The Welt!

 

Haircut.

I am going to get my hair cut, and I'm really scared because no one has cut my hair besides Aunt Helen. Wish me luck!

Another picture.

Sydney Skyline from the Harbor. 

Short update..really about nothing..

So I decided it was time for a quick update, even though there isn’t anything too exciting to update about. We have been staying in Brisbane since Sydney, and kind of getting to know the city, since we really haven’t actually been in Brisbane for that long. We were going to go up Noosa, a beach about an hour away on the train, but the weather didn’t really agree with our plans, so we ended up staying here. We have been trying to get ahead on school work so we don’t have to worry about it right before mid semester break (Spring Break, though it isn’t spring) We are planning our trip to New Zealand. Kim if you could email me about places that I absolutely need to see that would be great!! We are trying to set up a 7 day tour so we are able to see as much of it as possible, without having to worry about getting to one place to another. And then immediately after New Zealand we are going back down to Sydney. So, I won’t spend much time at “home” in April.

So you probably all have heard about the cyclone that hit Australia. It was in the northern part of Queensland (a state) and I’m in the most southern part of Queensland, so we weren’t affected by it at all besides one day of rain, which just so happened to ruin our Noosa trip. So I’m safe, in case anyone was worried. The cyclone actually hit Cairns, which was where we were in the beginning of February, but not too bad. It had a very narrow path of destruction but did hit one town very hard.

Right now I’m sitting on top of our roof, where I can see the river, city and university. I need to post a picture of the view we have up here. It’s pretty ridiculous. It’s pretty darn hot up here though, so we usually don’t last very long. We were thinking it be nice to put a little kiddie pool up here, but it would probably evaporate pretty fast.

Oh and before I forget, a big CONGRATULATIONS to Aunt Helen. I am so proud of you for running the LA Marathon. That is absolutely amazing. I cannot imagine all the hard work you put into that and it all paid off. Yay!!!

Hmm I got a care package from Mom, complete with sheets, which I had been sleeping on a toga, before them, because the ones I paid $50 for scared me because they have fairies on them. Some shorts, which I have grown out of, just one pair mom, and GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. The roomies have definitely enjoyed those. And most importantly my favorite tv shows on dvd. This is a lifesaver, since most of the shows here are about a season or a half behind. And the TV here is absolutely terrible. But don’t worry I don’t sit around during the day glued to my computer watching tv, it actually is one of the reasons I’ve been staying awake until 3, because if you aren’t out in the city, what else is there to do at 1 in the morning. Besides sleep.
Alright, well I’ve stretched this update out as long as possible, without actually really doing anything exciting.

Love and miss you all.

Aussie Word of the Day:
Ta: Thank you.

And you thought I had it good!

What A Life!! 

More Pics..

In the pond at the crazy hippies house.

More Roos!











Roomies!












At our dinner before the Asian Business men bought us wine.. 

See Mom...

I just wanted to inform you that I am writing a paper right now...Just so you all know that I am actually enrolled in classes, I am going to classes, and I do have work for them. That is all.

Gympie

Mooooooo! Told you it was a working cattle farm











\Sunshine Coast













Me and Ozzie! 

Another view of the opera house












The girls in Sydney

A kangaroo, I ate his brother later that night..











Aboriginal Cultural Center 

The Roomies!! Going out for Laura's 21st Birthday













Getting ready to dance on tables in Byron Bay










Sydney Opera House










Sydney Harbor Bridge

 

Sydney and such..

Sorry for the long wait between blogs! It was just hard to get back into the swing of things after the Sydney trip. Which was amazing! And we are already planning out next trip down there.

Flew down there by myself on Thursday, because my friends flew down the night before, but being the good student that I am, I attended my classes thursday morning and met them down there. See I am actually going to class everyone!!

Anyways..Thursday night we went to the local pub called Northies. It was a lot of fun. It wasn't very crowded but there were enough of us and the boys we were staying with to be a good time. (Oh I almost forgot. The reason we went down to Sydney, besides just a vacation to Sydney was to visit the boys we met in Byron Bay who live down there. We stayed at Stuart's house, with his family.) After the pub, I DROVE Stu's car back to his housefrom his friend's, which is where we started the night. Even though it was only a few blocks it was still a lot of fun. Jake, Stu's friends, who drove with me, thought we should take it on a joy ride, but I was too nervous to, next time maybe. So we hung out at Stuart's house and went to bed.

