Up to my neck in cow poop..

Hello Everyone! I just got back from the country, and thought I would do a quick update.

On thursday Madonna and I took the train up to Eudlo. To show you how small Eudlo is, we had to move to the front car in the train to exit, because the platform was that small. I got to hear a nice story about how Uncle Scott failed to hear this message and forced one of the back car's door open and fell onto the tracks in the dark. We made sure this didn't happen. After a quick trip into the town store, where the products are a good food away from one another on the shelf, and the counter lady knew exactly who we were staying with, we were off to Aunt Fiona and Uncle Trevor's house. They live off a dirt road in a great little Queensland style house, which is raised of the ground to get a nice breeze. After a quick tour of the house we sat down for afternoon tea. You'll realize that all I did these past two days was eat and drink tea, not a bad life if you ask me.

Aunt Fiona lives in the country so we also got a little tour of their property, which included a dam, which is where they get their water from. I guess the purify it right on the property, but I'm not quite sure. Uncle Trevor is a mechanic and has an awesome collection of Ducati motorbikes. After watching a movie we were off to bed because we had a big day at the farm ahead of us.

UNcle Scott and Jackson met us at Aunt Fiona's and we were off to Great Aunt Mavis' farm. After taking a windy country road we were there. I believe the town was called Kin Kin or Gympie. The property was amazing, with a fully functioning cattle farm. After morning tea with amazing pastries we were off for a walk to check out the property. We wadded through cow poop to the calf holding, milking area, and up some hills. We were dodging cow poop everywhere, which was hard to deferentiate from the mud since it had rained on the way up there. I'm sure I took more that I want to think about on my new rainbows (thanks Amanda) I had to throw away my old "work" pair, because they didn't make it through the barf incident in Surfer's Paradise. RIP.

Anyways after some more piddling around the farm it was time for Aunt Mavis' famous sausage rolls. And the definetly lived up the their hype. We also had curried deviled eggs. I would never go hungry living with Aunt Mavis. Food always appeared out of no where.

Then we went up the hill to Cousin Dennis' house, which looked over Aunt Mavis' property. It was absolutely breathtaking up there and I took TONS of pictures, which I hope to post within the week. Looking at Aunt Mavis' property from up there made it look like a golf course with all the ponds and trees on her property. Which of course made me think of Dad! Hi DAD!!

We took a route home that went along the sunshine coast, though it was raining off and on the whole way there, it cleared up right when we came to a lookout point and I was able to get some pretty good pictures.

We finally got home to Brisbane, had some more food and then went off to visit Aunt Judy at work (a casino). I decided to try my luck on a penny slot, and was up to $3 but blew through it pretty quick when it was time to leave. $1 did give me about 10 minutes of fun.

Alright, well that was the farm experience, I'll add more later, if I think of it.

So pretty much I never proof these things, and are often times being distracted while I write these so please forgive the grammar and spelling mistakes, they are probably killing my mom to read.

I love and miss you all.

Aussie word of the day:
Mossies: Mosquitos

In honor of the 10 new bug bites I got in the country...

Mom is yelling at me...

Hey Everyone! Sorry it's been so long since my last post, Mom told me a lot of people are talking about my blog, and when the next entry is going to be, I didn't know I had such a fanbase back at home.

Well Sunday we came back to Brisbane from Byron Bay. I split from my friends at the bus station and came up to Petrie, and they went to find accomodations for the week. I am so lucky to have Toby's family here to stay with, all my friends are jealous that I have a place to stay with home cooked meals. It is really nice having home cooked meals, since I've never really had them every night...MOM. But I do miss going out to dinner every once and a while too. I've been trying a lot of new food here, and have come to notice that it is true about your taste buds changing as you grow older. I did have to force down from cooked carrots the other night. :) I have grown to love vegemite, which disgust all of my American friends. But it really depends on how and what you eat it with.

