, I saw the river directly behind the building and instantly got excited. My apartment is on the 6th floor with an amazing view of the river and the city right behind that. I’m looking at it now, and I still can’t believe I’m here. I am amazed that I get to wake up here every morning for till the end of November! Saturday night a groupd of us experienced the night life of Brisbane by checking out the different pubs and hotels. These past few days I’ve been getting life in order: buying groceries, enrolling in classes, getting ids, setting up phone lines, etc.

Tomorrow I'm getting ready to go to Airlie Beach up on the Whitsunday Islands. I've seen pictures and it's beautiful, so I'm ready to go! I'll update that when I return from the trip on Saturday, or whenever I make it back to the library. Internet is still in progress for the apartment.

That's all for now! See you guys in a week!

T minus 2 months and counting...

So two months from now, I will be there. In Australia. That's so weird to think about, but it's true!

My parents and I are getting together tonight to finalize my flight plans (I'm taking the group flight, but I need to pick a return date), and then I feel like I should already start thinking about what to pack haha. I always pack too much, and I know in this case, that's not what I need to do, so why not start now so I can weed out things I don't need?

I also need to think of things I wouldn't take on a normal trip like adapters for my computer, linens, school supplies(?), and things that I would normally bring to school with me...but not as much. I didn't realize how cluttered my life was until I started packing up my dormroom. I have aquired alot of junk that I just keep because I'm a pack rat and hate to throw things away in case I will someday want it or need it. Most of the time the object just sits there hidden away in some drawer or box full of other pack rat object of mine, so lets try to work on this for Australia. My space is limited! Only so much can come with!

I have started to get curious about how many other people are going to be at the Uni of Queensland with me from IFSA. Will we get along? Am I going to be living with them? oh the questions go on. I want to meet these fellow students and get to know them, where they're from, and what they like. This is all part of the process I guess. I'm ready to go! Less than to months to Australia, so watch out!

And So It Begins...

H'Okay!

So here is my first entry in this brand new shiny blog of mine! I like the pink interior...

Well, I've made this in order to keep a journal of my journey to and in Australia, and also to keep all those at home from having a heart attack and worrying about what I'm doing. I'm okay! I'm having fun!...or atleast I will be in a couple months...

I figured this would be a good time to start the blogging process here as I just received my acceptance letter from the University of Queensland through IFSA Butler. I am so glad that is finally all done. Except with each new packet they send, there are more forms, and I have a strong feeling that this will continue even after I get to Australia. Oh well, I pretty much know that it will all be worth it. every. single. form.

So that's about it for now! I have to start thinking about a visa and flight plans and stuff now. Also about housing arrangements and budgeting for when I get there. Wow, I can't believe it's really happening!

I'M GOING TO AUSTRALIA!!!