The next morning we went to the beach, which was just down the street. These boys have the life. Still living at home with their parents, with little to no rules, and living practically on the beach. There was a lifesaving competition down there, which was kind of interesting to watch, but it was too windy, so we went into down and got some lunch instead. (The boys live in a suburb of Sydney about 30 mins, from the downtown area. ) After lunch we went to a lagoon that was absolutely beautiful, and hung out around there for a couple of hours. There were starfish, and little fishes, and squids in the lagoon, which we had fun playing with.

That night we got some take-away (take-out) and ate at the park. Then we went to the RSL. The RSL is a veterans club/bar/casino/restaraunt, but apparently the local youth takes over the RSL on Friday nights. This was one of the reasons this trip was so fun, we were living with local Australians and doing things and going places that we definetly wouldn't have gone to if we would have stayed in a hostel in the city. The RSL was soooo much fun, and we did a WHOLE lot of dancing.

Saturday, we decided, would be our touristy day. So we went into the actual city. Because we were such a big group at this point we took public transporation to get there instead of taking 4 cars. So we took the train into the city, then we walked to the harbor. We took a ferry tour of the Harbor, past the Opera House, and under the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Both we very beautiful but the Opera House was a lot smaller than I pictured it to be, maybe because it just looked so big compared to Nemo. :) I would like to go back and see the city lit up at night on our next trip. Next we went to Stuart's mom's restaurant, a little outside of the city. The food was great, and we had the place to ourselves because it was closed to the public.

Saturday night we went to a house party. It was their friends 21st birthday, which we soon found out was a huge deal here still, even though they can legally drink at 18. The boys weren't sure why this birthday was so important, but they thought maybe because the drinking age used to be 21, and it was just tradition now. Everyone this whole trip was so welcoming, from Stu's parents, who let 5 girls, plue Stu's friends crash at their place all weekend, to Jack's parents who acted like we were long time friends. The party was amazing, it reminded me a lot of graduation parties because it was a mix of kids and their parents. There was lots of free alcohol (no still not drinking) along with catered food (still eating!!) The food was amazing, and they had to drag me away from it. Later in the night they did speeches, Jack's parents were really nice, his Dad was talking about how people had come from all over for his bday, like his brother suprised them and flew home from England, along with Jack's aunt and uncle, and some other people had come from all over Australia. Then one of our friends yelled out, "And the Americans!!" So jack's dad also mentioned their was a group of ladies from the states here with them tonight. :) Then his friends gave speeches, which we more like roast, some of the stories are a little too graphic for the blog, and you would think for the party as well.

After the party we went to another club, which was a lot of fun, and after that we went down to the beach.

The next morning we had a flight at 8. We figured since we would have to leave for it around 6:30, we would just stay up all night. Well we didn't and we also didn't set an alarm. We woke up at 7. We were a good 35 mins. from the airport, and still had to finish packing. While everyone else was scrambling, I called Virgin Blue to see if they could do anything. Well they couldn't, and RYAn, informed me that if we didn't make that flight, we would have to buy another ticket home. Granted we thought about just staying in Sydney forever, we figured better of it. We almost gave up and just bought another ticket when one of the boys flys up with a car and yells, "Get your shit in the car and lets go." And go we did. We left the house at 7:15 and got there around 7:40 and made the flight. We were amazed we made it, and couldn't believe it when we landed in Brisbane.

Sydney was amazing, and we can't wait to go back.

This week was pretty boring, seeing as we got about 8 hours of sleep for the whole weekend.

The Melborne Commonwealth Games (aka Mini Summer Olympics for select countries) started on Wednesday, so we've been watching a lot of that.

Last night we went to a friend's 21st party. Then we were waiting for a cab to go into the city, right by the street, when all of a sudden, a red car flys by and I'm hit, BY AN EGG. No please realize that I was standing right by the street on the sidewalk, with my back to the street. This boy, did not toss the egg at me, it felt like I was hit by a baseball. I had egg all over my shirt and in my hair, I was half crying, and half trying to figure out what the hell happen. So we ran upstairs, in pain, but still laughing hysterically. We got up there and they are picking egg shells off and out of me. Yes, there was egg shells in my skin, I was BLEEDING from getting hit by an egg. I then proceeded to get a HUGE RED WELT. Ya, it hurt real bad, but what a story huh? I am so excited to post a picture of it.

