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.
24.7.07
21.7.07
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!
19.7.07
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.
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.
9.7.07
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!
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!
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