I've been taking the train to the Uni when I had to be here for orientation seminars, which have been pretty worthless. I am actually on campus right now. I traveled down here for Market Day which is the biggest day at O-Week. It was really cool, there were live bands, and every club and sports team on campus had a booth around the perimeter of the "great court," which is a beautiful open grassy area in the middle of campus. I finally bought a electrical converter so i will be able to recharge my camera soon, so I will get pictures on here soon, I know I've said this before but I really mean it this time. :) The campus here is beautiful. Everything here is beautiful and I have told my mom more than once that I am going to marry an Aussie and stay here forever.

I have had a pretty laid back couple of days just hanging out the house in Petrie with Toby's family. I read, lay by the pool and play with Toby's 8 year old cousin all day. Tomorrow I am going to a working dairy farm with Toby'y mom to meet more of the family, and then I am off to Great Aunt Mavis' house on friday. Toby has said it is definetly an experience to meet her, so I am not sure what to expect.

So that was my update, not as exciting as the past ones, but mom kept yelling at me to update it, ok maybe yelling is a bit of an exageration. I miss and love you all and will update when I am back from visiting the farms. :)

Aussie word of the day:
Pokies: Slot Machines

There are Pokies everywhere. They are more pokies in Queensland, which is the state that Brisbane is, than there are in Las Vegas!!!

Internet Cafe

Hey All! A quick update from an internet cafe in Byron Bay. There are so many internet places here in travel adventure places. They let you use the internet for free for like 30 mins. and then it's $1 an hour for the place I'm at, a pretty good deal if you ask me, but I'd love to be on my own laptop. The keyboard is MUCH better here though.

So like I said I'm in Byron Bay, which is an hour bus ride south from Surfer's Paradise. We left the hostel in Surfer's Paradise, and decided to come here, it's really fun just living day to day and not knowing what comes next. I really enjoy it and have never done anything like it, but I can tell it is taking a toll on a couple of the people I am traveling with. So Jeremy, who is sort of the "father" of the trip (except when he drinks and pukes in the room) got us on a Greyhound bus and down to Surfer's Paradise. We got a pretty nice motel room down here instead of a hostel, because it comes out to be cheaper. There are 8 of us in the room! It has a queen size bed two twins, and a couch. The other bonus is it has a built in kitchen and a washer, dryer for FREE!! So we did some much needed laundry yesterday. We are pretty much trying to spend as little money as possible so I went and bought us bread, peanut butter, and bananas so we've been living on that for brekkie and snacks.

Byron Bay is a really cute, hippie like town. There are a lot of cool surf shops and cute lil shops. There is also an amazing look out point that I am going to head out to later on today. I'll let you know how it is, and I will post pictures once I'm in my apt.

We went out last night as usual, with me as the sober walker. I am going to spend so much less money on this trip that anyone I am traveling with because I don't drink, it is absolutely amazing how much these people spend on alcohol, and it's really expensive here. A 12 pack of Corona yesterday was close to $60 dollars. Why you would spend that much money is beyond me.

A very interesting thing we have noticed here at the pubs is the BOYS DANCE. I can not tell you how many times that there have been a group of STRAIGHT guys dancing by themselves on the dance floor. I love it, it's nice not having to drag them out there. Even the boys in our group dance once they have a few beers in them. Another interesting thing we noticed it that most AMericans dance to the underlying bass beat, while the international people dance to the faster beat. Well at least the guys we have seen do, you should see how fast they move, I can not imagine any of my guy friends at home doing this.

So we are here for at least another night, and then I'm not sure where we are headed, but that's the fun of it.

So I will update when I find my next internet cafe. I also want to thank all of you who have left comments, they are really fun to recieve, I didn't even notice them for a while!! I especially like Tish's username!! I love and miss you all!!!

Aussie Word of the Day:
Trolley: Shopping Cart

And their grocery stores close really early, like around 5 on some nights and 8 on the others.

Quick Update.

So I only have ten minutes left on this internet cafe computer so im going to make this quick, and just so you know the keyboard sucks. so excuse the spelling mistakes.