Ok sad news folks. I took about 100+ pictures in Sydney, of us going out, but Stu was holding my camera and kinda lost it, so my camera is M.I.A. at the moment and it isn't looking very good. Luckily I already had pictures on my computer and Tara took pictures of all the touristy stuff. So i will be able to post some landscapy pictures soon, which I'm sure is what you guys want to see anyways, so ill bring my laptop on campus this weekend and try to load some pictures onto here.

ok so my fingers are bleeding for typing so much, and take away was your aussie word of the day.

miss and love you all

Short Update..

So it's been a week in my apartment, and I thought you all needed an update. I'm still without internet, but we should have it by the end of the week.

Classes are all good, I actually have my tutorials this week, which are smaller discussion classes for the big lectures. I am actually trying to kill time right now in the library before my next one.

It was one of my roommate's 21st birthday on Saturday, so we went to a realllly nice steak restaraunt, and out to a nice club. At the end of our dinner our waiter came up to us and informed us that another table wanted to buy us a bottle of wine. To be fair it was 8 beautiful girls all dressed up to go out, so who could blame them. We asked who is was hoping that it was a group of hot aussies, but we slightly disapointed to see it was 3 older asian men. My roommates finished the bottle of wine and then we went over to them and thanked them. They weren't creepy or anything, which was nice, and we were on our way.

Other than that, we have just been getting settled in the new apartment. I started my job, but them had to stop working because my tax file number has not come yet, and they don't want the company or me to get in trouble by working yet. So until that comes in I don't have to work...which is nice because I'm not strapped for cash right now.

Another perk of not working right now is now I can go with my friends down to Sydney for the weekend. They are leaving wednesday night and I am flying down on thursday after my tutorials. We are staying with some boys that we met in Byron Bay. But rest assured we are actually staying at their family house, because most kids my age, and actually a lot of kids older than me still live with their parents. Like it isn't unusual at all for them. So that will be interesting I guess. But it's a free place to stay!!

So I will update you all when I get back from Sydney, which I should be able to FINALLY post pictures!!!

Love and miss you all!

Aussie Word of the Day:
Nappies: Diapers

No longer homeless...

Sorry it's been so long since my last blog, but I have very good reasons.

1. I MOVED INTO MY APARTMENT! That's right after 3 and half weeks of being a nomad, I have a home. And it is absolutely wonderful. It's so nice to come home to MY bed! Ours was the last apartment finished, so there are still a few things needed to be done and delivered, like our second fridge, and some cabinet handles. But other that that, it is absolutely AMAZING. The view is unreal. I will be getting the internet there within the next week so the must anticipated pictures will finally be posted. So just hang on another week.

2. I FINALLY STARTED SCHOOL. And I absolutely love it. I adore the campus and really enjoy my classes so far. I am taking three; Art History, Contemporary Australia, and an English Literature class. I only have classes on Tues, Wed, Thurs, which is also a plus, especially when I start planning trips. I also have a job working for Toby's uncle at a phone company, so I will be trying to be productive with my time. I actually start tomorrow, which is exciting. So I will also be getting an AWESOME phone soon, perks of working at a cell phone company!!

Other than that, I've just been getting settled in and into a routine. We have been walking to school, which is definetly something new to me, it's about a mile each way approx. but I think I'm also going to get a bus pass soon, because I also plan on going into the city a lot, because it's a lot of fun down there. And we walked to the bar last night, which was also about a mile each way. I've never done so much walking in my life! But it's good for me...they say...and the gym membership here is really expensive, so walking and playin soccer at the nearby park will probably be my exercise here.

I might be going down to Sydney next weekend, but that's still up in the air, and there's also been talk about trying to go to the Commonwealth games in Melborne. We will see, still living day by day, not really knowing what the next day will bring.

I will also be on skype once we get the internet, so if anyone wants to download it, it's free, and we will be able to talk for free over the internet. And it's not like instant messenger, it's actual talking..like from your mouth!! :) The website is Skype.com I also have a webcam, so my mug will be on there too!

Alright well I'm off to get my work visa.

Love and Miss you all! xoxoxo

Aussie Word of the Day:
Cossie: Bathing Suit

They are also called Bathing Costumes, so that is where Cossie comes from