I am in paradise, literally. I have met up with my friends in surfer's paradise. It is amazing. Our hostel is fun, not really nice, but what can you expect. we've met a lot of cool people from all over the world though. The beach is amazing, though there are a lot of sharks because there are a massive school of fish near shore for some reason. So ive been staying out of the water as much as possivle but it is so bloddy hot here, i need to dip once and a whilre.

One of the guys im staying with in the hostel, who is one of my australearn friends, threw up in our room last night, which was a lot of fun as im sure you can all imagine, but he did a great job cleaning it and it smelled better afterwards. we are here one more night and then im not quite sure where we are heading since im still homeless. :)

mom wanted me to mention that school doesnt start until the 28th, i guess she figures you all think im a deliquent and dont go to school, but im actually looking forward to it and getting in a routine.

k my time is up, love and miss you all

aussie word of the day.

Barrack means to root for a team, like your favorite rugby team. To root for someone is to have sex with them. Good one to know.

I will walk 500 miles...

I swear I have walked 500 miles in the last week, or at least something close to that. I've honestly never walked this much in my whole life. From looking for a house, to going out at night, I have put many miles on my new Rainbows (sandals).

We did end up finding house, and I am sooo happy about it. It is an amazing 6 bedroom apt. that I will be sharing with another 6 girls. And our guy friends are going to be in an apt. below us. It should be A LOT of fun. The apartment is brand new, so new that it isn't quite done yet, and we can't move into until the 28th. So what are we going to do until then? Travel of course. I am currently in Petrie, a suburb of Brisbane, staying at Toby's uncle's house. And tomorrow I'm going to meet the rest of my friends down at the Gold Coast/Surfer's Paradise, which is where we are going to stay for the next week. If we are homeless and living in a hostel, why not live by the beach. Another cool thing about the apartment is it looks like an IKEA showroom. It it fully furnished with IKEA furniture, and even better, they clean the common room and bathrooms EVERY WEEK. So I think it will all be worth it in the end, and I'm excited about the Gold Coast.

We have been going out most nights, and have found a few really cool pubs. They are set up really cool, with outside patios and multiple stories. And the one last night had a great cover band. Pretty much I'm having the time of my life.

It's nice being in Petrie, in an actual home with the internet, and I don't have to wear sandals in the showers. :) Tonight we are going to a Siberian Circus, possible cooking some Kangaroo on the barbie, and tomorrow we are having another BBQ.

So to end the rest of my blogs, I'm going to have an Aussie word of the day.
An "eskie" here is a cooler.

I Found Nemo!!

G'Day everyone!! Sorry it has taken me so long to update this thing, but I've honestly have been going non-stop since I got here. We are finally in Brisbane now, which is where the Uni is that i'll be going to. We are in temporary housing in a dorm while trying to looking for a house. I can't wait to finally be able to unpack and get into a routine.

Anyways an update for the last couple of days. I flew from LA to Sydney standby on thursday night. My best friend Toby's, who most of you know, mom is a flight attendant for United and I was on her flight. I was supposed to be on standby for Business class, but since there were so many of us flying standby that I got bumped to coach. It didn't really matter though, since I slept about 10+ hours, and Madonna, made it so I had an empty seat next to me. From Sydney I caught a plane to Cairns, where my 3 day orientation was. My bags sadly did not make it to Cairns. I was actually told that 1 of them ended up in Boston. But they did get to where I was staying the next morning.

Cairns was absolutely beautiful. And so much fun. A short recap because I am supposed to be house hunting right now. We went to a zoo where a lot of it was open with the animals kind of roaming. We took pictures with koalas and got to pet Kangaroos. Then we went to an aboriginal center, and learned how to throw a boomerang and spears, and play djiridoos. The next day we went to the Great Barrier Reef and snorkled. I also took a glass bottom boat tour out there, where I was able to find Nemo. I also saw Parrot Fish, stingrays, and swam through "harmless" jelly fish. We also went into the city a few times, where I tried Kangaroo, which is sooooo good, better than steak!! And we all know how much I love steak.

So that's my trip so far in a nut shell, I'll update more once I'm settled in a house.

I miss and love you all!!!!